Photo Credit: www.hip-hopvibe.com
This past Saturday, a major hip-hop happening took
place.
No, I’m not referring to the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival
in New York City or the Total Slaughter Pay-Per-View
battle event. I’m referring to ‘The State of Hip-Hop’
event hosted by Public Enemy’s Chuck D held at the
Muhammad Mosque No.7 in Harlem, New York. In
reading that sentence, you may sit back and say,
‘wait, that went down?’ Yes, it did. But if you didn’t
hear about it, it wasn’t for lack of effort on the behalf
of Chuck D who mentioned it repeatedly via his Twitter
account in the past month. Especially in light of the
media frenzy caused when Rosenberg of HOT97 basically
disrespected Chuck D by calling him a ‘troll’ after Mr.
Chuck slammed the radio station for what took place
at their Summer Jam concert in East Rutherford, New
Jersey. Yet with all of that and a subsequent apology
by Rosenberg a MONTH later, this event didn’t get
much coverage save for a site or two and numerous
retweets spreading the word. Why?
The answer can be found in the complacency of the
masses. Yes, complacency. Because while people have
been taking note of Chuck D, Dame Dash and Lord
Jamar of Brand Nubian attacking the state of what can
be considered contemporary rap these days, it doesn’t
seem to inspire others to add their voices to theirs.
To put it plainly, no one wants to minimize their paper
or potential for getting it according to the terms of the
industry and its corporate handlers. Look at what
Rosenberg actually said in his initial response to Chuck
D’s criticism and you are going to hear and recognize
that it may be the words of someone you know well
trying to rationalize why they bought music from a
crapulent rapper. Or why they will co-sign someone
who is unapologetically garbage in order to look cool
or advance their ‘brand’. It may even be you. Bottom
line, what Rosenberg said should NEVER have been
said. But this is how complacency about a pressing
issue affecting the culture allows for that to take place.
And its been on the rise since the late 1990’s.
Photo Credit: www.delux-mag.com
The most important thing to take away from this
recent situation is that we still need voices like that
of Chuck D and others to display our concern and
outrage. And we need MORE voices to add to theirs.
Because as much as we can applaud Dame Dash for
going at Lyor Cohen, his concerns can easily be brushed
aside with arguments of ‘well you made money with
this dude, what’s your problem now?’ People can and
probably will claim that there is a hypocrisy to his
actions. That’s usually the first step in attempts at
isolating voices in opposition. Even now, Chuck D is
coming under attack for speaking out about a viral
post of Iggy Azalea that was manipulated to show her
using the N-word. He stated implicitly that he was
critical of the usage of the word, yet it was painted
as a ‘broad swipe’. Folks have brought up how he
sued The Notorious B.I.G. for using his voice in ‘Ten
Crack Commandments’ and how that was settled.
There was nothing hypocritical about that suit then
or now because Chuck D’s intent was to speak out
about his voice being used in a song promoting drug
selling. We may not always agree across all lines with
those who speak out on our behalf. The same could
be said for the Civil Rights Era in this nation. A unified
front doesn’t have to think or act alike.
There are a couple of links between the three events
to take note of however. The first being that Rosenberg
and Ebro were heavily involved in Total Slaughter, which
by all accounts got mixed reactions due to a couple of
lackluster performances and techinical issues that halted
paying customers to see the event via the website or
the app. The battle rap contest pitting battling MCs and
more established MCs deserved better and could improve
next time. The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, in its 10th
year however had enigmatic MC Jay Electronica, who was
one of the more vocal supporters of Chuck D during the
Rosenberg brouhaha begin his set by saying ‘I am hip-hop’
and performing part of the set in Fruit of Islam garb. This
is a symbolic bit of solidarity that speaks heavily. One
can only hope that people don’t let this recent situation
(which took place during Black Music Month of all times)
dwindle and deter them from the reality that we still
need Chuck D and many other voices to be louder than a
bomb if we want systemic change to happen within the
culture. And all it takes is to listen, and to speak.