Hip Hop Emcee, MC Lyte to be honored at 2013 Inaugural Ball

MC Lyte [Photo Credit: mclyte.wordpress.com]

MC Lyte has always been known for the female emcee who could rock the microphone and command any room or stage with her lyrics. At the 2013 Hip Hop Inaugural Ball this weekend, MC Lyte will be honored for her music, as well as her work with her company Sunni Gyrl and foundation Hip Hop Sisters.

“It has been my desire to expand the influence of female emcees and now that time has arrived,” said MC Lyte. “My company, Sunni Gyrl has been in existence for over fifteen years and together with my charity, Hip Hop Sisters Foundation, I am committed to giving back and to aggressively expanding opportunities for female emcees and for other artists who wish to leverage my diversity, success, and leadership in the entertainment industry.” (quote taken from Black Enterprise)

Mc Lyte has used her celebrity status to empower and enlighten youth in her community on various topic such as cultural matters, health and wellness and educational opportunities. We are so proud and happy for Mc Lyte and her continuous accomplishments – please join us in congratulating her!

Kevin Powell: A Discourse for the Leaders of our Generation

Hip Hop activist, writer, and entrepreneur Kevin Powell visited Syracuse University students last night to discuss the essence of leadership in the 21^st century. Powell began by stating that we, as a people, are “spiritually bankrupt in America.” And he’s right.  When we evaluate the extent of our distorted perception of what it means to lead, it is almost as if we have desensitized ourselves from the struggles we’ve encountered in our communities, because we’ve settled for our limited experiences.  In the same sentiment, Kevin Powell stressed the importance of the black male collegiate figure as an incentive to lead the youth of our impoverished communities. He suggested for men of color to become involved in community-based activities to instill inspiration among inner city teenagers.

“ We need to visit these schools, and become teachers of our communities in order to show that there is more to us than the depiction of a gangster rapper or a drug dealer” Powell stated.

In his speech, he offered suggestive methods we can apply to our lifestyles that can improve our leadership roles. We should seek to be spiritually, culturally, physically and mentally apt in order to best fulfill our purpose in this promising future.  In terms of collegiate involvement, he encourages the Greek community to reassess the motives of Greek life to serve as a platform for powerful dialogue and progressive change.

He looked around, and inquired: “ Where are the MLK’s, Malcolm X’s, and Angela Davis’ of your generation?”  He left us with this question to really think about and to incorporate in our evolving process.

Most importantly, Kevin Powell charged us to surround ourselves with good people.  This concept is very pertinent to the content of Kevin Powell’s discourse last night, as we self reflect on our abilities as a collective cohort of educated college students. As educated college students of the 21^st century, how are we ultimately leaving our mark?

Common in LUV Film

Poster from LUV film [Common and Michael Rainey, Jr]

Hip Hop activist Common stars in the film LUV, which brings a rich tale of a young boy (Michael Rainey, Jr.) learning to become a man. Michael Rainey, Jr. plays Woody Watson the nephew of Vincent, played by Common. Vincent has just returned home from eight years in prison and is working on opening a high-end crab shack. But Uncle Vincent finds himself traveling down the wrong path again and Woody must decide whether to follow him or not.

Director Sheldon Candis, who also starred in a short Drama My Letter to Hip Hop, creates a compelling story that narrates the relationship between a young man and the male figure in his life – a very integral relationship within our community. The important bond between a young boy and his male role model has also been depicted in songs like “Life” from Royce da 5’9″ ft. Amerie and “Pop’s Rap” with Common and Lonnie Lynn, Sr. LUV artistically paints the picture of this long-talked about relationship and how it affects the males in our community. Beyond the Lyrics supports this film, that comes out in theaters on November 9th.

Watch the trailer:

Idle Warship Rocks Brooklyn at SummerStage Concert

Idle Warship perfoming at SUNY Purchase (photo by: Brooklynvegan.com)

Attention fellow Hip Hop lovers, our favorite FREE three-month concert series has arrived for the summer! Last Sunday night, Bey0nd the Lyrics attended the Idle Warship concert sponsored by City Park’s seasonal SummerStage performance series. For those of you who don’t know, Idle warship is an R&B musical duo consisting the Brooklyn native MC Talib Kweli and Philadelphia singer Res. After gaining popularity through social media outlets such as MySpace and Facebook, Idle Warship released their debut mixtape entitled Party Robot in 2008. Currently, their recent material has been the release of their debut album entitled “Habits of the Heart.”

 The duo performed at Brooklyn’s Herbert Von King Park, in a small venue consisting of about 150 New Yorkers. People of all ages were able to enjoy refreshing singles of their released albums, as well as Talib Kweli’s throwbacks from his past albums. The audience was stocked to listen to their favorite Talib Kweli songs, and singing along to the “Get By”insipirational hook.  Towards the end, we were all ready for the thirst quenching freestyle of Talib to the “Rack City” track, which discredits the ignorance of Hip Hop in our current mainstream music realm. Followed by the performance was the screening of Director Nelson George’s documentary, “Brooklyn Boheme.” This film taps into the community of Fort Greene, Brooklyn through the lens of artists, musicians, comedians, and scholars.

Understanding the need to pursue this kind of multidimensional approach of the Hip Hop culture through film and art is certainly an important one. It doesn’t suffice to simply listen to good music anymore; one must explore the different avenues of this relevant culture in order to make close connections with others as well as with oneself. Here’s some food for thought: if you’re in the NYC area, check out the SummerStage calendar for concerts and also stick around for some of the independent films that will be showcased throughout the summer. These are events you would not want to miss!

Continue to check out the Bey0nd the Lyrics site for upcoming reviews and free events occurring in the NYC area!

Video for “No Church In The Wild” To Premiere Today

Cover Art for “No Church In The Wild”

Director Romain Gavras was enlisted to shoot the video for acclaimed song “No Church In The Wild” for The Throne duo, Jay-Z and Kanye West.  Now, if Romain Gavras’ name sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve heard the controversy surrounding his pervious works.

The music video for “Stress,” by Justice, featured a violent gang rampage back in 2008.  Most recently, he shot a video depicting the genocide of redheads for M.I.A.’s single “Born Free.”

With “No Church In The Wild” set to premiere later today, expect the video to hold no punches.  Earlier in the week, Jay-Z and West previewed clips from their video that showed protestors lobbing Molotov cocktails (gasoline/fire bombs), while getting brutalized by police on horseback.  It indeed sounds like an apocalyptic showdown to be talked about for months, maybe even years to come.

Bey0nd the Lyrics would love to hear your comments about the video after it premieres; comment on our social media pages via Twitter and Facebook!