The Afterschool Hip Hop Era... "Do Your Homework!"

                                                    ( Courtesy of SugarHill Records 1979; 2019)

The current young Hip Hop generation is full of creativity and charima. Their heroes, recreations of the past, and movement remain connected to the movement of Hip Hop, regardless of how the previous generations have cried foul and for better leadership of the message and sound. The Flat-top, the new Harlem Shake, and constant borrowing from previous movements keep the misunderstanding going. If you ask a young Hip Hoper, who is Missy Elliot or Will Smith, you may be shocked by their answer. Ask them who Eric B & Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, or DJ Kool Herc and they will look at you as if you were on another planet. Mention Kodak Black, and they all have an opinion. This anomally is a matter of education. When the Old School passed the torch to the New School, they indoctrinated the Elements of Hip Hop, The Founders, and the birthplace. And the New School Era remained strong for two decades giving America raw talent from the ghettos of America, all with one unified Father, Hip Hop. The passing of the torch from the New School to the Afterschool generation was less clear. Many can't pinpoint when it occured or who lead the Afterschool Movement. Yet, the time has passed and Hip Hop is left with a Fatherless Generation, a generation, who has forgotten where it begun and who it is that they owe their respected alliegence and artform to. Thus, it is up to the previous generations to raise the next generation, go back like the Father, who left Mama, and the children, and make things right. The current generation, The Afterschool Generation, is ready to learn...

First, There are multiple Eras in the Hip Hop movement beginning with the: 


* Originators (1970s-1987)


* Old School (1987-1992)

* New School (1992-2008) [West Coast Dominated/East Coast Vs. West Coast/East Coast Dominated]

* After School (2008- present).

Second, there are Five Elements or "Schools," of Hip Hop. Hip Hop was created by the mixture and characterized by the main elements or “Schools:”

1. Graffiti-written form

2. Break Dance

3. DJ- cutting and scratching beats from classic songs in competition

4. Master of Ceremony/Rappin-MC

5.  Fashion

 other elements include beatboxing, historical knowledge of the movement, and street entrepreneurship.

The root word of the word, culture, is the word, Cult. A group of people, who believe roughly the same and share a common history. Hip Hop Culture is no different. The element of Historical knowledge of the movement was essential to keeping the commonality alive. No culture can survive without sharing and passing down historical knowledge. So, finally, here is a short abridged history for the Afterschool Generation to digest.


         Hip Hop is an American cultural artform created by African Americans and Latinos in New York City circa the 1970s. The term, "Hip Hop," comes from DJ Kool Herc in 1973 (Bronx, NYC). It was an urban cultural movement which sought to express the trials, tribulations, and life of people living in urban areas of America. From New York City (Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island), the cultural artform would spread to major cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Oakland, Los Angeles, Houston, New Orleans,St. Louis, Miami, Richmond, Atlanta, and Jacksonville. This new culture took years to build, but would replace Rock N Roll as the dominant American Music in the early 1990s.  The new Black music would quickly become revolutionary as many songs would address pressing social issues like Gang violence, Police violence, poverty, young love, and being Black in America. Hip Hop would form a cultural alliance and mix with other music genres like RNB, Reggae, and Techno, to create and fuse other cultural elements to create the ultimate post modern artform. Hip Hop is based on the back drum beat beatdown of funk music (Funky Drummer- JamesBrown) and storytelling. Thus, through stories people from one city could understand what was going on in other cities across the nation without travelling to the city. 

       Now, that the Afterschool Generation has the information. It is time to introduce them to some of the figures who not only changed Hip Hop, but also American culture. This might look like an Shoutout from an album and the soldiers who are missing are not forgotten. Just add them in and tell these Afterschoolers, do your Homework!

·   Groups associated with the Originators of Hip Hop include Sugar Hill Gang, DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa & Zulu Nation, Kool Moe D, DJ Red Alert, Grand Master Flash & The Furious Five etc.

·         Old School Artists are organized by powerful record companies including Def Jam, Sony, Rawkus, Interscope, Tommy Boy with groups like: Run DMC, Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow, LL Cool J, beastie Boys, Roxanne Shante, MC Lyte, Whodini, DJ Quik, Spice 1, Ton Loc, Tribe Called Quest, Nice & Smooth, Pete Rock, EPMD, Das Effects, NWA, Diamond D, Masta Ace, Biz Markie, Uncle Luke & Too Live Crew, Digital Underground, Public Enemy, De La Soul, Big Daddy Kane, Kwame ,Heavy D & the Boys,  Kid N Play, Salt N Pepper, etc

·         New School is sparked by the New Jack Swing in the East & Gangster stories in the West, as Hip Hop continues to spread across the USA, and characterized by the expansion of Hip hop out of NYC to other American cities with stories to tell, ending in the American South & producing Larger than Life Hip hop artists- Geto Boys Houston, Easy E, Too Short, Ice T, Ice Cube, E-40, Deathrow Records- Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Dogg Pound, Cypress Hill, Vanilla Ice, House of Pain, Naughty By Nature, Will Smith & DJ Jazzy Jeff, Funk Master Flex, Leaders of the New School, Black Sheep, Busta Rhymes, Tupac, Bad Boy Records, Puff Daddy, Notorious BIG & Jr Mafia, Lil Kim, Mase, Black Rob, G-Dep, Camron, Foxy Brown, Wu Tang Clan, Nas, Mobb Deep, Nature, Capone & NORE, Def Squad, Redman, Keith Murray, Common, Twista, Outkast, The goodie Mob & Dungeon Family, Crucial Conflict, Po Pimp, 95 South, 69 Boyz, Timberland & Magoo, Missy Elliot, Master P, 504 Boys, Silk the Shocker, Mystikal, Cash Money Millionaires, Juvenile, Turk, Lil Wayne, Mannie Fresh, Terror Squad, Fat Joe, Big Pun, Cuban Links, Ruff Riders Records, DMX, The Lox, Eve, Drag-on, Swiss Beats, Rockerfella Records, Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek, DJ Clue, Beanie Segal, Freeway, Murder Inc., Ja Rule, Black Cha, Star Trek Pharelle, Just Blaze, FABOLOUS, Nelly & the St. Lunatics, Eminem, D-12, 50Cent, Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, The Game, Kanye West, Young Jeezy, Young Money, Lupe Fiasco, Young Jacka, Rick Ross, Briscoe. The Late New School was characterized by major hip hop acts, road tours, and Super Producers. They will also transition into the next Era as Gods of Rap.

The End of the New School must've begun with Soldier Boy because there was a clear creative break with tradition in Hip Hop, including the official acceptance of the "Front" or "Front'in," as actual reality. Thus, while New School was blasted for its new characterization of women as "Bitches, hoes, or sluts," no one would dare call their Mama, Aunt, or Sister, one. Reality was one thing and entertainment or music was just that, art. There was an active debate on this issue and more including the use of drugs, violence, and misogyny in songs versus the lyrical wordplay tradition. In the Afterschool this changed. This generation would accept that this is what women were and so begun a generation who took the "front," and lived it like it was a reality. So after, Travis Scott would invent this stellar method of production and lyrical sound (mumble) and a new generation was born. Leaders of the Late New School would and do still command the generation, but artists like Kid Kudi, Drake, Nicki Minaj, 2 Chainz, and Kendrick Lamar, would set themselves apart and lead this Afterschool Generation into its current course of orbit. So, it is said, "if Travis Scott is the Father of this generation, 2 Chainz is definitely the Step Father. Drake is the God and Nicki is the Mama... Kendrick is the West Coast Uncle" 

There you have it, Afterschool Generation. Now, you are grafted into the fold, connect and are one with the rest. When you are lost and cannot find your way. Just remember this question, "what do you do in Afterschool? Your homework!"

True North Is Wrong & Gravity Comes In Multiples

After notating the celestial positions of stars, planets, the Moon and Sun for the past year, one thing is challengingly apparent. True North is actually in what is called the Southern Hemisphere and true South is actually, the North. The concept of North & South seem to be clearly defined in Western European Culture. Yet, in reality, this concept however mentally concrete can still be highly inaccurate and is in all facts, wrong. The following are my observations supporting my claim.

1. The tilt of the Earth, allows for the procession of all celestial bodies including The Sun, the moon, planets, and constellations... (The remaining information is not Free)

-Cowan Amaye-Obu
The American Mastodon Publication 2019

Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys

In the court of law, to be guilty of an organized conspiracy is actionable intelligence to be sentenced to years in prison, dependent on the terms of consequences (RICO Nixon 1970). In the case of the African American public opinion, towards official organizations, whom have set about snares in order to prevent African American males from growing into adulthood, the evidence and results are revealing. However, without the means & abilities to bring governmental agencies to justice, whether by suing one's own government within one's own government's court, African Americans are left calling for international assistance. Without International Assistance by International Governmental bodies including the United Nations, The African Union and others, African Americans in the United States are left to fight genocidal policies of agencies within their home government, as a group. However, many of these genocidal policies and agendas conducted by various agencies and large companies are directed towards families and individuals African Americans, who are in turn incapable of mustering an adequate defense against such hegemonic and dominant forces. As a result, African American families are being destroyed by a number of various factors including poverty, disease, disproportionate imprisonment, lack of access to healthcare, predatory banking & lending, predatory housing policies, inadequate access to education, lack of infrastructure investment, employment ceilings, medical testing, political disenfranchisement, television & psychological programming, and many other successful ongoing genocidal projects and practices which has produced nothing short of a pure holocaust in the post-modern world. The following video is one study of this conspiracy and we hope the knowledge shared can push for action. This video was made in 1987, thus, we are already late to the war.

Take notes...

-The American Mastodon Publication  

"Do You Wanna See It? Do You Wanna See It? I'm Gonna Do It For Ya! I'm Gonna Do It For Ya!" -Black Television, Music, & Internet Programming

Abstract Warning:
This article articulates a paradigm shift and could greatly effect the psyche of the reader. Reader discretion is advised. Should one develop acute consciousness, please debrief with the following article.

The image of a oneself and one's culture as portrayed on television, in music, & on the Internet, is a sacred one. It is how, not only one views his or herself, but also how the world views those particular persons and their culture. The control of one's image, is a sacred one. For, the ability to portray an image, is the ability to tell one's story, one's history, and provide a unified central message for one's future, not only to one's self, but to the world at large, friend and foe. This, is the core meaning of art, a reflection of reality, and is as old as the 160,000 year old human being, ourselves.

The subjugation of the African image, by Hollywood and other worldwide, production studios is an important commodity. It allows a foreign culture to dictate the story, the history, and the message for the future of the African people. This message through the European scope, creates a fictitious people, now erroneously called, Black People, and creates a homogenous race of people, imposing upon them one heritage, physical/social/economic characteristics, and one destiny. The subjugation of the African image by a Foreign culture, occurred during the early 1800s, during what is known as, The Minstrel Show, the most popular form of American Entertainment, until the 1930s. However, in reality, there is no such thing as Black people and its label on the people of Africa, is one of the lasting vestiges of the Pseudo-scientific racial classification system (Negroid, Caucasoid, & Mongoloid) brought on during the European colonial & military conquest of the modern world from the 1500s to the present.

To understand that the caricatures of "Mammie," "Uncle Tom," "Jezebel," "Sambo," "The Black Brute," "Tragic Mulatto," "Sapphire," & "Jim Crow" are fictitious is essential to the control of the African image. Yet, to understand that these images have been projected and superimposed on every African man, woman, and child, regardless of their ethnic origin, geographical location, cultural sophistication, and contribution to the historical & contemporary civilization of Mankind, is to discover, what I would like to call, The Black Elixir. This "Elixir," is a sacred mental one, and is to be studied meticulously, oddly admired, and revered as cautionary. For actual reality is the only antidote and consumption can be fatal. All human groups can be reduced to a mental "Elixir." If feed this "Elixir," in a steady diet, one's self and one's people could virtually be transformed mentally and therefore, physically into stereotypical caricatures, which are based on an outside view of one's image. This is not much different from the psyches of the majority of the United States population, which erroneously views people according to Racism lexicon terms of Black, White, Asian, and other. The thinking should be classified along with psychosis as a condition, which continues to degrade the Modern American civilization, a curse for sure. Still, such control of the African image by foreign Conglomerates in television, music, and now, the internet is the most valuable and dangerous commodity of art turned foe, against the African. How unfortunate for the oldest, most original groups of Human Beings, man or woman, on Earth?

The success of television networks like Robert Johnson's Black Entertainment Television (BET), TV One and other African American owned Television stations, African American Films, the establishment of Nollywood, African American Music companies, African American Publishing Houses, and the many other African American created artforms, is telling of the boundless potential and again is the most sacred. To lose ownership and more importantly, creative control is to lose control of one's image. The ability to portray an image, is the ability to tell one's story, one's history, and provide a unified central message for one's future, not only to one's self, but to the world at large, friend and foe. Therefore, we offer a precious gift to the variety of Africans worldwide, speaking hundreds of languages from hundreds of ethnicities, from time to time, quality African and African American created films to feed the soul of the African, remind them of times past, and reimpose a true message of self and the future, weekly. Our first feature, Wattstax (1974)

Now, how is it that many of the issues facing the African American since the late 1960s, are still major and often more exacerbated in the post-modern era? It is no longer a secret worldwide that the very own government of the United States, profits from the continual victimization of the African American. And so, suffers from racial psychosis degrading the very fabric of the American society. In this 1974 documentary, discover the same conversation among African Americans as the present, their inability to find solutions and disillusionment with Christianity & US Politics. Yet, unlike today, discover a unity and bond as over 100,000 African Americans reflect and share a common socio-economic paradigm shift. The economic collaborations from this event is still felt today.

-by Mr. Cowan Amaye-Obu

Sources (Pending...):
"Blacks Own Just 10 Television Stations. Here's Why," Washington Post 2015 

Amazon Kindle & Google Launch: Akaso by Uriel Wise

The American Mastodon Publication is proud to announce the launch of our next project, on Amazon Kindle & Google Play. Akaso by Uriel Wise, the first installment of The Legends of King Odum series.

Akaso is the name of an actual Deity, whose name and picture are forbidden to outsiders. In this tale, Akaso in the form of a Nembe Priestess, named Prieta saves an adventurous Prince from drowning in the Niger River Creeks. Only to be kidnapped by British Foreigners and taken aboard the ill-fated, Hartwell Frigate of 1787. Will Akaso be saved?

We thank everyone for their interest and excitement during our launch. We encourage you to click, explore, and buy. We also look forward to your support during our promotional launch of Akaso, later this year. The American Mastodon Publication is honored to have Uriel Wise and The Legends of King Odum Brand.

-Peter Commons
Editor For AMP & West Oakland Imports Publishing
PeterLCommons@gmail.com or TheAmericanMastodon@Gmail.com

Together We Stand, Divided America Will Fall: Documentary Series

                                                          Photo Courtesy of IMDB 2019

The American Experiment is under threat from within as issues of race, class, religion, gender, inequity, and the environment threaten to foil the collaboration of civil society. This statement, is troubling as the American Brand of wholesome family living, undergoes a velocity of change spirited by nasty politics, massive corporate & technological agendas, and huge sums of money concentrated in the hands of the few. The match is set, for manufacturing consent and ideas, through television & Hollywood, radio, Church pulpits, and paid censorship of the Internet, for Americans to be divided on every essential issue that will determine the course of this great nation for the next decade. How will we address our environmental concerns? Will Americans have access to clean water? Is the rising cost of living going to evict millions onto the streets? Is the American diet, a health concern? Will I be able to earn a decent living wage? Is the educational system dysfunctional? Why is the government allowing companies to buy and sell our personal information? Why is the government storing data about our personal lives and how is this data being used?

                                                            Photo Courtesy of IMDB 2019
This month, we present two informative, jaw-dropping, and gripping Documentaries. The Creepy Line (M.A. Taylor 2018), is a exploratory documentary of Google & other social media Giants, how these companies operate and their agendas. The second, Fahrenheit 11/9 (Moore 2018), Michael Moore turns his cameras on the Election of President Donald Trump, the issues facing the country at the time, and the implications of the "perfect storm" for the future of America. Both films reveal a drastic change in business & politics in the United States. Both films call for Americans to unite and stand up to the corruption, greed, and decadence ruining the nation, and setting the American people against each other. Both films are featured free of charge on Amazon Prime. Sit down with the family and consider the State of our Union, as it really is and not as what we are told it is.

-Peter Commons
Editor/Writer 

The African American "New Square Fair" Deal (2019) Part 1

                                                    Photo Courtesy of LAProgressive 1865

There are over 42 million African Americans in the United States and 2019, marks the 400th year of the African presence in North America beginning at the Jamestown Colony (US Congress HR 1242 2018). Our journey has been traumatic and longsuffering from the shores of our homeland Africa & the transit Caribbean to the slave ports, auction blocks and slave markets of the North American Colonies and later, United States. We have experienced overwhelming violence, rape, torture, and dehumanizing enslavement as chattel by law, and even more personal, society. For 400 years there has been the African presence in North America under a system of oppression in service of building this European community to withstand and ultimately, defeat the Native original ownership of this land. Today, 98% of Africans in the United States are descendants of individuals brought here during slavery(African Americans Britannica 2019). To the descendants, this fact brings the issue of settlement, restitution, and acknowledgement of sins experienced since our arrival. The rampant inequality, lack of resources, and systemic racial discrimination directed towards African Americans calls for a solution, which cuts through the rhetoric, racial past & hatred, and political deadlock on the issue of Africans living in America.  

The Native Americans, during their turbulent European invasion experience negotiated with the United States Government in 1824 (BIA John Calhoun 1824), over loss of land, enslaved persons, broken treaties, and traumatic losses suffered while losing control of the continent, now home to a New Nation.  The creation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs was through the US Department of War and later, the Department of the Interior, where their concerns, and disputes were addressed and remedied by budgeted restitution by appointed US officials. Since then, Natives Nations have sustained self determination and peaceful autonomy.

 It is in this same manner, where African Americans will constructively address their issues without racial bias and political gridlock of the dominating White American Culture. Years of inaction, lack of or inadequate service, and injustice by the United States Government in addressing serious concerns in the African American community has perpetuated the suffering and emerging stereotypes which pervade the African American community. Yet, African Americans continue to contribute to the American culture, economic GDP, and defense of this Nation. A Bureau of African American Affairs, under the Secretary of Interior can assess social, economic, political, health, and intellectual problems in the African American community. A Bureau of African American Affairs, can identify, plan solutions, and implement real budgeted action to issues facing African Americans across the Nation. And it will be monumental, as the first acknowledgment of the American Past as it concerns the 400 year presence and contribution of African Americans to the United States.

The United States has publicly apologized and made restitution to Japan, France, the Kingdom of Hawaii, the survivors of the Tuskegee Experimental Trials, and in 2008, to African Americans for slavery and Jim Crow (Smithsonian Five Times the US Officially Apologized Danny Lewis 2016). In 2019, the descendants of the enslaved here in the United States ask for a Fair Square Deal in response to our 400 year ordeal here in America. Pass all of the racial bias & hatred, suppression of African American progress, a Fair Square Deal administered through a Bureau designed explicitly for the African American population can redeem the children of the enslaved from sure failure and genocidal demise.

Other concerns:

Fair Economic Development & Labor: The investment into Black owned businesses in multiple local communities, industry, and commerce will be an immediate answer to historical unemployment, poverty, and issues surrounding basic living conditions facing the African American across the Nation.A proposal of $1-5 Billion in select Black communities, directed at businesses, housing lending, and industry built with Black hands can resurrect whole cities. Don't give them the fish, teach them how to fish!

Fair Universal Healthcare: African Americans are at the top of most leading causes of death in the United States including Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetes, and more. Healthcare for African Americans and their families can assess, educate, prevent and curb chronic issues of health facing the community including Infant Mortality, Diseases such as HIV/AIDS, mental health, and more. The ability to simply see a doctor should not denied an entire community whose existence is the actual poverty line in the United States.

Fair Banking & Finance: Predatory Banking and Financial practices have not only drained the wealth of the former enslaved but crippled their ability to engage in the modern financial system, governed by credit and assess to capital. These practices must be rescinded and banned for African Americans to break the under caste system, which prevents most from social mobility regardless of opportunity.

Written by Mr. Cowan Amaye-Obu/ Edited by Peter Commons
For the complete article, please email PeterLCommons@gmail.com