A coalition of artist are meeting and drafting up some sort of plan to launch a Hip Hop Peace Project. This is made up of a broad coalition of hip-hop personalities ranging from Chuck D of Public Enemy to members of Jam Master Jay's family to the National Hip Hop Summit Youth Council to elected officials like NY councilmen Leroy Comrie. Before folks get it twisted, this isn't some sort of Tipper Gore type coalition where folks are trying to ban or censor, however more and more people are becoming fed up with unbalanced, negative images that way too many are buying into and believing. The effects of this are devastating with people all over the world believing what they see. Heck we now have law enforcement trying to see if Hip Hop is somehow influencing terrorist. More recently we had them trying to make the connection between artist and the Beltway Snipers.

Not too long ago we talked about how kids in far off places like South Africa had created 2Pac and Biggie gangs. Sista Souljah in a recent speech recounted when she was overseas being taunted by some guys in Spain who were quoting lyrics to a popular rap song and acted surprised when she retorted back. They had brought into a certain image. Earlier there were fights that led to a shooting with kids in New Jersey who brought into the Jay-Z vs. Nas hype. NYPD in their investigation to find the killers of Jam Master Jay they explored various Hip Hop beefs. They are now noting that perhaps this beef between these rap titans wasn't all that real. One report notes that these two guys hang out with each other. If that's true then what's really going on? It appears that the marketing of Black, Ghetto pathologies is big business with us catching to short end of the stick.

The Hip Hop Peace Project is initiating a 4 point code of principles which include asking artist to curb offensive lyrics and negative images in videos. They are setting up a board to mediate beefs and disputes within the industry. They are extending invitations to grassroots community organizations to help in this effort. Far too often what rap artist do and say undermine efforts put forth by community organizations who are trying to change things for the better. While artist should take responsibility for what they put out there, even more responsibility must rest on the soldiers who are in a position to play or not play these messages to the masses.

That of course leads to perhaps the most important aspect of the Hip Hop Peace Project. They are establishing a media complaint review board... Say what you will about the artist, but the final say so is in the hands of the cat that's on the radio or the cat playing the videos. If I told you there is a record label that to date has put out over 10 slamming Hip Hop albums that focus on God and spirituality, most of ya'll would be scratching your heads and saying 'Yeah right.. I don't believe it'. Well actually there is a record label http://www.syntaxrecords.com/.

Most of their material is slamming and straight Hip Hop, but none of the local stations ever play them. It's not like they don't have the material. At the end of the day a choice is being made. Somebody decided or was PAID to overlook those types of records and develop lame excuses like: Our listeners don't relate' , 'It doesn't fit our format' or 'It ain't popping-the streets aren't feeling it'. They will overlook those types of records and songs and instead play Lil Jon' and the Eastside Boyz 'I Don't Give A Fuck' [clean edit of course] Meanwhile the 9-5 single parent comes home to her kids and has to compete with them being fed a constant bombardment of Lil Jon, Lil Kim and any other artist with a negative message who was granted access on the airwaves.

If that parent calls and complains or asks for some sort of balance, she's given even more lame excuses like 'We're giving the people what they want-look at our high ratings' or 'Tell your kid to not listen or change the station'. The only problem, all the stations are owned by one company just one will target Blacks while the other one targets Latinos or whites. If they're not owned by the same company you'll find they all play the same songs... And to be honest it really isn't what people want.. In any case what about balance? People are getting fed up.

How many radio stations around the country ran that interview with DMX spewing stuff about Ja Rule? Excerpts on stations from coast to coast ran that interview. That meant some 40 or 50 year old cat who PD's at this station made the call and approved it.. What were they thinking? How do they explain themselves to communities that are reeling from all the unbalanced perspectives.

People often asked what can be done about this? Its good that the Hip Hop Peace Project is launching a media complaint board.. They should definitely connect with folks here in the Bay Area who have also had enough. Here in the Bay Area a broad coalition of Hip Hop activists and artists, church groups, community organizations and the Youth Media Council are fed up with local 'Hip Hop' radio station KMEL here in the Bay Area.

Over the past few months they have been monitoring the station, taping it and noting its content or lack of, and have now compiled a report that they are set to release to the public over the next couple of weeks.... The report is titled 'Is KMEL The People's Station? A Community Assessment of 106.1 KMEL'...It's a pretty thorough document that covers everything from what messages the deejays are conveying on air to what songs get played and what sort of issues are discussed or not discussed on air. They also logged all the different types of PSA's and phone calls that were ignored by the station from community groups that reached out to the station for everything from voter registration to electoral issues to anti-war rallies. They are now soliciting more community input and testimonials and intend to bring a delegation up to the station sometime in December. For more information on this project contact amy@youthmediacouncil.org Anyone interested in seeing part of what's in their report can peep the website http://www.youthmediacouncil.org/publications.html