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Compton’s Very Own Kee Riche$

Aside | | Equal Justice for SOME

By: Ariyana Griffin

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I chopped it up with Kee Riche$ of Compton, California. He not only makes music but he owns a dope clothing brand by the name of “Get Rich.” Kee Riche$ is also a pillar in the Compton community. He’s definitely tapped and is using his platform to do everything from  giving back to children, to giving back to the less fortunate. As he comes up, he’s definitely taking Compton with him, and that’s what we love to see! His last project “From Broke to Rich” is definitely an album you can listen to with no skips! The link will be down below so make sure you check that out if you haven’t already.

 

 

 

What is your stage name and where did it come from?

Kee Riche$ is my stage name and the Kee part came from like just growing up in life. My nicknames have always been K, Kee Kee, Kee, or whatever so when it came to finding a rap name I wanted it to be hella original. I also wanted it to be something people would like so, I put the Riche$ at the end because that something that people like, money.

When and what made you start rapping?

I was like 15 or 16, I quit playing basketball and I just picked up rapping. I found a love for it, I kept it a secret for a while but I just went all in with it.

How did your friends and family react when you said you wanted to be a rapper?

 

How did growing up in Compton or the West Coast in general affect your sound and style?

I feel like it gave me a general sound to base my style off of. I’m from Compton, and there has been a gang of great rappers and artist to come out, even recently. And the West Coast as a whole has produced and influenced most of the music industry, so growing up here kind of gave me a platform of where to start at.

If you could describe what being on stage feels like in one word what would it be?

Exciting.

A lot of rappers make it and don’t give back to their city / come back to their city however you’re bringing Compton up as you come up what made you do that?

That’s just how I’m wired honestly , I learned a lot from Nip’s career and followed a lot of his steps as a man as well as an artist.  I feel like the moves he made for his community and where he came from was noble and respectable. That’s how I want to represented and be viewed.

What would you say to the younger generation from LA and what advice do you have for them?

Shit I’ll just tell them do what we did and bet on their self , don’t be afraid to listen to people older then you and actually take advice and criticism. Just believe in yourself and run your own program, before you trust in somebody and run for their program.

I know you just had a photo shoot with Pro club how was that ? That’s a pretty big deal!

Yeah it was real motivation and inspiration for me to keep going and go to the next level , Pro Club is big where I come from so to work with them was a blessing.

What are some of your goals for the rest of the year?

Just to keep succeeding, nothing set too high I just don’t want to  step backwards, everything positive and moving forward.

What was the hardest thing you’ve dealt with in your career?

Keeping my faith in this shit.

 

Keep up with Kee Riche$

Twitter- @Keeriches

Instagram- @Keeriches

Apple Music- https://music.apple.com/us/artist/kee-riche%24/1106997876

Soundcloud- https://soundcloud.com/urlyee

 

 

Gentrification in the City of Champions

| Equal Justice for SOME

inglewood-ca-1200I’m from California, the sunshine state, specifically from Inglewood, the City of Champions. Some may know my city for the new Rams Stadium, The Forum (former home of the Los Angeles Lakers), Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, Randy’s Donuts, and even the Hollywood Park Casino. Warm sunshine lights up the sky, palm trees line the streets and their fan-shaped leaves sway from the ocean breeze. As an Inglewood native, I know the city is so much more than what it appears to be. Slowly, I have been forced to witness gentrification demolish Inglewood in front of my own eyes,  killing our culture and community bit by bit. It is not only painful but it is heartbreaking as well. 

According to the Webster’s dictionary, the definition of gentrification is “the process of repairing and rebuilding homes and businesses in deteriorating areas (such as an urban neighborhood) accompanied by an influx of middle class or affluent people and that often results in the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents.” It is no secret that in most cases the “poorer residents” in these urban neighborhoods tend to be African Americans and Hispanics. 

The dictionary’s definition raises several questions for me because who decides that our communities need outside help when it comes to repairs? Instead of pouring resources in the community where residents can participate in their own revitalization efforts, who determined that repairing means to break down instead of building and helping the structure that has already been in place? To repair means to fix. How can are you fixing something in a community when gentrification makes everything completely new, almost unrecognizable? The new structures, businesses, homes are now out of financial reach for many of the original residents. Why can’t the millions of dollars that are being poured into the community to kick us out be used to build, and educate the community that is already there? Enough with the questions because I could go on all day, but Inglewood is rich in culture yet it is being overlooked and torn down day by day. The community is being erased by people who flew here instead of thriving because of the people who grew up here. 

I feel gentrification hits even harder in Inglewood because for years we did not have rent control. Rent control is an essential component to renters because it stops landlords from spiking up rent essentially whenever they feel like it. In Inglewood, “64% of households rent rather than own.” In June of 2019, Inglewood’s City Council did approve a rent that would put a 5% cap on the increase of rent and in some cases 8%. Most of the time landlords even raise the rent without repairing anything for months leaving residents with the bare necessities that they need for a healthy living environment. According to Rentcafe.com the average price for rent in Inglewood is $1,856 and the average apartment size is 745 square feet. This is 200 dollars more than the average rent was last year, we are literally being choked out of our community because it’s becoming unaffordable. So now my question is where do the people from the City of Champions go now?

Supporting Links

https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/ca/inglewood/

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gentrification

https://la.curbed.com/2019/6/12/18661454/inglewood-rent-control-approved

 

Are African American Women Black First or a Woman First?

| Equal Justice for SOME

           African American women are often considered a double minority, meaning that they not only have to deal with issues in society because of the color of their skin but also because of their gender. In “the real world” the question arises, is an African American woman considered a woman first or Black? It’s hard to understand exactly what society sees when they think of a black woman, but thanks to urbandictionary.com it was quite easy to get a clue. The website stated that an African American woman is, “a woman with African heritage. A woman who usually has a dark skin complexion and thick kinky or coily hair. A woman who comes in a variety of shapes and sizes which can range from slim/slender to thick/curvy.” So, I must ask, is this what it means to be an African American woman? Brown people come in all shades, shapes, and heights and our hair comes in all textures being a black woman does not have a certain standard

        If you are not sure of exactly what I am asking you to think about yet, let me give you an example. Thousands of women deal with several distressing issues when it comes to working in a male-dominated workplace on a daily basis. This includes being belittled for being a woman, being sexually harassed, being paid less than men, and that is only the start of the list. However, when you add being black on top of that, other issues appear like racism. So, let’s imagine this, an African American woman walks into a boardroom meeting for her company filled with Caucasian men, what do they see first a woman or the color of her skin?

         My personal choice is that she is first seen as a Black before she is seen as a woman. I say this because in 1920 when the 19th amendment allowed women to vote it did not include African American women. I feel that skin color always comes before gender, sexual orientation and preference. Society is a tricky system to understand especially if you are trying to survive and thrive while being African American because it was never made for us. Traditionally African American women have had to work harder than a White woman, an African American man and even harder than a white man with bare minimum credentials. Black women have to deal with stereotypes before she even opens her mouth to speak.

       When it comes to police brutality, it has been proven that African American women and men tend to have more physical encounters than Caucasians. CNN states that” the rate in which police use force on blacks is 3.6 times as high as among whites.” In my eyes, this proves that the police officer sees black skin color instead of seeing a woman first. So, now I ask you again, in society is an African American woman a woman first or is she black first? Leave your comments below.

Will You Go Vegan with Beyoncé ?

| Equal Justice for SOME

The Carters, also known as  Beyoncé  and Jay-Z, have used their massive social media platforms to ask their fans to change their lifestyle by changing just one small factor in their life. That one small factor would be their diet.  The Carter family has gone vegan for the past few months and seem to love it. With the plant based eating, the Carters have seen positive results in their everyday life. The couple wrote the introduction to Marco Borges’, Beyonce’s very own personal trainer, book “The Greenprint: Plant-Based Diet, Best Body, Better World.” The book gives tips on how to live a healthier life as well as how to start and maintain healthy habits.

It is no secret that consuming meat can make you feel sluggish, and even has been linked to many critical diseases such as cancer. As the meat industry grows to meet the expectations of the food industry the quality of the meat is rapidly declining. According to Dummies.com, “Many are starved of the nutrients they require to be healthy because they’re fed an unnatural diet.” If the animals lack the nutrients that they did, then we will not get the nutrients that we need from their meat. If the risk of eating meat does not nearly give people a heart attack, the heinous actions that go on in slaughterhouses usually turns people off of meat and onto the path of being vegetarian or vegan.

Being vegetarian or vegan is thought to be a luxury because of the negative connotation around how much the lifestyle change costs. In the fast food industry, you can often get a burger off the $1 menu, but a salad is at least $5.  When preparing meals at home, it is much more economical. When researched, it was found that staple ingredients to be vegan like soybeans, corn, and rice are cheaper than meat like beef, pork and even chicken.

I can’t help but be curious about how this will go. Queen Bey is known to have hard ride or die fans that are well known as the “Beyhive” that will do anything to get close to her. So I can only wonder how many fans will convert to veganism in order to feel closer to their queen. Beyoncé  alone has 122 million followers on Instagram, with her challenge to her fans she could potentially start a huge movement known as the “Greenprint.”