The Study of Racialism

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Beyond the Bling:
A Look at Hip-Hop, African-American Leadership & The Black Church: Implications to African-American Youth Development
Reynard N. Blake, Jr., M.S.
Institute of Children, Youth and Families
Michigan State University

Introduction

Hip-hop or rap, an art form and culture nearly thirty years old originating from The Bronx, New York, has provided a forum for African-American* and Latino youth to express their respective cultures and speak on a number of issues. Today, hip-hop is a global phenomenon that appeals to almost all ethnicities and is synthesizing a new culture that goes beyond race, education, and income.

Despite the growing acceptance of hip-hop within white America and the middle class, hip-hop is also under siege. Consider the comments on rap or hip-hop by Bill O'Reilly, popular talk show host on the Fox News Channel:

Did you know that in 1999 alone, 81 million rap albums were sold? . . ..

When I confronted perhaps the most powerful rap and hip-hop executive in the world, Russell Simmons, about explicit lyrics that may be a corrupting influence on high risk children, he looked at me like I was from Mars. \"These things need to be expressed,\" he said. \"The plight of black kids is now much more vivid to the white world because of rap.\"

That may well be true. But what about those black kids trapped in ghettos with little parental supervision and guidance? Are rap themes going to help them get out of their dire circumstances? The answer is no.

If those kids adopt vulgarity in their speech, an anti-white attitude, and an acceptance of dope and violence, the only way they're likely to leave the hood is on a stretcher or in the back of a police cruiser. Hard work and discipline punch the ticket out of poverty. Thinking up rhymes about cocaine is not going to go far on a college admissions application.

The fatal flaw of the rap world is that it doesn't harness the legitimate rage that exists in the bottom end of our economic system in any positive way. Rap doesn't provide solutions; it provides excuses. And it denigrates the values that Americans need to succeed, like respect for others. You can't run around calling women \"bitches\" and expect to be taken seriously. If you do that, you're a fool. Yet those rap songs are loaded with coarse, hostile language that rappers say is cool and \"reflects what's real.\"

Well here's some more reality for you rapper boys and girls: Many kids who emulate you are going to suffer. You are feeding them cheap, destructive images that will hurt them in the long run. And you're making big bucks doing it. So rap with that, my man. Reality is a bitch.**

Clearly, O'Reilly does not listen to hip-hop; he only sees the negative aspects of hip-hop and does not admit that America has created the conditions for hip-hop and that white-controlled media corporations like the one he represents promote the negative aspects of hip-hop. He implies that there is something inherently wrong with black people and that if they bought into the American myth thatf hard work leads to success (the notion that hard work leads to success can be disputed by the fact that much of the working poor, regardless of race, do not have health insurance, can barely afford decent housing [unless they receive a subsidy which, is not easy to get] and work for or slightly above minimum wage), they, too, will succeed. Perhaps his concerns regarding hip-hop reveal that he is troubled by the increasing numbers of suburban white children listening to hip-hop. In short, O'Reilly and most of his generation just do not \"get it.\" They fail to understand the cultural significance of hip-hop.

Potter (1995) highlights the dilemma of O'Reilly and others like him:

Hip-hop is all too conceived of by casual listeners as merely a particular style of music; in one sense they're right, though the question of style has far more political significance than they may attribute to it. For others - including many musicians and music fans - it is not music at all, but rather from-the-gut \"street\" poetry or as with many of the performers quoted in a recent issue of Musician magazine just so much mindless boasting. Leaving aside the historical ironies of middle-aged rock-n-roll fans using the same arguments their parents once used about the Rolling Stones (that's not music, it's noise), it is clear that hip-hop continues to pose a problem for the old categories of music; it has recently reached the point where country and soft-rock stations make \"no rap music\" part of their promotional campaigns. Despite the fact that its audiences today are more diverse in terms of race, class, and region than any other music, the reception of hip-hop continues to be a central element in highly polarized arguments about race from both white and black communities.
Music videos, one of the most popular and influential mediums for hip-hop, often depict black and Latino youth as ignorant, lazy, misogynist, and hypersexual. Beyond these negative images, probably the most damning image of hip-hop videos includes those that feature performers with the \"bling, bling\"--expensive jewelry that suggests prosperity,on one hand, and extreme materialism on the other. Granted, these images are part of hip-hop; no artist is forced to write negative lyrics, create negative videos, and perpetuate stereotypes. However, the negative videos and music within hip-hop do not represent the depth and breadth of hip-hop. Hip-hop speaks to all the major issues of the day-spirituality, leadership, crime, politics, economics -- and does so in a way that is entertaining, respectful, and prophetic.

Hip-hop has had and will continue to have a profound effect on African-American communities because it is a vehicle for self-expression, a rallying point for activism, and a means for positive youth development. Ultimately, the way hip-hop is presented to global society has political and social implications for black communities, because if blacks are portrayed as lazy or ignorant or hypersexual on compact discs (CDs) and videos, African-American youth will unfairly and unjustly be viewed negatively, especially if people from non-black backgrounds have few, if any, opportunities to interact with African-Americans and dispel the negative myths and stereotypes.

The purpose of this study is to dispel some of the myths surrounding hip-hop and show that it goes beyond the \"bling, bling\" image that is presented to the masses. Furthermore, this study will explore the relationship of hip-hop culture and black leadership and their effects on youth development. In order to do this effectively, we must define and analyze hip-hop and black leadership and understand its meaning and role in respect to the Black Church and future leadership development.

About Hip-Hop/Rap

Hip-Hop Defined

There are numerous definitions of hip-hop or rap. Hip-hop performer, historian, and journalist \"Davey D\" Cook defines hip-hop as:

an art form that includes deejaying [cuttin' & scratchin' ] emceeing/rappin', breakdancing and grafitti art. These art forms as we know them today originated in the South Bronx section of New York City around the mid-1970s. Hip-hop has thrived within the subculture of Black and Puerto Rican communities in New York and is now just recently beginning to enjoy widespread exposure. From a sociological perspective, Hip-hop has become one of the main contributing factors that helped curtail gang violence due to the fact that many adults found it preferable to channel their anger and aggressions into these art forms which eventually became the ultimate expression of one's self.
Cook's perspective is significant because it suggests that hip-hop has a redemptive power, as it provides a medium for young people to use their energies to express their feelings, define their realities, and vent their frustrations in a nonviolent manner.

Cook also highlights other definitions of hip-hop on his website. For example, he interviewed \"DJ Kool Herc,\" who is considered to be the creator of hip-hop. Herc also provides an early history of hip-hop:

Hip Hopthe whole chemistry of that came from Jamaica... I was born in Jamaica and I was listening to American music in JamaicaMy favorite artist was James Brown. That's who inspired me A lot of the records I played were by James Brown. When I came over here I just put it in the American style and a perspective for them to dance to it. In Jamaica all you needed was a drum and bass. So what I did here was go right to the 'yoke'. I cut off all anticipation and played the beats. I'd find out where the break in the record was at and prolong it and people would love it. So I was giving them their own taste and beat percussion-wise'cause my music is all about heavy bass...

How Did the Early Hip-Hop Scene of the '70s Kick Off?

It started coming together as far as the gangs terrorizing a lot of known discotheques back in the days. I had respect from some of the gang members because they used to go to school with meThere were the Savage Skulls, Glory Stompers, Blue Diamonds, Black Cats and Black Spades. Guys knew me because I carried myself with respect and I respected them. I respected everybody. I gave the women their respect. I never tried to use my charisma to be conceited or anything like that. I played what they liked and acknowledged their neighborhood when they came to my party...I would hail my friends that I knew. People liked that... I'd say things like'There goes my mellow Coca La Roc in the house', 'There goes my mellow Clark Kent in the house', 'There goes my mellow Timmy Tim in the house''To my mellow Ricky D', 'To my mellow Bambaataa'People like that sort of acknowledgement when they heard it from a friend at a party.

What were the early rhymes like?

Well the rhyming came about...because I liked playing lyrics that were saying something. I figured people would pick it up by me playing those records, but at the same time I would say something myself with a meaningful message to it. I would say things like:

Ya rock and ya don't stop
and this is the sounds of DJ Kool Herc and the Sound System and
you're listening to the sounds of what we call the Herculoids.
He was born in an orphanage
he fought like a slave
fuckin' up faggots all the Herculoids played
when it come to push come to shove
the Herculoids won't budge
The bass is so low you can't get under it
the high is so high you can't get over it
So in other words be with it
Herc's perspective, commentary, and rhymes are extremely provocative and revealing because they feature the some of the inconsistencies endemic to hip-hop. In his rhyme, Herc gives respect and acknowledgement to women and his peers while deejaying, yet he talks about violence to homosexuals.

Hip-hop, like many other art forms, is filled with conflicting, often competing messages. Dyson (1993) highlights this trend:

Rap artists sense that as they are inventing a musical genre that measures the pulse of black youth culture, they are also inventing themselves. From the ready resources of culture, history, tradition and community, rap artist fashion musical personae who literally voice their hopes, fears, and fantasies: the self as cultural griot, feminist, educator, or itinerant prophet of black nationalism; but also the self as inveterate consumer, misogynist, violent criminal, or sexual athlete. It is this ever-expanding repertoire of created selves that invites up to interrogate the values and visions of rap culture, to perceive the force of its trenchant criticism of racism, historical amnesia, and classism, and to gauge its surrender to American traditions of sexism, consumerism, and violence.
The excerpt is significant because Dyson crafts an interesting argument; he points out that America created the conditions for the development of hip-hop and has given it its context. Moreover, hip-hop provides a forum to address racism and reinforce black culture. Most importantly, hip-hop has afforded African-American youthan opportunity to define itself based on its own terms. Lastly, hip-hop forces America to look at itself structurally in terms of race, consumption, and violence.

Despite the \"in-your-face\" style of hip-hop in presenting America's ills, America does not respond to hip-hop, as it should. Hip-hop, particularly through the use of videos, at times shows the bleakest of conditions for African-American and Latino youth, with dilapidated buildings, dirty streets, unemployment, incarceration, and violence. The images are disturbing; they are the antithesis of America's image of opportunity for all. Hip-hop videos also challenge the myth that anyone, if they worked hard enough, could experience the \"American Dream.\" Based on the bleak images and themes presented in hip-hop, one would think that America would rally around the youth portrayed in the videos and address the poverty and social isolation from which many hip-hop artists originate. Unfortunately, America chooses to do very little for the youth and, for the most part, considers the violence and bleakness portrayed in the videos as common, everyday life for black and Latino youth.

There are other definitions of hip-hop. Hip-hop pioneer \"DJ Africa Bambaataa\" describes hip-hop as:

the whole culture of the movementwhen you talk about raprap is part of the hip-hop culturethe emceeingthe deejaying is part of the hip-hop culture. The dressing the languages are all part of the hip hop culturethe break dancing the b-boys, b-girls...how you act, walk, look, talk are all part of hip hop cultureand the music is colorlessHip Hop music is made from Black, brown, yellow, red, whitewhatever music that gives you the gruntthat funkthat groove or that beatIt's all part of hip hop...
This excerpt is noteworthy because Bambaataa is defining hip-hop as a multiracial, multicultural, borderless movement, with its own attitude, style and rhythm. Bambaataa's analysis is quite similar to Tate (1992) when he describes hip-hop as \"like reggae in that the crowds flash as much (sometimes even more) star attitude than the stage acts.\"

Bambaataa also provides insight on the early days of rap and hip-hop culture:

Hip Hop has experimented with a lot of different styles of music and there's a lot of people who have brought different changes over time with hip hopwhich have brought out all these funky records which everybody just started jumpin' on like a catch phraseAll these people brought changes within hip hop music... Unfortunately today a lot of the people who created hip hopmeaning the Black and Latinos do not control it no more...
Bambaataa, at the end of this statement, reveals the biggest challenge to hip-hop: its originators (black and Latino youth) are losing control of the genre.

On one hand, the diminishing control and role of hip-hop by African-Americans and Latinos is the natural progression of an international art form; as more cultures become part of hip-hop culture, they will add the uniqueness of their native culture to the art form. Conversely, as corporate media distributes hip-hop, they become gatekeepers that will increasingly define the art form, and only allow certain acts to reach the mainstream. Many of these acts can highlight the worst elements of black, Latino, and American culture: rampant materialism, aggression, misogyny, moral ambiguity, ignorance, and anti-intellectualism. This view is represented by Altman-Siegal, when she writes about hip-hop culture in Japan:

Even if the Japanese don't understand all the political aspects of hip hop culture, the interest in black culture is loosening the insular fiber in Japanese youth. Stereotypical images of black Americans are disseminated throughout Japan, primarily through the media, but racism in the country is typically directed at gaigin or foreigners, regardless of skin color. Americans, in general, are seen as violent.

\"I think that the media has given us such wrong information,\" says Yugi, a rap concert promoter in Japan, \"When the rap artists get here they are different [from what we expected]. They are much nicer.\"

George (1992) also comments on how multinational corporations have corrupted hip-hop by homogenizing it:
Most of the rules I learned as a child in the '60s and '70s have been corrupted or rewritten. Hip hop, just to take the most obvious example, has spread from the urban underground where I found it in my early story on Kurtis Blow (a hip-hop artist and pioneer- my note), to white-or at least well-heeled-suburbia. During this same period, breakthrough black superstars made more money than ever in history-most of it helping to subsidize multinational corporations that reconfigure black artistry into reproducible formulas.
George's outlook is also expressed and confirmed by actor, author, slam poet, and hip-hop artist Saul Williams. Williams, in an interview with MotherJones.com's Jeff Chang, describes and renders a critique of hip-hop when he says:
We can say what makes it hip-hop is this black, urban [experience] da-da-da. But no! Hip-hop is no longer that. I mean, hip-hop has existed in Yugoslavia now for 10 years, has existed in France for 10 years, in Japan for at least 10 years -- has existed where there are no African American experiences. So what is hip-hop? Well, with Public Enemy and KRS-ONE, hip-hop became the language of youth rebellion. But now, commercial hip-hop is not youth rebellion, not when the heroes of hip-hop like Puffy are taking pictures with Donald Trump and the heroes of capitalism -- you know that's not rebellion. That's not \"the street\" -- that's Wall Street.
Williams' last comment in the excerpt is particularly illuminating because he suggests that hip-hop has been watered down and co-opted, while leaving its root as a medium for protest.

Charles \"Chuck D\" Ridenour, lead vocalist for, arguably, one of hip-hop's seminal groups, Public Enemy, also reflects upon the loss of black control in hip-hop, and, perhaps, the exploitation of hip-hop and black culture by white corporate media:

Black culture became more marketable during the eighties, and white corporations found that they could make big bucks off of it. An example is the rise of Public Enemy, and Black male celebrities like Mike Tyson, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, and Arsenio Hall. Once Black images started to infiltrate mainstream white society via Black celebrities and white kids began to imitate Black people, not only from a physical standpoint like in athletics, but also mentally and culturally, that's when a big problem began.

In the early ninetieswhat occurred during that period was a visual explosion of Black celebrities. Music videos became more pervasive and entertaining, Black movies made a strong return, and simultaneously the NBA and NFL combined with major corporations to magnify and emphasize the individual. To the point whereby in 1995 and 1996 there was a subliminal message that stated, \"if you're not a ballplayer, or entertainer, and you're not living a lavish lifestyle then you ain't shit.\"

This analysis is very important in that speaks to the co-optation of hip-hop and black cultures by white corporations. Moreover, it speaks to larger, more demeaning trends-the devaluation of black life (black people being portrayed as only valuing entertainment careers instead of academic achievement, science, or service to humanity), anti-intellectualism, and over-consumption. Also, Chuck D adds that the media promotes hip-hop via negative images and messages:

Many in the world of Hip-Hop have begun to believe that the only way to blow up and become megastars is by presenting themselves in a negative light. The two recently slain Hip-Hop artists, Tupac and Notorious B.I.G., as well as other Rap artists who have come under criticism like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, Ice Cube, or whoever you want to name, talk positivity in some of their records, but those records have to be picked by the industry executives and program directors to be magnified. MC Eiht talks about \"I don't want to get caught in this, I'm trying to go right, but society won't let me go right, but it's hard.\" The media just doesn't focus on those positive songs, they'd rather dwell on the negative.
Not only do the media promote negative images of hip-hop, but they also encourage those with positive messages to water-down or avoid their messages to become more commercially appealing. Commentary by Salah Black confirms this notion:

It has come to my attention that a lot of talented rap artists enter the game with a raw, uncut sound and style that reflects hip-hop in its purest form. But sadly enough, as commercial success is not realized, they 'water' down their product and cultivate marquee images for their sophomore efforts. For instance in my opinion, the Fugees were on some next shit with their erratic, but inventive, avant-garde debut, \"Blunted on Reality.\" The first single, 'Nappyheads' was the epitome of originality at a time when this criterion was lacking in the art form. Their second single, 'Vocab' confirmed their status as official microphone controllers. At that time, Lauryn Hill was turning on her T.V. \"to check out Farrakhan on CNN\" and had \"devils wishing they could send her back to Mogadishu\". With raw bass and sweet guitar licks, the Refugees presented the world their own brand of audible treats. Unfortunately their innovation failed to translate into capital, in short they were slept on and it's all about the \"Benjamins\" (money-RNB), with poor record sales of approximately 150 000 units.

Then three years down the road, just before they were about to addressed as, \"Fugees who?,\" some member of the camp dusted off an old Roberta Flack vinyl, and killed the Billboard charts softly. This crossover R&B cover hit, propelled their sophomore album to the No. 1 spot for several weeks, with LP sales topping the 7 million mark. This trend could be seen elsewhere, as Nas opted for the more commercial producers, the Trackmasters, for his second coming. MC Lyte traded in her rugged B-girl look and sound for the more marketable, soft, suave sexual persona, with 'Mr. Radio hits' producer, Jermaine Dupri, at the boards.

Chuck D substantiates this discourse in his examination of Tupac Shakur:

() Tupac had a loyalty to Black people without a doubt. His early albums sound like a combination of Public Enemy and N.W.A. (Niggers With Attitudes-RNB). He was raw. Tupac found that when he said things that were pro-Black and militant, people were not paying any attention to what he was saying so, he decided to go more and more into the side of darkness, like Bishop, the character he played in the movie, Juice. \"Fuck that--thug life like a motherfucker.\" The more he played the \"bad boy\" or \"rude boy\" image, the bigger and bigger he got. The unfortunate thing is I think Tupac had a plan to bring everybody to the table with the \"Thug for Life\" image, and then he was going to flip the tables at the last minute and have people thinking. He was rooted in that. He was a brother who was strongly influenced by the Black Panther ideology, and by Black revolutionary political prisoners like Geronimo Pratt, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and others. On Pac's latest release, Makaveli, he has a song on the album called \"White Man'z World\" in which he states, Use your brain! It's not them that's killing us, it's us that's killing us.\" In the aftermath of Tupac's murder the conscious, revolutionary; uplifting aspects of Tupac Shakur's existence were played to the side as being unimportant and irrelevant. Another victim of this white man'z world.
Corporate control of hip-hop also presents a serious threat to its significance. As corporations promote a sort of hip-hop opium or mind-numbing art that does not address issues, hip-hop's authenticity and relevance becomes suspect. This concept is underscored by Chang (2003):
Today, the most cursory glance at the Billboard charts or video shows on Viacom-owned MTV and BET suggests rap has been given over to cocaine-cooking, cartoon-watching, Rakim-quoting, gold-rims-coveting, death-worshiping young 'uns. One might even ask whether rap has abandoned the revolution.
Quintessentially, hip-hop is evolving. It is moving beyond, race, ethnicity, and language to create a new culture. However, this new amalgamation of cultures into one culture has its drawbacks. As the new culture forms, it may dilute the voices of black and Latino youth, especially when controlled by white corporate media. The control of hip-hop by corporate media may have dire consequences for black and Latino youth in that it tends to promote artists with messages lacking substance, those who perpetuate the myths surrounding black and Latino anti-intellectualism, those that epitomize sexual avarice, those lacking political awareness, and those that represent unbridled greed. This idea is deftly explained by the co-publisher of The Black Commentator, Glen Ford (2002):

Eric Shapiro
Black America's hip-hop generation has been convinced by the social engineers of market capitalism that they are a very special and unique demographic - and who would disagree? Youth are, of course, precious to humanity in every epoch. Their value is inarguable, as repositories of the future, and as the most active elements of any society. Oppressed communities are particularly dependent on their young people - who else will achieve all those murdered dreams? But, what happens when a generation of the oppressed is disconnected from its immediate past and left to the tender mercies of its direct enemies? This is the prospect facing the Black hip-hop generation, many of whom have been rendered politically impotent through an enthusiastic embrace of their own commodification. It is a death-grip that threatens to fracture the community's political coherence. Bombarded by blandishments from merchandisers, flush with illusions of power based solely on market status, Black youth have become vulnerable to political appeals from anyone offering attention and flattery.
In retrospect, Ford's examination is extremely important in that he sheds light on numerous issues: the failure of the generations before the hip-hop generation to explain its histories of struggle and protest, and the failure of youth to embrace its elders and decipher the difference between empty slogans and substantial issues within a context of consumerism. The hip-hop generation must be taught by older generations that when corporations flash pictures of Martin Luther King, Jr., during Black History Month, it does not necessarily mean that they are concerned about black communities and their future sustainability. They must be reminded that they are a market ripe to be given meaningless messages in order to extract their money from them.

Leadership, Black Leadership, Hip-Hop & the Black Church

Leadership

Understanding the concept of leadership is a tedious endeavor in that one tries to do so under a plethora of contexts and climates: economic, intellectual, historic, political, and social, to name a few. This circumstance provides roadblocks to interpreting leaders and leadership accuratelty, particularly as they relate to analyzing the goals of leaders and movements. White (1985) highlights this dilemma when he quotes Harold Cruse (1968):

Individual leaders can project ideologies of many different kinds and color them with the hues of their own personal aspirations, which very often obscure the very fundamental issues which are of crucial interest to the people for whom the leaders speak. Then the historians come along and completely overlook or forget what the basic issues were for the people in the mass, and centre their attention on the personal characteristics of these leaders.
For the most part, White warns students of leadership to separate a leader's ambition from the goals of a particular movement or event, especially if they go beyond the aims of the movement.

Dispelling the Myths of Leadership

In order to come to some understanding of what leadership represents, it is important to dispel the myths associated with leadership and highlight what leadership does not involve:

Leadership skills were once thought a matter of birth. Leaders were born, not made, summoned to their calling through some unfathomable process. This might be called the \"Great Man\" theory of leadership. It saw power being vested in a very limited number of people whose inheritance and destiny made them leaders. Those of the right breed could lead; all others must be led. Either you had it or you didn't. No amount of learning or yearning could change your fate.

When this view failed to explain leadership, it was replaced by the notion that great events made leaders of otherwise ordinary people. (...) This \"Big Bang\" idea in which the situation and the followers combined to make a leader, like the \"Great Man\" theory, was another inadequate definition.

In short, the excerpt indicates that leadership is not genetic, hereditary, or predestined. Moreover, leadership is not arbitrary or whimsical; leaders do not \"appear out of thin air.\" Rather, they are made as a result of their lifelong experiences, training by other leaders, and by their followers.

Definitions & Elements of Leadership

When one encounters the leadership literature, he or she will find chaos because the study of leadership is \"guided by different notions and theories\" which \"have not concerned themselves with a common phenomena.\" McDaniel and Balgopal (1978) indicate the vastness and the complexities of the leadership literature when they quote Brown and Cohn:

Through all the history of man's attempts to record human experiences, leadership has been recognized to an increasingly greater extent as one of the significant aspects of human activity. As a result, there is now a great mass of \"leadership literature\" which, if assembled in one place, would fill many libraries. The great part of the mass, however, would have little organization: it would evidence little in the way of common assumptions and hypotheses, and it would vary widely, in theoretical and research approaches. To a great extent, therefore, the leadership literature is a mass of content without any coagulating substances to bring it together or to produce coordination and point out inter-relationships.
The result of this chaos is numerous definitions of leadership. King (1967) identifies \"genuine\" leadership as not searching for consensus but molding consensus. Bass (1990) views it as

the focus of group processes, as a matter of personality, as a matter of inducing compliance, as the exercise of influence, as particular behaviors, as a form of persuasion, as a power relation, as an instrument to achieve goals, as an effect of interaction, as a differentiated goal, as initiation of structure, and as combinations of these definitions.
This definition suggests that leadership is a phenomenon that varies according to the conditions of a particular situation.

Leadership is also a reflection of the conflict that exists in a given society. Lisa Sullivan, writing for the Local Initiatives Support Training and Education Network's (LISTEN) \"Food For Thought\" series brings to light how hip-hop heightens generational battles:

In the 1990s, it became clear that the Black civil rights leadership was put off by the attitudes and values of this current generation of young poor people. Without question, a wide and deep gulf exists between a generation of 17 million African Americans born since the passage of 1964 and 1965 civil rights legislation and their elders born before the 1954 Brown Decision. While some Black civil rights leaders blame \"Ghetto Fabulous\" hip-hop culture and gangsta rap music for the worsening socioeconomic conditions in Black America, the late 20th century eclipse of Black life has much more to do with the institutional collapse of the inner city and the failure of traditional Black social and civic organizations to mobilize, organize and empower its most isolated, abandoned and abundant asset -- the hip-hop generation. This failure explains the 21st century Hip-hop nation's entrepreneurial spirit, institution building and political awakening.
Sullivan notes hip-hop's growing impatience with older leaders and established institutions because they have decreasing relevance and are failing to meet their needs:

The early 20th century gave birth to several important African American civil rights organizations, most notably the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League. As the new millennium approaches, these non-profit civil rights advocacy organizations face daunting challenges. The social, economic, political and cultural decay of American institutions threatens to undermine Black civil society and its steady progress toward social justice and racial equality. As the problems of American society mount, African American civil rights organizations face the widespread perception that they are no longer relevant because traditional civil rights advocacy, and its agenda of federal government intervention and social integration has reached its limits. According to a wide range of critics, civil rights advocacy led by traditional civil rights leaders is unresponsive and impotent in this post-civil rights period, which is increasingly characterized by racial intolerance, the renewal of states rights and the dismantling of the federal government's protective domestic social policies and programs.

This harsh critique of the civil rights movement is most pronounced among Black youth. Largely framed as a criticism of traditional Black leaders, most young African Americans, born since the passage of civil and voting rights legislation in 1964 and 1965 have lost their confidence in the leadership of civil rights organizations. Many believe that traditional Black leaders lack the capacity, desire and ingenuity to address the contemporary crises that destabilize Black working-class life and destroy Black neighborhoods and families.

Guest commentator for The Black World Today website, William Jones, Jr., drives home the point on how African-American leadership has failed hip-hop:

As a race Black people in America we have existed (and continue to exist) under some of the worst possible conditions of any racial group. Whatever the social ill-crime, poor education, disease, police brutality, etc.- Black people either lead in or being affected by it.

Amidst this sea of despair, a segment of the Black population has stood up to face these challenges and offer solutions to these problems. This group is most often referred to as \"Black Leadership.\" Unfortunately, Black Leadership is all too often led by White people who do not necessarily have Black people's best interest at heart. Due to this phenomenon, black Leadership (and Black people) oftentimes misses genuine opportunities to greatly improve upon, if not correct, many of the problems that ail us. I believe that this is due in part to the legacy of slavery: we still wait for the cue from 'White masters' before our ideas and innovations are deemed fit for Black people.

One of the most recent examples of this is the opportunity Black Leaders missed with the Hip-Hop movement; in essence, missing an opportunity to speak to an entire generation. It is for this reason Black Leadership owes Hip-Hop an apology. When Hip-Hop began, it was seen as a passing fad at best, and 'jungle music' at worst. Black youth began rapping over break-beats and instruments, generally saying little more than call-and-response or new spins on old nursery rhymes.

At this very early stage, Black Leaders could have taken note of this new art form that was beginning to catch the ear of Black youth. Black Leadership could have helped to mold and shape Hip-Hop, could have teamed up with the likes of Afrika Bambaata and his Zulu Nation, which promoted peace, and given their support-but they did not. Hip-Hop went unnoticed by Black Leaders in my opinion because; mainstream (White) America ignored it as well.

Leadership is also a response to negative situations, injustice, or fear. Chang (2003) notes that hip-hop and its leaders, aims, and goals came as a result of street wars and wars abroad:

At one time, others dissed our generation by saying that we were privileged, that we had never been tested by war. [This was before Bush's father opened the Persian Gulf War.] The fact is that hip-hop was born under the conditions of war. It grew and spread as a global alternative to war.

Before hip-hop, during the early 1970s, Jamaica's bloody tribal wars fostered a music and culture of defiance in roots, dancehall and dub reggae. This music and culture a safe space from the bloody gang runnings on the street immigrated to the Bronx a space so devastated by deindustrialization and governmental neglect that when Ronald Reagan visited in 1980, he declared that it looked like London after World War II. In the Bronx, the Universal Zulu Nation, hip-hop's first institution and organization, literally emerged from a peace forged between racially divided, warring gangs.

As Reagan took office, immigration was rapidly browning the face of America. The \"culture war\" was declared, a way to contain the nation's growing diversity. Culture warriors went after youth in their schools; they fought multiculturalism, ethnic studies, and affirmative action. In Congress, they sought limits on movie and music content.

Hip-hop turned out to be everything they detested: it was real, truth-telling, unapologetic, and, worst of all, their kids loved it. Imagine how they felt when Chuck D enlisted millions into the opposition by rhyming, \"They'll never care for the brothers and sisters cause the country has us up for a war.\"

DePree (1989) indicates that leadership has a caretaker function in terms of providing and maintaining momentum. He adds that leadership \"comes with a lot of debts to the future.\" These ideas suggest that leadership is a visionary undertaking.

The International City Management Association (ICMA) defines leadership as \"a relationship and a set of processes in which unequal authority operates to achieve common purposes.\" Furthermore, it argues that leadership involves relationships (between the leader and the group being led -- this includes two-way interaction that enriches and benefits both parties), processes (where the leader and followers influence each other in different ways), authority (in which a leader gains legitimacy and is granted power by the followers) and purposes (what the leader believes in and seeks to accomplish). The two-way interaction inherent in leadership implies that it is also distributive; \"that each member of a group exhibits some degree of leadership.\"

Bennis and Nanus (1985) argue that leadership can be summarized under three major contexts: commitment (leaders instilling vision, meaning, and trust in their followers), complexity (the intolerance of ambiguity), and credibility (part of the leader/follower transaction in which followers are willing or reluctant to follow). This reaffirms the notion that leadership is a process as well as a relationship.

Hersey and Blanchard (1982) point out that leadership is situational; that it \"depends on the maturity level of the people the leader is attempting to influence.\" This assertion can be taken one step further; leadership is also contextual. Kitwana (2002) puts this in perspective in terms of the hip-hop generation:

The hip-hop generation's brand of activism has its own intricacies. To begin with, it is distinguished by the fact that we are the first generation to come of age in an America that has ended legal racial segregation. We are the first generation of African Americans to enjoy the fruits of the civil rights and Black Power movements. Voting rights, affirmative action, and the rise of Black elected officials, and social programs benefiting the poor have all been a part of life, as we know it. At the same time, we've witnessed the steady erosion of the euphoria of racial integration and in some cases civil rights gains themselves. Due to the nature of America we've grown up in, we've developed a different sense of urgency rooted in what we lost in a mere generation-what some critics have deemed the reversal of civil rights gains, such as welfare reform and the decline of affirmative action-as well as in new attacks targeting Black youth like police brutality, anti-youth legislation, and the incarceration of hundreds of thousands of hip-hop generationers. We don't mythologize the social gains of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s because having experienced the benefits of these gains firsthand we know they weren't panaceas. At the same time, we do romanticize them. They, along with other so-called civil rights gains, have been institutionalized in the present as part of America's glorious history. They stand in our collective memory as historical wrongs corrected. Nevertheless, hip-hop generationers realize that no matter how ground breaking the civil rights movement was, unfinished business remains.
Taylor (1989), in his analysis of urban street gangs (primarily focusing on Detroit), draws a different context in which the hip-hop generation exists and derives its leadership:
By the early 1970s a new type of parent was emerging in Detroit. New kinds of parents, eroding morals, hard drugs, troubled schools, and changing attitudes about church changed thecommunity from a close knit, cooperative network of extended families and friends to a declining, less stable community with no vital organization and transient residents.
Taylor's analysis is of great consequence because, although his emphasis was on Detroit, it could be applied to the rest of America. This fortifies the argument that America created the conditions for hip-hop.

When family structures and, subsequently, communities decline, the youth suffer the brunt of these tragedies. The result of youth depravity is increased activity in gangs, self-hatred, self-destruction in the form of violence and premature sexual activity, and rage. Initially, young people succumbed to these atrocities; however, it redeemed itself by choosing to channel its rage, disillusionment, and alienation via the spoken word, dance, and the formation of a new culture-hip-hop. Hip-hop is the phoenix rising from urban ashes, imbued with the prophetic voice of religious leaders, as analytical as any urban scholar, yet it bears the scars of the degradation from whence it came and forces the observer to confront their own reality.

In Ladd's (1966) classic, Negro Political Leadership in the South, he provides a good working description of the elements of African-American leadership styles:

A Negro political leader's style is a composite of (1) the race goals which he chooses to emphasize; (2) the means which he uses in seeking to realize these goals; and (3) his rhetoric--that is the language and manner in which he discusses his race goals and in which he assesses the motives and actions of the Negroes and whites with whom he interacts.
He then identifies a continuum of black leadership styles:

Conservative: a style that involves accommodation, where black leaders' effectiveness depends upon its access and acceptability to white leaders. Conservatives try to alter the prevailing pattern of race relations by working within it and its demands. They seek the maximum benefits possible through channels considered legitimate by whites. They seek \"welfare\" goals, which include more money, a warmer house, better medical care, and the like.
Militant: a style that is \"far out\" from the white consensus and treads in areas in which maximum white opposition can be expected; their rhetoric tends to sharpen rather than ameliorate racial conflict. They place a greater emphasis on \"status\" goals, which involve the individual's image of himself and gaining recognition as equal (not inferior) partners in American society based on his race and culture.

Moderate: a style, which includes the acceptance of the goals of Militants and Conservatives and will lean or use either style based on a given situation.

Using Ladd as a framework, hip-hop can be described as a militant movement, with a style that challenges preconceived notions on race, sex, abuse, and materialism. It is debated and scrutinized because it was created by the rejected black and brown youth of America. What makes it dangerous is that white youth have embraced the allure and turmoil inherent in hip-hop, which unnerves the status quo because white youth are accepting the music and messages of the rejected. The main trepidation of the status quo is that white youth are becoming \"niggers\" because when white youth embrace the thought and the plight of the rejected, for better or worse, it inspires a commonality that is diametrically opposed to the attitudes and beliefs of the adult mainstream, which then makes them the rejected and thus, niggers. The status quo now fears the new world that hip-hop is creating-the world that goes beyond race, borders, ethnicity, and socioeconomic class. Still, a cultural cointelpro is brewing because as corporations assume control of hip-hop, it puts forth artists that perform void of any moral responsibility, who recite pointless lyrics, and act as black and brown buffoons, which, in turn, reduce hip-hop to meaningless drivel.

As Ladd sought to identify black leadership styles, White argues that in evaluating those styles, it is extremely important to recognize who is identifying African-American leadership. He notes that \"blacks have had only limited opportunities to select their own leaders,\" meaning that early black leadership depends on a number of variables. These variables include white and/or black perceptions of black leaders, publicity from the white-controlled media, and approval from black followers. Only under these conditions could blacks speak for other blacks. This idea is shown when he quotes Huggins (1978):

All leaders have had to contend with a caste-like arrangement separating the races, defying all strategies...In practice...blacks were not accepted as part of the political process; even when they were allowed to vote they were not given entree to the political machinery...Caste is the principal determinant of any discussion of historical Afro-American leadership...There was no expectation that a black leadership would arise from the people and be selected and sustained by them...Three characteristics marked the black leader: he did not derive his power from a democratic source, he was a self-styled exemplar, and his position was tenuous and vulnerable.
From this analysis, White distinguishes two black leadership styles; one of accommodation, where black leaders establish contact with influential whites for favors, the other of protest.

The same kind of argument can be applied to hip-hop: artists that reinforce African-American and Latino stereotypes can be viewed as accommodationist in that they are willing to do or say anything to gain fame and fortune and will accept the restrictions placed on it by the white-controlled media. Artists that challenge societal norms and provide insightful critiques of America could be considered as using hip-hop as a means of protest. However, artists that use hip-hop as protest and social commentary are given the label of \"conscious rap\" and not given the airplay or promotion that accommodationist artists receive.

Cone (1991), in his study of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., notes that leadership possesses a teaching function. According to Cone, a leader must not only teach his or her followers; he or she must also teach himself or herself, especially if he or she wants to be an effective leader:

Both Malcolm and Martin realized that no people can achieve freedom as long as their leaders lack knowledge and understanding regarding how the economic and political systems of the world came into being, and how they function today. One of the chief roles of the leader is to teach the people how to organize themselves for the purpose for achieving their freedom. Organizing for freedom requires thinking about the meaning of freedom and developing strategies to implement it in the society. No leader can teach others what he or she does not know.
This excerpt is extremely significant because it suggests that leadership seeks to develop and empower leaders and followers.

In the tradition of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, Russell Simmons, a hip-hop guru and entrepreneur convened a hip-hop summit. Its goal was to begin a dialogue on the future of hip-hop, which, according to Muhammad and Shabazz (2001) addressed

greater self-regulation, increased political activism, more enlightened expressions and a deeper understanding of how hip hop culture has moved from Big Apple streets to become a global force and a billion dollar industry.

Hip-hop accounts for 12.9 percent of all domestic record sales, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. In 2000, the overall recording industry made $14.3 billion, the trade group says.

When rap guru Russell Simmons-who has taken hip hop from records to CDs to fashion to the Internet and other entertainment venues-called the Hip Hop Summit at a Manhattan hotel, major artists, recording industry insiders and execs, members of Congress, academics, civil rights groups and the leader of the Nation of Islam accepted invitations.

\"The Hip Hop Summit is about building bridges on a myriad of levels where politicians, civil rights leaders, artists and music executives are coming together to find out where we stand in the world at large,\" said Mr. Simmons.

Beyond education and organization, Cone argues that leadership involves commitment:

Creative leadership involves much more than talking loud enough to attract the local or national news media; it involves first and foremost a sincere commitment to serve the \"least of these\" (to use Martin King's language)--to serve their sociopolitical...needs. Real leaders are not self-appointed but are chosen by the people. They are those who teach and are taught. They are best known by their solidarity, their willingness to serve, to suffer with the people, even to the point of death.
Cone's definition of leadership can be applied to the world of hip-hop. Hip-hop leadership is defined and perpetuated by those who use music and action to articulate and move a social agenda. This is why the co-optation of hip-hop by the white-controlled media has dangerous consequences to African-American communities. Minister Paul Scott places this situation in perspective (2002):

From the moment Stokley Carmichael (Kwame Ture) grabbed the mic and yelled \"Black Power,\" the phrase has struck fear in the heart of white America. Not that they were overly concerned that we posed some sort of military or economic threat, as the white power structure had those two options on \"lock;\" but the possibility that the phrase would galvanize the masses of Black youth to action. Motivating them to do more than get their groove on Saturday night and their praise on Sunday morning sent chills up the spines of those who had a vested interest in holding the Black community down. Something had to be done to destroy this uncompromising desire for FREEDOM, JUSTICE and EQUALITY.
() So the weapon of choice was a movement of young Black teenagers who had developed a system of organization that could do anything from educate children about the historical struggle of African people to turning the deadliest gang rivalry into a break dance competition.

First, the power structure tried to ban rap music altogether by strengthening indecency laws in states where rappers performed and forcing them to place parental guidance stickers on their albums. But the contradiction of having those who have robbed, killed and murdered every culture on the planet serving, as morality police was too much to swallow. Also problematic was the fact that to them the members of the 2 Live Crew and Public Enemy were interchangeable.

So they fell back on their old standard \"if you can't beat them, corrupt them.\" It was not an overnight, hostile takeover but a slow, cunning infiltration, kind of like the annoying scratchy throat that you ignore until it has you sick in bed for two weeks. By then it is too late.

() Hip Hop should serve as the background music for the Black Nation and should be heard pumpin' through speakers at every uprising, protest, or demonstration.

However, the forces, which control Hip Hop, have taken measures to make sure that the Hip Hop Nation and the Black Power Nation never unite. While most rappers would swear on their mammas' graves that they are in control of their Hip Hop destinies, I can not help to think that behind the back stage curtain at every rap concert is an old white \"Wizard of the `hood,\" carefully manipulating the lives of our children.

Another fear within black leadership and hip-hop circles is that control of hip-hop by corporate media will help further devalue African-American men and black nationalism. Cheney (1999) explains the plight of black nationalists:

the his(s)tory of Black nationalism is characteristic of the androcentric historical narratives put forth by raptivists in the Hip Hop Movement. From East Coast groups such as Public Enemy, KRS-One and Boogie Down Productions, and X-Clan to West Coast artists like Ice Cube, Paris and Kam, rap nationalists intentionally conjure a tradition of model, and militant, Black manhood. They idolize the words and works of political personalities - men like Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Minister Louis Farrakhan - whose uncompromising public personae and urban poor/working-class roots stand as an example to those young Black men whose masculine status has been threatened by modern racial ideologies and a post-industrial, capitalist economy. However, this type of gendered invocation is not an isolated phenomenon, but an inherited one. For instance, Marcus Garvey admired Booker T. Washington while Malcolm X and Farrakhan revere(d) their spiritual father, Elijah Muhammad. In turn, during the Black Power era self-proclaimed \"sons of Malcolm\" - be they revolutionary nationalists like the Black Panthers or cultural nationalists like the US Organization - cultivated a masculinist memory of (the Nation of Islam) Malcolm X. Twenty years later as the focus of Black nationalist politics shifted from the emasculated Black man to the Black man as an \"endangered species,\" the children of the Civil Rights/Black Power generation are proving once again that the \"production of exemplary masculinity,\" (6) or hero-worship, is a necessary tool in the attempt to rehabilitate Black manhood.
In sum, the definitions imply that leadership encompasses a broad spectrum of meanings, which, at times, are in conflict. There are also many nuances to leadership, as it is an art as well as a science; leaders must be creative in terms of defining and framing issues to be addressed, inspiring potential followers to join a cause, and analytical in understanding group dynamics, strengths, weaknesses, and limitations. Most importantly, the definitions indicate that leadership is a ongoing process of taking risks, with stakes for leaders that can range from helping the marginalized to financial hardship to martyrdom. Within the context of hip-hop, leadership has even greater challenges, as battles between hip-hop minstrelsy and self-loathing and hip-hop relevance and activism remain ever present.

On African-American Leadership and Hip-Hop

Black leadership has always been hard to define. White (1985) provides some insights into this dilemma when he quotes James Baldwin:

...the problem of Negro leadership...has always been extremely delicate, dangerous, and complex. The term itself becomes remarkably difficult to define, the moment one realizes that the real role of the Negro leader, in the eyes of the American Republic, was not to make the Negro a first-class citizen but to keep him content as a second-class one.
Black leadership is a response or, more accurately, a challenge to help other blacks reject the mental acceptance and behavioral legitimization of the rules of economic and racial etiquette made by the majority community. Also, black leadership is a call for blacks to reacquaint themselves with their leadership history in order to use African-based models of leadership. The concept of black leadership is expanded by T'Shaka (1990):
...African people have great leadership traditions that need to be respected and drawn upon. Unfortunately, we (African-Americans) have been taught by our masters to imitate their philosophies, religious systems, and methods of leadership and organization. But the legacy of slavery and colonialism has instilled a deep sense of self-hatred in the minds of Blacks, making it extremely difficult to develop a creative leadership. As a result, a great barrier of mistrust has developed between leaders, who have contempt for the people they are supposed to lead--and followers who are suspicious of their leadership.
Hip-hop is addressing the leadership and mental colonialization issues within black America. For example, Cheney notes how artists use hip-hop to promote self-awareness, religion, and revolution:

Among those artists who use rap music as a forum for politicking, Black nationalism shapes their political position and, with few exceptions, the teachings of Elijah Muhammad informs their nationalist perspective. (2) For example, in his controversial 1989 release The Devil Made Me Do It militant Oakland-based raptivist Paris traces his Black nationalist roots to the 1940s and the founding of the Temple of Islam, which would later become known as the Nation of Islam. In \"Brutal\" Paris, who at the time was a self-proclaimed member of the Nation, describes the legacy of Black nationalism as beginning with W.D. Fard, the founder of the Nation of Islam, and being preserved by Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, who in turn inspired the Black Panther Party. (3) According to Paris, this tradition of \"intelligent Black men\" continues today with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and through men like himself, rap artists who are dedicated to producing music \"to spark a revolutionary mind-set\" in the Black nation. (4) And, as he declares in \"Brutal\" his mission is both sacred and secular: \"Best believe I won't stop/teachin' science in step with Farrakhan/drop a dope bomb, word to Islam/peace my brothers up on it 'cause I'm/Black and now you know I'm brutal.\" (5)
Another example of hip-hop as a revolutionary or liberating medium is the Black Panther Party's launching of a new record label, Black Panther Records, \"which focuses on releasing more socially conscious rap.\"

Black leadership is an extremely dangerous and tedious task or crusade in that they must confront black compliance of the majority's rules and expectations on various levels. Not only do black leaders have to fight black legitimization and black compliance, they must do so under the threat of physical reward (being \"bought\" or co-opted by the majority) or physical harm to themselves or to the people they are trying to help.

In his explanation of why the early \"Black Church\" did not challenge the majority power structure, Lincoln (1974) stresses the dangers innate to black leadership:

(...) Since all Blacks were equal in their inequity, i.e., their social distance from whites, to trust any Black leader was to assume the miraculous. Self-hatred left little room for imagining any Black man able to deliver in any contest with the white man. Black leaders were not as well prepared. They had little or no experience. Worst of all, since all blacks were deprived, Black leaders could not resist the pressures to \"sell out\" for a little money or a long title. Present in this attitude was the latent assumption that Black leadership was a game, which Blacks could never expect to win against whites. Hence the real goal of the Black leaders was a pay-off that would in effect permit them to win against Blacks. It was viewed as an in-group exercise in futility, well calculated to produce personal reward for the leaders but only frustration or at best some measure of catharsis for all others. At worst, a foolish or unscrupulous Black leader could bring down the wrath of the white Establishment with great suffering and increased inconvenience for those he presumed to lead.
This political and social impotence is manifesting in hip-hop circles. \"Sway,\" a reporter for MTV News, radio host, and participant in the 2001 hip-hop summit convened by Russell Simmons, indicated that:

The state of hip hop today reflects American society-with the attendant confusion, miscommunication, wealth, individualism and disconnected groups working on the same causes, said Sway, a reporter for MTV News and \"The Wake-Up Show,\" a syndicated radio program. Hip-hop needs to police and define itself to preserve power, he said.

\"Rap music has become a commodity; it's become a product and we've lost control. We don't have control over who gets signed; we don't have control over the big money as a whole. We have little percentage deals, distribution deals, imprint deals but we don't run the distribution. It's come to a time where we need to take ownership of this, understand its power and affect on the world and do good by it,\" he said.

This excerpt is significant because it raises, again, a major question in black leadership--who defines those that are black leaders?

Chuck D, in his article reviewing the 2001 hip-hop summit for The Final Call, remarks on comments by Minister Louis Farrakhan:

In that speech he (Min. Farrakhan directly dealt with the co-opting of Black Radio, The DJs, Record Companies, and Artists for their use of the musical art form; and with the media for manipulating the Black community into a \"take from, not give back\" mentality.

The one-sided exploitive use of mass communication to influence the masses was nothing new, but now it was done by elitist thinking Black folks themselves, who thought of themselves as super-Negroes. Above the public who gained their profits by the categorization of calling Them MassesThem Asses.

Based on Chuck D's analysis, it appears that hip-hop has been corrupted by corporate media and undermined by African-American elites.

Carmichael and Hamilton also address other dilemmas associated with black leadership:

Those who would assume the responsibility of representing black people in the country must be able to throw off the notion that they can effectively do so and still maintain a maximum amount of security. Jobs will have to be sacrificed, positions of prestige and status given up, favors forfeited. It may well be--and we think it is--that leadership and security are basically incompatible. When one forcefully challenges the racist system, one cannot, at the same time, expect that system to reward him or even treat him comfortably.
There are those who believe that there are other far more dangerous dilemmas in black leadership, namely black political weakness, black political naiveté, and apathy. Amiri Baraka (the poet, playwright, teacher, essayist, and civil rights activist formerly known as LeRoi Jones) highlights these dilemmas in his analysis of Jesse Jackson:

If Jesse was doing what he needs to be doing, which is being at the head of an independent new (political) party, a party that would be that thing that he said the Rainbow (Coalition) would be, but then he co-opted out to be a private Jesse Jackson-serving mechanism, he wouldn't even have to talk to Bill Clinton. He wouldn't have to be dissed (slang: disrespected, insulted) by Bill Clinton. He would be taking care of the business he needs to be taking care of: leading all of those people who are clear enough to know that the Democrats and the Republicans don't serve their interests, who have to do with black, brown, Asian, white, Latino, whoever, knows that. That's what he should have been leading. He's forfeiting that.
THERE'S ALWAYS THAT TRADEOFF OF TRYING TO WORK INSIDE OF THE SYSTEM RATHER THAN CREATING SOMETHING FROM THE OUTSIDE. YOU'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THE NEED TO DEVELOP A GENUINE ALTERNATIVE POLITICAL PARTY.

That's the only possibility. W.B. Du Bois said in 1934, which shows how our education is so lacking that it took me until 1980-something to find it out, that after this, any black person who votes for the Democratic or Republican Parties ought to be called a jackass. That was in 1934.

Baraka was not the only one disappointed with Jackson. A few members of the hip-hop community are debating whether lead