those types of statements are understandable given proto-rap groups such as the last poets, watts prophets, gil-scott heron and james brown. the 60's and 70's saw black movements express their political outrage through music and the spoken word. that's not to say that they weren't partying but the point of which came first party hip-hop or political hip-hop is academic. if necessity is the mother of invention, then the invention of hip-hop served a multitude of needs, party, political, economic and artistic. trying to tease out these intertwined ideas is kinda a waste of time.

It's all Sylvia Robinson's fault. Kid Creole said he didn't want to do the Message. I agree Jay. It goes further though. A lot of music fans and critics simply let the words get in the way completely, and shut themselves off from hip hop because they hear a few unpleasant words, or don't agree with the "message" of the song.

If anything, I would argue that it is Dead Prez, Talib, and other overtly political rappers who have undermined their own careers by constantly harping at the audience and treating the audience as political objects.

It was surely inevitable, but the attempt to inject politics into music is just plain wrongheaded. It is like debating religion at a wedding or going to a baseball game and telling people they should be at a political rally. But more important, it is simply not as effective as traditional political activities (reading, meetings, etc) and people fool themselves into believing they are making a difference, when in fact they are wasting everyone's time and getting in the way of valuable relaxation and music therapy.

Music heals people and that is a lot more than most politics ever did.

yojimbo: Nah, man. The very idea that folks like Gil/Last Poets/Watts Prophets are "proto-rap groups" is itself a misconception, a by-product of the Big Lie.

James Brown's influence on hip-hop's development was massive, but it came mostly from tracks like "Give It Up Or Turn It Loose" that were not political in the slightest.

And this question is damn sure not "academic." It goes right to the heart of understanding what hip-hop is.

Eric: Yeah, I think there is a place for social/political commentary in music, but that place has been humongously overestimated when it comes to hip-hop.

oh snap jay... vicious! i just let people believe what they want about gil, omar, alafia, and all them. that's some jazz shit to me. james brown done got his credit. are there really people who don't realize James Brown revolutionized pop music? as for JA... U-Roy was on the cover of Rolling Stone in like 1968 or some shit. And yet he gets no credit. Next time you see Herc at the bar, ask him about nursery rhymes.

ok, before i met jay, i was often forced, i felt, to "defend" hip hop to the many people who said, i just don't understand why you like it! i'm white and spent many of my formative years in virginia (not by choice, of course). defending hip hop meant -- at the time -- pointing out the "smart" hip hop, quoting political/poetic lyrics, etc. meanwhile, i'd go to a party in some countryfied town where "she's got legs" by zz top (right?) was the rockingest song ever, and no one had to justify it by pointing out "smart" rock lyrics that went beyond "she knows how to use 'em." thanks jay.

All you have to do is watch Wild Style, where Busy Bee (sp?) lays out his money in the hotel room, while getting drunk and hanging out with hoes. There's nothing new about what apolitical rappers have to say 20 years later.

People's gripe with the Culture\music should not be with the materialism, which has been in many an emcees rhyme since the beginning(You can see this in Wildstyle). It should be with the fact the the Music, which now enjoys wide mainstream success, and rightfully so,has become so flat and bland with just the same formularized stuff. What was cool about back in the day was that shit in HipHop wasn't so separated and that everyone had a place, you could have shows with RunDMC and DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince playing the same venue and not get retarded looks. NWA went with a Tribe Called Quest. IT WAS ALL GOOD HIPHOP, and thats that. The one Valid complaint that should resonate with fans is that be it The south's Crunked up sound, To The northeast's love for the battle rapper and heavy Beats, That its all one music and should not have any of its practitioners packaged as Commercial, Street,Underground etc etc. Don't be a victim of what I deem subgenreItis. Music all comes down to a matter of taste. But to rewrite an entire musical Genre's History is wrong and does a diservice to the whole scene Underground and Commercial. Rock N Roll was rebellious not because it came out exposing the problems of the day's government, It was rebellious because it went against the Formula of what was considered good music. I'm saddened that Rappers to see success have to tailor their records for commercial radio and that the selection lies in the program directors at these stations and not on cutting edge DJS. NWA didn't give a fuck about radio play, PE didn't either. The Purist Philosophy that has crept up in HipHop is high minded but impractical because it also stifles creativity just like the money that is being made off of the formularized records played on the radio. Good Music is subjective and always will be. Let people like the shit they like, and lets not try to rewrite history so we can feel justified in our musical tastes. Peace

I don't think you outlined your case as to why you think I'm wrong. Reading your previous post, I see that you don't want hip-hop's contribution as perceivd by the mainstream to be one of political intent. Given the grass-roots activism that was present in NY during the birth of hip-hop I don't see how you can logically tease those concepts apart. Your efforts to do so seem academic to me because look at the Zulu Nation. Not political? Maybe not with a capital P, but they are damn sure political. I think I understand the danger of confining hip-hop's legacy to a purely political realm, but to over look the complex interaction between the two is to over look the many examples of their mutual necessity.

blame Bambaata and KRS and Chuck D for feeding that lie to journalists for years.

i think there's enough blame to go around and i'm pretty sure the fingers will start pointing at me next year.

jay, i really hope people read both this post and the last one together because you're putting out a (hold nose Kerry word coming) nuanced position here.

clearly i think it's always important to place hip-hop into the political context it came out of, otherwise you get really uncritical bling-blinging--that's todd boyd's bad side, i think.

but that is hardly the same thing as reducing hip-hop to politics, or worse, defining hip-hop's value solely as its political value.

hip-hop began in a political context as a cultural movement. that's not to say it wasn't political, it's to say that its aesthetics can't be reduced to its politics.

later, rappers were asked to be political leaders. that's a whole different game, one that--to this day--everyone is still confused about. p-diddy's role is not to be president, it's to help a president get elected. he's clear on it, but most of the rest of us are still not.

if we go by what these writers you point out are saying, we should now be praising p-diddy's rap because he's become politically active. that's how faulty their logic is.

we gotta judge the music on musical standards, we gotta judge the politics by political standards.

and OK, having said that, i've just written 600 pages blurring those lines up again. and i totally disagree with eric, who actually is taking the same line john leland took about public enemy--that flav was always doper than chuck.

me, i like my peanut butter with my chocolate. but i do think it's true that in the wrong combinations, the shit doesn't taste so good.

Jeff: Yes, yes, and yes. Exactly, thank you for fleshing out the issue so well.. I'm looking forward to your 600.

Yojimbot: These elements you present as examples of early hip-hop's political aspects are not germane to the Big Lie, which assumes that hip-hop's merit derives solely from the overt socially-conscious political content of the lyrics, or the lack thereof. It is a much narrower definition of "political" than the one you are using to to tie in NY's general activist spirit in the 70s, Zulu Nation's community organizing, etc..

So what you put forth here just illustrates how The Big Lie not only distorts and overstates the importance of politics in hip-hop, it also renders folks blind to the more subtle but still vitally important ways that hip-hop always has been political.

You seem to be taking my post as an assertion that there's never been a important political element to hip-hop? Definitely not what I'm
saying.. I'm not sure (right now at 4:17 AM) how to clarify that further, maybe Jeff's contribution will help a bit?

I'm confused... was Flav the peanut butter or the chocolate? ;)

OK Jeff... since you believe hip hop is full of peanut butter and chocolate chip treats... where are these great political rap songs?

The irony, of course, is that we writers are the ones who are supposed to be handling the political issues. And yet here we are debating whether rap music should be -- or is -- political, when it is easy to see that 99.99% of rap music is not political.

Jeff's rejoinder was pretty helpful and I see the difficulty of trying to make the case that hip hop was not created with this Political Intent that what you're calling the "Big Lie" ascribes to it. It was basically an informal process whereby people were partying and incorporating all of which was going on around them and it just grew from there. I think when Newsday, VH1 and Burger King are trying to put their versions of how hip hop got started and what it means today out there it is very dangerous and needs to be challenged. Where is Ego Trip when need them?

wow, i love seeing posts like this.

Yojimbot, they're working on the sequel to the VH1 Race special they did last year. We'll probably know by next week if the network rejected it. Heh heh.

Eric, yeah, I agree with you on our role absolutely. The confusion sets in when people start projecting their role onto rappers who, mainly, just want to entertain and, uh, be entertained.

Flav was whatever flav you wanted him to be. Last night on the Hip-Hop Honors show I think he was milk.

And I've kinda beaten the "political rap" (what a dumb term--better than "conscious rap" worse than "reality rap", etc., although I'm more guilty than most) topic to death in the past, but today I'm giving it to Kweli's "Get By" (which always gets me amped) and Jin's great track on his album called "Same Cry". See, to me, even "Hyphy" is political. Dressing up fly and going out is political, especially if you're just supposed to be a sufferer.

BTW your position is solid, Eric. It's basically Kelefa Sanneh's, goes back to Nick Tosches and Chuck Eddy, who asked me the same question once, then said he didn't think Grandmaster Melle Mel's "World War III" was as bad as everyone thought it was. A tweener between them and me (and mind you, I love Kweli and the Beastie Boys, but their new albums are bunk, so I'm not a picket-waving purist) would be someone like Sasha Frere-Jones, who is a pop purist leavened by mid-80s identity politics.

Great post. To assume that only "socially conscious" hip-hop counts means that you've reduced hip-hop to a vehicle for polemics, which is patronising to the entire genre.

I wonder how important context is? If you don't ever hear hip-hop in the context of a block party, club, and similar situations do you end up just thinking of hip-hop purely as some form of protest-song medium?

I will keep this brief cause im sleepy but alot of what is being said here is upsetting to me. A social and economic reality created the conditions for hip hop music. To deny the impact of political/conscious music and its legacy is false. To exaggerate its impact is also false. But don't try and make that exageration the unforgivable sin.

Who shot ya is no doubt a classic, but there is music that has the power to transform young minds and I know because I was one of them. When you are a young kid in the ghetto hearing someone rapping about your conditions, or your struggles with racism in society, or espousing a worldview that opens you mind to a new way of thinking (as P.E., KRS-1, Ice Cube and X-Clan did for me) it is something that never leaves you. It is more than just a nice song with a nice beat.

Indeed people listen to music very differently. Some just enjoy the cadences, rhythms, and beats. Some enjoy that as well as the ideas shared in the songs. To say that there is nothing more noble than to rock the party is not only false, but it is a part of the kind of thinking that has hip hop in the shape it is in today.

The proof is when you compare Jay and Nas. As Nas explores different genres, themes, and tries to push the envelope in various ways, Jay-Z is on the radio with R. Kelly singing about big chips!!

How you rock the party is very important. KRS-1 is one of the best party rockers of all time not just because he can rap, but it is what he chose to rap about: Jesus, Beef, Music industry, revolution, you name it. Even today, as Biggie and Tupac are gone, Tupac's legend has been stronger and more meaningful (from where I'm sitiing) than biggies will ever be. Not that Pac was so so political but he had some substance with him and at times he brought alot.

We got rappers like Nelly scared to say somehing political because they don't wanna lose their republican fans. There are so many things going on in the world in our community right now, how can we continue to rap about nothing?

THis rap that is coming out now is political, it is bourgeois, and capitalist, it isn't apolitical. Its just ignorant as hell but they do promote a certain worldview one that is unabashedly capitalist, exploitative, sexist, and hedonistic. They supply a form of escapism for those of us who wish we were kings and had all the money, women and cars. This kind of music also serves the interests of the tiny but powerful elites. It keeps us daydreamin and dancing and oblivious.

I guess its all about your perspective but Hip Hop that was saying something about real life and real conditions has always meant waaaaay more to me.

Two things, first an artist like KRS is probably the best example of all. He can rock a party and yet he is most interested in uplifting minds. Kai... if KRS has opened your mind... great. But even the most cursory glance of KRS's non-musical thoughts reveals some very flawed thinking. Don't get me wrong, I am a big KRS fan. But he is an inveterate bullshit artist. That sort of thing works in freestyles and personal arguments, but bullshitting has no place in complex political issues. And I have serious doubts as to whether he knows where to draw the line. Still, much respect to the Blastmasta.

I think it is important to consider how much REAL political content one can put in a song before the artistry of the song becomes compromised by the need to be intellectually rigorous. Have you ever written a rap and found the music getting in the way of the ideas you want to express? The moment you change a word to make it rhyme or sound better... you are probably compromising the integrity of your ideas.

But I think the most significant issue people have overlooked here is that most people confuse being "political" with being preachy and arrogant about political ideas. For the most part, all political music is propaganda. And I think the last thing we need are rap songs on the radio about why we should vote for John Kerry. We do have the option of reading the newspaper, you know. Maybe we should focus more on getting kids to actually read, and less time hoping for some rapper to get political with his rhymes.

Also, I want to suggest that there is a difference between sociological content and political content. We might have the two somewhat confuses with each other. Rap is practically defined by an overt and self-conscious sociological perspective. Rappers are very aware of their position, relative to the music industry and the larger society. Sociology is good. Rap distinguishes itself from Rock by generally keeping the community in sight. Rap is chock full of references to the shared values and culture of the audience. Again, this is good.

But politics means telling people what to do. And politics is about compromise. For me, I have always looked to music as that one area of my life where compromise is not always necessary. In fact, the less compromise, the better. If there was a type of music that only made sense to me -- and everyone else hated and despised it -- that would be some transcendant music for sure.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts Kai. I definitely agree in many respects. Got me thinking a little more about this whole subject.

First of all, I would like to point out that I am not a connaisseur in a way that the people who wrote the previous comments are. Well I'm not even American.I'm half portuguese/half angolan, which means half european/half african.(I believe this is of some relevance) I love hip hop and I don't agree with the somewhat condescendent arguments towards hip hop that imply that it must be reduced to a political status only. however, I think there's a phenomena worth thinking about when talking about hip hop, and specially when talking about the thirty years of hip hop: its misoginy. How on earth did hip hop became such a prejudiced genre towards women? I really don't understand, what I get from tv and newspapers and american movies is that the african american women is respected. So why, thus considering rappers like missy for instance, do hip hop videos need to always point that women are like sex play things? yes, it is because sometimes what you feel in the music and the beat cannot be expressed in words that i can still listen to hip hop music. Please don't say that is only a question of not agreeing with the message, it's more than that, the message is wrong, and is meant to numb our minds and make us think that it is ok for men to treat women like that. I totaly agree with kai when he or she says that hip hop is sexist and hedonistic. ok, hip hop is not meant to be only political, it is about feeling the beat too, but it can also be an inportant vehicle, so don't these guys have some kind of responsibility? Should we avoid a patronising and condescendent attitude towards hip hop by disregarding its message no matter what is said/sang?

I think the comment that I have pasted below is indicative of an extremely problematic way of thinking.

Dead prez, Mos Def, Talib, etc. are folks who clearly have a larger agenda than helping you relax and advancing their careers.

Growing up in a time of X-clan, early ice-cube, krs-one, paris, and other thought provoking artists made me view my connection to politics in an entirely different way.

When I heard "I wanna kill sam" or "holla if ya hear me" it burned something into me. Lyrics like these are the seminal moments in hip-hop for me. It was people speaking truth to power.

I believe that life in our community is inherently connected to the social justice movement. Hip-hop ain't here just to help you relax. These artist ask you to pay attention. What could be a better use for hip-hop than that?

And please...who ever posted that Gil Scott Heron was some non-political jazz, check yourself.

"If anything, I would argue that it is Dead Prez, Talib, and other overtly political rappers who have undermined their own careers by constantly harping at the audience and treating the audience as political objects.

It was surely inevitable, but the attempt to inject politics into music is just plain wrongheaded. It is like debating religion at a wedding or going to a baseball game and telling people they should be at a political rally. But more important, it is simply not as effective as traditional political activities (reading, meetings, etc) and people fool themselves into believing they are making a difference, when in fact they are wasting everyone's time and getting in the way of valuable relaxation and music therapy.

Music heals people and that is a lot more than most politics ever did."

I think that you are polarizing these comments a little too much. The truth is hip hop is POLITICAL...if only because it represented an actual factual of the socio-economic/political conditions inside the innercity. YES, it has always been about the party. YES, it in truth is about "skills" which in many cases now is a lot more subjective and loose then in the past. ( The blatant copying and biting now is way out of control. Everything wasn't completely unique, and biting didn't start with Puffy, but it was MUCH less condoned and there were definitely cultural penalties for it that just don't exist now.)

But what Greg Tate and others try to point out, and this has been true of all African American art/culture it has been the sole voice of that people's existence, pain, trials and tribulations. That now has been fused with various outside influences including corporate interests. There is a balance. No, hip hop is not all political, but you cannot deny its place and its role as a vehicle for it. All music/art has that power and that transcends not just hip hop, but everything from literature to painting. Its a fine line always....but I think what most who seem to advocate the very hyper-politic stance, in truth are just asking for the music to not be as superficial dumbed down, fantasy with the same tired played music being over hyped to be "dope"...when it really isn't. Just cause its (pop)ular doesn't make it "hot".

Only in hip hop do you have old people telling young kids what's cool, and them sucking it up.

What does this have to do with dentistry, "my hip-hop professor"?!

-_-

Anyone else feeling KODIAK BRINKS?

"there is no greater purpose, no goal more noble for any man, than a commitment to rocking the party."

I must confess, I disagree. I love music, and I agree that hip-hop would be nothing without its musicality. But this doesn't erase what it means to be an artist. The best of art - and this includes music - uses every means at its disposal, and hip-hop is a musical form where the lyrics have an incredible potential. At least, it's a huge let-down when artists don't make use of it. Actually, rappers who don't make use of it are hardly artists at all. Until that potential is tapped (and when it is, hip-hop is as great an art form as any other), hip-hop is far from mature.

Everything is political. To tell yourselves anything else is a lie. When you chose to ignore current eevents like wars, racism, censorship, poverty, gentrification, etc. and choose instead to rhyme about rims, crack, hustlers lifestyles, misogyny, etc., that is a political decision. They may not mean it to be one, but when asked about the election Nelly says he doesn't wanna offend his republican fans, that is a political decision. Many Rappers are not as stupid as their music might have you believe, but choose to take a 'safe' road which they believe will lead them to prosperity. That is as political as it gets, its just bad politics.

i gotta go with kai on this one. everything is political. you just have to figure out if you want to act "politically."

To me, you can go ahead and argue all you want about the nature of hip-hop, but the most important thing is that no-one is in any position to knock an MC's rhymes no matter how political or materialistic they have become. Hip-hop music is music. Music is a form of expression. Rappers should be allowed to express whatever they want in their lyrics, call it expression of personal opinion and not be criticised for anything unless the music sounded bad. Hip-hop as a whole (including the indie scene) has not changed since the beginning! It's just a matter of which ones got famous! It's all a matter of whos turn it is on the mic. Hip-hop is something to enjoy. Enjoy it, don't dispute it!

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your a fool mate. Hip hop is anything it wants to be. Hip hop isnt about beats and rhymes n if you beleive that, you know nothing about music. Its about expression, if someone wants to express themselves abouit politics in the form of hip hop, they are free to do so. Same as if someone wants to make money by puttin out club bangers. IT IS WAT IT IS

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so ur basically saying that you could say " shoot ur head off" it would be alright cuz of some repetitive, but fairly good beat and a couple of words ?

oh yeah, Materialism is a bad charactoristic, and it shows sinful greed. Why listen to music about that?

also, video's about " booty-shaking women" is disgusting in my opinion and it degrades women to wearing clothes that you would eisily beable to see a prostitute wear on her daily nightly routine

Andwearing t shirts too big and pants to low is so aweful looking. I wore clothes too big when i was like 5, aren't rappers old enough to dress normally? their rapping about intercourse, which is aweful, should'nt they be old enough?

You are a bonehead.

I don't know why people are so quick to shoot down political (or even simply intelligent) rappers. Rap music is a predominately black art form and black people are the ones getting the worst out of every political and social issue. Why is everyone so apathetic? Why is it preferred to get negative about problems instead of saying something thought provoking? Props to those who have something more to say than "Shake that ass, bitch".

Intersting discussion. I just heard this new song by an independent cat with some deep lyrics and I'm curious to see how all y'all would categorize it: good music or political hip-hop? Check it out: www.SameYearDifferentNumber.com
I think it's good music even though the topic is political. Just like "The Message" is great music even the topic is very political - there are so many other examples in every genre. Can't music be both, or neither?

what are you saying, mannnn? Rappers like NWA, KRS-1, Fugees, Jurassic 5, Digable Planets, Saul Williams, Mos Def, Tribe, Common, Pharcyde(to name a few) were attempting to raise consciousness & were very/somewhat political? Even Wutang, Tupac & Biggie were socially conscious & rapped about MORE than how many girls were in their beds.

It's not all about shaking your ass. Yeah that's fun, but I'm a fairly intelligent person & when I listen to lyrics of any song, not just rap--I want to feel like I'm getting something out of the experience. I'm not going to listen to some blinged out, grilled out "rapper" talk about his rims & hoes & gold. At this point it's been overdone. I just can't relate to it and the sad thing is(not to get racial, but) the majority wants to keep you unconscious. & listening to mainstream rap will do exactly that.

There needs to be a revival of conscious rap.
peace.

The best stuff in hip-hop now is the politically, socially conscious music. Most of the mainstream stuff is moronic largesse and is polluting the collective unconscious.

This is the coolest La Cocina.

rap is still good as long as u choose the rite topic

HI, I THINK THAT HIPHOP IS THE REALIST THING. HIPHOP TALKS ABOUT THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE PAST, AND THE FUTHER. IT TALKS ABOUT WHAY IS HAPPENING NOW AND IT ALL DEPENDS WHICH ARTISTS IT COMES FROM. I MEAN THER IS A BALACNCE TO PARTYING AND WOMEN SHAKING THEIR ASSES. BUT WE DO NEED THAT KIND OF MUSIC FOR FUN. IT MAY TALK ABOUT INAPROPRIATE SUBJECTS, BUT IT'S REAL AND THATS WHAT REALLY BE GOING ON IN THAT ARTIST LIFE. SOMETIMES SHIT IS PHONEY, BUT THE PHONEY SHOT NEVER LASTS ALONG TIME. IF I COULD CHAND HIPHOP, I WOULD NOT CHANG NOTHING, BECAUSE IT IS MUSIC FROM YOUR SOUL, NO MATTER HOW BLUNT IT IS. IT IS JUST YOUR DECISION TO LISTEN TO IT OR NOT. MUSIC IS AN INFLUENCE ON PEOPLE, BUT SOMETIMES PEOPLE OR JUST STUPID THEMSELVES. I MEAN THEY TALK ABOUT GANGSTA RAP, BUT MUSIC IS AN OUTLET TO PEOPLE, SO EXCEPT IT HOW YOU WANT TO EXCEPT IT. IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T BUY IT. I LIKE THE FACT THAT HIPHOP TALKS ABOUT A LOT OF THINGS, it is diverse. it may seem that it only talks about booty's and shit, but there is so much hiohop out there. so i think people should just do them. peace!!!!!!!!!!

You can't be 74408 serious?!?

Its ironic to see people say things like political rappers unwisely sabotage their careers by forcing politics down people's throats instead of just kicking the smae old bling bling type of stuff because thats what people buy. I've read sentiments like that a couple of times on here.

Those political rappers may have pigeonholed themselves into smaller record sales, but what they say and do is real, its honorable, and it deserves respect. And its better rap. I dont think I've seen him mentioned on here, but Immortal Technique is in my opinion the best rapper alive...nobody else can hold his jock, not even "Jigga, jigga that nigga jigga". Why? Because his message is as moving as his flow and his beats, because it takes balls to stand up and "sabotoge" a million sales in order to spit from the heart and with substance instead of making a fortune selling a knockoff of 3rd grade pig latin (H to the Izzo...For Shizzle Nizzle...) and calling it art just because its got a good beat behind it and its simple enough for every dumbass to sing along to.

I think some of the mainstream stuff is good...all rap and hip hop is legitimate if its a form of personal expression. Having nice cars, rims, ice, women...thats legitimate a lot of the time because thats what a lot of rappers, especially urban rappers, strive towards.

But, its just ignorant and stupid to downgrade socially conscious hip hop just because 50 cent is going to get rich or die trying. 50 can go triple platinum while Immortal Technique is stuck underground because people are generally materialistic and narcissistic. That doesnt mean that Immortal Technique and other political rappers arent "artistic" or that political content is nonexistent in hip hop. If political content is non-existent in hip hop, its because urban consumers are too ignorant to embrace it. I find that rather ironic when you consider that those political rappers are only rappers who clearly concerned about improving the lives of thosde urban consumers who keep their art on the shelves.

Art is about awareness, saying hip hop can't or shouldn't be political puts you in the same place
as the censoreship that reduces music and any other artform today into MTV impotent crap.

Goya, Bob Dylan, Delacroix, Picasso, Charles Bukowski, Immortal technique etc.,
are all artists who had polical views and weren't afraid to express them. they planted a seed...
and man I hope seeds like that grow.
Because change does happen through art.

MTV / commercial radio / mainstream is an unadmited political view and a very bad one,
it's called being a blind consuming shallow empirialistic capitalist.

Putting REAL SUBSTANCE into art does raise it to a higher level (not $$$), in fact art without it, is not art, its either unpure and therefore garbage or brain numbing entertainment which can be fun sometimes,but lets face it the world ain't fun for everyone and someone has to say it.

Art is about awareness, saying hip hop can't or shouldn't be political puts you in the same place
as the censoreship that reduces music and any other artform today into MTV impotent crap.

Goya, Bob Dylan, Delacroix, Picasso, Charles Bukowski, Immortal technique etc.,
are all artists who had polical views and weren't afraid to express them. they planted a seed...
and man I hope seeds like that grow.
Because change does happen through art.

MTV / commercial radio / mainstream is an unadmited political view and a very bad one,
it's called being a blind consuming shallow empirialistic capitalist.

Putting REAL SUBSTANCE into art does raise it to a higher level (not $$$), in fact art without it, is not art, its either unpure and therefore garbage or brain numbing entertainment which can be fun sometimes,but lets face it the world ain't fun for everyone and someone has to say it.

The idea that some people stole the impetus of young Afro-American youth and changed their original musical form of protest, from political to "lets party" bling-bling-bang-bang-rides-(disrecpect for women)hos-etc. and urges black and latino youth to kill each other is enough to make a grown man cry.

this did not happen in a vacuum and I have no doubt that the heinous people in washington today may not have gained a such a powerful foothold if the young people had beeen more politically aware.

party rap is great for the power elite! it even puts to sleep the non-minority youth from being politically aware! what a coup for the fascists!!

The thing that I think people overlook is that Hip-hop does play a social role in black America today. Whether or not it started out or was intended to be political, it is. It is a form of social policy to teenagers and pre-teens, especially in the inner city. While some rappers will say that they only "report" what goes on, they fail to acknowledge the power and influence they HAVE on what continues to go on. For that reason, when a lot of rap goes into the violence, sex, and endless drama of dashed hope misery in the lyrics, young people listen. The fact that young people listen means that hip-hop resonates with them and therefore it must have an influence ON them to be so influential ON them. So the question remains, when will hip-hop artists stop pretending that their influence is not influence? When will hip-hop stop pretending to be passive and impotent and recognize that it is a powerful form of expression? So far all that hip-hop has created is a new upper class elite of artists that have privately (through their actions) disavowed themselves from their roots while publicly (in the lyrics) continue to rhyme about the tragedies of the inner city.

The thing that I think people overlook is that Hip-hop does play a social role in black America today. Whether or not it started out or was intended to be political, it is. It is a form of social policy to teenagers and pre-teens, especially in the inner city. While some rappers will say that they only "report" what goes on, they fail to acknowledge the power and influence they HAVE on what continues to go on. For that reason, when a lot of rap goes into the violence, sex, and endless drama of dashed hope misery in the lyrics, young people listen. The fact that young people listen means that hip-hop resonates with them and therefore it must have an influence ON them to be so influential ON them. So the question remains, when will hip-hop artists stop pretending that their influence is not influence? When will hip-hop stop pretending to be passive and impotent and recognize that it is a powerful form of expression? So far all that hip-hop has created is a new upper class elite of artists that have privately (through their actions) disavowed themselves from their roots while publicly (in the lyrics) continue to rhyme about the tragedies of the inner city.

The thing that I think people overlook is that Hip-hop does play a social role in black America today. Whether or not it started out or was intended to be political, it is. It is a form of social policy to teenagers and pre-teens, especially in the inner city. While some rappers will say that they only "report" what goes on, they fail to acknowledge the power and influence they HAVE on what continues to go on. For that reason, when a lot of rap goes into the violence, sex, and endless drama of dashed hope misery in the lyrics, young people listen. The fact that young people listen means that hip-hop resonates with them and therefore it must have an influence ON them to be so influential ON them. So the question remains, when will hip-hop artists stop pretending that their influence is not influence? When will hip-hop stop pretending to be passive and impotent and recognize that it is a powerful form of expression? So far all that hip-hop has created is a new upper class elite of artists that have privately (through their actions) disavowed themselves from their roots while publicly (in the lyrics) continue to rhyme about the tragedies of the inner city.

The media being more objective than neutral and those in authority including political leaders stating untruths, lying by omission than being truthful. Information that is kept secret should be available to the public.

Artists are taking notice, and are spreading the Consciousness through music, specifically Damir who represents more than music, 180-degrees from mainstream, an anti-commercial voice that touches on signifying issues, an approach, line of attack, serious, trivial but rather the psyche of an artist.

Sometimes you have to sit on the fence to get a clear view of the world and see what’s happening, or simply stick out in-between.

http://www.damirworld.com

Let the world in on new independent hip-hop and the realities of those in power with his new single INBETWEEN.

Song Name: In-between
Written By: Damir
Lyrics: Re-printed from the cd inner sleeve Black and White

Lyrical Excerpt from Inbetween:

Next week a massacre CNN describes
Thanks to bad news they can keep their jobs
The killer was mistaken was the top story hype
The problem never happened and the commercial gets the spot
Keep your eyes on the TV and the business make the mark
With top new stories Coke can sell their pop
Ive heard it all and its not about war
Im Tom Brokoff the stories for tonight
Ten died, car crash well be right back

DAMIR, Da means Give to give or Yes yes., and Mir means calm, peace, peacefulness, quiet, still, stillness, tranquility, tranquility, so when you put it together, DAMIR means Give Peace.

This message are intended for the distribution, display, dissemination, or copying, freely. And for the promotion of positive conscious underground indie music of America.

Hip-hop is not only "about beats and rhymes". Hip-hop is,also, not always political. Hip-hop is a muscial form of expression.Depending on who's doing the rapping (or the ghostwriting) Hip-hop is about one's self.It can be grimy and gutter and real if the person who created the music is grimy and gutter and real. Or it can be false and only made to get paid real quick (if that is the intention of the person who created it).It's that simple. If you want to talk about politics and rap about society, DO YOU!!! Or if you feel like you need to rap about slapping somebody (Ludacris just came out with a song about slappin' somebody) then YOU CAN DO THAT TOO!!! It all boils down to who you are. That is the beauty of Hip-hop. It's an ever changing music. One that grows and develops because it's about you. Now...what sells is completely different story.

Fuck Da Police is a dope hip hop song and its political. So many people can relate to that song because so many people have been harassed by cops that abuse their authority