The Spokesman-Review from Spokane, Washington • 39

The Spokesman-Review April 16, 2006 Sunday Page DJ ENTERTAINMENT SPOTLIGHT Jim Kershner The CW Network set to land on KSKN-22 in the fall Alexis Bledel as Rory Gilmore, left, and Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore in a scene from the WB networks series "Gilmore Girls." KSKN-22 will become Spokanes CW Network affiliate when that new network launches in September. KSKN is Spokanes WB affiliate. The CW Network will be the product of the upcoming merger between the WB and UPN networks. The CW Network will consist of the top shows from the old WB and UPN (including Gilmore Girls and Everybody Hates Chris, among many others), as well as some new programming. DJ Wilson, the KREM-KSKN general manager, said it will allow viewers in the Inland Northwest one-stop shopping for some of the best shows on TV.

The CW schedule will run during prime time seven days a week, with other blocks on weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings. KSKN will continue to run its lineup of syndicated and local shows, including KREM-2 News at 10, Dr. Phil," Friends and Seattle Mariners broadcasts. The official announcement came Monday, when the CW update on the status of some of the other Spokane-filmed features, including: The This Chuck Norris action thriller, filmed in November-December 2004, went straight to DVD last month. Rent a copy and youll see lots of familiar sights and a number of local actors as well, including Morecedes Brown, Todd Jensen and Terry Sticka.

End Game: This Cuba Gooding Reynolds James Woods-Angie See KERSHNER, D5 Network signed agreements with 12 affiliates around the country, including KSKN. KSKN is KREM-2s sister station. Both are owned by the Belo a media conglomerate based in Dallas. Spokane has been without a UPN affiliate since the first of the year, when KQUP-24 dropped its affiliation. Local movie releases With Mozart and the Whale finally making it to the big screen this weekend in Spokane, its time to do an New black humor not for everyone BY MEGAN SCOTT Associated Press A comic strip called Ghetto Fabulous.

T-shirts with the words Uppity Negro splashed across the chest A book titled How to Rent a Negro. Welcome to the new black humor. But not everyone is laughing. Its a form of satire that gets its power from using racism as a weapon. Its raw and bites on many levels.

And some people in the black community have no patience for it Theres no question the statements coming from young black commentators resonate with the masses. Who doesnt think its crazy that rappers are getting $5 million record deals in prison? But some worry that members of the hip-hop generation are delivering their messages in a way that is too brash, too ignorant, too in-your-face. The Rev. Al Sharpton came out blasting when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

was shown saying the n-word on Aaron McGruders animated television series The Boondocks. And the Rev. Jesse Jackson was upset when jokes in the movie "Barbershop took aim at King sleeping around and questioned Rosa Parks role in civil rights history. It definitely seems to be a generational clash, says Robert Brown, assistant dean for undergraduate education at Emory University in Atlanta. The younger generation is taking more of an in-your-face approach that is somewhat foreign to older African Americans, he says.

While some might say that the younger generation folks need to be educated somewhat more, there is a manner in which people are making the commentary that is emblematic of the younger generation. There has never been a monolithic way to express blackness. Some people followed King, others were with Malcolm X. Some people favored the Black Panther Party while others didnt want anything to do with that militant group. See BLACK HUMOR, D5 Rapper Proof among many who play on their own streets, die on them trying to reach their core audiences Tupac Shakur shown in a 1993 photo.

ghettos of his hometown and his willingness to confront dangerous situations grew even as his success afforded him other options. These guys have to be out there, in some of the worst and wildest places, says Detroit entertainment executive Mark Hicks, who once managed Proof and D12. Thats where their hard-core audience is. Most of the guys who are hot resonate in the streets. And its also where they will run into a lot of trouble.

So in rap, just doing what it takes to be well-known puts you at risk. Proof joins a long list of rap stars, including Run DMCs Jam Master Jay (killed in 2002 in a Queens recording studio) and Scott La Rock (whose 1987 murder in the Bronx was the first high-profile rap slaying), to die in their own communities. And of course there are the twin patron saints of slain rappers: Tupac Shakur, who was famously doomed by See RAP, D5 BY DARRELL DAWSEY Associated Press He felt obligated to the streets, friends say, so Proof stayed close to give back what he owed and paid with his life. The killing of Eminems right-hand man last week highlights the paradoxical set of issues that bolster rappers careers while putting their lives in danger. The result has been a nearly 20-year series of rap murders that underscores the increasingly perilous state of young black men in America.

Proof, born 32 years ago as Deshaun. Holton, earned wealth, fame, a spacious suburban home and his own recording studio as Eminems sidekick and a member of the platinum-selling group D12. Yet after an argument inside a seedy Detroit after-hours club early Tuesday morning, police say, Proof fired the first shot in a gun battle that left him dead. Proofs friends say his allegiance to the Gone too soon A partial list of rappers who died before their time: Scott Scott La Rock" Sterling, 25: Shot in the head and neck Aug. 26, 1987, while sitting in a Jeep in the South Bronx.

Tupac Amaru Shakur, 25: Died Sept. 13, 1996, after drive-by in Las Vegas. Christopher Notorious B.I.G." Wallace, 24: Drive-by shooting on March 9, 1997, in Los Angeles. Lamont "Big Coleman, 26: Shot nine times in the face and chest Feb. 15, 1999, blocks away from his Harlem home.

Raymond "Freaky Tah" Rogers, 28: Single shot to the head on March 28, 1999, while leaving a hotel in Queens, N.Y. Jason Jam Master Jay" Mizell, 37: Shot in the head in his Queens studio, Oct. 30, 2002. Deshaun Proof' Holton, 32: Shot in the head in Detroit after-hours club April 11, 2006. Aaron McGruder also turned his strip "The Boondocks" into a televison show..