RESPECT Magazine, a quarterly photojournal featuring some of urban culture’s most stunning visuals, recently released their second issue and we decided to share a few shots with you. Pop the hood to feast your eyes… and find out what Diddy was doing in that photo!

Toronto-born photog Chris Buck says of the Diddy photo, shot in 1997:

“He has a house on the bay side of the Hamptons — that’s where he always throws his White Parties. The tide comes and goes, and I saw that there were some rocks just below the surface, and I thought it would be cool to shoot him there. He said, ‘No, I don’t think we should do that.’ But I sent my assistant out there and made them stand on the rock, and I took a Polaroid of him. Then I brought it back to Puffy and showed him and said, ‘Look how cool this looks.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, that’s cool. You’re right, we should do it.’ The way I got this particular shot is there was this girl he was dating or something, and she walked out there just to say hello, and I said, ‘Hey, put your arm on her shoulder.’”

Kim Porter, is that you???

(Oh the irony of Diddy landing on page 66!)

The second issue of RESPECT features iconic images shot by Jerome Albertini, Marc Baptiste, Estevan Oriol (who shot the cover photo of 50 Cent), Janette Beckman, Chris Buck, Kenneth Cappello and Mike Schreiber.

You can pick up the magazine at your local bookstore or newsstand or visit their website HERE.

Nas made a recent stop in Pittsburgh for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s annual National Keystone Conference. Part of his message included a pledge to some day complete his high school diploma. Continue

After eight years Ludacris has finally had the opportunity to confront Bill O’ Reilly ever since he got Pepsi to fire Ludacris back in 2002. For some one that talks straight cash sh*t about everything but himself, you would think Bill would have not b*tched up when he saw Ludacris.

Pop the Hood for Details to Hear How Things Went Down…

In an exclusive interview the controversial rapper confirmed he confronted the conservative television host at a recent event and extended the hip hop hand of friendship “The first thing I said to him was, ‘I want to meet the guy who has had so much to say about me, but knows absolutely nothing about me’.”

“I identified that I wanted to speak to him when I saw his name on the guest list. I looked at what table he was on, and I walked my a** straight to that table. He wasn’t expecting to see me, at all. The look on his face when he saw me approaching… priceless.”

Of the peace-brokering, Ludacris said: “The conversation we had was confidential, however, let’s just say it was a good conversation and good came out of it. From there, we came to a common ground. To be honest with you, we came together and did an event for charity – as crazy as it sounds. Perhaps everything happens for a reason. I prayed since the very first moment that Bill said something about me on television that I would be able to meet him in person. It took about seven years for that to happen, but it finally happened. And the joy that came over me, well, it was outstanding.”

Hey Bill, just because you and Ludacris finally straighten things out does not give you a pass in the black community… Your a$$ still has a loooooooooooooooooooooooong way to go!!!

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YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! After all the negative news about young black men in Chicago, we are so proud to share this story about an all-male charter high school where the entire class is not just graduating, they’ve also all been admitted to four-year colleges. Pop the hood for A Lil Positivity!

Four years ago, Bryant Alexander watched his mother weep.

She stared down at a muddle of D’s and F’s on his eighth-grade report card and threatened to kick him out. He had barely passed elementary school, and high school wasn’t even on his radar.

“Something just clicked,” Alexander, now 18, said. “I knew I had to do something.”

On Friday, Alexander proudly swapped his high school’s red uniform tie for a striped red and gold one — the ritual at Englewood’s Urban Prep Academy for Young Men that signifies a student has been accepted into college.

As the Roseland resident and 12 others tied their knots, Chicago’s only public all-male, all-African-American high school fulfilled its mission: 100 percent of its first senior class had been accepted to four-year colleges.

Mayor Richard Daley and city schools chief Ron Huberman surprised students at the all-school assembly Friday morning with congratulations, and school leaders announced that as a reward, prom would be free.

The achievement might not merit a visit from top brass if it happened at one of the city’s elite, selective enrollment high schools. But Urban Prep, a charter school that enrolls all comers in one of Chicago’s most beleaguered neighborhoods, faced much more difficult odds.

Only 4 percent of this year’s senior class read at grade level as freshmen, said Tim King, the school’s founder and CEO.

“There were those who told me that you can’t defy the data,” King said. “Black boys are killed. Black boys drop out of high school. Black boys go to jail. Black boys don’t go to college. Black boys don’t graduate from college.

“They were wrong,” he said.

Every day, before attending advanced placement biology classes and lectures on changing the world, students must first pass through the neighborhood, then metal detectors.

“Poverty, gangs, drugs, crime, low graduation rates, teen pregnancy — you name it, Englewood has it,” said Kenneth Hutchinson, the school’s director of college counseling, who was born and raised in Englewood.

He met the students the summer before they began their freshman year during a field trip to Northwestern University, the first time many of them had ever stepped foot on a college campus. At the time, Hutchinson was Northwestern’s assistant director of undergraduate admissions. Inspired by what he’d seen, he started working for Urban Prep two months later.

“I’m them,” he said Friday as he fought back tears. “Being accepted to college is the first step to changing their lives and their communities.”

Hutchinson plays a major role in the school, where college is omnipresent. Students are assigned college counselors from day one. To prepare students for the next level, the school offers a longer than typical day — about 170,000 minutes longer, over four years, than other city schools — and more than double the usual number of English credits, King said

Even the school’s voice-mail system has a student declaring “I am college-bound” before asking callers to dial an extension.

The rigorous academic environment and strict uniform policy of black blazers, red ties and khakis isn’t for everyone. The first senior class began with 150 students. Of those who left, many moved out of the area and some moved into neighborhoods that were too dangerous to cross to get to the school, King said. Fewer than 10 were expelled or dropped out, he said.

At last count, the 107 seniors gained acceptance to a total of 72 different colleges, including Northwestern University, Morehouse College, Howard University, Rutgers University and University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Alexander was accepted to DePaul University.

While college acceptance is an enormous hurdle to jump, school leaders said they know their job isn’t done; they want to make sure the students actually attend.

To that aim, King said, staff made sure that every student has completed the dreaded Free Application for Federal Student Aid, lest the red tape deter them.

Later in the year, the school plans to hold a college signing day where every student is to sign a promise to go to college, he said. Staff will stay in touch through the summer and hopefully in the first years of school.

“We don’t want to send them off and say, ‘Call us when you’re ready to make a donation to your alma mater,’ ” King said. “If we fulfill our mission, that means they not only are accepted to college, but graduate from it.”

For now, students are enjoying the glow of reaching their immediate goal.

Normally, it takes 18-year-old Jerry Hinds two buses and 45 minutes to get home from school. On the day the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana was to post his admission decision online at 5 p.m., he asked a friend to drive him to his home in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.

He went into his bedroom, told his well-wishing mother this was something he had to do alone, closed the door and logged in.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” he remembers screaming. His mother burst in and began crying.

That night he made more than 30 phone calls, at times shouting “I got in” on his cell phone and home phone at the same time.

“We’re breaking barriers,” he said. “And that feels great.”

This is incredibly moving.

We swear we’re not soft, but keeping it all the way 100 — somebody pass us some tissue cuz we really just might cry y’all.

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BOSSIP loves the elders! We’re sad to report that the oldest African-American in the world died this week in Detroit. 113-year-old Daisey Bailey left this earth Sunday leaving behind 79 grandchildren, 70 great-grandchildren, 30 great-great-grandchildren and 69 great-great-great-grandchildren. Her secret to long life? Bourbon baby! More details under the hood.

Daisey Bailey, believed to the oldest person of African descent in the world, died of organ failure at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit on Sunday, 23 days before her 114th birthdayBorn in Watertown, Tenn., Ms. Bailey worked on a plantation, keeping house and chopping wood; in 1943 she decided moved to metro Detroit where she earned money by doing housework and baby-sitting.

According to the Gerontology Research Group, she was the world’s fourth-oldest person and second-oldest American, though her family believes, despite not having documentation, that she was actually a year older.

Ms. Bailey, who later developed Alzheimer’s, enjoyed flower and vegetable gardening, listening to the blues, dancing and cooking.

Her granddaughter says her secret to long life was simple,

“Eat plenty of vegetables and take a little nip,” her granddaughter Helen Arnold, who lived with her on Detroit’s west side since 1989, said Monday.

Ms. Bailey’s drink of choice was old bourbon.

Her relatives called her Mamie, because “she said she couldn’t get no boyfriend if we called her Grandma,” Arnold explained.
Bailey outlived two husbands, Will Reedy and John Bailey, as well as two sons, Robert and S.T. Reedy, and two daughters, Fannie Mai Feay and Frankie Brown.

Mary Josephine Ray, the New Hampshire woman who was certified as the oldest person living in the U.S., died the same day as Ms. Bailey at age 114 years, 294 days. She also was the second-oldest in the world, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

She sounds like an amazing woman.

R.I.P. Daisey Bailey! We’ll pour out a lil bourbon for ya…

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After losing five Olympic gold medals amidst a performance enhancing drug scandal and a federal prison sentence, Marion Jones will return to sports through the WNBA. Continue…

In his most recent blog “The Secret Relationship Between Blacks & Jews” BDR reveals how the Blacks and Jews have long stood side by side to march against racism and injustice and oh yeah, pop bottles and Challah for some dollas too. As usual — Uncle Russ is long winded as the fu*k but of course we brought along our handy BOSSIP BDR Translator to make it easy on you. Pop the hood for more:

BDR kicks off his three page blog discussing how the history of partnership between Blacks and Jews during the civil rights movement is all well documented but the “creative alliances” aren’t as well documented. He goes on to introduce his buddy Rabbi Marc Schneier at The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and keeps on talking about how nobody helped blacks as much as Jews did during the civil rights movment… He then discusses the persecution of both communities before arriving at his real point — Jews GET MONEY!!!

“Despite the years of anti-Semitism, the Jewish community has not let the hatred of others hinder their ambitions or drive for success. The Jews have been resourceful and have stood together and time and time again prospered in business, medicine, law and entertainment. This is a great example of what a tight knit family and education can accomplish even against a world filled with shut doors and hate.”

“While I have many firsthand experiences in records, jewelry (sic), fashion, internet, TV, film, financial services, and much more, I have also noticed Jay Z, Puffy, and most of hip-hop out-branding the record business that is dying its own death, and building partnerships in areas previously reserved for white men. Both Jay Z and Puffy are truly creative entrepreneurs, and both have learned a lot of these skills from their Jewish partners and suppliers.”

“Entrepreneurs are usually raised in cultures that feed that free spirit that allows them to dream up new ideas and break the mold. Without documentation I can still safely state that in most hoods, and certainly in mine, going to school to “get a good job” was the goal.”

But I built many businesses with Jews who didn’t let school dim down their dreams and they were comfortable with the idea to let go of the idea of job security and fly. This I learned from Orthodox Jews, Syrian Jews, Reform Jews and other sects of Judaism. All of these communities have welcomed.”

Today’s BDR Translator will keep it short and sweet: Find a Jew, Friend A Jew, And You Can Get Some Dollars Too! Diddy And Jay-Z Did It So Why Not You???

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We clown a lot on here, but AIDs is no joke! We’re actually relieved to see that the District of Columbia is stepping up by becoming the first U.S. city to give out the condoms for free. The sad part is that this program wasn’t established until after a Washington Post investigation revealed fraudulent activities going on with the AIDS/HIV administration. More detailed information on the flipside.

The District will become the first city in the United States to distribute female condoms free, part of a project that will make 500,000 of them available in beauty salons, convenience stores and high schools in parts of the city with high HIV rates.

City officials said the distribution could begin within the next three weeks in parts of wards 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7, where a study showed that large numbers of African American heterosexuals engage in risky sexual behavior that could easily lead to infection.

The move is an official acknowledgment of the futility of relying solely on the use of male condoms, which have been distributed citywide for nearly a decade, to stem the District’s epidemic of HIV and AIDS. Officials said they are turning to female condoms to give women more power to protect themselves from HIV and sexually transmitted diseases when their partners refuse to use protection.

HIV/AIDS infection is the leading cause of death for black women 25-34 nationwide. A 2008 report showed the District’s HIV/AIDS rate at 3 percent, or about 15,100 adults, a major epidemic.

“Anywhere male condoms are available, female condoms will be available,” said Shannon Hader, director of the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration. “We’re not saying that if you’re a school in this area, you can’t get female condoms. We’re trying to make every effort count to build on what already exists . . . to expand options rather than limit them.”

The project is funded through a $500,000 grant from the MAC AIDS Fund, a subsidiary of MAC Cosmetics, which contributes to numerous city programs, including two of the city’s needle exchange programs. The grant helped the city buy the condoms at wholesale prices from the Female Health Co. and provide them for distribution by social service organizations, including Planned Parenthood, the Community Education Group and the Women’s Collective.

In recent months, the HIV/AIDS Administration came under scrutiny after a Washington Post investigation revealed that some groups with which it contracted to provide services failed to obtain business licenses and file tax returns. Others gave false information about employee résumés and consulting contracts, or spent lavishly on travel and executive salaries.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development threatened to withhold $12.2 million in federal funding but released the money after the District agreed to improve its tracking of spending by AIDS programs and monitor the services they deliver…

The media takes a lot of criticism for being negative, but at the end of the day the public should be thanking the media for asking the hard questions and really snooping around when it’s critical to know the truth! If the Washington Post hadn’t been looking into these AIDS program, how many of you think this female condom program would be going into effect right now?

The Post story also pointed out that this new program will help women take on more responsibility for their own health, citing how some of the women most vulnerable to infection felt they had few options in the past:

Activists say poor women often are reluctant to protest when their husbands and boyfriends refuse to use male condoms because they are dependent on the man’s income.

It’s also interesting to note that the U.S. is far behind when it comes to this particular form of contraception:

The female condom has been available in Europe for nearly two decades and was first approved for use by the FDA in 1993. Its use in the United States was limited and ineffective. Women complained that the first version, FC1, was too expensive, about $17 for a box of five, and unsatisfactory.

Last year the Federal Drug Administration approved a second version, FC2, with a thinner polyurethane that conducts body heat and enhances sexual sensation for men and women, according to its designers at the Female Health Co. The new condom was developed in 2005 and became widely used in South Africa. It is now in use in nations such as Indonesia and Brazil.

CVS became the nation’s first pharmacy to sell the new condom after the group contacted the company, said Vernon Goad, CVS’s field marketing manager in the Washington area. Goad said the pharmacy will offer the female condoms next to male condoms in all of its 56 city stores, not just in target areas. A package of three female condoms sells for $6.50. A three-pack of male condoms sells for $5 to $7.

Protection is vital! Life is Precious – no pun intended. We can’t say it enough.

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Sean Penn is such a fu*kin’ bada*s!!! When he’s not kicking paparazzi a*ses, he’s over in Haiti helping survivors of the earthquake disaster — and he even has the balls to wish rectal cancer on anybody who might have a problem with it. Pop the hood for his exact words and context.

Does it make you angry when people talk about, you know, ‘Sean Penn, the Hollywood star, the movie star, coming in and trying to do something,’ and they’re kind of cynical about it?

SEAN PENN: No.

Do you hate that question?

PENN: No. I guess I’ve been so away from it all, [in] our tent camp in Haiti, that I haven’t had an awful lot of time to pay attention to them. You know, do I hope that those people die screaming of rectal cancer? Yeah, you know, but I’m not going to spend a lot of energy on it.

Penn recently returned to Haiti with his 16-year-old son, Hopper Jack, and 18-year-old daughter, Dylan.

Why are you taking your children there?

“I think that they’ve had the experience, as I have, that the first person served by service is the server,” Penn said. “You know, there’s nobody in the world that isn’t looking for a kind of purpose in life, and tangible purpose is the most immediately recognizable.”

He also said Americans should be really proud about the United States’ relief efforts in Haiti: “And pride is an obligation to avoid shame later.”

In the interview Penn also discusses the more than $1 million in aid provided to Haiti, which began with the help of his friend, businesswoman Diana Jenkins.

“I just ran into her at a cocktail party and said what I was intending to do,” he said. “And so she decided to support it.”

“Yeah. So, we were able to just say ‘Yes, yes, yes’ on things. We were able to get X-ray machines and ventilators, and do all kinds of things. . . . I was just able to make decisions and bring things in.”

How did you take the money in? Suitcases of cash?

“We took a lot of cash in, yeah, into the country,” he said.

Literally, what did you put it in? Carry it in backpacks?

“Yeah!”

That’s amazing. So, there you are wandering the earthquake zone in Haiti with backpacks of cash?

“We don’t do that anymore!” he said.” We now have a bank account, so no one comes up for cash on the ground in Haiti.”

How much of it has been your money?

“Enough that I’d better get a job soon,” he laughed. ”

Click Here To Watch The Video

You’ve got to admit it’s pretty damn ballsy to walk around the streets of Haiti with that kind of cash. Also — how amazing the actually got up and went over to give relief, while most people in his position wouldn’t budge from the comfort of their homes to do more than send a donation?
 
The full interview with Sean Penn will air on CBS’ “Sunday Morning,” Sunday, March 7 at 9:00 a.m. ET/PT. You can also catch him as a presenter for this year’s Academy Awards Sunday night (he won the Best Actor Oscar last year).

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