Democracy & Hip-Hop

LQ, Would you mind forwarding me some info or a U...

2010-06-11T00:50:01.258-05:00

LQ,

Would you mind forwarding me some info or a URL for the Red de Hip-Hop Activista in English? I'd like to learn more as I have not heard of it. Perhaps I could Google translate it.

Feel free to hit me up at choppercity07@gmail.com. Looking forward to talking with you more.

Krisna

Hey compa, this is good, i think there are very im...

2010-06-10T21:36:26.226-05:00

Hey compa, this is good, i think there are very important points in the esay (which u mention in your comment so i ain't gonna go over them)... There is a really amazing organization that has inspired me lots called the "Red de Hip-Hop Activista" in chile, dunno if you have heard of it?? they have some cool video and stuff aout them, thou they are in spanish...

hey i was also looking for an email to contact, ut couldn't find it... is there one? cuz i'd like to cast a message

What up. Yeah, I believe I remember watching him ...

2010-03-08T16:58:43.464-06:00

What up.

Yeah, I believe I remember watching him spit at the big Gaza mobilizations early last year, right?

Easy R.E.B.E.L....in response to your post just wa...

2010-03-08T16:44:45.740-06:00

Easy R.E.B.E.L....in response to your post just wanted to draw your attention to the work being done by UK M.C. Lowkey who has been doing some sterling work both musically and as an activist to promote the struggle of the Palestinian peoples. Check link for more; Peace

http://vocalswords.blogspot.com/2010/01/lowkey-long-live-palestine-part-2.html

what's up FaridArts, thanks for the thoughts....

2010-01-17T11:03:01.894-06:00

what's up FaridArts,

thanks for the thoughts. i think you're getting at a couple important topics: class tensions within and between communities, and what it means to be a principled anti-racist.

in this country white supremacy has created a many tiered caste system with whites at the top, blacks at the bottom, and a mix of brown, black, red and yellow folks in between. as i alluded to in my post, the class contours of this are glaring. many black folks are concentrated in the de-industrialized cities throughout the midwest living through high unemployment -- it's around 33% in Detroit, a city 85% black, but you can also look at Gary, Newark and other places -- and dilapidated city infrastructure -- Chicanos, Latinos and undocumented immigrants face similar conditions... just look at the fight for public ed in Cali.

through entrepreneurial bank loans some Arab and South & East Asian peoples have been more able to break into the lower- middle and middle classes in far larger degrees. the small shop owners are examples of the lower middle classes. in every masjid i've walked into in this country i've seen an endless line of doctors, lawyers and engineers. US immigration policies also made sure that mainly the "good and educated" of these people were allowed into the US while their homes were destroyed through proxy wars or neoliberal imperialism. the ideological aspect to this class distinction between the black and brown and yellow communities has been posed as an opportunities for our communities to be something better than black folks.

i agree that these small shops and middle class occupations are a means for a livelihood for Arab and Asian peoples, but is it just about getting paid? is that what it means to be a principled anti-racist? to answer your question though, yes i do think many of these small shop owners do like owning their own business. i have uncles who are those very same Arab small shop owners, and i can't tell you how many times i've heard them go on about how great it is to be their own boss, and then go on to say that if they can't do it then why can't black folks, insinuating there must be something wrong with them.

this, of course, doesn't mean that there is no black middle class, and that there are no Arab and Asian working classes. one of the profound things about the outrage by Arab folks against Busta's song is the recognition of this. we don't wanted to be associated with the lackeys of US Empire. they oppress working class Arabs and East Asians. and just like the black middle classes, they also support white supremacy

the following is an essay that details some of these tensions in the struggles of Asian Americans, how they have been racialized, and the need to forge anti-racist solidarity from below between people of color against white supremacy and its people of color stewards.

http://gatheringforces.org/2009/05/04/on-the-origins-of-anti-asian-racism-and-how-we-have-fought-back/

Arab, South Asian and Muslim have been racialized in our own particular way that has been informed greatly by the so-called war on terror. we have our own essay similar to this to write. a principled anti-racist means opposing white supremacy, but also those middle class and bourgie elements in both black and brown communities that support white supremacy. multi-racial solidarity must be forged from below if we're ever going to be free.

You make it sound as if those stores on the block ...

2010-01-07T10:25:43.608-06:00

You make it sound as if those stores on the block are a lucrative business. Your probably the same stupid mother fucker who thinks Asains like owning Chinese stores on the block, nah nigga they work the store cus that's the only thing they know how to do and the only way they can get payed. You think we like you calling us chinks and A-rabs, call me an A-rab and I'll call you a negro flatout. Bustas racial intolerance will not be diminished by my fight againts racist whites. Look inside your own racism black man, you feel as though you can be racist because people were racist to you? Fuck that, I've beaten down blacks, whites, and Mexicans for racism, and i'll gladly do it again. don't call me no Arab and were good nigga.

www.thepoliticalassassin.com
www.myspace.com/thepolitcalassasin

Youtube:POLITICAL7ASSASSIN

Nice post - banksy pictures ..Keep Posting

...

2009-11-01T16:19:59.044-06:00

Nice post - banksy pictures ..Keep Posting

Ron
banksy pictures

This link is to a relevant conversation happening ...

2009-10-24T15:04:35.035-05:00

This link is to a relevant conversation happening on the Pitch Weekly website, a KC magazine, about the relationship of local artists to KPRS, KC's black radio station (supposedly). I tried to broaden the discussion by throwing up the demand for community control.

http://blogs.pitch.com/wayward/2009/10/summit_on_summit_st_local_artists_and_kprs_face_off_at_64111_studios.php

Hey folks,

This is a very interesting conversation. Admittedly, I haven't read the entire string of comments as there are a lot, but I've read enough to get a basic sense of what's at stake and the general fault lines in how people are seeing this issue.

At the risk of being marginalized for the tardiness of my comment, I'd like to introduce a couple of factors and broaden the conversation about radio and the community in general.

First, I think the critique of KPRS says nothing exceptional about this particular radio station, as Reach rightfully points out. The standardization of radio and its playlists is a global phenomenon. While Sku shows us there are exceptions to the rule in terms of musical content, KPRS reflects a general pattern of the monopolization of ALL aspects society, not just radio. It is the same in New Orleans and here in Austin where I live now. Whether I turn on the radio or walk into a restaurant or a bookstore, I see the same shit here as I do in every other city. This has everything to do with the increasing control that capitalism generally exercises over our lives.

Second, the particular set of artists that get play reflects no one-to-one relationship with how hard artists work. I think ALL of us can admit that we do not nor have ever lived in a meritocracy. An MC can work hard her entire life and never have the privilege of being played on the radio, even if they have all the talent in the world. This doesn't mean that those artists don't work hard, but let's be real. Where people are at in life bears no direct reflection on how much they have put into it. Those crackers on Wall Street are just the beginning. Straight nepotism.

Third, radio is a decaying institution. It has been superseded by other more open-source and democratic means of dissemination. It seems that, in a sense, we are about ten years late on this discussion. I'm actually surprised that this conversation is still taking place on these terms. Because this tightening grip over how radio is run is in direct proportion to the democratization of certain web-based media. They are losing control and are trying to reassert it, like the Hip-Hop Media Labs folks mention in their response to the arrest of DJ Drama over two years ago.

comment cont.

At bottom the critique of rad...

2009-10-24T15:04:35.034-05:00

comment cont.

At bottom the critique of radio is a critique over who should control it, its corporate benefactors or the larger community it claims to represent? Now, mind you, I realize there may be a little bit of ego attached to the desire to hear local artists if you are one yourself, but I think there's a deeper political content that's been generally missed here. Davey D, who most of you have probably heard of, has made a valid point on his blog that while black radio claims to represent the black community, not a god damn thing was said about the mass actions against the Oakland police by this community after the cops murdered Oscar Grant.

In Honduras, the State has taken control of all radio in order to stifle the mass movement that is taking place there against the coup. The interesting thing about this is that the control is being flexed through private ownership, not through direct state takeover. This has already happened here. For working class Hondurans, this has made manifest the need to seize the radio along with their workplaces, schools, and communities. We have to ask, is the problem of radio independent of other problems of control in society?

Furthermore, it isn't just local artists, or conservative hip-hop backpackers who have grown tired of corporate radio. It has a mass character, even if folks still listen to it, as I do. Strategically speaking, I can't see that meeting with local radio personalities will doing anything at all to change what, ultimately, has to come from the behest of the community. There has to be actual ORGANIZING around this question, a challenge for power. Although, I imagine that while most folks see this question as valid, there are other more pressing questions that should take priority, such as police brutality, gentrification, unemployment, etc. Not much can be done about radio that hasn't been done with other forms of media. It seems to me that what Honduras shows us is that the control over radio will have to come during an advanced stage of mass struggle, a stage we are definitely not in.

That's my two cents.

There's an interesting set of contradictions s...

2009-10-18T23:18:57.740-05:00

There's an interesting set of contradictions swirling around this short essay I wrote over 11 years ago. Without giving it a thorough dissection, it is worth mentioning a few points of emphasis.

The uniting positive themes of the essay are hip-hop identity, organization, and anti-racism, while its weaknesses are individualistic and liberal methods of social change. There is, of course, a lack of coherence but that is natural when first starting to make sense of a complex thing like hip-hop, especially for a 17-year-old. Here I was also trying to reconcile my own uneven philosophical and political ideas with my equally uneven understanding of hip-hop.

Hip-hop identity has been and is in the making. The question is how and on what terms. This identity isn't based superficially on "acknowledgment" or "consciousness" of hip-hop history or its many arts. Ultimately it can't be anything more than the contradictions which drive it forward, but we can still look at a few underlying features or themes that more or less run through the whole of it. Identification with people of color and anti-racism is foremost.

Hip-hop is as contradictory as society itself and while I saw the need for mass organization of the hip-hop generation I was under the mistaken idea that this was done on cultural terms. Furthermore, this concept of organization was a shallow formalism injected with an anti-racist, ecologically friendly politics. KRS-One and the "Temple of Hiphop Kulture" represent the closest attempt at such cultural organization and it contains the same kind of empty formalism that reduces itself to the correct spelling of "hip-hop."

This essay in some ways foresees formations like the National Hip Hop Political Convention, but its content is merely about negating an image instead of developing an independent politics it advocates. The NHHPC isn't exempt from some of this, but it definitely does not represent the political independence of the hip-hop generation as it is primarily an interest group that tails the Democrats. In the essay, the foggy politics present are conflated further by the thinking that hip-hop could be cohered as a nationality and could struggle for national independence. How ludicrous but also how fascinating that this idea existed. Again, KRS-One has advanced this notion most notably through recognition of hip-hop by the United Nations. Clearly, KRS bore heavily on my interpretation of hip-hop identity then.

In the last decade we've seen a number of explicitly political hip-hop organizations emerge so this essay has to be seen in terms of the period it was in. This was when hip-hop culture was beginning to break out of purely cultural confines. It could be argued that hip-hop was never simply about culture to begin with, but hip-hop as a multifarious or all-encompassing identity had yet to coalesce. Unfortunately, many such organizations, and I'd love for folks to point out exceptions to this rule, many of these experiments have yet to manifest a politics that isn't laden with liberal electoralism.

This is such a great video. Thanks for posting th...

2009-10-13T23:30:08.872-05:00

This is such a great video. Thanks for posting this, L.

I want to expound on two points.

Pac is doing two things when talking about his mother. He is saying that he, and young black men and women of his generation had to rely on women to pass on the politics, values, and organizing traditions of black power because the men were either dead or in jail. This is VERY important because it helps to partly explain the connection between the late 60s, early 70s generation and that of the late 80s and early 90s. While the latter movement didn't reach the heights of black power or civil rights in its breadth, political maturity, and organization, it still drew significantly from those traditions.

The second part of this same point is that he is validating and politicizing house and caring work even though what was "fashionable" was carrying a gun and being on the front lines of struggle with the State and the fascists. Rather than subordinating housework to this kind of political struggle, he is giving it EQUAL EMPHASIS. This confirms the stuff I and others have read in Selma James and Silvia Federici.

It also relates to your last post, LBoogie, on the film "Bastards of the Party" in terms of its weakness on the role of women in the period during black power and that following it.

The other thing I wanted to bring up was his legitimation of the pimp, hustler, drug dealer and other occupations of the lumpenproletariat. Whether or not folks want to admit it, their rise is due to the failures of black power to deal with the advance of neoliberalism and to appeal to a new generation of youth coming up in the 1970s. Because of that, the personalities immortalized in blaxploitation era films became emblematic of a new ethos that tried to overcome a new political reality. It wasn't apologetics, either. Tupac was one of the most unapologetic personalities of our generation. Rather, it was a critique of the black power generation itself.

Truly amazing find. Shout out to Advance the Struggle.

Wow, John! LBoogie just smashed on your ass! Smas...

2009-10-13T21:19:46.804-05:00

Wow, John! LBoogie just smashed on your ass! Smashed like the forthcoming defeat of your racist ideology and all the oppressive systems that are rooted in this shit. i can't wait till masses of working class white people reject this destructive identity, unite with everyday people of color, and leave you standing with the relatively few, terrified rulers who oversee white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism.

As these structures crumble under the weight of the masses of real "Americans"(as described by LBoogie), a beautiful new society based on true Democracy will rise from the dust, rendering your ideology irrelevant. Oh, the day will be sweet for us, and so, so cold for you. No longer will you have the structural support to uphold your fascism. You will be a sad, sad individual with no community, no militias, and no army or cops. It will most certainly be lonely as you wallow in your miserable white supremacy. Enjoy!

Yeah, cracker!

2009-10-13T20:23:21.215-05:00

Yeah, cracker!

John:

Actually, John, there’s a delay in a...

2009-10-13T12:58:36.143-05:00

John:

Actually, John, there’s a delay in all comments going public on the blog. We’re always happy for an opportunity to fight against a white supremacist logic like the one your comment is clearly based upon, so no need to take the delay personally.

Unfortunately, much of your comment is straight up bullshit. But rather than take up and debunk each point, it seems like it’d be more productive to respond to what seems to be the fundamental idea you’re raising. Your comment has much in common with the tide of fascist white racial fantasies about some coming race war as people of color become a numerical majority in this country and threaten to “overtake” the white man. Such a logic rests on the idea that whites are the bringers of civilization, are the protectors of democracy, and have the “burden” of saving people of color from our own supposed barbarism. Thus, when whites become a minority in this country (a day I’m personally looking forward to), you think all hell will break loose and the savage instincts of people of color will take over, bringing ruin to white civilization and all that is holy and good about the U.S. of A.

I still find it remarkable that such ideas can hold any currency in this day and age. That they do only tells me that those of us who believe in democracy and anti-racism still have a serious struggle ahead. But unlike you, we begin our struggle from the historical basis that the U.S. has ALWAYS been a “black country.” More accurately, it has always been a country built by the hard labor of people of color -- the descendents of Africans, Native Americans, Mexicanos, Asians, and even some Europeans (before they became “white”). The cultural, social and political strengths of American civilization find their origins in the fusion of and struggles by communities of color from the 17th century right up to today. (I’d recommend Peter Linebaugh’s “The Many Headed Hydra” or this essay by Loren Goldner for more on this: http://www.munism.com/afroanabaptistindian_fusion_th.html )

This country has always been OURS. This is something that new movements will have to take up, celebrate, and build upon. Which brings us to where it seems you and I actually have a point of agreement: white identity (and hence white supremacy) IS under attack. In a way, people like you who “cling to the chains of an actual wretchedness” as Noel Ignatiev once wrote, do have something to fear. And knowing you are fearful will make me sleep very well tonight.

It’s ironic that you fear a coming “total destruction” and barbarism when both are already on the table, as a result of the long reign of white supremacy in this country and around the world. The task for people of color and working class folks in general is to actually build a new society that repairs that damage, in terms of its human and ecological costs, and ventures on a new liberating course for humanity.

Alex:

Agreed. Taylor Swift was a perfect candidate for that kind of spin, in terms of her image as an artist.

Thanks for the plug in your piece on Kanye, which I encourage D&HHP readers to check out:
http://rebelfrequencies.blogspot.com/2009/09/kanye-vmas-and-spectacle-of-controversy.html

L

Thats right, block any outside perspective! You pu...

2009-10-13T10:45:20.406-05:00

Thats right, block any outside perspective! You punks are sorry!

Coming from a white perspective (which in this day...

2009-10-13T10:37:27.975-05:00

Coming from a white perspective (which in this day and age is hard to come by!) I was not surprised at all with the antics this ignorant idiot took to take the spotlight off Taylor. The karmic pendulum has been swinging in the direction of the the blacks for some time now, and has begun to reach its peak. Regardless of if blacks admit it or not, they will always have embarrassment and shame at the fact that the white man enslaved their ancestors. They will also wallow in embarrassment about the fact that once they had the opportunity to return to their "motherland" they chose to stay here. Therefore proving that they are totally incapable of creating their own country half as good as this one created and run by the White Man! No, like I said earlier, the blacks will not be happy in their souls until they have returned the favor and enslaved white people and taken over this God given country. And I'll give you three guesses as to what will happen then..You got it - total destruction! Hopefully me and my family will be long gone before the animals take over here. This country is doomed.

QUALITY I really like this, it reminds me of a gra...

2009-10-04T14:49:30.785-05:00

QUALITY I really like this, it reminds me of a graffiti artist I saw at http://www.hire-a-graffiti-artist.co.uk their is a few more good graffiti artists on the site.

This I realize and if you listen to any other musi...

2009-10-02T22:29:55.319-05:00

This I realize and if you listen to any other music selection of mine, I do not speak of that type of rhetoric. Thanks for the support in recognizing injustice has no preference. It's selected hate.

What's up, PAS? Nice to see folks in Sweden r...

2009-09-30T03:25:40.532-05:00

What's up, PAS? Nice to see folks in Sweden reading the blog. How's the hip-hop out there? I see your autoworkers are getting their asses kicked like ours here. It's too bad. We need a new workers movement. Bad.

Great piece James. I'm glad someone's spe...

2009-09-27T00:21:18.639-05:00

Great piece James. I'm glad someone's speaking out about this bullshit.

I appreciate your clarification about the homosexuality thing. The only thing homo about those tactics to destroy is their homophobia. Most of the same cops, prison guards, FBI agents, klansmen and neonazis who hate Black people also hate gays, lesbians, and transgender folks. This kind of police brutality happens all the time to gay folks, especially when they're both gay and Black. All the more reason why we've all gotta unite to fight back against these murderers. Strength in numbers. That's what folks did in the 60s - queer people rioted at Stonewall and then built the Gay Liberation Front and worked in coalition with the Black Panthers to organize against the pigs.

damn man, this brought tears to my eyes. This is s...

2009-09-27T00:03:49.058-05:00

damn man, this brought tears to my eyes. This is some of the freshest theology I've read in years. I've studied academic liberation theology, and we've all practiced the arts of liberation in the streets but it's been hard to bring those two worlds together. Sometimes the most eloquent shouts of liberation aren't obviously theological and usually liberal-progressive academic theology just simply isn't liberating. I feel you about hip hop though - it is probably one of the clearest expressions of deep currents of American liberation theology, remixing and sampling earlier traditions running back through soul, gospel, the classic spirituals, the music of Black Power back through the abolitionists back to that original creative fusion of radical reformation, African, and indigenous spirituality that has always chanted down Babylon here in the Americas.

I just posted this over on my blog as well: http://spiritualdesert.blogspot.com/2009/09/hip-hop-has-saved-my-soul-and.html

meaning i have no prob with homosexuality but the ...

2009-09-19T10:56:14.469-05:00

meaning i have no prob with homosexuality but the tatics to destroy. Im to open-minded to be disrespectful. there are people out here who really aim to disrespect same sex. im not that person. if you are offendend, i apologize.

Why didn't you tell me who you were, Misko! G...

2009-09-16T15:14:55.619-05:00

Why didn't you tell me who you were, Misko! Guess I should have paid closer attention. We've never met, but we have mutual friends, MS and AL. LBoogie says she's met you, but you may not remember.

There's definitely a way in which this whole m...

2009-09-16T00:39:41.709-05:00

There's definitely a way in which this whole media uproar over Ye's stunt is being spun into an example of "a misbehaving Negro" overtaking a helpless white girl. A lot of that comes from the way that racism manifests in the media itself.

There's also another factor to discuss: the affect that the industry has had on him. Five years ago he was cutting edge, but nowadays he's definitely become a staple. Let's think about it: this isn't the first time Kanye has "acted out of place" at the VMAs. But the execs at MTV would never dream of disinviting him from next year's show. That's because they know this kind of thing turns heads and gives the industry an image of being edgy.

Ye has dared to make plenty of comments with substance. I have no doubt that he'll continue to do so because it has in the past been such a big part of his makeup as an artist and public figure. This time around, though, it came off as pure spectacle. At this point in history, the overwhelming weight of the music biz's machinations are too strong for this specific incident to read as anything but.

What are "homo tactics"?

I know y...

2009-09-15T23:55:07.957-05:00

What are "homo tactics"?

I know you say you mean no disrespect, but when you associate "homo" or queer identity with a racist who was instrumental in repressing the liberation struggles of people of color, women & queer folks...well, then I can't help but feel disrespected.

Clarity always helps conversation. Maybe you can expand on your comment?

Democracy & Hip-Hop

LQ, Would you mind forwarding me some info or a U...

Hey compa, this is good, i think there are very im...

What up. Yeah, I believe I remember watching him ...

Easy R.E.B.E.L....in response to your post just wa...

what's up FaridArts, thanks for the thoughts....

You make it sound as if those stores on the block ...

Nice post - banksy pictures ..Keep Posting...

This link is to a relevant conversation happening ...

comment cont.At bottom the critique of rad...

There's an interesting set of contradictions s...

This is such a great video. Thanks for posting th...

Wow, John! LBoogie just smashed on your ass! Smas...

Yeah, cracker!

John: Actually, John, there’s a delay in a...

Thats right, block any outside perspective! You pu...

Coming from a white perspective (which in this day...

QUALITY I really like this, it reminds me of a gra...

This I realize and if you listen to any other musi...

What's up, PAS? Nice to see folks in Sweden r...

Great piece James. I'm glad someone's spe...

damn man, this brought tears to my eyes. This is s...

meaning i have no prob with homosexuality but the ...

Why didn't you tell me who you were, Misko! G...

There's definitely a way in which this whole m...

What are "homo tactics"?I know y...

Nice post - banksy pictures ..Keep Posting

...

comment cont.

At bottom the critique of rad...

John:

Actually, John, there’s a delay in a...

What are "homo tactics"?

I know y...