Dennis Kucinich - PBS, News Hour

You know, if anyone else was saying what he was saying, people would be falling over themselves to support him.

Just because he's Dennis Kucinich...

Kucinich represents what's best of Cleveland. He makes me proud to be from the 'land.

Why I Love Hip-Hop: Foreign Exchange - Sincere

Hip-hop has been international for a long time. Thanks to the Internet, it has only become more so. The Foreign Exchange is a collaboration between Phonte Coleman (1/2 of Little Brother) of North Carolina and Nicolay of the Netherlands.

Yes, the Netherlands.

This doesn't sound like Little Brother in style and in substance. Phonte even sings on some tracks of their initial CD, Connected, which has this song, "Sincere". A new Foreign Exchange CD is expected soon called "Leave it All Behind".

Hip-hop at its' best can bridge language and cultural barriers...like any good music can.

Why I Love Hip-Hop: Cesar Comanche - Lamb to Lion

The independent MC. Many MCs decide, for many reasons, to go the indie route. Some are trying to secure major deals. Some enjoy the freedom that is part and parcel of independently produced music. Some want bigger creative control and/or financial rewards.

The brothers of the Justus League are some MCs that represent what's right about independent hip-hop. They are just regular brothers with wives, kids and a love for hip-hop. That's what it's all about.

Hip-hop heads are real people. We were kids, we hung out. We have relationships, some work, some fail. We have jobs, some we like, some we don't. We go to college (which is how much of the Justus League met each other).

I chose this song because Cesar Comanche is one of the founders of the Justus League. One of my favorite groups, Little Brother, is among the members of the Justus League and they have cameos in the video.

Why I Love Hip-Hop: Kurious feat. Sadat X, Mike G - 'Mansion And A Yacht'

Hip-hop has dictated some good fashion statements as well as some more forgettable ones (think Kris Kross...). This video has a lot of things in it. A reference to Madden (for you non-gamers out there, Madden = John Madden Football, the biggest selling video game series ever. It's most recent iteration, Madden NFL 2008 is available for the PC, XBOX, XBOX 360, PlayStation 2, PSP and the Nintendo Wii -- not sure about the Gamecube). Also, you have a lot of blacks and latinos in...hockey jerseys? Before this, you didn't see people wearing hockey jerseys unless they were heading to a game.

This song is also one of my favorite b-sides ever. Ok, for the peeps that don't have or have never had records, sometimes an artist would put 2-3 songs onto one 12" piece of vinyl. This, in hip-hop parlance is called a twelve-inch. There was a popular song (or song that they wanted to garner popularity for) on the "A" side and a more obscure song on the "B" side, much like how it worked with other genres. See my post about the remix to understand why remixes and b-sides are a boon to hip-hop fans.