About
Nil Doctrine is a new site from Jay Smooth, creator of the Ill Doctrine videoblog. Jay is also founder of New York’s longest running Hip-Hop radio show, the Underground Railroad on WBAI 99.5 FM, and pioneer of hip-hop blogging at hiphopmusic.com.
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for those of us just discovering your ill’ness — and now your nil’ness — is there or will there be a repository of ill doctrine blogs? i was just about to start working my way through. and then ‘we are the world’ had to go fuck up my plan.
I was wondering what this nildoctrine was about.
R.I.P. Illdoctrine =/
WATW25 is … I don’t know. I’m actually more offended by the images from Haiti than by the hip hop choir. Footage of smiling, singing, dancing Haitians is too strong an echo of the singing, smiling, dancing images of blacks that were used to perpetuate the idea that we were happy in slavery. I’m sure I’m reading more into this video than was intended, but that was my first thought. Feh.
Sad to see Illdoctrine go, but glad it doesn’t mean you’re gone. Your voice is too important to lose.
Okay, fine.. But you need to make a video where you break it all down so people won’t just assuming you’re hating (like my students will)..
i just watched the watw25 video for the first time. 7 minutes of cringe. good intentions only go so far.
yeah, uh, i’ve avoided seeing 2 girls one cup, i’ve avoided seeing/hearing that pants on the ground crap (until i saw it in a commercial while watching House. drats), and i’ve avoided seeing hearing watw25. i think i’ve had a good run until i see that it’s brought about the demise of illdoctrine. was it really that bad? was it something so awful that it’s making me curious enough to see how bad it is to send illdoctrine along with a few other of my favorite sites to there resting place? nah. i’ll just your words for it.
i do agree with ESP, though. i’m glad J has figured out a way to speak from the dead…
I have never been one to say no to a song that had a good intention, but to see a song get destroyed so horrifyingly bad can not and will not make me like what they did at any point. Additionally in my opinion it is wrong that Lil Wayne was allowed to be, or was forced to be, Auto-Tunned. Am I wrong or am I just overreacting?
as a haitian american…i can dig the intentions…however this was a hotmess…jamie foxx looked retarded answering his own damn kreole question…please donate directly to haitian relief but don’t download this song because you will be perpetuating this sillyness…does anyone recall the “What Goin On” remake during the start of the Iraq War…
Forgive me, but could someone (Jay?) explain what was SO bad about this song? I think I must be missing something.
I think the big problem here was that the first We Are the World was done to help Africa. This one was done for PR. In the end it will raise money, and that’s a great thing. Anything to help rebuild Haiti, even at the cost of artist integrity, but this came down to face time on a near global PR campaign.
Auto-tuned “Artists” who shouldn’t have been invited.
Jamie Foxx pretending his Ray Charles.
Fergie….
The fact that Hip-Hop has been a sinking ship for a very long time, I’m afraid this may have actually sunk the ship.
Upset over the fall of illdoctrine. At least there is nildoctrine to allow Jay to continue feeding us with the awesome food that are his videos, which I personally admire.
Thanks Jay
This came as quite a shock, but I respect your decision.
I do hope that you will still be making videos. It will be sad if you stop that, because you have made some of the most intelligent and entertaining video blogs I have ever seen about anything ever.
But whatever you do with this new site, I look forward to. Be creative – go wild.
As for bringing hip-hop back…
… we’ll just have to do what we can.
I am happy to see Jay back with Nil Doctrine, but I am sad of the reasons why this all had to happen.
I am a recent lover of hip hop and to hear of this tragedy really broke my heart. I hope that it can be revived and until then, I will keep my eyes and ears open to what I can find.
Why do people have to ruin a great thing by PR stunts?
this shit looks gay breh
Err…not to be spoilsport or nuthin, but I totally feel you, Jenn. I went through my own Smooth binge a while back and I woulda been all manner of bummed if I thought it all suddenly disappeared before I was done, so, um, give it a second look. That’s all I’ll say for now. They’re all on YouTube too, I think.
I just want to join the chorus of folks hoping the old site will remain up for posterity. Too many good posts and great discussion to be lost to a tragic moment in history!
Well, this is disorienting.
Hadn’t hip hop already undergone its own spontaneous but slow zombification? Will any other milieu be as rich and user-friendly a landscape for exploring social issues? Are you going to talk more specifically about how policies and institutions can be changed? Will you promise never to mention John Meyer again, no matter what he drivels?
Is this a ruse?
What up, Nil
I would like to send you music. I think we can help start what I like to call, a southern hip hop shift.
Can I email it to ya in hopes of a few quotes that I can use for the press kits that we are building?
Send me an email. I appreciate you guys holding strong. We are the reinforcements, homie.
-bwrong
Of course Hip-Hop is no more dead than, Jazz or the Blues, or even god for that matter. It just keeps on morphing…like everything else from ones childhood.
Remember after all is said, re-said, and done, it is the children who buy the records; it is the children who we tell tales to to get them to fall for things adults can’t understand them(our)selves.
It doesn’t surprise me at all to find some Lucille Clifton doctrine here with your collection of good words. Love it. Keep the good stuff coming.
Hi! Good idea, but could this actually operate?
CASSIE
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The getup is cute, but you’re looking at the woman who truly knows how to place the frugal in “frugalista” … about $150 for 1 outfit makes me shudder! haha, methinks i’d either hit up target, walmart, or the thrift store for the shirt, get with a pair of medium-wash jeans i already own (if not get a pair, ON SALE, that goes with anything-i.e., zero of the scruff- and bump them up to a darker wash so they go with more).
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I am the Chair of my Depts Diversity Comm and one of my responsibilities is too design training sessions workshops for my student staff (220+) for Rutgers Residence Life…do you do speaking engagements? I use your clips often for in house trainings and discussions. I know you primary focus is pop culture but your commentary and delivery on a variety of social justice topics resonates with a lot of folks particularly college age ppl. If this of interest to you, give me a shout.
Hello,
I am sorry to bother you but I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to contact you. I am currently an undergraduate student at the University of Birmingham in the UK and I am writing my dissertation about the collective cultural identity Hip-Hop has formed (or not) among ethnic minorities in both France and England. I have interviewed many school children and university students in the two countries, as well as a few theorists but I was wondering if it would be OK to ask you a few questions regarding the topic? Is there an email address that I can send you a few questions or let you know a little about my findings?
The main problem with current discourse (I find) has been that- apart from the fact that its written based on and from an American/African-American perspective- there isn’t very many who have discussed the social effects of hip-hop in France and England (from the perception of the actual people).
I have found some interesting things through my field-work (which I think people often forget to do-actually ask the PEOPLE) but the foundations of hip-Hip in terms of its ideology seem to be regurgitated in most books and articles written on the matter. (ironic!) I guess it might also be that ideologies change depending on context, history, society etc, we cannot just keep talking about Hip-hop in the mainstream as the big bad wolf, and ignore new manifestations and social movements which transpired from the subculture (especially in Europe!).
Anyway, please please, if you have any time at all I would be greatful to have some ideas and questions answered.
Merci,
Malia
Free Weezy!
Imagine if the Tea Party was Black
By Tim Wise
Link Below
http://ephphatha-poetry.blogspot.com/2010/04/imagine-if-tea-party-was-black-tim-wise.html
Greetings from the SF Bay Area. I been following you since the ill version and appreciate what you do bruh!
I frequently repost on my blog and comment. Hope thats cool with you, let me know if it’s not.
Dapper Concepts
Hey Jay,
I heard this on the PBS documentary “Roads to Memphis” and I got chills because it is so applicable today! I thought it would be right up your alley. Enjoy!
Andrew Young, Aide to Dr. Martin Luther King said:
We always said we were not concerned with who
killed Martin Luther King. We were concerned with WHAT killed Martin Luther King. And what killed
Martin Luther King was a reactionary attitude that was afraid of change for the better in America. It
was trying to hold America, keep America still, when America was crying out to continue the evolution
of freedom.
entire transcript: http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/special_features/download_files/memphis_transcript.pdf
So wait…is Ill Doctrine no more? I was under the impression that NIL doctrine was to be an offshoot, a spin off for things that didn’t seem to fit the regular ILLdoctrine blogs (ie. hip hop, politics etc) So i visit regularly in hopes of newer posts but to no avail.
Now I visit here and we have a recent post about Nikki Minaj AND one about Paul Rand? I don’t understand.
Im a fan Jay, but help me out.
-Potato w/ Jive
Yeah man. I was getting worried.
You are by far, my favorite vlogger and I would hate to lose you.
Did you go to the blogging while brown conference?
I’m dyeing to hear your take on all this BP mess.
Peace my brother.
Jay, I’m always on the page with you, you pertty much echo my thoughts and general feelings on just about every topic so like others have said I’m glad you’re sticking around and not letting that “little hater” that we all contend with get the best of you.
I’m just curious what the deal is with Nil Doctrine, I’ve been following it since the transition and the the only marked differences is I can see are a somewhat cleaner format on the home page (less links and side bars) and maybe a slightly broader world view on the topics you’ve been choosing to go with.
Am I missing anything else as far as why you transitioned to this format?
Dear Jay,
I have been a great admirer of you work for several months now and have been passing your web-videos onto a number of my friends and students (I teach literature and writing at a college in the Boston-area).
I was particularly moved by the segment you did on Haiti the “nation of heros” shortly after the earthquake. I have a number of close friends from Haiti who also appreciated your take.
In reflecting on the six-month anniversary of the earthquake, which just passed this week, I wrote this critical lyric poem, that I thought you and others who appreciate your work might appreciate. It is called “Fault Lines: Six Months After” and you can find it here at http://www.ramseythewriter.wordpress.com. Love to know what you–or others– think of it. And moreover to have it spread around as one more way to keep Haiti in our thoughts.
Peace and solidarity,
Joe
P.S. I am almost finished with a follow-up poem, called “Bone and Sun” which focuses on the conditions in Camp Corail–a former killing field that is now being used as a refugee camp.
Thank you, 1960 French film À bout de souffle, for inventing the jump cut and making Jay Smooth’s videos possible today.
Big fan.
Here’s a topic I NEED to you explore PLEASEPLEASEGODPLEASE – Education.
Ok, so Tony Danza is now in the classroom…and how does that help the cause of teaching? Someone help me understand this PLEASE! I was an art teacher in the ghetto before they started laying folks off last year in a budget crisis I understand the need for reform. But we have all these people in the media making commentary like they know what the solution is to better school – privitization (i.e. charters). Yeah that’ll work well; look how it made the prison industry SO much better.
Not one knows anything about pedagogy, much less can spell it or explain it.
http://www.aetv.com/teach-tony-danza/index.jsp
have been visiting ur site for a few days. absolutely love your posts. by the way i am doing report relating to this issue. do you happen to know other great websites or perhaps online forums where I can get more info? thanks a lot.
I would love to hear Jay Smooth do a video log commenting on Rush Limbaugh’s recent comments about Michelle Obama being fat. Do people realize just how sexist and racist that comment is? First of all, he’s dictating a European super model body type and standard of beauty as ideal for all women. Second of all, he is ignoring the genetic and physiological differences that exist among different ethnicities. But worst of all–he is totally breaking tradition by brutally attacking and disrespecting a sitting First Lady.
Can you do a piece on public higher education? I’m in MA, where there’s no funding floor in the state budget for public higher ed. The budget for it always gets cut. It looks like Pell Grants are getting cut on a federal level this year as well, in one way or another.
I feel this shows a series lack of priorities. It reminds me a bit of the video in which you put up viewers opinions on what we didn’t want our tax money spent on. Well, this is what I would like my tax money spent on.
When you look at income distribution in our country it becomes apparent that minorities, women, and anyone who doesn’t have a lot of built up financial assets are the people who most need free or affordable public higher education.
I would also like to shout out to PHENOM (Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts) and USSA (United States Student Association) for trying to make a difference.