Mayor 'Mike B' Annouces New York Hip Hop Celebration

Friday, March 31, 2006
By: Michael Ivey

Ice-T

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Thursday that hip hop's birthplace will host a week long celebration of the culture in October, to compliment VH1's third annual "Hip Hop Honors" program. Joined by Russell Simmons and Ice-T, the self dubbed "Mike B" said the week's events will pay tribute to "an art form that has expressed the realties of city life." He added that the lessons borne out of hip hop's evolution "have continued to be valuable to us."

The week of Oct. 12-17 is scheduled to find hip hop artists on NYC club stages, in its classrooms and at various fashion and sports related events. VH1's third annual "Hip Hop Honors" will be taped on Oct. 7th and airs Oct. 17th. This year's honorees include pioneering DJ and Zulu Nation founder Afrika Bambaataa, Russell Simmons, Wu Tang Clan, Rakim, the late Eazy-E, and the genre's first mainstream white act, the Beastie Boys. "Law and Order: SVU" co-star Ice-T will host the show. At Thursday's press conference he and Simmons spoke on the educational value of hip hop and the the fact that many artists often speak the truth, despite its ugliness.

(0) Comments | Post a comment »

The Wise One says:
Great thing mike is doing here. Its always good to see the founders of hip hop getting their recognition.

BANK$ says:
Lol @ mike b

ffilc says:
Well spoken, wiseone and bank$. Although i think it is too early for the wu-tang to be honored at this level. What about cats like public enemy, whodini, geto boys, leaders of the new school, nwa, or even rakim along with eric b?

prettylou says:
Glad to see hip hop gettin it's recognition.at the same time lets not forget these are the same people who tried to ban hip hop when it first started..and also we cant forget the b-boys,graff writers,and dj's that started this artform..

Sair says:
Dont really trust politicians mixing with hip hop. They will soon try to take it over. Just can't trust them. M bloomberg will never fully understand this culture. Its all dollars and cents to him.

Rtilleristic lyrics says:
Yes, wu tang gettin honored, i think its on time, but russell simmons is gettin honored? i though he was hostin with ice -t though? and i thought they only honored rappers? well rakim is due and so is wu tang, but ya need public enemy.

DjPhiziQue says:
Gotta pretty good line up, why didnt they get krs-one?

Shady Bitch says:
I think its great that a political figure is recognizing hip hop as a meaningful source! hip hop has always been bashed by society so it's about time the leaders of this industry are acknowledged!

ffilc says:
Djphizique, i think krs was honored on the 1st annual hip hop honors. Sair, i agree with you. Politicians and hip hop just don't mix. In the words of public enemy "can't truss it!"

Sair says:
Word ffilc... The politicians are looking for a financial end on this. They wanna help hip hop...... Then start by changing them rockefella drug laws that got most of our young black and latino israelite brothers doing 10 years for 2 vials of crack. No i don't condone selling or using drugs.....but 10 years for some bs is oppression, bro. Now that they see $billion corperations kneeling down to us, they suddenly want in. But just last year you were steam rolling over cd's in front of warner and viacom, you deemed offensive to the public. F#$k mike bloomberg. Russell don't sell out man. Can't we have something for ourselves?

Kalliope4eva says:
Dayem...if jigga 30 plus how old is ice t?

sclass0020 says:
Why did it take until the third annual show for rakim to be honored?

violentbydesign says:
Bloomberg is an oppressor of all races ...with billions of dolars in investments and bankaccounts....wake up.....this is just a disgusting approach 2 get minority votes................................

Spiltmilk says:
^^i agree, sick how it works like that.....

downassmami says:
Bloomberg is not an oppressor, he is an opportunist. Hip hop is the big thing right now and we live in a capitalist country. If country music was enjoying this kind of popularity, vh1 would be in nashville, smiling it up with their mayor and some redneck country fools. We cannot act like just because the music and people come from black america that it is some kind of racial thing. If country was enjoying this popularity, there would be haters saying how the white man is holding us down and not recognizing our talents. Now the white man is recognizing our talents in the only arena they have respect for: money. And not just any old money, legitimate money, and loads of it. White people only respect money and power, especially the ones that already have a good amount of both. If you are looking for respect in the white community then you need loads of money, cause money buys power. Kim said it right, money, power, respect, it's the key to life.