Hip-Hop Fridays:
Contradiction In The Hip Hop Vote (Continued)

The children of hip-hop bore names like Jamila, Khalil, Tunde, Kenyatta, Knowledge, Wisdom and Olufemi. We were outcasts in a newly formed world forged from our parent's blood and sweat, yet there were very little room for us to be. We were stuck to deal with being post-political stress disorder babies, in a new "me generation."

We began to see how integration was a trick bag that led to the drastic decrease of black and brown-owned businesses. We saw and felt the residuals of co-opted organizations that gradually became entities in history books that allowed some of our stories to be told. We witnessed our own leaders fall to greed, thus paving the way for more self-destruction.
Hip-hop became our voice. It was and is a medium that speaks of this disjointed world from undiluted eyes, which is our soul. However, hip-hop remained pure by being soulful and sincere to reality.

Our spirit made every youth and young adult in the world take notice, eventually taking in our essence and becoming possessed by our messages.
We unconsciously operated as the messengers of ancestors and spirits long forgotten. They speak through us.

Not through a vote, and definitely not through an elected official. Today this idea still is pervasive in the minds of those involved or evolving in hip-hop, be it they've been immersed in the life since the 70s or just heard a Nas CD for the first time this morning.

Regardless if a handful of mcees, producers, deejays, or designers gained relative economic success, hip-hop is still not "the American Way." And frankly hip-hop doesn't see or want to be seen in that light. Hip-hop speaks change of the "American way," so the current voting process and political system does not represent hip-hop, nor is it attractive to the whole community.

All these elected officials and organizational big wigs can't even begin to understand the complexities of the hip-hop population. It is so multifaceted nowadays that everybody doesn't hail to Russell Simmons, Afrika Bambaataa or Dr. Dre. And because hip-hop has been skewed from so many angles, most in the generations coming up couldn't even fathom the remarkable devastation and loss hip-hop felt upon the murder of Run DMC's deejay, Jam Master Jay.

Point in case, I asked many of my students at a black and Latino high school in Los Angeles about their feelings on the death of the record-breaking artist. Majority couldn't even tell me one of Run DMC's songs or the group's profound contributions.

Furthermore, they thought that a current song from artist Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot entitled, "Work It" was an original, when some of the beats are actually a Run DMC classic!

Nevertheless, let this be put on the table right now, many entirely immersed in hip-hop also know the issues of America from a personal, political, social, economical, cultural and educational point of view. Quite a few have strong, potentially effective solutions to curve this country's ills.

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