Days After…..pt. 2
So, last yr I’d written a piece,days after the George Zimmerman verdict. https://stressboogie.net/2013/07/17/days-after/ Since then, more black males have been killed by authority. Some on camera in plain view of witnesses. And there have been no criminal charges brought against those officers involved. So within a little under two weeks time, two Grand Jury verdicts have shown officers to be in the right and just in their actions…….. Ri…iiight….
An 18 year old young man is dead____________________________. What can really be said here? I’ve had the argument with folks of all kinds who the the position of saying, ” He just stole from the store and was a suspect.” The proof of the matter though is that the officer on the scene did not know if he was a suspect. He just wanted him to get out of the street. Now before all of those folks who have pulled themselves up by their boot straps get to commenting,( and I welcome any comments) lets think back to your teenage years. When I was young, I did some things that I knew were wrong. (And I’m only making this as a counterpoint because the shooting of an unarmed boy is wrong….Period….) I took some chances , some really dumb chances and you know what,…. sometimes I got in trouble and sometimes I didn’t. But each time I made it home. As a teenager, I was allowed to figure out the world , make some mistakes, and grow up.. This young man never got a chance to grow up. I say this because looking back, At the age of 18, I wasn’t the same person that I was even at the age of 21. I was different at 25. Furthermore at 30..and at 38, I don’t even recognize some parts of my old self. Can you imagine if your life stopped at 18 and people tried to remember you as the kid that stole Reese Cups from Bachman’s.? Growth is part of life just as death is. Whats tragic is when death comes before the growth. Whats even more tragic is when people act like its OK. IT’S NOT OK….
A 43 Year old man is dead. A 43 yr old husband , father and grandfather is dead____________________________
He was black….. Do you care that he was choked to death? He was also unarmed. “But Stress,…He was suspected of selling illegal loose cigarettes.” I say so what….. Bank of America, Countrywide and countless other banks and mortgage companies sold people illegal mortgages and caused a fall in the whole economy. They didn’t get choked out,….they got bailed out…… “But, Stress, he was resisting…” I say, when you feel like you’re being wrongly targeted , are you just gonna say ok arrest me?…..take me in,…. I did it… If you say yes to this,… may I remind you of a small little case involving five young minorities in Central Park in the eighties. …”But Stress, nobody gets all worked up about Black-on-Black crime. We kill each other all the time. If we respected ourselves, others would respect us”…. Let me say this… The term Black on black crime is stupid. It gives a false look of what it really is…..JUST CRIME.. Crime is crime, white black or what ever. Also, people try to do things all the time about crime in the area. I know I do. And if you think that being respectful(though I think you should be) and meek will stop people from hating you and killing you, then you do not live on Earth. You, my friend live in a Nick Jr cartoon. Last time I went through our history in this country, it didn’t matter. Whats tragic is when someone can be murdered in plain view of the world. Whats even more tragic is when people act like its OK. .ITS NOT OK…
It’s days after….and again …ITS NOT OK…
The Randy Watson Ep
NOW AVAILABLE FROM STRESS BOOGIE
THE RANDY WATSON EP featuring the smash “GLOW” 
DOWNLOAD HERE!!!! https://stressboogie1.bandcamp.com/album/the-randy-watson-ep
One Black Man’s Guide to Scandal Thursday’s
Stress Boogie gives you key instructions on how to enjoy Thursday nights with your lady
Days After….
So, it’s days after the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. And, in case you’ve been under a rock, it was a Not Guilty verdict. I was watching this trial and story very closely. Its almost like when something like this happens, I’m always reminded that that couldve been me. Some people would debate me on this since they know me for being a pretty cool headed, down to earth respectable and respectful guy. They say ” ..You’re a husband, a musician, a performer, a family man…” They say this to say that somehow this is what would protect me from the ills of society. See, I’m no dummy. I know that there are people out there that don’t like me. Some of those reasons stem from my skin color. White friends of mine say that my skin color has nothing to do with anything. Yet, even in our friendly conversation, they only seek my opinion on entertainment, sports and pop culture. Never on economics, finance, or family values. It was always something that I couldn’t ignore. I often wondered if they thought that Black people just don’t know about any of these things. I would slowly start to inject myself in the conversations dealing with stock portfolios only to get a shocked reaction like, “Wow, I didn’t know you knew about that.” I’d respond with “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” Even, my friends have no idea who I really am, so how could a stranger.
When I was 17, I had a friend who moved to Bloomfield,NJ. Like most kids at that time, we walked everywhere. One day, my friend and I were walking from my home in East Orange to theirs in Bloomfield. We may have been 3 blocks into the Bloomfield border when we were stopped by police. The officer asked us where we were going. We then explained that we were going to my friends house who lived not to far from where we were. The officer’s response was “You don’t live around here.” Soon after, 2 more squad cars arrived with one officer stating that they got a call that 2 guys(black) were walking down the street looking in driveways. Eventually, they let us go but I’ll never forget being questioned about my right to walk down a public street with no problem. Another time I was walking home from the park and I was approached by a white officer who told me I looked suspicious and proceeded to put his gun in my face. I was asked where I was coming from. I told him I was coming from the park…. He said I was lying………. I had a basketball in my hand………
I was a good student, came from a good home, didn’t get into trouble, was respectful and respectable and in that moment staring at a gun, none of that mattered.
The sad case of Trayvon Martin and the verdict in the Zimmerman trial is a microcosm of the whole country. Oh, and thank you Juror B37 for showing this ignorance and social and racial disconnect in your interview. Thanks for feeling bad for the guy who got off scott free and even endorsing him as a Neighborhood Watch Captain. I guess its ok to just kill black people if you don’t think they should be in your neighborhood. Thank you also for not understanding Rachel Jeantel’s testimony or language and feeling so sorry for the downtrodden little uneducated black girl.
I WAS, AS A CHILD, AND STILL AM AS AN ADULT, TRAYVON MARTIN … and once again, my right to exist in society without question is gone.
-Boogie
Stress Boogie & Dox Diggla RED CARPET[HD]
2nd release off of the album Stress Boogie and Dox Diggla PS3. Directed by Nimi Hendrix. Available on itunes and other digital outlets. Download the song here
Stressboogie and DoxDiggla PS3 fan review ……
Despite my delusions of hip hop grandeur, I’m no expert. I can ID Chubb Rock’s voice in a rapper line up, and still have Self Destruction on vinyl, but I have little to contribute to the Biggie-Jay Z-or-Nas debate and I’m just now listening to Kendrick Lamar (late pass). But I do know what I like. And I like PS3, the latest project from Stress Boogie and Dox Diggla.
Like many, I’m a sucker for a dope beat. But not at the expense of dope lyrics. Lucikly, PS3 has both. The flow of the 13 songs reminds me of a tape, pitting amped joints of the unofficial “side A” against the easy, smoother joints of “side B.” PS3 is not for the lazy listener who just wants to rest in good music. You have to, or more accurately, you’ll WANT to really listen to the lyrics. I found myself clicking “rewind” on most tracks so I’d really hear what lyricists Stress and Dox were saying.
My faves:
“Red Carpet” – perfect for a party playlist, speeding down the highway, or for blasting during that all-important time when your girls come over for drinks and last minute outfit checks before you all go out.
“B-Boy” – Stress’ and Dox’s flow – sick. For real. SICK. Like, battle rap sick. The music might even be more SICK. The break bangs with what I think are congas that kind of create a bonus track within the song. Next time I play this, I’m rocking shell-toes and a dashiki!
“Stay in Your Lane” might be my fave of the whole project. Hard beats, bragging lyrics. And it’s Dox’s shine song for sure. His flow is reminiscent of hip hop before songs needed hooks And to me, that’s a great thing.
Dox is more than just a sh*t talker/B*tch n*gga side swiper/Wig sparker in a thick parka/Mr. Mindwiper..
Another song I don’t need to listen to in my car cause Jersey auto insurance is already too high.
Other songs of note:
“Away” – I think I played this song three times before I could keep up. Don’t know why. Its theme – wishing things were different – isn’t new. (Most day, yo I swear I wish I had Dorothy’s heels to click – Dox). The flow is slow and deliberate, so following the lyrics was easy. But it’s the first song on the “B side” so maybe I was just slow to make the transition from party mode.
“Book of Life” is on some haunted house, hymn-type ish. Kinda eerie, and definitely reflective. Makes me think even when I don’t want to:
The more that I win it seems the more that I’m defeated/ The more work I put in the more money’s depleted/The more that I give away, the more that is needed….
My eyes open to the BS/We just lost focus/which is easy when the work is using pepper spray. – Stress
“Off with Your Sneakers” – the project’s first release, is a grimy anthem with a video to match.
But my fave lyrics are from Stress in “Toast,” the requisite hip hop victory/thank you/F-you song:
All those hating, pulling on ya, never lift ya/ mad cause they the loser, worse cause you’re the victor/pour them a glass too while they looking at ya/Let all that negativity just *ching* off the snifter.
I’m pretty sure I don’t have haters, but that last line makes me want some just so I can *ching* too. Where’s my snifter?
by Katura Hudson
PS3 IS AVAILABLE AT ALL DIGITAL OUTLETS
Stressboogie and Doxdiggla OFF WITH YOUR SNEAKERS
Brand New video off the upcoming joint project PS3
This is the first visual. the street single OFF WITH YOUR SNEAKERS
Stressbooogie and DoxDiggla Off with your sneakers
Stressbooogie and DoxDiggla Off with your sneakers
new video alert!!!! From the forth coming project pS3.
So Emotional..
Never thought I’d be typing the words, “Rest In Peace Whitney Houston”
I woke up today feeling a lil more sad then usual. I don’t get why when people are famous or live their life in the public eye, that people feel like its ok to be extra insensitive to them. Is it because they feel like giving you 10 bucks for a Cd entitles them to disrespect you? Well, a lot of people have paid ten bucks for cds of mine and let me tell ya, ……….Try me if you want to!!………… But I digress…..
If you are one of the kids like me who grew up on the Doddtown, Franklin School side of East Orange, then you know why my heart is heavy. If you ever took a walk or a bike ride to the McDonald’s on Dodd Street, you know why my heart is heavy. If you ever went to New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, you know why my heart is heavy. East Orange is a small town where EVERYBODY knows each other. Family, friends, friends of friends, friends of family.. Everyone knows each other somehow. So if you’re from here like myself, maybe you sang in the choir with her, maybe you played cards with her, or maybe you were one of the kids who swam in the family pool. Maybe you were scared of their dog, or maybe you just like walking past their home.
I heard a certain radio personality and a co worker of mine say that they were not surprised that Whitney had struggles with substance abuse or that she had died. His exact words were,” ….Look at where shes from…” I took offense to that… It made me feel like, “This is how you look at me huh?” They couldn’t understand why I would feel this way. Why I felt like no matter how much good you do and how successful you are, people are always gonna have in the back of their minds that you ain’t shit, partly cause of where you’re from……
Let’s look at where shes from.
Born in Newark, New Jersey………… Me Too
Family moves to East Orange in hopes of better living………Me too
…Goes to Franklin School where Mr Hamilton was Principal (and still is btw)…..Me too
….Goes on to become one of the biggest and most successful stars in the world while establishing herself as the vocal standard for any and every female vocalist after her. And even with all of this, never forgets where she was from. We’re talking about a women, that no matter the height of her fame and fortune, would return to the elementary school just to visit classrooms, talk to kids, or take everyone to the zoo. Someone who never shrugged you off and would always respond with a “hey” and a smile. Someone you felt like you were close to, because if you are from where I’m from, you were.
In conclusion I would like to say that we’ve suffered a great loss.
We lost our sister…
R.I.P Whitney you will always be an inspiration to me, not only for your great talents, mega stardom and huge influence, but because of where I’m from…..
NO CHURCH IN THE WILD
OK, so I was looking at the paper today. I also was listening to the rumor mill aka the negro news. There are so many crimes in this city. It almost becomes a way of life to either do crime, be associated with crime or have to adopt a criminal’s mind state to be able to deflect and get by. I live on a street where, within four short blocks, there are 4 churches. Also within four square blocks, there are 8 churches. As the territory expands, these numbers get bigger and bigger. But as the territory expands, so does the crime rate. It got me to thinking. There are over 400 churches accounted for in the city of Newark and several hundred store front churches un-accounted for, and hundreds more Masjids.. So, for all of the churches, religious fanatics, and any others,… I propose this……
If you open up a church in a neighborhood and don’t help the neighborhood, you should be extorted!! The true power in getting people to see the light is to let your light SHINE. Not to keep your light in your little 12x 24, 7 member, store front
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Otherwise, whats the purpose of you being there because right now these words never meant more to me……….
No Church In The Wild feat. Frank Ocean
Human being to the mob / What’s a mob to a king? / What’s a king to a god? / What’s a god to a non-believer / Who don’t believe in anything? / Will he make it out alive? / Alright alright / No church in the wild……….
DEAR BRICK CITY
Dear Brick City,
Where the F*ck did we go wrong?!? As a resident of this town , I have to ask the question. If you ask a lot of the residents ’round here, they may say its the mayor 
I say,…. “Try again.” The next thing that they may say is, “It’s the crime.” I still say, “Take another guess.” You may say, “The city doesn’t have any money.” I then respond with, “Look at all of the changes you see going to certain parts of the city.” There’s definitely money. Now where and how it gets spent is a whole ‘notha story. I grew up in East Orange New Jersey. which really is a small town. You can go from one end to the other in 10 mins. In fact, you can go from one part of Newark, pass through East Orange and end up back in Newark again! I say this to say, for two places being so close together, they seem like they’re worlds apart. I moved to Newark in 2005. The first thing that drew me was the promise of low taxes. That was cool at first, but then the city had a tax assessment. First promise broken. Then I took it upon myself to try to organize my block, set up meetings with the city council, get in touch with the wards police captain, so on and so forth. What I’ve noticed is that I seem to be the only one doing something around here. Whether its calling the city about the disturbances of the local bars, or even putting my trash can back when garbage is not picked up. And speaking of garbage, how is it that garbage is not consecutively picked up on garbage day? When it is picked up, you have employees that would rather talk on their phones instead of pick up your garbage. Or use your backyard as their own personal Port-a-potty. I also noticed that when I attempt to do business down at city hall I am redirected to floor after floor, with the responses of “We don’t do that here. Go to room blah- blah -blah.” After an hour of the run around I return to the first place that I went, only to have my original request finally obliged by a very annoyed employee, who was just about to finally win at ANGRY BIRDS! Sorry, I interrupted you at WORK!! I live in an area where there are not one, but two bars. The thing is, none of the residents go to the bars. The neighborhood people hate these places. Then I ask myself, “Why are they still here?” Their customers have no respect for the surrounding area, so why do they operate with impunity? (even as I type this, there are shots being fired outside) Why is that a lot of people are screaming change, change, change, and nobody’s doing anything. To answer my original question….. I think the city has an attitude problem.
I think too many people have an “Oh well” attitude. Too many people have the attitude of, “It didn’t happen in my house” so it’s o.k.” Too many people have the attitude that if nobody is dead or bleeding right in front of them, that there’s not a problem. So who do I take my gripe to ?
My Councilman
I think not. Ive already tried.
Maybe the governor 
Yeah right!!!
Maybe I can go straight to Mark Zuckerberg and ask him for some money to help me fix some of the other pressing issues 
…(sounds silly when I say it, too!)
I think the attitude of this city has to change. And it starts with our attitude first. There are marches on city hall happening. My question is what is this doing for the crime in your neighborhood? It’s not city hall’s fault that your son is a murderer. It’s not city halls fault that our streets have so much litter. I live 5 blocks from South Orange where there is an invisible litter border. Whats the difference in these two towns? Its not money, it’s attitude…
What do you think?
Over 30 (The beginning of the rest of your life)
I received an email today that I thought that I would share with the rest of you. I know a lot of you are chained to your desk slaving away at the salt mine job of yours. Spending countless days, hours, minutes, and seconds at the “Cubicle Farm”, all the while wishing you could be doing the job that you WANT to do.
For some of us over 30 yrs of age, it may seem like the window of opportunity has come and gone. Well I would like to challenge that notion. For a lot of great people, their life didn’t start until they reached that “ripe old age”. In the copy of this email, I hope you find what I did. Inspiration, kindling for the creative fire that burns in your heart and soul, and most of all, a target for your inner strength and faith. Here’s the email:
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As you know, I am a singer/songwriter/dancer/artist/lover of life who, with all of my God given talents, has struggled tremendously with the battle between financial stability vs. having faith enough in my talents to use them as a means of making money. This struggle has left me teetering between the two worlds of working as a paralegal and living as an artist for years.
The times as an artist have been exhilarating, yet I’ve always reverted back to a more certain, dare I say “stable” existence as a paralegal. “What the heck does this have to do with me?” you ask. Nothing, but also, everything.
Today a feeling, that has stopped by on occasion, has come over me so greatly that I had to share! It’s the feeling that I WILL be successful at whatever I do, that where I am is okay, and that the phrase “it’s never too late” is not just colloquial rhetoric, but a truism that needs to be sounded deep in my soul so that it can resonate throughout my body! Today, I realized that whatever road I take to get to where I’ve got to go is okay, so long as my true passion doesn’t get pissed out at every stop. Today, I realized that I can be a paralegal, a property manager, a bookkeeper, a supervisor, a student, “in-between” jobs, or just flat out unemployed, but that none of those things define me…or you.
I am a singer/songwriter, lover of life and an artist. God has sent me here to speak to peoples’ souls with my voice and He/She has sent you here to do something too. Whether your talent is journalism, philanthropy, singing, organizing; whether you aspire to be a doctor, an artist or a chicken feather plucker; you are amazingly talented and the world needs to know! I love you because you are me and I am you – our talents may be different but none less important than the other. As you journey on the road of life remember, there will be some twists and turns, ups and downs, but it can be extremely fun as long as you have a song in your heart to keep you company. Don’t forget the lyrics!
Examples of folks who let the world hear their song after 30 ITS NEVER TOO LATE!!
YOU’RE ALL WELCOME
WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BOOGIE!!
I can’t promise that you’ll like me. I can’t promise that you’ll love me. I can’t promise that you’ll even respect me! But I can promise that you’ll remember me. I can promise you the best quality of music. I can promise you the the real me. Now, get in touch with me.
Here’s something to get acquainted with me. This is the first single of of the album, OUTERSPACE
We call this one “FLY”
Stressboogie.net 