[col. writ. 9/6/13] © ’13 Mumia Abu-Jamal
On Saturday, Sept. 7th, Hip Hop Icon Chuck D of the monster rap group, Public Enemy, received an award that could not be better matched.
Chuck became the latest recipient of the Paul Robeson “Here I Stand” award, named for the trail-blazing, multi-talented, outspoken actor, singer, activist and anti-imperialist, Paul Robeson.
It couldn’t be granted to a better guy, or a better group. In the 90s, PE stole the stage and spotlight to pump themes of Black resistance into millions.
Their “Fight the Power!” became an anthem for a generation, and their sound was so powerful, so insistent, that it turned on millions of white kids by giving them a taste of Black life, Black thought and Black rebellion.
The award is presented by the respected Hug Tao Choy Mei Leadership Institute, run by Washington, D.C.’s Sifu Abdur Rahim Muhammad, a local Kung Fu master, businessman and community activist.
PE’s Chuck D joins a small, but legendary coterie of artists, like the great Harry Belafonte, actress Rita Moreno, filmmaker Spike Lee and rapper/actor Common, the award’s past recipients.
The award is also for being part of an immensely talented group of musicians that shook the nation: Flava Flav—the best hype-man in the game; Minister of Education, the outspoken Professor Griff; DJ, Cut Master, Terminator X – and a host of other band mates.
PE used video and audio to introduce millions of youth to Malcolm X, Min. Louis Farrakhan, and the voices of Black youth.
From “Fight the Power!”, “Don’t Believe the Hype”, “911”, to “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back”, Chuck D and PE, often using a bed of furious funk driving themes of rebellion, moved music to higher, Blacker, realer ground.
Chuck once told me, “If we walked into a record company today, we couldn’t get a meeting, much less a contract.”
When I asked how it happened, he said, laughingly, “They didn’t know what they had!”
Thank goodness for their ignorance.
–© ‘13maj