Civil Rights Leader Gives Interesting Take On Lil Wayne’s Emmett Till Line

March 24, 2014 JUKEBOXDC Staff Interviews No Comments  

From MTV:

Lil Wayne landed in hot water last February when a line name-checking tragic civil rights figure Emmett Till on Future’s “Karate Chop (Remix)”
 raised eyebrows and drew complaints from Till’s family.

The verse featured the line: “Beat the p—y up like Emmett Till,” drawing a dark reference to the teen who was brutally murdered after he whistled at a white woman in 1955. Till was beaten beyond recognition, but his mother insisted that he have an open casket funeral, so the world could see and remember the brutality. Future’s label quickly removed the lyric and then remixed the song again in a version featuring Birdman, Rick Ross and French Montana, but no Weezy.

At the time, the rapper attempted to reach out to the Till family in an apologetic open letter
, a gesture the family said at the time “[fell] short.”
 The controversy also lost Wayne an endorsement deal with Mountain Dew
.

But a year later, does the lyric still sting?

MTV News recently sat down with civil rights icon and Congressman Rep. John Lewis to get his take on the incident. “I think when a star, a singer, uses the name of someone like an Emmett Till in music … a lot of young people grow up not even knowing anything about Emmett Till,” he said. “So maybe it would help people go and [say], ‘Who was Emmett Till?'”

In fact, Lewis said that if it hadn’t been for music the civil rights movement might have been like “a bird without wings.” Imagine not having songs like: “We Shall Not Be Moved,” Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddamn,” Curis Mayfield and the Impressions’ “People Get Ready” and Mahalia Jackson’s “We Shall Overcome.”

“You can communicate with music. It’s a powerful instrument, it’s a powerful tool,” said Lewis. “Not just for enjoyment, but it helps to inspire, to push you on. Sometimes when we’d get out of jail in Alabama, in Mississippi we’d go straight to a club and play some records.”

Lewis said during those celebratory post lock-up listening sessions, he and his fellow marchers would spin songs including Mayfield’s “Keep on Pushin'” or Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools.”

“The songs motivated us, they inspired us, so music played a major role within the movement,” he said.

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King Los Destroys Sway’s ‘5 Fingers Of Death’; Premieres New Song ‘Woke Up Like This’

March 21, 2014 JUKEBOXDC Staff Videos 1 Comment  

You can check out the new track below. As far as the above bars….my God.

This morning King Los stopped by Sway in the Morning and revealed that he is “cool with Diddy, but no longer with Bad Boy,” and even premiered his new song Woke Up Like This — but you know we couldn’t let this TRUE MC leave with out doing the 5 Fingers of Death!!

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Lil’ Mouse On ‘Sway In The Morning’

March 8, 2014 JUKEBOXDC Staff Interviews No Comments  

Chicago’s Lil’ Mouse is known for his viral hit, Get Smoked which was later remixed by Lil’ Wayne who dropped a verse on the track. In the first part of this addition of Sway in the Morning, Lil’ Mouse talks about being homeschooled, offers from major labels and groups like Cash Money Records and also fills citizens in on his rap conglomerate, Hella Bandz.

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Wayne Brady Stops By ‘Sway In The Morning’; Talks BET Honors

February 24, 2014 JUKEBOXDC Staff Interviews No Comments  

BET Honors host, Wayne Brady made an appearance on Sway in the Morning to discuss the five people who will be recognized at BET Honors. The CEO of American Express, a photographer, Berry Gordy, Ice Cube, and Aretha Franklin were all honored at the 7th Anniversary of awards show. Brady spoke a lot about the state of music and how Motown’s mission to polish artists has been lost through this digital stage of music. Wayne also took calls from listeners and spoke about how people perceive his ‘Blackness.’

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Kanye West Disses Sway (Again) & Charlamagne Tha God…But He Appreciates His Fans

February 14, 2014 JUKEBOXDC Staff Videos 1 Comment  

Kanye West restarted his Yeezus tour in Philadelphia, and got back into rant mode in the middle of performing. Two of the subjects this time? Sway (again) and (not surprised) Charlamagne.

“What the fuck did you do? What have you done with the past 10 years of your motherfucking life? Charlamagne1? Sway!? What have you done? Fuck you did? … I AM YEEZUS.”

Below….Kanye gets positive and shows his fans some love…

I’d like to thank everybody that came out tonight in the snow. I really thank y’all for coming and supporting tonight.

After all these years, you know, of making music…dreaming out loud…dreaming, dreaming out loud…dreaming out loud, standing out in the crowd, standing out in the crowd, still dreaming out loud. Anybody tonight, anybody tonight has a dream? If you believe that you can be anything, put your hands up one time if you believe that you can be anything, if you can be anything

You know people used to say, they used to say I like to talk a lot of shit, but i want to clarify that, in 2014. I ain’t talking a whole bunch of shit. I might talk a whole bunch of truth. My truth. I might express myself out loud. Out loud, out loud, out loud…they say it’s not allowed, they say it’s not allowed…they say i’m way too proud…they say yeezy can you calm down…oh not right now.

You know when I be in the studio, this is exactly how i do. I get in front of the booth, and like, I just freestyle – i don’t know if you’ve ever seen on YouTube, this part of the show will be 20 minutes sometimes.

That’s cause I really feel like y’all are my family…like y’all are in the studio with me. I really feel like I can say anything in front of y’all.

I hope I didn’t keep y’all too long tonight…playing all these records. Talking all that truth. I couldn’t be standing here right now if it wasn’t for all of y’all supporting me all these years. Screaming on people on my behalf. Like y’all in my family. Like “don’t say shit about Ye!”

I know y’all keep that. I appreciate that. Y’all love me no matter where we go. Y’all don’t give a fuck what happen…y’all don’t care if I have a red suit on…y’all don’t care if I have a kilt on…y’all dont’ care if I’m on a motorcycle. “Don’t say shit about Ye!” You know what I’m saying?

It’s y’all that give this the power. The whole idea behind Yeezus is “Yeez…is…us”. It’s so when y’all that be in situations when people be trying to hold y’all back, suppress y’all ideas, talk shit when you’re at work, whatever…and you just can’t say nothing.

So I just took 2013 to try and say everything that couldn’t nobody say. I got in trouble, but what’s a little trouble, you know what I mean? Everybody’s so scared of trouble.

But I’d be more afraid of not having the love of y’all. I’d be more afraid of not giving you everything that I got. I’d be more afraid of turning into one of these people inside of the system that’s so scared to do anything. To say anything. And controlled by everything. And they don’t believe in anything.

It’s like you just can’t hold on to nothing no more. You can’t believe in nothing. You can’t believe in yourself. You dont’ stand for something, you fall for everything. You don’t stand for nothing, you fall for anything.

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The LOX Perform On Sway In The Morning’s Live Concert Series (Video)

January 17, 2014 JUKEBOXDC Staff Videos No Comments  

“Feels f**cking great… for hip hop,” said Styles P, on Sway in the Morning, when asked about how it feels to drop an EP with The LOX.

Jadakiss, Sheek Louch & Styles P, one of the most solid groups in hip hop, stepped foot in our Live In-Studio Concert Series and performed Faded & Talk About It, off their recent EP, The Trinity.

While in-studio, they also opened up about their lowest moment in hip hop, & spoke about what they would do if the music industry tried to make them compromise their integrity.

Find out what they said, in Sway in the Morning’s interview, above.

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Kanye West Flips Out On Sway’s Shade45 Show

November 26, 2013 JUKEBOXDC Staff News 2 Comments  


The Source reports:

Kanye West…made his way to the Shade 45 building to appear on Sway in the Morning. Sway and Yeezy spoke on his last shows in NYC, A Tribe Called Quest, and working with Jay Z.

Mid-way through the interview, Sway questioned Kanye about his fashion endeavors and asked “Why don’t you empower yourself, and do it yourself?” Kanye lost it.

Kanye: How, Sway!? You ain’t got the answers, Sway! I been doing this more than you! You ain’t been doing the education! You don’t have the answers, though, because you tryna give me advice about something. You ain’t spend $13 million a year tryna empower yourself…What’s the name of yo clothing line? We don’t know… I just told you I lost the money ’cause I didn’t have the knowledge of how to do it the right way!

Sway: Okay, so you don’t have money to do it. That’s yo answer. You ain’t gotta turn up, man. This ain’t no f*cking show, man.

Eventually things cooled down and they resolved everything but Kanye’s turn-up definitely topped his previous interviews today. Listen to Yeezus go off on Sway here.

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Sway & Kool G Rap (& More) Reminisce On ‘The Anthem’

November 13, 2013 JUKEBOXDC Staff Interviews No Comments  

We had the pleasure of having the legendary Kool G Rap in the studio with Necro to humbly speak about major influences that have impacted their careers. If you’re not familiar with Kool G, he is one of the greatest of our times, with tracks like: Men at Work, Road to Riches, Streets of New York.

Sway got in depth with the Kool G about the first time he wrote a rap, what initially inspired him, how he linked with first label, and which rappers in the game he is currently vibing to.

“The first time I ever was in the presence of hip-hop I was nine years old…. Instamatic love for it, hip-hop is just that influential,” said Cool G when asked about his first interaction with hip-hop.

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Peter Gunz Cheated Because He Was Cashed Out!

November 1, 2013 JUKEBOXDC Staff News No Comments  

petergunz2

Peter Gunz appeared on Sway in the morning and stated:“I was gonna get busted anyway…Let me get paid to get busted. F— it.” In the interview Mr. Gunz revealed his financial motivation for going on the show as a main “character” and speaks about his relationship with his child’s mother Tara and his side chick? His wife? Amina. All I have to say is “tune into Love and Hip Hop New York because it seems very messy but yet very entertaining. Please watch the full interview with Peter Gunz on Sway in the morning here:

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