Before our ceremony begins please rise for the playing of this years Playahata.com Anthem, “Welcome to Jamrock” by Damian "Junior Gong" Marley -  "Welcome to Jamdown / poor people a dead at random / political violence can't done bare ghosts and phantom / the youth dem get blind by stardom / now the King of kings a call / old man to pickney / so wave unno hand if you with me / To see the sufferation sick me / dem suit nuh fit me / to win election dem trick me / then dem don't do nothing at all / Come on let's face it / a ghetto education is basic / and most of the youths dem waste it / and when dem waste it, that's when dem take a the guns replace it / then dem don't stand no chance at all .. ……Okay you may now be seated)

R&B Album of the Year: Ain't Nobody Worryin'- Anthony Hamilton

For those of us whose memories extend beyond the last 20 years, contemporary R&B or Soul music has given us plenty to complain about. In fact even if your memory doesn't extend that far, but you've been exposed to a little more than what generally pass for R&B or Soul music on today's commercial radio, then you've probably been less than happy. Outside of a few artist who've graced the airwaves over the past decade or so, such as Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Maxwell, and a maybe a couple of other artist there haven't been many who have put out the type of quality material consistently that indicated they were going to be a fixture on the soul music scene. In a little over 2 years and just 3 albums, two of which came out this year, Anthony Hamilton has made a clear statement that not only is he going to be a fixture in soul music, he's quite simply, a pretty special artist. His 2003 debut Comin' From Where I'm From was deservedly, critically acclaimed, as the comparisons between Hamilton and greats like Bill Withers and Bobby Womack began almost immediately. Hamilton's ability to deliver heartfelt, relevant, and timeless 1970's soul with up to date production and sensibilities continually sets him apart from much of the field. In 2005 he did it again, in fact he did it twice, as he released Soulife, a collection of previously recorded but unreleased material at the end of June, and Ain't Nobody Worryin' in December. Both albums struck gold even if they didn't sell it, as Hamilton arguably has enough material for a double disc greatest hits collection after only 3 albums. We love Hip-hop, but we're more than happy that Hamilton does soul the old way, that means no rappers, no skits, no hoes, no bitches, or no R&B thugs. We know exactly where Hamilton is coming from, and if he continues his soul life, then ain't nobody worrying, he's going to be here for a long time to come.

Runner Up: The Breakthrough - Mary J. Blige - The "happy version" of Mary J. Blige got it right this time, whether her long time fans like it or not. You can't "keep a good woman down" and fans shouldn't be trying keep her down so that they can enjoy her music, but as they say misery loves company. 

Honorable Mention:

A Time To Love - Steve Wonder - An album ten years in the making from a musical genius and one of the greatest artist of the last century, but Wonder doesn't have to live off his past when his present is still funky.  

Rap Album of the Year: Be - Common

"They said the crochet pants and the sweaters was wack, heard `The Corner' now the say that [Brotha's] Back!" Say what you will but not many people were feeling Common's Electric Circus, including Common, if his post-Electric Circus, pre-Be interviews were any indication. He deserves props for even attempting that LP but let's be honest, Electric Circus was NOT hot. Maybe it was getting away from Erykah Badu's strange lovin' or his fans thinking he was bugging out, but something got Common back to his B-boy roots, and for his 6th LP that return, plus an assist from Kanye West in the production department, worked wonders. At a mere 42 minutes Be is as short and to the point as it's title, but it's also as versatile as those two letters. As always, lyrically Common is mature, thoughtful, and aggressive when necessary, but this time, he has the consistent and cohesive production behind him to make Be a true statement of greatness and our top Hip-hop album of 2005.

Runner Up: The Minstrel Show - Little Brother

We'll probably be arguing this one throughout the spring and maybe into the summer but we got tired of doing ties, so this year North Carolina's wonder trio of Big Pooh, Phonte, and super-producer 9th Wonder will have to play Bride's maid. Word is we were not the only people arguing over the proper place for this LP as it led to a Source Magazine editor quitting (well that, and the fact that his checks were probably bouncing, more on that later) because top management only wanted to give it a 4-mic rating. The 2003 underground release of The Listening put them on the map but probably was only heard by people who actually went looking for the album. To keep their buzz going Little Brother released an album in a mixtape-like format over the summer, titled The Chitlin Circuit. It turned out to be a pretty good album all on it's own and not just an appetizer. The main course would come in September though with the release of The Minstrel Show, an album declared a triumph, almost unanimously by anyone who has cared to review it. It's a damn crying shame that 50-Cent can mumble through an album about nothing and Interscope and commercial radio will see to it that he goes at least 3-times platinum, meanwhile these guys can't get their video or song in rotation even in North Carolina, their home market. Payola is a bitch ain't it? We might not be able to get the large corporate operations to stop keeping good music off the radio by tomorrow, but we CAN go out and support real Hip-hop today.  

Honorable Mention: 

Late Registration - Kanye West - He's earned the right to be arrogant! This time no sped up samples but still a monument of an sophomore album, and produced 9 of 11 tracks on out Hip-hop album of the year. He deserves props for that alone.

Welcome to Jamrock - Damian "Junior Gong" Marley - We don't even review reggae albums but "Junior" released an album this year that had to leave his father smiling somewhere. 

Movie of the Year: The Constant Gardener

I know that many people were expecting Syriana to win the movie of the year for 2005, but lets face it, the film was not that great. The Constant Gardener on the other hand was a smart film that did not try to be smart, and came on the scene with no attention. The Constant Gardener comes across very realistically, probably because it is likely a true story that was turned into a film, with the condition the filmmakers would market it as fiction. Don’t mistake this for another slow moving "conspiracy theory" film. In short it’s a film with a rarely touched upon subject dealing with corporate greed and U.S. imperialism fueling a rash of African kleptocrats. Gardner deals with the exploitation by international pharmaceutical companies of a country desperate for medical assistance. The Constant Gardener brings unprecedented exposure to crucial issues facing the Western pharmaceutical industry and all those who use it to exploit. This film will not deter this trend but now average Americans can’t feign ignorance.

Honorable Mention: 

Syriana - Elements of this film are right in line with one of our suggested reading books, Confessions of an Economic Hitman. It wasn't the movie of the year but you should see it. In fact, if you go in cold not knowing anything about the film, you might have to see it twice before you can piece it all together.

The 40-year Old Virgin - The advertisements gave the impression this would be the typical American Pie type ultra-sexual, slapstick comedy, but actually turned out to be a truly hilarious movie with a good heart.

Teflon Don Award (Non-stick Personality of the Year): Karl Rove

He may have slipped a little more into the background with all the scandals swirling around the White House and Republican leadership in general but at last check, Mr. Rove was still deserving of the nickname, "Bush's Brain". He's like a real life version of "The Emperor" from Star Wars, directing things from behind the scenes but rarely receiving any condemnation when we experience the outcome of what he's orchestrated. Rove is known for his campaign-time "dirty tricks" which have led to victories for his candidates in several elections, including Bush's "re-election" in 2004. Most recently he somehow managed to avoid indictment after a two year investigation into the leaking of Valerie Plame's identity as an undercover CIA agent. The leak was believed to be in retaliation for Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who became a prominent critic of US policy in Iraq, exposing the false nature of one of the Bush Administration's central claims in building it's case for an attack on Iraq.  In an effort to quiet the calls for the firing of deputy White House chief of staff Karl Rove, Republicans said that Rove originally learned about Valerie Plame’s identity from the news media, thus exonerating Rove, but months later it would be disclosed that Rove did discuss Wilson’s wife and position with a reporter before it was mentioned in the media. As the heat seemed to be turning up on Rove, Vice presidential adviser I. Lewis “Scooter’ Libby Jr. stepped up and "took one for the team", and was eventually indicted instead (as Rove slipped back to the "Deathstar"). Libby resigned after being charged with obstruction of justice, perjury and making a false statement in the Plame investigation. Bush's political agenda may be in trouble with the current talk of impeachment and his abysmal approval rating, but look for Rove who seems to have a hand in everything nefarious going on around the White House despite never taking a fall, to be behind at least one more scandal. He just can't help himself,  I'm even beginning to think he may have a hand in things going wrong in my personal life, but I like everyone else, I just can't seem to make the case stick.

Runner Up: Irving Lorenzo (formerly Irv "Gotti")

Funny how a real life indictment can make you, stop talking tough like a gangster, drop the "Murder" off of the name of your record label, and start using your government name instead of the self imposed moniker, "Gotti". It seems Irv "Gotti" just wants to be Irving Lorenzo like his parents named him, after he and  his brother Christopher were found not guilty of money laundering, among other charges that could have had the brothers facing up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors argued that the Lorenzos struck a deal in the late 1990s with drug lord Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff, to launder illegal funds in return for protection and other favors. The defense countered that the brothers were victims of guilt by association, as the Lorenzo's attorney put it “There’s nothing illegal about knowing a criminal, about socializing with a criminal, even doing business with a criminal, unless you commit a crime, ....Irv and Chris Lorenzo committed no crime.” Hopefully this award will be the closest that Irving and Christopher get to following in the footsteps of the now deceased, real "Teflon Don", former mafia boss John Gotti. 

Guilty Before Proven Innocent Award: Congressman Tom Delay (Texas)

With so many politicians, particularly Republicans, under indictment it was hard to choose just one for this award especially when so many of the indicted are friends with Mr. Delay. For instance, Michael Scanlon, the publicist and former press spokesman for DeLay, pled guilty in November to conspiring with lobbyist Jack Abramoff to bribe a Republican congressman and cheat several American Indian tribes out of tens of millions of dollars. Abramoff, a former high-powered lobbyist recently pleaded guilty to three felony charges in a deal with federal prosecutors that helps clear the way for his testimony about members of Congress and congressional staffers in the resulting, wide-ranging political corruption investigation. DeLay once described Abramoff as “one of my closest and dearest friends” and has accompanied him on several foreign junkets. The press has reported that at least four Republican legislators and 17 staffers and former staffers were the targets of the Justice Department investigation. The Wall Street Journal named DeLay, Congressman Robert Ney (Ohio), Congressman John Doolittle (California), and Senator Conrad Burns (Montana) as targets, as well as several former Bush administration officials. With Scanlon and Abramoff cooperating with the prosecution, before it's all over that scandal will potentially bring down a whole lot of politicians, enough to make Delay's scandals blush, though if it turns out Delay is more deeply involved, it might make him "shit his pants".

For now though let's stick to crimes "we the people" know Delay committed. After being indicted by a Texas grand jury on charges of conspiracy to violate state election laws, Delay was forced to step down as House Majority Lead though he's certainly still in the House. Delay tried to chalk his indictment up to a partisan witch hunt, but I think most of us know better. It has to make you smile when the cretins who grandstand and beat their chest the most about morals and upholding the law (when it suits them) get exposed as the corrupt, hypocrites they truly are. According to the charges DeLay and two political aides, were charged with conspiring to funnel corporate campaign cash to Republican candidates for the Texas state legislature, in violation of state law. Some of you may be thinking, "well that's no big deal", but the funds were used to help Republican state legislative candidates in key districts, assisting the Republican takeover of the state House and Senate. The new Republican state legislature, which was at least partially a result of "Tom's funny money" then radically revised the boundaries of the state’s 32 federal congressional districts, using a method dubbed “cracking and packing,” in which the existing districts were broken up and minority neighborhoods removed from them and “packed” into a handful of overwhelmingly Democratic districts, leaving the remaining “minority-free” districts far more favorable to Republican candidates. The manipulation of the boundaries forced five Democratic incumbents to run in new districts against incumbent Republican opponents. Four of the five lost in the 2004 election, and the Texas delegation in the US House of Representatives shifted from 21-11 Democratic to 17-15 Republican. So I guess "Tom's Funny Money" does matter to "we the people", after all. 

Runner up: Judith Miller, ex-New York Times Reporter

Initially we thought about selecting Funk master Flex for Payola but realized he had not been indicted yet, and then we started to choose one of the companies named in numerous Payola legislation but all of them plead guilty and paid up millions before we could award them. Then there were a lot of selections that people already view as guilty like "Scooter" Libby or Beanie Siegel. Leaving us with Judith Miller, she was the only person named in breaking the law whereas people seemed kind of split. Yes she served jail time but she was convicted of a sidebar offense. Many were tricked into thinking her bid was some sort of noble or ethical gesture to save journalistic integrity. NOT, Miller was jailed for contempt of court by refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating a leak naming Valerie Plame as a covert CIA agent. Miller did not write about Plame, but was in possession of evidence relevant to the leak investigation. She was essentially put in jail for "protecting" a source who was committing a felony, which to some degree makes her an accessory. However like her other thug associates of she kept the “Stop Snitching” code alive and spent 85 days in jail. Although her so called “source” had given her permission to speak on the record a year prior, which opens speculation that she already had known about Valerie Plame before speaking with her source, thus instead of protecting Libby until the special prosecutor indicted him, she was protecting herself and others, which may include higher ups in Bush's cabinet. If nothing else, Miller is guilty of helping illegal activity flourish in the White House and writing a whole bunch of bogus stories leading to the invasion of Iraq, for that at least she deserved to serve some jail time.  

Chevron Award (Most Overrated and/or Gassed up Artist): Lil' Wayne

For somebody who arguably hasn't had one hit single and whose recognition doesn't exist outside of his home region, Wayne sure has a lot of confidence about who he thinks he is. He has called out several people and the fact that he is dating Trina has only helped his ego move to the next level. There has always been a lot of bragging in rap music, usually it came with the territory, but for some reason we can't help but to believe that he actually does believe his hype. If being arrogant made you dope he might even be worthy of us reviewing one of his albums instead of using them as Frisbees, but his constant repeating that “he is the best rapper alive” is straight out of a twilight zone episode.

The second in command from the Dipset crew got a serious makeover recently by jockeying journalist leaving him to rationalize that he is a full fledged MC. Blame the younger folks who yell "DIPSET, DIPSET", but c’mon any mature music listener knows that Jim Jones is not a dope MC. Smell me. Jones might scare some people and hang around some even scarier folk but just because you coined the phrase “off with your couffie” doesn’t mean that your tough or should be given a mic. We don’t even blame you for the foul lyrics in front of the kids and families at the Millions More Movement (at least they cut your performance short), we are just amazed that hype and politics somehow got you on stage.

We know this award usually goes to a musical artist trying to reach a whiter audience but crossover actually means trying to reach any new demographic. Terrence Howard is trying real hard to please everybody. As of late he was in two rap movies and credited on a few soundtracks. Recently he announced that he was considering a professional rap career. Yeah that disgust me also but not as much as his interview on David Letterman where he told the predominantly White audience that the Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans were waiting on someone to give them something, instead of doing for themselves. That almost shocked us as much as when he went on Oprah and talked about how he uses the N-word with his White friends all the time, noting his unique insight into the word because of his "mixed" background. Although Howard has a Masters Degree in Physics and all the trappings of an educated brotha', he will just about say anything in an interview to gain new fans. We realized that he could not possibly love 50-Cent as much as he claimed in an interview in the newspaper, where he told the Director Jim Sheridan that “50 and you were kindred spirits and that you could feel his presence when he comes in a building without even seeing him”. Howard even claimed he and 50-Cent were “like brothers separated at birth”. We'll excuse Howard's bizarre man-love for 50-Cent, and just assume he wasn't serious, he was just trying to crossover again.

Least Likely to Succeed: Murder Mase

Even when he was down with Bad Boy, Mase probably never really made the kind of music that most Playahatas would like. And even after his religious "conversion" and personal transformation into a "Christian Pastor", he probably still wasn't making music that most Playahatas would like, but we at least had to respect him. Well the respect days are now over for the playboy, pop-rapper, turned pastor, turned quasi-Christian, pop rapper, turned.....well we're not sure what he's going to be when he comes out on G-Unit, but it likely won't be good and it should involve backsliding. Can this guy really expect to do better than his last album that despite the hype, didn't even reach Gold album status. He's stuck in no man's land, apparently he's going back to being "Murder Mase" but with no street credibility, not a whole lot of talent, and an unclear audience, it's not looking good for this Harlem rapper. The jury is still out barely, but it seems Mase's religious convictions were about as firm as "Red Kool-Aid" flavored jello, how typical.

Most Likely to Succeed: Young Jeezy

You don't have to like the flow or the lyrics but a lot of people do. His debut release, "Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101" was recently certified double platinum, or 2 million copies shipped, so we can say ok, he has at least a million buyers. We cannot deny his influence and his popularity can’t be ignored. Everyone is becoming aware of his angry snowman t-shirts from his clothing label, U.S.D.A. (United Streets and D-boys of America). This dangerous icon is a ode to cocaine dealing. His success extends beyond the new record though, he's writing a book and putting out new artist on Def Jam. He has a beef with a rapper with a violent past so he has the whole "rap beef" angle going which his label probably hopes will spur more controversy and album sales. Jeezy has been rapping for a decade and is seasoned in the game, plus he has a savvy record label to support him, so don’t look for much we say or do to stop his momentum, right now Jeezy is run away train.

If Emmis Communication's HOT-97 (WQHT, 97.1FM in New York City) was a person we would want to catch them in a dark, deserted alley, and just plain beat the dog-shit out of them. What previously one could try to write off as a number of bad corporate decisions has now crossed into the realm of blatant racism and an all out war on youth of color, under the guise of being "New York's #1 for Hip-Hop and R&B". We could probably make many of the same arguments about HOT-97's competitor, right down the dial, Clear Channel's 105.1FM, who is certainly no fan or friend of people of color. But this year HOT 97, particularly it's morning show staff apparently with the backing of it's corporate bosses has been involved in any number of incidents that amount to non-physical assaults against their target audience. Barry Mayo (Hot 97 General Manager) should be ashamed of his self since he tries to maintain the belief that he cares about this stuff. As for Jeff Smulyan the CEO of Emmis, Rick Cummings (President of the radio division) and John Dimick (Hot 97 program director) they are not of the community anyway so it's no surprise that they don’t care and encourage the continuing disrespect.

First their was the Tsunami song in January where on air idiots "Miss Jones", Todd Lynn, and DJ Envy performed a parody song that made fun of the Tsunami that killed over 200,000 people across Asia and some parts of Africa late last December. The song jokingly  referred to "Africans Drowning", "Screaming Chinks", "Chinamen, and their children being sold into child slavery. Predictably there was a huge amount of outrage in the listening audience. The song even led to an on-air argument between Miss Jones and fellow Hot 97 on air personality, Ms. Info who is Korean, when Ms. Info attempted to challenge the morning show staff on the appropriateness of the song. The public outcry and protest led to Morning host Miss Jones, DJ Envy and assistant Tasha Hightower being suspended for two weeks. Morning show producer Rick Delgado was fired for writing the song as was comedian Toddy Lynn primarily because he joked on the air, “I’m gonna start shooting some Asians” - a gag motif he used often, but which he admits was ill-advised. Lynn later admitted the song was “a very, very bad mistake,”, but went on to add “Management heard the song and approved it. After it aired, they said keep playing it. They thought it was great until the protests started. Then they fired me and [producer] Rick Delgado and said, ‘We don’t condone this,’ as if it were all Todd’s and Rick’s fault. But they did condone it.”

After the Tsunami song HOT-97 was slapped with a $300,000 bill for their twisted contest called “Smackfest in August, which featured Black and Latino female contestants competing to see how hard they could bare-hand each other in the face, for prizes. Despite the apologies, fines, and hand-wringing it would be clear by the end of the year that HOT-97 had not learned it's lesson and was far from sorry at least when it came to ethnically or racially offensive "entertainment".  As New York City was in the throws of a monumental transit strike Miss Jones and the morning show was up to their usual, spewing racist, vulgar, embarrassingly ignorant, rhetoric and expressing their usual contempt for working people. She denounced the Transport workers as a bunch of uneducated and overpaid losers, while viciously attacking union head Roger Toussaint’s who is from Trinidad. The rhetoric was reminiscent of the something you might here on some Right-Wing AM radio station or read in pamphlet of the Klan of some other White Supremacist literature. Jones called Mr. Toussaint “A dumb coconut who probably don’t even have a green card,” then demanding that he be deported. Trust us when we tell you it's no accident ignoramuses like Miss Jones are given prime real estate on the morning airwaves, in a nutshell HOT-97 won't stop the madness until listeners start turning the dial or people start talking about pulling their FCC license - maybe for 2006 we can work on doing both.

Just because he was part of Public Enemy doesn't mean that he can't be Coonin' but it does mean we were going to try to pretend that we never saw him on The Surreal Life or Strange Love, but then we got a sneak preview of his latest reality show "Flava of Love" and we knew the dissemination of his image globally was going to be fodder for White supremacist and eugenicist trying to prove a point. Granted that Chuck D once rhymed that Flava is a "rebel in his own mind, supporter of the rhyme" but something tells us that Professor Griff is ready to issue Flavs a beat down. BTW this award does not mean you won't catch some Playahatas watching his latest show on VH1, but that's just because we have to keep abreast of the propaganda.

The Antonio Fargas Award (Pimp Player of the Year): Kevin Federline (Britney Spears' husband)

"He takes her money! When he's in need. Yes he's a trifling, friend in deed!" We don't know who is more trifling this year's version of Chris Judd or Britney Spears home-wrecking, trailer park trash behind for stealing Shar Jackson's "baby daddy". He doesn't seem like much of a catch, but Kevin Federline a.k.a. Mr. Britney Spears decided to marry his "baby momma" this time around, because she can make him rich even with the pre-nuptial agreement. He comes off as a pimp because this able bodied fella' makes his lot off of making his famous women work. Is there any surprise he is trying to become a commercial rap artist?

What exactly does this Mr. Reynolds do again? Well actually Al Reynolds had a job, and a pretty decent one from what we understand but he wasn't quite famous, and at this point with all the rumors surrounding his sexual preference, Al probably wishes he wasn't even a little bit famous now. Truthfully we're still trying to figure out exactly Star Jones does, but Al Reynolds is toughing it out through the rampant rumors until he can get his groove back. Star we're glad you found somebody but you might want to keep Terry McMillan's phone number on the speed dial because nobody would be surprised if your husband, pulls a Jonathan Plummer on you and gets out the closet some time in the future.

The Ozzy Osbourne Award (Most Deluded and/or Strung Out Personality): DMX

So what he got it last year is. We might seem crazy if we let somebody other than DMX win it this year. "Darkman X" is keeping his antics off the chain and we can't help but think it's drug related. He's stayed in and out of jail for the last couple of years but fortunately he hasn't done anything to earn him any really long stretches - we're keeping our fingers crossed. 

Runner Up: Flava Flav

He might not be using drugs but the "brotha" is deluded about his actions and the price of his one-man minstrel show. Or, maybe Flava just doesn't care? Flava was only an accessory to the group Public Enemy, not a rapper or full fledged entertainer, so maybe he thinks he has to do what he has to do to eat in middle age.  It's almost seems like all the play the mainstream media is giving Flava is like a bad door attack on P.E.'s legacy. It won't stop us though, we're still to bang those P.E. classics old and new. Word is that nobody can tell Flava anything, anyway so we will save the HTML ink, and just shake our heads.

This year our Advisory board was very active in deciding who should get this accolade. Many of our staff had voted for Industryears.com reps but that proved to be a conflict of interest as the president serves on our Advisory Board. Just when it looked like the voting was going toward a more local and accessible personality like a Davey-D, the voting got scattered and more mainstream personalities received the votes from our voting staff. Louis Farrakhan’s ability to gather people from all walks of life and different religious persuasions proved to be a sticking point with many voters even if some deemed the Millions More Movement effect on the community as minimal so far. You don't have to agree with everything Farrakhan has ever done or said, or be a follower of the Nation of Islam to appreciate the significance and hope that was exemplified by 2005's Million More follow up to the 1995 Million Man March. For the public, the overpowering message of self-empowerment and upliftment eventually won out over the mainstream media’s constant pleas to ignore Farrakhan. 

This category has historically gone to controversial and complex figures and this year is no different. The New York, Transit Workers Union (TWU) took a bold stand this year, and though it was a group effort, Toussaint as the head of the union earned this honor. The deal reached with the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) hasn't yet been ratified and when all the facts are known it may turn out the workers didn't gain as much as they had hoped. One thing is for sure however, they didn't lose as much MTA would have had them lose with their use of illegal negotiation tactics. Among the small victories for the TWU were maternity leave for female workers so that they wouldn't have to work up until the day they gave birth, the elimination of fines for workers using the bathroom while at work, and workers would not be subjected to as many illegal and unfair labor law practices, such as being paid 70% of their salary for minor infractions of which the corporate bosses at MTA delivered over 15,000 citations for the 33,000 member workforce. Roger put organized labor back on the map and decided that enough was enough. More surprisingly he fought for the rights of future workers, all while jail and fines were looming over his head simply because it was the right thing to do. Most of the benefits working people take for granted today from the "40-hour work week" to basic safety laws were not given, but struggled for and won, by the labor force - don't ever forget that!

Evolution Award: David Banner

Maybe he didn't really evolve. Maybe he just showed the world a side of him that most had not seen. Though his music may not always give that impression Banner is probably one of the most astute and intelligent individuals out of any of the commercially recognizable rappers. David Banner's ability to articulate who he is and who he represents during the Katrina crisis automatically made everybody see the total David Banner and reminds the world that he is more complex than the music. 

We're probably a year late on this because The Source has already faded. Come this time next year the magazine may have ceased to exist. The self-proclaimed "Bible of Hip-Hop" is suffering from financial difficulties of Biblical proportions. They're rumored to have lost more than $11 million over the past four years, have failed to file state and federal income tax for two years, have skipped mailing issues of its magazine, and was recently sued for missing rental payments on it's office space in addition to having eviction proceedings begun against them. Last but certainly not least, the magazine is being sued for sexual harassment and gender discrimination by former employees Kim Osorio and Michelle Joyce who seem to have a armored vehicle worth of evidence. In addition it's claimed that top executives at the magazine have written nearly $3 million in bad checks over the past nine months, had their Source Awards show canceled by BET, and worst of all magazine President Raymond "Benzino" Scott is still trying to record albums. If Benzino agrees to stop recording albums we will write him a check to cover whatever money The Source Magazine owes, c'mon dog - you know we're good for it.

Runner Up: G-Unit 

People may not see it yet but the smart man's money says the G-Unit run is coming to and end. 50-Cent is suffering from a severe case of overexposure and the other members didn't have strong a followings to begin with. All the hype and promotion in the world couldn't hide the weakness of Tony Yayo's debut release and 50's movie tanked at the box office after a decent opening week. Many people are pointing to the signing of Mobb Deep, M.O.P., and Mase as a sign of good things to come, but many previously hot labels signed a bunch of artist at the end of their run, just take a look at Rocafella. All of these late-to-the-party, new blood signings with G-Unit likely missed the money train. The questions will be can these artist get an album released with any decent promotion while on the G-Unit, and what label/crew is going to take G-Unit's place.

1) The Katrina Disaster - There are really no positives in this situation but it sure did lay out the ugly truth about class and race in this country for a national and international audience. President Bush, arrived on the scene and told his buddy, FEMA head Michael Brown, "Brownie' You're doing a hell of a job!" which clearly wasn't the case, but we would later learn from emails that Brown discussed his clothing, his need for a dog sitter, and what restaurant he was going to eat dinner at while people died in New Orleans. 

2) John Roberts Confirmed, Samuel Alito Nominated to the Supreme Court - Big business and the "Religious Right" get two more of their guys on the court, that's not good news for the rest of us. Also see Playahata moment #5 above.

3) Lynne Stewart Convicted of Helping "Terror" suspect - "The People's Attorney" was convicted of conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists, and defrauding the United States government. It was a shaky case by the prosecution as they used the most prejudicial methods, including showing footage of Osama bin Laden at her trial, but if the state is now going after lawyers for defending their clients ... look out! 

4) The Tookie Williams Execution - Even if one believed Williams was guilty of the crimes he was convicted of few could argue that their was a better case for clemency. Unfortunately Californians, elected a Governor whose nickname is partly related to his movie roll as "The Terminator", and that is exactly what they got. 

5) Passing of the new Bankruptcy Law, and cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Student Loans - It probably all happened while you were sleeping, or maybe you were awake but still sleeping, but the Bankrupcty Reform Bill is all about squeezing regular prison. At this rate they'll be dringing back debtor prisons. Also while you were sleeping the Senate passed a $39.7 billion package under the guise of "deficit cuts" but most of the money will be coming from college aid cuts, Medicare, Medicaid, and children's health insurance. Vice President, Dick Cheney returned early from an overseas trip to cast the tie-breaking vote.

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