Dregs One – The Wake Up Report Volume 1: Gentrification

Not all rappers are meant to be community activists, or to open the populations’ eyes about important issues. Nobody wants to hear Snoop or Gucci Mane pretend like they know how to improve the public school systems. That is just not part of the identity that they have created for themselves. Yet when an MC does makes the conscious effort to educate and promote progressive thought in their listeners, I got to give credit where credit is due. They may not get as many fans as someone who raps about the clubs and the corners, but it’s a great usage of their opportunity to reach the people.

Therefore I got to give serious props to San Francisco’s Dregs One, of the Gas Mask Colony, for the fact that he is using his status as a rapper to get a worthwhile message out to his audience. Yet the interesting thing about it is that he’s doing it without rapping. Starting this December, he is creating a monthly video series called The Wake Up Report, in which he discusses important and relevant issues that pertain to our communities.

In episode one, Dregs discusses Gentrification. While for the most part it only focuses on San Francisco, anyone who has ever lived in a metropolitan area recognizes that every major city is experiencing gentrification to some degree. San Francisco is just a city where the problem stands out more than others, because due to it’s small size (it’s only 46 square miles, compared to Los Angeles: 469, Chicago: 234, and New York: 469) there are literally less and less places for people with low incomes to go.

Slang Bangers

I’ve always had this prediction that when we are all forgotten dust, anthropologists are going to study the deep lexicon of rap music. And when they do, E-40 is going to be the equivalent of Shakespeare; his bars are arguably the most complex , especially considering that 99.99% of the people who do live in Earl Stevens’ time-period cannot decode his tempest of slang.
The Hundreds, always committed to rooting their garments in California history, have just unveiled their collaboration with the living legendary E-40. This shirt, which shall be sold starting tomorrow at The Hundreds shop in San Francisco, is chalked full of E’s slang.

P.S. word to all of the future E-40 scholars
Luniz feat. E-40, Dru-Down, Richie Rich & Digital Underground- I Got 5 On It (remix)

Pride/Cinco De Mayo=Gay/Mexican

San Francisco’s Pride weekend is remarkably similar to Cinco de Mayo. The main reason for my theory is that I’d say 95% of people who celebrate it are not gay or Mexican. Rather, the masses who do get down, see late June as an advantageous time to debauch themselves into oblivion. If you’re in the fog city area tonight, scope the party above, where the URB Magazine fam and Los Angeles mainstays Mid City West are going to score your drunking.

San Francisco VS. Tinkerbell

The citizens of San Francisco think of commercial establishments in the city the same way that you probably think of cockroaches in your filet mingon. American Apparel was scared off before it even opened, Home Depot is being chased out and Wal-Mart doesn’t even bother. Therefore, you have to imagine that the sight of Tinkerbell slapped onto SF street signs probably sent the Fog-city citizens into a rage.

However, these stickers didn’t actually technically come from Disney. Streetwear gurus The Hundreds collaborated with Disney and the cooler-than-thou kids are spreading the evil empires marks all over the place. Apparently these Disney/Hundreds stickers are spreading throughout SF like a bad rash. Peep the full story here.

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Consistently making hardcore Christians, the DEA and other haters shit bricks, is San Francisco’s extemporaneous law-making methods. From gay-marriage to prostitution to the decriminalization of that sticky, SF loves to mock those whose intellects are too weak to see the practicality in these choices.
Annnnyway….This April 20th, Cypress Hill knew exactly where to get booked: San Francisco’s living legendary Fillmore. Grab tickets here.

Hipster VS. Hipster

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San Francisco has a clause which states that any chain which wants to open its doors in the Mission District must present a plan to the community whom can reject it. American Apparel, an arguably progressive, clothing line, wanted to open a shop within the Mission.

In the end, Mission District has told American Apparel to go fuck themselves. The protests, which helped to fend off the Los Angeles-based giant, often went into the cold night. Luckily, most of the protesters were equipped with sweatshirts, which they bought at a local American Apparel store.

Thank goodness for trust-fund suckling hipsters. Without them, who would fend off stores which cater to trust-fund suckling hipsters? Read more here

UPDATE: Hipster is Food

Who to Screw?

The San Francisco Giants are in an awesome position in that they get to screw somebody over. Let me explain the current scenario to the casual baseball fan (this even reveals microcosms, which are relevant to the I-don’t-give-a-shit-about-baseball-fan): Manny Ramirez is a highly coveted homerun slamming beast . Two teams are supposedly interested in the Dominican-born left-fielder, long-time West Coast foes, the Dodgers and the Giants, one is probably more interested than the other. However, Ramirez’s agent wants both teams to think the other is equally interested to arouse jealousy and drive the price up.

Despite, attempts to make both sides appear equally interested, it’s fairly well-known that the Dodgers are more interested than the Giants.
This is where the Giants get to F’ somebody over. They can:

A. fuck their nemesis the Dodgers by bluffing interest and hence, jacking Manny Ramirez’s price up.

B. or….the Giants can toss a stick in the spokes of this catty method of price-gouging by openly admitting they have no interest in Manny Ramirez and hence, lowering his price. I personally think this option makes more sense in the grand scheme of things.

I say that the latter would more efficient because although it would most definitely be gratifying to piss directly into your enemy’s face, the larger antagonist to baseball teams are the greedy agents. If the Giants are to piss in Manny’s agent’s face they’re doing all of baseball a favor.

I had all sorts of microcosms to share with you all pertaining to the relevance to real life but I forgot…I’ll get back to you.