A month ago, Tavis Smiley and a group of Black
intellectuals and activists, which included Minister Louis Farrakhan,
Dr. Cornel
West, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Michael Eric Dyson, and others got
together to
discuss the importance of President Barack Obama addressing of a Black
Agenda. Apparently the goal was not
for the group to address the Black Agenda, but rather dialogue and
debate
whether it’s appropriate or not for a Black president of the United States to address the needs of Black
people in America. After watching the round table
discussion, which I strongly recommend you watch if you haven’t already,
I began
to think about a Hip-Hop Agenda, which in actuality would correlate with
the
agenda some suggest President Obama is avoiding to publicly address as it pertains to African Americans.
What’s the purpose of a Hip-Hop Agenda? What should a Hip-Hop Agenda
entail? Who should create a Hip-Hop
Agenda? If a Hip-Hop Agenda was
created (some may suggest one has been discreetly created already, to
the
benefit of a few and the detriment of many) who will implement it?
Hip-Hop is more than music; it’s actually a
movement, a
reflection of our community. But
what is it reflecting and where is it moving? Obviously,
just like the womb it was
birthed from (the community); its growth has been stagnated. Let us not ask why?
A Hip-Hop Agenda, in my opinion, would organize,
unify
and give purpose to the music and culture, as well as, raise awareness,
expectations, increase responsibility and accountability of the people
in the
community. A Hip-Hop Agenda should
entail the answers to the concerns affecting the community which are
parallel to
that of the Black Agenda:
education, employment, health, public policy, economics and
imagery. We should own our own distribution,
control radio and the portrayal and depiction of imagery of ourselves on
television and/or movies. Since our
culture has been commercialized we should own the greatest stake in it
because
we made the greatest investment.
The commercialization of hip hop is only detrimental when the
money
generated is not reinvested back into our community, which it hasn’t
been. There should be more Kevin Powell’s,
someone from the hip hop community running for elective office with the
hope of
being elected and influencing public policy affecting our community. There should be more Cornell Dews’, in
the classroom teaching youth who resemble him and reside in the same
community
from which he come and still remains.
There should be more diversification in the music.
If we controlled it, packaged it and
sold it, then we could diversify it.
For instance, I’d like to have more than one female rap artist at
a time
to choose from. I like attractive
women as much as the next man; however, I’d prefer to be entertained
with
something other than her sex appeal.
It’s a discredit and disservice to the female artist as well
because it
takes the attention away from her talent and encourages the major focus
on her
physicality.
A Hip-Hop Agenda would afford us a sense of
direction. Who would create and
implement the agenda? We would, the
people from the community.
Preferably the first generation that was raised on Hip-Hop, my
generation, with the guidance and support of our elders and
participation and
cooperation from the youth. To
start, we would need a mission statement.
So simply put, our mission would be to improve our community by
investing
our time, money and efforts in the lives of the people who live in our
community, which would be reflected in the music and the imagery of Black people
projected around the world by Black people.
Only if we controlled hip hop and we had an
agenda with a
plan.
