Leave it to Samuel L. Jackson to keep it real.  In an interview with Ebony Magazine, the actor has no shame in his game that he voted for President Obama because of his race:

“I voted for Barack because he was black,” Jackson revealed. “‘Cuz that’s why other folks vote for other people — because they look like them.”

Jackson then goes on to say:

“That’s American politics, pure and simple.   [Obama’s] message didn’t mean sh*t to me. In the end, he’s a politician. I just hoped he would do some of what he said he was gonna do. I know politicians say sh*t; they lie. ’Cuz they want to get elected.”

You can read the full interview in the March 2012  issue of Ebony Magazine.

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“I hope somebody makes a movie about Obama’s life soon because I could play him. That’s the goal. I watch all the addresses. Anytime I see him on TV, I don’t change the channel, I definitely pay attention and listen to the inflections of his voice. If you ask anyone who knows me, I’m pretty good at impressions.”

On the outside, it seems like the only thing Drake and President Obama have in common in their bi-racial background, but maybe Drake would do a good portrayal. Find out more details right here

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Other hip-hop and R&B artists on the list include Janelle Monáe, will.i.am and The Roots. In addition, Maroon 5′s Adam Levine, Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire, George Clooney and Jack Johnson are going to be invited to help President Obama get back into the White House.

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One of the interviews highlights are his thoughts on President Obama. Take a look at what Don Cheadle had to say:

“I think he inherited an impossible situation. I wish he had not been so much of a consensus-seeker. I just wanted to see a more ‘gangsta’ president.”

Somebody get Obama on the phone. We need a rebuttal!

Props to BlackThespian.

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Here’s the video of the celebrity-filled stage.

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SOURCE

Half of the people who founded Los Angeles were of African descent

There were about 40 people there, and President Obama spoke to the guests which included Magic Johnson and stated, “This election will not be as sexy as the first one. Back then it was still fresh and new. I didn’t have any gray hair. Everybody loved the ‘Hope’ posters and all that. This time it’s –we’ve got to grind it out a little bit. We’ve got to grind it out. But the cause is the same. And my passion is the same. And my commitment is the same.’’

Read more about this event right here.

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President Obama also spoke briefly about the importance of the online community, because it allows a “two-way conversation.”

Thanks to those of you who submitted questions and comments via Facebook and Twitter to the White House.

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Hear what President Obama had to say about unemployment being twice as high in the Black community, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. monument, and his reaction to being harshly criticized by African American leaders like Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornell West in this clip from MyHoustonMajic.com.

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Onyango, who is originally from Kenya, is the half brother of President Obama’s father. Onyango Obama who is 67, was charged with operating under the influence of alcohol, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and failure to yield the right of way. After being booked at the police station, when asked if he would like to make a phone call to arrange bail he stated, ”I think I will call The White House.”

He pleaded not guilty on Friday and was being held without bail on a detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a court document, ICE said he had an earlier deportation or removal order.

Spotted @MSNBC

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40. He traveled to Kenya in 1988 and met many of his paternal relatives.

41. His favorite meal is wife Michelle’s shrimp linguine.

42. His paternal grandfather was affiliated with the Kenyan revolutionary Mau Mau movement.

43. His maternal grandfather fought in World War II.

44. Some of his maternal ancestors were slave owners.

45. He moved to Chicago and worked as a director of the Developing Communities Project after college.

46. He has a beer named after him in Kenya.

47. He wrote a children’s book “Of Thee I Sing.”

48. His father attended Harvard University.

49. His first public speech was at Occidental College, calling for the school to disinvest from apartheid South Africa.

50. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law School.

Did you know these tid-bits about Obama, Join The Conversation On Our Facebook Page:

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The gallery below showcases Will & Jada Smith, Barack & Michelle Obama, and other black celebrity couples who have managed to make it last.

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President Obama’s speech at the White House Correspondents dinner made headlines for its relentless roasting of Donald Trump, who President Obama silenced earlier in the week after releasing his birth certificate, proving that he was born on American soil.

“Donald Trump is here. I know he’s taken some flack recently, but no one is more ready to put the birther issue to rest than the Donald,” President Obama said. “So he can focus real issues at hand facing America, like ‘Did we really land on the moon?’ ‘What really happened in Roswell?’ And, ‘Where are Biggie and Tupac?’”

During a video, which poked fun at Vice President Joe Biden, Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” was used as background music.

President Obama’s speech was widely praised for its lightheartedness, which included the President releasing his “birth video” which turned out to be a scene from Disney’s The Lion King, and the video introduction which featured the President’s birth certificate flashing on the screen while Rick Derringer’s “Real American” (aka Hulk Hogan’s theme music) played.

Watch President Obama’s speech below!

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President Obama told talk show host Oprah Winfrey Wednesday that he was never worried about “birther” challenges to his citizenship because he recalled being born in Hawaii.

“When it first came up were you thinking, ‘I hope I was born here?’” asked Winfrey.

With his wife at his side, Mr. Obama, grinning, responded, “Can I just say? I was there, so I knew that — I knew I had been born. I remembered it.”

The Obamas’ appearance on Winfrey’s show will air Monday.

Kevin Eason is a freelance editorial cartoonist and illustrator from New Jersey. His brand of satire covers news events in politics, entertainment, sports and much more. Follow him on Facebook.

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Potential presidential candidate Donald Trump, at or near the top of some recent polls of Republican contenders, said he might release his tax returns when President Barack Obama produces a birth certificate.

Trump made the comment in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, parts of which were aired and transcripts of which were released on Tuesday. The interview was conducted on Monday.

“Maybe I’m going to do the tax returns when Obama does his birth certificate … I’d love to give my tax returns. I may tie my tax returns into Obama’s birth certificate,” Trump said.

So we thought NeNe might be the best person to help Donald Trump locate President Obama’s birth certificate.

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Then Morgan claimed that he had people digging up dirt on Trump, and that his investigators had discovered Trump had fathered a child in Harlem that he doesn’t acknowledge.

“Little black boy with blue eyes and hair that go like this,” was how Morgan described Trump’s illegitimate son. “Come see that boy. Come see that boy, Donald.”

Watch the hilarious clip courtesy of TVSQUAD.com

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We stumbled across another Obama parody that may be a bit easier to swallow.  This time “Obama” tackles Biggie’s “Juicy” and actually manages to be both entertaining and pass along a good message.

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“Remember John McCain / A-ha A-ha / They never thought that this man would make it this far…”

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Born Sarah Breedlove, Walker descended from slaves who died when she was still a child. While many young children would have been too traumatized to overcome the death of two parents, she and her sister took jobs laboring in kitchens, and on farms until they could sustain themselves. In 1910, after forming the Hair Culturists’ Union of America in Indianapolis, she made it a point to find allies in the Black political community. She moved to New York in 1916, building (with the help of the first registered black architect) a palatial home that rivaled any in the Hudson River Valley.

How she came into the hair business was no coincidence. Walker may have suffered from alopecia, a rare ailment that is characterized by little or no hair growth on the body. As a response to her own condition, Walker created a formula (that she claimed had been delivered to her in a dream) to restore hair growth. While many say she did invent a metal “hot comb” specifically for Black women to straighten out the curl in their roots, that is not accurate. The primary cause of her hair loss was the result of a common problem of the era i.e. infrequent washing and products that were not designed for the hair of black women.

With her ingenious marketing in every Black publication, and her constant travel to trade shows, Walker became a household name. She interrupted Booker T. Washington’s prestigious National Negro Business League Convention after Washington had apparently ignored her requests to speak. As a woman who had founded and developed one of the nation’s most formidable businesses, she would not be denied the right to correlate with her peers on the same level.

Not one to horde her riches, Walker moved to create philanthropic projects that would help Black communities. She funded the YMCA building in Indianapolis where her business was, donated to the NAACP, and traveled to Woodrow Wilson’s White House to present an anti-lynching petition after violent outbursts had killed Blacks in an Illinois riot. She passed on her legacy of philanthropy to daughter A’Lelia, who was responsible for creating “The Dark Tower,” a salon that hosted Black writers and artists who would display their work during the Harlem Renaissance. Walker died of kidney disease, and bequeathed her estate to her female heirs.

In 1911 Madam Walker pledged $1000 toward the building fund of the black YMCA in Indianapolis. She was one of many funders.

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In 1940, one Black novelist dared to show America what white supremacy did to one Black man. When “Native Son” appeared on America’s bookshelves, it became an instant bestseller, the first title by an African-American author selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club. It also introduced the world to the complicated protagonist of “Native Son,” Chicago’s Bigger Thomas, who was driven to murder a white woman through his terror of white people, not because of hate. Wright, as an accomplished writer, a prophet, and a leftist, helped cut the path on which Barack Obama walked into Chicago’s South Side, onto the local and national political stage, and now, the White House.

Richard Wright, the grandson of slaves, was born on a plantation in Mississippi in 1908. Shuffled between Mississippi and Memphis for most of his childhood, Wright published his first short story, “The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre,” when he was 15. In 1927, after graduating high school, Wright moved to Chicago, where he worked for the post office and wrote in his spare time. During the Great Depression, Wright affiliated with the Communist Party, and Wright penned many of his earliest works for leftist publications. Richard Wright’s career blossomed after he moved to New York in 1937. He mentored Ralph Ellison, published an acclaimed book of short stories called “Uncle Tom’s Children,” and with the help of a Guggenheim Fellowship, wrote “Native Son,” published in 1940.

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“Native Son” was criticized by many people for its violence. Black critics targeted Wright for writing a spectacle that seemed to confirm white America’s worst racist fantasies about Black men. But the book catapulted Wright to the top echelon of American letters. He published his autobiography, “Black Boy,” in 1945.

After World War II, Richard Wright expatriated to France, where he fell in with noted existentialist writer/philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. He traveled to Africa in the 1950s, where he contracted dysentery. The illness contributed to Wright’s failing health before his death in Paris in 1960 of a heart attack. Wright was only 52.

Richard Wright greatly influenced the mindset of white liberals in the 1940s and 50s, and his work inspired the Black activists of the 1960s. “Wright,” said Amiri Baraka, “was one of the people who made me conscious of the need to struggle.” Without a doubt, Wright inspired Barack Obama, too.

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Mary McLeod Bethune, the daughter of slaves, became an early 20th Century educator and civil rights leader, founding both Bethune-Cookman College and the National Council of Negro Women. But Bethune became even more influential as a friend and confidant of Eleanor Roosevelt, and as an advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Negro affairs. Bethune became a member of Roosevelt’s unofficial”Black Cabinet,” the first time Black Americans had that kind of access to the White House. As such, Bethune helped open the very doors that Barack Obama walked through as the first Black president of the United States.

Bethune was born in Mayesville, South Carolina, on July 3, 1875. She was the fifteenth of seventeen children born to former slaves on a plot of land called “Homestead.”

In 1904, Bethune founded a school for Black girls in Daytona, Florida in a time when segregation threatened to destroy the educational aspirations of countless African-Americans. With little money but plenty of time and attention, she lifted the Daytona school to impeccable standards to rival that of the local white public high school. By 1910, the school’s enrollment had increased from its original six students (one being her son, Albert) to 102 students at a four-year high school. Despite Ku Klux Klan efforts to repeatedly thwart her, she made every attempt to raise funds to keep the school growing. By allying with Booker T. Washington shortly after his visit to the Daytona school, Bethune was able to link her institution to wealthy philanthropists from the North. Of these elites, the Roosevelts and Rockefellers may have been the largest donors.

Bethune’s civic participation was not limited to education. She later founded the National Council of Negro Women, and served on the board for the National Association for Colored Women a vocal advocate for women’s rights. In 1936, Mary McLeod Bethune became the first woman to receive a major appointment from the federal government when she was named Director of the Negro Affairs of the National Youth
Administration.

By the time of her death in 1955, she had used her post at the NYA to travel the country surveying the greater social problems, making recommendations to resolve them, and raising money. Bethune was honored with the unveiling of a National Monument on the grounds of the Capitol in Washington, DC, in 1974. Mary McLeod Bethune was commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp in 1985.

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A master of storytelling, Toni Morrison was the first Black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and legendary professor is known for the vivid black characters brought to life in her novels that recreate the Black experience. Morrison’s novels often illuminate themes of slavery, racism, and identity, but also shine with hope for the future. In her first-ever political endorsement, Morrison wrote of a “national evolution” in a letter that publicly endorsed Barack Obama. As an educator and author, Morrison used her authority and standing as a Black pioneer to lay the groundwork for the presidency of Barack Obama.

Morrison was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, in Lorain, Ohio, on February 18, 1931. An avid reader and learned storyteller, she graduated from high school with honors. In 1953 Morrison received her Bachelors in English from Howard University and then earned her Masters from Cornell. Morrison soon became an English professor at Texas Southern University in Houston. She later returned to Howard to teach English.

In 1970 Morrison wrote her first novel, “The Bluest Eye,” about a little Black girl that dreamed every night of waking up with blue eyes. Seven years later, she gained national acclaim with her third novel, “Song of Solomon.” It was the first novel by a black writer to be selected for the Book-of-the-Month Club since Richard Wright’s Native Son in 1940.
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She wrote a play, “Dreaming Emmett,” based on the true story of Emmett Till, an African-American teenager brutally killed by racist whites after allegedly whistling at a white woman in the South. It premiered January 4, 1986. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel, “Beloved,” which was adapted for film by Oprah Winfrey. In 2006, The New York Times Book Review named “Beloved” the best American novel published in the past 25 years.

Morrison taught within the State University of New York system and held the Robert F. Goheen Chair in the Humanities at Princeton University from 1989 until 2006. Morrison authored nine novels, the most recent being “A Mercy.” She continues to exemplify brilliance in creative writing and sets the bar with her multilayered narrative.

Perhaps the most interesting political moment in Morrison’s career came when she called Bill Clinton “our first Black president.” But in 2008, Morrison backpedaled from that assertion, saying that Clinton was “Black” only in the sense that he had been treated that way. If there was any question of Morrison’s true feelings, it was answered by Morrison’s spurning of Hillary Clinton in favor of Barack Obama.

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Professing to be “unbossed and unbought,” Shirley Chisholm was the first black female major-party candidate for President of the United States, and the first black woman to be elected to Congress. Chisholm wasn’t intent on winning the presidency, but was steadfast on challenging conventions and showing Black America that they could aim high. She set the bar, in many ways, over which President Barack Obama jumped.

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was born November 30, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York. She attended Brooklyn College, where she majored in sociology; she later earned a Masters from Columbia University.

In 1964, Chisholm ran for and was elected to the New York State Legislature. Four years later, she ran as the Democratic candidate for New York’s 12th District congressional seat and was elected to the House of Representatives. As the first woman in Congress she hired an all-female staff.

Serving seven terms, Chisholm was an outspoken advocate for women, minorities, and the poor: she worked to improve opportunities for inner-city residents. She authored legislation that instituted a program called SEEK (Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge), which provided college funding to disadvantaged youth.

The pinnacle of Chisholm’s ascent occurred in 1972, when she became the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States, and the first female candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Chisholm won 152 votes at the 1972 Democratic National Convention, but lost.

Chisholm retired from Congress in 1982, but remained a public figure and voice. On January 1, 2005, Shirley Chisholm died. Chisholm, as politician, author, and educator, overcame her two largest “handicaps,” being a woman and being black. She fought for political change in the 20th century that allowed tangible change, which is exhibited in the current presidency of Barack Obama.

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When Booker T. Washington stepped to the podium at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895 to give a speech on race relations, two things happened.

First, many fellow Black Americans, including W.E.B. Du Bois, derided his speech as “The Atlanta Compromise,” because Washington called the agitation for social equality “the extremest folly,” advocating instead slow, steady, and segregated self-improvement for the American Negro.

Second, Booker T. Washington’s was acclaimed by the white power structure, and his less threatening approach to progress proclaimed in the press. Washington himself was elevated to the status of the pre-eminent “Negro leader,” at least in the eyes of white folks. Washington alone had access to the ears and pockets of millionaires like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. Washington alone received an invitation to Teddy Roosevelt’s White House in 1901.

His debate with Du Bois — who called Washington “The Great Accommodator” — has been simplified to one of segregation versus integration. But Washington secretly contributed to anti-segregationist causes, all the while publically advocating an industrial education for Negroes, rather than the liberal arts education that Du Bois favored. Most notably, Booker T. Washington, who was born a slave, went on to found the Tuskeegee Institute, one of the first historically black colleges.

Washington was not a radical, and he caught hell from activists who wanted to move faster. In our time, Barack Obama’s moderate policies, his willingness to meet with his political adversaries, and his advocacy of Black self-reliance rankles many liberals and older Black leaders. As such, Obama and Booker T. Washington share a legacy of both personal achievement in the face of past adversity; and, in some ways, prudent accommodation with the larger power structure.

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Some said that on January 20, 2009 Dr. King’s dream was realized with the inauguration of America’s first black president. Well, today in celebration of “Happy Black People Day,” (aka Martin Luther King’s b’day), The Urban Daily looks back at the “Top 5 MLK Songs!”

5. Ray Charles, “Abraham, Martin & John” -

First recorded by Dion, the soulful Ray Charles version is my favorite, but it’s not on YouTube so we’ll go with Marvin Gaye’s rendition. Penned in response to the assassinations of King and Robert Kennedy, artists from Marvin Gaye to Bob Dylan have lent their voices to the tune.

4. Common, “A Dream” -

The most modern and up-beat of these songs is Common’s track from the 2007 film Freedom Writers. The track samples King’s famous speech, expertly weaving words into an update of the preacher’s pro-freedom themes.

3. Public Enemy, “By The Time I Get To Arizona” -

As influential as P.E. were, it’s startling to see how dated some of their material seems now. The violent imagery in the video (Chuck and the S1Ws fantasize about taking out their frustrations on politicians who opposed the King holiday) is a bit discordant with MLK’s pacifist message — but this song reminds us that it wasn’t long ago when powerful people were openly resistant to honoring King’s legacy.

2. King Dream Chorus & Holiday Crew, “King Holiday” -

In a homage to “We Are The World,” Kurtis Blow, The Fat Boys, Whitney Houston and more come together to share their appreciation for the sacrifices endured by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. A lost, but not forgotten gem.

1. Stevie Wonder, “Happy Birthday” -

This offering from the legendary Stevie Wonder gets the nod not just for its subject matter, but because it was a centerpiece in Stevie’s activist campaign to get King’s birthday recognized as a national holiday. It’s not just catchy, it helped catch a fire.

In his seminal work, Race Matters, Dr. Cornel West questions matters of economics and politics, as well as addressing the crisis in Black leadership. The book was written in 1993, but many of its themes are salient today. His scholarship has come to be recognized globally and West, himself, is known for his combination of political and moral insight and criticism. The bulk of his work focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society. As a contemporary of Barack Obama, and fellow Harvard student, West is among the few scholars to so eloquently articulate the modern Black experience of our generation. Both men are products of various influences including the civil rights movement and, like West, Barack Obama has made an art of maximizing his patchwork heritage to bring greater consciousness to the American public and elevate civic dialogue on race, politics and society.

Cornel West was born in 1953 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Shaped by his family, church, education and the black social movements of the 1960s, West admired the “sincere black militancy of Malcolm X, the defiant rage of the Black Panther Party… and the livid black theology of James Cone.” He enrolled at Harvard University and took classes taught by philosophers like Robert Nozick and Stanley Cavell. After earning his doctorate from Princeton in 1980, he went on to teach at several institutions including Yale and Harvard.

In 2000, after a public row with economist, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and then-president of Harvard, Lawrence Summers, he left his post and returned to Princeton University, where he has been teaching ever since.

He has been involved in projects such as the Million Man March and Russell Simmons’ Hip-Hop Summit. West’s outreach and projects were focused on bringing youth into the political fold and helping them realize the power of their generation to change the status quo, a meem echoed by Barack Obama during his presidential campaign, which resulted in an unprecedented amount of youth participation both, on the ground and in the voting booths.

West is probably best known for his views on race in America, a topic of immense relevance as we begin the term of the first black President, Barack Obama. West describes the United States as a “racist patriarchal” nation where “white supremacy” continues to define everyday life. In a somewhat controversial statement with regard to the September 11 attacks, West said the attack gave white Americans a glimpse of what it means to be black in America – feeling “unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hated” for who they are.

Being, in many ways, a kindred spirit to President Barack Obama, it was no surprise when West so actively supported and campaigned for Obama during the presidential race. Both Dr. Cornel West and President Barack Obama were deeply influenced by the histories they came from and realized that the real power of a nation came from overturning stale paradigms and reinvigorating the youth toward positive change.

Watch our Video of Dr. West discussing his favorite “Way Black When” moment. Take a look:

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“Derrick Rose may have your number,” President Obama lightheartedly jabbed at Kobe Bryant as the team posed for a photograph after presenting the president with an autographed replica 2009-10 championship banner.

Rose dropped 29 points and 9 assists in a win over The Lakers on December 10th. But Black Mamba’s come back was classic.

“I said, ‘If he calls that number, I’ll be sure to pick up after the fifth ring,’” Bryant quipped back — referring to the five championship rings he has.

Ouch!

Read more HERE.

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Spike Lee has amassed a filmography that has put plenty others in Hollywood to shame… and he has done it on his own accord. After the success of Inside Man, the Brooklyn native has returned back to the screen with Miracle at St. Anna. The 40 Acres and a Mule mastermind sits down with The Urban Daily to discuss a few topics, touch upon his new movie and his next life-changing project.

On the difficulties of filming:

There were a lot of challenges for me. I had never done a WWII film. There were sequences in Malcolm X shot in Egypt, and at the end of the movie with Mandela in South Africa. But this movie is basically shot all in Italy, most of it in Tuscany… three months in Tuscany and a month in Rome. Both of them holidays. One was in New York and another in White Castle, Louisiana. And we did some shooting in the Bahamas. I had not done [as many locations] or a film on this big a scale, Malcolm X was the only one prior to this. And I’ve not done a war film, not done battle sequences like this, not done — Spanish, German and Italian, I do not speak those languages. Good crew. Amazing crew. It was 95% Italian. 95% did not speak English but language wasn’t a barrier. I thought so going in but I make films the same way all over the world. And that was an eye-opener for me. It demonstrates how we human beings put up self-imposed barriers to stop us from communicating. This film was a lesson to me.

On working with new actors:

I had seen all their work. Omar in 8 Mile. Derek in his films. Michael Ealy in the Barbershop series and the cable show The Sleeper. All young hard-working, young and talented people. I have to credit James McBride the novelist and screenwriter for writing four rich roles. He made it easy for them because each role was so clearly defined that you saw four different aspects of Negro men, the different viewpoints and backgrounds you would’ve seen when you were alive in 1944. The men who were enlisting, who were fighting for the country when the army was still segregated… lynching was still taking place. A time when they were billed as second-class citizens.

On researching for Miracle at St. Anna:

James [McBride] introduced me to a lot of the guys he first met from working on the book. It was a great honor to meet these men. They are American patriots. They’re heroes. They’re courageous and these men have dignity…even today. In many ways, they have reason to be bitter about the way they’ve been treated by their country but they’re happy because they never thought a Barack Obama would happen. There’s a line in the film where Derek’s “Stamps” character says “I’m doing this for the future” and they were doing the same thing. They wanted to come back to the U.S. and not see the “colored” and “white” water fountains. That wasn’t the case but the country has addressed some of this. Barack Obama is the biggest evidence of that. I never thought I’d live to see an African American in my lifetime on the verge of being the 44th president of the United States. And it’s gonna happen… I think it’s going to happen.

On his filmmaking ability:

I’m confident in my film-making ability. The one thing I thought hard about going into this film, tossing and turning, was the role of that kid. If we didn’t get that right kid, then it would be curtains. We did an open casting call in Florence. Five thousand Tuscan boys showed up. Once my casting director got down to 100, she said, “Spike, I’m ready.” So, I took the train down from Rome… It was a twelve hour train ride from Rome to Florence. Right away I could see this was the kid. Others weren’t sure of the choice so I went back two more times. We were blessed because he’d never acted before and doesn’t speak a word of English, but he translates so well on-screen.

On his favorite war movies:

The Train starring Burt Lancaster, Paris Burning by Berllucci, The Dirty Dozen with Jim Brown… [The Dirty Dozen] was a revelation to me as a young kid. I was ten years old when I went and saw that film.

On the 92nd’s woes compared to black soldiers fighting in Iraq:

I would say number one that, as far as I know, the Army is majority Black and Hispanic. I would also say that the indignities faced by our soldiers coming back are [no longer] based upon race. I mean you’re coming back, no matter who you are, you’re getting f-cked over. You’re coming back and the suicide rate is astronomical. Not just over in Iraq, but in Afghanistan, they’re at a lost when they come back here. The murders of spouses and girlfriends has increased. So, it’s obvious that the U.S. army is not equipped to deal with the mental health and physical health, too, of our soldiers. They’re not being taken care of. It’s a disgrace that they’re coming back having lost limbs.

On his next projects:

Right now, I’m getting ready to end this thing with Nokia. It’s almost done. There’s been a festival where people were invited to send in their pictures and videotapes they captured on a cellphone. Now that all the material’s come in, I gotta make a film out of it. I’m just picking the winners and when all this material comes in with the theme is of humanity – broken into three acts. There have been thousands and thousands of submissions. It’s a challenge. We’re finishing the Kobe Bryant documentary for ESPN. It’s a unique documentary. It’s one game. Last April on the 13th in 2008, the Lakers played the then-championship San Antonio Spurs and Sunday after the televised game we had 30 camera on Kobe. With the help of Phil Jackson, the NBA and the Lakers… they gave us access. We had cameras in the locker room before the game, at halftime and after the game was over. That’s never been done before. We’re doing a musical as well. If it’s good enough, it’ll get accepted at Sundance in January. My next feature film, well… right now, we’re waiting on a script for Inside Man 2. If the script is not better than the first one, myself, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen… we’re not doing it.

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Spike Lee’s “Miracle” Is A Classic!

Not because it was bad, but because we weren’t sure if we’d be able to make it through the whole video without having a heart attack from laughing so hard.

We’re happy to report that after a few deep breaths, we were able to regain our composure and make it through this video by “Baracka Flocka Flame”

Featuring a Barack Obama impersonator rapping as Baracka, directors Martin Usher and James Davis’ “Head Of The State” is just as hood as Waka’s original.

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I don’t know if he’s messing with Cory “Zooman” Miller’s impersonation but it’s good to see Jamie on stage. Where you been bro?

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