Friday, June 7th 2013 – The 209 IndieFest is an annual Hip-Hop concert that features local artists from Modesto, Stockton, Tracy, Merced, and other places in the 209. The event was started by and has been put on by Modesto emcee Cobalt45 for the last six years. This year’s line-up included Cobalt, Nikfuq, Squalid, Jabberjawz, Jusum One, Defiant Strike Crew, M.Sea.G, Hippie Hop, Silhouette, Kreative Soulz, Sam-Sin, and many more. For the last few years, including this year, IndieFest has taken place at the Fat Cat Nightclub in Downtown Modesto. (From http://youtube.com/rhhrorg)

Check out videos from past IndieFest Shows:

From http://youtube.com/rhhrorg - On Saturday May 25, 2013 over a thousand people attended a march and protest against mega corporation Monsanto at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. This is one of many protests that took place in around 50 countries and around 400 cities against Monsanto’s many morally and some times illegal business practices. These include the creation if Agent Orange which was used by the U.S Military to kill and give birth defects  to thousands of Vietnamese, the development of growth hormones that lead to cancerous milk, top-cutting of mountains for metal mining, patenting of life forms, polluting of communities in Alabama, pushing genetically modified food onto the world’s population, as well as pouring millions of dollars into buying politicians and corrupting elections.

Special thanks to event organizer Steven Payan, and Vivi-T & QueenNandi of POOR Magazine/Po’ Poets Project for the interviews!

For more info see our previous article: http://rhhr.org/2012/05/30/10-ways-monsanto-is-trying-to-kill-you-the-planet/

For even more info on Monsanto’s evil ways watch this:

Now they’ve done it again by proclaiming that Assata Shakur, a long-time victim of Amerikkkan terrorism, Tupac’s aunt, and now a 65 year-old woman is a “terrorist.” Not only that, but she is the first woman to ever be put on the FBI list and the reward for her capture was raised from $1 million to $2 million. The words to Lowkey’s song “Terrorist” couldn’t fit any better…”they callin me a terrorist, like we don’t know who the terror is, insulting our intelligence, oh how these people judge.”

In New York the announcement sparked demonstrations and May 9th was officially declared “Hands Off Assata Shakur Day.” “We demand that the U.S. government totally rescind both its $2 million bounty and Most Wanted Terrorist designation on Assata Shakur, [aka] Joanne Chesimard, and that all efforts to secure her capture by armed bounty hunters, mercenaries and extradition tactics immediately cease,” said Black Panther Brother Shep in http://amsterdamnews.com. “We further demand that her political asylum and protection by the sovereign nation of Cuba be respected and that all U.S. law enforcement agents immediately end their own terrorism, harassment and defamation of Assata’s name, family, friends, comrades and supporters. Hands off Assata! She is innocent and she must remain free!” The crowd, chanted “Who’s the terrorist? Don’t tell no lie! The CIA and FBI,” in the Northeast corner of Harlem’s African Square (125th St. and Seventh Ave).

Common – A Song for Assata

Who is Assata Shakur?

In 1998, http://democracynow.org aired Shakur reading an open letter to Pope John Paul II during his trip to Cuba. She wrote the message after New Jersey state troopers sent the Pope a letter asking him to call for her extradition:

“I understand that the New Jersey State Police have written to you and asked you to intervene and to help facilitate my extradition back to the United States. I believe that their request is unprecedented in history. Since they have refused to make their letter to you public, although they have not hesitated to publicize their request, I am completely uninformed as to the accusations they are making against me. Why, I wonder, do I warrant such attention? What do I represent that is such a threat?

Please let me take a moment to tell you about myself. My name is Assata Shakur and I was born and raised in the United States. I am a descendant of Africans who were kidnapped and brought to the Americas as slaves. I spent my early childhood in the racist segregated South. I later moved to the northern part of the country, where I realized that Black people were equally victimized by racism and oppression.

I grew up and became a political activist, participating in student struggles, the anti-war movement, and, most of all, in the movement for the liberation of African Americans in the United States. I later joined the Black Panther Party, an organization that was targeted by the COINTELPRO program, a program that was set up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to eliminate all political opposition to the U.S. government’s policies, to destroy the Black Liberation Movement in the United States, to discredit activists and to eliminate potential leaders.

Under the COINTELPRO program, many political activists were harassed, imprisoned, murdered or otherwise neutralized. As a result of being targeted by COINTELPRO, I, like many other young people, was faced with the threat of prison, underground, exile or death. The FBI, with the help of local police agencies, systematically fed false accusations and fake news articles to the press accusing me and other activists of crimes we did not commit. Although in my case the charges were eventually dropped or I was eventually acquitted, the national and local police agencies created a situation where, based on their false accusations against me, any police officer could shoot me on sight. It was not until the Freedom of Information Act was passed in the mid-’70s that we began to see the scope of the United States government’s persecution of political activists.

At this point, I think that it is important to make one thing very clear. I have advocated and I still advocate revolutionary changes in the structure and in the principles that govern the United States. I advocate self-determination for my people and for all oppressed inside the United States. I advocate an end to capitalist exploitation, the abolition of racist policies, the eradication of sexism, and the elimination of political repression. If that is a crime, then I am totally guilty.

To make a long story short, I was captured in New Jersey in 1973, after being shot with both arms held in the air, and then shot again from the back. I was left on the ground to die and when I did not, I was taken to a local hospital where I was threatened, beaten and tortured. In 1977 I was convicted in a trial that can only be described as a legal lynching.

In 1979 I was able to escape with the aid of some of my fellow comrades. I saw this as a necessary step, not only because I was innocent of the charges against me, but because I knew that in the racist legal system in the United States I would receive no justice. I was also afraid that I would be murdered in prison. I later arrived in Cuba where I am currently living in exile as a political refugee.”

Why is this important?

From an interview by Minister of Information JR with M1 of Hip-Hop group dead prez featured at http://assatashakur.org:

JR: What is Assata Shakur’s importance to our cause?

M1: The U.S. government has again openly declared war against the poor and oppressed people of the world. Once again this declaration has come in the form of this $1 million dollar bounty, which rests on the head of not only Assata Shakur but our movement, because the most important thing about the bounty that they placed on Assata Shakur, whom they call Joanne Chesimard, is that she represents the struggle inside our community that has not died. And they know very quickly the spark could re-inflame what is going on all around our community. So it is sending a message to the future revolutionaries, don’t become … because what we know will eventually happen. We retaliate against that kind of aggression against our people by saying, “Assata Shakur is welcome here.” And that idea that “Assata is welcome here” should be adopted by every hood, every Blood, every Crip, every Latin King, every old folks home, every school and every Boy Scout club. “Assata Shakur is welcome here” is the identity that the government is not welcomed in our lives and will not be tolerated when violating our basic rights of humanity.

More from Assata’s letter:

“The New Jersey State Police and other law enforcement officials say they want to see me brought to “justice.” But I would like to know what they mean by “justice.” Is torture justice? I was kept in solitary confinement for more than two years, mostly in men’s prisons. Is that justice? My lawyers were threatened with imprisonment and imprisoned. Is that justice? I was tried by an all-white jury, without even the pretext of impartiality, and then sentenced to life in prison plus 33 years. Is that justice?

Let me emphasize that justice for me is not the issue I am addressing here; it is justice for my people that is at stake. When my people receive justice, I am sure that I will receive it, too. I know that Your Holiness will reach your own conclusions, but I feel compelled to present the circumstances surrounding the application of so-called “justice” in New Jersey. I am not the first or the last person to be victimized by the New Jersey system of “justice.” The New Jersey State Police are infamous for their racism and brutality. Many legal actions have been filed against them and just recently, in a class action legal proceeding, the New Jersey State Police were found guilty of having an, quote, “officially sanctioned, de facto policy of targeting minorities for investigation and arrest,” unquote.

Although New Jersey’s population is more than 78 percent white, more than 75 percent of the prison population is made up of Blacks and Latinos. Eighty percent of women in New Jersey prisons are women of color. There are 15 people on death row in the state and seven of them are Black. A 1987 study found that New Jersey prosecutors sought the death penalty in 50 percent of cases involving a Black defendant and a white victim, but only 28 percent of cases involving a Black defendant and a Black victim.

Unfortunately, the situation in New Jersey is not unique, but reflects the racism that permeates the entire country. The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. There are more than 1.7 million people in U.S. prisons. This number does not include the more than 500,000 people in city and county jails, nor does it include the alarming number of children in juvenile institutions. The vast majority of those behind bars are people of color and virtually all of those behind bars are poor. The result of this reality is devastating. One third of Black men between the ages of 20 and 29 are either in prison or under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system.

Prisons are big business in the United States, and the building, running, and supplying of prisons has become the fastest growing industry in the country. Factories are being moved into the prisons and prisoners are being forced to work for slave wages. This super-exploitation of human beings has meant the institutionalization of a new form of slavery. Those who cannot find work on the streets are forced to work in prison.

Not only are the prisons used as instruments of economic exploitation, they also serve as instruments of political repression. There are more than 100 political prisoners in the United States. They are African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Chicanos, Native Americans, Asians, and progressive white people who oppose the policies of the United States government. Many of those targeted by the COINTELPRO program have been in prison since the early 1970s.

Although the situation in the prisons is an indication of human rights violations inside the United States, there are other, more deadly indicators.

There are currently 3,365 people now on death row, and more than 50 percent of those awaiting death are people of color. Black people make up only 13 percent of the population, but we make up 41.01 percent of persons who have received the death penalty. The number of state assassinations has increased drastically. In 1997 alone, 71 people were executed.

A special rapporteur appointed by the United Nations organization found serious human rights violations in the United States, especially those related to the death penalty. According to his findings, people who were mentally ill were sentenced to death, people with severe mental and learning disabilities, as well as minors under 18. Serious racial bias was found on the part of judges and prosecutors. Specifically mentioned in the report was the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the only political prisoner on death row, who was sentenced to death because of his political beliefs and because of his work as a journalist, exposing police brutality in the city of Philadelphia.

I believe that some people spell God with one “O” while others spell it with two. What we call God is unimportant, as long as we do God’s work. There are those who want to see God’s wrath fall on the oppressed and not on the oppressors. I believe that the time has ended when slavery, colonialism, and oppression can be carried out in the name of religion. It was in the dungeons of prison that I felt the presence of God up close, and it has been my belief in God, and in the goodness of human beings that has helped me to survive. I am not ashamed of having been in prison, and I am certainly not ashamed of having been a political prisoner. I believe that Jesus was a political prisoner who was executed because he fought against the evils of the Roman Empire, because he fought against the greed of the money changers in the temple, because he fought against the sins and injustices of his time. As a true child of God, Jesus spoke up for the poor, for the meek, for the sick, and the oppressed. The early Christians were thrown into lions’ dens. I will try and follow the example of so many who have stood up in the face of overwhelming oppression.

I am not writing to ask you to intercede on my behalf. I ask nothing for myself. I only ask you to examine the social reality of the United States and to speak out against the human rights violations that are taking place.

On this day, the birthday of Martin Luther King, I am reminded of all those who gave their lives for freedom. Most of the people who live on this planet are still not free. I ask only that you continue to work and pray to end oppression and political repression. It is my heartfelt belief that all the people on this earth deserve justice: social justice, political justice, and economic justice. I believe it is the only way we will ever achieve peace and prosperity on this earth. I hope that you enjoy your visit to Cuba. This is not a country that is rich in material wealth, but it is a country that is rich in human wealth, spiritual wealth and moral wealth.”

Respectfully yours,

Assata Shakur

Havana, Cuba

From http://nytimes.com: “Bangladesh is the world’s second-leading garment exporter, trailing only China. Bangladesh has the lowest labor costs in the world, with the minimum wage for garment workers set at roughly $37 a month. Such low labor costs have attracted not just Walmart but almost every major global clothing company, including Sears, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger and many others. Bangladesh now has more than 5,000 garment factories, employing more than 3.2 million workers, many of them women. Labor unions are almost nonexistent, and a labor organizer, Aminul Islam, was tortured and murdered last year.”

This tragedy is just one (although one of the worst) in a long pattern of similar incidents that have occurred as a result of the unsafe, unsanitary, and all-around slave-labor working conditions that exist in Latin-American and South Asian factories.

In 2005, almost 70 workers were killed when a Bangladesh garment factory collapsed.

In November, just 5 months ago, a fire in a factory not to far from the recent building collapse killed 112 workers as they made shorts and sweaters that would be later sold at Wal-Mart and Sears.

Just this Thursday morning a ceiling collapsed in a Cambodian shoe factory killing at least two people as they sewed pairs of Asics for about $6 per day.

“The shoe and garment industry is built upon huge profits and little concern for the well-being of their workers,” spokeswoman for the Clean Clothes Campaign, Tessel Pauli, told the NY Times, “it is inherently unsafe and dangerous to work in. As long as workers are marginalized and deprived of their basic rights, the situation will not improve.”

Obviously fashion is a large part of Hip-Hop culture whether we like it or not and Hip-Hop related clothing and shoe companies, much like blood diamonds, are brought to you by major corporations making huge profits off of cheap and exploited labor. Obviously this leads to ethical and moral questions. How can the decedents of slaves and oppressed people now use slave-labor to make themselves rich? Isn’t that what Hip-Hop was supposed to be fighting against?

While some revolutionary artists have tackled this issue, a Hip-Hop group out of Canada named themselves Sweatshop Union and rhyme about the subject throughout their albums. Immortal Technique raps: “I’m from the third world…where they murder union organizers…and kids make sneakers for a quarter a day” in his song “The 3^rd World.” Public Enemy did a song about “the politics of the sneaker pimps” and you can check out the song by Jedi Mind Tricks about sweatshop labor, “Shadow Business”:

While some MCs and groups in Hip-Hop have taken up the cause of sweatshop labor and fashion, many artists have taken endorsement deals from sweatshops using companies like the Gap and Levi’s. Even the top “Hip-Hop” clothing labels also make their products using sweatshop slave-labor.

According to lrights.igc.org, “Hip-Hop” apparel-profiteers like Timberland, Karl Kani, and Perry Ellis also use sweatshop labor. In 2004, a document from China Labor Watch stated that Kingmaker Footwear Holdings Ltd, which makes Timberland boots, noted “numerous child laborers in the factory, and a work schedule that requires employees to spend 91 hours or more per week at their machines to meet production quotas.” It was estimated that Kingmaker factory workers are paid a mere 55 cents per pair of boots made while they get sold for $85 or more. Perry Ellis and Karl Kani continue to make their clothes in Myanmar (formerly Burma) even though the U.S. considers the country a military dictatorship and imposed sanctions on them. The average wages for garment workers there are around 4 cents per hour.

To be fair, fashion has always been a part of Hip-Hop culture. Adidas, Nike, and Timberland shoes, b-boy track suits, Kangol hats and baseball caps, puffy winter coats, and gold chains have been donned by Hip-Hop legends from Rakim to N.W.A. since Hip-Hop’s inception. Its naïve to think that somehow when Hip-Hop artists owned their own clothing lines that they would magically be able to not make their clothes in sweatshops and still compete with other producers. Its pretty simple math, workers in America expect to get paid at least $8-$15 per hour to make shoes that someone in Bangladesh, Cambodia, or Honduras will make for 8-15 cents. Not only hourly wages, but as we can see in these factory disasters, the cost of keeping your workplace clean, safe, and employee friendly is a price that big companies want to keep as low as possible. To try and compete with the Walmarts and Gaps of the industry without engaging in the same type of worker oppression would mean not understanding the nature of a capitalistic system (even the shirts RHHR uses to print on come from countries like Guatemala and Mexico.)

If we look at the entire story, we can see how Hip-Hop and the fashion world have traveled full-circle together, in a way:

-          First, many clothing companies like Gap and Levi’s choose to ignore “youth of color” markets in favor of the stable “middle-class white” market.

-          Then Hip-Hop culture, started by poor, urban, youth of color, creates booming new fashion trends like graffiti art, break-dancing track suits, shoes without laces, sagging pants, baggy clothes, backward hats, and more which creates millions of dollars in revenue.

-          Third, companies that missed the “Hip-Hop fashion boom” like Levi’s shut down factories in the U.S. (many of them in poor communities of color) and move them to sweatshops in places like China and Honduras and exploit the working people of color there (according to http://colorlines.com, in the 80s  Levi’s closed 58 plants, putting 10,400 people out of work. Gap did the same thing, subcontracting with 3,600 factories in 50 countries by 2001).

-          Then those same companies spend millions of dollars to hire Hip-Hop artists (including Common, Mos-Def (now Yasiin Bey), Talib Kweli, De La Soul, L.L. Cool J, Missy Elliot, Run DMC, and even DJs Shortkut and Rob Swift) to re-brand their products to appeal to the growing number Hip-Hop fans, now mainly white suburban youth.

-          Finally, now Hip-Hop artists can create their own clothing lines with great success due to the fact that they also exploit the slave labor of poor people of color in third world countries.

Clothes for Kings are apparently made by 19-year-old Sweatshop Workers

As many may remember, in 2003 the National Labor Committee (NLC), which keeps tabs on the working conditions in the third world, said that a factory making clothes for P. Diddy’s “Sean John” and Jay-Z’s “Rocawear” in Cholma, Honduras violated basic human and workers rights.

From nytimes.com: “According to Charles Kernaghan, Director of NLC, most urban consumers would be appalled if they knew of the horrendous conditions garment workers were forced to endure inside sweatshops to make hip-hop apparel…20 workers who attempted to form a union said they were immediately fired, and subsequently smuggled Rocawear and Sean John labels out of the sweatshop as evidence. A year and a half later, however, Rocawear still refuses to comment on the story while Sean John claims no responsibility for the working conditions inside of factories.”

According to http://lrights.igc.org, a 19-year-old Honduran apparel worker, Lydda Eli Gonzalez, said the factory’s managers yelled and cursed at workers, forced them to work unpaid overtime and fired employees for being pregnant. Ms. Gonzalez traveled to New York from Honduras to ask ”Diddy” to pressure the factory’s owner to treat the workers better. ”My purpose is to represent all the sewing machine operators in Honduras and to put an end to the humiliation and labor violations,” Ms. Gonzalez said. ”Sean Combs is a man with great power and influence, and we think he should help us and help end these violations.”

One positive reaction to come out of the Sean Jean/Honduras situation was from Reggaeton superstar Tego Calderón who turned down Diddy’s

19-year-old Honduran apparel worker, Lydda Eli Gonzalez

offer to model for and endorse Sean Jean’s spring collection by appearing in commercials as well as a Times Square billboard due to the Latin-American sweatshop revelations…and other underground MCs are felling the same way.

“For me, I find it so ironic that Levi’s, of all companies, is going to try to make a profit off of hip-hop culture, on top of that Latin hip-hop culture, when there’s so many people here they exploit so much, and the companies do their best to keep that out of the media.” Jason Morteo, a 17-year-old Chicano lyricist, beat junkie, and grafitti writer from San Antonio told colorlines.com after Levi Strauss closed a factory in SA, laid-off more than thousand workers, and then moved the jobs to Costa Rica. Esperanza Garza, an organizer with Fuerza Unida, also in San Antonio, told colorlines.com that she “hit the roof” when she saw Levi’s Super Bowl commercial: a young Latino, wearing Levi’s and a tank top,  break-dancing down the street in Mexico City, listening to  Hip-Hop group Control Machete.

Tego Calderon

“They are trying to sell to us now. We are the new market. They can’t fool us. We know who they are,” Garza said. While the company courts black and brown youth, it continues to exploit their parents here and abroad.” “It’s disappointing as a hip-hop artist, and as a Latin American, that I know something so wrong is done to my people, but people are starting to go out and buy these clothes,” Morteo said, “people are so deceived, they don’t know the full truth about what this company has done.”

To end on a positive note, lrights.igc.org highlighted a couple Hip-Hop clothing labels, like No Sweat, a clothing line from Maine, which sells union made non-sweatshop clothing from Kenya, South Africa, and Canada. No Sweat’s owner, Adam Neumann stated that Hip-Hop luminaries like Dead Prez and Tego Calderón were at the top of his list for potential spokespersons.

This is what happened recently when Florida Congressman/Cuban-American/self-ascribed Hip-Hop head/Republican Party savior Marco Rubio called out Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce for visiting Cuba with permission from the Treasury Department, which is allowed if the visit is for person-to-person interaction with the purpose of humanitarian aid. Rubio insisted that the Carters’ visit was simply a “tourist trip” and “what they’re doing is providing hard currency and funding so that a tyrannical regime can maintain its grip on the island of Cuba.” Rubio added that “if Jay-Z was truly interested in the true state of affairs in Cuba, he would have met people that are being oppressed, including a hip-hop artist in Cuba who is right now being oppressed and persecuted and is undergoing a hunger strike because of his political lyrics,” referring to rapper Angel Yunier Remon Arzuaga aka El Critico de Arte who has been in prison since March.

Jay-Z’s response to Marco Rubio, featuring Common:

Rubio probably should have stopped there; after all, he did make a good point. Hip-Hop artists should mingle among the poor and oppressed people when they visit other countries. He could have at least gone to visit Black Panther, political exile, and aunt of 2Pac, Assata Shakur like Common did on his trip to Cuba. Unfortunately Rubio didn’t quit there and went on to say “Jay-Z needs to get informed. One of his heroes is Che Guevara. Che Guevara was a racist…that wrote extensively about the superiority of white Europeans over people of African descent.” While it’s true that a young Che, upon meeting African people for the first time, wrote some not so flattering observations about them in his private diary, but describing the writings as extensive is at least misleading and deceptive.

What Che wrote was “the black is indolent and a dreamer; spending his meager wage on frivolity or drink; the European has a tradition of work and saving, which has pursued him as far as this corner of America and drives him to advance himself, even independently of his own individual aspirations.” Hardly extensive. Also, what someone might find upon further research on Guevara is that he did eventually write extensively on the oppressive nature of capitalism, classism, and racism, including the racism being carried out at the time in the United States. Not only did Che write about fighting for liberation and self-determination among all people, he actually fought and died for those struggles, sometimes side-by-side with Afro-Latino comrades.

There are some basic points to be mentioned about this situation:

On the same team: Marco Rubio and Mitt Romney

* Right wingers and others like to take the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” approach, meaning when they hate Dictators like Fidel Castro, anybody else who hates him gets propped up as a freedom–fighting hero for democracy (we’re talking about the government that trained and supplied Osama bin Laden to fight the Russians). There could be rappers imprisoned for their thoughts and lyrics in Saudi Arabia and China, but most right-wingers wouldn’t care to mention it if it doesn’t advance there cause of spreading capitalism all over the world. Just as Saddam became the most dangerous man in the world when the US decided it was time to take control of Iraq’s oil production.

* The argument about Cuba can go on forever. Some will say they are an oppressive violent regime, others say the only evidence of human rights violations in Cuba is perpetrated by the US military at Guantanamo Bay. Some will say they treat dissenters cruelly, don’t allow free speech or independent media, then others say that this is due to the US spending billions to embargo, spy-on, and otherwise attempt to disrupt ad overthrow the Castro government in every way.

Jay-Z performs with The Roots and Che Guevara

* There is a long history of oppression and violence in Cuba, and most of it was carried out by the United States. The US supported Batista who killed and oppressed Cubans which lead to Castro’s revolution being a success. The US held and exploited much of the Cuba’s land for its own economic gain. The CIA attempted to invade Cuba, kill members of its military and government, and take it over for its own interests (much like what they did in Hawaii). The US has attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro at least a dozen times. The US gave safe-haven to an anti-Castro terrorist who bombed a Cuban airliner.

Talib Kweli summed it up pretty well in a recent interview: “One, we should always know which side of the fence the GOP, and anyone who claims to be Republican, is. Republicanism as an ideal is about conservative and small government, but in reality it’s a racist reaction to the Democratic policies of 1964. Once you identify yourself as a Republican, you identify yourself as an enemy of people. That’s not to say Democrats are the greatest. Democrats can be just as bad, but once you say you’re Republican I already know what you’re about. So anything that comes out a Republican’s mouth you gotta look at where the intention is. Corporate interests are against Cuba. Cuba was a government that stood up to the United States and decided they were gonna be masters of their own fate. All those people Marco Rubio’s talking about, how did they get so poor? From Batista and his government’s connection with governments like the United States. Say what you want about [Fidel] Castro and Che Guevara, they revolted and gave Cuba back to the people. Is it perfect? No, but does the United States’ embargo and sanctions against them help make it more perfect? No, it doesn’t. It helps to make it worse. As far as Jay-Z, he’s a grown ass man and he’s a free citizen and he can do whatever the hell he wants to do. I’ve been to Cuba with Black August. Our goal there was to connect with Cuban Hip-Hop artists, and that’s what we did. You can watch the documentary about it on YouTube. But, did I also go on the beach, have fun, and smoke in Havana? Hell yeah, I did. Why wouldn’t I? Now maybe Jay-Z is playing up that image too much, but that’s what he do. He invented “swag.” He said it on the song.” Full interview at: http://allhiphop.com/2013/04/19/exclusive-talib-kweli-talks-jay-z-rick-ross-controversies-brooklyns-hip-hop-renaissance-and-new-music/

Although the Jay-Rubio beef led to some good debate, it is not a new phenomenon by far, for rapper and politicians to go at each other directly. During Jesse Jackson’s 1984 run for President, Melle Mel from the Furious Five, called out Reagan: “See Ronald Reagan speaking on TV, smiling like everything’s fine and dandy/Sounded real good when he tried to give a pep talk to over 30 million poor people like me/How can we say we got to stick it out when his belly is full and his future is sunny?/I don’t need his jive advice but I sure do need his jive time money/The dream is a nightmare in disguise.”

In 1988 2 Live Crew’s Luke released a song on his record label by artist Anquette called “Janet Reno” that dissed Miami-area Republican District Attorney Jack Thompson, resulting in Thompson making it his personal mission to prosecute the group for obscenity and, in Thompson’s words “put 2 Live Crew’s career back into the toilet where it began.”

It’s not just Republicans either, in 1992 Democrat poster-boy Bill Clinton chided female-MC Sister Souljah, calling her racist and comparing her to white-supremacist David Duke for her comments on black-on-white violence during the ’92 LA Rebellion, basically saying it was smarter than black-on-black violence which occurs everyday.

More recent and memorable moments include the controversies over songs like “Cop Killer” by Ice-T’s rock group Body Count and N.W.A.’s “Fuck the Police” where everybody from the local cops, the FBI, all the way up to VP Dan Quayle and President George H.W. Bush had something to say about the scourge of “gangsta rap.” Who can forget 2Pac’s war of words with C. Delores Tucker and others (“you a mothafucka, instead of help a nigga you destroy your brothers, worse than the others, Bill Clinton, Mr. Bob Dole, you’re too old to understand the way the game go, you lame so…”). Not to mention that dozens of rappers from Chuck-D to Kendrick Lamar have taken lyrical shots at Hip-Hop’s favorite ex-Pres, Ronald Reagan.

In fact, since Reagan, no one politician has been a bigger target for rappers than George W. Bush was during his time in office. Countless rappers have made hundreds if not thousands of references to Bush, Cheney, and the rest of their “neo-con” crew. Of course everybody remembers the infamous “George Bush doesn’t care bout Black people” remark by Kanye West on national TV.

There was Ludacris vs. Bill O’Reilly then Common vs. Bill O’Reilly, then Nas vs. Bill O’Reilly and all of Fox News (the song “Sly Fox” is dope!) Not as much venom has been spit at Obama, some might say he’s been talked about the most positively out any other head of state. KRS-One once stated the line “I want all my daughters to be like Maxine Waters” and both Biz Markie and Wu-Tang have shown love for underdog Presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm. Chicago native Common mentioned Obama in the song “Why?” while Obama was still a State Senator. Other rappers like Nas, Young Jeezy, Questlove of The Roots,  and Bossman have made pro-Obama references in their music (Bossman’s song is called “Fuck McCain”).

On the other had Hip-Hop has remained true to the streets and have called out Obama for his continued support of Israel while they carpet bomb Palestine, not closing the illegal prison in Guantanamo Bay and his ongoing missions of drone-strikes that have killed hundreds of civilians, including many children in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Libya, and other countries. These include Lupa Fiasco’s line “Gaza Strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit, that’s why I ain’t vote for him, next one either” which was soon after sampled for the hook of a new song by M1  (dead prez) and the Iraqi/British-MC Lowkey called ObamaNation with lines like “I don’t believe a word that you say, cuz my mind stays open like Guantanamo Bay.”

Hopefully Hip-Hop continues its tradition of calling out politicians and others who make it their daily occupation to continue the oppression of the rest of us. It makes for more interesting debate than, say, 50 vs. Ja.

New RHHR stickers!

NEW SHIRT DESIGN NOW AVAILABLE!!!

Inspired by groups such as Public Enemy, dead prez, and The Coup, artists like 2Pac, Mos-Def (now Yasiin Bey), Paris, and Immortal Technique, journalists and writers like Davey-D and Michael Eric Dyson, books like Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, and documentaries like Letter to the President, a group of Hip-Hop heads in Modesto tried, in their own way, to carry on the tradition of raising awareness for social justice issues through Hip-Hop music and culture. This April marks four years since the group put out a free, 24-page, black and white “zine” called The Revolutionary Hip-Hop Report (RHHR). Although we took the last few months of 2012 off to regroup and revamp, since 2013 kicked off we’ve been on the grind to get RHHR back up and running faster than before. Here’s some new additions and changes already underway or coming in the immediate future:

-          Newly re-designed (but still getting improved) RHHR.ORG web-site

-          New RHHR t-shirts and stickers

-          New address: PO Box 1891 Modesto, CA 95353

-          Newly re-formatted (and much shorter) RHHR newsletter coming out next week

-          DJ service specializing in revolutionary, conscious, and underground Hip-Hop

-         Hip-Hop music and cultural events and annual festival

-          Partnership with Valley Improvement Projects (VIP) to open a new social center this Summer near downtown Modesto which will hold events, workshops, and engage in community/youth outreach

Please visit RHHR.ORG, read some informative info, leave a comment, subscribe, give a donation (we got PayPal now!), get a shirt, hire us to DJ your event, tell a friend about us, and look out for the updates on the VIP social center coming soon! …and of course and big THANK YOU to everybody who has supported and worked with us over the last 4 years!

This panel discussion featured artists/activists Boots Riley (The Coup), M1 (dead prez), Aisha Fukushima (Raptivism), Jasiri X, StaHHr, Jahi, Mark Gonzales, and was moderated by Davey-D at the African American Art & Culture Complex in SF. The panelists, each long-term veterans of not only Hip-Hop arts and culture, but also in their own ways, of activism, community organizing, youth outreach and education. Their discussion lasted for over two hours and touched on the issues of: defining “hip-hop activism,” school closures, home-schooling and education in general, representation of people of color in the corporate media, and most importantly imagining and creating alternatives to the current power structure through Hip-Hop, but also direct action in solidarity with the youth, incarcerated, and other marginalized members of our communities.

In addition to other guest speakers who discussed organizations in the Bay Area doing Hip-Hop activism and working against the prison industrial complex, the event also included an exhibition from the Black History 101 Mobile Museum with included a variety of Hip-Hop “artifacts” such as vinyl records, movie posters, magazines, a Public Enemy jersey, and even action figures of Master P, 2Pac, and Biggie Smalls.

Sellassie, M1, RHHR, Davey-D, & Jasiri X

M1(dead prez), StaHHr, & Davey-D

United Playaz, Aisha Fukushima, M1, Uncle Bobby (Oscar Grant’s uncle), & Jasiri X

Among the Chavistas, supporting Nicolas Maduro, artwork paying respects to the late-president have been popping up all over since his death in early March. In the numerous slums across Venezuela where Chavez’s popularity was at its highest, phrases like “Long Live Chavez” and “We are all Chavez” can be seen spray-painted alongside images of the leader and the country’s flag and colors. Jose Rafael Hernandez is part of only one of the dozens of graffiti crews putting in work around their city. “This is how we keep Chavez alive,” Jorge Luis Gonzales, a state bank accountant overseeing Hernandez’s crew, told the Associated Press. “The opposition has their own graffitists, and we have ours.” Reynaldo Rodriguez, who is part of Gonzalez’s Graff crew, also told AP that they had received paint and other materials directly from an army colonel, technically a violation of rules banning the military from engaging in politics.

On the other side of the debate, supporters of the opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, have used the same method. In the neighborhoods of East Caracas, traditionally anti-Chavez, graffiti murals with messages like “Something Different!” can be spotted next to portraits of a young Capriles. Elections will be held on the 14^th of April.

Not all countries are open to the idea however, in war-torn Iraq’s latest round of elections, graffiti was banned from being used, as well as all posting on city walls.

In the United States task forces of cops have been set-up to bust graff artists in the act and by using social media to match handwriting and lettering styles, sometimes falsely accusing one artist being several others (see the RHHR article by Modesto Anarcho http://rhhr.org/2012/05/30/have-a-sticker-go-to-jail/). In Modesto, CA (home of RHHR’s HQs) signs encourage citizens to call 911 to report graffiti in process, jamming up the lines for people who may be having an actual emergency. 

In other countries around the globe the views, opinions, and policies on graffiti vary greatly. In most cases the art-form is still looked down upon when done so “illegally” on “private property” but on the other end of the spectrum business and other organizations are quick to jump on the graff bandwagon after realizing, like the rest of Hip-Hop culture, its huge popularity and potential to sell products for corporations or becoming appealing to a youth consumer market. Even churches, like the one in Barcelona, Spain, have hired local graffiti artists to re-design a section of the churches ceiling right above the altar. Was the church’s decision due to a genuine respect for the Hip-Hop art, or new public relations effort from a dying industry (religion) to bring younger members into their organization, which in turn, brings more money to the organization?

More important to the tradition of non-commissioned graffiti pieces with political messages is a crew coming out of Kenya. Referring to themselves as “the vulture artists” this group of artists, photographers, and activists have made it their mission to cover their neighborhoods with graffiti pieces that depict, Africa’s (and especially Kenya’s) politicians as vultures, “we tried many other animals like the hyena but the closest animal that describes a Kenyan politician is the vulture,” said group member Boniface Mwangi to CNN in 2012, “they prey on the weak.”

Mwangi met other talented graffiti writers while in Nairobi while they were painting murals of Michael Jackson and 2Pac. Since moving on to creating more political messages to affect change the group has been routinely harassed by police and, according to Mwangi, a senior politician even tried to buy them off, but they don’t officially endorse any political group, Mwangi insists, “everyone is fair game.”

Mwangi: “I believe in the power of visual art and so photography was my tool but it can only do so much. But in graffiti there is enough space to play around with images and words and pictures that don’t exist.”

“The violent actions taken yesterday are an attack on young people, artists, and Hip Hop culture,” stated RodStarz, member of the Hip-Hop group Rebel Diaz and co-founder of RDACBX. “In a time where budget cuts, stop-and-frisk, and gentrification are affecting our communities, it’s a shame we are being treated like criminals. There is no justification for this eviction.”

The eviction comes after developer Marc Pagostin of Austin Property Corp. expressed objection to graffiti murals that had been placed on the outside of the building and attempted to raise the rent on RCACBX from $1,400 to $2,400. Suspecting the increase was fueled by discrimination and meant to rid the building of the center and further gentrify the neighborhood, RDACBX and other community members rallied to raise awareness and gain support for their cause. After six months of attempting to negotiate a reasonable solution that would allow the space to stay open, local police and feds were sent in to send a message.

Immediately upon their entry into RDACBX law enforcement displayed aggressive and vindictive behavior. DJ Illanoiz, a member of Rebel Diaz, was the only person at the center at the time and was greeted with shouts of “you have 5 minutes to get the fuck out!” before law enforcement quickly took artwork, supplies, sound equipment, and furniture and through it in the trash. Many have described the raid as violent revenge from cops who simply don’t like Rebel Diaz and their work. “They came in with armed officers into what is supposed to be a safe space for the community,” said Karen Louvier, a RDACBX member.

As followers of Rebel Diaz know, their revolutionary messages and methods have not been appreciated by the police. In 2008, while CopWatching the harassment of street vendors in the Bronx, RodStarz and fellow member of the Hip-Hop trio, G1, were brutalized and arrested. Days later plain clothes officers burst into the apartment of G1, pointing guns at him and his roommates and demanding to know their identities. “The questions as to why several armed police officers mysteriously and violently invaded my home without any clear legal justification remain unanswered,” stated G1. “One is left only to think that the occurrences of this morning are not a coincidence of mistaken identity, but a direct response by the NYPD to an incident of police brutality I was involved in last week in the South Bronx.” Since then local and federal agencies have surely been keeping an eye on the group’s activities involving police brutality, social justice, economic equality, immigration, and the ‘Occupy’ movement.

At a time when budget cut-backs are having the largest impact on our youth, communities of color, and the poor, places like RDACBX should be encouraged, allowed to grow, and spread all over the country. Instead, as we have seen at South Central Farms and numerous other occupations, the money of one property owner will always be given priority over the needs and desires of the masses. Remember that just because you see and hear Hip-Hop music and culture all over TV, in magazines, the internet, and radio, it doesn’t mean that it won’t be shut down in a moment’s notice when it poses a threat to dominating power structures. When Hip-Hop promotes capitalism, sexism, materialism, ignorance, and glorifies violence it is allowed into the mainstream to sell products and keep a new generation distracted and uninformed, but when Hip-Hop is used to bring awareness, unify the poor, and empower the masses to fight back it gets torn down, thrown in the trash and told it has 5 minutes to get the fuck out.

Despite this latest blow from the oppressive state and its goons, Rebel Diaz and volunteers at the center have vowed to continue their work in the South Bronx and around the country. The day following the eviction over a hundred community members attended a rally to support RDACBX where RodStarz summed up the situation very well: “RDACBX was a space that young people came to for after-school programming, workshops and summer youth employment, in a borough where the most common after-school activity for young people is being stopped and frisked!”

For more info, visit http://rdacbx.org

In Spring of 2012 RHHR featured an interview done by some of our comrades in Sacramento (see full interview at (http://rhhr.org/2012/02/25/rebel-diaz-music-for-the-99/) where they were asked about their, then, newly-opened space.