Dubgee For Mayor (Of Vancouver)

So I've decided to log back into the ol' Blogspot account to speak on this... Many who know me (particularly through social media or my immediate circle) know three things about me:
1) I am a hip hop artist (i will make music all of my life, but my touring days are long over)
2) I am an entreprenuer
3) I am a VERY politically charged person and almost all of my views are right sided.

I'm going to keep my personal information on this post brief, because the point of this is not to detail myself or promote myself in any way. I'm often asked why I am "right wing" as most artists, and most of my friends even are extreme leftists (liberals). It's simple really, I believe that we all have choices and options, and we all have the choice to work hard and better our lives. I believe that the government should be limited and it's sole purpose should be to protect us (through providing roads, international and domestic security and enforcing LAW. (don't get it twisted, I'm not some cop loving emo tree hugger, I just know and understand the reality and purpose.

Anyways, on to my friend (fellow hip hopper) DUBGEE who is currently running for Mayor in Vancouver.

We occassionaly have gotten into debates on some pretty fundamental differences in politics, usually via facebook or something similar. The basics of those debates is that I generally come from a fiscal, limited, conservative mindset while DubGee often looks at things from the opposite political mindset. We do however agree on a lot of things...

People quite often think that I come across as uncaring, and as a "fox news watching ego maniac who hates the poor" and thats totally incorrect. I actually myself lived in low income housing as a child in Langley BC. Very low income, probably worse than a lot of the majority of east van (excluding the downtown eastside). My mindset comes from the fact that I watched my mother and father both work multiple jobs to get us out of that hell hole rather than relying on the government. I don't want to slam my parents, because it really wasn't their fault; but we were the type of family that had to leave the oven on in the winter to heat the house. (electric cheaper than gas I guess).

I will NEVER FULLY support any government agenda that doesnt preach self reliance and independence. I have absolutely no faith in the welfare system and am completely against it.

I believe that people on welfare should be FORCED off of the system. ALl of the resources and money put into welfare should be forcing people to take care of themselves. The "take care of me, im entitled" mentality is bullshit and it needs to stop! (no.rant.)

I urge everyone to take a look at DubGEE's blog to see his political agenda... First I'm going to explain some issues I have with it, but then explain why, YES, I am supporting and endorsing DubGee for his candicacy and also hoping that he continues with politics and works his way into our system and implements some serious change.

Issues I have explained:

1. Complete ban on Tasers by the Vancouver Police Department
I am not PRO police and I am not PRO police brutality or abuse but I am also NOT for taking away their right to enforce law. In society right now a well rounded, good cop can get SPIT on by a 15 year old kid and do absolutely nothing about it because of our liberal policies and judicial system.
MY SUGGESTION: Start punishing these cops who abuse their power... NO ONE should be abusing their power. If you PUNISH them, it will stop. People who become police officers should be good citizens and not want to abuse anyone anyways. We need people to fear police, it prevents theft and many other crimes, but we need them to be good people.

2. Re-evaluate our Liquor laws and improve them to at least allow liquor in movie theatresThis could have a LOT of costs involved... You would be completely changing a business... Though they might see it as a bonus, you would be changing the requirements of someone who works at a movie theatre and also policing. You cannot hide from the fact that with liquor comes crime and aggression. It's human nature. Quite often movie theatres are places families go to on the weekends... I'd suggest a referendum from citizens and the corporations involved. Let's hear from the people what they want.

3. Limit the price of gasoline in Vancouver to a percent of the cost per barrel I don't believe this is possible. I think the direction that should be taken here is to limit the % of TAXES that can be applied to gasoline. Even before the recession and the american governments explanation of why gas prices shot up we (vancouver) have ALWAYS paid so much more for gas. Do the conversions, its fact :)

4. Reduce the salaries of the mayor, city councillors directly or indirectly (By indirectly I mean that the salary will stay the same but a portion would have to be donated to a cause.)I am all for your passion to donate and assist the poor, but I really think that a lot of our savings goals should be put towards lowering our taxes. Put a portion of everything saved into the pot that can bring down our taxes.

5. Taxing Corporate fast food (not small business) I personally stopped eating fast food (headed down a very distructive path ahahah) but I am never a fan of targetting any specific sector of the private market. Taxing these corporations could result in lay offs and cuts. The reality is that the PURPOSE of a corporation is to turn profit, if there was no profit there would be no business. Take more from their profit, they will take more from their employees to make up for it.

6. Halt the construction of “Fare Gates” at Skytrain Stations I haven't looked into this enough, my opinion is that the amount of people robbing translink is a good excuse for them to continue raising fair rates. Something needs to be done here to prevent that.

Now, all that being said... there are SO many MORE pieces of DubGee's platform that are amazing! Transparent City Hall meetings!!! As long as costs are low (which they obviously would be so that this doesnt cost tax payers more money) this is just one of many parts of Dub's platform that I support. (make sure you check out his page and read the rest).

But, really here is the main reason why I am endorsing DubGee... We need serious CHANGE. The boomers need to start taking us seriously and know that we are worried. We are worried about future and our children's future. We are intelligent, and we have grown up in a rapidly changing era that forced us to become insanely dynamic individuals. I seriously hope that DubGee continues his persuit of politics, and if not elected maybe forms or starts a new party. Something that sees the best of both worlds (left and right). Something that focuses on lowering taxes and more importantly properly implementing our tax dollars.

Some things I'd like to see DubGee add to his political agenda:
1) Tolling on bridges (I know that this is more of a provincial issue, if someone sparks something at any level it will do us all good - it is complete BS that we have to pay to drive on roads that our taxes already paid for)
2) Needle Exchanges and Pipe exchanges - I dont feel this is the answer anymore. We need to be strict, if we are going to invest our tax payers money into these things we need to see results. I personally want to see the amount of people using go down. They have a choice that they need to make. Its not our burden to take on for the rest of our lives... Let's help them change and help them better themselves.


If I could go back 10 years and change some of the things I've done and been a part of I might knowing that I could have been involved in politics. but unfortunately that is not an option for me, so I will forever be a critic and political activist :)

Good luck Dub Gee. May the force be with ya homie!

Finally, a new CD!

whats up people, to be honest I'm tired as shit...but I figured I'd keep the posting going on here as I'm hoping to start using this a lot more. I got about 3 18 hour days coming up so won't be online much to post new stuff --- but I will say this! I have been working on a new album with my boy Jonas (Ephekz) and it's sounding amazing! Some really dope collabos as well! I got a couple beats from my homie KevWest as well.... I'll post more soon!

New Promo Video

BLOGSPOT IM BACK BABY

whassssup peoples!

It's been a minute, actually its been 1576800 minutes according to an online year to minute converter... But I am back, I figured I'm all over the internet (youtube,facebook,twitter,lennydiko.com, etc..) I'd set up a new "blog" home for myself... and kinda bring everything together in this wonderful world of "cloud" technology we live in. Expect a lot of political rants, bullshit, music, and movie talk when you come here... Anyways listen to my song I just uploaded to reverbnation over there on the right, follow me on twitter or find me on facebook:lenny diko. I'm working all weekend, pretty much 40 hours of work in 2 days so I'm gonna spend 2 of my free hours watching that new 50 cent movie "Twelve"... I'll probably have a review soon.

respect
deeks

What a first few months

Well,

It's been a minute (or few months) since I've posted on here..... Whats up? Well my grandmother passed away on the 2nd Of January... That made music, and pretty much life in general completely off of the norm. The more I think about it the more I realize how close her and I were, and how close she was with all of her grandchildren actually. I pretty much spent every summer with her and my grandpa until I was about 12 years old... And we always stayed close after that. I don't want to go too deep into this, but it definitely effected me, and I truly miss her. It's weird when someone passes, it always takes so long to fully sink in that you will never speak to them again, never hear their voice or see a smile... Anyways, It's been a few months and the family is starting to function again.

Music wise, lots of great things have been happening! We are about to finalize an overseas deal that I will speak more about later in time, our album is currently being digitally distributed on all the big sites! (itunes, amazon.com, best buy, etc..) So if you got a few bucks and you downloaded our album illegally, go buy an mp3 or two! Support artists!

I'm gonna post more this week I think... I like the whole idea of blogging...

diko

keep it rollin' rollin' rollin'

Well things have been rollin along pretty smoothly!!! Early January we headed out to Apex Ski Resort with the entourage to play a show at the Gunbarrell Saloon... Luckily for us DJ Con was in the building and was able to tend to the crowds desire to hear nothing but ACDC and Guns N Roses..... great times though.. Got lots of promo done for the new album... Then we had our cd release party at the Cellar, downtown vancouver which was a huge success and in all honesty definitley needed to get the group motivated again! Thanks to everyone who came out and purchased the album, the feedback has been great so far! After the cd release party was a show out in Mission with our fam (bobby & DJ Con) which was great as well! We had to trek out on Saturday during that snow storm which made for an eventfull night.. But the show was great.. Big ups to Gemineye, the ground breakers and ofcourse our homeboy the filthy varmint for killin it on the mic as well that night... Next up show wise are a couple all ages events in and around Vancouver and then out to the Okanagan to perform in Vernon & Kelowna before we hit up europe again... Then its back to the studio for our 4th release which is going to be even bigger!

The new cd "Violative Cause - The World Is Ours" is selling great and the feedback has been just as.... It's available for purchase in Vancouver at Dipt, Beatstreet and Zulu Records... There will be a few more stores added to that list in the next couple months and it will also eventually be available on Itunes for purchase & Download... We just put up another song from the album that we recorded with Riddlore from Project Blowed. You can check that out @ www.myspace.com/violativecause ....

I got a couple projects I'm working on right now, some music with Filthy Varmint, Moka Only & my family in Austria Boombokkz Recordz, Digga Mindz and Def Ill.... Should all be released digitally this year and pressed with distribution next.

On a personal note... I've been relaxing the past couple weeks as we're taking a small break from the shows for about a month to enjoy some time with our families and such... That's one thing about being in a group that has definitley taken some adjusting... We pretty much started Violative Cause in late 2005 and since then we are in studio together (im talking a small room here too) for atleast 5-6 months at a time, then we travel together for weeks at a time to do shows... Sometimes we definitley feel some tension when we are pushing each other's buttons... So it's definitley necessairy to spend some time away from the music family and with your blood family every once in awhile... Been chilling with the sister a lot in my spare time and getting out with some old friends drinking like its 2002! Ive been thinking about all the dope people I've met on the road and through music the past few years, whether it was someone I made music with in Vancouver or California... Or a fan/friend in Mattsee Austria (there was this one chick we met there who looked just like jessica alba .... probably the hottest woman I've seen in my life)..

Anyways, I'm looking forward to some dope shows over the next couple months and then getting back into studio with DJ Redworm, Lex and newest member of Violative Cause, DJ Con to pump out a dope 4th LP for yall....

Till next time
stay up
- lenny

2008 is here!

Well,

2008 is here!

I'm gonna post a new blog when im not goin on 2/5 hours of sleep!