new format

Hey my loyal readers, I just wanted to let you know I am going to a new format. Starting next week I will be live on Blogspot radio 3:00pm est. It's still Opinionated, but now it's Opinionated with dmsmith .This gives me a chance to interact with my people in real time. You will be able to call in ask questions ,say hello, give your opinion or just to cuss me out lol.  I will be providing links to the show . So even if you can't listen live, the shows will be archived. I will still be doing blogs occasionally, and will let you know when one is up. The topics will be the same, the attitude is the same, we are going to remain forever Opinionated!!! Remember each one teach one!!

When keeping it real goes wrong!!!

12:30 a.m Thursday morning Denise Darbeau, 24, of Queens, and her pal, Rachel Edwards, 24, of Brooklyn went to a McDonalds, near Sixth Avenue. It was a decision they will both live to regret. Darbeau,handed the cashier a $50 to pay for their food. The cashier Rayon McIntosh, told her he had to scan the $50 bill to make sure it was authentic, before he would give them their food.You know, standard procedure in most fast food restaurants to insure against being handed counterfeit money. That's when all hell breaks loose.Darbeau then slaps McIntosh across the face, prompting him to lunge forward and shove the two women. She leaps over the counter, while her friend Edwards retreats to the other end of the restaurant. They are heard screaming obscenities at McIntosh and calling him a p*ssy among other things. Now here is where keeping it real goes wrong, and the whole incident went left for our  brazen duo. Apparently they forgot that you don't hurl obscenities, much less put your hands on someone you don't know. After they ran behind the counter to attack a full  grown man bigger than themselves, they came face to face with a metal pipe. McIntosh proceeded to beat the brakes off both woman .

 Now I am never ever one to condone putting your hands on a woman . I have my mother, my sisters, my children, numerous aunts and female cousins, so I would never applaud any man being abusive to women. In the words of Chris Rock on the flip side "I understand". These "women" attempted to assert their control over a situation and a person that they had no control over. The tried to represent and keep it real.They  got a real ass whooping in the process.  Darbeau and Edwards picked the wrong person to try and bully. McIntosh served more than a decade in prison after being convicted of killing a classmate at Bronx's Evander Childs High School in 2000, when he was  19 years old. The two women were taken to the hospital. Darbeau suffered a fractured skull and broken arm which required surgery. She is in stable condition. Edwards suffered a deep cut. In the video, you can hear one woman screaming  "Stop it! Stop! Stop! Oh my God!” . “Someone call police!”Watch the video for yourself and give some feedback. I did not add the music

The Wrath of Cain

First and foremost, I want to send my condolences to the Family of Rev Fred Shuttlesworth. He was a founding member of Southern Christian Leadership Conference along with Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Rev. Shuttlesworth was the catalyst  who convinced the Rev King  and the movement into taking on "Bomgingham AL ", as it was known back then. Condolences go out to the family of Apple founder Steve Jobs, who changed the world of computing, recorded music and communications. Jobs was a true visionary and innovator, who created the first personal computer, the ipad, iphone and ipod. Last but not least, condolences go out to the entire Raider Nation for the passing of owner All Davis. Elected in 1992 to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Davis was a trailblazer. In 1988, he hired Art Shell, the first black head coach of the modern era. He hired the second Latino coach, Tom Flores; and the first woman CEO, Amy Trask. Davis motto "Once a Raider always a Raider".

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, is back to putting his foot in his mouth. After winning a straw poll in FL last week, beating out Romney and Perry, he did an interview with the Wall Street journal .While discussing out-of-work Americans and the "Occupy Wall Street" protests, he had this to say    “Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself…It is not a person’s fault if they succeeded, it is a person’s fault if they failed.” Did you read that? Blame yourself if you got laid off. Blame yourself, if your job downsized. Blame yourself because the economy tanked. I understand the pull yourself up by your boot straps mentality, I really do, but this is something altogether different. This is irresponsible and patronizing. For someone running for President of the United States to tell  unemployed and laid off Americans that it is there fault for being laid off or unemployed, is like telling the victim of a hit and run, it's their fault for driving the speed limit.

Cain said today on CNN that he didn’t believe racism was a major factor holding minorities back in America , asserting instead that African Americans had a level playing field on which to advance economically. Cain said on CNN’s “State of the Union “I don't believe racism in this country today holds anybody back in a big way,”.” “Are there some elements of racism? Yes. It gets back to if we don't grow this economy, that is a ripple effect for every economic level, and because blacks are more disproportionately unemployed, they get hit the worst when economic policies don't work. That's where it starts.” CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley asked if he thought African Americans had a level playing field, Cain said he thought most of them did, using his own experience in corporations as an example. I will agree to a certain extent, I do think we as a people need to take more responsibility for our communities and our economic development, but to say the playing field is level, is beyond nonsense. I am not going to get into educational, economic and unemployment disparities. That is not what this blog is about today; it's about the message being conveyed by Cain. When you go to the ballot box next year, remember to vote for the person whose beliefs and stances most mirror your own, not the one who is" talking loud but ain't saying nothing".

To the Beat ya'll

i said a hip hop the hippie the hippie 
to the hip hip hop, a you dont stop 
the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogie 
to the rhythm of the boogiedy, the beat  
now what you hear is not a test--i'm rappin to the beat 
and me, the groove, and my friends are gonna try to move your feet .


Everyone of us is familiar with this verse.I know as soon as you read it you smiled, and started singing the song "Rapper Delight"!! What you may not have known, was the woman who brought us this song Sylvia Robinson passed away this week. She was as important to bringing Hip Hop to the mainstream through her legendary label Sugarhill Records in the late 70's and early 80's, as Puff Daddy would be in the 90's. “Rapper’s Delight” is generally considered hip-hop’s first recorded single. I for one do not remember if I heard "Rapper's Delight" or  "King Tim III" by the Fatback Band first .It really doesn't matter because Rapper's Delight introduced the emerging art form to the world. The record sold more than 14 million copies . “She was the first person to tap hip-hop culture and fix it on a record,” “She made rapping a viable commercial endeavor and created the rap business.” Dan Charnas, author of “The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop said in an interview.


Mrs. Robinson told Vanity Fair in a 2005 profile, that  she attended a party at an uptown Manhattan club, Harlem World in 1979 .There, she watched in awe as a rhyming DJ hyped the crowd up. He would say something every now and then like ‘Throw your hands in the air,’ and they’d do it, “If he’d said, ‘Jump in the river,’ they’d have done it.” Mrs. Robinson said she sensed the music’s selling potential. “A spirit said to me, ‘Put a concept like that on a record and it will be the biggest thing you ever had. So following that spirits advice , She signed three rappers to her Englewood-based label, Sugar Hill Records, named after an area in Harlem, and dubbed the trio the Sugarhill Gang. Big Bank Hank, Wonder Mike and Master Gee would be catalysts for a musical revolution. She would later sign Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, Sequence and a host of other groups. Sugarhill Records would succumb to unscrupulous business practices, shady deals and not paying artists their fare share of royalties . You know, the usual in the industry . This blog today is not about what brought down  Sugarhill, it's to celebrate a Hip Hop pioneer and the genre she helped unleash on the world. Sylvia Robinson was just as important to Hip Hop history as Kool Herc, Flash or Afrika Bambaataa. So I salute Sylvia Robinson, while standing in my B-Boy stance, with some classics from a classic label.











she even introduced us to Angie Stone 

Deathrow what a brother know pt 2

Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed in Texas Wednesday evening for his involvement in the infamous dragging death of James Byrd 13 years ago. He was executed by lethal injection at 7:21 p.m. est., according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Brewer and two other white men kidnapped Byrd on the night of June 7, 1998. They chained him by the ankles to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him for 3 ½ miles down a country road near Jasper, Texas . Byrd died when he was decapitated after he hit a culvert. Brewer was a former "Exalted Cyclops" whatever the hell that means, of a racist prison gang affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. He spent most of his adult life in prison for various reasons. During the trial, Brewer took the witness stand and stated he was a bystander, not a killer. He tearfully admitted being present when Byrd was dragged to his death but, he said, "I didn't mean to cause his death. I had no intentions of killing anybody.” He only intended to drag him until the chain broke or Byrd's head became detached from his body, you know whichever came first. Brewer admitted kicking Byrd and spraying his face with black paint. Brewer said it was a reflex action taken to try to break up the fight between Byrd and John William King another accomplice in the murder. King also was sentenced to death and is awaiting the outcome of an appeal. The third man, Shawn Berry, was sentenced to life in prison. Texas does not play around when it comes to the Death Penalty!!

Also on Wednesday night at 11:08 pm est. Troy Davis, whose case drew international attention, was put to death by lethal injection. Davis was convicted of the 1989 killing of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah , Georgia . According to prosecutors, Davis was at a pool party in Savannah when he shot a man, Michael Cooper, wounding him in the face. He then allegedly went to a nearby convenience store, where he pistol-whipped a homeless man, Larry Young, who'd just bought a beer, according to witnesses at the time. The Prosecution said officer MacPhail rushed to the scene to help, but was shot him three times by  Davis .  A jury convicted Davis on two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of possessing a firearm during a crime, obstructing a law enforcement officer and murder. The murder charge is what led to the death penalty. Supporters argued that the original witnesses who testified against Davis were fearful of police and spoke under duress.7 of the 9 witnesses had recanted their testimony. Davis case was taken up by celebrities and dignitaries from all over the world. From Big boi of Outkast to the Pope, to former Former President Jimmy Carter who said Troy Davis should not be executed. “Incarcerate him for life, if necessary,” Carter told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last Friday. “There’s real doubt in my mind and the minds of many in the judiciary ... that’s he’s guilty. He was even a trending topic on Twitter. You have to love social media, people will sign an online petition, started by Diddy...you know "Vote or Die", "no more b*tchassness" Diddy, but won't get up off their behind and go vote or March.



This Blog is about the Death Penalty itself, more than the guilt or innocence of Troy Davis. I do believe there was sufficient evidence presented to grant a stay of execution for the murder of the police officer. What people are still glossing over is the fact that he did shoot someone in the face. The information gets fuzzy on the officers murder. If you are an advocate of the death penalty or an opponent, you know justice is not infallible. We know mistakes can and will be made. My question to you is, do we scrap the death penalty altogether? What I find interesting, is people I talk to who are against the death penalty are usually for abortion. The people, who are for the death penalty, are usually against it. I find that ironic. I do think the death penalty can be considered cruel and inhumane by some. I myself am for it; I bet I lost some readers with that one. Death penalty opponents say that using it is not a deterrent, well it certainly deterred the person put to death, because they won't do it anymore. I don't mean to sound cruel, like I said I believe Troy Davis may have been innocent of the murder he was convicted of, and put to death erroneously. Putting a moratorium on Capital punishment will not stop wrongful convictions. I also don't agree with the issue of Clemency in certain situations. In 2008 the Georgia the Board of Pardons and Paroles granted clemency to Samuel David Crowe, 3 hours before his scheduled execution, because he showed remorse and took responsibility for the robbery murder of a store manager. That is ridiculous to me on so many levels. I understand taking responsibility for your crime but saying sorry after the fact does not negate the crime itself. I will give you an example, Stanley Tookie Williams was a co founder of the Crips street gang, one of the single most destructive forces in the Black community. Tookie was convicted of 4 murders and sentenced to death. While on Death Row, Tookie after a few years began to renounce his gang lifestyle,  even authoring children's books about avoiding gangs. He was even nominated for a Nobel Prize. Now does his conversion absolve him of responsibility in the crimes he committed or the lives he took? No it doesn't, and not getting Clemency was the right choice in that situation. Do I think there are disproportionate numbers of "Us" on Death Row? Yes. Do I think there are sentencing disparities between Whites and Blacks ...Yes I do. I am still for Capital Punishment. The two death sentences that were carried out on Wednesday were two sides of the same coin. One  man was put to death for the heinous murder of a Black man, he also single handedly put an end to a centuries old tradition of providing a special last meal to a condemned prisoner in the state of Texas. The other was put to death in my opinion, because nobody wanted to admit mistakes were made in the investigation and prosecution of a murdered police officer.

Terrifying Live Report Of 9/11 attack.Never forget. Part 1.

Train a child in the way that he should go...

Judge William Walsh of Onandaga County sentenced Anthony Stewart, to 2 to 6 years for first degree robbery. Stewart and a friend had BB guns that looked real.They knocked a 73-year old man to the ground, and  Stewart punched him in the face multiple times. They then took all his money, which amounted to 7 cents...I'm going to let that marinate for a minute. The victim had identified Stewart and his friend as the perpetrators. Walsh said he issued the harsh sentence because Stewart declined to plead guilty, choosing to fight the charges.His friend, and I'm using that term lightly,Skyler Ninham, 16, pleaded guilty in July and was sentenced to 1 to 4 years in prison.  Now I do understand the concept of innocent until proven guilty, but sometimes you have to take the loss and keep it moving. Stewart's lawyer, Laurin Haddad, had pleaded with Walsh to treat her client as a youthful offender, so that a felony conviction wouldn't remain on his permanent record.

 "For 7 cents, now you're making someone a felon for the rest of his life," she told the judge. I disagree,it was her client, who at 15 chose to run around with a BB gun that looked real, chose to act like felon and is now being treated like one. I have no sympathy at all. At 15 you know right from wrong. I can hear the comments now "What if that was your son?" If it was my son, the last thing he is gonna be worried about is a jail cell, his most pressing concern would be worrying about me, beating him down like he is a grown man. "What if he was poor or  hungry and was looking for food?" 7 cents is not going to buy you anything to eat anyway. Lock him up now while he has a fake gun, or lock him up for life later, for using a real one. I  take back what I said, I have some sympathy and do believe that everyone deserves a second chance. Hopefully this kid learns and doesn't let jail destroy him. I know plenty of people who went to prison and did not let it define them...this writer included.

In the words of Swizz Beats on to the next one! In Orlando Florida, Democratic State Senator Gary Siplin  has been pushing  six years for the so-called Pull Your Pants Up law. He finally got his wish last spring. The state legislature voted overwhelmingly to enact the ban at the start of the 2011-12 school year, making Florida one of only two states with a saggy pants ban for students. "We want our kids to believe they're going to college, and part of that is an attitude, and part of that is being dressed professionally," Siplin said. He originally wanted to make it a crime to wear saggy pants, but the current law subjects repeat violators to up to three days of in-school suspension and up to 30 days suspension from extracurricular activities. It also targets low-cut and midriff-exposing shirts on girls.Siplin handed out about a  dozen belts donated by a local church to students who showed up with droopy drawers at Oak Ridge High School . He left another 25 belts with school administrators to hand out as needed. Siplin said he also gave away about 100 belts at two other high schools as students arrived last week for their first week of school. I for one am ecstatic about somebody taking a stand against this horrible fashion trend. Now granted I used to wear tight Lee jean suits and tight adidas sweatsuits, but never had them hanging off my behind.

 Even when we started wearing baggy clothes, we still looked F.R.E.S.H!!!!The fashion trend has it's roots in the prison system.If some of these young men knew what it meant to let your pants "sag", they would pull them up in a hurry. Hip-Hop has a hand in this also, because kids are going to always follow a trend. If they see Lil Wayne wearing animal print dance skins at the VMA's, that is what they are going to want to wear. Siplin had to fight with the  American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP, which contend the law violates personal freedom and unfairly targets minority students.I wouldn't say the targeting is unfair, but you call a spade a spade. If it's mainly minority kids wearing their clothes this way then so be it. If their parents aren't going to tell them to pull em up, somebody needs to. If your over 21 and your pants sag , you need to be smacked with a hardcover edition of The Autobiography of Malcolm X and made to watch the entire Roots DVD even part two with Halle Barry that was kind of wack. I'm out until next week so I leave you with this