From the Inbox: New Roach, and a Correction!

No matter how lazy we get here at the Nation of Thizzlam, we care deeply about upholding our standards of journalistic excellence. A while back, while writing about Berkeley's Malki Means King, I reported that Malki was Jewish primarily because there are a lot of Jews in Berkeley, also because he looks Jewish, and Malki actually means king in Hebrew. I suppose I forced the Jewish speculation on him because I wanted to make the connection between him and Saul Cohen. Malki must have googled himself last night to find that the top search result was a post calling him a "shithead" and saying he is Jewish. He left a couple comments. For that I apologize. I actually really love "The Malki Song", and I no longer think he's a shithead, though I wonder if he wasn't a little bit too upset about being called Jewish. From the comments:

"this is malki means king. im not jewish. lol. "

and then,

"also the .mp3 of the malki song is on itunes. i just got a check from itunes most of the sales are from the malki song!!! im bout to drop an album soon i need some promo on that. Please stop saying this jewish hebrew shit. im not jewish at all, my mom is italian my dad is lebanese. its my dads last name that side is from the middle east seriously. confusion like this is the reason i made the malki song... malki means king"

The Lebanese connection explains the Semitic sound to his name. Malki, let's not forget that Jews, too, are from the Middle East. At least originally. I'm still open to the idea that Malki is Jewish and doesn't know it, but for now just take this as a retraction. And Malki, if you're reading this, I would be happy to promote your album provided you hold yourself to the high standards of "The Malki Song".

And in a Twitter DM, Roach Gigz sent me his latest video, "Pop Off", which has already made the rounds because it's pretty incredible.



The video was shot in the days surrounding the Johannes Mehserle trial, concerning the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant at Fruitvale BART. Aris Jerome does a great job of using the abandoned storefronts of Downtown Oakland as a backdrop for some populist rage against the police powers of the state. The hundreds of wheatpaste posters of Mr. Grant's face act as a rebuttal to Shepard Fairey's iconic HOPE poster of Obama's face. The video is clever, and surprisingly powerful. It's might be the best I've seen since "Trap Goin Ham".