A Blistering Open Letter to World Star Hip Hop…

Zulu_Nation symbol

RE: FALSE ADVERISEMENT AND MISLEADING INFORMATION ABOUT HIP-HOP CULTURE

Mr. O’Denat,

On behalf of the thousands of members of the Universal Zulu Nation, of which I am Minister Of Information, I write you this letter in peace and hope these words find you in the best of health and spirits. Brother, we at UZN have the utmost respect and love for all who choose to take our Culture to new heights, and we thank you for your part in creating new media that preserves our culture. It is with great sadness that we bring to your attention the obvious ills of your site, WorldStarHipHop.com. Mister O’Denat, you are well aware, or should be well aware that many are viewing your site’s content as very graphic and extremely violent. Before you brush this off as just another person’s opinion of your site and
the content you publish, please do not get it confused. This is not the case.

As I mentioned earlier, Mr. O’Denat, I am a representative of the Universal Zulu Nation, and we take our Culture quite serious. You are a Black man who has accomplished quite a lot without a formal education, and I’m quite sure when you dropped out of New York’s Grover Cleveland High School, you would never have imagined that you’d be as successful with your company, World Star, LLC. Doesn’t it bother you just a little that another Black man (that man being yourself), has “made it” out of the “ghetto”, only to display unnerving images and videos of young adults berating, belittling, and beating each other solely for the purpose of the enjoyment of who you are led to believe are “millions of Hip-Hoppers?”

Mr. O’Denat, the followers of your site are impressionable young men and women who “follow” you for a reason. As salacious as you may want your site to be, our youth are looking for answers and solutions to the many problems that plague our communities. The young people use your site as an outlet to escape the world they are living in, only to find that you place them right back at the starting point. Brother, you are well aware, or should be aware of the way Haitians are treated all over the world, including their own country. After all, Mr. O’Denat, you are Haitian, and you have even labeled yourself as a “Haitian Ghetto Nerd”, to gain God knows what kind of accolades. I am not Haitian, but I find it deplorable for a Haitian to associate such a dignified people with the “ghetto”, when Haitians come to this country to escape ghetto life.

Brother, I am sure you heard God speaking to you when the earthquakes in Haiti destroyed so many lives, and many of us di a fair share of work to help those in need. The repair for the damage done physically, emotionally, spiritually and financially will be an ongoing process that will take decades. But one of the brilliant brothers of Haitian decent is instead showering the world with what you call “the CNN of the Ghetto”. Brother, you are sadly mistaken if you would like the world to believe that hype. If you understand journalism 101, news is reported with two sides. Your excerpts of ghetto life, your lack of morality when accepting uploaded material, and your drive to maintain a site for the sole intent to destroy our Culture’s standing in these Americas is both uncouth and unacceptable by all of us at UZN. We are hereby separating ourselves and our followers from your site and what it supposedly stands for. Brother, if you were in fact the “CNN of the ghetto”, then you, as a former resident of Queens, NY should already know who Zulu is and what real Hip-Hop Culture is. Mr. O’Denat, there are many real Hip-Hoppers from Queens who laid the brick in the wall that you are trying to tear down.

You should already know about Run-DMC, Larry Smith, Salt-N-Pepa, Nas, MC Shan, LL Cool J and the founders of FUBU Clothing, to name a new. These men and women purposed to create a platform of expression for our Culture, and through the years, they have maintained and preserved that Culture. Mr. O’Denat, you are a Haitian, so you should know how serious Haitians are about their Culture. We are just as serious.

This is a new year, and the Universal Zulu Nation has begun a movement against anyone who is against us. Mr. O’Denat, either you are for Hip-Hop Culture, or you are not. There is no in-between, and no matter how many people have hyped you to believe that WorldStarHipHop is anything close to what this Culture is, they told you a lie. Mr. O’Denat, Hip-Hop Culture is FOUNDED on four spiritual principles. In case you haven’t already been schooled on what those principles are, they are: Peace, Unity, Love and Havin’ Fun. Mr. O’Denat, I pray that you do become a “CNN of the ghetto”, and that you someday get a camera and go to the ghetto yourself to record both sides of our neighborhoods. We still do have neighborhoods, brother.

Mr. O’Denat, can you imagine how much more hits WorldStarHipHop would have if you were intuitive enough to record rising Black political stars and activists, and some of the issues they discuss when trying to fix our problems nationwide? Or videos of Black political superstars like Barack and Michelle Obama. I would have loved to see the behind-the-scenes footage of the President at home with the wife and kids – on your website. I invite you to meet me in The Bronx, Boston, Virginia, The Carolinas, Chicago, DC, Maryland, Detroit, or any place that you feel more comfortable, so we may discuss the realities of “the ghetto” and how you can be better involved.

Mr. O’Denat, in closing I am asking you to remove the footage of the young man being forced to strip naked outside while people look on and another young man beats him with a belt while the camera man pours water on his fully naked body.

This is the link in question, Mr, O’Denat:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=375073675924908&set=vb.100002668367738&typ
e=2&theater

This is not the first time you have posted content that has been of this nature, and from the looks of it, this is probably Child Pornography. Therefore, I will forward the link and the video to the proper authorities to be sure that these young people are in fact of age and in full consent of being on your site in such a demeaning fashion. I’m unsure if this will bring about any charges, as there is a huge rumor on the streets that you are in fact working for the feds and are using your site as a cover up. But who knows? Mr. O’Denat, I again ask that you look into the fact that you and your site have misused our Culture’s name, committed fraud and falsely advertised your site as “Hip-Hop”. You have forced the hand of the Universal Zulu Nation to take further action should you continue to promote your “CNN of the ghetto” as “Hip-Hop”, and we are asking with all due respect that you include a disclaimer at the bottom of the front page of your website concerning your company and Hip-Hop Culture. A great
footnote on your site should be:

“World Star Hip-Hop is in no way affiliated with real Hip-Hop Culture or its’ founders or the Universal Zulu Nation. This site solely for entertainment purposes, and does not promote Hip-Hop Culture”

Mr. O’Denat, you are free to use the above language, or you may use any language you see fit that parallels the language above. Please contact me at your earliest convenience, should you have any questions or concerns. I can be reached at quadeershakurmedia@gmail.com or 617-297-7423.

Respectfully,

Quadeer “M.C. Spice” Shakur
Minister of Information
Universal Zulu Nation

Beneath Low: BET, Lil Wayne Set the Stage for Child Pornography

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Beneath Low: BET, Lil Wayne Set the Stage for Child Pornography

By April R. Silver, June 29, 2009

www.aprilsilver.com 

AprilSilverLast night, live at the BET Awards in Los Angeles, a room full of head-bobbing, consenting adults bounced to Drake and Lil Wayne’s back-to-back performances of the hit songs “Best I Ever Had” and “Every Girl.” I watched, underwhelmed. I wanted more “Michael” in what was supposed to be this award-show-turned-Michael-Jackson-tribute. I watched, ever puzzled by the Lil Wayne phenomena that has captivated the music industry. I watched, wondering when the set was going to end. 

Then the little girls came onstage…literally the little girls. “Are those children?” I asked out loud, in disbelief. Then the camera panned the audience. Everyone was still head-bobbing as the little Black girls huddled around these superstars. 

“Are those little girls on stage…for this song?!?!” I, still in disbelief, lost breath and forced myself to exhale. “Why are these little girls featured on this performance? Is somebody going to stop this?” Again, the show was live, though for a nano-second, I was hoping that a hunched-over stage manager would bust through from back stage to scoop up the children, rescuing them from harm’s way…from being associated from this song. But instead, what those girls witnessed from the stage was hundreds and hundreds of adults (mostly Black people) staring back at them, co-signing the performance. These girls, who all appeared to be pre-teens, were having their 15 minutes of glam on one of the biggest nights in televised Black entertainment history, with two of pop culture’s biggest stars at the moment, with millions of people watching. They must have been bubbling with girlish excitement, shimmering like princesses all night. Pure irony: one of them wore a red ballerina tutu for the special occasion. And we applauded them. 

  

I’m told that one of the girls is Lil Wayne’s daughter. That doesn’t matter. In fact that makes it worse. Last night we were reminded that there are few safe spaces for our little girls to be children; that some of us are willing to trade their innocence for a good head nod. BET and Lil Wayne are beneath low because, in effect, they have given premium assurance to these and other little girls that their best value, their shining moment, their gifts to display to the world, all lie within a context that says they are fuckable. 

I’m also told by industry insiders that Lil Wayne was continuously sexually molested as a child, remains in a psychologically abusive relationship with the molester, and for that reason his understanding of what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate for children is terribly skewed. I don’t know if that is true. If it is, help is needed. If it is true, it might explain something regarding Lil Wayne’s compliance in this offense. But what about BET’s nickel in this dime? 

BET President and CEO Debra Lee has come underfire over the years yet many see the network as one hell bent on showing the worse pathologies of Black people

BET President and CEO Debra Lee has come underfire over the years yet many see the network as one hell bent on showing the worse pathologies of Black people

The programming at BET has been heavily criticized by artists, concerned citizens, college students, parent groups, social justice organizations, media reform activists, and many others for over a decade now. Their programming seems hell bent on broadcasting the worst pathologies in the Black community. Some have joined the anti-BET movement by simply tuning out. Others have been more pro-active. National letter-writing campaigns and other activities designed to shame and/or pressure the network into improving its programming have been in play for some time now. Boycotts have been called as well. Two years ago, for example, the network found itself in the line of fire as it planned to air the very controversial series “Hot Ghetto Mess.” Advertisers, such as State Farm Insurance and Home Depot, responded to pressure and requested that their ads be disassociated with the series (though, their ads could be placed in other programming slots). None of this has made a difference. In fact, it seems to have emboldened the network, for it is now expanding. In the fall, BET is due to launch another channel.

 

But millions of Black people are not offended by the network and welcome anything BET has to offer, no matter how much it continues to unravel the fabric of our community. Imagine, if you will, BET as a human being and the viewers as the community. You would have to imagine BET as a drug dealer, with his swag on…perhaps outside standing atop a truck, the community crowded beneath him. Imagine him throwing nicely wrapped gifts into the crowed, or giving away turkeys at Thanksgiving. Or maybe it’s Mother’s Day and he buys dinner and teddy bears to all the single moms and grandmothers around the way. Despite his best efforts and despite the approval of his fans, he is still a drug dealer, pimping death to the masses. 

Proverbs is full of sacred text that teaches us that there will always be fools amongst us. Some of them will be highly paid, protected, and given world-wide platforms to show off what they do best. And these fools (be they performers, corporate executives, or others), will have fans and loyal supporters, and a place to call home, like a BET. 

But as long as there will be fools amongst us, there will also be wise ones – a small group of people concerned about the long term health and well being of the community. This small group will often go unheard and they will be outmatched. They will struggle over which problem to address first: the child pornographer, the batterer, the pimp, the prostitute, the thief, the slumlord, or the system that enables it all. They will get tired and their defense will pale in comparison to the almost crushing offense. And they will be betrayed from within. Historically and universally, this is what happens in the struggle for what is right. But eventually, with continued pressure, something will shift. A radical new thinking will emerge, and the fools will lose their stronghold.  

The sure expectation of victory, however, can not be understated. It is a concrete ingredient in the struggle against the death that is being paraded in our community…as necessary as letter writing campaigns, economic boycotts, symbolic and actual protests, and other pressure-oriented activities. It is indeed possible to bring more life into our community.

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

As a social entrepreneur and activist, my entire life/work has been dedicated to standing up for what’s right, especially within the culture of hip hop. When identifying what cancerous elements exist within the Black community, many fellow activists agree with Chuck D (of Public Enemy), and even Aaron McGruder (of The Boondocks), when they targeted BET as one of those elements. That said, I didn’t think that we would ever have to take the network to task for what amounts to child pornography. 

Lil Wayne shocked many with his performance at the BET Awards when he allowed little girls to come on stage

Lil Wayne shocked many with his performance at the BET Awards when he allowed little girls to come on stage

But did no one care that Lil Wayne’s song Every Girl is about grown men and their sexual escapades with women? Did the meaning and intent of the song matter to anyone, this song whose hook and other lyrics required a re-write in order to get air play? “I wish I could love every girl in the world.” That’s the radio-friendly version of “I wish I could f–k every girl in the world.” But Lil Wayne’s BET performance was the clean edit of the song. Perhaps he (and the show producers) thought that there was nothing wrong in featuring the children in the clean version. Perhaps we were supposed to see the whole bit as cute and innocent. Absolutely not. There’s no other way to cut it: in presenting little girls in a performance of a song that is about sex, group sex, and more sex, BET and Lil Wayne set the stage for child pornography. It doesn’t matter what version of the song was played, much like a man who batters women is still an abusive man, even if uses flowery phrases while battering.In the song, Lil Wayne mentions superstar Miley Cyrus, but Cyrus gets a pass on this lyrical sex escapade because, as he acknowledges, she is a minor. Huh? Why, then, is he comfortable with featuring four minors, these four little Black girls, in the show? How deep exactly is this inability of some men to respect women, and how deep is Lil Wayne’s disregard for the safety of little girls?