• NO FAITH
• Barbara Lee Interview by Billy Jam
• Dubya's Positive Effect on Hip-Hop by Jesse Ducker
• Hip Hop Slam NEWS & Top Five by DJ Dank
• Streaming Video of "WAR (if it feels good, do it!)"

MAJOR HIP HOP SLAM SHOUT-OUT & BIG UP TO DUBYA

On this November 2nd - the most historic election day of our lives we wish to thank George W. Bush for accomplishing so much in four short years. Hence we wish to bestow upon Dubya the most major Hip Hop Slam shout out and Big Up for inspiring a whole new army of previously politically disenfranchised Americans to to get off their asses and vote - and to start to see the connection between "politics" and our everyday lives. For more on how Dubya impacted hip-hop, giving it a good kick in its ass to get back into conscious lyrics read Jesse Ducker's enagaging editorial below in this NEWS.

In this HipHopSlamDotCom NEWS update we also present an interview with Barbara Lee. We have the aforementioned editorial by hip hop journalist Jesse Ducker (editor with the new Bay Area music magazine SHOUT) - plus his Top Eleven anti-Bush Chart and another editorial- titled "No Faith" by Russell Gilland who, like DJ Pone, is a NEWS reporter for radio station KALX. Additionally read this week's TOP FIVE (airplay) plus the Hip Hop Slam NEWS updates…

Click here to view the music video for the DJs of Mass Destruction's "WAR (if it feels good, do it!)" featuring Shing02, A-1, DJ Pone, DnZ, Dawgisht, Munkifunk, and Billy Jam live on DJ Trinity's show on KFJC and edited by Nausea Grl with Zombie Glue Sniffer.

US Representative Barbara Lee (Ninth Congressional District, CA) recently received a "Hip Hop Slam Hall of Fame Award" from Hip Hop Slam's Billy Jam, DnZ, and DJ Pone at Laney College in Oakland. The congresswoman was praised for her courage to be the lone voice in congress to speak out against imminent war in the days following 9/11. The Hip Hop Slam anti-war compilation WAR (if it feels good, do it!) was also dedicated to this courageous congresswoman.

A police scanner picking up and rebroadcasting SFPD radio broadcasts was just one part of interactive art exhibit, NPR (Neighborhood Public Radio) which was part of the "How We Work" show at Southern Exposure Gallery in San Francisco in October. The Hip Hop Slam participatio included a scanner, digital scratch setup, two sets of turntables, and an Amiga 1200. Included in the mix were Dawgisht, DJ Dayzer, DnZ, Billy Jam, and Timi D who was both taking photos (see above) and exhibiting photos.

You can see about thirty of Timi D's photos currently on exhibit at B-Side Records in Berkeley, CA. Running until November 21st the exhibit includes pictures of such DJs as Q-Bert, Shadow, Apollo, Craze, Platurn, Grand Wizzard Theodore, Pone, Teeko, Mixmaster Mike, Quest, and many more. B-Side Records is located at 2128 Dwight Way (near Shattuck) in Berkeley CALI (510) 548-4882 www.bsiderecordshop.com

And in HipHopSlam MUSIC RELEASES NEWS: released today is "Give 'Em The Boot IV" (Hellcat Records) - a 26 track, budget-priced, punk-rock compilation featuring such artists as Rancid, Lars Fredrickson & the Bastards, HorrorPops, Tiger Army, Joe Strummer, and Transplants whose track is "Romper Stomper (remix)" by Hip Hop Slam artists the Skratch Pisstolz…

Hip Hop Slam just wound up production on another budget-priced compilation of exciting new music. "Amoeba Music Compilation Vol. V" is a 2CD set with 39 audio tracks from artists (primarily) from Cali playing all types of music (punk, hip hop, folk, electronic, etc.) and is due out before Christmas.

HIP HOP SLAM TOP FIVE (11/02/04)

1. Slam Bush / various artists
2. "Casualties of War" / Eric B & Rakim
3. WAR (if it feels good, do it!) / various artists
4. "Slow Down Gandhi" / Sage Francis
5. Show Business / Azeem

NO FAITH

Ladies and Gentlemen, although we are already here at the most important election in the history of this country, your country has already failed you. While pundits and so called experts across the country bicker over which politician is less corrupt, nobody seems to notice that the current president has more than enough credentials to have been impeached and rotting in jail right now. However, instead of being held accountable and paying any price whatsoever for their crimes, this administration looks like it may actually get elected by a largely ignorant population of Americans who are systematically and continually duped by psychological trickery and propaganda that a government controlled corporate media spews out of it's collective rectum on a daily basis. Personally, I find it offensive that this administration has not been thoroughly investigated and put on trial for crimes against humanity. I am talking about an administration that sat on its ass and was conveniently apathetic as terrorists launched an attack on this country that killed close to 3,000 Americans. I am talking about an administration that used lies as a pretext for war and borrowed more than 200 billion dollars from the taxpayers of this country to fund an unjust, illegitimate massacre of tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children in Iraq and Afghanistan, a war that has already cost the lives of more than 1,000 soldiers and maimed thousands more.

This administration is led by a man who was an alcoholic coke-head while 55,000 of his fellow Americans were dying overseas in Vietnam. So he sobers up and becomes a born-again fundamentalist Christian and claims God told him to start yet another illegitimate imperial American WAR! I don't think it is a good idea to give our country to a delusional former alcoholic whose God tells him to drop bombs on other countries. I would rather we not elect a man who constantly gives tax breaks to the richest one percent of the population while asking the rest of us to make financial sacrifices when it comes to funding his fascist agenda. I would rather we not elect a man whose close personal friends in the recently de-regulated energy business raped California of it's resources and left us with a demoralized economy. I would rather we not elect a man whose dumb remarks over the past four years have re-defined what it means to be a moron, who also clearly defines what it means to be a complete idiot, and is also easily defined as a tremendous jackass. His stupidity would be funny if millions of people weren't suffering or dying as a result of his actions. He wouldn't even be in power if he didn't come from a rich, well connected political mafia family whose roots go beyond World War Two. Goerge W. Bush's grandfather did business with Hitler and Nazi Germany. His father was not only head of the CIA, a notoriously corrupted organization that operates outside of the confines of international law, but also oversaw the illegal sale of weapons to both Iran and Iraq and used the money to help overthrow a democratically elected government in Nicaragua, when he was the vice-president of a Reagan administration that also funded, armed, and trained al-Qaeda during the 1980's.

The current president's idiocy is cleverly masked by the repetitive rhetoric and propaganda of career politicians who are the same corrupted individuals who helped the Reagan and the first Bush administration carry out their conservative agenda. As a matter of fact, the rhetoric that this administration pulls directly out of it's ass can always be defined as completely opposite of the truth. When they say they want to spread freedom and democracy, they are telling us they want to drop bombs and stifle the very freedoms that define democracy. A government sponsored "Clear Skies Initiative" de-regulates controls on companies that pollute the air. A "Healthy Forest Initiative" is in favor of cutting down more trees. Leave No Child Behind is under-funded by 8 billion dollars, thereby leaving most children behind. The Patriot Act is the most un-patriotic piece of legislation this country has ever seen; stripping away our freedoms in order to supposedly protect our freedoms. The government controlled corporate media exacerbates the problem by cheerleading for the very administration that employs them while masking their support in pretend objectivity. The list goes on and on, and none of it makes any sense unless you understand completely that the government has nobody's but their own interests in mind.

So when you go to the polls to vote keep in mind that you aren't even living in a democracy. A democracy is defined by choice, and you have been tricked into thinking you have one. The simple fact that you think you think you live in a democracy has made you complacent, making you one of millions of victims of government controlled psychological manipulation of the masses. In the upcoming election we will choose between a rich politician and a murderous criminal who both represent the same unprincipled and dishonest institution, and neither is interested in changing the same corrupt political system that gives them their power. Keep in mind that that both of these men have already been bribed, because bribery is legal in this country, and the actions of either one of their administrations will undoubtedly reflect the demands of the companies and organizations that have bribed them.

I would ask you to please go out and vote today, but the outdated electorial college has relegated your vote to mere fractions and percentages of a vote, in direct proportion to the amount of people in your state. I would ask you to trust the supposed checks and balances of our government, but the congress has shown itself to be more concerned with presidential blow jobs than the consequences of unjust wars that leave thousands of dead people in it's wake. I would ask you to have faith in the outcome of the upcoming elections, but the entire voting process has already been rigged, even more so than four years ago. If Bush loses the election, it will be in spite of the fact his administration has disenfranchised millions of voters across the country, among many other electoral crimes that will go unknown, unnoticed, and unrecognized.My unsolicited advice is ask yourself what you can do to help bring about a peaceful revolution in this country. I am asking you deny the purposeful culture of fear and ignorance that disenfranchises every citizen of this once great country. I am asking you to recognize and realize your role in making this world a better place, which begins with taking responsibility for nurturing the potential that democracy has to offer, and ends with holding our so-called leaders accountable for their treasonous actions. It was Nazi leader Hermann Goering who said, "the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country." It was the great American statesman Thomas Jefferson that said, "when the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." Your enemies are not terrorists. Your enemies are ignorant citizens whose minds and emotions are gripped with Government sponsored fear and psychologically coerced compliance. To help educate these people as well as yourselves is to defeat your enemies. To reject the fear-mongering and hidden fascist agenda of a criminal government is to deny this kind of fraud from ever happening again. To embrace non-violent revolution is to accept the possibility that humanity has the potential to truly evolve beyond the obstacles of corrupt leadership.

THE BARBARA LEE HIP HOP SLAM INTERVIEW
by Billy Jam

Billy Jam: What was it like back then, after Sept. 11, to be the lone dissenting voice out of everybody, including the Democrats.

Barbara Lee: It was a very difficult period, not only for me personally, but for the country, for the families of the victims, for the people whose loved ones lost their lives. My chief of staff, Sondre Swanson, his cousin was a flight attendant on Flight 93. So the devastation, the anger, the depression, the anxiety, was with myself and others around me. And it was just a very horrible time.

Jam: And you, after that, weren’t the most popular person. You had to have bodyguards, is that correct?

Lee: Well you know it’s always very risky in moments like that. When people are angry and emotional they tend to say things that are off the scale. Rush Limbaugh and some of the very right-wing press tried to demonize me and I knew that was what they were trying to do. But I knew that was the correct vote, and I knew it was going to be a very tense and challenging time, but we have to do things when we know we’re doing the right thing, because there’s no way that anyone should vote to give any administration the authority to wage war forever against unnamed enemies and organizations, because that’s not how we find peace in the world, that’s not how America becomes secure. That’s not how we seek global security and peace. That was the wrong response to a very terrible situation.

Jam: How do you feel now at this stage of the game, as far as the election and what’s going on in Iraq.

Lee: Well, let me just say that this administration must go. Everything I’m doing right now is about a regime change in Washington D.C. The Bush Administration has made the world more dangerous. It has promoted hatred throughout the world. It hasn’t dealt with the war on terror. And yes I’m strong on international terrorism as far stamping it out, but when we wage war like the Bush Administration does, that does nothing to make America secure. So I think we need a new direction in this country, and we can’t have a new direction unless we get rid of this administration: Rumsfeld, Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, George W. Bush, that whole gang.

Jam: What do think about the hold that the current administration has on America? How come it appears that people are buying into it? What is it, fear?

Lee: I don’t think people are buying into it. People I talk to around the country, under the radar, those people not being polled, such as young people, single women, people of color, African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, they’re not buying into this stuff. People of conscience aren’t buying into this stuff, and the pollsters aren’t polling them. And I think we’re going to win big on November 2.

Jam: The thing that I feel is that a lot of young people feel disenfranchised and they feel that they don’t have any control over the government. But yet in things like music and art is the first place where you hear freedom of speech and dissent. At least that’s where I heard it after September 11.

Lee: Well, I told the Democrats if they want to know what a real agenda is for young people for the future they need to start listening to these songs. It’s right there, very clear, and they’re saying where they see the world as it is and where it should be going.

Jam: With the rise to power of these Republicans, and with all these media outlets and radio stations, you mentioned Rush Limbaugh, and there’s FoxNews, which is so intertwined with the Republicans, what do you think about the corporatization of the FM airwaves and the communication systems?

Lee: Well, I certainly oppose it. When Colin Powell’s son, Michael Powell, made a decision to consolidate the media in regard to the FCC, I mean one corporation could buy up all the media in one area, to me that is not freedom of the press. We need a real free press, and we don’t have that with this administration. We need a diversity of ideas, a diversity of thought. A corporate control of the media is what’s going on now. Hopefully myself and Congressman Sanders and many others are trying to unravel those FCC regulations. We just passed a bill that would begin to unravel those regulations, but of course this administration stopped it.

Jam: Locally, there’s a bunch of issues that you’re concerned about, like AIDS. Now Alameda County is definitely in a state of emergency, right?

Lee: When I was first elected, I worked with Congresswoman Maxine Watters to develop a minority AIDS initiative. Alameda County has one of the highest AIDS rates in the country, so we did declare a state of emergency here in Alameda County to begin to focus resources on the African-America community especially, because the right now the most number of cases come from within the African-American community. I believe now that 60 percent of the new cases are with African-American women and yet this administration keeps cutting the fund for the minority AIDS commission.

Jam: I know, when I was watching the first Presidential debate and Bush was talking about all the money that was being spent over seas, and then I over here in Oakland and I see the public schools closing down swimming pools and library and it just seems like such a contradiction.

Lee: They won’t even fund their own initiative, Leave No Child Behind. It’s $9 or $10 million under-funded and for our young people. Public education is the vehicle for our young people to be successful in the future. They’re going to be our future leaders, but this administration continually under-funds public education. They’re cutting Section 8, they’re cutting the housing initiatives, they’ve repealed most of the environmental initiatives, and they’re cutting back on mass transit. They’re cutting, cutting, cutting. At the same time they’re providing these huge tax cuts for the wealthy, $2 billion plus on this war in Iraq, and $420 to $430 billion on a defense budget, part of which is to develop a national missile defense system that for all intents and purposes won’t work and all the scientists and researchers have told us that.

Jam: For the public at large, the division is just getting greater and greater between the rich and the poor and there are just so many cutbacks. Do you think there’s just a breaking point and there’s a revolution on the streets of Oakland?

Lee: I think on November 2 there’s going to be a revolution and that’s what I’m working on, because people can’t tolerate this much longer. They see what’s going on. They see that this is really a world that is very insecure now and they see that it’s because of George W. Bush and his policies. They know we’ve got to deal with homeland security, we need port security, we need to make sure all of our domestic security initiatives are fully funded, along with our first-line responders. And the Bush administration won’t even fund that. So yeah, I think people see it for what it is and November 2 will be our revolution.

Jam: What can people do here in Oakland to make it a better world?

Lee: Well, people in Oakland are really very active and I want to commend my constituents because they see very clearly what needs to be done. They are working very hard on community projects, on non-profit initiatives, on housing, on education. They’re very active. They’re working on education rights. People in my community are working on getting people to register to vote and get people out to the polls. They’re also going to other districts in the country, other cities and states, to make sure we can win some of the very close states such as Ohio and Nevada and Arizona, so I think people in Oakland are really leading the revolution.

Jam: Do you think the average American really understands the political system in the United States and how it works, like how you represent everyone in this district? Do you think people here really understand that?

Lee: Well you know, civic education and government is really not taught much in the school and so a lot of people don’t understand the way it works. In part, what elected officials need to do and what I hope I’m doing is to educated young people about the realities of the system. I worked for Congressman Ron Dellums as an intern in college and I was amazed what I learned in that summer where we got rid of Nixon. I subsequently went to work for Ron Dellums for 11 years and I learned the system then. And I think it’s a very exciting time, because more young people want to get involved, and that’s what it’s about.

Jam: So what do you foresee for the United States ten years from now, not being pessimistic or optimistic, just realistic?

Lee: Well, I think that November 2 is going to be a defining moment. I think that’s going to determine where we’ll be in 10 years. Hopefully, we’ll be the democracy that all of us believed in. Hopefully, we’ll have new national priorities in terms of our resources going into schools rather than building bombs, and into a nationalized healthcare system. I mean 44 million people being uninsured? That’s obscene. And we need this next year. Every man, woman, and child needs health insurance and a quality education. So I’ve got to be optimistic. I don’t even want to think about the alternative.

DUBYA'S POSITIVE EFFECT ON HIP HOP
by Jesse Ducker

George W. Bush stealing the 2000 election should have been the best thing to hip-hop in years.

In late 1999, before Dubya staged his liitle coup, Jihad of Third Sight told me that what hip-hop needed to snap it out of its champagne-rap haze was a Republican president. "Under Reagan and Bush Sr. hip-hop was bangin'," he said.
And he was right. Hip-Hop's golden era were spawned from 12 years of Reaganomics. So when the Shrub stole the election damn near four years ago, I thought to myself, "Man this sucks. But maybe, just maybe, the bullshit we're about to go through will light a fire under hip-hoppers asses." I thought surely there would be a resurrection of the anger that spawned albums like It Takes a Nation of Million, By Any Means Necessary, The Devil Made Me Do It, and the like. Finally, the voice of political dissent could creep back into hip-hop.

Boy, was I wrong. Some artists have tried to raise a little hell, but hip-hop is as materialistic and uninspiring as ever, if not more so than it was back in 1999. I mean what the fuck does it take? In four years, we've had George W. steal an election, the disenfranchisement of Black voters in Florida, Sept. 11, the theft of our civil liberties, an unjust and prolonged war in Iraq, and an indefinite occupation of that country and Afghanistan. But the message I seem to be getting listening to most hip-hop out there is that the theft of our freedom shouldn't stand in the way of making that money.

Now, to be fair, there's but in a few mainstream artists that have taken a stand. "War" by Big Boi on the Speakerboxxx album made a solid anti-war statement, inspired by his disgust when he heard that soldiers were writing "Bombs Over Bagdhad" on the bombs that were to be dropped on Iraq. Furthermore, two tracks off the Beastie Boys To the 5 Boroughs album dis the current and call for the American people to unite to get George W. out of office. Eminem made a few statements back on "Square Dance" on The Eminem Album, but it wasn't. Once a track from his new album, featuring the lyric "Fuck dead presidents, I'd rather to see the President dead," got leaked, the shit hit the fan, and all of a sudden Interscope Records started getting calls from the secret service. I bet that's the last time Eminem gets "political" in any way.

Of course, the exception that everyone will think of dead prez. After Columbia records dropped the group after shelving Revolutionary but Gangsta, it setting off a label bidding war which included the likes of Bad Boy and Shady Records. The group ended up re-signing with Columbia, and then dropped the album. But while I liked the tracks "Hip-Hop" and a few other tracks off of Let's Get Free, I've never been hugely impressed by dead prez's music. I feel they have dumbed-down their lyrics and political content to too far of a degree; too much gangta and not enough revolutionary. Boots and the Coup have always done a much better job and walking the line between the revolutionary and the gangsta. The Coup have become quite adept at creating thought-provoking, political music that the everyday street kid can relate to.

So where's Brother J and the X-Clan? Where's Poor Righteous Teachers? Where's Brand Nubian? Where's Lakim Shabazz? Man, where in the hell is Public Enemy? Since George W. became our court-appointed president, we've seen exactly one Public Enemy album, "Revolverlution." And besides the sublime "Son of a Bush," the album was mostly boring, sporting mostly live performances and so-so remixes. And while Chuck D is busy working the lecture circuit and educating people about the war and the administrations wicked, Flavor Flav seems content to mug his way through "Reno 911" and the new season of "The Surreal Life." Fortunately, two more Public Enemy albums are reportedly in the works, but they might not be released until after the election.

What happened to Goodie Mob? Five years ago, after Still Standing dropped, they looked like the heir apparent to Public Enemy. The next year they managed to release the lightweight World Party before being torn apart be internal struggles. The group, minus Cee-Lo, has regrouped and dropped another album, One Monkey Don't Stop No Show, but the magic may be fading.

The teacher himself, KRS-One, has been largely MIA on the political front as well. Since the 2000 election, he's released three albums and mixtape, but most of the subject matter concerns his efforts in with the Temple of Hip-Hop. A noble cause, but I think there are bigger fish to fry.

As always, it's been the underground where the artists have taken the lead. Artists like Mr. Lif, J-Live, the Masterminds, Sage Francis, and members of the Anticon crew have all recorded brilliant tracks expounding on the hypocrisy of post 9/11 America. Maybe it's the lack of major label politics that lets rappers speak their mind.

One artist from the golden political era who has made his presence felt is Paris, the original Black Panther of hip-hop, after a longest hiatus, in 2003 he came out breathing fire with Sonic Jihad, Released on his own label Guerrilla Funk, distributed through Groove Attack. Paris deserves major props for having the stones to have an album cover showing a plane flying into the White House. Plus, he's re-released all of his classic albums from the early 1990s. Furthermore, Michael Franti and Spearhead have continue to record politically charged music, and the DJs of Mass Destruction recently released an entire anti-war album entitled War: If It Feel Good, Do It.

And then there's Immortal Technique, the most promising "political" MC to emerge in years. He's articulate and raw-as-hell lyricist. He's a field-tested MC who obviously knows his facts and doesn't take shit from anybody. Although I hate to use the term, you can hear his "realness" permeate every track he records. His rhymes can be enjoyed by the kids looking for the "real shit" and the "hip-hop heads" fiending for pure lyrical skill. He is the perfect artist to spearhead a new movement to bring intelligence and political zeal back into hip-hop music.

One of the most frequent complaints about hip-hop is that it is without direction. Everyone is so busy getting their money that they're forgetting what made hip-hop so potent to so many people was that it educated people about the state of the world. The fact is that major labels and media outlets still believe that at its core hip-hop is novelty music, and so they treat is as such. If the artists want hip-hop music to stand for something again, they need to take a stand and give some meaning to the music once again. It may be too late for any artist to record and release a political album that will drop before the November election, but I think we all know that the America's and the world's gross problems will end no matte who wins the election. Hip-Hop can inspire change, and the artists need to start inspiring, or the music will become irrelevant to everyone. It will help support the quality hip-hop from the assembly line crap that's current crowding record store shelves.

Eleven great anti-Bush/anti-war songs or albums released in the
past year or so of Dubya's reign of terror: (in no particular order)

1. Satisfied - J-Live
2. Makeshift Patriot - Sage Francis
3. Earthcrusher - Mr. Lif
4. Son of a Bush - Public Enemy
5. Time to Build - Beastie Boys
6. The Cause of Death - Immortal Technique
7. Plutonium - Sole
8. Arrest the President - Arrest the President All-Stars
9. Sheep to the Slaughter - Paris
10. War - Big Boi
11. WAR (if it feels good, do it!) - DJs of Mass Destruction

— Jesse Ducker <jesseducker@hotmail.com>

[LATE STORY] MAC DRE KILLED IN KANSAS CITY, MO

As reported by AllHipHop.com yesterday, Vallejo rap legend Mac Dre has died from bullet wounds after the car he was riding in was attacked by passengers in another car. Please read the AllHipHop.com story for more details.

Mac Dre has been a longtime friend of Hip Hop Slam, and our condolences go out to his family and friends.