Hip-Hop is a cultural movement that was formed following the defeat of the African Revolution of the 1960s. Its poetics, aesthetics, and politics reflect African life under the US counterinsurgency.
The conditions that define the moment hip-hop arose were: increased privatization, mass unemployment and poverty, increased colonial violence and a decrease in mass mobilization. Hip-Hop shares these conditions with other African art forms such as the blues and calypso, of an earlier period, and reggae music of the 1970s.
Hip-Hop’s enduring character is attributed to its origins in the African working class.
Hip-Hop and rap music has, at times, offered political prescriptions to the African Working Class. More than often, rappers and other cultural workers have reflected the revolutionary upsurge amongst the masses.
Historically, the most remarkable rap group was Dead Prez. As this episode's guests noted, Dead Prez did not just rap about political topics, they had excellent skill and production but were also African Internationalist organizers. This year is the 20th anniversary of Dead Prez’s album Let’s Get Free.
In 2020, rappers and African cultural workers have entered into political debates over police violence and electoral politics. As we see in this episode, their conclusions are not always what we expect but, as our guest Professor Fanon Che Wilkins notes, we should continue to engage rappers and Hip-Hop as an arena of struggle.
In this episode, we do just that.
Hosts Dr. Matsemela Odom and Muambi Tangu talk with:
February 21st is African Martyrs Day!
No Thanks to Colonialism! Celebrating African and Indigenous Solidarity and Anti-colonial Resistance
Salute to the late Calypsonian Black Stalin with Trini Trent Part 1
African Internationalists take the Revolutionary discussion of Reparations into the halls of academia
DOJ and FBI place economic sanctions on the African Liberation Movement
Salute to our African Martyrs! Hands Off Uhuru!
Black Power radio fights back against Florida censorship
FBI attacks Black Power leaders in St. Louis, St. Petersburg
Episode #120: The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin surveilled by COINTELPRO for 40 years; the arts are not refuge; African culture workers urged to get involved
Episode #119: Russia releases Griner; Biden called to release Africans still in U.S. penal colonies on marijuana charges
Episode #118: The Colonial Origins of Santa Claus
Episode #117: Free Our Brothers! Wrongfully convicted Africans fight for justice
Episode #116: No Thanks to Colonialism! Celebrating African and Indigenous Solidarity and Anticolonial Resistance
Episode #115: DOJ indicts China: African, Indigenous activists respond
Episode #114: Long Live Thomas Sankara, hero of Burkina Faso, ”Land of the upright people”!
Episode #113: The Woman King film review round table
Episode #112: Defending the African Community! We are our own liberators!
Episode #111: Now that you’ve seen ”The Woman King”, view the African Internationalist classic film, ”Bush Mama”
Episode #110: Covid-19, Pop Culture and the Anticolonial Turn in Africana Studies
Episode #109:The Role of Black Students and Intellectuals in the African Revolution
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