Asher Roth: Hip-Hop Is BLACK Music

Asher Roth may be the epitome of keeping it real. On the surface, there’s nothing inherently special about the 23-year-old rapper who’s set to drop his debut LP later this month. Roth is far from a wannabe & makes no attempt to hide his suburban upbringing. Recently, Roth dropped his thoughts on Hip Hop & all those comparisons to another famous white rapper. Ultimately, he blames the commercialization of Hip Hop & Hip Hop culture that brought him to where he is today. “Unlike Eminem, I'm classic white,” he says of his style & sound. “I'm talking about yoga & yogurt covered in fruit. I represent more of a suburban middle-class lifestyle.”While he believes Hip Hop is universal, he gives all of the credit to the original pioneers of the industry, many of whom are black. “Besides the white guys who sell it & push it, hip hop is black music,” he stated. But when that push extended to Roth’s suburban home, he caught the urge to step to the mic & tell his story. “But it got to the point where they were targeting us, the white people in the 'burbs. We got brought up on it, but suddenly when a 23-year-old white kid who's been inspired by Jay-Z starts rapping, it's a bad thing? C'mon, those rappers were talking to us the whole time. It's interesting to see what this is turning into. I was just this punk kid rapping to the laptop in my sophomore year in college. That's what hip-hop has turned into.”And then there’s that whole Eminem thing. Roth hopes his album track “As I Em” will sum everything up. “Now when I get asked, I can say, ‘Refer to song 8. Conversation over.’”

Biggest Pillow Fight That I've Seen Thus Far

Police in Detroit have ruffled some feathers after they cracked down on an organized pillow fight at a downtown park. The Detroit News reports that police at Campus Martius Park prevented the feathery fight Saturday by disarming pillow-toting participants. The bout was part of a worldwide event organized on social networking Web sites. Michael Davis of Hamtramck says police confiscated the 32-year-old man's pillows but returned their cases. He says he was told that he needed a permit. Scott Harris of Ferndale told the News that it's "not illegal to own a pillow." Detroit police spokesman James Tate says cleanup was the issue.

Citi Presents The MySpace Credit Card

MySpace has stamped its name on a new Citi credit card, in which users can earn rewards redeemable through MySpace such as free music downloads, concerts, movie premiere screenings, etc. The announcement has not been met with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm however. For example, Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb says, "MySpace is a lot of things, and despite Facebook's formidable attack it remains wildly popular, but an institution of trust and responsibility MySpace is not!" From the purely financial standpoint as well, the card has had some shortcomings pointed out already. "Noticeably absent from the manifesto is a call to pay off your balance every month, which you'd better do since the card has a starting APR of 14.24% which is high even for a student with limited credit history," explains Josh Smith at Walletpop. "As a comparison, the same Citi FORWARD card without a MySpace logo carries an APR of 12.24% which is still high but a full 2% less than that of the MySpace card." To be fair, the move isn't being poorly received by everyone. "This is a no-brainer for MySpace, as all they really need to do is supply their brand & collect referral fees from Citi," says Mashable's Adam Ostrow who notes that MySpace continues to "run laps" around its competitors in terms of monetization. Furthermore, the rewards program might provide a little extra spark to MySpace Music, which the social network launched in the later part of last year. Citi spins the MySpace branding of the card as highlighting social responsibility since you can earn points for "completing socially responsible acts" like donating to food drives, going paperless, switching to energy efficient light bulbs, etc. More details can be found at the card's official site & its MySpace profile.

Crisis In Darfur "On Brink Of Deepening"

The humanitarian crisis in Darfur is "on the brink of deepening," US envoy Scott Gration said on Saturday of the war-ravaged Sudanese region, calling for renewed cooperation with the government & an end to hostilities. "I came away very concerned about what I saw & believe that we are on the brink of a deepening crisis in Darfur," he told journalists after a morning visit to the Zam Zam displaced persons camp in region's north. "We have to come up with a solution on the ground within the next few weeks." Gration was speaking a month to the day after the government expelled 13 international aid agencies in protest at an arrest warrant against President Omar al-Beshir for alleged war crimes in Dafur. He said it was imperative to get assistance into the country "so that these people don't die & they don't incur any more suffering," but also expressed confidence that "this crisis can be avoided." "What I see as immediate problems are water & health care," he said, arguing that the "crisis can be prevented & mitigated by coming up with a flexible, creative & workable plan to ensure these folks can have access to critical medical sanitation & nutrition assistance too." The expelled agencies had distributed food, offered medical care & provided access to water to some 2.7 million people displaced by civil war in Darfur. Gration reached out to local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as an initial step with the hope of widening the scope for others eventually.
"We want to work with Sudanese NGOs. I believe they have the capability to fill some of the gaps in terms of food." "We need an environment where we can use all sources, NGO help, maybe NGOs that come in from Arab nations, additional NGOs from traditional donor countries & maybe a workable solution for some of the people that have been working in the area historically." The retired air force general said there also needed to be a political solution to the Darfur conflict. "We all have to embark on a very aggressive short-term process to bring peace to this region,"

Let's Pizza: The Pizza Vending Machine

An undated handout photo shows a man eating a pizza baked in a vending machine (at rear). A vending machine that bakes fresh pizza in minutes for a few euros has got Italian chefs in a whirl before it hits the streets in the coming weeks. The bright-red "Let's Pizza" machine uses infra-red rays & technology developed at the University of Bologna to knead flour and water into dough, spread it with tomato sauce and a choice of topping, and cook it --- all in less than three minutes. For all of the fat boys across the globe, get ready for MAYHEM !!!!!

No More Albino Extermination!

Burundi has arrested eight people found with human bones suspected of belonging to albinos, a government official said on Sunday. The tiny east African nation & neighbouring Tanzania have been convulsed by a spate of ritual albino murders fuelled by a body parts trade. Witchdoctors tell clients that albino parts will bring them luck in love, life & business. "Before arresting them, we did a search & found human bones in their houses," said Nicodeme Gahimbare, a public prosecutor in the eastern Ruyigi province. "The eight were denounced by two other detained people who have already confessed to killing two albinos," Gahimbare said. Albinism is a condition that causes a lack of pigment in the eyes, skin or hair, which makes patients especially vulnerable to skin cancer & burns, & makes life particularly difficult in sun-drenched Africa. Since last year, 11 albinos have been killed in Burundi. Forty others have been murdered in Tanzania since mid-2007. Kazungu Kassim, the head of a Burundi albino association, said: "Authorities have now realised that the killing of albinos is a serious matter which needs concrete action. We urge the government to double efforts in protecting albinos, because what we are witnessing here is a planned extermination of the albino community." There are about 200 albinos in the nation of 8 million people.

Twitter.com ... Need I Say More ?..

I hope nobody sues me for "logo-stealing" (lol) but it's actually promotion. For who, you say ?.. For Twitter, that's who. Speaking of such, follow me & millions of other people. Twitter.com/RichYungMello