Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 August 1997 — Page 3

SATURDAY, AUGUST 9,1907

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

PAGE A3

Opinions

Who's Keepin' it REAL?

By JENAE SMITH

I have a strong disagreement with people who say they keep it real. Don’t go around saying you keep it real, when you don’t. I feel you shouldn’t try to be something or do something that you are not, being fake and un-original. That goes for the music world as well. I feel if you are going to borrow someone else’s music or their beat.

than do it right. Don’t trash it. For example, Sean ”Puffy” Combs, CEO of Bad Boy Entertainment, borrows a lot of other people’s music often and it’s not just him. I feel the way he turns an old song around and makes it a rap song is hilarious! I watch videos and I’m sick of seeing people bite off other people’s music. Remakes these days are getting out of hand. Don’t get me wrong, Mary J. Blige rocks the mic and breaks it in half, but she’s been the remake queen of hip-hop since she came out in the music business. I mean come on! People these days need to get original. This is not just rap music either. Back in the day, the artists were not trying to steal other’s music. It wasn’t about salary, it was about originality. This goes for record producers also. I feel if I’m going to put people on a record label, they are going to have originality and real talent. I’m not going to put somebody on just because they look good or have pretty hair or nice clothes and don’t have an lick of talent. Record producers these days do it because they think that’s what the people want - Yeah right! Some of these artists today are dog ugly and have not a piece of talent in them and swear they can sing and rap (and I don’t mean to insult a dog like that.) That’s not keepin’ it real, that’s just getting by. There are a lot of fake people out there who really don’t know what their doing. When I watch videos, my mom will come in my room and ask “Who is that? That’s an old song from back in the day. Who has remade it now?” Why can’t today’s artists make their own hits? That’s a question many artists need to ask themselves. And when you do a remake, make sure it sounds good, at least. I remember when I was younger and listening to music it was all about who had the best beat or who could free-style the best. Now it’s all about this east/ west coast mess that is absurd and unnecessary. Finally, to these so-called artists, don’t say “you’re keeping it real” if you’re not real yourselves!

Jenae Smith is a Rec orderSummer Intern and a Broad Ripple High School Student.

WRITING TO THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

The Indianapolis Recorder encourages short, concise letters to the editor and opinion articles from the public. Letters snd opinion articles will be used at the editor’s discretion and are subject to editing. We will not guarantee publication of material received. We cannot guarantee dates of publication. Letters containing Ubetous or untrue statements will not be published. AW letters snd opinion articles must Includes verifiable full name, address and telephone number. This Information will not be published at the request of the writer. Letters and articles should be typed but will be accepted If handwriting is legible.

The Indianapolis Recorder P.0. Box 18499 Indianapolis, IN 46218-0499 http://www.fcon.net/ recorder

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Who will police the police?

In response to community concern over the Aug. 27,1996 incident involving off-duty officers of the Indianapolis Police Department and at the request of Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, the Citizens Complaint Process Working Group was established by the Greater Indianapolis Progress. The Working Group has completed and approved a comprehensive report containing recommendations to be presented to the mayor and to the City-County Council for the enhancement of the effectiveness, fairness and credibility of the Citizen’s Complaint Review Process in our city. This brings to conclusion a nearly year-long process of study, analysis and deliberations. The Working Group accepted a four part task: * To review the current citizen’s complaint system * To evaluate its effectiveness and credibility in fulfilling its mission * To make recommendations for its improvement * To advocate for the implementation of these recommendations We have accomplished the first three points of the agenda. Now we enter point four the stage of advocacy and implementation. The recommendation are being proposed reflect a carefully crafted compromise that attempts to bridge the gap in trust between those citizens who believe the

police should not be left to police themselves and those in the police community who believe that civilians could not be fair in passing judgement on the actions of police officers. Some of these recommendations will require modifications to the existing citycounty ordinance. Others are significant administrative and procedural provisions that may begin to be implemented without ordinance changes. One of the critical recommendations proposes that citizens, who believe that their complaint has not been given a fair hearing by the Internal Affairs Division of IPD and the chief, might have the same right to appeal those findings to the Police Merit Board that is currently only available to a police officer who feels his/her punishment has been inappropriate or too severe. We are grateful to the 34 diverse men and women who

composed this working group and who labored in the pursuit of what they believed to be an important improvement for our community. We value the support we have received from the leadership and staff of the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee. We are grateful to chief Michael Zunk for his continuing hard work in improving relations between the Police Department and the citizenry who are in a very real way its customers. We applaud Mayor Goldsmith for establishing this commission and we will value his leadership and support in seeing its recommendations through to enactment by the City-County Council. We are pleased councilmen Toby McGamroch, majority leader of the council and Rozelle Boyd, minority leader of the council, have accepted the responsibility of cosponsoring

the legislation to enact this ordinance and sheepherding it through the council. They were an active part of the working group’s deliberations and their bipartisan efforts are appreciated. It has been suggested that possibly too much time has passed, since the ’’downtown brawl” that precipitated them, for these recommendations that, hopefully, will contribute to deterring such incidents in the future and certainly would assist us as a community in dealing with them more effectively. We are pleased with and proud of the results of our deliberations and we now offer them to the mayor, to the CityCounty Council and to the public for support, endorsement and implementation. Rabbi Dennis Sasso Sam Jones Citizens’ Complaint Process Working Group

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'Hotter* a gross oiisiotorprototion The article written about the plight of Mr. Arthur “The Hatter” Bunch was very timely and informative to the Recorder readership. I feel Mr. Barato Britt, the writer of the article conveyed the essence of Mr. Bunch’s plight very thorough. However, I strongly feel the statements mentioned in the article by myself was grossly taken out of the context in which they were intended. For instance: I truly was not aware of Mr. Bunch’s Hat Shop and its location. My comments about Mr. Bunch “losing out” was in reference to contacting the city with the aid of an attorney retained by him to intercede through the proper channels. The timing is very important and by not being personally familiar with the business and location, nor having any contact from Mr. Bunch I was somewhat in the dark about the matter. I certainly appreciate the call from Mr. Britt bringing the ' situation to my attention. But as I tried to emphasize, these matters are delicate and a lot of the information between the owner of the business and the city is private, hence the need for a qualified representative to act on Mr. Bunch’s behalf. I have no problem about following through on this matter to see that whatever legal redress or relief might be forthcoming. My concern is that only my “out of context” statements of frustration of an AfricanAmerican business being left out of the big picture in Indianapolis was printed in the article. I did bring the situation to die attention of several civil rights organizations that are in the process of monitoring die fieldhouse project I am truly sympathetic with Mr. Bunch and if I can be of any assistance please let me know. Mr. Barato Britt keep up the good investigative work. State Sen. Glenn Howard

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