Rosa Clemente and Jared Ball addressed the topic of “The Rap on Politics” during the second annual “Is Hip-Hop History?” conference at the City College of New York’s Center for Worker Education. In each case Clemente and Ball were clear to distinguish themselves as “hip-hop radicals” in order to draw some political lines and raise serious questions about…
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According to Thomas Conner and the Washington Post, you know, that veritable clearinghouse of Black history, radical politics and cultural expression, hip-hop has finally found a place for Dr. King. The newspaper said this week that finally, after long-last, King’s “dream has a place in hip-hop” and that this has not always been the case….
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Lorraine Hansberry once cautioned against an artist seeking to ignore the specific nature of their racial categorization, history and experience. Her point was that to dismiss that particularity with the narrow, anecdotal tale of one’s own success was to damage the potential to interpret the reality of a broader community. To separate the conditions of Black people broadly…
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