1 00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:04,680 Speaker 1: Yo yo, check check you're listening waiting our reparations the 2 00:00:04,720 --> 00:00:07,640 Speaker 1: production of I hear rating microphone check, want to want 3 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 1: to where's my snare? We go into the next episode. 4 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:17,120 Speaker 1: Now I gotta go and just give you our special flow. Oh, 5 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:20,400 Speaker 1: better each vitamins and vegetables, because we're about to go 6 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:22,840 Speaker 1: and make you shrivel like a decimal. Oh it's the 7 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:25,680 Speaker 1: dope knife sitting with the Lingua franca. We got a 8 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:28,080 Speaker 1: bunch of dope styles and we gotta thank you for 9 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:30,920 Speaker 1: tuning into you know, we gotta give it every time 10 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:33,360 Speaker 1: that were wrapping the Dishan is just so exquisite. It's 11 00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:36,480 Speaker 1: sitting on your dinner plate. Never ever been afraid, never 12 00:00:36,479 --> 00:00:38,959 Speaker 1: sitting with them, whadcast because they've been a flake, has 13 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:41,400 Speaker 1: been a fake, sitting right there when we break them. 14 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 1: We're about to just grab that fucking rocking. We shake up, 15 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:47,519 Speaker 1: grabbing that rocking and we shake up. We're about to 16 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:49,919 Speaker 1: do it like we were coming out of Jamaica. We're 17 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:52,520 Speaker 1: gonna get the corn like us. And you see real 18 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:54,360 Speaker 1: if you want to get in this ship, you know, 19 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:57,400 Speaker 1: but we Sitiou is doing it imperious. Then we got 20 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:00,720 Speaker 1: to stop. Pio Let me were us station. Everybody know. 21 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:04,559 Speaker 1: We up in the studio waiting no preparations, linka franca 22 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:07,200 Speaker 1: dope knife, and we're about to break up in the 23 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:10,399 Speaker 1: a M and lace my boots. Add enough sleep, figure, 24 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:13,360 Speaker 1: it's too late to snooze. I came to move self made. 25 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:16,200 Speaker 1: I paid my dudes. Love to win, not as much 26 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:18,480 Speaker 1: as I hate to lose. Dudes laps. I could be 27 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:21,319 Speaker 1: the unadmission to defeat them. When you on top, they 28 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:23,839 Speaker 1: want the position that you be in. Don't worry about 29 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:26,000 Speaker 1: the past, because that's in the different season. They say 30 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:28,400 Speaker 1: we are the best. If you listen to him speaking, 31 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: that be the quest. I mean to be the best. 32 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:32,840 Speaker 1: The day I see the bench, that's the day I 33 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:40,400 Speaker 1: see a rap hey hey, waiting a reparation, talking about 34 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:43,280 Speaker 1: how the rap music is political. When you got these 35 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:45,720 Speaker 1: cities fold, when you got these prisons full, when it's 36 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:49,280 Speaker 1: looking pitiful all over the city's fool. Everybody knows you 37 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:56,280 Speaker 1: gotta get in. It's been a rimes, but not alright. 38 00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:03,160 Speaker 1: This is dope night. We are waiting on parations, all right. 39 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 1: So we have a lot to cover today. So we're 40 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:07,840 Speaker 1: just going to get into it. And this week we're 41 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:15,240 Speaker 1: gonna be talking about the question what is political hip hop? 42 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:22,760 Speaker 1: Doubles Does hip hop have to have overtly political statements 43 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 1: in the sense that we would think about it right 44 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:30,400 Speaker 1: left Republican Democrat arguing up for a particular political party 45 00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:33,200 Speaker 1: or political leaning in order for it to be considered 46 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: political hip hop. And that is a question, because if 47 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:38,440 Speaker 1: that's not the case, then there's lots of hip hop 48 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:41,440 Speaker 1: that's out there that has existed that you could put 49 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:44,160 Speaker 1: under the banner of having a sort of political leaning 50 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:46,440 Speaker 1: or giving you some sort of political insight. And I mean, 51 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:48,120 Speaker 1: what I would argue is that, like when you look 52 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:50,320 Speaker 1: at the history of where hip hop came from and 53 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:53,720 Speaker 1: like what forces or lack of force that kind of 54 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:57,120 Speaker 1: gave its space to exist. You know, we talk about 55 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:01,079 Speaker 1: the decline or like the withdrawal of the civil rights 56 00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:05,000 Speaker 1: movements and the black power movements during the nineteen um seventies. 57 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:08,080 Speaker 1: It kind of created the civic vacuum in inner cities 58 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:10,040 Speaker 1: that like had to be filled by something, and there's 59 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: all this this unrest because you know, unemployment rates going up, 60 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:19,400 Speaker 1: affordable housing vanishing programs cut, all sorts of welfare programs 61 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:22,480 Speaker 1: cut under Reagan and Nixon, there was this need for 62 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:24,920 Speaker 1: people to reclaim their space in a way much like 63 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:28,240 Speaker 1: people were taking the streets previously with like protests, um 64 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:31,560 Speaker 1: civil disobedience of other kinds. People were kind of organizing 65 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:33,840 Speaker 1: themselves around this new form of civil disobedience is like 66 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:36,160 Speaker 1: claiming their blocked back by having these block parties, by 67 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:38,400 Speaker 1: having these dance battles, by taking to the streets, and 68 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,280 Speaker 1: like stealing power from the power grids to you know, 69 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:45,320 Speaker 1: power their they're like sound machines that they were building 70 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:50,080 Speaker 1: at home, like poor economic and social conditions that you're 71 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:53,520 Speaker 1: into being a positive exactly, Yeah, which I would say 72 00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:56,200 Speaker 1: is inherently political, whether or not you know, I'm down 73 00:03:56,360 --> 00:04:01,040 Speaker 1: street the basketball court. It's like specifically like a political statement. 74 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:03,920 Speaker 1: What the act of organizing in that way is always 75 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 1: political to me. Gee, It's almost as if hip hop's 76 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:11,200 Speaker 1: birth was a reaction to funk up right wing policy. 77 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:23,839 Speaker 1: Weird Yeah, yeah, from the gym. So, I mean I 78 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:25,800 Speaker 1: want to go ahead and say that, like we could 79 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:29,440 Speaker 1: very easily start in Africa. We can start in the Caribbean, 80 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:31,799 Speaker 1: and we can talk about the way that the ds 81 00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:38,320 Speaker 1: Bora and like black folks come around the globe influence 82 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: hip hop and like in a way that predates what 83 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:42,960 Speaker 1: are common understanding is. In terms of the genesis of 84 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:44,479 Speaker 1: hip hop. A lot of people think of New York 85 00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:47,320 Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies, and I definitely think it's worth 86 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:49,719 Speaker 1: getting into and we will absolutely get into that in 87 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:53,159 Speaker 1: the future episode. But to start out where people might, 88 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:56,120 Speaker 1: you know, base their common understanding of the birth of 89 00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:57,680 Speaker 1: hip hop, I wanted to talk a little bit about 90 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:01,800 Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies, particularly the way that like hip hop 91 00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:04,120 Speaker 1: was born into this power vacuum that was left by 92 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:07,840 Speaker 1: the civil rights and black power movements. UM. Previously, people 93 00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 1: had been gathering in the streets to agitate full civil rights, 94 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:14,359 Speaker 1: to agitate for voting rights, agitate for equal education, for 95 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:18,600 Speaker 1: adgocate for jobs, all of these things, and um, as 96 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: those moments began to recede, something needed to feel its play, 97 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:24,880 Speaker 1: Something needed to take over that same sort of space, 98 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:27,440 Speaker 1: both physically in the streets of these cities and also 99 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:30,559 Speaker 1: in the imagination of the young folks that were maybe 100 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:33,080 Speaker 1: too young to take part of those movements but saw 101 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:36,960 Speaker 1: mass organization perhaps is like a way for them to 102 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:40,640 Speaker 1: take control of their the conditions of their lives, and 103 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:43,320 Speaker 1: so rather than marching, you know and picketing in the 104 00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:46,360 Speaker 1: streets for equal rights and things like that, people started 105 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:49,640 Speaker 1: to organize themselves around hip hop, and so hip hop 106 00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:52,320 Speaker 1: in the sense became like the new Civics. It was 107 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:54,719 Speaker 1: inherently political for folks to take to the street for 108 00:05:54,760 --> 00:05:57,720 Speaker 1: these block parties in the ways that previous generations has 109 00:05:57,720 --> 00:05:59,720 Speaker 1: taken to the streets and the struggle for civil rights, 110 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:03,400 Speaker 1: um literally like stealing power off of the grid to 111 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:07,640 Speaker 1: power their you know, home built sund systems. So they 112 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:10,400 Speaker 1: were deejaying on in the middle of the street. Like 113 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:13,080 Speaker 1: it was a new kind of community organizing in a 114 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:17,799 Speaker 1: certain sense. And I think acknowledging that, uh, those roots 115 00:06:17,839 --> 00:06:19,880 Speaker 1: the way that like the tides of the civil rights 116 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:22,760 Speaker 1: and black hard move was receded and the new tides 117 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:25,880 Speaker 1: of the hip hop hip hop culture kind of hit 118 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:28,760 Speaker 1: the shores of New York and eventually, you know, America 119 00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:35,240 Speaker 1: is like where political hip hop in its political faces 120 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:39,080 Speaker 1: like has its genesis. Do you think from a cultural 121 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:42,960 Speaker 1: standpoint that some of those skills and organizing we're just 122 00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:45,520 Speaker 1: kind of naturally picked up. I mean I think yeah, 123 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:48,880 Speaker 1: like the black radical tradition I think was in was 124 00:06:49,440 --> 00:06:51,400 Speaker 1: alive in this to a certain extent, even if he 125 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:53,640 Speaker 1: wasn't telling people could consciously aware of the stuff that 126 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:55,680 Speaker 1: they learned from their aunties and their fucking cousins and 127 00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:59,200 Speaker 1: their uncles and their pastors in terms of like these 128 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:03,680 Speaker 1: orc these oratory styles and these ways of dealing of 129 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:09,680 Speaker 1: like you know, using verbal um illusion and rhyme and 130 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:13,920 Speaker 1: the circumlocutions as a way to like argue for your 131 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 1: place in the world. Those things have been long standing, 132 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:19,480 Speaker 1: and like the black rattical tradition, the black like oral tradition, 133 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:21,400 Speaker 1: and so yeah, I think they were alive in hip 134 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:23,760 Speaker 1: hop in this time too, well, like in in nineteen 135 00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:27,280 Speaker 1: seventy three in the Bronx, like DJ cool Hirk through 136 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:30,520 Speaker 1: what many believe to be the first ever official hip 137 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:32,920 Speaker 1: hop party, where they're like utilizing all the things that 138 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:36,480 Speaker 1: you were saying, um. And you know, ever since then, 139 00:07:37,280 --> 00:07:39,680 Speaker 1: you know, you do, some fast forwarding hip hops will 140 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:42,840 Speaker 1: come like a global phenomenon and now dominates the charts. 141 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:46,200 Speaker 1: It is the music, yeah, it's pretty much default music, 142 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:49,679 Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, And so you know, nineteen seventies, people 143 00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:54,000 Speaker 1: are trying to find a new way to organize their communities, 144 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:57,720 Speaker 1: and like argue for their self worth and then find 145 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:00,520 Speaker 1: a place for themselves in the world that is increasingly 146 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:03,840 Speaker 1: against them. Um So the nineteen eighties in area at 147 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:05,560 Speaker 1: like the beginning of the Reagan era, so like to 148 00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:08,960 Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties, into the nineteen seventies, the federal government 149 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:10,960 Speaker 1: have been giving out hundreds of millions of dollars to 150 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:14,480 Speaker 1: cities to urban Renewal acts to provide alliance downtowns. By 151 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:16,720 Speaker 1: the end of the nineteen seventies, federal funding for these 152 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:19,720 Speaker 1: programs begin to dry up, leaving many social services and 153 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:23,400 Speaker 1: programs in these cities fucking belly up. They were vital 154 00:08:23,520 --> 00:08:25,960 Speaker 1: at one point to the redevelopment of inner city neighborhoods, 155 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:28,480 Speaker 1: but then they were scrambling to find new funding or 156 00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:32,840 Speaker 1: substantially cutting back services. So many government programs saw almost 157 00:08:32,840 --> 00:08:36,199 Speaker 1: their entire budget taken away under the Reagan administration, forcing 158 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:38,880 Speaker 1: many agencies to shut down. So where they were once 159 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:42,800 Speaker 1: providing services like job skills training for unemployed city youth, 160 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:45,360 Speaker 1: our college loans for struggling working class, film is care 161 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:48,760 Speaker 1: assistants for single parent homes, they're funding all just got 162 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:53,079 Speaker 1: fucking yanked, all fucking yank and leave and just left folks. 163 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:57,600 Speaker 1: Fuck fuck folks, Broyly fucked man didn't that didn't like 164 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:01,560 Speaker 1: So that like cut back on like after school program 165 00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:04,559 Speaker 1: music programs where they get their art and culture from. 166 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:07,120 Speaker 1: Now exactly what I mean, Well, that's the whole spirit 167 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:09,679 Speaker 1: of the ship is like, if you ain't gonna give 168 00:09:09,679 --> 00:09:12,719 Speaker 1: it to us, then we're gonna take it. You're to 169 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:14,439 Speaker 1: take it on our own. So it's like if if 170 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:18,839 Speaker 1: kids can't if kids can't take piano lessons or take 171 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:23,280 Speaker 1: guitar lessons or violin lessons, then they're gonna learn how 172 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:26,640 Speaker 1: to make their own music on turntable scratching and sampling 173 00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:29,680 Speaker 1: and cutting and things like that. So, I mean eighties 174 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 1: fucking poverty. Raid for minorities grew every single year in 175 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:35,800 Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties, and many cities faced record levels of crimes. 176 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:38,880 Speaker 1: Gangs began to flourish. I mean this, and this also 177 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:41,240 Speaker 1: was a way of re organizing our community as the 178 00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:43,440 Speaker 1: new civics in the sense of like what who are 179 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:45,600 Speaker 1: your affiliations and how are you getting by? Who can 180 00:09:45,640 --> 00:09:50,720 Speaker 1: you rely upon? So gangs taking providence and taking over neighborhoods, 181 00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:55,040 Speaker 1: um New York. They were like, there's so many Burrows 182 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:59,920 Speaker 1: played with youth gangs, including the South Bronx where Africa 183 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:03,040 Speaker 1: Otta was actually the gang leader of the Black Space 184 00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:06,000 Speaker 1: Gang and the Bronx River Projects, and he decided to 185 00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:08,440 Speaker 1: use his leadership for something positive after taking a trip 186 00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:10,680 Speaker 1: to Africa. So by some port, we gotta talked about 187 00:10:10,679 --> 00:10:13,719 Speaker 1: Africa at some point it's podcast, Yeah for sure, sure, Um, 188 00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:15,360 Speaker 1: you know I want to talk about Africa with my 189 00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:18,320 Speaker 1: African ask um just for some context for the people 190 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:23,440 Speaker 1: who don't speak rap Africa. Bambada's DJ and producer and 191 00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:26,360 Speaker 1: like I guess you could say, community organizer, the head 192 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:30,480 Speaker 1: of the Zoo Nation. He's very much considered one of 193 00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:34,560 Speaker 1: the key early influencers of hip hop, and in recent 194 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:38,960 Speaker 1: years there's been allegations level that's a whole another episode 195 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:41,840 Speaker 1: right now, we're just talking history, my bad gone. But Um, 196 00:10:41,880 --> 00:10:44,960 Speaker 1: instead of having rival gangs battled each other through violence, 197 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:48,240 Speaker 1: like actually sucking each other up, uh, he organized parties 198 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:50,880 Speaker 1: where rival gangs battled each other through b boying, deejaying 199 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:54,240 Speaker 1: and him sing yeah that it was like on some 200 00:10:54,320 --> 00:11:02,720 Speaker 1: real West Side story type when reject all the way, 201 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:08,920 Speaker 1: beat it, Oh my god, beat it. Yeah. The aesthetics 202 00:11:08,920 --> 00:11:12,760 Speaker 1: that they're trying to capture and that yeah, um yeah, 203 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:15,240 Speaker 1: And so that's kind of how hip hop was born, 204 00:11:16,400 --> 00:11:18,800 Speaker 1: a truncated version of its history. Trust me, we're going 205 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:22,200 Speaker 1: to get into a lot more specific of like years 206 00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:27,120 Speaker 1: of specific people, of specific subgenres, specific policy issues that 207 00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:30,600 Speaker 1: were really prevalent at these times in upcoming up set 208 00:11:30,679 --> 00:11:33,440 Speaker 1: of the podcast. You know, hip hop had always had 209 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:35,960 Speaker 1: like a since its inception as far as the rap 210 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:38,079 Speaker 1: element of hip hop. You know, we've got to be 211 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:41,720 Speaker 1: clear because it feels so weird having to retell this. 212 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:45,000 Speaker 1: But you know, I do imagine that there's probably like 213 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:47,679 Speaker 1: a whole like swath of people who may or may 214 00:11:47,679 --> 00:11:51,400 Speaker 1: not know stuff like this. But okay, so hip hop 215 00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:55,720 Speaker 1: is comprised generally four different I guess we have to 216 00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:57,840 Speaker 1: I mean, hey, you never know, some people don't know this. 217 00:11:57,960 --> 00:12:01,280 Speaker 1: So like, of those of those four elements of hip hop, 218 00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:04,120 Speaker 1: and even that number four is debatable, But of those 219 00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:09,000 Speaker 1: four elements, you've got break dancing, you've got graffiti, you've 220 00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:13,680 Speaker 1: got deejaying, then you've got the m C. Now, when 221 00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:16,200 Speaker 1: I was coming up, I learned that, you know, there 222 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:19,800 Speaker 1: was there was like a debatable element of is BeBox 223 00:12:19,920 --> 00:12:22,720 Speaker 1: and the element or his knowledge of self and element exactly. 224 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:24,840 Speaker 1: You know, so I would just go ahead and tack 225 00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:27,599 Speaker 1: both of those on. And they say that there's the 226 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:31,200 Speaker 1: six of them that would just be me personally. But generally, 227 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:34,040 Speaker 1: you know, the the m seeing and the rapping is 228 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:38,320 Speaker 1: just one aspect of hip hop yea. And in that aspect, 229 00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:42,120 Speaker 1: since that aspect, you know, came to dominate the art, 230 00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:45,440 Speaker 1: the culture, and you know, it was the the most 231 00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:48,120 Speaker 1: visible part of the culture that people saw that could 232 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:53,439 Speaker 1: be commodified. Um MC has always been dropping lines of 233 00:12:53,840 --> 00:12:57,640 Speaker 1: the socially conscious rhymes or socially conscious bars and stuff 234 00:12:57,679 --> 00:13:01,800 Speaker 1: like that, but it really wasn't two is the message 235 00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:07,160 Speaker 1: by um Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. It was 236 00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:12,160 Speaker 1: the first like really successful socially conscious or you know, 237 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:16,920 Speaker 1: socially messaged hip hop song. Don't care, I can't take 238 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:19,520 Speaker 1: you can't take the noise, got no money to move on? 239 00:13:19,679 --> 00:13:23,640 Speaker 1: I guess I got no choice threats in that kind 240 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:27,880 Speaker 1: of open everybody's eyes really as to what potential hip 241 00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:31,760 Speaker 1: hop could have with like having direct messaging up until that, 242 00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:34,920 Speaker 1: you know, prominently, you know, when you think of hip 243 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:36,679 Speaker 1: hop at that time, when people think of hip hop, 244 00:13:36,679 --> 00:13:38,960 Speaker 1: when it first started. You know, you might think of 245 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:42,400 Speaker 1: like the Sugar Hill Gang, you know, like hip hop 246 00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:44,960 Speaker 1: hip hip to the hip hip hop and you dump 247 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:52,880 Speaker 1: shot the rhythm and in Curtis Blow you know all that, 248 00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:55,920 Speaker 1: you know, all that party stuff, you know, like one 249 00:13:55,960 --> 00:14:00,040 Speaker 1: thing and there's and that definitely was the case, and 250 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:03,200 Speaker 1: that never stopped obviously, but once the message came out 251 00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:06,040 Speaker 1: had started like oh you can do that, Yeah, you 252 00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:09,440 Speaker 1: can do that, you know like broken glass everywhere, like 253 00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:12,800 Speaker 1: I think there's even there's like a legendary artist. Carreras 254 00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:16,840 Speaker 1: One once said he was talking about Melli Mell like 255 00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:19,320 Speaker 1: lyrics in the song. He was like he lives somewhere, 256 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:23,000 Speaker 1: and where he lived he described, and what was where 257 00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:25,880 Speaker 1: I lived? And that was the connection. So it was 258 00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:29,480 Speaker 1: like something that was so visceral where he was describing, 259 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:35,640 Speaker 1: you know that urban decay, young black city, you know, 260 00:14:36,520 --> 00:14:40,360 Speaker 1: urban paranoia. He was describing that, and it like influenced 261 00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:43,800 Speaker 1: MCS for just the rest of the the time. And I 262 00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:47,600 Speaker 1: think it speaks to like how pivotal is for a 263 00:14:47,680 --> 00:14:52,000 Speaker 1: marginalized populist to like season narrative for themselves and start 264 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:54,120 Speaker 1: telling their own story because like so many people want 265 00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:57,440 Speaker 1: to tell people tell us like what our lives are, 266 00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:01,280 Speaker 1: like how we got here, what we deserve, and so 267 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:04,760 Speaker 1: for us to like factually report all the conditions we're experiencing, 268 00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:07,720 Speaker 1: like it has such residence and are had such residents 269 00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:09,160 Speaker 1: at this time and still does a lot of hip 270 00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:12,080 Speaker 1: hop listeners. But like yo, I feel that, like, yeah, 271 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:14,320 Speaker 1: I live where you live, Like I I know what 272 00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:17,920 Speaker 1: you know, like I've been there and and but not 273 00:15:18,120 --> 00:15:20,120 Speaker 1: just on a person to personal levels, Like that's the 274 00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:22,800 Speaker 1: political power of hip hop of like telling our own 275 00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:26,320 Speaker 1: story in a world where people want to tell our 276 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:29,680 Speaker 1: story for us. And it's like if we're looking at 277 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:32,000 Speaker 1: politics in terms of like wielding power, that is like 278 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:34,760 Speaker 1: a pretty powerful act. I think that's like something that 279 00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:38,120 Speaker 1: is even kind of like inherent in hip hop music 280 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:43,120 Speaker 1: is like being able to put forth like a message 281 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:47,000 Speaker 1: that people can potentially identify, you know with like on 282 00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:49,960 Speaker 1: a personal level. And you know, some people can like 283 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:52,760 Speaker 1: wield that to a political end, I think, and some 284 00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:57,440 Speaker 1: people cannot choose not to, but it's like just as 285 00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:00,120 Speaker 1: a tool to get those messages out. I think that, 286 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:04,040 Speaker 1: you know, when people do decide to use hip hop 287 00:16:04,080 --> 00:16:06,960 Speaker 1: to like get out political messages, I feel like because 288 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:08,960 Speaker 1: of the power of hip hop and makes it just 289 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:11,880 Speaker 1: that much more potent to get like a message out totally. 290 00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:15,320 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. I mean, like the the rhythmicity 291 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:17,120 Speaker 1: of it. I made the word up, but I needed 292 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:24,440 Speaker 1: to should call and response, you know, the cadences, like 293 00:16:24,600 --> 00:16:28,200 Speaker 1: the upfrontness of the language. All these things like are 294 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:31,160 Speaker 1: like they make for a powerful oratory. They make for 295 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:35,640 Speaker 1: powerful oratory, so like you know, and powerful orators orators. Indeed, 296 00:16:35,960 --> 00:16:37,640 Speaker 1: so it's older heads. We tend to have a lot 297 00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:40,760 Speaker 1: of nostalgia about the hip hop that was. We go 298 00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:43,440 Speaker 1: back and we talk about the message in nine two, 299 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:46,520 Speaker 1: we talk about the birthplace of hip hop and like 300 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:50,520 Speaker 1: its reaction as like a movement against depression in this 301 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:54,400 Speaker 1: like Reagan era where everything fucking sucks, right, And I mean, 302 00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:58,760 Speaker 1: I think that's really typical among um, the older generation 303 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:01,760 Speaker 1: of hip hop came up with it, you know, more 304 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:03,640 Speaker 1: so than the folks say, you can't imagine a world 305 00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:06,600 Speaker 1: without it. Um. And a lot of my research as 306 00:17:06,640 --> 00:17:11,920 Speaker 1: a like a hip hop scholar and educationist and educationist, 307 00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:14,560 Speaker 1: you see times where like these people who want to 308 00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:17,520 Speaker 1: use hip hop in the classroom will bring in older 309 00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:20,560 Speaker 1: hip hop or like progressive hip hop to the kids. 310 00:17:20,560 --> 00:17:22,159 Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, I'm gonna use this to teach, and 311 00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:24,600 Speaker 1: the kids don't give a fuck because it's not really 312 00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:27,919 Speaker 1: reflecting the trends of music right now. And so, I mean, 313 00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:31,760 Speaker 1: I think that kind of thinking, this nostalgizing of the 314 00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:35,399 Speaker 1: music is just like really typical of of of a 315 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:38,720 Speaker 1: certain age of listener. We think of the place where 316 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:43,520 Speaker 1: hip hop started off as defining essentially what hip hop 317 00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:49,439 Speaker 1: is in in in blindness, with blindness towards what it 318 00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:52,359 Speaker 1: has the potential to become, which is not you know, 319 00:17:52,480 --> 00:17:57,360 Speaker 1: not aligned with a movement of resistance and the progressive, 320 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:00,320 Speaker 1: in a progressive what you can resist without being if 321 00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:02,320 Speaker 1: you can burn it all down without having a vision 322 00:18:02,359 --> 00:18:12,000 Speaker 1: for what you wanted to be exact. Yeah, Well, why 323 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:14,600 Speaker 1: do you associate hip hop and politics? Well, I mean 324 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:18,360 Speaker 1: because for me, like if if you know, hip hop 325 00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:20,320 Speaker 1: gets a lot of credit a lot of times for 326 00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:23,919 Speaker 1: being blunt and honest and open and like a true 327 00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:28,680 Speaker 1: um manifestation of people's like actual thoughts. If politics affect 328 00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:33,480 Speaker 1: us in our everyday life all the time, then it 329 00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:35,600 Speaker 1: just makes sense to me that it doesn't matter what 330 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:38,200 Speaker 1: type of rap song that you're listening to. I take 331 00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:41,960 Speaker 1: hip hop. I take politics, politics and hip hop as 332 00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:45,840 Speaker 1: pretty much being anything that gives you insight into what 333 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:49,679 Speaker 1: somebody really thinks and what the artists or the rapper 334 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:53,080 Speaker 1: really thinks, because at the end of the day, that's 335 00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:56,439 Speaker 1: that's politics. I hate to do this, but to quote 336 00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:02,760 Speaker 1: Marco Rubio, Yeah, so Margot Rubio um in a crowded 337 00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:06,720 Speaker 1: bar on Capitol Hill at the inaugural BuzzFeed Bruise event, 338 00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:10,080 Speaker 1: told a crowd that in some ways, rappers are like reporters. 339 00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:13,080 Speaker 1: Do you like gang wars, racial tension? And they were 340 00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:17,520 Speaker 1: reporting on that, you know, Margot fucking Ruby, don't give 341 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:21,000 Speaker 1: me that face. Yeah, yeah, So the reporting on the 342 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:23,760 Speaker 1: material conditions, the live realities of folks that are like 343 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:27,520 Speaker 1: living on the ground, which are inevitably shaped by political forces. 344 00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:32,879 Speaker 1: And so I think that to create, to like speak, 345 00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:37,400 Speaker 1: a narrative that is born from that place is inherently 346 00:19:37,440 --> 00:19:39,680 Speaker 1: a political act because like, there's so many other people 347 00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:42,000 Speaker 1: who want to tell us how we're living. There's so 348 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:43,520 Speaker 1: many other people who want to tell us what our 349 00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:47,440 Speaker 1: lives are like and um conjecture about how we got 350 00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:49,840 Speaker 1: this way. But when we actually speak up for ourselves 351 00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:52,040 Speaker 1: and be like, yo, this is what act is actually happening, 352 00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:54,840 Speaker 1: Like that is a political act to sort of like steal, 353 00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:59,240 Speaker 1: like rest the narrative back from people that want to 354 00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:02,280 Speaker 1: to paint a picture that does not serve art needs 355 00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:08,080 Speaker 1: or interests. I somewhat agree, but I somewhat think that 356 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:13,040 Speaker 1: that's a generous assessment. A lot of things we have 357 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:15,720 Speaker 1: to be honest in like saying that, like a lot 358 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:19,359 Speaker 1: of this stuff, I don't think cats are thinking about 359 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:21,760 Speaker 1: it that deep, and I don't think it's meant to 360 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:25,240 Speaker 1: be taken like that deep, Like it's an inherently political 361 00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:28,119 Speaker 1: thing just because I exist there, just because I exist 362 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:30,919 Speaker 1: in this space. I mean, at least at least not 363 00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:34,520 Speaker 1: if that's not your intention at all, you know what 364 00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:36,840 Speaker 1: I mean. So I have an aversion to that. But 365 00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:42,800 Speaker 1: you bring it in, people bring into it. But but 366 00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:46,919 Speaker 1: you you bringing up the Marco Rubio quote though, just 367 00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:49,960 Speaker 1: kind of opens up like do you think that Marco 368 00:20:50,040 --> 00:21:00,280 Speaker 1: Rubio cares about yeah, or hip hop or hip hop culture? No? No, no, Well, 369 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:02,280 Speaker 1: I mean this is like pretty much what I was 370 00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:06,240 Speaker 1: saying last week with the Donald Trump ship, Like it 371 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:09,640 Speaker 1: makes me feel some kind of way that thirty years 372 00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:13,280 Speaker 1: ago there was a teenager who was listening to all 373 00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:15,760 Speaker 1: the even the dope stuff that I would consider. There 374 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:18,280 Speaker 1: was a teenager somewhere who was listening to Wu tang 375 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:22,879 Speaker 1: in In n w a in in in Tupac and 376 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:25,320 Speaker 1: Public Enemy and all that ship, and he grew up 377 00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:28,440 Speaker 1: to be Marco fucking Rubio. I mean, I will say that, like, 378 00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:31,440 Speaker 1: as someone that studies a pop there is a tendency 379 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:34,840 Speaker 1: for folks who want to like progressive e its like 380 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:39,920 Speaker 1: a lot of it's um talking about like the egalitarian 381 00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:42,399 Speaker 1: nature of a cipher where anybody could step in and 382 00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:45,360 Speaker 1: have their turn, and like it's very democratic, and it's 383 00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:49,480 Speaker 1: very like flattened hierarchy, and like it's very participatory and 384 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:52,439 Speaker 1: all this stuff, and like the way that you know, 385 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:54,480 Speaker 1: like I've been talking about, like it's this way for 386 00:21:54,560 --> 00:21:57,119 Speaker 1: us to see the narrative and speak our own truths 387 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,600 Speaker 1: rather than have Fox News to tell report I'm happening 388 00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:03,000 Speaker 1: in our communities. Yeah for sure. But I mean it's 389 00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:08,000 Speaker 1: just like, even especially now, I like to be very 390 00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:12,840 Speaker 1: very careful with just lumping everything in together, you know, 391 00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:15,600 Speaker 1: with everything going on now, I think people have a 392 00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:19,080 Speaker 1: tendency to think that being black in of itself is 393 00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:23,440 Speaker 1: a progressive political stance. I mean, you gotta understand black 394 00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:28,719 Speaker 1: people historically vote for Democrats because the Republican party platform 395 00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:32,240 Speaker 1: has more or less been Yeah, we know slavery is bad, 396 00:22:32,359 --> 00:22:36,760 Speaker 1: but so it's just I think it's important that people 397 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:41,200 Speaker 1: know that racism being a factor is a huge unifying 398 00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:46,000 Speaker 1: force amongst black people. Without it, without like naked open 399 00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:49,040 Speaker 1: racism in the American right, I think you would have 400 00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:53,080 Speaker 1: a lot more Black people that would be comfortably conservative 401 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:56,280 Speaker 1: or comfortably Republican or comfortably right leaning, and it would 402 00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:58,959 Speaker 1: be reflected in the music. I mean, Ship, the current 403 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:04,000 Speaker 1: rap caricature is value money above everything else, hate gays, 404 00:23:04,119 --> 00:23:06,720 Speaker 1: treat women like Ship, love guns, and advocate the killing 405 00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:10,919 Speaker 1: of black men. If those aren't right wing Republican values, 406 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:19,439 Speaker 1: it is things like, Yeah, I think it's really important 407 00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:21,800 Speaker 1: when you're bringing up that it is very complex, that 408 00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:26,520 Speaker 1: it's not necessarily it's not necessarily stories of revolution and 409 00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:28,720 Speaker 1: like coming together. I mean, there's plenty of that, and 410 00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:31,080 Speaker 1: we'll talk about some examples of that perhaps later on, 411 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:34,800 Speaker 1: but it is also it's complex because they are pretty 412 00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:38,840 Speaker 1: much like right wing talking points. There's there's like emerging 413 00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:50,280 Speaker 1: to a degree. Yeah, obviously nobody wants every pop star 414 00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:52,960 Speaker 1: to be trying to like save the world or anything 415 00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:54,320 Speaker 1: like that. But it's just one of those things where 416 00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:55,879 Speaker 1: it's like, you know, you get a bit older and 417 00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:58,480 Speaker 1: you start thinking about it and how it affects people. 418 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:03,199 Speaker 1: Like I remember when Drake was first coming out, he 419 00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:05,679 Speaker 1: had a track I forget what the name of the 420 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:07,440 Speaker 1: track is, but it had like a line in it 421 00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:09,960 Speaker 1: that was like, all I care about his money in 422 00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:12,320 Speaker 1: the city that I'm from. It's so even now, it's 423 00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:13,840 Speaker 1: like I just got it stuck him. I don't even 424 00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:15,520 Speaker 1: know the name of the songs. I do care about 425 00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:18,840 Speaker 1: his money, even the city then I'm from. And it's like, damn, 426 00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:21,960 Speaker 1: that's dope. But then you just like think about it deeper. 427 00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:25,320 Speaker 1: You're like, damn, man, maybe should care about more about that. 428 00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:27,480 Speaker 1: There was there was like a twelve year old in 429 00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:30,720 Speaker 1: two thousand nine just repeating that over and over again. 430 00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:33,920 Speaker 1: I know, you could talk to a bunch of people 431 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:39,359 Speaker 1: who could argue that that's a completely justified worldview and 432 00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:42,240 Speaker 1: way of looking at the world. I wouldn't consider that 433 00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:46,440 Speaker 1: to be a progressive, all right. If it's a justified worldview, 434 00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:49,600 Speaker 1: then what justifies him? Because there are always factors at 435 00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:54,240 Speaker 1: play systemically that have shaped like why why should you 436 00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:56,680 Speaker 1: just give a shit about just the city where you're 437 00:24:56,680 --> 00:24:59,160 Speaker 1: from and getting money? Like what is what it's given 438 00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:04,440 Speaker 1: rise to like that need and that those motivations because 439 00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:07,120 Speaker 1: it's never just like you get born singing, you never 440 00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:09,639 Speaker 1: get born singing. I all can't about as money as 441 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,000 Speaker 1: it's anywhere I'm from, Like you don't like no baby 442 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:15,160 Speaker 1: comes out the womb crying that. It's it's based on 443 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:19,600 Speaker 1: the factors that have shaped their life and they're you know, 444 00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:26,840 Speaker 1: often politically motivated policy Germany. I mean, yeah, has nothing 445 00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:29,200 Speaker 1: to do with the intention behind a song. I will 446 00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:31,480 Speaker 1: give you that, like we gotta like really like we 447 00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:35,879 Speaker 1: got we can't like pay rose color. I just we 448 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:39,160 Speaker 1: can't like rosify gloss over everything and be like every 449 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:41,480 Speaker 1: all hip hop is political. Yeah, I probably think that 450 00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:45,159 Speaker 1: intent matters more than most people of like ILK, But 451 00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:49,720 Speaker 1: it's just like I don't know, you you things that 452 00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:52,199 Speaker 1: are like coincidental and stuff like that, Okay, cool, like 453 00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:55,160 Speaker 1: give them credit where credits? Do you know what I'm saying? 454 00:25:55,200 --> 00:26:01,560 Speaker 1: But to like ascribe a bunch of high concept you 455 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:03,919 Speaker 1: know what I mean? Ideas to something when that's like 456 00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,359 Speaker 1: just completely not the intention I think does a disservice 457 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:12,240 Speaker 1: to people who do do it and to the general 458 00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:14,720 Speaker 1: argument if you're of the if you're of the mindset 459 00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:16,800 Speaker 1: of like yeo, that sort of thing is lacking, then 460 00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:18,440 Speaker 1: it doesn't help that at all either, you know what 461 00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:22,439 Speaker 1: I'm saying. It doesn't help that if somebody does a 462 00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:25,800 Speaker 1: video where there are people marching but the song is 463 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:28,159 Speaker 1: not about that at all, Like it'll get covered in 464 00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:30,680 Speaker 1: every publication. It is like, oh, such and such, just 465 00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:32,720 Speaker 1: drop the new political video. Didn't you see the people 466 00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:37,080 Speaker 1: were marching and yeah exactly. It's like like like I 467 00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:40,320 Speaker 1: don't the whole concept of like faking the funk and 468 00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:42,440 Speaker 1: like being on some fake like like being on some 469 00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:46,399 Speaker 1: fake ship isn't just relegated to like street life and 470 00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:48,359 Speaker 1: like oh, you said you did this, but you didn't 471 00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:50,639 Speaker 1: really be that. But I don't understand why that doesn't 472 00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:54,400 Speaker 1: apply to even aspects of politics that we're talking. I'm 473 00:26:54,480 --> 00:27:00,919 Speaker 1: interested in the aspect of people faking activism, yeah you know, 474 00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:05,520 Speaker 1: or or like uh, using activism as part of the 475 00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:08,960 Speaker 1: overall like rap gimmick or rap hustle. Well, I fear 476 00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:11,639 Speaker 1: that like artists don't know what real activism looks like. 477 00:27:11,840 --> 00:27:13,639 Speaker 1: It's like co signing, like let's think to back to 478 00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,760 Speaker 1: like Beyonce and jay Z, like pledging solidarity of the 479 00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:20,200 Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter movement, which has a pretty it's hard 480 00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:23,200 Speaker 1: leftist platform if you really get down into like the 481 00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:27,760 Speaker 1: planks in that platform, and um, I think they espouse 482 00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:30,760 Speaker 1: values that would be contrary to the way that the 483 00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:35,080 Speaker 1: Carters have built their economic empire, you know, like I 484 00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:39,119 Speaker 1: don't think Black Lives Matter is for the proliferation of 485 00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:44,159 Speaker 1: black billionaires, and so like there's co signing movements in 486 00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:46,600 Speaker 1: a way that I guess it's helpful and drawing attention 487 00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:49,880 Speaker 1: to them so that more people look into what those 488 00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:52,320 Speaker 1: folks are doing on the ground to make the world better, 489 00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:57,879 Speaker 1: but without any sort of true material contribution or or 490 00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:01,879 Speaker 1: ideological contribution to the work that they are doing, and 491 00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:06,280 Speaker 1: in fact working counter to those values in every other 492 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:08,960 Speaker 1: aspect of her life except coming out and saying like 493 00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:12,399 Speaker 1: Trayvon Martin hadn't have been killed or like you know, 494 00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:15,000 Speaker 1: and then that's and that's it. We're going going by 495 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:17,680 Speaker 1: the thing with like values if today in this day 496 00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:22,440 Speaker 1: and age, where the thing that's countercultural, I don't want 497 00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:25,600 Speaker 1: to say just straight up being a socialist. You know, 498 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:27,320 Speaker 1: people are starting to be at that point where they're 499 00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:31,200 Speaker 1: starting to re examine whether or not this like capitalist 500 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:36,960 Speaker 1: experiment or like this die hard extreme capitalist like capitalism. Yes, 501 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:39,680 Speaker 1: put it in my veins. I need it. Like people 502 00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:43,040 Speaker 1: are starting to reassess whether or not that's the way 503 00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:51,560 Speaker 1: to go, especially now, I've fun since COVID, White, Black, purple, whatever. 504 00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:55,040 Speaker 1: I have seen more socialist niggas pop out of the 505 00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:58,000 Speaker 1: woodwork since COVID than at any point in my life. 506 00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:01,880 Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that that's where hip hop needs 507 00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:04,560 Speaker 1: to be. It doesn't really seem like that's where hip 508 00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:07,320 Speaker 1: hop is, you know what I'm saying anywhere close Even 509 00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,200 Speaker 1: the best examples of it is that something that well, 510 00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:14,160 Speaker 1: I think there's there's movement building, like getting people to 511 00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:16,840 Speaker 1: take in the streets, take action, organize their communities. And 512 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:20,720 Speaker 1: then there's consciousness raising, which is a very important precursor 513 00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:22,640 Speaker 1: to movement build. You can't build a movement if you're 514 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:25,840 Speaker 1: not aware of the circumstances you're currently in, right, And 515 00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:31,720 Speaker 1: so songs like jay z Survival or or Vic Mensa's 516 00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:36,200 Speaker 1: sixteen Shots like they might not talk about the world 517 00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:39,480 Speaker 1: that we won. But at least they're raising people's awareness 518 00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:42,160 Speaker 1: of the world that we have and generating the needed 519 00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:46,080 Speaker 1: in righteous indignation about that world in order to like 520 00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:49,680 Speaker 1: do something. Now, the problem comes into me when people 521 00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:52,360 Speaker 1: think that that indignation, the fact that they're mad and 522 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:55,720 Speaker 1: their woke about it is enough, and it's not enough. 523 00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:58,520 Speaker 1: And so it's like, okay, like I will accept if 524 00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:01,840 Speaker 1: hip hop isn't like, you know, taking in the streets 525 00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:06,040 Speaker 1: with like artillery shells strapped to their and like seizing 526 00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:09,440 Speaker 1: you know, courtrooms and like straight up like all that ship. 527 00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:13,160 Speaker 1: I'm cool if we're not there in the music, But um, 528 00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:17,040 Speaker 1: I also want to be wary of music that makes 529 00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:22,360 Speaker 1: a buck on sort of co opting revolutionary, like it's 530 00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:25,520 Speaker 1: a costume whatever. And it's just like, you don't really 531 00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:28,280 Speaker 1: mean that, I mean, I don't even to me, it 532 00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:30,840 Speaker 1: doesn't even seem like cats are even getting in on 533 00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:34,800 Speaker 1: that racket. You know, that's true. Something else you want 534 00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:37,120 Speaker 1: that would be that would be a better problem than 535 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:39,520 Speaker 1: than what we have, you know what I'm saying. If 536 00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:43,120 Speaker 1: people were trying to take advantage of or make a 537 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,719 Speaker 1: gimmick out of activism and that we're like the trend. 538 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:49,440 Speaker 1: I think that would be better than what it is. 539 00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:53,160 Speaker 1: But I mean, I'm not even necessarily judging anybody's music, 540 00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:56,440 Speaker 1: just more so of an attitude. I think that there 541 00:30:56,480 --> 00:30:59,800 Speaker 1: are a lot of rappers who look at a j 542 00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:04,720 Speaker 1: z in aspire to be that. And if culturally what 543 00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:09,240 Speaker 1: is anti establishment is like, yo, fuck the billionaires. If 544 00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:12,240 Speaker 1: hip hop is populated by a bunch of motherfucker's they 545 00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:15,920 Speaker 1: want to be billionaires, then is it anti establishments? Little? 546 00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:19,400 Speaker 1: I think that ultimately it's important to apply critical lens 547 00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:22,280 Speaker 1: to all hip hop, regardless of the intention of the artists, 548 00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:25,680 Speaker 1: because of the way it reports on black life. It 549 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:28,160 Speaker 1: can tell us interesting things about the way the policy 550 00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:32,840 Speaker 1: is failing or point towards a future that could be different. 551 00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:37,480 Speaker 1: And so like uh to to sort of lay this 552 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,080 Speaker 1: framework of politics on hip hop, regardless of where the 553 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,640 Speaker 1: artist is coming from themselves, is an important exercise and 554 00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:45,880 Speaker 1: sort of like for me, a motivation behind like why 555 00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:47,520 Speaker 1: are we doing this? Why are we talking about this 556 00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:49,440 Speaker 1: at all? I can disdrop the microphone and walk out 557 00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:52,720 Speaker 1: right now, except the fact I believe that we have 558 00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:55,680 Speaker 1: to like do this exercise as a means of like 559 00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:58,920 Speaker 1: figuring out Okay, what like what next? What has gone 560 00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:02,040 Speaker 1: wrong and what's next for us? I agree. And then 561 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:03,480 Speaker 1: there's a lot of hip hop out there. I mean, 562 00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,240 Speaker 1: like you know we said earlier, like dead Press you're 563 00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:09,240 Speaker 1: gonna talk about like Saul Williams, or you know, even 564 00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:13,200 Speaker 1: like run DMC and Curtis Blow had some hits that 565 00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:16,000 Speaker 1: were likely. There's definitely songs out there that have a 566 00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:19,760 Speaker 1: politically motivated message. And now to what degree it counts 567 00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:22,040 Speaker 1: us politically hip hop? I think we'd somewhat different on 568 00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:24,880 Speaker 1: because you think it has to have like I am 569 00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:29,320 Speaker 1: arguing for reparations, its me. I'm like, if you're commenting 570 00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:33,440 Speaker 1: on you know, just like statistics that of like the 571 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:36,400 Speaker 1: ways folks are affected by policy and not necessarily tilling 572 00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:38,920 Speaker 1: people what to do about it, that's still valuable. I agree. 573 00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:43,080 Speaker 1: I agree. Now, if if I had described what I 574 00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:45,800 Speaker 1: thought in that way, that's not what I meant. Oh no, 575 00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:49,240 Speaker 1: I agree with you. I would say that it's like 576 00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:51,959 Speaker 1: I feel that I can tell when somebody is faking, 577 00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:55,560 Speaker 1: when somebody's being real about politics but they're not trying 578 00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:59,640 Speaker 1: to be political. It comes across more than just expressing 579 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:01,920 Speaker 1: how they feel about a particular topic. You know, what 580 00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:05,480 Speaker 1: I'm saying when somebody is trying to pander, that's when 581 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:09,320 Speaker 1: it sounds like YadA YadA YadA, and kids don't do drugs, 582 00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:13,480 Speaker 1: YadA YadA YadA, police beat black people. You know what 583 00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:16,800 Speaker 1: I mean. It's like, Okay, yeah, that's that's a that's 584 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:20,200 Speaker 1: a that's an observation. Yes, like I hear you, might 585 00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:21,800 Speaker 1: I hear you, my dude. You know what I'm saying. 586 00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:24,480 Speaker 1: You gotta be coming with it a bit more correct 587 00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:28,160 Speaker 1: and deeper than that at the no matter what style 588 00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:31,520 Speaker 1: of rapping you do. Like you know what I was 589 00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:33,560 Speaker 1: talking with my friend this morning, it's talking about the 590 00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:37,560 Speaker 1: exact thing, right, if I were listening to like some 591 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:41,280 Speaker 1: booty Shaken like club song that the intent, in the 592 00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:44,240 Speaker 1: purpose of the song is nothing other than like get 593 00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:47,120 Speaker 1: off the ground, shake your ass, blah blah. In somewhere 594 00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:50,680 Speaker 1: within that song, the rapper drops a line gives a 595 00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:53,880 Speaker 1: little insight into like a stripper being a single mother 596 00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:58,280 Speaker 1: and overcoming that. And that's a somewhat political expert you 597 00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:00,520 Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. That's like, that's an express of 598 00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:03,440 Speaker 1: how you feel, completely in context with the song that 599 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:05,720 Speaker 1: you're making. That gives me some insight to how you 600 00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:10,160 Speaker 1: might feel about a political issue like single mothers, who 601 00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:12,120 Speaker 1: you know what I mean, or whatever whatever you want 602 00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:13,960 Speaker 1: to whatever whatever you wanta describe to it. But it's like, 603 00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:16,279 Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that the song is a political song. 604 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,479 Speaker 1: That doesn't mean you were trying to do anything other 605 00:34:19,520 --> 00:34:22,120 Speaker 1: than make people shake. But it's like insight into how 606 00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:24,960 Speaker 1: you really feel about some real ship. This degrees to 607 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:29,120 Speaker 1: which songs that aren't necessary political and intent that do 608 00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:33,239 Speaker 1: transmit political messages if it's really yeah, I don't like 609 00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:36,319 Speaker 1: getting into that conversation of what's real hip hop and 610 00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:38,759 Speaker 1: what's not real hip hop, But if the ship's real, yeah, 611 00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:50,000 Speaker 1: you will naturally get that. So I looked up on 612 00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:52,800 Speaker 1: Wikipedia politically hip hop. I wanted to get the third opinion, 613 00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:57,000 Speaker 1: and I'm really interested in some of the well, some 614 00:34:57,080 --> 00:34:59,160 Speaker 1: of what they've said. There's a couple of artists they 615 00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:01,520 Speaker 1: say are iCal, and I want to get your take. 616 00:35:02,160 --> 00:35:04,640 Speaker 1: So they said, examples of conscients and politically hip hop 617 00:35:04,680 --> 00:35:11,719 Speaker 1: throughout the decades include much of Logic's discography. Wait wait 618 00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:18,560 Speaker 1: wait wait, wait, wait say that again. Much of Logic's discography, 619 00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:23,239 Speaker 1: Um much they want to say, like much of child 620 00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:28,359 Speaker 1: at Quality is discography, much of Luke Fiasco's discography, UM, 621 00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:35,160 Speaker 1: much of Commons discography, UM, much of Kendrick from Mars discography, 622 00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:40,879 Speaker 1: much of J Cole's discography. UM. So I'm just thinking 623 00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:43,640 Speaker 1: it's a really interesting list, Okay, logic and J Cole 624 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:47,960 Speaker 1: being on there. Yeah, I mean it's not I just 625 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:51,160 Speaker 1: don't really consider them to be political rappers like that. 626 00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:53,640 Speaker 1: I mean, there's definitely rappers on that list that are 627 00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:57,720 Speaker 1: straight up politically you know, oriented rappers, But it seems 628 00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:01,000 Speaker 1: like that list is just rappers that don't only rap 629 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:04,160 Speaker 1: about dumb ship, which in itself is you know, a 630 00:36:04,239 --> 00:36:07,680 Speaker 1: reflection of where the bars. So I guess it just 631 00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:12,760 Speaker 1: comes down to who made this Wikipedia, like, like, really, 632 00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:14,560 Speaker 1: what are you listening to? And really what are the 633 00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:17,960 Speaker 1: what are the qualifying factors? I don't know, maybe we'll 634 00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:27,760 Speaker 1: take a deep dime on that later. By the nineties 635 00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:29,759 Speaker 1: and Democrats were dragged so far to the right by 636 00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:32,600 Speaker 1: the proceeding conservative administrations that it was pretty much open 637 00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:36,360 Speaker 1: season on fucking black people. We had the killing of 638 00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:39,480 Speaker 1: Natasha Harlans and Los Angeles and beating of Rodney King. 639 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:43,960 Speaker 1: The subsequent LA riots much interestingly iced Tea so little 640 00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:48,000 Speaker 1: album Home Invasion was originally slated from November, but was 641 00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:50,640 Speaker 1: delayed because of the LA riots. In the presidential election. 642 00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:54,080 Speaker 1: There was the infamous Crime Bill of ninety four. He 643 00:36:54,200 --> 00:36:57,040 Speaker 1: had three strikes laws getting passed in twenty four states 644 00:36:57,440 --> 00:36:59,640 Speaker 1: in that same year. So all this architect to ramp 645 00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:02,840 Speaker 1: up and all over black communities, and with it came 646 00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:06,560 Speaker 1: anthems that continue to document community conditions and pushed back 647 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:10,560 Speaker 1: against the state. I want to say one last thing 648 00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:12,479 Speaker 1: on the progressive zing hip hop. So I was talking. 649 00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:15,120 Speaker 1: I was reading this BT blog post issued after the 650 00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:19,200 Speaker 1: two and sixty election, and um, it was quick to 651 00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:23,080 Speaker 1: cite artists from the eighties and early odds, you know, 652 00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:26,279 Speaker 1: who were shining a light on racial inequality and calling 653 00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:29,319 Speaker 1: the government out. But it referenced not a single song 654 00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:32,640 Speaker 1: produced during the Obama presidency that did the same thing. 655 00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:37,120 Speaker 1: I mean, sure, it talks of loosely progressive song songwriters, 656 00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:40,960 Speaker 1: you know, talk about like Butterfly Chit's coloring book and 657 00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,640 Speaker 1: saying like, look, you know, we we are more progressive 658 00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:45,600 Speaker 1: than the nation. You know, the nation has failed us 659 00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:48,960 Speaker 1: in electing Donald Trump. Hip hop is ahead of the curve, 660 00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:51,640 Speaker 1: and I think to point to works like this that 661 00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:56,480 Speaker 1: are like, um, from a leftist perspective, they might be 662 00:37:56,560 --> 00:38:00,680 Speaker 1: like consciousness raising or engaging and necessary, so steam building 663 00:38:00,680 --> 00:38:04,640 Speaker 1: within these communities to these works. But like what exactly 664 00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:07,319 Speaker 1: are they saying we do about it? Like who what? 665 00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:11,439 Speaker 1: Like what better future does do are they spelling out 666 00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:14,719 Speaker 1: for us? And so I like, I like I hesitated 667 00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:18,040 Speaker 1: to embrace work that is I think I think it's 668 00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:21,279 Speaker 1: necessary to create a distinction between work that is consciousness 669 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,359 Speaker 1: raising and that is actually progressive and like saying this 670 00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:26,479 Speaker 1: is the better world that we're trying to build because 671 00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:29,359 Speaker 1: I think in articles like that, um, we're saying, oh, 672 00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:32,520 Speaker 1: hip hop is more progressive than the nation. Um, it's 673 00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:35,640 Speaker 1: a feel good story that like we want to embrace. 674 00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:38,520 Speaker 1: We want to believe we're better than the state of 675 00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:40,560 Speaker 1: the country as a whole. But I don't know if 676 00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:45,120 Speaker 1: the facts actually back that up. For me, this conversation 677 00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:50,480 Speaker 1: is mainly directed towards mainstream hip hop because and again, 678 00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:52,920 Speaker 1: the real like I could I could have like the 679 00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:57,120 Speaker 1: attitude of music is music and everyone listen to what 680 00:38:57,239 --> 00:38:59,759 Speaker 1: you want to want to listen to and you know 681 00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:04,160 Speaker 1: it whatever. So yeah, like obviously I listened to the 682 00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:05,719 Speaker 1: ship that I like you know what I'm saying, So 683 00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:08,279 Speaker 1: ship that doesn't appeal to me, That's not what I'm 684 00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:11,080 Speaker 1: like spending you know, my time, like just like listening 685 00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:13,400 Speaker 1: and getting mad because it exists. That's not what I'm saying. 686 00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:17,680 Speaker 1: But as somebody who cares about hip hop, the mainstream 687 00:39:17,960 --> 00:39:21,560 Speaker 1: is the biggest representation of hip hop. And that's the 688 00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:23,680 Speaker 1: other point of like the artists we lift up as 689 00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:26,400 Speaker 1: like yeah, hip hop is so progressive, these are not 690 00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:28,880 Speaker 1: the artists that are gaining the most track chacking streams 691 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,960 Speaker 1: that make the most about money by no metric. Is 692 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:34,040 Speaker 1: this like what hip hop hip hop is or is 693 00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:37,080 Speaker 1: what hip hop is seeing across the world, And like 694 00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:40,360 Speaker 1: you can either have a problem with it or you 695 00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:43,600 Speaker 1: can be neutral, you know what I'm saying. And this 696 00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:48,080 Speaker 1: isn't a call of a judgment on whatever your you know, 697 00:39:48,160 --> 00:39:52,200 Speaker 1: opinion is of that, but it is the truth when 698 00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:58,680 Speaker 1: when somebody in fucking New Zealand thinks about hip hop, 699 00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:02,520 Speaker 1: they're thinking about the most popular hip hop that America 700 00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:06,399 Speaker 1: has to offer. Now you ask they're not doing the reason. 701 00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:09,160 Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but like you ask yourself, if you feel 702 00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:12,040 Speaker 1: comfortable with what you can just off the top of 703 00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:15,120 Speaker 1: your head, imagine is the most popular form of hip 704 00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:18,440 Speaker 1: hop or most popular hip hop ship going on right 705 00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:21,760 Speaker 1: now coming out of America, and just imagine that that's 706 00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:26,960 Speaker 1: like somebody's only our first impression of what hip hop is. 707 00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:31,279 Speaker 1: The chances are if that doesn't like bother you and 708 00:40:31,320 --> 00:40:34,040 Speaker 1: you don't care, then, like I don't want to say 709 00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:36,239 Speaker 1: you don't care about hip hop, but like what we're 710 00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:38,400 Speaker 1: talking about right now, you don't care about it, you 711 00:40:38,440 --> 00:40:42,319 Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. That's just that's cool. I fear 712 00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:47,200 Speaker 1: not political hip hop Lovers and the listening sphere seventeen, 713 00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:50,480 Speaker 1: according to SEE, an essay of the number of top 714 00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:54,520 Speaker 1: songs that contain political content jumped to one and four, 715 00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:58,239 Speaker 1: up from one and ten in previous years. About of 716 00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:01,839 Speaker 1: songs that made the off of the tribes, I mean, 717 00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:03,920 Speaker 1: I'd say it comes as no surprise. So we've I 718 00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:07,880 Speaker 1: think we've returned to the kind of nineties level awareness 719 00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:11,080 Speaker 1: and anger about racial injustice and unmasked fascism that folks 720 00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:14,239 Speaker 1: are um starting to return to the roots of hip 721 00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:17,920 Speaker 1: hop in a certain sense. I hope, So, I hope 722 00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:20,439 Speaker 1: so I think, well, I think we'll see I mean, 723 00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:26,200 Speaker 1: in in an era when like Okay, the Kanye stuff 724 00:41:26,239 --> 00:41:29,359 Speaker 1: scares Okay, I'm just I'm gonna I'm gonna keep it 725 00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:33,840 Speaker 1: honest with you, like like I'm not telling anybody what 726 00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:36,839 Speaker 1: to do. But it's just like, what do you mean 727 00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:39,760 Speaker 1: the Kanye stuff, Well, I mean, like the Kanye Trump 728 00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:45,440 Speaker 1: presidency political. Oh, it's political, But I mean that's that's 729 00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:47,600 Speaker 1: that's the that's the ship that I'm talking about. Is like, 730 00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:50,279 Speaker 1: I don't think it's obviously I don't think it's like 731 00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:53,840 Speaker 1: the right side of the I don't think it's the 732 00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:56,880 Speaker 1: right side that hip hop should be on. But the 733 00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:02,320 Speaker 1: mere fact that you know, Donald m his fucking tweeted 734 00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:07,279 Speaker 1: out white powers good people on both sides, that Kanye's 735 00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:11,960 Speaker 1: association with that isn't a just absolute deal breaker, just 736 00:42:12,040 --> 00:42:17,600 Speaker 1: completely I'm banking on in the next like five years 737 00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:20,680 Speaker 1: or so. They're being like a Candice Owen's rapper four, 738 00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:25,040 Speaker 1: I'm looking for the Candice Owens presidency, not looking for it, 739 00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:28,680 Speaker 1: but like my third eye sees it and the burning says, yeah, 740 00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:36,719 Speaker 1: I don't know, it's fucking weird. The perennial political hip 741 00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:39,160 Speaker 1: hop song of the eighties would have to be Fight 742 00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:41,640 Speaker 1: the Power by Public Enemy, Like it's easier to mold 743 00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:45,080 Speaker 1: onto a variety of issues or like calls to action, 744 00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:47,360 Speaker 1: like might the power can mean so many things, but 745 00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:50,759 Speaker 1: the police is oddly specific. Oh yeah, it's super specific. 746 00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:55,440 Speaker 1: Like fight the power I think is more effective a 747 00:42:55,480 --> 00:43:00,000 Speaker 1: political song or protests song or protest statement because it's 748 00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:03,400 Speaker 1: odd and you can attribute different things to it. You know, 749 00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:07,080 Speaker 1: fight the power the power can be whatever you needed 750 00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:09,879 Speaker 1: to be at any given time. I actually think that, 751 00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:12,480 Speaker 1: you know, fight the power is kind of like our 752 00:43:12,800 --> 00:43:15,759 Speaker 1: version of the civil rights song we Shall Overcome. You 753 00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:20,080 Speaker 1: know that we shall over come. I think fight the 754 00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:23,719 Speaker 1: Power is that for us because it's just this. You 755 00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:28,200 Speaker 1: can apply it to any protests or political event. You know, 756 00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:33,080 Speaker 1: are we protesting big oil? Like are we out in 757 00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:37,200 Speaker 1: the streets against police brutality? We're trying to get people 758 00:43:37,239 --> 00:43:42,960 Speaker 1: to vote to take out an incumbent. Fuck the police, 759 00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:46,879 Speaker 1: Like you said, it seems really specific, but I don't 760 00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:50,479 Speaker 1: think it can just it's about police and police over yeah, 761 00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:53,160 Speaker 1: versus fight the power. You talk about your local school board, 762 00:43:53,360 --> 00:43:55,400 Speaker 1: talk about your little kind of commission, talk about you 763 00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:59,440 Speaker 1: can't be like, yeah, let's go march for the environment. 764 00:44:01,880 --> 00:44:03,920 Speaker 1: Well maybe, I mean maybe if you're a fucking standing 765 00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:06,960 Speaker 1: rock and they're pelting you with water cannons and maybe 766 00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:12,080 Speaker 1: fun the police in that scenario. So N nine Motown 767 00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:15,319 Speaker 1: Records release Fight the Power. It was the single for 768 00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:18,880 Speaker 1: the Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing. It's actually 769 00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:23,320 Speaker 1: made specifically for that movie after a little conversation between 770 00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:26,000 Speaker 1: the man Spike Lee and Chuck d but wanting to 771 00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:29,759 Speaker 1: get them on board for that um. The song went 772 00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:32,880 Speaker 1: on to become one of Public enemies most known songs. 773 00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:36,640 Speaker 1: It was certified gold as a single. It's nominated for 774 00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:40,839 Speaker 1: Best Rap Performance the following year. The film inspired it 775 00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:44,759 Speaker 1: was generally about racial tensions during the hot summertime in 776 00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:48,279 Speaker 1: the New York Borough. Such a notable film that it 777 00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:52,840 Speaker 1: could have its own its own episode in its relation 778 00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:56,200 Speaker 1: to hip hop and politics on itself. But to bring 779 00:44:56,239 --> 00:44:58,759 Speaker 1: attention back to the song and what makes it such 780 00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:02,359 Speaker 1: a potent, polittle cool song, I mean, it's like you're 781 00:45:02,400 --> 00:45:06,960 Speaker 1: confronting the issue of racism bam at the beginning of 782 00:45:06,960 --> 00:45:09,560 Speaker 1: the song right there to open it. And I mean, 783 00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:13,440 Speaker 1: I guess if you're like a kid now that you 784 00:45:13,480 --> 00:45:15,560 Speaker 1: probably don't know who John Wayne is. But when I 785 00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:18,239 Speaker 1: was a kid, I knew who John Wayne was you know, 786 00:45:18,239 --> 00:45:20,480 Speaker 1: I was aware of him, but I wasn't aware that 787 00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:24,480 Speaker 1: John Wayne or Elvis had any sort of like you know, 788 00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:29,160 Speaker 1: racial issues within their like personal lives and ship. I 789 00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:31,319 Speaker 1: just knew them as, Oh, John Wayne's an actor and 790 00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:36,440 Speaker 1: Elvis is a musician, you know. So even just hearing 791 00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:40,400 Speaker 1: that you know, popular song, that made me ask questions. 792 00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:44,160 Speaker 1: And I remember the first time that I heard that, 793 00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:47,560 Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't know if we were 794 00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:51,120 Speaker 1: watching the movie. I think we're watching the music video, 795 00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:54,440 Speaker 1: and I remember asking my dad like I didn't know 796 00:45:54,480 --> 00:45:56,520 Speaker 1: Elvis was racist, but I was like, yeah, Elvis was 797 00:45:56,560 --> 00:46:02,719 Speaker 1: hella racist? None know, but for real, I was aware that, 798 00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:05,360 Speaker 1: I mean, Elvis is a was a musician that has 799 00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:09,319 Speaker 1: a you know, moniker as being king, and I was 800 00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:12,840 Speaker 1: aware of like the reverence that John Wayne had, so 801 00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:16,480 Speaker 1: you know, to see a fucking a strong black dude 802 00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:22,160 Speaker 1: would have fucking be boy cap twisted going. Elvis was 803 00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:25,200 Speaker 1: the hero the most motherfuck him and John Wayne. That's 804 00:46:25,239 --> 00:46:29,400 Speaker 1: just that was crazy and culturally at the time, the 805 00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:33,200 Speaker 1: amount of white pearl clutching that a line like that 806 00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:36,680 Speaker 1: caused the amount of like weight culturally that that has. 807 00:46:37,239 --> 00:46:39,840 Speaker 1: That's like setting the perfect tone for the title of 808 00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:43,040 Speaker 1: the song. The line was actually inspired by a eighties 809 00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:46,520 Speaker 1: song by the artist Blowfly. It was, Yeah, it was 810 00:46:46,560 --> 00:46:51,000 Speaker 1: a song called Blowflies rap in the song like a Klansman. 811 00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:55,960 Speaker 1: A Clansmen provoked him by saying motherfuck you and Muhammad Ali. 812 00:46:56,320 --> 00:46:58,960 Speaker 1: And this led Chuck to wonder, like, which sacred Kyle 813 00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:01,960 Speaker 1: he could like pluck when he was like right in 814 00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:04,719 Speaker 1: his lives, was like, I'm the grand Dragon, but a 815 00:47:04,800 --> 00:47:08,880 Speaker 1: clue claim you said, there's no nigger man, motherfuck you 816 00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:13,080 Speaker 1: and Muhammad Ali. Chuck, the lead m C for the group, 817 00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:16,160 Speaker 1: In recent years, has spoken about the song being directly 818 00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:19,399 Speaker 1: inspired by the community and the national effects of the 819 00:47:19,440 --> 00:47:22,439 Speaker 1: Reagan and Bush administrations. Yeah, he was quoted as the saying, 820 00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:25,200 Speaker 1: I believe if he was if he was twenty years 821 00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:26,960 Speaker 1: old and didn't realize that Reagan and Bush was just 822 00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:28,879 Speaker 1: a bad thing for you and also for the rest 823 00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:30,680 Speaker 1: of the country, and he wasn't paying it. He wasn't 824 00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:33,040 Speaker 1: gonna get it anyway. The only thing that's gonna hit 825 00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:35,799 Speaker 1: you was as a catastrophe. But we thought we could 826 00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:38,319 Speaker 1: actually throw some light on a dark situation that has 827 00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:40,680 Speaker 1: already cloaked Black America. So I find the power coming 828 00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:42,760 Speaker 1: from a cultural aspect as a film and the song 829 00:47:43,239 --> 00:47:46,399 Speaker 1: would hit sit St. Louis because damn sure, world news 830 00:47:46,440 --> 00:47:51,400 Speaker 1: ain't going to cover in I feel like rapping? Do 831 00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:53,399 Speaker 1: you feel like rapping? Sure? Let's rap a little bit, 832 00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:58,279 Speaker 1: all right, Mr Joel, can you give us something to 833 00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:09,840 Speaker 1: wrap over? Uh? You know we're waiting a reparations. Hey, hey, hey, 834 00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:11,879 Speaker 1: so you could call me a loser, or you could 835 00:48:11,880 --> 00:48:13,879 Speaker 1: call your wine. That you could call me because you missed, 836 00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:16,040 Speaker 1: because you're heightened from the virus. That you can join 837 00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:18,720 Speaker 1: the pestil right, called the girl that have for forsite 838 00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:20,680 Speaker 1: or called the kid? Would that feel like? Because you 839 00:48:20,719 --> 00:48:22,239 Speaker 1: can stay in there in guy's light. All of us 840 00:48:22,280 --> 00:48:24,600 Speaker 1: left is the lightning and the guys of hyping writers 841 00:48:24,600 --> 00:48:27,640 Speaker 1: intellectual tripe. Keep playing your shifty games and keep winning 842 00:48:27,640 --> 00:48:30,359 Speaker 1: your shifty prizes. Keep losing every election for the rest 843 00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:32,320 Speaker 1: of your life. Or you can win us by demand 844 00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:34,640 Speaker 1: in a decent way to single payer, right to organize 845 00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:36,640 Speaker 1: a labor right the house and clean it. Write this 846 00:48:36,680 --> 00:48:38,920 Speaker 1: spark of fucking Jake. If you're depressed and needed care, 847 00:48:39,120 --> 00:48:42,239 Speaker 1: right to hire education, by taxing the billionaires, you can 848 00:48:42,280 --> 00:48:44,560 Speaker 1: say I'm calling and scold me unto notes, oldingly go 849 00:48:44,680 --> 00:48:48,080 Speaker 1: voting forward, guy that won't support policies colling really hotly everywhere. 850 00:48:48,160 --> 00:48:50,400 Speaker 1: But that's not really that effective. The best is if 851 00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:52,960 Speaker 1: you call me and advocate with the left who the 852 00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:56,120 Speaker 1: foxill of the knife? Riddle me that you motherfucker's know 853 00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:59,480 Speaker 1: where I'm lyrically, Yet I'm lyrically on a level levitating 854 00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:03,080 Speaker 1: you chum something a motherfucking mountain, meditating with monks. Never 855 00:49:03,160 --> 00:49:05,320 Speaker 1: stay in the slump. Way back when eight was enough, 856 00:49:05,360 --> 00:49:07,919 Speaker 1: I was taking your mom's putting measure tape to a rum. 857 00:49:08,120 --> 00:49:10,600 Speaker 1: I keep a busheito blade while I'm breaking a blood. 858 00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:12,760 Speaker 1: Plus I think of my best ship while I'm taking 859 00:49:12,760 --> 00:49:14,960 Speaker 1: a dump. I think you snitched into the fats. And 860 00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:17,359 Speaker 1: why you niggas think you're getting bread? You get dead 861 00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:19,239 Speaker 1: with a dis you wouldn't have said because you try 862 00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:21,280 Speaker 1: to eat up. That's when we hit you to your blood. 863 00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:23,279 Speaker 1: You try to get back up. I fucking kick you 864 00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:26,040 Speaker 1: in the head. It's dope. Knife come in, it's so nice. 865 00:49:26,200 --> 00:49:28,720 Speaker 1: Grab the microphone and niggas know that I don't write, 866 00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:31,640 Speaker 1: but wrote before. Now I gotta go and hit the jaw. 867 00:49:31,880 --> 00:49:34,719 Speaker 1: Motherfucker's though, I take over the world like Cobra put 868 00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:37,280 Speaker 1: you in the cold, Slaw put you up in a sandwich. 869 00:49:37,520 --> 00:49:40,399 Speaker 1: Motherfucker's stepping up and they can't understand it. Our brain 870 00:49:40,560 --> 00:49:42,440 Speaker 1: so big that that ship don't need some band with 871 00:49:42,840 --> 00:49:47,960 Speaker 1: motherfucker's don't win. That were harder than some brandy do 872 00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:58,520 Speaker 1: to dope. My name's Dope, Knife Lingle Francations Waiting on 873 00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:02,480 Speaker 1: Reparations as a production via Heart Radio. Listen to Waiting 874 00:50:02,480 --> 00:50:05,960 Speaker 1: on Reparations on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 875 00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:10,279 Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. H