A Day in the Bronx: Remembering the Black Spades & Their Connection to Hip Hop

Karate Charlie & Bam Bam

Karate Charlie & Bam Bam

The notorious Black Spades was once the largest and most feared gang in New York City. Hailing from the Bronx, the Spades had as their warlord, Hip Hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa. They were the precursors to Hip Hop.. We caught up with many of the members including original leader Bam Bam who gave Bambaataa his name. We spoke with Hip Hop legend Popmaster Fabel who is finishing up a documentary on early gang culture called ‘The Apache line’. We also hear from Karate Charlie who was the President of the Ghetto Brothers which was another large street organization highlighted in Jeff Chang’s book ‘Cant Stop Wont Stop’..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nwsdYU4yKM

We talk with Hip Hop legend Popmaster Fabel who talks to us about the important role early gang culture played in bringing Hip Hop to life. We also talk about how pop culture is exploiting gang life and leading people astray. Fabel explained that early Hip Hop got people out of the gangs.. Today’s rap music gets people into them..

We hear an impassioned Bam Bam, original leader of the Black Spades speaking to young gang bangers in New York, Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings etc and explaining the direction they should really be taking.. powerful words..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGYTeRUWK5k

Popmaster Fabel

Popmaster Fabel

At the 40th Anniversary of the Black Spades we see Bam Bam, original leader of the Black Spades re-uniting and talking with Karate Charlie of the Ghetto brothers. They talk about how the two gangs merged together to stop the Hells Angels from coming into the Bronx.

We chop it up with Popmaster Fabel about his new documentary The Apache Line from gangs to Hip Hop.. We also talk to him about the current move to try and pit Black against Brown.. Fabel gives a history of why that happens and talks about how the gangs came together.

We also speak with Karate Charlie who is featured in Fabel’s documentary about the legacy of the Ghetto Brothers. He talks about how the Black Spades the Ghetto Brothers united and became a family. He also talked about how they protected the community against the police… Charlie also explains how he taught martial arts throughout the community and had Ghetto Brothers patrol the subway years before the Guardian Angels under Curtis Sliwa came into being..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ufPt8g617I

Charlie Rock Original Zulu King

Charlie Rock Original Zulu King

We caught up with original B-Boy and Zulu Charlie Rock who hails from the 22cd division of the Black Spades up on Gun Hill road in the Bronx.. He talks about how the Black Spades evolved and became the Zulu Nation..He talks about Disco King Mario and the founding Spade chapters at Bronxdale Housing project which was known as Chuck City…

He also talks about how the early gangs were organized and became targets to corrupt police.. He talks about how three members, Wildman, Soulski and Meathead Ron were murdered by police. He noted that because the Black Spades were organized many of them were targeted by the police who tried to break them up and shrink their numbers…

Charlie Rock also talks about how New York was segregated and runs down all the racial unrest and white gangs the Black Spades and later Zulu Nation had to fight.. He talks about the Golden Guineas and the Ministers up in Parkchester.. He talks about the White Assassins and the White Angels..

Rock also explained how the police used to work in concert with some of these white gangs to try and defeat the Black Spades which was the largest gang in NY.. He talks about how the police hung him over a rooftop and threatened to kill him..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycREFrL6-RA

Busta Rhymes Touches Down in Senegal and is Profoundly Moved: Powerful

Watching Busta Rhymes reflect and react to his visit to Senegal and his visit to Gore island where they have the Door of No Return is powerful. I recall how full I was when I returned from Kenya, I felt profoundly changed. I had a different spirit which is with me three years later.  I’m not sure how Busta’s change will manifest itself in future works. Hopefully it makes him step up in ways he never imagined. For the rest of us, may we use this Holiday Season as a launching pad for all of us to return home. We have got to find ourselves and re-center ourselves in 2011.  Its either that or pay a dear price for becoming the very things have oppressed us and we complained about ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnfEiRr5RMc

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Our interview w/ KRS-One on Gospel of Hip Hop & President Obama

We caught up with KRS-One and talked to him about his new book The Gospel of Hip Hop.. we also talked to him about his thoughts on President Obama and the direction this country is headed.. Always colorful, always insightful, KRS gives us some food for thought

http://vimeo.com/16648303

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWa4UpajKTc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcAGtlVqwqE

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Our Interview w/ Brother Ali of the Rhymesayers

We caught up with one of my favorite emcees Brother Ali who is down with the Rhymesayers in Minneapolis. He was in the Bay Area the past couple of days performing with Grouch and Eligh who were doing their annual Holiday Tour. Its always a pleasure catching up with him cause dude always offers up keen insight on any number of topics, from the political happenings of the day down to who has the blazing albums and who fell off..  Here’s a dope interview we did a earlier this year around the challenges facing Muslims in America.. Enjoy and more importantly check for this cats album, because they always are of substance.. Shout out to my crew from Open Line Media for producing this video

http://vimeo.com/16640754

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO18F4aKGzQ

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Is this the ‘Season of the Vic’? NFL MVP Michael Vick??

After watching last night’s game where the Eagle’s bested the Cowboys.. I had to tip my hat to not only the NFL’s most improved player, but also the man who should be MVP.. I dug in the crates and pulled out a classic from Justin Warfield.. I told my man QD3 who produced this that a remake needs to be made where Justin re-works some of the lyrics, adds Black Thought and they flip a new video that lives up to the songs original title ‘Season of the Vic‘.

Y’all remember this joint? Back in the day the word Vic meant to be robbed ie ‘vic’timized.. Today it means to be robbed of a victory from the one and only Number 7 Michael Vick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AHIb8yKG0I

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Women Writers Go in on Jay Electronica over his public bet about sexual exploits w/ Nas

In recent days Jay Electronica has come under fire from a number of women who were taken aback by some recent remarks and antics displayed at his shows. Apparently him and Nas have a bet about how many and what type of women like to be choked during sex. For jay it looks to be crass joking but for many women the jokes cut deep and they been going in on him.. Read one of the blogs and peep the video below..

-Davey D-

At a recent Hip Hop performance, Jay Electronica asked his audiences “Do women like to be choked during sex?” Apparently, he asks this question at every show, and is conducting an informal survey so that him, his DJ, and Nas, can decide a $20,000 bet on the issue on December 25th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUSZmp0XkFQ&feature=player_embedded

 

Continue reading this commentary at the Crunk Feminis Collective

 

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Today December 4th We Remember Chairman Fred Hampton-Killed by the FBI and Chicago Police

“I am … a revolutionary” was the rallying cry of Chairman Fred Hampton, a leader so powerful that he could draw tens of thousands on a moment’s notice and therefore such a threat to the system that he was assassinated at the age of only 21, on Dec. 4, 1969. – Photo: Paul Sequeira

Today December 4th  2010, many in our generation and community will note this was the day rap star Jay-Z was born 41 years ago. His birth will be celebrated, people will shout him out and his success will be a symbol of our collective achievement. Thats a good thing. We should always give props to those making moves among us.

What will not be noted by many in our generation and for that matter many in previous generations will be the vicious and deliberate death of 21 year old Chairman Fred Hampton..and Mark Clark. Fred was the leader of the Chicago Black Panther Party which was the largest chapter.

Chairman Fred was man decades ahead of his time. He’s the one who started the original Rainbow Coalition where he united and formed effective coalitions with whites, Black, Brown,  Yellow and Red peoples. Here was man that was actively working to politicize and work with the local gangs to help advance our people. here was a man who used a cadence and style of call and response speech later made famous by Jesse Jackson. Today we hear Jesse say ‘I am … Somebody’.. Back in the days you heard Fred say ”I am..a Revolutionary‘.

What won’t be remembered is that the deaths of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark came at the hands of the racist Chicago Police department and the FBI through its cointel-program. On this day December 4th we hope don’t forget.. 41 years later Justice has not been served.

Davey D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UstROPm3Ezw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNYuSBXUo6g&feature=player_embedded

This article was written by former Black Panther and editor of the Black Agenda Report Bruce Dixon it was for last year’s (2009) 40th commemoration of Chairman Fred Hampton‘s Death

Remembering Fred Hampton

by bruce Dixon

http://blackagendareport.com/?q=content/remembering-fred-hampton-40-years-later

Bruce Dixon

I remember Fred Hampton.  For the last year of his life, which was the whole time I knew him, he was Deputy Chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party.  Fred was a big man whose inexhaustible energy, keen insight and passionate commitment to the struggle made him seem even larger still.  We called him Chairman Fred.  Chairman Fred was murdered by the FBI and Chicago Police Department in the pre-dawn hours of December 4, 1969.  He was just 21 years old.  Fred’s family and comrades mourned him for a little while and have celebrated his life of struggle, service, intensity and sacrifice ever since.

For such a short life there is much to celebrate.  A gifted communicator and natural leader, Fred was organizing other high school students at the age of 15.  Though a brilliant student, Fred passed up the chance to attend some elite college, the straight road to some lucrative and prestigious career.  Inspired by examples from the civil rights movement to anti-colonial struggles in Vietnam and Africa, Fred chose instead to live and work on the West Side of Chicago and devote all his talents and energies to ending the oppression of woman and man by man, helping to organize and lead the Black Panther Party in Chicago.

Chairman Fred led by example.  He had high standards and challenged all those in his orbit to get up as early, to read as much, and to work and study as hard and as productively as he did.  I never saw anybody meet that challenge for long, but he made us want to keep trying.  Fred sought out principled critiques of his own practices, and taught us the vital role of constructing, receiving and acting on such criticism in building a sound organization.

Fred assumed a lead role in organizing the party’s Breakfast for Children program, in which we solicited donations of food and facilities and provided or recruited the labor to serve free hot breakfasts to children on the way to school in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods where local authorities assured us that no hunger problem existed.  Not long afterward the city of Chicago began using federal funds to provide hot breakfasts to children in lower income neighborhoods across the city.  Fred worked with the Medical Committee for Human Rights to open the Black Panther Party’s free medical clinic on the West Side of Chicago where authorities again solemnly declared there were no shortage of such services.  And again, not long afterward the Chicago Board of Health was persuaded of the need to open a network of clinics providing free and low-cost services in the city’s poorer areas.

Chairman Fred Hampton

Fred reached out to work with the Young Lords Organization in Chicago’s Puerto Rican community, and to a group of  white working class youth who called themselves the Young Patriots.  He made time to speak to and with student groups in high schools and colleges all over Chicago and the surrounding area.  He organized community surveys to get snapshots of the actual and perceived needs of some neighborhoods.  1969 was well before the epidemics of powdered and crack cocaine put large and permanently corrupting sums of money into the hands of gang leaders.  Fred was instrumental in crafting a principled approach not just to individual members but to the rank and file and leaderships of black Chicago’s two major street gangs to put aside their differences and work for the good of the entire community.  His efforts met with some initial success, and earned him some extra special attention from the FBI.

There was much more, really an awful lot going on for a young man of 20 or 21, all the more amazing as most members of the organization he led were a year or two or three younger than Fred.  Despite arrests and threats of imprisonment or death hanging over him, Fred persevered and challenged us to do the same.  He was impatient with injustice, as the finest young people of every age always are.  Fred was animated, almost consumed by a love for our people and for all of humanity and determined to do whatever it took to end the exploitation of woman and man by man.

Times do change and the mechanisms of oppression evolve into new forms.  Political organizations and strategic visions crafted for the needs of one era do not make the grade in another.  If Fred was alive today he’d be a grandfather in his sixties.  It’s impossible to know exactly how he’d be doing but there is no doubt that Fred would still be teaching and learning and inspiring, still tirelessly organizing and struggling in the great cause of human liberation.

Chairman Fred called us to a lifetime of service to humanity.  If we weren’t doing something revolutionary, Fred told us many times, we should not even bother to remember him.  So, forty years on and counting, we continue to work hard to be worthy of his memory.

This is Bruce Dixon, for Black Agenda Radio. Find us on the web atwww.blackagendareport.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6CEaS0PBhc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KF9xycQITo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DzzFEeHot8&feature=related

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Our Interview w/ the Legendary DJ Premier of Gang Starr

Davey D interviews the legendary Dj Premiere at RTB 2010 Bay Area for hip-hop.com. They discuss what it takes to be a dj, the passing of longtime former partner Guru. We talk about the special tributes held for Guru after his death. We talk about DJ Premiere’s hip-hop beginnings starting in Houston, Texas and culminating in NY. Most importantly we talk about the art of producing.. We discuss at length some of Premiers favorite producers..You’ll never guess who he’s included in his list.

http://vimeo.com/16644299

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Interview with Q-Tip the Abstract from Tribe Called Quest

Q-Tip

Davey D interviews the Abstact poetic emcee Q-Tip from ATCQ at RTB 2010 Bay Area for hip-hop.com. They discuss music, Q-Tip’s latest productions and upcoming collaborations that he’s doing with everyone from Kanye West to Lenny Kravitz

http://vimeo.com/16677259

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Classic Performance from Original Gangsta of Rap-Just-Ice

Here’s a classic performance from the ‘original gangsta of rap’ Just-Ice… This is how he got down at the recent 37th Zulu Nation Anniversary. His song spits a lot of history which is one reason why I’ll always love this culture. You can listen to a song and tell a lot about a place, time and the people. This video comes courtesy of my man Giuseppe Pipitone who is working on a book the Latin Quarter and Hip Hop’s Golden Age.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ZGNHNNJKc

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