YoYo | Hip-Hop and Politics

Went digging in the archives and found this vintage interview w/ one of my favorite emcees and long time friend, YoYo.. She had been on hiatus for a while when we caught up with each other in LA back in 2005.. She was working on some new material and decided to open up and share with us some gems about her life and career at the time..

Folks were first introduced to YoYo when she got down with Ice Cube on a song called ‘It’s A Man’s World‘. It was featured on the classic album ‘Amerikkka’s Most Wanted‘. To say the least people were blown away with this sister who could trade lyrical barbs with Cube and as a result they eagerly awaited for more material..

Since then YoYo he went on to give us 4 albums including; ‘Make Way for the Motherlode‘, ‘Black Pearl’, ‘You Better Ask Somebody‘ and ‘Total Control’ , She’s given us a number of hit songs including the classic; ‘Can’t Play With My Yoyo‘, ‘Girl Don’t Be No Fool‘ and ‘Bonnie and Clyde Theme‘ .

Yo Yo was a breath of fresh air when she hit the scene because she was so outspoken and a strong advocate for women’s empowerment. She also introduced us to the IBWC (Intelligent Black Woman’s Coalition), wrote a number of advise columns and ran a number of Youth programs..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_3qSG4yEL8

YoYo took a break from the music for a while to pursue acting. She appeared in a number of films including; Boys in the Hood, Menace to Society and New York Undercover. She also had a reoccurring role on Martin Lawrence‘s hit TV show. and is now back on the scene ready to blow up..we caught up with her in Los Angeles where she opened up and spoke to us about her relationship with Ice Cube, her trials and tribulations in the industry, her special friendship with 2Pac and where she expects to be in 2005..

Below are the links to our 2 part 2005 interview

Click the link below to download or listen to the HKR Intv

HKR Intv w/ YoYo pt1

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HKR- Intv w/ YoYo pt2

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Fights Break Out in Lemiert Park Between Black Minute Men & Immigration Activists

by Davey D

Yep you read the title right Black Minute Men. Below is an article illustrating the type of bullshit going on in LA that is making this Black-Brown situation spiral out of control. Yesterday cats were in Leimart Park boxing each other over this immigration issue. Ted Hayes a well known homeless activist, showed up with a couple of hundred people including Minute Men to lead an anti-immigrant demonstration. Of course all the media showed up and have been salivating at the jaws for this to happen- Black folks trying to smash on Brown folks in LA.

Fortunately a large number of brothers showed up to counter this thing and let it be known Hayes and his Minute Men aren’t speaking for the Black community. That’s when the fighting broke out. Hayes started leading a chant of ‘Communists Go Home’ while holding a big banner saying Crispus Attucks Brigade. He also said some thing about we been hear since slavery and therefore have amoral obligation to stop alien invasions. Now these cats are running around planning a big anti-immigration rally for Thursday. The Minute Men themselves haven’t even organized such a protest-just these Negroes.

In addition to all that the Clear Channel station that ran the ‘Kill Tookie Hour’ are now doing a big promotion called ‘Weening Yourself Off Illegal Aliens“. They dedicate an hour a day to people calling on clowning Mexicans complete with spliced speeches and people using fake accents. Of course Ted Hayes and company are now heroes to the same station that regularly clowns the homeless and Black people in general. What people won’t do for some fame and glory.

Meanwhile Black owned but white run Radio One have barely touched this issue here in LA preferring to stick with their policy of only dealing with Black folks and not the Latino community which makes up 40% of Southern Cali. At least KJLH owned by Stevie Wonder has been on it. Props to Yo-Yo who has been hitting this hard and doing her best to make sure bridges are being built and that people like Hayes don’t cast a wide shadow over all of us… She’s planning a big Cinco de Mayo event and trying bring a lot of artists out to show support. Also Brother J of X-Clan and Fidel Rodriguez of Divine Forces Radio [KPFK] and also Julio G of KDAY have been out there repping hard. Also tens of thousands took to the streets in San Francisco last night. Large numbers of Asian/Filipinos in particular came out.

Thank God Fred Hampton Jr. and Immortal Technique stayed in LA for a full week and toured the place and saw for themselves what’s really going on and all the power dynamics that are at work. Thank God they’ve been aggressively speaking out on this and calling people out for their faulty analysis. As Technique pointed out ‘Juan who is selling oranges on the freeway is not taking away jobs from nobody. Look to the government shifting jobs overseas’. The hi-tech computer jobs in Silicon Valley are being out-sourced to India while other big corporations are applying for guest worker passes claiming that US worker are too dumb to work many of the jobs we as Black folks are blaming Latinos for taking.

As Chairman Fred pointed out, Black folks should not be playing the role of Buffalo soldiers for white power interests who are obviously enjoying the shenanigans of having Black folks run around sounding off worse than any Klansman.

The perceptions and misinformation floating around LA is crazy. Case in point. I attended a meeting last week with Black and Brown press folks. Many of the Latino media folks were wondering why the silence with Black stations like KKBT.. They were shocked to know that while Black owned it’s white run from top to bottom and that the day to day silence is the call of the PD and GM. That revelation helped clarify things immensely.

I’m encouraging folks to peep the Fred Hampton Jr. interview if you haven’t already. Also be on the look out because a lot of Spanish speaking rappers are getting together to record a song about this issue..

http://odeo.com/audio/1051579/view

Where’s P-Diddy and HSAN on this issue? Did they address this over the weekend during the Summit? I heard Russell speaking on Sudan.

Call your Congressman and call your local rapper and let them know how you feel about this issue.

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

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An Interview w/ the First Lady of South Central, YoYo

Fights Break Out in Lemiert Park Between Black Minute Men & Immigration Activists