MUSICAL FACTS: Renew your bOOgie down mind

The rampant socio-sexualization of the youth of today is obvious. Kids are having sex at younger and younger ages. Teen pregnancies are skyrocketing. The United States has the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and births in the western industrialized world:

• Unmarried teenagers having children account for 24 percent of all unmarried expectant mothers. 
• More than 2/3 of all teenagers who have a baby will not graduate from high school. Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $7 billion annually. 
• Thirty-four percent of young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20 -- about 820,000 a year. Eight in ten of these teen pregnancies are unintended and 79 percent are to unmarried teens.
• In 2006 19.3 abortions per 1000 teenage girls was recorded
• In 2006 teenage pregnancy between the ages of 15-19 years was recorded at a rate of 126.6 per 1000 Hispanic girls; 126.3 per 1000 Black girls ; and 44.0 per 1000 White (non-Hispanic) girls.

Criminal delinquency among youth is equally alarming:

• Approximately 1/3 of all victims of violent crime are teenagers, between the ages of 12 and 19. 
• Homicide is the second-leading cause of death for young adults, after car accidents. Each year, more than 1,500 murder victims are children and teens.
• Almost half of all violent crimes are committed by perpetrators under 25 years old. In 2006, 15% of all arrests were made on people under the age of 18, while more than 1,100 homicide suspects were under the age of 18.
• Juveniles account for more than one-third (36%) of those known to police to have committed sex offenses against minors.
• In the 1980s, 25% of the murders involving a juvenile offender also involved an adult offender. This proportion grew to 31% in the 1990s and averaged 37% for the years 2000–2006

Just as overwhelming are statistics on juvenile drug use:

• According to the 2008 Monitoring the Future study, 19.6% of eighth graders, 34.1% of tenth graders, and 47.4% of twelfth graders reported using any illicit drug within their lifetimes
• According to the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 38% of high school students surveyed nationwide used marijuana during their lifetime 
• In 2006, Hospital Emergency Department drug-related episodes for persons ages 12 to 17 were estimated to be 58,428. Of these episodes, marijuana was mentioned 44,088 times; cocaine was mentioned 10,984 times; stimulants were mentioned 7,740 times; and MDMA (Ecstasy) was mentioned 4,524 times
• According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, there were 109,444 juveniles (under the age of 18) arrested by state and local law enforcement agencies for drug abuse violations during 2007, representing approximately 10.6% of all drug arrests in which the offender's age was reported
• According to a one day census of juvenile offenders in residential placement on October 27, 1999 there were 9,882 juvenile offenders in custody for drug offenses. Almost one third of the juvenile drug offenders were in residential placement for drug trafficking
• In 2004, juvenile courts in the United States handled an estimated 193,700 delinquency cases in which a drug offense was the most serious charge.

To perpetuate the evil of the world by dancing your life away to music that glorifies illicit sex, guns, get money mentality, thugs, gangstas, pimps, hOs, & drugs and then have the audacity to cuss and shake your head at this generation of children who are mimicking YOU, is pure foolishness! Get your mind out the streets, out of the gutter, out of the party-hearty-like-there-ain't-no-tomorrow-club.

RENEW YOUR BooGIE-DOWN MIND from street mentality. The future of the world is in YOUR hands - YOU shape and mould the Leaders of tomorrow!






MUSIC COURTESY OF Juliani. Album "Mtaa Mentality" available for purchase on iTunes (click). Keep up with his music here: http://www.julianionline.com or http://www.facebook.com/julianimusic or http://www.myspace.com/julianimusic


"Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Romans 12:2

"The fear (respect, honor) of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward." Psalm 19:9-11


Teen Pregnancy Statistics:
- Department of Health and Human Services: Office of Public Health and Services, “Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs,”
- The Guttmacher Institute: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/USTPtrends.pdf

Juvenile Delinquency Statistics:
- Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs: http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/default.asp

Juvenile Drug Statistics:
- Office of National Drug Control Policy: http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/juveniles/juvenile_drugs_ff.htmlJuvenile

The Fact about Love is...

Love NEVER fails...1 Corinthians 13:8

Beautiful Man
as I hold your charm in the palm of my hand
I think back to days long gone of a land of chocolate brown ebony
ancestral legacy
spiritual harmony between my Black Man and me 
I remember the suffering - 
the past four thousand years brings to mind a time of agony 
when others expressed their fear of you and me 
when strange fruit hung from trees 
dripping seeds of life on infertile ground 
and women bore rape like soldiers on a battlefield
I bear witness to the destruction of our family
babies sold into nigger-hood 
women's honor sullied as our protectors stood helpless 
robbed of their manhood 
I see our fight for liberation, 
civil, rightful reparations vanquished by the Master Plan - 
no Access or Visa if your skin is the wrong color
I hear the voice of Mama Africa call to the martyred spirits
too often forgotten nowadays
I cry for our people who no longer remember our Trail of Tears, 
thinking it all years away
I hold your charm in the palm of my hand 
and wonder how such a thing of beauty can strike fear into the hearts of men
I hold your charm in the palm of my hand
and shower it with the survived love of unforgotten years...

"Beautiful Man".  © 1998 Kalinago Woryi

FACTOID THINKER: things that make me go 'hmmm'

Why is it we commit acts of SIN when we know Christ?

Because SIN IS FUN & PLEASURABLE, silly!

Maybe if we stop acting like those sinful things we are tempted to do or think about are not as enticingly delightful as they are, then we can better 'check' ourselves and our legitimate human need for pleasure, and find that pleasure in righteous acts and thoughts that strengthen us spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and, yes, even, physically...you know, kinda like swapping that ginormous Cadbury's Fruit & Nut chocolate bar or that 1230-calorie Haagen Daz Peanut Butter Brittle ice-cream tub, for a colorful bowl of tropical fruit salad...TRY IT, YOU MIGHT LIKE IT (in my Yo Gabba Gabba voice! lol)...

MIC-CHECK 1-2: Reality FACT

I never believed in PMS (that would be 'Pre-menstrual Syndrome' to y'all Gentlemen) until I experienced it for myself! No! Really, TMI aside...It wasn't until I felt the symptoms of PMS - bloating, cramps, back pain, and mood swings, that I started to believe what other women were telling me. I mean I had periods before, and was like, "what's the big deal? These women are tripping!"... but maybe because I went years without one, that when they kicked in, they really kicked in - ya know what I mean? So finally, BOOM! Two decades after the first period, I am truly experiencing what it means to have PMS!

Well, MIC-CHECK pon dee reality of life - You will never believe in Christ until you experience Him working in and through you and your ego (bloating); your pain (cramps); your troubles (back pain); and your sin (mood swings). You may go to church, say you 'love the Lord', say you believe in God, just like a woman can say she has a menstrual cycle, but until you allow Christ to show you who God is and who you are in Him, you will not know what it is like to truly experience God and to truly claim faith in how He works IN you and THROUGH you, just as I never truly believed in PMS until I became a bloating, cramping, back-aching, crankier-than-hell-under-my-halo-hat kinda mess!

And Gentlemen, if you just can't relate this feminine experience to your faith walk - wait till your mojo needs a blue pill to keep it going! I suggest you get friendly with the Great Physician (aka God), now - before you become the poster boy for ED.

MUSICAL FACTS: the inFILTHtration of our minds

Take a look at these two videos I got linked in to from the 'Grow The Heck Up' Blog here on Blogger, hosted by  Lavoisier Cornerstone and St. Joogs


As an introduction here's the snip-bit FACT about the making of these videos, as Lavoisier Cornerstone puts it: "...24-year old film-maker Andrew Jenks has a new show on MTV in which he (along with a small camera crew) embeds himself in various worlds and lives in the shoes of people his own age from all walks of life. He says his goal is to try to understand what is at stake in their world, and ultimately, what is at stake in their lives. Over the course of six months, he's lived with an MMA cage fighter, a young man with autism, an animal rescuer, a poker player, an NFL cheerleader and, yup, you guessed it...a rapper. Enter Brooklyn-bred rapper Maino: A hood dude with a hard past, who began to write music during his 10 year jail bid. He's most known for his hits, "Hi Hater" and "All the Above" feat. T-Pain."







SO DID YOU CATCH THOSE SUBTLE FACTS? Firstly, these scenes are staged, which immediately alerts  my inquiring mind as to the "media spin" that's about to go down. In the first video Maino points to a scar on his left cheek. In the second video, when you get to the same scene as the first video, where Maino is pointing to a scar on his face, he points to his right cheek.

But we shan't go into the dramatic 'stagings' of reality shows and documentaries that give us those lovely 'ratings' that don't always come with truly real-life shenanigans. After Jenks seems to have almost got his daylights choked out of him by Maino, in that jack-slapping/choking scene, for having challenged the rapper to be a more positive influence than the partying, drinking, womanizer that Jenks thought he was from his actions, the second video ends with an eye-opening visit to the hood for Jenks, who later states: "I realized how far Maino has come. Everyone Maino grew up with is either in jail, dead, or still lives in the projects. Only Maino got out. He is an inspiration". Jenks' hood experience leads him to change his stance and portray Maino as a positive influence for people from the ghetto, because Maino is not typical of his hood counterparts - he no longer lives in the projects, he shops at Bloomingdale's, picks his kid up from school and has 'legal money' - though not the kind Von Won was talking about.

Yet, FACT 2 is this: rappers, like Maino, perpetuate the very crap that holds people in the hood in mental enslavement and enhances racist stereotypes of Black people among those who buy, listen and observe their lifestyles and media personalities. And we are supposed to consider them a role model for our kids? Most of them can't even pull their pants up, going out in public with their derrière exposed in that jail-time dress-code created to solicit homosexual sex, while clearly engaging in illicit sex with women, oh, I mean "b*tches", as they call them! Hmmmm...I guess it is acceptable for our kids to learn how to be on their "g-sh*t" towards rapper stardom and fame, so long as it keeps them out the hood, right??? ...smh

FACT: JUST BECAUSE A SECULAR RAPPER COMES OUT WITH AN INSPIRATIONAL HOOK OR VERSE within a cursed-filled, women-demeaning/man-dogging SONG OF SURVIVAL AGAINST THE ODDS, DON'T MEAN HE/SHE IS 'ALL GOOD' AND ALL HOOD-POSITIVE. Most secular Hip Hop rappers, by their perpetuation of thug life and materialism, are far from a good role model for anyone, much less a kid living in the hopelessness of the ghetto. Sure, it is wonderful that many used their talents to propel themselves out of the hopelessness of the hood, but HOW they CHOOSE to use their God-given talents is a perpetuation of NEGATIVITY and EVIL. LET'S CALL A SPADE A SPADE AND AN ACE AN ACE.

The devil disguises himself as an angel of light to seek whom he can devour (2 Corinthians 11:14 & 1 Peter 5:8), and the FACT of the matter is that this seemingly inspirational story of a thug-come-rapper-superstar is the devil in a blue dress with a halo, seeking to inFILTHtrate our minds with the notion that you can translate the street hustle to 'get money' by any means, into a hustle to get money 'legally', regardless of the moral and ethical implications of how you choose to make that money (somebody tell me the difference between hustling crack for cash and hustling a thugged out gangsta lifestyle that clearly leads to psychological/cultural and spiritual degradation of people who are sold the real and imagined pursuit of it)



AND TO THE PARENTS WHO ARE BUYING & PLAYING THE KIND OF MUSIC THAT GLORIFIES VIOLENCE, ILLICIT SEX AND 'GET MONEY' MENTALITY TO YOUR CHILD, EXPECTING SOME POSITIVE DESTINY FOR THEM - WAKE UP! Your kid gains nothing positive from following these rappers out the hood listening and learning how to get his/her "g-sh*it" on. By continuing to buy this kind of music we perpetuate the spiral into a self-fulfilling prophecy of being thugged out gangstas, b*tches, hos, pimps, and rappers with no moral conscience...all in the glorious pursuit of money and getting out the hood...


HEY YOUNG WORLD! Fact: THE WORLD IS YOURS...because you are HEIRS to a promise (Galatians 4:28). DON'T BELIEVE THE LIES...HERE'S A REAL MESSAGE FROM A REAL EX-THUG WHO FOUND THE REAL WAY TO GET YOUR MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT OUT OF THE HOPELESSNESS OF THE GHETTO...

FACTOID THINKER: things that make me go 'hmmm'

Why is it we are so concerned about Pastors constructing up to 16,800* seat mega-churches for people to gather and worship God together, but we don't fuss when up to 109,901* seat football stadiums are constructed for grown men in tights to run around chasing after a ball?

* The largest seated capacity church in the U.S.A is the 16,800 seat church, Lakewood Church in Texas (Pastor Joel Osteen) http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakewood_Church?wasRedirected=true

* The largest seated capacity stadium in the U.S.A, & 3rd largest stadium in the world, is the 109,901 seat football stadium, Michigan Stadium (Michigan State Wolverines) http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Stadium?wasRedirected=true