With much of our attention focused on the gun debate, Newtown, Ct and NRA (National Rifle Association) head Wayne Lapierre talking about how music, movies and video games have caused gun violence, many of us are also talking and asking hard questions.
Earlier today I was asking myself which rap artists would seize the moment and put out compelling music around the gun debate issue.. When I asked this publicly I got a lot of cynical responses, noting that rappers work for an industry that is violent prone and would discourage such efforts.. I don’t buy it. Folks in Hip Hop from day one have long spoke out against violence.
From the days of Afrika Bambaataa doing community center dances in Bronx River projects to promote peace in the early 70s to The Hip Hop Peace Summit w/ the Nation of Islam in the 1997 to Oakland rapper T-Kash running a marathon a couple of years ago to bring an end to gun violence.
In between we had KRS-One launching a Stop the Violence Movement with the Urban League which was accentuated with his landmark song Stop the Violence. In 2001 KRS went to the United Nations to unveil recently the Hip Hop Declaration of Peace.
We had songs like Self Destruction which was a famed posse cut led by KRS-One featuring everyone from MC Lyte to Kool Moe Dee to Ms Melody, D-Nice, Public Enemy, Justice and Stetsasonic speaking to gun violence.
That cut was followed up with the West Coast All-stars We’re All in the Same Gang. That song which featured everyone from NWA to Digital Underground to Tone Loc to JJ Fad was the underscore the efforts that were afoot to bring about a Gang Truce in LA.. In fact during the launch of the song, rival gang members appeared on the Arsenio Hall show to shake hands and call for peace in the hood.
Not too long ago (2005) Snoop Dogg revisited the We’re All in the Same Gang concept by bringing the West Coast Hip Hop community for a Unity Summit..
KRS-One
Three years ago, KRS-One got the Hip Hop industry including Nelly, Redman, Method Man, Styles P, Rah Diggah, Busta Rhymes to name a few, to revisit the Self Destruction project ..There were several songs done to address violence in the hood including the title track Self Construction.
There are plenty of artists who have always and will continue to speak on issues of the day including gun violence. They may not be covered in the mainstream and many pundits may either be unaware or purposely chose to overlook their efforts, but it doesn’t mean they’ve been silent…It’s up to us to highlight them. Whether it’s the Hip Hop Chess Federation with Adisa Banjoko or artists like DLabrie of Hip Hop Congress, Queen Deehlah of the Silence the Violence Movement or Refa 1 of Aerosoul Movement all doing peace efforts in the Bay Area or artists like Wise Intelligent, Hakim Green of Channel Live doing peace efforts in New Jersey or artists like I Self Devine, Toki Wright and Brother Ali of the Rhymesayers sparking peace in the Twin Cities to Jasiri X, Paradise Gray of X-Clan and the folks in Pittsburgh’s One Hood . There’s a lot of folks doing good things..
One of the best and most timeless songs dealing with gun violence comes from Oakland rapper Frank J.. He was a member of a crew called Legion of Une (Union City) which later became 187 Fac.. The song Brotha Put the Gun Away, was Frank J recounted all his friends who died and how he decided to put the gun away. He talks about real life incidents that took place in Oakland and around the Bay Area including losing his brother.. It’s a powerful song..the lyrics are searing.. I wish more folks would do songs like this..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGJJGFzl7jM
Another incredible and profound song comes from Organized Konfusion..Pharoah Monch and Prince Po drop lyrics that describe the path of a stray bullet..
These lyrics are haunting and all too true is far too many instances
Let the trigger finger put the pressure to the mechanism
Which gives a response, for the automatic *bang*
Clip to release projectiles in single
file forcing me to ignite then travel
through the barrel, headed for the light
At the end of a tunnel, with no specific target in sight
Slow the flow like H2O water
Visualize, the scene of a homicide, a slaughter
No remorse for the course I take when you pull it
The result’s a stray bullet
Niggaz who knew hit the ground runnin and stay down
Except for the kids who played on the playground
Cause for some little girl she’ll never see
more than six years of life, trif-le-ing
When she fell from the seesaw
But umm wait, my course isn’t over
Fled out of the other side of her head towards
a red, Range, Rover, then I ricochet
Fast past a brother’s ass, oh damn, what that nigga say
“Aww fuck it”, next target’s Margaret’s face *bang*
and I struck it
courtesy of OHHLA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNcS5Wl2qlo
We should also note as was pointed out by long time writer Spencer Abbott.. that Stray Bullet was the first of 3 songs dealing with this topic..Pharoah Monch takes it to higher levels with these other two songs When The Gun Draws and climaxed with “Damage“.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ6-FYAngvc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h4jOId8eSg
Another cut that deals with Gun Violence comes from Public Enemy… Its called Whatcha Gonna Do.. The song is incredible where Chuck D talks about how we keep shooting each other.. Some of the lyrics are as follows:
Talkin dat drive by shit
Everybody talkin dat gangsta shitTalkin dat drive by thang
Everybody talking dat gangsta swangSlaves to the rhythm of the master
Buck boom buck another
Neighborhood disaster
(Drummer hit me one)A gun iz a gun iz
A muther fuckin gun
But an organized side
Keep a sellout niga on the runWhat you gonna do to get paid
Step on the rest of the hood
Till the drug raidSee you runnin like roaches
Black gangstas need track coachesThe white law set you up raw
When you have his trust in killin us..
courtesy of OHHLA
The video which was rarely seen depicts a re-enactment of an attempt to shoot a fictional Black president near the grassy knoll ala JFK.. Great video, but the lyrics stand by themselves and speak to issues of self-hatred and gun violence..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhKqsIe283c
Anothers songto consider and perhaps the most potent is Nas‘ I Gave You Power
Instead of tracking down criminals or better yet standing post at a school to make sure our kids our safe as suggested by the NRA, here’s what taxpayer dollars are going toward..In so-called liberal Austin, Texas..(it’s never ever been liberal too me except during SXSW), police arrested Santa Claus for having kids write in chalk their X-Mas list…
Dear NRA (
Come January, Obama will issue a proposal and a whole lot of compromises will come.. When it comes to Obama, mandate or not, he’s a compromiser..End result, gun shows, NRA folks will be left untouched. They will be deemed ‘responsible‘ gun owners.. The only thing the NRA will compromise on is more stringent back ground checks. Next there will be a push to bring about hefty mandatory sentences for anyone who is unlicensed holding a gun. The War on Drugs will morph into the War on Guns….This in turn will lead to more stop and frisk type tactics being used all over to get rid of guns. Police will say they need domestic drones to help with surveillance in these efforts.. The inner city will be targeted even though mass shootings are happening in the burbs.. Our private prisons will be filled.. and they will get paid.. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it..
Dear Media Outlets like 
On Friday December 14th 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Ct was the site of what many are describing as the second deadliest school shooting in US history. The dust is still settling and people are trying to come to terms with why 27 people were slaughtered. 20 of them kids between the ages of 6-7. We are now discovering that some were shot as much 11 times as they hid in corners of their classrooms covered up. This was gruesome. All told, 12 little girls and 8 little boys were murdered.. The other 6 killed, were all women. They were teachers and school administrators who tried to save these children from unthinkable horror.
Understandably many of us are looking for answers… We’re all looking for a nicely packaged, sound explanation as to why this happened. Many are quick to point out that the killer Adam Lanza had mental illness. The popular narrative is a sick man got a hold of some guns and shot up a school..End of story, good night.. And to be honest its true Adam Lanza was sick, but in order to really get to the root of what took place and why, and more importantly how to prevent this from happening again, we are deluding ourselves and doing a disservice to simply place Lanza’s sickness in isolation.
The day before at Monta Vista High School in nearby Cupertino, which is home to Apple Computers, the was a bomb scare accompanied with graffiti on the school wall threatening to kill a teacher. The school was shut down and evacuated. Students returned to school on Friday morning only to be confronted with news of the carnage going on Newtown. A 16-year-old student was arrested last night. You can read about that 
Early, Saturday morning in Oakland, California, just two hours before a gun buy back program a 37-year-old man shot into a car with 3 people including a woman. Someone from the car shot back.. all four were injured. You can read about that 
The whole time they are doing these interviews you can literally see these anchors scoping out the terrain with one eye open, angling to one up the competition. Friday reached new lows as we saw reporter after reporter shoving microphones in the faces of 5 and 6 year old kids who were clearly traumatized, asking them how they feel and what they saw etc..In spite of massive complaints on Facebook and twitter, by late last night you still saw little kids trying to explain what its like to hear or see someone shot or walk by dead bodies.. It’s not about healing it’s about being first and getting ratings at all costs. After all as some in the media like to say.. All this coverage doesn’t come free.
Part of the challenge before us is to move this of this national conversation away from seeing these acts of violence as isolated, out of the ordinary occurrences and see them as systemic. This is not comfortable for many to do. The reason being is that when you look at mass shootings from a systemic level it calls into question our actions or lack of actions. It calls into account our own complicity in furthering this culture of violence. It brings forth our own contradictions. This includes the types of conversations and steps we take to ensure peace vs cheering on and fantasizing about violent responses to complex problems. Far too many of us say we want peace and we want our children to live in peace , but our actions say otherwise. We applaud violence. We accept violence.. We enable violence in many aspects of our lives and on many levels. From the music we listen to, to what we watch on TV to what sort of laws we allow to pass on or not pass on our watch…
