Welcome to Chatham Village DAMNIT!!.....

View My walk through Chatham. (The best neighborhood on the east side.) in a larger map This is another romp through my old neighborhood of Chatham Village, located on the south east side of Chicago, Illinois. I LITERALLY used to walk every square inch of this grid, and I know the areas like the back of my hand. Now, I may know the area like the back of my hand, but that doesn't mean that I would walk the area without something IN my hand, ya diig?? Meaning, these aint the best areas to decide to take a stroll through; be it day or night. My suggestion would be to have some form of "protection", or a "weapon" of some sorts. I think of it as keeping an umbrella with you at all times. It's better to have it and not need it, then the other way around. Guard your grill, and knuckle up! Please believe it!!

Gang violence in Chicago goes nationwide.

Our violence problems here in Chicago are not only tragic, but friggin embarrassing. Especially now that our damn dirty laundry is about to be aired out in front of a WORLDWIDE audience!! Who knows, maybe someone in the Outback of Australia can help us figure out a problem that we can't seem to handle locally. ABC News said it wanted to step beyond reporting on the gang violence in Chicago to explore ways of reducing it. The network, as shown in reports airing on Thursday the 18th and Friday the 19th, helped organize a summit that brought 38 former and present gang members together to discuss what is going on. "We don't want to go in and do another story that simply tells you about the crushing, tragic slaughter taking place on a lot of weekends there," said "World News" anchor Diane Sawyer on Thursday. "So we started to think, `What could we do to be helpful?' We know that's a dream." There have been more than 400 murders in Chicago this year, with the murder rate four times what it is in New York, ABC said. One gang member who participated in ABC's discussion had been arrested 50 times and was shot after the Sept. 14 meeting being shown in Friday's "Nightline" special. Sawyer said she felt it was ABC's job to listen to what everyone is saying and was struck by how many youngsters, when the bravado is stripped away, expressed wishes that something could be done to change the atmosphere.

ABC correspondent Alex Perez, who grew up in Chicago and wrote an ABC News blog item about how one of his childhood friends was gunned down in gang violence, joins Sawyer on the story. Sawyer said she tried to draw viewers into the story by profiling a 7-year-old boy whose grandmother was killed and who has a fortress in his bedroom. He hears gunshots outside his home at all hours. He's typical of the young people ABC speaks to who just want the chance to grow up. "We can all imagine being that child," Sawyer said. "Maybe not everyone can imagine being at that crossroads and making the decision ... that leads to the streets. But we can all imagine being little Ralph." The reports on Chicago, part of ABC News' "Hidden America" series, air on "World News" on Thursday and Friday and on "Nightline" on Friday night.

The History of Joe Blacula

....So I'm in my Intro to Interactive Media class, and my teacher John Owens informs us that we have to do a video on someone influential in the community. I went out and shot some footage on my guy named Emmanuel Muhammed, that owns a silk screening shop in Chatham Village called Never Quit Apparel. Whenever you see me with a shirt that has my name, or one of my branded companies; he made it. I edited the footage and it just wasn't really saying enough. It was good....but it wasn't great! I wondered if it was the subject matter, or was it how I cut it together. Then all of the sudden it came to me....why didn't I do the subject on me?!?

I mean, i've sold a gang of records, met and worked with some of the best in the music business, I have my own music network; www.ChicagoCrook.com, I have an online radio show called CHICAGO AUDIO that is backed and promoted by Russell Simmons' GlobalGrind.com that averages One Hundred and Fourteen thousand listeners on a daily basis, and one of the best producers representing the past, the present and the future of Chicago music and multimedia. And dig this! I'm ALSO currently a student at Kennedy King College! I'm amongst the people, because i'm ONE of the people! Plus NO ONE works as hard as I do towards perfecting my craft, furthering my ultimate goal of world domination, and to continue down the path of UNLIMITED POWER!! Here is just a MERE example of what i've learned to do. So with all of that being said, I hope you enjoy, but i'd rather that you just listen.....