DEMOCRACY AND HIP-HOP PROJECT: the hip-hop of politics

Alex Billet on Michael Jackson

2009-07-09T18:38:00.006-05:00

We have to apologize for leaving this blog idle for longer than two weeks. We're in the middle of a move and have had to place blogging on the back burner for the present moment. No worries; we will return before the whirlwind; unless, of course, the whirlwind comes within the month, in which case we'll be delighted to be proven wrong.

Over the last couple of weeks, Alex Billet from Rebel Frequencies has written a series of posts on the late Michael Jackson. These writings attempt to embrace the totality of an artist and a human being that is beyond the scope of mainstream discussion. His narrative of not only Jackson's musical contributions but their social and political significance is sorely missed and warrants broader discussion.

Alex Billet on Michael Jackson

Real Live "The Turnaround" 1996

2009-06-02T23:39:00.002-05:00

“The Turnaround,” Real Live’s (K-Def and Larry-O) one and only album, is a brilliant slice of mid-90s New York Boom Bapism. It would easily be dismissed with the generic “gangsta rap” label by liberal white racists and even those who walk the uneven line between classic rap and “conscious” rap, uncomfortable with its violent disposition.

It probably had little to do with promotion and more about Boom Bap’s descent into obscurity that Real Live’s album never garnered significant attention. Of course, we’re talking about a very short period of two to three years; after all, Biggie’s “Ready To Die” has to have been the most sought after and notable Boom Bap album ever–and it was released in 1994. But we should remember that by late 1996, when “The Turnaround” debuted, the East Coast was losing it’s homogeneity both due to the rise of producer Swizz Beatz who broke with every convention of traditional New York hip-hop, and the ascendency of New Orleans rap which, while taking some influence from West Coast G-Funk, eventually absorbed it.

Real Live unfortunately caught it on the down slide.

“The Turnaround” plays like a noir film; the beats are dark and congruous with the lyrics which revolve around gun play and substance distribution. Larry-O hurls visceral and articulate lyrics that are as cold as a Charles Dickens novel in winter and would make any Carlton urinate himself. “I’ve seen dice games turn into Helter Skelter.” His voice is deep, but he has no need to yell. K-Def’s ominous but rich compositions makes ironic the typical musical simplicity of Boom Bap beats. So complete yet so consistent. One would think he was producing from a lectern–”cue the violins, cue the bass drums”–instead of a producer’s chair.

My introduction to them came the same way I was introduced to most artists of that era: Rap City. It was too bad that I never got to hear their entire album until last week, when my partner Luke mailed me a copy.

They will remain as obscure as they were when they surfaced, for reasons chiefly beyond their control, but this album is a must-listen. This isn’t post-Boom Bap Boom Bap that insists on calling itself Boom Bap and where, as K’Naan says, “underground rappers rap about rapping.” The stories are familiar, but they are told in a way that clearly makes the distinction between a story teller and one who tells stories. Larry-O is the former. K-Def proves that Boom Bap production is an art, not just a few audio tracks behind an MC. These two artists are complementary; they mutually nurture each other.

Hip-hop’s greatest strength is its democracy, but democracy isn’t antagonistic to talent. And talent is clearly the red thread through “The Turnaround.”

"Catch Dat Beat" Review

2009-05-27T14:06:00.006-05:00

A few weeks back, we posted info about a play debuting in N.O. called Catch Dat Beat. Here is a review of the play recently written by Jordan Flaherty, local activist, journalist, and editor of Left Turn Magazine.

Catch Dat Beat
A New Play Celebrates Bounce Music and New Orleans’ Culture
Big Freedia, A Gay Rapper who is one of the City’s Rising Stars, Leaves Crowds Screaming for More
By Jordan Flaherty

Catch Dat Beat, a unique, only-in-New-Orleans theatrical event, played for one weekend last month at Ashe Cultural Arts Center. It sold out its several hundred seats every night and will re-open in June at a bigger venue, a 900-plus seat auditorium at Walter L. Cohen High School. The play, directed by music producer Lucky Johnson, features several local Hip-Hop performers and has left crowds screaming for more. An up-and-coming rapper named Big Freedia steals the show in the lead role.

Tall and self-assured, Freedia is a powerful performer and brings an undeniable energy to the play. During rehearsals, says Lucky, “when Freedia comes in, the cast lights up, and everyone does their best.” Freedia is best known as part of a community of gay rappers self-identified as sissy bounce artists. She rejects that label, saying, “I’m a gay rapper, don’t get me wrong. But there’s no such thing as separating it into straight bounce and sissy bounce. It’s all bounce music.”

Bounce is the name given to the style of New Orleans Hip-Hop recognized for a distinctive beat and call-and-response lyrical style that owes much to Mardi Gras Indians and other local cultural traditions. Although not widely listened to outside of the south, bounce dominates New Orleans clubs, and is so identified with the poor neighborhoods of the city, it’s sometimes called “project music.”

“When you hear bounce,” says Lucky, people in a club go wild. “They just forget about it. They throw their hands up in the air, they catch the wall.” However you label Freedia’s music, she is one of several gay rappers who have broken down barrier after barrier to become some of New Orleans’ most popular musicians.

Spreading New Orleans Culture

Catch Dat Beat attempts to spread the love of bounce, and it proves infectious. The play advertises that it has no profanity or “obscene body gestures,” (a challenge, when capturing the bounce experience, which often involves a lot of both). Lucky Johnson is a cousin of popular director/actor Tyler Perry, and like a Tyler Perry script, Catch Dat Beat has positive characters and an accessible story. The basic story follows a hair stylist (played by Freedia) who throws a block party to show a visiting cousin how New Orleans gets down. There are moments of conflicts (will Freedia’s grandfather, played by Lucky, accept her sexuality? Will police break up the block party?) but the show is really about celebrating local culture. Lucky also acts in the play, along with bounce trendsetter Tenth Ward Buck

The second act of the show recreates a block party on stage, and features short appearances by many of the biggest names in bounce. During the opening weekend, the crowd rose cheering to their feet as stars including Ms. Tee, Gotti Boy Chris and Katey Red took over the stage.

Lucky wants Catch Dat Beat to help popularize bounce and New Orleans. He structured the play around a block party to show that New Orleans celebrations are really about building community and supporting your neighbors.

“Growing up in less fortunate neighborhoods, your parents would have card games, or suppers,” explains Lucky. “Say Miss Carol across the street’s light bill was due. Miss Carol would have a supper. Everyone in the neighborhood would buy a plate to help her pay the light bill.” In other words, continued Lucky, the block party comes from this tradition, and is ultimately about “how a people are able to come together in a time of need.”

Lucky has produced many of New Orleans bounce hits, and sees producing as a way to support positive work. “I can’t sign a hip hop gangster rapper,” he says. “I don’t advocate killing and drugs or slap that bitch. I’m not into that. I’m not gonna put my money behind it. If you come to me with something that says ‘get on the dance floor and have a good time,’ then I can support it.”

He is excited about all of the play’s actors, heaping praise on the accomplishments of Tenth Ward Buck and Freedia. “Buck was the first in so many ways,” he says of his star, listing his accomplishments. “The first to speed up bounce, the first to take an R&B track and bounce it out.” Through more than ten years of albums, plus a film, an upcoming book, and his dedication to working with youth, Buck has earned the praise.

As for the star of the show, “Freedia is outstanding,” says Lucky. “Every time he’d get the mic, he’d just light up the room.” Buck also Is quick to praise Freedia. “As Freedia was coming up, a lot of people tried to drag him down,” Buck says. “And he didn’t care about what they said, he kept moving forward. I don’t care if you straight or what, everyone is bouncing to Freedia’s music.” In fact, the sissy bounce community that Katey Red birthed ten years ago with her album Melpomene Block Party has rejuvenated the form, and gay rappers like Freedia have gone from a novelty to a central part of bounce culture.

Conquering Obstacles

Bounce music faces many obstacles on the way to national popularity. It is in many ways so distinctly New Orleans, with most songs featuring neighborhood-specific references, that it’s hard to imagine a bounce party in any other city. However, elements of bounce have appeared in songs by national acts like David Banner, Mike Jones and Beyonce.

Here in New Orleans, bounce artists bring lines around the corner when they perform. Freedia believes bounce will keep growing, and isn’t worried about any potential obstacles. She has struggled in a sometimes-homophobic music scene and become one of the leading stars – gay or straight – in New Orleans. “We been working really hard all these years of getting people to accept us,” she says. “Maybe get throwed at and screamed at, but over time all that has changed. All the hard work has finally paid off.”

With a show at this year’s Jazz Fest by Big Freedia, Katey Red and Sissy Nobby, as well as a photo spread in hipster music magazine XLR8R, the music form is clearly reaching new audiences. “For me it was the determination to change the people and make them love what we do,” says Freedia. “And that’s what my job was. When I became a gay bounce rapper I said that I was going to change it and make people love me, and make them love gay people.”

“People say negative things,” about gay rap stars, acknowledges Lucky. “I don’t care, at the end of the day it’s about the message. People who are homophobic, it tells me about that person’s character, because god loves us all no matter what.”

Jordan Flaherty is a journalist based in New Orleans, and an editor of Left Turn Magazine. He was the first writer to bring the story of the Jena Six to a national audience and his reporting on post-Katrina New Orleans shared a journalism award from New America Media. His work has been published and broadcast in outlets including Die Zeit (in Germany), Clarin (in Argentina), Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, and Democracy Now. He is also co-director of PATOIS: The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival. He can be reached at neworleans@leftturn.org.

More about Catch Dat Beat: http://www.myspace.com/catchdatbeat
Big Freedia: http://www.myspace.com/bigfreedia
10th Ward Buck: http://www.myspace.com/10wardbuck
Bounce Mix: http://www.xlr8r.com/podcast/2008/09/dre-skull-sissy-bounce-mix
Ya Heard Me, the definitive Bounce Film: http://www.yaheardmefilm.com

John McWhorter and Where Hip-Hop Has Never Been

2009-05-24T14:47:00.006-05:00

John McWhorter, author of Losing the Race fame and All About the Beat, responded recently to a roundtable happening at The Atlantic. The roundtable, which doesn't offer much aside from a few notable comments from Hua Hsu here and here, proposes to discuss the state of hip-hop today and the significance of hip-hop's entrance into state power (in the form of Obama, Jay Z and Russell Simmons).

McWhorter takes to task some of the main arguments raised in the roundtable. Among them, he disagrees with the Atlantic contributors who argue that hip-hop has been a "dispatch from the ghetto" showing white people in the suburbs the problems faced by black folks in the cities. Implicit in that "dispatch" argument is the idea that somehow hip-hop has really been about raising the awareness of "outsiders" to the realities faced by communities of color, as if hip-hop is some liberal re-education camp for middle and upper class suburbanites. That hip-hop is now global is less about "outsiders" opening their eyes to the dispatch and more about folks in other communities around the world being able to relate to, and build upon, the experiences and sentiments expressed in the music and culture.

McWhorter also argues against the idea of a "hip-hop revolution", or in other words the idea that hip-hop alone can be a political tool for oppressed communities if only it was injected with revolutionary politics. He's onto something with this point, because it will take work and organizing and activity to create any kind of movement, but the fact that he says hip-hop is just music is over-simplified and telling of his own narrow perspectives on what is politics, what is culture, and what is the ever-developing relationship between the two. Is culture only entertainment? Is it only a repository of non-political expressions? Is politics only expressed when people go to the voter booth, write a letter to their senator, or attend a protest?

While I don't agree with McWhorter's conclusions, he raises some important questions for consideration.

****

Where Hiphop is "Going" and Where It Never Was
by John McWhorter

The roundtable on hiphop over at the Atlantic is interesting. A discussion on what's new on the hiphop scene? That'd make perfect sense to me - but then that alone would fall somewhat outside of the Atlantic purview and be more like a piece by Sascha Frere-Jones at the New Yorker.

No, the roundtable participants are musing over hiphop as something Potentially Important. It is this treatment of the music that has confused and bemused me for years. When I wrote a book explaining why, a common response (to the extent that there were any!) was that the whole idea that anybody thinks hiphop is more than just good music was a figment of my imagination.

But bookshelves groan with work describing rap as "prophetic" and breathlessly exploring the possibility of a "hip hop revolution" and its potential to "motivate" young people. This Atlantic roundtable is cut from that cloth. Whence this idea that music, rather than effort, can change things politically?

For example, the participants look back fondly on the days when more of the music was "political," with Alyssa Rosenberg opining that it's unrealistic to decree that musicians follow our bidding and be "constructive." But this whole wing of the discussion presupposes a hypothetical possibility that hiphop could serve some kind of purpose beyond being just entertainment, that it is at least worth discussion whether rappers have some kind of "responsibility." Gautham Nagesh even thinks that way back, rap actually did play a crucial part in making people aware of ghetto life ("rap has played a key role in raising awareness of issues such as urban poverty").

The question here is: what is the purpose of this supposedly politically important rap supposed to be? Let's even say consciousness is raised: now that Scarsdale Chad knows what it's like growing up in the ‘hood, then what? What does Chad do besides walk down the street lurching and mouthing along to Tupac or whoever it was he learned this from in the early nineties? The consciousness was raised - and what legislation did it create? In a history book 100 years from now, we will see it written that "Because of hiphop raising consciousness of ghetto poverty starting in the late 1980s, _______." Fill in the blank. Note the difficulty.

My sense is that my even bringing up this issue of purpose is seen as somehow beside the point, but that very impatience, the grouchy feeling that my asking this means that there is something I don't "get," is revealing of a serious problem with what we have been taught to think of as politics. Namely, we assume that it is meaningfully political to strike poses and say things rather than do things.

Few are aware of it, but this traces back to the way smart people have for decades been misinterpeting Antonio Gramsci, the Italian political theorist. The key text would seem to be The Prison Notebooks, where he argued that the ruling class creates ideological structures, such as educational systems, that support their interests while obscuring the evil underpinnings of society. Subordinate ("subaltern") groups accept these ideas and end up oppressing themselves. Thus they must counteract the "hegemony" through attempts to revise cultural conceptions.

So, under this analysis, which starts with intellectuals and spreads outward to the general consciousness, rappers are presenting a new Cultural Paradigm, with their academic celebrants as conduits of that new "message" to the ruling class. Poor blacks are the subalterns; Washington, DC, William Bennett, and suburban whites who don't "see" blacks and preserve their "white privilege" are the Hegemony, and so on.

But Gramsci himself would be surprised to see how his ideas have been recruited for the subtle and complex race situation in America of the late twentieth century. He was a practicing Communist who wrote The Prison Notebooks from, well, prison, where he spent the last ten years of his life. He wrote in reference to working-class and peasant folk for whom the barriers to advancement were concrete and required no careful indoctrination to understand in the way that the black victim orthodoxy does today.

And the problem is that in black America and beyond, as historian David Steigerwald puts it, "the more the intellectuals have analyzed cultural hegemony, the less real political effect their radicalism has had." He notes that "Where the hard and gradual work of organizing revolution is dreamed away and the Left becomes willingly content with ‘cultural resistance,' the best radicals can hope for is directionless, feeble, and scattered opposition to the state of things."

Gramsci did not mean that striking anti-authoritarian poses on pop recordings, videos, and posters was meaningful sociopolitical activity. This is how modern academics have distorted his argumentation, and is the source of the idea that hiphop's "subalterns" have accomplished something sublime because their lyrics disrespect authority.

What these roundtable participants don't seem to quite understand is that this is all even political rap could ever do. It is the DNA of the form to be confrontational - whether about politics, women, social pecking order (i.e. the in-your-face bling, etc.) or anything else. Rap that was about solutions, as Rosenberg calls for, would be about as plausible as opera about physical fitness.

Take Cam'ron's "I Hate My Job," which I have commended for even broaching the very real problem of getting a job as an ex-con. There are solutions a-plenty, as I have also blogged here about: but how many of us can really imagine a rap about getting an apartment, waiting for a driver's license, or holding down a job? It's a meaningless issue. As Nagesh notes, when rappers have tried to just sit back and celebrate that Obama is in - i.e. nothing to be mad about - they don't quite know what to do.

I really like the new idea floating around that hiphop may have helped elect Barack Obama. Once more, that impulse to see hiphop as something other than fun. If one must speak of hiphop and Obama in the same breath -- beyond noting that he, rather unsurprisingly of a black man under 50, listens to some - then what Obama has shown us is what a real revolution is, as opposed to the kind written about with 20-dollar words in books.

To wit: after decades of people wondering when the Great Hiphop Revolution might be coming -- tell me no one was waiting for that since Public Enemy and explain stuff like Vote or Die and Russell Simmons' Hip-Hop Summit Action Network well into this current decade - Obama strode in and galvanized exactly the demographic in question with real political organizing, with inspiration that was about something other than having your middle finger stuck up, with, in a word, work.

It is unclear to me that hiphop played a significant part in making Obama president. Certainly it brought some people to some concerts where people registered to vote, but that very thing made no difference in the 2004 election and I am unaware of evidence that it tipped the scales to Obama this time. A thought experiment: if hiphop didn't exist and Obama had come along anyway, I see no reason to suppose that Obama would not now be President.

Nagesh seems to think that hiphop moguls like Jay-Z helped get white people used to the idea of black authority figures - but that revolution in thought started long before. There has been a general "browning" of our culture that has accustomed all of us to blackness as mainstream that Leon Wynter, in a book that never got enough attention partly because it was published around the first anniversary of 9/11, dates to 1980, in the commercial where Mean Joe Greene tossed an admiring white boy his jersey.

Politics is work. Hiphop is music. Hua Hsu seems to get this, although it's less that it's "unfair" to expect rap to be "constructive" - implying that it could be -- than that it is purely illogical. The idea that hiphop, because it makes the body feel good to move to it and it makes the soul feel good to hear out angry young black men, can be transmuted into changing the world is narcotic but nonsensical. Wherever hiphop is ever "going," we can be sure it will not be in a constructive direction, anymore than fashions in the color of cars. And it shouldn't "concern" us in the least.

How Hip-Hop Was Viewed in 1981

2009-05-17T01:15:00.010-05:00

Shout out to Oliver Wang at Poplicks.com who linked to this 20/20 special from 1981 covering hip-hop music. If y'all are like me you will get a lot out of it.

I think what struck me most is the way they portrayed hip-hop; as a valid and democratic street music that spoke to the social conflicts of its time. In fact, the show is quite visionary in its predictions and historical lens. "Hip-hop will be around for years to come." That's pretty gutsy for a mainstream news show that many white Americans watched who would have said that rap was a fad. Of course, there is also the claim that rap was "an overnight phenomenon." You might could say this at a certain point, but not by '81.

Today, you can't see anything in the press or blogs that isn't either making hip-hop responsible for social conflict or perpetuating it. Hip-hop, apparently a thing above people, divorced from them, and that they have no say in, makes them violent (violent in the abstract, of course; as if direct conflict with the police is a bad thing), makes them patriarchal (because the State is anti-patriarchal; after all it is liberating Middle Eastern women, right?), and makes them materialistic (ah, because otherwise we live in a socialist society!).

What's clear here is that even in 1981 hip-hop had a very broad reach and was already being capitalized on by business outside of the recording industry. Not only that, but hip-hop was "rocking the vote" as we see from the Boston rap commercial. "They say your vote doesn't count, but that's a bunch of jive!" Damn that sounds familiar. Hip-hop was being used to teach history; which it does organically, but already then the State was using it to teach the "right" history.

For historicity, the linkages to black oral tradition is on point. One claim I tire from hearing is hip-hop's supposed African origins when there's about a 500 year disconnect; a claim not present here. But mostly, in saying that, it's the assumption that folks can't create anything new. I will say, however, there's definitely a prior experience that hip-hop developed in that this special broadly captures.

I think we should be happy to say that hip-hop, through all its changes, has grown to be ever more democratic and universal and that whatever we don't like about hip-hop, it's the reality we shouldn't like, not its aesthetic expressions.

Sabreena da Witch on Israeli Apartheid and Fighting a "Personal Occupation"

2009-05-15T16:52:00.012-05:00

Sabreena da Witch recently wrote this poignant post on her blog that I'm reposting below. For those who don't know, Sabreena da Witch, aka Abeer Alzinaty, is a Palestinian hip-hop artist and was featured in the documentary Slingshot Hip-Hop. I won't say much about the post as it speaks for itself. It definitely resonated with me based on some of my own experiences as a black woman with patriarchy and racism. It's a reminder of the need for young women to stay defiant, to persevere despite the odds and break out of the confines that our families and society try to impose on us. For many of us, hip-hop has been an important source of community for such "personal" struggles which should never be fought alone. Yet, as Abeer's experience shows us, we still have a long way to go even in hip-hop.

Men from the west GET THE FUCK OUT OF OUR LANDS, men from the east GET THE FUCK OUT OF OUR MINDS!

Israel celebrates today 61 years of Independence. It's sad how so many people can celebrate the independence they built on the bodies of freedom fighters they have murdered.
As if there is a universal permit for some specific people in this tragic world, to occupy others and call it a fight for independence.
you would think that as a Palestinian I would be out there, demonstrating against Israel's brutal, bloody independence. But I'm after all just a WOMAN! Occupation is suppose to be all I know!

So many people will fight for Palestine and never mention it's women. So many people will fight for Iraq and never mention it's women. So many people will fight for Africa and never mention it's women.
So many people will fight for freedom; become famous and rich for their fight; become heroes; icons on t shirts all over the world and never mention the women they oppressed on the way to stardom. Just like a million and a half Israelis will celebrate freedom right next to a huge concrete wall separating them from other people.

Here is a timeline of my personal occupation from the years I can remember ;

When I was 12 I went to the mall alone for the first time with my friend. She said we should speak in Hebrew so people wouldn't know we were arabs. When I asked: what about everything else like our names and accents?
She said : salesmen don't care about names!

When I was 13 my mom told me I cannot be in love unless I'm engaged. Since I was too young to get engaged, I automatically lost my right to have any emotions for boys until I was older. When I asked -what do I do with the butterflies in my belly?
My mom said : society doesn't care about teenagers' stupid feelings!

When I was 14 I was expelled from school because I refused to stand respectfully on memorial day for Israeli soldiers who died in wars against the arab world. I had no idea what it meant to be a Palestinian yet, but to stand silently for a whole minute for a man who died in a war after he was trained to go to war did not make sense to me. When I asked -what about the people those soldiers went to kill?
my teacher said: Israel doesn't care about other people and that's the way it is. We have rules to follow!

When I was 15 I had my first boyfriend. He said I shouldn't tell other people we were together and that he loved me, but he didn't care if I said I loved him.

When I was 16 my father said that I couldn't go to demonstrations against Israeli soldiers who shot 13 Palestinian men inside of Israel and so many more in the West Bank and Gaza. He said he knew that I was going to meet boys.
I tried to explain that I did not plan to meet anyone there, and I was going only to express my feelings about violence and injustice.
He said : I know YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT THAT!

When I was 17, one of my classmates said: Palestinian "Muslim terrorists" should stop using Christians churches to hide from the Israeli army.
I said : but the Palestinian christian priest cares for his Palestinian land too, and is helping Palestinian freedom fighters to survive.
He said : We christians do not care about lands; we want peace, you should learn something from us and stop being a greedy muslim!

When I was 18, a girl I knew from school was killed for honor. I collected all the newspapers with articles which included the conclusion of investigations into the murder; that the killer was one of the girl's brothers. I took the articles to school to talk about the incident with other people. Sadly the sister of the victim was in my class. She saw the papers,and began to cry and curse me. I apologized to her for bringing the paper with me and she said she didn't care about the newspaper. It was me who should have just shut up and stayed out of it.

When I was 19, after years of fighting with my parents to be able to do Hip-Hop music, I was scheduled to go on a local tour. My participation was canceled because my relatives said they would shoot me if I stepped on stage. When I asked the male artists involved: what about my part of the song?
They said : who cares about that, the important thing for you is to stay alive.
They all went on that tour, and another tour in Europe a week later. They had pre-recorded playback for my part and I did not sing publicly for 4 years.

When I was 20 I was fired from MacDonald's after 3 years of work. My supervisor said I spoke Arabic way too much during my shift and that it was bothering other employees and customers. According to their policy, Arabic was not even allowed, so I had gone way past the line. When I said: what about Russian being spoken all the time?
He said : The company doesn't care about the Russian language, it's just Arabic.

When I was 21, in my third year of Film school at Tel Aviv university, I had my first cigarette. one of my classmates told me it was not attractive for women to smoke. I said: I thought it would be health issues to cause people not to smoke. He said he had been smoking for 15 years and he was fine, so he didn't care much about that anymore, but when he kissed a woman who smoked he felt like he was kissing an ashtray.

When I was 22 I went to Bethlehem to do some creative workshops at a refugee camp. Just before leaving Jerusalem we were stopped by what is called a "Flying Check point". Two Israeli soldiers boarded the mini bus and checked everyones IDs, Passports and permits. Four people were asked to get off, two of them women. They started crying right away to the soldier (probably their eleventh attempt to go to Bethlehem that day alone). They cried that their mother was very sick and might be dying and that they just wanted to say goodbye. They had not seen her since getting married 10 years ago. They also said that they had tried countless times to get permits but they were never approved because their names on the birth certificates do not match the names on the IDs! The soldier said he didn't care about reasons, all he cared about was doing his job. we continued on without them!

When I was 23, in my second year in Photography school at Bezalel art Academy in Jerusalem, I hung on the wall photos I had taken during my first visit to Baltimore. The teacher asked for a "new experience" project. All my photos showed black kids I had met at a block party.
The teacher said he could not accept this project since it was not produced specifically for the assignment, and the photos were taken on a summer vacation.
I insisted on getting feedback since I had gone through a new experience and met new people from a completely different community. My classmates said the project wasn't relevant and that they didn't care if it was my first visit to Baltimore or to the Americas. They said i had dark enough skin to walk in that hood, and because I am an arab I probably wasn't scared to be in what they decided was the ghetto; and therefore there was no new experience. Nothing was said about the photos themselves.

When I was 24 I had my first public performance after 4 years of not being on stage. People said I was good but not professional. That I didn't have enough energy, the songs were not mixed, and the quality of the sound was bad. I responded: I'm very aware of that. I never had the chance to work on my music professionally. I was told: NOBODY CARES, you just need to get better now that you can; stop complaining and start working!!

I am 25 now, and I'm fucking sick and tired of being the victim; but what else am I. What else can you fucking be when you are all the time OPPRESSED! If it's not an Israeli soldier in my way, it's my neighbor who is worried for my good name!
It seems like Israelis and other zionists want me to never complain about my experience as a Palestinian!
and It seems like men and other chauvinists want me to never complain for my experience as a woman!!
It is as if I'm supposed to naturally shut up every time somebody tells me I can't do something because I am a Palestinian and I am a WOMAN!!!

61 years under occupation and Israelis still do not understand what we Palestinians are fighting for. Zionists act totally surprised when they hear criticism of Israel and lash back with responses like: what's your problem?
BITCHES! You are our problem. You took over our lands, our homes, our streets , our history, our dignity, our passion, and you even took over our culture too, adding insult to injury. You call it all your own when you never worked hard for it. WE DID!!

From me personally, on top of everything listed above, you occupiers took my right to complain as an oppressed woman. Every fucking bastard who is comfortable enough in this man's world, thinks I should shut up about women's rights, so the West won't jump on the scoop! and so the East can fight the western evil occupation without being disturbed by another fight!

Women are not less important!! Equality is Equality everywhere !!
and
OCCUPATION IS OCCUPATION no matter how pretty you try to make it look!
Although you do not care about my anger and my frustration, and although you wait for me to make a mistake, so you can criticize me , I fight for freedom, I always will, inshalla for another 61 years to come and forever more!

FUCK YOU!!!

[Original post here]

Riot Music, for Austin

2009-05-15T16:51:00.000-05:00

On Monday, East Austin nearly rose up in a rebellion after police there shot two young Black men who were sleeping in a car in an apartment parking lot, killing one Nathaniel Sanders who was 18 years old. The police of course claim that Sanders reached for a gun, and the media has made it a point to bring up his past arrests, because arrests = criminal and a criminal is supposedly deserving of police violence because, after all, he must've been up to no good sitting in that car with his friends. Black folks in the surrounding community responded angrily and crowded the nearby streets yelling at the cops and throwing rocks and other things at them. It got bad enough that the police department called out SWAT and additional officers in riot gear.

Some of the news reports on what happened in East Austin remind me of responses to the Adolph Grimes murder here. In New Orleans a few months back, some acted surprised that there were expressions of outrage after the murder of Grimes. Not long after that, a white woman was shot and killed by two black teenagers in the French Quarter, and white folks living there went crazy, demanding increased police patrols and complaining about the wild "thugs" and uncontrollable Negroes that are threatening the civility and sanctity of French Quarter (elite) life. Police at the time were quoted as saying that they didn't understand why "those" black folks were upset every time the police did their job in the community. The officers wondered why black folks didn't respond like those respectable white folks who welcomed the police with open arms. The implication was of course that black folks are not only naturally violent but also resent any attempts by the state to civilize them.

This makes it all the more reason to point out that growing anger in response to continued police violence and murder of men and women of color is not only to be expected, but necessary and legitimate. The rebellion in January in Oakland was likely a preview of what we may see more of, especially if the economic and political crisis deepens. What is yet to be seen on a wider scale are effective strategies and political perspectives that can shape such rebellions into more sustained organizing and direct action. Folks in Oakland faced their own obstacles to doing just that, like an older community leadership that attempted to draw the anger into "safer" forms of protest, but such leadership is increasingly becoming irrelevant as police violence and racism in the judicial system continue unabated (Sean Bell, Adolph Grimes, the countless women who are beaten and sexually violated while in custody but don't make the evening news...).

We'll stay tuned to what develops in Austin. In the meantime, here's some music for Austin, or any other city, to riot to.

Eminem Will Fly Laid Off Workers to Jimmy Kimmel Show

2009-05-14T14:41:00.009-05:00

Just saw on Davey D that Eminem is planning on flying out 200 laid off autoworkers to the Jimmy Kimmel show on May 19. I guess the point is to publicize the layoffs (and his new album) which is cool, after all Em was a factory worker himself for a brief period (which was dramatized in the film 8 Mile), but can we get these folks who gave us proof that workers can be self-governing a little more than that? Damn.

Detroit and other rust belt cities have been the frontlines for restructuring which will put the finishing touches on the ruling class's attack on the concessions wrested from them by working folks. The next generation of Big Three (or is it the Big Two now?) autoworkers can expect to make $12 to $14 an hour which puts them on par with workers in Southern auto plants like Toyota. And while that might seem a lot for those of us making minimum wage, it comes with a larger cost with little to no healthcare and a racist union that won't do shit. Back in 1970, General Baker of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers said, "UAW means 'U Ain't White.'" But today it might as well stand for U Are Worthless (they're still racist cracker motherfuckers, of course).

Some folks are hating hard on UAW workers, calling them spoiled and all that. A lot of that is because they confound the UAW leadership with the rank and file when the union is essentially an extension of plant management and State bureaucracy. The average folks and the ones who came before them are partially responsible for not only improving living standards among the working class, standards now in sharp decline, but for creating some of the most revolutionary forms of working class organization, like the sit-down strike, but also other informal types of struggle that bucked the UAW and the company-instituted work speed-up. This self-organization reveals the workers' capacity to run the plants (and hence society) independent of management. We can't hate on them because we are them. And we're going to share in their fate.

White Rappers vs. Rappers Who Are White

2009-05-12T13:49:00.009-05:00

So this Asher Roth thing has been debated for a minute and I wasn't really planning on taking it up, simply because the "white rapper" debate has seemed stale for the better part of the last 15 years now. But Roth's interview with The Wall St. Journal last month is telling for what hasn't been said in this most recent round of debates about white rappers. That is, that there’s a difference between a white rapper and a rapper who’s white.

Roth comes out in the interview saying, “Unlike Eminem, I'm classic white. I'm talking about yoga and yogurt covered in fruit. I represent more of a suburban middle-class lifestyle.” Roth is contrasted with an artist like Eminem for good reason, but could also be compared to someone like Bubba Sparxxx. Eminem may have a largely white fan base, but he can make songs like “White America” precisely because his image represents in many ways a threat to traditional white identity under white supremacy in this country. It’s partly the street element he has to his persona, it’s partly the working class experience that fills out his lyrics, it’s partly his own association with people of color in hip-hop, that had so many media hacks, politicians and middle class parents scurrying to keep their white children from Eminem’s mischievous influence. While Eminem could potentially encourage white youth to identify with people of color, Asher Roth hardly presents that same threat if what he raps about only speaks to the experiences of white middle class suburban youth.

Bubba Sparxxx or Paul Wall is the type of artist that even go beyond Eminem. There was hardly any debate about them being “white rappers” precisely because nobody mistook them for white, in the political or social sense of the label. In fact, most white people didn’t even pay them any mind nor make up the majority of their fan base.

Some of the blog posts I’ve seen criticizing Asher Roth (see an assortment here) don't take up this dynamic, focusing instead on connecting him to all the other “white rappers” that appropriate and exploit black music. That’s too simplistic an explanation. Whether we like it or not, hip-hop is broad enough and has generalized across society (and the globe) in such a way that there will inevitably continue to be people like Roth or Slug or others who are white rappers doing the college kid, suburban hip-hop thing. But what’s relevant and more compelling is looking at how some artists take hip-hop a step further toward breaking down conventional racial identities and open the door for white folks who don't identify as white to instead identify with the social and political struggles and experiences of people of color, on terms defined by the latter.

Here is the WSJ interview from last month.

Just Asking… Asher Roth
By JOHN JURGENSEN

By rhyming about his suburban roots, Asher Roth has carved out a niche for himself in rap music and scored a hit with the song "I Love College." We spoke to the 23-year-old rapper about rejected stage names, why he left college and his strategy for answering questions about another white rapper, Eminem.

The Wall Street Journal: At a recent listening party for "Asleep in the Bread Aisle," you introduced your album saying it was bringing together people from all walks of life. Is that something that's missing from rap music?

Asher Roth: Especially now. Originally, the whole thing was about uplifting and enlightening people and having a party. When it became all about selling records, it really got tainted.

Asher Roth performs at the 2008 mtvU Woodie Awards in New York City.

WSJ: How exactly are you bringing people together?

Mr. Roth: It's hip-hop music, so it's not like we're out there holding hands. But it's forcing people to talk and get a lot of things off their chest. Unlike Eminem, I'm classic white. I'm talking about yoga and yogurt covered in fruit. I represent more of a suburban middle-class lifestyle. If we can start in hip hop and accept people for who they are and what they're talking about, rather than the color of their skin, we can turn it into a global thing. Hip hop is a beautiful place for asking more questions.

WSJ: For years people have been saying that the majority of rap fans are people like you -- white kids from the suburbs. If that's the case, why have there been so few to break out?

Mr. Roth: Besides the white guys who sell it and push it, hip hop is black music. But it got to the point where they were targeting us, the white people in the 'burbs. We got brought up on it, but suddenly when a 23-year-old white kid who's been inspired by Jay-Z starts rapping, it's a bad thing? C'mon, those [rappers] were talking to us the whole time. It's interesting to see what this is turning into. I was just this punk kid rapping to the laptop in my sophomore year in college. That's what hip-hop has turned into.

WSJ: At what point did you feel like you had become a professional rapper? What was the first major test of your skills?

Mr. Roth: The first time that I feel like I really passed a test was when I was on [influential DJ] Drama's radio show freestyling. People put a lot of stock in freestyling -- they've all seen the movie "8 Mile" -- but it's really hit or miss. Sometimes your brain isn't working, and I can be a pretty anxious kid. I don't like to have a verse ready in the back of my head, but on the show people were laughing and enjoying themselves, and I was like, damn, freestyling is easy when you're not too worried about it. I had another obstacle on [BBC DJ] Tim Westwood's show when he was playing a bunch of Eminem beats for me to rap over.

WSJ: On your album, you address comparisons to Eminem with the song "As I Em." Why did you write that song?

Mr. Roth: It's a bummer that that's the song everyone's going to be talking about. But I was never going to be able to ignore it. I can't comment on someone I've never met in my life, but in every interview I get asked about him. It came to a point where my album was done, but it felt like something was missing.

I'd been given that beat. It's one of the only songs on the album with a sample. It's a Joe Jackson sample [from the song "Geraldine and John"]. I was with my boy, hanging out in the Honda Civic, and I'm going through the CD cases and that one was right next to an Eminem CD. There's stuff like that that goes down in life, and you know it has to happen. So the song is the story of my relationship with Em. Now, when I get asked, I can say, "Refer to song 8. Conversation over."

WSJ: After you signed your recording contract in 2007, you spent a few months in Atlanta, writing and honing your skills. Can you set the scene?

Mr. Roth: We darted down there -- to a neighborhood with a bunch of newlyweds with their dogs -- and there was our ratty house with me and three of my homies from school. In the basement we put up a wall and a microphone and we hung out there and drank Trader Joe's wine and Miller Lite, and that's how we honed the craft. I wasn't making music with Big Daddy Kane and KRS One. I was just hanging out with my friends, kicking around ideas.

WSJ: Did you ever experiment with stage names other than your own?

Mr. Roth: When I was 16 and 17, it was like, what are you going to put on a CD? For a while it was Renaissance. Or AKA, like "also known as," because I couldn't come up with anything else. Or Grade A, like the eggs. Or Young Ash -- throw a "young" in your name and you're good.

WSJ: You perform with a band. Why did you go from rapping over tracks to working with a live sound?

Mr. Roth: I knew I wanted to have a live element. I was never interested in just watching a guy on stage rap about how great he is. I'm not the first -- the Roots really inspired me for that very reason. I've played with a full band a few times, but for the most part I perform with a live drummer and a DJ -- that's what I come from. I used to play drums until my dad made me practice with the practice pads on; then I was done.

WSJ: Did anyone encourage you to keep rapping when you were in high school or college?

Mr. Roth: My parents weren't like, "Pursue a rap career! Drop out of school!" But at the same time they didn't discourage me. It was more like, "Are you coming home for dinner?" Nobody is going to push me more than I will myself.

WSJ: How did your parents feel when you told them you were dropping out of college?

Mr. Roth: It came at a good time. I was in school just to be in school. My grades were dropping and it was so obvious that I really didn't care. My dad was helping with tuition, and he told me he wasn't going to waste his money. But it definitely wasn't success over night. I had moved to Atlanta after I signed the deal, and I was living on my advance, which disappeared quickly. I delivered pizzas. This wasn't the second coming of anything, but that whole process was very important for me

WSJ: What other kinds of music are you listening to?

Mr. Roth: Right now, and every day for the most part, I listen to a lot of [Bob] Marley. Especially in the morning, the vibe sets my day. On the planes, some James Brown. Today I was listening to Lykke Li and Pac Division. Some of their stuff is really dope.

Obama's Swagga and CNN's House Negro

2009-05-09T06:24:00.005-05:00

Hip-hop may have popularized "swagga", but that don't mean it's for everybody.

Does anybody else feel like this dude is one reason why white liberal racists believe themselves when they say, "I can't be racist, I have a black friend"? CNN must be so proud they found a spokesperson to translate "black culture" for them...

On a more serious note, this reference to Obama having swagga has to be added to the archive on the rise of new layers of leadership in communities of color that claim a sort of hip-hop legitimacy (see here and here for starters on Obama's hip-hop legitimacy). Whether we agree or disagree that Obama has swagga, the fact that he gets discussed on those terms has real significance for the legitimacy he gives to the white supremacist institutions he now manages.

Rapper K'Naan on Somalia and the Real Pirates

2009-05-09T04:22:00.013-05:00

Thanks to Mamos for a heads up on this. Following up on a video we posted here a few weeks back, we're reposting an insightful article by hip-hop artist K'naan about the highly debated and too often over-simplified situation of piracy off the coast of Somalia. K'naan gives a good overview of how and why folks have taken to pirating the waterways, illustrating the backdrop of "post-colonial independence, bad governance and development loan sharks." It's important to take notice of the fact that much of the coverage of Somalia has been either lightly-veiled or not-so-lightly-veiled racism that would have us believe that the current piracy originated not out of impulses for community self-defense and direct action against neoliberalism, but instead out of the supposedly backwards nature of the African (cuz "they" are all the same, right?) masses. Luckily, voices in hip-hop and elsewhere expose this logic for the bull it really is.

Why We Don't Condemn Our Pirates
by K'naan

Can anyone ever really be for piracy? Outside of sea bandits, and young girls fantasizing of Johnny Depp, would anyone with an honest regard for good human conduct really say that they are in support of Sea Robbery?

Well, in Somalia, the answer is: it's complicated.

The news media these days has been covering piracy in the Somali coast with such
lop-sided journalism, that it's lucky they're not on a ship themselves. It's true that the constant hijacking of vessels in the Gulf of Aden is a major threat to the vibrant trade route between Asia and Europe. It is also true that for most of the pirates operating in this vast shoreline, money is the primary objective.

But according to so many Somalis, the disruption of Europe's darling of a trade route, is just Karma biting a perpetrator in the butt. And if you don't believe in Karma, maybe you believe in recent history. Here is why we Somalis find ourselves slightly shy of condemning our pirates.

Somalia has been without any form of a functioning government since 1991. And although its failures, like many other toddler governments in Africa, sprung from the wells of post-colonial independence, bad governance and development loan sharks, the specific problem of piracy was put in motion in 1992.

After the overthrow of Siyad Barre, our charmless dictator of twenty-some-odd years, two major forces of the Hawiye Clan came to power. At the time, Ali Mahdi, and General Mohamed Farah Aidid, the two leaders of the Hawiye rebels, were largely considered liberators. But the unity of the two men and their respective sub-clans was very short-lived. It's as if they were dumbstruck at the advent of ousting the dictator, or that they just forgot to discuss who will be the leader of the country once they defeated their common foe.

A disagreement of who will upgrade from militia leader to Mr. President broke up their honeymoon. It's because of this disagreement that we've seen one of the most decomposing wars in Somalia's history, leading to millions displaced and hundreds of thousands dead.

But war is expensive and militias need food for their families, and Jaad (an amphetamine-based stimulant) to stay awake for the fighting. Therefore, a good clan -based Warlord must look out for his own fighters. Aidid's men turned to robbing aid trucks carrying food to the starving masses, and re-selling it to continue their war. But Ali Mahdi had his sights set on a larger and more unexploited resource, namely: the Indian Ocean.

Already by this time, local fishermen in the coastline of Somalia have been complaining of illegal vessels coming to Somali waters and stealing all the fish. And since there was no government to report it to, and since the severity of the violence clumsily overshadowed every other problem, the fishermen went completely unheard.

But it was around this same time that a more sinister, a more patronizing practice was being put in motion. A Swiss firm called Achair Parterns, and an Italian waste company called Achair Parterns, made a deal with Ali Mahdi, that they were to dump containers of waste material in Somali waters. These European companies were said to be paying Warlords about $3 a ton, whereas to properly dispose of waste in Europe costs about $1000 a ton.

In 2004, after a tsunami washed ashore several leaking containers, thousand of locals in the Puntland region of Somalia started to complain of severe and previously unreported ailments, such as abdominal bleeding, skin melting off and a lot of immediate cancer-like symptoms. Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the United Nations Environmental Program, says that the containers had many different kinds of waste, including "Uranium, radioactive waste, lead, Cadmium, Mercury and chemical waste." But this wasn't just a passing evil from one or two groups taking advantage of our unprotected waters. The UN envoy for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, says that the practice still continues to this day. It was months after those initial reports that local fishermen mobilized themselves, along with street militias, to go into the waters and deter the Westerners from having a free pass at completely destroying Somalia's aquatic life. Now years later, the deterring has become less noble, and the ex-fishermen with their militias have begun to develop a taste for ransom at sea. This form of piracy is now a major contributor to the Somali economy, especially in the very region that private toxic waste companies first began to burry our nation's death trap.

Now Somalia has upped the world's pirate attacks by over 21 percent in one year, and while NATO and the EU are both sending forces to the Somali coast to try and slow down the attacks, Blackwater and all kinds of private security firms are intent on cashing in. But while Europeans are well in their right to protect their trade interest in the region, our pirates were the only deterrent we had from an externally imposed environmental disaster. No one can say for sure that some of the ships they are now holding for ransom were not involved in illegal activity in our waters. The truth is, if you ask any Somali, if getting rid of the pirates only means the continuous rape of our coast by unmonitored Western Vessels, and the producing of a new cancerous generation, we would all fly our pirate flags high.

It is time that the world gave the Somali people some assurance that these Western illegal activities will end, if our pirates are to seize their operations. We do not want the EU and NATO serving as a shield for these nuclear waste-dumping hoodlums. It seems to me that this new modern crisis is truly a question of justice, but also a question of whose justice.

As is apparent these days, one man's pirate is another man's coast guard.

K’naan is a Somali-Canadian poet, rapper and musician.

Below are links to the interviews we did with Knaan a couple of weeks before all this drama unfolded.

In the first clip he talks about Somali Pirates. In the second clip he talks about the US attempts to classify Somalis here in the US as Terrorists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrwgiprDBtA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i67euACNhmA

[Originally posted here]

Hip-Hop Republicans: What Do They Represent?

2009-04-22T10:39:00.013-05:00

Hip Hop Republican, a blog I've been trying to read more, posted their very intriguing "'Hip-Hop Republicanism': A Manifesto" yesterday. This is a trend I've been noticing for the past two to three years: a very thin layer of hip-hop generation folks who represent a minority left tendency within the Republican Party. They, like Michael Steele, recently elected RNC Chair, embrace hip-hop and oppose the mainstream old school racism of white Republicanism that relegates hip-hop to violence.

I haven't given this phenomenon a lot of thought, but from what I can tell it is a result of two things; one, the fact that America itself is becoming more hip-hop and that hip-hop as such is becoming more diffuse throughout mainstream society, and two, the growth of hip-hop as an industry, or to use the Republican lexicon, as a "job creator."

What we've often referred to as "Hip-Hop Conservatism" is distinct from Hip-Hop Republicanism. Back in '97 when I was still a b-boy in a Kansas City-based crew called The Circuit Breakers, a friend and fellow dancer remarked, "Rebel (my hip-hop moniker of the time), you're like a hip-hop republican." Of course, he was talking about my hip-hop cultural conservatism as I was politically left. I, like other cultural conservatives then, was railing about the need for hip-hop to remain true to its so-called essence.

Hip-Hop Republicans aren't necessarily cultural conservatives (as indicated by their identification with the artists below), but are a logical extension of this conservatism into politics. The difference is that they aren't explicitly loyal to any one form of hip-hop, just as we at D&HHP aren't.

Their proof of hip-hop's positive force is in (surprise!) its entrepreneurialism. Everyone from Russell Simmons and Jay-Z to T.I. and David Banner are championed as a testament to hip-hop's commitment to free markets and as a provider of jobs for people of color and poor youth.

Part of how the neoliberal platform of the Republican Party has been packaged in terms of social spending has been its replacement by the encouragement of private funding and charity. Tax money has been cut from the wealthy, appropriated from the poor, and used to fund American geopolitical interests and war on people of color. This bankrupt philosophy has proved itself unable to fix what in reality will take a massive reinvestment into infrastructure and social institutions. The "golden era" of American capitalist expansion (1946-1973) meant a historically unprecedented investment in the "social wage" and even that was not enough to stifle working class rebellion from the black community to the women's movement who were fighting for direct democratic control of workplaces, schools, and communities.

The mainstream of the Democrats and the teabag crackers believe that this is what Obama is doing. He is not. Forty-five percent of Obama's stimulus has been tax cuts. The money supposedly earmarked for infrastructure development won't create jobs with livable wages, but will go to contractors who will make beaucoup dough relying on ultra-exploited undocumented labor. Obama is no FDR. And FDR's New Deal is no model for change anyhow.

The "Urban Republicans" ensure us that they aren't anarchists or right-wing von Mises Institute-type libertarians who oppose the State, but rather, like Republicans generally, support "small government." This kind of disingenuous language is supposed to gloss over the fact that the Republican Party has been intrinsic to the enormous growth of the federal government in the past thirty years. The "small government" talk was used to justify undoing government regulation of capital, but to impose the greatest amount of regulation on labor with ever more laws and labor department appointments that aimed to repress working class organization.

But Urban Republicans don't ever look to become the dominant force in the Republican Party. Many Republicans are demanding Steele resign which indicates how closely rooted in old school white supremacy the GOP is. Of course, we're not naive enough to think that the Democrats are any kind of legitimate opposition to white supremacy within official society. On the contrary, they represent its advanced wing. Not only that, but Urban Republicans aren't a viable enough hegemonic opposition, let alone numerical, to overcome the Party. They hope to push the GOP to the left and supplant themselves for what can only be popular control from below.

For those wanting to stay abreast of how Urban Republicans are orienting to the hip-hop generation, check out Hip Hop Republican.

Free Mumia

2009-04-22T00:42:00.007-05:00

In continuing with the theme of mid 90s hip-hop, I'm posting the lyrics to a KRS joint from '95 with the group Channel Live. I particularly like its slam of C. Delores Tucker, Jesse Jackson, and the Rainbow Coalition. We don't exactly see C. Delores Tucker, Jesse Jackson, and Colin Powell as House Negroes. Jackson in particular is a more advanced justification for white supremacy who embodied the language and dress of black power. The House Negro phenomenon is indicative of pre-Black Power politics and is all but superseded by a relatively new multiracial ruling class. These aren't sellouts but folks who have a vested class interest in white supremacy and in denial of people of color's self-governance.

Mumia Abu-Jamal has little to do with the song other than to underscore the hypocrisy of the civil rights leaders for joining with official society in an attack on people of color and a boycott of WEA (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic). Mumia is a clear and iconic example of State repression of Black people and in the 90s radical youth were organizing to free him. KRS' essential point is that the State, not hip-hop artists, is the real threat to people of color. "Warner, Elektra, Atlantic equals WEA, instead of fightin them why don't you go Free Mumia?!"

Knowledge, where the people at?
Free Mumia!
Channel Live! (KRS-One, come and represent)
(The wisdom)
Hah hah hah hah hah hahaha!
Free Mumia!

Everywhere I look there's another house negro
Talkin about they people and how they should be equal
They talkin but the conversation ain't goin nowhere
You can't diss hip-hop, so don't you even go there
C. Delores Tucker, you wanna quote the scripture
Everytime you hear nigga, listen up sista

Verse One: Hakim, KRS, Tuffy

I met up with this girl named Delores, a prankster
I said I MC, she said, "You're a gangster"
But she was caught up, she hit the floor like a breakdance
Wrapped her up like the arms in a b-boy stance
Recognize moms I'm one of your sons I'm hip-hop
in the form of Channel Live and KRS-One
Representin MC's across America
She said, "You're the one who be causin all that mass hysteria"

Wisdom shall come out of the mouths of babes and sucklings
But you blinded by cultural ignorance and steady judging
But judge not, lest ye may be judged
For the judgment ye judge ye shall surely be judged, you gets no love

She said, "I like it, that's why I jock it"
Then I said, "You only on my back because I fill brother's pockets"
Got em drivin Benzes Jeeps and Rolls Royces
Attackin me will leave youth with no voices
The choice is yours not mine hang with me
I'll have you freestyle and bombin graffiti
We can cut it up like like wax
Claimin I cause violence but America was violent before rap, FACT

Chorus: KRS-One

Warner, Elektra, Atlantic equals WEA
Instead of fighting them why don't you go free Mumia
(repeat 2X)

Verse Two: Tuffy, KRS, Hakim

Wild recital, I kicks the vital, like the Final
Call as I watch, Babylon fall
I had to Rush Limbaugh, get that pig with an axe
Tuffy dips to the side, buckin cannons that's phat
Because he censors the uses of the metaphor
You can get the dick bum up
Because it's you that brings the, real horrorcore
Expenditures forgettin, gut from the poor

Why sure! Back before we were born they sold us out
Yeah J. Jackson we know what you about
You's a Slave Mason, not a Free Mason
Before long the Goddess Tiamat through hip-hop you'll be facin
Don't start me, cause I be the, lyricist
At the nineteen ninety-nine millenium party held at Giza
Sayin he's a, fraud, oh my Goddess
Never in your life should you disrespect an artist
Instead, focus your attention on astronomy
And the up and coming, shift in the economy
If you can't do that, then heed the final call
To free Mumia Abu-Jamal

Hate to be so rough, it could be the White Owls
House niggaz are full of crap, like my Colin Powell
Kickin vowels, is how we relieve the tension
Until we start to bounce white people like suspension (revolution)
You paint the pictures, the black man on the corner
But tell me, who blew up Oklahoma?
The City, ain't no pity, for the beast
It's Hakim that voice from the East

Chorus

Verse Three: KRS, Hakim, Tuffy

Buck buck! Buck buck buck!
It sound like gunshots but it could be the plot
of a chicken, definition, is what you're missin and
listen to your children instead of dissin em
Senator Dole doesn't understand the young people
Like they be sayin want to, but we be sayin wanna
They gettin dumber every summer as they walk the rope
Maybe because they cannot understand the quotes

Word, in actuality, this Norman Bates mentality
always seems to represent, minus three-sixty percent
For degrees full circle, dead from the purple
rays of the sun I gots melanin so check it
Bag your nuts quick or get sick from being naked
Suspect it, was it a means for the end
For just a few to drive the Benz while you eat the pigskins
Turned you into mannequins, cause the trick of technology
A revelation, revelations
Sensation gives me inspiration of revolution
That's my solution, there will be no sequels
I'm audi hundred forty four thousand with my people

From Caligula to Hitler, now it's Schwarzenegger
A lust for the violence is the science of their behavior
Who enslaved ya (it's the Devil) but the God of virtuosity
And of the world created, could it be mental sodomy
Got my mind twisted like the blades of fonta leaf
I sit in disbelief as he crawls underneath
the rock cock back the glock, cause I don't trust
the Devil I rebel until Babylon is dust

Chorus

Hip-Hop vs. The Rainbow

2009-04-20T23:43:00.003-05:00

I recently read this excerpt from Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop and thought I'd share it. I think it's a good look at some of the historical attacks on hip-hop and how the Rainbow Coalition (a collaborationist outgrowth of Black Power) became the new justification for white supremacy. On the flip, we see the emergence of a new layer of militant youth who clearly identify as hip-hop and are waging a fight against the racism of a multiracial official society. This was one of the earliest forms of resistance our generation mounted against the new Rainbow Coalition rulers and it is an ethos still alive today, though uneven. In the 1990s, we didn't view C. Delores Tucker as a black leader, but a straight up parasitic and opportunistic racist. Despite attempts to gloss over that legacy today and while this specific generation might not know of her, we continue to buck the idea that black liberation has meant having a black face in State power.

~Krisna

The Great Divide

If the arc of hip-hop generation's cultural revolution was bowing toward difficult issues of engagement and exploitation, its political revolution was just taking flight.

Born in 1965 to prominent civil rights organizers in North Carolina, Angela Brown had been a child activist, leading campaigns to free Black women political prisoners. But her life changed in 1982, when the state of North Carolina decided to put a toxic waste landfill in the middle of a nearby working-class Black community. Brown and other teenage girls lay down on the road to prevent trucks from bringing in PCB-tainted soil for the landfill. That battle in Warren County became known as the opening shot in the environmental justice movement, a struggle that combined anti-racist and environmental activism.

A decade later, Brown was on the staff of the Atlanta-based civil rights stalwart, the Southern Organizing Committee, where she formed the Youth Task Force to organize youths from ten states and eighty-five universities into the environmental justice movement. She began to realize that a sharp, traumatic generational divide was emerging. Elders called her generation apathetic, but Brown saw a fundamentally different politics.

"The way in which they built their movement was around the 'lunch counter'— SNCC and others coming down to the South to challenge segregation on the lunch counter," she says. "We didn't have a single lunch counter.' We have had many 'lunch counters.' Our fight has been a constant barrage of struggles." No longer was there a single Movement, but dozens of movements—civil rights, education, environmental justice, AIDS, prisons, the list went on. But Brown noticed that where the dialogue really collapsed, where the generation gap was deepest, was over the question of hip-hop culture and rap music.

It was a divide that a fading Black Pennsylvania politician named C. Delores Tucker tried to exploit. Born in 1 929 and raised in northern Philadelphia, Tucker inherited twenty-four tenement buildings from her parents and by 1966 had been singled out by the local newspaper as one of the city's worst slumlords. Her buildings were all soon boarded up, taken over by the city, given to charities or simply abandoned.

Tucker's failures as a property manager did not stop her from seeking the civil rights limelight. She marched arm-in-arm with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma and became a close ally of Jesse Jackson. She became a rainmaker for the Democratic Party and was appointed Pennsylvania's secretary of state in 1971, the highest-ranking Black woman official in the state's history. Six years later, she was fired by the Democratic governor for allegedly using state employees to write personal speeches and collecting kickbacks from charities.

In 1984, Tucker formed a lobby group called the National Political Congress of Black Women. Two years later, she became the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee's Black Caucus. She then embarked on a series of unsuccessful runs for lieutenant governor and Congress before fading back into obscurity. In 1993, her friends Dionne Warwick and Melba Moore gave Tucker an opportunity to climb back into the spotlight when they approached her about having the NPCBW take up the fight against gangsta rap. Reverend Calvin Butts had already been steamrolling rap CDs in Harlem. They wanted in on the action.

Tucker repeated the same critique that hip-hop feminists had been leveling at media monopolies and rap misogynists for years. Corporations were not taking responsibility for the images they were distributing, and ducking serious discus¬sion by hiding behind the First Amendment. But there was something disingenu¬ous and opportunistic about her attacks.

Tucker won over both the liberal and conservative wings of her party by courting Senators Carol Moseley Braun and Joe Lieberman. Yet she also avidly welcomed the support of cultural conservatives like prominent Reagan/Bush cabinet member Bill Bennett. As the presidential election season rolled around, she joined with Republican candidate Bob Dole. Together, Bennett, Dole and Tucker made Suge Knight, Death Row Records and Snoop Dogg into clay pigeons for their culture war.

Tucker was enormously helpful to white cultural conservatives. In interviews, she compared herself to Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and made an explicitly racial appeal that insulated white cult-cons from criticism. Tucker was also mouthing the most extreme fears of many disillusioned, middle-class, middle-aged people of color, the very same civil rights generation elders who felt they had given everything in struggle for their kids, only to see them turn out to be spoiled, anarchic, value-free ingrates. She attracted Blacks who supported police crackdowns and strengthening juvenile-crime laws, the very same elders with whom Angela Brown was having anguishing arguments. To the cult-cons, Tucker was mobilizing fresh troops for further attacks on youths of color.

In early 1994, Tucker prevailed upon Moseley Braun to convene an unprecedented Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gangsta rap, an inquiry into "the effects of violent and demeaning imagery in popular music on American youth." Tucker was the star witness. Echoing right-wing backlash architects like James Q. Wilson, John Dilulio and James Alan Fox, she called for a broadening of the War on Youth:

As we have seen in the last thirty years, increasing law enforcement and correctional facilities have not reduced crime. These short-term fixes will do nothing to improve the lives of children like the nineteen that [sic] were recently removed from a home in Chicago because of parental neglect and abuse. Because of the lack of positive influences, their minds will be fertile and receptive ground for internalizing the violence glorified in gangster rap. Children such as these, our most neglected population, will become a social time bomb in our midst. Being coaxed by gangster rap, they will trig¬ger a crime wave of epidemic proportions that we have never seen the likes-of. Regardless of the number of jails built, it will not be enough. Neither will there be enough police or government programs to contain the explosion of crime. We as a Nation must act now and we must act decisively.

The Return of Hip-Hop Activism

Brown and the Youth Task Force had heard enough. Not only had Tucker committed the political equivalent of taking a family argument public, she seemed to be calling down the wrath of the government on the hip-hop generation by arguing that sweep laws, new prisons, and profiling were inadequate, that youth culture also needed to be regulated. Not just bodies, but ideas needed to be contained. By articulating a broader basis for the politics of containment, Tucker had turned the debate over hip-hop culture misogyny and violence into some¬thing much worse—she had mobilized the elders to turn on their children, to join their enemies in a broad political and cultural attack on youth of color.

The Task Force reacted by organizing the Atlanta hip-hop community. They initiated a series of forums to defend hip-hop and constructively critique it. The forums brought artists like the Goodie Mob, Tupac and Afeni Shakur, and Lil' Jon and the Eastside Boyz together with elders, lawyers, scholars, activists, and poets. The Task Force catalyzed an active response in activism, the arts, and the record industry. Many now credit their work as laying the foundation for Atlanta's leap to the cutting edge of both the rap industry and hip-hop activism by the end of the decade.

Around the country, hip-hop heads took similar stands. These activists were not trying to stifle or chastise the artists Tucker-style, they were trying to create a sense of community and responsibility, and to define a new praxis of politics and culture. The aim was, as Maxine Waters had put it during the gangsta rap hearings, to "embrace and transform rather than to confront, isolate, and marginalize." They were dealing with a unique paradox—a generation that had greater access to the media and culture than any other in history remained as politically scapegoated and marginalized as any in history. They called them¬selves "hip-hop activists" because the term spoke to the way culture and politics came together for them, and because it was a way to reclaim and define their generational identity.

In fact, the hip-hop generation was at least as, if not more, politically active than the civil rights generation. In 2001, the UCLA Freshman Survey—the definitive documentation of college-age youth attitudes since 1966—found that nearly half of all freshmen said they had participated in an organized demonstration during the past year. That number was three times greater than in the inaugural survey, conducted at the peak of the civil rights movement.

Civil rights may have fixed an image of "The Movement" as picket-waving masses on the National Mall listening to Dr. King. If the youths weren't there in D.C., elders figured, nothing must be happening. But hip-hop activism largely took place below the national radar. Capitol Hill's diminished powers, big-money lobbying and campaign financing, and symbolic politics made it a less likely place than ever to go to get a problem solved. From Watergate to Monicagate, national politics often seemed just a lesser form of entertainment. Why bother marching on Washington?

The life-and-death struggles were happening at the local level, where hip-hop activists were busy fighting in the streets, neighborhoods, school boards, city halls, state legislatures and corporate offices. This time, the whole world would not be watching; global media monopolies could make sure of that. But the hip-hop generation was pushing forward in a complicated world, in more sophisticated ways than previous generations ever had.

Most visibly, Russell Simmons was assembling his hip-hop army, forming the Hip Hop Summit Action Network to bring together rappers, academics, music industry leaders, civil rights leaders, and politicians to push for social change. But the most compelling work was happening at the local level, outside of the traditional institutions. In Chicago, Brooklyn and Oakland, hip-hop activists used graffiti, b-boying, and DJing to educate and organize around education, gentrification, and juvenile justice issues. In Louisville, they fought book bans and youth curfews. In the Bay Area and the Bronx, they organized to stop the expansion of the juvenile detention facilities. In Albuquerque, they tossed out city council members who supported the building of a highway through sacred Native lands. On campuses across the country, they fought for labor unions, living wages, and against sweatshops and companies that invested in the prison industry.

In introducing The Future 500, a ground-breaking study of five hundred U.S. hip-hop activist and youth organizations, William "UPSKI" Wimsatt wrote, "Young people are noticing that the only thing that can't be bought, sold, co-opted or marketed anymore is substantive political organizing and dissent."

"...if you want more class struggle in hip-hop, you need more class struggle in society first."

2009-03-28T23:53:00.004-05:00

We're not going to add our own commentary on this as we think it speaks for itself. What stood out to us was UK rapper Comrade Malone's perspective on the very dialectical connection between hip-hop and reality.

"Class struggle and hip-hop: interview with Comrade Malone, 2009" from libcom.org.

Hip-hop has seen artists with social and political awareness. Rarely, however, has there been hip-hop fused with unashamedly class struggle, libertarian politics. 22-year-old Comrade Malone attempts to buck that trend with his album The Spontaneous Revolt LP.

Ed Goddard from libcom.org caught up with him to talk about life and politics in music.

Tell us a bit about your life growing up and how you got into politics.
I grew up on a council estate in north-west London and lived there for the first twenty years of my life. I’m not from a political background and didn’t really pay attention to politics until my late teens. In 2003, when the invasion of Iraq began, there was a massive walkout at my school with students blocking roads and making their way to go and protest outside parliament. At the time, this was just a day off school which let me go and get stoned with mates in the park. But it did have an effect and I started thinking a lot more about how shit things are. I questioned things a lot more after that, to the point where I was questioning the overall nature of capitalism, which I started to see as the root cause of all these problems.

When I was 20, I left home and lived in a homeless people’s hostel for a year. Throughout my time there, I was unemployed, on benefits and getting more pissed off, as were the boys I shared facilities with.

That hostel was a trap. The only way you could leave and get into social housing was by being referred by the staff there, which meant submitting to their rules and keeping up to date with the weekly service charge you'd pay from your benefits. My money would go fast on food and transport I'd use to look for work. When I got into service charge arrears I was threatened with eviction twice. Serious bully business from a housing 'charity'! You could get on the council list, but it’d take a few years to build up enough points for a flat and even then your chances are ultra slim.

Why did you call the album The Spontaneous Revolt LP?
We made the album in about two weeks and I wanted that to be reflected in the name, as well as reflecting it’s political content. Spontaneous Revolt refers both to the nature of the album and the way in which it was made.

Tell us about your experiences so far within the UK hip-hop scene.
I got into the scene by grabbing the mic and turning up for free studio time any time I could. I recorded a cheaply made track at a music college which got passed around on copied CDs and ended up on pirate radio. I got invited to do live shows on air and eventually got a phone call from Kemet Entertainment Records, who I signed a recording contract with in 2006. Whilst on Kemet, I worked with some quality producers such as Baby J, Joe Buddha, and DJ Flip, and was getting a lot of shows.

Sadly, UK hip hop had its own little economic collapse, with nights like Kung Fu in Camden and Speakers Corner in Brixton closing, Itch FM shutting down, Low-Life records closing, and Kemet as well. There's no green shoots here and no one’s bailing us out! We're all redundant rappers now; last year I was in a quality studio off Harley street, and now I'm in DJ Downlow's flat eating fried chicken with ghetto-flavoured mayonnaise.

As a class struggle anarchist, you’re quite different from a lot of other socially conscious rappers. What are your views on the prevalence of nationalist, religious or pro-Obama views in hip-hop?
They’re just a reflection of opinion in America. Politically, some of those opinions might be to the left, but if you want more class struggle in hip-hop, you need more class struggle in society first. Hip-hop reflects what’s already there, whether its street violence, political consciousness, or ‘Vote Obama’ feeling.

What radical traditions/movements do you take inspiration from?
The movements that inspire me most are always working class grassroots ones, and often, but not always, those with libertarian principles. Learning about what the CNT-FAI achieved in the 1930s, contributed to the confidence I have in the possibility of a self-managed society on a large scale. Hungary 1956 is another good example. It's hard to hear conscious American hip-hop without reference to the Black Panthers. What's inspiring about them is that they were a street-level organisation and their survival programs made a big positive difference to the lives of people in the community. These days, there's often focus on organising in the workplace, but not enough on dealing with community issues. Right now, I'm also inspired by all the shit kicking off in Greece.

What do you think of the anarchist movement's ability to engage working class youth such as yourself?
The anarchist movement needs to start holding Skins parties with free booze and drugs, and a strict dress code of hoodies, caps, and trainers only! But on a serious level, it’s about communicating with people in the right way. People in political groups might be experienced and knowledgeable but young working class people often feel they lack that experience and knowledge to be active. Most people don’t know the definition of anarchism. The anarchist movement has got to let people know what it’s all about and show people that there are no intellectual entry requirements.

What are your plans for the future?
I’m gonna be recording and releasing more free material. For most of the time, I’ll be working alongside DJ Downlow, my partner in crime in studio and pub. I’d love to do a tour across Europe and I’m thinking about the possibility of doing that, but it won’t happen this year. As for now, I’m just gonna keep releasing free music.

Spontaneous Revolt Free Download - www.sensei.fm
Comrade Malone official myspace page - www.myspace.com/comrademalone

Hip Hop Congress reposts Kitwana op-ed on Obama cartoon

2009-03-27T19:04:00.004-05:00

This editorial by Bakari Kitwana and reposted on the Hip Hop Congress website got me thinking about the discussion on Obama and race. While the immediate context is the cartoon printed in the New York Post and rightfully dubbed racist by Kitwana and a host of others, it should serve as a basis for talking about the way Obama has chosen to respond to questions of race in America.

I want to point y'all to a couple of other blogs where we've taken up this question. The first is a contributing blog from Matt Hamilton called "Hip-Hop, Obama, and Black Power" and the second is an interview we did with Alex at Rebel Frequencies.

We oppose the cartoon, but we also oppose Obama's own justification for white supremacy. I explain this a bit further in the comment I left and I encourage others to chime in as well.

Shout out to the HHC.

I wrote:

"Does Kitwana really believe that Obama isn’t a champion of post-race politics, despite his lip service in that speech about not ignoring racial problems? The fact is, Obama intentionally “ignored” that he was being attacked during his campaign (and obviously still is) for being a black man and for having an Arab name. And what is remarkable about that is the degree to which white supremacy has shaped the discussion on race. For if Obama had called it out for what it was, he would be “divisive” or “playing the race card.” Meanwhile the American ruling class owns the deck.

Obama’s reluctance at pointing to the prevalence of white supremacy in our society surely makes him a post-race black politician. Black candidates who rode the waves of black power in the 1970s and into the 80s and who became the basis for the Rainbow Coalition would have never ignored it. In fact, they drew there validity by embodying the language, dress, and some of the ethos of the period.

The problem with the RC, though, is that they served as a break on popular energies. They promised to tame the black nation in exchange for creating a patronage network that was supposed to give black folks a slice of the pie. But they never did. What they did was to actually serve as a more advanced justification for white supremacy.

Obama is not beholden to any popular movement the way the RC was. And because of this, he doesn’t have to talk about white supremacy. But Obama like the RC will continue to prop up white supremacy as police departments continue to attack and murder youth of color, as community colleges scale back on funding that educate black youth, and as local black politicians oversee the destruction of black communities.

We agree with Kitwana that white supremacy prevails, but aren’t so naive to think that Obama and his ilk can substitute for the only thing that can effectively challenge it; a mobilized people of color. Obama won’t be defeated or hamstrung by racism, he’ll serve as a new means for it, whether he sees it or not.

Thanks for posting this."

"Catch Dat Beat"

2009-03-26T14:50:00.005-05:00

Just wanted to plug an event that we're real excited about that's being produced by a homeboy of ours and fellow Delgado student, Lucky Johnson. It's called "Catch Dat Beat" and it is being touted as the first ever Bounce play. The play will feature Lucky, 10th Ward Buck, and one of my favorite hip-hop artists Big Freedia.

Here's the details:

Ashe Cultural Arts Center; April 2-4 at 6PM.

From Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets: Upcoming N.O. Events

2009-03-19T15:12:00.007-05:00

If you're in the N.O., check out these upcoming events -- this Friday and Saturday, Palestine Hip-Hop and Spoken Word, and next Friday, 3/27, "Return/Recover/Resist/Rise Up" Liberation HipHop Concert as part of the Patois: New Orleans 6th Annual International Human Rights Film Festival.

Palestine Hip-Hop and Spoken Word

Please don't miss the exciting Palestine Solidarity performances this Friday and Saturday, at 5:00pm by Nizar Wattad, Omar Chakaki and Mark Gonzales. These performers are legendary founders of Palestinian hip-hop in the US, and their performances have captivated crowds around the world.

Friday's performance is a short set, where they will be performing as part of a series of many performers, and Saturday is a complete show.

Omar Chakaki is an architect/Hip-Hop artist born in the Middle East, and the founding member of N.O.M.A.D.S., a Syrian-Sudanese-American hip-hop group.

Mark Gonzales is a poet, educator, and organizer. He has traveled from the refugee camps of Palestine to the streets of Havana to Def Poetry Jam on HBO. He was awarded a fellowship at UCLA to bring hip-hop into the university curriculum.

Nizar Wattad is a screenwriter and hip-hop artist born in the Middle East. He is a producer of Free the P, first nationally distributed Arab hip-hop project.

See more information about the performers at at http://humanwritesproject.org.

State of the Nation Performance Festival
http://www.sonfestival.org

1) Spoken Word | Friday, March 20, 5:00pm
St. Roch Market Neutral Ground of St. Roch Ave. at Marais St.

2) Performance | Saturday, March 21, 5:00pm
The Studio at Colton 2300 St. Claude Ave.

Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets by Human Writes Project
Spoken Word
Saturday, March 21
5-6 pm

An energetic, informative and often startling presentation in spoken-word and rhyme, 'Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets' traces the artists' development alongside the birth and growth of Hip-Hop, in a reading of the world through their words. This poetic performance is an intersection of cultures sharing space on a stage that gives voice to marginalized histories, challenges the audience to re-examine worldviews, and indicts individuals and institutions for historical atrocities committed in the name of democracy.

Human Writes Project is poet and educator Mark Gonzales (an Alaskan-born Muslim Mexican-American) and hip-hop artists Nizar Wattad and Omar Chakaki (hailing from Palestine and Syria, respectively). Sparked by the demonization of Arabs and Muslims after September 11, Chakaki and Wattad began performing hip-hop and spoken word across the USA in an attempt to counter widespread media bias. They met Mr. Gonzales at an awareness-raising benefit concert, and the three realized that despite vast differences in their upbringings, they were united by a particular world-view, informed by the emerging and rapidly evolving art from known as Hip-Hop.

"Return/Recover/Resist/Rise Up" Liberation Hip-Hop Concert

Friday, March 27, 9:30pm
Ray's Boom Boom Room
508 Frenchmen St
$10

The sound of liberation, from New Orleans to Detroit to New York to Gaza. Featuring: Wise Intelligent (from the legendary hiphop pioneers Poor Righteous Teachers), Invincible (Detroit hiphop star and Jewish anti-Zionist activist), Mohammad Al-Farra (From Gaza's first hiphop group Palestine Rappers), Sabreena Da Witch (The First Palestinian R&B Singer), Truth Universal (Trinidad born, New Orleans based, Afrikan liberation), and Dee-1 (New Orleans conscious hiphop), plus films and guest speakers.

“This city here, They eat off the backs of the poor”: Breakdown FM Interview with Sess 4-5

2009-03-08T14:45:00.002-05:00

This is an older interview, but a good one, that Davey D did back in August 2007 with local New Orleans rapper Sess 4-5, a cat who has been involved with organizing against the demolition of public housing and the lack of affordable housing here. He discusses the recovery efforts in N.O. over the previous two years and how hip-hop has been impacted by and had an impact on that process. He asks some key questions: how is it that such devastation and racism against black folks could happen in a city with a black police chief, black mayor, etc.? What kind of city is the local, state and federal government trying to rebuild? In whose interests? How are everyday folks dealing with and resisting the plans to exclude people of color from returning and rebuilding? Important perspectives on these questions have been discussed elsewhere, including here, but for the sake of this post we’ll let the interview speak for itself.

The Republican Party Needs More than a ‘Hip-Hop Makeover’

2009-03-08T11:18:00.004-05:00

I’ve been pretty entertained recently by the “Hip-Hop Makeover” going on in the Republican Party. If you haven’t seen it, you’ve been missing out. It seems like a faction of the Republicans, in crisis mode since the presidential elections as they attempt to rebuild the party and redefine the party’s vision, has been studying Obama’s popularity among young folks and think hip-hop holds the answer. Michael Steele, the recently-elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, has donned the cape and promises he is the man that will help the party in its soul-searching.

Steele plans to apply the party's principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings” and invoke hip-hop to win over young people and people of color to a party typically known for being lily white. So what does Republican hip-hop look like? Some highlights:

- Steele told a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) audience that they should ‘fess up for their Party’s sins: “Tell America: 'We know the past, we know we did wrong--my bad.’”
- At the same conference, Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann cheered for Steele, telling him, “You be da man! You be da man!”
- Steele offered Bobby Jindal some "slum love" for doing a "friggin' awesome job" as governor of Louisiana.

Horrifyingly out of touch, to say the least, but I suppose that’s what passes for diversity among those circles. That’s not all, though. Other recent efforts to merge hip-hop into the Republican Party include the “Hip-Hop Republicans” and the Republican Rapper.

I feel pretty strongly that the Republicans will never be able to fully hijack hip-hop – because of the racist character of the party itself, but also because the political content of hip-hop is diverse enough and rebellious enough that it cannot fit the narrow confines of official society without a serious overthrow of those very elements that make hip-hop what it is today. But there’s another reason why this “Hip-Hop Makeover” merits some attention.

These attempts among the Republicans actually represent a wider tension that is also facing the Democrats. Both parties are at an impasse because of the economic and political crisis. The old methods of “fixing” the economy (lower interest rates, pile on more credit to reinflate consumption, etc.) are not working. More importantly, the old ideas of justifying the neoliberal economic order have rapidly lost whatever legitimacy they once held. For the Democrats, they have been pretending to be the party of Civil Rights, the party that cares for people of color and labor. Yet it - alongside labor union bureaucrats and a new layer of people of color elected officials that arose out of Black Power and the upheaval of the 60s and 70s - demobilized that very constituency over the past 3 decades so that today, any pretense to having a base rooted in social movements is mere rhetoric. Further, the Democrats have been complicit in implementing neoliberalism on a global scale; Clinton completed the Reagan Revolution and Obama is (for now) following in his footsteps.

The Republicans, on the other hand, do have a base, and the recent presidential elections showed that it can be mobilized around a white supremacist, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric. At the McCain/Palin rallies towards the end of the campaign, there began to appear serious elements of white supremacist mobilization with people shouting out to “Kill Obama!” But a funny thing happened: McCain, being pressured by other officials and leaders in Washington, had to pull in the reigns on those rallies. The party leadership didn’t want those angry crowds to turn into angry mobs. This wasn’t out of any genuine anti-racist sentiment among Republicans, rather it seems the Party wasn’t ready for, nor did it want, a truly mobilized base. It only wanted a base that was sure to turn out to the polls. It is this rightwing of the party, represented by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, whose own racist visions for the party are running up against Steele’s (still racist) vision for a hip-hop makeover.

Today, with the deepening of the recession, grassroots forces on both the left and the right are moving in ways that may quickly go beyond the confines of either party. The Democrats and the Republicans are not blind to this, but neither has been able to offer a coherent vision that can climb out of this crisis and keep in check the anger and frustration from below. The enthusiasm and historic turnout in the recent presidential elections indicate that across the U.S., people recognize the stagnation of the old ideas and are seeking a change, a new basis for society. Hip-hop is in a unique position to reveal that very impulse and what a new basis could look like, which is why it makes sense that both the Democrats and Republicans have sought, in different ways, to coopt elements of hip-hop. Luckily, the hip-hop generation is not so easily impressed as to buy into the nonsense of a Republicans “Hip-Hop makeover.”

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Michael Steele Gets Served

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Rap Battle
Joke of the Day

Music Break

2009-03-08T11:10:00.002-05:00

For your listening pleasure.

Their Crisis, Not Ours.

2009-02-25T18:30:00.003-06:00

On campuses around the world, a wave of occupations and militant organizing has been underway to fight undemocratic administrations that are using the economic crisis to push through racist policies that disproportionately target people of color. This has included community college students in New York, students across England and Italy.

Many of us recognize that public education in this country has long been a disservice to those of us who need it. There’s a reason why Kanye West can make hit songs that clown college degrees. But this recent round of attacks on education is about more than just classrooms and textbooks. It’s about our right as people of color to decide what kind of education we deserve, and how we want to use it .

In Louisiana, we are facing serious cutbacks. So far, we know:

- All of Louisiana's four-year universities and technical and
community colleges face an 18-30% cut

- For Delgado, this could mean cuts between $6 and $11 million affecting students, faculty and staff

- General Education will be the first area cut, which means few choices and fewer opportunities for students of color

Why is education under attack in Louisiana? What type of cuts is Delgado facing? Who will these affect? How are students of color responding at other community colleges? One thing is certain: people of color all over are making it clear that the recession is not our fault, it is the fault of the politicians, bankers, and elites. This is their crisis. Not Ours.

Join the Ella Baker Organizing Committee
Monday, March 9
in the Dolphin Den
in the Student Life Center of Delgado City Park
from 1:30-3:00pm

for an Open Discussion about the crisis in our education and what we can do about it.

The Ella Baker Organizing Committee is a campus-based organization animated by the principles of democracy and anti-racism. For more information, email us at ellabakeroc@gmail.com or join us on Facebook at “Cuts for Them, Not Us”

Tech N9ne and My Tentativeness / Opportunism

2009-02-18T18:35:00.011-06:00

Alright, so this is a little opportunistic on my part, but in my Music Appreciation class I was required to write a two-page paper on my "favorite artist." Thing is, I don't really have a favorite artist. I don't even have a favorite five or ten artists. Sure, I'll give you a short list of some very solid lyricists or producers, but that doesn't necessarily make them my favorites. My personal taste is too broad and too versatile.

Anyhow, the opportunism is due to the need to say something about Tech N9ne on this blog. Yes, long the hell overdue. But it's long overdue, for one, because he's a KC artist and I'm from KC. Two, he's one of the most elusive and complex rappers out there, both in terms of his style and his audience, and that warrants some things said.

One other thing worth mentioning. There could be some inaccuracies in terms of Tech's popularity and/or sales, general biographical information, or others. If anyone feels the need to offer corrections, by all means do so. I definitely don't want to do an injustice to the man or the genre.

Without further ado...

* * *

I wasn’t always a fan of Tech N9ne. Today still I’ve never been to a Tech show, although I have seen him freestyle at an open mic/battle and on a couple of different occasions I ran into him at random locations in Kansas City, where he is from, and where I spent a good chunk of my life.

No, when I first came into contact with Tech’s music, I had been captivated by what I’ve called a “b-boy revivalism” and Tech unfortunately fell outside of that milieu which sprang up in the early 1990s and was an attempt to emphasize the totality of the culture of hip-hop against the apparent egoism and “rappercentric” form of mainstream hip-hop then. But no matter where I was at on the broad and universal hip-hop radar, I don’t believe I ever denied Tech’s lyrical ability that easily leaves one’s mouth gaping. While there are other rappers who can be broadly compared to Tech in terms of the pace and rapidity of their flow; Twista and Bone Thugs to name a couple, none of them have the versatility, the eccentricity, or the entertaining persona of Tech N9ne.

Several attempts were made to break out of the relative obscurity in which he labored. Through a mutual producer, QD3, a son of Quincy Jones, Tech had the opportunity to collaborate on a song with 2Pac, but was forced to do the song posthumously once 2Pac was murdered. A year later, he was featured on the “Gang Related” soundtrack, a film in which 2Pac starred, with the song, “Questions” where Tech raps in his characteristically erratic style, “Can I get some, can I spit some, which one? When am I gonna get off this trip? / Can I take another pill? Why do I feel like I'm a sick individual in the room poppin’ off at the lip?”

In 1999, Tech N9ne released his debut album, “The Calm Before the Storm” with the single, “Planet Rock 2K” which was a hit on Kansas City radio. There wasn’t enough fanfare, however, for Tech to break the glass ceiling of local hip-hop and to catapult into the mainstream. This was a fate to follow him for several albums following.

Lucky for Tech and his off-the-wall personality, he managed to build up quite the cult following in other cities around the country and simultaneously elude both Kansas City skeptics and fans alike. Eventually, he found community with the “Juggalos”, a largely white, working class group of Midwest hip-hoppers, but with a growing base of people of color, that are noted for their clown make-up and apparent lyrical nihilism. It’s merely apparent, because a deeper listen will reveal a sense of alienation from the oppression and mediocrity of modern society.

The lyrics from the song “Diemothafuckadie” by notable Juggalo group, Twizted, read:

“Actin’ belligerent on a daily.
Hoping that somebody can save me, but I guess I’m dead wrong.
All by myself.
Fuck everyone else I’m in a hole.
And I can’t breath, my lungs swoll.”

The listeners and sympathizers with whom these lyrics resonate have witnessed a consistency in Tech N9ne’s own bipolar raps which has increased his popularity among them. But Tech, as a Black rapper, has also introduced a component to Juggalo hip-hop which has validated and broadened its base among people of color. In Tech’s “Riotmaker” he raps about being denied a gig in Hawaii because the concert promoter said it would incite the Samoan community there to violence. Tech lashes out at the white supremacy of the concert promoters by both validating people of color’s desire to rebel against racism and the illogic of the argument that hip-hop makes people violent.

Tech is like other mainstream rappers today in the sense that he reflects certain implicitly political but popular sentiments that are set in motion by official society and it’s calls to make sacrifices and to find happiness and mobility within a decaying system. He is not considered a political or “conscious” rapper who stands above the crowd and has to inject his or her own sectarian views into the music. Rather, Tech is like most of us who are torn between the values of the barbarism of modern society and the hope for completely new and free relations among human beings. The difference is that he has an ironic way of playing with those antagonisms and places them center stage in his music and performances. And this is why I am a fan.

"I'm a Punk Under Pressure."

2009-02-18T01:51:00.007-06:00

Sissy Nobby dressed to impress

So it's been kinda dead here at the D&HHP. I believe I've said this before, but LBoogie and myself aren't just bloggers, we're also organizers and are working on a project at Delgado Community College here in New Orleans around the white supremacist character of the Louisiana education cuts. The hip-hop generation, in our opinion, is the subjective force that must fight and destroy white supremacy, and in this case, the education cuts and press for democratic control of the school by the students. New Orleans, and Louisiana in general, has very unique political and cultural traditions that we draw a lot from and which has been inspiring to us.

Of the more recent of those traditions has been hip-hop culture in New Orleans. Most outside the city are quite familiar with the sounds of Master P, Mystikal, Mannie Fresh, Juvenile, and Lil Wayne, and all of those cats deserve their dues for their contributions to a New Orleans sound and style. But a lesser known aspect of NOLA hip-hop, and because it has not become generalized across the US, is Bounce.

This is not the first time we've discussed Bounce. For the litany, check out a review of the film on Bounce, "Ya Heard Me?", a note on 10th Ward Buck's upcoming book to be released next week, and a post on Alison Fensterstock's article from the Gambit Weekly on Sissy Rappers.

This music reminds one a lot of Miami Bass because of its highly repetitive and uptempo beat where the rappers are closer to hypemen than they are MCs. In Bounce, rappers are more dependent on the music whereas the standard today is quite the opposite. Bounce goes as far back as the mid 80s so it is anything but new and damn near as old as hip-hop itself. For those who want to get acquainted with it, check out a local blog NOLA BOUNCE.

Even lesser known and far more controversial (but gaining in popularity) within Bounce are the "sissy rappers." These are queer and transsexual/transgender artists who have asserted the validity of a queer identity in hip-hop long before any others have. Katey Red's "Melpomene Block Party" (after the Melpomene projects, still standing!) first debuted in the late 90s.

It isn't enough to say that sissy rappers have carved out a place in hip-hop because queer folks are also people of color and have always been hip-hop. The point and power of sissy rappers are that they have made LGBTQ identity consistent with hip-hop; that it is okay to be queer and be hip-hop, and they have undermined the prevailing white supremacist logic that hip-hop is ultra homophobic.

We've mentioned before how the "Ya Heard Me?" film and Fensterstock's article have captured the tensions within Bounce with some being okay with sissy rappers for economistic reasons--because it brings out the ladies--while others think it has made Bounce synonymous with gay music. Regardless of the reaction, the struggle against heterosexism on a cultural level is being played out in the New Orleans hip-hop generation like nowhere else. On any given night, you'll find those who may not be completely comfortable with the sissy rappers, bangin out to their music when they perform.

Last Saturday, February 14, LBoogie and myself celebrated our Valentine's Day at a Sissy Rapper show in the Quarter with Katey Red, Big Freedia, and Sissy Nobby. We weren't quite aware of the hipster dive this place was, but the good thing is some black folks eventually showed. However, this wasn't no spectator shit; these hipsters were lovin it! L claims it was the livest hip-hop show she has ever been to. While I would dispute that (one of the livest for me was Cypress Hill back in 1996), I am obligated to say that it was off the fuckin hinges. Big Freedia and Sissy Nobby especially were some of the best live entertainers I've seen.

Katey Red performed last and ended the night with her classic joint, "Punk Under Pressure." The song isn't lyrically complicated and is essentially about the struggle of being queer, of being transsexual, but its mostly an angry embrace of that identity best exemplified in the line, "[call] KATEY RED IS A...[response] DICK SUCKA!" It's blunt, it's crude, and it's every way in step with the hip-hop tradition. And I yelled it until I was hoarse.

This post is not meant to elaborate a full perspective on queer identity, but I did want to write a couple of paragraphs about it specifically. Queer identity has a revolutionary quality (and history!) in its critique of the white supremacist State. The State has created a standard in terms of what it considers a valid relationship which is white, middle class, and hetero. It defines a family as an institution that doesn't exist en masse the way more unofficial family forms exist: single parents and children, LGBTQ couples, unmarried straight couples, friends, communes, and others that are based on mutual aid and cooperation and when taken in their totality constitute the majority. Being queer is not necessarily the opposite of being straight, and in this sense, all those who aren't white, middle class, straight couples (like those unhappy crackers in Mad Men) are queer. It means I'm queer because I don't fall into that bullshit category.

There is a sexual component to queer identity and I don't want to dilute that essential aspect. But queer identity is neither purely sexual nor is it a binary thing: you aren't either gay, straight, or bisexual. Its a fluid gradation of sexuality, masculinity, and femininity. It isn't something fixed or rigid, but is as varied as are personalities.

The reality is that queer people in the strict sense are an oppressed category of people and they have a long tradition of struggle. We've seen this most recently in the passage of Prop 8 in California which denied marriage rights for same sex couples. True indeed, a lot of those in support of it were white, liberal gay couples who are trying to prove their loyalty to the white supremacist State. This privileged strata of gay folks have seized the slogan of a black tradition, "civil rights", which rightly pissed off a lot of black folks (including queer blacks) who saw that as pure opportunism. They're okay with co-opting civil rights language, but they won't compromise their loyalty to white supremacy when the police murder black youth. There is obviously a class/racial tension with the queer community at large just as there is in the community as a whole.

Wherever people fall on this, Bounce is bringing folks together that otherwise might be in opposition. This is a fly in the face to those Northern elitist progressives who look upon the South as backwards. Clearly we're doing something right down here.

Just Another Day

2009-02-04T22:18:00.003-06:00

I was watching this video of Queen Latifah’s “Just Another Day…” tonight and it reminded me of a conversation I had with someone a few weeks back about the decay of New Orleans before and after Katrina, and particularly the struggles in the last few years protesting the destruction of public housing here. She was shocked that anybody who has ever lived in public housing would ever want to defend it – as many did last year when the City Council was voting to demolish the majority of it. Her thinking was that the projects are so horrible, they’ve been kept in poor condition, they’re full of violence and drugs, and they’ve been made into damn near war zones the way the police inflict all means of harassment, intimidation and violence among their residents. Why would anybody want to save that?

In “Just Another Day…” Queen Latifah has a line saying she hopes there’s a hood in heaven. That line is part of the reason why I disagreed with the conversation. These weren’t just empty brick buildings that were being torn down; they had communities in them. There were families, relationships, love, strength and solidarity, living and breathing within those walls. Now, granted, the person I spoke with had a "Talented Tenth" thing going on and was looking at it like, damn we need to save our people from their own backwardness, they don't even "want" to get out of the projects. If you focus on statistics about crime rates, drug abuse, unemployment, with no context at all behind those numbers, then it’s easy to equate projects with bad, and their destruction with good. (It also helps disguise the real issues behind the attacks on infrastructure, housing, and healthcare that are going on, but I digress…)

We are not a backwards people. Our communities are not fucked up, we’re just living in a fucked up society. It’s sad that there’s even a need to say that, to defend our own humanity. The beautiful thing is that most people don’t buy the "Talented Tenth" argument that assumes an “Untalented 90th”, as my friend J likes to say. When hip-hop glorifies the “hood in heaven”, the “Thugz mansion”, etc., it’s not because people embrace poverty or the problems of public housing. It’s celebrating the mere fact that people are even building community amid the conditions that decades of cutbacks and impoverishment have forced many into. If that’s not a testament to our own strength, I don’t know what is.