Fred “Fab5Freddy” Brathwaite – Vegas 2014

A trip to New York is not ever complete without a trip to visit my awesome mentor and dear friend Fred “Fab5Freddy” Brathwaite, so that’s exactly what I did.

Fab is a very busy man, so let me express as much as possible how honored I was to get “any of his time” let alone time at the breakfast and dinner table with him. For breakfast we dined on a read by Talib Kweli with a side of bacon, pancakes and a fantastic cup of jo, (that he prepared for us). Good stuff. The literal cuisine was captivating and rivet-connecting. The article was titled, “Nigga? Please.” It was quite sufficient.

An evening meal of Ecuadorian rice caught us discussing Steve Stout‘s: The Tanning Of America. My mentor is a museum of knowledge and always has an interesting piece on hand. No boring conversation there. Knowledge rules the world, and I prefer to be a part of the ruling force, so I jotted down a reminder to get ahold of TTOA – all four hours of it.

Yes, I made tons of notes during our time together, but getting more familiar with The Tanning of America was at the top of my list. It was broadcast live in February of this year, and I don’t know how, but somehow I must have missed it. Thanks to VH1, I’m all caught up and am able to lay it out today, for your review.

Why would you want to review the broadcast too? Well, for one, this is the perfect time to watch it. It won’t clear up anything that’s going on in the world today as it pertains to race relations, Mike Brown or Travon Martin. No. But what it will do is hip you, educate you to the culture of your other neighbor. If nothing else, it opens up an interesting discussion. America needs so many more discussions.

Let’s see what all of the melanin is about in The Tanning of America:

Fab 5 Freddy sits on the panel with an awesome lineup of #GoodHeads hosted by Gail King: Steve Stout, Nas, Al Sharpton, Billy Corben and Daymond John

The full broadcast ran 4-days, for one hour each day. Click HERE to taste the knowledge.

Unity is in the Music.
If it’ll work, then sure! Let’s use it.

There’s more connecting us, than what keeps us apart.
The Tanning of America’s discussion is timely and smart.

Schmoozing with Fab5Freddy always leaves my lobes on wrinkle,
I’m Qui
And if knowledge was bladder heavy — every 5 minutes I’d have to tinkle.

Jam a Fab Freddy throwback!