10 Questions with iLL-Literacy

Just before iLL-Literacy rocked the joint at the 3rd annual Trinity International Hip Hop Festival, we had a chance to get some insight from this talented and diverse group of spoken word / hip hop artists.

Tell us a little about your backgrounds and how you got into hip hop and spoken word.

Ruby: I started off as a writer, engaged in writings from poets like Langston Hughes. When I reached college, my passion for poetry grew alongside my newfound social and political awareness, and spoken word was the perfect medium to bridge those two vital elements together. I was introduced to spoken word during my first year in college when I met Adriel, and we formed iLL-Lit in 2001.

Adriel: I got into hip-hop right before Pac died, which was a really crazy experience…because here I was as an early teen in the late 90’s, with everyone dancing around in shiny suits and getting jiggy with it.  Don’t get me wrong…it was fun and I loved it, but still I had some distant memory of things being different, and of hip-hop being something that I could relate to on a deeper level than exploding Benzes and shit.  Then the Roots came out with "Things Fall Apart," and the Black Star album right after, which introduced me to a whole other scene which at the time was considered "experimental." That sense made me feel like it was okay to create stuff that I could relate to, rather than fitting a mold.  Spoken word came around shortly and I fell in love and haven’t stopped since.

Dahlak:   My older brother got me into hip-hop when I was like 11. When I was about 12 or 13, I decided that I didn’t want to be just a spectator. I started writing, freestyling, and performing as much as I could.  I really developed my skills in my teens.  So when I started to hear about spoken word when I was 17, it just fit me perfectly.  I been doing both ever since.

Nico: I started writing young.  I would watch my older cousin freestyle and wanna be down.  The turning point for me though, was eighth grade when aquemini dropped.  We use to have school wide talent shows and I would always imagine myself spittin big boi’s verse on "skew it on the bar-b". I been trying to do that ever since, in a sense.

How did you all come together to form iLL-Literacy?

Ruby: We wanted to create a forum for artists on our campus, UC Davis, so we formed iLL-Literacy, where, during our peak, we swelled to a 15 person collective. After we graduated, Adriel, Dahlak, and myself were the ones who decided to take it on and carry it through as a profession. When we met Nico through YouthSpeaks, a spoken word non-profit we were all involved in, the cipher was complete. It’s been history every since.

How do you see hip hop and spoken word intersecting?

Dahlak: I don’t look at them as seperate things.  To me, spoken word is inherently hip-hop.  It’s an extension of hip-hop.  An "unofficial" element.

Adriel: I actually see spoken word as its own entity, but definitely a close relative to hip-hop (but in the same way that jazz and afrobeat are…no more, no less).  Spoken word and hip-hop require instant and aggressive affirmation from an audience, and I think that’s pretty unique to the genres.  Recently with Def Poetry and artists like Saul Williams and Ursula Rucker it’s apparent that the two have been naturally grouped together.  But at the same time you see Saul venturing into rock, and George Clinton was playing around with spoken word as far back as the late 60’s, so spoken word has definitely been infiltrating different mediums of music long before its pairing with hip-hop.

You’re a very diverse group. Tell us about your heritage/backgrounds.

Ruby: Yes, we are! Our diversity in our backgrounds is what I’m one of the things I’m most proud of – our diversity offers people a wide spectrum of perspectives that would not normally be heard all at once, and our solidarity stands for a united struggle. Adriel is Chinese, Dahlak’s parents
are from Trinidad and Eritrea, Nico is Black and Chinese, and I’m Filipina and Chinese. So as you can see, we definitely have a lot of history rooted in different places in the world. We do our best to offer our audience our view points coming from where we are from.

Adriel: Yeah, ethnically there’s a bit of a spectrum, and I think it speaks to a lot of people, especially in this country where most people don’t live in a strictly black and white world anymore.  At the same time, I think people are actually drawn to how suprisingly similar we are…we were all raised in northern California, and being on the road much, we’ve all picked up everyone else’s mannerisms.  Like before Dahlak looked sideways at sushi and now he goes off to get some when the rest of us are getting pizza…and Nico’s pants have lost much of their bagginess…and I catch myself doing everyone’s facial expressions.  And Ruby used to go to sleep whenever the rest of us would do our "Illmatic vs. Reasonable Doubt" debates, now she’s got more Jay-Z references in her poems than the rest of the us combined.

Where have you all traveled to perform? What have been the most exciting places?

Ruby: All over the country, mostly in college/university circuits. The big cities: NY, Atlanta, LA, Bay, Seattle, Chicago, Philly, but also states like Vermont, Virginia, Alabama, who don’t normally see very many Black and Asian people interacting. My favorite destination however, is hands down, Paris, France. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to perform in the Philippines someday soon too.

Nico:  I would just add, touring mostly in the college circuit, I always have the most fun in small towns and cities I’ve never heard of.  The experience is always new, and each pocket of the country has its own culture for us to learn.

What has been the response to your performances outside the USA? Was that surprising to you?

Dahlak:  I was surprised by how much they understood some things I was saying and how much they didn’t understand other things.  Really helped me to shape my perception of my American identity.  My black identity.

Adriel: I went to the UK this past summer kind of on a quest…I had heard that spoken word was given more room to "breathe" over there because hip-hop isn’t as big and therefore the two genres aren’t categorized together.  And getting out to London definitely proved that to be true.  There were poets out there that were deeply influenced by jazz, garage, and even heavy metal!  It worked out really nicely though…I got to see a bunch of different styles that I had never imagined before, and the style that I have and that I thought EVERYONE was used to was new to the folks out there.

What can we expect from an iLL-Literacy performance?

Ruby: Interactive, head noddin, spoken word poetry in dialogue with, NOT talking to the audience. iLL-Literacy’s style is unique in that we fuse elements of poetry, hip hop theater, stand up comedy, and music in our sets, so we keep it moving and bouncing. We approach serious issues in an
angle that makes it more accessible by using conversational tones, humor, but also intensity and vulnerability. We aim to keep everyone engaged and present.

Dahlak:  Edu-tainment!

Nico:  Like whoa.

Adriel: Honestly, I don’t even know what to expect!  Within the past year we’ve developed from doing open mic-style rotation sets to off-Broadway theater productions to wannabe acapella hip-hop-styled poetry sets to full-length music sets with a full funk band.  We’re always trying to figure out how to do new shit…next week Nico might call us up and say he wants to start using lasers and mermaids, and at the following show you’ll probably see it happen.

What issues are important to you and do you weave into your lyrics/poems?

Ruby: I write from the heart, so a lot of what I write is introspective and reflective. I take the big picture and find how I, as a 24 year old Filipina American woman who lives, laughs, loves, hurts, and grows can fit into the world. I write a lot of love, of self-growth, concepts of beauty, gender inequality.

Dahlak:  When I write for a spoken word perfomance, the themes are very socially charged.  My music is more personal to me.  I aim my music at the heart and my poetry at the head.

Nico:  My starting place is family, although much of that writing doesn’t make it into spoken word performances.  Most of my poetry attempts to unpack social and political issues of the immediate now, mostly for myself and largely unsuccessfully.  Also, in one way or another, I always come back to the disposable quality of black life in America and the world. That’s poetry, my music on the other hand is sometimes more "ignint". Holla.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Ruby: From reading books, from music. I’m currently influenced by Janelle Monae, Outkast, MIA, Santogold, and always by Stevie Wonder and Mary J.Blige. I also find myself blessed to be friends with all my favorite artists – I’m more influenced by my friends’ work than anyone else, truthfully. I know their art on a more personal level, so the inspiration hits harder. I have an amazing community!

Dahlak:  I find my inspiration from the people I want to reach. My friends inspire me to write about my experiences in Sac. Bill O’Reilly inspires me to communicate something to white people who think he makes sense.

Nico: I eat music like I eat coffee. Need ‘em both. Beyond most legal stimulants and Lil Wayne, I find myself constantly inspired by the people I want to reach and learn from (like Dahlak) and the small community of writers, students, educators, and artists I belong to.

Adriel: Music from other people that I wish I had made. 

What are your future goals, plans, aspirations?

Ruby: I want to pursue a career in television, as a VJ, where I can reach a wider audience through art, fashion, and music. I want to be an example of a true heartfelt artist reclaiming art and music amidst all of the polluted noise we find in popular media. I am also looking forward to finishing and releasing my very first book, Miss Universe, do out later this year, and most importantly, to reach youth, spark change, take part in the movement, build progress with my community, and represent hella, hella hard for Filipino people worldwide!

Dahlak:  To continue to make beautiful art with beautiful people. Maybe spark a couple of minds in the meantime…

Nico:  If I could get some of those, that’d be great. My future plans for the now though, do it moving, maybe put out a mixtape, and if I’m lucky, perhaps begin a national dialogue that recognizes the commonality in struggles for liberation across liberation struggles. Shadidi.

Adriel: Mainly, I want to make Asian kids feel cool. And for everyone else, I just want to keep on coming out with work that people have never seen or heard…never even imagined.  But I want it to be hot, and not go over peoples’ heads. But hey, we’re SPOKEN WORD artists so we thrive completely on engaging in conversation with the people, which keeps us grounded.  I want to destroy that whole concept of poets being super-abstract and off in their own world…that’s when stuff starts being difficult to understand, and as a result difficult to feel. I mean, I definitely want to be off in some other world but I’m trying to take as many as you mothafuckas with me.

For all the real dope on iLL-Literacy, check out www.ill-literacy.com.

How Conscious Hip Hop Failed Us

Here comes MC Revolutionary X, dressed down in his military gear with a Malcolm X t shirt, raising his black fist, vowing to strike down capitalist swine and anyone who benefits from this fascist system. (except his lawyer and accountant.) Yeah, Brotha spits a lot of game about fightin’ the powers that be. But at the end of the day, he is the first dude in line trying to get a record deal from the same powers that he is supposed to be fightin’…

Back in 1967, Harold Cruse wrote a groundbreaking book called "The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual," in which he dissed (critiqued) everyone from the Civil Rights people, the Black Nationalists to the Black Arts Movement. Today, the issues that Cruse raised are still as relevant as they were 40 years ago, only with a Hip Hop soundtrack.

Most serious Hip Hop historians mark 1988 as the official start of the "conscious" Hip Hop movement with the release of Public Enemy’s "It Takes a Nation to Hold us Back" followed by Boogie Down Production’s "By Any Means Necessary." To jack a lyric from KRS, "these two albums started consciousness in rap."

For a four year period, it seemed that the prophesied "revolution" was just around the corner and the dreams of "Huey P" were about to be realized at any moment. However, 20 years later, we see that the promised revolution never came, replaced by a devolution of not only Hip Hop but black culture, in general.

In our never ending quest to get back to rap’s "golden era" we have neglected to ask the fundamental question.

"What went wrong?"

Although, many look back at this period as "the good ol’ days, as it is said, "the good ol’ days weren’t always good," as the failures of that period set a precedent for the Hip Hop of today. So, it is important that we study this period because if you don’t understand the years 1988-1992, then you don’t understand Hip Hop.

One of the flaws of this period was the failure of the conscious Hip Hop community to stick with the political Black Nationalist principals on which it was founded. It can be argued that, although celebrated, the Native Tongue and other successive movements actually were a well marketed deviation from the more political messages of Public Enemy; creating a movement of hippies rather than freedom fighters. Also with the rising popularity of MTV Raps and its crossover appeal, conscious Hip Hop became more Hip Hop-centric than Afrocentric.

Also, even the most militant political Hip Hop artists refused to take a stand against the West Coast "gangsta invasion" with their visions of joint tours and collaborations under the universal banner of "Hip Hop" clouding their judgment. That is why "gangsta rap" spread like a plague because the conscious Hip Hop physicians refused to provide a cure. So we allowed the African "kings and queens" concept to spiral downward into a culture of niggas and bitches.

As scholars such as Harold Cruse and Kwame Ture have pointed out, the capitalist state has a way of absorbing all opposition by coercion or force, when necessary. So the force of "the system" was too strong for young black artists, many of whom just wanted to make music and move out of "the ghetto."

This is not to say, by any means, that this applies to all of them. There have always been those who have used culture as a means to an end and not an end to a means. Many of them found out the hard way the limits of "Hip Hop Nationalism" as a socio-political force.

Despite what power the conscious movement professed to have, it was unable to organize a defense for its casualties of war such as Professor Griff and, later, Sister Souljah. Also, although the Arsenio Hall show gave national exposure to many in the Hip Hop community, there was no mass movement of these same artists to defend him after his show was cancelled for having Min. Louis Farrakhan on the program. This is despite the fact that many artists were either quoting Min. Farrakhan in their lyrics or using his voice for samples.

As it was during the Harlem Renaissance, according to Cruse, there was still an over dependency on elements that were hostile to anything with Black Nationalist overtones. However, the roles of white leftist and Euro-Jewish influence (and in the early to mid 1900’s Communist) influence on black culture is too often a taboo subject where Hip Hop angels fear to tread. Some have even argued that the whole Harlem Renaissance was just a well financed ploy to divert attention from the Black Nationalist Movement of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

While some of the blame for the failure of conscious Hip Hop must be put on the shoulders of the artists, some of, if not most of the blame must be put in the hands of the Afrocentric scholars and lecturers. Many of the scholars did not see the long term value of Hip Hop in the context of the "movement."

Also, as the case is today, many are more concerned with selling overpriced books and DVD’s and getting honorariums from college kids instead of organizing "the hood." While it was understandable before the popularity of the internet for them to claim that that was the only way to get their messages out, with the ‘net and and the various PDF files, youtube, podcasts, etc, there can only be one reason why these resources are not used to give critical information to the struggling masses of Afrikan people. The scholars and the rappers are both caught up in the tangled web of capitalism.

This brings us to where we are today where the "movement" for some has become just a marketing tool to pimp a record deal from a multi national corporation.

The main and possibly the most destructive difference between the conscious movement of 1988- 1992 and today is the "dumbing down" of black culture in an attempt to capture the "gangsta market." Therefore, the over reliance on gangsta themes and the glorification of the "thug/nigga" concept has made the current direction of Hip Hop more European than African. The fact is often ignored that anyone who chooses to conceptualize himself as a "nigga" can never pose a serious threat to the power structure because embedded in the "nigga" concept is a psychological dog collar that prevents the wearer from ever biting his master, despite how loud he may bark.

It must be noted that most of those who are most impressed with the gangsterism of conscious Hip Hop are the left wing and anarchist white college kids who are a cash cow, often financing their college tours and Hip Hop summits.

Also, the cloud of capitalism prevents the Hip Hop audience from seeing that, for the conscious artist, it is the record company, itself that is "ground zero" for  the battle for the minds of African people. But they rap about an external enemy when the internal, major enemy of Black Liberation is sitting in the boardroom two doors down from their recording studio.

In order for conscious Hip Hop and Hip Hop in general to survive, it must become what the system never really allowed it to be; a way to educate, inform and inspire Afrikan people to become involved in the betterment of their global communities.

To borrow from Kwame Ture, at the end of the day white people (even the most liberal) are fighting for power but black people are fighting for survival.

And we "gonna survive America!"

*Min. Paul Scott represents the Messianic Afrikan Nation. He can be reached at minpaulscottt@yahoo.com     
http://www.messianicafrikannation.com   

From Childhood War to Hip-Hop: A Review of “War Child”

A must-see at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, War Child documents the unlikely, awe-inspiring odyssey of Sudanese hip-hop star and former child soldier Emmanuel Jal, who has translated his experience into a powerful advocacy of renaissance for his home country and a voice of redemption for the generation of ‘lost boys’ he became part of. Given its effortlessly epic nature, the film could have done without the input of experts on the Sudan crisis that brackets Jal’s tale. First-time director/producer C. Karim Chrobog lacks no lucidity, though, in gradually letting his subject reveal a struggle with the past.

The past is at once a bad trip down memory lane and a highly personal quest for peace. (Gua, meaning ‘peace’ in Jal’s native Nuer, was the title of his 2005 debut album.) Now in his mid-20s, the unassuming Jal cuts a magnetic screen presence: sad-eyed, soft-spoken and quiet-mannered, he exudes a soulful intensity that finds release through his music.

Jal was born as civil war took hold of Sudan, and moved from his home in the South to one of the UN-supervised children’s refugee camps in Ethiopia, a recruiting ground for the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army. Abandoned by his father after his mother’s death, he embraced being drilled to kill by the SPLA. As he remembers how excited he was at brandishing an AK-47 – the biggest gun he could handle at age 8 – and the hatred he felt toward the Islamic government troops, Jal marvels at his recent collaboration with fellow countryman and Muslim musician Abdel Gadir Salim.

After almost five years of service, Jal was one of 400 soldiers to desert the army and one of 12 to survive. Having recounted their grueling flight to a group of students in Washington, DC, he admits that telling his story depresses him, even renders him suicidal.

18 years later, Jal returns to Sudan, and resolves to heal his war-torn family ties by acting as a caring relative – a cool cat cousin rather than a parental role model – for youngsters who look up to him. Whether sharing his journey in song or championing the value of education over the hustle of the music industry, pledging solidarity with Sudanese orphans at a UN refugee camp in Kenya or sponsoring students at his old Nairobi prep school, Jal blazes a trail of knowledge as empowerment to safeguard the vast numbers of African kids still victimized by martial lawlessness.

by Kenneth Crab (The Indypenent)

Obama And The Hip-Hop Problem

Young black activists roared their approval when Barack Obama recently greeted criticism on the trail by dusting off his shoulders, a reference to a rap song by Jay-Z called "Dirt Off Your Shoulder." The media covering the moment went crazy, too. Washington Post reporter Teresa Wiltz hailed Obama’s moves and called it a "seminal moment in the campaign, the merging of politics and pop culture," and noted the lyrics suggest, "If you feelin’ like a pimp … go and brush your shoulders off."

So Barack Obama is feeling like a pimp?

Online at "The Root," a Washington Post website for African-Americans, Obama supporter and Princeton professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell was sky-high. "Like every other hip-hop generation voter in America I went crazy when he did it," she wrote. "I almost couldn’t believe it. It was a perfect moment."

Harris-Lacewell read that moment as a sign of racial swagger and solidarity with "his base of young urban brown and black voters," and they loved it. "He displayed all the familiar self-assurance and bravado of the hip-hop emcee. The people who got it went nuts, while those who don’t know hip-hop just thought he was being funny and confident."

The video went viral and became a YouTube sensation.

What is it about this music that drove Obama to emulate it, and drove the Princeton professor crazy in the process? This Jay-Z song boasts about a "middle finger to the law." Harris-Lacewell touted that Obama would like the song "99 Problems," which has an entire verse about being racially profiled by the "mother f—-ing law" for "doing 55 in a 54." Jay-Z also tells critics to kiss his whole (rectum).

Sen. Obama claims to be a fan of Jay-Z and Kanye West, but he knows that he has to distance himself a little from the lyrical lows of this "art." He’s been gently critical in interviews. "I love the art of hip hop. I don’t always love the message of hip hop," he said. Even with the rappers he loves, "There’s a message that is not only sometimes degrading to women; not only uses the N-word a little too frequently; but also something I’m really concerned about, it’s always talking about material things."

"A little too frequently?" This is like saying a tsunami’s a little too wet.

Obama should take a look at a new report from the Parents Television Council about three popular rap-music programs that air in the afternoon or early evening — "Sucker Free" on MTV and "Rap City" and "106 & Park" on Black Entertainment Television for two weeks in December and a week in March.

In 41 and a half hours studied, analysts found 282 uses of the N-word. Is that "a little too frequently," too?

A little too much degrading of women? In those same hours, there were 143 uses of the B-word to describe women.

A little too much focus on material things? Here, Obama is gliding by the question of what material things are acquired. The rap shows included 205 depictions or discussions of drug sale or use and other illegal activity during the study period, for an average of 7.5 instances per hour, or roughly one instance every eight minutes.

Obama did not discuss the heavily sexualized world of rap in his answer. Sexually explicit scenes or lyrical references on these shows appeared 27 times an hour in December and 40 times an hour in March. No one could miss that drumbeat.

In just one week of programming — 14 hours in March — PTC analysts found 1,342 instances of offensive/adult content, or 95.8 instances per hour, or one instance of adult content every 38 seconds.

Who is being influenced by these messages? During the two-week December 2007 study period, children under 18 made up roughly 40 percent of the audience for these three BET and MTV rap programs. Because all of these programs re-air throughout the day, study results underestimate the percentage of unique children who are exposed to this flood of sexually explicit and violent and crime-glamorizing rapper swagger.

A year ago, Obama made an obvious point when he said Don Imus was fired by NBC for using degrading words that are all over rap radio, but rap mogul Russell Simmons cried foul: "What we need to reform is the conditions that create these lyrics. Obama needs to reform the conditions of poverty."

That is, of course, ludicrous. Poverty doesn’t "cause" violent gangsta rap any more than road rage is caused by Toyota. These messages are vile and contemptible, and black leaders like former Gov. Doug Wilder and Bill Cosby are true heroes for saying so, while suffering the inevitable blowback.

And Barack Obama is dusting off his shoulders to the applause of the crowd.

Food for thought.

L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. To find out more about Brent Bozell III, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.