#tpjs

I can tell you that it begins with your knowledge and perspective of yourself and of those in your cipher (those around you). That, however, I’d say beings you’re your perspective of the world, your world and our world – remember, there is the world as it is; the world as you see it and the world as we collectively see it. This allows you to acknowledge and understand the environment and/or society in which you are in and form a relationship with it, in other words, a means to relate to it and see it as your environment and society and also our environment and society. This may work the other way round, or even backwards for some people, we are a collective of individuals after. Nevertheless, the point is this: when you take ownership of something you immediately are protective over it and also want the best for it (in some cases, from it). If it can be nurtured, you want to see it blossom and prosper. Basically, you love it and respect it. Similarly, when you encounter something which belongs to someone else and that owner seems to respect, love and protect it, you’re likely to acknowledge and respect that too. Not necessarily love it, but cautious and certainly won’t want to inflict intentional harm or damage to it.

If we took a minute to look at Hip Hop like this, if we as individuals take ownership of it by saying I AM HIP HOP, we take become it, we embody it and start to live it, just as any culture should be. In order to BE Hip Hop, we have to first accept it as OUR culture, and not just YOU, but it is the Kulture of others as well and we have to respect that. It’s not about one’s music, one’s riches, one’s fashion-sense or such other, Hip Hop is not about that. Hip Hop is about the person; that individual under those clothes, the individual not their diamonds, record sales and cars. Also, its not about an individual’s ability to rap or emcee, or who the best rapper is, who signed to which record label and all that mess. Hip Hop is about the Individual and that individual’s character, train of thought, way of being and way of life.

Of course it’s not that simple though, otherwise everything happening within hip-hop (as in the industry and the music) would be justified . . .  everyone would just say “I’m being myself; I’m living according to the way I see fit, I don’t have to observe, acknowledge, respect or care about others and their opinions.” . . . OR . . . like our brothas and sistas in Hip Hop would say it: “I’m doin’ me, baby. I do me, bitch. I don’ give a f#@* ‘bout these n----s, son. Nah mean?”    Right?  J (Mind you, this way of speaking is not limited to the U.S anymore, especially not in 2013 and it's usually the guys.)

So this is why we go back to the foundational principle of Hip Hop that were laid down for us in 1973 by our father, Afrika Bambaataa and the Universal Zulu Nation…Peace! Love! Unity! and safely Having Fun!

If your way of being, way of life, train of thought, characteristics, persona, in fact your culture, which is you. If it does not promote; sustain; advocate for; defend; honour and exalt Peace, Love, Unity and safe Fun, then there’s a problem – that way of being conflicts with that of Hip Hop culture and in turn misrepresents the culture and every individual within it. Therefore, Hip Hop distances itself form that, in other words, that is NOT Hip Hop and its important we know this. As a culture we deserve our right to exist and to define ourselves. Our elders, the pioneers, the mothers and fathers of Hip Hop have done that ages ago. This is not a debate or talk on Underground vs. Commercial or Mainstream, nor is it about Old School vs. New School. This here is about TRUE SCHOOL. It’s that simple.

If WE ARE HIP HOP, we accept that Hip Hop is our culture. So, this means, at the very least, when asked what Hip Hop is, our response to that should be similar. The principles we live by and/or give out should be similar. They’re speaking, especially that of Hip Hop culture, should be similar. Remember, to you it may not mean much, but to the next person it may mean the world. So, whenever you’re representing and speaking on behalf of or about Hip Hop, remember that you’re not just speaking about an art-form; not just a music genre, but most importantly, you’re speaking about a culture, you’re speaking about a community. You’re speaking about People.

WE ARE ONE!!

Peace, Love and Light!!

Hakeem Kwezi. S

  Here are the links I promised above for Common feat. Bilal – The 6th Sense:

Lyrics: http://www.songonlyrics.com/common-the-6th-sense-lyrics-feat-bilal

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTGxPiEg7iM

  Check out this song by Afrika Bambaataa and James Brown –  Unity (aka Peace, Unity, Love and having Fun):

However, today our culture and celebrations have been exploited by everything from car companies that seek to sell Black people pimped them out to restaurants that create a soul food dollar menu year after year. As descendants of Africa both at home and abroad these are high times that we should guide against forgetting as Right Honorable Marcus  Garvey told us that people without knowledge of their past are like the tree without root.

What is most disturbing is that most of the companies that one would hear saying “I’mBlack and I am proud “in today’s media are the same ones that dissed Black folks in the 90’s. We should be extra careful as the black world of people since our enemies are under the guise of Black History, they gave us just enough to keep “Black leaders” happy and to ease white guilt. As a result we get the same old repeated slavery, civil rights stories over and over again. We should ask ourselves to what happened to the great African civilization of Ethiopia and Kemet(commonly known as Egypt? What about those brave warriors who fought against Trans-Atlantic Slave Traders?Or what about thousands of Black people who fought against racism before and after DrMartin Luther King Jr?

This version of Black History is deemed too controversial for the mainstream and mass popular culture. Although controversial may sell rap cds, in most cases telling the truth about Black History may be bad for the business. For example, if more Black youth knew about the bondage done to mother Africa over the scramble for gold and diamonds, maybe “bling” would not be so popular.If the Black youth got a strong dose of true African history during Black History Month, may be they would start wearing dashikis(A loose and brightly coloured African shirt ) and kafis instead of snapbacks and true religion of jeans. Which would impact the clothing industry? At the same time if our black youth learned about the historical origin of black on black violence and the prevalence of the Willie Lynch Syndrome every February, they may be less likely to pick up and assault and perpetuate black on black hatred. Thus, impacting gun industry, as it is said that it is not the Whiteman’s hands on the trigger, doing drive by shooting and calling each other words which I can’t repeat here.

Therefore the only ones who truly benefited from Black history are us Black people, that is why our stories must be told and it should be told by us. There must be a hostile takeover of Black History Month, since Black History is more than a way of pushing anartifact. Our Black History is atie that binds us as Africa-Ethiopia Black World of people together in Black Supremacy of Righteousness.

So, when we begin to talk about “taking back Hip Hop” or” taking back our community,” we must concern ourselves with taking back our history as Black World of People.

These are high times that we embark on a revolutionary campaign on a mission to bring back Black consciousness and there is no better time to start than the time right now. Back then Public Enemy had a mission to raise up 5,000 Black leaders during the time of crises on leadership in the late 80’s, your duty today, is to raise up 5,000 intellectual warriors who are devoted for the course of our people who have been lost on this postmodern society.

To cut a long story short Black History Month should be deployed as a tool which will help to solve our problems as Black World of people, and it should be used to guide against forgetting who we are, and whose bones we are standing with.

As a replacement for the dependence on the mass media to give us the truth about our account and history, we must use YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to start a “Black History: Websites,Pages and Episodes” series whereby we will post and Tweet information that has been deliberately buried from the masses of Black World of people. As the matter of fact Hip Hop must also get convoluted as we are asking rappers to adopt the names of our Black heroes and heroines during Black History Month and beyond. If rappers can name themselves after comic book heroes like “Johnny Blaze” and Hollywood gangsters’ like “Frank White” and “Scarface” , why can’t we have , “The King Tut of the Turntables,” “The Nat Turner of Rap”,” or “The Harriet Tubman of Hip Hop.Or Royal Empress Kemet,Queen Nyabhiny, Hapetia of Black Ethiopia?

“History is the landmark by which we are directed into the true course of life. The history of amovement, the history of a nation, the history of a race is the guide-post of that movement’sdestiny, that nation's destiny, that race's destiny. What you do today that is worthwhile, inspire others to act at some future time”

HISTORY WILL JUDGE US FOR BEING FORGETFUL

Brother Jah X