In this article I will be discussing the history of hip hop, the social significance of hip hop, how it has been molded into something it is not - and how it is a political weapon.
This is the second installment in The power of grassroots political prowess series.
What is Hip Hop?
Hip Hop is an art form developed in the early 1970’s in the south Bronx of New York by the oppressed black minorities of the area.
It is widely believed to have been pioneered by Jamaican born D.J. Kool Herc - who used an innovative turntable technique to stretch a songs drum break by playing the break portion of two identical records consecutively.
Yet it was Grand Master Flash who later improved upon this method.
Out of this act of musical rebellion was born the five elements of Hip Hop.
It directly influenced the becoming of Break dancing, D. J.ing, and M.C.ing.
The fifth element of Hip Hop is knowledge.
Knowledge is the aspect of Hip Hop that directly influences all the others.
The Hip Hop element of Graffiti is a further expression of knowledge and self.
It is an act of branding oneself: leaving a legacy in the form of art.
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were also used to represent a certain aspect of a particular Egyptian culture - as well as spread knowledge.
These are pictographs that tell stories.
The name Hip Hop itself translates into enlightenment + action.
The word Hip comes from the Wolof verb Hipi, which means to open one’s eyes and see.
The word Hop is an old English word which means, “to spring into action”.
Therefore, Hip Hop is Knowledge + Movement: Intelligent expression.
You can learn more about the occult roots of Hip Hop by watching this video
Why was it born?
There are many reasons for the birth of Hip Hop.
Hip Hop is a mix of Caribbean, African and American Culture.
The three pioneers of the first aspect of Hip Hop (Herc, Flash, and Afrika Bambaataa),immigrated to America from the Caribbean Islands.
With it they brought those specific sounds and drum basses; they also developed the break beat phenomena of Disk Jockeying.
The African culture also brought over certain drum sounds, tones and melodies, as well as the culture of music dance and voice all being tied into the same definition.
African music is a utilitarian function used in vital aspects of life such as, a child’s naming ceremony, initiation rights, agricultural activities, national ceremonies, war times, religious ceremonies and ceremonies for the dead….Because of the importance of dance in the daily life of Africans in their homeland, many Africans that were enslaved continued to use dance as a way to keep their cultural traditions and connect with their home country. Enslaved Africans that were taken to colonies in South America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal were given much more freedom to carry on their dance traditions than those who were brought to North America. Sadly, many of the North American slave owners prohibited Africans from performing most of their traditional dances.The importance and spirit of dance were not stopped by these restrictions, however. African slaves found ways to adapt their dancing and continue their traditions in secret.
The African Music and Dance traditions included the use of various types of instruments including voice powered, wind, different types of drums etc.
The Music and dance is weaved together as one ceremony.
The different vibrations of music signified different ceremonies, like a ceremony of birth, or a ceremony of death.
It is also known that many black people living in the Caribbean islands, Europe, south america, etc, originally were from Africa.
The African race can be traced back to the Gnostic wisdom of ancient Khem - what we now call Egypt.
This is one of the oldest advanced civilizations and some scientists , even date it as far back as 30, 000 + years.
When Africans were enslaved and taken to America, they were robbed of much of their cultural heritage.
For example, American Slave-masters began to notice that when a certain drum beat was played, the Africans began to act a certain way - when a low vibration beat was played, they all knew it was a war song and got together to plot an uprising - and thus their drums were banned.
Similarly, when Africans were freed from slavery, musical instruments in African american schools were banned.
This was done to suppress the African spirit and to keep them obedient.
Being a musical culture without a means of musical expression - naturally African Americans created Hip Hop as both a means of expression and as a means for entertainment and rebellion.
How is Hip Hop Political?
Hip Hop is a catalyst for awareness.
Hip Hop has been conveying occult knowledge from the very beginning.
From lyrics that are coded messages to album covers that convey deep meanings; Gnostic Hip Hop affects our subconscious and conscious mind: it forces us to think.
As such, it is political in the sense that it enlightens the listener and inspires him to take action.
Rapping over break beats began as a hype promotion tool.
Like: How check my man D.J.in' over here....you know hes got style. Ya'll can't do what he does on a daily baby!
Yet it slowly evolved into a tool for expressing what was going on in one’s hood and telling stories.
However, many rappers weren't just telling stories: they were dropping knowledge.
Rap's common designation as "CNN for black people" may result from the descendance of rappers from Griots, respected African oral historians and praise-singers. Griots were the keepers and purveyors of knowledge, including tribal history, family lineage, and news of births, deaths, and wars. Travelling Griots spread knowledge in an accessible form--the spoken word--to members of tribal villages.
A group known as the five percent nation - or nation of gods and earths - has had a direct influence on Hip Hop Gnosticism.
It is correlated to the nation of Islam and was created by the a head general of the fruit of Islam - Clarence 13X - as a subgroup to the nation of Islam.
Clarence felt it was his duty to teach young black urban minorities the truth and science that they otherwise would never have been taught.
He taught a science that can be broken down like this:
5 % = The poor watchers / teachers of the planet
85 % = The mystery God believers and the slaves of the the mental death and power. The ones easily led in the wrong direction and hard to be led in the right
10 % = The rich bloodsuckers of the poor and middle classes.
Or in other words;
[It] reflects the concept that ten percent of the people in the world know the truth of existence, and those elites and agents opt to keep eighty-five percent of the world in ignorance and under their controlling thumb; the remaining five percent are those who know the truth and are determined to enlighten the rest.[2]
M.C.’s such as Nas, Jay-z, Busta Rhymes, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, LL cool J, Big Pun, as well as groups Wu Tang Clan, Gang Starr, and poor righteous teachers, where all members of this group.
The most political aspect of Hip Hop is knowledge - which is most strongly pushed by the master of ceremony - who masters the track with a combination of knowledge, verbal skillz, and awareness of musical composition
….Yes…..M.C. stands for Master of Ceremony.
An M.C. masters the track with the spoken word. Without knowledge, however, words would have no meaning, and so knowledge is the key to Hip Hop.
The best way to rebel and rise up against the system is to affect the subconscious (and conscious) mind of a wide audience.
When you can change someones mind about something you can affect how they view the world, and this influences how they make decisions and react or respond to situations.
Knowledge is power.
When you know about something, when you have knowledge, it dramatically affects your actions.
Think about 9/11 for a minute….
Can you Imagine if one of these Hip Hop artists had warned about it before it happened?
…..wait….they did…
This album by Hip Hop group Coup was planned in may and released in june 2001, according to snopes.com
Which would mean it was planned before 9/11.
Although the album was to be dropped in November of 2001, the album cover was released on their website as a pre - release campaign...yet the design was changed after 9/11
It clearly depicts the Twin Towers being blown up.
Could the coup have been trying to warn its audience of a catastrophic event?
If somebody who worked in the world trade centre just so happened to be a fan of Hip Hop and listen to this particular group - would they have taken this with all of the other warning signs and decided that there would be an attack on 9/11?
Perhaps they would have decided not to go to work that day….or perhaps it would have inspired them to launch a political campaign to warn people of this event.
Obviously - without any question at all - there were warnings before 9/11.
Because OBVIOUSLY - and this is a FACT, not a theory - 9/11 was planned.
It doesn’t matter WHO planned it, just that it was planned.
The fact that it was planned means that all of these warnings allowed those with eyes to see and ears to hear to escape the catastrophe.
This is just one example of how knowledge can be empowering.
I think the reason that Hip Hop can have such a dramatic political impact is because it spreads knowledge in a way that is extremely entertaining.
It is a form of music that raises one’s vibration and delivers a message. Inspiring and motivating an individual: informing listeners to important information that rallies them to a cause.
Early examples of political Hip Hop are groups like public enemy who produced songs like fight the power.
This song is telling minorities ( the working class) that they are powerful - that they can rise against the powers that be.
And that we have a responsibility to fight the powers that be.
Songs like one mic by Nas
Are similarly portraying the truth that the system is a paper tiger and that police are just a gang - people harassed by police and feds can defend themselves.
It is an active call for rebellion: which proves that it is DEFINITELY political.
These songs change perspective and how people may feel about a certain situation by telling stories and delivering perspective.
They change outdated beliefs which change how the listener sees the world and how they act.
You must learn by KRS One
Enlightens listeners to the fact that the school education system is not educating youth on the truth of world history, and that youth have to put an effort into educating themselves on the actual truth.
The school system was only invented to indoctrinate human beings into corporate slavery - and to have them willingly participate in a system that invents them as slaves.
This system takes kids from their parents at a young age and fills their heads with all kinds of garbage. The rulers of america do not want educated youth - they want obedient workers.
This song by Dead Prez confronts the same epidemic in his song "they" schools
Tupac’s Brenda's Got a baby
Enlightens listeners to the facts of pre-teen prostitution and early pregnancy.
It paints an even bigger picture - subconsciously - about how one member of the community can affect the whole community in a domino effect.
The fact that nobody was there for the fictional character Brenda meant that her baby was left in a dumpster, that she had to turn to prostitution to support herself, and that she was slain.
Tupac was a very conscious political rapper. He knew the power of words and he did everything he could to empower his community of compton L.A. , and the world.
Tupacs mother, Afina Shakur, was a member of the Black Panthers , and she raised Tupac to be a political warrior.
His songs Killuminati,
And Hail Mary,
And even more so, his ideology behind killuminati,
Was trying to inform communities and inspire rebellion toward societal controllers.
He was trying to tell people that this idea we have of an all powerful “illuminati”...needs to die.
He wasn’t spouting a conspiracy theory - he was telling the people that we are more powerful than them and can take back our communities and defend them from police and F.B.I. etc.
In his 1995 prison interview
(he was locked up on bogus charges as part of a smear campaign)
He similarly said that so called “Gangsters” , if they are so thug, should stop killing other black people and unite in a war against the state - the real enemy.
This song is one of the most overloaded with knowledge in my opinion. It is so in your face that you cannot just shrug it off - you have to accept that at least some of it is true.
It is a song that causes a stirring in the heart of listeners that causes them to want to know more of the truth.
It is a revolutionary song.
It presents the truth that only power can trump power and that the systemic coalition of secret societies and global institutions has a secret agenda and don't give 1 fuck about 99.9 % of the population: and tells us that we need to defend ourselves and our communities
These songs by Diabolic - an irish german M.C. - unleash a major political attack against the powers that be with these two tracks titled Truth, and Truth part 2
This song by Dead prez, titled propaganda,
Confronts the fact that this whole societal matrix is set up by the powers that be just to suppress and degrade the mass majority on planet earth and retain their power through our suppression.
^ More real Hip Hop
Even songs like Mos Def's Mathematics ,
Teach us to look at the numbers - not opinions - for the truth.
You want to know the agenda of the united states shadow government? Find out what their spending your money on.
Overall,
these songs - and many more - confront many topics like secret societies that control earth, and that various institutions have declared war against the people of the world.
All of these songs are just examples of how Hip Hop can be political.
Real Hip Hop is a catalyst for awareness; and this is political, especially with an expanded definition of politics - which I will get to in my next post.
In my opinion, voting, government offices, titles like conservative and liberal are all very fake representations of politics.
I think politics consists of the same equation as Hip Hop….
Knowledge + action = change.
Hip Hop challenges the status quo and demands a voice be heard.
Political Hip Hop is a call for action, and it can be used to initiate perspective, rally people toward a cause, and utterly obliterate falsely held belief systems or prejudices.
Given the fact that all is mind, the ability for hip hop to initiate new perspective should be seen as incredibly powerful.
If you cannot liberate the mind, you cannot liberate the spirit.
If you are not entirely informed on a situation, your actions will be misguided.
This is how Hip Hop can be used as a political weapon.
It is like a nuclear bomb - but instead of fire, knowledge is the main ingredient to blow up the institutionalized system of control.
False Hip Hop
It was a quarter past 8 0 clock
Bill called me and he named the spot
This vacant lot around the way from the bagel shop
He schooled me to exactly how the C.I.A. would plot
To make Hip Hop’s value nothing more than a Jacobs watch.
~ Diabolic
Hip Hop's appropriation by the commercial entertainment industry has created an unrealistic caricature of its original design.
I will try not to get into conspiracies....but basically some things can't be denied.
Whether or not you believe that the C.I.A. and F.B.I , along with various police units, conspired in a COINTELPRO manner to destroy Hip Hop....or not, the fact stands that commercialized Hip Hop is a watered down version of what Hip Hop actually is.
Labels push only "artists" who push and glorify sex, sex, sex, selling drugs and killing other members of the community.
They do not push revolutionary artists as that would threaten the establishment.
Everybody knows that it is the 'shittiest' artists that get the most spotlight.
These artists are not only non - dangerous to the establishment: they promote the massive dumbing down of America.
Furthermore,
The people who own the media are the same people who own private prisons, the EXACT same people, and using one to promote the other is (or “would be,” depending on your analysis) very lucrative.
In this article ,
Homeboy Sandman points to the facts that equity groups that own top % shares in the corrections corporation of america - which seeks to expand across the entire untied states - while simultaneously owning top shares in the gigantic media conglomerates who control "Ninety percent of what Americans read, watch and listen to" , have been and are conspiring to have rap music be "manipulated to drive up privatized prison profits".
This is a considerably dangerous reality, and I highly suggest you skim over the article to see the proof.
This is possible because the information you are subjected to is what builds your world view.
Therefore, if young black men are completely subjected to the commercial industries idea of a black man - a thug who holds onto nihilism as if it is his God and does not care about his community and only himself - then that is what he will become
What we give our attention to has a direct influence on our subconscious mind.
If bullshit propaganda in T.V. , school, and in the music and film entertainment industry is being shoved down our throats by appearing in every avenue and medium possible, then it is easy to think that this is normal.
It is actually the farthest thing from normal, and the very idea of propaganda sickens me.
Hip Hop has been stolen from the original community which created it,
It has been turned into a caricature of its original design.
What was once Hip Hop is now in the commercialized world something they call "rap".....and only rap - very bad and untalented rap, which does not embody the spirit of Hip Hop.
It has been infiltrated and turned into a commodity - instead of a voice of the oppressed.
It is no longer a political tool as long as we give our attention to these corporate giants who put out songs like
http://djbooth.net/tracks/review/01196-remy-boy-monty-not-poppin-fetty-wap
this.
We can take back Hip Hop
We are living in the attention economy.
What you give your attention to, what you give your energy to, you perpetuate and manifest.
What you give your energy to, you give life to.
Its time that we stop consuming what the powers that are dying want us to consume.
Instead of giving all of your attention and support to mainstream artists who boast about selling crack and shaking their ass - providing absolutely no substance or realness - how about you instead put effort into searching for and digging up the music you listen to, the shows and movies you watch, the articles you read.
After all, if you want to find gold, you've got to dig.
Instead of paying attention to mass propaganda - pay no attention to it. Pay attention to solutions.
When you control what you give your attention to, you control what you give life to.
I would suggest, to only give life to that which you truly wish to bring into fruition.
And with that,
I thank you for your attention.
Img-sources: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5
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