Manly Monday: Jay Smooth is Not Barack Obama

Oy vey. :) By now, I’m sure you’ve all seen the New Yorker cover. For many reasons, I’m not gonna rehash the “satire or racism” discussion. See that elsewhere on the web:

• New Yorker cartoon: Satire is the message. (Anderson Cooper)
• New Yorker cover — Satire or smear? (Anderson Cooper; his site gets two links because I think he’s hot)
• The New Yorker and Hipster Racism (Racialicious)
• Obama campaign outraged by New Yorker cover (Agence France Presse)
• Is the New Yorker’s Muslim Obama cover incendiary or satire? (LA Times)
• This is Satire Huh? (The Sauda Voice)
• Long Islanders appalled by New Yorker’s Obama cartoon (Newsday)
• New Yorker attacked for Obama cover (Financial Times)
• Gawker’s Response to a Reader Suggesting They’re Racist (Gawker)
• Yikes! Controversial New Yorker Cover Shows Muslim, Flag-Burning, Osama-Loving, Fist-Bumping Obama (Rachel Sklar on Huffington Post)

I’m an Illinois-bred Obamalover, but this isn’t his Monday. Today’s Manly Monday pick isn’t Barack (or Soulja Boy). It’s Jay Smooth. “And, who he hell is he?!?!” some of you might ask. Yes, dear readers, I’ve heard you. A couple of you emailed me to say some of my Manly Monday picks — such as Laird Hamilton — are obscure. But, you know what? I like it that way. Sometimes, I prefer to write about random dudes who’ve been on my mind (for whatever reason) rather than jump on the bandwagon to talk about the guy that everyone else is talking about. Hence, hip hop blogger Jay Smooth instead of Obama. You know, give the little guys some coverage.

I met Jay in New York at Feministing‘s party a couple months ago. He’s the guy Wired magazine calls “the hardest blogging man in hip-hop” and King magazine calls “a well spoken idiot.” He’s been on my mind recently because I saw him Saturday at The Museum on Chinese in America‘s “Rebuilding the Bridge.” My friend Julie invited me. It was a fundraiser for Sichuan earthquake victims; so, you know, I totally expected a “boring-but-this-is-for-a-good-cause” night out. Instead, I got a surprise visit by fucking NAS (still can’t believe he dropped by), a live Ryan Leslie performance, 1980s-style dj battles between Just Blaze and DJ Delinger, spoken word by Beau Sia and an appearance by the Jabbawockeez. Um, yeah, hot right? The themes for the night were kinda about hip hop, media, propanganda and social media — building our own creative products. Jay Smooth, of course, is doing just that. So, Kudos to him … and a big terrorist fist jab from my corner of the web to his.  ;)  Be back tomorrow, Tuesday, with less Manly Monday and more sex and dating.