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Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Q + A :: Bun B On Why He Registered To Vote
Bun B has been one of the strongest voices in hip-hop this election season. That comes as no surprise to headz who have been following his reality rhymes since the early 90s as a member of UGK.
But although Bun has had his mind in politics and thangs for a while, he admits he's still a relative newcomer to the election process.
Vibe caught up with him this past August when he came to Denver to see Barack Obama's nomination. He talked candidly about why he first registered to vote and why he only chose to vote lately.
(BTW our Politics page has all the state registration deadlines and links to register online. It's still not too if you live in one of the 20 states left.)
In many ways, Bun's interview sounds prophetic even now. Check what he had to say about O.J.
Who ya with in November?
Obama-Biden
Was it difficult to make the decision?
It wasn't easy. Like any decision a person has to make, I did my research. Went to Google and typed in 'Obama education', 'Obama energy', 'McCain oil'. You need a candidate that has an actual plan. People shouldn't lose sight of that. And there's gonna be a lot of elections—local, state, as well as national. So I hope that what I might be able to say helps get people involved in elections, period. Because it starts at the national level, people are really interested in the presidential race, but it filters down to the state level.
What are you trying to do this year?
My whole thing is I'm trying to help get not just youth, but folks who are disenfranchised from the system, get them back in the process. It's not for me to send people a certain way. But just to get them into the process. It doesn't stop with just voting. At the end of the day, we need to hold him accountable. Everything is just beginning in November, more so January. It's not the end when you vote. It's just the beginning.
Obama is not perfect—his ideology, what he'd like to do versus what he's able to do are two different things. It's not like, 'Great! we got a Black president' and it's all good. We all got hyped about Kwame Kilpatrick. We need to hold Obama to a higher standard than most.
Had you voted or been involved with voting over the past few years?
We got involved with Vote or Die (Diddy's Citizen Change campaign) eight years prior. People need direction and they follow me, so I understood my power as an artist: let me galvanize and get people into the process first. Then once they're in the process, we'll start at the national level, then we'll break it down how the congressional thing works, then on down to state, down to the alderman, down to your precincts.
When did you begin to vote?
That's a good question. In Texas, you get to register to vote when you renew your driver's license. I was absent-minded in my early years—probably due to all the extracurricular activities I was involved in (laughs)—but you get your license, and it asks you do you want to donate to this or that or get registered.
I was registered independent. But I never voted. Being in Texas, though, once Bush became president we had an idea of what the mentality was that would go into a Bush government and we told people this is what yo can expect. When it happened, we were right, and now he's one of the worse presidents we've ever had.
My family went off to war. My cousin is a marine and he was deployed to Afghanistan. So I was like, if my cousin dies over this shit, IT'S ON. I'll use all my power to do this. Even if he makes it back alive, it should still be on. From the beginning it's important to support the troops and then it's important to bring them home, and I was like, if things don't go your way, you have no reason to say you didn't try.
What's your biggest fear about this election?
That voters will get disenfranchised. Right now, there are so many people who are standing up and taking notice and they got people involved. You can't have the perception that their vote won't count. It's not even about Obama-Biden losing the election. A lot of people are hanging their hopes on this election.
I really feel like there's a silent majority. Like, the silent minority is disenfranchised, inner-city, possibly lower-class. Regardless, politicians will make decisions that won't help them. But there's also a silent majority—I feel like there's a lot of people that it's easy for them to say they're voting for Barack Obama so they can come across as politically correct or socially progressive. But at the end of the day I don't think they can bring themselves to vote for a Black president. Like I'm talking about the conversations you get to have sitting in the first class cabin. These are folks who if hillary didn't get the nomination, they wouldn't vote for the Democrats. I think the majority of Hillary's constituency has issues with minorities. It's not her fault, it's just the reality of world she and I both live in.
What are the issues that you're not hearing about that you want to have people talk about.
I really don't hear a lot at all about the youth. I want to hear what they have to say about No Child Left Behind, the fact that a lot of after-school funding has disappeared. The only schools getting funding already have money, and a lot of the inner-city schools are closing.
And immigration. I'd love to hear more about immigration reform. They don't want to go there now.
There are a lot of people who were feeling indifferent and now they're energized and I'd hate to see that go to waste. We can't be fair weather about this. We can't let the hip-hop community catch the O.J. Syndrome.
What do you mean?
I mean that as a black man, I don't want black people to support Barack Obama simply because he's black. Know what he stands for. In the future, we could have a Latino president, or a president of another color, another heritage, another culture. There are kids right now getting involved in politics and I don't want to see that go to waste.
For the latest on the 2008 election, check Vibe.com's Politics page. Check Bun B and hundreds more on the elections in the November issue of Vibe, on newsstands soon!
posted by Zentronix @ 3:14 PM
 
Friday, October 03, 2008
The Reveal + Register To Vote TODAY
This is it, fam. It's coming down to the wire.
For many states, the voter registration deadline is SATURDAY, October 4 or MONDAY, October 6th.
(Click here to check your state.)
Register to vote at VoteForChange.com NOW!
Please spread the word.
posted by Zentronix @ 9:34 AM
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Musical Interlude :: Z-Trip's Obama Mix
Click above for the link to DJ Z-Trip's Obama Mix, recorded live in Denver at the Manifest Hope Gallery during the DNC.
posted by Zentronix @ 2:22 PM
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Q+A :: Tom Morello On Obama, Race & The War
As guitarist for Rage Against The Machine, Tom Morello brought turntable pyrotechnics to the guitar. This past August, he and his fellow bandmates supported anti-war demonstrators, especially Iraq Veterans Against the War, at concerts held during the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.
(Click here or here or here for coverage of the Denver protest.)
But before he was a Guitar Hero, Morello worked as an aide to California Senator Alan Cranston. He has seen the political system from both inside and out.
Vibe caught up with Tom Morello performing as The Nightwatchman at a Labor Day Concert for SEIU on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, which had been cancelled due to Hurricane Gustav.
Vibe: Do you think the 2008 election will be a historic turning point?
Tom Morello: I think it remains to be seen. I think that anytime we’ve seen real, substantive, progressive, radical, or revolutionary change, it has come from below, not from above.
Two important lessons I learned working with Senator Cranston—who is one of the most progressive guys on issues of the environment, immigration, civil rights, and peace issues—eighty percent of the time I was with him, he spent on the phone asking rich guys for money. That money doesn’t come for free. That is how this system operates. You can change the people in office, but you can’t change the system by pulling the ballot. You can’t.
How change happens, whether it's been women’s right to vote, desegregating lunch counters, eight-hour work days, is from the people who are not in office, standing up, organizing, struggling, fighting, and demanding their rights—much like the Iraq Veterans Against the War did. Had they backed down and said, ‘we’re going to go along with it and hope for the best’, they never would have gotten that audience. It’s a small microcosm of what this is about.
As the half-Kenyan, Harvard graduate from Illinois, in his early forties, who’s not running for office, I'd say this. If Obama is elected, problems of race don’t go away. This country has four pillars: baseball, apple pie, NASCAR, and racism to hold this shit up. And so it would certainly be a step towards civilization if the electorate were able to put a moderately progressive African American in office. But it should not mean problems of race would be over. We’d have to be extra vigilant against that.
Vibe: That’s one of the things some of the protesters were trying to make a point of out in Denver. They'd say, 'It’s about accountability and forcing the issue.'
Tom Morello: And memories tend to be short. It was two years ago when a Democratic Congress was elected, to end the war. And they cowardly rolled over like dogs, and didn’t do it. And why aren’t there barricades in the street over that? We put them in office, and they just weren’t held accountable, and that’s key. No matter who’s elected—on November 5th, is when the real work begins for you and me, because you have to make sure, if it’s McCain, you have to fight like a bobcat…in a sack! And if it’s Obama, you have to fight like a bobcat in a sack to make sure it doesn’t backslide.
Vibe: Talk a little bit about what you have been doing around the anti-war movement.
Tom Morello: Well I’ve been a part of the anti war movement since the 10 million person march before the war began. And I think Iraq veterans speak with the most authoritative voice, they set the stage. George W. Bush and I have something in common, neither one of us served under fire. Those men and women did and when you listen to their stories, it brings the reality of what that war is home. We visited them in the Veterans Hospital today, and soldiers lost half their bodies or half their heads, but that’s the reality of it. The whitewashing of the war of mainstream corporate media has been just criminal. We don’t see the maimed families and all the dead Iraqi civilians. All that is ‘Yo is the surge working or not?’ Well what the fuck does that mean? It isn’t working for the 22-year-old boy I saw who doesn’t have any body below his bellow button. It isn’t working for his 19-year-old wife, either. So, I think that Iraq Veterans Against the War not only have the right ideas, but the courage to take on whoever’s in office.
Vibe: Are there any other plans going into the fall, as the debates kick in?
Tom Morello: My touring starts right before the election, so it’ll probably ramp up to that. There’s no doubt that Obama’s going to be a better president than McCain.
Vibe: Are you going to endorse him?
Tom Morello: No. I think that in my music and in my politics, I’d like to keep them completely uncompromised. If there’s a candidate that I see eye to eye with up and down the line, then I’ll endorse that candidate. With his saber rattling about Iran, with his determination to continue an imperialist war in Afghanistan, there’s a lot that’s iffy about that, but he’s certainly better than McCain. I’m not going to give either one of them a chance to breathe when they’re in office. It’s important to continue to put the pedal down when either one of them is in office.
Vibe: Do you think we are on the verge of a new majority in this country?
Tom Morello: I think that race plays such a huge factor in anything in America. The fact that we’ve had these seven years, that we’ve had the worse presidency in the history of the republic, and that the polls show the two candidates, Republican and Democrat, in a dead heat?! Are you kidding me?! You should be able to run a barnyard animal against any Republican candidate and have it be ninety/ten.
Well there’s a simple answer to that. I think it’s an unspoken answer, but it permeates every poll and we’ll see. I was watching the Democratic Convention, and I don’t know if America can vote for a first lady who’s African American and smarter than they are.
Vibe: Whoa.
Tom Morello: I came from a small white town in central Illinois. I’m watching that through the eyes of the parents I grew up around, and I’m thinking, ‘I don’t think they can pull that trigger’. 'I’ll take the soccer mom from Alaska who can shoot a gun.' Part of me is screaming in front of the TV: 'Give the Democrats a chance to fuck it up for once! Enough of that!'
For more on the 2008 election from Tom and many others, check the November issue of Vibe, on newsstands soon!
Tom Morello's new album, a solo record as The Nightwatchman called "The Fabled City" is out this week. A record with Boots Riley of The Coup and Stanton Moore of Galactic will follow in early 2009.
Special thanks to the intern crew for the transcriptions for this interview series:
Tanya Burnett
Damon Daniels
Crystal Fairweather
David Fromayan
Jason O’Connnor
Lauren Peterson
Merichelle Villapando
posted by Zentronix @ 3:39 PM
Monday, September 29, 2008
At Hip-Hop's Birthplace: Hope For The Best, Preparations For The Worst
As the House of Representatives rejected an economic bailout proposal brought on by the national mortgage crisis, tenants of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue and their supporters awaited word today of the fate of the most famous address in hip-hop.
It was a day in which the drama of the nation was being mirrored at a place right the heart of hip-hop history, as tenants and their supporters began planning to save their homes while real estate developers scrambled to close a speculative deal against declining prospects for credit.
Late last week, a judge cleared the way for the landlord group behind the West Bronx apartment building to begin preparations to sell the building, whose value has been assessed at about $7 million.
The building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, where DJ Kool Herc and Cindy Campbell threw their first party in late August 1973, is one of a declining number in New York City covered under an affordable housing mandate called the Mitchell-Lama program. It now represents the continuing decline of urban affordable housing.
But the judge's order allows the landlord group to pay off the rest of its outstanding $5 million mortgage and remove it from the affordable housing program.
Such an action, all sides believe, would clear the way for the purchase of the building by well-known real estate developer Mark Karasick, despite an offer on the table from the tenants, the city, and their supporters to purchase 1520 Sedgwick for $10 million—$3 million above the building's expected value.
Cindy Campbell and DJ Kool Herc have been at the head of an effort to have the building declared a historic landmark, but events have been moving quickly in the past year.
Today, Cindy Campbell worried that a sale of the building might displace over a hundred families.
"Winter is coming up. There's elderly people, children. Some of these people have been living there for over 30 years," she said. "People's lives are more important than a developer trying to flip over his money."
Dina Levy, director of organizing and policy with the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, said today that tenants and supporters of 1520 Sedgwick were baffled as to why the landlord group has apparently rejected the tenants' offer, which was supported by New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and subsidized in part by the city.
She argued that even if the building were to be sold, the rents in the building likely would not rise because of city regulations and the depressed rental market. She said she felt the tenant deal on the table was a strong one. "I can't believe that they would not take that deal," Levy said. "It defies logic."
Levy added that she was unsure in this market what bank or lender might provide debt to Karasick to purchase 1520 Sedgwick.
Although the landlord group had signaled last week they intended to pay off the $5 million outstanding mortgage today, that had not occurred by the late afternoon. "There's still the hope that we can save the building," she said. "That's still the goal and that's still the hope."
But even if the building were to be sold, eviction could not begin right away, and the efforts to preserve the building as a historic landmark and an affordable housing building may redouble in the coming months.
"At this point what I can promise we will do, will be to train the tenants on what regulations are," Levy said. "This guy (Karsick) will not have a moment's sleep."
posted by Zentronix @ 1:56 PM
Sunday, September 28, 2008
1520 Sedgwick Cleared To Be Sold
Courts have cleared the way for 1520 Sedgwick, the birthplace of hip-hop, to be sold next week.
This comes after a year in which the courts first blocked the sale of the building, and tenants of the historic building where Cindy Campbell and DJ Kool Herc threw their first party raised $10 million to buy the building back. Efforts by the efforts of the Campbells and affordable housing activists were also made to grant the building historic preservation status.
This from the article:
“While the owners of 1520 Sedgwick have a legal right to buy out of the Mitchell-Lama program, the building’s residents have made an offer that we believe is more than fair,” said Shaun Donovan, the commissioner for the housing preservation department. “In this light, it is difficult to understand why the owners would choose to put the affordability of over 100 families’ homes at risk.”
More on this shortly...
posted by Zentronix @ 12:26 PM
Friday, September 26, 2008
Panic, Paralysis, Protests, and Presidents
Panic, paralysis, protests, presidents-dead, alive, and prospective.
This news week's like tripling my crack order. The wrong part of me doesn't want anything fixed.
The Times today has a great piece on the drama that went on after the cameras left the room yesterday at the White House.
Meanwhile the news tickers went bonkers. Palin playing herself repeatedly in front of Katie Couric. Thousands of protesters in the streets around the country yesterday--at places like the AIG headquarters and the Federal Reserve Banks. Washington Mutual getting taken over by the FDIC and sold to JPMorgan Chase. (Free checking still? I don't think so.)
Oh, and there was supposed to be this debate thing tonight...
Here's Joe Klein's take on what went down yesterday and why McCain basically gave us all at least one more--probably a few more than that--days of being glued to the news.
So McCain "suspends" his campaign--he didn't, really--and equivocates about whether to debate because the financial emergency is so crucial--a week after he said the fundamentals of the economy were sound--and he flies to Washington where:
1. The House Republicans blow up a rare, and necessary, moment of true bipartisanship to make it look like McCain, who has no expertise in this area, has come to the rescue.
2. McCain sits mute in the White House summit arranged for his benefit. He doesn't even ask Paulson what he thinks of the House Republican plan.
3. He refuses to take a stand, one way or another, on the Republican plan.
In the meantime, Washington Mutual--the nation's largest thrift--fails. Other banks are teetering. Credit has dried up...and the world financial markets are watching to see if the United States has the political wherewithal to save itself. McCain's erratic, and irresponsible, behavior this week isn't happening in a vacuum. This isn't just politics--even George W. Bush, who never failed to take a partisan advantage in his presidency, realizes that. ...
Strange times are here.
UPDATE (9:05am) :: The debate is on.
posted by Zentronix @ 8:26 AM
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Previous posts
Q + A :: Bun B On Why He Registered To Vote
The Reveal + Register To Vote TODAY
Musical Interlude :: Z-Trip's Obama Mix
Q+A :: Tom Morello On Obama, Race & The War
At Hip-Hop's Birthplace: Hope For The Best, Prepar...
1520 Sedgwick Cleared To Be Sold
Panic, Paralysis, Protests, and Presidents
James K. Galbraith :: We Don't Need A Bailout
Naomi Klein On Wall Street's Shock Doctrine
The Audacity Of Despair, Or Homeless Again
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Dates
Upcoming Appearances
October 31
2:00 PM
PANEL :: "Born In The Bronx" : Cornell University Hip-Hop Library Conference (Ithaca, NY)
November 12
12:00 PM
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9:30 AM
PANEL :: ARC Facing Race Conference :: Race and the Elections 2008 Plenary Panel (Oakland, CA)
For a complete list of Jeff's appearances, check Dates.
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