Food for your thoughts : English Knowledge

Food for your thoughts : English Knowledge

Plutôt que de retrouver les discours de Condoleeza Rice ou les textes à thème de 50 Cent et The Game, vous trouverez ici en V.O dans le texte différents écrits et interviews de personnages dont la connaissance, l’ouverture d’esprit et le travail sont plus profitables au hip hop mondial que tous les business réunis…

Sommaire:

Mark Anthony Neal

Mark Anthony Neal / Gwendolyn Pough

Najee Ali

Hadji Williams

A.Thiel

Davey D

Wendy Day

Sommaire:

-Who is M.A.N?

-Extraits d’interview: la commercialisation du hip hop. Son sens politique.

Pourquoi tant d’ artistes ne se risquent pas à être originaux ?

Le Hip Hop, consécration de la misogynie?

-“Rhythm & Business, Cultural Imperialism and the HarvardReport” est un des meilleurs textes de MAN et une des meilleurs études de l’évolution du Rythm’ N Blues au Rhythm & Business qui fait tellement honte à l’histoire de la musique noire américaine.

Un héros du gouvernement américain finalement responsable d’ exactions envers les mouvements sociaux américains.

Qui est la conscience du hip hop?

-Who is M.A.N?

L’auteur noir américain Mark Anthony Neal est un spécialiste du hip hop, un activiste et un fervent défenseur de la condition féminine.. Enjoy pure intelligence.

MARK ANTHONY NEAL is the author of four books, What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture (1998), Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic (2002), Songs in the Keys of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation (2003) and New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity (2005). Neal is also the co-editor (with Murray Forman) of That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (2004). Neal's essays have been anthologized in more than half-a-dozen books, including the 2004 edition of the acclaimed series Da Capo Best Music Writing, edited by Mickey Hart. Neal is Associate Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Program in African and African American Studies at Duke University.

Extraits d’interview: la commercialisation du hip hop. Son sens politique.

Source :

9:36AMhttp://www.blogger.com/deletecomment.g?blogID=13096878&postID=111953381349616829

Mark Anthony Neal: The problem with the commercialization of hip-hop is that it trumpets just one aspect of hip-hop culture—say the 50 Cent phenomenon—at the expense of the diversity of ideas and styles that exist in hip-hop. I also think that it dulls the integrity of those in the industry, especially young acts coming in the business who might feel compelled to take short cuts that gets them on a Viacom channel, instead of really developing their skills. The best selling artists, quite frankly, are rarely the best artists. To suggest that appropriation by "white culture" is a problem, is too simple of an analysis. The best art conceived in America has been about the thoughtful exchange between people and cultures—we all borrow, and hip-hop has borrowed better than any form. But when these exchanges take place within a market culture where the artists are often exploited by the corporate machines that market and distribute their art, there's always the possibility that the originators of a particular art form are displaced from their innovations. Suddenly the most popular and often white artist (Elvis Presley, Eric Clapton, Eminem, being good examples) become synonymous with a particular art form, in which black artists were its primary innovators and creators.

/

Q: What are the "spatial-politics" of hip-hop?

MAN: In the early days of hip-hop, it was all about creating and in some cases reclaiming public space for black and Latino/a youth in urban settings. One of the reasons why hip-hop has always been political (no matter what the content) is because it was an assault on public space. The very sound—or noise—of hip-hop made it politically relevant and forced the larger society to take notice of those who created the noise. And that noise was created to deal with specific environments, thus hip-hop based in New York, particularly in the early days was a response to a built environment of elevated subways, underground subways, 20 story project buildings, etc, while West Coast hip-hop reflected a built environment of cars, freeways, beaches, etc.

Q: Part 5 in That's the Joint! is devoted to drawing connections between rap, politics and resistance. How has rap impacted economics, politics and gender within the African-American community?

MAN: Hip-hop has provided a forum for black youth to discuss issues of economics, politics, gender and sexuality. More often or not black youth have did so to the deaf ears of black politicians and Civil Rights leaders. While hip-hop has provided some real economic opportunity for those involved, I don't think its yet met its potential as a truly engaged space for political or economic change.

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Pourquoi tant d’ artistes ne se risquent pas à être originaux ?

extraits d’interview de Farai Chideya pour The Africana:

What do artists risks by being original?

I thought it was important to close the book with a piece on Umar Bin Hassan (of the Last Poets), the rapper Paris, and Gino L. Morrow, who I went to school with, did spoken word with. They're gonna do what they're gonna do, not what the publicity people want.

There's been a whole tradition of black folks, artists, who've done this [sacrifice money for artistic control] their whole careers and been happy. I had a great conversation with Al Jarreau last week. He said he never made any money his whole career, but he's been happy being Al Jarreau and doing what he did.

Now there's a generation of black artists out there in music and literature who no longer want to make the kind of sacrifice you have to to be an artist.

I'm not hating on artists who want to be promoted. But when artists see it as natural to conform, that's a dangerous moment for black art.

Le Hip Hop, consécration de la misogynie?

Extrait de “Hip Hop's Gender Problem” posté par Mark Anthony Neal, Africana.com. , 2004.

In a society that remains largely ignorant of the scholarly, political and cultural contributions of women like Anna Julia Cooper, Audre Lorde, Angela Davis ("oh yeah, the chick with the afro, right?"), June Jordan, bell hooks, Michele Wallace, Patricia Hill-Collins, Jewell Gomez, Joy James, Beverley Guy-Sheftall and Masani Alexis De Veaux, how can we expect hip-hop to do the heavy-lifting that hasn't been done in the larger culture? Despite popular belief, hip-hop is not the most prominent site of sexism and misogyny in American society, but a reflection of the sexism and misogyny that more powerfully circulates within American culture. In many ways the images and lyrics used to objectify women of color in hip-hop videos serve as metaphors for the ways that American society actually treats those women. As Pough notes, "rappers become grunt workers for the patriarchy: They sow the field of misogyny for the patriarchy and provide the labor necessary to keep it in operation, much as Black men and women provided the free and exploited labor that built the United States." Remember, the black men on the screen are "performing" -- performing their notions of how American masculinity embodies power through force, violence and exploitation. (50 ain't the only thug or pimp in the room -- there are more than a few in the White House and at the Pentagon.)

In many ways, our discussions about hip-hop culture are the product of a very myopic view of contemporary black expressive culture. Yes, hip-hop needs to be reformed, but it's not as if hip-hop were the only place where young black men and women are discussing the very reasons why hip-hop remains so problematic to some of us. For example, Princeton University scholar Daphne Brooks asserts that few critics have paid attention to the significance of narratives by black female R&B artists. She argues that "Black Women's popular desire is thus depoliticized and disregarded for its reflections on domestic and socio-economic politics and sexual fulfillment." But she adds that what "critics have failed to fully interrogate are the ways in which this subgenre also operates as an extension of hip-hop culture itself." A good example of this is an artist like Syleena Johnson, who has circulated within hip-hop via remixes with the Flip-Mode Squad and most recently singing the hook on Kanye West's "All Falls Down" (no, that's not Lauryn Hill you're hearing). On her disc Chapter One: Love, Pain and Forgiveness (2001), Johnson, recorded the track "Hit on Me," which explicitly addressed the issue of domestic abuse.

If we think about contemporary black popular culture more broadly than what urban radio and BET tells us, then we are likely to find the work of artists like Ursula Rucker and Sarah Jones. Rucker first came to prominence, performing spoken word poetry on The Roots' recordings Do You Want More?!!!??! (1995), Illadelph Halflife (1996) and Things Fall Apart (1999). In 2001 she released her own disc Supa Sista, which included the track "What???", which challenged mainstream rappers to a battle. But Rucker sets up the rules for the battle stating "no krissy, no thongs, no baby-boos or baby-daddies/no tricks no whips no weight pushing/and absolutely no platinum or ice/no guns no lies about your ghetto rep..." essentially challenging her male colleagues to rely simply on their wit and creativity, instead of the standard tropes of ghetto authenticity. In a more celebrated example, performance artist Sarah Jones stepped to the mic to hold mainstream hip-hop accountable with her track "Your Revolution" (on DJ Vadim's USSR: Life from the Other Side). "Your Revolution" is a riff off Gil Scot-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," and on the track Jones takes shots at the sexist lyrics of artists like Biggie ("Big Poppa"), LL ("Doin' It"), and Shaggy ("Boombastic"). But in an ironic twist that perfectly captures the struggles of those who try to hold hip-hop accountable, Jones' lyrics were cited as "vulgar" by the FCC and a complaint was filed after the song was played on Portland, Oregon's KBOO in 1999.

“Rhythm & Business, Cultural Imperialism and the HarvardReport” est un des meilleurs textes de MAN et une des meilleurs études de l’évolution du Rythm’ N Blues au Rhythm & Business qui fait tellement honte à l’histoire de la musique noire américaine.

Initialement écrit par Mark Anthony Neal pour “Pop Matters” et désormais disponible sur divers sites américains.

Part One: Rhythm & Business, Cultural Imperialism and the HarvardReport

Yeah, I’m nostalgic: When Mary J. Blige first uttered the opening lines to “You Remind Me,” it was about making sure that hip-hop remembered that R&B came from the same streets where crackheads roamed and the same tenement vestibules where drama went down on the regular. But as I listen to Mario’s “Let Me Love You” for the 727th time, it is perhaps easy to suggest that R&B has lost its Soul, or that Clear Channel,
Radio One (luv ya, Cathy!), AOL-Time Warner and Viacom – a neo-plantation cabal if ever there was one – ripped its heart out. Hip-hop may have sold out, but at least it has sold out on its own terms. R&B, on the other hand, has sold out on somebody else’s, on a pop-chart paper chase. Truth be told, U®sher was nothing more than a soon-past-his-peak R&B singer before John Smith laced him with some
crunk junk; Ray J could have sang the hook on “Yeah” and topped the pop charts. And now, 10 million units later, we want to act like Mr.Raymond is the second coming of Michael Jackson? I ain’t willing to
grant him the second coming of Bobby Brown. And it is not like we even knew Mr. Legend (in his own mind) and Ms. Queen of Crunk n’ B were in the room, until some hip-hop act sanctioned their presence. But what ails contemporary R&B is not just a matter of the commercial success of John Legend – and Amerie and Ciara and Mario. The current state of R&B comes not from a sudden decline, but a process more than 30 years in the making.

This story begins in 1972, when a few enterprising master’s students at the Harvard Business School prepared a study, commissioned by one of Columbia’s execs, detailing how the Columbia Records Group could better integrate the then largely independent black music industry into the mix. The now infamous Harvard Report – officially known as “A Study of the Soul Music Environment” – has often been referred to as a sinister blueprint aimed at arming a litany of “culture bandits” with the theoretical tools to return black culture to a neo-colonial state. There’s no denying that this is exactly the situation we’re staring at now, but it has nothing to do with the Harvard Report. What those MBA students articulated was a no-brainer marketing plan, informed by the commercial success of Motown and the cynical (though not mistaken) view that the Civil Rights “revolution” likely had more to do with the realities that black folk had disposable income and white folk consumed a hell of a lot of black popular culture than anything to do with real structural change in American society. In response to those expecting more sinister designs in the Harvard Report, David Sanjek rhetorically chimes, “why did [Columbia] feel the need to document what they should have already known?” (Rhythm and Business, 62). What Sanjek suggests is that eventually somebody in the music industry would have come up with their own version of the Harvard Report – say, Clive Davis, who incidentally was a president at Columbia at the time that the report was commissioned. The point is, with or without the Harvard Report, the takeover was well underway.

Black music has always had a complicated relationship with big business. That this relationship has typically had little to do with actual music perhaps explains the often unbalanced quality of this thing we’ve come to call R&B. This complicated relationship also partly explains what exactly R&B is. The term R&B is essentially a shortened version of “Rhythm & Blues", but as a novice might discern, that which is called R&B bears little resemblance to the musical landscape created by Ruth Brown, Louis Jordan, Laverne Baker, Charles Brown and the Coasters. And perhaps that was the point. Musical innovations aside, R&B was essentially a marketing ploy that finally gained a significant foothold during the late 1970s. R&B was born out of competing logics – record companies tried to negotiate the realities of black culture and identity within the history of race relations in America while trying at the same time to reach a wider audience of black consumers and white record buyers. As black radio needed mainstream advertisers to court the emerging black middle class (as much an ideology as a measurement of economic and social status) and mainstream record labels became fixated on crossing over black artists to white consumers, terms like Soul and Rhythm and Blues quickly became too black. The same terminology turnover occurred during the late 1970s when urban began to stand for radio stations that essentially programmed black music. As Nelson George explains, “Urban was supposedly a multicolored programming style tuned to the rhythms of America’s crossfertilized big cities…. But more often, urban was black radio in disguise.” (The Death of Rhythm and Blues, 159).

According to the “Harvard Report” black radio was strategically important to record companies because it provided “access to large and growing record buying public, namely, the Black consumer.” The report is oblivious to the fact that the very birth of what was called “race music” in the 1930s was premised on selling goods and services to a uniquely defined audience, namely African-Americans constrained by Jim Crow segregation-an audience that might even buy a record or two, in the process of buying furniture, cleaning supplies and an insurance policy. Nevertheless, the report is cognizant of the growth of an emerging black middle class, one that would prove attractive not just to record companies but also advertisers eager to fuel black desires to consume the fetishes of a post-Civil Rights world. In the aftermath of centuries of struggle, exploitation and violence, some members of the black middle class often viewed their ability to consume widely throughout mainstream society as an emblem of the “freedoms” won during the Civil Rights struggle.

To get a sense of what this urbane blackness would look and feel like, think of the immensely popular early 1980s Colt 45 commercials featuring Billy Dee Williams. Twenty years later, no one really blinked an eye when poet Sonia Sanchez and Eric Benet used “smooth” R&B to hawk for an automobile maker. As R&B began to be viewed as the quintessence of upscale blackness, the more gritter aspects of black popular music –that which was, as Houston Baker Jr. describes it, “too blackly public” (as in embarrassing, like black folk eating watermelon in public) – began to disappear from the program list of some urban radio outlets in the late 1970s. So-called Southern Soul – the ZZ Hills, Denise LaSalles and Betty Wrights of the world – was an example of the kind of music that vanished from urban radio. Though Southern Soul didn’t disappear – labels like Malaco and Ichiban continue to promote Southern Soul artists to this day – the more bluesier aspects of its sound and its references to black southern culture were the very antithesis of the post-Civil Rights worldviews of many African-Americans. The popped-over P-Funk of Rick James – one of the best selling black artists at the beginning of the post-Soul era –was emblematic of the brave new world of R&B. The challenge for record labels at this point was to come up with product to feed the R&B machine.

The Harvard Report was adamant that the Columbia Records Group should not attempt to purchase any of the prominent Soul labels (Motown, Atlantic, Stax) or poach from them any of their established artists. (CRG eventually purchased Stax, but only after the label was in serious decline.) What the report did advise was that CRG cultivate relationships with small independent labels, as was the case when CRG began a relationship with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. The product was Philadelphia International Records (PIR), and the impact of this groundbreaking relationship continues to reverberate 33 years later. As some critics – notably John A. Jackson in A House on Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia Soul – have observed, many of the Harvard Report’s suggestions were already in play at Columbia, and the relationship with PIR is one such example. This brings us back to Clive Davis, the point-person on both the PIR and Stax deals. Dismissed from Columbia is 1973 for financial irregularities (some have linked his dismissal to our jumble word for the day: alopya), Davis had nonetheless instigated the distribution and creative-resource relationship with PIR that would become the defining model for relationships between large corporate labels and black music, making Davis himself arguably the most prominent figure in the story of R&B.

The language that the Harvard Report uses to describe the value of indie Soul labels is undisputable: “These small independents could provide a source of product, in the form of ‘hot masters;’ talent which could have national potential; experienced personnel…in the areas of promotion and production; and serve as a source of captive independent producers.” Davis has claimed that he never read the Harvard Report, though it’s clear that he would have been one of key figures that the authors of the report would have interviewed, and Davis may well have provided them with substantive info regarding the importance of indie labels. Regardless of the source, what the report details is the blueprint for the black boutique label – essentially based on a model of neo-colonialism, where an imperialist power exploits the raw materials and talents of its satellites under the pretense that such satellites are autonomous. As Norman Kelley observes, “In classic colonialism, products were produced in raw periphery and sent back to the imperial motherland to be manufactured into commodities, then sold in metropolitan centers or back to the colonies. The outcome for the colony was stunted economic growth, as it was stripped of its ability to manufacture products for its own needs” (Rhythm and Business, 10). Looked at within the context of artistic production, the colonial model creates a context where black artistic production is mediated by a commodity culture more interested in “moving product” than cultivating art or developing artists, and then sold back to the masses as “art", in the process stunting creative development. The irony is that which could be defined as organic artistic expression is seen illegitimate by the masses, who have been programmed to accept corporate packaging as the real.

Clive Davis is probably less a sinister figure in the rise and fall of R&B and more the embodiment of the corporate hustler. But there’s no denying that the very blueprint he outlined at Columbia became the most bankable strategy for R&B especially as he ascended to the leadership of Arista. For example, the most significant and successful black “boutique” labels of the 1990s, LaFace and Bad Boy Entertainment, were developed in Clive Davis’s house. Despite the negative impact that the corporate co-opting of black culture has on black creativity, we’re still left with the brilliance of the boutique model, as witnessed by the success of PIR. It all began with the production: the simple elegance of Billy Paul’s “Me and Mrs. Jones” or Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes’ “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” or the glossy funk of The O’Jay’s “I Love Music". The “Philly sound” (include Thom Bell and Mighty Three Publishing in this mix) became the soundtrack for an upscale blackness as far removed from the plantations of the South as it was from the factories of the Midwest. Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff were the real deal, and although they were not the sole innovators of this sound – think of the symphonic landscapes of Gene Page or the string arrangements of Paul Riser – the promotional and distribution muscle of Columbia allowed the duo to nationalize what was essentially a regional sound. By the end of the 1970s strains of the PIR could be heard in virtually every popular R&B song.

The boutique model was not necessarily about crossing R&B over to the mainstream, but rather positioning the larger corporate labels to better control the R&B market. As such, R&B artists were less compelled to compete with so-called pop artists. Although this meant that R&B artists had less access to resources – particularly as the record industry went through a financial slump in the late 1970s – it also created conditions where the R&B sound could develop without the additional pressure of attracting a wider audience. Very few soul artists made the transition to the R&B world. Notable examples are figures like Bobby Womack, whose Poet (1981) and Poet II (1984) represented the best work of his career and Diana Ross, whose Diana (1980), produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, represents the apex of her solo career. And then there’s the case of Michael Jackson, who remade himself into an R&B artist on his groundbreaking Off the Wall (1979), three years after he sat at the feet of Gamble and Huff, who produced the Jackson’s first CRG album after the Jackson 5’s departure from Motown in 1975. Often lost in conversations about Jackson’s emergence as the “King of Pop” is that he was cultivated in the R&B world – along with such other singular black pop crossovers of the 1980s as Whitney Houston and Lionel Ritchie.

If there was one figure who defined the genius of R&B it was Luther Vandross, who with the release of his eponymous debut in 1981 became the genre’s dominant artist. By coyly distancing himself from the black gospel vocal tradition, which grounded so much of the soul music of the 1960s and 1970s, Vandross cemented his appeal as the quintessential R&B singer. Specifically Vandross was trying to distinguish himself from generations of “shouters” such as gospel artists Joe Ligon (lead vocalist of the Mighty Clouds of Joy) and the late Archie Brownlee (of the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi) or soul vocalists like Wilson Pickett, the late Otis Redding and James Brown. As Jason King and others have suggested, Vandross was a student of various music traditions, notably black female vocalists of the 1960s (Dionne Warwick, The Bluebelles, Aretha Franklin), the Burt Bacharach and Hal David songbook, and the background-vocal stylings of the Sweet Inspirations. In addition, the lush orchestrations that figured so prominently in Vandross ballads – he is the definitive balladeer of the last generation of popular singers – suggested that he too was a fan of Gamble and Huff and Gene Page.

Still others such as Stephanie Mills, Frankie Beverly and Maze, Jeffrey Osborne, Anita Baker, Peobo Bryson, Atlantic Starr, Kashif, Loose Ends, Alexander O’Neal, The Whispers, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, and Chaka Khan (post Rufus) helped give R&B a cohesive sound in the early 1980s. As R&B was about attracting upscale “urban” audiences – whether legitimate members of the black middle class or working class strivers – it was by definition a genre targeted to mature audiences. As the 1980s progressed R&B was increasingly out of touch with a generation of black youth consumers, who felt little need to distance themselves from the realities of the Jim Crow era, especially as they faced down the venomous edge of the Reagan era. In real terms the R&B world was being challenged by the embryonic sounds of hip-hop for the attention (and disposable income) of “urban” audiences. A telling sign was the success of Chaka Khan’s remake of Prince’s “I Feel for You” (1984), which featured an opening rap by Melle Mel (technically the first hip-hop and R&B collaboration, though in my mind Jody Whatley’s “Friends", which was blessed by Rakim, is more significant.) The song remains Khan’s best-selling single. Khan’s version of “I Feel for You” began a tenuous relationship between R&B and hip-hop, one which would finally earn hip-hop validation from the black mainstream and ultimately render R&B irrelevant.

Un héros du gouvernement américain finalement responsable d’ exactions envers les mouvements sociaux américains.

Posté en juin 2005 par Mark Anthony Neal sur son propre blog

Source : 3:44PMhttp://www.blogger.com/postedit.g?blogID=13096878&postID=111782834778772434&quickEdit=true

Deep Covers: “Deep Throat,” Civil Rights and COINTELPRO

I was a mere 8-years old when the Watergate Hearings were taking place. Despite my general lack of knowledge of electoral politics at the time, like many in my generation, the hearings and the subsequent resignation of then President Richard Nixon, long colored my view of electoral politics. Years after Nixon’s resignation, Gil Scott-Heron’s “H20 Gate Blues”, a chilling critique of the debacle (“the government you have elected is inoperable), was echoed in KRS-ONE’s “Why is That?”(1988)—evidence perhaps that Watergate was part of the political fabric of the hip-hop generation. But I suspect that for many in the post-Civil Rights generation, the fine points of Watergate were conveyed to us via the film All the President’s Men. More than anything the film—based on a book by Washington Post journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward—provided me with a romantic view of the power of Fourth Estate (a romance dutifully squashed in the Bush era). Indeed the figure of “Deep Throat” was a hero to me.

That all changed on Tuesday May, 31 2005 when 91-year-old Mark Felt, a former deputy director of the FBI, was identified as “Deep Throat.” While many heaped praise on the man who helped topple the damn-near despotic regime of Richard M. Nixon, the reality is that Mark Felt is no hero—he was a prominent cog in the mechanism that was used to destabilize many of the insurgent political movements in the United States in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, including the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement. COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence program) was created by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in 1956 to begin the illegal surveillance, infiltration and ultimate disruption of political organizations, particularly those aligned on the Left. Former US Attorney General William B. Saxbe made information about COINTELPRO public in 1975, including information about how the FBI targeted Martin Luther King, Jr. Many of the radicals of that era have been able to read files related to COINTELPRO via the “Federal Information Act”. It is because of the FIA that we now know the role that the FBI played, for example, in the death of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton.

COINTELPRO was supposedly disbanded in April of 1971 and that no doubt played a part in the Justice Department’s decision in 1975 not to prosecute any FBI officials implicated in COINTELPRO activities. That all changed a few years later when a Justice Department investigation led to the indictment and subsequent conviction of our man MARK FELT (Deep Throat) and Edward S. Miller for “illegal break-ins” (for the purpose of illegal surveillance) related to the activities of the Weather Underground. Felt served no jail time—he was fined $5,000—and was later pardoned by President Ronald Reagan a few month after he took office. According to Reagan, Felt and Miller, served the nation “with great distinction” (NYT 4/16/81)

The indictments of Felt and Miller led to a period when the practice of illegal surveillance by government entities was significantly curtailed. Because COINTELPRO is something that many Americans remains ignorant of, there is little connection made between COINTELPRO and some of the core attributes of the Patriot Act (2001)—this ironically at a time when one of COINTELPRO’s architects is being hailed as an “American hero”.

Qui est la conscience du hip hop?

Where is Hip-hop’s Audre Lorde? Or is it Time to Move On…

“To read the tribe astutely you sometimes have to leave the tribe ambitiously, and should you come home again, it’s not always to sing hosannas or a song that tribe necessarily has any desire to hear…Griots, it is decreed, are to be left to rot in hollow trees way on the outskirts of town. With that wisdom typical of African cosmologies, these messengers are guaranteed freedom of speech in exchange for a marginality that extends to the grave.”—Greg Tate, “Nobody Loves a Genius Child: Jean Michel Basquiat, Flyboy in the Buttermilk”

The above quote is taken from the title essay in Greg Tate’s 1992 book Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America, which will be republished by Duke University Press next year. I thought hard about the current state of hip-hop as I re-read this passage in Tate’s book. Specifically I wondered where were the oppositional figures in hip-hop?—those “marginal” figures who are endowed with the responsibility of telling our truths, especially when we don’t want to hear them. Now I know that the common response is to look at the so-called conscious rappers, but in reality what many of them posit are common sense commentaries on the reality of race in contemporary America. The fact that so little of that actually exist is contemporary rap music is part of the reason that we place so much significance on the work that the conscious rappers do. But very rarely do their analysis of the work take into account the complexities of race, gender and sexuality—in fact a good many of the so-called conscious rappers need to be checked on their politics of gender and sexuality—calling a woman your queen ain’t necessarily any more liberating than calling her your bitch. What I want to know, is where is hip-hop’s theory of intersectionality? Where is hip-hop’s Bayard Rustin? Where is hip-hop’s George S. Schuyler? Where is hip-hop’s Audre Lorde? In other words where are those folk in hip-hop that we will banish the far recesses of our consciousness because they made us uncomfortable and forced us to think and respond to the things we never want to talk about. And I ain’t saying Bill Cosby is nobody’s George Schuyler.

Mark Anthony Neal / Gwendolyn Pough

Who is Gwendolyn Pough?

Gwendolyn Pough is Associate Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Women's Studies at Syracuse University. Her first book, Check It While I Wreck it: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere is already breaking ground within the realm of hip-hop studies.Pough loves hip-hop enough to critique it with the caring eyes of close friend. With chapters like “My Cipher Keeps Movin’ Like a Rollin’ Stone: Black Women’s Expressive Cultures and Black Feminist Legacies” and “Girls in the Hood and Other Ghetto Dramas: Representing Black Womanhood in Hip-hop Cinema and Novels” this is one sista whose keen perception brings wreck.

Interviews menées par Felicia Pride puis croisées pour BackList. Extraits abordant les études sur le hip hop, les actions politiques de célébrités hip hop, la légitimité littéraire du hip hop:

BackList: What is the future of hip-hop studies?

GP: The future of hip-hop studies is as wide open and diverse as the culture it seeks to represent. There is so much work to be done and so many ideas to be expressed. A cursory look at the listing of college classes being offered across the country on some aspect of hip-hop let’s us know that it is an area that is steadily growing. Another search on dissertations written in the past five years that looked at some aspect of hip-hop would no doubt yield a wealth of citations. With new books and anthologies such as That’s the Joint! coming out, the knowledge production in the field is on a steady rise. One thing that is clear as we think about the future of hip-hop studies, taking all these developments into mind, is that there is a future to speak of. We can point to a firm body of knowledge that continues to grow.

MAN: There isa hip-hop archive up at Harvard. There are numerous scholarly conferences on hip-hop. Everyone I know working in the field has dozens of grad students who are doing work on hip-hop or some aspect of urban popular culture. You got to understand, the logic of the academy is to institutionalize things—it allows it to sanction the formal modes of scholarly inquiry on any subject. It’s an act of control, no doubt, but if hip-hop takes lessons from Women’s Studies, Black Studies and Ethnic Studies, it’ll use the academy as a site to generate public discussion about American youth culture, urban spaces and the politics of space and sound. I mean, what musical genre has so dramatically altered the sound of the world that we hear, the way hip-hop has? Hip-hop studies has to be engaged in the world for its institutionalization to matter, outside of plum academic gigs for some of its most well-known scholars.

/

BackList: What do you think of P.Diddy’s “Citizen Change” campaign, along with Russell Simmons’ Hip-Hop Summit Action Network? Are they effective? Is this the extent to which the hip-hop community can be massively organized for political change?

GP: Both projects are worthwhile and important. It may be too soon, especially in relation to Diddy’s “Citizen Change” campaign, to judge how effective they are, if at all. Insofar as they are using their celebrity to bring attention to important political issues and projects, they are each useful.

In terms of the extent to which the hip-hop community can be used for massive political change, I would point people to works like my own and Yvonne Bynoe’s Stand and Deliver: Political Activism, Leadership, and Hip-Hop Culture. If we are talking about real and sustainable change, then it might not come from celebrity endorsements and the like. I don’t know about anyone else, but I personally am not willing to wait for a song or an artist to deliver my freedom. I think that real change is going to come from the work of a lot of people. So, in regard to hip-hop as a mass movement that crosses so many races, classes, genders, etc., there is tremendous potential there for activists and others to use in their work towards change. There is potential there, but we have to start tapping it and tapping it in the right ways.

MAN: If Combs and Simmons go beyond simply registering people to vote and actually deal with issues of voter education and developing critical thinking skills, I think their efforts are laudable. The importance of potential hip-hop generation voters is not about this year’s presidential election, but the impact they can have in local elections on a regular basis and in a context where voting can really affect their everyday conditions. At this point I have more faith in Diddy’s efforts, (and I’m not the biggest fan of Diddy), because I believe that Simmons has “race man” ambitions, and his efforts to register new voters seem motivated by the ability to claim that he can deliver a certain segment of voters to the highest bidder.

/

MAN: For a long time, the only conversation about hip-hop in the academy was focused on its literary value. If fiction, autobiography, and poetry were some of the vehicles in which the black modernist impulse was expressed throughout the first half of the 20 th century, clearly hip-hop can be legitimately understood as a contemporary expression of that impulse. But my thing is, why spend time trying to find the hip-hop generation’s Langston Hughes or Margaret Walker? We should evaluate hip-hop genius in the context on hip-hop’s own criteria of what is great art. That doesn’t mean that hip-hop isn’t indebted to myriad forms of black expression that came before it, but it does have its own aesthetic logics that must be respected. This is one of the things that hip-hop studies needs to be about.

Najee Ali

Project Islamic H.O.P.E, is a 501 C3 Non-profit national civil rights organization that works collectively with other ethnic and religious groups to stand on the frontlines in the war against poverty, hunger and social injustice. The H.O.P.E. is an acronym that stands for Helping Oppressed People Everywhere. Most people have heard of Project Hope because of their controversial and outspoken Founder and Co-Director Najee Ali.

Ali is a former convict and ex-Crip gang member from South Central L.A. Ali changed his life around in prison after becoming a Muslim. He was inspired to start Project Hope after watching the news and hearing that NBA star, Latrell Sprewell had choked his coach, PJ Carlesiimo. Ali didn't think that the NBA handed out a stiff enough penalty and this confirmed his belief that stars get special treatment in this society. http://www.projectislamichope.org/NewsClips.asp

Fast forward 6 years to today and the Men's support Group; Civil Rights Advocacy organization has chapters in Georgia and Chicago. http://www.projectislamichope.org/

An interview with Najee Ali. From gangbanging to civil rights.

Banter: Thanks for taking the time out of your schedule of activism to talk with us. This interview is going to be very eclectic because you are a complex personality. By the way please correct us if we state something incorrectly.

Outside of California most people know of you because they hear about your protest of popular personalities that have done something your organization considers harmful to the communities moral fabric but inside of California you are known because of your work with gang members. This past year L.A. has seen a lot of gang homicides again. Many of us want to know what happened to the truce?

Ali: Well, Some gangs never signed the gang truce and then some situations got escalated when older gang members came home from jail. They came home wanting their respect and positions in the hood. This caused conflict between younger members and older members but its something we are working on.

Banter: Ten years ago, I did some research on gangs and read a scary autobiography by an infamous Ex-Crip Gang Member, named Sanyika Shakur (formerly Kody Scott), who used to be called "Monster". The book was shockingly raw. He also turned his life around and was working to better the situation in the community .You ever work with him or Jim Brown?

Ali: (Laughter) Yes, yes those are some good guys, they are friends of mine and both are very effective trying to better the community.

Banter: Najee there have always been different types of activist, niche leaders although the areas a leader may be concerned with are vast. Usually they have a leadership affiliation Minister Louis Farrakhan is considered a religious leader; Jesse Jackson is considered a civil rights leader. You have religious, human rights and civil rights about your causes. What category do you consider yourself?

Ali: I consider myself a social and political activist leader, who is a hard worker and servant of God; I care about the human rights, dignity, and welfare of all people regardless of race or religion. I am an ex-convict and former south central gang member who converted to Islam in prison 10 years ago under the leadership of one of Americas greatest Islamic leaders Imam W.D. Mohammed, who became my father in law last year when I married his daughter NGina.

Banter: Do you use religion, in this case Islam, as a moral compass in deciding whom to go after?

Ali: The teachings of Islam and his guidance is what I follow in determining "a course of action" for Project Islamic hope.

Banter: Give our readers a list of the pop culture personalities or organizations that you have demonstrated against and why?

Ali: Over the years we have led successful protests and demonstrations against a number of groups and entertainers. We launched the first protest ever against the NAACP Image awards in 1999 for their continued inclusion of gangster rappers. We exposed the hypocrisy of the NAACP, How can you give Image awards to rappers who glorify drug use, gang violence, and misogynistic lyrics towards women? We successfully helped remove Snoop Dogg from the Muppets TV special and his radio show in was L.A was canceled after his involvement and participation in porno movies. We weren't hating on Snoop but as a religious, social and political activist it’s my job to speak out and be the moral balance that society needs. We also went after J-lo for her use of the N-word in the song "I'm Real” We don't support any artist that uses the N-word, Eddie Murphy and the PJ's animation series which poked fun at peoples misery and suffering in the projects and had numerous jokes about crack cocaine and alcohol was also a target for us.

Banter: In addition to Snoop, more recently your organization stepped to Russell Simmons you called for a boycott against Phat Farm, Baby Phat clothing, Def Jam, Def Poetry Jam and ONEWORLD magazine .Your press release said “Rapper Lil Kim, posed half nude in identifiably Islamic attire on the Dec./Jan. cover of ONEWORLD magazine. This act was very offensive to both the women and men of the Muslim community, internationally. Despite numerous requests, Simmons continues to be unapologetic about his support of Lil Kim's mockery of the prescribed Islamic dress code for women on the cover of his magazine.”

Ali: Russell Simmons in my opinion is in a position to do so much good, but we had to step to him and Lil Kim and voice our displeasure over the way she mocked Islam and Muslim women by appearing half nude in Islamic attire, on the cover of a magazine Russell owns as a black man who has political aspirations he needs to show more maturity and leadership and should not exploited or allowed Lil Kim to keep exploiting herself.

Banter: One of the most outspoken members of our Playahata community is a college professor known as Mad Professor from South Carolina; he is a big supporter of Project hope but took exception to a part of your press release. One section read, "It is unnecessary for Muslims to boycott Lil Kim, as we don't listen to her music or support her pornographic images anyhow." He replied "Give me a break! With all of the Islamic rap fans out there, I'm sure that there are those who do. ..”. Ali, is your position that no Muslims listen or purchase Lil Kim?

Ali: The Muslim community is not monolithic, I am sure there is a small minority that may listen to her, but she cant sing to save her life. That's why she resorts to dressing like a slut to gain attention, the Muslims that listen to her are reminiscent of the same young people who had to sneak in the basement to play there Richard Pryor albums, they didn't want there peers to know they listened.

Banter: [On the magazine cover situation], Morpheus said something that stood out. I wanted you to respond to this. He said, “I understand the Project Hope's complaint with elements of religious and cultural relevance. Of course, I have the luxury of not being a Muslim nor do I have any attachment to Western Asian/Eastern world derived gender-based dress codes...so the sight of a half-naked woman in a veil doesn’t bother me one bit---though again, I understand why it might offend others. A point however to be made is, veils while closely associated with Islam (particularly elements concerning sharia law, etc) are not the sole domain of the Muslim world. They are really more accurately part of the Eastern world .You can find them in the non-Muslim Mediterranean (probably remnants of the early Christian world, which was Eastern) and India---where it is known in use with certain parts/forms of Hinduism. In fact its probably best to say the veil came first, then the religions...”.

Ali: What he said is true but it’s not just the image on the cover, which made us take notice of this foolishness and come after her. It was the comments on the inside of the magazine, which added flame to the fire. The cover alone would be a grey area. The Fuck Afghanistan remarks alongside the cover are what made us call for an apology. Her comments condemning a whole Muslim country. As for the dress code of Muslim women, well it’s not a cultural issue its covered in the Holy Koran.

Banter: Some people feel that Russell Simmons has not shown your organization the proper amount of respect. One might suspect that he respects personalities and not the religion itself. Or maybe that he respects the Nation of Islam’s brand of Islam and not the Orthodox form of Islam to which you and the larger Islamic community belong to. Most are aware of his highly publicized feud with Hip Hop Minister Conrad Muhammad who has formerly of the Nation Of Islam. Russell was really vicious with him. One might wonder if that would ever have happened if Conrad were still in the NOI. Ironically, I think Russell may really be stuck on images. There is a huge difference in the style and dress of NOI Muslims and Orthodox Muslims Islam. In orthodoxy the stereotypical image many Americans have is head wrap, camel, some sandals and a bearded man named Muhammad. This probably plays out in his thought process. I recall in 1991 when he was asked about realism in Hip-hop. He was also quoted as saying, "What's selling is Will Smith. What's selling is Lauryn Hill. I think that people ain't making the records. There's no normal people that looks like you, that are making the positive records. All you got is Common, Mos Def, Dead Prez, Talib Kweli. Everybody got a funny name or a headwrap or an incense. Where are the real ni%$#as making the true stories?..."

That to me suggest he has a conflict with images. Ironically, in 2002 Mos Def was hosting his Def Poetry venture. But my point is that Muslims wear head wraps and have names many Americans consider funny. Thus outside of his love for Minister Louis Farrakhan Do you detect that Russell Simmons may be anti-Islamic in terms of Orthodox Islam?

Ali: Russell Simmons I would have hoped would be more respectful but I do not think he is anti-Islamic. I was told that he was actually ready to apologize but Minister Benjamin Muhammad of NOI told him “not to worry about it”. It seems that Benjamin Muhammad got some bad advice, he is not educated enough on Islam. He has only been a Muslim for a short time. He just joined the other day.

Banter: I had been alerted to Russell’s Simmons attempt to apologize, recently and it was all based on what representatives of the NOI thought. If I recall Cedric Muhammad of Black Electorate.com interviewed him and asked about the apology and he [Simmons] said.“I don't know man, Ben saw it and didn't think nothing of it. I didn't even think about it. I didn't even think about Islam, nothing. And now that I know about it I feel really uncomfortable with the fact that I have offended all of these people. But there is nothing that I can do about that. If she wants to wrap a towel around her face and be naked then that is Little Kim. I bet you, it was a great cover. And I really wanted to respond to them in some way. My first response was, 'Oh my God write an apology!' I am sorry they are offended. That is the most my apology could have really been anyway. I didn't get a chance to respond. I was away and I got back and they said 'you should respond now, let's write an apology'. And I got half way through dictating it and I realized, yeah but, as much as I am apologizing I wouldn't have stopped it. So, it is not that helpful. Like, what am I going to do.. Minister Ben, down the hall who is a Muslim minister (NOI) told me that it is a cultural thing more than a religious thing.

Now I know you stated that it was a religious thing and the Palestinian Chronicle took him to task on that. They stated “Whatever Simmons and the One World staff intended with this photo is irrelevant, because for Muslims, both the 7 million in the United States and the 1.2 billion spread across the rest of the world, it is a clear and unambiguous jab at the religion of Islam. It is well known that practicing Muslim women adhere to a strict code of modesty; and regardless of what non-Muslims might think of those standards, they remain valid personal choices by Muslim women wishing to be observant. Even in Afghanistan, many Muslim women don the burqa as a matter of faith and conscious choice it seems that we are left with one of three things. (1)Russell doesn’t believe you or. (2)He doesn’t realize the difference between NOI beliefs/philosophy and Orthodox Islam.3. He understands both and simply feels Islam is suppressive to women cause he told Blackelectorate a few telling things.

Simmons stated, "Mother Khadijah (Minister Farrakhan's wife) don't wear that (a veil covering the face)!" Furthermore, he stated in a matter of fact fashion, "To make women wrap up in towels, I don't believe in that either. I think that is foul. She should wear whatever she wants and express whatever she wants and certainly from what I know about the Muslim faith - it is beautiful. You know, Farrakhan, out of all spiritual people, is...Probably one of the people that has most influenced me to do all of the positive work that I do today is the Minister and that movement has been my favorite, that I have seen, growing up, my whole life and my young life to my adult life too..."

Banter: I think that the events of September 11^th have made this such a big issue, where so many Muslims groups have been paying attention to the Islamic image in America. Do the events of 9/11 make you more sensitive to what is going on in pop culture and put your organization more on the defensive?

Ali: The events of 9-11 were tragic, my group had done everything in our power to help make a positive difference by the correct portrayal of what Islam teaches. But we're never on the defensive. We lead by taking charge and being aggressive with our activism on various issues.

Banter: Did you support the boycott of Pepsi by Russell Simmons that erupted due to the Ozzy Osbourne and Ludacris situation? What was your feeling on the hole thing?

Ali: I did not pay any attention to the Pepsi boycott. The boycott did not achieve the respect that hip hop was due. We should not accept token concessions from corporations. It was just in essence a shakedown. But I am aware of the double standard that the Pepsi displayed in regards to hiring the Osborne family to represent their product.

Banter: What do you think of Bill O'Reilly of Fox5? He has co-signed on to the same issue as you on a number of occasions to my knowledge. You have been on his show before. What is the difference between you and he?

Ali: Bill O'Reilly and I have been on the same page a couple of times. He even had me on his show before. Because of my strict religious beliefs, and my habit of storming inside of city hall and police stations my friends call me the conservative militant, but my major difference with O'Reilly is he is a hip-hop outsider trying to make change. I am a hip hop insider. Change is easier from within, its like when all the ministers and C. Deloris Tucker were attacking rap, they were outsiders attacking a culture they were not a part of and had no understanding. of. That's the same thing O'Reilly is doing. When I attack something in the culture I'm doing it because I'm part of it. I grew up in it and feel its my right and obligation to help steer it back on course if I feel its off track. O’Reilly has a different agenda.

Banter: Many people outside of California hear of Project H.O.P.E. but have no idea of your organization's presence. How many members do you have and is it open to all faiths? Who makes the decisions on who to move on, is this basically your decision or are elders deciding?

Ali: Project Islamic H.O.P.E. is not a membership group, we have a board of directors. And chapters in LA, Chicago, and Savannah, GA. we are the civil rights component of the American Society of Muslims. this is the largest group of African American Muslims in America with over 2, million members who follow the leadership of my father in law Imam W.D. Mohammed, son of the Hon. Elijah Muhammed. Our acronym H.O.P.E stands for (Helping Oppressed People Everywhere) anyone can join our efforts to help society. The decisions are usually made by our board of directors once we get the green light I'm always out front as the spokesman and face of the issue since that's my expertise.

Banter: Can you tell us what type of feedback, if any you have received from the artist you protested against?

Ali: Not much. Basically they have nothing to say. In my opinion, they know they are wrong. Some of the most noted rappers who inspired other gangster rappers are just fronting, for instance neither Ice Cube or Dr. Dre were ever in a gang. They never lived their lyrics, so it has never been a matter of keeping it real as they might claim. I am from South Central in the same age bracket as they are and I know their history. All the top rappers, the most popular ones that have come under criticism know in their heart and soul that what they are doing is wrong. I was there at a meeting when many of them pledged with Minister Louis Farrakhan to clean up their music , so they can't ever call me a hypocrite. They are hypocrites because they went right back to doing what they were doing after making a pledge to change.

Banter:Your website shows you pictured with numerous Hollywood celebrities and personalities. In general celebrities are very "apolitical" or non-political at least in public. Has your political activism stopped any celebrity types from wanting to be involved with you?

Ali: No, in fact most of them are very supportive of me

Banter: What about rappers in specific, who would you say has embraced you?

Ali:Chuck D

Interviewer Note: It should be noted that Russell Simmons was one of the 1st celebrities to come out against the war against Iraq which is basically a Muslim nation. Russell had a very hard and clear position w/statements like "Iraq's been contained for 12 years. Hundreds of thousands don't have to die. Stand up, demonstrate, and have your voice heard." Although, an anti-war stance does not mean one is not anti-Muslim, in a post 9/11 jingoistic climate Simmons comments showed bravery during a critical time of adversity. He has been pushing his colleagues to do something in the name of justice abroad. On the other hand if Lil Kim wanted to pose on Russell Simmons OneWorld Magazine cover in a half naked Jewish attire, dressing in kipots, yarmulkes, matzah covers, tallitot, prayer shawls, challah covers or other Jewish garb those of the Jewish faith would be going crazy (ask Michael Jackson or Professor Griff) and Russell probably wouldn't have allowed it. Lil Kim wouldn't ever have had the chance to say "Fuck Israel" (Jewish Nation) or anything brazen inside of Oneworld. In short all this could have been avoided with a pose but no comments or even the comments with no pose. (Not that either would make it correct). The two together proved to be a very sensitive thing, that many people have voiced an opinion on. - Nuff Said

Hadji Williams

Those are excerpts from Hadji Williams’ KNOCK THE HUSTLE: HOW TO SAVE YOUR JOB AND YOUR LIFE FROM CORPORATE AMERICA (Coming AUGUST 2005) It’s hiphop’s first success guide for business, culture and life. Email him: author@knockthehustle.com // www.knockthehustlechronicles.blogspot.com // www.knockthehustle.com

Let’s Boycott the Boycotts!
How Hiphop can permanently change the business world for good.
By: Hadji Williams

I’m not a big fan of boycotts. Why? Because with few exceptions, modern boycotts don’t work. Boycotts are inherently temporary: “I march until you listen… I do this until you do that…” Just as consumers have gotten smarter over the years, companies and governments are now savvy enough to call the bluff. They’ve realized that as long as they control whatever’s being boycotted, boycotters eventually have to break bread with them. So more often than not, they just dig in and ride it out.
What scares companies and governments, and most people for that matter, is permanent change. Companies don’t fear picket signs and bullhorns; they fear permanent loss of business. Companies don’t fear bad quarters they fear bankruptcy. Marketers don’t fear trends, they fear fundamental paradigm shifts. Politicians don’t fear apathetic voters; they fear voters permanently switching parties or forming viable alternate parties. Governments don’t fear protests they fear coups. Californians aren’t afraid of earthquakes; they’re afraid of the one that turns the City of Angels into the Lost City of Atlantis. New Yorkers aren’t afraid of terrorism; they’re afraid of Hiroshima II on Broadway & 5th. People fear permanent change. If people think you or your group is capable of causing permanent change in their world, they’ll listen to you as if their lives depended on it. Because, figuratively, they just might.
Looking back, the last truly successful boycott I can remember—and by “successful” I mean that one that brought permanent change—was 1992’s “Cop Killer” boycott. When Ice-T ripped crooked cops and police brutality in that song, police organizations and mainstream consumers and retailers became so outraged that they marched against Time Warner demanding that the song be banned and Ice-T lose his record deal. For months media elites blasted Ice-T and other rap artists at every turn. Time Warner eventually pulled the song and ultimately sold its stake in Interscope (the label that released the song) and has distanced itself from “controversial music.” (For a while at least.)
Now I know what some of you are thinking: What about the HOT 97/Tsunami Song boycott? Yeah, well what about it? What really changed other than firing a couple of low-level on-air personalities? Station-owner Emmis is still making money. They still play music that celebrates misogyny against black women and violence and negativity targeted at black men. In fact, the entire music industry still profits off imagery and lyrics that mainly degrades blacks and celebrates the worst in the black community while marginalizing most every artist and attempt to show otherwise. So again, what’s really changed?
As consumers, voters, and citizens we have to start thinking in terms of permanent change. Whether your goals are lofty (e.g., true equality, world peace, universal education and healthcare) or small (e.g., less bad TV) you need to ask yourself 3 questions: Who is the biggest cause of this problem or biggest barrier to solving it? (2) Who/what scares them most? (3) How do I get a hold of or aligned with it/them? Answering those questions can put the possibility of permanent change on your side thereby giving you the influence you need. Love of change and hatred of complacency are our greatest weapons. Complacency is soft. Love of change means being willing to do what complacency won’t. Remember: The Hustle was built by hard hearts feeding on softened minds and weakened souls.
Now this doesn’t mean go out and buy a Ché Guevara T-shirt, load up on bottled water, Common or Talib CDs, and Michael Moore books and go vegan. That’s just shopping and anyone can shop. And this doesn’t mean violence. Again, violence solves nothing. This is about using your purchasing power, your position as employees and your voice as voters to change how you and your communities are treated. This is about sacrificing, pooling resources, and focusing energy in the name of independence. This is about change.

Capitalism might be the wicked game, but we’re caught up in the
middle of it. So we better make up our own rules…
The only way to change problems isn’t necessarily a violent revolution,
but a revolution in education at least.

You’re only a Customer…

One of the first rules in the marketing hustle is to remind the consumer that the products they buy are more than just purchases. We have to convince folks that they’re buying “an experience,” that they’re participants in a brand’s growth. We have to convince them that being a consumer entitles them to judge, shape, and even destroy that which they pay to consume. If we don’t they won’t buy as much stuff; and as marketers, we ain’t havin’ that.
This is a major reason why they’re so many fights at sporting events. Sports fans have been hustled into believing that their ticket entitles them to be more important to the game than they really are. Sports fans are just observers who pay to observe an event. Their $100 tickets don’t give them ownership over any player, team or venue. Truth is they’re just renting a view until the game clock hits zero. Period.
But for the last 25 years or so The Hustle has hooked fans into believing that their ticket/merchandise purchase entitles them to moon players, throw stuff at players, sling slurs and expletives at players, spread rumors about players, live out their dreams thru players, etc. And the players, who’ve long since been repackaged as entertainment product, should just shut up and take it. After all, it’s the tickets, merchandising and cable packages and media coverage that pay player salaries. Sports fans are really minority owners (pun intended); and as such they deserve to use their product purchases as they see fit. Right?
Again, if the game were just a game, throwbacks wouldn’t have gone for $300 and new shoes wouldn’t cost $150. If the game was just a game, advertisers wouldn’t sponsor it, and 45 year white men wouldn’t worship 22-year-old black boys with 40-inch verticals, .350 battling averages or 4.25 speed. If the game was just a game, it wouldn’t sell. And sports is a business and business is all about doing what sells, no matter what sells.
You see this in hiphop where people buy a CD, some Lugz or DJ equipment and suddenly decide that they’re co-owners of the culture. This is why we hawk Hollywood stars… After all, we bought their movies, watched their TV shows, etc. They owe us the autograph and intimate details of their lives. We’re consumers—we paid good money to star-worship; they owe us. And the luxury brand we just overpaid for makes us part of the upscale crowd, doesn’t it? I buy the symbol therefore I own what it symbolizes, right? Right.
In the end, it’s all just sugar water… it was probably made in Taiwan or Indonesia… and it will eventually end up in a dollar store or on one of those tired “What were we thinking?!” pop culture TV lists. The most revolutionary thing a consumer can do is to buy what you need first, question why you want what you want and always recognize when you’re being hustled. And in my opinion, that’s more effective than all the boycotts put together.

You’re only a customer—
you’re walking in the presence of hustlers…

A.Thiel, chercheur allemand dans le domaine du graffiti.

Extraits d’interview

http://people.freenet.de/graffitiforschung.de/interv91.htm An initiative of "KASSEL GRAFFITI-ARCHIVE":

Q:Asked about the psycho-social background of modern graffiti/writing,especially in the US?

A:The enormous poverty so many people must survive in.They long since lost the fight against that drab social rea-lity.No wonder they are glad to have such beautiful inimical images=writers.

Q:Anti-graffiti propaganda being a good example of WASP-ideology?

A:Yes,naturally.It is kind of self-defence and an "argumentation" against the poorer parts of society that are being experienced as a threat and danger to them.But-of course-that is only one aspect to it.Rest of society also being in state of unrest relating to future of mankind.Loot at the high level of unemployment among studied persons and experts.The aspect of a "No Future" hitting more and more people meaning a loss in social security.And it is THAT deepseated unquiet that also influences modern writing.You can read it in the texts,see it via the "pieces" and from the "characters" if you`d do an analysis.

Q:Did you ever come across an idea,how to counter-argument the statements graffiti as "cri

minal acts"?

A:I`d ask back what indicators exists how come since 30 years young males suddenly selecting such a self-endan-gering activity where no profit is visible.This would equal a collective,infectious,international neurosis.Hardly credible......"Criminal damage" with color?Ridiculous!With THAT argumentation any coloring (of walls) also could be named "damage".And here you see that it is nonsense.

Q:You daily read all the news,looking at the US,what`s your impression about all that graffiti-hubbub?

A:They so dearly want to have-in public-an image of a nice and beautiful society,a "middle-class-heaven",that all negative informations etc.throwing a "dark shadow" and this,they deeply hate.Of course it`s a huge lie but they seem to love that.Especially the schools seem to be sanctuaries of hypocrisy.No drugs,no crimes,no sex.....just everything "perfect".Like you read in this article:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/10/17/racist_graffiti_has_city_searching (Matt Viser)

The do-gooders have a lot of influence.....and they run a huge propaganda-machine.

Q:Same that makes Mr.Bush tell the world world being a safer place he`s now president and after he attacked Iraq?

A:Yes,exactly.But question being is that true?.....

Q:You`d be well recommended to compare your very personal experiences in schools with those public images?

A:Exactly.And you may have to come to very different but realistic finds.

Q:Do you think societies try to self assure themselves about what`s going on?

A:Yes,look away,deny social problems,wanting to "have good times" instead.All those gang-problems being a very specific and typical US problem,and this means unsolved social problems.

Q:The overall strategy being identical allover the places and countries?

A:Make people believe everything just being wonderful,and NOT trust themselves,listen to public propaganda in-stead,Yes,naturally.This being the function of the media."Keep`em busy and distracted!".................

Q:The "battle about our consciousnesses" really seeming something of enormous importan-ce?

A:Naturally,nothing`s more powerful.This representing the invisible prison in and of our brains,the limits and rules of consciousness and the unconscious manipulations.

Q:What else could help to understand some of the "gang graffiti"?

A:Imagine yourself being of black or Latino origin,living (first immigrant generation) in a poor community and then think about your experiences in that society and the educational system.........you`d find out almost nothing links you to that society that treats you like shit.You`d have tons of good causes to establish a separated community.With some rules you may control,at least hope to.

/

Q:Isn`t it strange you could put up ads for dangerous products that kill people (aside of le-

gally selling that) and then-in comparison-to scream about "bad graffiti" that actually harm no

ne and nothing (except your prejudices)?

A:Yes,but that`s the way it is.Maybe so society can counterbalance their bad consciousnesses.Ease their qualms.To me it is ersatz,compensation for something,projections,that`s very obvious.And not to forget the dire need to have scapegoats.....

Q:To cover up own sociopathy?

A:Naturally.Need some image to actually "see" how it could work.....just imagine a middle-class serial killer ("Ame-rican Psycho"-type) living in a "clean" neighborhood as head of the local "graffiti busters".See the "prototype"-sche-me?..........Whenever I watch movie "A handmaid`s tale" I see a future of the US.They just had it on tv 2 days ago,

how "modern" all that looked.A state in a state of emergency and this religious "madness".Fascinating.Margret At-wood did a brilliant job writing that novel.And she hit a nail.

Q:A "smoke-screen" tool?

A:Naturally.To be able to hide behind.

Q:For what,for example?

A:That Mr.Bush permitted-again-the sale of automatic guns.Just count the many people killed in the US compared to "graffiti-damage".....and you see what absurd process is going on here.

Q:What do you think about US tries to fight terrorism?

A:A self-serving system for industrial-military complex to always ask for more.Like a "mint" where you make your money yourself.The perfect guiding idea to abolish democracy with the help of religious fundamentalists.

Q:Do you think-as time passes on-US more and more looks like a "shadow" of Arab/Muslim

Fundamentalism?

A:Yes,they mutually breed and reenforce themselves.Both yelling at each other:"Godless!".It`s fascinating,though,to see all that bullshit happening in 21.century.

/

Q:Let`s go back to graffiti-matters.You say social construction of reality reflected in law-system equals an overall accepted form of "collective neurosis"?

A:Yes,look at the developement of the law-systems since they were invented thousands of years ago.They have multiplicated hundredfold and do we have less problems?Hell,no!So I say such a concept being a "normality mad-ness".And-like we also see with graffiti/writing-it does NOT work,but keeps the repressive system working.Espe-

Cially now with all the "security craze".And even worse we see how "The Law" is being abused and turned into a weapon against own people.The many transgressions turned (1.step) into "petty crimes" an later on (2.step) into real crimes to keep the "security business" working.

Q:This overall impression of "No Future",can we also detect biological effects influencing people?

A:Procreation.Due to various influences human male sperma deteriorating.And we have drastic losses in child-bearing in modern societies.Nature`s "slamming the breakes".

/

Q:More news?

A:Interesting URL for "History of Graffiti":

http://www.hyperhistory.org/site/index14.php?option=displaypage&Itemid=554&op=page&SubMenu=#art1

18 pages,excellent introduction.Sent them a feedback.

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Q:What`s the basic difference between SPOKEN and WRITTEN language?

A:Last longer when written.Almost eternal as rock-art and hieroglyphes etc.But also-on walls-becomes part of architecture.And since walls=architecture always represents some form of authority it then is a "ruling-tool".We still see these differences when looking at the law and their sentences against graffiti.And how much advertisement being protected.Very singular=industry,commerce interests vs.People.Their wishes and desires (=people) count nothing.

/

Q:Since you`re reading all those US informations about graffiti,any differences to other coun

tries?

A:Yes,definitely.All those "collective cleaning" efforts you relatively seldom find in other countries.Those calls and invitations to community to share their powers in efforts to clean the country.....,I think here a rest of the "pioneering spirit" survives.........But it also has a rather hidden "backside".It reminds me of a religious "communion".The "good" against the "bad" to wage a "war on graffiti"= the "ugly".Or even more,the "evil".

Q:Do you think most messages about that subject to be found in US media?

A:Naturally.First because of the sheer size of population.Then because of the intensity as which they see that "prob-

Lem".Next the impact of English language,we alone see 4 500 media-sources being screened by: http://www.google.com

Compared to German at 700 and French at 500.

Q:To what extremes do US institutions go?

A:Dress-rules.We know that as far as "gang signs" being related,but now it also means graffiti-related T-shirts,for example:

http://www.koaa.com/news/view.asp?ID=2881

but from what we know about human creativity and survival-needs it is clear this equals the developement of a even more coded way of subcultural communication.The same as always."More of the same".Positive feedback.

Q:What may really move them?

A:Xenophobia,in the end.The angst cause by the unknown.

http://www.zwire.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=2259&dept_id=455154&newsid (11-07-2004)

they actually suffer from a form of "apardheit-desire".They want the "alien","strange" to be kept away from them.

Q:As far as we see/know from graffiti/writing here via creolisation and hybridisation being-maybe-among the very few cultural activities/movements that try to fuse the "strange" and "familiar" to create something new?

A:Yes,that exactly is the importance of it.But that`s still unknown to most people looking at the "modern icono-clasm" that tries to undo all "writing" the moment it surfaces.

Q:Because those "writers" have an SHARED IDEA(L)?

A:Yes,exactly.They have a goal.

/

Q:How`s the social situation in Germany now after the changes in social policies?

A:First news report the new welfare-law making 500 000 persons lose their subsidies because state`s saying IF your partner has enough money you won`t get any from "The State".

Q:What do you think about that?

A:Dramatic breach of public trust.You MUST pay into state`s unemployment insurance continually promising to help you when in need,and when you`d need it state saying:"NO!"Sorry.....This means another 1,25 million people now becoming transformed into poor ones.And it`s almost impossible to get out of the "welfare-trap" again they now are in or become forced into.

Q:Because society gobbling up all your reserves?

A:Yes,help only after you`ve been "stripped naked".One of the results being-publicly known-1 million children-on and below poverty line.Mostly together with a single-educating parent.Which mainly takes place after divorces that generally make ALL poor.By the way,the "official" numbers of unemployment:4,3 million.

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Q:I was thinking about city of Kassel`s presentation of themselves as a city of "congresses and exhibitions".Did they offer any support for your graffiti-conference?

A:None at all.They are babblers you can forget about.Not the faintest idea.All the energy is being wasted via the "documenta" times,rest being gobbled up by bureaucratic bickerings and that was it.What can you expect from a city that in 30 years 5 times changing the exterior of a square.They don`t know what they want,and this they know "with full competence".

Q:Could you give them a suggestion?

A:Put up a "Cultural Toilet" and flush themselves away.None would miss them.

Q:How that?

A:This place already has a "Cultural Train Station"("Kulturbahnhof"),a "Kulturverein" (cultural club),a "Kulturamt"

(office of/for culture),"Kulturbeiraete"(cultural advisors`boards) and other weird "culture somethings",so why not a "Cultural Toilet".Jeesus,what a "shitty" city.

Q:But you live here?

A:Yes,always keep a distance to them.They just "ain`t got brains".Latest news tell us they will invest 250 million Euro into local museums.I wonder how many ADDITIONAL people this will attract......................the few times I have been there I did not exactly see many.But it is "culture".............and it sounds so "sweet".

Q:Do you think they miss potential developmental lines?

A:No,they don`t miss that,they do NOT even know such things could exist.They`re just plain "competent incom-petent".IF I was younger I might move to another city............so have to put up with that crap.

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Q:The more contradictions,in realm of politics-"social problems" arise the more need for graf

Fiti existing?

A:Exactly.No wonder we today have that global "hip-hop-movement".

Q:And the TRIPLE-ROOT (graffiti/writing,rap,breakdance) using all levels of/for communi-

cation being an indicator of/for SERIOUSNESS of (burning + unsolved) problems?

A:You got it.Hip-hop MIRRORS a rising INTENSITY of them.Problems project "shadows onto walls",so to say.Once you understand it it all seems to be rather easy.And-the backside of it-now you understand the need to try to COVER IT UP.......................

Q:Which generates a situation of HELPLESSNESS among those that still identify with the ru-ling powers?

A:Yes,and this-in return-reflects the state of helplessness of those marginalized in societies,more all the time.And brings us directly back to RAMMELLZEE`s excellent statement about "writing" being a means of OSTRA-ZISM.Put into the form of a slogan it would run:

"EXCLUDE THE EXCLUDERS!" or "OSTRACIZE THE OSTRACIZERS" or whetever..........a "pay-back" system."Give`m hell!",quite easy.

Davey D

aller directement sur le post Davey D

(go directly on the Post dedicated to Davey D)

Wendy Day

Wendy Day of the non-profit organization RapCoalition.org is an expert on the economics of the rap industry. She is not a lawyer but she knows the rules, regulations and industry as well as any one. When she brokered the deal between Universal and Cash Money Records she got a call from Cash Money's new attorneys telling her she had done such a spectacular job that they couldn't find any area to renegotiate in the 75-page business plan. Her deal garnered Universal $17 million and Cash Money approximately $75 million over two years.

When asked about her, the founder of Blackelectorate.com a hip-hop oriented websites that specializes in finances, had this to say about Wendy Day, "no one understands the intersection of Hip-Hop culture and business better than Wendy Day and Rap Coalition and we know of no one who has the Rolodex to go with it. From graffiti artists and underground MCs who don't have a record deal, all the way to the biggest record label executives and most powerful lawyers in Hip-Hop, Wendy Day knows them, has worked with them all and understands what makes them tick."

Playahata.com: Now Wendy when I look at your resume and see all the artist you have worked with, I figure that you should be rich.

Wendy Day: I should be but I am not driven by money so I don’t focus on money; I don’t focus on taking more of the pie. I focus on achieving results that are not based financially. I know that seems weird and how different I am. Not saying my way is the right way. There are plenty of months I can’t pay my rent. And I realize how stupid that is saying that to you. If money were my focus, I could have a mansion and a yacht. But I did not enter the music business for the money I got into the music business to help people. So by my measuring stick I am hugely successful but by my accountant’s measuring stick I am a tremendous failure.

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Playahata.com: Independent Vs. going with a major label, what do you recommend?

Wendy Day: It depends on the artist personality and their ability. I would never tell somebody to start their own label if I thought they didn’t have the hustle and entrepreneurial sense to do it. Provided they have some hustle, I advocate that because artist ownership of their company is where the money is. Now If you signed to Universal, Sony etc You going to make 12% on average of the retail selling price - after you pay back all the expenses - and you have no say so in how or where that money is spent, so you are at their mercy. If you put out your own record through an independent distributor you will make 8.50 per CD but you all have to do all the work. Now with the major label equation what it usually boils down to Is that 99% of rappers never recoup. After they pay back all the expenses the only money they make is the initial advance paid by the record company. That could be 25,000 or if you somebody really big like Jay Z or DMX it could be in the millions.

Playahata.com: Let’s take the case of Mase and Shyne both of these are sort of big named artist and neither one's album has gone gold, at last check both were in the 400,000 plus range, what are the chances that they made any money from these sales?

Wendy Day: Wow that’s low, that’s news to me. At that low level I don’t know that either of them could have recouped. Lots of money was spent at radio and making a video. Mase was flying across the country; he wasn’t taking a tour bus from city to city promoting his album. He was traveling like he was Puffy. It didn’t make sense financially.

Playahata.com: What about Shyne, he was on lockdown he couldn’t really blow money right - although he said in a jail interview over phone he had brought a quarter million dollar car and he had a friend driving it until he came home.

Wendy Day: Shyne - even thou he was on lockdown, a lot of money was spent at Radio Stations, promoting his album. A lot of money was spent on Shyne. T-Shirts by the label, I saw his stuff everywhere. Def Jam always spends a lot of money. They know they going to get it back.

Playahata.com: So even these guys got no more money from the label?

Wendy Day: Not from the label, but they can get money other ways, tours, ring tones and endorsements. Def Jam vendetta the video game was a way that rappers could get paid by having a character on the game an artist could get like 5,000 dollars. That is artist income.

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Playahata.com: Speaking of Eric B and Rakim, last month a mainstream survey by Entertainment weekly rated the Paid in Full album as the greatest rap album ever With this sort of success fans still read about how even these guys received very little or almost none of the money, almost a year ago the duo was suing Def Jam. Eric B. believes that Paid in Full - in its initial incarnation, re-releases and special editions has raked in more than $100 million from sales and licensing Yet he is saying they were not getting anything, how does an artist get caught out there like that?

Wendy Day: An artist gets caught because they don’t know how the system work, it is set up like share cropping, you have to pay back all monies that are spent and if you don’t know that you don’t think about how money is being spent. I recall (years ago) being in the hallway at Tommy Boy, years ago, I saw Capone and Noriega and they had just shot a ½ million-dollar Hype Williams video. As they walk past me, I turned around very nonchalantly and said “ you know that 50% of the video budget comes from your money right” and they turned around in shock and Noriega was like “what, what” in shock. As time wore on I wondered were they shocked that I said that out of the blue or did they really not know that because at the time they didn’t know who I was, well maybe Capone did.

So again unless you sell millions and millions of records it takes a lot of time before the artist little 12% to pay some dividend. If you have a standard 12 point deal you gonna have to pay back millions of dollars in money that was spent to pay radio, studio time, to shoot video from your 12% royalty.