Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Hip-Hop Activism Looks Back and Ahead
As we come to the end of a tumultuous political year, and look ahead to 2006, here's a good piece sizing up the state of hip-hop activism, by Maria Luisa Tucker at Alternet.

Here also is an interview with BAYLOC's Troy Nkrumah, now the National Hip-Hop Political Convention's Internal Chair. The NHHPC is gearing up for the summer of 2006, when the Convention will be held in Chicago.

One thing I wanted to pull out from Troy is this point which I think is especially resonant when we look at last year and the road ahead...:

"See, the problem with hip-hop activism is that too many people look to the artists as the political voice of hip-hop, and that is 100% wrong. Artists are artists. They are not necessarily activist. With the exception of a few, the artists that many look at as the political conscience of hip-hop, are not themselves organizers. Most are not involved with political organizations, thus they are not accountable to anyone other than themselves or their record label.

If you examine the history of political movements and their leadership in this country, you will find that the leaders are always part of something bigger. They don’t stand alone. They always have an organization behind them. You name the leader and I bet you that you cannot find one that was not part of a larger body. With hip-hop we make the mistake too often of looking at artists as leaders. We do so because they have the microphone and everyone’s attention, but that’s a major mistake since they lack the political education and organizing experience that is required of a political leader."


Point is: if we want a political movement, we need to build the one that we want, not wait for artists or celebrities.

Click here for the rest of Troy's interview.

posted by Zentronix @ 3:04 PM   1 comments

1 Comments:

At 11/18/05, 7:57 AM, Blogger Zentronix said...

We are all those people. Each of us has to step up in our own way. That's what makes a movement, not a charismatic leader.

 

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