Leroy Moore, the founder of the Krip Hop Nation -- the burgeoning global umbrella organization for hip-hop artists with disabilities -- may appear to have the proverbial chips stacked against him. The Berkeley, CA artist, activist, organizer has cerebral palsy, which significantly affects his speech and slows down his mobility. But in no way does that deter Moore who, in the five years since he founded the growing global Krip-Hop organization, has gotten increasingly busier with every turn.

This Black History Month Amoeblog is part one in a two-part salute to this amazing, hard-working, positive & productive individual. The much longer second part, which will run on Thursday, Feb 24th, will include an in-depth interview with Moore and present a detailed overview of the numerous Krip-Hop artists (hip-hop artists with disabilities) around the world that Moore has been documenting via a series of compilation releases and other projects.

2010 was an incredibly busy year for Moore who, besides Krip-Hop Nation, is involved in a myriad of activities including the Sins Invalid arts & education organization. In 2010 Moore spent a good deal of time out on the road traveling to Krip Hop related events back East, down South, and over in Europe, where he and his group were presenters at the UK's DaDa Fest (Disability & Deaf Arts). We're only seven weeks into 2011 and this new year is already shaping up to be an even more hectic one for the man and the Krip-Hop Nation organization he founded five years ago.

As co-founders and persons of color with a disability, both Moore and Berne are quick to make the analogy between people with disabilities and other ethnic minorities and members of the LGBT community. They note that all share that sense of exclusion and misunderstanding from an often well-meaning but generally ill informed mainstream who lack true insight into this "other" world which is "alien" to them -- hence the title of this weekend's Sins Invalid Artists In Residence Show: Resident Alien. "The idea of 'alien' came up a number of times. Lateef McLeod wrote a poem called "Not of This World" that explores that kind of othering, talking about the perception of disabled people as kind of monstrous or alien," said Nomy Lamm, the Artist In Residents' director. "Then, there are two artists, Fayza Bundalli and Redwolf Painter, who are culling a family history around colonization and the impact of colonization on their bodies, which led to their disabilities. The show is about the ways that so many of us in this culture are treated as aliens and not given the same kinds of rights. And yet, it is not about being victims; it's about how we come into our power in that context."

1) DOOM Born Like This (Lex)

2) Flo Rida R.O.O.T.S. (Poe Boy/Atlantic)

3) UGK UGK 4 Life (Jive)

4) Jim Jones Pray IV Reign (Columbia)

5) Madlib Beat Konducta Vols 5 6 (Stones Throw)

Miami pop rap act Flo RIda is In the number two slot this week with his just released second album R.O.O.T.S. The record includes the already major hit "RIght Round" -- the unavoidably popular track that reworks Dead Or Alive's mid-eighties synth-pop hit “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” to which it owes its phenomenal success. Despite contributions from the likes of Ne-Yo, Akon, Wyclef Jean, Pleasure P, and Nelly Furtado, this sophomore album on Poe Boy/Atlantic, while better than Flo Rida's debut, comes off as hollow and ten years from now will most likely forgotten. The problem? Like most mainstream hip-hop, it doesn't sound like it is coming from the heart or soul but instead comes off as music manufactured out of a desire to score a quick pop hit.

Meanwhile, Harlem artist Jim Jones' delayed latest album, Pray IV Reign -- his first for Columbia -- is a superior record and sounds like it is made from the heart. But it too suffers from a common problem in rap these days, the derivative factor. In this case, the former hype-man is constantly channeling 2Pac, not only copping Shakur's whole rhyme flow and inflections, but going so far as to even loot some of his trademark phrases ("Keep your head up," he spits on the new album track "Let It Out").