The Audacity of Hip Hop

When superstar lyricist Nas declared, "Hip-hop is dead!" in 2006, he reignited a long-running debate among artists and observers in the rap community. While the money-guns-girls wing of commercial rap is certainly here to stay, many fans insist that hip hop's political roots are rotting. But on the eve of an election in which a presidential candidate is a professed Jay-Z fan who brushes off his shoulders in speeches and fist-bumps his wife, it appears that the political soul of hip hop is primed for a reawakening.

Read the rest here.

X-Posted @ YBP

I, Too, Hide Books in my Booty Shorts....

What is really crazy is that I know the artist who did this song (visit the website at the bottom of the vid to find out more about him) and I know he did it in the spirit of ironic social commentary on hip hop, the corporate media oligarchy and the sorry support our education system gets, esp. in the so-called "inner city."

And then BET got hold of the song....

But what else is knew in the relationship between art, artivism, hip hop and $$hollywood$$?