The Political Power of Rap / Spoken Word : "Feat. Def Poety as a New Age Talking Drum, Educating Tha Masses"

ICEBREAKERS/ INTRO:

From RBG Goals and Objectives:

3. To begin to develop an appreciation of Afrikan-Centered Education propagated through the oral tradition; including Afrikan Music/Drums, Spoken Word /Rap, Rhythm & Blues, Classic Blues, Jazz and Reggae.

http://www.amiribaraka.com/

Amiri Baraka, born in 1934, in Newark, New Jersey, USA, is the author of over 40 books of essays, poems, drama, and music history and criticism, a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively...Link to read more

To take part in the African revolution it is not to write a revolutionary song; you must fashion the revolution with the people. And if you fashion it with the people, the songs will come by themselves, and of themselves. ... In order to achieve real action, you must yourself be a living part of Africa and of her thought; you must be an element of that popular energy which is entirely called for the freeing, the progress, and the happiness of Africa. There is no place outside that fight for the artist or for the intellectual who is not himself concerned with and completely at one with the people in the great battle of Africa and of all suffering humanity.
Sekou Touré1

HISTORICALLY POETRY / RAP, LITERATURE, ART AND MUSIC HAVE BEEN COMBINED TO PLAY A PIVOTAL ROLE IN BLACK PROGRESS AND POWER; REVOLT, REBELLION, AND RESISTANCE TO PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SYSTEMIC OPPRESSION.

“WE MUST REMEMBER POLITICAL RAP STARTED WITH THE
AFRIKAN TALKING DRUM”



Because of the perceived potential of talking drums to "speak" in a tongue unknown to slave traders and thus to incite rebellion, in 1838 these and other drums were banned from use by Africans in the United States.

Def Poetry, also known as Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry or Def Poetry Jam, is an HBO television series produced by hip-hop music entrepreneur Russell Simmons. The series presents performances by established spoken word poets, as well as up-and-coming ones. Well-known actors and musicians will often surprise the audience by showing up to recite their own original poems. The show is hosted by Mos Def. Def Poetry is a spin-off of Def Comedy Jam.

As he did on Def Comedy, Simmons appears at the end of every episode to thank the audience. The show premiered in 2002 and the latest season to air (Season 6) premiered in February 2007. As of summer 2008, there has been no word about the possibility of a Season 7.

Though technically not a poetry slam, Def Poetry has become heavily associated with the poetry slam movement, and utilizes many of poetry slam's best known poets, including National Poetry Slam champions such as Beau Sia, Taylor Mali, Big Poppa E, Mayda del Valle, Mike McGee, Alix Olson and Rives, among others. Even poets who are critical of the poetry slam, such as John S. Hall, have acknowledged slam's influence on the show. In a 2005 interview, Hall was quoted as saying, “It's true that I was on Def Poetry even though I've never slammed. I'm probably the only person to be on there who hasn't slammed. And I think most people on Def Poetry have won slams or done well in slams. And, all of them, except the special guest stars, the celebrities, are writing slam poems and performing slam poems on Def Poetry, so to me, Def Poetry is still extremely slam-informed, and I think it will probably always be. What they say about Def Poetry is that it wants to bring an urban feel. And to me, they don't mean black or Latino, or non-white. What they really mean is, a rhythm of poetry that comes out of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, that came out of the slams.”

In a 2005 interview,Bob Holman, who founded the Nuyorican Poets Cafe's poetry slam and appeared on Season 4 of the show, applauded Def Poetry, noting,
“ I'm real happy poetry is on television. My hat is off to Russell Simmons, who has found a way to get poems on HBO in a way that feeds his own business. It gives him the back credentials for his hip-hop label, and at the same time he's magnanimous towards the art of poetry, giving us a place like that. It's a great, great moment, just as Def Poetry Jam on Broadway was a great moment, too. Not since Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls [Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, 1975 Obie Award-winning play] has a poem like that been on the stage.

In November 2002, a live stage production, Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam opened on Broadway. The show featured poets Beau Sia, Suheir Hammad, Staceyann Chin, Lemon, Mayda del Valle, Georgia Me, Black Ice, Poetri and Steve Coleman. The show ran on Broadway until May 2003, and won a 2003 Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event. The show subsequently toured both nationally and internationally.

Rap music has had a profound impact on the African American community in the United States. Its greatest significance, to my mind, derives from the fact that it has fostered a profound nationalism in the youth of Black America. Arguably, hip-hop has become a conduit for African American culture to a greater extent than even jazz. Where the latter could, though its polyrhythmic syncopations, embrace both the nuances and jagged edges of the collective Black experience, it could not self-consciously energize the nationalist ethos in quite the way the more lyrically focused hip-hop does. To present these jagged edges, jazz, or be-hop, needed the uncompromising lyric of the poet. Also, poets, with their jagged edges intact, still required the talking drum of instrumentation to fully capture the Black ethos of struggle, resistance, righteousness, exploitation, and creativity in Black America. Hip-hop fused the two—poetry and jazz—in such a way as to render itself the most conductive source of the current of African American culture...

Read More / Hip Hop History 101 : A Refreshing Audio Chronology 1970-2005

"Minister Malcolm X, The Best MCee Ever"

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RBG POST SCRIPT
"15 N Da Video Clip"

Data Source:
RBG Hip Hop and Conscious Rap Music Wikizine

http://www.heruspeaks.com/