Walk The Talk
Mos Def’s arrest outside of the MTV awards last week for his unauthorized performance of “Katrina Klap” is a welcome rebellion in a time that lacks displays of civil disobedience. Impassioned desire for change and organized strategies of reform often are the response to moments of unthinkable crisis. Turning points that force emotion and consciousness by collapsing the monotonous stagnation of day-to-day apathy. Often a building must fall to know why it must stand again or a person must die in order to recognize how important their life was. More than a year after the Katrina disaster, and at the height of the war in Iraq, I still await the unified voice of response appropriate for the dishonesty of our government and the consequential loss of life and civil liberties. Mos Def might not have intended to get arrested but his action conjures a faint memory of motivated defiance and engagement between music, politics, and the people.
The 1960’s are often romanticized as a time of solidarity in rebellion. The truth is that before our nightly television was blemished with images of racial violence or the draft began taking our middle class citizens, the closed fists and chants belonged to marginalized groups. Our tragedies and losses had to exist on an equal footing regardless of class, race and ethnicity before our fury could be unified. Although artists like Juvenile, The Roots and even Weebie have stepped out of their comfort zones to touch on some contemporary issues. Still, music of rebellion is a murmur that has little relevance for the masses. Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young blasted from every smoked out free loving radical fm radio. Pop music was rebellion music as was the political sentiment of the younger generation who listened. Today music with a message of defiance is pushed to the sewers of the underground while protesters are confined to a assigned taped off revolution. Our pop music scene and self-involved bravados are too nestled in bed with profiteers to afford defiant thoughts that might wake their partner.
Much of our artistic outlet against this administration has been limited to a cynical and one-dimensional spoof. A voice that limits its audience to those who already agree and places those on the fence, looking at the fence, or guarding the fence in positions of defensiveness and judgment i.e. Jurassic Five’s video “Work it out.” This suggests our feelings of outrage are limited to the way we wish to view ourselves rather than the desperate need for a renewal of an emphasis on human rights (thank you Spike Lee). Our apathetic and cynical society has allowed our political outrage to be funneled into less influential channels. Therefore the voices in our culture that chant the words of songs of struggle will remain those of the marginalized. Hip-Hop however, itself a marginalized genre, represents a subjugated population and may be a voice where protest is most viable. Music is not the ultimate solution to create change but reflects the tone of people and today reveals our dangerously comfortable indifference.
4:54 am on September 8th, 2006
sheeesh…I saw the youtube vid of the arrest, the cajones on this guy!
big mos!
6:00 am on September 8th, 2006
All the hiphop world and all the music, needs people like Mos Def!
Peace
9:14 am on September 8th, 2006
Christ Mos Def is corny. I’m sure his little impromtu performance will really change things in this country. “Did you hear Mos Def rapped outside the VMA’s? Let’s go raid the local Wallmart, yeah!!”
If you are dependent on pop musicians for your political actions, ideology, et.. your’re already too lost to help. Ghetto / Hip Hop culture is responsible for more death and destruction than Katrina could ever be. Although is you point this out you may risk sounding unhip and you miss the opportunity to shout out hacks like Spike Lee.
3:27 pm on September 8th, 2006
Music will not necessarily create direct change however it does reflect the voice and intentions of
citizens. It is not a matter of dependency but rather a historic connection between the sentiment of the
music and that of the people. Mos Def’s performance is a positive instance of music acting in conjunction with necessary political action. It is dangerous however to blame the oppressed for conditions of their oppression particularly if you identify “ghetto” as synonymous with “hip-hop” and directly connecting music to the
actions of destructive people. It seems like a doublestandard based on an established disdain for hip-hop.
8:20 pm on September 8th, 2006
May I make the following correction and say
*It is dangerous however to blame the oppressed for conditions of their oppression particularly if you identify “ghetto” as synonymous with “hip-hop” and directly connecting music to the actions of [a few] destructive people
For some reason I felt that minor change needed to be made Zach.
Now let’s assume for a second mr. anonymous, that your comment wasn’t laden with implicitly bigoted sentiment, and also pretend for the sake of discussion that these damned ghetto dwelling syncophants who listen to too much DMX have caused more death than one of the most destructive Hurricanes in the history of ever, as you claim. I think it is rather unintelligible to make such a strong assertion without considering the fact that violence and deviant behavior oftimes do not just simply occur, there are societal and environmental factors that come into play (and as I strongly believe, a crummy public educational system is the root of all the evil). In the aftermath of Katrina, most of the bloodsucking major media outlets prominently displayed this notion of being driven to deviant behavior in it’s most elementary form.
The Smith family’s possessions got swept away by the flood. Mr. Smith and his family is starving. Mr. Smith steals a loaf of bread- It’s all mathematics.
Now maybe I’m a damned ghetto dwelling syncophant myself, but I also think I’m simply making sense here.
I also believe it goes without saying that the federal government’s response, or disgusting lack thereof, is a macrocosm of how the underclass of New Orleans have been treated in the past, the present, and likely the future. There are also official reports circulating detailing the death toll of the Hurricane, detailing how the Bush administration sent a FRACTION of the help that was necessary to prevent many of the deaths, how even Cuba offered millions in medical supplies and personnel (which would have been beneficial, seeing that they are only an hour away, and that N.O. hospitals and relief centers were criminally understaffed) and the administration flatly refused to even acknowledge the offer, and so on, and so on.
Now on what basis, what findings, and what research are you basing your golden thesis of hip-hop culture causing mass destruction and mayhem in the gheh-toe? I’m sure our readers would love to hear it.
9:57 am on September 9th, 2006
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNKnoIV6BT4
11:16 am on September 9th, 2006
ugh, mos def is a bit washed up, huh? Gimme a break….
9:10 am on September 14th, 2006
Nice post.
3:37 pm on September 14th, 2006
Thanks for the post. It was far above average blog reading.
11:37 am on November 2nd, 2006
That was a great post. I normally visit just to take the free MP3s that you’ve thrown up here, but this was a well thought out response to all the shit that’s been happening lately. I am a bit fan of the Colbert Report, but you’ve (perhaps unintentionally) made me think that this show only serves to heighten my own image. I think it’s time I switch off the tube and stir things up. Peace!