Conservatives, Hip-Hop and 2012

Conservatives, Hip-Hop and 2012

by Bakari Kitwana | Huffington Post

As the 2012 presidential election ramps up, expect conservatives to keep gunning for black youth, in general, and hip-hop, specifically. Black youth showed significant gains in 2008, and now represent the group of 18- to 29-year-old who vote the most. Their ability via popular to inspire young voters -- who in 2008 voted for Barack Obama over John McCain by a ratio of 2-to-1 -- poses one of the most viable threats to Republicans' aspirations to retake the Ppesidency. The recent national discussion surrounding the rapper Common's appearance at the White House is perhaps the first salvo.

What was quickly summed up as either an attempt to defend law enforcement or as an attack on the value of the arts does not get to the heart of what conservatives were really communicating to voters in the Common dust-up. That is, is there a place in mainstream American political life for young blacks, whose political views don't always fall within traditional mainstream conservative/liberal lines?

Black youth, particularly those who are poor and often ignored by politicians and lawmakers, are the men and women that the rapper-actor Common gave voice to in his 2007 poem ("A Letter to the Law") highlighted throughout the controversy. Conservative critics take issue with Common's tendency in the poem to represent their issues. Further, they feign outrage at the fact that Common presumes innocent several high profile Black Panthers convicted of police killings -- Assata Shakur and Mumia Abu-Jama l-- notwithstanding Common's suspicion is shared by international supporters, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. 

So much of conservative media maneuvering since the 2008 election has been about creating illusions. This focus on Common is no different. In fact, the point of highlighting these associations is to encourage the casual observer to infer that like-minded Black youth are equally un-American and should not be welcome at the White House. Hence, the suggestion goes, it is not only logical, but also patriotic to dismiss their issues.

Such reasoning fails to consider that many of these young Americans embrace their citizenship with as much passion as conservative Republicans advance their own interpretation of what the founding fathers envisioned for the nation. Rightly so. Many have fought in American wars of the last decade, as African-Americans in the military outdistance their representation in the general population. Many were forced outside of the mainstream economy years before the Great Recession of 2007-2009. By 2009, for example, unemployment for black 16- to 24-year-olds reached Depression-era levels. 

Many others, with hip-hop as the unifying theme, vote and engage in grassroots community change efforts in neighborhoods abandoned long ago by government job programs and major corporations. They belong to national, multi-racial organizations like The Hip-Hop Caucus, the League of Young Voters, Green For All or similar local organizations. They also, like their fellow citizens, believe their issues should take center stage on the nation's agenda -- that they should be no more or less important than America's super rich, its senior citizens, its fed up Tea Partiers or its mega corporations.

Unfortunately, as the nation gears up for election 2012, they are among those that conservative spin brings to mind with phrases like "take back America." For self-appointed defenders of American values (who these days take their cues from House Speaker John Boehner, presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann and talking heads like Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter, to name a few), hearing the voices of fellow citizens at a White House poetry reading signals not the diversity of the nation, but, rather, a country that has lost its way. 

As a hip-hop advocate and critic who has shared the stage with Common, I can unequivocally vouch for the value he adds to the nation. He's both a thoughtful lyricist and a hip-hop star committed to using his celebrity to improve the lives of forgotten Americans. He does not routinely traffic in misogyny or gratuitous violence. Yes, there are those rare moments where he could go further to distance himself from hip-hop's gender stereotypes. However, to focus on Common's lyrics is to miss the point.

And missing the point in this case means entering a very calculated debate in which Common, and by extension hip-hop culture, is cast as a villain worthy of our collective disdain. This demonizing comes at a time when conservatives, especially over the last two and half years, have firmly demonstrated their ability to set the tone for national media and popular discourse, replete with what has become customary double-talk, innuendo and outright distortion of the facts. 

Problem is, the idea that young blacks and hip-hop culture are by definition un-American is a message that defies reality. 

Voter participation for 18- to 29-year-olds enjoyed an eleven percent increase between 2000 and 2008. Cross-racial hip-hop organizing jump-started many of these mobilizing efforts. In 2008, fifty-one percent of eligible 18- to 29-year-olds voted in the presidential election. Fifty-eight percent of black youth 18-29 voted, the highest participation of any racial group. (Fifty-two percent of white youth voted in the same age group.) Instead of rebuking young blacks and hip-hop culture that speaks to multiracial audiences for their forays in civic engagement -- including symbolic representation at the White House -- one would think that defenders of the American way would embrace them. 

But this is divide-and-conquer political theater. And the focus for conservatives who lost the presidential election by a landslide in 2008 (in part because of a cross-racial youth vote) is to win in 2012 -- at any cost. To that end, driving a wedge between this emerging, vibrant youth voting bloc is crucial. However, attempting to do so by relying on racial stereotyping, rather than the facts, is a tactic Americans concerned about the future of our democracy should not tolerate this election season.

***

Bakari Kitwana is senior media fellow at the Jamestown Project and the author of the forthcoming Hip-Hop Activism in the Obama Era (Third World Press, 2011)

Follow Bakari Kitwana on Twitter: www.twitter.com/therealbakari

The Show: Doug E Fresh and Mark Anthony Neal in Conversation

The Apollo Legacy: Hip Hop!

Doug E. Fresh and Mark Anthony Neal host an evening of performance and conversation about the relationship between hip hop and the Apollo.

Monday, April 25 at 7:00 pm
The Apollo Legacy: Hip Hop!
Performance Series

Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10029

In the late 1980s, the television series It's Showtime at the Apollo was one of the first national platforms for local hip hop artists. Join legendary hip hop performer and one of the originators of the human beat box Doug E. Fresh, former host of It's Showtime at the Apollo, for an evening of performance and conversation about the relationship between hip hop and the Apollo Theater, with Mark Anthony Neal, co-editor of That's the Joint!: The Hip Hop Studies Reader (Routledge, 2011). Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment and in collaboration with the Apollo Theater and the Hip Hop Culture Center in Harlem.

Reception to follow.

Reservations recommended; $5 general admission.

For more information please call 917-492-3395.

A History of Black Folk on Twitter: Mark Anthony Neal @ TEDxDuke

From 'Go Down Moses' to the death of Manning Marable, what is the relationship between Black folk and social media?

About TEDx

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.

At TEDx events, a screening of TEDTalks videos -- or a combination of live presenters and TEDTalks videos -- sparks deep conversation and connections. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis.

Adisa Banjoko: Chess, Race, Class & the Urban Mind

HHCF: Chess, Race, Class & the Urban Mind

Hip-Hop Chess Federation founder Adisa Banjoko talks about misconceptions of Hip-Hop subculture and history against the backdrop of mainstream ideas of urban youth.

Hip-Hop as Literature? The Conversation Continues

Minnesota Public Radio
Midmorning Live

Anthology of Rap and Hip-hop

Over the past 30 years rap and hip-hop have emerged as a powerful and influential cultural force. Midmorning examines the power and the poetry of rap music, from the "old school" to the present day.

Guests

* Adam Bradley: Associate professor of English and author of the "Anthology of Rap.

* Mark Anthony Neal: Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African and African American Studies at Duke University.

* Toki Wright: Professor at McNally Smith School of Music in St. Paul, MN and professional rapper/hip-hop artist.

'J-Dilla: Still Shining'

"J.Dilla: Still Shining" from B.Kyle on Vimeo.

Created in 2006, this remembrance piece is created as a tribute to the memory and legacy of James "J.Dilla" Yancey. This is a piece designed for his fans and supporters who knew of his accomplishments before February 2006 and those that have grown to appreciate his genius. Here, we gain a greater insight and understanding about our musical icon.

Remember When? A Great Day in Hip-Hop

Nelson George's amazing documentary of "A Great Day in Hip-Hop"--hip-hop's response to the legendary photo shoot "A Great Day in Harlem" (1958) which featured Jazz artists. Like the photo that inspired it, "A Great Day in Hip-Hop" lacked gender balance; Marian McPhartland, Maxine Sullivan and Mary Lou Williams were the only women in the 1958 shot. Given the money in Hip-hop wonder if such a shoot could even happen again given the reality of publicists and corporate interests.

The Drizzy Phenomenon

special to NewBlackMan

The Drizzy Phenomenon
by Wilfredo Gomez

Lookin down from the top and it’s crowded below/my fifteen minutes started an hour ago--Drake “Fireworks”

On Wednesday, September 29 I made my way to New York City from the City of brotherly and sister love. I had readily anticipated this date for months on end and it had finally arrived. The occasion: Drake! The place: New York City, mecca for superstardom and hip-hop history. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere…right? I had gone to New York City to see the phenomenon for myself. While my colleague Marc Lamont Hill has expressed his dislike for Drake with his heavily circulated “I Hate Drake. There, I Said It,” I can speak for myself in stating matter of fact that I am a Drake fan and have been since he’d been doing his thing on the mixtape circuit with the release of his critically acclaimed So Far Gone.

At a minimum I had to go to New York to see one of my new favorites, along with Beyond Belief, STS, PacDiv, and others later on in the same night. But on the other hand, I had gone to New York with the curiosity of a serious hip-hop head. I wanted to know: so what exactly is this Drake phenomenon? How serious is it? Does he put on a good show? Is he the real deal live? All of these questions, and I patiently waiting.

Even before the show, the energy and excitement, was real, very real. A brief introduction and words shared with Toure, let me know that the event was something not to be missed as FUSE would be recording the show and airing at a later date. Once I got to my seat, the anxiety of those around me was palpable. Questions and statements came in constant barrages: “What’s the first song gonna be?” “Do you think Jay-Z is gonna come out?” “I heard he ends the show with “Over.” “I wonder who the special guests are going to be.” All of this, and the show hadn’t started. The audience was consistently tinkering on the edge of falling out of their seats waiting for the show to begin.

Drake opened the show with “9Am in Dallas” a song, Drake himself wishes would have served as the introduction to his debut album Thank Me Later. From the outset, several things are clearly evident. Drake is the rebirth of the slick, so to speak, a digable planet digested and palatable because we, the viewing public, and presumably fans feel what Drake is feeling at that moment. Drake is not invested in the contested politics of transcendence. By this I mean to suggest that unlike Rick Ross he does not think himself as organized crime bosses Big Meech or Larry Hoover. Neither does he take the lead of hip-hop luminaries Jay-Z and Nas, who have at one point in their respective careers refashioned themselves as Jay Hova and God’s Son, Drake is the epitome of a hustler’s ambition turned hustler’s emotional rollercoaster. In a calculated move towards the mainstream, Drake embraces a racial sincerity and performative identity that moves towards the call for humanity as the man nicknamed “Drizzy” (famously dubbed such by mentor Lil Wayne) becomes the Aubrey Graham who some of us followed during his days on television on Degrassi.

Drake is transforming the way we understand emcees, an artist whose credibility is rooted in the musical mélange of emotional vulnerability and braggadocio. His foray into audiobiography, are less rooted in the cultural scripts on industry insiderism, a sodeparture from the hypermasculine black male identity that seems to plague all emcee’s regardless of what their class and racial backgrounds are. His attention to emotional interiority undermines traditional notions of masculinity in hip-hop by affording the artist a sense of transparency. This particular brand of artistic transparency is sorely lacking when thinking about the commercial viability of the next great thing to come out of hip-hop culture at large. Perhaps, it is possible to read into his upcoming project, a R&B mixtape and first single appropriately titled Its Never Enough and “I Get Lonely too,” as offering further insights into this matter.

In the cultural imagination and historical memory that is hip-hop, modern debates of style over substance tend to be featured prominently on your airwaves and TV screens. As evidenced from his frequent facial expressions, mood swings, and propensity for kneeling, Drake comes across as an artist whose anxiety and human frailty manifests itself in a simultaneous call towards audience approval and audience forgiveness. This duality not only finds a perfect match in the rapper, who doubles as an R&B crooner, it seems to superficially, albeit momentarily resolve the dilemma raised in Bryon Hurt’s celebrated Beyond Beats and Rhymes, by finding a substantive balance between Drake, the performer, and Aubrey Graham, the man who pens his lyrics. It is within this capacity that Drake represents a new trope within hip-hop, an antithesis of sorts, a creative corpus that counters Lil Wayne’s sentiments about not being a human being! Through Drake’s presence in the mainstream, we have found a way to wax poetic on the gauntlet of human emotions that render us, vulnerable, overwhelmed, humbled, arrogant, and at times something other than our “true” selves. The cultural and generational amnesia that consumes us is present and packaged in the emo-rapper, a paradigm of the imaginative possible impossibilities of [brown male] life.

Nowhere is this more evident than when reflecting on the “Left of Black” episode, featuring Duke Professor Mark Anthony Neal and spoken word poet and soon to be Princeton doctoral student Joshua Bennett. At a minimum, Drake, his music, stage presence, and ability to clearly move the crowd effectively deconstructs the politics of cool, suggesting that there is a space from which one can contest notions of the street hustler turned hustler of scrabble and video games.

Joined by the likes of Trey Songz, Swizz Beats, Birdman, Jay-Z, it is evident that Drake doesn’t lack credibility in the hip-hop game. His commitment to his craft, regardless of his infamous “Blackberry freestyle,” his ability to move the crowd, his ability to evoke a range of emotions from audience members while also having his own self-reflexive moments speaks volumes. By explicitly invoking the memories of Marvin Gaye, Ol’ Dirty Bastard(Wu-Tang), and Aaliyah, Drake has a sense of history and his place in the pop culture pantheon of those greats and those who never got the chance to rock the mic. To be clear, there is no miseducation of Drake from which to speak of. Dare we say, that he does R&B and hip-hop like no artist since Lauryn Hill? That has yet to be proven, as Drake’s fifteen minutes of fame started an hour ago. But if this claim turns out to be truthful, please be sure to Thank Me Later!

***

Wilfredo Gomez is a Doctoral Student in Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Labor and Hip Hop Come Together for ‘Respect My Vote’ Campaign

from the AFL-CIO Blog

Labor and Hip Hop Come Together for ‘Respect My Vote’ Campaign
by James Parks, Oct 8, 2010

It’s fresh, it’s hot and it’s got a serious message: In 2010, young people have a big stake in the outcome of this election and the only way the powers that be will respect them is if they vote and make the politicians listen to their concerns. The Hip Hop Caucus and American Rights at Work have come together to launch a video and photo campaign to promote “Respect My Vote.”

“Respect My Vote” is the only major non-partisan Hip Hop voter mobilization campaign for the 2010 election. It focuses on voter registration, education and Get Out the Vote (GOTV) program. It is aimed at young people between ages 18 and 39, young people of color, people with felony records who are unaware of their voting rights, low-income communities and young people not in college.

In the video and photos, women of color who are labor leaders talk straight to young people. In comments over a hard bass line beat, they describe what young people and the union movement can do together and why we need each other to make sure that whoever takes office after the elections will work for the average American, not the rich fat cats on Wall Street.

Think the youth vote is not important? Consider that in the 2008 elections, 64 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds and 43 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds were first-time voters. Among African American young people 45 percent were first-time voters, and 61 percent of Latino young people voted for the first time in 2008.

Check out what Tiffany Lofton from the U.S. Student Association says in the video:

We’re in a huge crisis. A huge financial crisis, a huge jobs crisis, a huge education crisis and we need to think seriously about [the candidates’] agenda and how they will affect our community and our education.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, who also appears on the video, says an alliance between young people and the labor movement is natural.

Young people believe in collective action. That’s what the labor movement is about—the ability of people to come together and work collectively.

Check out the “Respect My Vote” campaign here.

'Left of Black': Episode #2 featuring Joshua Bennett

'Left of Black' Host Mark Anthony Neal talks Black masculinity, hip-hop, and disability with spoken word artist and Marshall Scholar Joshua Bennett.

Q & A with 9th Wonder

9th Wonder w/Harry Weinger of Universal Music & Mark Anthony Neal

Q & A with 9th Wonder
by Sherron Shabazz

Recently I was lucky enough to meet Grammy award winning producer 9th Wonder at Rock the Bells in New York City. That meeting led to an interview that I've long coveted.

I've followed 9th Wonder since the release of Little Brother's 2003 debut album The Listening. Since then 9th has left the group Little Brother and gone on to produce tracks for Jay-Z, Ludacris, Destiny's Child, Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, EPMD, and De La Soul among others.

9th Wonder follows in the footsteps of early 90's producers RZA and Pete Rock who injected soul music into Hip-Hop beats. Hip-Hop producers who still sample like Kanye West and 9th Wonder are head and shoulders above the bevy of synthed-out producers who pretty much all sound the same.

My chat with 9th didn't feel like an interview. It felt more like a chat between friends who both love the game of Hip-Hop. 9th's passion for the art-form comes through in this interview and I'm sure that everyone who reads it will feel it.

SS: How was it performing with Murs at Rock the Bells?

9th Wonder: Incredible stuff man. Murs and I have been friends since 2003. We're talking about becoming an official group now. It was fun. All of our influences were there. One of the biggest influences if not the biggest is A Tribe Called Quest and they were performing. Our next album is going to be like an ode to Midnight Marauders--we're excited about that. Rock the Bells was crazy. Everybody was there, Snoop, DJ Premier, Lady of Rage, Dave from De La Soul, Nas, Lauryn Hill, everybody was out there. It was a Hip-Hoppers heaven.

SS: My favorite song that you and Murs did was Yesterday and Today. That song got me through some hard times man and I never get tired of hearing it. Go back and talk about how you and Murs made that song.

9th Wonder: Yesterday and Today is a sample by William Bell. He's an old Stax musician that did the song I Forgot to be Your Lover which was re-made by Jahiem. I sampled that from him. That soul from the 60's and 70's gets people through. That's why I sample the works that I sample because it has that feeling in it man--its life music. I made the beat and let Murs hear it and he knew exactly what to write about. If you ever listen to Murs and 9th Wonder you know that we make music that drives people's emotions. We deal with real life situations, not your average, "We're over here partying," music. Nobody can party 24/7. You gotta be doing something else. That's where that inspiration came from. We got in and knocked it out during Murray's Revenge.

Read the Full Interview @ National Examiner

Kevin Powell: Open Letter to Hiphop America

Open Letter to Hiphop America
September 2010

Peace to all of you. I am writing this letter from Brooklyn, New York, where I am currently a Democratic candidate for Congress. For those who do not know, there are 435 United States Congresspersons in America, and 100 United States Senators, all based in Washington, D.C. when not in their home districts, and all of them together represent the 300 million Americans living in our nation. That is power. The power to provide resources, services, information, jobs, and loans for small businesses. The power to help people to help themselves.

That is why I am running for Congress. I come from a single-mother led household, I had no father figure whatsoever, and grew up in the kind of poverty, violence, and confusion I would not wish on anyone. But a few things definitely saved and empowered my life. One was a belief in God, instilled by mother. Second was definitely my moms and her giving me a love of education, in spite of she herself only having a grade school education. And finally it was definitely music and culture, especially hiphop as I came of age in the 1970s and through the 1980s.

I was a dancer and I tagged my nickname—“kepo1”—any and everywhere in my native Jersey City. I was at all the famous hiphop clubs of the 1980s, like Union Square, Funhouse, and The Rooftop. I helped to produce, along with youth activists like Sister Souljah, those big outdoor rap concerts on 125th Street in Harlem in the late 1980s. A writer since I was a child, I was a founding staff member at Vibe, and interviewed Tupac Shakur more than any other journalist when he was alive. And I was the curator of the very first exhibit on hiphop culture, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

I am hiphop. And I am also a public servant and activist for people, all people. For the past 25 years, in fact, since I was a youth.

That is why I am running for Congress. Not only would I be the first true hiphop head in Congress, but I also would be bringing a fresh take on leadership, blending the best of grassroots politics with Washington, D.C. maneuvering, all to that boom-bap beat.

And, as dead prez once famously said, this is actually bigger than hiphop. This is about my being a leader, a bridge-builder, and all of us weaned on hiphop music and culture understanding the power of this, the most dominant art form of the past 30 years.

If not us, then who?

Respectfully,

Kevin Powell

Go to www.kevinpowell.net to contribute $1, $5, or $10 to Kevin Powell 4 Congress now by clicking DONATE at the site

Hip--Hop, Homophobia and Wale

Wale Rhymes With Gay:

Is hip-hop finally being held accountable for its homophobia?

by Natalie Hopkinson

By any objective measure--moral, legal, ethical, the eyes of his horrified mother--the hip-hopper Wale screwed up. Management for the gifted artist best known for his duet with Lady Gaga contracted him to perform at D.C. Black Pride, a 20-year-old festival--for 45 minutes and $18,000. At the last minute, his team backed out, claiming they did not realize Pride was a gay and lesbian event.

Whooops!

Furious Pride organizers put him on blast in the local media, vowed to explore their legal options, and quickly arranged for another artist, the tatted-out R&B crooner J. Holiday to take his place. In the middle of J. Holiday's Memorial Day Weekend performance, I watched Wale make an unpaid appearance to do a little damage control. He said once his mother informed him of the controversy which aired on local TV, he immediately came back from his trip to Miami to make things right.

''One thing I stand for is hip-hop music,'' Wale, the son of Nigerian immigrants, told the crowd. ''Hip-hop music knows no race, no color, no age, no gender, no sexuality, none of that .... But I will say, in this business, sometimes you get aligned with people who don't understand that, or who don't necessarily have the same belief system as you do. And I apologize for not putting my best foot forward and not understanding the people I'm in business with. And I'm gonna do better--as we all do. People, every day we gotta get better.''

So what exactly did we just witness? Was it a step forward for compassionate understanding of our friends in ''the life''? Did Wale just avert a boycott/lawsuit or discrimination charges? Is this the beginning of the end of folks tolerating homophobia? Could it be signs of actual--*gasp*--maturity in popular hip-hop?

Read the Full Essay @ The Root

God Parent of Hip-Hop? Nikki Giovanni’s Truth is On the Way

Black Music Month 2010

God Parent of Hip-Hop? Nikki Giovanni’s Truth is On the Way

by Mark Anthony Neal

Amiri Baraka once wrote that Black music, “to retain its freshness, its originality, its specific expression of its own history and contemporary reality in each generation creates a “new music.” This was yet another articulation of what Baraka once called the “changing same”—the thing that links Black expressive culture to a commitment to innovation, while remaining wedded to the traditions that birthed it. No one understood that better than Nikki Giovanni, when she went into the studio in 40 years ago to record Truth is On Its Way. At the time, Giovanni was one of the most visible and provocative poets of the Black Arts Movement—Baraka, Don L. Lee (Haki Madhubuti), Sonia Sanchez and the late Henry Dumas are some of the others. The Black Arts Movement was premised on the idea of an art “for the people,” thus many of the movement’s artists sought to make an explicit connection to folk up on the boulevard (you can’t be on the boulevard if you don’t talk like you from the boulevard). For Giovanni though, it wasn’t just about the folk up in the club on Saturday night, but also the folk in the pews on Sunday morning.

I was five years old when my mother walked into the house with a copy of Truth is On the Way. I’ve listened to the recording hundreds of times since then; indeed Giovanni’s cadences are incorporated in the rhythms of my own writing style. At the time I didn’t fully understand the genius of Giovanni’s vision—she was blatantly trying to bring the profane in conversation with the sacred, two decades before Kirk Franklin and later Kanye West would bring ghetto theodicy to the top of the pop charts. Truth is On Its Way features recordings of some of Giovanni’s signature poems, mashed over classic gospel recordings performed by the New York Community Choir (under the direction of Benny Diggs).

Truth is On Its Way opens with the classic “Peace Be Still,” written by the late Reverend James Cleveland. The song’s narrative is based on the idea of Jesus calming the sea during a storm (“the wind and the waves shall obey my will/ Peace be still!) and this was the perfect allegory perhaps for communities that were literally under siege during the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. Giovanni sought to make such a connection explicit as midway through the song she breaks into her poem “Great Pax Whitey” taking aim at American hegemony: “and America was born/where war became peace and genocide patriotism/and honor is a happy slave/cause all God’s ‘chillen’ need rhythm.”

On the track “Second Rapp Poem” Giovanni pays tribute to the “real talk” activism of H. Rap Brown (the now incarcerated Jamil Al-Amin): “they ain’t never gonna get Rapp/he’s a note, turned himself into a million songs/Listen to Aretha call his name.” And it was Ms. Franklin who inspired the album’s most poignant moment, via Giovanni’s “Poem for Aretha.” As the lead vocalist of the New York Community Choir mournfully sings “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen,” Giovanni gives praise to the woman who is, arguably, the most important and popular Black women artist ever. Written at the height of Franklin’s fame, Giovanni places Franklin within the context of great Black music (“pushed every Black singer into Blackness”) and the tragic lives of her artistic foremothers (“Aretha doesn’t have to re-live Billie Holiday’s life/doesn’t have to re-live Dinah Washington’s death”). The gravity of Giovanni’s poem is so clear forty-years later, as we witness the slow demise of Whitney Houston.

Though Gil-Scott Heron and The Last Poets are often credited as the “god-fathers” of hip-hop, Giovanni, who recorded five albums in the 1970s, doesn’t get nearly enough credit for her influence. It’s a track like “Ego Tripping,” the only track on Truth is On Its Way not backed by Gospel music (though no less spirtual), that one hears the impact that Giovanni had on the poetic sensibilities of the hip-hop generation—the song is the very essence of an old-school rap boast (“the filings from my finger nails are semi-precious jewels”). “Ego Tripping” was eventually featured in an episode of A Different World, performed by the women in the cast and remixed by Blackalicious on their disc Nia (2000). And it’s clear that hip-hop’s poet laureate Rakim Allah must have been thinking about Giovanni’s line “I turned myself into my self and was Jesus” when he wrote “My name is Rakim Allah / And R & A stands for 'Ra' / Switch it around / But still comes out 'R'" on his classic “My Melody.” It’s about time we give Nikki Giovanni her due as a god-parent of hip-hop.

The Shrinking of the Black American Dream

We Just Wanna Be Successful:
The Shrinking of the Black American Dream
by Kim Pearson

Consider two songs from two generations. One, Drake’s ”Successful, ” was one of the most popular songs of 2009, making an international rap star out of the unsigned Canadian former child actor. The other, “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now,” was a signature hit for the songwriting producing duo of McFadden and Whitehead. Both employ narratives of aspiration and determination in the face of obstacles. But Drake’s song, produced in collaboration with singer Trey Songz is fraught with ambivalence and alienation, while McFadden and Whitehead’s anthem brims with optimism.

The Grio’s Hillary Crosley aptly called “Successful”, a “melancholy plea for international acclaim and financial achievement.”

A close reading of the lyrics invites all sorts of questions and commentary. The refrain is “I just wanna be successful,” but is that measured by the traditional success markers of the music industry – “money, clothes and hos” [sic]? “Yeah, I suppose,” his collaborator Trey Songz sings in the hook. Drake’s rap tells a story of a young man who is confident of his talent and destiny but thwarted in his personal relationships. As “the young spitter that everybody in rap fear” [sic], he navigates a competitive minefield. He is on the verge of breaking his girlfriend; his mother “tried to run away from home.” He knows fame and fortune are coming, but he is not sure he’ll live long enough to see it. “Inside, I’m treading waters, steady trying to swim to shore.”

Although written in 2006, “Successful” dropped in the middle of a bewildering economic crisis that’s been called the worst since the great Depression. Yet the narrator of the song expresses faith in his ability to overcome economic obstacles. The lyrics suggest the need for a larger sense of purpose and meaning – marriage, family, community.

If the 22-year-old Drake’s “Successful,” can be seen as a reflection of the zeitgeist of a “post-racial” generation of African American hip-hop enthusiasts, it stands in stark contrast to the anthem that their parents danced to -1979’s “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now, ” by Gene McFadden and John Whitehead.

Read the Full Essay @ KimPearson.net

Imani Perry on Hip Hop Politics and Poetics

A New “YGRT” Podcast:
Imani Perry on Hip Hop Politics and Poetics

Listen HERE

Reimagining Latino Hip-Hop in the 21st Century

Dislocated Performances:
Reimagining Latino Hip-Hop in the 21st Century

March 19, 2010

East Campus Union, Upper East Side
Duke University

9:30 am-5:00 pm

Free and open to the public.

How does Hip Hop speak to the day-to-day existence of Latinos in the present age of multiculturalism, globalization, and Obama? How might we read Hip Hop in different ways now, examining how it also dislocates and recalibrates Latinidad? As older and newer generations of U.S. Latinos together redefine the stakes of political action, they elucidate the margins, borders, and crossroads that U.S. Latinos inhabit. These "interstitial spaces" leave room for broader notions of Latino identities, incorporating those “others” who are also always dislocated and "out of place." This one-day workshop will engage the work of activists and prominent scholars in performance and cultural studies, examining the performances of race, gender, sexuality and Latinidad within Hip Hop and the political possibilities of "dislocation."

Featuring:

Rosa Clemente, 2008 Green Party VP Candidate, Hip Hop activist, journalist and radio host (WBAI 99.5 Fm, NYC)

Pancho McFarland, author of Chicano Rap: gender and violence in the postindustrial barrio (2008)

Jose Munoz, author of Disidentifications (1999) and Cruising Utopia: the Then and There of Queer Futurity (2009)

Mark Anthony Neal, co-editor of That’s the joint! The Hip Hop Studies Reader (2004) and author of New Black Man (2005)

Raquel Z. Rivera, author of New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone (2003) and co-editor of Reggaeton (2009)

Alexandra T. Vazquez, author of the forthcoming Instrumental Migrations: The Critical Turns of Cuban Music, and co-editor of a forthcoming anthology on La Lupe (Duke University Press).


Program:

9:30 am Continental breakfast

10:15-12:00 pm

Panel I: Over Turn-ing Tables:
Sex, Gender,and Trespassing in Latino Hip-Hop

* Pancho McFarland: “Quien es Mas Macho? Quien es Mas Mexicano?:Chicano Identities in Rap”
* Jose Munoz: “Browness, Aesthetics and Contagion”
* Alexandra T. Vazquez: “We Don’t Live for Latino Studies, (Latino Studies) It Lives For Us”

12:00-1:15 pm Music and Lunch

1:15-3:00 pm

Panel II: Los suenos de los fantasmas que marchan:
The Liberation Dreams of an Un-seen Army

* Rosa Clemente: “when a black puerto rican woman ran for vice president and nobody knew her name"
* Mark Anthony Neal: “History of Hip-Hop Before Hip-Hop”
* Raquel Z. Rivera: “Liberation Mythologies: Art, Spirit and Justice”


3:00 pm-5:00 pm Music and Reception featuring DJ Miraculous

Location: Duke University, East Campus Union, Upper East Side. (See map: http://maps.oit.duke.edu/building/136. Building is labeled in Red as “Marketplace.”)

Parking reserved on East Campus quad for conference attendees. Turn onto Campus Drive from Main Street and follow traffic to move straight forward, past the bus stop, to the long, oval grassy area in between buildings. Look for signs and a parking attendant.

Presented by the Program in Latino/a Studies in the Global South, Duke University

Gil Scott Heron on the Culture of Sampling

Scott Heron riffs on the sampling of his music by hip-hop artists, before going into "Your Daddy Loves You"

A History of Hip-Hop Before Hip-Hop

Is Hip-Hop History?
City College of New York
Center for Worker Education
February 19-20, 2010

"A History of Hip-Hop Before Hip-Hop"
Keynote Address

Mark Anthony Neal
Professor, African & African-American Studies
Duke University
Recorded Saturday February 20, 2010

Watch the Keynote Address Here

Hip-Hop's Shifting Masculinity?

President Drake: Hip-Hop's Shifting Masculinity

by Regina Barnett

Jimmy raps?!

Aubrey “Drake” Graham’s been around for a minute. He’s not some cat who just magically appeared and became a celebrity overnight. I remember my cousin harassing me on MySpace to check him out. I liked what I heard. But I really didn’t take him seriously. He was Jimmy. From Degrassi.

He’s being taken seriously now. One of the headliners of Weezy’s Young Money Clique, Drake is changing and has changed the game. His flow is nice. Aside from lyrical performance, is it possible that he is changing the branding of manhood in the rap game?

The folks over at Makin’ It Magazine struck up an intriguing conversation of Drake as rap’s Barack Obama. It’s not the first time President Obama has entered the Hip Hop realm. Byron Hurt created a fabulous dichotomy of President Obama and 50 Cent titled Barack and Curtis. I don’t know if the president has rhymes, but it is a fascinating topic to present the Barack/Drake masculinity dichotomy. In other words, can Drake be the Barack Obama of Hip Hop?

Read the Full Essay @ Red Clay Scholar