Politics As Usual feat Timmhotep
This episode is about the government
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The message by Grand Master Flash and The Furious Five is credited with the distinction of being the first social political rap song. But I'm here to offer a counterpoint. It was just overtly focused on its. While there weren't nearly as many rap songs back then, if you were listening, you could probably find a message in all of them.
And that's because all rap songs are inherently political. In fact, rap has been political the whole time. Some people pine for the past and wish rap was still overtly pro-black. And those people probably also buy into the hard definition of what genre is. But if you ask me, conscious rap is not a thing.
Music has to be compartmentalized for marketing purposes, and sub genres are important for identifying an audience, but the type of beat a person raps to has nothing to do with the content of the music. Over classifying things for marketing purposes is how you end up with gospel drill rap or jazzy trap house or whatever other word soup description.
People end up calling a thing to. Rap music is synonymous with blackness, and rappers have been detailing the black condition the entire time. So while a lot of rappers say they don't like getting political, by sheer virtue of making rap music, their songs are political. But on the flip side, some rappers have went full on into politics by running for office.
All right. All right. So at this point, we all know about Kanye's presidential. But did you know that his longtime friend and collaborator Rhymefest ran for Alderman of Chicago or that Scarface ran for Houston City Council? Or how about that time? Luther Campbell, a k a Uncle Luke, a k a. Luke Skywalker of the two live crew ran for mayor of Miami, first at 10.
A parade of politicians and a former rap star. Rush to run for mayor of Miami Day tonight. The lineup and what voters are looking for this time around. Many say insider politicians have got to go. How are you? You can't get more outsider than hardcore rapper. Turn football coach. Turn mayoral candidate Luther Campbell.
And this campaign is about me as a businessman working for the people and all right. Okay, cool. Well, what about that town? Why CLE Jean attempted to run for president of Haiti? Whitecliff Jean's, presidential dreams appear to be. An electoral council in Haiti ruled Friday, the hip hop artist and activists cannot run for the country's highest office.
The Haitian boy singers candidacy was turned down because he did not meet the residency requirements. Now, for various reasons, none of these rappers made it into their respective offices, but there have been a few rappers who have actually rocked the vote and. Like former Bad Boy artist Shine, who is now the leader of the Opposition Party in the Belize House of Representatives.
Here's a clip of him on the Tamarin Hall Show. Welcome to the show, the Honorable Moses Shine Barrow. Do you miss wrapping? Well, you know, I, I always tell people, uh, in the House of Representatives, you are the voice of the people. And you know, if you ever listen to me speak in a House of Representatives, it's just like I'm at Madison Square Garden, you know?
Um, Because I never made music just to make music. Yeah. I was the voice of the voiceless. Right. I know that you come from a political dynasty. Your father history making politician as well. Okay. Sidebar, did y'all know that his dad, Dean Barrow, was the prime Minister of Belize from 2008 to 2020? Because I had no.
That's crazy. And do it all from the rap group lords of the Underground, who's also now known as Dupre Kelly in his role as New Jersey City Councilman. And if you think that means that he's done with rap, think again. He even pulled in Newark's Mayor Ross Baraka for a song title. Keep the faith so we climb.
Climb until we climb high. Keep the faith and stay away from the danger bullseye. You can tell where my aim was. Palm. The palm when a paint show, we made it here by face when he made it here by faith, our ancestors hands. Skies so we can stand tall and dance across time. Be beautiful deliberately, right on purpose.
Kick the face, yo. Do it all is still nice. Ironically, none of these rappers have made rap songs as their campaign ads hold up. What, why clef kind of did really, why clef president.
If I was p, I'd get elected on Friday, assassinated on Saturday, buried on Sunday. They go back to work on Monday. If I was presenting, if I. The team if I team. Oh, okay. Yeah. All right. All right. Yep. Debatable, but you got me. True. True. All right. But if you're wondering why these rappers didn't make their own campaign songs, it's because rap campaign songs never really work.
They essentially just end up as parody, like Linda Paulson's US Senate. Hey, Utah District 12. Listen upright here. There's a new name on the ballot for the Senate this year. I'm pro religious freedom, pro-life. Pro-police. The right to bear arms and the right to free speak. District 12 needs a choice. Let me be your voice.
Linda Paulson. Linda Paulson for Senate. That was, that was the opposite of bars. Anti bars or Ben Carson's air quote rap campaign ad Ben Carson 16 and support Ben Carson for our next president to be awesome. Every one of us must fight for it because we're fighting for our children and the next generation.
If we want to get America back on track, we gotta vote. Ben Carson, a matter of fact, go out and vote. I'm Ben Carson and I approve this. If you're wondering who the rapper was on that track, his name is Aspiring Mogul and he's a self-described Christian Republican rap enigma. I really wish I was making that up.
But it's true. And even when it's genuine, it just comes off as kind of corny, like this ultimate rap league battle rap styled song where Charlie Clips and D n A two very high powered and respected battle rappers duke it out over voting for Joe Biden. You know why I don't vote? Because as a black man, I just feel like there's no hope.
We always telling each other to stay. That's why this time we gotta use our voice and you have to vote. The facts should show, Biden has a plan for African Americans. We not dealing with your average Joe. You know, before you actually caught my phone, I honestly had no hope. But if Biden and Harris going to do exactly what you said, then I'm gonna go vote.
Let's. Shilling, your latest brand endorsements is way easier than laying out the policy of your platform. It's, it's just hard to turn legislature into a jam, which is kind of odd because detailing the conditions you're living in seems like it also lends itself to platforming people with solutions. But not that odd when you consider that rap and activism go hand in hand.
Activism in the government, not so much. And one of my favorite rap activism moments was Cameron and Dame Dash versus Bill O'Reilly. How do you hurt children by promoting to be an entrepreneur and the c e o and the dude, right? We looking at a prince, for example. For example, called You're looking at a princip, why you don't wanna let him talking, man, where'd you.
Where'd you start curing the fear, right? No, Rob, well, you looking, your looking got on you doggy camera. I'm get at you in the middle. You go ahead. You get at me. I'm gonna get at you. Wait, what? That's not activism all. All right? Yeah. Okay. You're right. It's not really activism, but it feels like it because Fuck Bill O'Reilly.
Yeah. Fuck that dude. For real. One rapper who sits squarely between. Activism and sometimes government is killer Mike, he's a wonderful speaker with strong opinions, big ideas, and an even bigger platform. And to call him polarizing would be a severe understatement. A little while ago, he came under fire for doing an interview with NRA TV about black gun ownership, and later went on to apologize for his remarks.
How y'all doing out there? Um, I sat with a group called the National Rifle Association. I did an interview about black gun ownership, um, in this era. That interview was used a week later by N R A TV to disparage a very noble campaign that I actually support. So I wanna say first, I'm sorry guys. I'm sorry that an interview I did about, um, a minority black people in this country and gun rights.
You was used as a weapon against you guys that was unfair to you and it was wrong and it disparaged some very noble work you're doing. He then went on to get a Netflix show called Trigger Warning, and he can probably explain it better than I can. So here's a clip of him on Joe Rogan's podcast discussing the show's premise.
The best compliment I got on this press run has been like, how's it feel to have the most dangerous show on tv? And it's dangerous because it unites. Doesn't separate people. It gives you alternative answers in the ones you thought you had and it forces you to think it doesn't solve all the problems or wrap it up pretty at the end.
It gives you some options to do and some shit to think about and, and it's funny as fucking subversive and dark and I like it. It tackles the economy, gang culture, religion, education, and more. And if none of that ruffles your feathers. He's got a brand new show called Love and Respect, where he interviews politicians and other notable public figures.
He recently sat down with Herschel Walker ahead of his run for the Georgia State Senate, and as you can imagine, this brought Mike into public scrutiny. Yeah, I'm not gonna sit through a Herschel Walker interview to find. Sorry, I gotta draw the line somewhere. He was also not a fan of Obama, but believe it or not, several other rappers criticized Obama too, including M one of Dead Press, Lupe Fiasco, and most notably Kanye West.
He's a jackass to some things up. Rap is a powerful tool for spreading a message. And while we all have a voice, not many of us have the micro. Black history is American history. The two are inseparable. And no matter what Ron DeSantis says, we, and by we, I mean black people deserve a stake in shaping a country and culture that we very much built.
And look, in a lot of ways, community leadership has been replaced with entrepreneurship because people think you can buy your way out of oppression, but you just end up buying deeper into. Financial activism, if that's even a thing, is just capitalism. I mean, is that a thing? It sounds weird. Like, did I just make that up?
Look, I've got a lot of thoughts, some scattered, some focused, but much like Black History Month, this episode is way too short to touch on all the points I like to cover. So let's just get into the conversation with writer and curator, Tim Hotep, to see if he can help us make some sense of all of this.
TRACKLIST:
Sense - Mavi
Hip Hop - Dead Prez
Obamacare - Quelle Chris
Politics As Usual - Jay Z
Cell Therapy - Goodie Mob
Don’t Smoke K2 - Denmark Vessey
Magnificent - Black Thought
Shut Em Down - Public Enemy
Figg Get Da Money - Schoolboy Q
A Bird In The Hand - Ice Cube
Fruits Of The Spirit - Jay Electronica
Self - Noname
Incarcerated Scarfaces - Raekwon
Dig It - The Coup
The Hustle - Common
FDT - YG
The Racist - BDP
The Message - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5
1TakeMookie - MoRuf
Fuck A War - Geto Boys
Alright - Kendrick Lamar