WEBVTT 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:09.250 Given the relatively dominant position that hip hop occupies atop the dizzying 00:00:09.250 --> 00:00:13.590 heights of the global entertainment-industrial-complex, it can be easy to lose sight of its humble 00:00:13.590 --> 00:00:17.199 beginnings and its enduring role as a source of revolutionary politics. 00:00:17.200 --> 00:00:21.140 I got a letter from the government The other day 00:00:21.140 --> 00:00:23.920 I opened and read it It said they were suckers 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:27.880 I know this for a fact, you don't like how I act. You claim I'm sellin' crack 00:00:27.880 --> 00:00:31.400 But you be doin' that I'd rather say "see ya" Cause I would never be ya 00:00:31.400 --> 00:00:33.520 Be a officer? You wicked overseer! 00:00:33.540 --> 00:00:36.400 Call me Little Bobby Hutton, cause I'm first to push the button 00:00:36.400 --> 00:00:39.580 Rappers don't be saying nothing to the system, we say fuck 'em 00:00:39.620 --> 00:00:42.400 That's why we say “fuck” That's why we make hip-hop 00:00:42.400 --> 00:00:47.400 We don't care about your badge, baton or Glock Your mind's in shock fucking cop stop 00:00:47.400 --> 00:00:49.400 Remember that time passes and never stops in the clock 00:00:49.580 --> 00:00:53.800 Though it didn’t really break out until the late 70s and early 80s, hip hop’s genesis 00:00:53.800 --> 00:00:57.520 story began in the summer of 1973, in the South Bronx. 00:00:58.040 --> 00:01:02.780 At the time, New York City’s northernmost borough was by all appearances a war zone. 00:01:02.780 --> 00:01:06.620 Decades of neglect, ill-thought out public infrastructure projects, white flight, 00:01:06.620 --> 00:01:12.580 racist redlining policies and urban decay had reduced entire city blocks to rubble. 00:01:14.720 --> 00:01:18.460 Rampant poverty and unemployment had created a vacuum that was filled by street gangs, 00:01:18.460 --> 00:01:22.820 with hundreds of small crews constantly battling over territory, and literally setting large 00:01:22.820 --> 00:01:24.710 sections of the city on fire. 00:01:24.710 --> 00:01:29.750 Out of this simmering cauldron of social and economic tension, hip hop emerged as a vibrant 00:01:29.750 --> 00:01:34.290 DIY subculture, spread through house parties thrown by working-class Black and Puerto Rican 00:01:34.290 --> 00:01:38.870 youth who were alienated and excluded from New York’s decadent disco scene. 00:01:38.870 --> 00:01:41.460 A catalyzing moment of the emerging hip hop scene was the formation of the 00:01:41.460 --> 00:01:45.520 Universal Zulu Nation, on November 12th, 1973. 00:01:45.520 --> 00:01:50.780 ...cars continue to change, nothing stays the same, there were always renegades 00:01:50.780 --> 00:01:54.240 Like Chief Sitting Bull, Tom Payne 00:01:54.240 --> 00:01:56.980 Like Martin Luther King, Malcom X. 00:01:56.990 --> 00:02:00.000 They were renegades of the atomic age 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:03.630 Founded by members of a gang called the Black Spades, the Zulu Nation built hip hop into 00:02:03.630 --> 00:02:08.419 a tool for community organizing – bringing members of different gangs together, settling 00:02:08.419 --> 00:02:12.370 street-level beefs and introducing codes of conduct, all while imbuing the scene with 00:02:12.370 --> 00:02:16.292 formative political values of street-based community solidarity 00:02:16.292 --> 00:02:18.160 and pan-Afrikan consciousness. 00:02:18.170 --> 00:02:22.660 The Zulu Nation is credited with constructing the foundation of hip hop culture, forged 00:02:22.660 --> 00:02:24.280 around five core elements: 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:28.500 Mcs, Djs, Graffiti, B-boys & B-girls, 00:02:28.500 --> 00:02:31.200 and the fifth element: street knowledge. 00:02:31.300 --> 00:02:33.460 But then I got wise and I begin to listen 00:02:33.460 --> 00:02:35.980 To the whack teachers and the wick-wack system 00:02:36.020 --> 00:02:38.160 My mother put me in Weusi Shule 00:02:38.260 --> 00:02:40.560 Which means black school in Swahili 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:45.380 And there is where I learned black history And how to be the best that I can be 00:02:45.820 --> 00:02:49.680 We don't talk to police, we don't make a peacebond 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:51.760 We don't trust in the judicial system, we shoot guns 00:02:51.760 --> 00:02:54.320 We rely on the streets we do battle in the hood 00:02:54.320 --> 00:02:57.660 I was born in the G Code, embedded in my blood 00:02:57.940 --> 00:03:01.180 In the decades that have followed, hip hop has been transformed into a global phenomenon, 00:03:01.180 --> 00:03:04.360 and a multi-billion dollar industry in its own right. 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:09.500 But the five foundational elements have survived and adapted over the years, providing a sustained 00:03:09.500 --> 00:03:13.620 authenticity that has allowed radical artists to continue to innovate, carve out space, 00:03:13.620 --> 00:03:18.300 and even fight back against the industry’s overall creep towards commercialization. 00:03:18.300 --> 00:03:22.260 Over the next thirty minutes, we will explore hip hop as a potent and persistent source 00:03:22.260 --> 00:03:26.820 of revolutionary culture rooted in the oppression, exploitation and criminalization faced by 00:03:26.820 --> 00:03:29.770 youth and particularly poor youth of colour. 00:03:29.770 --> 00:03:32.540 Along the way we’ll speak with a number of grassroots artists who are continuing to 00:03:32.540 --> 00:03:38.560 spit truth to power, all while organizing their communities, tearing up stages and making 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:40.140 a whole lot of trouble. 00:04:13.780 --> 00:04:19.160 Hip hop stands for “His or Her Infinite Power Helping Oppressed People”. 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:20.970 That comes from the temple of hip hop. 00:04:20.970 --> 00:04:26.880 Okay so that's from you know OGs like KRS-One and other people getting together and figuring 00:04:26.880 --> 00:04:32.100 how to effectively uplift the more positive elements of the culture that are based in 00:04:32.100 --> 00:04:34.430 community liberation and empowerment. 00:04:34.430 --> 00:04:41.139 Hip hop to me is a way to be able to spread a message of resistance to a large audience. 00:04:41.139 --> 00:04:49.190 Hip hop to me is a way to share my story before anybody else has a chance to twist up my words 00:04:49.190 --> 00:04:51.470 or to twist up my experiences. 00:04:51.470 --> 00:04:55.840 It is resistance and creativity, that's what hip hop is to me. 00:04:55.840 --> 00:05:02.160 Hip hop initially rose up speaking to injustices, eventually it rose into stories speaking to 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:06.210 the issues of the oppressed. 00:05:06.210 --> 00:05:11.430 The early days was very humble, there wasn't a lot of money there wasn't a big budget. 00:05:11.430 --> 00:05:15.580 It was kind of put together by people with whatever they had. 00:05:15.580 --> 00:05:20.180 People had come up with this medium of going through the rubble and putting graffiti up 00:05:20.180 --> 00:05:25.600 and break-dancing and MCing and DJing and you know it was a way of resistance. 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:30.440 The same youth that were throwing bricks and rocks and pushing back the police, they had 00:05:30.440 --> 00:05:32.480 something to say. 00:05:32.740 --> 00:05:38.700 For me, hip-hop is a tool for transformation A culture that has some life principles 00:05:38.700 --> 00:05:46.160 And some these are unity, love and respect But specially, having fun, to fill the need 00:05:46.170 --> 00:05:50.530 to defend happiness There's a quote by DJ Grandmaster Caz 00:05:50.530 --> 00:05:54.680 It says that hip-hop did not invent anything The hip-hop re-invented everything 00:05:56.680 --> 00:06:00.720 We peeped the allegory at the campfire listening as elders shared the stories of the 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:01.980 vampire's victims. 00:06:01.980 --> 00:06:04.540 How do I not make the same mistake? Wisdom. 00:06:04.540 --> 00:06:06.840 Generate the vision, obliterate the prison. 00:06:06.840 --> 00:06:09.460 Freedom's all I wanted but I couldn't afford it, 00:06:09.460 --> 00:06:12.280 my baby's got the spirit, just brilliant and gorgeous. 00:06:12.280 --> 00:06:18.600 Oh yes, the self defence endorsement, always quiet when she about to load it. 00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:21.400 Hold it, esa morra's bout to load it. 00:06:21.400 --> 00:06:23.720 Oh shit, and the whole barrio support it. 00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:25.420 Seen a whole lotta people want friends. 00:06:25.420 --> 00:06:27.340 Seen a whole lotta people want Benz. 00:06:27.340 --> 00:06:30.440 Seen a whole lotta people can't get what they want so a whole lotta people pop zans. 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:32.480 They say that means don't justify the ends. 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:34.720 Do the ends ever justify the means? 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:36.900 And would we end all of this hardship if we just put rich 00:06:36.900 --> 00:06:38.240 bigots in the guillotine? 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:43.380 Cuz I can't watch these kids die and then lie like I give a fuck and not do a fuckin 00:06:43.380 --> 00:06:44.960 thing but lie down like I've given up. 00:06:44.960 --> 00:06:50.580 So get a gun if you ready, we grippin' on the machete for anybody involved we got a 00:06:50.580 --> 00:06:51.580 problem forgetting. 00:06:51.580 --> 00:06:57.300 Thinking for yourself is an expensive luxury For them it's not convenient that you leave 00:06:57.300 --> 00:07:00.600 the herd They win more if they keep us ignorant 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:03.440 Keep the people poor, more power for the state 00:07:03.440 --> 00:07:09.620 Fuck the parliament, fuck the cops and fuck the robber baron bosses and fuck their offices, 00:07:09.639 --> 00:07:14.610 predominant model of economics and elephant cock in their ballot boxes. 00:07:14.610 --> 00:07:19.050 It came from the Bronx in the 70s in New York City and now it's world wide. 00:07:19.050 --> 00:07:24.000 Hip hop is like folk music, it's very much a historical record. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:28.430 These are stories that are telling of the American empire you know, looking from within. 00:07:28.430 --> 00:07:32.009 And I think that's why it's so compelling and that's why it resonated people may not 00:07:32.009 --> 00:07:36.919 know it but I think the reason that hip hop spread is because they're stories that everyone 00:07:36.919 --> 00:07:40.650 needs to hear and is interested in hearing. 00:07:40.650 --> 00:07:46.090 Hip-hop is a universal culture That starts from a context of marginalization 00:07:46.090 --> 00:07:49.860 poverty and criminalization That's a very specific context from 1970's 00:07:49.860 --> 00:07:52.680 New York City That starts from a context of marginalization 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:55.180 poverty and criminalization That's a very specific context from 1970's 00:07:55.180 --> 00:07:57.470 New York City But that's similar to other problems in other 00:07:57.470 --> 00:08:01.050 places Like exploitation, lack of housing, the lack 00:08:01.050 --> 00:08:02.520 of opportunities 00:08:02.520 --> 00:08:07.600 It came from people who had been displaced historically from the continent of Africa 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:13.050 to North America, to Central America, South America and the Caribbean. 00:08:13.050 --> 00:08:18.750 It also came from ethnicities that had been mixed in the process of the colonial subjugation 00:08:18.750 --> 00:08:21.919 and conquest of the so called new world. 00:08:21.919 --> 00:08:27.330 That was significant in drawing me in because we learned that we had a shared story. 00:08:27.330 --> 00:08:32.100 We had a story not only of oppression but of resistance. 00:08:35.620 --> 00:08:40.539 We can measure history in terms of what we know about our experience here in the United 00:08:40.539 --> 00:08:43.919 States as descendants of people who were stolen from the continent of Africa. 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:50.570 But we also have to be able to measure our existence and our influence on what happened 00:08:50.570 --> 00:08:56.190 before that, what's currently happening in the African diaspora and on the African continent 00:08:56.190 --> 00:08:58.840 and struggles for liberation and self determination. 00:08:58.840 --> 00:09:04.720 The driving force is just the songs of my ancestors the songs that they sung to be able 00:09:04.730 --> 00:09:10.399 to speak to resistance to speak to fighting, to speak towards challenging and removing 00:09:10.400 --> 00:09:15.300 any and all people that wish to destroy our people. 00:09:16.350 --> 00:09:21.600 Some of the major influences that I've had musically have been folks who share their 00:09:21.610 --> 00:09:27.600 narratives in a really honest way in a really vulnerable way especially when they go to 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:32.580 represent their anger and their rage with the way that these systems of oppression are 00:09:32.580 --> 00:09:34.180 set up around us. 00:09:34.180 --> 00:09:39.120 I recognize first and foremost that I am a guest in the house of hip hop. 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:42.450 I don't take someone else's experience and try to whiteify it. 00:09:42.450 --> 00:09:48.740 I see things through the lens of white people and so I feel like it's my job to criticize 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:51.959 white culture in the way that a white dude can. 00:09:51.959 --> 00:09:58.640 So I use my music to confront the shittiest parts about white culture: imperialism and 00:09:58.640 --> 00:10:03.300 colonialism and capitalism and authoritarianism. 00:10:13.330 --> 00:10:17.001 Although it has since spread all around the globe, hip hop first emerged from, and has 00:10:17.001 --> 00:10:21.580 always remained rooted in the lived experiences of Black and LatinX youth hustling to survive 00:10:21.580 --> 00:10:23.970 in America’s inner-city ghettos. 00:10:23.970 --> 00:10:27.570 And the so-called “Golden Age” of hip hop, spanning the late 80s to the mid 90s, 00:10:27.570 --> 00:10:29.700 were specially turbulent times. 00:10:29.700 --> 00:10:33.820 The flooding of poor, racialized neighbourhoods with crack in the mid-80s provided the spark 00:10:33.820 --> 00:10:37.700 for a rapid surge in street violence, waged between increasingly well-funded and heavily 00:10:37.700 --> 00:10:38.830 militarized gangs. 00:10:38.830 --> 00:10:39.830 00:10:39.830 --> 00:10:43.730 This, in turn, provided the justification for the ramping up of Ronald Reagan’s 00:10:43.730 --> 00:10:49.070 War on Drugs, a policy framework for the wholesale criminalization of Black and brown communities 00:10:49.070 --> 00:10:54.100 that opened the door to enhanced police repression and mass incarceration, twin pillars of US 00:10:54.100 --> 00:10:59.000 domestic counter insurgency strategy that continue to this day. 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:04.420 In 1986 a group formed in South Central, LA, that fed off this raw sense of desperation 00:11:04.420 --> 00:11:07.300 and rage, forever changing the face of hip hop in the process. 00:11:07.310 --> 00:11:14.430 That group was NWA, the first successful pioneers of a new subgenre of hip hop: gangsta rap. 00:11:14.430 --> 00:11:18.860 These days, it’s hard to appreciate the shock and terror that NWA provoked in America’s 00:11:18.860 --> 00:11:23.330 white supremacist power structure, and specially its front-line troops, the cops. 00:11:23.330 --> 00:11:30.080 Rap music promotes by its very language and by its very actions, promotes violence against 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:33.830 authority and consequently violence against law enforcement. 00:11:33.830 --> 00:11:38.041 Songs like ‘Fuck Tha Police’ became rallying cries for a generation of Black and Brown 00:11:38.041 --> 00:11:42.860 youth whose rage would soon find popular expression in the LA Riots of ‘92. 00:11:45.140 --> 00:11:47.700 Fuck the police comin' straight from the underground. 00:11:47.700 --> 00:11:49.920 A young nigga got it bad cause I'm brown. 00:11:49.920 --> 00:11:55.600 And not the other color, so police think, they have the authority to kill a minority. 00:11:55.600 --> 00:12:00.269 But while NWA provided a megaphone to Black youth’s widespread hatred towards the police, 00:12:00.269 --> 00:12:04.560 they also injected mainstream hip hop with a violent strain of misogyny and homophobia 00:12:04.560 --> 00:12:07.170 that continues to fester to this day. 00:12:07.170 --> 00:12:11.670 They also provided the emerging hip hop industry, largely controlled by the white capitalist 00:12:11.670 --> 00:12:16.269 power structure that they were rebelling against, an opportunity to make millions of dollars 00:12:16.269 --> 00:12:20.900 selling records that glorify Black and Brown youth killing one another over nothing. 00:12:27.940 --> 00:12:33.360 A lot of the brothers that were my same age man, they were involved in the type of shit 00:12:33.390 --> 00:12:34.700 where they were killing each other. 00:12:34.700 --> 00:12:38.240 You know, they were killing cats that they grew up with, that they went to church with, 00:12:38.240 --> 00:12:42.670 that they went to school with, that they played ball with, trying to be part of the whole 00:12:42.670 --> 00:12:45.020 gang set culture you know what I mean? 00:12:45.020 --> 00:12:48.820 Or they were trying to get their money selling that dope and like that's cool, whatever... 00:12:48.820 --> 00:12:50.040 But really? 00:12:56.660 --> 00:13:01.930 I was living during the crack era and so the criminalization that began this whole mass 00:13:01.930 --> 00:13:07.050 incarceration that we have now, this new Jim Crow, it was heavily going on during that 00:13:07.050 --> 00:13:09.130 crack era all the way through the 90s. 00:13:09.130 --> 00:13:15.590 And so of course the theme in the music was about either fighting against this new drug 00:13:15.590 --> 00:13:19.870 that was dropped on to our community or else using it as a means to get out of the community. 00:13:19.870 --> 00:13:25.460 And so it's always been a part of the music from the very early days. 00:13:26.500 --> 00:13:29.120 Let's use the phrase "The Personal is Political" as a starting point 00:13:29.120 --> 00:13:33.280 Because even if we think our actions are personal They are going to affect our family and our 00:13:33.290 --> 00:13:36.370 close friends Because even if we think our actions are personal 00:13:36.370 --> 00:13:40.810 They are going to affect our family and our close friends 00:13:40.810 --> 00:13:45.019 And in the community and the society that we are part of 00:13:45.019 --> 00:13:50.920 There's a difference between telling your story and glorifying some of the things that 00:13:50.920 --> 00:13:52.680 you have to do to get by. 00:13:52.680 --> 00:13:58.050 So I appreciate you know, when artists can yeah maybe talk about the gang-banging past, 00:13:58.050 --> 00:14:02.730 talk about the past where you had to sell some shit, you had to do some shit that you're 00:14:02.730 --> 00:14:03.730 glad you don't have to do anymore. 00:14:03.730 --> 00:14:06.840 Government plans, fencin' us in, life in the pen' 00:14:06.860 --> 00:14:09.780 For sellin' shit you put in our hood, knowin' I'll do it 00:14:09.800 --> 00:14:12.820 We desperate, starvin' and dyin' to eat, die in the street 00:14:12.820 --> 00:14:15.680 For a fraction of what I get now for a soundin' fly on the beat 00:14:15.680 --> 00:14:21.371 I feel the weight of not glorifying some of the things I've done in my past because I 00:14:21.371 --> 00:14:25.390 see it happening with other artist with their songs. 00:14:25.390 --> 00:14:27.390 Cold gang with the cocaine. 00:14:27.390 --> 00:14:28.910 The more money make more rain. 00:14:28.910 --> 00:14:31.070 Pourin' up a pint while I'm baggin' propane. 00:14:31.070 --> 00:14:33.690 Point blank range give a nigga nose rings. 00:14:33.690 --> 00:14:35.800 Skip to my lou with a pack in the cat. 00:14:35.800 --> 00:14:36.800 Jiffy, Lube where the bricks where they at? 00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:41.480 In hip hop they might call it, bitches, hos, guns, money, sex, murder and all that but 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:46.770 if you look at the army, navy, airforce, marines, and the US government, that's all it is. 00:14:46.770 --> 00:14:49.820 It's a reflection of the culture that we live in. 00:14:49.820 --> 00:14:55.520 It's the values that we've inherited as part of the conditions of survival in this country, 00:14:55.520 --> 00:15:00.220 to prioritize the things that are going to get us pussy, get us respect and get us paid 00:15:00.220 --> 00:15:04.840 and get another motha fucker to recognize us you know, and that is some bullshit. 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:13.639 It's been really motivational to me when artists cast aside all of the parameters of respectability 00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:21.130 politics and are willing to speak their truths without coddling the feelings of 00:15:21.130 --> 00:15:24.440 those who are oppressing us. 00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:29.160 That's the job of my music, to challenge everything that has been imposed upon us to say no and 00:15:29.160 --> 00:15:30.460 go drastic with it. 00:15:30.460 --> 00:15:36.000 Again like, I don't follow the format, the status quo of hip hop. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:40.880 I'm also still unlearning a lot because it wasn't like I grew up in a Native community, 00:15:40.880 --> 00:15:46.279 I grew up in a city, because of the fact that people that came generations before me were 00:15:46.279 --> 00:15:50.850 removed from their homelands and placed into cities. 00:15:50.850 --> 00:15:55.199 What you won't find me doing in my music, lyrically, you won't find me killing niggas, 00:15:55.199 --> 00:16:01.990 you won't find me on some exploitative, downgrading shit about women, you won't find me talking 00:16:01.990 --> 00:16:05.570 about killing faggots and faggot this and faggot that. 00:16:05.570 --> 00:16:09.280 There's lots of people saying fucked up shit in the world of hip hop, 00:16:09.280 --> 00:16:11.260 to me I can't have that. 00:16:11.270 --> 00:16:16.120 You know I'm not going to throw a show where I book those guys or I can't do collabos with 00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:21.710 them, I can't work with them, I'm not going to taint the work that I'm doing with this 00:16:21.710 --> 00:16:22.710 hate right? 00:16:22.710 --> 00:16:26.459 I try to promote the kind of hip hop that I like to see, I work with people that are 00:16:26.459 --> 00:16:29.130 doing the kind of hip hop that I like to see. 00:16:29.130 --> 00:16:34.200 No matter what the content there's a political context from where it 00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:38.820 comes from Becuase there's a need to reclaim our history 00:16:38.820 --> 00:16:42.160 And even though it may not seem like "real" activism 00:16:42.160 --> 00:16:45.740 There is an intention to survive a reality of violence 00:16:45.740 --> 00:16:51.519 I feel like it's extremely important that you are responsible and disciplined and mature 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:53.850 enough to not abuse that platform. 00:16:53.850 --> 00:17:00.170 To be predatorial, to escape any accountability for patriarchal tendencies. 00:17:00.170 --> 00:17:05.839 I learned early that I had to be three times better than the guys to even remotely get 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:11.329 even recognized and it made me already come out swinging and I never stopped swinging 00:17:11.329 --> 00:17:15.809 because I already recognized that I had a disadvantage or I was already seeing patriarchy 00:17:15.809 --> 00:17:18.489 and sexism. 00:17:18.489 --> 00:17:23.509 Whenever I do a show and I'm the only woman on the lineup, we have to call it out, we 00:17:23.509 --> 00:17:28.720 have to address the fact that I'm not the only woman there because I'm the only woman 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:33.129 with something worth saying with something worth listening to, I'm the only woman there 00:17:33.129 --> 00:17:38.430 because we don't listen enough to the women around us and we don't give up the mic, men 00:17:38.430 --> 00:17:40.620 don't give up the mic enough. 00:17:40.620 --> 00:17:43.052 I put my face in a book ‘cause my people are profiled 00:17:43.052 --> 00:17:45.300 erased from the books and my people are told lies 00:17:45.300 --> 00:17:48.120 Sky’s the limit? Go fly! Cali green? We go high 00:17:48.140 --> 00:17:49.900 I mean back in ‘05, already knew I'd grow wise 00:17:56.440 --> 00:17:57.440 00:17:58.200 --> 00:18:03.380 Queen and Master of the chaos I inhabit Sometimes a tyrant, sometimes outlaw 00:18:03.380 --> 00:18:08.800 The best battle, is with myself I'm self government, my flag is anarchist 00:18:08.800 --> 00:18:12.200 When I wake up, no makeup, half naked, I feel like I’m the shit 00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:14.900 Pardon my language, but hang ups do not define the kid 00:18:14.900 --> 00:18:17.600 No, I’m not flawless, I’m scarred up and I’m fine with it 00:18:17.600 --> 00:18:21.000 My body art a laundry list of all of life’s unkindnesses 00:18:24.929 --> 00:18:28.260 A lot has changed in the 45 years since hip hop’s founding. 00:18:28.269 --> 00:18:32.710 For one thing, many of the iconic inner-city neighbourhoods where hip hop first flourished 00:18:32.710 --> 00:18:36.769 have been redeveloped, their former communities scattered to the winds of gentrification. 00:18:36.769 --> 00:18:41.029 Far from the dilapidated pressure cookers of revolt and subversive urban decay that 00:18:41.029 --> 00:18:45.029 they were in the 70s, these neighbourhoods have become homogeneous sites of high-rise 00:18:45.029 --> 00:18:48.859 condos, hipster indie venues and Starbucks franchises. 00:18:48.859 --> 00:18:52.720 Which is not to say that this process is a done deal... and even less so that the social 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:55.399 contradictions that birthed hip hop have disappeared. 00:18:55.399 --> 00:18:59.690 The South Bronx is still a largely working-class area plagued by racist police violence, and 00:18:59.690 --> 00:19:03.720 there is tons of vibrant hip hop coming out of America’s traditional urban centers, 00:19:03.720 --> 00:19:05.500 from Baltimore to Oakland. 00:19:05.600 --> 00:19:06.100 Bam! 00:19:06.100 --> 00:19:11.920 The target of poverty by the white devil Because I wasn't testing at my reading level 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:15.739 I was testing any of these busters Yo, where you from? Pare?! 00:19:15.739 --> 00:19:18.600 Lola’s like, “Bakit ka nag tatambay dun sa calle parate?!” 00:19:18.600 --> 00:19:23.710 But as urban demographics have shifted, so too has hip hop’s centre of gravity. 00:19:23.710 --> 00:19:27.700 In the United States, this shift has been most notable with the rise of Southern Rap, 00:19:27.700 --> 00:19:32.220 beginning in the early 2000’s, and the emergence of Atlanta as a new hip hop epicentre. 00:19:32.220 --> 00:19:36.779 Similarly, as it has spread to countries all around the world, hip hop has been transformed 00:19:36.779 --> 00:19:41.729 and enriched by countless local culture and traditions, each of which has added their 00:19:41.729 --> 00:19:46.929 own mark, while generally honouring the spirit of youthful defiance and resistance to authority 00:19:46.929 --> 00:19:50.300 that’s been so key to hip hop’s global appeal. 00:20:06.369 --> 00:20:11.990 Hip hop culture is an expression of oppressed people's reality. 00:20:11.990 --> 00:20:16.570 Hip hop is so global now that literally every neighbourhood, every community is representing. 00:20:16.570 --> 00:20:20.700 I see people doing hip hop in Palestine. 00:20:26.300 --> 00:20:31.980 Native artists are just really standing up globally and representing and telling a story 00:20:31.980 --> 00:20:36.119 that really needs to be heard and it reminds me of the early days of hip hop. 00:20:36.119 --> 00:20:39.010 It's not like packaged and pretty and fake. 00:20:39.010 --> 00:20:44.669 Just raw truth and raw facts so big ups to all my native comrades out there holdin' it 00:20:44.669 --> 00:20:45.779 down with hip hop. 00:20:45.779 --> 00:20:50.330 We never even knew what it was like to be poor until money was shown to us in the first 00:20:50.330 --> 00:20:53.809 place, we didn't know what poverty was and so we're always trying to catch up to something 00:20:53.809 --> 00:20:59.110 that really we don't belong to, that in fact, our culture is at odds with, our traditions 00:20:59.110 --> 00:21:00.639 are at odds with. 00:21:00.639 --> 00:21:08.349 Let's remember that a lot of art is elitist That it sometimes comes and it's valued in 00:21:08.349 --> 00:21:14.269 certain places But hip-hop allows that from from the streets 00:21:14.269 --> 00:21:18.070 from the ghettoes, from marginality These voices can be created 00:21:18.070 --> 00:21:26.970 I feel like music is, specially important in sharing political ideals with youth, taking 00:21:26.970 --> 00:21:31.080 care of our people, to maintaining our identities. 00:21:31.080 --> 00:21:33.260 So it's absolutely like, foundational. 00:21:34.700 --> 00:21:36.360 What is black? 00:21:36.560 --> 00:21:42.040 Black is a response to white supremacist categorization of human beings. 00:21:42.049 --> 00:21:47.559 Something that doesn't even begin to encompass the vastness of history and cultural reality. 00:21:47.559 --> 00:21:53.869 When I'm in Zimbabwe as an 'ambassador' if you will for hip hop, I encounter people that 00:21:53.869 --> 00:21:58.720 are Shona, people that are into balée, people that are of these different cultural realities 00:21:58.720 --> 00:21:59.960 doing hip hop. 00:21:59.960 --> 00:22:03.180 South Africa is big right now with the resistance music. 00:22:03.360 --> 00:22:07.780 Y'all we've been colonized, it's not a lie, working class let's start to organize. 00:22:07.780 --> 00:22:12.539 I believe the masses will arrive, revolution will rise and decolonize. 00:22:12.539 --> 00:22:15.789 It is time to mobilize... 00:22:15.789 --> 00:22:21.440 For people all over the continent to have taken hip hop, not in an exploitative, oppressive 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:23.570 way, but in an empowering way. 00:22:23.570 --> 00:22:29.809 Taken Black culture born in the united states, created as a result of the separation from 00:22:29.809 --> 00:22:35.019 the continent of Africa, taking that back, reinterpreting it and it being a bridge for 00:22:35.020 --> 00:22:39.140 Black people all over the fucking planet Earth, that's a powerful thing man! 00:22:41.920 --> 00:22:45.340 Anti-establishment feelings that I have, it could have been harnessed by a million things 00:22:45.340 --> 00:22:49.989 but it was harnessed by good, radical, politics, through music. 00:22:49.989 --> 00:22:55.409 Music has an opportunity to word things that are hard to say, music has a way of cutting 00:22:55.409 --> 00:23:02.979 through to the heart of something it has the power to give voice to a situation or to paint 00:23:02.979 --> 00:23:07.289 a picture about a situation in a way that writing doesn't. 00:23:07.289 --> 00:23:11.700 Every time that you're doing a show you have to carry that message regardless if it's two 00:23:11.700 --> 00:23:15.600 people, or two hundred people or a thousand people in the crowd. 00:23:15.720 --> 00:23:20.299 I think smaller shows become more intimate so you have the ability to be able to interact 00:23:20.299 --> 00:23:25.359 with people there and also to be able to not just do the show and not just be the entertainment 00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:29.769 but also to have the conversation with people and talk more about resistance afterwards. 00:23:29.769 --> 00:23:33.920 I want to connect with people that are doing real work and doing radical work and doing 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:38.100 revolutionary work and I want to bolster their movements and I want to use music 00:23:38.100 --> 00:23:39.080 to be involved in that. 00:23:39.080 --> 00:23:44.639 That's what I love most you know, when I get to play at an actual site of resistance. 00:23:44.639 --> 00:23:49.499 It's like taking it back to the roots of what the music was created for. 00:23:49.499 --> 00:23:54.529 The free shows we do for the youth, the ghetto youth, are always the most powerful shows 00:23:54.529 --> 00:23:58.789 because they don't have the constraints that the commercial shows do. 00:23:58.789 --> 00:24:04.680 The truth rests upon the lies, our people been traumatized, so donald trump ain't no 00:24:04.860 --> 00:24:07.380 different than barrack obama in our eyes. 00:24:07.380 --> 00:24:13.160 They are part of the system that wishes we was gone and history talks with forked tongues 00:24:13.169 --> 00:24:17.409 so the misery goes on in this illegally occupied territory of death. 00:24:17.409 --> 00:24:24.220 A number of shows that I ended up doing outdoors at standing rock had the same kind of energy. 00:24:24.220 --> 00:24:31.529 It was powerful in what that was coming together and the spirit of resistance and then we've 00:24:31.529 --> 00:24:36.710 had a number of shows with just a bunch of kids on the res, the same kind of energy. 00:24:36.710 --> 00:24:43.300 We the survivors, we the up-risers, yea we them savages banging on the colonizers, yea 00:24:43.300 --> 00:24:49.500 we them savages banging on the colonizers we are finally facing the end of the cycle 00:24:49.500 --> 00:24:51.720 an end of the terror fueled by the bible... 00:24:53.020 --> 00:24:55.500 join the struggle, or live in denial. 00:25:08.440 --> 00:25:13.400 There's a bunch of indigenous communities that are rapping in their language 00:25:13.400 --> 00:25:16.000 There's mural art that's intersecting with graffiti 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:24.480 and the old scriptures Now we see a meeting between past cultures 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:28.460 And newer cultures But what hip-hop allows 00:25:28.460 --> 00:25:30.929 It's that you can incorporate into the current reality 00:25:30.929 --> 00:25:32.690 Something that was being lost 00:25:32.690 --> 00:25:38.950 There's a difference when I'm on a reservation or when I'm at like an inner-city program, 00:25:38.950 --> 00:25:45.769 doing a show for kids who might also be undocumented you know, doing a show for young women that 00:25:45.769 --> 00:25:50.830 have never been on stage but would like to be or have poems that they wanna write or 00:25:50.830 --> 00:25:51.830 whatever. 00:25:51.830 --> 00:25:57.320 It's so much more of a reciprocal occasion when it's folks who share identities. 00:25:57.320 --> 00:26:00.880 It's like one of the last things that we have is our ability to speak out. 00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:05.190 Even if we feel powerlessness, hip hop makes us feel powerful. 00:26:05.190 --> 00:26:11.019 Island woman rise, walang, makakatigil Brown, brown woman, rise, alamin ang yung 00:26:11.019 --> 00:26:13.520 ugat They got nothin’ on us 00:26:13.640 --> 00:26:17.020 Nothin’ on us Nothin’ on us 00:26:17.020 --> 00:26:18.800 Nothin’ on us 00:26:24.300 --> 00:26:28.960 Within revolutionary circles, often times we can get bogged down in abstract theoretical 00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:32.820 debates, and lost in what can seem like an endless cycle of protests, 00:26:32.820 --> 00:26:34.619 actions and organizing campaigns. 00:26:34.620 --> 00:26:38.920 And while these engagements are essential and should not be dismissed, it’s also important 00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:43.420 to keep in mind the vital role that culture plays in building effective movements of resistance. 00:26:43.420 --> 00:26:48.940 At the end of the day, capitalism and the state are not just material forces, but ideological 00:26:48.950 --> 00:26:49.950 systems as well. 00:26:49.950 --> 00:26:54.299 This is something our enemies are well aware of, which is why they devote so much time, 00:26:54.299 --> 00:26:58.609 energy and resources towards creating propaganda – much of it masquerading as entertainment. 00:26:58.609 --> 00:27:03.029 From the countless high budget TV shows and Hollywood movies glorifying police and the 00:27:03.029 --> 00:27:08.349 military, to music promoting frivolous consumerism, a look at the dominant forms of cultural production 00:27:08.349 --> 00:27:12.300 can tell you a lot about the values being promoted by the powers-that-be. 00:27:12.300 --> 00:27:16.980 But thankfully, we have the ability to fight back, by producing and promoting subversive 00:27:16.990 --> 00:27:21.769 countercultures that promote our own values of solidarity, mutual aid, direct action, 00:27:21.769 --> 00:27:25.239 and antagonism to capitalism and the forces of the state. 00:27:25.240 --> 00:27:28.240 Let’s not squander the opportunity. 00:27:28.240 --> 00:27:32.859 Here we go yo, here we go yo, so what's the, what's the, what's the scenario? 00:27:33.180 --> 00:27:38.660 Here we go yo, here we go yo, so what's the, what's the, what's the scenario? 00:27:38.669 --> 00:27:43.919 Just don't sell the fuck out man, it's simple, just stay true to what the fuck you represent 00:27:43.919 --> 00:27:45.129 and don't change up 00:27:45.129 --> 00:27:49.509 Haters are always going to exist But the need to do it 00:27:49.509 --> 00:27:53.520 It's what's going to motivate us 00:27:53.520 --> 00:28:01.040 Be ready to do it against all odds, be ready to do it by yourself, but also be very intentional 00:28:01.040 --> 00:28:03.840 about building community with others. 00:28:04.520 --> 00:28:09.379 Don't be afraid to link a network with people that aren't in your neighbourhood, you gotta 00:28:09.379 --> 00:28:14.249 connect and you can't just preach to yourself, you can't just talk to yourself you have to 00:28:14.249 --> 00:28:15.249 connect with people. 00:28:15.249 --> 00:28:19.700 If you want to make it, yeah you can upload something to soundcloud, but to get 00:28:19.700 --> 00:28:23.779 the full experience of the art and for people to hear you, to get exposure, you're gonna 00:28:23.779 --> 00:28:26.330 have to go out there and perform, and you're gonna have to go out there and link up with 00:28:26.330 --> 00:28:27.330 other people. 00:28:27.330 --> 00:28:32.540 Backpack smacker, testament dropper, Amaru respecter, been to the hotter, kin to Assata, 00:28:32.540 --> 00:28:35.880 studied it all, past to the present, resurrected 00:28:35.880 --> 00:28:40.220 You have a duty if you're making radical music, you need to help build the foundation in your 00:28:40.229 --> 00:28:41.820 community for radical music to come in. 00:28:41.820 --> 00:28:46.179 So you have to help book the shows, you have to help find the spaces, you have to get the 00:28:46.179 --> 00:28:47.739 sound systems, you have to help facilitate that. 00:28:47.740 --> 00:28:52.320 You're not just making music and radical music, you need to help with fostering 00:28:52.320 --> 00:28:54.720 radical music community. 00:28:54.730 --> 00:29:00.109 The term is 'many hands make light work', we can get more done together than we can 00:29:00.109 --> 00:29:01.960 by ourselves in certain formats. 00:29:01.960 --> 00:29:07.149 And then sometimes, less is more, sometimes you have to cut dead weight and you have to 00:29:07.149 --> 00:29:12.450 step away from people who don't have the same priorities as you and you have to be okay 00:29:12.450 --> 00:29:13.600 with doing that. 00:29:13.600 --> 00:29:16.039 You also have to be very observant of your reality 00:29:16.039 --> 00:29:20.960 Stop and look at what's going on Listen and open your ears to hear 00:29:20.960 --> 00:29:24.739 what's going on around you Becuase using words comes with responsibility 00:29:24.739 --> 00:29:29.019 And if you are going to use them you have to be honest 00:29:29.019 --> 00:29:32.869 as to who you are and where you are coming from 00:29:32.869 --> 00:29:37.640 And it adds value to your community 00:29:38.580 --> 00:29:42.899 nobody's gonna do this for you you know, look at the D.I.Y ethic of punk music, it needs 00:29:42.899 --> 00:29:48.389 to be applied to hip hop more, and we need to do for ourselves, and we need to build 00:29:48.389 --> 00:29:53.549 up our own spaces, our own community, our own networks and we need to share that amongst 00:29:53.549 --> 00:29:58.240 each other and everybody can rise together. 00:29:58.640 --> 00:30:03.780 The goal of my making music isn't to explain myself to someone who 00:30:03.780 --> 00:30:05.780 doesn't understand my background. 00:30:05.789 --> 00:30:11.759 The goal is to connect with the folks who share that same path and who find strength 00:30:11.760 --> 00:30:19.470 and healing in hearing their story being told, who may otherwise feel very much alone. 00:30:20.940 --> 00:30:25.680 It's cold because I can probably only speak to indigenous MCs based on an indigenous message 00:30:25.690 --> 00:30:30.639 because for me I understand that talking about resistance, talking about decolonization, 00:30:30.639 --> 00:30:37.419 talking about revolution, whatever it may be, the average person does not like to hear 00:30:37.419 --> 00:30:42.730 the indigenous perspective, the true indigenous perspective of resistance because it challenges 00:30:42.730 --> 00:30:44.300 even their existence. 00:30:45.560 --> 00:30:49.620 Don't be afraid, don't cut yourself off, and don't listen to people who say 00:30:49.620 --> 00:30:53.389 “this hasn't been done so you can't do it” or “it's weird and it's different”. 00:30:53.389 --> 00:30:57.880 Some of our best artists were doing something that nobody else was doing before and it's 00:30:57.880 --> 00:31:02.570 okay, it's alright to not rap in the same cadence that everyone else is rhyming in, 00:31:02.570 --> 00:31:08.159 it's okay to mix your music with other genres, it's okay to be different and to not sound 00:31:08.159 --> 00:31:09.479 like everyone else. 00:31:09.479 --> 00:31:13.320 Sometimes people aren't going to want to fuck with you you know, but stick with it because 00:31:13.320 --> 00:31:18.669 eventually what happens is, after years and years, you get better about what you're doing, 00:31:18.669 --> 00:31:25.489 you get clearer about what you're doing, you learn from your mistakes, and when that is 00:31:25.489 --> 00:31:34.740 combined with a sustained sense of joy in relation to why and how you work, you're unstoppable. 00:31:35.289 --> 00:31:41.600 If you're going to try and build a radical current towards indigenous resistance, you 00:31:41.609 --> 00:31:46.549 can't waiver, you can't switch up based on the fact that you're not getting support. 00:31:46.549 --> 00:31:48.830 You're not going to get support. 00:31:48.830 --> 00:31:54.909 There's going to be so much stacked up against you, you have to be uncompromising because 00:31:54.909 --> 00:32:00.059 everything that you represent is problematic to the average person, even those people that 00:32:00.060 --> 00:32:04.089 suggest they support indigenous resistance. 00:32:04.780 --> 00:32:07.300 Stop inviting women to just the 'all-women events'. 00:32:07.309 --> 00:32:11.759 Don't be embarrased when we grab the microphone and rock it in your circle full of guys. 00:32:11.759 --> 00:32:15.289 When people start to look at diversity in that way of inviting people to the table so 00:32:15.289 --> 00:32:20.400 that we all can break bread and do this thing that we call our culture, it'll change. 00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:25.440 And if they don't open the door, break the fucking door down, kick it open, fuck asking. 00:32:26.080 --> 00:32:29.400 These record labels slang our tapes like dope You can be next in line and signed and still 00:32:29.400 --> 00:32:32.320 be writing rhymes and broke You would rather have a Lexus or justice, 00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:34.220 a dream or some substance? 00:32:34.220 --> 00:32:36.160 A Beamer, a necklace, or freedom? 00:32:36.280 --> 00:32:37.740 Still a nigga like me don't playa-hate, 00:32:37.740 --> 00:32:41.080 I just stay awake, this real hip-hop and it don't stop 00:32:41.080 --> 00:32:43.740 'Til we get the po-po off the block, they call it 00:32:43.740 --> 00:32:54.299 hip hop, hip hop, hip hop, hip It's bigger than hip hop, hip hop, hip hop 00:32:54.299 --> 00:32:59.070 As we continue to resist the resurgence of far-right reaction, further entrenched inequality, 00:32:59.070 --> 00:33:03.499 gentrification and an increasingly repressive state apparatus, it is very important that 00:33:03.499 --> 00:33:08.549 anarchists build and strengthen connections with those outside our immediate circles. 00:33:08.549 --> 00:33:12.169 Part of this requires that we actively spread our politics through popular subcultures like 00:33:12.169 --> 00:33:15.960 hip hop, that resonate with millions of people who share our hatred of police and capitalist 00:33:15.960 --> 00:33:19.980 society, but won’t necessarily be inclined to come out to all our meetings, rallies or 00:33:19.980 --> 00:33:21.330 reading circles. 00:33:21.330 --> 00:33:25.259 And the other part involves listening and learning from established histories of resistance 00:33:25.259 --> 00:33:29.759 and struggle, in order to better understand and identify points of affinity and possible 00:33:29.759 --> 00:33:30.759 collaboration. 00:33:30.760 --> 00:33:34.580 Thankfully, there are lots of amazing individuals already doing this important work... 00:33:34.580 --> 00:33:36.200 but we need more of them. 00:33:36.200 --> 00:33:39.499 So at this point, we’d like to remind you that Trouble is intended to be watched in 00:33:39.500 --> 00:33:43.440 groups, and to be used as a resource to promote discussion and collective organizing. 00:33:43.440 --> 00:33:47.700 Are you a hip hop head interested in helping to contribute to your local radical scene? 00:33:47.700 --> 00:33:51.119 or looking to build one in a town where it doesn’t exist? 00:33:51.119 --> 00:33:55.019 Consider getting together with some comrades, organizing a screening of this film, and discussing 00:33:55.019 --> 00:33:57.080 where to get started. 00:33:57.080 --> 00:34:00.249 Interested in running regular screenings of Trouble at your campus, infoshop, community 00:34:00.249 --> 00:34:01.759 center, or even just at home with friends? 00:34:01.760 --> 00:34:03.780 Become a Trouble-Maker! 00:34:03.780 --> 00:34:08.099 For 10 bucks a month, we’ll hook you up with an advanced copy of the show, and a screening 00:34:08.100 --> 00:34:11.199 kit featuring additional resources and some questions you can use to 00:34:11.199 --> 00:34:12.940 get a discussion going. 00:34:12.940 --> 00:34:14.960 If you can’t afford to support us financially, no worries! 00:34:14.960 --> 00:34:18.739 You can stream and/or download all our content for free off our website: 00:34:18.739 --> 00:34:21.100 sub.media/trouble 00:34:21.100 --> 00:34:25.320 If you’ve got any suggestions for show topics, or just want to get in touch, drop us a line 00:34:25.329 --> 00:34:27.710 at trouble@sub.media. 00:34:27.710 --> 00:34:30.619 If you want to hear some tracks from the artists featured on this episode, check out the latest 00:34:30.619 --> 00:34:36.059 Burning Cop Car, our radical hip hop podcast, at sub.Media/bcc. 00:34:36.059 --> 00:34:38.089 Just a heads up that since subMedia is a fully 00:34:38.089 --> 00:34:41.630 crowd-funded project, we’ll be starting our annual fundraiser drive soon, to make 00:34:41.630 --> 00:34:44.339 sure we can keep cranking out videos year round. 00:34:44.339 --> 00:34:49.159 This episode would not have been possible without the generous support of Todd, Marius 00:34:49.159 --> 00:34:50.159 and AvispaMidia. 00:34:50.159 --> 00:34:53.029 Stay tuned next month for Trouble # 16, as we take a closer look at the trial of the 00:34:53.029 --> 00:34:57.920 so-called J20 defendants, who were mass arrested in the streets of DC, at the historic protests 00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:02.720 against the presidential inauguration of US War Criminal in Chief, Donald J Trump. 00:35:02.720 --> 00:35:07.660 No one wanted to just show up and just show out, like there was a definite message about 00:35:07.660 --> 00:35:10.180 disrupting the inauguration. 00:35:10.180 --> 00:35:13.400 Now get out there…. and make some trouble!