when rappers try to make the excuse that its not their job to be accountable for their influence on the masses of young people that listen, study, and rehearse their lyrics… do the research. its bigger than you and me. its us.
-aja
“There’s a reason why rappers have been placed in the position of being sorta like the new black leadership in this country for young people. In the 1960s and 70s there was an effort by the CIA and CoIntelPro to either execute or incarcerate or force into exile all of the black leadership. And that made it very easy for the Reagan-Bush administration to cut 40 billion dollars in social spending. Mostly from the black community without any black leadership to cry out. So in the late 1980s, you see a lot of young people using rap to attack government policies. The problem is that many of these rappers aren’t completely informed. So they’re attacking symbols of authority rather than direct authority. So on one hand, it’s good that rap music has given a voice for young people to express things politically. On the other hand, some of the people who have been elevated to a leadership status because of the vacuum of black leadership haven’t been totally with it as far as their understanding of what is going on in the world, and that is where you get this hypocrisy.” – Michael Franti
(via kswift)