Growing up, I used Hip Hop as a way to learn about the world around me. From politics, to culture, language, geography, history, all this could be heard in your rap record of the late 80′sa and early 90′s. Then something changed in the late 90′s. Rap records talking about something other than partying and using drugs, became "underground" and labeled conscience. There was a shift, that continues to live on today. Listening to your radio or reading your popular Hip Hop zine all you hear and see is the same stories of niggativity.
With that said. Salute to emcee and homie Homeboy Sandman for taking the time to put this great piece together addressing the connection between Hip Hop and the prison for profit system. HS wrote this article for Huffington Post who refused to post it recently. No worries... It's right here for you to digest. It's a great read I definitely suggest checking it out. Thanks to Homeboy Sandman, and make sure you check out this new LP "First Of A Living Breed" out now via Stones Throw Records.
Transcript Below...
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GoldenUndergroundTV recently released an interview I did with them late last year. I got a bit animated at the end. Only so many interviews in a row I could handle being asked about Chief Keef.
My tirade wasn't really about Chief Keef. It wasn't about Gucci Mane or Wocka Flocka or any of the acts spontaneously catapulted into stardom by synchronized mass media coverage despite seemingly universal indifference (at the very best) regarding their talent. Whose arrests, involvement in underaged pregnancies, concert shootouts, and facial tattoos, dominate conversation for weeks at a time, with their actual music a mere afterthought, if thought of at all.
My tirade was about marketing. It was about media powers seeking out the biggest pretend criminal kingpins they can find, (many of whom who shamelessly adopt the names of actual real life criminal kingpins like 50 Cent and Rick Ross), and exalting them as the poster children for a culture. It was about an art form reduced to product placement, the selling of a lifestyle, and ultimately, a huge ad for imprisonment.
This is not my opinion.
Last year Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the biggest name in the private prison industry, contacted 48 states offering to buy their prisons. One stipulation of eligibility for the deal was particularly bizarre: "an assurance by the agency partner that the agency has sufficient inmate population to maintain a minimum 90% occupancy rate over the term of the contract.
What kind of legitimate and ethical measures could possibly be taken to ensure the maintenance of a 90% prison occupancy rate?
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Two months later an anonymous email was sent out to various members of the music and publishing industries giving an account of a meeting where it was determined that hip-hop music would be manipulated to drive up privatized prison profits. Its author, despite claiming to be a former industry insider, did not provide the names of anyone involved in the plot, nor did he specify by which company he himself was employed. As such, the letter was largely regarded as a fraud for lack of facts.
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If re-selling is what people consider to be a "sneakerhead" now a days, I'm definitely not one. Interesting to see the news cover how re-selling sneakers has become big business for some. What's even more interesting is the kids on here are like 12 years old. It takes a village and the kids are definitely being raised a "different" way.
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Awwww HELLLLLLL naw! Did this guy... butt azz naked... at the train station... running up on innocent travelers?? If this ends with a tasing and a beatdown, I'm not sure anyone would be surprised (or remorseful). Watch, and be stunned. The video is embedded after the jump, as it is Not Suitable For Work... for all the wrong reasons!
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'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' keeps coming up with visual nuggets of joy for us. In this short, Fallon plays a mashup of NBC News anchor Brian Williams' clips - edited to string together audio that 'raps' a portion of Snoop Dogg's verse from Dr. Dre's "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang" from back in the day.
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This year Pappose made headlines when he abruptly jumped on stage and was uninvited to perform. After Papoose performance the comedy ensured on social media and folks saying he pulled a Lil Mama.
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Hip-Hop has always been the voice of the marginalize and downtrodden. The voice of dissent is rooted in its struggling beginning back in the torn and despised South Bronx neighborhood. Fast forward to over 35 years later, hip-hop is one of the most dominated forces in America and Dr. Dre is credit for spearheading that movement.
So the question is being asked by Dillard University president, Walter M. Kimbrough as to why Andre Young aka Dr. Dre "would donate $35 million - about 10% of his wealth, according to a Forbes estimate - to an institution that enrolls the very people who supported his career from the beginning? An institution where the majority of students are low-income? A place where $35 million would represent a truly transformational gift?"
I understood their need to build a pool of skilled talent. But why at USC? Iovine's daughter is an alum, sure. And he just gave its commencement address. Andre Young - before he was Dr. Dre - grew up in nearby Compton, where he rose to fame as part of the rap group N.W.A. The Beats headquarters are on L.A.'s Westside.
Why didn't Dr. Dre give it to a black college?
Make no mistake: This donation is historic. It appears to be the largest gift by a black man to any college or university, comparable to the gift Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille, gave toSpelman College in 1988. Some 25 years later, their $20-million gift (about $39 million in inflation-adjusted dollars) is still the largest-ever private gift to a historically black college. Dre gave USC almost triple the amount Oprah Winfrey has given Morehouse College over the years. Sean "Diddy" Combs gave $500,000 to Howard University in 1999, which he attended before launching a successful career.
A hip-hop icon is now the new black higher-ed philanthropy king. We've never seen a donation to rival this from any black celebrity - musician, athlete or actor - and that fact must be celebrated.
But as the president of a black college, it pains me as well. I can't help but wish that Dre's wealth, generated as it was by his largely black hip-hop fans, was coming back to support that community.
USC is a great institution, no question. But it has a $3.5-billion endowment, the 21st largest in the nation and much more than every black college - combined. Less than 20% of USC's student body qualifies for federal Pell Grants, given to students from low-income families, compared with two-thirds of those enrolled at black colleges. USC has also seen a steady decrease in black student enrollment, which is now below 5%.
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