Heavy Mentalist

The Three Six Mafia certainly caused a stir by winning Best Song at this year’s Academy Awards.

Pundits from coast to coast decry the win as rewarding a “coon show” and as yet one more example of how “the man” thrills in bestowing accolades to Blacks for portraying seedy characters.

These same pundits, scholars, etc., most of whom don’t actually do what they critique made less than a whimper however, when MTV dropped “Pimp My Ride” into homes across the globe. Why? Because America co-signed pimp culture long before Three Six recorded their little ditty on the woes of pimpdom.

“Pimping” in American business means dominating or somehow taking advantage of your competition or market, and this ability to dominate translates into “cool” – the very basis of pop iconography. And as evidenced by the MTV show, it also means embellishing your possessions in the gaudiest manner possible. The idea of “pimping” is so ingrained in American culture that even some Black thinkers urge Blacks to co-opt the pimp concept in order to bring financial gains into the Black community.  Continue reading...

[edited Apr 1, 2006] Why do so many White people write about, record, etc., Black culture? Recently, I worked on the Princeville documentary with — surprise! — an all White crew. Nothing against them, that’s just the way it was. The director of the film, Ryan Rowe, is a linguist who basically studies the way Black people talk. I asked him once how many Blacks he works with while he goes around studying Black folks. Zero. Then tonight I’m watching War Stories, only because tonight’s segment was about the Tuskegee Airmen. Two people — Whites — who wrote a book about the airmen, Black Knights were featured during the show to talk about some of the things they talk about in their book.

Then a few weeks ago I saw the Negroes With Guns documentary, again produced by a crew of Whites! I swear…I think Chinese people might feel strange about a Black person writing about Chinese history, etc. I wish I actually knew of some examples of books, films, etc. created by Blacks about say…the early White woman led Suffragist movement or…non-Jewish Blacks writing about Jewish history…but I just can’t think of any examples.  Continue reading...

It’s come to my attention recently that some people think I’m a racist. Well, that depends on what your definition of racist is. Some say racism is a belief that one race is superior to others. Not me. I don’t even believe in the concept of “race”. It’s a false construct meant to stratify people into “castes” based on the hue of their epidermis and the texture of their hair, nose shape, etc. The silliest concept ever. Some say being a racist simply means that you make remarks about other “races” simply because of their race. Well if talking hella shit about Whites and the supremacy they generally think they have over others makes me a racist, then so are Richard Pryor, Paul Mooney, Dave Chappelle, etc. so I think I’m in ok company.  Continue reading...

When I agreed to do score/soundtrack research for the Princeville doc, that’s all I thought it was gonna be. But it turned out to be a lot more work than I had anticipated. The premiere was bananas. Me and the main co-producers, Ryan and Drew, and everyone else involved, were all thinking “Wow, I hope folks show up” and boy did they. It was packed. The response was fantastic and there are folks overseas even trying to help arrange international screenings.

Anyway the night of the premiere I’m sitting there looking at the credits…I’ve been involved in film projects before and there is always that “I want to see my name on the screen” feeling, then you go home. I expected to see “Music Research – Cherryl Aldave” or something like that but that damn Drew and Ryan…you guys are too much! I saw instead “Associate Producer – Cherryl Aldave”. I was like “Oh, word!?” I did put in some work for this film, more than just on the music tip research wise, and in some other ways too, so that made me tingle when I saw it. *Happy*.

Well one of them anyway, on one side of my family. In this post about the Princeville doc I mentioned that some of my enslaved ancestors were owned by Elias Carr, who, several years after the end of slavery became the governor of North Carolina. I found his family home, Bracebridge Hall, which is listed in the national registry of historic places.

I tried to find some photos of it on the net but I could only find this one photo of some slave quarters taken by Chad Carraway for an elementary school photo contest.

I look at it and see my folks living in that after slaving from sun up to down, and I get chills.

Next time I go home I’ll have to go out to this place and take some proper pics of the main house, grounds, etc. The home is privately owned, I presume by his descendants, and is occasionally used for events. I want to buy this place one day. Everything has a price, after all. If I had Oprah money it would be so mine right now. I would sit on the porch and drink mint juleps, served to me by my all White staff…LOL!