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    Given the relatively dominant position that
    hip hop occupies atop the dizzying
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    heights of the global entertainment-industrial-complex, it can be easy to lose sight of its humble
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    beginnings and its enduring role as a source
    of revolutionary politics.
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    I got a letter from the government
    The other day
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    I opened and read it
    It said they were suckers
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    I know this for a fact, you don't like how
    I act. You claim I'm sellin' crack
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    But you be doin' that I'd rather say "see ya"
    Cause I would never be ya
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    Be a officer? You wicked overseer!
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    Call me Little Bobby Hutton, cause I'm first
    to push the button
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    Rappers don't be saying nothing to the system,
    we say fuck 'em
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    That's why we say “fuck”
    That's why we make hip-hop
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    We don't care about your badge, baton or Glock
    Your mind's in shock fucking cop stop
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    Remember that time passes and never stops
    in the clock
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    Though it didn’t really break out until
    the late 70s and early 80s, hip hop’s genesis
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    story began in the summer of 1973, in the
    South Bronx.
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    At the time, New York City’s northernmost
    borough was by all appearances a war zone.
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    Decades of neglect, ill-thought out public
    infrastructure projects, white flight,
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    racist redlining policies and urban decay
    had reduced entire city blocks to rubble.
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    Rampant poverty and unemployment had created
    a vacuum that was filled by street gangs,
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    with hundreds of small crews constantly battling
    over territory, and literally setting large
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    sections of the city on fire.
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    Out of this simmering cauldron of social and
    economic tension, hip hop emerged as a vibrant
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    DIY subculture, spread through house parties
    thrown by working-class Black and Puerto Rican
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    youth who were alienated and excluded from
    New York’s decadent disco scene.
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    A catalyzing moment of the emerging hip hop
    scene was the formation of the
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    Universal Zulu Nation, on November 12th, 1973.
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    ...cars continue to change, nothing
    stays the same, there were always renegades
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    Like Chief Sitting Bull, Tom Payne
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    Like Martin Luther King, Malcom X.
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    They were renegades of the atomic age
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    Founded by members of a gang called the Black
    Spades, the Zulu Nation built hip hop into
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    a tool for community organizing – bringing
    members of different gangs together, settling
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    street-level beefs and introducing codes of
    conduct, all while imbuing the scene with
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    formative political values of street-based
    community solidarity
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    and pan-Afrikan consciousness.
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    The Zulu Nation is credited with constructing
    the foundation of hip hop culture, forged
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    around five core elements:
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    Mcs, Djs, Graffiti,
    B-boys & B-girls,
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    and the fifth element: street knowledge.
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    But then I got wise and I begin to listen
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    To the whack teachers and the wick-wack system
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    My mother put me in Weusi Shule
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    Which means
    black school in Swahili
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    And there is where I learned black history
    And how to be the best that I can be
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    We don't talk to police, we don't
    make a peacebond
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    We don't trust in the judicial system,
    we shoot guns
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    We rely on the streets we do
    battle in the hood
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    I was born in the G Code, embedded in my blood
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    In the decades that have followed, hip hop
    has been transformed into a global phenomenon,
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    and a multi-billion dollar industry in its
    own right.
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    But the five foundational elements have survived
    and adapted over the years, providing a sustained
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    authenticity that has allowed radical artists
    to continue to innovate, carve out space,
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    and even fight back against the industry’s
    overall creep towards commercialization.
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    Over the next thirty minutes, we will explore
    hip hop as a potent and persistent source
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    of revolutionary culture rooted in the oppression,
    exploitation and criminalization faced by
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    youth and particularly poor youth of colour.
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    Along the way we’ll speak with a number
    of grassroots artists who are continuing to
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    spit truth to power, all while organizing
    their communities, tearing up stages and making
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    a whole lot of trouble.
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    Hip hop stands for “His or Her Infinite
    Power Helping Oppressed People”.
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    That comes from the temple of hip hop.
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    Okay so that's from you know OGs like KRS-One
    and other people getting together and figuring
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    how to effectively uplift the more positive
    elements of the culture that are based in
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    community liberation and empowerment.
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    Hip hop to me is a way to be able to spread
    a message of resistance to a large audience.
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    Hip hop to me is a way to share my story before
    anybody else has a chance to twist up my words
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    or to twist up my experiences.
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    It is resistance and creativity, that's what
    hip hop is to me.
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    Hip hop initially rose up speaking to injustices,
    eventually it rose into stories speaking to
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    the issues of the oppressed.
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    The early days was very humble, there wasn't
    a lot of money there wasn't a big budget.
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    It was kind of put together by people with
    whatever they had.
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    People had come up with this medium of going
    through the rubble and putting graffiti up
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    and break-dancing and MCing and DJing and
    you know it was a way of resistance.
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    The same youth that were throwing bricks and
    rocks and pushing back the police, they had
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    something to say.
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    For me, hip-hop is a tool for transformation
    A culture that has some life principles
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    And some these are unity, love and respect
    But specially, having fun, to fill the need
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    to defend happiness
    There's a quote by DJ Grandmaster Caz
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    It says that hip-hop did not invent anything
    The hip-hop re-invented everything
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    We peeped the allegory at the campfire listening
    as elders shared the stories of the
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    vampire's victims.
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    How do I not make the same mistake? Wisdom.
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    Generate the vision, obliterate the prison.
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    Freedom's all I wanted but I couldn't
    afford it,
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    my baby's got the spirit, just brilliant and gorgeous.
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    Oh yes, the self defence endorsement, always
    quiet when she about to load it.
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    Hold it, esa morra's bout to load it.
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    Oh shit, and the whole barrio support it.
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    Seen a whole lotta people want friends.
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    Seen a whole lotta people want Benz.
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    Seen a whole lotta people can't get what they
    want so a whole lotta people pop zans.
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    They say that means don't justify the ends.
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    Do the ends ever justify the means?
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    And would we end all of this hardship if we
    just put rich
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    bigots in the guillotine?
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    Cuz I can't watch these kids die and then
    lie like I give a fuck and not do a fuckin
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    thing but lie down like I've given up.
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    So get a gun if you ready, we grippin' on
    the machete for anybody involved we got a
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    problem forgetting.
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    Thinking for yourself is an expensive luxury
    For them it's not convenient that you leave
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    the herd
    They win more if they keep us ignorant
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    Keep the people poor,
    more power for the state
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    Fuck the parliament, fuck the cops and fuck
    the robber baron bosses and fuck their offices,
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    predominant model of economics and elephant
    cock in their ballot boxes.
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    It came from the Bronx in the 70s in New York
    City and now it's world wide.
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    Hip hop is like folk music, it's very much
    a historical record.
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    These are stories that are telling of the
    American empire you know, looking from within.
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    And I think that's why it's so compelling
    and that's why it resonated people may not
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    know it but I think the reason that hip hop
    spread is because they're stories that everyone
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    needs to hear and is interested in hearing.
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    Hip-hop is a universal culture
    That starts from a context of marginalization
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    poverty and criminalization
    That's a very specific context from 1970's
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    New York City
    That starts from a context of marginalization
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    poverty and criminalization
    That's a very specific context from 1970's
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    New York City
    But that's similar to other problems in other
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    places
    Like exploitation, lack of housing, the lack
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    of opportunities
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    It came from people who had been displaced
    historically from the continent of Africa
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    to North America, to Central America, South
    America and the Caribbean.
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    It also came from ethnicities that had been
    mixed in the process of the colonial subjugation
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    and conquest of the so called new world.
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    That was significant in drawing me in because
    we learned that we had a shared story.
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    We had a story not only of oppression but
    of resistance.
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    We can measure history in terms of what we
    know about our experience here in the United
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    States as descendants of people who were stolen
    from the continent of Africa.
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    But we also have to be able to measure our
    existence and our influence on what happened
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    before that, what's currently happening in
    the African diaspora and on the African continent
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    and struggles for liberation and self determination.
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    The driving force is just the songs of my
    ancestors the songs that they sung to be able
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    to speak to resistance to speak to fighting,
    to speak towards challenging and removing
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    any and all people that wish to destroy our
    people.
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    Some of the major influences that I've had
    musically have been folks who share their
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    narratives in a really honest way in a really
    vulnerable way especially when they go to
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    represent their anger and their rage with
    the way that these systems of oppression are
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    set up around us.
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    I recognize first and foremost that I am a
    guest in the house of hip hop.
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    I don't take someone else's experience and
    try to whiteify it.
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    I see things through the lens of white people
    and so I feel like it's my job to criticize
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    white culture in the way that a white dude
    can.
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    So I use my music to confront the shittiest
    parts about white culture: imperialism and
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    colonialism and capitalism and authoritarianism.
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    Although it has since spread all around the
    globe, hip hop first emerged from, and has
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    always remained rooted in the lived experiences
    of Black and LatinX youth hustling to survive
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    in America’s inner-city ghettos.
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    And the so-called “Golden Age” of hip
    hop, spanning the late 80s to the mid 90s,
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    were specially turbulent times.
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    The flooding of poor, racialized neighbourhoods
    with crack in the mid-80s provided the spark
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    for a rapid surge in street violence, waged
    between increasingly well-funded and heavily
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    militarized gangs.
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    This, in turn, provided the justification
    for the ramping up of Ronald Reagan’s
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    War on Drugs, a policy framework for the wholesale
    criminalization of Black and brown communities
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    that opened the door to enhanced police repression
    and mass incarceration, twin pillars of US
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    domestic counter insurgency strategy that
    continue to this day.
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    In 1986 a group formed in South Central, LA,
    that fed off this raw sense of desperation
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    and rage, forever changing the face of hip
    hop in the process.
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    That group was NWA, the first successful pioneers
    of a new subgenre of hip hop: gangsta rap.
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    These days, it’s hard to appreciate the
    shock and terror that NWA provoked in America’s
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    white supremacist power structure, and specially
    its front-line troops, the cops.
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    Rap music promotes by its very language and
    by its very actions, promotes violence against
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    authority and consequently violence against
    law enforcement.
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    Songs like ‘Fuck Tha Police’ became rallying
    cries for a generation of Black and Brown
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    youth whose rage would soon find popular expression
    in the LA Riots of ‘92.
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    Fuck the police comin' straight from the underground.
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    A young nigga got it bad cause I'm brown.
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    And not the other color, so police think,
    they have the authority to kill a minority.
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    But while NWA provided a megaphone to Black
    youth’s widespread hatred towards the police,
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    they also injected mainstream hip hop with
    a violent strain of misogyny and homophobia
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    that continues to fester to this day.
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    They also provided the emerging hip hop industry,
    largely controlled by the white capitalist
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    power structure that they were rebelling against,
    an opportunity to make millions of dollars
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    selling records that glorify Black and Brown
    youth killing one another over nothing.
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    A lot of the brothers that were my same age
    man, they were involved in the type of shit
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    where they were killing each other.
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    You know, they were killing cats that they
    grew up with, that they went to church with,
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    that they went to school with, that they played
    ball with, trying to be part of the whole
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    gang set culture you know what I mean?
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    Or they were trying to get their money selling that dope and like that's cool, whatever...
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    But really?
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    I was living during the crack era and so the
    criminalization that began this whole mass
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    incarceration that we have now, this new Jim
    Crow, it was heavily going on during that
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    crack era all the way through the 90s.
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    And so of course the theme in the music was
    about either fighting against this new drug
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    that was dropped on to our community or else
    using it as a means to get out of the community.
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    And so it's always been a part of the music
    from the very early days.
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    Let's use the phrase "The Personal is Political"
    as a starting point
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    Because even if we think our actions are personal
    They are going to affect our family and our
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    close friends
    Because even if we think our actions are personal
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    They are going to affect our family and our
    close friends
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    And in the community and the society that
    we are part of
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    There's a difference between telling your
    story and glorifying some of the things that
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    you have to do to get by.
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    So I appreciate you know, when artists can
    yeah maybe talk about the gang-banging past,
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    talk about the past where you had to sell
    some shit, you had to do some shit that you're
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    glad you don't have to do anymore.
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    Government plans, fencin' us in,
    life in the pen'
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    For sellin' shit you put in our hood, knowin'
    I'll do it
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    We desperate, starvin' and dyin' to eat, die
    in the street
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    For a fraction of what I get now for a soundin'
    fly on the beat
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    I feel the weight of not glorifying some of
    the things I've done in my past because I
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    see it happening with other artist with their
    songs.
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    Cold gang with the cocaine.
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    The more money make more rain.
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    Pourin' up a pint while I'm baggin' propane.
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    Point blank range give a nigga nose rings.
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    Skip to my lou with a pack in the cat.
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    Jiffy, Lube where the bricks where they at?
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    In hip hop they might call it, bitches, hos,
    guns, money, sex, murder and all that but
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    if you look at the army, navy, airforce, marines,
    and the US government, that's all it is.
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    It's a reflection of the culture
    that we live in.
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    It's the values that we've inherited as part
    of the conditions of survival in this country,
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    to prioritize the things that are going to
    get us pussy, get us respect and get us paid
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    and get another motha fucker to recognize
    us you know, and that is some bullshit.
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    It's been really motivational to me when artists
    cast aside all of the parameters of respectability
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    politics and are willing to speak their truths
    without coddling the feelings of
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    those who are oppressing us.
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    That's the job of my music, to challenge everything
    that has been imposed upon us to say no and
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    go drastic with it.
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    Again like, I don't follow the format, the
    status quo of hip hop.
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    I'm also still unlearning a lot because it
    wasn't like I grew up in a Native community,
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    I grew up in a city, because of the fact that
    people that came generations before me were
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    removed from their homelands and placed into
    cities.
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    What you won't find me doing in my music,
    lyrically, you won't find me killing niggas,
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    you won't find me on some exploitative, downgrading
    shit about women, you won't find me talking
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    about killing faggots and faggot this and
    faggot that.
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    There's lots of people saying fucked up shit
    in the world of hip hop,
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    to me I can't have that.
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    You know I'm not going to throw a show where
    I book those guys or I can't do collabos with
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    them, I can't work with them, I'm not going
    to taint the work that I'm doing with this
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    hate right?
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    I try to promote the kind of hip hop that
    I like to see, I work with people that are
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    doing the kind of hip hop that I like to see.
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    No matter what the content
    there's a political context from where it
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    comes from
    Becuase there's a need to reclaim our history
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    And even though it may not seem like "real"
    activism
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    There is an intention to survive a reality
    of violence
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    I feel like it's extremely important that
    you are responsible and disciplined and mature
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    enough to not abuse that platform.
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    To be predatorial, to escape any accountability
    for patriarchal tendencies.
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    I learned early that I had to be three times
    better than the guys to even remotely get
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    even recognized and it made me already come
    out swinging and I never stopped swinging
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    because I already recognized that I had a
    disadvantage or I was already seeing patriarchy
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    and sexism.
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    Whenever I do a show and I'm the only woman
    on the lineup, we have to call it out, we
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    have to address the fact that I'm not the
    only woman there because I'm the only woman
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    with something worth saying with something
    worth listening to, I'm the only woman there
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    because we don't listen enough to the women
    around us and we don't give up the mic, men
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    don't give up the mic enough.
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    I put my face in a book ‘cause my people
    are profiled
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    erased from the books and my people are
    told lies
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    Sky’s the limit? Go fly! Cali green? We go high
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    I mean back in ‘05, already knew I'd grow wise
  • 17:56 - 17:57
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    Queen and Master of the chaos I inhabit
    Sometimes a tyrant, sometimes outlaw
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    The best battle, is with myself
    I'm self government, my flag is anarchist
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    When I wake up, no makeup, half naked, I feel
    like I’m the shit
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    Pardon my language, but hang ups do not define
    the kid
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    No, I’m not flawless, I’m scarred up and
    I’m fine with it
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    My body art a laundry list of all of life’s
    unkindnesses
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    A lot has changed in the 45 years since hip
    hop’s founding.
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    For one thing, many of the iconic inner-city
    neighbourhoods where hip hop first flourished
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    have been redeveloped, their former communities
    scattered to the winds of gentrification.
  • 18:37 - 18:41
    Far from the dilapidated pressure cookers
    of revolt and subversive urban decay that
  • 18:41 - 18:45
    they were in the 70s, these neighbourhoods
    have become homogeneous sites of high-rise
  • 18:45 - 18:49
    condos, hipster indie venues and Starbucks
    franchises.
  • 18:49 - 18:53
    Which is not to say that this process is a
    done deal... and even less so that the social
  • 18:53 - 18:55
    contradictions that birthed hip hop have disappeared.
  • 18:55 - 19:00
    The South Bronx is still a largely working-class
    area plagued by racist police violence, and
  • 19:00 - 19:04
    there is tons of vibrant hip hop coming out
    of America’s traditional urban centers,
  • 19:04 - 19:06
    from Baltimore to Oakland.
  • 19:06 - 19:06
    Bam!
  • 19:06 - 19:12
    The target of poverty by the white devil
    Because I wasn't testing at my reading level
  • 19:12 - 19:16
    I was testing any of these busters
    Yo, where you from? Pare?!
  • 19:16 - 19:19
    Lola’s like, “Bakit ka nag tatambay dun
    sa calle parate?!”
  • 19:19 - 19:24
    But as urban demographics have shifted, so
    too has hip hop’s centre of gravity.
  • 19:24 - 19:28
    In the United States, this shift has been
    most notable with the rise of Southern Rap,
  • 19:28 - 19:32
    beginning in the early 2000’s, and the emergence
    of Atlanta as a new hip hop epicentre.
  • 19:32 - 19:37
    Similarly, as it has spread to countries all
    around the world, hip hop has been transformed
  • 19:37 - 19:42
    and enriched by countless local culture and
    traditions, each of which has added their
  • 19:42 - 19:47
    own mark, while generally honouring the spirit
    of youthful defiance and resistance to authority
  • 19:47 - 19:50
    that’s been so key to hip hop’s global
    appeal.
  • 20:06 - 20:12
    Hip hop culture is an expression of oppressed
    people's reality.
  • 20:12 - 20:17
    Hip hop is so global now that literally every
    neighbourhood, every community is representing.
  • 20:17 - 20:21
    I see people doing hip hop in Palestine.
  • 20:26 - 20:32
    Native artists are just really standing up
    globally and representing and telling a story
  • 20:32 - 20:36
    that really needs to be heard and it reminds
    me of the early days of hip hop.
  • 20:36 - 20:39
    It's not like packaged and pretty and fake.
  • 20:39 - 20:45
    Just raw truth and raw facts so big ups to
    all my native comrades out there holdin' it
  • 20:45 - 20:46
    down with hip hop.
  • 20:46 - 20:50
    We never even knew what it was like to be
    poor until money was shown to us in the first
  • 20:50 - 20:54
    place, we didn't know what poverty was and
    so we're always trying to catch up to something
  • 20:54 - 20:59
    that really we don't belong to, that in fact,
    our culture is at odds with, our traditions
  • 20:59 - 21:01
    are at odds with.
  • 21:01 - 21:08
    Let's remember that a lot of art is elitist
    That it sometimes comes and it's valued in
  • 21:08 - 21:14
    certain places
    But hip-hop allows that from from the streets
  • 21:14 - 21:18
    from the ghettoes, from marginality
    These voices can be created
  • 21:18 - 21:27
    I feel like music is, specially important
    in sharing political ideals with youth, taking
  • 21:27 - 21:31
    care of our people, to maintaining our identities.
  • 21:31 - 21:33
    So it's absolutely like, foundational.
  • 21:35 - 21:36
    What is black?
  • 21:37 - 21:42
    Black is a response to white supremacist categorization
    of human beings.
  • 21:42 - 21:48
    Something that doesn't even begin to encompass
    the vastness of history and cultural reality.
  • 21:48 - 21:54
    When I'm in Zimbabwe as an 'ambassador' if
    you will for hip hop, I encounter people that
  • 21:54 - 21:59
    are Shona, people that are into balée, people
    that are of these different cultural realities
  • 21:59 - 22:00
    doing hip hop.
  • 22:00 - 22:03
    South Africa is big right now with the resistance
    music.
  • 22:03 - 22:08
    Y'all we've been colonized, it's not a lie,
    working class let's start to organize.
  • 22:08 - 22:13
    I believe the masses will arrive, revolution
    will rise and decolonize.
  • 22:13 - 22:16
    It is time to mobilize...
  • 22:16 - 22:21
    For people all over the continent to have
    taken hip hop, not in an exploitative, oppressive
  • 22:21 - 22:24
    way, but in an empowering way.
  • 22:24 - 22:30
    Taken Black culture born in the united states,
    created as a result of the separation from
  • 22:30 - 22:35
    the continent of Africa, taking that back,
    reinterpreting it and it being a bridge for
  • 22:35 - 22:39
    Black people all over the fucking planet Earth,
    that's a powerful thing man!
  • 22:42 - 22:45
    Anti-establishment feelings that I have, it
    could have been harnessed by a million things
  • 22:45 - 22:50
    but it was harnessed by good, radical, politics,
    through music.
  • 22:50 - 22:55
    Music has an opportunity to word things that
    are hard to say, music has a way of cutting
  • 22:55 - 23:03
    through to the heart of something it has the
    power to give voice to a situation or to paint
  • 23:03 - 23:07
    a picture about a situation in a way that
    writing doesn't.
  • 23:07 - 23:12
    Every time that you're doing a show you have
    to carry that message regardless if it's two
  • 23:12 - 23:16
    people, or two hundred people or a thousand
    people in the crowd.
  • 23:16 - 23:20
    I think smaller shows become more intimate
    so you have the ability to be able to interact
  • 23:20 - 23:25
    with people there and also to be able to not
    just do the show and not just be the entertainment
  • 23:25 - 23:30
    but also to have the conversation with people
    and talk more about resistance afterwards.
  • 23:30 - 23:34
    I want to connect with people that are doing
    real work and doing radical work and doing
  • 23:34 - 23:38
    revolutionary work and I want to bolster their
    movements and I want to use music
  • 23:38 - 23:39
    to be involved in that.
  • 23:39 - 23:45
    That's what I love most you know, when I get
    to play at an actual site of resistance.
  • 23:45 - 23:49
    It's like taking it back to the roots of what
    the music was created for.
  • 23:49 - 23:55
    The free shows we do for the youth, the ghetto
    youth, are always the most powerful shows
  • 23:55 - 23:59
    because they don't have the constraints that
    the commercial shows do.
  • 23:59 - 24:05
    The truth rests upon the lies, our people
    been traumatized, so donald trump ain't no
  • 24:05 - 24:07
    different than barrack obama in our eyes.
  • 24:07 - 24:13
    They are part of the system that wishes we
    was gone and history talks with forked tongues
  • 24:13 - 24:17
    so the misery goes on in this illegally occupied
    territory of death.
  • 24:17 - 24:24
    A number of shows that I ended up doing outdoors
    at standing rock had the same kind of energy.
  • 24:24 - 24:32
    It was powerful in what that was coming together
    and the spirit of resistance and then we've
  • 24:32 - 24:37
    had a number of shows with just a bunch of
    kids on the res, the same kind of energy.
  • 24:37 - 24:43
    We the survivors, we the up-risers, yea we
    them savages banging on the colonizers, yea
  • 24:43 - 24:50
    we them savages banging on the colonizers
    we are finally facing the end of the cycle
  • 24:50 - 24:52
    an end of the terror fueled by the bible...
  • 24:53 - 24:56
    join the struggle, or live in denial.
  • 25:08 - 25:13
    There's a bunch of indigenous communities
    that are rapping in their language
  • 25:13 - 25:16
    There's mural art that's intersecting with
    graffiti
  • 25:16 - 25:24
    and the old scriptures
    Now we see a meeting between past cultures
  • 25:24 - 25:28
    And newer cultures
    But what hip-hop allows
  • 25:28 - 25:31
    It's that you can incorporate into the current
    reality
  • 25:31 - 25:33
    Something that was being lost
  • 25:33 - 25:39
    There's a difference when I'm on a reservation
    or when I'm at like an inner-city program,
  • 25:39 - 25:46
    doing a show for kids who might also be undocumented
    you know, doing a show for young women that
  • 25:46 - 25:51
    have never been on stage but would like to
    be or have poems that they wanna write or
  • 25:51 - 25:52
    whatever.
  • 25:52 - 25:57
    It's so much more of a reciprocal occasion
    when it's folks who share identities.
  • 25:57 - 26:01
    It's like one of the last things that we have
    is our ability to speak out.
  • 26:01 - 26:05
    Even if we feel powerlessness, hip hop makes
    us feel powerful.
  • 26:05 - 26:11
    Island woman rise, walang, makakatigil
    Brown, brown woman, rise, alamin ang yung
  • 26:11 - 26:14
    ugat
    They got nothin’ on us
  • 26:14 - 26:17
    Nothin’ on us
    Nothin’ on us
  • 26:17 - 26:19
    Nothin’ on us
  • 26:24 - 26:29
    Within revolutionary circles, often times
    we can get bogged down in abstract theoretical
  • 26:29 - 26:33
    debates, and lost in what can seem like an
    endless cycle of protests,
  • 26:33 - 26:35
    actions and organizing campaigns.
  • 26:35 - 26:39
    And while these engagements are essential
    and should not be dismissed, it’s also important
  • 26:39 - 26:43
    to keep in mind the vital role that culture
    plays in building effective movements of resistance.
  • 26:43 - 26:49
    At the end of the day, capitalism and the
    state are not just material forces, but ideological
  • 26:49 - 26:50
    systems as well.
  • 26:50 - 26:54
    This is something our enemies are well aware
    of, which is why they devote so much time,
  • 26:54 - 26:59
    energy and resources towards creating propaganda
    – much of it masquerading as entertainment.
  • 26:59 - 27:03
    From the countless high budget TV shows and
    Hollywood movies glorifying police and the
  • 27:03 - 27:08
    military, to music promoting frivolous consumerism,
    a look at the dominant forms of cultural production
  • 27:08 - 27:12
    can tell you a lot about the values being
    promoted by the powers-that-be.
  • 27:12 - 27:17
    But thankfully, we have the ability to fight
    back, by producing and promoting subversive
  • 27:17 - 27:22
    countercultures that promote our own values
    of solidarity, mutual aid, direct action,
  • 27:22 - 27:25
    and antagonism to capitalism and the forces
    of the state.
  • 27:25 - 27:28
    Let’s not squander the opportunity.
  • 27:28 - 27:33
    Here we go yo, here we go yo, so what's the,
    what's the, what's the scenario?
  • 27:33 - 27:39
    Here we go yo, here we go yo, so what's the,
    what's the, what's the scenario?
  • 27:39 - 27:44
    Just don't sell the fuck out man, it's simple,
    just stay true to what the fuck you represent
  • 27:44 - 27:45
    and don't change up
  • 27:45 - 27:50
    Haters are always going to exist
    But the need to do it
  • 27:50 - 27:54
    It's what's going to motivate us
  • 27:54 - 28:01
    Be ready to do it against all odds, be ready
    to do it by yourself, but also be very intentional
  • 28:01 - 28:04
    about building community with others.
  • 28:05 - 28:09
    Don't be afraid to link a network with people
    that aren't in your neighbourhood, you gotta
  • 28:09 - 28:14
    connect and you can't just preach to yourself,
    you can't just talk to yourself you have to
  • 28:14 - 28:15
    connect with people.
  • 28:15 - 28:20
    If you want to make it, yeah you can
    upload something to soundcloud, but to get
  • 28:20 - 28:24
    the full experience of the art and for people
    to hear you, to get exposure, you're gonna
  • 28:24 - 28:26
    have to go out there and perform, and you're
    gonna have to go out there and link up with
  • 28:26 - 28:27
    other people.
  • 28:27 - 28:33
    Backpack smacker, testament dropper, Amaru
    respecter, been to the hotter, kin to Assata,
  • 28:33 - 28:36
    studied it all, past to the present, resurrected
  • 28:36 - 28:40
    You have a duty if you're making radical music,
    you need to help build the foundation in your
  • 28:40 - 28:42
    community for radical music to come in.
  • 28:42 - 28:46
    So you have to help book the shows, you have
    to help find the spaces, you have to get the
  • 28:46 - 28:48
    sound systems, you have to help facilitate
    that.
  • 28:48 - 28:52
    You're not just making music and radical music,
    you need to help with fostering
  • 28:52 - 28:55
    radical music community.
  • 28:55 - 29:00
    The term is 'many hands make light work',
    we can get more done together than we can
  • 29:00 - 29:02
    by ourselves in certain formats.
  • 29:02 - 29:07
    And then sometimes, less is more, sometimes
    you have to cut dead weight and you have to
  • 29:07 - 29:12
    step away from people who don't have the same
    priorities as you and you have to be okay
  • 29:12 - 29:14
    with doing that.
  • 29:14 - 29:16
    You also have to be very observant of your
    reality
  • 29:16 - 29:21
    Stop and look at what's going on
    Listen and open your ears to hear
  • 29:21 - 29:25
    what's going on around you
    Becuase using words comes with responsibility
  • 29:25 - 29:29
    And if you are going to use them you have
    to be honest
  • 29:29 - 29:33
    as to who you are and where you are coming
    from
  • 29:33 - 29:38
    And it adds value to your community
  • 29:39 - 29:43
    nobody's gonna do this for you you know, look
    at the D.I.Y ethic of punk music, it needs
  • 29:43 - 29:48
    to be applied to hip hop more, and we need
    to do for ourselves, and we need to build
  • 29:48 - 29:54
    up our own spaces, our own community, our
    own networks and we need to share that amongst
  • 29:54 - 29:58
    each other and everybody can rise together.
  • 29:59 - 30:04
    The goal of my making music isn't to explain
    myself to someone who
  • 30:04 - 30:06
    doesn't understand my background.
  • 30:06 - 30:12
    The goal is to connect with the folks who
    share that same path and who find strength
  • 30:12 - 30:19
    and healing in hearing their story being told,
    who may otherwise feel very much alone.
  • 30:21 - 30:26
    It's cold because I can probably only speak
    to indigenous MCs based on an indigenous message
  • 30:26 - 30:31
    because for me I understand that talking about
    resistance, talking about decolonization,
  • 30:31 - 30:37
    talking about revolution, whatever it may
    be, the average person does not like to hear
  • 30:37 - 30:43
    the indigenous perspective, the true indigenous
    perspective of resistance because it challenges
  • 30:43 - 30:44
    even their existence.
  • 30:46 - 30:50
    Don't be afraid, don't cut yourself off, and
    don't listen to people who say
  • 30:50 - 30:53
    “this hasn't been done so you can't do it” or
    “it's weird and it's different”.
  • 30:53 - 30:58
    Some of our best artists were doing something
    that nobody else was doing before and it's
  • 30:58 - 31:03
    okay, it's alright to not rap in the same
    cadence that everyone else is rhyming in,
  • 31:03 - 31:08
    it's okay to mix your music with other genres,
    it's okay to be different and to not sound
  • 31:08 - 31:09
    like everyone else.
  • 31:09 - 31:13
    Sometimes people aren't going to want to fuck
    with you you know, but stick with it because
  • 31:13 - 31:19
    eventually what happens is, after years and
    years, you get better about what you're doing,
  • 31:19 - 31:25
    you get clearer about what you're doing, you
    learn from your mistakes, and when that is
  • 31:25 - 31:35
    combined with a sustained sense of joy in
    relation to why and how you work, you're unstoppable.
  • 31:35 - 31:42
    If you're going to try and build a radical
    current towards indigenous resistance, you
  • 31:42 - 31:47
    can't waiver, you can't switch up based on
    the fact that you're not getting support.
  • 31:47 - 31:49
    You're not going to get support.
  • 31:49 - 31:55
    There's going to be so much stacked up against
    you, you have to be uncompromising because
  • 31:55 - 32:00
    everything that you represent is problematic
    to the average person, even those people that
  • 32:00 - 32:04
    suggest they support indigenous resistance.
  • 32:05 - 32:07
    Stop inviting women to just the
    'all-women events'.
  • 32:07 - 32:12
    Don't be embarrased when we grab the microphone
    and rock it in your circle full of guys.
  • 32:12 - 32:15
    When people start to look at diversity in
    that way of inviting people to the table so
  • 32:15 - 32:20
    that we all can break bread and do this thing
    that we call our culture, it'll change.
  • 32:20 - 32:25
    And if they don't open the door, break the
    fucking door down, kick it open, fuck asking.
  • 32:26 - 32:29
    These record labels slang our tapes like dope
    You can be next in line and signed and still
  • 32:29 - 32:32
    be writing rhymes and broke
    You would rather have a Lexus or justice,
  • 32:32 - 32:34
    a dream or some substance?
  • 32:34 - 32:36
    A Beamer, a necklace, or freedom?
  • 32:36 - 32:38
    Still a nigga like me don't playa-hate,
  • 32:38 - 32:41
    I just stay awake,
    this real hip-hop and it don't stop
  • 32:41 - 32:44
    'Til we get the po-po off the block, they
    call it
  • 32:44 - 32:54
    hip hop, hip hop, hip hop, hip
    It's bigger than hip hop, hip hop, hip hop
  • 32:54 - 32:59
    As we continue to resist the resurgence of
    far-right reaction, further entrenched inequality,
  • 32:59 - 33:03
    gentrification and an increasingly repressive
    state apparatus, it is very important that
  • 33:03 - 33:09
    anarchists build and strengthen connections
    with those outside our immediate circles.
  • 33:09 - 33:12
    Part of this requires that we actively spread
    our politics through popular subcultures like
  • 33:12 - 33:16
    hip hop, that resonate with millions of people
    who share our hatred of police and capitalist
  • 33:16 - 33:20
    society, but won’t necessarily be inclined
    to come out to all our meetings, rallies or
  • 33:20 - 33:21
    reading circles.
  • 33:21 - 33:25
    And the other part involves listening and
    learning from established histories of resistance
  • 33:25 - 33:30
    and struggle, in order to better understand
    and identify points of affinity and possible
  • 33:30 - 33:31
    collaboration.
  • 33:31 - 33:35
    Thankfully, there are lots of amazing individuals
    already doing this important work...
  • 33:35 - 33:36
    but we need more of them.
  • 33:36 - 33:39
    So at this point, we’d like to remind you
    that Trouble is intended to be watched in
  • 33:40 - 33:43
    groups, and to be used as a resource to promote
    discussion and collective organizing.
  • 33:43 - 33:48
    Are you a hip hop head interested in helping
    to contribute to your local radical scene?
  • 33:48 - 33:51
    or looking to build one in a town where it
    doesn’t exist?
  • 33:51 - 33:55
    Consider getting together with some comrades,
    organizing a screening of this film, and discussing
  • 33:55 - 33:57
    where to get started.
  • 33:57 - 34:00
    Interested in running regular screenings of
    Trouble at your campus, infoshop, community
  • 34:00 - 34:02
    center, or even just at home with friends?
  • 34:02 - 34:04
    Become a Trouble-Maker!
  • 34:04 - 34:08
    For 10 bucks a month, we’ll hook you up
    with an advanced copy of the show, and a screening
  • 34:08 - 34:11
    kit featuring additional resources and some
    questions you can use to
  • 34:11 - 34:13
    get a discussion going.
  • 34:13 - 34:15
    If you can’t afford to support us financially,
    no worries!
  • 34:15 - 34:19
    You can stream and/or download all our content
    for free off our website:
  • 34:19 - 34:21
    sub.media/trouble
  • 34:21 - 34:25
    If you’ve got any suggestions for show topics,
    or just want to get in touch, drop us a line
  • 34:25 - 34:28
    at trouble@sub.media.
  • 34:28 - 34:31
    If you want to hear some tracks from the artists
    featured on this episode, check out the latest
  • 34:31 - 34:36
    Burning Cop Car, our radical hip hop podcast,
    at sub.Media/bcc.
  • 34:36 - 34:38
    Just a heads up that since subMedia is a fully
  • 34:38 - 34:42
    crowd-funded project, we’ll be starting
    our annual fundraiser drive soon, to make
  • 34:42 - 34:44
    sure we can keep cranking out videos year
    round.
  • 34:44 - 34:49
    This episode would not have been possible
    without the generous support of Todd, Marius
  • 34:49 - 34:50
    and AvispaMidia.
  • 34:50 - 34:53
    Stay tuned next month for Trouble # 16, as
    we take a closer look at the trial of the
  • 34:53 - 34:58
    so-called J20 defendants, who were mass arrested
    in the streets of DC, at the historic protests
  • 34:58 - 35:03
    against the presidential inauguration of US
    War Criminal in Chief, Donald J Trump.
  • 35:03 - 35:08
    No one wanted to just show up and just show
    out, like there was a definite message about
  • 35:08 - 35:10
    disrupting the inauguration.
  • 35:10 - 35:13
    Now get out there…. and make some trouble!
Title:
vimeo.com/.../289928207
Video Language:
English
Duration:
35:43

English subtitles

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