Hip-Hop and Politics, Volume 2,861

Jeff Chang links to a meaty discussion between Davey D and Cedric Muhammad of blackelectorate.com. It's a good read, and some of Cedric's thoughts are a nice complement to my earlier ramblings on the subject.

Cedric Muhammad and Davey D on "How Hip-Hop's Political Movement Gets Compromised"

Cedric: ...the problem with the Hip Hop political movement is that many of the activists don’t have good relationships with the artists. I know that there are a few that do, but on a whole I think we become what we condemned. A lot of us have become very preachy and we don’t network. A lot of us don’t like the music and we spend a lot of time condemning it as opposed to building relationships and doing business so we can get close to the artists so we can eventually influence them. Many of the ‘great thinkers’ within Hip Hop could not get a hearing with some of these artists...

...I think there’s a major disconnect behind the scenes between many of us who have all these great ideas and are from a political grassroots network and the artists. Lets be honest, the young people like the artists. They don’t care too much about too much news or what intellectuals within Hip Hop are saying. They wanna know what’s going on with Jay-Z or what’s up 50 Cent or what’s happening with the G-Unit. They wanna know about Westside Connection and the whole nine. I think some of us on the intellectual side resent that. We resent that influence that these artists have on the basis of superficiality. Rather then embracing this and synthesizing this with some of the ideas that we have. Once this happens things will change...

...Whenever you are looking for some of your out front people to be political leaders, present the ideas and do the thinking, you are going to always be in trouble. I think you need that coach, that GM and that strategist who are behind the scenes who can help that person who has the limelight and popularity...