BLOG.MANSAOBI.COM / MIND OF MAN$A
Notes on art, technology, culture, and the systems shaping the future.
61 essays
War Is the Product We are taught that war is an interruption. Peace is normal. War breaks out. The country responds. The enemy is defeated. The soldiers come home. Civilian life re
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America says it wants children to learn history. What it often means is that children should learn an approved story about history. A story with founders but no land theft. A story
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George Orwell published Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1949. Seventy-seven years later, people still describe it as a warning about the future. That is generous. The future arrived, insta
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Somebody says Black men owe $60 billion in child support. The number is large enough to sound researched. Specific enough to sound official. Racial enough to go viral. Then everybo
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X lets music power its videos, memes, commentary, fan edits, sports clips, promotional posts, and viral moments. It sells advertising beside that engagement. It sells subscriptions
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There is a new type of Black singer making money online. He does not need vocal rest. He does not miss notes. He does not argue about splits. He does not ask who owns the master. H
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America did not only take Native land. It took Native names. It took Native schools. It took Native marriages. It took Native children and reassigned them to somebody else’s race.
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I am a Foundational Black American by the movement’s own definition. My family’s roots run through Black America. My lineage is here. My claim is not borrowed from somebody else’s
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America loves its Founding Fathers—as long as we do not describe them accurately. They were smugglers, vandals, tax resisters, propagandists, rioters, armed rebels, and, in the eye
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The difference between a cult and a culture is not that one has strange beliefs and the other has normal ones. Every culture looks strange from the outside. Every culture has ritua
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I made this bet already. I said the artificial-intelligence industry's fair-use defense would eventually run into a wall because these companies stopped acting like researchers and
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Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and finding a proposal on your phone. The government wants authorization for an airstrike in a country most Americans could not locate on a map.
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I am going to make a prediction. America is going to produce another Huey P. Long. I do not mean a politician with the same name, geography, or exact program. I mean a charismatic
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Every election season, the lectures begin. Celebrities tell you to vote. Corporations change their profile pictures. Friends shame friends for staying home. If the election goes ba
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Science wasn’t invented by one person in one place. It grew over thousands of years as people watched the world, looked for patterns, and tested ways to solve practical problems. B
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A theory about how people reached the Americas can sound like a challenge to the idea that modern humans originated in Africa. But those are two different questions. Out of Africa
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The story of the first peoples in the Americas is still being pieced together. Researchers debate when people arrived and which routes they took. But one idea often gets lost: the
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When people picture human evolution, they often imagine a straight line: an ape slowly stands upright, loses its hair, grows a larger brain, and eventually becomes us. That image i
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People sometimes say, “My DNA test says I’m not African,” as if that settles where humanity began. It doesn’t. No consumer DNA test can prove that a person—or a present-day populat
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As AI tools, cloud platforms, and cybersecurity products become more mainstream, the word “sandbox” is appearing everywhere. Unfortunately, many nontechnical explanations treat a s
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I changed my artist name from Mansa Obi to ₥AN$A for one simple reason: I wanted there to be absolutely no confusion about who I am or where my music comes from. As an independent
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The Trump administration has entered The New York Times copyright lawsuit against OpenAI—but not in the way some headlines might lead readers to believe. The administration did not
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An Uptown New Orleans meeting, a three-man rap crew, and a recovered song add a fascinating chapter to the history of one of hip-hop’s most recognizable flows. The story begins wit
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You do not simply open X and see what people posted. You open X and see what the platform has decided deserves to survive. Every post enters an invisible competition. Some are push
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Before You Generate That AI Video, Get on the Treadmill What if every AI prompt came with a calorie count? You type: “Generate a cinematic video of a dog twerking on the moon.” The
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The AI space has shifted from a race for sheer model size to an intense battleground for efficiency. Building a trillion-parameter behemoth is an impressive feat, but serving it to
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The End of the Hype Is the Beginning of the Future For years, critics have been celebrating the death of Web3. Every crypto crash, NFT collapse, exchange failure, and market downtu
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Let's be honest: WordPress is powerful. It's ubiquitous. And for many, it's the go-to for blogging. But for me? It became a straitjacket. A bloated, over-engineered behemoth that s
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On May 5, 2026, I published the first version of cclipper (Claude Clipper). The idea was simple. AI coding assistants had a workflow problem. They would generate code, commands, co
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The United States Supreme Court was created for a nation of roughly four million people spread across thirteen states hugging the Atlantic coast. Today, that same institution serve
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When people think about homeownership, they often focus on mortgage lenders, real estate agents, and developers. Rarely do they think about appraisers—the professionals whose opini
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For decades, Americans were told that automation was simply the price of progress. Factory workers were replaced by machines. Manufacturing jobs moved overseas. Entire communities
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There’s a rule in tech that doesn’t get debated: If you build, it shows. Not always publicly. Not always neatly. But somewhere—there’s evidence. Which is why the narrative around C
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Life was good. I had fans, momentum, and a catalog I was proud of. But then I got hit with something a lot of creators face—deplatforming. My music disappeared overnight. No warnin
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In moments of political urgency, culture can either fuel revolution or deflate momentum. Music, in particular, holds a unique power: it shapes narratives, commands attention, and i
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A New Deal for the American People, Built on Ownership — Not Punishment For decades, America has tried to fund its future with tariffs, debt, and outdated tax models. But what if w
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Cortex Research Group Abstract As language models evolve, so too must our approach to refining and deploying them in ways that reflect not just scale, but soundness. Neuron Surgery
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As a Black developer working on an ambitious Layer 2 project, I’ve always known that innovation comes with hurdles. But what I didn’t anticipate was feeling targeted by unfair pric
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The Hidden Backing of DeepSeek DeepSeek presents itself as an independent, cutting-edge AI research organization, but the reality may be far from the image they project. Behind the
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Democratizing AI Research and Applications The world of artificial intelligence is evolving rapidly, yet access to AI research and applications remains limited to large corporation
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How much would you pay to make history? In hip-hop, leaving your mark is everything. From the raw energy of freestyle battles to chart-topping hits, the culture thrives on creativi
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How to Code with Claude 3.5 a Beginner’s Guide. Learn how to code with Claude 3.5, the powerful AI assistant an open up new possibilities for both beginners and experienced develop
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In recent years, the FBI has employed innovative strategies to infiltrate and dismantle criminal networks, notably through the creation and distribution of encrypted communication
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Introduction As coding enthusiasts, students, and developers, we often rely on online code editors to quickly test and deploy code. While platforms like Replit offer convenience, t
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Introduction Recently, I watched a YouTube video by Matthew Berman about building games in Python. The video showed how straightforward Python game development could be and inspire
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Twitter’s “50 Free Posts” Promise—A False Advertising Trap? Twitter recently introduced a supposed “50 free tweets per day” policy. For many users, this seemed like a reasonable, a
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As a content creator in today’s digital age, finding effective ways to monetize content can be challenging. With an array of platforms and tools available, it’s vital to select one
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In this guide, I’ll show you how to build a Twitter bot that automatically tweets from a CSV file at regular intervals. This project is perfect for automating your social media pre
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In the age of digital content creation, having a centralized hub for your links is crucial. Platforms like Linktree have popularized the concept of a single page to house all your
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In the modern digital landscape, content creation has exploded. Whether it’s videos, blogs, music, or art, creators are finding new ways to express themselves and share their work
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In recent times, we’ve seen industries come together to demand better treatment. Recently, the port workers’ strike has shown how collective action can lead to change, disrupting i
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The art is just the start. Once your creation is complete, the real work begins—marketing your baby to the world. Whether you’re aiming to exchange ideas, spark dialogue, or solve
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In the world of superheroes, saving the day is only part of the story. From foiling villains to keeping cities safe, our favorite heroes must also navigate their personal lives. Fo
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As we stand at the intersection of the digital and physical worlds, the way we transmit and store data is evolving rapidly. Current data storage and transmission methods are bound
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The electric vehicle (EV) revolution is well underway, yet a major limitation remains—the driving range. Even with advancements in battery technology, EVs still face hurdles in ter
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The future of Web3 isn’t in mobile gaming but rather in using phones as portals to digital experiences. One of the main reasons for this shift is Apple’s 30% commission on in-app p
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There’s something about The Love Below that resonates differently over time. As much as I love to see Outkast on top, it’s not just the accolades or the numbers—it’s the undeniable
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In a world where we can file taxes, bank, and even manage our healthcare online, it’s baffling that our government hasn’t caught up when it comes to voting. Why are we still runnin
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Visual artists are the backbone of our digital world. Their work garners attention, fuels engagement, and adds aesthetic value to online platforms. But while musicians and influenc
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You’ve probably heard whispers about it, or maybe you’ve experienced it yourself—a drastic drop in engagement, a post that seems to vanish from visibility without explanation. Welc
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After getting de-platformed and demonetized, I realized I needed a space where I could truly connect with my audience—no restrictions, no filters, just pure, unfiltered content. Th
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Mind of Mansa is an independent notebook for ideas that do not fit neatly into one category. It connects the creative practice of ₥AN$A with the work of building, researching, and paying attention.
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