THE BEGINNINGS
On April 30, 1996, the Oakland City Council awarded E.M. Health
conditional approval for a $1.1million federal loan to establish a
training program for home health aides. According to loan documents and internal memos, the city
approved that loan despite flaws in the company's business plan and no
discernible collateral or equity to back up the debt. The money was part of a $44 million pot — half loan, half
grant — awarded to the city by the federal Department of Housing and
Urban Development to fund start-up ventures or help expand existing
businesses in three distressed areas of Oakland with high unemployment
rates. The federal money was supposed to create jobs, and it was
intended for borrowers who could not qualify for conventional loans. E.M. Health's share of that pot — through the leadership of
then-bakery lieutenant Nedir Bey — would further Yusuf Bey's efforts to
empower poor black residents and ex-cons by giving them training and
job opportunities at various bakery outlets and private security
companies affiliated with the patriarch's expanding empire. The loan proceeds were supposed to be used for start-up costs
to recruit workers and patients, establish the home health training
program and provide ongoing operating expenses. The company never lived up to its promise. Ten years have
passed and still not a cent has been repaid. The equipment pledged to
secure the proceeds never surfaced. The promised jobs for low-income
residents, as well as the promised services for sick and elderly
clients, evaporated. The Oakland city attorney sued to recoup the debt,
plus interest, but the city's finance department has not been able to
collect. Nedir Bey, whose last listed occupation is business
development consultant, would not answer questions about the business
operations or why the company failed to take hold, saying that was "in
the past." In a brief telephone conversation, Bey said there were other
Oakland businesses that defaulted on city loans and he asked if they
were receiving the same level of scrutiny. Bey remains in Oakland but
says he is no longer affiliated with the bakery. Former bakery associate and businessman Ali Saleem Bey has
spent the last several months trying to save the heavily indebted
bakery enterprise from liquidation. Saleem Bey said he hasn't spoken to
Nedir Bey in years, but he defended E.M. Health's efforts to provide
job training and services to poor Oakland residents. Saleem Bey, reached by phone, said the city subjected the
business to undue scrutiny compared with others seeking public money.
That scrutiny also led to the company being underfunded, Saleem Bey
said, and contributed to its demise. "We really felt we were sabotaged by the city, ..." said
Saleem Bey, who worked alongside other bakery associates to help launch
the business. "Politically, they never wanted to give us the money ... and
when it came time to work with us and make it go, they made it as hard
as possible," Saleem Bey said. "They wanted to wag their fingers at
us." But the only thing that remains today from the ashes of E.M.
Health is a considerable outstanding debt to taxpayers — a debt that
could have been much larger.
BIG PLANS, BIG LOAN REQUESTS
The Qiyamah Corp., E.M. Health's nonprofit parent company,
first filed state business registration papers in October 1993. The
nonprofit organization was formed to expand the bakery's community work
and job training programs, and it wasn't long before bakery members
sought the city's help in financing a new home health care venture. Nedir Bey originally approached the city in approximately
1994 for a $3.4million loan to buy an apartment building on 24th Street
in North Oakland. That would be used, he said at the time, as a base
for his home health care program. The building purchase didn't qualify for HUD funds, and over
time it was dropped from the plan. The loan request was whittled down
to the $1.1 million, which was conditionally awarded to Qiyamah's
for-profit subsidiary, E.M. Health. The company promised to create 32 full-time jobs, more than
half of which would be filled by residents of West Oakland, East
Oakland or San Antonio/Fruitvale — the three economically depressed
areas targeted by HUD. The company also promised to train 120 low-income residents
and welfare recipients as home health workers, who would in turn
provide services to Medicare and MediCal patients and other clients who
were privately insured. According to E.M. Health's business plan
accepted by the city, insurance reimbursements would be more than
sufficient to repay the loan. It might have worked if Nedir Bey had
started small. Instead, he purchased expensive office furniture and loaded
the payroll with bakery insiders, most of whom had no health care
experience, while spending little initially on actual medical supplies,
according to loan documents. Bill Claggett, the former director of Oakland's Community and
Economic Development Agency who inherited the E.M. loan in late 1997,
said he couldn't believe the city gave the company "a dime," let alone
$1.1 million. "They didn't know what they were doing," Claggett said. "The
cost per person served was much higher than any other similar business.
It was clear (Bey) didn't have the kind of staffing he needed for that
operation." E.M. Health opened its doors on July 10, 1996, in an office
storefront on Grand Avenue. That first year's tax return posted income
of $6,007 and a loss of $437,802. It spent $85,886 on consultants,
$10,600 on security and only $5,708 for medical supplies. It survived
almost exclusively on the city loan. The list of employees included Nedir Bey's wife, Rosemarie
Boothe; and another woman, Kathy Leviege, with whom he has two
children; family associate Janet Bey; and Madeeah Bey and Farieda Bey,
two wives of bakery patriarch Yusuf Bey who are alleged to have
received illegal welfare payments at the time, according to civil
depositions taken recently in an unrelated case. Within three months of receiving start-up funds from the
city, Nedir Bey was on track to earn $108,000 a year, a figure that was
out of line with what similar agencies in the Bay Area paid their CEOs,
according to a spring 1997 memo in the city's loan files. Quarterly wage reports filed with the state show that Nedir
Bey's wife earned $47,000 as the assistant administrator, and Yusuf
Bey's wives — whose occupations were listed as marketing director and
LVN/outreach coordinator — earned nearly $60,000 each, the same as
Janet Bey, a registered public health nurse. Other than Janet Bey, none
of the women had nursing degrees or related licenses, according to a
review of state documents. Saleem Bey said it should not seem
suspicious that members of the bakery's extended family ended up on
E.M. Health's payroll. He said they worked many different jobs to help
support the bakery empire and to further Yusuf Bey's edict to be
self-reliant. He said they also worked alongside Nedir Bey to try and make the enterprise a success. To infer otherwise would be a mistake. "It behooved the organization to be successful, so it wasn't as
if everybody was just eyeing this money and they wanted to steal a
million," Saleem Bey said. "If the business plan was successful, by
this time it would have created 10 times that amount of money and
created many jobs." Even so, the city's loan staff requested that the
compensation for E.M.'s three top executives be reduced by 20 percent,
a move Nedir Bey protested in a memo to city officials.
OTHER QUESTIONABLE EXPENSES
There were other missteps and invoices that city officials
questioned before the city received the HUD proceeds, including a lease
on a Cadillac and reimbursements to a security company controlled by
the bakery. One city staffer flagged the vehicle lease, $64,000 in
consulting contracts, and thousands budgeted for security as ineligible
uses of the federal funds. "Staff is exploring options for recovering
these costs," reads one memo from April 1, 1997. That same year, in addition to their salaries, E.M. Health
paid approximately $40,000 in consulting fees and service payments to
Nedir Bey and relatives either directly or through companies that he
and other associates of the bakery controlled, according to records on
file with the city of Oakland. Bakery associates also made 15-day loans to E.M. Health to
cover operating expenses and charged substantial interest fees in
return. Nedir Bey earned a $750 fee for a $9,000 loan he made to the
company, and Ali Saleem Bey charged $1,000 interest for a $13,750 loan.
Time after time, city staff questioned the invoices E.M. Health
submitted for reimbursement, asking for more details or supporting
documentation. But the money was never withheld for long.
How the bakery's $1 million vanished
It was a noble cause: Train welfare recipients as home health aides and
put them to work caring for homebound sick and elderly clients. A decade ago, while Your Black Muslim Bakery founder Yusuf
Bey enjoyed unwavering support and adulation from black businesses and
politicians, his spiritually adopted son, Nedir Bey, pressured and
shamed city leaders into giving him a $1.1 million loan to help finance
the promise of black entrepreneurial independence. But the venture, E.M. Health Services, swiftly collapsed. The
failure of CEO Nedir Bey to repay a dime of the loan made headlines at
the time and prompted most to assume the company's demise was caused by
a combination of poor business decisions, bureaucratic hurdles and
simple bad luck. But was it? City officials overlooked flaws in the company's business plans
and relented to black community leaders who insisted they award the
loan, according to interviews, documents and other correspondence
reviewed by the Chauncey Bailey Project. The loan was granted to Nedir Bey despite his well-publicized
arrest for the torture and kidnapping of a man two years earlier. Bey
pleaded no contest to one felony count of false imprisonment and was sentenced to three years' probation.In awarding the loan to Nedir Bey, nearly every elected
official lauded the accomplishments of Yusuf Bey in turning around the
lives of troubled young men. Yet dozens of those men had armed
themselves during a standoff with police two years earlier. And a few
years later, Yusuf Bey himself would be accused of raping and fathering
children with young girls who were placed in his care. And the Chauncey
Bailey Project has learned that in late 1999 and early 2000, the FBI
investigated E.M. Health Services' loan and Nedir Bey, although it's
not clear how the probe was resolved. In the wake of reported real estate and welfare fraud allegedly
committed by the wives and children of Yusuf Bey, a deeper review of
the E.M. Health Services loan reveals several questionable expenses
that suggest an internal pattern of cronyism that enriched nearly every
facet of the bakery empire's inner circle including: -Tens of thousands of dollars in consulting fees paid to
companies controlled by Nedir Bey and his wife, Rosemarie Boothe-Bey,
as well as other bakery insiders. -Thousands of dollars in security fees paid to yet another
company controlled by Your Black Muslim Bakery and thousands more in
advertising fees paid to Universal Distributors, a company operated by
associates of the bakery. -$20,000 paid to the administrator of an Oakland home health
company who had urged the city to award the loan to E.M. Health
Services. -Top-end salaries paid to Nedir Bey and his wife, Rosemarie
Boothe, as well as to two of the Muslim wives of bakery patriarch Yusuf
Bey who are accused of receiving fraudulent welfare payments at the
time, and a second woman with whom Nedir Bey fathered children. Other
bakery insiders filled the company's payroll. -15-day loans made to E.M. Health by Nedir Bey and other bakery associates that were repaid with hefty loan fees.
Editor's note: This is
the first of a three-part series examining a $1million city loan to a
Your Black Muslim Bakery affiliate that was never repaid.
MediaNews investigative reporters Thomas Peele and Josh
Richman, KQED reporter Judy Campbell and freelance radio reporter Bob
Butler contributed to this report. Cecily Burt is a MediaNews staff
writer. G.W. Schulz is a staff writer at the San Francisco Bay Guardian. SOURCE OF THIS STORY
« November 2007 | Main | January 2008 »
December 2007
December 31, 2007
December 30, 2007
December 29, 2007
December 28, 2007
December 27, 2007
Raz B Issues Public Apology to Chris Stokes
A day after former B2K manager Chris Stokes vehemently denied
allegations that he sexually molested former members of the boy band
while serving as their manager, his accuser, former B2K member DeMario
"Raz-B" Thornton, has apologized. In a 30-second video posted on
YouTube on Wednesday, Thornton stands outside on a city street and
recants the sordid accusations he and older brother Ricardo "Ricky
Romantic" Thornton had made in a pair of videos that circulated over
the weekend.
"This is DeMario Thornton, publicly known as Raz-B of B2K," a
solemn-looking Thornton tells the camera in the video, called "The
Truth About Chris Stokes B2K Part 3." "I would like to send a public
apology for some tapes that were leaked without my authority. I just
want to say that those allegations are not true ... with Chris Stokes
and Marques Houston, and I apologize for any hurt this may have caused
publicly [or] financially."
Stokes reacted to the new video in a statement released Thursday
(December 27) morning. "I'm happy that DeMario 'Raz-B' Thornton and
Ricardo Thornton realized their mistakes and admitted to lying," he
said. "I have always supported my family and have always been a
stand-up person. I knew that the truth would eventually come to light."
Thornton's abrupt turn-around came just hours after Stokes told MTV
News that the allegations were false. His denials were seconded by
another former B2K member, Omarion.
"I'm not gay. And I'm married. And I have four kids. I been with my wife for 16 years," Stokes told MTV in an exclusive interview. "And I'm not a child molester. So those are all false allegations. I'm gonna sue them. And I owe that to my wife and kids, period. It's ridiculous."
December 26, 2007
An entry level understanding of Life Cycle Funds
Although some people have the knowledge, resources and savvy needed to successfully play the stock market
for themselves, many other people don't. For the people who lack the
time or talent to manage their own portfolios, there are funds that
will handle the technical work for you. In oversimplified terms, you
simply place your money into your fund account and let them grow it for
you. I found an article at Investopedia
which is the best short course about funds that I have ever run across.
By understanding the elements that define a particular fund, better
choices can be made about how to structure your fund program to
accomplish your goals. The article discusses life cycle funds, fund allocations, risk assessment, investing style and fund management. You'll also find guidance about fund fees, diversity and personal investment goals. Based on what I have learned over time about investment funds, my
personal fund portfolio is structured for diversity, conservative
protection, and both long and short term growth. I have 20% of my fund
assets allocated to global investments, 20% in real estate securities,
20% in small cap venture funds and the remaining 40% is in fixed income
holdings. Because of my asset allocation structure I may have missed
out on some big gains here or there, but overall I'm pleased with my
performance. My fund portfolio shows about 23% total growth over the
last three years and my portfolio structure has proven to be modestly
bullet proof, yielding a loss of only 0.73% through the recent credit
industry foibles.
Even if you don't plan on investing in a fund for yourself, if you have a retirement plan
at work, those assets are probably in investment funds and you probably
have some control over the allocation of your assets. It pays to have
an understanding about how funds work and how your goals affect the way
you might tune your own retirement account. The article at Investopedia
can be a helpful tool and it does a great job of making investment
funds easy to understand. SOURCE OF THIS STORY
The 744 Billion Dollar Negro, Black, African American, Consumers
Black folks have over 744 billion a
year in income and don't even own a toilet paper factory. So with over
744 Billion in income, we depend on others to wipe our ass. Well that's what the Latest Buying Power report shows. We make the money, 744 billion dollars a year and little of nothing to show for it.The
2007 edition of "The Buying Power of Black America" has just been
released by Target Market News. The one-of-a-kind report is the most
quoted source of information on how African-American consumers spend
their $744 billion in income. AAPP: I guess black folks
have been so interested in loving others that we have not kept our eyes
on the ball and loved ourselves. Are we 40 Million Dollar Slaves? Yes, for black athletes, but for the black folks overall, we appear to be a collective 744 Billion Dollar Negro, Black, African American Consumer, political and economic slaves. SOURCE OF THIS STORY
RUBY DEE's race to the OSCARS
On December 20, 2007, the nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Awards were silently announced. The legendary Ruby Dee, one of the most important actresses in the history of African American theater and film (and the true star of American Gangster), is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her extraordinary performance as Frank Lucas' mother. Trust me, this is a big deal. The SAG awards are unquestionably the most important precursor ceremony to the Academy Awards---far more important than the Golden Globes. Dee is nominated alongside Cate Blanchett (who was robbed last year by
Jennifer Hudson, sorry folks), Catherine Keener, Amy Ryan, and Tilda
Swinton. We're
hoping that the SAG nominations continue in its tradition of being a
solid-Oscar nomination predictor, and that Dee brings home a nod. She
certainly deserves it. Though I did not care for American Gangster all that much overall, I do remember being left in chills at the following scene between Washington and Dee (fast forward to about 5:27): On
a side note, neither Denzel Washington nor Russell Crow are nominated
in the Best Actor and Supporting Actor categories, which do not make
things look too good for these fellas in terms of the Oscar race. SOURCE OF THIS STORY
December 25, 2007
The 7 Days of Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa or Kwanza,
secular seven-day festival in celebration of the African heritage of
African Americans, beginning on Dec. 26. Developed by Maulana Karenga
and first observed in 1966, Kwanzaa is based in part on traditional
African harvest festivals but particularly emphasizes the role of the
family and community in African-American culture. Each day is dedicated
to a particular principle (unity, self-determination, collective work
and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and
faith), and on each day one of the candles on a seven-branched
candelabrum is lighted. The celebration also includes the giving of
gifts and a karamu, or African feast.
The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa [Nguzo Saba]
1) Umojo (Unity) To Strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
2) Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ouselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
3) Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and
sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.
4) Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
5) Nia (Purpose)
To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our
community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
6) Kuumba (Creativity)
To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave
our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
7) Imani (Faith)
To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our
teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our
struggle.
December 23, 2007
Feedback Janet Jackson Album Cover
HATE OR LOVE IT!
Jaded: A Lovely Diamond in the Rough For The Holidays
Reviews by Stanley Bennett Clay -
I confess. I am a sucker for a good love story. But Kevin E. Taylor's Jaded,
a tender, life-affirming tale of romantic, committed, respectfully
considerate, and passion-filled love, swept me off my feet! Proving that nice guys can finish first, Joshua Knight, an ad agency
executive, and Elijah Monroe, a music producer, meet in a Harlem record
store specializing in lost and/or hard-to-find musical treasures, a
fitting metaphor for the predicament these two handsome and successful
thirty-something African American men have found themselves in, having
both been wounded by previous break-ups.
With everything they have going for them—good hearts and loving
parents that easily trump their tremendous good looks and admirable
career successes—it is surprising and not so surprising that they have
dodged Cupid’s arrow so cautiously. These are two smart and sensitive
men, and although the attraction is immediate, they take it slow, very
slow, and that slow-dance to happily-ever-after is a beautiful detailed
account of a dreamlike courtship. Which brings me to the book’s title and cover art, both of which I
found misleading in their suggestion of something more sinister than
what this simple hearts-and-roses story conveys.There is little ugly conflict in Jaded and there are no real
villains. Even though Eli’s ex is a bit of a dog, he’s more of an idiot
than an Eviline, and Josh’s break-up with his ex seemed more like a
no-fault divorce. Neither of our heroes is really jaded. They are
merely cautious men, being careful not to repeat past mistakes,
respecting love and each other enough to consider the smallest detail
as they build a trust and, hopefully, a life together. For good measure, author Kevin E. Taylor throws in a great best
friend for Josh who is, for a change, not some cynical bitchy queen.
Carlton, who’s enjoying his own blissful romance, is the kind of best
friend we all long for, supportive, uplifting, positive, psychiatrist,
brother, minister, and muse. Even Mr. Henderson, the wise old man in the Harlem record store
where our heroes first met, is a touchingly inspirational character in
many surprising ways. There’s also the remarkable Tasha, Josh’s caring and efficient
executive assistant. Her loving care for her boss professionally and
her literally putting the icing on the cake of Josh and Eli’s romance,
makes her more like a big sister than an employee. This book is filled with wonderful, kind-hearted people, that, as
perfect as they seem, always come across as real flesh and blood
individuals who simply, and with little effort, conjure genuine emotion. You might find yourself crying several times—I certainly did—at the
sheer beauty of how people truly in love treat each other, talk to each
other, respect each other; how that kind of romantic love can transform
all those that surround it. Even Harlem takes on a special gleam under
this romantic spell. If I had a complaint, I would have to point out that there are some
serious editing problems with Jaded. Mostly copy edits—misspellings,
incorrect tenses, some arbitrary style switching, miscalculated font
usage,and a non-traditional layout and paragraphing that can be
distracting, problems associated with so many self-published books. But
it is my hope that a major publishing house picks up this diamond in
the rough, cleans it up, and puts it back out there. The story, the
characters, and the writing are just that good. And even better is the
spirit. Author Kevin E. Taylor’s bio states that he is a pastor of Unity
Fellowship Church in New Brunswick, NJ. I suspect that his congregation
is very happy to have someone like him to shepard them, someone who can
so effectively express the positive side of love, who can so clearly
and affirmatively bring us into the wonderful lives of this same gender
couple, no matter our sexual nature, for this story is universal,
applicable and relatable to all. Anyone who cast doubt on the power and beauty of love and romance
after reading Jaded is the jaded one. This valentine-of-a-book couldn’t
be more the opposite.
December 22, 2007
THE DL CHRONICLES
SYNOPSIS
Sharp and sexy, this quartet of short films is about African-American
men living secret homo lives on the downlow. Perfect casting, witty
writing and tight direction characterize these captivating films made
for Here! that have plenty of man-to-man action.
REVIEW The DL Chronicles are tightly and professionally made stories as real
as can be. In the first episode, Wes rushes home to a dinner party that
his powerful wife is throwing. Imagine his surprise when he meets his
brother-in-law, Trent, for the first time and he feels the stirrings of
lust. Wes tries to bottle up his homo desires by drinking heavily
during the meal. Not exactly the correct formula for repressing
emotions, Wes sneaks into Trent's bed and some hot, very secret
man-to-man action follows. In the second episode we meet Robert, a
closeted talent agent who never sleeps with the same man twice. Robert
hooks up with Austin, the manager of a health food store who's twenty
years younger than him. But of course this won't be an isolated fuck;
what kind of drama would that be? The two men meet again in an Internet
sex chat-room, and Austin convinces him to give their relationship a
chance. Robert falls hard for his new boyfriend, but now there's a
young lady in the picture whose needs come first. In the third segment,
a "playa" named Boo has his way with just about anything that moves and
discovers that sleeping around can have some pretty nasty consequences.
These first three films are so delicious that we can't wait for more of
these sexy tales about men on the downlow.
Driven by the force of Will
Rejection by a girlfriend drove Will Smith to be a success. Fear of losing it all keeps him working flat out
Will Smith was 15 when his first girlfriend cheated on him. He remembers the
experience well, the usual broad smile slipping from his cheerful face when
he recounts the story. He was still at school and, up until that point,
believed wholeheartedly that bad things happen only to bad people.“That she cheated on me destroyed my concept of cause and effect,” he says,
“my belief that good things happen to good people. I thought: ‘That ain’t
true.’ “So the process I went through in my 15-year-old brain was that she cheated on
me because I wasn’t good enough. I remember lying in bed and making the
decision that this would be the last time in my life that I would not be
good enough.” That decision has served him well over the past 24 years. Smith has evolved
into the most bankable black actor in the world, eclipsing the likes of
Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson and regularly pulling in $20 million
(£10 million) paydays to carry home to his second wife, the actress Jada
Pinkett Smith. He is one of the most ebullient actors working today, constantly joshing and
joking, the twinkle in his eye as bright as the expensive diamond studs that
nestle in his ear-lobes. “I was determined that I would be the best at
everything I do,” he continues. “And I remember when I first got to
Hollywood saying to my manager: ‘I want to be the biggest movie star in the
world’. “So what we did was to analyse the top ten movies of all time, and we figured
out the patterns. We noticed that ten out of ten were special effects
movies, and nine out of ten were special-effects movies with creatures, and
eight out of ten had creatures and a love story. So when it came to Independence
Day, that wasn’t a hard movie to say yes to. And the same with my new
movie, I Am Legend. As a concept it is not a hard call to make.” (His
next two movies are Hancock, about a flawed superhero, and Empire,
directed by Michael Mann.) I Am Legend, a big-budget adaptation of
the author John Matheson’s 1950s yarn, is a chilling allegorical tale that
blends sci-fi with horror as it projects a postapocalyptic future where a
deadly virus has annihilated all but 10 per cent of the Earth’s population.
The few survivors have been radically transformed, taking on the form of
vampires. One man, however, remains unaltered: Robert Neville, the last man
on Earth. Matheson’s novella has already sired two cinematic incarnations, The
Last Man on Earth (1964) with Vincent Price and, seven years later, The
Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston. However, this particular version –
which casts Neville (Smith) as a military virologist marooned in Manhattan
with only an army of cannibalistic creatures for company – is a far slicker
interpretation, incorporating different elements from the book and the
second of the two films. “What I loved about the book, the film and our project is that he is the last
man on Earth,” Smith says. “That’s like a primordial fear, and it was a
frightening prospect. I spoke to POWs and prisoners held in solitary
confinement, and they all said you need structure and routine to get
through. You also need to keep an internal monologue, otherwise you forget
simple things. One man told me that he even forgot what fingers were called. “So what we have really tried to do is to commit to the small art-house
realistic version, staying true to the source material, and yet also have
the big blockbuster package.” Smith’s film achieves that unlikely blend, mixing a bleak human drama with a
string of high-octane action sequences. As with his most recent movie, The
Pursuit of Happyness (2006) – for which he received the second of his
two Oscar nominations – one of his three children stars alongside him. In Happyness
it was his four-year-old son Jaden; in I Am Legend it his daughter,
seven-year-old Willow. “She won’t accept much direction,” he laughs. “She
knows the wardrobe she wants to wear; she knows how she wants to play the
scene and she has certainty on how the whole should be delivered. With
Willow you allow her to direct you – we had so much fun.” The artist formerly know as the Fresh Prince has, by all accounts, had fun
throughout his career. As the theme rap to his breakthrough TV show, The
Fresh Prince of Bel Air, recounts, he’s “West Philadelphia born and
raised”, and that “playground where he spent most of his days” was bubbling
with kids of all races and creeds.
“I grew up in a working-class environment,” he says. “My mother worked for the
school board, my father owned a refrigeration business. My school was 90 per
cent white, but 90 per cent of the kids I played with were black. So I got
the best of both worlds. I think that is where my comedy developed. In the
playground, black kids appreciated comedy about real life. In the white
community, fantasy was funnier.”
He took his first steps in the entertainment industry the moment he left that
playground, eschewing basketball and a place at the prestigious
Massachusetts Institute of Technology – “I was good at maths and science; it
was my dream to create the first fully electronic class-room” – to pursue a
career in rap.
Along with his friend, the DJ Jazzy Jeff, Smith scooped one of the first
Grammy awards given to a hip-hop act, and was a millionaire before he hit
20. “I made a lot of money in the music business,” he says, “and I then lost
all that money. Basically, I forgot to pay my taxes, the Government seized
everything. I was broke.”
This potentially devastating setback proved temporary, however, and Smith went
on to become the most successful crossover music artist ever, cutting his
dramatic acting teeth with the bleak melodrama Where the Day Takes You
in 1992 and then producing a fine comedic turn in Made in America (1993),
before securing the lead role in John Guare’s Oscar-nominated Six
Degrees Of Separation in the same year. The mega-budget sci-fi
swashbuckler Independence Day (1996) announced Smith’s arrival on
Hollywood’s main stage as it scooped more than $800 million at the
world-wide box office. He followed that with the two Men In Black
movies and a pair of Bad Boys films, and won his first Oscar
nomination for Ali in 2001. “That film was amazing for so many
reasons,” he says. “Working with [the director] Michael Mann, and of course
meeting Muhammad Ali himself. I had first met him years ago, and he was
aware that I had turned down the chance to play him then. So when I met him
during filming, I didn’t know how he was going to respond. “I walked up to him and said: ‘Champ, pleasure to meet you’, and Ali said:
‘Man, you’re almost pretty enough to play me!’ We went back and forth for
years after deciding who’s the prettier. And of course, learning to fight
was amazing. There’s something about being able to fight that goes along
with sexual confidence, at least that’s what I found. Confidence is the key
to command in your bedroom. Women can smell fear, so there can’t be any in
there. That’s my experience.” Has he encountered racism in Hollywood? “I think the great thing about
Hollywood is there’s racism, but on a certain level, everyone’s the same
colour – green,” says Smith. “It gets to the point that if you can put butts
on seats then people will make films with you.“I don’t look at myself like I’m making any wonderful social statements,
though. If children can be inspired to think that maybe they can do
something like I’ve done, then I’ll accept that, but it’s not something that
I’m shooting for and consciously trying to do.” Smith has married twice, first to another actress, Sheree Zampino, whom he met
on set of a TV comedy series called A Different World. “Actually, I
went to the show to meet [his current wife] Jada. But I met Sheree in the
audience and didn’t meet up with Jada – I didn’t meet her until two years
later. “Sheree and I enjoyed ourselves, and we have our son Trey, but relationships
are difficult things to manage and we really struggled to manage the
difficulty of the lifestyle.“I was up-and-coming in my career and had to focus on it. That was not the
life she imagined she would have – me being away physically and then being
away mentally when I was home. It was a little too much pressure for two
people that didn’t have certainty in any aspect of their lives. But it’s all
amicable, we’re all good.” Smith married Jada Pinkett in 1997. “Everyday I need my woman to look at me
right; I need Jada to have that look in her eyes,” he says. “I can’t
function if I don’t see it, whether it’s with my movies, or me as a father,
or me as a husband. I have to educate myself to get to the place where I’m
the best on Earth.” He stops, the grin temporarily sliding from his face once more. “Then, and
only then, can I be sure that my woman will never leave me.” SOURCE OF THIS STORY
December 21, 2007
Soul Basement - Awakening of the Heart
The perspective of an outsider often provides a more accurate view of a
culture that those on the inside are capable of giving. That has
certainly been the case for American popular music. And it's definitely
the case that when foreigners surveyed the American musical landscape,
they cherished as treasures genres that those of us born in the gold
ole U.S. of A. discarded as trash. Blues musicians like Muddy Waters
were musical prophets without honor in 1960s America when the blues
were derided - if not totally ignored. European musicians understood
that the blues were the musical foundation of what became known as Rock
‘n Roll. Of course, many people within the American musical
establishment also understood that, but they were unwilling to
acknowledge that fact. Musicians from "across the pond" took the blues
into their musical woodshed, and used it to reshape the music known as
Rock ‘n Roll. The music that emerged was steeped in the blues. Those
Brits brought that music to America and reinvigorated rock music in the
mid 1960s. More importantly, they sought out the blues men whom they
revered - determined to give men like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker
the credit they so richly deserved. The reverence that Toriano, the mastermind behind ensemble Soul
Basement has for American blues, soul, funk and jazz is evident on the
group's latest recording, The Awakening of the Heart.
The album consists of nine original recordings that serve as a review
of soul music in all of its funky diversity. The group could have
recorded an album of covers of funk, Southern soul, R&B and
neo-soul songs. Instead, they opted to record new tunes in these
genres. In doing so, Soul Basement runs the risk of cutting an album
that makes a lame attempt at recapturing what some believe is a distant
past. For the most part, The Awakening of the Heart is an album that rises far above those mediocre expectations. SOURCE OF THIS STORY
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