By Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Sway Calloway
Solar
“This is one solar that needs to be eclipsed,” B. Dot went on to write. And that may be one of the kindest things said about Solar, friend and confidant of the rap legend since 2002.
Twitter’s list of trending topics includes #F—SOLAR and longtime Gang Starr musical family member Bumpy Knuckles has been posting tweets directed at Solar that we cannot reprint here. Journalists such as “The Media Assassin” Harry Allen and Miss Info have openly questioned the authenticityof statements issued by Solar on behalf of Guru. Beloved rap figures such as ?uestlove have called him a fraud and Ice-T has expressed that he intends to get to the bottom of the situation.
“All this Guru drama WILL be exposed and dealt with … say no more … , ” Ice tweeted.
Solar maintains his intentions are pure and sat down with MTV’s Sway for an extensive discussion about his relationship with Guru and all the controversy surrounding his role in Guru’s life and tragic death.
“The friendship got close fairly rapidly,” Solar said of their first meeting through a mutual friend in 2002. “I think the reason why it got close is that I wasn’t interested in a record deal. I wasn’t interested in him as Guru. Me and him just hit it off as men. I got to know him as a man, he got to know me as a man. We were both going through tricky periods in our lives. I was working with homeless children at the time. It’s a heavy problem … Guru was dealing with certain situations. We started hanging out, hitting the clubs in New York. We needed to lighten it up a little bit.
“Once that trust developed, he was able to tell me about certain things within his life and career that was leading him to feel extremely frustrated that I believe contributed to his problems with substance abuse,” Solar continued. “Anybody who knows him knows that it was a very serious situation at the time. I wasn’t judgmental. I just listened and became a friend.”
Solar said he eventually helped Guru to rid himself of weed and other substances as well as alcohol, and he had been clean and sober since 2003.
Solar came onboard to work on Guru’s last two Jazzmatazz albums and toured with him. They also started the label 7 Grand Records.
“Once 7 Grand was started, certain aspects of Gang Starr kept holding onto him and he felt that it was dragging him down or holding him from getting to where he wanted to get,” Solar explained. “It was influences around the industry that he felt was contributing to that. It was a source of frustration for him and also for myself.”
Guru maintained a consistent touring schedule around the world. According to Solar, in early 2009, he started to experience pain in his back, which he at first attributed to vigorous gym workouts. After the pain carried on for a couple of months, Guru sought medical attention, which resulted in an MRI and a cancer diagnosis.
“He was upset and distraught,” Solar added.
Guru went in for further testing and it was confirmed that he suffered from myeloma, a cancer that affects the white blood cells. He had an operation in July 2009 that was unfortunately unsuccessful.
“It wasn’t long before we realized the operation wasn’t a success — by the end of the summer we knew the cancer was spreading.” Still, Guru and Solar continued to tour around the world — Guru was able to get onstage and perform as long as he took his medicine.
However, despite the setbacks, Solar insisted Guru didn’t want to tell his family about his situation, as he was still optimistic that he could overcome the diagnosis.
“When I met Guru, his situation with his family was somewhat of an estrangement,” Solar explained. “I was an advocate of meeting his mom, meeting his dad — developing a strong, good relationship with them.”
Solar said that Guru and his parents eventually became close again and he got back in contact with his brother as well, however he still wasn’t close with his sister Trish and her children. In March, Trish’s son Justin said that Solar — who had become Guru’s medical proxy — was keeping info from the family about Guru’s condition.
“My family has no way of knowing what is going on with Guru’s situation,” Justin said via his YouTube vlog. “[Solar] also has primary control over the decisions made for Guru’s health in the hospital. Solar has complete control of the flow of information. I know that Solar has been his right-hand man, day-in and day-out for the last six years, but that does not give him the right to make decisions about whether his family is to see Guru or learn about his status. The fact that he is acting like this lets me know that he does not have Guru’s best interests in mind.”
Solar denied that he took advantage of Guru while he was in a weakened mental state.
“He doesn’t fit the profile of someone that is mentally unstable,” Solar said calmly. ” … He knew exactly what he wanted to do, not only his business but his personal life.”
He also denied rumors that he used to physically abuse Guru while he was sick.
“Me and Guru, we used to play fight,” Solar answered. “Roughhouse. Not only with him, but other members of the band. These are all accusations without Guru being here to look you in the eye and saying that’s just ridiculous. That’s just idiotic.”
Solar also denied widespread rumors that he was involved in a romantic relationship with the MC.
“That’s untrue, completely unfounded,” he said. “Guru is a family man, I’m a family man. I don’t want to say anything against anybody living a certain type of lifestyle — everybody is free to live their life how they choose to live it — but that’s not my lifestyle or Guru’s lifestyle. We’re straight men. He dealt with women and family. I dealt with women and family. There’s never been any blurring of the lines whatsoever.”
Between last summer and February 2010, Guru’s focus shifted to his health, and his condition worsened to the point where Solar had to temporarily move into Guru’s New Jersey residence to help the rap legend with daily activities.
“It was getting bad,” Solar said. “His mobility was starting to worsen. I was staying in his home with him to help him with his day to day. I did it as a brother — I looked at him as a brother. I did that to preserve his dignity, even in those times.”
Guru checked himself into the hospital at the start of the year and underwent chemotherapy, but later suffered two cardiac arrests and slipped into a coma. He died on Monday
You can peep the video of Solar and Sway right here:
Being 19/ 20 years old at the time I was fueled in an indescribable way by your work to put the mass in mass movement. These are my reflections on Prop 21 and a thanks to you.
Youth built the Prop 21 movement with tenacity and political clarity of those most affected. Memories of Prop 21 days are some of my most inspirational political memories even though it hurt bad to loose after working so hard, feeling so strong. I can only imagine if we had facebook and myspace, it woulda been even more off the rickter. Youth led walkouts, marches, speak outs, lobby visits, voter registration efforts, all bringing me to some of the lessons I took with me… Role of culture in mass mobilization Key to the Irresistibility of our Movement
The cultural work surrounding this fight was off the chain! I remember rallies that weren’t boring with hella speeches and reiterating the problem but were concerts, M.C. battles, graffiti battles. They were live! They were fun to be at, somin you wanted to bring your friends too, even the ones who be like F*that I’m just doing me. The performers were people we looked up to, represented the crowd. Songs that came out had us singing Don’t Explain while riding the 40 bus line. The posters were so fresh people kept one to put in their crib and the rest went up anywhere folks could get em. I firmly believe the role and uses of culture at this time were essential to the mass involvement as well as general positive feelings of being in movement space at that time. Underground Railroad as an organization of revolutionary artists provided an example of artists working together in an organized way that I hadn’t seen before and haven’t since, outside of Blue Magazine and Ave. Magazine in NYC those having closed shop eventually as well. I think this is a huge need that is yet to be addressed and hinders us today.
Role of coalitional work Youth Force Coalition in the F* house!
Folks working together! This made it possible to organize a mass, that felt like a mass, in a megalopolis as well as a way for everyone to be seen a valid/having a role. Macehuali (Olin at the time) rolled hella hard with the indigenous/Mexican@/chican@ youth, Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM) rolled hella hard with general young adult POCs, the Revolutionary Communist Party organized in Oakland High Schools with their Free Mumia work, 3rd World Liberation Front rolled UB Berkeley students of color deep, 3rd Eye Movement plugged in the young hood from Frisco and 3rd Eye 510 from the town (Oakland), Jewish Youth for Community Action (JYCA) plugged in the young mostly white Jewish kids from around the bay, C-Beyond plugged in a working class white and POC youth from the suburbs of the bay, Raj and Debug held down the South Bay. The School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL) provided spaces to develop our political consciousness and further develop our relationships with each other through training in our coalitional space and Sunday School sessions focused on varying international political histories. Through a collation that had one part-time staff and many many volunteers Youth Force Coalition was a collective expression of our power, hopes, determination and dreams. There was beef with-in all of this of course but I wasn’t close enough to it or political developed enough to see it’s expressions outside of particular groups stopping to attend or not attending Youth Force meetings. In the streets we were all there together and that’s what I remember most and really cared about. As young folks we were like this shit is FLY and there was LOVE between the masses of us. Thinking back I give props to my organizers for never fostering diversionary thinking in me. I was never told to hate on anybody. This is a lesson for us within its self, to fight our real enemies and foster a healthy distain for oppressors/the system not freedom fighters, even if someone acts like an asshole sometime cuz we all do.
A youth movement can’t do it alone We Are IT the BEST, the LEADERS, the SHIzNIT…basically
AIN’T NO POWER LIKE THE POWER OF THE YOUTH & THE POWER OF THE YOUTH DON’T STOP sayyyyyy whatttttt AIN’T NO POWER LIKE THE POWER OF THE YOUTH & THE POWER OF THE YOUTH DON’T STOP sayyyyyy whatttttt.. I remember chanting until I couldn’t speak for days. I remember chanting into the bullhorn getting everyone pumped, the crowd jumping up and down like we were on trampoline streets. I remember the centering of youth as the future, that youth are always the leading force in social change movements; we were trained in a way that kinda made some of us youth big head crazy, meaning we knew was the shit and that’s that. Not a difficult place to work from as a youth, in fact it felt empowering but it was too narrow a view. Too narrow as far as our role as youth, what it would take to win and helped to hold the disillusionment after we lost. This highlights the necessity to develop youth within an analysis that the youth movement while essential is part of a broader international movement for justice. This way youth see themselves as more connected to communities as a whole (here and globally), youth would have had more places of entry into other movement sectors/organizations that peeked other interests of theirs. Through a fuller analysis of a movement youth can picture themselves as eventually adults in the struggle, can think of whatever fight they are currently in as part of a progression of oppression and resistance…Too many young folks who were part of the Prop 21 movement, the experience was more off the chain than anything they imagined or had ever seen before. To have defeat at the end of it meant the man was impenetrable. That in fact we had all wasted our time. Which of course is total bullshit but ya know that’s what it is. Key to this dynamic was a lack of relationship to our elders in the struggle. If we had more spaces to dialog with elders, not 30 something’s, but OGs who were 50/60+ I think that would have strengthened our youthful understanding of Prop 21 as not static in time, not a standalone fight. The elders probably coulda helped us on some other strategic thinking as well…
CA has red state tendencies 5 Districts isn’t CA, Proof of Lesson Learned
We built fierce presence, organizing, and consciousness in the Bay Area and somewhat in Los Angeles and but we got killed throughout the rest of this mammoth state. If this was a local election we woulda won so big we’d still be cheesing. We didn’t have the analysis that was in the forefront of the tactics of the civil rights movement and the tactics the right uses, we didn’t bus ourselves/organize outside our bubble. It’s a huge bubble that took everything and then some to cover and organize but simply we lost this fight in the areas most conservative, in the areas we never door knocked, in the areas of white flight and conservative POC churches, we lost in all but 5 districts with a final tally of 62.1% Yes and 37.9% No. While that is almost half of the voting population of the state we were hurt hugely by a somewhat insular local strategy. Many of the same folks that were active for justice 10 years ago still are. And many of us remembered this lesson when we built a movement to defeat Prop. 6 in our last CA state wide elections. The deliberate work to reach the central valley though Spanish language press, our inter-faith work to reach churches and there bases throughout the state, the mailings and work with the teachers and fire fighters unions throughout the state made it possible for us to defeat the most recent throw em in jail proposition. It felt good to see our growth, to remember our legacies and to F* win that time around.
Community Is What Sustains Us
Most of all I am so appreciative of the opportunity to learn so much from and build so deeply with incredible people. As a confused, radical, energetic, mixed race, G.E.D. having, poor, butch/flat top sporting young knuckle head I was taking seriously. I was treated with respect and what I had to offer was respected. The mentorship provided by people like me yet slightly older gave me an amazing portal into what I hoped to be my future.Tony Colman, Omani Imani, Sake 1, Patty Burn, Raquel Lavina, Steve Williams, Rene Quinones, Cindy Wisner, Genevieve Negron-Gonzales, Jay Imani, Favianna Rodriguez, Van Jones, Adam Gold, Joy Enomoto, Jason Negron-Gonzales, Marisol, Anita DeAsis, Jaron Brown and Maria Poblet thank you for helping me realize my future could go beyond my block and for seeing me as a butting intellectual and community organizer. The other leaders who were under 21 at the time Jasmine Barker, Jesse Osorio, Charisse Domingo, Nancy Hernandez, Rory, Aleks Zavaleta, Pacolia, Rosi Nieves, Venus Rodriguez, red haired Katie, Tina Bartolome AND HELLA MORE OF US you made me believe in possibility and myself. In this all I think there’s a lesson. You all have seen and/or personally had to experience the joys and sorrows of my growth and failures and for the most part are still in close community to me. Our grace with one another and ability to allow each other to transform must be one of the foundations of our work. Without you, I don’t know if I’d be alive yet alone here in the field working for our liberation. Without our collective we are truly alone and we need each other, our people need us and this world very clearly needs us. Thank you for all you did and continue to do.
Ten years ago, various Bay Area youth organizations and movements found themselves coming together to fight a hideous juvenile crime bill called Prop 21. This bill among other things would charge youth as young as 14 as adults and gave the police sweeping powers including the right to detain and arrest three or more people ‘dressed in similar attire’ as a gang. It was a special time in the Bay Area and even though the bill passed in California it was defeated here in the Bay Area where most of the organizing took place..
The fight against Prop 21 was more than just walk outs and chants… It was strategy building. It was coalition building. It was connecting to other movements and struggles with obtaining Social Justice as a guiding principle. It was elders from past movements sitting down and working with young people. It was building upon and working with movements that had been sparked by freedom fighter Angela Davis and the historic Critical Resistance Conference at UC Berkeley. It was working with the movements sparked in earlier years by the Chicano Moratorium, Olin and Student Empowerment Project which were key in organizing students to fight propositions targeting immigrants like the English language only Prop 227 and the so called ‘Save Our States‘ anti-immigrant Prop 187.
The fight against Prop 21 was one that saw folks take momentum that had been sparked with organizations like the October 22 Coalition, Ella Baker Center and the then emerging Third Eye Movement around the police killings of Aaron Williams and later Sheila Detoy in which a police officer said Detoy got killed because she was ‘living a hip Hop lifestyle’ .
The Fight Against Prop 21 was one in which Hip Hop artists of various disciplines came together and the It was young people going around from corner to corner politicizing their peers. It was artists like a then unknown Goapele showing up at rallies and blessing us with inspiring songs like ‘Aint No Sunshine‘ where she flipped a Noreaga beat and told us why we needed to Fight this insidious Crime Bill. It was popular artists like Boots Riley of the Coup going around with organizers like Marcel Diallo and giving impromptu concerts on the back of flat-bed trucks in West oakland. It was artists like The Deliquents, Money B, Mystic Journeymen, Blackalicious and so many others using their clout to speak out against t the bill It was artists like Michael Franti connecting his s 9-11 Power to the Peaceful concerts which was focused on freeing Mumia and political prisoners to the Fight against Prop 21.
The Fight Against Prop 21 eventually led to the formation of our currentsyndicated Hard Knock Radio Show on KPFA which is also celebrating its 10 year anniversary. It was a huge boost to my Sunday night show Street Knowledge on commercial giant KMEL with various organizers coming on each week to lace people about the protests and events being planned around the fight.. Later that fight helped spark the Local Flava Hour that myself and DJ Sake 1 did -special shout out to Gold Toes and the Deliquents who helped flipped that for us..
There are so many stories to tell and so many people cut their teeth and became well-known around the country for their organizing. One of the more nationally known figures was former White House Green Jobs appointee Van Jones..but there were scores of people who came out and put in work.. Yesterday some of those key organizers like George Galvis, Krea Gomez, Laatefah Simon, Malachi Garza, Nancy Pili and Tony Coleman came together to share reflections and insights, mistakes made and victories won. We’ll be airing some of that conversation later today (april 22 2010) on Hard Knock Radio 94.1 FM 4Pm PST www.kpfa.org
Below are some articles and videos to gives folks a flava of what took place during a time that many out here found special…
Big Props are in order to The Bay Area’s premier Hip Hop organization Third Eye Movement. This past Thursday they were featured on NPR [National Public Radio] where they brought to light the types of methods currently being employed to engage the Hip Hop community and politics. Most notable was was when the group recently showed up with over 300 folks and shut down San Francisco’s Hilton Hotel. Folks are still talking about that incident when Third Eye came down and brought the heat when it was discovered that the hotel chain was supporting Prop 21, California’s Anti-Gang Youth Crime Prevention initiative. It was a sight to behold when all these Hip Hop headz showed up and completely surrounded the hotel. They raised their fists and began chanting in unison a customized version to the popular rhyme featured in the Sugar Hill Gang classic ‘Rapper’s Delight‘.
Hotel Motel –And The Hilton
If you start a war on youth
You ain’t gonna win!
The youth then entered the hotel lobby while still holding up raised fists and began chanting a customized version of the chorus to DMX‘s ‘Ruff Ryder’s Anthem’.
Stop! Drop! People Gonna Rise To the Top!
ooh! ooh! Prop 21’s Gotta To Go!
Stop! Drop! People Gonna Rise To the Top!
ooh ooh Prop 21’s Gotta To Go!
The end result was the Hilton coming out and clarifying their position on the Prop 21. They made it known that it was the president or chairman of the Hilton who was backing Prop 21 and not the chain itself. It was great to get that sort of response and un-blurring of the lines. That wasn’t bad for a bunch a Hip Hop headz who are just getting into politics. The other noteworthy event involved several other Bay Area Hip Hop and youth organization who co-ordinated efforts and held three simultaneous protests against PG &E [Pacific Gas and Electric]. This included San Jose’s UKAH, Concord’s C-Beyond and Third Eye. Again more then 300 folks showed up at each PG &E office demanding that they back down on their support of Prop 21. The result was a sit down meeting with PG &E management in which they came and stated that they would be neutral on the position. Because PG & E had given money to the initiative, there was a push to have them donate equal money to fight the initiative. That hasn’t happened yet.
The other victory Third Eye had was with Chevron where they got this big corporation to come out and publicly state they were neutral on Prop 21. All this is encouraging at a time when so many insist on holding a negative image of Hip Hop.The other thing that should be emphasized is that while Third Eye and these others Hip Hop organizations were out there bringing the heat noticeable absent were some of the more traditional organizations who haven’t been aggressively breaking bread with Hip Hop.
In addition to organizing these large scale protests, Third Eye has been hard at work passing out literature and literally going door to door explaining to people the provisions in Prop 21. At first the education was taking place within the High schools and various college campuses but with a month left before the March 7th election, you will no doubt see their activities and visibility increased. There is some sort of big hip Hop rally/concert activity scheduled for February 21st.
Other Hip Hoppers stirring up noise on this on the political front include Keith Knight of the social conscious Hip Hop band Marginal Prophetshttp://www.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Marginal_Prophets. In addition to throwing down on the mic..Knight has made a name for himself as a cartoonist whose work can be seen in all sorts of publications ranging from The SF Examiner Newspaper to Salt Lake City Weekly tohttp://www.salon1999.com. Recently he penned a powerful cartoon bringing attention to Prop 21. All sorts of organizations have made copies and have been passing them out. By the way folks may want to peep the group’s album ‘Twist the Knob’.
The Bay Area’s hottest act The Delinquents from East Oakland are also getting into the act. They’re in the process of making post cards that shows their picture on the front with a big Vote No on Prop 21 on the back. They have also included some facts about the proposition as well as their position on other electoral issues. In addition to their popularity, the group has a huge truck that is shrink wrapped with their picture and album cover. They’ll be using this truck promotional tool to get the word out to their folks in the hood to get out and vote as bring them up to speed on some of the politics getting ready to effect ‘The town’.
It was a weekend of intense activism here in the Bay Area as there were several successful ‘No On Prop 21‘ [Juvenile Crime Initiative] rallies that brought together clergy, elected officials and scores of Hip Hoppers. Rarely has anyone witnessed this type of activism and coming together.Things kicked off on Saturday morning with the opening of the ‘No on Prop 21’ campaign office here in Oakland [1019 Clay St in downtown Oakland]. Alameda County supervisor Keith Carson along with Congresswoman Barbara Lee secured a spacious location in downtown. Rap artists and Hip Hop organizations including, Boots of The Coup, Son of Nat Turner The 2Pac One Nation Committee, The Black Dot Collective, Underground Railroad and Third Eye Movement to name a few came out in full force.
Here they broke bread with more established community activists and elected officials like the The Mayor of Berkeley [Shirley Dean] , the former Vice Mayor of Oakland [Ignacio De La Fuente] , County supervisors [Mary King, Keith Carson], local City Council members [Larry Reid, Nancy Nadel] and a number of Ministers representing every religion from Baptists to Muslims to Jews. It was really a beautiful thing and the energy that resonated throughout was contagious.
The Ministers led people in prayer while Boots and several emcees ripped some wicked freestyles that directly dealt with the Prop 21 initiative. Everyone took time out to directly address the large audience by offering insight, possible solutions and words of encouragement. Several members who are down with the 2Pac One Nation Committee, The Black Dot Collective and Black Folks Against Prop 21, have put together a weekly political education newsletter called the ‘Daily Struggle [Makin Sure The Hood Knows What’s Crackin]‘ which they have been delivering door to door throughout the hood.
After the introductions were made and strategies imparted the large gathering grabbed pens and pads and went canvassing local neighborhoods. Everyone realizes there is a lot of work to be done getting the word out to the masses. In spite all the activism, there are still lots of people who simply do not know and need to be brought up to speed.Later that afternoon, former Black Panther chief of staff and current Oakland City Council candidateDavid Hilliard put together a large rally in West Oakland. In a move that was reminiscent of the old Panther days of the ’60s, he along with his crew gave out free lunches and brought out emcees from numerous local crews came out to perform and help get people registered.
.Lockdown 2000 Event A Success!
The highlight of the weekend was an event called Lockdown 2000. Here more than 1500 people showed up for a night of ‘cultural revelation’ which included spoken word, Hip Hop performances and dance. All the artist which include Michael Franti, Jason ‘The Kreative Dwella’, Local 1200 DJs and Amandla Poets to name just a slight few, donated their time as each one passionately brought attention to the issues at hand. Those issues were the case surrounding Mumia Abu Jamal and other political prisoners, the building of prisons as opposed to schools and Prop 21. To see all these folks from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, both young and old come together in such large numbers was incredible. Here’s a brief description from former Black Panther and activist Kiilu Nyasha. For folks who are unfamiliar with this sista she is one of the key elders in the Bay Area who early on had sat down and directly worked with a lot of the Bay Areas ‘conscious’ artists like Paris and Boots to name a few and laced them with some serious political game.
Every group and individual who performed or spoke packed a powerful political punch — and the messages were delivered with terrific artistry and pizazz. Our keynote speakers were Ida McCray Robinson of Families With A Future and Pam Africa of MOVE and The International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who brought with her from Philly her husband, Buck, and daughter, Pixie (11). There was sooo much love in that venue, such positive spiritual energy that folks walked away saying things like “amazing,” “awesome,” “the bomb!” I’m hoping Wanda Sabir will write a fuller description of the performances in her own unique style, so you can get the full flavor of the event.. All the organizers and performers/speakers volunteered their time, so we cleared well over $6000! We not only packed the place; every group imaginable was represented — from babies to teenagers, young adults and elders, Africans, Asians, Latinos, and Natives. What made it all happen, of course, was the wonderful spirit of cooperation displayed by all who helped pull it together. As one of the organizers, I can say honestly that I never got a “no” from anyone I approached for help; and lots of folks called and volunteered their assistance.
Noticeably absent from all these positive events were reporters from all of the Bay Area’s major TV and newspapers. As early as Saturday morning, I was still getting phone calls from reporters who still wanted to drudge up the drama behind the Cash Money concert violence from two weeks ago. Unfortunately, while they were diligent in covering the violence, not one of them bothered to be diligent in covering the building and coming together of Hip Hoppers who are successfully getting people politicized. There was no mentions on the radio. There were no articles in the local papers and no film clips on the 6 o’clock evening news.
What was most troubling, was the fact that calls were made directly to the weekend assignment editors of these outlets both the day of the event as well a couple of days before alerting them of these activities. The people who placed these calls were some of these high ranking elected officials who normally don’t have a problem obtaining press coverage. In fact while reporters were conspicuously absent from these rallies and events they managed to cover some of these same elected officials at other gatherings. For example, Congresswoman Barbara Lee who helped secure the ‘No On Prop 21’ campaign office spoke at the ‘No on Prop 21’ rally.
So to the average person who still religiously depends upon traditional mediums for his news and community information, there is no such thing as Prop 21. The thought of Hip Hoppers engaging in politics is still unfathomable. All he knows is that his local congresswoman was hard at work fighting for rent control and that’s it. Now, I’m not naive enough to expect anything different from the mainstream news media, but I had no idea it would be so blatant in its dismissal. Maybe its me, but I figured at a time when we have all sorts of drama surrounding Hip Hop in the form of Puffy, Jay-Z and other rap stars, seeing Hip Hop headz working alongside elected officials and the religious community would be a welcome change that one would proudly want to report.
The reason behind doing this would be to first, give props to people who are hard at work doing the ‘right’ thing and secondly, encourage and inspire a supposedly apathetic public to do the same. The big story here was that these Hip Hop artists and organizations working with elected officials is not a gimmick. It isn’t a cute stunt put together to create a photo op. It’s the real deal. It was months and even years of hard work finally manifesting itself in a new type of activism. When was the last time you went to a political rally and Hip Hoppers were equal participants? When was the last time you came across artists who were more interested in addressing the audience and expressing their views as opposed to getting wreck on the mic and using tan occasion as a disingenuous way to promote their album? I guess a multi-ethnic, intergenerational, multi-faceted gathering of people is threatening to the assignment editors of an industry that thrives on divisiveness and continuous mayhem.
Other Hip Hoppers stirring up noise on this on the political front include Keith Knight of the social conscious Hip Hop band Marginal Prophets
The SF Examiner Newspaper to Salt Lake City Weekly to
The Bay Area’s hottest act The Delinquents from East Oakland are also getting into the act. They’re in the process of making post cards that shows their picture on the front with a big Vote No on Prop 21 on the back. They have also included some facts about the proposition as well as their position on other electoral issues. In addition to their popularity, the group has a huge truck that is shrink wrapped with their picture and album cover. They’ll be using this truck promotional tool to get the word out to their folks in the hood to get out and vote as bring them up to speed on some of the politics getting ready to effect ‘The town’.
Davey D's Hip Hop Corner 