There are two sayings that are often cited by community elders when talking to young ones. The first is 'life is stranger than fiction'. The second is 'If you live long enough you will see everything'. I'm gonna add one other saying that I used to hear being bantered while coming up 'You young Negroes need to read more and stop watching so much damn TV otherwise you will never know when people are plotting against you'.
This morning I get a call from my man Jahi who does a lot of community work in the Baltimore-Wash DC area. He's developed a Hip Hop curriculum that addresses the issues of AIDs and sexual responsibility. He also has put out a couple of albums. Dude called me up this morning and said peep the article on MSNBC about the 'American Taliban' John Walker. This is the young white cat from Marin county here in the Bay Area who is accused of fighting American soldiers in Afghanistan. Many are calling him a traitor and suggesting that he be charged with causing the death of an American CIA agent who interviewed ours before a prison uprising resulting in his death.
Well just when you thought you heard it all.. MSNCB comes out with an article that will soon appear in Newsweek called 'From Hip Hop to Holy War'. Apparently this kid who fought Americans as a Taliban soldier was Hip Hop head. In fact he supposedly got introduced to Islam via Hip Hop. Young Jonathan Walker was a frequent visitor to Hip Hop websites where he often debated cats and even posed as an African American to take on various issues or issue his own statements. Homeboy questioned the sincerity of Nas and questioned why he considered himself a 'God' while smoking blunts and fornicating. Mr Walker had lots of questions for the Five Percent Nation.
Here's a sampling of what I read on the MSNBC site..
"Walker discovered his passion for Islam online, after sampling other possibilities. At the age of 14, under the handle “doodoo,” he was visiting Web sites for hip-hop music with particularly crude raps on sex and violence. In one e-mail posting, he scorned a critic of hip-hop as a “worthless d—krider.” In one e-mail at the height of his fascination with hip-hop, he appeared to pose as an African-American, writing, “Our blackness should not make white people hate us.” But as he got older, he veered to a very different direction. He began visiting Islamic Web sites, asking questions like “Is it all right to watch cartoons on TV or in the movies?” His family says the turning point may have come at the age of 16 when he read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” which describes the conversion to Islam of the famous black militant. Some Internet postings examined by NEWSWEEK show that young Walker soon became pretty militant himself. In a 1997 message to a hip-hop site, he demanded to know why a rapper named Nas “is indeed a ‘God’? If this is so,” Walker indignantly asks, “then why does he smoke blunts, drink Moet, fornicate, and make dukey music? That’s a rather pathetic ‘god’, if you ask me.” He quizzes an online correspondent about the Five Percent Nation of Islam—a small North American sect—about its adherents’ vision of bliss and how to pursue it. “I have never seen happiness myself,” writes Walker. “Perhaps you can enlighten me ... where I can go to sneak a peek at it.” Selling off his hip-hop CD collection on a rap-music message board, he converted to Islam."
You can peep the rest of the story at http://www.msnbc.com/news/669825.asp?pne=msn&cp1=1#BODY
Call me paranoid or call me being overly cautious, but my ears and eyes always perk up when you mention Hip Hop. This is the one art form from America that has spread out and been embraced all over the world. Hip Hop has always come under fire so when it shows up in a Newsweek article with the details that it does with regards to this subject, I have to take note. Homeboy [Jonathan Walker] says he was introduced to Islam via Hip Hop websites, Hip Hop message boards and the Five Percent Nation. Does this mean all these outlets are going to somehow be blamed in some sensationalistic perverted way for this 'young' 'innocent' white guy who went to fight for the Taliban? If I hadn't seen such nonsense take place in other situations I wouldn't raise the red flag, but I have.
Case in point many of you may recall the riots that took place at Woodstock a few years ago. Here we had a bunch of 'mosh pit' suburban kids burning down the place because the price of water was too high and in the process several females were brutally raped. I was recall reading various accounts and was shocked to find that several prominent news agencies somehow made the assertion that Hip Hop was the cause. They blamed the 'aggressive' rap meets rock fusion exemplified by groups like Limp Bizkit and the Redhot Chili Peppers as the driving force that caused these Woodstock concert goers to go berserk. So forgive me when I start reading about little Johnny out of Marin being a student of Hip Hop before moving on to the Taliban.
All this comes to light one week after the Federal Trade Commission starts heating up on the music industry in particular Hip Hop as being irresponsible while simultaneously praising the movie industry for cleaning up its act. The FTC findings seemed out of wack and was described as a form of profiling. It prompted one Congressman Ed Towns [D-NY] to prepare a response. He like others knew what was coming. Hip Hop would be blamed for the corrupting morals and disturbing direction the entertainment industry had taken.
As crazy as it sounds, there are many who will be quick to blame 2Pac and not the 40 year old program director who decided to play Lil Kim or P-Diddy 15 times a day and not once touch a Talib Kweli. There will always be corrupting things out in society, hence we have to seriously question the vision and intentions of those who consistently highlight and grant access.In my mind it's a lot easier to hold accountable the handful of program directors, radio station owners and other media decision makers who program for millions than a 16 year old kid for writing 'bad' raps because thats all he heard on his favorite station 8 hours a day. However, that is rarely done. I guess it doesn't make for a sensational story and it doesn't maker good business sense. After all, some of these offending decision makers work for the same media conglomerates that are busy criticizing rap. How ironic to hear a news commentator lambaste rap but never make mention that its their boss who also runs the video outlet, radio station or record company that markets, promotes and profits from the 'offensive' material.
Even popular Fox news commentator Bill O'reilly is in on the act. In a recent column called The Black Challenge, he too takes Hip Hop to task when he writes as follows:
"The truth is that the African-American community is going to have to change their point of view if the poverty level and inner city qualityof life is going to improve. The white power structure will always hold the gold in America. Blacks make up 13 percent of the population and disengaging from white people is a quick way to the unemployment line.
That's why the message of rap – with its disrespect towards women and cops, and authority in general – is so destructive. That's why the tragic statistic that 70 percent of all black babies are born out of wedlock is so shocking. That's why the widespread acceptance of intoxication is so damaging.
Economic success requires education and discipline. Speaking poor English is going to hurt you. Failing to read will hold you back. Blaming the majority for your lot in life will get you nowhere. Life is not fair. But smart thinking and hard work can even the odds some. Feeling sorry for somebody doesn't help that person. Blaming current conditions on slavery past is a waste of time. Hating whitey because he lives better than you is a crutch.
It's time for the black leadership in America to drop the political correctness and toughen up. Bad behavior by any American is not acceptable. African-Americans need a realistic roadmap on how to succeed. They don't need Puff Daddy rapping about guns and ho's. They don't need historical bitterness, and they don't need preferential treatment.
Blacks in America simply need the white establishment to stop being afraid of them. And to treat them as though they lived next door. As the terror of 9-11 showed us, we are all in this together. Let's start acting like it".
As I'm writing this article CBS News is reporting that homeboy was into 'hardcore' Hip Hop and this is what may have led to him being corrupted. Folks are now gonna start having a field day. This is the same CBS that owns MTV and BET which are often underfire for in appropriate marketing of images. For some who are reading this, this will appear to be funny or of no consequence. After all as I said earlier, Hip Hop being under attack is nothing new. But from my vantage point there are a lot of things suddenly being set into motion and going down because we are in extraordinary times. It seems like many elected officials, lobbyist etc, people are pushing their long held agendas through without question because folks are scared and figure this is what we have to do because of he the threat of terrorist. Companies are suddenly 'restructure' and laying off people in droves.
In the music biz alone everyone from Rawkus on down to the local radio stations are dropping folks like flies. September 11th is the convenient excuse. When all is said and done and the dust clears we will discover that the balance of power will be shifted back to the bosses and managers who will once again have a clear tyrannical advantage over folks who are desperate to get back to work. Just watch, folks will work longer hours for less pay and put up with more crap because they don't wanna be back on the unemployment line. The huge mega corporations they work for will suddenly start raking in huge profits and most will be too scared or beat down to say anything.
How does all this ties into Hip Hop? For starters, folks who have long had problems with Hip Hop, will now use this time to attack and clean house. Now is the time to pass crazy laws and move forth all in the name of fighting terrorism. Remember folks.. last year we reported how two New Jersey senators were trying to push legislation to prevent the sale of certain types of rap. We also reported how NYC had developed a Rap Task force. We also noted how police departments throughout the country had begun keeping dossiers on artists and Hip Hop organizations. In some cases legitimate organizations were suddenly being labeled as gangs. Is the next step to start labeling them as terrorists?
With the passing of all these new laws that give law enforcement more power to do surveillance and keep people in check, the rebel spirit of Hip Hop will no doubt come under fire. After all if the argument can be made that it led to the corruption and traitorous actions of a young well to do white kid from the suburbs then perhaps its time to really clean up the business. The end result is that KRS-One will be seen with same lens as his 'gangsta rap brethren. Boots or dead prez will be seen as deadly as Dr Dre and a Chronic album. Bambaataa and his Zulu Nation may be viewed as an organization linked to terrorist especially if they have Five Percent cats down with them. Call it far fetched, but stranger things have happened. I'll say this. It makes that Jay-z vs Nas beef seem down right petty.
