While a movie about one of America’s most notorious ghettos, directed by a young, first-time, African-American filmmaker named John Singleton, and starring a very popular rapper named Ice Cube alongside a handful of fairly unknown African-American actors, doesn’t quite seem like the recipe for blockbuster success, “Boyz N The Hood” would prove the skeptics wrong. Nearly 20 years after its release, it is now considered a classic film by any and all measures.

1. For the classic phrase, “All you do is eat, sleep, and sh*t”
2. The Liquor Store conspiracy theory.
3. The barbecue at Doughboy and Ricki’s house.
4. The game of dominoes gets it’s moment in the spotlight
5. The cops, especially the black ones.
6. Brandi goes to Spelman
7. Angela Bassett’s brief but powerful role as Tre’s mother, Reva.
8. Furious giving his son Tre a homemade haircut
9. The made-up story Tre tells Furious about having sex.
10. One word: Gentrification. How many people learned what that was from “Boyz N The Hood”?
11. Furious telling Tre and his friends the SAT is culturally bias years before it was a national issue.

We racked our brains trying to come up with a list of the greatest music videos of the 1980s. While some of our picks are painfully obvious, there are a few that we felt flew under the radar.

9. Public Enemy “Night Of The Living Baseheads”
More effective than any D.A.R.E. class you were forced to sit through, Public Enemy’s “Night Of The Living Baseheads” video managed to both make you laugh, while scaring you away from the evils of freebasing cocaine. “Night Of The Living Baseheads” was a rather unorthodox video, cleverly interrupting Chuck D’s performance scenes to a mock newscast (Flavor Flav as co-anchor? Genius!).

8. L.L. Cool J “I’m Bad”
LL Cool J’s girl gets kidnapped while posting anti-drug flyers on the street. LL assembles his posse who take out the bad guys (who all just so happen to be rich white guys… MESSAGE!). The video’s narrative, coupled with LL’s iconic performance scenes make this one of the best videos of the 1980s. “Gimme that walkie talkie!”

7. Prince “When Doves Cry”

Is there a more iconic moment in a music video than a camera passing through two stained glass doors into a room with flowers scattered about the floor and doves flying around while a man sits in a bathtub? Prince & The Revolution’s “When Doves Cry” music video is one of the few truly memorable videos that the Minneapolis genius ever released, not to mention a hell of a song.

– When Doves Cry
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6. Run DMC “King Of Rock”
Two black men wearing all black leather and white adidas walk into the Museum of Rock N Roll and are told immediately as they enter that they “don’t belong in here.” Run DMC’s “King Of Rock” video served as a powerful statement of hip-hop’s arrival and intent to takeover mainstream American culture. 22 years after this video’s release, the first rap group, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, were inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Run DMC to be inducted 2 years later.

5. Janet Jackson “Pleasure Principle”
The public had already fallen in love with Janet Jackson by the time her “Pleasure Principle” video debuted. We all knew that Janet could had some moves, but it wasn’t until she flipped the light switch at the beginning of this video that we all learned that Michael’s little sister could give him a run for his money.

4. Janet Jackson “Rhythm Nation”
The black-and-white “Rhythm Nation” video was a dancer’s wet dream. The tightly choreographed military-inspired dance routines coupled with the song’s message helped establish Janet Jackson as an artist whose music video releases became events, just like her brother.

3. Michael Jackson “Beat It”
The red jacket. The knife fight. Need we say more?

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2. Michael Jackson “Billie Jean”
If anything planted the seed for Michael Jackson’s almost superhuman persona, it was this video. Only a man that was 100% magical could dance like Michael did, not to mention cause the sidewalks to light up with each step he took.

1. Michael Jackson “Thriller”
In the 80s, the music video experienced a period of rapid growth and innovation as musicians pushed the limits of what could be done in the span of a three and a half minutes, or in the case of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, fourteen minutes. There’s a reason why “Thriller” often takes the number one spot on lists of the greatest music videos of all time. To repeat these reasons would be overkill. All it takes is one viewing to know that this was a monumental moment in music and film history.

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While a movie about one of America’s most notorious ghettos, directed by a young, first-time, African-American filmmaker named John Singleton, and starring a very popular rapper named Ice Cube alongside a handful of fairly unknown African-American actors, doesn’t quite seem like the recipe for blockbuster success, “Boyz N The Hood” would prove the skeptics wrong. Nearly 20 years after its release, it is now considered a classic film by any and all measures.

1. For the classic phrase, “All you do is eat, sleep, and sh*t”
2. The Liquor Store conspiracy theory.
3. The barbecue at Doughboy and Ricki’s house.
4. The game of dominoes gets it’s moment in the spotlight
5. The cops, especially the black ones.
6. Brandi goes to Spelman
7. Angela Bassett’s brief but powerful role as Tre’s mother, Reva.
8. Furious giving his son Tre a homemade haircut
9. The made-up story Tre tells Furious about having sex.
10. One word: Gentrification. How many people learned what that was from “Boyz N The Hood”?
11. Furious telling Tre and his friends the SAT is culturally bias years before it was a national issue.

One of the most astounding voices in African-American literature, Maya Angelou is heralded for her literary prowess and activism. Working alongside Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Angelou was a profound figure in the Civil Rights Movement, and was the first Black woman to have a screenplay produced. The Grammy Award-winning poet is an icon that continues to motivate and inspire. Her accomplishments and voice have moved people beyond boundaries of race and gender, setting the standard for figures like Barack Obama.

She was born Marguerite Ann Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. When she was a 3-year-old Angelou’s parent divorced and sent her to live with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Living in the South, she endured legally enforced racial discrimination on a daily basis, which would later influence her writing. Angelou attended Mission High School and fought to overcome a harrowing childhood.

She followed a less traditional route becoming a teenage mother and exploring various jobs from a cook to a madam at a brothel. Angelou’s first book, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” recounts the first 16 years of her life and is the first of her autobiographies.
While her poetry addresses social and political issues pertinent to African-Americans, Angelou has continuously transcended racial lines and is no stranger to the political stage. President Ford appointed her to the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission and she was invited to serve on the Presidential Commission for the International Year of the Woman by President Carter. In 1993, Bill Clinton asked her to compose a poem to recite at his inauguration. She wrote, “On the Pulse of the Morning.” Angelou was the second person to ever produce a body of work for an inauguration.

Angelou was awarded The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans Award and received a fellowship from Yale University. In August 2006, she received the Mother Teresa Award. The prolific Angelou has produced plays, composed music for movies and written a number of autobiographies. She’s written riveting poetry, countless short stories and articles, and continues to lecture at universities throughout the country. And as a powerful elder with roots in the Civil Rights movement and personal ties to the two most iconic Black leaders of the 1960s, Maya Angelou can rightly claim a sweet piece of Barack Obama’s electoral victory and presidential inauguration as hers.

Its a NEW YEAR and a new opportunity for you to GROW. Sometimes the biggest part of growth is letting go of the things that are holding you back. Don’t let the old habits and bad relationships from 2010 continue to distract you in 2011. Let go so that you can move forward!

Earlier this week, the New York Daily News shined a spotlight on Reverend Al Sharpton’s non-profit organization The National Action Network. Highlighting Sharpton’s executive salary, the story attempts to portray activist Sharpton as someone more committed to building his personal fortune than advancing his mission of social justice.

Instead, articles like these points to a growing pattern of unfair and exaggerated scrutiny of Black leaders.

What seems most newsworthy to the Daily News is that NAN paid Sharpton a salary of $250,000 last year, even as the organization was still paying off its tax debt. Despite their acknowledgment that Sharpton has been more generous than most, often donating his sizable speaking fees, and has forgone a salary for the past two years, the paper still led with the headline: “Tax Debt Doesn’t Stop Sharpton’s Salary.” [11/23/10].

So while the Daily News touted that Sharpton paid himself $250k while NAN is in the red, the undisputed facts are that Rev. Sharpton only received a net of $50k because the NY Daily News intentionally left out the fact that Rev. Sharpton had recently loaned almost his entire salary to NAN. Similar to what was done to Shirley Sherrod who became a sacrificial lamb when reckless charges were made against her by a blogger who posted a misleading and highly edited video of her and recklessly charged her with racism, Rev. Sharpton was disparaged by the Daily News who printed distorted and misleading information about his finances even after Rev. Sharpton went to meticulous extents to make sure the writer had all the facts. (Neither the writer or editor of the article were available for comment.)

A former presidential candidate, Al Sharpton has focused his work on securing civil rights for all Americans for the last three decades. His National Action Network has been at the forefront of these actions from anti police brutality efforts (such as Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell in NYC), partnering with the NYPD to buy back guns and decrease violence, touring the country with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Newt Gingrich to decrease the racial achievement gap, protesting military exercises in Vieques, to last summer’s Reclaim the Dream March on the 47th anniversary of The March on Washington. This work has enhanced our democracy.

Over the past few years, there has been increased attention given to CEO salaries within the non-profit sector.  The IRS, the entity responsible for regulating charities for the federal government, has increased their focus on CEO compensation to help uncover fraudulent non-profit activity.  They have even redesigned the tax return forms charities submit to them annually, in part, to provide greater transparency around non-profit compensation. Given this, Sharpton’s $250,000 salary award (which becomes $83,333 each year when averaged over 2008-2009, the years he didn’t collect one) becomes even more appropriate.

According to a recent study by Charity Navigator, the average CEO of an educational non-profit earns an average of $272,000 annually.  For a large charity with > $13.5 MM expenses, the annual compensation rises to more than $280,000.  High profile organizations, like Sharpton’s, also command far higher executive pay.  The CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society has a $503,000 base salary, the head of the NY Philharmonic $850,000. Conservative non-profit groups like The Brookings Institution pay $425,000, the Heritage Foundation $947,999 [source]. Given these statistics, it’s clear that significant salaries are warranted for leaders who are sought after for their ability to manage multi-million dollar institutions and are tasked with the huge goal of serving those who are less fortunate.  Reverend Al Sharpton is one of those leaders.

As the country struggles to survive the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, it can’t do so without non-profits. The past few years have hit non-profit organizations across the US pretty hard. Earlier this fall, a survey of the top 400 non-profit charities [source] found that income was down in 2009 and even though half expected to do better in 2010, the funding levels remain down by almost $7 billion. These non-profits will not be able to close the funding gap and continue to be effective without great leadership. And these leaders from civil rights groups to aid groups have to be paid fairly.

In a climate of increasing racial division that has ironically come about since the election of President Barack Obama, the attack on Sharpton is part of a pattern of increased and unfair scrutiny of Black leaders. In the same article, the Daily News also reported on an unresolved tax bill by the Sharpton led civil rights organization as a new development, even though the taxes in question made headlines several years ago. At that time, Sharpton responded that he worked out a payment plan with the IRS, a point the Daily News story only acknowledges. The suggestion is that Black leadership is disproportionately corrupt. But these tactics have no place in civil society.

My mother and I have worked with Reverend Al Sharpton for over thirty years, fighting to bring human rights and economic empowerment to African-Americans across this country. He has dedicated his life to this cause. I call on all Americans, especially those in our media outlets, to resist attempts like these to fan the flames of racial division with the spread of misinformation, and instead, join together with us in our universal fight for justice and equality.

www.radio-one.com www.interactiveone.com

www.nationalactionnetwork.net

Rev Al Sharpton on NewsOne.com