Jamie Hector (The Wire, Heroes) is Young Eastie, a struggling rapper who dreams of getting a record deal through the legendary A-Maze (Wood Harris, The Wire, Remember the Titans). But connecting with his hero is going to be tougher than he thinks. Even though A-Maze is at the top of the ladder, his star is falling and hes getting desperate to hang on. Featuring top rap artists Trick Daddy, Lil Scrappy, Ja Rule and Petey Pablo, JUST ANOTHER DAY takes a compelling, true-to-life look at the brutal ups and downs of the cutthroat hip-hop business.. 

Click to watch (Trailer) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2muC7cYuKg&feature=channel

Source: thinktankmktg

ABC and Media Rights Cap­i­tal today announced the chal­lengers who will take on Shaquille O’Neal in the sec­ond sea­son of “Shaq VS,” a real­ity com­pe­ti­tion series star­ring the NBA super­star. This sea­son O’Neal will not only use his ath­letic prowess to chal­lenge high-profile ath­letes, but also his energy and charisma to com­pete beyond the ath­letic arena in non-sports chal­lenges. Sea­son Two of “Shaq VS” will debut TUESDAY, AUGUST 3 (9:00–10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Tele­vi­sion Network.

Pro­ducer Larry Thomp­son announced today that he plans on turn­ing Kitty Kelley’s con­tro­ver­sial unau­tho­rized biog­ra­phy on Oprah Win­frey into a TV movie or a minis­eries. The biopic, said to be optioned for six fig­ures, will air in Sep­tem­ber 2011, which will coin­cide with the end of Winfrey’s  syn­di­cate episode. 

“Oprah Win­frey is a very pow­er­ful woman, and that’s also some­thing that will make our movie great. As for the chal­lenge of cast­ing Win­frey, the plan is to audi­tion both known and unknown actresses,” Thomp­son said, who prefers to cast an unknown. “Oprah Win­frey is one of the most famous faces on the planet, and if you have an actress peo­ple know, it may make it more dif­fi­cult to get into the char­ac­ter as the face may block the icon.” 

Thompson’s biopic cred­its includes Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Sonny and Cher, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

The film is being made with­out Winfrey’s per­mis­sion and par­tic­i­pa­tion, she has yet to comment.

Source:Blacktalentnews

Will Smith has been reported to star in and pro­duce, “The Leg­end of Cain,” a retelling of the bib­li­cal tale of war­ring broth­ers with a vam­pire twist. Under his shin­gle, Over­book Enter­tain­ment, Smith will play the title role of Cain and pro­duces with his part­ners from “The Karate Kid,” his wife, Jada Pin­ket Smith, James Las­siter, and Ken Stovitz.

Dam Knauf, and Jada Pin­kett Smith’s brother, Caleeb Pin­kett, penned the orig­i­nal script. Andrea Berloff is per­form­ing the revisions.

Will Smith will next be seen in “Men in Black 3,” which stars pro­duc­tion in August. He is cur­rently fin­ish­ing pro­mo­tion for Overbrook’s lat­est film, “The Karate Kid”. The remake star­ring Smith’s son, Jaden Smith is round­ing the $170 mil­lion mark for it’s six week run. A reported sequel is in the works at Sony.

Source:BlackTalentNews

CBS Films and Sony Pic­tures are team­ing to acquire “It Takes A Vil­lage,” a com­edy pitch that Kee­nen Ivory Wayans will write and direct about a 30-something white sin­gle career-obsessed woman who decides on a whim to adopt a child from a South Pacific island. But she comes home with the tribe’s chief and seven elders until she proves she’s mommy material.

Todd Gar­ner will pro­duce with Wayans and Rick Alvarez. It took two stu­dios to make the deal for “It Takes A Vil­lage.” The pact that UTA bro­kered for Wayans is mid 6-figures upfront, but con­tains aggres­sive progress to pro­duc­tion stip­u­la­tions: after Wayans turns in the script, the stu­dios either make it or the reps take it else­where. Wayans, who last directed the 2006 com­edy “Lit­tle Man,” hopes to make this his next film. CBS Films chief Amy Baer, who spent most of her career at Colum­bia, put the pact together with Sony’s Colum­bia co-president of pro­duc­tion Doug Bel­grad, who worked closely with Wayans on “White Chicks.”

Bow Wow stars along­side Ice Cube, Bran­don T. Jack­son, Naturi Naughton and more in the star-studded Warn­ers Bros. Pic­tures “Lot­tery Ticket.” Bow Wow plays Kevin Car­son, a young man liv­ing in the projects that wins $370 mil­lion in a nation­wide lot­tery. When his oppor­tunis­tic neigh­bors dis­cover he has the win­ning ticket in his pos­ses­sion, Kevin must sur­vive their greedy and some­times even threat­en­ing actions over a three-day hol­i­day week­end before he can claim his prize.

Ice Cube, Tim­o­thy M. Bourne, and Steven P. Wag­ner serve as exec­u­tive pro­ducer. Erik White will Direct and Abdul Williams will produce.

The manslaughter verdict returned against former BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) cop, Johannes Mehserle, for the videotaped murder of Oscar Grant, sent hundreds of protesters back into the hot streets of Oakland, California, Grant's hometown.

The corporate media scratched its collective head, essentially asking 'Why protest when the guy was convicted?"

The protesters knew, however, that the court system bent heaven and earth to return the lightest verdict possible; involuntary manslaughter' and that Mehserle faces a possible sentence of probation to a maximum of 4 years in prison.

They knew that Mehserle got a non black jury, hundreds of miles from Oakland.

They knew that each of those hundreds could've been Oscar Grant, unarmed, shot to death on tape and the same thing would've happened.

Of course, the corporate media doesn't get it.

Consider this: If Oscar Grant were the aggressor, and charged with killing Mehserle; would he have been able to leave the state (Mehserle fled to Nevada days after shooting Grant)? Would he have been able to transfer his trial hundreds of miles away? 

Would he have been able to select an all-black jury - or one from which all whites were purged?

Would he have been convicted of involuntary manslaughter - in the face of videotaped evidence?

Everyone who considers these questions honestly knows the answers.  What does that say about the system?  What does this say about the courts?

What does this say about our supposedly 'colorblind' present?

It says, quite loudly, that there's one law for some; another law for others.

It says that life in dark flesh is not equal to life in white flesh- and those hundreds in Oakland's streets knew this in their blood.

--(c) '10 maj

================

The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!

Audio of most of Mumia's essays are at: http://www.prisonradio.org

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Mumia Abu-Jamal's new book -- JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: PRISONERS DEFENDING PRISONERS V. THE USA, featuring an introduction by Angela Y. Davis -- has been released!  It is available from City Lights Books: http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100448090

Please make a contribution to help free Mumia. Donations to the grassroots work will go to both INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL and the FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL COALITION (NYC).

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One of the world’s largest oil spill catastrophes is unfolding right now — in Nigeria.

Delta oil fire

For decades, thousands of spills across the fragile Niger Delta have destroyed the livelihoods of fishermen and farmers, fouled water sources and have polluted the ground and air.

The Nigerian government estimates there were over 7,000 spills, large and small, between 1970 and 2000, according to the BBC.  That is approximately 300 spills a year, and some spills have been leaking for years.

Vast swathes of the Delta are covered with tar and stagnant lakes of crude.

By some estimates, over 13 million barrels of oil have spilled into the Delta.  That’s the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez spill every year for 40 years, according to The Independent.

(UhuruNews) Oscar Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson

"We could not even get six hours of deliberation. My son was murdered! He was murdered! He was murdered!” – Wanda Johnson, mother of Oscar Grant.

On July 8, 2010, after less than six hours of deliberation, a jury in Los Angeles found former Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) cop Johannes Mehserle guilty of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter for the murder of 22-year-old African Oscar Grant. Mehserle was indicted on murder charges and could have bee sentenced to life in prison.

Charo R. Walker, BlackFood.org News Reporter  

I’M NOT an expert when it comes to sports. But I know this to be true. Every human has the right to make what s/he feels is the best decision for her/him.  Last night, when LeBron James decided that he would leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and join the Miami Heat, he did just that. And I commend him. His critics, however, – who, by the way, were his avid supporters just yesterday – have called him every name in the book and have even predicted his demise. What this yet again reveals is that whenever people of African descent exercise an act of self-determination, in whatever realm, we’re deemed “disloyal” and, yes, even “dangerous.”

Dan Gilbert, majority owner of the Cavs, in an open letter to fans, reveals how warped the mindset of some white people is. “I can tell you that this shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own has shifted our "motivation" to previously unknown and previously never experienced levels,” he writes. “This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown "chosen one" sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And "who" we would want them to grow-up to become. But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called "curse" on Cleveland, Ohio.” And Cavs fans – grown adults – have joined in the mêlée; they’ve been shown on TV crying publicly and even burning LeBron jerseys.

By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jun 21,

AP – FILE - This is a July 3, 1960 file photo of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Republic …

BRUSSELS – A group of legal activists formally requested war-crimes charges Monday against a dozen Belgian government officials and military officers widely suspected in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first democratically elected prime minister.

Lumumba headed Congo's largest political party and became leader when Belgium granted independence to the country on June 30, 1960 after a century of colonial rule. Many in the West viewed the charismatic prime minister as a dangerous radical because he wanted to nationalize the new nation's lucrative, Belgian-owned gold, copper and uranium mining industry.

The U.S. request to get Christopher Dudus Coke, a well known leader of the so-called “Shower Posse gang” with ties to the ruling Jamaican Labour Party (JLP), to be extradited to the U.S. on the alleged charge of gun and drug trafficking, strained, at first, the relation between the U.S. and Jamaican governments.

Jamaica chose to resist the U.S. decision by appointing a law firm in the U.S. Things changed when Jamaica’s prime minister, Bruce Golding indicated they were considering handing over Christopher Coke to the U.S. government which had claimed Coke to be a fugitive. Supporters of Dudus responded by setting up barricades and torching police stations in response to Golding’s decision.

Without science and information there is no truth and real understanding of the contradiction that confronts Jamaica and African people today. There are many questions to answer.

Why the mobilization of State violence on such a huge scale and with such intensity against African people in Jamaica? The government uses armored vehicles, truckloads of soldiers and helicopters against our people.

What do we make of the disparity between the high number of Africans detained (500) and killed so far (73) and the low number of weapons seized by soldiers and police (only four, including an AK-47 automatic rifle)?

There were unconfirmed reports of numerous civilian casualties during the Monday, May 24 assault on Tivoli Gardens, an impoverished Jamaican neighbourhood and Coke’s base of support. According to a Reuters news article, some of those reports said military helicopters dropped explosives on the ramshackle district.

Landless People’s Movement

 

The crackdown on the Landless People's Movement in Johannesburg continues. Two LPM militants have been killed in recent days, and ten are currently in prison following the arrests of five others last night.

Landless People’s Movement Press Statement

The Attack on the Landless People’s Movement Continues
Five More Have Been Arrested in Protea South

On the night of 3 June 2010, police and an informer went from door to door in the shacks of Protea South, Soweto. They arrested five members of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM). Three of the arrested are children of Maureen Mnisi, chairperson of the LPM in Gauteng, and the other two are her neighbors.

Two people have been killed since the current wave of repression, which began 23 May 2010 when the LPM was attacked by the Homeowner’s Association in Protea South. . One was shot dead by the Homeowner’s Association in Protea South, and one was shot dead by the police in eTwatwa.

Seven LPM members are now in jail in Protea South and thee LPM members in jail in eTwatwa. Others have been beaten, shot, arrested or received threats that  their homes would be burned down. The homes of two people already have been burned  down in eTwatwa.

An Out­kast reunion has been in the talks for some time now, but Jive Records exec­u­tives are doing every­thing in their power to make sure it doesn’t hap­pen. The reunion was sup­posed to take place in Big Boi’s upcom­ing album, “Sir Lus­cious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty” but Jive won’t allow Andre Ben­jamin to reunite with his ex-bandmate.

The National Coali­tion of African-American Owned Media (NCAAOM) fur­ther denounced Com­cast for its non-existent car­riage of 100% African-American owned chan­nels on its nation­wide plat­forms (approx­i­mately 24 mil­lion homes) and under­scored its oppo­si­tion to the Comcast-NBCU merger unless spe­cific own­er­ship con­di­tions are enforced by the FCC and DOJ.

In a recent LA Times arti­cle dated April 27, 2010, Stan­ley E. Wash­ing­ton, NCAAOM Pres­i­dent & CEO stated,

“For decades Com­cast has shut the door to widely dis­trib­uted wholly-owned African-American chan­nels; and pen­sion funds by virtue of their invest­ment in Com­cast are sup­port­ing apartheid right here in Amer­ica.” Com­cast brings in approx­i­mately $3 bil­lion per month, $36 bil­lion per year, from nearly 24 mil­lion cable sub­scribers. Based on the large African-American pop­u­lated cities in which Com­cast serves, we esti­mate there are mil­lions of African-American sub­scribers that con­tribute approx­i­mately 40% or $15 bil­lion of Comcast’s annual rev­enue. Because of the enor­mous sup­port that the African-American com­mu­nity has shown Com­cast over four decades, we find it unac­cept­able that none of the 250 plus chan­nels that are offered on the Com­cast plat­form are 100% African-American owned and widely dis­trib­uted on their nation­wide platform.”

Fur­ther, in many of the U.S. cities where Com­cast has a dom­i­nant share of the cable mar­ket, African-Americans com­prise a major­ity or near major­ity of the pop­u­la­tion.  For exam­ple, in Philadel­phia — the city in which Com­cast is head­quar­tered — African-Americans make up more than 43 per­cent of the city’s population.