But what the hell do I know?

Looks like a broke-ass Ice-T

1. Hip Hop is Dead: What's the difference between a counter-culture and the mainstream? How about the difference between Ice-T doing "Copkiller" and "Law and Order".

Chuck D once famously called hip-hop the black CNN: a direct line of communication comparing and verifying the universal urban plight of African-American youths in the 1980s. Many, like MistaChuck, took it upon themselves to use hip-hop as more than just party music. They recognized the potential revolutionary power latent in hip-hop, evident in it's inventions in language, fashion and attitude. As a "movement", Hip-Hop was seen as not only a response to, but a natural, unavoidable result of the demoralizing urban conditions inhabited by its artists. Hip-Hop, properly channeled, was seen by many as a vehicle for promoting some tenets not yet fully embraced by the urban African-American culture, such as political action, unity and an awareness of its own history .

But if Hip-Hop's visionaries sought to use Hip-Hop to plug some of the gaps in the societal net that they had argued had been essential to its creation, is Hip-Hop, as a movement, sustainable? The back cover of Bomb the Suburbs posed the question thusly: "Is the ultimate goal of hip-hop to eliminate itself?"

Well, Hip-Hop may not have eliminated itself but as of yesterday it can be found in the Museum of American History. Artifacts and symbols of potential power never made kinetic now under glass.

2. Chicago

Been on the ground five days, nineteen to go. Is it a bad sign that I'm already counting? I've heard people say there are only two ways to run for office: scared or unopposed. This group is neither but there is a sense that the time is right for the incumbent (our opponent) to lose. The dynamic of this operation is very different from ones that I've worked on in the past and as a result I'm forced to maximize non-traditional means to arrive at traditional ends. The method of measuring our support goes against my training (if you can't count it, it doesn't exist) but the folks with a much better grasp of the local political landscape than me are optimistic and that's what I'm going on, for better or worse.