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What's going on everybody? It's your man Chuck Creek, where all hip hop is in the building
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with none other than Yusef Salaam, one of the exonerated five here in New York City
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You are here enjoying the festivities here in the Bronx, celebrating 50 years of hip
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hop. Talk to me about what that means to you. Listen, I'm 49 so you know I was in my mother's and my father's loins while hip hop was being
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birthed. But the beautiful thing about it is that I got a chance to participate early
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on when I turned 16 after I was arrested at 15. They convicted me at 16. And when they
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said if you had anything to say before they sentenced you, I stood up just like Coogee
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rapping Polo in the courthouse and spit a rhyme called I Stand Accused. So I mean, listen
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they literally castigated me because of that. The fact that I had the audacity to use hip
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hop to speak for myself. I mean, hip hop is such a blessing for me and for us as a people
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because there was always a message in the music and there was always music in the message
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I'm here for it all, brother. So we're also talking to people about what we need to do going forward with this culture
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and what changes and adjustments and even in our own thinking, what do you feel we need
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to do going forward for the next 50 years? I mean the biggest thing is about ownership. You see what I'm saying? Our culture was co-opted
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and really taken from us early on and they used our culture to make trillions, if not
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more than that, dollars around the world. You know what I'm saying? And it's always
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interesting because if you use a jingle, if you use a hook, if you use a rhythm that
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is a memory from our past, that person should be paid in equity. You know what I'm saying
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I mean, it's important to keep the culture going. It's important to understand how powerful
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it is because they robbed us of our culture. They robbed us of our names. You know what
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I'm saying? They robbed us of our God. And the beautiful thing about it is that out of
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that we were able to still birth into society the modern day griot and jelly of today. Oh
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it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. You know, not to be petty, but it's kind of beautiful watching
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Donald Trump get indicted and even potentially convicted of multiple crimes. I would be remiss
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if I didn't ask you how you felt about that. I mean, listen, they say God don't like ugly
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They say God sees all. I've tweeted karma and it got retweeted millions of times. I
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mean, the reality of it is this. How unfortunate for you to be in the position where once you
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called for our death and now you are being prosecuted for so-called crimes that you committed
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We say so-called because, of course, as we always say, they say you got to say allegedly and all this other stuff. But we all know what the deal is. We know how politics goes
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because we are the community, in fact, the body of people that created the term politics
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And it's about restoring justice. It's about making sure that when we see what's going
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on, we understand with the eyes that God gave us, we got to be correct. We got to be on
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point. We got to be right and exact. We can't be sucking and jiving, playing. Listen, as
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long as we have life in our lungs, we got to do all that we can in goodness to provide
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the way forward through our DNA. And I'm saying that because it's not about when you're born
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It's not about when you die. That dash in between your birth and your death has to mean
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something in legacy. And if your legacy is tarnished like his legacy is tarnished, can
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you imagine now his children's children's children, the ripple effect that he is having
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on his future generations? He may think, hey, well, I don't care because I got more money
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than I think God has. God is showing you the reality and you're being cut down. Right
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before our eyes. Now you're running for political office. Talk about your you're a shoe in
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already. Talk about being right now able to make decisions that affect the constituents
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that you once were. You know, the beautiful thing about politics, as I see it, is that
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as we marched for justice, we were found innocent in 2002. They didn't compensate us
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until 2014. But that compensation was really crumbs off the table. We sued for $250 million
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They gave us a total of 41 and didn't give our families, our parents, our loved ones
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a dime. The beautiful thing is that the whole journey allows me to see with brand new eyes
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that we need someone in office to carry our voices into the halls of power, because it's
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not enough to be one who's fighting for justice on the outside. But you have to be able to
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take that and bring it into the inside. I'm one of the people I was run over by the spike
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wheels of justice. And so how I am formed about how I need to show up is because of
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the path of 34 years of injustice that I experienced. And people may say, well, 34 years, I'm still
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involved in climbing out of it. You're never at the end of it, especially when you've been
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run over like me and my family and my brothers have. And so the beautiful thing about it
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is that I get the opportunity to understand what politics should be. I can dream the impossible
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dream. I can carry the legacy of a Dr. King into the halls of power. I can be a Martin
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in the way that I fight for justice, standing on my square, speaking truth to power, being
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a person that says my word is my bond. And people understand that I'm true to what I'm
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talking about. It's a beneficial and beautiful thing to be here. Well, I'm glad to have you
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still here, still strong, still pushing forward. Anything else you would like to say to the
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people? We got to do a full interview, by the way. So that that I want to say that definitely
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I don't want to shut you up, but we got to do a proper interview. But is there anything
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else you'd like to say to me? Listen, all I can say is stay tuned. There's more to come
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The ink is not dry on my story, although the pen has been lifted because the beautiful
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thing about faith is that we already know it's already written. All we got to do is
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believe. But you got to believe in yourself as well, because the real miracle is not me
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getting into office, but us coming together to lift this great mountain that's threatened
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to crumble all of us. So come together. We got big, great, beautiful things to do. And
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I can't wait to do it with you because to lead is to serve. I'm here for it, brother
