Spies Like Us

Spies Like Us:
The Secret Relationship Between Rats and Rappers

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott



"Can't win a debate so they sponsor every threat to me/ I wonder if Agent 800 is standing next to me"

Young Lords- Immortal Technique



During a recent panel discussion, Hip Hop artist, Knowledge the Revelator, was just about to expose the diabolical plot of how they are using rap music to dumb down the masses. Suddenly, Alfred Jenkins aka "King Alfred" pimp slapped the person sitting next to him, which started a brawl that, abruptly, ended the conference. While fists and chairs were flying, Jenkins, quietly, exited through a side door where he was met by a man in a black suit and sunglasses, who handed him an envelope addressed to "Agent Rex 84..."

Last month, the Associated Press reported that Muslim students at "a dozen campuses in the Northeast" were being spied on by the NYPD. Coincidentally, around the same time, the NY Confidential website released a report that alleged that a 2008 meeting of Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network was also infiltrated by the NYPD following the trial of the police officers who killed Sean Bell.

Although it came as a shock for some, the "Alphabet boys" (as Young Jeezy would say) have long sent snitches into organizations; both criminal and political.

One of the earliest rats to infiltrate a Black organization was James Wormley Jones (Agent 800), who spied on Marcus Garvey and the UNIA during the 1920's. According to a February 11, 2011 article posted on the FBI website, "A Byte Out of History," other agents assigned to the UNIA included, Earl Titus, Authur Lowell Brent and Thomas Leon Jefferson. Also, according to the PBS documentary, "Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind" one of Garvey's closest associates, Herbert Boulin, "owner of a Harlem based Black doll company, " was an informant known as "Agent P-138"

Later, Civil Rights organizations came under scrutiny by the Feds.

More than a decade ago, researcher Steve Cokely, shed light on a March 21, 1993 "Memphis Commercial Appeal" article that accused the NAACP's former board chairman, Joel Spingarn of being a major in the Military Intelligence Division, who, "used his post to obtain critical information for MID, such as a list of the organization's 32,000 members. "

The same newspaper also reported in a September 12, 2010, article that noted civil rights photographer, Ernest Withers, was not only an FBI informant but took the pictures at the scene of the Martin Luther King assassination.

It is more widely known that the Black Panthers and other "militant" movements of the late 60'-early 70's were heavily infiltrated by informants such as William O'Neal, who supplied intel to the Feds that led to the murder of Fred Hampton" and BOSS (Bureau of Special Services) agent, Eugene Roberts, who, not only was spying on Malcolm X when he was assassinated but, according to John Potash in his book "The FBI War on Tupac Shakur and Black leaders," was later an original member of the New York Chapter of the Black Panther Party of which Tupac's stepfather and mother were also members.

Although, Tupac Shakur inherited the legacy of government persecution from Mutula and Afeni Shakur , he was just one in a long line of rappers from NWA to the Wu Tang Clan under investigation by the Feds. Back in 2000, Cedric Muhammad of Blackelectorate.com began releasing a series of "Rap COINTELPRO" articles exposing this fact.

So why would federal and local law enforcement agencies still be interested in a music that has become increasingly apolitical since the early 90's?

According to Supreme Understanding, author of "How to Hustle and Win," "Hip Hop is just a euphemism for the Black and Brown underclass." The author who also released the widely circulated guideline, "How to Spot an Agent," also said, "Hip Hop is not as apolitical as people think. Many mainstream artists have a political element."

Perhaps the most detailed evidence of law enforcement's attack on Hip Hop is the first hand report of the the NYPD's "first Hip Hop cop," Derrick Parker. The book mentions the infamous "Hip Hop binder" that the Miami police used to keep files on Hip Hop artists as well as other surveillance activities against New York rappers.

What is not often mentioned is that, although, Parker was primarily assigned to watch rappers, he also tailed the late Black nationalist, Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad, whose voice was sampled on early Public Enemy, Ice Cube and Tupac Shakur songs. This is proof that you don't have to be a criminal nor a Hip Hop superstar to be under the watchful eyes of the Alphabet Boys.

Just as the FBI used the techniques that it developed fighting the mob during the '30's on activists during the Civil Rights Era they have used the same techniques that they use to go after drug dealers on Hip Hop artists of today.

This has raised a lot of questions that always go unanswered.

Since, according to John Potash, a FBI agent was present when Biggie Smalls was murdered, why didn't he stop the bullets? Also, with so much government surveillance going on, how can the Feds catch rappers like T.I. with guns but not see the trucks that are hauling them into the 'hood. And if they can catch members of street crime families trafficking drugs, how can they miss the planes and ships that are bringing them into this country?

This actually goes back to the Civil Rights era when activists asked if the FBI had so thoroughly infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, why were civil rights workers still being murdered? The flimsy answer given, then, that they were an "investigative" unit not a "preventive" unit, I suppose, still applies today.

The mistrust of law enforcement leaves the 'hood caught in the middle between those who do dirt and hide behind the "anti-snitch" attitude of the streets and law enforcement agencies that refuse to admit why the "stop snitchin' " code was created in the first place.

If we are going to stop crime in the 'hood we must first have an honest conversation about government surveillance and its ramifications.

But until then, as GZA said on "I Gotcha Back"

"I gotcha back but you best to watch your front/because it's the brothas who front/they be on a hunt."


TRUTH Minista Paul Scott's weekly column is "This Ain't Hip Hop" a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com . Website NoWarningShotsFired.com Follow on Twitter @truthminista

Missing Malcolm X

Missing Malcolm X:
Are Rappers Scared of Revolution?

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott



"How long shall they kill our prophets, while we stand aside and look ?"
Redemption Song- Bob Marley




February 21, 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in NYC, Malcolm X was gunned down just before he was about to put America on blast for dissin' Black people. On that same date almost 50 years later, aspiring rapper, Murda U was shot in that same spot for dissin' another rapper on a Youtube video. Although, there were several witnesses, because of the "no snitchin' " code of the streets, the shooter remains at large...

One of the best known icons in African American history is Malcolm X. Although he started off hustlin' in the streets as Detroit Red, while in prison he accepted the teachings of the Nation of Islam and devoted the rest of his life to the liberation of Black people.

What is most important about Malcolm X was not the man, himself, but his eternal symbol as the epitome of uncompromising, Black manhood. Part of his popularity was being the antithesis of the nonviolence of Dr. Martin Luther King, giving America the old school Hip Hop duo Black Sheep's option "you can get with this or you can get with that."

Of course, Malcolm was not the first advocate of Black Power. During the 1830's, according to Vincent Harding in "There is a River," Martin Delany was already advocating Black Nationalism. Nor was he the only one during his time rejecting the idea of nonviolence. In his book "Negroes With Guns," Robert F. Williams said that as early as 1957, he was strappin' Black people in Monroe NC, to protect themselves from the Ku Klux Klan. However, Malcolm X still holds a special spot in the Black psyche.

The spirit of Malcolm X has long been present in Hip Hop. In 1983, Keith LeBlanc sampled his speeches on "No Sell Out" and Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force shouted him out on "Renegades of Funk." However, it was during the late 80's when Hip Hop became infused with the ideology of Malcolm X courtesy of groups like Public Enemy ,so much so that by the early 90's the X caps had replaced Kangols as the official Hip Hop head gear.

So the question in 2012 becomes, why is Hip Hop producing so many Meek Mills and so few Malcolm Xs ?

Back in the 1970, the forefathers of rap, "The Last Poets," released "Niggers Are Scared of Revolution" a song that proclaimed that some Black folks will do everything under the sun except engage in rebellion against the system. So, in 2012, are rappers scared of revolution, too?

In his 1963, "Message to the Grassroots," Malcolm said that "revolution is bloody, revolution is hostile, revolution knows no compromise, revolution overturns and destroys everything that gets in its way..."

For many rappers that may sound like a hot lyric but in reality, that ain't happenin'. Although many of them claim to love the 'hood, they ain't givin' up their Maybachs for none of ya'll. Despite all the tough talk and street swagga few are really willing to commit what Huey P Newton would have called career "revolutionary suicide."

And on some level, who could blame them?

In the mythos of Hip Hop culture, if you go out in a blaze of glory like Pac and Biggie you wind up in some Ghetto Heaven and the homies in the 'hood will be forever pourin' out liquor and sportin' T-shirts in your memory. But if you go out fighting the power like Lil Bobby Hutton or Fred Hampton you will be forgotten a week after the funeral.

After all, although, members of the Nation of Islam were convicted for the murder of Malcolm, almost 50 years later we are still no closer to solving the mystery of who really gave the order for the hit than we are solving who killed Pac, Biggie or Lil Pookie from down the block. However, we are left with some clues that have been rarely discussed.

In his book "To Kill a Black Man, " Louis Lomax points out how ,before his death, "Malcolm X was becoming a major threat to American foreign policy. " He alleged that "the American government, particular the CIA was deeply involved in Malcolm's death."

Researcher Steve Cokley has long suggested that we reread the often overlooked page 418 of Alex Haley's "Autobiography of Malcolm X" where Haley revealed that an unnamed "close friend" arranged a meeting with the president of a still unnamed " large private foundation" and the head of the Justice Department's Civil Right's section, Burke Marshall shortly before Malcolm's death. According to Haley, he was grilled over Malcolm's "finances" and how his recent trip to Africa had been funded.

Of course there are some underground Hip Hop artists today who are spittin' truth to power like Immortal Technique, New Orleans' Dee1 and NC's Homebase but they are few and far between.

Some have suggested that the responsibility of Hip Hop artists is to make music, not lead movements. Perhaps they are right.

Maybe the revolution won't come from the rappers but from the writers. What good is a "revolution" if there is no one to explain to the masses who they are revolting against and why they need a "revolution" in the first place. This is especially critical when, since the end of the Civil War, the masses have been continually duped into believing that "we have overcome" and "there is nothing left to fight for. "

After all it was the "militant minded" journalists who were the original Black freedom fighters in this country. Remember early revolutionists such as Martin Delany and David Walker were writers. It has even been rumored that Nat Turner might have been influenced by "David Walker's Appeal." Walker posed such a threat to white supremacy that ,according to Dr. James Turner, around 1830 there was a $10,000 bounty placed on his head by a group of wealthy white planters.

Whether it be a rapper or a writer, the world needs another Malcolm.

Someone who is not afraid to grab the mic or the pen and tell the world, that we demand Freedom, Justice and Equality and we intend to bring it into existence.

"By any means necessary."


TRUTH Minista Paul Scott's weekly column is "This Ain't Hip Hop" a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com His website is NoWarningShotsFired.com Follow on Twitter @truthminista

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

Dark Side of Black History 2009

I wrote this piece about the FBI airing Black History Month spots on black radio stations last year. Since the spots are still airing in 2009, I am reposting the link.

Seems like we never learn...

http://nowarningshotsfired.blogspot.com/2008/02/dark-side-of-black-history-time-to-tell.html

The Dark Side of Black History

The Dark Side of Black History:

Time to Tell on COINTEL

Min. Paul Scott

CIA, FBI, all they tell us is lies

When I say it they get alarmed

Cuz, I'm louder than a bomb...

Public Enemy

I was going about my normal morning routine. I had just finished my OJ and was in the mirror shaving while, simultaneously, jamming to the song that was blasting from my clock radio. It was then that something happened that made me want to use my electric razor to slit my wrists. Right after Webbie went off, the DJ played a Black History Month commercial sponsored by the FBI.

Since it was a Hip Hop radio station I thought surely, I must have heard it wrong. Maybe F.B.I. meant Free Brothers Incarcerated or at least Funky Beats Inc. But nope, it was the same Federal Bureau of Investigation that never had any love for Black folks talking about how much they appreciate Black History.

How in the world is a black radio station gonna pump a commercial during Black History Month sponsored by an agency that either spied on or tried to assassinate the very people whom we are celebrating ?

Or maybe that question is rhetorical based on the fact that most of their under 30 year old listeners probably wouldn't know J. Edgar Hoover from Jay Z.

Every Black History Month we get a rosie view of the Civil Rights /Black Power Era. A bunch of Black folks got together and started praying, marching and singing until they finally showed the white power structure the error of their ways. After that, toilets were desegregated, schools were integrated and Black folks got the right to vote.

Also, the leaders of the movement, with the rare exception of a few who, unfortunately were killed by some poor misguided souls, went on to head nonprofit organizations or became college professors. And they all lived happily ever after...

What is rarley talked about is the well orchestrated, diabolical way that federal agencies along with their local and state cohorts developed programs to destroy anyone who dared to challenge the powers that be...

If you went to the dictionary and looked up "oxymoron" one of the examples they would use is the FBI and Black History. The organization under its director, J. Edgar Hoover, conducted campaigns to destroy Black leadership dating as far back as the early 20th century with the surveillance of Marcus Garvey and WEB Dubois.

Later, the FBI formed something called COINTELPRO (counter intelligence program) in which they led a vicious campaign against many activists of all races under the guise of preventing the Communist infiltration of America. The program was especially vicious against Civil Rights and Black Power activists of the 60's and early 70's, as one of the stated goals of the program was to prevent the rise of a Black messiah who could electrify and unite the Black community.

COINTELPRO was instrumental in implementing programs to destroy Black leaders, as well as their movements, ranging from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, Kwame Ture (Stokley Carmichael), Malcolm X to the Black Panther Party. Even the wife of Dr. King, Coretta Scott King , was spied on for years after Dr. King's assassination.

While some my say that talking about the evils of the FBI is dwelling on the past, it is crucial, need to know information for a generation whose members are caught in "the trap" but don't know how they got there nor how to get out.

One of the things that we do not do in the Black community is connect the dots. We have not been effective in showing our children how the past is connected to the present in very real and substantive ways. So the young rappers of today don't understand how the drug dealin' and gang bangin' of today is tied to the COINTELPRO program of yesterday. They do not understand that the societal issues of the absence of Black leadership, drugs in the Black community and the high incarceration rates of Black males are not by accident but are part of a well designed program that was meant to produce the very conditions in which we find ourselves in 2008.

Do we really believe that the same agency that wiped out the Black Panther Party in just a few years can't stop drugs from coming into tha 'hood, if they really wanted to ?

It is sad that 99% of the kids who are reppin' the "stop snitching" movement have no real understanding of the role that paid informants played in causing the deaths of leaders such as Malcolm X and Fred Hampton Sr.

So, without this knowledge of history, it is possible to have FBI Black History commercials being played in heavy rotation without one person even sayin'

"What tha.....?"

Why don't we teach our young people this dark side of Black history ? Is it that we don't think that it is important or is it that COINTELPRO had such a devistating effect on the older generation that even today they are terrified to even mention the attrocity.

At some point we have to start giving our children this information in order to give them the historic context in which to change their patterns of behavior. We have to replace their Hip Hop magazines with books like "Racial Matters" and "The FBI File on Black America" by Kenneth O'Reilly. We must replace their gun totin', booty shakin' videos with videos like "The FBI's Secret War On Black America." And we must replace their Souljah Boy CD's with lectures by our Black leaders like Dhoruba Bin Wahad and the late Kwame Ture who knew first hand the evils of COINTELPRO and had the courage to reveal the truth.

I doubt if the "dope boys" and "trap boys" would continue their current activities if they really knew that the FBI, SWAT and the other "Alphabet Boys" that they rap about really have spelled D.E.A.T.H. for the Black community.

Min. Paul Scott's blog is http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com/ He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com