I attended a lecture last night by hip-hop historian Kevin Powell... thoughts...

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

First of all... is it just me, or is this the same guy who was in Real World 1.  I didn't want to bring it up, because I think he's trying to get away from that image.

..................

The theme of his lecture was that you shouldn't be aloud to critisize hip-hop unless you have participated in some aspect of the culture.  He began detailing how he grew up in the Bronx when when hip-hop was born, how the political situations at the time, related to the new form of music that was being created.  He talked about getting off from college on the weekends and takin buses with his friends to go to the most banging parties that were being thrown by a guy named Puffy.  He talked about Russel Simmons passing out flyers promoting Kurtis Blow.  He talked about NWA puttin Compton on the map and how no matter where you were from in the world if you were into hip-hop you knew about Compton.  He mentioned how Ice Cube, Puffy, Russel Simmons have made it cool for black people to be euntreprenuers, and how he feels that hip-hop is responsible for that.  Etc., Etc., Etc.

He said that there didn't used to be any such thing as "conscious" rap or "party" rap, or "political" rap... that it all used to just be hip-hop.  But then Dre came along and made one of the greatest records of all time, "The Chronic" and ever since then rappers have stayed away from politics, at the encouragement of white record execs.

Then he used hip-hop as a lead in to talk about other prevelant issue's concerning black people, such as classism, black unity, spirituality, comunity activism, prison rehabilitation, anti-war movement, etc., etc., etc.

.......  Then he opened up the forum for questions.  There were a couple of black nationalists in the audience who tried to turn the discussion up a notch, but the women who were conducting the lecture, shut them out before they could really get going.  These cats were dreaded up sportin red, black, and green, looked like Rastafarians, here is how the exchange went...

Black Nationalist:  "What are your plans for uniting black people, you speak alot about the individual goals for black people, but what about the community, No race has ever looked out for Africa and black people, so when are we finally going to start looking out for ourselves the way they look out for themselves"...

Kevin Powell:  "Who's They?"

Black Nationalist:  "The Enemy"

Kevin Powell:  "Who's The Enemy?"

Black Nationalist:  "The White Man"

Kevin Powell:  "Brother, I've been there done that, I used to cover up my white walls from top to bottom, I didn't want to see anything white, I used to be in the Nation of Islam, I used to be a 5 percenter, I used to think white bread was bad-----

Black Nationalist:  "White bread is bad, and so is white flower, and white rice!"

Kevin Powell:  "But this attitude isn't going to move us forward, because then we become just as bad as the people who oppress us, I talk to prisoners, I've lived in Harlem------------

Black Nationalist:  "I'm from Harlem, I am Harlem, and I'm telling you there ain't nothing black about Harlem, Harlem is owned by the white man."

Kevin Powell:  "But hating the white man doesn't get us anywhere, we need programs that attack the problems that burden our communities, we need aids awareness programs, we had a condom-------------

Black Nationalist:  "They need to get rid of condoms, that's what they need--------

Crowd erupts, angry black women start kicking black nationalists from audotorium.....On the way out, he cries out....

Black Nationalist:  "The White man is trying to commit genocide on us, we need to get rid of condoms and procreate!"



..........that's about where the night ended.  It started one place and ended up in another place.  It was a good lecture, I'm glad I didn't miss it.

[Kal EL]

Kevin has made some excellent points in the past on Hip Hop and current Black Culture. Sounds like it was cool.

[Shallow]

Black Nationalist:  "What are your plans for uniting black people, you speak alot about the individual goals for black people, but what about the community, No race has ever looked out for Africa and black people, so when are we finally going to start looking out for ourselves the way they look out for themselves"...

Kevin Powell:  "Who's They?"

Black Nationalist:  "The Enemy"

Kevin Powell:  "Who's The Enemy?"

Black Nationalist:  "The White Man"

I love how ignorant blacks (key word ingnorant, not black) think that whites look out for each other. I think there's a whole bunch of people in trailor parks all over America that beg to differ. There's a whole bunch more in Bosnia. Ask Poland how much looking out has come thier way over the past century. All I have to do is take a walk down town and look at the homeless people and see how 90% of them are white, and I get a good idea of what it looks like to have people "looking out" for you.

[Jakubs]

I don't know about anyone else, but whether you're white or black, we all have enough problems in our daily lives. I know I'm not taking time out of my day to try and ruin someone else's life. I'm not here to save anything, but I figure the least I can do is go about my business and be a productive member of society.

[Don Jacob]

Black Nationalist:  "What are your plans for uniting black people, you speak alot about the individual goals for black people, but what about the community, No race has ever looked out for Africa and black people, so when are we finally going to start looking out for ourselves the way they look out for themselves"...

Kevin Powell:  "Who's They?"

Black Nationalist:  "The Enemy"

Kevin Powell:  "Who's The Enemy?"

Black Nationalist:  "The White Man"

I love how ignorant blacks (key word ingnorant, not black) think that whites look out for each other. I think there's a whole bunch of people in trailor parks all over America that beg to differ. There's a whole bunch more in Bosnia. Ask Poland how much looking out has come thier way over the past century. All I have to do is take a walk down town and look at the homeless people and see how 90% of them are white, and I get a good idea of what it looks like to have people "looking out" for you.

no you know what i love is when ignorantblacks try to say that they are incapable of being racist since they're ""oppressed"" but go on to say that they refuse to eat white bread and rice .....