Knowing that Black August is not widely popularized among the masses, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Stress Magazine, and Youth for Jericho assumed the duty of spreading the story and legacy to today’s younger generation as they set out to achieve their goal “to bring culture and politics together and to allow them to naturally evolve into a unique Hip Hop Consciousness that informs our collective struggle for more a just, equitable, and equitable world.” (Black August Hip Hop Project Mission). Reviving hip-hop’s political message, the Black August Project has been successful at giving a wide range of hip-hop artists such as Keith Murray, Erykah Badu, Common, The Roots, and so on a platform to express their political support and promote the growth of hip-hop worldwide through the international hip-hop exchange program.

On August 26th, concert goers were there to represent for a good cause as they demonstrated with their pumped fists during Common’s set. To deliver the message first hand, M-1 brought out who he calls the O.G.s, the Original Gangstas. This group of freedom fighters included members of the Black Panther Party, Black Liberation Army, and Republic of New Afrika. As the former political prisoners passed the mic, they were conscious not to preach about heir personal contributions but instead to inspire the audience to carry the torch. One former Panther, Ashanti Alston, demanded the audience assume their duty to the fullest extent saying, “our political prisoners will not get out unless we have a movement 10 times as strong as we did in the 60s.”

In a time when mainstream and alternative media has spent a great amount of time mulling over whether or not hip hop is dead, it is rather interesting that the Black August Hip Hop Project and other grassroots projects that effectively use hip-hop are rarely mentioned. Instead it is often times the mainstream music and its obscene behaviour that is used to judge an entire culture that reaches far beyond even this country.

Dhoruba Bin Wahad and the other elders reminded the audience of hip-hops power and its roots of being with the people, “This culture is yours. You have developed it from you and it is valid. It is not criminal or gangsta. But you need to hold 50 cents and all these negroes accountable or don’t buy their records,” As far as the infamous topic of hip-hop being dead, Ahmed Obafemi asserted, “If hip-hop was dying Black August is breathing life back into it.” As we look forward from the past 10 years, hopefully Black August will also breathe life back into the larger movement for freedom, justice, and liberation for Black people.

Below you will find some quotes from those who performed in regards to Black August. Continued on page 3 »