Black History Month Radio Rebellion

There was a time during the 80's when rap music had a strong political message. It was not unusual to hear groups such as Public Enemy on the radio with empowering messages to inspire the youth and teach them about Black culture. However, during the 90's that begin to change. Now mostly what you hear on the radio are songs about violence, misogyny and lifestyles that 99% of the listeners can't afford.

This Black History Month a Durham NC activist is trying to change that tune. Minister Paul Scott of Durham NC has launched the Black History Month Radio Rebellion where he is asking Hip Hop fans to contact local radio stations to demand that they play more politically and socially conscious music.

Contrary to popular belief, there are Hip Hop groups that talk about more than misogyny, murder and mayhem, such as NC's own political Hip Hop group, Homebase

http://www.homebaseMG.com

Unfortunately, messages like this are drowned out by the heavy rotation of Lil Wayne, Rick Ross and Niki Minaj.

This Black History month, Scott is hoping to put the positive aspects of Black culture back into Hip Hop. After all, Hip Hop is part part of Black History, too.

Paul Scott (TRUTH Minista) is an activist and writer based in Durham NC. His weekly, nationally syndicated column is "This Ain't Hip Hop: a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz." He is also a contributing writer for the recently released anthology "The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture: Towards Bridging the Generational Divide." (Scarecrow Press)

Scott can be reached at (919) 451-8283 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com

website http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com

Coming Next Week: "This Ain't Hip Hop" Black History Month Series

Next week, I will launch a series of articles dealing with Hip Hop and Black History. For more information on the "This Ain't Hip Hop:" the column for intelligent Hip Hop headz or the "This Ain't Hip Hop" Black History Month lecture series contact (919) 451-8283 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com

Slavery is Back in Effect: Rap, Race and Republicans

Slavery is Back in Effect:
Rap, Race and Republicans

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott



"Racism was here but they didn't take it seriously and they said that I was crazy." Final Solution- Sister Souljah


The auditorium was packed with reporters as the Republicans held their recent televised "Hip Hop debate" where they gathered to decide what to do with poor Black and Latino youth. Some of the suggestions were putting African Americans back on plantations and deporting all Latinos to Mexico. It was the most highly rated show of the week but since Niki Minaj was scheduled to make a guest appearance on "Love and Hip Hop" that night, most of the 'hood missed it....

While most of Hip Hop has been focused on the beef between Common and Drake or the birth of Jay and Beyonce's baby girl, the Republican presidential candidates have been waging their traditional war against the poor. Let's keep it real. No matter who wins the 2012 election, Blue Ivy Carter is gonna be good. However, chances are you won't be. There are plans being made to have you back pickin' cotton while rappin' "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot."

Although, the Republicans may go in on each other in debates, what they have in common is their hatred of the 'hood. Recently, news sources have reported on Ron Paul's newsletters that contained articles that dissed Black people. How Rick Santorum, allegedly, said that Black folks were down with OPM (spending Other People's Money.) Not to mention the OG "angy white man" himself, Newt "Gangsta" Gingrich suggesting that poor kids should pick up brooms and become school janitors. (Picture Lil Tyrone and Lakesha walking around the high school gym with a mop and bucket singin' "It's a Hard Knock Life.")

But when you try to put Newt and the boys on blast they start braggin' about how they are the "party of Lincoln" and are really our homies.

Bull.

Because they think that most of us can't read they are able to con the people into believing half truths and straight up lies. But as The DOC said back in the day, "I am not illiterate, no , not even a little bit." So it's time to pull the sheets off of 'em.

In reality, Abraham Lincoln never freed anybody as he only gave lip service to the problem by "freeing" slaves during the Civil War in areas where he had no control. He was also no friend of Black people. According to Lerone Bennet in his work "Forced into Glory , "Lincoln said repeatedly that he was a white supremacist and that he wanted to deny Blacks equal rights because of their race." Not quite the Honest Abe you read about in history books, huh?

Also, it must be noted that it was a Republican that sold Black folks out and ended Reconstruction. The Reconstruction Era ended when, in 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes made a deal to remove troops from the Southern States so that he could become president (The Hayes-Tildan Compromise.)Thus, unleashing an era of terror on the recently emancipated Black folks.

It is a historical fact that African Americans did not start gravitating towards the Democratic Party until the 1930's, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" which, according to Dr. John Hope Franklin in "From Slavery to Freedom," "gave many a sense of belonging that they had never experienced before." And even after that, the southern Dixiecrats were notorious for being anti-black. However, the biggest sham the Right Wingers pull off is the play on words. The real enemy of poor and oppressed communities is a "conservative political ideology" (not a specific political party) that has been bounced around between both parties but is now in the hands of the Republicans. Since, according to Webster's dictionary "conservative" means " tending to preserve established institutions" they are trying to keep the balance of power in this country in the hands of old rich, white men who do nothing but play golf all day and tell Negro jokes. They have been determined to conserve power by any means necessary and those means have been ugly, especially in recent history.

According to Cleveland Sellars in "The River of No Return," in 1968, Republican Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon "ran for the presidency on a barely disguised 'repress n**** and other malcontents platform' and the streets ran red with blood immediately after he took office."

Beginning with the era of Reaganomics, Hip Hop ran head on with the Right Wing. As early as 1984, Melle Mel rapped on "Jesse" that "they want a stronger nation at any cost/even if it means everything will soon be lost." The run-in that Tupac Shakur had with Conservatives in the early 90's is a part of Hip Hop history. What is interesting is that one of the architects of the Right Wing Rap Attack, Bill Bennett was quoted years later suggesting that one way to lower the crime rate would be to "abort every Black baby."

Also, while most of the Hip Hop Nation was focused on the East Coast/West Coast beef during the mid 90's, Newt Gingrich and the Right Wing were staging a Republican Revolution to "take back America."

One of the tools that the Conservatives have successfully used are the scare tactics where they either tried to convince Molly in Iowa that a big, black boogie man was waiting in the bushes to get her (The Willie Horton ads). Or convince 8th grade drop out, Billy Bob in Alabama that the reason he couldn't get a job was because some lazy "minority" took it. (Jesse Helm's "white hands ad")

So, in 2012, we see history repeating itself, Same dirty tricks; different day.

While the feasibility of voting really helping the 'hood is debatable, being ignorant of current events isn't.

Like KRS said on "The Mind" "whether you know it or not you're deep in politics/all inside of it. In fact, you're the issue."

"Don't let this government, diss you."


TRUTH Minista Paul Scott's weekly column is "This Ain't Hip Hop," a column for intelligent Hip Hop Headz. His website is No Warning Shots Fired.com He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com or (919) 451-8283 Twitter @truthminista

This Ain't Hip Hop Weekly Column

It's official. My new weekly column, "This Ain't Hip Hop:" a column for intelligent Hip Hop Headz will be distributed thru AllHipHop.com. We are raising the bar for what was formerly known as "Hip Hop" journalism. This is, as Dead Prez would say, "Bigger than Hip Hop" journalism.





For more info on the Black History Month "This Ain't Hip Hop" lecture tour contact (919) 451-8283 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com

Ol' Dirty MLK: America's Most Wanted

Ol' Dirty MLK:
America's Most Wanted

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott


"I said it before and I'll still taunt it. Every young brotha with a color is most wanted."

Amerikkka's Most Wanted- Ice Cube






He was considered by some the most dangerous man in America. He spent many nights locked up in jail cells. There were constant attempts made on his life. During his last years he was constantly harassed by law enforcement. The real reason for his untimely demise before the age of 40 still remains a mystery. I'm not talking about Grammy nominated rapper Russell "Ol' Dirty Bastard" Jones," I'm talking about Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr....


Recently, the website Gun.io posted FBI documents suggesting that ODB and the Wu Tang Clan were under surveillance for alleged, illegal activities. It must be noted that the late Dr. Martin Luther King was also under surveillance as documented in Kenneth O'Reilly's book "Black Americans: The FBI Files", proving that if you are an outspoken Black man in America, you don't have to be a criminal for the Feds to watch you.


Although many people today celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King as one of the greatest American heroes, that was not always the case. According to historian Taylor Branch in his book "Pillar of Fire," former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover referred to King as not only a "tom cat with obsessive degenerate sexual urges" but a "notorious liar" and "one of the lowest characters in the country;" in the Hip Hop vernacular " an ol' dirty bastard."


For most people who are only familiar with King via the overplayed "I Have a Dream Speech," this may come as quite a shock. How could a man of peace who only wanted "this nation to rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed" become Public Enemy #1. However, in reality, King was a lot closer to the ideologies of "militants" such as Malcolm X and Kwame Ture (Stokley Carmichael), especially in his later years, than many people would like to admit. This fact, however, has not been lost on Hip Hop, as even the most revolutionary rappers such as Public Enemy, Immortal Technique and Rakim have all paid homage to him in their songs.


The real Martin Luther King Jr is captured in the parts of his speeches and writings that have been whited-out of high school history books. Most people don't know that in his last speech, " I See the Promised Land," delivered in Memphis the night before he was assassinated, he called for a boycott of Coca Cola, Sealtest Milk and Wonder Bread and also asked that Black people transfer their money from white banks to a black one.


Nor do they know that ,although he is portrayed as the great integrationist, King was as just a strong of an advocate of Black Pride as ODB was of "Knowledge of Self." In his work ""Where Do We Go from Here" King defines Black Power as "a psychological reaction to the psychological indoctrination that led to the creation of the perfect slave." Also, although some only associate Dr. King with songs like "We Shall Overcome," Dead Prez once sampled one of his "missing" speeches where he proclaimed , "Yes I'm Black..I'm proud of it...I'm Black and beautiful!"


This is the King that many hated; the one who dissed President Lyndon Johnson's war in Vietnam by saying that "we have been wrong from the beginning in Vietnam, we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people." (Which was just a nicer way of putting Muhammad Ali's statement that no Vietcong ever called him the N word. )


These are the types of voices that many in this country have always wanted silenced.


Now does that mean that at some point, ODB might have stopped a Wu Tang concert and spoken out against George Bush's "War on Terror?"


We will never know but wild boys do wild things.


Remember, in an AllHipHop interview conducted shortly after his release from prison, ODB accused George Bush and the government of trying to kill him. While most people wrote this off as the paranoid ramblings of someone suffering from too many years of drug abuse , history makes us take another look. As they say in Greek mythology "those who the gods wish to destroy, they first drive mad."


It is no secret that the FBI bugged Dr. King's hotel rooms and ,allegedly, had tapes of him gettin' his freak on with women which they delivered to his wife in an effort to push him to commit suicide.


Also, according to Clay Risen in his book "A Nation on Fire," before his assassination in Memphis, " the 111th Military Intelligence Group had been keeping tabs on King and the SCLC for signs of an impending riot." Also Risen states that on the day of us murder, anti-riot operations were already put in place by the Army Operations Center "before his death was even confirmed."

Even Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote in the forward of Kings "alleged" assassin, James Earl Ray's book "Who Killed Martin Luther King, " "I have always believed that the government was part of a conspiracy, either directly or indirectly, to assassinate him."

So what is the connection between the ODBs, Tupac Shakurs and even the Soulja Slims of the world and MLK ? Every Black man with a microphone is a potential threat. Whether that threat is realized or not, they all had the potential to incite the youth to revolutionary action. After all, law enforcement has always paid an inordinate amount of attention to rappers. Recently, it was even reported that the DC police and the ATF set up a fake Hip Hop record label in Washington DC.


What if Russell Jones had lived long enough to become more political? What if his ideologies were expanding in the same manner as Dr. King's. Remember the purpose of J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO was to "prevent the long range growth of militant Black organizations especially among youth."


Maybe the truth lies in ODB's haunting words when he bum-rushed the stage at the 1998 Grammy awards,


"Wu Tang is for the children. We teach the children!"


And this is America's greatest fear.



Article courtesy of "This Ain't Hip Hop;" a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz.


TRUTH Minista Paul Scott can be reached at (919) 451-8283 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com

Can't Save 'em All...

A little girl died last Christmas night in Milwaukee. According to news reports, her mother drank a half can of Blast by Colt 45 and tried to drive. Unfortunately, she slammed into the back of a truck trailer killing one daughter and critically injuring another.


http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/136928403.html



Most people know about the fight I had with Pabst, the makers of Blast by Colt 45, last year. Besides my argument that a Snoop Dog endorsement would attract young drinkers, there was was also the issue that the "Kool Aid flavor" would mask the 12% alcohol content making the drinker oblivious to the fact that he/ or she was intoxicated.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=8030929


So, I can't really say that I didn't see this coming.

But the question that has me up at 3AM is, did I really do enough to stop it.

Yeah, I went to the press, tried to get anti-drunk driving groups involved, (to no avail) got some stores in my neck of the woods to pull the poison and even chased the Blast promo truck out of my 'hood.

But apparently that was not enough.

There were numerous news stories that 18 attorneys general across were going to do something but besides a good feel good PR moment,after the initial media buzz died down, nothing happened, Not sure, but I kinda think that an alleged leaked letter to the AG's from the Pabst camp that warned them about associating with radicals like myself may have had a little to do with it.

But whatever the case, a little girl is dead and a family is in ruins.

And I sit here kickin' my self thinking about what more I coulda, shoulda done...

I remember something my late Pops told me a decade ago when I was on some crusade to save our youth from the thousands of issues they must face in this cruel, cold world.

"You can't save 'em all ,son"

Yeah, but I can try Dad. I can try....




Paul Scott No Warning Shots Fired.com

"This Ain't Hip Hop" New Syndicated Column

This Ain't Hip Hop
"It will not be the rappers that save Hip Hop but the writers."

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott



"This Ain't Hip Hop" is the new syndicated column for intelligent Hip Hop Headz by TRUTH Minista Paul Scott. Coming soon. Also look out for the "This Ain't Hip Hop" lecture series starting this Black History Month.

For more information contact (919) 451-8283 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com Twitter @truthminista