Jasiri X Returns with "City of Steel"

From Jasiri X:

According to the New Pittsburgh Courier, "The average homicide victim in 2010 was a 33--year-old Black male with four prior arrests, most likely shot on the North Side, in the Hill District or the East End with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol in the early morning hours of a Saturday in July. The average shooter was a 29-year-old Black male with four prior arrests. The motive was likely retaliation. And according to the clearance-rate data, there is a 46 percent chance that he is still at large."

This is why we decided to dedicate our latest video to the problem of violence in our community.

"City of Steel" was filmed on Pittsburgh's Northside at, Northview Heights housing project, Allegheny County General Hospital, Zone No.1 Police Station, Union Dale Cemetery, and the newly reopened state prison, SCI Pittsburgh.

"City of Steel" was produced by Rel!g!on and directed by Paradise Gray.

This is the third video, in the four video series entitled "The Pittsburgh Press", which was made possible by a generous Seed Award from the Sprout Fund.

LYRICS

In Pittsburgh PA you'll get served each day

You're either fiending or you're tryin to be the Kingpin

In the late hours thugs dream to take power

baked powder cocaine entry in the dope game

X or the Big H reps come from big weight

you can catch a big break graduate to biggate

you can catch a big case graduate to triple max

affidavits, eye witness, warrants for official taps

legal fees cripple stacks, ya funds is limping

with your money on crutches you can't run from prison

now it got ya gums itching, now you've begun snitching

saying you've become Christian no more drugs and women

but the press leaked ya name so 44 guns is spitting

no more tongues is flipping you got slugs in ya system

ain't no happy endings in this coke opera

just broke coppers and dope poppers, bodies found in coat lockers

hope nada you'll get ya folk shot up

only guarantee is they'll be another boat with product, here

In Pittsburgh PA you'll get served each day

You're either a customer or hustler

In Pittsburgh PA you'll get served each day

You're either fiending or you're tryin to be the Kingpin

In the early morning when ya barely yawning

thugs is carry on and what they carry is long and

sound like cherry bombs and will cherry ya garment and

bury ya squadron

for that cash stash that's buried in your apartment

be wary of a cartridge

that's loaded and fired by legendary marksmen

dead on with dead eyes dead weight cause dead guys'

don't tell the Feds lies therefore the lead flies

In Pittsburgh PA you'll get served each day

we stay on the fast lane of the freeway

each day's a replay no room for delay

he say she say he spray she lay

on the pavement she's going away with

her virginity in tack because she said she'd save it

till the day she got married but that day will never come

cause she died at 16 so she'll stay forever young, here

In Pittsburgh PA you'll get served each day

You're either a customer or hustler

In Pittsburgh PA you'll get served each day

You're either fiending or you're tryin to be the Kingpin

"Jordan Miles" | New Music Video by Jasiri X

Jasiri X tells the story of Jordan Miles, the 18 year old honor student who was brutally beaten by 3 undercover Pittsburgh Police officers while walking to his grandmother's house. "Jordan Miles" was mixed by Diezel and directed by Paradise Gray.

Call Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala at 412.350.4400 and demand he file charges against the 3 police officers who brutally beat Jordan Miles.

For more info go to
http://justiceforjordanmiles.com/


LYRICS
by Jasiri X

Now here's a little story I got to tell
about 3 officers you don't know so well
It's started way back last January
with officers Ewing, Sisak, and Saldutte
They ran into boy named Jordan Miles
a real good kid who for sure was mild
but he was found guilty before a trial
cause he's a young black man in the wrong part of town
Jordan is a kid that gets good grades
not a thug bragging that he's hood raised
He takes care of his grandmother cause she's older
went to performance arts school and plays the viola
He never did a crime one day in his life
His favorite TV show is CSI
when he graduated he wanted to learn
how to catch a criminal like Lawrence Fishburne
Then one night like he always did
He made the short walk to his grandmother's crib
cause grandma didn't like to be alone
by her self at night so Jordan stayed in her home
Now these 3 cops were undercover
so they could sneak up and snatch a brother
catch you in the act pull the gat and bust ya
throw you on the ground pat you down and cuff ya
rollin through the hood looking for they next victim
like every other night so they know how to pick em
They saw Jordan walking they lips they start lickin
there's a young black male hell yeah let's get him
They jumped out the car as the tires spun
yelling where's the drugs, where's the money and guns
Jordan stops walking his face was stunned
he thinks he's being robbed so he starts to run
He didn't get far before the cops catch em
Now they got em they gotta teach him a lesson
Because he ran that means they gotta wreck him
they slam him on his neck and start to chin check him
Blow after blow till his face was swollen
He thinks their gonna stop but they just keep going
he calls on God whispering the lords prayer
they grab him by his locks just to rip out his hair
beaten and bloody they finally hand cuff him
but then when they search they don't find nothing
they're minds was boggled then lies start to follow
let's say inside his coat he had mountain dew bottle
and we thought that it was a weapon
we had to hit him cause he resisted arrest and
Let's take him to jail and get him drug tested
because if he's high we won't look so reckless
Now Jordan's Mom is really scared
cause she called his grandma's and he isn't there
What his in jail she headed there on the double
it must be a mistake Jordan's never been in trouble
Outside the jail and she saw this man
who was beat so bad it made her think damn
It looked like he was hit with by bomb
then he walked right up to her and said Mom
She was shocked she couldn't believe
that disfigured face was he's son indeed
she fell to her knees she couldn't even breathe
Her son has been a victim of police brutality
she rushed Jordan to emergency
And every time she looks at him it hurt to see
her son in a hospital bed in pain
police took no blame and claim its how they trained
Jordan got charged but when it went to court
We found out the police falsified they're report
They said a neighbor called the cops crying
She got up on the stand and said stop lying
Now the whole community wants justice for Jordan
And the cops charged for the crimes they reported
Call the DA and tell him to press charges
we demand justice and we just getting started

America's Most Livable City? | New Video by Jasiri X

from Jasiri X:

"America's Most Livable City" highlights the city of Pittsburgh's recent honor, despite according to the U.S. Census Bureau, having the highest rate of poverty among working age Black people in the United States. This is the Pittsburgh they don't show when your watching the Steelers, the REAL Pittsburgh.

To see more footage of these poor undeserved communities and the Black Men stepping up to provide solutions go to to view our series, "Is Pittsburgh America's Most Livable City?"

LYRICS

Welcome to America's Most Livable City

Please ignore the invisibles with me

See Pittsburgh rebuilt it's economy

But we still lead the Nation in black poverty

Welcome to America's Most Livable City

Just ignore the invisibles with me

And state ya business, cause here the place ya living

depends on ya race and privilege

They call it Clipsburgh Pistolvania

Where block dictators will launch missiles to bang ya

Where hot metal come whistling out the chamber

To maim ya twisting you like wrestlemania

And what's crazier the bishop wont pray for ya

Ya families so poor they can't even afford a crate for ya

And in them skyscrapers Brah they can't wait for us

To move out the hood so they can take it lace it up

Transit cuts a brother can't even take the bus

This is the ugly truth no need to make it up

Then some magazine comes along and places us

As most livable in the USA what?

Say what? Guess they didn't survey us

Cause life is cut shorter than razors where they raise us

Judges are racists and quick to hang us

And police taze us until we never wake up

Welcome to America's Most Livable City

Please ignore the invisibles with me

See Pittsburgh rebuilt it's economy

But we still lead the Nation in black poverty

Welcome to America's Most Livable City

Just ignore the invisibles with me

And state ya business, cause here the place ya living

depends on ya race and privilege

And downtown it's a bunch of new buildings

Glass and steel cathedrals the cost a few million

They make billions to treat a dudes illness

With medicine and pharmaceuticals so who's dealing

But the schools are failing screw children

Just make sure the office has a see through ceiling

Pitt University and CMU killin

classes cost thousands I don't see you fill em

How we gonna get a job in biotechnology

if all we ever learn is survival psychology

and why we so poor if yall revived the economy

but we don't get nothing besides and apology

Tear down the projects and put up a target

then build new homes so they can stimulate the market

But move us out the neighborhood so we can never harvest

the only thing we guaranteed in Pittsburgh is charges

Welcome to America's Most Livable City

Please ignore the invisibles with me

See Pittsburgh rebuilt it's economy

But we still lead the Nation in black poverty

Welcome to America's Most Livable City

Just ignore the invisibles with me

And state ya business, cause here the place ya living

depends on ya race and privilege

'Left of Black': Episode #29 featuring Kimberly Ellis and Randal Jelks

Left of Black #29
w/ Kimberly Ellis and Randal Jelks
March 21, 2011

Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined by Pittsburgh based scholar, activist, and artist Kimberly Ellis aka Dr. Goddess in a conversation about Pittsburgh’s Hill District and the release of the new DVD Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail. Later Neal talks with Randal Jelks, Professor of African-American Studies at the University of Kansas, about the recent ESPN 30 for 30 documentary The Fab 5.

***

→Named one of the “Most Influential Black Women on Twitter” by “For Harriet” Digital Magazine, Kimberly Ellis aka Dr. Goddess is a writer, an entertainer, an entrepreneur, a scholar, and activist. Dr. Goddess is also an award-winning poet, playwright and performing artist, who is presently on tour with, Dr. Goddess!: A One Woman Show and screenings of its sequel, the ensemble production of Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail: A Spoken Word, Musical Comedy (Unfortunately) Based on a True Story, now on DVD. Follow her on Twitter @DrGoddess.

→Randal Jelks is an Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Kansas with a joint appointment in African and African American Studies. He is the author of African Americans in the Furniture City: the Civil Rights Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is currently finishing a book on Martin Luther King Jr.’s mentor titled Benjamin Elijah Mays, A Religious Rebel in the Jim Crow South: An Intellectual Biography to be published by the University of North Carolina Press.

***

Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University.