Hip Hop Not Politics

Hip Hop used to go against the system.

From the time of its inception Hip Hop has been a revolutionary culture of DIY artists who didn’t ask permission to express themselves and make positive (and many negative) things happen.

It’s the voice of the people.

A language spoken amongst those on the fringes of society having a conversation in which, at least in the beginning only the right people could understand. 

Infiltrated. 

Like every other thing that started as a small good thing, Hip Hop grew and evolved. It got commercial, it got cool. For better or for worse, this is where we are.

My point. 

In the United States, we are in the midst of another election cycle. Where politicians of the dominant parties will bar no holds to be at the top of the heap. Unfortunately, they have and had for long time their Hip Hop mouthpieces who, may be well-intended, are going to say the same things they say every cycle, which will yield the same actions and result they always do and you will be left with the same problems you’ve always had, along with the community at large. (Continued below)

Our culture (Hip Hop) is not one that teaches dependence.

I say we break the cycle! We worry less about what the mouthpieces are telling us to do and we do our own thing. Buy your neighborhood, grow your food, grow your smoke. Come together, be productive and solve our own problems.

Politics didn’t get Hip Hop to where it is today in fact, it’s quite the contrary, it was our continued opposition to the government and social norms that got us here. 

– Jay D. Penn.

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