2 Kings In A Cipher - Part One

We know that Hip-Hop has accomplished a lot since it became the foundation of our first issue back in ’88. So much, in fact, that it sometimes becomes difficult to get a clear picture of the lessons Hip-Hop’s rise has taught us about the world around us and about ourselves. With that in mind, the Mind Squad recruited two of academia’s biggest Hip-Hop champions for a sit down to discuss some of the most important and influential issues that we as a culture have experienced during the last two decades.

Georgetown University professor Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and Princeton University professor Dr. Cornel West joined two of the owning partners of The Source, entertainment lawyer L. Londell McMillan, ESQ and investment banker Jeffrey Scott, and the rest of the Mind Squad in a conversation moderated by Public Enemy frontman and activist Chuck D.

Chuck D: Right now it seems like the world’s biggest reality show is the election and Sen. Barack Obama. Effect on the Hip-Hop community—is there any?

Dyson: I think that it is fascinating to see a figure emerge from a Hip-Hop generation because Barack Obama is speaking about listening to Jay-Z on his iPod and meeting with Kanye West. Obama does represent the first, should he be successful, president who will emerge from the Hip-Hop generation and the question is, does his style and sensibility reflect that? To what degree can that be deployed to deal with issues that underline the lives of everyday, ordinary citizens who are between 17 and 25-years-old?

The subprime mortgage scandal is huge, 2.2 million Americans in prison—900,000 of them are black people. The question is, to what degree can an Obama presidency not simply put a sheen and a shine on an imperial presidency that refuses to interrogate the inside of vulnerability and powerlessness in black communities.

Chuck D: Sly Stone about 35 years ago made a song called “Everyday People.” Is Hip-Hop talking to everyday people, or is it aspiring to bling the noise as opposed to bring it?

West: You got some Hip-Hop artists who are much more into bling and cream—money ruling everything around them—rather than the truth and justice ruling one in a context within which money rules. That kind of truth telling needs to be done on both fronts, political and musical. The way you been doing it, Brother Chuck.

Chuck D: The Source has been a constant resource throughout the last 20 years of Hip-Hop. But if a publication expects to actually talk to everyday folks and the music doesn’t talk to everyday folks, how does the gap get addressed?

Dyson: When you look at Hip-Hop, you have the extraordinary expansion of opportunity for a few rappers at the top to make exorbitant, extraordinary, ridiculous money, but the average Hip-Hopper is not getting paid in that same way. How do we not only redistribute the capital, but how do you make sense of a Dead Prez, The Roots, Talib Kweli, Mos Def?

Look at what you did, Chuck, with your run of four great albums that really situated political discourse in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s with the neo-nationalist revolution that came into effect. I don’t want to dismiss the legitimate quest for capital to relieve suffering, but most of that capital has just meant the reproduction of suffering.

There was much more knowledge dropped during this discussion! Check out the rest of part one in our September issue. The dialogue will continue in our October issue, so stay tuned.