Hip Hop and the American Constitution

Dr. Donald Tibbs in collaboration with Professor andré douglas pond cummings are offering a first-of-its-kind law school course entitled "Hip Hop and the American Constitution," this spring semester 2012. Through an innovative link-up between Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law and the West Virginia University College of Law, Tibbs and cummings are presenting to law students at both schools an intellectual and academic experience connecting the intersections of hip hop with the law. The course is being presented primarily as a lecture series, where academics and activists from across the nation are traveling to Philadelphia and presenting their published work which examines various aspects of the the law through the lens of hip hop, its artists, culture and messaging. Students will be required to read the lecturing scholars work, be it law review articles or books, and will then intellectually engage with the visiting scholars following a lecture presented by each visiting professor. In addition, students will keep a journal of their insights through the semester, and will present a final paper tackling a current issue in the law and how hip hop music or culture critiques this law.

The lecture series will occur on Thursday evenings at Drexel Law throughout the spring 2012 semester and is being broadcast live to students at WVU Law. The lecture series line-up will proceed throughout the semester as follows:

January 19, 2012: Professor Bret Asbury, Drexel Law, "Anti-Snitching and the Hip Hop Community"

January 26, 2012: Professor andré douglas pond cummings, WVU Law, "All Eyez on Me: Hip Hop, Mass Incarceration and the Prison Industrial Complex

February 3, 2012: Professor Paul Butler, George Washington Law, "Let's Get Free: A Hip Hop Theory of Justice

February 9, 2012: Dr. Imani Perry, Princeton University, "Prophets of the 'Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop"

February 16, 2012: Professor Akilah Folami, Hofstra Law, "Law, Hip Hop and the Black Public Sphere"

February 23, 2012: Dr. Tryon Woods, UMass - Dartmouth, "Law, Black Sexual Politics, and Punishment"

March 1, 2012: Professor Kim Chanbonpin, John Marshall Law, "Legal Writing, The Remix: Plagiarism and Hip Hop Ethics

March 8, 2012: Professor Anthony Farley, Albany Law, "Sarah Palin: The Last Black President or Straight Up Gangsta"

March 22, 2012: Professor Pamela Bridgewater, American Law, "Is Feminism Dead? Is Hip Hop Dead? And Other 21st Century Questions of Marginal Utility"

March 29, 2012: Professor Andre Smith, Widener Law, "OPP - Other People's Property: Hip Hop's Inherent Clashes With Property Laws and its Ascendance as Global Counter Culture"

April 5, 2012: Dr. Donald Tibbs, Drexel Law, "From Black Power to Hip Hop"

April 12, 2012: Guest Finale/Keynote Speaker (TBA)

Contributing scholars who will teach portions of the WVU Law section include Professor Atiba Ellis, WVU Law and Nick Sciullo, Ph.d candidate, Georgia State University.

Each of the above lecture series participants will publish their articles or book excerpts in an anthology that Tibbs and cummings will edit, slated for publication in 2013.

Founding Fathers Try Their Hand at Rapping

Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and Hip Hop? Hip Hop on Broadway? Although at first these concepts might seem completely unrelated, “The Hamilton Mixtape”—merging hip hop and theater—has recently opened as part of New York City’s Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. Inspired by Ron Chernow’s book, Alexander Hamilton, the act comes alive with its hip-hop rock fusion.

Between Alexander Hamilton rapping that death is just a beat without a melody or arguing (and rapping) with Aaron Burr, American history and hip hop liven up—and merge—in this dynamic show. But considering that Hamilton feuded with Burr in a territorial clash, it is easy to extrapolate the beef to hip hop—say, Tupac and Biggie Smalls.

So while it may have taken a leap to merge hip hop and our founding fathers, and while the flow may be dubious, this fusion may be what is needed to get the music theater movement rolling again.

Angela M. Nelson on Rap, Percussion, and Theology

From LawRhetoricandDebate.org: 

Angela M. Nelson (Bowling Green State University – Department of Popular Culture) has published “Put Your Hands Together”: The Theological Meaning of Percussion and Percussiveness in Rap Music (Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture (1900 to the present), Vol. 10, No. 1, Spring 2011). Here is a sample:

A framework for studying rap music is related to the social and artistic textures of African-American popular culture. These textures are best understood through the concept of repertoire (Hall 289) and relate to the aesthetic beliefs and values of Africana people. Rap music is a product of popular culture that is drawn from an African-American cultural repertoire, which consists of the specific devices, techniques, ideologies, expressive art forms, or products of people of Africana descent that influence part of their culture (whether as context, texture, or text). Often derived from the folk tradition (see Soitos 37) and dominant culture, these components form a foundation of a black aesthetic and are used to create black popular cultural products. Religion, theology, and spirituality as they relate to beliefs and values lie within the social textures of rap music. Rhythm, percussiveness, and call-response lie within the artistic textures, or cultural repertoire, of rap music as well.

Call for Submissions - Iowa Law's Journal of Gender, Race & Justice

The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice is seeking innovative scholarship for Volume 16. The Journal is dedicated to the living discussion of feminist inquiry and critical race analysis in legal scholarship. We explore how people are classified, stratified, ignored and singled out under the law because of race, sex, gender, economic class, ability, sexual identity and the multitude of labels applied to us. The Journal would like to invite legal authors of all perspectives to submit proposals for articles to fill Volume 16 of our publication.

For more information about the Journal please see: http://blogs.law.uiowa.edu/jgrj.

Please send article or proposal submissions, along with your curriculum vitae to Whitney Smith at whitney-e-smith@uiowa.edu

The deadline for submission of proposals is January 30, 2012.

The University of Iowa College of Law's Journal of Gender, Race and Justice's mission statement reads in part as follows:

"The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice is not for the weak of heart or the timid in spirit. Feminist inquiry and critical race analysis are the touchstones of our endeavor. Our building blocks are new forms of analysis that reach beyond traditional conceptions of legal thought. We challenge our writers, our readers, and ourselves to question who we are and how the law defines us. We strive to be a transformative experience. In a spirit of openness, we explore how we are classified, stratified, ignored and singled out under the law because of our race, sex, gender economic class, ability, sexual identity and the multitude of labels applied to us. Identity is a matrix of experiences; when the law fails to recognize any one facet of our identity, both the law and the person lose invaluable dimension. Our challenge is to examine how we negotiate our identities, how the legal system negotiates them for us and how these negotiations affect our ability to attain justice."

R.I.P. Heavy D

Heavy D collapsed in his Beverly Hills home today, passing away at the age of 44. According to CNN, Heavy D (né Dwight Arrington Myers) "was pronounced dead in the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Tuesday afternoon, according to Los Angeles County coroner's operations chief Craig Harvey. The cause of death has not been determined, Harvey said.

While his hip-hop recording career began in 1987 with his group Heavy D & the Boyz, his breakthrough hit came in 1991 with a remake of the O'Jays' 'Now That We Found Love.'"

Most recently seen as an actor with a small part in Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller's heist comedy "Tower Heist," Heavy D was a prominent figure in the hip hop world in the late 1980s and early 1990s, recording his classic "Now That We Found Love" and also the theme track for "In Living Color" during that time period. The influential and pioneering Heavy D. will be missed. RIP

A Shout Out from The Faculty Lounge

Yesterday, on The Faculty Lounge blog, Bridget Crawford wrote that “Hip Hop and the Law” would be a great course. She was inspired by a Washington Post story concerning Dr. Michael Eric Dyson’s Georgetown University undergraduate course on “Sociology of Hip Hop – Urban Theodicy of Jay-Z.” As another source of inspiration, she pointed to our blog, HipHopLaw.com. We want to thank Bridget for the shout out and return the favor. I, for one, am a fan of The Faculty Lounge. It is a useful source of intellectual conversation and thoughtful information, especially about the legal academy.

Let me also offer another example of teaching at the intersection of hip hop and the law: Professor Donald Tibbs of The Earl Mack School of Law of Drexel University received a grant this past spring to start a course on Hip Hop and the American Constitution. His distinguished group of guest lecturers includes Paul Butler, Imani Perry and HipHopLaw.com bloggers Pamela D. Bridgewater, andré douglas pond cummings, and Akilah Folami. The lectures will culminate in a book to be edited by Tibbs and cummings.

We look forward to hearing more about this project as it progresses.

--Atiba Ellis

Chanbonpin on Legal Writing, Plagiarism and Hip-Hop Ethics

Kim D. Chanbonpin (John Marshall School of Law - Chicago) has posted Legal Writing, the Remix: Plagiarism and Hip-Hop Ethics (forthcoming in the Mercer Law Review) on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

In this Article, I focus on hip hop music and culture as an access point to teach first-year law students about the academic and professional pitfalls of plagiarism.  Hip hop provides a good model for comparison because most of our entering students are immersed in a popular culture that is saturated with allusions to hip hop.  As a point of reference for incoming law students, hip hop possesses a valuable currency as it represents something real, experienced, and relatable.

Significant parallels exist between the cultures of U.S. legal writing and hip hop, although attempting direct analogies would be absurd.  Chief among these similarities is the reliance of both cultures on an archive of knowledge, borrowing from which authors or artists build credibility and authority.  Whether it is from case law or musical recordings, the necessary dependence on a finite store of information means that the past work of others will be frequently incorporated into new work.  The ethical and professional danger inherent in this type of production is that one who borrows too freely from the past may be merely copying instead of interpreting or innovating. In the academic world, this is plagiarism.  Members of the hip hop community call this “biting.” In neither culture is this mode of production celebrated.

My goals for this project are two-fold.  First, as a professor of legal writing, I want to ameliorate the problem of plagiarism that I have seen growing worse each year. Second, as a scholar, I would like to contribute to the growing body of literature on hip hop and the law.  This Article marks the beginning of my attempt to theorize a hip hop ethics and develop its application to the teaching, the academic study, and perhaps eventually, the reform of the law.


A most enthusiastic hat tip to Margaret Kwoka, who I met at LatCrit XVI, for passing this information on to me.


-- Nick J. Sciullo

The President's Hip Hop BBQ?

What most would refer to as a private 50th birthday party for President Obama last month, Fox Nation (an online extension of Fox News) decided instead to call it a "Hip Hop BBQ." But not just any hip hop barbeque, one that FAILED to create any jobs. As captured in the image on the left, Fox Nation chose not to highlight other notable non-hip hop birthday guests like Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and Rahm Emmanuel, but instead chose to draw a link between Obama and hip hop in what can only be interpreted as a negative connotation.

The image and headline attempt to tie the President to what many deem to be a dangerous subculture (hip hop). Further, the story and headline attempts to perpetuate the tired stereotype of "lazy" black men, who were partying, not working, as evidenced by the President's failure to create new jobs at his 50th birthday party.

According to the New York Times, the hip hop barbeque article generated more than 2,000 comments, some of which were virulent and racist. "A small number of the user comments on the article page were overtly racist, while others condemned the article; one such comment stated, 'Racism is still alive, and Fox Nation is exploiting it.' [Fox spokesperson] Mr. Shine said, 'We found many of the comments to be offensive and inappropriate and they have been removed. We also shut down further comments on this piece.'"

CFP: Rap and Hip Hop Culture SW/TPC & ACA

Call for Papers: RAP AND HIP HOP CULTURE

Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association
February 8-11, 2012
Albuquerque, NM
Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Center
Downtown Albuquerque
http://www.swtxpca.org
Proposal submission deadline: December1, 2011
Submit Paper Proposals Here: http://conference2012.swtxpca.org
Proposals for both Panels and Individual Papers are nowbeing accepted for the Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture Area. We had excellent representation in this Arealast year and we are looking to expand in both quantity and complexity for thisyear’s conference. We are particularly interested in proposals that address the following but accept any proposal thatdeals with rap music and hip hop culture:

- Intersections of Hip Hop and Pedagogy

- Rap Music, Hip Hop Culture, and Space/Place

- Theoretical approaches to Hip Hop (i.e., LanguageTheory/Postmodernism/Social Theory)

- Rap, Hip Hop, and Academic Disciplinarity

- Rhetorical Approaches to Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture

- Rap, Hip Hop, and Film/Documentary

- Hip Hop Subjectivities/Agency

- Anthropological/Sociological approaches to Hip Hop Culture

- Economics and Hip Hop Culture

- Discussions of international Hip Hop

- Intersections of Hip Hop and Religion/Theology

- Hip Hop and Technology

- Latino Hip Hop

- Women and Hip Hop

- Hip Hop in the age of Obama

As always, papers and panels that consider the myriad waysthat Rap Music and Hip Hop culture impact and feed upon Popular and Americanculture are encouraged. This Area shouldbe construed broadly, and we seek papers that aren’t afraid to take risks. Proposals from Graduate Students areparticularly welcome, with award opportunities for the best graduate papers.

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words withrelevant audio/visual requests by December 1, 2011, to http://conference2012.swtxpca.org. Panel proposals should include one abstractof 200 words describing the panel, accompanied by the underlying abstracts of250 words of the individual papers that comprise the panel.

The Business of Dead Rappers

While it is understood that death typically stalls a career, some artists have been able to not only live beyond their untimely deaths, but also extend their popularity. Two icons, Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, are such examples. Having been murdered when they were at the top of the hip-hop game, both continue to live on as icons. Both artists have released posthumous albums. One of Biggie’s albums, “Ready to Die,” released fifteen days after his 1997 death, sold more than 10 million copies by 2000. Tupac's management has released nine records since his death, almost double the five he released when he was alive.

Just as fans have allowed the Beatles or Elvis Presley to live on, it is no different in the hip-hop world. Both Tupac and "Big" captivated their followers. From Tupac's flow about the struggles of being a young black man in America to Biggie revitalizing New York hip-hop and bringing rap back to life on the East Coast, both artists continue to be culturally significant to many people. They spoke to the masses; their music impacted the world.

The legal and business implications that accompany posthumous success are numerous and complex. Managing the legacies of Elvis Presley and John Lennon have proven difficult, but lucrative. The same will likely be true of hip hop giants Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac.

Wiz Khalifa at the Forefront of Rap's Internet Democracy

Social media has dramatically changed the hip hop game. The record label model has been on life support for several years now, and the technological advances of ProTools and social media have not only made the hip hop genre more accessible but is changing the music industry in radical ways. Take Wiz Khalifa as an example. Born in North Dakota; Lived in Europe as a child; Wears skinny jeans; Became best friends with a goofy white guy; Is generally positive in outlook; and is now a hip hop superstar. How did this happen? Wiz Khalifa is a master of social media sites on the Web. Rappers, like the oddball Khalifa, are using Twitter, YouTube, and MySpace in order to generate an enormous following, and then are taking their music and following to the record labels with a leveraged position heretofore unknown.

When these rappers (and other musicians) finally sign with a record label, their fans are already locked in. Curren$y has a virtual community that follows him. Lil B drops dozens of songs and videos on MySpace. Khalifa’s hit song, Black and Yellow, is used as a rallying cry for the Pittsburgh Steelers (and any sports team with similar colors). In particular, Khalifa’s scheduled performances are a testament to the power of the viral world. When rappers combine their talents with the internet, it is easy to understanding how the internet is democratizing rap.

Mia Moody on hip-hop and the "Independent Woman"

Mia Moody has published, "A rhetorical analysis of the meaning of the "independent woman" in the lyrics and videos of male and female rappers" in the 13.1 American Communication Journal 43-58 (Spring 2011). It's worth a read for those interested in hip-hop and feminism.

The abstract is here:

Using the concept of intersectionality, this rhetorical analysis combines feminist and critical cultural theories to explore the meanings of the ―independent woman‖ in the lyrics and respective videos of male and female rappers. Findings indicate both groups use misogynistic language to describe women and juxtapose images of independence with material wealth. However, male rappers are more likely to include messages of beautiful, overachieving women paired with average men while female rappers focus on their own sexual prowess. Also worth noting is while male rappers highlight domestic skills such as cooking and cleaning, female rappers do not mention them at all. Based on viewer feedback, it appears very few viewers explore the true meaning of independence and relationships. This study is of significance because rap music is a large part of popular culture that scholars must continuously analyze for new messages and meanings.

Giving away music: A Copyright Conundrum

An interesting article recently appeared in Toronto's Globe and Mail, asking an important question: Who really "owns" them [popular music]? The article makes note of several artists claiming to give away the rights to their music, but this seems to be quite the copyright conundrum.

There are no doubt legal issues at play as music artists are under all sorts of contractual language with respect to the rights to their songs. The ownership of music usually involves a number of players from artists to record companies to the song writers that pen our favorites. I'm not an expert on copyright law, so I'll leave the discussion up to those that are.

This article also includes significant coverage of Somali-Canadian hip-hop star K'naan who has made quite a name for himself for his thought-provoking repertoire.

(Photo courtesy of the Globe and Mail)

-- Nick J. Sciullo

Dayvon Love, Baltimore City Council candidate for the 8th District, Talks Hip-Hop, Social Justice, and His Candidacy with Nick J. Sciullo

Council District 8 in Baltimore City just may have a new look. Dayvon Love, a soon to be Towson University graduate and championship debater, is running for the seat. He is the youngest candidate on the slate and HipHopLaw.com decided to sit down with him and ask him about what it means to be young, Black and taking his first dip in the electoral pool. Nick J. Sciullo sat down with him and posed a few questions to Mr. Love. The questions and his responses follow:

NJS: Many folks will be talking about how young you are. The average candidate for public office isn’t in their 20’s, but you’re taking this monumental step in a city you call home. What do you think the advantages of being a young candidate are?

DL: There are two major advantages I have as a young person running for office. The first is that I have not been pigeonholed into a particular clique or group. I am the new kid on the block in many ways and I get to create the image I want to portray without having to wrestle with a lot of excess baggage. The second advantage I have is that I have a strong appeal to those who are young and who are tired of the status quo. My youth brings a substantive youth presence to Baltimore politics that is severely lacking now.

NJS: You’re a founding member of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS), a Baltimore-based activist group that has been active engaging the political system and asking hard questions of leaders and community members. Until your candidacy, LBS has functioned outside of the political establishment. Why do you feel it’s necessary to fight the system from within?

DL: LBS understands that we need to use every tactic at our disposal in order to effectively address the oppression and suffering of the people of Baltimore. We are focused on developing a fusion of grassroots activism and electoral politics in a way that is not being deployed in this city. Running for office is a natural extension of our focus on public policy and social justice.

NJS: HipHopLaw.com is about engaging the many intersections between the law and all that is hip-hop. As someone who came into hip-hop at the tale end of the hip-hop generation, a generation roughly characterized as those born between the mid-1960’s and the mid-1980’s, what does hip-hop mean to you and how will hip-hop’s influence benefit you and your candidacy?

DL: Hip Hop is an organic expression of the social, political, psychological and existential aspects of subaltern voices. Born out of the womb of Black life during a time of extreme misery brought on by Reaganomics, Hip Hop provides an ear to the lives and the collective consciousness of those who are traditionally excluded by the power structure in Baltimore. Being a person of the Hip Hop generation many of the issues I will address are an outgrowth of the many concerns expressed in Hip Hop.

NJS: Most urban environments are characterized by tense relationships between law enforcement and minority communities. Hip-hop has made much of this tension. Baltimore, like most cities, is not immune from such difficulties. What can you do to help resolve these tensions?

DL: We need a new paradigm of law enforcement that makes substantive community engagement a necessity for those interested in a career in law enforcement. This means that people in uniforms are not merely patrolling their communities, but are involved in other aspects of community life. A policy that demands substantive community engagement of officers with the community would be a policy I would advocate for as a city councilman.

NJS: Debate is a tremendous activity that demands excellent public speaking skills, research skills, and teamwork. Your alma mater, Towson University, is the only intercollegiate policy debate team in Baltimore and one of only two colleges in Maryland, the other being the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. What has debate taught you that will help you work with your potential councilmembers?

DL: Debate has given me skills to rigorously test issues of public policy in a way that no other activity can. It has given me a critical perspective that has a deep intellectual backing. This allows me to be an independent-thinking city councilmember who can exercise leadership on important issues. Debate has also taught me how to effectively refute arguments in a way that is persuasive. Those currently in power provide arguments with a lack of soundness, and debate gives me a unique opportunity to use the skills I’ve learned to challenge councilmembers who are defenders of the status quo.

NJS: What are your policy priorities? Education, crime, access to social services, and (re)development are all issues in Baltimore. What do you plan to do about these issues?

DL: The major issues I want to address are education, criminal and juvenile justice, economic development, housing, and youth development.

On education, I want to focus on 4 major areas:

a) Increased access to Vocation/Industrial education and IT training-

This will allow young people in Baltimore who are not interested in going to college to have real alternatives. Vocational/Industrial education has been mostly abandoned by public schools. Re-integrating this into the education system will allow for young people to have skills that can help them make a living. Also with the rise of Information Technology, there is a huge market for people with skills in this area, and these skills do not require comprehensive academic training. This can provide employment opportunities for many young people in Baltimore who are finding it hard to find employment.

b) Mentorship-

Mentoring needs to be institutionalized into the school system. This is a very basic concept, but also very important.

c) Social Justice-

It should be required that students engage issues of social justice. With so many injustices that confront them everyday, it is a crime not to teach students about the injustices that they see in their own lives.

d) Entrepreneurship-

There is an entrepreneurial spirit amongst the young people in this city, but they are not given the formal skills to start businesses. Schools should provide the opportunity for youth to development businesses so they can be participants in the economic activity of Baltimore.

NJS: And now for a few questions that might be of more direct interest to our readers… Favorite hip-hop artist and album?

DL: Hard question. My answer to this question changes all the time. Right now, it would be Common and his album Like Water for Chocolate.

NJS: What blogs do read regularly?

DL: I don’t read blogs regularly (NJS: Except for HipHopLaw.com of course!).

NJS: Is hip-hop political? If so, how can communities harness this energy?

DL: Hip Hop is political because of it’s ability to capture the attention of the masses. We need the Hip Hop community to take the power that they have and use it to support political candidates that will represent the people in the Hip Hop community.

NJS: Thanks for the time, Dayvon. It's great to see young people taking the opportunity to positively affect their communities and who are willing to advocate for change. Best of luck.

Roots and Reality Check, Part 2: Is “Conscious” Hip-Hop On the Next?

I might've failed to mention that the chick was creative

But once the man got to her, he altered the native
Told her if she got an image and a gimmick
That she could make money, and she did it like a dummy
Now I see her in commercials, she's universal
She used to only swing it with the inner-city circle
Now she be in the burbs lookin' rock and dressin' hip
And on some dumb shit, when she comes to the city
Talkin about poppin glocks, servin rocks, and hittin switches
Now she's a gangsta rollin with gangsta bitches
Always smokin blunts and gettin drunk
Tellin me sad stories, now she only fucks with the funk
Stressin how hardcore and real she is
She was really the realest, before she got into show-biz

-- Common, “I Used to L.O.V.E. Her”

This entry is a follow-up to Roots and Reality Check Part 1: Nuthin’ is Free, which was a reaction to a hot back-and-forth on the topic of free speech and hip hop at American University Washington College of Law’s Roots and Reality II: Hip Hop, Law, and Social Justice Organizing conference held in April.

Another provocative topic that emerged during the final roundtable, entitled “On the Next: Hip Hop in the Grassroots,” was the question of whether “conscious” or politically-engaged hip hop could be commercially viable? And if so, should it be?

I think that the conventional wisdom is a flat “no.” Typically two reasons are given for this, which were expressed by one panelist, Jemar Daniels (J.D., original co-organizer of Roots II). The first reason is the belief that politics won’t sell. After all, who wants to hear about revolution when they can bounce to a repetitive dance track? The other reason often espoused by local conscious artists, like artist and panelist, Head Roc, is that hip hop produced for mass consumption inherently compromises a political message. Interestingly, these are the same reasons that industry folks put out to justify the current sad state of most popular hip-hop, and maintain the status quo of video-vixened, auto-tuned up music.

But, are these reasons true? Another panelist, Mazi Mutafa, founder of Words Beats and Life, Inc., flipped these ideas on their head, by droppin’ science of his own: because some conscious hip hop does sell (take a look at some of Jay-Z’s, Kayne’s, and Common’s music) why do we give life to a myth that no conscious hip hop can’t be commercial? (Head-nodding.)

Mazi’s got a point. Some hip-hop with conscious elements can and do blow-up. Regardless of what you think about Kayne, his body of work from College Dropout’s “Jesus Walks” to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’s “All of the Lights,” contains politicalized themes about perseverance, violence, and power. These tracks are not Dead Prez’s “Hip Hop,” or even Jay-Z’s “99 Problems,” but they are critical and complicated in ways much of popular radio hip-hop is not. But they are more like Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie,” which is analytically rich, among other things.

There’s a lot more to say on this subject, but I think it breaks down to this: explicitly political hip hop may not sell platinum because the politics may scare some listeners or may rhyme in a language unfamiliar to others, but this gap can be bridged, ‘cause we know that politicized hip hop music can sell if industry execs, artist power-houses, or savvy producers give life to it.

And maybe if hip-hop lovers are willing to expand their ideas of what’s political and “conscious,” we may be surprised by the reception to the message. I want us to find a way to defy the conventional wisdom because hip hop politics have got to become popular—as a way to resist the crushing political forces, like mass incarceration, which threaten the communities where hip-hop calls home. I can’t be down with sellin’ out, but I can be down with transforming what’s “out” there.

-- Richael Faithful