Friday, August 03, 2007
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"Oh Shit! ... GMO Food Sterilizes People ... And It's Really A Form of Population Control?"
"There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."
Alexander King, Bertrand Schneider - founder Club of Rome - The First Global Revolution, pp.104-105
"In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill ... All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behaviour that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself."
GET A CHICK...
Were We All Kunta Kinte? Or Are We Also Mansa Musa?
Barry Goldwater 1909-1998
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. "
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
"It Is Easier To Change A Man's Religion Than It Is To Change His Diet"
Private Prison Industry
2,000,000 human beings in American prisons and counting
IS THIS LITTLE GUY A PERSON?
The founders of the American state understood that the proper functioning of a democracy required an educated electorate. It is this understanding that justifies a system of public education and that led slaveholders to resist the spread of literacy among their chattels. But the meaning of "educated" has changed beyond recognition in two hundred years. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are no longer sufficient to decide on public policy. Now we need quantum mechanics and molecular biology. The knowledge required for political rationality, once available to the masses, is now in the possession of a specially educated elite, a situation that creates a series of tensions and contradictions in the operation of representative democracy.
"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
Margaret Sanger. Woman, Morality, and Birth Control. New York: New York Publishing Company, 1922. P
"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population. and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."
Louis Pasteur
"The Microbe is nothing. The terrain is everything."
Beverly Johnson. Beverly Hills. 1978
"Bra! Tell Me About It!"
"Most of the trouble I have had in advancing the cause of the race has come from Negroes."
Ted Turner - CNN founder and UN supporter - quoted in the The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor, June '
"A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal."
Lord Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science On Society (Routledge Press: New York, 1951).
"At present the population of the world is increasing at about 58,000 per diem. War, so far, has had no very great effect on this increase, which continued throughout each of the world wars.. War has hitherto been disappointing in this respect, but perhaps bacteriological war may prove effective. If a Black Death could spread throughout the world once in every generation, survivors could procreate freely without making the world too full. The state of affairs might be unpleasant, but what of it?"
Denmark Vesey For President 08
1. Troops Out Of Iraq Immediately. Like By Monday. 2. Money Owed To Haliburton and War Contractors Be Given Directly To The Iraqi People 3. Complete Electoral Reform 4. No Corporate Conglomerate Will Be Allowed To Control More Than 5% Of News Market 5. Federal Reserve Abolished 6. For-Profit Prison Industry Abolished
*George Orwell (1903-1950) English novelist, critic
Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness... If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear... The great enemy of clear language is insincerity... The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it... To see what is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle... For a creative writer possession of the truth is less important than emotional sincerity.
“The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society will be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values.” – Zbigniew Brzezinski
God Don't Make No Mistakes
Gordon Parks 1912-2006
"I suffered evils, but without allowing them to rob me of the freedom to expand."
Great Grandmother Harris
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30 comments:
eloquent?? ...insightful artful and soulful use of...nigga"
Are you serious or is that a joke?
DV...you're so against plantation negros...but you're the one that appears to be brain washed by the whites in justifying the use of the word nigga...you've become what you hate the most...a brain washed puppet who defends self hate. I understand our rights as Americans not be censored. This is not about our rights or some attack orchestrated by whites and MSM on hip hop. This is simply a matter of wanting more for our young black youth. We want our rappers to be more consciouses to making positive contributions to our culture. Do they have to do it...absolutely not....but to whom much is given...much is expected...they have been blessed with fame and fortune...do something good with it and not perpetuate negatives in our culture. Call for change.
Brother Paul,
They say Eskimos have 77 different words for the concept "snow".
Black men have taken the English language, added tone, made it dynamic and reinvented it.
We use the word "Nigga" to express 77 different concepts. Not all of them negative. Nor does the word have a damn thing to do with "what white racists used to call us back in da day."
Slavery is mental. An exaggerated defensiveness about the word "Nigga" is a form of mental slavery.
Let it go.
I feel X on this cut. Just like I feel him on his latest cut about Jesus.
He's one hell of an artist man. Just because you don't see, doesn't mean it is not there.
I do see it...X I think is one of the most raw, pure and passionate rappers in the industry. There are not many like him. I used to defend the word nigga back in my days at Morehouse. I argued that it was a term of endearment when used among Blacks...but my position changed after I listened to some old interviews of former slaves (who at the time of the interview were in their 90s I think). They were asked to describe slavery and I was shocked at how they described everyone that was a slave as niggers (e.g. well all the niggers would have to get up at this time...all the niggers would do this....the niggers that)...This was a former slave saying it like that was the appropriate word to call Black people. That's when I realized the brain washing started a long time ago and has not stopped today. I had been bamboozled, hood winked, led astray in my defense of the word nigga. Even though I now realize how destructive the word is (and now young asian kids and white wannabees think it's cool to call each other nigga)...My brainwashing is deeep....I still find myself from time to time using the word which is a shame.
Please..lets stop defending and perpetuating negatives in our culture...no matter how you flip the word or use it as a positive...it's a word rooted in hate and ignorance....Find another word to use...instead of [adding tone, making it dynamic and reinvented it.]
DV Said...
They say Eskimos have 77 different words for the concept "snow".
Anon Said...
Sounds like something Sean Hannity would say. The word snow versus the word nigger/nigga/negro are worlds apart with respect to their meaning in the context of African and African American history. There is no comparison DV. Paul is correct you need to stop defending it. All of your argumants we have heard before. They did not make sense in the 50's , 60's or 70's when whites would openly use it and it doesn't now. When I sit in my barber's chair and the young latin guys walk in talking about nigga this and nigga that it really bothers the hell out of me. Because I remember when mofo's were hollering the variation of the N word to my grandfather and grandmother. Just like you think it's their right to use it and you support it. Many of us don't and that should not make us Plan. or Corp. Negro's... Specially in your eyes.
Regards,
Anon
Brother Paul,
Man, I respect your opinion. You are obviously sincere and unlike most critics of rap, you are thoughtful. I appreciate that.
However, I’m going to disagree with you on this one.
I’m old enough to remember legions of black people bending over backwards to imitate whites. They conked their hair, women bleached their skin, men removed the bass from their voices. At best a brother could hope to achieve becoming a 2nd class white boy.
Sun Tzu says if you can’t beat them, make them join you.
Back to the word “Nigga”.
Has it ever occurred to you why MILLIONS of young men, including you, me, and now millions of young white, Asian and Hispanic men occasionally use the term to refer to themselves and their friends? Despite what Oprah and Mike Fisher would have us believe, they are not all little robotrons parroting some corporate mandate.
They respond to the concept “Nigga” because it’s one of the last bastions of unapologetic masculinity.
A man can be a fucking man. He can say what he feels. He can express himself free of the restrictions of Politically Correct Conformity. He can call a faggot a faggot. He can treat someone who acts like a bitch, like a bitch.
Today young men are given few masculine prototypes to choose from – Either be one of these Oprah Approved, watered down, gender blurred, Tom Cruise on your knees, punk ass male apologists or he can borrow from masculine imagery of the Nigga protype.
I’m not surprised by the choices many are making.
For those of you so ... hurt and offended by the "N Word" (damn that's gay) resist the attacks on manhood and the pressures of gender blurring in the popular culture.
DV,
Nigga Please!
Let a white man call you that in the grocery store... Then lets see what happens. Since your so cool with it....
Regards,
Anon
"When I sit in my barber's chair and the young latin guys walk in talking about nigga this and nigga that it really bothers the hell out of me."
Ahhhh ... Anon a little sensitive.
lol. Nah that's cool man.
Maybe if you ask "the young Latin guy" politely, to refrain from using the word nigga, because it reminds you of when your granmother was called nigga, he will stop.
Come on man.
What's next? Ask people to stop using the word "colored"?
Does "Coon" and "Darkie" hurt your feelings too?
Man, fuck white racists and whatever words they were using 100 years ago.
Ya'll Civil Rights Negros need a hug.
DV Said...
Ya'll Civil Rights Negros need a hug.
Anon Said...
See that's what I am talking about... That's the same shit that Sean Hannity thinks but dare say. All I can say is that you remind me of Allan Keyes...
Regards,
Anon
DV Said...
Maybe if you ask "the young Latin guy" politely, to refrain from using the word nigga, because it reminds you of when your granmother was called nigga, he will stop.
Anon Said...
Because I prefer to address the cancer and not the symptom. I know where they get that shit from. DMX, Snoop, etc. BRAINWASHED...
Regards,
Anon
Anon,
You not addressing a cancer. You seeking chemo that kills the whole body.
I'm trying to get you on an organic vegetarian diet, exercise and meditation.
"Free yourself from mental slavery".
If the Imperial Wizard of Ku Klux Klan called me a "Nigger", I'd laugh in his face.
Now if he put his hands on me, both of us going to die.
-
Anon,
You give too much power to words. The only reason they are so powerful is because you assign so much power to the word itself and to the person who speaks it. If someone called you a nigger and you laughed in his face, that would be the end of the exchange. Someone called me a nigger once and I cracked up laughing. I responded, "excuse me, I am Arab and so the correct derogatory term, as I am sure you know, is Sand Nigger or Towel Head or Rag Head. It really upsets me when I am not referred to by the correct derogatory term." The a-hole was so perplexed he had no response. I took all the power he thought he was wielding and mocked it.
It's amazing how mental power is so much more potent than physical power. If you react everytime you hear a derogatory term, you will always be on the defensive. And you can NEVER win or advance when you are on the defensive. That's why, for as distasteful as I find the use of the word "nigga", the fact is that the friendly use of it is in no way a power game.
Same goes with a whole host of other terms. Words only have the power you assign them. It's amazing how much easier things become when you stop giving people so much power to offend you. Because for someone to offend you, you have to believe that their opinion has value.
DV
Your name is inspired by a revolutionary leader who wanted the best for his people.
Your argument is, "A man can be a fucking man....He can treat someone who acts like a bitch, like a bitch." Our "race of babies that has grown up to hate the ladies" has called so many woman bitches and hos that they aren't even offended any more (which is pitiful and sad).
As I've stated before, Pac was a master of being the mirror for the hood...but just as much as he was a mirror in one breathe he called for change in the next.
Pac - "Wonder why they call you bitch?"
It was said you were sleeezy
even easy
sleepin around for what
you need
See it's your thang
and you can shake it how you wanna.
Give it up free
or make your money on the corner.
But don't be bad and play the game
get mad and change.
Then you wonda why these muthafuckas
call you names.
But you ain't tryin' to hear me
cuz your stuck,
you're headin' for the bathroom
'bout to get tossed up.
Still lookin' for a rich man
you dug a ditch,
got your legs up
tryin' to get rich.
I love you like a sista
but you need to switch
and that's why they called
U bitch, I betcha...wonder why they call you bitch?
...Todays rappers are not including why they say bitch and ho...which is imperative for positive change in our culture.
If you want to use the word nigga...use it for change...Pac called himself a thug nigga...and to loosely paraphrase him, he said," You (whites) wants to call us thugs and niggers...no matter who you are (a lawyer a doctor...we're still thugs and niggers to them). well I'm going to use that and flip it and lead a following of thug niggas to your front door and demand change for the fucked up conditions that plague our culture and see how you like it."
Lets support uplifting our culture not PERPETUATING the negatives.
Gents,
This debate got way off track. I presented and example of which a group of gentlemen who would not normally use such language and behavior are know influenced by rap artist. That was the real point. Thus, it does not stop with nigga, bitch or ho's... The conversation conitnues at the barber shop with... I going to cap that nigga and his whole fam if I don't get my weed money. I going to bitch slap his bitch ass moma and fu&k his ho ass sister too. Because I am a gansta not to be disrespected in my hood. Mofo is like 16 talking this bullshit. I can not believe for the life of me that I am the only person who spends time in this specific social economic class on a regular who see's first hand that these teenagers take that fake ass gansta shit to heart. That's my point. Our grandparents endured a lot of shit so that we collectively for better or worse would not to look and shake our heads in shame. The white man flipped the rap game so that he could now express what he believes we are. No mistaken the white man controls the rap game not Snoop. Great job done by the man. When I debate the issue... I assume you understand that the language is the tip of the iceberg. Not realizing the damage the behavior is creating at the lower economic levels of our community. I guess we will never have a meeting of the minds on this one. But you guys support what you think contibutes to your culture and race... I feel like I am watching FOX News. I am out.
Regards,
Anon
paul said..
"Your argument is, "A man can be a fucking man....He can treat someone who acts like a bitch, like a bitch."
Actually Paul, not quite.
My argument is more: 1) "Why not understand the underlying mass appeal of the concept to millions of young men - instead of summarily applying your world view, sensitivities and perspective?" and 2) "Consider the appeal of the term to millions of young men trapped in a society assaulting the very essence of what it means to be a man".
They have ingeniously reinvented the word "Nigga" and use it a multitude of ways - none either inherently "good" nor inherently "bad".
Paul,
Denmark Vesey was a revolutionary leader for his people. Yet he was different than many black leaders.
His underlying message was that we already have the power to liberate ourselves. The only thing stopping us is ourselves.
I believe the Same O Same O from ... forgive me Anon ... Civil Rights Negros has actually crippled us over the past several generations.
They are too caught up in what white people think of us. They externalize their affirmation.
Denmark Vesey was never a slave. He did not buy into the myth of white supremacy. Denmark Vesey was Hip Hop 150 years before Tupac.
Anon,
That was actually your best post to date.
You started off on track and then you slipped right back to that ... forgive me ... Civil Rights Negro habit of giving more credit and power to white people than they deserve.
Large. Hell, huge portions of our society have been "criminalized" since the Reagan era. What you described in the barber shop of your "hood" is repeated in trailer parks throughout the west by millions of disenfranchised white teens trading meth.
You are seeking a simplistic solution to a complex social problem.
Want to improve the lives of millions of young men? Good.
Work to decriminalize the drug problem - which has unnecessarily put millions of men in jail, effectively CREATING a criminal culture and a VERY PROFITABLE PRISON INDUSTRY.
30 years of "0 Tolerance" has created Millions of criminals and unfortunately a criminal culture that has spilled out of the jails, onto the streets and onto our TV screens.
Cheering Oprah as she chastises rappers (slickly blaming them instead of blaming arcane drug laws and prison industry) is self-defeating and disingenuous.
Rap music blamed for teen pregnancy
Last updated at 11:19am on 23rd August 2006
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More polls » Rap stars are encouraging early sexual activity among teenagers by promoting a degrading view of women, research shows.
• The malign world of gangsta rap
Psychologists said their findings from a three-year study presented a worrying picture of how popular music affected the attitudes of boys and girls to sex.
Rap music and hip hop, with their particular emphasis on sex and demeaning depictions of women, were blamed for encouraging early sexual behaviour, leading to the spread of disease and underage pregnancies.
Dr Steven Martino, who led the US study published in the latest edition of the journal 'Pediatrics', said that "sexually degrading lyrics" - many graphic and filled with obscenities - caused changes in adolescents' sexual behaviour.
He said, "These lyrics depict men as sexually insatiable, women as sexual objects, and sexual intercourse as inconsequential. Other songs about sex don't appear to influence youth the same way.
"These portrayals objectify and degrade women in ways that are clear but they do the same to men by depicting them as sex-driven studs. Musicians who use this type of sexual imagery are communicating something very specific about what sexual roles are appropriate, and teenage listeners may act on these messages.
"These lyrics are likely to promote the acceptance of women as sexual objects and men as pursuers of sexual conquest. Despite the fact that degrading sexual lyrics are particularly demeaning for women, they affect adolescent boys and girls similarly."
The same disturbing messages were contained in videos which endorse the portrayal of women as sexual objects, the report said. The research team surveyed 1,461 children aged from 12 to 17 from across the US, asking them about their sexual behaviour and how often they listened to music by various artists including rock, country, rap, blues and pop.
They found that the youngsters listened to an average of 1.5 to 2.5 hours of music a day - not including what they saw on television or videos - but that 40 per cent of the songs referred to sex or romance.
Adolescents who listened to a lot of music containing "objectifying and limiting characterisations of sexuality progressed more quickly in their sexual behaviour" than teenagers who preferred different kinds of music. This was regardless of race or gender, the report said.
The study, called "Exposure to Degrading Versus Non-Degrading Music Lyrics and Sexual Behaviour among Youth," was carried out by the RAND Corporation - a leading healthcare research organisation in the US. It also said that there was a danger that children's opinions about the opposite sex would be affected for the long-term by constant exposure to the lyrics.
Dr Martino added, "It may be that girls who are repeatedly exposed to these messages expect to take a submissive role in their sexual relationships and to be treated with disrespect by their partners.
"These expectations may then have lasting effects on their relationship choices. Boys, on the other hand, may come to interpret reckless male sexual behaviour as 'boys being boys' and dismiss their partners' feelings and welfare as unimportant."
He said that the findings were worrying for teenagers who have more unplanned pregnancies and are more likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases. Increasing rates of sexual activity have serious public health implications. In the US, about 750,000 teenagers become pregnant each year, and an estimated four million contract sexually transmitted diseases.
The study recommended that parents set limits on what music their children buy and listen to. "Censorship is not a solution. But talking to children about music's sexual content can give parents a chance to express their own views, and may prompt teens to think more deeply about the ways in which sex is portrayed - and perhaps distorted - in the music they listen to," Dr Martino said.
He would not name the artists whose lyrics had the worst impact although the stars L'il Kim and Ja Rule were referred to in the report.
He said, "We feel that, given how prevalent these types of portrayals are in popular music, it doesn't make sense for us to pinpoint individual artists."
He also said that the study distinguished between "raunchy" or "explicit" lyrics and degrading ones. "A lyric did not have to be either of these things to be judged degrading. Not all explicit and raunchy lyrics were degrading," he explained.
Among the sixteen artists studied, rap featured the greatest percentage of degrading content by a wide margin. R&B and "rap rock" came next in the table. The rock, pop and country performers had a zero percentage although they did sing about sex and romance.
Danyel Smith, the editor of Vibe magazine, said that she wanted African American males "to have a voice" in rap and hip hop. But she too expressed concern about the message they put across.
"There are a lot of degrading lyrics but I don't want to shut these guys down. I hope that parents can steer kids away from these kinds of things until they are old enough to understand them," she added.
Hip-hop's bad rap
Psychology Today, Sept-Oct, 2004 by Rebecca Leigh Fox
Whether music negatively affects behavior has been debated from Elvis to Eminem. Now, a Canadian study has found that, when it comes to rap music and French Canadian teens at least, certain sub-genres of hip-hop are associated with different troubling behaviors.
In a study of 350 male and female teens, researchers Dave Miranda and Michel Claes of the University of Montreal found that kids who listened to French language rap were more likely to use drugs, commit crimes and be in street gangs than those who listened to English language hip-hop/soul, a more hedonistic style of music that celebrates luxury and sexual feats. The study controlled for the teens' exposure to violent media and influence of peer groups. All subjects were bilingual.
Teens who listened to American rap, however, were less likely to commit theft than those who preferred gangsta/hardcore rap. And ironically, gangsta rap enthusiasts were the least likely to belong to a gang.
Casper / Anon
Cutting and pasting lengthy pieces of propaganda from the "Blame Hip Hop" coalition is ... a lame hustle.
We get preached at by the corporations who control the mass media enough. That's why so many ... Civil Rights Negros ... are simple thinking conformists.
Let's use these blogs as a refuge for original, innovative and independent thought.
If you want blunt nonthinking Negro conformity, please visit bookerrising.com
Recent studies of popular music showed that nearly 50% of rap songs include mentions of alcohol in comparison to 10% or less in other popular music genres. Studies also showed that close to two thirds or rap cuts mentioned drug use in comparison to one-tenth of songs in other genres. Also, rap and rock music videos show violence twice as often as other genres.
Meanwhile, the Pire study, "Music, Substance Use and Aggression," revealed that reggae came second to rap in regards to leading youths to consume alcohol or drugs. Rap beat all genres when linked to alcohol, drug use and aggression.
New Study Says Listeners Of Rap Music More Prone To Substance Abuse
By Chris Richburg
Date: 4/17/2006 11:30 am
Listeners of rap are more likely to encounter problems with alcohol, drugs and violence than listeners of other genres, according to a new study by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation's (PIRE) Prevention Research Center.
More than 1,000 community college students, age 15-25, participated in the study, titled "Music, Substance Use and Aggression." The students were questioned on their music listening habits, alcohol use, illicit drug use and aggressive behaviors, such as getting into fights and attacking or threatening others.
The results found that rap was consistently associated with alcohol use, potential alcohol use disorder, illicit drug use and aggressive behavior.
The study, published in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol, also found that young people who listen to reggae and techno use more alcohol and illicit drugs than listeners of other music, with the exception of rap.
New Study Says Plantation Negro consumers of mass media much more likely to cut and paste random quotes from Massa than to analyze, discuss and to think for themselves.
By Chris Richburg
Date: 4/17/2006 11:30 am
Intelligence is pattern recognition. Anyone see a pattern of attacks on Hip Hop in corporate media?
Some negros think "massa jus lookin' out fo our best interest."
The second annual Source Hip-Hop Music Awards ceremony was cut short last night after fights broke out backstage and in the hall of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium where the show was being taped for broadcast on the UPN network later this month.
The Pasadena Police Department reported that a large fight broke out in the auditorium two hours into the show's taping, just as Lil' Kim finished her performance. An unknown man was reportedly badly beaten, while up to seventy-five people rushed the stage and others tried to exit the auditorium. While police attempted to intervene, separate scuffles broke out throughout the venue and audience members began throwing items such as bottles and CDs from their gift bags. A Police Department statement issued shortly after the incident read, "For the safety of the audience and with no apparent hope of continuing the show peacefully, the Pasadena Police Department announced the show would not continue and asked the audience to leave quietly."
DV said, "His underlying message was that we already have the power to liberate ourselves. The only thing stopping us is ourselves."
This is my point exactly. Let's harness this great power of hip hop and use it for change to make our race one of the strongest this world has ever seen. Let's get back to our roots of Kings and Queens.
Peep this verse from Andre 3000
I don't know
i'm somewhere stuck in between, tween / I'm out here knowing Hip Hop is dead /
The average nigga on my corner yelling / What the fuck you mean, mean / See we
ain't even seen, the mountain top counter clock
Pop Music
Linking Rap Lyrics and Violence
by Ed Gordon
News & Notes, March 3, 2005 · In an incident reportedly stemming from a feud between rap stars 50 Cent and the Game, a man was shot and wounded Monday just outside a top hip-hop radio station in New York City. It's the latest in a slew of violent clashes involving rappers over the years. Who should be held accountable? NPR's Ed Gordon discusses the issue with Kenard Gibbs, president of Vibe magazine, and Adisa Banjoko, author of Lyrical Swords Vol. 1: Hip Hop and Politics in the Mix.
'The Blueprint'
"The blueprint now is an image that promotes all of the worst aspects of violent and anti-social behavior," said Source editor Mays. "It takes those real issues of violent life that occur in our inner cities, it takes them out of context."
Attorney Londell McMillan, who represents Lil' Kim and many other hip-hop performers, says the record labels and radio stations push the artists toward a more violent image. "They all seek to do things that are extraordinary," he said, "unfortunately it's been extraordinarily in the pain of a people. They are often encouraged to take a certain kind of approach to the art form."
Hip-hop tries to break image of violence
By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
NEW YORK – With the kind of in-your-face boast common to the hard-edge beats of hip-hop, rapper Jay-Z rhymes out in a recent video: "No matter how much money I got, I'm still gonna sell rock, on the block."
Translated, he's still going to deal drugs in the neighborhood.
But youth activist Pee Wee Kirkland is determined that young kids see the truth in that artistic invention.
"You got to tell them selling drugs is against the law. Selling drugs, there's a consequence," he says. "And then you got to explain to them that Jay-Z ain't in Brooklyn selling drugs. He's in the [mostly white, exclusive] Hamptons."
Mr. Kirkland, himself a former gangster and drug dealer, is part of a nascent reform movement spearheaded by some of the biggest names in rap. Called Hip-Hop 4 Peace, it's determined to use the power of the industry to reduce the violence and change the face of the controversial genre. It was launched this week in New York by LL Cool J's former manager Charles Fisher and Grammy award-winning artist Chuck D.
At the core of their campaign is a conviction that amounts to heresy in some quarters of the rap world: that artistic images do influence behavior, especially when it comes to young people, and that the industry has a responsibility to counter the glorification of guns and street hustling with a realistic message that empowers kids, rather than landing them in jail.
The campaign is part of a larger transformation under way in the hip-hop world, which emerged from the ghetto in New York more than a quarter century ago. While the media has focused primarily on the violent lyrics and images, particularly in so-called "gangsta rap," many other artists have been developing a social critique and nurturing hip-hop's potential political power to deal with issues from education funding to gun control.
It's called "raptivism," and some analysts believe it has the potential of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s to transform America's political landscape.
"The potential is there, but it's still in its infant stage," says Carl Taylor of Michigan State University in East Lansing. "In one sense, they're much more powerful. [The earlier civil rights leaders] didn't have the avenue to parade the rage the rappers do."
The latent power of the movement became evident in June when almost 100,000 young people descended on New York's City Hall, joining teachers and labor activists to protest Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed $358 million cut in education funding. They came because rap entrepreneur Russell Simmons put out the call. But he also enticed them with a lineup of the industry's hottest hip-hop stars, such as Jay-Z and Chuck D.
Mr. Simmons, who founded Def Jam records, argues that hip-hop has always been the outlet for poor people's frustration, and if it parlays that energy into a political grass-roots movement, it can transform the nation. He founded the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network to fund community groups, arts programs, and political candidates. It's working with the Urban League on a literacy program and with the NAACP on a get-out-the-vote campaign.
But some of rap's elder statesmen, like Mr. Fisher, say the $5 billion industry needs to transform from within to become a more powerful and positive social force
casper...I'm all for putting more positivity in the great power of rap...but please...enough of the media news quotes....If you have point to make..state your point and reference the news if you want...but...geez...you don't have to post every news clip stating the negative effects of rap to make your point.
I don't need Oprah, MSM or anybody else to validate to me that rap is having a negative effect on my community. It's obvious.
Blacks make an insane disproportionate ratio of the prison population. DV..this is a fight the plantation negroes and everybody else is ignoring. The judicial system is one of the biggest forms of institutionalized racism...ever...Are we using any energy to fight this...no. We need to fight this on two fronts; 1. Demanding politicians reform the judicial system from top to bottom from the crooked police to the crooked laws (i.e. punishment for crack vs. powder cocaine). 2. Educating our young blacks that thug life and drugs are not the best way out of poverty. Don't put yourself in a position to be arrested and put into legal slavery.
In my opinion the biggest problem facing blacks is drugs (from drug dealing to selling to violence associated with it)...NOT HIP HOP
Hip hop is perpetuating the already horrible problem. I read an article in a hip magazine (can't recall which one) stating how recipe for a successful rapper is to be some past drug dealer and rap about how wonderful the fast life was....Look how many big names rap about moving keys and ballin' out because of it (geezy, lil wayne, jay z, etc...). Yea they talk about good things like the money, cars and woman but they don't mention the prison time and death...Come on rappers...give us more substance....
Everybody in Atlanta wanted to get their cars from 404 motorsports from rappers to atheletes. Look at the owners of 404 motorsports now...Young brothers (one of whom was married to Shirley Franklin's daughter) is now facing life in prison for cocaine dealing and murder. That's the stuff the rappers aren't rapping about.
Black men are becoming extinct. A lot of my friends I grew up with think it's all about pimpin hos and slammin' cadilac doors. They are in and out of jail and have about three different baby mommas and are raising none of their children. Tha Black man is in trouble. MSM doesn't have to worry about destroying blacks...we're doing it to ourselves.
This is why the call to change hip hop is so vital to our survival. We need these young black rappers to who have so much power to want better and help the crusade to save the black man from extinction.
I done licked niggaz for g's off in this game
I done licked niggaz for key's off in this game
But it feel like I'm doing the same thang
The things we do just to maintain
I done had work for days off in this game
Bitch we got grenades and k's off in this game
I learned that it ain't no friends off in this game
Alot of niggaz off in the pin cause of this game
This 'game' is genocide.
It's nice to see a critical objective thinker Paul.
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