(AllHipHop News) Philadelphia rapper Beanie Sigel recently signified his return to the Hip-Hop world with a slew of news about his upcoming business and music ventures.
Fresh off his announcement of a new distribution deal with EMI, however, the artist is facing a different sort of music right now. The federal government – or more specifically, the IRS – is prepared to sentence him for the tax fraud charges he pled guilty to in late Summer 2011. The sum they allege he owes is gigantic – nearly $750,000 – stemming from the years 2003 to 2005 when he still called Jay-Z’s and Dame Dash’s Roc-A-Fella Records his home.
Beanie Sigel’s attorney, Fortunato Perry, however, says the sum is far less and that will hopefully help to reduce his client’s likely punishment when he returns to court in mid-July. Flanked by his new label family and loved ones,AllHipHop.com accompanied Beanie Sigel to his sentencing, where he gave the following video interview afterwards about the continuance in the case and his plans to drop his new mixtape:
On the heels of his legal trouble, today’s (April 16) release of the Broad Street Empire Vol. 1: Lost Files mixtape is the latest in a series of exclusives the State Property member shared with AllHipHop.com about plans to reinvigorate his roughly 15-year career.
The 17-track Broad Street Empire Vol. 1: Lost Files, presented by DJ Damage and mainly produced by Don Cheegro and Dirty Harry, boasts several features from State Property’s Freeway and Young Chris. From outside his camp, Beanie Sigel also tapped the skills of longtime collaborator Raekwon, as well as Sean Anthony and Testme.
Over the past two weeks, Beanie Sigel announced his new deal with EMI under industry veteran Chris Schwartz, along with plans for his publishing his prison-penned book, Kites Over The Wall. He also spoke about recording an upcoming collaboration LP with Scarface in the near future.
Beanie Sigel’s new mixtape is available for download below right now. His upcoming studio album, The Classic, is set for a Summer 2012 release.
(AllHipHop News) For the fans, it was likely epic, exciting, and spooky all rolled up in one. On Sunday night (April 15), at the Coachella music festival, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg made history by bringing out a performing hologram of the late rapper, Tupac Shakur.
After Dr. Dre’s performed his part of “California Love,” the lights went off and a moving image of Tupac appeared and greeted Dre, Snoop, and the Coachella crowd. Hologram Tupac then performed “Hail Mary” in what some called an eerie and chilling fashion, and then lightened the mood with a duet with Snoop Dogg for “2 of America’s Most Wanted,” in which the image danced around the stage. Once that song was finished, the image of Tupac disappeared.
Video of the hologram commanded instant hits online, as fans on social networks heavily discussed the topic while watching the Coachella live stream on YouTube. See the video below.
Editor’s Note: This is Part 3 of AllHipHop.com’s month-long series , “Rap, Race and Riots: Hip-Hop 20 Years after the L.A. Rebellion.”
“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 “p#####’ 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 [email protected], on his website, www.NoWarningShotsFired.com, or on Twitter (@truthminista).
(AllHipHop News) In an unexpected turn of events, Nicki Minaj has deleted her Twitter account that has over 11 million followers.
Making the move after a fan site leaked her music, Minaj took to Twitter to discuss her displeasure with the fan site in what are likely her last Tweets.
The move comes on the heels of a trying week for the Queens femcee, as she recently made public accusations that her father abused her in her younger years, a claim her father has since denied.
(AllHipHop News) Yesterday (April 14), New York bred Hip-Hop trio, The Beastie Boys, were formally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, where festivities kicked off with a concert paying tribute to the newly elected members.
Appearing with one less member, as Adam “MCA” Yauch is currently ill, the Beastie Boys Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad Rock” Horovitz watched as The Roots, Kid Rock, and Travie McCoy rapped through several of the Beastie Boys most popular songs, including “Sabotage.”
The Beastie Boys class of fellow inductees includes Guns N’ Roses, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Donovan, Laura Nyro, The Small Faces/Faces, The Crickets, The Famous Flames, The Midnighters, The Comets, The Blue Caps, and The Miracles.
Freddie King received the “Early Influencer” induction, while Don Kirshner, Cosimo Matassa, Glyn Johns, and Tom Dowd were all elected as side men.
The induction marks the celebration of a highly eventful career for the rap trio that built its name early on with help of Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin at Def Jam Recordings. They continue to craft songs and distribute their work worldwide.
“We’re in the rock and roll hall of fame? That’s f—-n’ crazy and awesome! While we are very proud of the music we make, we have to acknowledge the inspiration from our families, friends and musicians like the slits, bad brains, x-ray spex, the treacherous three and too many others to possibly name. And most of all, we give thanks to New York City and the world of musical influence it provided for us,” The Beastie Boys said in a statement to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Their body of work boasts four platinum selling albums, making them one of Rap and Hip-Hop’s greatest selling acts of all time. They ignored the color gap in Hip-Hop during the 1980’s, helping to cross over the genre to mainstream TV and radio audiences that included the growing white kid and college kid segment of Hip-Hop listeners.
In November 1984, the Beastie Boys song “Rock Hard,” became one of the first songs that Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin released collectively on Def Jam Recordings.
The Beasties’ buzz soared the following year, although they were booed opening up for Madonna’s 1985 Virgin tour.
Nevertheless, the group was resilient, releasing “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)” the following year to critical acclaim.
The song peaked at #7 on the Billboard Charts, helping Licensed to Ill sell over four million copies in less than a year, and later going on to sell nine million albums worldwide.
The Beasties Boys would later tour with Run DMC as part of 1986’s “Raising Hell Tour” – one of Rap music’s first big budget tours – also including Whodini and a young up-and-coming LL Cool J .
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes The Beastie Boys follow-up project, Paul’s Boutique, as a landmark project in Hip-Hop history.
Their albums, Ill Communication, and Hello Nasty, both reached #1 on the Billboard Charts, and Hello Nasty, and earned the group two Grammy Awards – Best Alternative Music Performance(Hello Nasty) and Best Performance by a Rap Group (or Duo) – for their song “Intergalactic.”
Receiving two awards in separate genres showcased the Beastie Boys’ crossover appeal, as seen throughout the years in their music which attracts both Rock and Rap/Hip-Hop fans.
The group’s accolade was presented during the induction by Chuck D of Public Enemy.
Kanye West dropped his single “Theraflu” last week, which chronicled his infatuation with Kim Kardashian, told PETA to go kick rocks, and gave props to Wiz Khalifa among other topics. The suits over at cold medicine company Theraflu did not like the association with Kanye West and threatened to sue him last week. Well, those threats did not fall on deaf ears. This morning, Kanye West announced that he has changed the name of his Hit-Boy produced track “Theraflu” to the now new and improved title, “Way Too Cold”. Check out Kanye’s tweet below:
“I changed the name of the song THERAFLU to WAY TOO COLD and you can buy it now at KanyeWest.com.”
The name change comes complete with new artwork, which now shows the naked, headless torso of a woman topped with a bottle of cold milk. Ye’s message did not mention that impending lawsuit, but one can only guess that Kanye took the logical route and decided to avoid the problem all together by changing the name.
In several interviews dating back to her early days, Nicki Minaj has always insisted that she had a tough upbringing having to deal with a drug-addicted father who was abusive. During Nicki’s recent promo run for Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, she stopped by Nightline and during that interview, she revealed that she wanted to “kill” her father when she was a child.
Nicki said, “I wanted to kill [my dad]. I used to wish he was dead … ‘We were afraid for my mother’s life because whenever he would have a real bad outburst he would threaten to kill her.”
Nicki also told a story about her father almost burning down their house.
Well, according to TMZ, Nicki’s father Omar is very upset by the accusations and says that she is grossly exaggerating. Omar admits he had anger issues when she was a child … but insists it NEVER reached the point Nicki described in her interview. Omar never knew Nicki felt this way about him — and he’s absolutely crushed she decided to air her grievances in the media.
Sounds to me like Nicki’s dad still can’t admit to some of the things he did while he was on drugs and alcohol.
(AllHipHop News) Outlawz group member Young Noble recently spoke with AllHipHop.com about his recently released new mixtape “Outlaw Rydahz Vol.1.”
“It’s actually my first solo mixtape. I got everyone on there, Young Buck, Trae the Truth and of course my Outlaw comrads,” Young Noble told AllHipHop.com. “I’m working on another mixtape which is going to be solo, just me. I think my fans deserve that.”
According to Young Noble, The Outlawz, who released “Perfect Timing” in x of y, have decided to use 2012 as a year to focus on themselves as individuals.
“Me and my Outlaw brothers are focusing on doing individual s**t this year,” Young Noble told AllHipHop.com. “I started N.J. Entertainment, that’s my label. I’m going to be dropping a whole bunch of independent artists I’m [also] starting an online distribution for independent artists.
Young Noble took a moment to speak on the inspiration he received from the late Tupac and how it was inevitable that he and B.I.G. would have reunited.
“I know for sure if Pac and B.I.G. was alive they would have been got to together and squash that s### and probaly took over the game together,” Young Noble told AllHipHop.com.
Dear Ash Cash: What’s the difference between a bank and a credit union? –Stacey Jenkins
Ash’Cash: With the introduction of this great recession and many people’s disdain for “The 1%”, the question of big bank vs. credit union often comes up. While banks and credit unions look and act very similar from the outside, their internal structure makes them two completely different animals. They both offer checking and savings accounts, CDs, loans, and most of the other products and services we expect from a financial institution, but the main difference is that a bank is a for profit business, and a credit union is a not-for-profit business.
Understand that not-for-profit and non-profit are two different terms. Not-for-profit means that the company operates like any other business and makes a profit, but the profits are not for investors but are for the growth and continuation of the business. A non-profit is a charity and relies heavily on donations and grants to continue their operations and is tax exempt based on its 501(3)c status. Credit unions are owned by its depositors, or “members” as they are referred to, and the money you put into a credit union is a share appose to a deposit. In essence when you bank with a credit union, you own a percentage or share of the institution.
A bank is a for profit business so it is in the business of making money. Banks, because of their popularity, reach, and financial stability, are more convenient and are up to date with technology, but a credit union still existS for your benefit. Ultimately, there isn’t one better than the other; it all depends on your preference of convenience vs. best interest. If you want convenience, then the big banks are your poison. If you want an institution that is looking out for your best interest, including higher rates on deposit accounts and lower rates on loans, then a credit union is best for you.
Watch Episode 1 of the “Ask Ash Cash” Web Series below:
TO HEAR THE AUDIO VERSION OF THE DAILY WORD – CLICK HERE.
Ash’Cash is a Business Consultant, Motivational Speaker, Financial Expert and the author of Mind Right, Money Right: 10 Laws of Financial Freedom. For more information, please visit his website, www.IamAshCash.com.
Over the past two decades, Greg Tate has garnered a reputation – and eventually dubbed by The Source magazine as a “Godfather of Hip-Hop journalism.” Much of his most-popular writings were published during his stint as a staff writer with New York City’s Village Voice between 1987 and 2003. Greg Tate’s publications extended beyond the outlet, however, and include the following titles: Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking From Black Culture (New York: Broadway Books, 2003) and Midnight Lightning: Jimi Hendrix and the Black Experience (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2003). His forthcoming works: Flyboy 2: The Greg Tate Reader (Duke University Press) and James Brown’s Body and the Revolution of the Mind (Riverhead Press).
A co-founder of the Black Rock Coalition, Greg Tate also serves as the leader of Burnt Sugar, an improvisational band that fuses funk, jazz, rock, and African music through experimental – yet cohesive – performance. Currently, he is serving as a Visiting Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University. In 2010, he was awarded a United States Artists fellowship, an organization whose mission statement is “to invest in America’s finest artists and illuminate the value of artists to society.”
Greg Tate spoke with AllHipHop.com about his love of Hip-Hop, the founding of Burnt Sugar, and an “unappreciated” De La Soul emcee.
AllHipHop.com: As a founding member of the Black Rock Coalition, what life events and/or activist philosophies guided you during its founding and the preliminary years?
Greg Tate: I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and later D.C., in what’s been identified as a ‘Movement Household’. My parents actively participated in the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement and the US-based “support wing” of the African Liberation Movement. Black/Pan-Afrikanist collective, cultural nationalist politics framed my early understanding of what it means to be Black in America. My mother was the first DJ I ever paid attention to because she kept five radical recording orange artists in heavy rotation around our household: Malcolm X, Nina Simone, Lenny Bruce, Otis Redding, and Pete Seeger.
The first Black American I know who dug reggae and Afrobeat was my revolutionary mama. She added the soundtrack of The Harder They Come to that playlist in the early ’70s and the music of Fela. About that time is when I discovered Leroi Jones’ [a.k.a. Amiri Baraka] book, Black Music, which converted me into an avant-garde jazz fanatic and wannabe jazz critic, on the spot. I began seriously collecting vinyl as a teen; and later as a young adult, I deejayed a lot on local radio in DC. I saw as many shows as I possibly could by jazz, rock and reggae artists.
When I moved to NYC in the ’80s, it was to pursue a career as a freelance writer at The Village Voice, as one who described himself as a ‘Black Bohemian Nationalist’ and an Afro-Gonzo journalist, betraying my Hunter Thompson influence there. Other writers pivotal to the development of my writing would be Toni Morrison, Samuel Delany, Clarence Major, Jaynbe Cortez, Thulani Davis, Pedro Bell, Stanley Crouch, Robert Christgau, and Ishmael Reed. When Vernon Reid contacted me about forming The Black Rock Coalition (BRC), we shared many ideas about the need for Black artists to come together and contribute to the anti-racist struggle in America. Our parents and the times and the communities we grew up within had also influenced us both – as far as combining politics and music.
AllHipHop.com: Burnt Sugar is a band that is noted, “like [your] writing, that binds jazz, rock, funk, and African music in a lyrical, exploratory and improvisational manner.” What central element(s) mind these genres together?
Greg Tate: Coming up in an era where everybody you knew listened to all forms of music and didn’t accept artificial boundaries between the various Black musical idioms especially, the best answer to the question is that those forms have never been ‘unbound’ to me, although we do find ourselves in Burnt Sugar having to often do some ‘unchaining’ of other folks ears. This was also an era where there ere many great bands–all of whom created their own hybrid form of styles based in R&B, rock, jazz and Pan-African music.
AllHipHop.com: Taking these genres – jazz, rock, funk and African – into consideration, what unique element(s) from each do you most-appreciate?
Greg Tate: Jazz represents the highest form of individual development of musical virtuosity and musical identity. The greatest Jazz musicians encapsulate the totality of music in their playing and they have their own readily identifiable sound. We call those cats the ‘One Note Muthas’–you know who they are from the first four bars. Rock is the form that offers the most freedom in terms of extreme performance and openly borrowing from other musics. Funk – and R&B – is where you got get the Holy Ghost in secular popular music. Traditional African music is our window on the eternal cycle of life, death and rebirth on this Earth. Modern African music like Fela’s tells you how much African-Americans have influenced the sound of music elsewhere and how much we’ve lost in terms of our African cultural identity in America.
AllHipHop.com: TheSource acknowledged you as being one of the “Godfathers of Hip Hop Journalism.” What do you consider to be your greatest contribution to the field of journalism?
Greg Tate; Creating a style that fluidly combined critical theory and esoteric spiritual knowledge with a twisted personal take on street musicology.
AllHipHop.com: And in regards to the “Godfather” title, what do you consider to be your primary function in this capacity – within the present day and future?
Greg Tate: Since I made the transition out of doing full-time musical journalism to teaching, playing music and writing books, I would say my present and future contribution is more in the area of mentorship and conversation with younger up and coming writers.
AllHipHop.com: Over the past two decades, what do you think have been the most drastic changes in the field of music journalism, for better or for worse?
Greg Tate: Fewer places to publish, to be professionally edited, to develop your craft as a young writer, and to develop a critical, literary community of peers and older veteran colleagues. That’s what the Village Voice and VIBE provided a whole generation of writers in the ‘80s and ‘90s. The editing and writing back then had more of an impact on the public conversation about the music then today.
AllHipHop.com: During the early years of your career, as you were crafting soon-to-be groundbreaking work on Hip-Hop’s “social, political, economic and cultural implications,” the genre was largely considered a fad. In the interim, hip-hop has transformed itself from a regional form of music into an international form of cultural expression. What inner/innate strengths have allowed the genre to maintain such longevity?
Greg Tate: Hip-Hop began as a very futuristic form of African folk culture in America. As such, it draws upon all the creative and innovative strengths that have made Black music so dominant globally for most of the 20th century. On a certain level, hip-hop is just an extension of the history of African griot music – Black poetic, political, religious and “street corner” oratory R&B, funk, jazz, reggae, etc. It has such rich resources to draw upon that are so tried and proven in terms of their ability to impact folk – and move crowds worldwide. Hip-Hop also packages all that in a form that is youth-centric.
Unlike other musics that only gradually open up to meddlesome young peoples’ desires, Hip-Hop is as unsentimental about its ageism as Hollywood is about the “shelf life” of cute white female starlets. The Hip-Hop music industry isn’t much interested in fans over the age of 25. The prime demographic has always been 14-25 years of age. This is what keeps the styles, looks and sounds in sync with the next generation coming up. No other form of pop music is in as much a rush to throw performers “under the bus” once their expiration date starts showing. Hip-Hop thrives on novelty and the shock of the new.
AllHipHop.com: What is your response to claims by media pundits and contemporary fans of Hip-Hop that “rap” – note that I did not say Hip-Hop – “is dead”?
Greg Tate: To be certain, the era of Hip-Hop music that I love – the fabled, lyric-driven “Golden Age of Hip-Hop” circa 1979 up to 1998 – has been dead for a long time. But [Afrika] Bambaataa told me a long time ago that” Hip-Hop will never die as long as people are still talking because rapping isn’t nothing but talking.” I laugh sometimes when I hear some of my friends complain about young people and their ‘garbage’ music compared to what was made back in the day. I tell them that it’s a pointless argument because young people got a secret weapon to shut all that down when you come trying to sell them on your music versus theirs.
Namely, they tell you: ‘That sounds old’! That’s a conversation-stopper right there. Let me also say though that I think that Hip-Hop and rap music have pretty much become one and the same for the Black community – as far as those five elements are concerned. I live in Harlem and kids aren’t tagging, b-boying, breakdancing or even turn-tabling so much anymore – but they are still free-styling on the corner. Rap is what’s left of Hip-Hop culture in the 21st century, if we’re defining culture as ‘what people do now,’ as opposed to what they used to do 20 years ago and have forgotten or simply fell out of practice.
AllHipHop.com: What hopes and fears do you have about the future of the socio-political and artistic aspects of rapping as a cultural form of African-American – and international – music production?
Greg Tate: No hope or fears really. It’s already everywhere on the globe and people use hippo music to address local politics, desires and dreams. But popular music isn’t the most definitive form of culture in the 21st century – it’s running a pale fourth now to social media, smartphones and video gaming. I haven’t seen any kids sleep on the streets for concert tickets in a long time – but hordes of them will bring a sleeping bag out in 30-degree weather to be first in line to buy a new Apple gadget when the store opens its doors.
AllHipHop.com: Using the ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s and benchmarks, what do you consider to be three defining moments in Hip-Hop’s storied history.
Greg Tate: I think you can’t discount the ’70s – especially because all-city wide subway writing was the world’s first wake-up call that a corner had been turned in terms of how a generation expressed itself. But far as the ’80s, I’m going to go radical and say the phenomenal career of Jean-Michel Basquiat. As far as the 90s, it would be Hip-Hop taking over MTV after years of marginality and racist resistance – killing a taste for white boy rock gods among American suburban youth. Far as the ‘00s, it was the international connection made by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement with international audiences in Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, South Africa, and Palestine.
AllHipHop.com: Throughout the course of Hip-Hop’s illustrious history, several rappers have been pegged as the “greatest of all-time,” by fans or through an act of self-proclamation. Is there a particular rapper that you think is often overlooked in these discussions?
Greg Tate: I would have to say that would be De La Soul’s “Trugoy the Dove” – [David Jude Jolicoeur] – who was way unappreciated for his creativity with language, his vulnerability, and his storytelling.
AllHipHop.com: You are currently serving as a Visiting Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University – teaching a course entitled “The History of Afro Futurism and Black Science Fiction.” As you prepared for this course, what are the crucial intellectual questions that you desire your students to explore in their academic work – or study – for your course?
Greg Tate: More than anything, I want them to come away with respect for the complexity of cosmological vision, humanity and artistic virtuosity one finds in the works of Sun Ra, Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, and Miles Davis.
For more information on Greg Tate and Burnt Sugar, visit the band’s official website: http://burntsugarindex.com.
For more from AllHipHop.com contributor Clayton Perry [@crperry84], please visit his digital archive – www.claytonperry.com.
