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Fri Nov 21 2008

Columns

Dr. Manning Marable

The Politics of Hip Hop - Part One of Two
February 3, 2002

The politics of hip hop culture took an important step forward recently with the Russell Simmons-founded Hip Hop Summit Action Network's hosting of the historic West Coast Hip-Hop Summit. Organized by Summit President Minister Benjamin Muhammad, hundreds of influential performance artists, music executives, grassroots activists, public leaders, and others gathered to address key issues and to establish a progressive political agenda. Prominent participants included rappers Kurupt, DJ Quik, the Outlawz, Mack 10, Boo-Yaa Tribe, Mike Concepcion and the D.O.C., and radio personality/comedian Steve Harvey. Significantly, the keynote address was delivered by the leader of the Nation of Islam, Minister Louis Farrakhan, who also keynoted the first national hip-hop summit, staged last summer in New York City.

This latest Hip-Hop Summit Action Network followed closely after two recent New York-based events connected with the effort to build a progressive hip hop political agenda. On Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 21), the first hip hop youth summit was held at York College in Queens. Featuring prominent hip hop artists such as Nas, Reverend Run of the legendary group Run-DMC, Wu-Tang Clan, rap activist Sister Souljah, and Fat Joe, the conference focused on building youth memberships and chapters across the country. Programs discussed included the "Read to Succeed Project," which is designed to bring hip hop artists into the public schools to emphasize literacy, and the anti-drug "Game Over" public service campaign. On January 28, Russell Simmons engaged in a "public dialogue" with me, hosted by the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University before several hundred people. Since my participation in last year's national hip-hop summit, I have been meeting with both Simmons and Muhammad to develop a "hip-hop initiative," which could include a summer youth leadership training institute, and public conversations between rap artists and political activists around social justice issues such as the prison industrial complex, the death penalty, voter education, and music censorship. In our dialogue, Simmons affirmed his deep personal affection and respect for Minister Farrakhan, whom he described as "the conscience of black leadership." Simmons also criticized many mainstream African-American leaders for their failure to listen to the hip hop nation's concerns. "The civil rights leaders have the finances and infrastructure but don't do s-t," Simmons stated. "We are constantly working to connect the old civil rights leaders with creative young people."

As the founder and chairman of Rush Communications, a multimedia empire that includes Def Pictures, Def Jam recordings, Russell Simmons Television, Rush Art Management, on-line magazines Oneworld and 360hiphop, and the clothing company Phat Farm, Simmons's political views are increasingly carrying enormous weight. His intimate relationship with the NOI reflects, in part, the strong Islamic orientation of many hip hop artists. One of today's best and most "conscious" hip hop artists, Mos Def, opened his 1999 album "Black on Both Sides" with a Muslim prayer. Rap artists in the NOI include Ice Cube, K-Solo and Mc Ren. Even more hip hop artists have been influenced by the NOI offshoot, the Five Percent Nation-such as Wu Tang Clan, Busta Rhymes, and Poor Righteous Teachers. What also seems clear is that most of the liberal integrationist, middle class black establishment has largely refused for two decades to engage in a constructive political dialogue with the hip hop nation.

The Nation of Islam has understood for decades that black culture is directly related to black politics. To transform an oppressed community's political behavior, one must first begin with the reconstruction of both cultural and civic imagination. Malcolm X's greatest strength as a black leader was his ability to change how black people thought about themselves as "racial subjects." Revolutionary culture does the same thing. Through music and the power of art, we can imagine ourselves in exciting new ways, as makers of new history. The reluctance of the black bourgeoisie to come to terms with the music its own children listen to compromises its ability to advance a meaningful political agenda reflecting what the masses of our people see and feel in their daily lives. It speaks volumes about the cultural divisions and political stratification within the African-American community, as Russell Simmons noted in our recent public dialogues, that Run-DMC was on the cover of Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair before they were on Emerge or Ebony.

Hip Hop culture's early evolution was closely linked with the development of a series of political struggles and events which fundamentally shaped the harsh realities of black urban life. For example, hip hop historians sometimes cite the true origins of rap as an art form with the 1970 release of the self-titled album, "The Last Poets," based on the spoken word. "The Last Poets" was recorded and released during an intense period of rebellion closely coinciding with the murder of two African-American students and the wounding of 12 others by police at Jackson State University in Mississippi, the mass wave of ghetto rebellions during the summer of 1970, and the FBI's nationwide campaign to arrest and imprison prominent black activist Angela Davis. In New York City in 1973-74, Afrika Bambataa (Kevin Donovan) established the Zulu Nation, a collective of DJs, graffiti artists and breakers, with the stated political purpose of urban survival through cultural empowerment and peaceful social change. Hip Hop's first DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell) developed rap as a cultural mode of aesthetic expression.

Graffiti art exploded everywhere across the city-on subway cars, buses, and buildings-and soon is recognized as an original and creative art form. What helped to shape these cultural forms which later would become known as hip hop was the economic and political turmoil occurring in New York City during these years. The city government was lurching toward bankruptcy, as urban unemployment rates rose during the most severe economic recession since the end of World War II. This also marked the beginnings of more extreme forms of deadly violence among African-American and Hispanic young people. In 1977 even DJ Kool Herc was stabbed three times at his own party, reflecting in part escalating competition between crews, as well as the growth of violence to resolve disputes.

Yet the sites of greatest oppression, however, frequently can produce the strongest forces of resistance. The culture that the world one day would know as hip hop was born in that context of racial and class struggle.

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