To which one youth responded, “Does it have to make sense?”

Truth be told, I’m becoming an old man. Now granted, I haven’t started wearing the black shoe polish in my hair to compensate for the lack thereof. Nor am I wearing super-sized headbands to hide my receding hairline (which, might I add, would look ridiculous with me dressed in a shirt and tie, standing at a chalkboard teaching Math). My oldness is appearing in other debilitating forms. My stamina isn’t what it used to be, and my memory is fading, quickly.

But probably the worst indication of prolonging the inevitable is the fact that I have not the slightest clue what many of these rappers are now talking about. I guess that wouldn’t matter if I still didn’t have an infatuation with the music that I fell in love with as child. I find it easier to fall in love than it is to fall out of it. However, I’m getting old, and I know it because I am now starting to quote the words my parents used to say to me when I was a child.

Words such as, “I don’t know what this garbage is y’all are listening to today.”

I can barely tune into the local radio station that caters to the Hip-Hop-oriented demographics, because the majority of songs sound as if they were made for a strip club compilation CD. I don’t know about other mature adults, but at this stage in my life, I only want to listen to strip club songs when I am in the strip club. Not when I’m in my car during the day, either transporting my 13-year-old daughter to or from school.

Then if I’m not listening to strip club songs, I’m being force fed songs that I literally need translation for. I understand Hip-Hop is a young man’s sport, but would it be wrong for me to suggest that it doesn’t have to be a genre of music precisely geared towards a specific age group? And would I be inherently stupid not to believe that our young folk only want to listen to strip club songs or songs about trapping?

People oftentimes will say, “There’s a lot of conscious Hip-Hop music out there. You just have to find it.”

Before we go any further, really consider that quote. If I have to seek consciousness, then what am I presently in the midst of?

It pains me that our music has drastically changed the way it has. Truth be told, it wasn’t all conscious then, but various options provided for us diversity. And due to that diversification, conscious Hip-Hop was readily available and made mainstream. Now, we know that it was for the monetary profit for corporations, but it would be remiss to say that our community didn’t profit from it as well. Arguably in a far greater capacity than just dollars and cents. Some would suggest that systematically, it was determined by the powers that be to dumb us down by over saturating our community not with the spirit of Malcolm, but instead the fictitious life of Montana. We’ve replaced the idealization of strong, Black women with only the sexuality of Foxy Brown.

Plainly speaking, we’ve been duped to believe that we don’t have much more to offer to each other than lying *ss street stories and bedroom tales that should remain inside the bedroom of consenting adults. Man, I’m getting old because I do remember the time when I would relish those same stories that are being spoken to our children, by our children today. I done spent many of nights jumping up and down at a club, screaming to the top of my lungs foolishness. I’ve been watching the movie Scarface since it came recorded on two separate VHS tapes.

However, apparently that wasn’t all that I was doing. And more importantly than anything that I must stress, that was not my only alternative. Unlike today’s Hip-Hop oriented entertainment culture, I was given viable options, which lent to my balance. My greatest concern of our culture for today’s youth is that they are not getting the same balance. And what they are being fed is just as unhealthy, dangerous, and detrimental to their well being as foul food or contaminated water.

So, “does it have to make sense?”

Given the impact and influence that our youth allow the music to have on their lives, I reckon that it should.

Cornell Dews is a proud parent, classic Hip-Hop fan, and AllHipHop.com contributor.

Since its birth nearly 40 years ago in The Bronx, Hip-Hop has been embraced, adored, and imitated by the masses. It has been borrowed from rampantly by the mainstream over time, becoming the sentiment that defines everything cool and trendy, the sought-after sound that moves most crowds, and the dictionary that defines pop culture slang.

But what is it?

Well. It’s much more than music and jive talk. Over time, Hip-Hop and Rap have become nearly and incorrectly synonymous. But certainly, to those of us who have been raised by it and have it pulsing through our veins, we know it goes far beyond speaker systems and studio booths.

Hip-Hop is a notion, an ideal, a state of being, a way of walking and talking, an against the grain attitude, the spirit of the underdog, a spray painted tag on a wall, and much more. It’s gargantuan – possibly too huge to be defined properly – so instead we’ve interpreted it…through our gear, hairstyles, slang, bop, and other expressions of love.

And while a large chunk of the majority still portrays many of us Hip-Hop heads as hoodied hooligans, we, the wiser, know we’ve been onto something good for years now. Just turn on the TV and the radio, look up at the billboards, ponder the protests, and peek into the closets and iPods of kids from Tallahassee to Toronto to Taiwan.

What we’ve amassed in 40 years is worth celebrating and preserving, as our multi-generational status has now cemented our staying power. Now, it’s time to pop bottles, innovate musically, and inspire the youth with our positivity and political power.

Little old us? We (still) out’chea.

Hip-Hop rules.

All week long, AllHipHop.com is paying respects Hip-Hop. Check back in for our love letter to the culture!

The church was filled with the sound of hand claps and amens, as the conservative presidential candidate, Joseph Young, stood before the all Black congregation. They nodded in agreement as he admonished the young men in the congregation to “pull their pants up” and the young women to “stop having so many babies.” But when Pastor Jones patted him on the back and said, “We’re all brothers and sisters who will meet at the pearly white gates,” Young said, “Sorry, Rev. Heaven ain’t got no ghetto” and walked out the door….

Last week, the New York Times (NYT) exposed a secret plot by “a group of high-profile Republican strategists,” commissioned by billionaire Joe Ricketts (whose family owns the Chicago Cubs), to once again demonize President Barack Obama’s former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright in attack ads against the President.

The 54 page plan, which was accessible through the NYT website, called “The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama: The Ricketts Plan to End His Spending for Good,” not only called for the creation of vicious commercials but, in order to avoid accusations of racism, the use of “an extremely literate African American” such as talk show host Larry Elder as the face of the operation. Also, according to the plan they were going to get a “group of African American business leaders” to push the agenda.

You can’t say they didn’t have all their bases covered. (Well, I guess accept for some snitch leaking it to the press.)

If you can remember, four years ago, the Right Wing ace-in-the-hole was supposed to be Obama’s religion. They believed he was either a Muslim posing as a Christian, or the ring leader of some militant Black Theology Liberation movement. According to the NYT, even though he denounced the ad plan, Mitt Romney once “suggested that Obama wanted to make America into a less Christian Nation.”

What is most disturbing about these accusations is not the politics, but the hypocrisy. Although the Prez’s faith has been highly scrutinized, Romney’s Mormon beliefs are hardly mentioned.

Although, most people are only familiar with Mormonism (Church of the Latter Day Saints) from the ol’ school “Donny and Marie Osmond” show, or the missionaries who ride through the ‘hood on 10-speed bicycles in the freshly pressed white shirts, the religion has a largely unknown racist history.

According to Richard Abanes in his book, One Nation Under Gods, the belief in Black inferiority by the Mormon Church is based on a “cosmic war” between the armies of “Christ and Satan” eons ago, and those who were “indecisive and or less valiant” in the war were born Black. Hence, the origins of the curse.

Also, Richard and Joan Ostling in their book, Mormon America, claimed that noted Mormon leader, Brigham Young (after whom the university is named), once said that it was the law of God that if a white person had sex with a “seed of Cain” (a dark-skinned person), the penalty was, as they say on the streets, KOS (Kill On Sight).

Now that’s gangsta.

The Encyclopedia of Mormonism states that “prior to 1978, Black members could not hold the priesthood or participate in Temple ordinances.” It also states that when African Americans were fighting and dying for their civil rights in the ’60s, there were “athletic boycotts of Brigham Young University, threatened lawsuits and condemnations of the church.”

To be fair, Mormonism is not the only faith that has used religion to justify bigotry. Christians used the “curse of Ham” myth to justify slavery. According to the story, Noah cursed his grandson Canaan, therefore all of his descendants were destined to slaves. Although this is often attributed to the Bible, it is actually based , mostly, on the Babylonian Talmud, as Dr. Cain Hope Felder points out in “Stony the Road We Trod.”

Although, demonized by the Right Wing, it must be noted that Black Liberation Theology is, merely, a reaction to these Black inferiority myths. For, if it was not for religious racism ,there would have been no need for the creation of the theology in the first place. Also, even though the talking heads on Fox News seem to believe that the belief started with Rev. Wright, its roots actually go back to Bishop Henry Mc Neal Turner in the late 19th Century. The theology was later propagated during the Civil Rights/Black Power Era by ministers such as Rev. Albert Cleage (Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman) and Dr. James Cone.

The ideology has even been a part of rap music, as Hip-Hop artists such as Sunz of Man and Brand Nubian have challenged Eurocentric religious thought in their lyrics.

Unfortunately, the idea of Black skin being a curse is also embedded in Hip-Hop. In such songs as “Only God Can Judge Me” and “Game’s Been Good to Me” by Tupac Shakur, the running theme is “I’m just a young Black male/cursed since my birth.” Also, his late rival the Notorious B.I.G. rapped that he was “Black and ugly as ever.” So the ideology that Black people are divinely ordained to live in poverty and despair must be challenged.

One must ask why Black leaders seem to be avoiding this issue like the plague, and others are content to ignore the two ton Republican elephant in the room?

Maybe they are saving the issue for the grand finale pre-election show stopper, or perhaps they are afraid that they might get run over by the boys on the bikes.

Who knows?

Bottom line is people in glass churches shouldn’t throw stones.

Regardless, once again, it falls on Hip-Hop to raise the issues that others are afraid to touch. It is up to our journalists and artists to make sure that the issue of religious racism is raised loud and often.

Like Killah Priest said on “BIBLE (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth)”, some people in this country…

“…need to chill and get their minds revived/ for years religion did nothing but divide.”

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop,” a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website at www.NoWarningShotsFired.com, or on Twitter (@truthminista).

Remember the days when Malcolm X ( El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) was an emcee on everyone’s Hip Hop records? Folks back in the days would always sample him and have his words of wisdom be apart of the soundtrack..I recall the early days of Hip Hop when deejays like Afrika Bambaataa would rock Malcolm speeches over break beats. Not only did it sound funky but it helped raise our consciousness…

During the so-called Golden era You had everyone from Poor Righteous Teachers to Paris to 3x Dope to Gang Starr to Public Enemy all rocking Malcolm samples..I recall when KRS One mimicked the infamous Malcolm X pose where he was holding a gun looking out the window, ready to protect himself after his home had been firebombed. Many say KRS kicked things off when he featured Malcolm X in his My Philosophy video … I miss those days…

Remember when Malcolm was sampled so much that he wound up being on the cover of the Source Magazine? Say what you will, the powers that be worked overtime to remove Malcolm from our collective consciousness..It’ll be interesting to note how many newscast make mention of his birthday today… or how many urban radio stations that’ll quickly disperse info on Kanye and Kim dating but will be silent and omit Malcolm’s birthday or any activities related to it, in their daily banter..

I say on this birthday, let’s do more than give a shout out… Let’s return Malcolm back the forefront of Hip Hop consciousness…

Want more? Keep up with Davey D’s wisdom and words HERE.

Some songs are simply timeless. Some are relevant, five, 10, or even 50 years, after their debut. “Keep Ya Head Up” was the hood’s anthem, but also played a tune that the world could understand. It was as if scars and bruises were being exposed, with no bandages in sight. Even with the raw realties of many brought front and center, and Pac’s storytelling taking some back to nightmares, there is still a beautiful calmness about this record.

“But please don’t cry, dry your eyes, never let up/ Forgive, but don’t forget, girl keep your head up”

What life throws us, we don’t always see coming. Other times, we think we are a little tougher than we really are. We walk right into the fire, as if we can’t get burned. It’s as if we take Tupac telling us to keep our heads up a little too literally. Our heads are so high; they’re now in the clouds. No one can tell us anything, and because of that, we can’t see that no good will come from that. Yes, sometimes we’re the only one to blame for our heads being so low, because of the weight of the world. Yet and still, we find a way to be better, and lift our heads back up.

“You know it’s funny when it rains it pours/ They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor/
Said it ain’t no hope for the youth, and the truth is/ it ain’t no hope for tha future”

What we see around us can be so disheartening. Yet and still we still have an obligation to ourselves, and the youth, to give what we got coming up. If that wasn’t much, give what you need, and in turn you will get something out the deal, too. Stand as an example that the Hip-Hop community is more than what we are perceived as. We’re college grads, people that go to work every day, business starters and owners. We believe in, and have stable families, and we give back. We have a lot to say, and a lot of changes to make in this world.

“Cause I think we can make it, in fact, I’m sure/ And if you fall, stand tall, and comeback for more”

KEEP YA HEAD UP. 

From the moment Mitchell O. Barry scoped Jameka Jumpoff strollin’ down the baby food aisle of Wal-Mart, she didn’t stand a chance. Over a value meal at Micky Dee’s he seduced her with his sweet talk about how he was gonna make life better for her and her kids. After taking her home on the city bus, he charmed his way into her bedroom, telling her everything that she had ever wanted to hear, as “We Shall Overcome” played softly on his iPad. When she woke up the next morning, Mitch and his promises were gone. The only reminder of the wonderful night that they spent together was the “I Just Voted” sticker stuck to her headboard….

As we head full steam into a heated political season, most ethics and special interest groups are getting their lists of demands ready to put in front of candidates who are, aggressively, courting their votes. However for the Black community, there is no courtship. Just a sip of a cheap malt liquor, a one night stand, and a promise that “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

For politicians, less affluent African Americans are a cheap date or the political equivalent of a late night booty call. We, enthusiastically, give up the goods with no strings attached.

Although, you are allowed to diss the Democratic and the Republican candidates unmercifully, there is an unwritten law in this country that says that under no circumstances are you ever, ever allowed to pose the simple question…

“Why should I vote for either one of you losers?”

I don’t know about you, but nothing ticks me off more than some old Civil Rights-type person lecturing me about how “my ancestors died for my right to vote.”

I’m like, “Back up off me homie, you don’t know me like that, and I haven’t seen you at one family reunion!” My kin folks didn’t die for the right to vote. They died trying to get free by any means necessary.

This year, some Black leaders have a new slogan, “Vote… because Trayvon Martin would have wanted it that way…” How many of these opportunists who are using Trayvon Martin as a political pawn when he’s dead would have even given him (or his peers) the time of day when he when he was alive? How many Black commentators who have sampled the infamous 911 call for a “get out to vote” remix use their air time to politically educate the boys in the hoodies?

What most political crusaders will never admit is there is a disconnect between them and the Hip-Hop Nation.

Hip-Hop has long addressed the contradictions surrounding America’s politics. Back in the ’90s, Chuck D said, “Neither party is mine/ not the jackass nor the elephant” on “By the Time I Get to Arizona”. Also, on “Ah Yeah,” KRS-One scolded, “Remember the chains/ remember the whips/ remember the rope man/ You Black people still talkin’ ’bout votin’…” More recently, Lupe Fiasco gave a strong critique of the current administration when on “Words I Never Said,” he rapped “That’s why I ain’t vote for him/next one neither…”

That’s not to say that some in Hip-Hop (mostly the filthy rich) have not been political pimps over the years. During recent elections, there have been various campaigns where politicians have used millionaire rappers to convince Lil Tyrone that if he didn’t go to the polls, a gang of gold-toothed goons was gonna show up at his front door and give him a beat-down for neglecting his civic responsibility.

However, it ain’t gonna be that simple this year, as the suckers who bought into the whole “Vote or Die” hype back in 2004 are the same people who, in 2012, believe the Mayan Calender prediction that the world is going to end before the next inauguration, anyway. So why bother?

Although, the alternative sexual lifestyle has been a hot topic in Hip-Hop for years, any discussion of alternative political lifestyles has been taboo.

With all of the resources that Hip-Hoppers possess, why has there never been a serious effort to form a Hip-Hop Third Party, or at least consider the strategy of being independent of a particular party affiliation?

Although, there have been various people referred to as “Hip-Hop candidates,” over the years, they have been mostly politicians with a little store-bought swagger who knew how to kick a Run-DMC lyric. A rare exception being longtime Hip-Hop activist, Rosa Clemente, who was the Green Party vice presidential candidate in 2008.

Even the current Prez has to realize that listening to Lil Weezy on his iPod, or givin’ the Snowman (Young Jeezy) a shout out, doesn’t make you down with the streets.

Contrary to popular belief, some of us actually read. We have studied the works of economic thinkers such as Dr. Claude Anderson (Powernomics) and Dr. Amos Wilson (Blue Print for Black Power). A few of us have read Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power and know that America is not really a Democracy, but what John Perkins in “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” called a “Corporatocracy.” And while we brace for Armageddon every four years, the corporations that run the planet have already factored the upcoming elections into their 25-year agendas for global domination.

The Hip-Hop Nation must also realize that “civic responsibility” does not begin and end at the ballot box. It’s pretty easy for your favorite celebrity to motivate your crew to go out and vote once ever four years, but can you get your peeps to go to city council and school board meetings on a regular basis? As they say, “All politics is local,” and the ‘hood needs fewer drives for voter registration and more classes for political education.

In 1964, Malcolm X predicted it was gonna be “the ballot or the bullet.” This year, we have to decide whether it’s gonna be “the ballot or the booty call?”

Are we going to have real change, or are we still going to be neglected and disrespected by the major political parties?

As Ice Cube said in the classic flick, Boyz In the Hood, how long are we gonna rep’ for people who “either don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care what’s goin’ on in the ‘hood.”

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop”, a column for intelligent Hip-Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website, www.NoWarningShotsFired.com, or on Twitter (@truthminista).

Motherhood is the most important job in the universe; without mothers, there would be no us. No matter if yours is good or not-so-good, here or dearly departed, a Mom is the one thing we’ve all had in common.

My own Mom – boy, didn’t she raise a doozy! I can remember the late ’80s and early ’90s – the beginnings of my Black Militant era – when she would find cassette tapes of Public Enemy, N.W.A., KRS-One, Just Ice, and plenty of other stuff that was pretty intense for my tenderoni age, left in the tape deck. She was afraid for me.

Although I got excellent grades, had never been in any  major trouble, also jammed out to greatness like Earth, Wind & Fire, and pretty much stayed in church on Sundays, she was scared to death of the lyrical content I was ingesting when she wasn’t around. When she confiscated it, I would replace it the next day. It was a battle royale, but looking back at some of those songs, I guess she had a point at times. Here’s one that particularly riled her:

It was as if motherhood had erased her memory. Somehow, time had made my Mom forget her Black Power days at the historically Black Delaware State College, where she sported a red-dyed Afro, participated in sit-ins and ciphers (yes, that kind), marched to the beat of controversial brothers like Stokely Carmichel, and rocked out to James Brown, and later, Kool & The Gang and others.

What she didn’t realize some years later was that I had been watching her – working two jobs and raising two girls on her own when my dad wasn’t around anymore, holding it down independently without a man’s help, looking fly all the time, and being a good and conscious person. She also knew music – plays the piano even! – and had unwittingly set me on a course toward the music I loved from day one.

I distinctly remember hearing the familiar James Brown my Mom played being sampled in the break beats of the Rap I was hypnotized by as a kid. And, the Hip-Hop music I snuck to listen to as a teenager gave me strength and edge rather than rebellion, and coupled with her example, I’ve never needed for much of anything that I can’t get on my own. Fight the Power!

My Mom has always been an outspoken, hustler chick. She got that from the Civil Rights Era and the angst of the rioting she witnessed as a college student after Dr. King was assassinated. She got it from a hard work ethic, and a plethora of influences from the great Protest and Soul music of her time. It doesn’t get much more (pre)Hip-Hop than that.

As for the job she and billions of other women have? Well, I’m not a mother yet, but most of my friends are, and I can tell you one thing. It’s mostly a thankless job. There are some real superwomen out here – juggling 9-to-5 jobs with keeping house, buying groceries, picking up toys off the floor, cooking balanced meals, doing everybody’s laundry, worrying endlessly, going to little league games, ironing school clothes, doing hair, helping with homework, patching up boo-boos, subconsciously influencing their kids with music…you get the drift. That’s gangster, and that’s not even the half of it.

Somehow after all of that, the ones I know manage to come out still looking good, attending church, going to the gym, participating in sorority and community events, and partying like rock stars.

To your daily feats of bravery, I say, BRAVO, ladies. And Happy Mother’s Day.

(FOOTNOTE: My Mom still doesn’t really understand what I do for a living. She knows about Rap music, the big names like Jay-Z, and that it has stuck with me since those days back when she worried so much about me. It’s OK that she doesn’t get it, ’cause she’s still the one who put it in me. And I think I turned out OK – “F*ck The Police” and all. Thanks, Mom!)

Seandra Sims is a hopeful, future mother and AllHipHop.com’s Editor-At-Large. Follow her on Twitter (@SeandraSims).

It’s 2012, and Hip-Hop is on the eve of destruction. Fortunately, Earth’s mightiest MCs have banded together to save us from the evil corporate villains who are bent on destroying the culture. The group known as the Rap Avengers has sworn to never again let fear, egos, or personal differences prevent them from fighting for the Hip-Hop principles of Peace, Unity, Love, and having fun…

Well, I guess some things only happen in the movies…

Without a doubt, The Avengers, will go down in history as one of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters ever. For those who aren’t down with comics, it’s a movie based on the long-running, comic book series about how a bunch of Earth’s strongest heroes unite from time to time to kick butt when some galactic gangstas try to take over the planet.

However, historically, most comic book heroes have bypassed the ‘hood.

Old School comedians used to joke that Superman would fly over a burning apartment building full of kids in the ghetto to save a cat stuck in a tree in the ‘burbs.

Relatively speaking, there has always been a lack of Black superheroes. Back in the day, there were only a couple of sidekicks with “Black” in their names like Captain America’s trusty homie, “The Black Falcon”, or the token Black guy from the old Super Friends cartoon, “Black Vulcan.” The only major heroes were “The Black Panther,” who held down his African kingdom, “Storm,” the fine sista from the X-Men, and Power Man (Luke Cage, hero for hire), who wouldn’t even open the door for your grandma unless she tipped him five bucks. The only ones who really repped’ the Black community were Fat Albert, “The Brown Hornet”, and “Verb Man” from School House Rock.

Unfortunately , many of the real heroes who were really down for the people never made it into the comic books, nor the history books.

In the early 20th Century, Marcus Garvey formed the African Legion, and during the 1950s, Robert Williams formed the Deacons for Defense to protect the Black community. There were also groups in the ’60s such as the Black Liberation Army and the Republic of New Africa who fought for the people.

Other than Black organizations, there were groups like the Young Lords (Puerto Rican Nationalists) and AIM (American Indian Movement). According to legendary Hip-Hop photographer and author of several books including They Call it Graffiti, Ernie Paniccioli, “Red Pride and Red Power were reawakened by AIM and their demands for land rights, Freedom of Religion and the right to determine their own destiny still resonate in the hearts of native people throughout this stolen land.”

Despite the numerous ‘hood flicks glorifying Black-on-Black violence and the Tyler Perry-like movies, Hollywood has largely ignored the real heroes of oppressed communities. Until this day, there has only been one major movie made about Malcolm X (Spike Lee’s X) and only one about the Black Panther Party (Mario Van Peeble’s Panther).

There have been a few good fictitious movies, like The Spook Who Sat by the Door, based on the novel by Sam Greenlee about a CIA agent who used his skills to politicize gang members. And, DROP Squad, executive produced by Spike Lee, about a squad who went around “reprogramming” sellouts, much like Ice Cube’s 1991 video for “True to the Game”. Interestingly enough, according to Brian Ward in his book, Just My Soul Responding, there was a real DROP Squad in the late ’60s known as the FPC (Fair Play Committee) that put heat on industry cats who they felt were exploiting the community.

Over the years, Hip-Hop has had its own heroes such as Afrika Bambaataa’s Zulu Nation and Rev. Conrad Tillard’s (formerly Minister Conrad Muhammad) Movement For Change, which sought to bring peace and unity to the culture. And more recently, you have groups like the Uhuru Hip Hop Movement and the Militant Mind Militia who are trying to use Hip-Hop for Black Liberation.

However, the question becomes, why hasn’t a strong gang of conscious, super-lyrical MCs banded together to battle the corporate-owned rappers who spit ignorance and rescue the art form from the industry evil doers? After all, crews such as MMG (Maybach Music Group) and YMCMB (Young Money Cash Money Billionaires) have no problem coming together to lock down the industry, with no apologies.

There could be several reasons. Maybe fear of being forever blackballed by an unforgiving industry. Or perhaps, it’s a matter of over-sized egos. Who knows?

Could be that the same classism that has prevented other organizations from uniting for the common good of the ‘hood has also affected Hip-Hop.

Maybe we all aren’t fighting for the same thing.

According to Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. of the POCC/BPPC (Prisoners of Conscience Committee/Black Panther Party Cubs), “We do not have the same interests. Some people benefit from our people’s detriment.”

Bottom line is, no dude with a Viking hat and a sledgehammer is going to come down from the clouds and help us. And, we all know that Captain America ain’t gonna save us.

And since we have been waiting for a super troupe of Hip-Hop heroes to save rap music for, at least, the last decade, and the closest thing we have gotten is a Tupac hologram. Maybe they ain’t comin’ either…

No one is gonna save us but us. And this goes for the ‘hood and Hip-Hop.

It just takes one person to start a movement, and the rest will follow. So, maybe the hero lies within you.

Like Nas said on “Hero”, “The game needs him/plus the people need someone to believe in.”

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is This Ain’t Hip Hop: a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website, www.NoWarningShotsFired.com or on Twitter (@truthminista).

After 10 long years, the day had finally come. Juaquin Davis was finally graduating. As he swaggered across the commencement stage with his pants saggin’ just below his graduation robe, he took a moment to give a shout out to his homies in the audience. They returned the love by holding up a giant cardboard sign that said, “Kongrachulashunz!”

We have officially entered graduation season, the time of year when college seniors are taking their final exams and preparing to go out into the real world to make a difference, not only for themselves, but for their communities.

Well, that’s how it’s supposed to be. Unfortunately, in recent times there has been a decrease in the respect for knowledge, even among the college-educated.

There was a time in our history when knowledge was celebrated, and those who were fortunate enough to obtain a higher level of education saw it as their responsibility to uplift others. According to Lerone Bennett in his work, Before the Mayflower, the first Black college graduate, John B. Russwurm, used this intellect, not to open a strip club/rim shop, but to establish the first Black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, on March 16, 1827.

So, what happened to our sense of communal responsibility?

In his 1903 essay, “The Talented Tenth”, Dr. WEB DuBois blamed the failure of “the educated and intelligent” to raise the level of consciousness of the masses on “slavery and race prejudice.”

However, Dr. E. Franklin Frazier in his 1957 book, Black Bourgeoisie, suggested that they merely, got their degrees, got hooked up with a nice j-o-b-, bought a fat Caddy and left the ‘hood and never looked back.

Perhaps this over emphasis on material wealth is why today’s college-educated rappers make music for kindergartners.

It must be remembered that 2 Chainz, Gucci Mane, Plies, and many others are said to have either graduated from or at least chilled for a semester at institutions of higher learning. Also, although Lil Wayne is said to have taken classes at the University of Houston, a 2009 Wall Street Journal article mentioned a study that alleged that peeps who listened to Weezy had lower SAT scores than those who listened to other types of music.

Really?

Unfortunately, these are the people who many high school kids look up to as models of success which carries over into college life.

You may remember the controversy that erupted back in 2009, when according to the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, prestigious Morehouse College, initiated a “get back to the legacy ” dress code that cracked down on such official Hip-Hop gear as saggin’ pants, caps, and hoodies.

The glorification of anti-intellectualism has not always been the case in Hip-Hop. Even during the pre-conscious era, Old School pioneers like The Disco 4 were rapping about the value of education on “School Beats” and Kool Moe Dee was droppin’ mad multi-syllabric words in his rhymes. Although not usually mentioned in the same breath with conscious rappers such as Mos Def or Talib Kweli, in ’96, Ras Kass released what remains possibly the hardest hitting, most in-depth “conscious” song ever, “Nature of the Threat,” on which he quoted Dr. Ishakamusa Barashango among others.

But in recent history, this has been the exception, not the rule.

Even today’s more politically conscious Hip-Hop artists rarely rise above the level of what can be called “ghetto scholarship.”

The term “ghetto scholarship,” was popularized a few years back by Dr. Wesley Muhammad, author of several books including, The Book of God. According to Dr. Muhammad, “Ghetto scholarship refers to a type of particularly poor scholarship; poor because the methodologies upon which this scholarship is based are poor” He goes on to say, “Ghetto scholarship has nothing to do with degrees or formal education, or the lack thereof…”

Of course , he was not really referring to Hip-Hop, but if the Jordans fit….

Even though, Nas gets an A for effort for rappin’ that Alexander the so-called Great blasted the nose off the Sphinx on his hit, “I Can” (even though scholars argue that it was Napoleon), I can only imagine how many kids failed their history exams for listening to a Hip-Hop CD instead of doing their own research.

Maybe rappers spent too much time “diggin’ in the crates,” instead of diggin’ in the books ?

With all the “Hip-Hop” courses being offered at universities, you would think that somebody would have started some remedial classes for rappers. Unfortunately, Professor Carlton “C-Money” Banks is more interested in teaching Skippy and Heather in his Wacka Flocka English 101 class the deeper esoteric meaning of “Round of Applause” than he is enlightening the aspiring young rappers who live in the ‘hood surrounding his campus.

This can not be separated from the overall emphasis of Hip-Hop to teach middle-aged, White people how to be hip – the low point being when Busta Rhymes taught Martha Stewart the proper way to pronounce “What-tha-deely-yo?” at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards.

There may be other reasons for the dumbing down of Hip-Hop. Miami’s Tony Muhammad, a.k.a. “the Hip-Hop educator,” believes that Hip-Hop has been dumbed down by corporations to create “an unintelligent consumer base.” He said that the same companies that control the music industry also run the liquor companies and the prison industrial complex.”

As they say, “a fool and his money are soon parted.”

Back in the day, Public Enemy said it was their overall purpose to raise up 5,000 Black leaders. This should be our responsibility now more than ever. Even today, Hip-Hop still can play a major role in educating the masses.

So, as you get ready to grab your degrees, please remember your responsibilty to use your education to raise the consciousness of the Hip-Hop Nation. To remix a line from Dr. Dubois, your task is not to make men better Hip-Hop artists, but to make Hip-Hop artists better men.

In a time when popular opinion says that in order to reach this generation, you have to communicate on fifth grade level, you must stand your ground and yell, NONSENSE!

Lupe Fiasco said on “Dumb em Down”:

“They tell me I should come down, cousin/ But I flatly refused/ I ain’t dumb down nuthin’”

Neither should you.

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop,” a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website, www.NoWarningShotsFired.com, or on Twitter (@truthminista).

The vicious beating of unarmed motorist Rodney King which was caught on tape, March 3 1991 by bystander George Holiday angered many. But at the same time it gave people some sort of hope that things would change. The video tape was seemed the crucial piece of evidence that many had long been waiting for that would vindicate thousands of Black and Brown folks living in Southern, Cali who had long complained about the brutality of LAPD…Many felt it would lead to the arrest and criminal punishment of the 4 officers who were seen striking King over 50 times with batons and tasering him. The video tape underscored the long list of social and political conditions that were leading up to the 92 Uprisings. You can peep that infamous video HERE

The Sordid Legacy of Daryl Gates and LAPD

Prior to the Rodney King beating, many in the mainstream (whites) were dismissive of complaints from people in the hood about LA police brutality. In their minds they figured whatever was done by the police was justified, after all many had come to believe that areas like South Central LA, Watts, Compton and East LA to name a few, were ‘infested’ with out of control gangbangers who needed to be ‘suppressed’ at all costs.

I use words like ‘infested‘ and ‘suppressed‘ deliberately because that’s the dehumanizing language often used by the main antagonistic to Black and Brown communities in LA at that time, former Police Chief, the late Daryl Gates.

For those who don’t know, Gates was a media savvy, sadistic man who ran a well-heeled media campaign that convinced the world that his police force needed to be further militarized. Building off the legacy and policies of his mentor and predecessor LA’s police chief William H Parker, Gates started dressing his officers in military garb and supplying them with military weapons. He also got the department to adopt intrusive tactics more associated with Marine invasions vs protecting and serving the community which is the slogan seen on LA police cars.

Gates used the influx of crack cocaine and fights over drug turf as the rationale for ramping up his force. He even went out and got a tank that was modified to knock down crack houses. This tank was immortalized in the song Batter Ram by LA rapper Toddy Tee.. The Batterram garnered headlines when zealous officers knocked down the homes of innocent people thanks to faulty information or them being overzealous. Gates was unapologetic.

His campaign was suppression of the Black and Brown folks, no matter what walk of life. Under an infamous policy known as Operation Hammer, everyone from those communities who came in contact with LAPD was seen as a gang member. Again this is not exaggeration. Part of Gate’s strategy was to establish an extensive gang database, hence anyone pulled over for a traffic violation or stopped and detained for minor infractions was most likely to be entered into the database.

Gate’s policy was simple; you were associated with a particular gang based upon the neighborhood you lived in. The result of this policy was aggressive and harsh treatment, suspicion & profiling and oftentimes arrest when police pulled you over or detained you and found your name listed in the gang database.

Any crime committed against you was tainted as ‘gang related‘. The implication was , you were a victim of a robbery, or assault because of gang ties. This resulting in many crimes not being taken seriously. On top of that, complaints against the police was put on the back burner, especially if it could be shown that you were a ‘gang member’ listed in the database. By the time the Rodney King/LA Uprisings kicked off, a whooping 47% of Black males between the ages of 21-25 in Los Angles were deemed gang members thanks to the database.

LAPD’s Unwritten Policy of Suppression

The unwritten policy of LAPD dating back to the 1950s under Chief William H Parker was to establish dominance send a strong message to the growing population of Black and Brown folks that the police were in charge. This was done two ways. First, Parker notoriously recruited officers from states throughout the South, which were still immersed in Jim Crow. Many of the officers harbored strong anti-Black sentiments and carried it with them to their new jobs in Los Angeles.

Second, his officers would make it a point to stop and detain Black youth while they were pre-teens or in their early teens. This was Parker’s way of as a way establishing presence. He wanted certain residents of LA to know the police were always around and ready to roll and clamp down. Parker’s attitude was get to them while they’re young and put fear in them. The adults who were stopped by his men were treated even more harshly. Oftentimes they were talked to in a demeaning manner i.e. being called ‘boy’ or a racial epithet.

Parker’s cops were known to purposely embarrass adults in front of their kids or on husbands in front of their wives.. All this hostility was complicated by the fact that LA at that time was very segregated and had on its books housing covenants which restricted the areas that Black and Brown folks could live..

Watts was the main Black area was known among police officers as ‘the Duck Pond‘. Here officers who patrolled it, did so with the goal of containing Black residents and keeping them from entering into white sections of the city.

There was study done in the 60s that showed that 90% of the juveniles arrested by LAPD were not charged. This was essentially Stop-N-Frisk ala NYPD decades before it showed up as police practice in NYC. Many say Parker’s harsh policing policies led to the 1965 Watts Riots/Rebellions..

It’s important to understand this history when looking at the Rodney King uprisings. Its important for folks to know and understand how deep rooted and systemic police/ community relations were and the type of discontent that it caused. In the 1965 Watts rebellion, in spite of the resulting 39 dead and over a 1000 injured, conditions and policy didn’t change too much in LA. If anything they got worse.

By the 1980s LA’s first Black Mayor Tom Bradley continued that harsh policing when he famously ordered massive roundups and arrests via Daryl Gates, of Black and Brown men as LA hosted the 1984 Olympics. It’s reported that over 25 thousand were locked up. A few years later Gates implemented Operation Hammer which was a system of gang sweeps and massive arrests. One weekend he locked up over 1200 residents suspected of being ‘gang members’.

Gates said there was a war going on in the streets and his police force was determined to fight it. However, as we now know Gate’s war machine should’ve been directed at the government who supplied infamous drug dealers like Freeway Rick with the cocaine and not the community who were catching hell on both ends. On one hand, many in Black and Brown communities fell prey to crack addiction or crack related violence. While on the other hand, they also felt the the wide sweeping brunt of Daryl Gates and his brutalizing police force.

Latasha Harlins

In looking at the Rodney King uprisings, many believe you can not overlook the shooting death of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins at the hands of Korean grocery store owner Soon Ja Du. her death happened 2 weeks after Rodney King was beaten.. A video tape surfaced showing Harlin’s being shot in the back of the head as she attempted to leave a store where she was suspected of ‘stealing a soda.

According to court transcripts, what went down was; Harlin put a soda in her backpack and went to the counter to pay for it. Ja Du not seeing the money in Harlins’ hand grabbed her and a tussle ensued. During the struggle, Du threw a stool at Harlin, she in turn picked up the soda and threw it on the counter. Harlins then turned to leave the store at which point Du pulled out a gun and shot her in the head claiming she feared for her life.

Tensions between Black and Korean merchants exploded. Korean merchants felt that they were frequent victims to violent crimes at the hands of Blacks. Black customers felt they were always being far too often deemed suspicious and treated badly by Koreans who were getting money from the community yet didn’t live there or show respect. Harlins murder was the tipping point.

Verdicts Gone Wrong

The trials demanding justice for Harlin and King looked to be open and shut with convictions eminent. Many in the Black community were hopeful, after al,l both incidents were caught on tape. Unfortunately these trials were anything but simple.

In spite of the video and contradictory testimony Du was sentenced to 5 years probation at the conclusion of her November 1991 trial. A news report at the time showed a Korean man being sentenced around the same time for being cruel to a dog. He received 30 days.. That was contrasted with the Harlin’s verdict and caused widespread outrage. You can peep that video HERE.

The Rodney King trial took a longer path. First, it was moved out of LA to Simi Valley which is home to a lot of police officers. defense lawyers claimed there was too much pre-trial publicity.

Second, there were no African-Americans on the jury. The trial to convict LAPD officers Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Theodore Briseno and Timothy Wind was heard by a jury consisting of ten whites, one Latino and one Asian..

On April 29 1992, that Simi Valley jury acquitted all 4 officers. Once the word got out, all hell broke loose. The result? 53 people dead, about 2,500 injured and more than $400 million in property damage.

The sentiment was Black life didn’t matter and there would never be any justice for those who found themselves on the receiving end of oppression and abuse.People were angery and felt hopeless, as if nothing they did mattered or would be given a fair shot.

Mayor Tom Bradley visibly taken a back by the verdict publicly stated; ‘the jury’s verdict will not blind us to what we saw on that videotape. The men who beat Rodney King do not deserve to wear the uniform of the L.A.P.D.‘

Then President Bush sr stated; ‘viewed from outside the trial, it was hard to understand how the verdict could possibly square with the video. Those civil rights leaders with whom I met were stunned. And so was I and so was Barbara and so were my kids’.

Daryl Gates defended his department and his decision not to have extra officers on hand after the verdict was read.. He claimed that his department would shut down any disturbance. After the uprising, Gates was asked to step down, by Mayor Bradley, he steadfastly refused and a huge public dispute between the two men emerged. Gates finally stepped down, two months later in June 1992.

6 months after the uprising Gates showed his true sadistic colors when he acknowledged that he made errors in judgement around handling the uprising. He said; “Clearly that night we should have gone down there and shot a few people… that’s exactly what we should have done. We should have blown a few heads off.’

The 92 Gang Truce

The LA Uprising brought to life a beautiful facet that had been in the works for a couple of years prior and had been cemented two days before the infamous Rodney King verdict.

Rival Blood and Crip sets in Watts signed historic Gang Truce on April 27th. More than 300 gang members showed up at City hall to mark the occasion. Many didn’t realize a truce had went into effect until all the turmoil jumped off and folks noticed that rivals gangs were working hand in hand, calling for unity and exuding a spirit of cooperation. There were signs painted all over the city that read Crip, Bloods and Eses Together. Many thought the lopsided verdict brought everyone together overnight. The truth of the matter was the ensuing rebellion underscored and accentuated the peace and healing work various cliques had been working toward…

What led to the truce was gang members tiring of senseless deaths. LA had its highest murder rate two years in row leading up to the uprising. Much of the violence was around drug turf. In response gang members in Watts began to wake up and start a process that would eventually lead to peace.

Landmark meetings with Minister Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam and later numerous gatherings at the home of former football legend Jim Brown played key roles in helping facilitate the various peace process gang members had undertaken..Its said Brown put almost half a million dollars of his own money into efforts to lay down a foundation for peace.

The 92 Gang Truce set off similar efforts throughout LA and around the nation. Its also one of the most under reported facets of what went down 20 years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYm-dx_k0Jw

We recently sat down with Aqeela Sherrills who was part of that important process. In this interview he gives an indepth run down of what took place and what’s going on now in LA, 20 years later. He talks in great detail about the decrease in crime because of the Truce. He noted that LA has its lowest crime in over 40 years and that its currently in its 8th year of decreases. He also talked about how the 92 Gang Truce was an inspiration for the Million man march which took place 3 years later.

He also goes into detail explaining the attempts to break the Truce.. The main culprit? LAPD. He noted that the police had strong economic incentive to keep the chaos going due to the huge amount of income they were generating via overtime pay and the formation of specialized task force. It was in their interests to play up the fear and downplay the truce.

In our interview Aqeela also talks about the Black/ Brown conflict. He explains how a lot of the beef has been rival gangs (one Black one Brown) going at it and not so much due to racial hatred..

Here’s a link to this insightful interview..that aired yesterday on our TRadioV show

Below is an incredible clip just days after the Rodney King Uprising..It aired on Nightline w/ Ted Koppell and features gang members Bone and Lil Monster

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60jXGIEcw5I

We went digging in the crates to pull out an insightful interview w/ former Gang member Twilight Bey who was the inspiration for the PBS show Twilight LA…He gives a solid breakdown of the 92 Gang Truce and what led up to LA Uprisings.. Much of what he said 10 years ago holds true today.. Below pt 1 of the 4pt conversation..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byUzkkMav74

• Twilight Bey Intv pt2
• Twilight Bey Intv pt3
• Twilight Bey Intv pt4
• Aqeela Shirills Intv 2012

The Role of Hip Hop

As we close out we have to acknowledge the role music and Hip Hop played in the Rodney King/ LA Uprisings.. First a bit of history… Back in 1965 during the Watts Rebellion, the media and the police blamed popular African-American disc jockey Magnifigent Montague for setting it off. Montague was heard on KGFJ where he frequently peppered his on air banter in between the hottest R&B and Soul songs of the day with tidbits about African American history. He would often have guest on his show including Malcolm X. Martin Luther King name checks him in a couple of speeches praising him for his activism.

Montague had a slogan that he used whenever he played a hit record.. That phrase was ‘Burn Baby Burn‘. Listeners would call up when he played a dope song and repeat the phrase. During the Watts Rebellion in 65, folks in the streets adapted the phrase. Some flipped it and said Burn Whitey Burn..

Montague was on the air encouraging folks to go home, but that didn’t stop Chief William Parker from publicly calling for Montague to be fired. LAPD also stepped to him to stop using the phrase. Montague kept his job, but dropped the slogan and changed it to Learn Baby learn as he committed himself to working with youth and calling for peace.

The scapegoating of Montague should be noted because years later during the 92 Uprisings, folks blamed rappers like Ice Cube for setting a tone that would lead to social unrest. Folks looked at songs like Black Korea, which Cube did in homage to Latasha Harlin 7 months before the 92 unrest where he warned Korean merchants to respect the Black fist or get burned to a crisp.. When folks went after Korean stores during the rebellion, Cube was called to task and accused of being racist..

What was overlooked was that Cube and many others were soundtracking the emotions and sentiments held by many at that time.. We could look back to Toddy Tee doing Batterram and Ice T doing 6 N the Morning as giving us early glimpse into what Black folks in LA were struggling with..

NWA‘s Fuck tha Police took it to a whole other level and became an anthem, which netted response from police departament and the FBI.. Police in cities throughout the country pressured venue owners to not allow the song to be played.. An FBI member sent a letter to the group condemning the group.

After the uprisings Cube shunned his critics and turned up the heat with songs like We Had to Tear This Mother Up Here he talks about going after the Simi Valley jury and personally assaulting the 4 officers who were aquitted. He name checks each of them and drops a line explaining the violent manner he would like to see befall them.

Meanwhile, his then newly signed artist Kam who was apart of the Gang Truce documents and celebrates it in his song Peace Treaty . His video brings to life the beauty of unity that was unfolding in Watts.

In the wake of that dozens of songs emerged referencing the 92 Gang Truce, the LA Uprisings and anger toward the police.

Conclusion

As we look back on the 20th anniversary, lets allow what occurred to be an inspiration. Lets learn lessons from the historic gang truce, lets try to bring similar efforts in our own communities. Lets also learn the lessons of a police force that refuses to change. 20 years after the Uprisings we seen the police departments get worse. It was just last week that we saw the investigation into LA sheriffs about a group of rogue cops calling themselves the Jump Off Boys.. The struggle continues..

written by Davey D

“How to Make a Slave by Willie Lynch/ is still applyin’” – “Redefintion”, Black Star

Two score years ago, evil marketing genius, Big Willie Lynchman stood on the bank of the Los Angeles River and delivered a speech to entertainment executives about how to control Hip-Hop. “You must divide the old school rappers against the new school, the East Coast against the West Coast, male rappers against female rappers,” he shouted. “If you do this, I guarantee that you will control Hip-Hop for another 20 years….”

Of course, the above scenario is jacked from the “Willie Lynch: How to Make a Slave” letter, but just like the infamous letter, if it ain’t historically true, it’s darn near close.

As Phillip A. Muhammad, author of “The Hip Hop Nation: Willie Lynch’s Newest Slave”, put it , “The doctrine and methods of Willie Lynch gave birth to a modern slave mentality that permits today’s rappers to be pimped, prostituted, punked, bullied, isolated and corrupted due to the divisive characteristics that are outlined within the Willie Lynch Letter.”

So much so, that in 2012, we are still asking ourselves, “Why can’t Black folks get along?”

Although the mainstream media like to focus on the violent aspect of the 1992 L.A. Rebellion, following the trial of the cops that beat Rodney King, the real threat to the social hegemony of this country was not the “burnin’ and lootin”‘ but the peace treaties and the spirit of Black unity that swept the nation. For the first time in more than 20 years. the African American community yelled out with a united voice, “We ain’t gonna take it no more!!!

All of a sudden, gangs that had been bitter enemies for years were partyin’ together at community picnics. But, before the coals could even cool on the grill, the unity ended. Twenty years later, we have to ask, what happened?

Like all things, the answers are rooted in history, as one of the greatest weapons against Black unity has been the divide and conquer strategy.

In Eugene Genovese’s work, “From Rebellion to Revolution”, he mentions that some Maroon societies even signed “peace treaties” with colonial regimes for freedom in exchange for pledges to return runaways and “repress slave rebellions” in the Caribbean. He also wrote that in the U.S. during the Nat Turner Revolt, some slaves even sided with their masters.

But, through it all, there were always those who fought for unity.

The greatest example of Black solidarity is, perhaps, the United Negro Improvement Association founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914, which is said to have had at its apex two million members. Although a remnant of the UNIA still exists, according to historians like Theodore G. Vincent (“Black Power and the Garvey Movement”), it was, virtually, destroyed by a combination of federal persecution, internal bickering, and the efforts of integrationist “mainstream” Black leaders who started a “Garvey Must Go” campaign.

Perhaps the closest thing to Garvey’s Movement in Hip-Hop was X-Clan and the Black Watch Movement during the late ’80s/early ’90s. Original X-Clan member Paradise Gray said that the key behind the success of that movement was that it was “inter-generational.” “Everywhere X-Clan traveled there were elders to greet us,” said Gray. During that brief period in Hip-Hop history, from 1988-1992, unity was the norm, not an exception, to the rule.

But after 1992, things began to change.

Although Dr. Dre and political awareness is oxymoronic, he captured White America’s fear on The Chronic’s largely forgotten track, “The Day the N*ggaz Took Over”, prompting the end of the Conscious Hip-Hop Era.

All of a sudden, the people that America considered useless street thugs became intelligent hoodlums. The book “Uprising” by Yusuf Shah and Sister Shah ‘Keyah featured gang members who spoke very clearly about the state of America following the L.A. Rebellion. According to one interviewee – General Robert Lee – the reason why the peace treaty failed was “a big conspiracy with the government and police starting much of the trouble.”

But “the state” was not the only reason.

Conscious Hip-Hop began to decline when artists began to focus on teaching middle class, White America about “growin’ up in the ‘hood,” instead of giving young, Black children a “Knowledge of Self.”

Perhaps too much emphasis was placed on convincing White folks that “rappers were people, too” – the lowest point being when feared “gangsta rappers” Ice T and Tupac Shakur sang the sappy duet, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” on the “Saturday Night Live” special in 1996.

2pac & Ice-T singing You Don’t Bring Me Flowers Live on SNL from 2Pac-Forum.com on Vimeo.

Retrospectively, William Van DeBurg in “New Day in Babylon” argued that, after the Black Power Movement, America experienced a “welcomed hiatus from urban rioting” and “both the press and public lost interest in Black Power.”

In the same manner, the more the smoke cleared from the L.A. Uprising, the more “Black unity” became an out-of-date fad.

Also, although the topic of urban outrage and ‘hood tales appealed to a broad audience, in an industry dominated by green power, the idea of Black unity was dismissed as only appealing to a small, insignificant African American demographic. Hip-Hop murder and mayhem was a much bigger money maker.

The average American really does not give two cents about Black-on-Black relations. The only time that it is really mentioned is when, during a Trayvon Martin-like situation, racist right wingers need to point a figure and create straw man arguments to blame White racism on “Black on Black violence.”

“Uh, how are you guys gonna blame us, when you kill each other every day, Buddy ?”

We have to realize that the Black on Black violence is a direct result of the destruction of Black unity.

But that’s the problem. What’s the solution?

Dr. Alim Bey, author of “First World Order” and owner of the Cultural Freedom Bookstore in Fayetteville, North Carolina, suggested, “Awareness has to be the key; a re-establishment of culture.”

So, how are you going to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the L.A. Rebellion? Are you gonna just kick back and watch CNN, Fox, and MSNBC talking heads wax poetic about Black issues about which they know nothing about? Or are you going to use the anniversary to, proactively, help solve the problems we are facing today?

On April 29, 2012, we are calling for a Black Unity/Peace Treaty and a formal resurrection of political Hip-Hop. On that day, we must use our social network outlets, Facebook, Twitter, etc, to promote the idea of “Peace in the ‘Hood”.

With all the ill stuff that has happened to Black people in just the past few months, it is very necessary for us to put behind differences and work towards a common goal.

Like West Coast Kam warned us two decades ago on “Peace Treaty”:

“It’s now or never/ more than ever/ Black people have to stick together.”

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is This Ain’t Hip Hop: a column for intelligent Hip=Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website, www.NoWarningShotsFired.com, and on Twitter (@truthminista).

They used to lynch us. They don’t do that anymore.

They used to call our fathers “boy” and send them around back. They don’t do that anymore.

Now it’s unconscious, so all they have to do is think.

Racism has gone underground, upgraded its look to be more stylish and user friendly. In fact, it’s undergone such a dramatic face lift that racists themselves don’t even know they’re racist. That’s impressive.

Racists these days have black friends and get along with their black coworkers. They have Jay Z and Usher songs in their iTunes accounts, and they readily compliment black women on how nice their natural hair looks. And they really mean those compliments. They wouldn’t ever want their hair to do that, but they really do like the way it looks on someone else. I guess that’s just one of the perks of the new unconscious racism.

It made the trans Atlantic slave trade okay. It made colonization and Apartheid okay. It made the Holocaust and Japanese concentration camps okay. It made the slaughter and relocation of Native Americans okay. All inhumane treatment of non-white people is justified in the eyes of racism. Twisted stuff, ain’t it? But don’t be fooled. This new racism, polite and understated though it may be, is still the same old racism. It still runs on that inherently-flawed and extremely delusional belief that God is white (European) and has a natural preference for his own. That’s the thinking that made the world’s human atrocities okay.

Racism Goes Underground

But this new racism is tricky. It’s ninja-like in its ability to operate without detection. It isn’t as in-your-face. It lies dormant most of the time, silently feeding off of reinforced stereotypes, media misinformation and fear. It nestles itself so deeply in the subconscious that most who are affected by it can honestly say, “I am not racist.” As far as they know, they aren’t. They don’t hate black people. They don’t think black people deserve to be treated badly. But they do believe, way back in the recesses of their mind, that certain things, places and people are designated for whites only. Not in a “colored entrance” kind of way, but in a “I get uncomfortable when I see black people overstepping their bounds” kind of way.

That’s why Trayvon Martin looked suspicious. His presence in that particular neighborhood made Zimmerman uncomfortable. He would have felt perfectly fine had he seen Martin in a predominantly black, poor neighborhood—not being racist or anything, but that is where blacks live, right?—but he couldn’t conceive that Martin possibly belonged in that neighborhood. The mere sight of that hoodied young man (not to be confused with a “hooded” young man) in that gated community was enough to activate the unconscious racist within. In an instant, all the stereotypes and fear he’d gathered and stored in his 28 years flooded Zimmerman’s conscious mind and instructed him to save the neighborhood and himself from this incredibly threatening black male.

That’s also why some disgruntled Hunger Games fans have found fault with the color of particular cast members. Despite the fact that casting directors make small (and large) changes to book characters all the time, their unconscious racists within were activated when they saw that such powerful and positive characters were played by…dramatic pause… black actors (cue shock and awe now). According to some of the upset tweets, the author made no mention of color. This actually isn’t true, but it doesn’t matter. When they discovered that the book characters where strong, positive and actually of significance to the story, they automatically assumed the author meant for them to be white, because, well, what else could they possibly be? And those unconscious racist thoughts were actually strong enough to edit out the parts of the book that literally describe their skin as “dark brown.”

Wow.

“They know one day we’ll learn how to use it/That’s why they fear our jungle music” – “Jungle Music”, Jeru tha Damaja

April 29, 2012, following the assassination of political Hip Hop artist, Lil J B, in Jasper, Texas, America experienced her worst riot in the last 20 years, prompting the authorities to enact Operation You Gots Ta Chill. Like clockwork, “responsible” leaders held press conferences urging for calm, while at the same time activists were being hauled off to football stadiums that had been converted into concentration camps. Immediately, all Hip-Hop was banned from the radio, except for songs by Nicki Minaj and Drake…

Think this can’t happen? Think again.

For many years people have been talking about how “Hip-Hop is dead.” But what must be understood is that the bullet that killed real Hip-Hop was fired on April 29, 1992, during the L.A. Rebellion, following the acquittal of the cops that beat Rodney King. Many Hip-Hop historians will tell you that, at that moment in time, Hip-Hop changed forever.

Since we know, according to Lou Cannon, in his book, Official Negligence, that during the L.A. Rebellion, something called Operation Cool Response was enacted to keep the natives from gettin’ restless, could some operation also have been launched to silence political rap music?

It’s very possible.

Prior to 1992, America had been somewhat tolerant of rap music as entertainment, however, they underestimated it’s potential to spark a revolution. So following the outrage surrounding the so-called Rodney King verdict, something had to be done quickly. They resorted to the old tactics that had been used for centuries to squash political dissent.

The suppression of Black voices is nothing new, as it can be traced back to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade when the drum was taken from tribes for fear that it would have allowed the Africans to unite against the slave traders.

It must also be noted that the reason that most people are under the false impression that the enslaved Africans did not rebel is because that information has been hidden from history.

In his book, American Negro Slave Revolts, Hebert Aptheker argued that the reason that most people believe that the slaves did not fight back was because of the suppression of information by politicians and newspaper owners who felt that the truth about rebellions would spread fear among Whites and encourage more rebellions among Blacks. So, this type of information was kept on the low.

This manipulation of facts continued into the 20th century.

According to Dr. Patricia Turner in her book, I Heard it Through the Grapevine, during the heated racial period around World War II there were even “rumor clinics” set up to “prevent potentially adverse hear say of all sorts from gaining credibility.”

Perhaps the most horrendous acts of political suppression happened during the Civil Rights /Vietnam War Era. Attorney William Kunstler wrote in his autobiography, My Life as a Civil Rights Lawyer, that H. Rap Brown (whose words were ironically the basis for Big Bank Hank’s line on “Rappers Delight”) was arrested in July 1967 in Cambridge, Maryland for advocating a riot. This led to the Rap Brown Statute, which made it a federal crime for anyone to cross state lines with intention of starting a riot. According to Kunstler, this law was used in the infamous trial of the Chicago 8 which included the bounding, gagging and chaining of Black Panther Bobby Seale in the courtroom.

The entertainment industry has also played a major role in squashing rebellions over the years.

Although “urban” radio is seen as the voice of the ‘hood, it has played a major role in suppressing more “militant” voices.

According to Brian Ward, in his book, Just My Soul Responding, during the ’60s “militants felt that soul radio discouraged Black insurgency and reinforced the racial and economic status quo in subtle ways.” Ward states that in 1967, the Take a Look Foundation was established to “use Black oriented radio to defuse tensions.”

So anything with the ability to “move the crowd” has been used for us and against us. Hip-Hop is no exception.

Rap artists are no strangers to censorship. Back during the early ’80s, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five couldn’t even say “pissin’ on stage” on the radio, and we still can’t figure out what was so bad about Digital Underground’s Humpty Hump braggin’ how “he once got busy in a Burger King bathroom.”

However, there is a big difference between censorship of that nature and the suppression of political ideas. There are many examples of Hip-Hop artists feeling America’s wrath after they crossed the line of demarcation between rap and radical thought.

Perhaps one of the best examples is West Coast artist, Paris. According to a November 29, 1992 Los Angeles Times article, Time Warner gave him “six figures” as compensation after refusing to put out his Sleeping With the Enemy CD.

Also, rapper Too Short recently alleged that his record label made him make sex songs instead of more political music around that same period.

In the years since the L.A. Rebellion, it has become increasingly harder for artists to fight for their rights to politically party. It must be noted then even rare instances of activism, like Mos Def’s performance of “Katrina Clap” outside of the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards Show are viewed as random acts of radicalism or temporary temper tantrums, not part of a protracted struggle against oppression.

Let’s be clear. The reason that you don’t hear Dead Prez and Immortal Technique on the radio is not because of their profanity but their “profound-ity.” There is no more cussin’ on an Immortal Technique record song than there is on the barely edited, yet radio friendly “Marvin’s Room” by Drake.

Fortunately, there is still a small Hip-Hop resistance made of activists, writers and artists still bringin’ the noise. But speakin’ Truth comes with a price.

Like Ice T once said, “Freedom of speech, just watch what you say.”

The powers that be don’t want the masses to know the truth. And if you are one of the few who dare to speak it, you may find yourself being banned from radio, blacklisted from Hip hop conferences and all other venues.

But somebody’s gotta do it.

Like Lupe Fiasco said, “The Show Goes On.”

“Even if they ban us, they’ll never slow my plans up.”

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is This Ain’t Hip Hop, a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website, www.NoWarningShotsFired.com, or  on Twitter (@truthminista). 

Angela Corey, the Florida special prosecutor investigating the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, announced this afternoon that she intends to prosecute Zimmerman for second-degree murder. Because Martin is unquestionably dead, and because Zimmerman indisputably caused his death, the single proposition the prosecution must establish is that the killing was unlawful.

But there is almost no chance the state will be able to obtain a conviction, and despite Corey’s assertion that public pressure did not influence the decision to move forward with the prosecution, the fact that Florida authorities did nothing for six weeks after the killing makes her claim implausible. The decision to prosecute therefore seems more intended to assuage the community’s moral outrage than redress a legal violation.

The problem here is that there are actually two problems: one is what George Zimmerman did, which was to shoot and kill an unarmed young man who had every right to be where he was. The second is that Florida law allows that to happen.

Chapter 776.013(3) of Florida law—the now-infamous “Stand Your Ground” provision—states: “A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”

The so-called Castle Doctrine—named after the quaint British expression that a man’s house is his castle—dates back at least to the early 17th century and permits someone in his or her home to use lethal force against an intruder. American colonists brought it with them, and today, more than half the states have versions of the doctrine. The effect of the Castle Doctrine is to override the duty to retreat. So even if it is perfectly possible for the homeowner to safely escape, the Castle Doctrine means the homeowner does not have to.

Many states have adopted bulked-up versions of the doctrine and done away with the duty to retreat in places besides the home. Others have done away with the duty altogether, so long as the person believes lethal force is reasonably required to protect himself or herself from serious injury.

But Florida law remains unique. Unlike Texas law, for example, which does not permit deadly force to be used by someone who provokes hostile action, Florida allows someone to use deadly force even if his conduct somehow created the very threat to which his lethal force responds. So if, as Zimmerman claims, Martin walked toward him and asked why he was following him, and Zimmerman reasonably felt threatened by that question, Florida gives him permission to shoot, even though his very conduct provoked Martin’s question.

That’s not the end of it: Florida law also permits the use of lethal force by someone whose own welfare is not directly threatened. It even permits the use of lethal force where the only threat is to property—including property not owned by the person using the force.

In Florida, therefore, the Castle Doctrine extends across every inch of the state, and it allows someone to kill somebody else even if that other person is not threatening any human being. In fact, Florida’s law imposes but a single requirement regulating its use: The person who uses lethal force must be acting on the basis of a “reasonable” belief.

It is precisely the statute’s use of the word “reasonable” that makes it possible for Corey to pursue criminal charges against Zimmerman. If his action was unreasonable, then the killing was unlawful, and he is guilty of second-degree murder.

The prosecution’s case will therefore be built entirely around the reasonableness of Zimmerman’s conduct. The problem for the state is that it bears the burden of proof, meaning it will essentially be required to prove that his belief was unreasonable. Since the principal witness who could help establish that fact is dead, the probability of a conviction seems exceedingly remote.

There will presumably be witnesses who will testify as to their perception of what was happening. Trayvon Martin’s girlfriend might testify about her conversation with him. Other eyewitnesses might say that they saw Zimmerman acting aggressively. Others still might report on whether Zimmerman had physical wounds.

This editorial originally appeared on The Daily Beast. Read the rest of the editorial here.

“White America/ assassinate my character” – “Gotta Have It” – Kanye West and Jay-Z

After being caught on You Tube with a white sheet, a box of matches, and a gasoline can braggin’ about burning down the home of African American activist, Emmett Evers, Byron De la Bryant was finally being charged with a hate crime. The prosecution used hundreds of historical documents of cross burnings, brutal beatings, and lynchings to prove that Bryant’s actions were part of a long legacy of racist crimes against African Americans. However, after the defense showed the jury a video of the 1992 beating of Reginald Denny, they found Bryant not guilty….

April 29, 1992, millions of Africans Americans sat by their televisions outraged that the acquittal of the four white officers accused of beating Rodney King was evidence of white America’s racism. Later that same day, millions of White Americans sat by their televisions convinced that the beating of white truck driver Reginald Denny by Black men was proof of Black racism.

These two events have sparked hundreds of conversations about race over the 20 years since the L.A. Rebellions, with most of them ending in the compromise that there are Black racists as well as White racists.

This conclusion is patently false. There ain’t no such thing as a “Black racist.”

African Americans can be many things: thugs, gangstas, Republicans, etc. But the one thing that we cannot be is racist. Although most people define racism as hatred for people of a different race, a more functional definition would be having the power to enforce that hatred socially, politically, and economically. And last time I checked, Black people did not posses that kind of juice.

In his work, “The United Independent Compensatory Code,” Neely Fuller argued that “the only form of functional racism that exists among the people of the known universe is white supremacy.” But that minor detail has not stopped folks from engaging in the never ending hunt for the nonexistent Black supremacist.

In his book, The Ice Man Inheritance, Michael Bradley traced the foundation of the myth of Black racism back centuries ago when the Bantu-speaking people “enslaved” the “Hottentots” (Khoikhoi) and the “Bushmen” (San). Because anthropologist CS Coon divided the Africans into two separate races, some have used this as evidence of “Black supremacy.”

Just as many people used the beating of Denny as the quintessential example of Black racism , even today, any time Black folks start marching and yellin’ “No Justice No Peace”, you can bet that Fox News and others won’t rest until they finally capture a Black supremacist.

This is how it has always been.

In 1915, during the height of outrage over the lynching of African Americans, the movie Birth of a Nation was used to justify the activities of the Ku Klux Klan by portraying Black men as rapists.

During the mid-’50s when Black people were being attacked by police dogs for fighting for their rights, journalist Mike Wallace produced an expose on the Nation of Islam called, “The Hate that Hate Produced.”

More recently, in November 2006 after Michael Richards a.k.a. “Kramer” from “Seinfield”, dropped multiple N-bombs, the argument quickly became, “Well, Black comedians use the word all the time.”

Who can forget when, in April 2007, after Don Imus called the Rutgers University Women’s B-Ball Team “nappy headed hoes,” Civil Rights leaders and right wing talking heads found a slick way to blame it all on Hip-Hop.

Recently, after the Trayvon Martin murder, Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera blamed the incident on kids wearing hoodies. And Bill O’Reilly sent his top notch producer to gang-infested Chicago to promote the idea that we should be focused on Black-on-Black violence instead of the Martin murder. Now, with the shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, of five African Americans, allegedly by two White men, look for Fox to do a series of stories on the history of drivebys in the ‘hood.

The purpose here is not to suggest that all White people are racists. However, without a doubt , the small group of ultra-rich people who control the resources of the planet don’t live in Compton. The ones behind the curtains pulling the strings are wealthy White men.

In Dr. W.E.B. DuBois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction, it is reported that, during slavery, only seven percent of the southern population owned slaves. According to DuBois, “The masses of poor whites were economic outcasts.” All they had going for them was a false sense of racial superiority. In reality, Blacks and poor Whites were being manipulated by greedy Northern industrialists and the Southern planter class.

Not much has changed. Perhaps there is some truth in the line from Goodie Mob’s Cell Therapy that warned that one day trained assassins would be coming for ” n*ggas like me/poor white trash like they…”

Ironically, conversations have taken place between those who advocated Black Pride and proponents of White Power.

According to Dr. Tony Martin in his book, Race First, in 1922, Marcus Garvey had an Atlanta meeting with “Edward Young Clarke, acting imperial wizard of the Klan.” In A Life of Reinvention Malcolm X, Manning Marable said that Malcolm X was involved in a 1961 meeting with the KKK also in the ATL. Also, the man credited with popularizing the term “Black Power” – Kwame Ture (then Stokely Carmichael) – once had a cordial debate with George Lincoln Rockwell, a major advocate of White Power.

Like EPMD would say, racism is “Business Never Personal.”

Hip-Hop has attempted to address racism over the years from relatively lighthearted songs like Kool G Rap’s “Erase Racism” to the more militant works of the West Coast’s Paris and early Ice Cube (before he became a movie star.) However, I think that The Lox summed it up best: it’s all about “Money, Power, Respect.”

The major crime of White supremacy is the hoarding of the planet’s wealth, leaving the masses to fight over crumbs.

The solution to this country’s “race problem” may have been best articulated by the late Black Panther, Fred Hampton, when he said “Power to the People.” That means Black Power to Black people, White Power to White People, Brown Power to Brown people, etc.

When this is achieved maybe we can finally answer the question that Rodney King asked the world 20 years ago:

“Can’t we all just get along?”

Not yet Rodney, not yet.

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop,” a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website, NoWarningShotsfired.com, or on Twitter (@truthminista).

“Only in Cali where we riot/ not rally” – “California Love” –Dr. Dre and 2Pac

Recently, in Memphis, the shooting of African American teenager, Thomas Martin King, Jr., by George Earl Koontz, a white, off duty security guard at the Loraine Hotel, sparked waves of protests. King was shot while returning from the grocery store with a small bag of Marvin’s Mini Marshmallows, which Koontz thought was crack. Days later, Civil Rights leaders held voter registration and fish fry rallies calling for the prosecution of Koontz, and people across the country sent used marshmallow bags to the Memphis Police Department in protest. Thirty days later, the murder is a distant memory, and Koontz has still not been charged with murder. However, the local civil rights organization has new office furniture, and the stock of Marvin’s Marshmallows has risen 100%. Sadly, the King family is without a son or Justice…

Although it is said that “April showers bring May flowers,” this month also seems to rain revolution. Forty-four years ago this week, America went up in flames following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 4, 1968). Twenty years ago, L.A. was almost burned to the ground following the acquittal of the four police officers who, unmercifully, beat Rodney King (April 29, 1992). And 11 years ago a rebellion broke out in Cincinnati following the murder of Timothy Thomas at the hands of a cop (April 9, 2001) . Fast forward to April, 2012, and people across the country are protesting the murder of Trayvon Martin at the hands of a self-proclaimed neighborhood watch captain.

Anybody else see a pattern here?

While people often get caught up in the emotionalism of tragic events, it is critical for us to study how they are - continuously – able to pull off these acts without causing a Revolutionary War.

To remix that Jay Z line from “30 Something”, “We respect the one who got shot/ they respect the shooter.”

While heavy-handed government suppression of “militants” is often seen as the ideal way of countering urban unrest, the most strategic methods are done more subtly.

The blueprint on how to tactfully handle racial disorder in America, the Kerner Commision Report, was released February 29, 1968, ironically, six weeks before the King assassination. The report dealt with various strategies on how to prevent urban unrest in America.

A generation later, Dr. Brenda Wall in her book, The Rodney King Rebellion, stated that the day of the rebellion the judge in the trial of the LAPD officers gave police officials a two hour notice, “realizing the tension that the verdict might unleash.” She also wrote that the LAPD also had a million dollar contingency plan for civil disturbance.

It’s no wonder that the Trayvon Martin murder took so long to gain public attention. Somebody must have needed a head start.

According to Kalonji Jama Changa, founder/national coordinator of The FTP Movement and author of the book, How to Build a People’s Army, “The state has definitely adopted improved methods to keep the people in check. They have recruited more buffers between the people and the state to keep the flames low.” Perhaps that’s why we don’t see “militant” rappers and “intelligent hoodlums” addressing social issues like we did in the early ’90s.

Back during the Rodney King Era, we had Sister Souljah to speak for the ‘hood. Now, we only have Sista Soledad O’Brien.

Big difference.

Another tactic that has been used is turning public outrage into a business. Peter Dogget in his work, There’s a Riot Going On, wrote about an October 1968 meeting held by “advertising agencies and entertainment conglomerates,” called, “Selling the American Youth Market”, where attendees learned how to capitalize off the Vietnam War/Civil Rights protests.

Following the L.A. Rebellion, you could hardly keep track of the videos, books and talk shows that tried to hip a horrified, middle class, white America to the plight of young, “urban” males.

In a recent Associated Press article called “Trayvon, Inc.”, Curt Anderson reported how some people are using the tragedy to hawk T-shirts, bumper stickers, hoodies, and posters, etc., and how “pass the hat rallies” are raking in thousands of dollars.

What must be remembered is that the periods of racial turmoil of ’68, ’92, and 2012, have something in common: they all happened during election years. And in an election year, everything is political. The Republicans need another “Black boogey man” in order to push their ” blame the victim/get tough on crime” agenda.

And, the Democrats desperately need a quick way to energize a disenchanted Black base who are asking themselves, “Are we really better off now than we were four years ago?” Already, we have seen Civil Rights leaders and media celebrities try to turn the Trayvon tragedy into a glorified “register to vote rally.”

The pimpin’ of the people continues, which is easy when the masses don’t know what to do when the racial emergency alarm goes off. Do you fill out a voter’s registration form? Buy a bag of Skittles? Or do you find the nearest window, and throw a brick through it?

A wise man once said that “voting is a Democracy’s alternative to rioting in the streets.” So it is always in the state’s best interest to “keep hope alive” and preach the gospel of “Change.” However, history seems to suggest that America won’t budge until she smells smoke - as fire has served to be very motivational.

During the turbulent ’60s, according to Herbert Hains in his book, Black Radicals and the Civil Rights Movement, the Feds, corporations and philanthropic organizations shelled out major dollars in order to keep the peace.

Lou Cannon wrote in his book, Official Negligence, that after the looting of businesses during the L.A. Rebellion “RLA (Rebuild LA) promoted perhaps 500 million dollars of development in the riot area.”

As of this writing, all of the singin’ and marchin’ for justice for Trayvon hasn’t gotten us anything but sore throats and calluses.

Apparently, sometimes crime does pay.

How the powers-that-be can successfully contain public outrage in a post-”Occupy Wall Street” era of Twitter-generated flash mob protests, when more young people are getting their news from YouTube and Facebook than CNN and MSNBC, remains to be seen.

However, no matter how one chooses to express his sense of moral outrage, one thing is certain. This April, you better get your umbrella.

Like Arrested Development once sang:

“It’s raining revolution/ It’s raining solutions.”

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop,” a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website, NoWarningShotsFired.com, or on Twitter (@truthminista).

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum is out there trying to run the country and guess what…dude called Obama a ni**er! Now, this sounds crazy to people and many won’t believe it – until they see the video.

With that, it is time to let you see the video and decide. It is very clear that he’s saying the N-word and comes just short of saying it all the way… Peep the video….

And then tell us what you think.

Trayvon Martin is just the beginning. Time to get these clowns, round them up and expose them!

If presidential candidates are acting like this, what is the rest of the nation saying!?

Dear Mr. Rapper,

Hey you.

How’s it going? Love the music you’ve been cranking out. But, really fast, I wanted to get at you over your new dedication/tweets/hoodie pics to the late Trayvon Martin. Not “get at you” as in beef. You didn’t forget him yet, did you? I know you just put out some somber dedication to him just the other day. I know the Internet moves fast, and you move faster. But, still, I’ve got a few questions and even more comments.

First of all, do you really care? Seriously, do you really care about Trayvon and the countless, nameless, and faceless “Trayvons” that never make the headlines? I was just wondering, because there are lots of people like myself who don’t know. Honestly, I’m not sure how Trayvon managed to rise above the apathy, but he did.

There are countless other “Trayvons” who could have used your voice as a tool to raise awareness about the violence issue as a escalating national crisis. Sadly, most of them didn’t rank high enough in the news to warrant a tribute track.

As you know – or should know – Hip-Hop has traditionally served as the voice of the voiceless. And at its inception, rappers were the ones with the loudest voices. Legends like Chuck D, KRS-One, X-Clan, and even so-called gangsta rappers like Ice Cube, The Geto Boys, and Ice-T were telling everyone how it was going down. America was forced to pay attention.

A one-off dedication to Trayvon Martin, a hoodie avatar, or a tweet with a trending hashtag just isn’t going to get it in 2012, buddy boy. That is assuming you care. Wait. I’m sure you do, because you made some positive moves in light of this tragic moment. No way would you create an ode to Trayvon simply to get some hits or views, right? Nah. No way.

In closing, I think you we should all make some changes. Forget what’s going on in the radio and television. Stand out and stand up for something substantial on a more consistent basis, not for something silly just to make the headlines.

You’re still connected to the ‘hood right? No, not the so-called “thuggish” clothing that made Trayvon suspicious to George Zimmerman. I mean, the neighbor’HOOD that inspired the music you create. That made you who you are. Since you’re established in the ‘hood and with the people in it, let’s make some music that inspires them. Times are hard, and they need hope. You don’t have to be corny because of it. We’ll still support you, and you can still do the degenerate or opulent rap that gets you played by the programmers and the clubs, but let’s mix it up. BALANCE. Capicé?

You care about Trayvon, and yet, you didn’t know him. I know you know some of these other people that failed to intrigue America. Let’s use this pivotal moment to save some lives, and fight for those that need us, and inspire a whole new generation of Hip-Hop changemakers to come. Nobody will care about the other stuff you rapped about later on anyway.

What do you think?

Let us know.

Warmly,

Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur
AllHipHop.com, CEO and Co-Founder

P.S.: Mr. Rapper, hit up AllHipHop.com if you want to do something cool for the “Trayvons” in your ‘hood.

And if you are still interested, here’s something below you can help us tweet in support of Trayvon Martin to your massive followings on Twitter:

1) Emmitt Till. Sean Bell. Oscar Grant. Join me and stand up for justice for Trayvon Martin. Text TRAYVON to 30644 to help. http://bit.ly/bFM6O5 #TweetUp4Trayvon

2) It’s been 1 month and 4 days. Why is George Zimmerman still free? Text TRAYVON to 30644 to help. http://bit.ly/bFM6O5. #TweetUp4Trayvon.

3) In honor of Trayvon, stand with me for justice. Text TRAYVON to 30644 to help. http://bit.ly/bFM6O5 #TweetUp4Trayvon.

4) Stand for justice for Trayvon today! Spread the word & take action: Text TRAYVON to 30644 to help. http://bit.ly/bFM6O5 #TweetUp4Trayvon.

5) Our criminal justice system should protect and serve the innocent victims by prosecuting the guilty. Text TRAYVON to 30644 to help. http://bit.ly/bFM6O5 #Tweetup4Trayvon

6) If we don’t stand for justice in the face of adversity and unspeakable tragedy, history will repeat itself: http://bit.ly/bFM6O5 or text TRAYVON to 30644 to help. #Tweetup4Trayvon

7) We Stand our Ground that a young black man’s killer deserves to be tried in the court of law. http://bit.ly/bFM6O5 #Tweetup4Trayvon

8) We are Trayvon Martin. You are too!! http://bit.ly/bFM6O5 or text TRAYVON to 30644 to help. #Tweetup4Trayvon

9) People all over the country are using their Twitter stream to stop a killer. Join us. Visit http://bit.ly/bFM6O5 or text TRAYVON to 30644 to help. #Tweetup4Trayvon

10) Want Trayvon Martin’s killer arrested? Do something about it! http://bit.ly/bFM6O5 #Tweetup4Trayvon

11) Emmitt Till. Sean Bell. Oscar Grant. Join me and stand up for justice for Trayvon Martin. http://bit.ly/bFM6O5 #Tweetup4Trayvon

12) No justice…no peace. No action…no arrest. Stand up now to stop Trayvon’s killer. http://bit.ly/bFM6O5 #Tweetup4Trayvon

This go ’round, Diddy has launched his latest venture, Revolt in partnership with Comcast. I can give credit to Diddy because I remember when I was nine years old, all the way back in ’96, my first cassette tape was 112′s “Only You.” And to see his growth in a little over 15 years is remarkable. Not many have remained relevant for so long, but Diddy has managed to go beyond his once quoted rap lyrics, “10 years from now, we’ll still be on top.”

When many past entertainers manage to die off, every year Diddy creates a new project that the public is enthused to see evolve from an idea in his well-coifed head to a mega-million dollar venture. Diddy sets platforms, not only for his family, but for the world to see as an inspiration. Despite his setbacks of the past – from Biggie’s senseless murder, to the club shooting with J.Lo and Shyne, to the fact that many of his past acts were dissatisfied with their business dealings at Bad Boy Records – you have to give credit to the man for giving people a chance to grow from their experiences, as well as a way to make money and build a name for themselves.

I am excited to see where Revolt will lead the new generation. With the success of reality television shows (which are the major causes of music video absenteeism on MTV and now, barely, on BET and VH1), Diddy promises that the new channel, Revolt, will fuse artists, social media, real time content, and cutting edge technology. I know that I, personally, am ecstatic to see the TV listing when Revolt does go nationally.

With this latest power move, Diddy made have proved that he is BEYOND an ultimate businessman. Bad Boy Records, Sean John Clothing, Ciroc Vodka, TV | Music | Movie Producer, Owner of Justin’s Restaurant, and now Revolt Television Network.

“Take that. Take that.”

Follow Chantal Borgella on Twitter (@ChantalBorgella).

One could say Don King has seen it all, been through it all as Mobb Deep once said. The famed boxing promoter has more than made his mark in history and lived through it just the same. A controversial figure, King has been accused of everything from having mob ties to financial infidelities. But, he’s also an outspoken political force that has never minced his words. His perspective is that of an 80-year-old that has toiled to the highest mountains of success yet still has passionate, pointy opinions about the murder of one 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

“He (Trayvon) is the victim of 400 years of thinking that Black people don’t count. Even if, the guy walking down the street is being profiled, but whatever happened, the police would have arrested the guy. Even if it was self-defense, he would have been acquitted through the (legal) process. This guy ain’t been arrested yet. A man shot a man down in the is day and age – 2012 – killed the boy, and nobody has done nothing about it…not even a reprimand. And they are going to take his word at the scene and say it was self defense. What was Trayvon going to shoot him with? His whistle? He’s eyeballs? Reckless eyeballing? But, you can’t take that light when you say reckless eyeballing, because in the books it says reckless eyeballing – that’s when a black man looked at a white woman. It was interpreted as lewd or lustful. That’s reckless eyeballing, punishable by death. You can’t say what (Trayvon) was doing, but that’s that old, antiquated thinking and falsification of teaching of superiority and inferiority. Manhood is what the whole struggle is about. They could not treat a man like they treated (Trayvon). There is a victimization in associating us with negative conditions.  Therefore, you don’t like the conditions, you don’t like the Black man. The color line, that is the problem…the institution called slavery. That was the method of keeping you from getting your rights and to be able to justify it legally and religiously. Revenge ain’t going to get it. Non-Violence is the way to go, (but) only if you are teaching. People are mentally enslaved and they are not looking for a parole.”

-As told to Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur

Digital bonus: Jasiri X’s “A Song For Trayvon,” recorded March 25, 2012 at a rally with Kevin Powell

AllHipHop.com was on hand to take part in this rally, and we encourage you to participate in similar ones in your area so that your voice can be heard. Exclusive pictures and video of the L.A. event can be seen below:

Black people are just as hurt and concerned and angry when Black men die from gang violence, driveby shootings and “being caught up” every single day, as we are when white racist representatives of governmental institutions (that are supposed to protect and serve us) and ordinary white racist citizens murder us in cold blood.

Black people are just as hurt and concerned and angry when Black women die from domestic violence – murdered by those who say they love us – AND gang violence AND driveby shootings AND “being caught up” as we are when white racist representatives of governmental institutions (that are supposed to protect and serve us) – like Mitrice Richardson and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department – and ordinary white racist citizens murder us in cold blood.

BUT:

1. If you are dependent on the mainstream media to tell you that, you will not see it; they have no stake in that.

2. If you are dependent on Black media, you may not see it there either; they may not have the resources to do it consistently.

3. If you are not in close proximity to Black institutions or Black people – in other words, if you don’t know the folks that know – you are OOL – Out Of Luck.

In answer to your question “Why ya’ll don’t care when Black folks kill Black folks all the time?” I say this: ”How come YOU don’t you care?” It appears that this question ONLY gets raised when Black people vent their RIGHTEOUS indignation and anger over unjustified, racist murders.

If YOU really cared, then you would know about the organizations that exist to stop the senseless, every day murders of Black people by Black people:

1. You would know the names of these organizations

2. You would know when their meetings are

3. You would know where their meetings were

4. You would know the people who are a part of these organizations by name

5. You would know the people who are a part of these organizations by sight

6. You would go to their meetings

7. You would ask them, “What can I do to help ya’ll?”

8. You would ask your Black and mainstream media, “How come ya’ll don’t write/broadcast anything about these organizations on a REGULAR basis?”

9. You would give them much needed money

10. You would give them much needed money.

I live in Los Angeles, California. These are the names I know: Cease Fire, 2nd Call, Unity One, Unity Two, Professional Community Intervention Training Institute, Project Cry No More, Mothers of the Community, Unity in the Community, Peace in the Streets …

What city do you live in? Do you know the names? Why not?

That’s what I thought.

If you genuinely and sincerely wanted to know the answer to that question, then I apologize for my tone. If you just like to stir up crap and make a scene because you’d rather the attention be on you, instead of JUSTICE for Trayvon Martin AND ALL THE OTHERS, you are a sick, sad creature.

written by Thandisizwe Chimurenga

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Davey D Notes:

I’m glad my sista and fellow journalist/activist, Thandi wrote this piece… It needed to be said, and quite frankly a few folks needed to be called out on this. Folks who are guilty of this; are well-meaning but flawed at best and disingenuous at worse.

I been hit with the question/ assertion all this week and calmly had to point out that I had been to three well attended marches, town hall actions dealing with trauma and drama in our own communities.where were the folks asking?

One of the activities, was a town hall with Too Short focusing on teen violence and misogyny at jam -packed Oakland City Hall.. I posted up the entire video and article so folks could see and experience themselves, Not one person who asserted that Black people don’t care had bothered to pass / share around that video and write up..You can peep the article and video HERE

Nor did they pass around the flyer and article about local rap artists and activist including T-Kash running a marathon this weekend to stop gun violence..Its something he frequently does…You can peep the info HERE

We have cats like Adisa Banjoko and the Hip Hop Chess Federation.. Not only is working w/ T-Kash, but he frequently does events that focus on martial arts, chess and Hip Hop.

He works with youngstas in the Mission district of San Francisco as well as goes to prisons to work with young brothas..His events are always free, well attended and inspiring… He was just up at SF State at our Hip Hop class working with folks and offering up internships for students to help with his efforts.. he also writes quite few columns for News One about what we can and should do to improve our communities.. You can peep him HERE

None who ask where the outcry for Black on Black crime, bothered to join the thousand plus folks who showed up at Allen Temple Church 3 weeks ago to address the issue of human trafficking/ teenage pimping and prostitution. It was put together by author/ activist Reverend Harry Williams who heads up a organization called Street Disciples/ Hood Movement 21 They are out and about every week in the streets trying to turn lives around.. 2 months ago they had a big gathering for community groups to come together and maximize efforts.. Reach him HERE

Almost none of the naysayers got on board to support the efforts of the 44% Coalition , a group of Black, Latina women along with a number of male allies who stepped to both Too Short and XXL Magazine around the issue of sexual assaults on Black and Latina women..

Apparently these folks weren’t up on the Detroit 300 who are patrolling their neighborhoods and coming after those seek to do harm… or 1Hood out of Pittsburgh, PA where they not only patrolled the streets but set up youth media academy with the purpose of changing our image. Many of the videos done by Jasiri-x were put together by youth they work with and now train..You can see one of the projects they did about Pittsburgh HERE

These folks don’t seem to know about the tireless work and documentaries put together by former gang member Silky Slim out of Baton Rouge..This brother keeps himself on the front line of trying to stop the killings and turn people around from a life that he once led. You can peep his organization Stop the Killing Inc HERE

These folks don’t seem to know about United Roots, Urban Peace Movement, Silence the Violence, Love Life Foundation, Youth Speaks, United Playza , Homey, Barrios Unidos, Leadership Excellence the Sista Circle, Homeboy Hotline, Dereca Blackmon’s Gender Walk, Susan Taylor’s National Cares Mentoring Movement or the tireless work graph writers/ organizer like Refa 1 does .. I think it was last weekend he was out putting in work..and is gearing up[ to do a big event in the summer called Aerosoul You can peep his work HERE

Maybe they don’t know about the work of Truth Minista Paul Scott out of North Carolina who frequently writes about ways for us to improve our community and backs it up with action.. You can read his columns HERE You can peep the video of him stepping to a malt liquor company -BLAST who he felt was trying to poison his neighborhood..HERE

Maybe they dont know about artist like Mistah FAB who frequently goes to schools, does keep the Peace rallies, gives away school supplies and tries to give back..You can peep that HERE

He’s one of scores of artists I can name from Rebel Diaz in NY to dead prez to Ise Lyfe to Naughty By Nature, KRS-One, Bambu, Bun B, Kiwi, Metro P, Fly Benzo, Mystic, Mommas Hip Hop Kitchen, NY Oil, Wise Intelligent who are always in their communities working to uplift, heal and end violence.

Maybe they don’t know about the work local artist Jahi does with young men who he takes under his wings.. A couple of months back they did a Guns Down Stop the Violence actions..

There are so many more organizations and people to mention..Forgive me if I overlooked anyone.. because the list is super long, but I think folks get the point.. People are putting in work everyday in our communities, often unsung and highlighted in the media.. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, nor does it mean work isn’t being done..

I will also add from my own experience, many of those who organize to heal our communities also organize around egregious incidents like Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant or Sean Bell. They do it because life is precious and they step up whether or not its done by a cop or it comes at the hands of each other..They do when the cameras are there and when they are not there..

But hey, as was pointed out in the article, there are many who ask the question ‘where’s the Black community when we kill each other?’ who are simply waiting for BET or CNN to cover it and blow things up-Don’t hold your breath..or even worse, maybe these folks simply can’t help but think the worse when it comes to us.. Like we somehow don’t care…

-Davey D-

When aspiring young rapper MC Truth walked into the lobby of Makin’ Kash Ultra-Fast Records, all he could think about was how his socially-conscious lyrics were gonna change a world full of police beatings, racism, and poverty. As he sat sippin’ some purple stuff from the styrofoam cup that the flirty receptionist with the bangin’ body had handed him, he was oblivious to the fact that in the basement below the office, a team of mad scientists was conducting mind control experiments. Although he walked in as MC Truth, three months later he exited as MC Killa, gangsta rapper extroidinaire…

Through the years, “MC” has stood for many things in the Hip-Hop vernacular from “master of ceremony” to “mic control.” But, based on what is passing for “real Hip-Hop” in 2012, does MC really stand for “mind control?”

Just ask yourself, when a Lil Wayne song comes on the radio and you start bobbin’ your head hard enough to give you whiplash, is it because the music is that hot? Or are you the victim of what Professor Griff of Public Enemy calls “The Psychological Covert War on Hip-Hop”?

Over the years, various researchers have claimed that the feds have been doing psychological experiments on U.S. citizens. In his book, 63 Documents that the Government Doesn’t Want You to Read, former athlete and governor Jesse Ventura presented documents that he alleged exposed such government mind control projects that began in the early 50′s as BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE and MK ULTRA.

Also, Alex Constantine in his work, The Covert War Against Rock, suggested that the CIA program, Operation CHAOS, used the mind-altering drug LSD as a way to destroy the anti-Vietnam War Movement of the ’60s. It must be noted that LSD was also used by rock artists who had the potential to influence public perception of government policy during that period.

Since rap music has the potential to influence the masses politically, could similar tactics be used against the art form to neutralize political movements, today?

Remember back in April 2008, Blender Magazine claimed that Alicia Keys told them that “gangsta rap was a conspiracy to destroy Black people,” an allegation that she denied a few days later, claiming that she was misquoted.

Maybe “the Chronic, Ecstasy, and Sizzurp” are the LSD of the Era of Terror? Could that be the reason that gettin’ wasted is promoted so heavily in Hip-Hop?

The possibility is there.

According to hygenic scientist and metaphysian, Dr. Phil Valentine, author of the upcoming book, Cosmic Codex: Book of the Earth, “they studied the beats of rap to entrain the heart and brain. It’s easy to put ideas in people’s heads once you tap into the rhythm of the heartbeat.”

Historically, mind manipulation has not only been used to suppress political dissent, but to make a buck as well.

The idea that subliminal seduction could be used to hawk goods goes back to 1957 when Vance Pickard released an expose’ that “exposed the psychologically manipulative methods that marketers were bringing to advertisers,” according to Martin Lindstrom in his book, Buy-ology. Lindstrom also wrote that the man who coined the phrase “subliminal advertising” was James Vicary who, supposedly, conducted an experiment where he used a tachistoscope to place images inside of a movie, seducing people to have a sudden urge for Coke and popcorn.

However, when you start messin’ with people’s minds, the results are many times tragic.

Dominic Streatfeild in his book, Brainwash, reported that in 1986, a family sued CBS records following the suicide of their son after listening to the Judas Priest Stained Class album because, allegedly ,” the suggestive lyrics accompanied by the music’s loud repetitive beat had a hypnotic effect on susceptible individuals.” The accusation being that the suicide was a result of “hidden messages” or subliminal seduction.

During the late ’90s, Three-SixMafia, whose record label just so happened to be called Hypnotized Minds, was blamed for starting riots whenever their hit, “Tear Da Club Up” was played.

Whether these “conspiracies” are real or not is debatable, but what cannot be denied is the power that Hip-Hop has to influence behavior.

According to Steve Stoute in his book, The Tanning of America, Hip-Hop marketers used the process of “codification conveyed via a language and infrastructure built on the same pillars that create governments and religious institutions and global economies.”

Why else would Advertising Age Magazine report in a March 8, 2005, article that Mickey Dees was going to pay Hip-Hop artists to shout out the Big Mac in their songs?

Also, the question becomes if Ja- Z and Kanye have to put a warning message on their video for Paris that it might “trigger seizures,” what else could it be triggering inside your head? Maybe they are using a Hip-Hop version of what is known in music as a “ghost note” to deliver subliminal vibrations to your subconscious mind.

Then again, maybe I’m just being paranoid. Perhaps “Rack City” is the best rap song ever recorded? Maybe Waka Flocka Flame is the greatest lyricist of all time?

Whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy.

As Kwame Ture once said, “Our task is not to make the unconscious, conscious but to make them conscious of their unconscious behavior.”

Back in 2004, Jadakiss released one of the most important songs of our time – “Why?” The song was so powerful because it made Hip-Hop question the social, political, and economic realities of society. Hip-Hop must always challenge us to never accept things at face value without investigation.

Let’s be clear. There is a battle going on for control of your mind. And you will know that you lost, the moment you stop asking “Why?”

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column, This Ain’t Hip Hop, is a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com. on his website NoWarningShotsFired.com, or on Twitter (@truthminista).

The premise is simple. In the distant future, children are chosen at random to compete in annual games where they are forced to fight each other to the death. The “Hunger Games” are a national pastime in Panem, the new world, and therefore, the winner becomes fabulously famous and wealthy.

Sounds like an interesting story. And it is. What makes the stories so compelling are that they are not a completely fictionalized world like Harry Potter, full of things that could never happen. The Hunger Games is so plausible, that you worry about the future. Even more fascinating about The Hunger Games and the other two books in the series, Catching Fire and Mockingjay are the underlying subplots. This is a love story. It is an adventure story. It is a story of revolution, one that will be televised.

The Hunger Games is actually a story that should appeal to the Hip-Hop generation. Katniss Everdeen is a young woman who is trying to be a provider for her small, single-parent led family. She bends rules when necessary to provide for their needs. She and her community are under the influence of a greedy and manipulative ruler and an oppressive security force. Katniss is forced into a situation out of her comfort zone where she has to show and prove that she is more than just another competitor. She has to fight for her life, while yet retaining her own humanity.

The Hunger Games trilogy has sold over 20 million books. There are action figures, costumes, recipes, and of course, a soundtrack. The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond features only one Hip-Hop artist, Kid Cudi with, “The Ruler and the Killer.” MTV describes it as “dark and haunting.” Perfect for this book and film.

The Hip-Hop generation should not miss out on The Hunger Games – not the film adaptation of the book, or the books themselves. As a worldwide phenomenon, the film is getting comparisons to Star Wars and is breaking opening weekend, box office records nationally. The Hunger Games is an opportunity for the Hip-Hop generation to support a storyline about what can happen when one person stands up to what appears to be an indomitable system. The Hunger Games is an amazing book and film about activism, something that has been sorely lacking from much of Hip-Hop, but remains a seed within the generation, waiting to bloom.

The Hunger Games is in theaters now. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Biba Adams is a Senior Staff Writer and Book Editor for Allhiphop.com. Follow her (like a Mockingjay) on Twitter @BibatheDiva.

Many of us don’t like to admit it, but the fact is, this country has a long and sordid history where those who appeared ‘different’, meaning not white and male, were often deemed suspicious resulting in deadly consequences. Call it a Culture of Suspicion if you will, but it one that’s helped shaped social and political policy and impacted damn near everything we’ve done throughout the years.

TheBlack Codes, Vagrancy Laws, Jim Crow, Internment Camps, Salem Witch Craft Trials, Compulsory sterilization, Poll taxes, McCarthyism, Cointel-Pro, The War on Drugs, The War on Terror, The War on ‘Illegals’, The War on Women, these are just a few of the policies and measures that have emerged over the years out of this culture of suspicion…..And let’s be clear, so we’re all on the same page…The Culture of Suspicion is rooted in irrational FEAR and extreme ANGER.

It’s a FEAR and ANGER that dates back to the days of the pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock where those who weren’t Anglo-Saxon in this case Native Peoples were ‘suspected‘ of being ‘less than human’ and thus needed to be civilized, stripped of their land and exterminated. Can we say Manifest Destiny? That’s what that concept and ideology ultimately meant for Native Peoples..Can we say Genocide?

Nat Turner and FEAR of slave revolts has resulted in deep-seated suspicions of Black people that are alive and well today

This FEAR and ANGER was pervasive among those who brought Africans to America in chains and enslaved us. Our culture was stripped, our language forbidden, our Africanisms stamped and literally beaten out of us.. Why? because slave owners had deep-seated fear of slaves revolting. All sorts of laws were put into place and all types of measures including divide and conquer tactics were employed to keep those who were then seen as beasts from rising up and doing what slaves like Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser and Denmark Vesey eventually did-kill or in the cases of Prosser and Vesey, plot to kill their white masters.

This FEAR of Black reprisals has resulted in nearly all traces of the over 250 of slave rebellions that went down in the American South being erased from our school history books.

What has remained are disturbing stories of Black men, being lynched and hung from trees in what was described by singer Billie Holiday as Strange Fruit. What’s remained are eerie stories of entire Black town like Rosewood, Florida and Tulsa, Oklahoma being burned to the ground by angry white mobs because of FEAR and suspicion.of a Black man lusting after a white woman.

Sadly there’s a litany of stories about Black men being accused of looking at or lusting after a white women. This irrational Fear of a Black Dick and ‘suspicion’ gave rise of the Ku Klux Klan especially after the 1915 DW Griffith landmark film Birth of a Nation which had Black men lusting after white women as a main theme. You can see one of the more controversial scenes from that movie...HERE It also led to this country keeping anti-Miscegenation laws on the books up to 1967. Tragically it also led to countless young Black boys who having their genitals mutilated when those lynchings I mentioned earlier took place.

Again for many this legacy of FEAR and SUSPICION throughout our history is a painful pill to swallow. As a country we don’t wanna have an honest conversation of how pervasive it was and is and how it’s permeated our collective mind-set.. We don’t wanna talk about how this Culture of Suspicion been used toward various so-called minority groups in this country and the deep scars its left.

We don’t wanna talk about how we executed women who we suspected of being witches during the infamous Salem Witch trials.

We don’t wanna talk about how we rounded up Japanese American citizens during World War II and put them in internment camps because we were suspicious of them..

We don’t wanna talk about harsh and often fatal treatment levied upon men and women we suspected of being gay. How many have been killed, beaten, put into special classes to ‘straighten’ them out..

We don’t wanna talk about the horrific legacy of Cointel-pro a government counter insurgency program headed up by FBI director J Edgar Hoover. We don’t wanna talk about how Hoover kept all sorts of Civil Rights, Black Power, Brown Power and Anti-War organization under a suspicious gaze and actively used every resource possible to destroy them. He went after everyone from Marcus Garvey to Martin Luther King to the Black Panthers and everyone in between. Irrational fear, deep-seated anger and suspicion that those demanding equal rights were somehow not ‘real’ American were part of the rationale behind Hoover and the FBI actions.

To see how deep this gets.. I urge folks to watch this documentary to that lays out this culture of suspicion and Cointel-Pro.. You can peep it HERE: How the FBI Sabotaged Black America

The Importance of Connecting the Dots

Trayvon Martin

Again Trayvon Martin‘s tragic fate is not isolated. It has to be seen through this historical lens that reflects long-standing racial prejudices and attitudes and race based policy decisions in our society.

The unsavory actions of George Zimmerman coupled with the racial hostility he displayed in widely heard 9-11 call where he refers to Trayvon as a ‘F–king Coons and his paranoia (calling 9-11 over 40 times in the past year) are not out of the ordinary. He personifies the culture of suspicion.

The questionable actions and neglect displayed by the Sanford police department (not talking to key witnesses and keeping Trayvon’s body for 3 days without telling his parents) not only have the look of an outright cover up, but they too reflects this culture of suspicion… The message their actions convey is that; Trayvon must’ve been in the wrong. A young Black male wearing a hoody is always suspect. There’s no way Mr Zimmerman would’ve shot him for no reason.

In looking at Trayvon’s murder its also important to connect the dots to fear based incidents currently going on.. Look at the type of anger and hostility directed by those we are suspicious of…

Angel Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican basketball player was greeted with chants of Where's Your Green Card by Southern Mississippi band members.

For example,it was just last week during an NCAA basketball game we saw band members from University of Southern Mississippi resort to chanting ‘Where’s your Green card?‘ as rival basketball player Angel Rodriguez attempted to shoot free throws. The band members along with some fans ‘suspected’ that Rodriguez who is Puerto Rican wasn’t in this country legally. Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States, meaning they’re citizens.

Sadly similar scenarios played out in other schools around the country including last month in San Antonio, Texas where players from mostly white Alamo Heights started chanting ‘USA USA’ after they defeated their mostly Latino rivals from Edison. Again there was a suspicion that the players from Edison weren’t one of us (American) They must be illegall.

Some may be tempted to chalk these incidents up to sport fans being ignorant. And that may be true until we see this same type of attitude displayed by Presidential hopeful, long time Senator Rick Santorum. He recently stood before a crowd and remarked, that before Puerto Rico can become state folks living there will have to learn to speak English. Again that culture of suspicion at play. He’s suspects Puerto Ricans aren’t really one of us.. On a side note as was pointed out in a recent Reuters article, There’s no constitutional requirement to have an official language nor for a territory to adapt English as an official language to become a state.

Sadly the culture of suspicionit doesn’t stop there. There’s been a rash of anti-immigrant bills being passed with the harshest in Arizona (SB 1070), Alabama (SB 56) and just the other day Mississippi passing (HB 56). All are born out FEAR and suspicion.

We’ve had people like Texas lawmaker Debbie Riddle coin the phrase ‘anchor’ babies and ‘terror’ babies when referring to the children of Mexican and Middle eastern immigrants and push to pass laws to stop them.. This sort of fear mongering has resulted in entire communities being profiled and suspect.

9 year old Brisenia Flores was shot and killed after self-styled vigilante border patrollers suspected her family of being in this country illegally

People like Riddle help foster a deadly climate of suspicion with deadly consequences. For example, we should never forget what took place 3 years ago in Arizona when Shawna Forde a self-appointed border patroller formed the group anti-immigrant organization Minutemen Civil Defense Corps.

In May of 2009 she and some accomplices suspecting that a family was living in a neighborhood illegally, raided the home and shot the 29-year-old father Raul and his 9-year-old daughter Brisenia to death. The mother was there and left alive. Again the Culture of Suspicion resulting in vigilante justice.

The extreme measures taken on those ‘suspected’ of not being America are not just limited to hard-working, law-abiding immigrants. That anger and suspicion has been directed to President Barack Obama. We have a whole segment of society called birthers with people like businessman Donald Trump and Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio leading the charge. In a recent poll over 45% of folks in the south believed he was a Muslim and over 25% don’t believe he was born here in the US..

The suspicions of the birthers is unprecedented. First, they demanded the president show his birth certificate. After he did that they demanded he show a long form certificate. After he did that, they accused the documents of being forged and wanted original draft cards. In fact as we speak Arpaio is launching yet another investigation into the president. Can you say Culture of Suspicion gone wild?

It doesn’t help that President Obama has contributed or reacted to this climate of suspicion, by deporting over one million people and increased surveillance in American Muslim communities..His policies dovetail with the policies of many police departments that have also heightened this culture of suspicion.

It was just 3 or 4 weeks ago that a ‘suspicious’ looking Ramarley Graham was standing outside his home in the Bronx when he saw police officers roll by. He walked into his home only to be followed by police who ‘suspected’ he had a gun.. Police busted into his house and shot Graham in his bathroom in front of his grandmother and a 6 year old.. No gun or weapon was ever found..

Jordan Miles is a 18 year old violinist who played for First Lady Michele Obama

Graham was one of over a whooping 680 thousand New Yorkers who police stopped and frisked last year in their attempts to find ‘illegal’ handguns.. Over 80% of those stopped and frisked were Black or Brown men.. less than a 1% of those stops have resulted in any weapons being found. This policy has led to racial profiling and Black and Brown men being seen as suspects before being seen as productive citizens in their community.

The case of Pittsburgh, PA 17-year-old honor student Jordan Miles being stop frisked and beaten beyond recognition with his dreadlocks torn out his head is another example of what happens under this culture of suspicion..

Ironically in both the Jordan and Graham cases the police accused both men of fleeing when in truth, knowing the history of such encounters they probably developed a healthy suspicion of police who are no longer seen as friendly public servant there to protect and serve, but a vicious gang with a badges and license to kill.

There are too many cases to recount.. but the results are damn near always the same death, scarred communities and a legacy of deep mistrust.. Trayvon Martin is the latest casualty in this long line of tragic mishaps.

What if the Shooter was Black and the Victim White?

John White shot a White Teen who showed up at his house with a mob..He was convicted and sentenced

There are many who have rhetorically asked this question. It’s done not so much to plant seeds of racial hatred and be divisive but to point out the inconsistencies and double standards that exist within our justice system. Its way for us to look at situations and hopefully be moved to change them.

One glaring example of a Black man protecting his family and shooting a white youth involves took place a few years ago in Long island New York. In August 2006, John White confronted 17-year-old white teenager named Daniel Cicciaro who had been threatening White’s son. Cicciaro showed up with a group of his friends to get at White’s son. Fearing for his safety White shot the teen who was on his property. He was convicted and sent to jail. You can and should read about that case HERE.

At the time of White’s sentencing there were many who compared his situation with that of a White man out of Texas, named Joe Horn who shot two Black men on his property who he shot and killed after disobeying police orders. Like Zimmerman, Horn wasn’t directly threatned but he went ‘hunting’ for the people he eventually shot.. You can read about that case HERE and HERE.

This should come as no surprise to anyone that we have this type of double standard. The question and challenge before us all, is how will we fix a broken, racially biased justice system? Do we have to vote in new judges, new DAs and new prosecutors? Do we have to change the entire way we do business in the justice arena?

There are no easy answers and ultimately we are going to have to change people’s hearts and minds. Say what you will, but what fueled these confrontations and uneven results was racism and the suspicion that those who have darker skin are ssuspect..

The Zimmerman Is Hispanic Not White Argument

George Zimmerman

In recent days we’ve seen many in the media play this card and play it hard.. There’s a couple of things going on here that we should all think about.

First, is by playing up the fact that Zimmerman is half Hispanic suggests that he at one point or the other has been subjected to the suspicious FEAR laden gaze of society and hence he’d be a bit more sensitive and perhaps a bit more insightful when confronting folks, in particular Black folks. The implied thought is that Zimmerman, the half Hispanic would know what Black or Brown man to confront and not to confront better than the average white person..That’s utter nonsense so lets put that to rest..

Zimmerman was a racist who had a clear disdain for young Black males. He was as FEARFUL as any of the white person who has held similar attitudes. In short, what does Zimmerman being Hispanic have to do with anything? He drank the kool aid of white supremacy. His Hispanic background didn’t make him immune, the same way it doesn’t immune self-hating Black folks who buy into the same flawed belief systems where even with Black skin and having faced discrimination themselves, will see a young Black male with a hoodie and think the worse and become suspicious. Some of those FEARFUL Negros once they get a position of power or get to wear a gun and badge act out fearfully and suspiciously with the same deadly consequences.. So Zimmerman being Latino means nothing..

The other thing at play here is by the media highlighting Zimmerman’s ethnicity, Black folks are supposed to suddenly unite and start bombing on Latinos. We’re supposed to suddenly be upset with our Mexican, El Salvadorian or Puerto Rican neighbors? Was Zimmerman acting on their behalf and carrying out their agenda? I think not..

If they’re gonna play the ethnic card with Zimmerman all of us should be asking is Zimmerman repping for a large Latino body of people who are in the same struggles and fighting against an oppressive system. Is he part of an organizations like La Raza, MeCHA , NDLON, Puente, and in are they vouching for him? Would he have been suspicious of one the courageous Dreamers, undocumented youth who actually Marched through Florida a year or so ago pushing for passage of the Dream Act? Has Zimmerman been out there protesting all the anti-immigrant laws popping up all over the country or was he the type to support them, suspicious off other Latinos confronting them asking if they’re criminals or here ‘legally’?

Again either your working to free people from oppression or your working for the system, helping keep people disenfranchised and marginalized. Don’t buy into divide and conquer tactics. Connecting the dots, uniting marginalized communities and addressing institutionalized oppression is not in the best interest of those in power.

I’m not sure what Zimmerman represents and who he rolls with, but his actions deserved to be punished. And while in many places there are Black and Brown tensions which should be addressed the shooting of Trayvon Martin is not the jump off into further divisions. Whats at stake here is the death of an innocent 17 year old coming home in the rain wearing a hoodie and carry a package of skiddles..He was confronted by large, overzealous, suspicious wanna be cop who killed him.. We must resist the attempts to keep this tragedy isolated from these larger issues and histories at hand..We must seek justice and seek it in such a way that it puts a major dent in some of overarching problems and prejudices impacting us all.

According to news reports, 17-year-old Martin was walking in a hooded sweatshirt through a gated communnity on February 26 when he was shot and killed by a member of the local civic association who claimed self-defense. Protesters have argued that Martin had done no wrong and was shot senselessly after being the victim of racial profiling. Until now, no charges had been filed against the neighbor, but recent reports state that a Grand Jury investigation will now take place.

After we caught up with him at this year’s SXSW Music Festival, Jasiri X sent AllHipHop.com the following video to help raise awareness about Martin’s case and others like it. Take a look and let us know where you stand on the case:

Follow Jasiri X and get updates on his music and activism on Twitter (@Jasiri_X).

There is no way to sugarcoat it.

Everyone should be upset about this.

This is not an isolated incident. Profiling Black men and boys is as American as NCAA March Madness.

However, this is the real madness: Trayvon Martin is dead simply because he was Black.

As I keep listening to the audio of the 911 calls related to the February 26 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, it’s disheartening. George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain in a gated community in Sanford, Florida, decided to snuff out Trayvon’s life with a bullet to the chest because he deemed him “suspicious.”

In his 911 call, Zimmerman told the dispatcher that it was a Black male and “he looks like he’s on drugs and up to no good….It’s raining. He’s just walking around, looking about. He just staring looking at all the houses.”
The dispatcher told him not to pursue the person and Zimmerman is recorded saying “These a**holes always get away.”

Zimmerman disregarded those instructions and decided to engage Trayvon. He admitted to police that he shot Trayvon, but claimed it was in self-defense. He has been able to dodge being put behind bars simply by telling the police that he acted in self-defense? His word is that good, huh?

However, if you listen to the 911 calls made by witnesses, you can hear the cries of a young boy just before a gunshot is let off.

The cries went mute…

Florida is one of many states to have passed some form of “Stand Your Ground” law in which self-defense is asserted against a charge of criminal homicide. This Central Florida case has people questioning this “Go-Ahead-Make-My-Day-I-Have-A-License-To-Kill” legislation.

Why does it seem like the Sanford Police has been trying to protect Zimmerman? Why did it take them so long to release the 911 tapes? What made Trayvon suspicious? What made him a threat? If Trayvon was the aggressor and presented danger, why is he crying out for help on the 911 tapes?

Trayvon weighed 140 lbs. He was armed with a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea while walking back from a nearby 7-Eleven convenience store. He is said to have been wearing a hood on his head because it was drizzling. Are we missing something here?

Trayvon had dreams of being an aviation mechanic. One day he could have been working on Air Force One, or even sitting onboard in the seat of Barack Obama as the next President of the United States. We will never know.

With all we have to deal with, Black men are not even safe in a gated community patrolled by a neighborhood watch leader?

Let’s flip the script: Had Trayvon been the shooter, would he have been given a pass with the self-defense claim? I highly doubt it. No way a Black man could be acting in self-defense, right?

What is Black life worth in America? Less than a dog, because I’ve seen man’s best friend get much better treatment and advocacy than us. This is not race-baiting. This is just a fact.

Ask the families of Emmett Till, Oscar Grant, Troy Davis, Sean Bell, James C. Anderson, Brandon McClelland and Amadou Diallo.

No matter how much people try to shove the concept down our throats, this is not a post-racial America. This broken system of America is a joke to the fullest and could care less about giving justice to the Black people within its borders.

The more I listen to the cries of Trayvon on those 911 tapes, the more I keep thinking about my little nephew Jacobi. He’s one of the most highly intelligent boys you would ever meet. In the photo below, he’s wearing this hood on his head at a Black Male Summit we hosted in Houston last year.

He would be a target of racial profiling if he was dressed like this walking the streets late at night or even just walking into a department store. Yet at that summit his responses to questions during workshops left degreed presenters in suits and ties in awe.

Jacobi could have been Trayvon Martin.

He is Trayvon Martin.

We’re all Trayvon Martin.

I am Trayvon Martin.

***If you would like to join the call for justice in the Trayvon Martin case, sign the online petition. Also a national rally is scheduled to take place on March 26 @ 5pm EST in front of Sanford’s City Hall at 300 N. Park Ave, Sanford, FL.***

Jesse Muhammad is a staff writer for The Final Call newspaper. Follow him on Twitter (@BrotherJesse).

Fred G is texting his homie, Shady Grady, making last minute plans for his birthday as he places his fitted NY Yankee cap over his freshly done braids. After wipin’ down his brand new pair of kicks, he makes sure that his skinny jeans are saggin’ just right as he gets ready to hit the club. That is, right after he drops his grandkids off at the babysitter and slides by the drugstore to get his Viagra. After all, it’s not everyday that you turn 60…

More than 30 years since its birth, Hip-Hop is experiencing an early, middle-age crisis. It is increasingly hard to tell the difference between a veteran rapper who has been in the game for 20 years and one who was born in the ’90s. What Chuck D once called the “CNN of Black America” has now become, to borrow from Slick Rick, a “children’s story.”

It is time that we seriously ask the question, “Should Hip Hop have a mandatory retirement age?”

Anytime 16-year-old Diggy Simmons, is spittin’ better lyrics then grown men twice is age, something is terribly wrong.

Neely Fuller in his book, The United Independent Compensatory Code/System/Concept, wrote that a child is, “regardless of age in years, any person who is helpless in thinking, speaking, and or acting and who must depend on a man or women for help in each and every area of activity including economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics religion, sex and war.”

So, we are not talking about the number of candles on a birthday cake, but a level of maturity.

This is especially important to study when you have 40-year-old artists signing with record companies that cater to teeny boppers or doing duets with rappers who are young enough to be their sons. Recently, both Busta Rhymes and Mystikal signed with YMCMB (Young Money Cash Money Billionaires). Unfortunately, in these cases, the youth are having a greater impact on the elders than the elders are having on the youth.

Just look at the complexity of Busta Rhyme’s lyrics 20 years ago when he was with the Leaders of the New School (LONS) as compared to his recent work, proving that you can have a sick, supersonic, 60-bars-a-second flow and still say absolutely nothing of substance. If you you don’t believe me, just go back and listen to his verse on the LONS’s joint, “Understanding The Inner Minds Eye (TIME)”, where he spits, “It’s kinda ill when you don’t know what time/ Or whose time you are living in,” and compare it with his song with Lil Twist. I rest my case.

Although, Knowledge is infinite, when time is out of whack, ignorance becomes infinite and regression becomes perceived as progression. So, rappers that spit ignorance are seen as hot, but those who drop knowledge are seen as “old school,” even though they may be a decade younger than the dudes propagating ignorance.

The worst example of the imbalance in Hip-Hop is the scandal that broke last month when 40-something-year-old rapper, Too Short, gave a video interview teaching boys who haven’t even entered puberty how to mack the lil’ honeys. According to Dr. William Grier and Dr. Price Cobbs in their work, Black Rage, this imbalance stems from the pressures that Black males are “seen as the ultimate in vitality and masculine vigor,” but at the same time are “regarded as socially, economically and politically castrated in performing every other masculine role.” And the inability to deal with this contradiction is handed down from older males to the younger generation.

Like most other social problems, the arrested development of Hip-Hop is not by accident. According to The Black Dot, former member of the ’80s Hip-Hop group, Tall, Dark and Handsome, and author of the underground book, Hip Hop Decoded, the genre has been made stagnant by design and hasn’t moved forward in the last 10 years.”

Could it be that the “powers that be ” have developed a program to manipulate time in order to stop the social, economic, and political progression of oppressed communities?

Although the late writer, Del Jones, claimed that Hip-Hop was stolen by “culture bandits,” the fact is that the genre is a victim of something even more sinister – time bandits.

Michael Bradley, author of The Ice Man Inheritance, has a theory called “the Cronos complex,” which is man’s attempt to control time in order to retard the development of future generations. Bradley wrote that Western man has created various mechanisms to “hold the future back, to limit their offspring’s access to progress” and to” hurt the future, cripple it with casualties and thereby compromise its ability to surpass them.”

As Dr. Carter G. Woodson wrote in The Mis-Education of the Negro, “Once you control a man’s thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions.” So those who control the economics of, not only, the music industry, but the entire planet, don’t have to worry about grown men and women with child-like mentalities ever challenging the current socio-economic order. Even if rappers become billionaires, they will just waste their money on buying bigger toys.

Regardless of who caused the stagnation of the culture, Hip-Hop needs to grow up.

While some may disagree with placing a retirement age on rappers, we must place a limit on the dissemination of ignorance. We need a new rule in Hip-Hop that says that no rapper over 30 should ever, ever be allowed on the set of BET’s 106th and Park. Or at least we should start some Rites of Passage program for rappers.

If not we will be headed for an odd future where grown men continue to exhibit mindless behavior.

Like Wu-Tang Clan said on “A Better Tomorrow”:

“You can’t party your life away/ drink your life away/ smoke your life away/ cuz your seeds grow up the same way.”

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop,” a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website, www.NoWarningShotsFired.com, or on Twitter (@truthminista).

During a recent panel discussion, Hip-Hop artist, Knowledge the Revelator, was just about to expose the diabolical plot of how they are using rap music to dumb down the masses. Suddenly, Alfred Jenkins, aka “King Alfred” pimp, slapped the person sitting next to him, which started a brawl that abruptly ended the conference. While fists and chairs were flying, Jenkins quietly exited through a side door where he was met by a man in a black suit and sunglasses, who handed him an envelope addressed to “Agent Rex 84…”

Last month, the Associated Press reported that Muslim students at “a dozen campuses in the Northeast” were being spied on by the NYPD. Coincidentally, around the same time, the NY Confidential website released a report that alleged that a 2008 meeting of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network was also infiltrated by the NYPD following the trial of the police officers who killed Sean Bell.

Although it came as a shock for some, the “Alphabet boys” (as Young Jeezy would say) have long sent snitches into organizations - both criminal and political.

One of the earliest rats to infiltrate a Black organization was James Wormley Jones (Agent 800), who spied on Marcus Garvey and the UNIA during the 1920s. According to a February 11, 2011, article posted on the FBI website, “A Byte Out of History,” other agents assigned to the UNIA included, Earl Titus, Authur Lowell Brent, and Thomas Leon Jefferson. Also, according to the PBS documentary, “Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind,” one of Garvey’s closest associates, Herbert Bowlin, “owner of a Harlem based Black doll company,” was an informant known as “Agent P-138″

Later, Civil Rights organizations came under scrutiny by the Feds.

More than a decade ago, researcher Steve Cokely, shed light on a March 21, 1993, “Memphis Commercial Appeal” article that accused the NAACP’s former board chairman, Joel Spingarn, of being a major in the Military Intelligence Division who, “used his post to obtain critical information for MID, such as a list of the organization’s 32,000 members. “

The same newspaper also reported in a September 12, 2010, article that noted Civil Rights photographer, Ernest Withers, was not only an FBI informant, but took the pictures at the scene of the Martin Luther King assassination.

It is more widely known that the Black Panthers and other “militant” movements of the late ’60s-early ’70s were heavily infiltrated by informants such as William O’Neal, who supplied intel to the Feds that led to the murder of Fred Hampton “and BOSS (Bureau of Special Services) agent, Eugene Roberts, who, not only was spying on Malcolm X when he was assassinated but, according to John Potash in his book, The FBI War on Tupac Shakur and Black Leaders, was later an original member of the New York Chapter of the Black Panther Party of which Tupac’s stepfather and mother were also members.

Although, Tupac Shakur inherited the legacy of government persecution from Mutula and Afeni Shakur, he was just one in a long line of rappers from NWA to the Wu-Tang Clan under investigation by the Feds. Back in 2000, Cedric Muhammad of Blackelectorate.com began releasing a series of “Rap COINTELPRO” articles exposing this fact.

So why would federal and local law enforcement agencies still be interested in a music that has become increasingly apolitical since the early ’90s?

According to Supreme Understanding, author of How to Hustle and Win, “Hip Hop is just a euphemism for the Black and Brown underclass.” The author who also released the widely circulated guideline, “How to Spot an Agent,” also said, “Hip Hop is not as apolitical as people think. Many mainstream artists have a political element.”

Perhaps the most detailed evidence of law enforcement’s attack on Hip-Hop is the first hand report of the the NYPD’s “first Hip-Hop cop,” Derrick Parker. The book mentions the infamous “Hip-Hop binder” that the Miami police used to keep files on Hip-Hop artists, as well as other surveillance activities against New York rappers.

What is not often mentioned is that, although Parker was primarily assigned to watch rappers, he also tailed the late Black nationalist, Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad, whose voice was sampled on early Public Enemy, Ice Cube, and Tupac Shakur songs. This is proof that you don’t have to be a criminal nor a Hip-Hop superstar to be under the watchful eyes of the “Alphabet Boys.”

Just as the FBI used the techniques that it developed fighting the mob during the ’30s on activists during the Civil Rights Era, they have used the same techniques that they use to go after drug dealers on Hip-Hop artists of today.

This has raised a lot of questions that always go unanswered.

Since, according to John Potash, an FBI agent was present when Biggie Smalls was murdered, why didn’t he stop the bullets? Also, with so much government surveillance going on, how can the Feds catch rappers like T.I. with guns, but not see the trucks that are hauling them into the ‘hood? And, if they can catch members of street crime families trafficking drugs, how can they miss the planes and ships that are bringing them into this country?

This actually goes back to the Civil Rights era when activists asked if the FBI had so thoroughly infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, why were civil rights workers still being murdered? The flimsy answer given then - that they were an “investigative” unit not a “preventive” unit – I suppose, still applies today.

The mistrust of law enforcement leaves the ‘hood caught in the middle between those who do dirt and hide behind the “anti-snitch” attitude of the streets, and law enforcement agencies that refuse to admit why the “stop snitchin’ ” code was created in the first place.

If we are going to stop crime in the ‘hood, we must first have an honest conversation about government surveillance and its ramifications.

But until then, as GZA said on “I Gotcha Back”:

“I gotcha back but you best to watch your front/because it’s the brothas who front/they be on a hunt.”

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop,” a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website NoWarningShotsFired.com, or on Twitter (@truthminista).

That doesn’t mean that people haven’t tried…. a LOT!!!!

The first attempt that sticks out in my head came from BIG’s best friend, Sean-Puffy-Puff Daddy-P. Diddy-Diddy-Now-I’m-Just-Sean-Combs, with Shyne. Although Shyne didn’t look anything that resembled “Black and Ugly as Ever,” if you closed your eyes, he sounded a lot like him.

Unfortunately, we can’t ever know what heights Shyne could have reached because of an incident at Club New York that involved a gun, “American Idol” judge and Kohl’s spokesperson, Jennifer Lopez, and Ciroc Obama. The incident landed Shyne in the bing, and it did irreparable damage to his potential career.

The next “Wanna-BIG” that I remember was Guerilla Black. Not only did he have the girth, the look, and the sound, he was actually talented.

Sadly for him, Guerilla Black was so much like Biggie that people took to him with all of the enthusiasm that Snuggie owners had over the Slanket! Maybe it was too much too soon. Maybe we didn’t give him a fair chance to get out of what could arguably be described as the largest shadow in Hip-Hop. Any way you slice it, Guerilla Black was gone before you could say “UGHHH.”

It’s 2012, and on the 15th anniversary of the Notorious B.I.G.’s unfortunately premature demise, Hip-Hop is in need of something a little more solid. The radio is cluttered with a bunch of surface rap and sing-song styled, skinny jean (or worse yet, JEGGING) rap. Real Hip-Hop seems to have returned to the underground – a place where you won’t find reality show cameras or people with lackluster skills. It’s there that I ran across Philly Swain.

Before I get into who Swain is and what makes him special, I need to tell you that he’s not trying to be BIG. He’s trying to be HUGE.

Swain grew up in Philly, and although he lives in LA, he reps the East Coast… HARD! “If Biggie didn’t pass, I would have never taken rap seriously,” he says. “Biggie had an energy that changed the game. He died four blocks from my house (on Wilshire), and I just want to bring that energy back.”

Swain isn’t without credentials. He’s been a BET 106th & Park “Freestyle Friday” champion and a Red Bull EmSee Battle Champion. He’s the first rapper to have a battle on Pay-Per-View, in addition to having millions of hits on every site from YouTube to Facebook and everything in between. Paramount even shot a documentary on him called Hustle Diaries.

It’s rare that I endorse anyone, let alone put him in the same SENTENCE as BIG, but Philly Swain reminds me why I love Hip-Hop. He is REAL. His life story didn’t come from some other gangster, nor was it manufactured in some A&R’s office.

I miss gangster sh*t. I miss having fun when I turn on the radio or the TV. I miss lyrics that are actually SAYING something. Swain’s latest mixtape, Swain Storm, brings all of those things to the forefront.

No one will ever replace BIG.

He was a man so influential that he made Michael Jackson curse (see HERE), but Philly Swain will remind you of what Hip-Hop SHOULD be, and what it could be again. Check out more on Philly Swain HERE.

David Tazz Anderson is a Nationally Recognized Media Personality, Motivational Speaker and Author. His latest book, Common Sense Ain’t Common, is available at www.TazzDaddy.com or wherever books are sold. Follow him on Twitter (@TazzDaddy).

“You’re nobody/ ‘Til somebody kills you.” - Notorious B.I.G.

In today’s news, there was a double homicide in the Bronx, yesterday, involving two fifth grade students at PS 187. After heated words, gunfire was exchanged, leaving both children mortally wounded. Though first thought to be a result of bullying, it was later discovered that the killings were a result of an argument over who was the greatest rapper of all time – Tupac Shakur or Biggie Smalls. More news at 11:00…

On March 9, 1997, the murder of Christopher Wallace aka The Notorious BIG sent shock waves across a Hip-Hop nation still mourning the death of rival rapper Tupac Shakur months earlier. Wallace’s death was followed by pledges to stop the violence, not only in Hip-Hop, but in ‘hoods across America. There were numerous conferences and rallies with people declaring that never again would a life so full of promise be wasted.

The final outcome 15 years later… epic fail.

The senseless violence that plagued this country during the ’90s is still prevalent, and many will argue that the problem has gotten progressively worse. With the growing popularity of social media (Twitter, YouTube, etc.) the ‘net is flooded with videos of people beatin’ each other’s brains in. In 2012, every kid with an iPhone can become a ghetto Don King.

Although the focus in the media today is on “bullying,” this term does not adequately address the drama that is going on in the streets. While it is popular to do a psychoanalysis of Lil Billy from the ‘burbs who was picked on so much that he marched into his school cafeteria one day and started blastin’, rarely do we ask what makes Lil Tyrone from Compton carry a gloc and shoot up the block on the regular. This type of behavior is just accepted as a cultural norm, especially in the world of Hip-Hop. Like Cyprus Hill said back in the day, “Here is something you can’t understand/ How I can just kill a man.”

There have been rivalries in Hip-Hop since the beginning. Many can remember the classic battles between Kool Moe Dee and Busy Bee or the Cold Crush Brothers and Dr. Rock and the Force MC’s. Even during the era of “Hip-Hop unity” there were ideological rifts between KRS One and members of the X-Clan, and Ice Cube and Common. However, except for instances such as BDP throwin’ that PM Dawn dude off the stage, these rivalries rarely led to violence.

However, by the mid-’90s, entertainment and other industries began to realize that beefs were extremely profitable for selling, not only selling “murda music,” but on a deeper level, guns and ammunition. Not to mention supplying the prison industrial complex with an endless source of funding. This is why many people consider the East Coast/West Coast beef that resulted (at least on the surface) in the deaths of Hip-Hop legends Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls the result of a well-thought out marketing scheme that went right.

This is not merely some some conspiracy theory, either.

In his autobiography, My Infamous Life, Prodigy of Mobb Deep claimed that an associate once told him that the infamous shooting of Tupac at a New York recording studio that kicked off the deadly East Coast /West Coast beef was an attempt by Shakur “to start controversy” and use “Biggie and Puff” to “turn his gunshot wounds into marketing and promotion.”

More recently, R&B legend Chaka Khan told CNN that a manager once told her that she was “worth more dead to him than alive.” If this can be said about a musical icon, think about how much more dispensable are the lives of Hip-Hop artists who are viewed as easily replaceable common street thugs.

Since, Hip-Hop is dominated by African American males, the stereotype of Black youth as violence-prone animals only heightens the folklore and commercial appeal of “beefs.”

Although Biggie once defined “beef” as “when you need two gats to go to sleep” that ain’t necessarily so. In the bigger scheme of things, real “beef” is bombing a country while they’re sleep. But if your world view extends no further than your block, then the ultimate example of beef is Black men killing other Black men in the streets.

This is especially destructive when this ideology becomes embedded in the psyche of the youth.

According to Dr. Amos Wilson in his classic work, “Black on Black Violence: The Psycho-dynamics of Black Self-Annihilation in the Service of White Domination,” the Black-on-Black violent criminal “hates in other Blacks those characteristics that he hates most in himself” and he “commits homicide to keep from committing suicide.”

This is the type of logic (or lack thereof) that flows throughout Notorious B.I.G.’s CDs Ready to Die and Life After Death, as he weaved tales of murdering other Black men with lyrics about being “Black and ugly as ever” and how teachers told him that he would “never amount to nuthin.’”

So the question, after seeing all the death and destruction in our communities over the last 15 years is, why do we still glamorize this nihilistic mentality? Why are we more concerned with creating another “Frank White” than we are with saving a “Christopher Wallace?”

As Dr. Na’im Akbar wrote in Visions for Black Men, “If we spend all of our time studying the destitute, desecrated and destroyed, then we’ll end up with a destitute, desecrated and destroyed image of the Black man.” He urged that, “If we want to know how to survive, let’s look at the image of those who did survive.”

An example of survival is the one-time lifer, Durham, Carolina’s Mike “Poetic Mike” Anderson, who went from serving a life sentence in prison to founding “Polished Souls,” a movement to save young people from the streets.

However, for every Poetic Mike, there are hundreds of Christopher Wallaces who don’t get second chances, but wind up six feet under.

Whether you call it beefin’, bullyin’ or Black-on-Black violence, the cycle of self destruction in the ‘hood must end.

Despite what the Notorious B.I.G. said on his first hit, “Juicy, “the stereotype of a Black male misunderstood” ain’t all good.

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop, ” a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website at www.NoWarningShotsFired.com, or on Twitter (@truthminista).

Man, f**k a list.

Ni**as all up in arms over some f**king rapper lists.

I hope ya’ll defend/campaign for your mother the same way ya’ll do for these rap ni**as. Muthaf**ka’s won’t come to your funeral but you’re ready to go to the grave for them. I don’t give a f**k what somebody else thinks is hot. What another muthaf**ka eats doesn’t make me sh*t.

You either.

At least it shouldn’t.

This mag made a list. That site made a list. So what? f**k them. Make your own goddamn list. Make a list of dumb-ass lists. I put my damn Top 5 MC’s on Twitter once & ni**as acted like I changed the f**king Commandments. One nigga offered to “clean my list up” for me.

My list is my f**king opinion. I got one. Make your own list. Nobody’s probably going to care, but at least you got your own list right?

Then again, that’s what this is all about. You DO have your own list don’t you, dear reader? You want validation. You want everyone ESPECIALLY those mags & sites to agree with you & validate the names that you hold dear. When they don’t you get angry as f**k don’t you? Better watch out, you’re gonna wake up w/ in a roadside ditch.

Everybody’s a f**king critic, & they think NOBODY know’s sh*t but them. Who gives a f**k? ni**as cry over some cats personal opinions like some celestial being etched their lists in stone & gave them to a dude upon a mountaintop. If I were you, I would watch the cats who declined to be included in certain lists. They seem to be the ones who win.

Just know that these media cats compile these names just to get a reaction from the public, rack up hits, & start various discussions & arguments. With that said, I would be remiss to not give you my Top 5 MC’s (really 6) so you can rip it to shreds & call me a “dookyhead” or whatever.

Who gives a f**k?

These are the ni**as I think can spit. Sorry your favorites may not be there, but f**k you. Be careful though, you may end up on my Top 5 “B**ch-ass Muthaf**kas Who Post B**ch sh*t” list.

Hexmurda’s Top 5 Dead or Alive, NOT YOURS:  

5. Guilty Simpson / Almighty Dreadnaughtz – Random Axe
4. Sean Price /BCC – Heltah Skeltah -Random Axe
3. Andre 3K / Outkast
2. eLZhi / formerly of Slum Village
1b. Royce Da 5’9″ / Bad Meets Evil-Slaughterhouse
1a. Eminem / Bad Meets Evil-D12.

Hexmurda is a contributor to AllHipHop and he basically does what he wants regardless of anything. Below are some of the acts he reps.

RANDOM AXE (GuiltySimpson SeanPrice BlackMilk)
http://bit.ly/udbOEP BLACK&BROWN
(BlackMilk X DannyBrown) http://tinyurl.com/3vj89g9

While making a surprise visit to WLTI 144FM, last week, Platinum-selling artist, Emperor Nero D, was asked for the millionth time about the rumors that he was a devil worshiper. Obviously annoyed, the artist vehemently denied the accusation and flashed his $50,000 golden cross necklace to prove his point. However, on his way out he tagged the station’s celebrity graffiti wall with “666,” winked at the DJ, and faded into the New York night…

Although the issue of Hip-Hop and Spirituality has been discussed over the last couple of years, Nicki Minaj’s “exorcism of Roman” performance at the last Grammy Awards show has once again sparked the discussion.

Has Hip-Hop lost its soul?

Since its genesis, Hip-Hop has had a strong link with Spirituality. As far back as the early ’80s, Melle Mel was preachin’ that “God is smilin’ on you/ But he’s frownin’, too” on “The Message,” and RunDMC told Hip-Hop kids to “stop playin’, start prayin’” on “It’s Like That,” so the spiritual connection has always been there.

During the mid to late ’80s, Hip-Hop began to embrace other forms of spirituality outside of the traditional “Western” theologies, when Boogie Down Productions put sections of Ella Hughley’s book “The Truth About the Black Biblical Hebrew-Israelites ” into lyrical form on “You Must Learn.” Also various groups like Brand Nubian started teaching the doctrines of the 5% Nation of Islam (NGE) and Jaz-O and others embraced the “Factology” of the Nuwaubian Nation. Even Jay Z was, at least, exposed to Factology as evidenced by his appearance in Jaz-O’s video “The Originators.”

Hip-Hop has also had a darker side. As early as 1991, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony were playing with Ouja Boards, and in 1994 The Gravediggers introduced “horror core” into Hip Hop. However, it was not until Snoop Dogg’s “Murder Was the Case,” that same year, that the notion of rappers selling their souls to the Prince of Darkness become believable.

The next year, the group Three-six Mafia was accused of devil worship because of its name and song lyrics. However, when properly understood, people who rep 666 (or according to some scholars, 616) are actually paying homage to to the Roman Emperor Domitian (81-96 AD) who the early church thought was Nero reincarnated according to James Efird’s book “How to Interpret the Bible.” Also, Dr. Hugh Schonfield in “Those Incredible Christians” wrote that those who did not wear the Emperor’s stamp (the Mark of the Beast) on their right hands or foreheads would not be able to buy or sell.” (Kinda like if a rapper doesn’t have tattoos and saggin’ pants, he won’t be able to get a record deal.)

The reason why the dark side has been able to dominate Hip-Hop today is that we have been trained to accept half truths and lies with questioning them.

According to Alan Watts in his book, Myth and Ritual in Christianity, “Christian mythology involves problems of interpretation because it is a strange confusion of two types of knowledge metaphysical (beyond nature) and science.” Much of the discussion about Hip-Hop and religion has dealt with metaphysics which cannot be proven nor disproven, so we must deal with it as a science, which can.

In his book, The Origin and Evolution of Religion, Albert Churchward wrote that all religions derived from either the ancient Stellar, Lunar or Solar cults thousands of years ago. So all religions have a common origin.

Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan in his book, African Origins of the Major Western Religions, argues that the traditional religions of the “indigenous African people” are the forerunners of the “Nile Valley Religions” which produced the mystery systems from which Judaism, Christianity and Islam are derived.

However, the “Euro-Christianity” that was introduced by Portuguese missionaries was not a spiritual practice, but a tool to colonize and later enslave Africans. Also, it must be noted that during chattel slavery, it was illegal for Black people to read the Bible so, they had to accept the slave owner’s version as the Gospel.

This has caused a confusion regarding religion that has been inherited by the Hip-Hop generation.

Although America prides herself as being a “Christian” nation according to Anthony Browder in his book, Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization, the founding fathers of this country were not only slave owners but also deists who believed that man could know God through reason and refinement of intellect,” even though they were well aware of the power of African culture. (Just look on the back of that dollar bill in your pocket.)

As Erykah Badu sang on “On and On,” “Most intellects do not believe in God, but they fear us just the same.”

So, this country has a tradition of reppin’ a religion that it never truly practiced. (Just like the rapper who wears a Jesus piece but has never set foot in a church.) And the masses have accepted myths as reality.

It must be noted that the Western concept of “Devil” and “Hell” are taken from a combination of Greek myths and Dante’s “Inferno,” but the real power of the Luciferian doctrine lies in “deception,” and since the oppressed have been robbed of the knowledge of their spirituality, they can be easily deceived – so much so that Jay Z, can reportedly say that he “believes in God but not the Devil,” and people accept this without question. Even though it defies all laws of physics. And Nicki Minaj can perform a ritual on stage, and people accept it as Hip-Hop.

Spirituality is a major part of any civilized culture, and without it the culture spirals downward into absolute chaos – the type that is present in Hip-Hop in 2012. With all the mayhem going on around the planet, it is imperative that Hip-Hop gets back in touch with its spiritual side.

As Craig Mack said on “When God Comes,” “I hope the subject won’t turn you away/ But the whole Hip-Hop generation needs to pray.”

Amen.

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop,” a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com or on his website, www.NoWarningShotsFired.com Follow him on Twitter (@truthminista).

One of the best things about Rap as the relatively youngest, significant musical genre to date has been its organic development into more diverse sounds, flavors, themes, and colors than we ever considered imaginable some 30+ years ago.

Therefore, ranking greatness or hotness among rappers, producers, DJs, and the like is nearly impossible and, perhaps, annoyingly unfair. Especially to people like me, a certified Hip-Hop head who loves the culture and its many brilliant offerings.

Last night (February 19), MTV hosted its sixth installment of the “Hottest MCs In the Game,” where they survey the rap scene and attempt to place rappers in some sort of hierarchy of influence and dopeness. I say impossible. But, Rick Ross topped the list, and while some of you were surprised and some were angry, many of you were likely nodding in sheer agreement.

I learned my lesson about ranking hotness the hard way recently, as I helped to select AllHipHop.com’s Top 40 Albums of 2011 list.

2011 was an above average year for eclecticism among MCs – there was conscience and rebellion and bravado and artistry and some ratchetness, too. And, the field had also evolved beyond our imaginations to include seasoned rappers, newbies, other cultures, and even a former correctional officer such as Ricky Rozay. And, though there was next to no female presence (to my dismay), I thought it was a good list.

Ultimately, we settled on Watch The Throne as album of the year. OK. Cool. But soon after, a super-respected-in-the-industry friend of mine surveyed the list and said, “You know you’ve let down Hip-Hop, right?” His angst was with our placing The Roots’ Undun album in the number two spot, just below the gigantic pairing of Jay-Z and Kanye West.

Sheesh! Had I let down the entire culture with one decision in a ranked list? Surely, no one could argue that “The Throne” was THE force to be reckoned with last year. But then again, he had a point – The Roots have been catapulted by some of the best lyrics ever spit over unforgettable, live instrumentation consistently for like 20 years.

The decision was impossible, but ultimately, it may be The Throne’s “hotness” that won the day. And, whether we like it or not, factors like their massive marketing budget, gazillion Twitter followers, ability to tap into the youth market, and willingness to take endless shots from the critics helped out, too.

That seems to be the way of the industry in this day and age – being great and being on top don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand. Certainly Jay-Z is one of the dopest ever – but is he doper than Black Thought? Sure, Kanye West will say whatever on a track, but is he more outrageously brilliant than, say, an Immortal Technique? And yes, Rick Ross is flossing on ‘em like nobody’s business, but can he outshine Big K.R.I.T. lyrically when you’re talking about over-obsession with candy-painted cars and rims?

There are countless comparisons to be made in the industry, and frankly, those calls are a matter of taste, life experience, and plain ol’ media persuasion. And, they’re not necessarily representative of the talents of thousands of brilliant MCs that infest our local neighborhoods, or even those lucky few who make it to the limelight.

At AllHipHop.com, our early days were wise ones – it was then that we created our signature “Top 5 Rappers Dead or Alive” list to allow the industry to rank itself in terms of who is best. After all, I mentioned that ranking greatness (or hotness) is a job that no one on my side of the desk ever really wants.

So, no matter what the critics say about MTV’s list, Rick Ross (and his Maybach Music Group empire) has indelibly changed the current Rap game – from cornering the market to garnering the respect of his peers. By some standards, that makes him the “hottest MC in the game.”

But hottest compared to who?

Seandra Sims is AllHipHop.com’s Editor-At-Large. Follow her on Twitter (@seandrasims).

“How long shall they kill our prophets, while we stand aside and look ?” – “Redemption Song”, Bob Marley

On February 21, 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in NYC, Malcolm X was gunned down just before he was about to put America on blast for dissin’ Black people. On that same date almost 50 years later, aspiring rapper, Murda U was shot in that same spot for dissin’ another rapper on a YouTube video. Although, there were several witnesses, because of the “no snitchin’ ” code of the streets, the shooter remains at large…

One of the best known icons in African American history is Malcolm X. Although he started off hustlin’ in the streets as “Detroit Red”, while in prison, he accepted the teachings of the Nation of Islam and devoted the rest of his life to the liberation of Black people.

What is most important about Malcolm X was not the man, himself, but his eternal symbol as the epitome of uncompromising, Black manhood. Part of his popularity was being the antithesis of the nonviolence of Dr. Martin Luther King, giving America the old school Hip-Hop duo Black Sheep’s option, “You can get with this/ Or you can get with that.”

Of course, Malcolm was not the first advocate of Black Power. During the 1830s, according to Vincent Harding in There Is a River, Martin Delany was already advocating Black Nationalism. Nor was Malcolm the only one during his time rejecting the idea of nonviolence. In his book, Negroes With Guns, Robert F. Williams said that as early as 1957, he was strappin’ Black people in Monroe, North Carolina, to protect themselves from the Ku Klux Klan. However, Malcolm X still holds a special spot in the Black psyche.

The spirit of Malcolm X has long been present in Hip-Hop. In 1983, Keith LeBlanc sampled his speeches on “No Sell Out” and Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force shouted him out on “Renegades of Funk.” However, it was during the late ’80s when Hip-Hop became infused with the ideology of Malcolm X courtesy of groups like Public Enemy, so much so that by the early ’90s, the X caps had replaced Kangols as the official Hip-Hop head gear.

So the question in 2012 becomes, why is Hip-Hop producing so many Meek Mills and so few Malcolm Xs ?

Back in the 1970s, the forefathers of rap, “The Last Poets,” released “N*ggers Are Scared of Revolution”, a song that proclaimed that some Black folks will do everything under the sun except engage in rebellion against the system. So, in 2012, are rappers scared of revolution, too?

In his 1963, “Message to the Grassroots,” Malcolm said that “revolution is bloody, revolution is hostile, revolution knows no compromise, revolution overturns and destroys everything that gets in its way…”

For many rappers that may sound like a hot lyric but in reality, that ain’t happenin’. Although many of them claim to love the ‘hood, they ain’t givin’ up their Maybachs for none of ya’ll. Despite all the tough talk and street swagga, few are really willing to commit what Huey P Newton would have called career “revolutionary suicide.”

And on some level, who could blame them?

In the mythos of Hip-Hop culture, if you go out in a blaze of glory like ‘Pac and Biggie you wind up in some Ghetto Heaven and the homies in the ‘hood will be forever pourin’ out liquor and sportin’ T-shirts in your memory. But if you go out fighting the power like Lil Bobby Hutton or Fred Hampton, you will be forgotten a week after the funeral.

After all, although members of the Nation of Islam were convicted for the murder of Malcolm, almost 50 years later we are still no closer to solving the mystery of who really gave the order for the hit than we are solving who killed Pac, Biggie, or Lil’ Pookie from down the block. However, we are left with some clues that have been rarely discussed.

In his book, To Kill a Black Man, Louis Lomax points out how, before his death, “Malcolm X was becoming a major threat to American foreign policy.” He alleged that “the American government, particular the CIA was deeply involved in Malcolm’s death.”

Researcher Steve Cokley has long suggested that we reread the often overlooked page 418 of Alex Haley’s Autobiography of Malcolm X, where Haley revealed that an unnamed “close friend” arranged a meeting with the president of a still unnamed “large private foundation” and the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights section, Burke Marshall, shortly before Malcolm’s death. According to Haley, he was grilled over Malcolm’s “finances” and how his recent trip to Africa had been funded.

Of course, there are some underground Hip-Hop artists today who are spittin’ truth to power like Immortal Technique, New Orleans’ Dee-1, and North C’arolina’s Homebase, but they are few and far between.

Some have suggested that the responsibility of Hip-Hop artists is to make music, not lead movements. Perhaps they are right.

Maybe the revolution won’t come from the rappers but from the writers. What good is a “revolution” if there is no one to explain to the masses who they are revolting against and why they need a “revolution” in the first place. This is especially critical when, since the end of the Civil War, the masses have been continually duped into believing that “we have overcome” and “there is nothing left to fight for. “

After all it was the “militant minded” journalists who were the original Black freedom fighters in this country. Remember early revolutionists such as Martin Delany and David Walker were writers. It has even been rumored that Nat Turner might have been influenced by “David Walker’s Appeal.” Walker posed such a threat to white supremacy that, according to Dr. James Turner, around 1830 there was a $10,000 bounty placed on his head by a group of wealthy white planters.

Whether it be a rapper or a writer, the world needs another Malcolm.

Someone who is not afraid to grab the mic or the pen and tell the world, that we demand Freedom, Justice and Equality, and we intend to bring it into existence…

“By any means necessary.”

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop,” a column for intelligent Hip-Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website at www.NoWarningShotsFired.com, or on Twitter (@truthminista).

I’m asking the world some questions, and I just want you to think about what I’m saying. Maybe some of you asked the same questions.

• If Whitney was alive and had a birthday on February 18, 2012 instead of a funeral, how many celebrities would have showed up?
• Do you think Kevin Costner would have made time and said half of the nice things he said while Whitney was alive?
• With all of the money Whitney made for Arista Records, if she asked for some financial assistance to help put Bobby Kristina through college, do you think they would have helped her?
• With everything Whitney had been through and overcome, if she wanted to do a program to help girls, what TV stations would have aired it as quickly as they aired her funeral?
• Now they call Whitney a Legend, the Greatest, the Voice. How many told her that while she was alive?
• If Whitney were alive, how many of us would be waiting to see and support the upcoming movie, Sparkle?
• If Whitney were alive, would the Grammy’s have paid the same attention to her?
• Radio stations are playing Whitney’s music, her videos are in rotation, people are buying her albums, but who are the ones truly benefiting from it now?

Today, on the day she is laid to rest, I want to speak on the way I will remember Whitney. When I was a little girl, White media still hadn’t accepted women of color as the beautiful, sexy role models that they do now. Black women were present but not prevalent in White mainstream media. But then…enter Miss Whitney Houston.

When she first started making the rounds on MTV, it was not as the diva you saw in later years. She was very soft looking. The first time I remember noticing this was in the video for “You Give Good Love”. She was a beautiful young, Black woman with the trademark mushroom hairdo so popular with us back then. With the soft makeup that truly accented her striking features, you could see this girl was different. She looked like women I knew, but yet there was something there, under the surface, and you could see that it was just waiting to be unleashed. This young woman was special. I was just a little girl, but even I could tell that.

As the next few years passed, little girls everywhere wanted to sing like Whitney, they wanted to be sparkly like Whitney, to be glamorous and sophisticated and classy like Whitney. She was seemingly bubbly and warm and when you heard her music and saw her videos and live performances you wanted to be just like that girl. She had arrived.

My goodness, how many times “How Will I Know” played over the years, depending on what boy I had a crush on at the time. Whitney’s lyrics always meant something to me. She didn’t just sing about jibberish like some artists. There was usually a deeper meaning there, even if it was as trivial as having a crush on someone, or as deep as “the children are our future.”

The Whitney I want to remember told me that the children were the future, and when I saw that video I was blown away. The makings of a diva. Not diva in the crass way people say it today, but diva as in a beautiful shining star that could never ever be the same person again. She was literally glowing in that video. I was about the age of the little girl in the video yet I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. Maybe not a singer, as I cannot sing a note, but I knew I wanted to be classy like that.

I remember my Mama trying to explain to me why I could not go around in a big, crazy looking tutu just because Whitney did it! You know what tutu I’m talking about, right? Yes, that big puffy monstrosity from the “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” video! I thought it was so cool, mostly because Whitney had it on! She influenced all sorts of fashion trends for an entire generation of girls.

See, to me, she embodied all the dreams that I used to have while sitting by my bedroom windowsill, looking out at my small, Midwestern town’s night lights. Because there was someone like Whitney, little girls who looked like me were able to dream not just privately, but eventually out loud. She broke down barriers for girls everywhere.

Whitney also took a lot of flack for the way she chose to do things, and yet, because of her and some others like her, we hardly ever use the word “crossover” anymore when describing Black and Brown successes in modern music. Acts like Beyonce and Rihanna are able to walk through the door into the pop arena because Whitney kicked the door in. I don’t ever want people to forget this. There may not have been makeup contracts for these ladies today, had the true beauty in Whitney not been allowed to shine.

She came to us like a hurricane. She started off soft and understated and then unleashed a furry of talent upon us that would span decades, through 25 Grammy nominations, six Grammy wins, and countless amazing hits. In fact, she won the most major awards of any female artist in music history. Her voice was a force stronger than almost anything we’ve ever known in nature, and now we are left with the devastation that her passing leaves behind.

I only hope that the various media outlets will remember her words as I do, “No Matter What They Take From Me, They Can’t Take Away My Dignity”, and leave our princess to rest with as much of her dignity in tact as humanly possible. None of us are perfect, and most of us get to lead our lives and make our mistakes privately. So I salute the Whitney that I grew up inspired by, and I will remember her for that gorgeous soul that she was, and for the voice that will send goosebumps and shivers down people’s spines forever. She will truly be missed.

Skyyhook is CEO/FOUNDER/General Manager of Skyyhook Radio and a contributor for AllHipHop.com. Follow her on Twitter (@SkyyhookRadio).

The perfect way to celebrate? 24 hours spent “LOVING” myself, of course! [*grins*] Although we spend a great deal of time pursuing – or fostering – life’s unpredictable love affairs, the equivalent amount of time, money, and energy is rarely directed to the person we should love the most: ourselves. Many religions ask that we, as humans, love each other AS we would love ourselves. But in the midst of all this loving, how often do we boomerang these sentiments in acts of self-love?

Do not be fooled into believing that the affirmation of self equates to narcissistic thinking. (Several years ago, Katt Williams preached quite humorously: “Take care of your star player!” And more recently, with the release of “Cold War,” Janelle Monae sounded a prophetic clarion call: “Do you know what you’re fighting for?”)

On this upcoming Valentine’s Day – and every single day hereafter – be sure to start/end your day the way it should: “press pause” and allow peaceful stillness to clear your mind of all stress, then assertively whisper to your spirit: “P.S. I Love You”!

[SIDENOTE, for those readers who prefer dramatic effect: complete this task in front of a mirror daily - with your best primal yell - followed by an indiscreet "Im-sexy-and-I-know-it" wink! And for the decisively mature, or purposely immature, a DISCLAIMER: Katt Williams like to cuss - a lot!]

For all the “Johnny-come-latelies,” hop on board the J-Monae train!

Did I mention that President Obama is proud member of #TeamMonae? (LOL!)

For more of Clayton Perry’s “views” and interviews, visit his official website: www.claytonperry.com

The hottest new show on cable is “Sex and Hip Hop.” If you haven’t peeped it yet, it’s about the daily drama of Brooklyn rapper, “Charlie Manson,” his two baby mamas, Latoya and Patrona, and his label mate, the first openly gay rapper, “Flamboyance.” Originally, the cast included the stable, loving, hardworking Black family next door, the Moores, but they were dropped after the first episode because of low ratings…

Without a doubt, the most watched programs on television are the reality shows. With the popularity of shows such as “Love and Hip Hop” and “Housewives of… Wherever,” it is apparent that Americans can’t get enough of seeing dysfunctional Black folks and dysfunctional Black families doing funky, dysfunctional things. But the question that should be asked is, are these shows really, reality or just the Hip-Hop version of “The Big Lie Theory” - tell a lie long enough and people will eventually accept it as truth?

It’s a little bit of both. However, we cannot confuse the effect with the cause.

The depiction of African people as sex starved savages goes back hundreds of years. According to James Jones in Bad Blood, it was once believed by physicians that Black people were more sexually promiscuous than whites because, “Blacks had originated in a warm, tropical climate and were, therefore, closer on the evolutionary scale to man’s bestial ancestors.”

These myths have constantly been dis-proven by scholars.

Michael Bradley, in his book, The Ice Man Inheritance, wrote that “love” was such a natural process for ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians that they did not even need a word for it. However, it was the Western Man’s (European) “sexual reproduction aggression and frustration” that made their use of the word necessary, as it served as a temporary “truce” between men and women just long enough to make a babies.

Even with evidence to the contrary, the stereotype of Black sexual deviancy has remained.

During the early 20th century, according to Dr. Harriett Washington in her book, Medical Apartheid, the early eugenics theorists believed that Black women were “sexually indiscriminate and, as bad mothers, were constrained by biology to give birth to defective children.” She also wrote that scientists once believed that Black men were more likely than White men to spread vd because of “the Negro’s well-known sexual impetuosity.”

This stereotype of Black hyper-sexuality was reflected in the music industry, as white teens both embraced Black sexuality and rejected it, simultaneously. Even as far back as the jazz era, Brain Ward wrote in Just My Soul Responding that the white audience “romanticized its alleged primitivism… sensual rather than mental properties …and it’s supposed lack of sexual inhibition,” parroting the wide spread belief that Black people think with their sex organs instead of their brains.

This idea has dominated Hip-Hop since its origins. Twenty years before Big Sean was telling women to “bounce it and make it boomerang,” Luke “Skywalker ” Campbell and the 2 Live Crew were yellin’ “Me So Horny.” And decades before Nicki Minaj dropped that “Super Bass,” Salt and Pepa were demanding that dudes “push it real good.”

Perhaps the most destructive idea pushed in Hip-Hop is that Black men really don’t even need women, as many are still following the Snoop Dog mantra “we don’t love them hoes.” This can be attributed to an entertainment industry that consciously or unconsciously supports the prison industrial complex by propagating the “jail house mentality.”

Because many young Black men spend 5-10 years in prison without the pleasure of women, the “thug luv,” “money over hoes” and other ideologies serve as coping mechanisms. Unfortunately, as Dr. Frances Cress Welsing wrote in The Isis Papers, “young males only become more alienated from their manhood and feminized in such settings.”

One of the most spirited discussions in Hip Hop over the last few years is over the issue of homosexuality/homophobia. The word “homophobia” can be deceiving, in itself, as “phobia” means “fear”, which you rarely hear expressed in rap music. Outside of a handful of songs such as Brand Nubian’s “Punks Jump up to Get Beat Down”, you can hardly find any evidence of “gay bashing.”

However, you can find plenty of examples of “Black-on-Black blastin.’” So, what you have is not fear or hate but a culture clash between an art form based on an African cultural heritage where homosexuality was never the norm and a “Western” culture where it was practiced freely. (Noted historian J.A. Rogers wrote in Sex and Race Vol. III that the practice was “rampant in ancient Greece and Rome.” )

The overemphasis on homophobia is problematic, because it overshadows real pathologies facing the Black community.

Although Black celebrities such as Magic Johnson should be commended for trying to rally rappers against “homophobia” and AIDS, this should not take the place of the more specific problems facing Black folks, such as the physical abuse of Black women and the disproportionate rate of heterosexual HIV infection among them.

Also, while rappers such as Waka Flocka Flame have co-signed the “anti-bullying” call for tolerance of those who are “different,” this must not overshadow Hip Hop’s responsibility to address the much more prevalent violence between Black males who are basically the same. Also, we cannot ask young Black men to accept men wearing dresses, before we even teach them about Black men wearing shirts and ties.

Our main challenge today must be to address the dysfunction of the Black family and the conflict between Black men and women. whether real or imagined and repair the damage that has been done. And just buying a box of over-priced, chocolate-covered cherries, or rushing out to grab some last minute Valentine bling, won’t solve the problem.

As Dr. Cress Welsing wrote, “If we are successful in finding the true cause of the alienation and neutralizing that cause, then Black male /Black female alienation will yield to true harmony.”

And we must begin begin by teaching Black children to accept and respect themselves.

If not, we will forever be trying to correct the behavior of people who, as Lil Wayne would say, never learned “how to love.”

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop,” a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. His website is www.NoWarningShotsFired.com, and he can reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com or on Twitter (@truthminista).

For me, it was Whitney’s classic rendition of the song, “The Greatest Love of All.” Nearly every elementary school music teacher required it at some point back in the day, and in 1985, the radio couldn’t break its addiction to playing it repeatedly. On nearly all radio stations. On Earth. Sure, the lyrics were good enough, but it was Whitney’s soul-stirring, high note-climbing vocals that made people believe in themselves just a little bit more after hearing it….”I believe the children are the future…”

I scored a solo the year we sang that song at my end-of-the-year, 6th grade awards assembly. I wasn’t one for the spotlight, but for two weeks, an 11-year-old Seandra practiced in the mirror, reaching (unsuccessfully) for the unreachable heights that Whitney had taken the song’s lyrics to. I was a shy kid, but for some reason, the song – and singing along with Whitney in the mirror - made all the difference in my summoning up the courage to shine….“teach them well, and let them lead the way.”

In the years to come, I would love her songs even more. Whitney had album after album of chart toppers – universal music that knew no color boundaries, that had taken a somewhat ‘hood girl from “The Oranges” to the big screen, the awards podium, and eventual tabloid notariety. Even as I watched her life unravel, I never gave up hope in her ability to just be…human. Her frailties with Bobby made us cringe, and her personal desperation was hard to watch (and easy to judge) in many interviews, TV reality episodes, and paparazzi photos. Whitney constantly reminded me how the spotlight blinds the rest of us. But what I’ve learned in this job is that we are all human – especially celebrities….“show them all the beauty they possess inside.”

To the relief of many, Whitney rallied back in recent years. And I cheered for her, pumping my fist just days ago, as I laughed in the AllHipHop offices while viewing photos of her and Ray J in a car together. “On a passenger ride to Cougar Town!” I thought, not mad at her one little bit. So, before the ongoing media coverage that will last for days on end, where we analyze and pick apart your life and times, at times not considering the toll it will take on your family and legacy, I wanted to say THANK YOU, Whitney Houston. Hopefully I wasn’t the only kid in that auditorium way back when who was inspired to strive harder and be better because of a song….”I found the greatest love of all inside of me.”

Whitney Houston “The Greatest Love of All” (Live at the 1987 Grammys)

Our icons are leaving us far too soon. R.I.P., Whitney.

Seandra Sims is AllHipHop.com’s Managing Editor. Follow her on Twitter (@SeandraSims).

“Follow the leader is the title, theme, task/ Now ya know, you don’t have to ask.” - “Follow the Leader”, Eric B and Rakim

An election was held in Harlem yesterday to elect a new national Black leader. For months, top contenders, Rev. Jesse Sharpton and Dr. Cornel Smiley, had been trying to out shine each other in an attempt to grab the coveted title. However, when the final vote was cast, the late rapper “The Vanglorious Makaveli Smalls” won a decisive write-in victory. Sharpton and Smiley took the first flight out of town, ashamed that the biggest civil rights leaders in the world had been beaten by a rapper from the ‘hood who was murdered 15 years ago.

For the last few years, there has been an uncivil war going on in the Black community between Rev. Al Sharpton, reppin’ the old school Civil Rights crew, and the intellectual tag team of Dr. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley. For months they have traded disses back and forth like a “Freestyle Friday” battle over who is the legitimate leader of the masses of Black folk.

Problem is, neither side really speaks for the streets – especially the youth. It can even be argued that the late Tupac Shakur is still more politically relevant to this generation than today’s Black leaders.

Traditionally, Black leadership has been made up of members of the middle class who use the poor as political pawns. In 1957, E. Franklin Frazier wrote in his book, Black Bourgeoisie, “As the intellectual leaders in the Negro community, they have never dared think beyond a narrow, opportunistic philosophy that provided a rationalization for their own advantages.”

How many forums have you watched on C-Span where a bunch of highly educated Black “leaders” in expensive suits talked for three hours about the problems facing America and not a word was relevant to the ‘hood ?

As Dr. Carter G. Woodson wrote in The Mis-Education of the Negro, “One of the most striking evidences of the failure of higher education among Negroes is the estrangement from the masses, the very people upon whom they must eventually count for carrying out a program of progress. “

The biggest scam played on the streets by “Black leaders” is the “non-economic liberalism” con, which Harold Cruse discusses in his book, Plural But Equal. According to Cruse, groups like the NAACP traded Black economic empowerment for the impotent, feel good ideology of civil rights. So people died for the right to sit next to a white person in a restaurant when they should have been fighting to own the joint.

The fight over who should be the leader of Black Americans can be traced back to the 1843 National Convention of Colored Citizens and the debates between Frederick Douglass and Henry Highland Garnet. According to Bradford Chambers in “Chronicles of Black Protest, ” Garnet wanted to go hard against slavery with his “Call to Rebellion” speech, but his efforts were undermined by Douglass’s softer call for “moral suasion.” Because Garnet was seen as too radical, Douglass became America’s first national Black “leader.”

During the early 20th Century, the fight for Black leadership was between Booker T. Washington and Dr. WEB DuBois. Washington was the reigning champion after the 1895 Atlanta Exposition, where he delivered a speech that, according to his book, Up From Slavery, was used to “cement the friendship of the races and bring about hearty cooperation between them.” Dubois, however, wanted to intellectually and politically challenge the idea of white supremacy. After the death of Washington, Dubois went against Marcus Garvey, an advocate of Black Pride, self sufficiency, and a strong identification with Africa, as discussed in detail in Dr. Tony Martin’s work, Race First.

The conflict of the ’60s was between the Civil ights leaders led by Dr. Martin Luther King and members of the Black Power Movement who followed the ideology of Malcolm X. Because they were less threatening to the staus quo, the followers of King became the “official” Black leaders.

During the late ’80s, a second Black Power movement emerged via Hip-Hop, as young Black kids began to identify with the outcasts. Instead of repeating the “I Have a Dream Speech,” Hip Hop artists such as Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy began to sample speeches by Kwame Ture, Dr. Khalid Muhammad, and Min. Louis Farrakhan. Also, a new generation of Black youth begin to embrace Afrocentric thought, courtesy of scholars like Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Dr. Leonard Jeffries, and so-called “conspiracy theories” by Del Jones and Steve Cokely, who mainstream Black leadership had deemed political pariahs. These vibrations still flow through underground, conscious Hip-Hop, even in 2012.

This is the real reason that the torch was never passed to the Hip-Hop generation. Although the old school Civil Rights leaders always complain about how young people aren’t willing to “pick up the mantel of leadership,” in truth, they ain’t givin’ that up without a fight. The only way to get that golden mantle is to pry it from their cold dead hands. Even today, it is the clones of Dr. King who sit on the thrones of Black leadership, as they have the cable news networks, radio stations, and magazine covers on lock.

But we have something they never will – Hip Hop and the ears of the streets.

Hip-Hop still remains the most volatile weapon that can be used to challenge the status quo. What if rappers used the money that they are spending “makin’ it rain” in the clubs to build more Black businesses? Or instead of rapping about “Rack City,” they used their words to make a strong “Black City?” Maybe it’s time for the Hip-Hop Nation to overthrow traditional Black leadership and replace them with people who truly rep’ the poor and oppressed in ‘hoods across America.

The choice is yours.

Like Nas asked on “My Generation, “What’s up with tomorrow?/ Will you lead? Will you follow?”

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop,” a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. His website is www.NoWarningShotsFired.com. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com or follow him on Twitter (@truthminista).

Wellness is not just about weight, looks, or clothing sizes. A sedentary lifestyle can cause DVT, the blood clot that killed Heavy D, or heart disease as suffered by Erick Sermon, which caused him to have a heart attack at the youthful age of 42. Hip-Hop has plenty of big men, of whom we are accepting. I mean, we have all seen Rick Ross with his shirt off. However, the road to true wellness is a healthy lifestyle. One that consists of regular exercise, eating fruits and vegetables, and limiting one’s intake of alcohol. Health, after all, is wealth.

When discussed with my colleagues, Dr. Ian Smith’s name was the first to be mentioned as a resource. If he could help Jackee Harry lose 39 pounds, Bizarre of D12 drop 31 pounds, and Young MC, the winner of Season 3, drop 38 pounds, I figure he can definitely help me drop 35 pounds. So, with the help of a copy of The Extreme Fat Smash Diet, I step into “Celebrity Fit Club, The Home Edition.”

The first thing to remember when starting any weight loss regimen is to see your doctor. If you are able, visit a physician and have a full physical done to make sure that any sudden changes to your diet will not jeopardize your health. After my physical, where I was given a clean bill of health, excluding the fact that I need to lose weight, I visited the next most important person on my list, my hairstylist.

For many Black women, the battle of what to do with our hair while at the same time exercising for health is an unending one. It wasn’t a problem for many years, because I wore locks, but since I cut them, and began to style my hair in various ways, I was concerned about how to get a good workout while at the same time looking presentable at my day job as a college-level writing instructor. I settled on a curly, natural looking sew-in weave that requires minimal maintenance. Next, the food.

I have a love affair with food. I love to eat, and not a small amount of food either. I love the big portions at my favorite Cuban restaurant; I love the unnaturally large servings at my soul food spot. I love vegetables, too, especially if they have been simmering in smoked meat for so long that the nutrients cook out. I have terrible eating habits. Add to that, I’m a journalist and am regularly invited to special events where the food and alcohol are often free; I then add calories with sweet drinks, sliders, and wings.

So can Dr. Ian help even a seemingly hopeless case like me? Well, that remains to be seen. I am going to do my best to stick to the plan and will update you on my progress. Meanwhile, read the interview I did with Dr. Ian, and for more information on how to create your weight loss program visit www.50millionpounds.com

Recently, students at Garvey University sponsored a debate between noted historian Dr. T. Asante Shakur and Professor Darwin J. Watson, author of the best selling book, Blacks Are Dumb…Get Over It! While Dr. Shakur feverishly went through an hour long, high powered PowerPoint presentation, highlighting indisputable evidence of Black contributions to civilization over the last 5,000 years, Watson just listened quietly with a confident grin on his face. When it was his turn to speak, he just walked over to the podium, told the sound man to pump up the local Hip-Hop station, and yelled “Booyah!!!” before leaving the stage, confident that he had proven his point…

Since this country was founded, the myth of Black intellectual inferiority has been a controversial topic. However, in 2012, it is imperative that we ask the question, “does the commercial Hip-Hop that is constantly pumped on the radio refute the myth or help to perpetuate it?”

According to John S. Haller, in his book, Outcasts from Evolution, the “scientific” basis for the Black intellectual inferiority myth was started around 1735 by Carl Von Linnaeus, who used skin color to describe , “racial character, personality traits, behavior, intelligence” etc. Linnaeus’s work set the stage for the theories of scientists such as Charles Darwin, William Shockley, Nobel Prize winner James Watson, and many others.

What is most disturbing about the myth is that it does not match up with historical facts.

As an example, George GM James wrote in his classic book, Stolen Legacy, that “the true authors of Greek philosophy were not the Greeks but the people of North Africa, commonly known as the Egyptians.” Also, although many people are familiar with Dr. WEB Du Bois’s book, Souls of Black Folk, relatively few are hip to his essay “Souls of White Folk,” where he wrote “Europe has never produced and never will in our day, bring forth a single human soul who cannot be matched and over matched in every human endeavor by Asia and Africa.”

Unfortunately, these facts have been rarely taught in history classes. Historically, the American educational system (as well as religious and political institutions) has been used to advance the idea that African Americans are less intelligent than Whites. Hip-Hop is not exempt.

Back in the day, groups like Poor Righteous Teachers and Boogie Down Productions used “edutainment” to inspire a whole generation to read books like The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and They Came Before Columbus by Dr. Ivan Van Sertima.” However, this was skillfully replaced by the mythological “street knowledge” popularized by NWA on their song “Straight Outta Compton” in 1988.

In his essay, “The Black Child,” Dr. Bobby Wright defined the “street mentality” as the myth that “Whites do not control the streets in the Black community nor the behavior of Blacks on those streets.” He argued that “Whites have more control, or at least as much control over brothers and sisters in the streets than over those in universities.”

Gradually, dumb became the new smart and reading became something for suckers.

Also, during this period Hollywood became “Holly’hood,” as the intellectual Spike Lee movies were replaced by gangsta flicks. Perhaps the biggest turning point is a result of what Enisoto Adika Ekunsirinde coined the “O Dog Theory.” He argues that before the 1993 ‘hood classic, Menace II Society, the audience would identify with the “positive brother” in a movie, but after “Menace” they began to celebrate the thugged-out, “O Dog” characters rather than the “smart brothers” like “Sharif.”

Things have not changed much in almost 20 years.

Unfortunately, there are still Black men trying to live up to the stereotype of being “real n*ggas” by perpetuating ignorance through Hip-Hop. No matter how you feel about the use of the N-word, it’s origin is rooted in racial inferiority. Strangely, the concept of taking “ownership of the word” and changing the perception did not originate in Hip-Hop. According to Dr. Randall Kennedy in his book, nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, it was a White comedian, Lenny Bruce, who in 1963, popularized the erroneous concept that overusing the word would take the sting out of it.

As we get ready for another Black History Month, I suggest that instead of discussing the “plantation work songs” and “Negro spirituals” like we usually do, we focus on an issue that this generation is facing today.

How do we take our music and our minds back?

While it may be true that the proverbial “they” control the air waves, that doesn’t mean that “they” should control our brain waves. So much so that we don’t even question the “menticide” that is being waged against the youth. When the radio DJ says that he is just “playing what the people want to hear,” we just accept it as fact and keep it movin’. We have bought into the stereotype that the only music we want to hear is about Maybachs, murder and misogyny.

Where is it written in the Hip-Hop rule book that we can’t hear a classic Rakim or Intelligent Hoodlum joint on the radio? Not to mention the work of underground artists in ‘hoods across the country who are hungry to speak Truth to power.

We need a Black History Month Radio Rebellion to demand change, and there is no better time than right now! We need to use our cells, Twitter, e-mail, etc. to tell radio station programmers that we want to hear something other than what they are currently force feeding us.

Sadly, like the Jim Brown character told Ving Rhames in the underground movie, Animal, “being stupid is a choice, too.” Some people actually like sitting in the back of the short school bus and will entirely miss the point.

But as A Tribe Called Quest said on “Jazz:”

“I don’t really mind if it’s over your head/ ‘Cuz the job of resurrectors is to wake up the dead.”

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop,” a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website at www.nowarningshotsfired.com, or on  Twitter (@truthminista).

 The trend continued on through Facebook to a degree, but especially through Twitter. Twitter has allowed for celebs to be open and vulnerable with their fans in a way that they have never been previously. This should be a great thing for us all right? I thought so, too, but not so fast.

Apparently, there is a price that celebs are paying for this access. I’m not talking about the clowns who tattoo food on their faces after a drunken weekend binge, or who marry hookers from an after party only to get it annulled two weeks later. They kind of have what they get coming to them for living foolishly in the public eye. I mean people that are not guilty of doing anything more than living their lives and minding their own business, only to find this new access to them a problem.

There is a phenomenon going on in social media and it needs to be addressed. This practice of calling legends within Hip-Hop/R&B out and berating them publicly, in order to gain some type of notoriety for one’s own self is beyond disrespectful…it is, in fact, foolish.

If you are on Twitter, and you start tweeting foul names and terms to someone who has actually done something to earn respect among their followers, just to gain more followers for yourself, then you should probably spend some quality time on a couch with a therapist, figuring out where you are going wrong in life. 

Class is something that a lot of people think they have, but sadly, they do not. Attacking people and calling them a “has been” or “irrelevant” only proves to those who encounter the ”social media thugs” that they are classless, tacky, and flat-out thirsty for attention. If these people want “fame,” they should do something worthy of applause. Maliciously ambushing someone who has already done something to make people cheer for them, does not qualify anyone for a virtual pat on the back. Actually, it deserves the opposite. 

With that said, people need to quit rewarding these cowardly idiots with their follows, cyber friendships, or whatever else you are able to give a total stranger that is “thuggin” from behind a computer screen. This makes you complicit in the act, and possibly just as corny in the end. There should be no reward for going out of your way to make someone else feel bad about being themselves. Giving those people your vote of confidence won’t make you any more popular or desirable. It just means you co-sign trashy behavior. 

And while we are on the subject of popularity, let me be clear about one thing. If you are out of high school, and you are maligning someone with a famous name in order to fix that thing within you that is still sad because you were not a “cool kid” in school, again, I  recommend calling a great therapist or Maury because there is help out there for folks like you.

However, dissing someone who has contributed to society in some way, will not and does not make you cool. It won’t take you back to try outs and make you quarterback or head cheerleader. All it does is make you look like a virtual cornball that is dying for someone, anyone to notice your existence. I implore you, find something else to get attention, and leave those who have done something positive alone to enjoy the praise they have actually earned.

I normally wouldn’t call out names, but I have recently seen someone who I find to be one of the kindest souls I have ever had the blessing of knowing being called out in this horrifying way, and it was simply the last straw for me, as it upsets me to no end. Anyone who has seen the A Tribe Called Quest documentary, Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest, has had the distinct pleasure of getting to know more about ATCQ member, Jarobi White, via the film.

In the documentary, the viewer is able to see what kind of genuine person Jarobi is. This is observed through his friendships he has maintained for over 20 years within his group. I can honestly say that Jarobi is that same kind of person off the big screen. He makes me laugh harder than my asthma can stand on most occasions, and is so humble that he will probably kill me for writing his name in this editorial in the first place! 

But that aside, I think it’s time to stand up to the grown up versions of cyber bullying. I realize that people give up certain rights to their anonymity when they are in the public eye, but sometimes enough is enough. And, when people target personalities for their own selfish gain, it needs to be called out. No one should be penalized for trying to keep us all entertained! Show people the respect they deserve and have earned.

Good manners are free, and being polite costs you nothing. It’s something we need a lot more of.

Skyyhook is CEO/FOUNDER/General Manager of Skyyhook Radio and a contributor for AllHipHop.com. Follow her on Twitter (@SkyyhookRadio).

The president’s State of the Union Address was delivered as most of his spoken outings – remarkably eloquently.

But, beyond the quality of the speech were some serious issues at this pivotal moment in history.

Before the American people, he outlined where we are as a nation, as well as where he would like to see us go as an “America built to last.” President Obama then perused through a proverbial smorgasbord of issues ranging from higher taxes for the wealthy to the mortgage crisis to the energy crisis to education.

At the Barack Talk event Tuesday night, a group of progressives and over 35,000 viewers delved into POTUS’s issues, as well as those that were not represented by the president as he spoke before the partly-hostile Congress. Civic engagement, voter suppression, The Occupy Movement, new laws making abortions difficult, and other matters like felons’ rights were largely overlooked.

The president also didn’t talk about how one out of seven people in American live below the poverty line, or how one in four children live in impoverished conditions. Google that, America. Better yet, click here.

Voter suppression is real, and it would have served the president well to address this egregious trend to the American people Tuesday. In many instances, these suppressed voters are the very people that helped elect him. According to alternet.org, there are seven ways that otherwise eligible voters are being prevented from participating in the electoral process. One simple tactic is to make it harder to present basic identification at the polls. (Click here for the remaining six ways that voters are being suppressed.)

“There’s never been a better time for nation building…” – President Barack Obama

The president is right.

There has never been a better time for nation building. Greg Watkins and I built AllHipHop from nothing. No funding. No family bankroll. It was simply an idea from a pair of guys who decided to work together. Shortly after the company’s inception, the country spiraled into recession. These were some of the leanest years of my life. No insurance. Very little income. I mean, at one point, I walked around with glass embedded in my foot, because it was easier to deal with that than the cost of a doctor with no insurance.

But, Greg and I were scrappy and excited by the possibilities before us.

Although those times were tough, they built character and prepared us for the next recession, the worst since the Great Depression. Moreover, we continued to see opportunity amid the chaos, remaining steadfast and optimistic. Our collective eyes no longer seen through rose-colored lenses.

“Built to last…”

Obama addressed the wave of general American skepticism in his address as well, which seemed to be a subliminal acknowledgment of The Occupy Movement. This also spoke to the youth community we call Hip-Hop, as I only know an idealistic few that have any faith in the government to help them achieve the “American Dream,” as we’ve been reared to believe in.

But a dream is just that. We’re dealing with reality. Right?

We’ve got to remember that the president runs the nation[s], but he does not control our local communities. We’ve looked at and criticized the president keenly, but we’ve got to do the same for ourselves. In the last three to four years, what have we done? African Americans, for the first time since the Civil Rights Movement, will not see positive economic progress as a group.

We continue to see our own shortcomings and yet, we look to Washington D.C. to fix these societal matters. Obama may create policy and reform in areas such as education, but it is up to us to make sure our children strive to be great students and successful citizens. The president can inspire the next generation, but he won’t be able to guide them all through their journeys and trials. We will.

Yes, we have to do what we must for ourselves, and there are people doing that. We need more. That is not optional.

By the same token, it is also time to continuously hold our elected officials accountable, as they continue to be servants of the people. For us to become even more apathetic and further disengaged only defeats our own cause.

There are a number of ways that you can take action. Contact your local government and push them to activate the necessary change in your community. It can be something as simple as a bad pothole. Mentor a child and help guide them into adulthood. Educate them and yourself, because with education, many of the ills we face resolve themselves. Volunteer. Complain. Write. Tweet. Inspire. Empower.

Do something.

And be vigilant.

He was mature enough to transcribe the longest of interviews. He was mature enough to sit in as I interviewed Kanye West and not act a fool. He was mature enough to act as my (and others’) intern as we worked at a Viacom-owned television network some years ago. Since overcoming a childhood in foster care, he’s now a graduate of Clark Atlanta, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and has amassed a myriad of other achievements.

Yet and still, Kareem is not employed, despite hurdling over insurmountable odds and seemingly doing all the right things in life. At 23, he’s strong, unrelenting, and will soon join AllHipHop as a part of an initiative spurned by the President Obama to get youth jobs, life skills, and competent mentors.

As a college graduate, Kareem could be considered one of the “lucky” fortunates. While the nation appears to be in an uptick, those around us – the people we know and touch – remain in dire straits. That is the charge of the president, as he prepares to address the nation today.

The fact is, the youth that peruse AllHipHop and similar sites are fundamentally disengaged, disillusioned, and fairly disgusted with the way the nation has treated them thus far. Many of them, like Kareem, remain optimistic, while some others have completely stopped buying into the notion that they can be helped into their own. There are others still, that never bought into it to begin with.

While at the White House recently, I saw firsthand that youth from all over the nation are like Kareem, but the general consensus in the room was these young people were exceptional. Another reoccurring theme from the mouths of these young adults was they simply needed a chance.

Right now, the president seeks another chance as well.

The time is crucial for the president, but far more crucial for the American people, whose lives and well-being hang literally in the balance. While he’s achieved much, for many, the presidency is wrought with shortcomings that are felt in a way that is all to real in 2012. Will the people – the real ones – give him a chance as we approach the presidential election? Will the president be able to win back the faith and support of the American people?

Right now, we see that change has indeed occurred, but it certainly is not the change the country expected back during election time in ’07/’08. Especially for our country’s young people like Kareem.

The time is critical.

Please join the discussion as AllHipHop.com, national non-profit organization, The League Of Young Voters Education Fund, and Rock The Vote prepare for the 2nd Annual #BarackTalk, a State of the Union roundtable discussion and watch party. The event starts at 7:30 pm tonight (January 24) and will stream live from Washington D.C. on www.AllHipHop.com and www.BarackTalk.com.

#BarackTalk panelists include rapper Rhymefest; activist Davey D; Goldie Taylor, leading news correspondent (TheGrio.com, MSNBC); Chuck Creekmur, co-founder of AllHipHop.com; and many more.

In 2012, Dee-1 and others like him are committing their names and voices to help mobilize urban young people to exercise one of their most precious rights – the right to VOTE. On the eve of #Barack Talk, a State of the Union watch party and discussion event in Washington, D.C., panelist Dee-1 recorded this video message to help spread the word about why casting your ballot still matters:

About #BarackTalk:

On Tuesday, January 24, AllHipHop.com will partner with national non-profit organization, The League Of Young Voters Education Fund and Rock The Vote for the second annual #BarackTalk, a State of the Union round table discussion and watch party. The event will broadcast live from Busboys and Poets, one of our capitol’s cultural hotspots, at 5^th and K in Washington, D.C. at 7:30 p.m. EST.

#BarackTalk will kick off with a series of panel discussions about the biggest issues facing Millennial before the 2012 presidential election. The party begins when President Barack Obama starts his fourth State of the Union address, and will conclude with analysis and discussion by some of the best and brightest minds in entertainment and politics.

Panelists include Goldie Taylor, leading news correspondent at TheGrio.com (MSNBC); Chuck Creekmur, influential urban entertainment journalist and co-founder of AllHipHop.com; Andreas Hale of TheWellVersed.com; rappers Dee-1 and Rhymefest; Shaheem Reid, Editor-At-Large of XXL; and Michael Skolnick, Political Director of GlobalGrind.com.