From June 1994 to April 2002, Ms. Erica Ford ran Tupac’s Code Foundation even after the rapper had passed away. Erica, Tupac, and his stepfather Mutulu Shakur, established The Code in 1994. The mission was simply to keep young people out of jail and to decrease “Black on Black” crime. Ms. Ford tells her taled of setting up Code with Pac and Mutulu and also how the rapper’s activist legacy lives on today.

“I’m not saying I’m going to change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.”

-Tupac Shakur

Behind the chalk line it was just another crime but in the heart and soul of Hip-Hop, a GIANT was gone.  As we Celebrate what would have been Tupac Amaru Shakur’s 39th birthday, I look back on his body of work. It was more than beefs. It was the beginning of a trend to lull us to sleep and take away so many of our young right before our eyes. The idea that “The Good Die Young” is why Pac worked hard to make “The Code of Thug Life” a reality in street. As the quote predicted, I know his death sparked a fire in me that guarantees that I will never give up on making “The Code” a reality in our streets.

As we built a youth movement of Hip-Hop heads who were bold, audacious, committed and conscious of the need to believe in something other than themselves “The Code” became unwritten law.  It was watching Black Power and Hip-Hop come together strong and united.

Back home in Brooklyn, a new Hip-Hop beat was taking over the streets, Tupac had taking the world by storm and he was angry, dedicated and powerful. He too wanted to connect the love for Hip-Hop and the movement together. Our respected triple OG’s, Viola Plummer and Mutulu Shakur (Tupac’s stepfather) brought us together. It was time for “The Code” to the Thug Life to come out of the minds of prisoners to the heart and soul of young people on the streets.  From South Central Los Angeles to Atlanta, Georgia and New York City the Code of the streets was making peace real.

Tupac was committed to hood and in New York before our big kick off concert at Roy Wilkins Park, Queens in 1994 I brought the OG’s and Tupac  to chop it up in my living room on how we can really bring a Code to the Streets to stop the killings and put a law down that hustlers would follow.  We had to bring peace to the hoods so that people could live in peace again.  I pulled together Stretch (R.I.P.), Tupac, Supreme of Preme Team, Tropper from Farmers Crew, Chaz of Blackhand and couple others and we put a blueprint for order together.  The sad thing was that the cycle of destruction continued, and most of these men were either incarcerated or killed.

We’ve gone from the hood to the White House, and almost 14years later, Hip Hop has changed the world. Nevertheless, The Good Are Still Dying Too Young. 

“Enough is Enough It’s Time to Bury Da Beef”

BEEF what is it all for? Why do we keep promoting it and how many LIVES do we have to lose for us to STOP IT? Where did it all start? I don’t think the shooters or the victims really even know. 

In the spirit of Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Jam Master Jay, Freaky Tah, and the hundreds of thousands of young people killed who are almost nameless, lets come together, promote peace and LIFE.  Instead of foolish beefs and battles over nothing, lets battle over who can rep their Hood the Best, who can send the most kids to camp or college, who can open the flyest music, arts, athletic or education center in the hood.  Battle over who can give the best concerts or family events in the hood.

We are keeping  Tupac’s dream alive. This summer we have a goal to take as many kids off the streets and get them involved in different activities created by I Love My LIFE VIP (Violence, Intervention and Prevention) Team. In New York City, about 189 people have been murdered and 6,945 felony assaults have occurred. That is almost a murder per day.

Let’s not allow Our Loved Ones to Be KILLED today!! Do Something! Say Something! I Love My LIFE!!

Today we are doing a tribute to Tupac, to remember him for the great man that he was and to remind everybody that the spark he set off in the 90’s is a raging inferno in the hearts of us that remain inspired.

What: I Love My LIFE VIP Tribute to Tupac Amaru Shakur

When: Wednesday  June 16, 2010 @ 5pm-8pm Where: Occasions Banquet Hall 127-08 Merrick Blvd Springfield Gdns, NY 11413———-

 For more on Hip-Hop and Politics, go

to:https://allhiphop.com/stories/editorial/archive/2010/6.aspxor

http://www.thegrio.com/specials/hip-hop-politics-from-the-beat-to-the-ballot/

Gina Torres and Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur contributed to this report. 

 WHAT HAPPENED?

An interesting thing happened to Styles P in 2005.

The rapper released “I’m Black,” a song that lit a fire in the heart and minds of hip-hop fans of all colors and cultures. Fans waited and waited – for a video and a formal single, which never materialized. “I’m Black,” featuring singer Marsha Ambrosius, was a ‘hood hit without question.

The song was true to the streets, had a catchy hook and was a true inspiration to a lot of different kinds of rap fans.

Styles never fully explained what happened, chalking it up to “politics and bulls**t” in an interview after his album Time Is Money dropped a year later.

Rap veteran Willie Dee of the Geto Boys agrees and explains there is a concerted effort to stop music like Styles P’s from getting to the masses.

“It’s still out there – they just aren’t playing it on the radio. Way back when, [radio] program directors didn’t hesitate to play the music if it was good,” Willie Dee said during the  recent Hip-Hop Honors in New York. “You could not deny Public Enemy’s sound.” Rapper Ice Cube, whose longevity in the game was cemented by smart personal and business transitions over the years, concurs with the Geto Boy’s reasoning.

“At some point, they didn’t want their kids to praise Chuck D (of Public Enemy). They didn’t want a poster of KRS-One or Ice-T or some of the more political rappers on their kids’ walls,” Cube says. “They didn’t want their kid’s to idolize these guys that were talking about equality when its all said and done. So they decided to push that kind of rap to the back, not letting us have those outlets. By 93-94, it was escapism rap…everything that was destructive…that became mainstream.”

Watch to Ice Cube’s full explanation of how rap with a message was dismantled. (click here for a youtube link.)

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At a time when hip-hop’s critics are lamenting over the lack of political substance in rap, some artists like Styles P find their commentary silenced by record labels or overshadowed by mainstream consumer demands.

“People are still making political rap – you’ve got people like Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Common, and definitely people like Immoral Technique who are still trying to tell people what’s going on in the world,” says UGK’s Bun B, who is known for sharing his political views. “But, I think the fact is people just don’t want to hear it. People are scared of the truth – you’d be surprised,” he adds.

Few would argue that hip-hop is filled with gritty truth, with most rappers hailing from poor inner cities, where crime, drugs, and injustice have always provided content for songs. In the golden age of political hip-hop – mid-to-late 80’s, and the red-black-and-green days of the early 90’s – the protest on songs like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” was clearly a response to harsh economic times and political leaders who didn’t seem to care about the plight of the ghetto.

During the happier, materialistic Clinton years, some say the political content in rap disappeared. In the late 90s, bling became king, and many rappers took a more “me-centric,” competitive stance that was less focused on the stories of oppressed people. The new “ghetto fabulous” lifestyle was personified best in the Hot Boys song “Bling Bling,” where Manny Fresh bragged hat he was “tha n***a with tha Lex bubble/Candy coated helicopter/With tha leather cover.”

Cash Money Records co-founder Birdman defends the apolitical image the Hot Boys portrayed to youth, telling AllHipHop.com, “To me, I think music is an art and a culture. To me, a message and who it comes from are two different things. Guidance comes from your home – music can’t do that.”

“The music business is hard right now and to say that political rap is gonna make a comeback…I don’t think so.”-Juvenile

Kaine from Atlanta’s Ying Yang Twins argues that the political messages are still there, even in that type of contemporary rap: “Our songs all have messages – never mind if you agree with them or not. There’s two sides to every story. So who cares if they love or hate, as long as they tune in – that’s how the industry looks at it.” Adds Birdman, “All rap still has a message – the message is to try to make it, ‘cause it’s hard out in these streets.”

Along with the bling, the mid-to-late 1990’s was an unprecedented growth period for overtly “conscious” rap that played heavily on musicianship. It had a lighter, more acceptable sound, but the ‘hard in the streets’ message still played heavy. Within conscious rap, artists such as Black Star and Common painted lyrical pictures of the souls of ghetto people in their songs.

DJ Kid Capri notes that during that time, MCs with mainstream political marketability like Nas also emerged: “[Nas] makes records that make you think, and make you change and see things in different ways,” Kid Capri tells AllHipHop.com. “It’s that you have to get it across to the masses, and how you do that is to have the perfect beat and hook.”

As times changed, the voice of hip-hop changed. In today’s money-driven music industry, artists are less likely to channel their politics in songs. Former Hot Boys member Juvenile, in the midst of a recent comeback, admits his last political song was “Get Ya Hustle On” after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“The music business is hard right now,” says Juvenile, “and to say that political rap is gonna make a comeback…I don’t think so.”

WHO IS LEADING THE CHARGE NOW?

Nowadays, beyond the “militant-political” hip-hop dungeons where Dead Prez, Immortal Technique and others dwell, most rappers – while they often care—are less focused on a brazen political agenda within their music. Many have even become more cause-driven and reactionary to “breaking news” such as the murder of Sean Bell by the NYPD.

There’s a definite media angle to hip-hop politics now that didn’t exist in the past, and rappers and hip-hop influenced politicians such as Real World veteran Kevin Powell (D-NY) and Newark, NJ’s Ras Baraka (D-NJ and an affiliate of Lauryn Hill) have capitalized on the spotlight. Incidents such as Columbine, Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake, the Jena 6, and topics like AIDS awareness and healthcare, have provided platforms that hip-hop artists and activists can champion alongside their mainstream White counterparts.

As an example, Kanye West used his personal experiences with conflict diamonds as content for his popular 2005 track “Diamonds from Sierra Leone.” Around the same time, VH1 aired a documentary film entitled “Bling’d: Blood, Diamonds and Hip-Hop,” which took Raekwon, Paul Wall, and Tego Calderone across the ocean to learn up-close how the conflict diamond trade in Sierra Leone has destroyed an entire African community.

Just two months after releasing “Diamonds,” West used his appearance during the Red Cross’s Hurricane Katrina telethon to make an emotional attack on the younger President Bush for his poor rescue response in New Orleans. His words echoed across the airwaves, prompting many in urban America to agree with his sentiments.

And sometimes, hip-hop’s influence is helping rally urban communities around issues that seemingly don’t affect them directly. Rapper Drake is speaking out against offshore oil drilling – the menace behind our worst oil spill in history – and Kanye West, Pit Bull, and Cypress Hill are boycotting performances in Arizona over the state’s controversial immigration laws. Immortal Technique, touched by the ravages of war, is building orphanages in Afghanistan, and Jasiri X is rapping about everything from society’s ills to “minstrel” rap.

“The majors are owned by Wall Street, which is strictly numbers and no heart – the root of the problem.” -Willie Dee of The Geto Boys

Hip-hop icon Jay-Z has come to symbolize the political prowess that top rappers can possess today. He has donated concert proceeds, spearheaded a global clean water effort, and is creating ventures with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as well as Bloomberg Financial. Top hip-hop artists have also helped raise significant dollars when they align themselves with political causes. Diddy’s popular “Vote or Die” campaign was a merchandising bonanza for t-shirt sales, and Wyclef’s Haitian relief effort, though mired by mismanagement of funds, raised over $1 million using Twitter and other social media.

Meanwhile, the occassional political song is tucked among today’s typical guns and glamour rap content. Some examples include Eminem’s “Mosh,” Young Jeezy’s surprising election anthem “My President is Black,” and Lil’ Wayne’s “Georgia Bush,” a scathing commentary on Bush’s Hurricane Katrina response. The most political rappers are underground MCs like Dead Prez and Paris, whose content often denies them radio airplay, so they tour instead to survive. Still, Dead Prez is reportedly working on a Gangsta Grillz mixtape with DJ Drama and have worked with DJ Green Lantern in the past to gain more notoriety.

The unquestionable reach and influence of hip-hop, along with the obvious concern held by artists, still leaves many to ponder why isn’t there more political commentary in today’s rap songs. Willie Dee sums it all up with the wisdom of an industry O.G.: “Everybody’s just playing the numbers game. The corporations have eaten up all of the independents. The independent movement was like the backbone of hip hop – with the independence, you didn’t have to answer to the majors.”

“The majors are owned by Wall Street, which is strictly numbers and no heart – the root of the problem,” Willie Dee adds. “See, once you go to the root and start playing with the numbers, and you say ‘hey, we want to hear this type of music,’ then that’s the kind of music that’s gonna be played.”

Voices like Talib Kweli and Jay Electronica rise from the political ashes. Kweli’s recent take on the controversial Arizona immigration policies, “Papers, Please” offers an education on the hot button issue over a triumphant track and reminds us that “a people united will never be defeated.”

And then there is the internet and the new freedom associated with it, essentially offering new hope for politically and civic-minded artists.

With that, enjoy “I’m Black” by Styles P and share it…virally.

  For more on Hip-Hop and Politics, go

to:https://allhiphop.com/stories/editorial/archive/2010/6.aspxor

http://www.thegrio.com/specials/hip-hop-politics-from-the-beat-to-the-ballot/

This weekend one of hip-hop’s hottest acts, Drake, lent his talent to protest offshore drilling. On Sunday, the 23-year-old rapper performed at the ‘Stop The Offshore Drilling” rally at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C.

In May, hip-hop veteran Talib Kweli released a single about another hot political topic. It’s called ‘Papers Please’ — and it voices his opposition to Arizona’s new immigration law.

Hip-hop and politics have been together for a long time, and there are no signs the two will break apart soon. Although there were the naysayers who once dismissed hip-hop as a fad and predicted its untimely demise, this is an art form, a culture, and a political movement that is not going away.

WATCH THEGRIO’S REPORT ON THE EVOLUTION OF HIP-HOP & POLITICS

Starting out as the CNN of the ghetto, and a medium to express the hopes and frustrations of a disenfranchised community, hip-hop went from knocking on the door of the mainstream to becoming the mainstream. And over the years, hip-hop evolved from hating the president–and vice versa–to dining with the president. Who would have imagined just a few years ago that the president would have hip-hop on his iPod, or even own an iPod for that matter?

Black Music Month is a perfect time to examine the politics of hip-hop–and where it’s going next.

“Hip-hop had a long political engagement; hip-hop almost starts as a political movement,” says journalist and cultural critic Touré. “People from the street need a voice–we have no voice. So we have to have something to say.”

Touré believes that hip-hop speaks up for the underdog. “And it evolves into people like Chuck D who are like shadow-senators for a group of people who felt voiceless and could go on Nightline or could go on other shows or could speak back to Arizona when they didn’t want to do the MLK holiday and be a national bullhorn saying ‘this is wrong’,” he said.

“Black people throughout the African Diaspora tend to be an oppressed people. We have always held our artists, musicians, and writers accountable for using their voice to uplift and educate, especially in times of turmoil,” says hip hop artist Giovanni “G.” Turner, who is also president and in-house counsel of RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC, and a University of Miami lecturer of English.

“We saw this most recently during the Haitian earthquake. Jay-Z, whom by no one’s account, not even his own, is a ‘political’ rapper, but when the black community was stricken with tragedy, we all turned to him. In fact, not only was it expected he issue a statement, record a commemorative song, and donate money, I argue he would have been ostracized had he remained silent.”

“Everything is political,” says Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. The hip-hop community, according to Simmons, “speaks to the next America and reminds them of what’s important, so that’s political.” Simmons also believes hip-hop is a very progressive community that believes in giving to others and uplifting people from poverty. These days, according to the hip-hop trailblazer, every hip-hop artist seems to be involved in philanthropy: “You can’t name the politicians who have charities, they’re on one hand, you can name them. But every rapper has a charity.”Read the rest of this article on theGrio.com by clicking here