People are gearing up for the 'REBIRTH' of the Sway and King Tech Wake Up Show in Los Angeles. If what I'm hearing is correct, it should all be going down this weekend on Power 106. For those who don't know, the Wake Up Show was aired on rival station KKBT The Beat for almost 8 years. It became an important fixture in helping boost LA's underground Hip Hop scene. All sorts of noteworthy emcees got their start on the Wake Up Show. Sway & King Tech were committed to preserving Hip Hop's positive side and culture. Over the years the Wake Up Show grew and eventually attracted an international audience of more then 20 million listeners in 19 countries.

Sadly, when KKBT was sold to Kathy Hugh's Radio One company, one of the first casualties was the elimination of the Wake Up Show. The deal was, KKBT's management wanted the WUS to switch up their playlists and stop playing 'underground' material best personified by groups like Jurassic 5, Mykill Miers, Chino XL etc. Radio One wanted more 'commercial viable groups like P-Diddy, Jay-Z, Ja Rule and other to be the musical basis of the show...The rationale was, songs by these acts would be more appealing to Black women between the ages 18-34 which was their target audience. Unfortunately that wasn't the WUS foundation, nor was it the reason that so many throughout the world were attracted to the show. The end result was Sway & King Tech decided they didn't want to compromise the foundation of their show so they wound up leaving.. and The WUS hasn't been heard in LA for close to 2 years ...

Many are excited and eagerly awaiting its return. It's gonna be good to hear DJ Revolution on the ones and twos again while Sway, Tech and Carmelita banter back and forth. More importantly its gonna be good to hear all those underground acts adhere to the WUS policy and bust freestyles.

A PHAT Award goes out to long time photographer and community activist Ernie Panicciolli. He just released his book 'Who Shot Ya? Three Decades of Hip Hop Photography'. Words can not describe how dope this book is and how incredible Ernie's photos are. He has intense photos of everyone from Hip Hop's founding fathers Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash to a young Russell Simmons to west coast cats like Snoop, Above the Law, 2Pac and B-Legit.

This book is a must have item and will make a great holiday present. Author/ poet Kevin Powell edited the book and made sure Ernie and this project were able to successfully navigate all the mazes that make up the publishing world. He too gets a Phat Award for a job well done.

As for Ernie, he's one of those cats who has earned the respect and trust of just about anybody who is anybody in Hip Hop. Many have come to see him as a mentor, big brother or father figure type who has definitely earned his place at the Hip Hop roundtable. The cat has lots of insight and wisdom. The love people have for him was evidenced by the more then 2000 people who showed up at BB King's night club near Time Square to celebrate the book release. This included people like MC Lyte who performed and simply ripped it. Daddy O of Stetsasonic was inspired to hit the stage and show everyone that he still had his rhyme skills in tact... Black Sheep came through and took everyone back to Hip Hop's Golden Age of the late 80s and early 90s.

It was a who's who in Hip Hop that attended. Hip Hop Activist and Media Assassin Harry Allen was there, as was Bambaataa, Grandmaster Caz, DST, Popmaster Fabel and Bobbitto aka DJ Cucumber Slice who incidentally did his last radio show at Columbia last week.. GW Theodore, DJ Red Alert, designer Karl Kani and even the poka dot man himself Kwame the rapper rolled through to pay respects.. These are just the tip of the iceberg. The Universal Zulu Nation came out in force as did famed professor and author Deborah Willis of NYU. You name them they were there this past Monday night giving props to a man who deserves it..

Anyone wishing to hollar at Ernie for interviews hit him up at mailto:rapphotos@hotmail.com

A PHAT Award goes to Boots of the Coup, Oakland rap group Animosity and Black Panther founder Bobby Seale. They along with a number of community folks held a press conference in front of Oakland's Peace and Justice HS where they spoke out against Measure FF which would let the Mayor and City Council use 67 million dollars to hire 100 more police officers.

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown insists that hiring more police is necessary due to the fact that Oakland has a skyrocketing homicide rate. Thus far this year 90 people been killed this year. However, there are many who feel that 67 million dollars should be directed at programs and policies that would get to the root cause of the violence. Many feel that a lot of that money should also be directed toward jobs. This was a key point hammered home by Bobby Seale. He also noted that it was good to see the Hip Hop community stepping up and speaking out forcefully against what he considered 'a short sighted measure'.

One of the members of the group Animosity noted that part of the problem is that the police spend a lot of time harassing young kids who dress a certain way, while being slow to respond to actual crimes. He recounted an incident that had recently taken place at a school bus stop where police officers came and jacked him up for 'no reason'. A female student reiterated the point about officers taking their time to get to a crime scene. It was suggested that this 'lack of response' being done as a way for the police to get more money and more of their demands met.

Boots reminded folks that in the aftermath of 9-11, many people have been overreacting in a climate of fear... This has led to folks quickly advocating for more police even though many of the on going serious problems like police brutality have not been sufficiently addressed. He also noted that even if Oakland had those 100 extra officers on hand, the nature of many of the city's killings suggest that its highly doubtful their presence would've prevented things from jumping off. He feared that the more cops would result in more profiling and harassment of innocent people of color in Oakland.. He concluded by pointing out that they way Measure FF is written is to suggest that 'Its a Crime Prevention Bill. that will help out social programs. In reality less then 10% of the money will go to youth crime prevention programs More then 90% would go toward police.. One of the members of Animosity bluntly put it.... It would be a waste of time and money.

After the press conference Boots, the rap group Animosity boarded a bus with dozens of other students to join a other students in a city wide rally against Measure FF and police brutality. We'll keep you posted.

Since we're on the subject of police abuse... those of you who have time may want to check out these 3 articles.. They concern an upsetting, heartwrenching and very disturbing incident that went down last week in 'Liberal' San Francisco. More than 60 police officers came down to Thurgood Marshall high school academy and beat down kids with batons and arrested a teacher who attempted to film the incidents of violence.. The police were called because of a fight between black and asian students that had gotten broken up..