Author Archive

Flawless Daily Duppy from Akala

The ‘Celtic warrior maroon from yard’ drops pure knowledge for the block over a hard grime beat. Four minutes of mindblowing skills and wisdom!

It would take hours to transcribe the whole thing, but here’s the last bit:

This whole thing’s chess
And they want us to celebrate the fact that we are just pawns
But man are not on it
See the last thing they want
Is for man with road energy to stop killing one another and think cleverly
And ask why you’re living where you’re living, how you’re living
Did you create the condition that you were raising your kid in?
If you didn’t, who did it?
Is it really for the hood if our oppressors like our lyrics?
Only by crushing your aspirations can we maintain this here situation
Only by crushing the dreams of your kids quick
Can we keep our unearned privilege
And that’s what it’s all about

Knowledge is power!

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Seeerious freestyle from Logic

Six minutes of inspiration and sense from Logic!

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Uplifting, positive, resistant track from Wretch 32 – Take This From Me

One of the best tracks from Wretch’s debut album Wretchrospective (which was released in 2009 – if you haven’t got it yet, cop it quickly before the next one comes out!). The intro says it all:

“Now I’m a man with strong beliefs / And that’s something that no-one can ever take from me / Or you / Nah / You may only be the employee / But that don’t mean your boss can take your integrity / Or your passion / And remember – they can never take your soul”

Farrakhan on hip-hop and the power of cultural expression

Some very deep points here. A must watch for the cultural revolutionaries!

A tribute to the revolutionary poet Bob Marley

Bob Marley

Bob Marley


11 May 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of the untimely death of Robert Nesta Marley – probably the most significant cultural figure of the 20th century. I can’t think of anybody else who has reached such levels of popularity and influence whilst consistently putting forward a message of resistance to oppression.

Undoubtedly, Bob’s image has been somewhat sanitised and pacified by corporate forces who like to portray him as a “chilled out guy with a great voice”.

Dave Thompson, in the book Reggae and Caribbean Music, writes:

“Bob Marley ranks among both the most popular and the most misunderstood figures in modern culture … That the machine has utterly emasculated Marley is beyond doubt. Gone from the public record is the ghetto kid who dreamed of Che Guevara and the Black Panthers, and pinned their posters up in the Wailers Soul Shack record store; who believed in freedom; and the fighting which it necessitated, and dressed the part on an early album sleeve; whose heroes were James Brown and Muhammad Ali; whose God was Ras Tafari and whose sacrament was marijuana. Instead, the Bob Marley who surveys his kingdom today is smiling benevolence, a shining sun, a waving palm tree, and a string of hits which tumble out of polite radio like candy from a gumball machine. Of course it has assured his immortality. But it has also demeaned him beyond recognition. Bob Marley was worth far more.”

But you only have to only have to look outside Europe and North America to see the profound and enduring effect Bob Marley had on the downpressed masses of the world. Marley is still loved by the sufferahs all over the world, not simply because of photos of him burning the holy herb, but because of the hope, pain, love and inspiration of his music and his words. In Africa and South America, Bob is a hero and a teacher. Indigenous Australians keep a flame burning for him in Sydney. He is revered by many indigenous Americans.

As a revolutionary poet of the highest order, Bob Marley has been a teacher and guide to more than one generation of oppressed youth. You can go to school and you can learn some or other Shakespeare play about medieval kings, but it’s Bob that tells you what you need to know:

“Get up, stand up / Stand up for your rights / Get up, stand up / Don’t give up the fight.”

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!”

Bob Marley always put forward a deeply humanistic vision of the unity of all peoples (“I only have one thing I really like to see happen – I like to see mankind live together – black, white, Chinese, everyone – that’s all”). Yet he was also keenly aware of how much of the system of empire, colonialism and white supremacy had been built on the oppression, enslavement and murder of Africans. Bob loved all humanity, but he represented for the oppressed, and for Africa first and foremost.

The commercial radio stations might play ‘Stir it Up’, but they don’t play ‘War’! Check the lyrics (which are adapted from a speech made by Emporer Haile Selassie to the United Nations in 1963):

What life has taught me
I would like to share with
Those who want to learn…

Until the philosophy which hold one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
Everywhere is war, me say war

That until there are no longer first class
And second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man’s skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes
Me say war

That until the basic human rights are equally
Guaranteed to all, without regard to race
Dis a war

That until that day
The dream of lasting peace, world citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion
To be pursued, but never attained
Now everywhere is war, war

And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes
that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique,
South Africa sub-human bondage
Have been toppled, utterly destroyed
Well, everywhere is war, me say war

War in the east, war in the west
War up north, war down south
War, war, rumours of war

And until that day, the African continent
Will not know peace, we Africans will fight
We find it necessary and we know we shall win
As we are confident in the victory

Of good over evil, good over evil, good over evil
Good over evil, good over evil, good over evil

Another song that represents Bob’s position on the frontline of struggle against oppression at the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s is ‘Zimbabwe’, which was written specially for that country’s independence celebrations.

Danny Sims, Bob’s first manager, puts it well:

“Like our great leaders, like Marcus Garvey, like Malcolm X, like Martin Luthur King, Bob Marley was one who, once he knew he had something to get across to the world, he couldn’t rest because of his vision … To a generation, Bob Marley was a Malcolm X for the 1970s, a true revolutionary and a man who never left the people he loved and struggled for. During his life Bob Marley never changed. He never changed his outlook … he never even changed his wardrobe.”

Rest in power, Bob Marley!

Skinnyman – Music Speaks Louder Than Words [video/lyrics]

Pure positive vibes from UK legend Skinnyman! As usual, Skinny’s reppin’ for the youth, telling you the truth in the only way he can be sure you’ll listen to it – in music.

Great video as well, including footage taken at an anti-BNP protest.

Lyrics:

Chorus:

Music speaks louder than words
It’s the only thing the the whole world listens to

Verse 1:

They didn’t want to understand about the views of the kids
Until they heard it getting ran over the music I did
A true reflection of the way we live
Getting broadcasted live way beyond those council estate cribs
The sound of music and the power it gives
That’s why I’m forever reaching out to my fans, doing my gigs
Anyone who see my show can see how true that this is
Now there’s journalists wanna interview me for this
They can’t be disillusioned or confused from my hits
I’ve just been telling it the way that it is
It’s not about showbiz
Before that they wanna make my words sound twist
I think they’re either dumb, ignorant or taking the piss
Before I get into this and let my words sound twist
I say excuse me while I light up my spliff
I’d rather twist up my ‘erbs
Instead of letting you lot twist up my verbs
I let my music speak out for me, louder than words

Verse 2:

I took my raps and ran to the booth
I knew my lyrics brang you the truth
It’s like nobody didn’t wanna take a stand for the youth
I let them know that the system’s got a plan for the youth
And how the media really couldn’t handle the truth
They don’t expose how the police like to handle the youth
In broad daylight they get away with strangling youth
In Camden Town on a Saturday, I brang you the proof
RIP Uncle Dob I’m still banging for you
I’m damned if I don’t, same way I’m damned if I do
Now if I namesake they claim say I’m some scandalous yout
Cos the message that I bring to ya
Is the opposite to their political hypocritical propaganda
So know what you stand for or fall for anything
The jewel in the mind is worth more than any bling
That’s why I’m bringing myself up in this position
To give it you it the only way the whole world listens to

Bridge:

I stay loyal to the music
It won’t betray me
And I’m mad over music cos it drives me crazy
I’ve changed for the better cos my music’s changed me
I feel I’ve been saved like my music’s saved me
Unstoppable, got my ambition in music
And I won’t go abuse my position in music
I’m feeling like a man on a mission in music
The way to make the whole world listen is music

Follow Skinnyman on Twitter.

Great interview with Fusion

Legendary hip-hop, garage and grime producer/mentor Fusion makes some great points about the music industry in this interview

“Music is a good vehicle for social change… In the times we’re living in right now, i feel that we need to say more things than ever before about what’s going on.”

“We have some of the finest lyricists in the English language – Skinnyman, Ghetts, Wretch32, Lowkey, Mic Righteous, Devlin… Many artists are talking about major issues and are trying to be heard, but we also have to eat. A lot of lyrical artists are facing pressure to dumb down their content to get paid. That’s coming from the corporations. We need to encourage those artists, support them, and challenge the status quo.”

Talking about the time when people like Fallacy, Rodney P and Skinnyman dominated UK rap, he says: “There was less money in the industry, and the artists stood for more. Now that there’s more money in the industry, it doesn’t mean you should stand for less. You need to educate your followers and yourself. Artists come and go, but the messages they put out there stay forever if they’re potent and powerful messages.”

“While you get a chance to use certain platforms (social networking etc), be sure to say something that actually matters. All these platforms are in a way exploiting you. You don’t really own those platforms.”

At the end he also makes a very deep point about the history of black music as freedom music.

Check this classic track with Fallacy:

Tim Wise ‘White Like Me’ summarised in 15 tweets

White Like Me

White Like Me


As a random learning exercise, I tried to summarise Tim Wise’s excellent book ‘White Like Me’ in 15 tweets. I figured I’d post them here for posterity.

Here we go:

  1. We breathe racism – it’s everywhere around us. Therefore we all have to be constantly vigilant about our own prejudices.
  2. ‘Whiteness’ is a construct that was developed in the Americas in the 1600s to prevent the unity of black slaves and poor whites.
  3. Before that, people weren’t talked about in terms of white or black. Skin colour wasn’t considered a significant attribute.
  4. Laws were created, privileges were enforced. Whites were persuaded that their solidarity should be focused on race, not class.
  5. Race has no value from a scientific point of view, but it has become a sociological/political fact.
  6. Exceptions (Oprah, Obama) don’t prove the rule. There was a black millionaire in the US in 1911. Did racism not exist then?
  7. Many white people find it difficult to come to terms with the idea of white privilege, because it threatens their self-image.
  8. Privilege starts from day 1 – where you live, your family’s financial security, networks, inheritance, perception, education access.
  9. It is our human obligation to fight injustice. This struggle will never be truly finished, but we focus on playing our part.
  10. White people have everything 2 gain from fighting racism. Racism destroys US/English culture. We must develop a new inclusive culture.
  11. Silence is collaboration. Regardless of colour, we have clear responsibility to stand up to injustice perpetrated against others.
  12. If we can recognise that we’ve done wrong to the environment and take measures to fix it, why can’t we do the same with race?
  13. White people should set antiracist example in all areas. Expose racism. Refuse to worship a white Jesus. Boycott racist companies.
  14. White people should be willing to follow, not lead, in antiracist struggle. Respect that others have deeper experience of issue.
  15. Reject the Eurocentrism of mainstream education and press. Actively explore non-European history and culture.

Read the book; it’s great. Very refreshing and healthy to hear a middle class white male recognising white privilege as a problem.

Personally, I agree with the contents of the book almost entirely, but as always, remember to read critically and develop your own view.

Get the book for £7.73 on Amazon UK

Alternative (and cheap!) workout by Tempa T

Pure positive vibes from Tempa T, providing a great service for the community! He does a great job presenting as well – tons of personality.

Some book recommendations

A few people have asked me for book recommendations recently. Here are some books I’ve read over the past couple of years that I think are very much worth reading (assuming an interest in youth culture, people’s struggle against injustice and oppression, race, gender, empire, war, history and music).

I’ll keep this list updated with new books as I read them. Feel free to make suggestions in the comments.


Huey P Newton – Revolutionary Suicide

If you only read one book about the Panthers, this should probably be the one. Huey’s autobiography is a detailed, moving and insightful account of the Panthers’ rise in the late 1960s. One of the most important aspects of this book is how the Panthers really united theory and practice (at a time when the rest of the left in the US was basically just a talking shop). The Panthers identified the real, actual needs in the community around which people could be mobilised, and they used theory to develop the way they addressed those needs. Another important aspect of this book is the idea that the restructuring of society is a process that starts *now*, not on the ‘day of a revolution’. Organising communities to address their own needs = laying the ground for socialism.

Ramzy Baroud – My Father Was A Freedom Fighter

A moving and hugely informative book that combines a personal biography with a very well-told history of the Palestinian struggle in general and Gazan life in particular. The type of book you don’t want to put down.

Tim Wise – White Like Me

Everyone needs to read this book. A brilliant, funny, incisive analysis of how white privilege, white supremacy and race prejudice work. It is especially compelling because it is based on the life experiences of a middle class white male, reflecting on how race privilege has affected his life. Honestly this is must-read.

Mumia Abu Jamal – We Want Freedom

There are literally dozens of Black Panther autobiographies and retrospectives out there. Mumia’s is, in many ways, the best (at least out of the ones I’ve read – and I’ve read a lot!). As well as giving a general outline of what the Panthers did and what made them so relevant, he also gives a very interesting critique of some of the problems that caused them to fall apart, as well as addressing some of the lesser-known aspects of the Panthers, such as their role in empowering women.

Jeff Chang – Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

If you are into hip-hop, you really (really) should read this exceptionally good history of the hip-hop generation. I’m not going to go on about it here, because I’ve written a review, which you can read here.

MK Asante Jr – It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop

Another unmissable book related to hip-hop (and wider social justice issues). In my review I describe it as “a discussion document for a new generation (the ‘post-hip-hop’ generation) to help define and develop its role in the struggle for a better future.” Read the review.

bell hooks – Class Matters

A very thought-provoking work from someone who usually writes about race and gender issues, tackling the question of class hierarchy – how it affects our lives, how deeply it is ingrained in our society, and how it is bound up with race and gender. Although it is based on an analysis of the US, it definitely resonates for readers elsewhere in the ‘first world’.

Franz Fanon – The Wretched of the Earth

Not exactly easy to read (in the sense that it’s not very structured), but this book has so much insight about the colonial mentality, the psychology of anticolonial revolution, the dichotomy between the urban workers and the peasant masses, the million ways used by erstwhile colonisers to maintain oppression, and so on. Plus the overriding theme is very powerful – the idea that colonial slaves, so oppressed, so debased, can only make themselves real men and women through revolutionary violence against their oppressors. Get the version with Sartre’s introduction – it’s amazing.

John Hagedorn – World of Gangs

An eye-opening account of what gangs are, where they operate, how they operate and what function they fulfil in society. Moving away from the traditional narrative (based on how to ‘stamp out’ gangs), Hagedorn looks at the social reality that leads to the emergence of gangs, and the deep roots that many gangs put down; he arrives at a conclusion surprisingly close to that reached by the Black Panthers and other groups in 1960s USA: that the most effective form of intervention with regard to gangs is to push them away from violence in the community and towards fighting for social justice. Interestingly, he discusses hip-hop as a means to communicate this message. Tupac would be pleased!

Walter Rodney – How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

A passionate and essential account of how European colonialism and neocolonialism created what we call the ‘third world’, via plunder, the slave trade, and every form of political trickery known to man. A classic.

Naomi Klein – The Shock Doctrine

If you want to understand the modern world of neoliberal free market madness, you need this book. An extremely well-written, convincing expose of the record of privatisation and deregulation that has led to a huge increase in the gap between rich and poor worldwide. I think Klein’s critiques of ANC and China are somewhat off the mark, but that needn’t detract from an excellent book.

Mike Davis – Planet of Slums

Not exactly feel-good reading, but very insightful and important. Davis documents the process whereby third world farmers are forced off their land and have to compete for limited economic opportunities in the cities. The result is a rapid increase in makeshift housing, vast unemployment, and rising levels of crime. The counterpart to this is the migration of the super-rich to high-security gated communities where they can exist free from the threat of all the violent crime and poverty. The worldwide slum population is expected to reach two billion by 2030.

Paulo Freire – The Pedagogy of the Oppressed

This book is incredibly difficult to read! But well worth the effort in my opinion. Freire exposes the way that class society recreates itself within traditional education systems, and explores alternatives based on the idea of ‘teacher’ and ‘pupil’ becoming collaborators in a shared goal of moving towards freedom, constantly learning from one another and treating each other as equals.

Michael Dyson – Know What I Mean?

Dyson is *the* leading public intellectual on issues surrounding hip-hop. This book deals with some very tricky and contentious subjects – including ghetto authenticity (‘realness’), conscious vs slack, masculinity, violence, the generation communication breakdown, and more. Dyson stands out from most of the rest of his generation of intellectuals due to his focus on, and empathy with, the youth. He doesn’t fall into the trap of condemning the younger generation; rather he makes the effort to listen to them, understand them, learn from them, and try to open respectful and useful dialogue with them.

CLR James – The Black Jacobins

The definitive history of Haitian slavery and the Haitian revolution – the most successful slave revolt of all time, which led to the establishment of the first independent black republic outside Africa. CLR James gives a detailed and very well written history.

John Holt – How Children Learn

A departure here from issues of class and race! This is a really interesting book on early education, and a very human tribute to the innate brilliance of children. One of the first books that made me realise how completely warped our school system is, and how its most significant effect is to destroy children’s natural love of learning, replacing it with fear and individualism.

Robert Newman – The Fountain at the Centre of the World

I’m not much of a novel reader, but this is genuinely excellent. The writing is fantastic, the plot is intricate, and the message is important. In essence, this book is about collective action being the most fundamental aspect of human nature, and how individuals become truly human – truly free – by participating in collective action towards solving their own problems. Incidentally, if you haven’t watched Rob Newman’s ‘History of Oil’ show, stop what you’re doing right now, find it and watch it. Thanks.

Lloyd Bradley – Bass Culture

A lengthy but extremely enjoyable history of reggae, from ska to dancehall, taking in roots, lovers’ rock and rocksteady along the way.
Essential reading if you’re into reggae (or, I would argue, any of the UK dance music scenes that are hugely influenced by reggae – in particular jungle and grime). Along with the music, Bradley does a great job of providing the social context, so you also pick up important aspects of Jamaican history, including slavery, British colonialism, Rastafari, Marcus Garvey, Walter Rodney, independence, the JLP-PNP turf wars, the rise of the cocaine economy, and much more.

Phil Piratin – Our Flag Stays Red

Piratin’s book picks up a very similar theme to Huey Newton’s ‘Revolutionary Suicide’, but in the context of London’s East End in the 30s and 40s. This is essential reading for anyone with the slightest interest in community and anti-fascist mobilisation, and gives some important clues for modern-day activists trying to develop their strategies.

Benjamin Zephaniah: Gangsta Rap

A novel. Benjamin Zephaniah is a brilliant poet, novelist and activist. I am not a fan of the idea of the national curriculum, but this should be on it! It is immensely readable, uses very unpretentious language, and tells a story that is highly relevant and important for today’s teenagers about how the system uses our culture against us.

Eric Williams: Capitalism and Slavery

I read this about the time of the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery in the British colonies, around which there was much self-congratulatory hype in the press. This book gives a very clear picture of the economic and political basis of slavery, and shows that abolition was not the result of terribly nice white men like William Wilberforce, but a combination of the pressure of slave revolts with the disappearance of the economic basis of slavery. It’s fairly difficult reading (it was Williams’ PhD thesis), but well worth the effort.

AL Morton: People’s History of England

Does what it says on the tin! Being a product of the British education system, I had a *very* limited understanding of British history when I left school. Morton gives a solid overview of English history from the first settlements on these isles up until the early 20th century (when the book was written).

Ilan Pappe: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

This is a must-read for anyone with an interest in the Palestinian question. Pappe gives a huge amount of detailed evidence showing the true nature of the 1948-49 war – not a heroic David-and-Goliath “war of independence” by the zionists, but a large-scale ethnic cleansing and land grab.

Nick Davies: Dark Heart

Davies documents the intense poverty in which a significant minority of people in Britain live. The author’s descriptions are excellent, and he gives a very clear explanation of the relationship between unemployment and social degradation.

Karl Marx: Value, Price and Profit

The ultimate beginner’s guide to economics. Value, Price and Profit gives a solid overview of capitalist political economy. It’s reasonably easy to understand, and only a hundred or so pages.

Vladimir Lenin: Imperialism – the Highest Stage of Capitalism

We often talk about imperialism, but clearly a lot of people don’t know what it means. This book explains exactly what imperialism is and how it operates. Much has changed in the century or so since this book was written, but the fundamental relations Lenin describes in this book remain essentially the same.

Paul Robeson: Here I Stand

A moving and fascinating autobiography of one of the 20th century’s great heroes. Robeson gives a very useful account of the struggle for civil and human rights in the US in the earlier part of the 20th century, and positions it firmly within the context of the international struggle of oppressed people for their freedom (thereby leaving a weighty intellectual inheritance for Malcolm X, who took up this theme three decades later).

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

An incredibly powerful, inspiring book about how a man at the bottom of the heap – an uneducated, imprisoned small-time crook – turned himself around to become the most widely-recognised, eloquent and militant fighter against racism and for justice. Everybody needs to read this.

A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (contributed by Ameer Hamzah Hakim)

This autobiography is one of the greatest firsthand accounts of the brutality of slavery and the injustice of stealing a man’s freedom. It is a book about a slave who learned a skill so dangerous it frightened the life out of his white owners – a slave who learned how to read. It is often said an educated man will demand his freedom; the life of Frederick Douglass is a great example of this. Frederick Douglass is a true giant of history with a story that deserves to be read.

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