Brotha Sam Johnson,
Very good point. Black culture is a central component to today's capitalist culture... and vice versa. This is not to deny the positive, antisexist, liberating aspects currently rising within "HipHop' culture. This is to contextualize that positive reality... and help us set the frames of reference for our Black Liberation Movement.
I posted the article primarily to re-enforce the reality that Blackfolk in the US in the 20th and 21st Centuries have become "very Diasporic." Forced Migration/immigration has help to shape a new African-centered culture that flies in the face of all the internalized negative slurs/assumptions we hurl at each other's forced (artificial/colonialized) nationalities. We are all "In Da Mix" --whether we like it or not! We must never forget that our African ancestors were randomly strewn thruout the Americas (and europe and Asia) during the rise of capitalism and Europenas nations. By chance, for example, one line of my ancestors wound up in North Carolina, another line in South Carolina, and another in Jamaica... and another in Barbados. There are millions of us that have similar intricate global family lineages... and we haven't even talked about our Native American ancestors! Or our forced-by-rape-European ancestors!
To point out the Caribbean/Latin/South American contributions to HipHop is not about narrow nationalist one-upmanship... not about rendering HipHop into a Caribbean creation. It's to reveal that from now on African and African Diasporic culture will become even more intimately intertwined with each other... blurring borders and languages (i.e. Reggaeton). This will be a good thing IF WE control its CULTURAL and ECONOMIC developments.
If capital (and therefore, white supremacy) dominates, we will homoginate into the bleached blandness of a Fiona Apple/Kenny G-in-brownface capitalist cultural reality concerned only with mega bottomlines and a zombified Black consumer oblivious of politics, racial knowledge & pride.
For over 500 years, we have been a globalized people struggling to hold onto/reconstruct/define our "Africanness." Now that we are only hours away physically from each other anywhere on the planet.. now that we are instantly connected with each other anywhere on the planet, our cultural transformations will accelarate exponentially.
Are we strong enough (politically aware/globally informed), united enough (organized/mobilized) to define and direct that transformation for the betterment of Africans everywhere?
in Struggle,
Sam
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I would never describe Hip Hop as "one of the
greatest creations we descendents of African
captives have produced". Too much of this
culture defame black women, especially some of
those rappers on this list. You cannot measure
"great" solely by the amount of money or wealth
generated by this culture. The ideas of some of
the original creators of the music of this
culture have been hijacked by the unquenchable
greed for money at any cost [nothing new in
western culture].
Have a Peaceful Day
Sam Johnson
Build wealth by starting your own business at:
http://www.deliveringonthepromise.com/JohnsonBusiness
Fax: 1-208-379-0388
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