Keyshia Cole Rocks Oakland

photo Princess O. Davis


Keyshia Cole Day in Oakland

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Marvin X reads poem dedicated to Keyshia Cole. The poet was accompanied
by Aries and Toya Jordan. As he ended his reading, Keyshia came on stage and the crowd went wild. Keyshia gave a wonderful micro-concert that revealed her awesome talent. Her remarks showed her love of community and she promised this is just the beginning of her giving something back. We need more conscious artists to advance the cultural revolution among North American Africans.

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Keyshia Cole's event organizer was Muhammida el Muhajir,
daughter of Marvin X.

photo Princess O. Davis

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Muhammida El Muhajir
Hip Hop, the New World Order

British Hip Hop Interviews Hip Hop Producer, Muhammida El Muhajir Written by Esh

Thursday, 17 March 2011

Muhammida El Muhajir was the first person to make a documentary about global Hip Hop. I was lucky enough to get hold of her and find out about her amazing experiences around the world. Introduce yourself… Muhammida: My name is Muhammida El Muhajir and I’m a producer and the director of the documentary Hip Hop: The New World Order. Why did you make the movie? Muhammida: I was initially inspired to make the film, primarily because here in America we don’t get a lot of information on things that are happening outside of our country, unless it’s… tragedy, you know, we don’t really hear about what young people in other countries are doing. You can find out but you really have to do a lot of research. Whereas I feel in the international countries they all are aware of what’s happening in America, with American youth and our pop culture, and I just knew that Hip Hop was having a really tremendous impact on young people here in our country, and I imagined it was having similar impacts in other countries as well, but we just didn’t get a lot of the information. Being here, you’d be at nightclubs and you’d see these Japanese kids, all decked out with timbs and gold teeth, so what’s happening over there that they are so into it. Also here in the States, for the most part, Hip Hop was looked at pretty negatively, you know, it’s very violent, it talks about women, all things that are very true, but I don’t think people were looking at the positive influences it was having. How did you go about deciding which countries and artists to put in the film? Muhammida: As far as the countries, I thought about places that it was interesting, that Hip Hop was there, or places where it was really popular. So, those were the countries that I went to: I went to Japan, Cuba, France, UK, Germany, Holland, South Africa and Brazil. So, again just being on this side of the water I didn’t have a lot of information about which artists were really big. Usually I would have one or two contacts and once I got to the country I’d find out who’s who and what’s what and be led to the right people like some kind of crazy Hip Hop domino effect. You made some good contacts then? Muhammida: Most of the artists that I interviewed and started some sort of relationship with, they for the most part are like the forefathers of Hip Hop in their respective countries. So it just so happened that those people are the people who set the foundation for Hip Hop in many of their countries. So we talk about Japan, DJ Muro, Zeebra, K Dub Shine, all those guys who are still very influential in the Hip Hop scene there, but were there at the beginning. That goes for pretty much each country. The documentary was a totally independent project so it’s been about 10 years - I’ll stop and I’ll go off on some other project and come back to it. But now it’s like a historical reference. I think that there are a lot of other documentaries that have come out since that time, but I don’t think anything really touches on all those people and all those countries and really shows it - it was a guerilla style project so very intimate - you, me, my little camera and these guys at their homes or in their studios or in their car so you get a kind of birds eye view of these guys talking about their experience, and just seeing them, eating balls of super noodles or whatever it is. It was an interesting glimpse into their lives. I interviewed the director of The Furious Force of Rhymes, Joshua Atesh Litle, who was the 2nd person to do a global Hip Hop documentary… Muhammida: Actually I think I was the first person to do it. Mine came out in various stages, but before I started on my project I have never really seen or heard something similar, maybe something about Hip Hop in Cuba or little things… but I think what people have done has been amazing and just to see the growth and the interest in international Hip Hop, I am really excited about that. So you’re still a fan of international Hip Hop? Muhammida: Yes. I haven’t had an opportunity to see your movie in full yet… Muhammida: Part of that problem is, as I said, it was a totally independent project so it has not been distributed yet, so I’m working on that for next year. Again, I put it on the back burner, but now it is a historical reference piece and when people are studying the art and the culture of Hip Hop, it can be a very useful reference, in addition to a lot of the other projects that you mentioned and have highlighted. What year did you begin with the film? Muhammida: I went to Japan in 1998, that was the first country I went to. It wasn’t like an ongoing project where I shot continuously. I was working full time, so maybe I’d take a holiday and go to another country. It was my own money, I’d raise money… so it was shot over a period of about three years. Hip Hop has a political angle, did you put that in your film too? Muhammida: What I put in my film was, I really tried to show how in each country people are using this art form. For what forms of expression is Hip Hop being used as a vehicle? So all the things that people here hate about Hip Hop are really the things that make it uniquely American. Those are all the things that are part of American culture and society that people are hating… It’s really not the Hip Hop. Hip Hop is a gun that you could use to kill, to do violence, or it could be used to protect your family… it’s not Hip Hop itself that’s violent or negative or misogynistic, it’s really the American experience. Here, we are one of the most violent countries in the whole world. So that experience is going to be reflected in our Hip Hop. I think that other countries where materialism and consumerism and all those issues are not a factor - their Hip Hop does not reflect that. No other place in the world is like it is here in America. I dig that people were using it as a political platform. Artists like Racionas MCs in Brazil - when (former Brasilian president) Lula ran, he tapped into their power and popularity, and that’s a huge force, that can be used for positivity and really it’s become a youth movement. I titled my film Hip Hop: The New World Order because I saw it as this new force and this new movement. If it was used in the proper way it could really make a lot of social change. So being in New York, the Hip Hop capital, do you get a lot of attention for the film? Muhammida: Well definitely in the past, people are looking for it. I get calls every week or so from Universities or somewhere that’s looking to purchase it or screen it and I’ve screened in the past and got lots of press internationally. The people are definitely waiting for it to come… The title, Hip Hop: The New World Order, has some interesting parallels with the music right now… Muhammida: Speaking about conspiracy theories and things like that, people here are looking at this commercial sort of Hip Hop in America as a way to forward some of those capitalism platforms and promote all the things that being in a capitalist country, benefits the system, the consumerism, the ‘me me me’ attitude. Just a lot of those things that are characteristics of this society and help it propel forward whether it’s positive or negative. Then you hear stories about this artist or that artist who are part of the Masons, all those things, on YouTube, so you never know… Part of this New World Order is that we gonna have this common government and common financial and political system, and I thought it was kind of a play on that with Hip Hop because traveling around the world, you see that through Hip Hop, kids are having this commonality of language, of style, of dress. Because I was down with Hip Hop, I was immediately connected to other people - despite language barriers or anything else we had that in common and that immediately bonded us. Tell me about your personal experiences of Hip Hop before you made the movie… Muhammida: I grew up with Hip Hop. I am about the same age, maybe a couple of years younger than what we consider modern day Hip Hop. I am a fan, an observer, an analyst I would say, all those things. I worked in the music industry, I worked in the film industry, I was a casting director. I’ve been involved in Hip Hop and in music in a lot of different levels working with artists and record labels so I’ve had a very close relationship with the music and the culture. Which artists would you recommend right now? Muhammida: I have always loved artists who have been able to really combine social commentary with the art and do it a very cool way so it’s not totally preachy, but you can jam to it to. So I always loved Dead Prez for that, they’ve really been at the forefront of that. I love Mos Def, and some of the new guys out here like Lupe, and I’m still following some of the international artists, mainly the ones that are featured in my film, Anónimo Consejo in Cuba, Oxmo Puccino, he just put out a live album… I mentioned the relationship I had with some of the artists. Oxmo Puccino was in New York and I filmed him just at a café somewhere in New York, it was just crazy. And with Zeebra riding around in his jeep in the streets of Toyko. I love to see the growth that those artists have had… Roots Manuva in London. People who are really innovators in the music and the culture, worldwide - Blak Twang in the UK. A few months ago I ran into DJ Vadim on the streets of New York. These are people who are like the major power players in international Hip Hop, and I was really grateful to have them all as part of the project. Even some of the American artists like Questlove who was in Tokyo when I shot him. Method Man, who really gave a humorous perspective on international Hip Hop with his experiences travelling abroad… Dead Prez were also in the film and I shot them in South Africa, they were pretty much the first US artists to go to South Africa and do a concert. Some really historic things happening in Hip Hop are incorporated into the piece. I cant wait to see it! By: Esh | IBMCs on Facebook Trailer on youtube:

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Keyshia Cole in Oakland, Thursday, Frank Ogawa Plaza

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Keyshia Cole

Oh, Sister Keyshia

Oakland loves you

Like you love Oakland

We honor and respect you

Your creativity, your humanity

The wisdom of your life

Lessons of love between you and your mom and family

All sisters and brothers need to know and master

The unconditional love that is you

The faith and determination

We love your inspiration

We need your love lessons right now in Oakland

We need you to let your little light shine

So we can see through the dark moments that consume us

When love is gone and bitterness makes us drunk

Hateful and spiteful, jealous and envious

Oh, Sister Keyshia

Sing us a happy song

How you got ova

In spite of all the blocks in your path

All the rats and vermin, the roaches and flies

Couldn’t turn you round

Just made you stronger

Made you the beautiful woman we love.

--Marvin X

8/25/11.

Paul Cobb On Chauncey Bailey, Mayor Ron Dellums & Oakland

Notes on Teaching Youth

Notes on Teaching Youth

By

Marvin X



Be humble at all times, your future is in your hands, no matter what else, you will not be here always, a new generation is upon us that must be taught our traditions, all the technology of the global village, high finance, the essentials of capitalism no matter if we call ourselves Communist, Socialist, Pan African, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu.

There must be some economic system whereby men and women can engage in commerce, sell, barter, consign. We don’t give a damn what you call it; just organize a way to deliver goods and services to the people.

We only know this: no one should starve in the village, nor be homeless, or illiterate, or in ill health without a medical plan.

Your children shall need your counsel and advice always, so be there for them, first setting example, we know words are cheap. Let the children see us doing the right thing for ourselves, and then they will know what to do, more than likely they are doing the right thing already, just might need a little common sense advice.

In teaching youth, we should consider their level, not our superior educations, whether academic or self taught in the model of Merritt College students Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Ernie Allen, Marvin X, et al.

Was not the purpose of those rallies on the steps of the old Merritt College on Grove St. /Martin Luther King, Jr. to “break it down to the masses”? And so we must break down abstract terminology such as freedom, slavery, racism, capitalism, socialism, Pan Africanism, white supremacy.

Give definitions, break words into syllables. Do not assume a twenty-five year old male or female has any knowledge of the above subject matter. Do not assume they can read. Do not assume they have traveled ten miles out of their turf. Do not assume youth living in Newark have visited New York. Do not assume youth in Oakland have visited San Francisco. I took a twenty-five year old female to San Francisco recently, who grew up in Berkeley/Oakland. When we came up from the BART or rapid transit system, she said, “Wow, look at these big buildings. Wow, they are so tall. Wow, look at all these people on the street. Look at these big banks on every corner. And they treated me so nice at the bank, not like Oakland and Berkeley. I didn’t know this world existed. I have to come over here more often."

Mayor Jerry Brown, now California Attorney General, used to say Oakland was closer to San Francisco than San Francisco, in his racist attempt to gentrify West Oakland. But how often do West Oakland youth get on the BART for a visit to San Francisco, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, a romantic city based on tourism, yet how many youth are plugged into the multi-billion dollar tourist industry, mainly they are at the wharf as dummies, robots and hip hop dancers. Thank God for that.

But how shall we teach them economic self sufficiency? Get a job and be pimped for life? Become a wage slave and teach your children to go to college so they can also become a cog in the wheel of capitalism and slavery (C. Eric Williams, who himself became a victim of capitalism and slavery as prime minister of Trinidad, see Marvin X, The Black Power Revolt In Trinidad, Journal of Black Poetry, circa 1972).

Micro Credit Loans for Youth

This is a process of loaning small amounts of money, say one hundred to three hundred dollars to youth so they can “come up” in a legal endeavor, not selling drugs, pimping, murder, but some project to deliver what the people need, such as food, clothing, shelter.

Visit the cities of America and we shall see what needs are addressed on the street, not to speak of inside businesses.

On the street youth sell T shirts, incense, oils, jeans and other urban gear. They sell books, especially in New York. And there are Latin youth selling fruit, vegetables, DVDs and CDs, black youth do this also to a high degree, to the point police do not harass them since they are doing something for self and not causing mayhem.

Absent Fathers



No matter the age of your children, connect with them, they need you, whether they say so or not, no matter if your children are 20, 30, 40, 50, they need you, your guidance, wisdom, love and attention. Sons need you, daughters need you. Tell them what a man must do to be a man. Ask their forgiveness for your unmanly or unwomanly actions. And clean up your act. Do better. Make a visible recovery from your wretchedness. Let your children see that you love them and that your love is unconditional, no matter what they do, success or failure, you are with them to the very end of time.

Black on Black Crime



Black on black crime is symptomatic and problematic of the perilous condition under which we live on a daily basis in the hell holes of America. We shall continue killing each other until we come to know who we are as Divine beings in Human form, that our bodies are the temple of the Divine, our bodies and minds, thus we should delete all negative thought such as hatred, jealousy, envy, and other negative thoughts that prevent us from enjoying the Divine plane of life.

On the matter of murder, my wise adviser told me, “When you kill your brother, you kill yourself. Two of you are dead. The killer is a dead man walking. As the Bible says, As Thou Hast Done, So Shall It Be Done to Thee.

Don’t be hypocritical, youth and adults. I know so many youth and adults who have lost loved ones to violence. No one is rioting over their loved ones, no one is protesting their lost. No one cares. The relatives and friends suffer in silence. They cannot discuss their grief with anyone, no one wants to know of their lost.

There are few mental health and grief counselors in the hood. The Oakland Grief Centers the City set up are a good example of what must be done to alleviate the trauma of life in the Wilderness of North America. What can we expect? More importantly, what can we do to advance our agenda for the masses, the wretched of the earth? No struggle, no progress, power concedes nothing without a demand, it never has and never will—our great ancestor Frederick Douglas told us this in the 19th Century.

There must be a higher level of organizing than rioting through the streets. If and when they come down on the people, do you have food, water, generators in reserve? Do you realize one flush of your toilet consumes five gallons of water? Do you have five gallons of water to drink, let alone in your toilet? Have you heard drought and famine are coming? Are you prepared? They taught us in Boy Scouts to be prepared.

Of Scholars and Teachers



Oh, my God, in the spirit of David Walker, let the poor righteous teachers do their duty to children and youth. We honor them and pray they shall remain on their posts, teaching the uncivilized youth who truly seek wisdom and knowledge. One need only converse with them in a moment of quiet, such as jail, prison or a depressed moment in the hood, away from peers and parents, on the street as I have encountered so many times on the streets of Oakland, especially at 14th and Broadway, my outdoor classroom, aka, Academy of da Corner, and the main scene of rioting over the New Year’s Day murder of Oscar Grant by the BART police.

Teachers and scholars must teach a new way. A radical approach is needed at this time, surely we all agree on this? We must at least have food, clothing and shelter, basic needs. All else is talk, hype, sham, don’t believe the hype!

Shall our children and youth be homeless, abandoned, school dropouts, prison bound, or shall we speak to them with parental authority, warning them of death on the streets, in unsafe sexual encounters, hanging out with drinking and gambling buddies. And please consider the tone test when encountering the police. They can kill you, jail you or release you, depending on your tone of voice. You must pass the tone test with another brother and sister as well. Everybody is on edge, stressed, so watch your tone of voice, watch how you look at people, don't stare. Many people come on the street in a mind-altered state, thus they often imagine you have said something you didn't actually say, or they assume you were staring at them when you weren't. So be cool on the street. Teach youth how to act to survive in the urban jungle. There is no other lesson.

Take Advantage of Obama Drama


Youth should take full advantage of this critical moment of change in the history of America and the world. In the next few months, take advantage of economic and educational opportunities the government will offer as a way out of the depression caused by greed and other cancers of the addiction to white supremacy, especially during Obama's reelection campaign. He will spend a billion dollars to get reelected or reselected, so figure out how much of that billion you can get hustling Obama gear, T-shits, caps, buttons, photos, etc. Don't sit around like a frog on a lily pad. You can copy color pictures of Obama for 35 cents, get picture frames from the dollar store, then sell them for $5.00-10.00 or more. Life is a thinking man's game, so think! You can do it, your ancestors did!

--El Muhajir/Marvin X

1 - A Day in the Life - Marvin X and Discussion

Drugs, Art and Revolution, a discussion of Marvin X's classic docudrama of his addiction and recovery from Crack, including the scene of his last meeting with Black Panther Huey P. Newton
in a West Oakland Crack House. This discussion at Sista's Place in Brooklyn, NY, 1997, included Omawale Clay, Sam Anderson, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Amina Baraka, Elombe Brathe and Marvin X.

Sista's Place produced the New York performance of his play that Ishamel Reed called "The most powerful drama I've seen."

Cut me some slack, A fictional interview with President Obama

Part Two:A Fictional Interview with President Barack Obama by Marvin X

MX: Mr. President, thanks for allowing me to interview you again.
Prez: The pleasure is all mine, Marv. I truly enjoyed our last talk, although, in your style, you raked me over the coals. I'm not going to let you get away with it this time.
MX: Aw, Prez, you can't have thin skin in the game you're in.
Prez: You think I don't know that by now? I'll be lucky to get out of this situation with any skin, thin or otherwise.

MX: Why you say that, Prez?

Prez, Marv, I'm gonna drop a bomb on you. I'm going to give you an exclusive.

MX: Drop it like it's hot.

Prez, I've had just about enough of this bullshit, fake aas job in the White House.
I've said more than once I don't give a damn if I'm a one term Prez.

MX:Prez, you not going to run for a second term?

Prez, Hell to the naw, fuck these peckerwoods and nigguhs too. I don't like being pressured from above and below. I see you can't win in this game, so I'm checking out before I get in too deep.

MX: I can't believe what you're saying.

Prez, I thought about it long and hard, talked it over with Michelle and my girls. They said, Dad, do what you gotta do, we with you all the way, whatever you decide.
Even my mother-in-law said, Boy, use the mind God gave you. I told you these white folks is sick.

MX: So are you going back to Rev. Wright's church?

Prez, Marv, first let me ease out the door of that funky White House. Then let me come up for air. Hell, you know I hated to denounce my preacher, but I had to play the game. You nigguhs act like you didn't understand I was gaming the white man, but I was. You know ain't no way a nigguh could stay in Rev. Wright's church for twenty years and not get addicted to black consciousness, but Rev. Wright understands what I had to do to get over on these peckerwoods. They been lying and gaming us for 400 years.
MX: Sho you right.

Prex, A nigguh better learn some game up in this motherfuckin bullshit called America. And the first lesson a real nigguh need to learn is how to lie to the white man's face just like he been doing us the last 400 years. Lie with a smile.

MX: Prez, you talking like Marvin X?

Prez, Let the truth be told. I tried to play the game but it ain't worth it. Why should I spend a billion dollars for my job when millions of people have no job and little chance of getting one anytime soon. A billion dollars for one job? Just doesn't make sense, I rather be unemployed just like them. Let me go back to community organizing, something I like to do and can see the results. I ain't caught nothing but hell with the political bullshit, hell from both sides. If the pecks ain't downing me, I got to deal with nigguhs like you, Marv, fucking with me night and day, you and Cornel and his sidekick, that bitch Tavis. You nigguhs need to cut me some slack, damn. And naw I ain't invitin you nigguhs to the White House for beer.

MX: Prez, you said from the beginning it wasn't about you, but us, so us is on your ass and gonna stay on your ass til you do the right thing, if that's humanly possible.

Prez: Hell, I been doing all I can do. I got you health insurance, didn't I?

MX, Prez, how a nigguh gonna pay for health insurance with no job?

Prez: Marv, I did what I can. You know all the jobs and money are gone overseas. What the hell can I do? All this was in place before I came into the White House. The jobs are gone to China, India, Brazil, and there's nothing I can do about it? The Indians say they'll come to America and hire our workers but at the same wages paid in India. You know them Coolies are crazy. Ain't no American MBA gonna work for $14,000 per year when they used to $140,000 per year.

MX: Prez, I know you can configure something to get our people and the masses of Americans back to work doing something.

Prez: Hell, seem like there ought to be a few job openings, after all, I sent a million illegals back across the border.

MX: Prez, you know ain't no nigguh doing what the Mexicans do, and work hard at it, and be on time.

Prez: I did what I can do. I can't do everything, I'm not a miracle worker.

MX: But you said change we can believe.

Prez: Yes, change you can believe, but what is belief? I know what I know and I know I'm getting the hell out the White House. I've had enough of those No People. Let them fight between themselves like blind fools, Democrats and Republicans, two sides of the same intractable coin of white supremacy. Didn't you write about it?

MX: Yes, you mean my book How to Recover to the Addiction to White Supremacy?

Prez: I read it. Very insightful. But you know white people ain't ready to recover from white supremacy.

MX: Of course not, too many white privileges. Like Chris Rock said, "I'm a rich nigguh, but don't no white man wanna be Chris Rock. So you have no solution to the job crisis in America?

Prez: Marv, you know the solution is to redistribute the wealth, and who's ready to share the wealth, not the guys I know on Wall Street, people in the military/corporate complex and international finance. They say they will destroy the world before they give up white supremacy. I tried to compromise with them, but you were right when you wrote about them and described them as the No People.

MX: Well, Prez, if you change your mind, let me know.

Prez: Marv, I'm the first Black President. I am satisfied to go down in history as that. Ain't that a hell of a thang? The first nigguh president.

MX: Yeah, nobody can take that away from you, whether you accomplished anything else, guess it don't matter.

Prez: Not to me, fuck it. Let me go home to Chicago. To hell with those hard headed, recalcitrant, incorrigible, die hard, Republican devils and their tea party sycophants. At least I did one thing.


MX:What's that?

Prez: I got that Osama bin Laden bitch.

MX: I thought he died five years ago of a liver condition.

Prez: Marv, my Seals got that motherfucker. Don't believe all that conspiracy bullshit.

MX: Where's the body, Prez.

Prez: We had to dispose of the body. Those Muslims would turn his grave into a shrine for terrorism, you know that.

MX: What about Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia.

Prez: Marv, I'm trying to deal with those issues right now, but we'll still be over there killing for the next hundred years, hell, how long we been in Korea, Japan and Germany. Hey, I gotta get back to work (laughs). We'll talk again soon, I promise.

MX: Thank you, Mr. Prez.

--Marvin X
15 August 2011