#political hip-hop

[reckonslepoisson]

Soundtrack to the Struggle, Lowkey (2011)

Eloquent and impassioned, Lowkey is an invaluable guy to have on your side, aligned with your cause, leading your march. Do his political nose and skills in oration produce good music? I’m not so sure. As much as I sympathise with Lowkey’s causes, in musical form much of this listens like a guy at a pulpit making rhyme schemes out of Wikipedia pages. It isn’t particularly engaging or stirring. 

Pick: ‘Long Live Palestine’

[ghelgheli]

I don't think now, at the time Iran is viciously defending against US imperialism, is the time to be making left-communist critiques of them.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is not some unimpeachable bastion of anti-imperialism in western asia and it is dangerous to withhold critique just because it is opposed to US hegemony. The IRI is a theocratic ethnostate pushing back against euro-american imperialism while enacting its own centuries-long imperialism on the ethnic and religious minorities that fall within and around its borders. On a weekly if not daily basis, the IRGC, the paramilitary basijis, as well as the regular police harass, arrest, and kill not only such minorities as Kurds, Balochs, and Ahwazi Arabs (don't have to look far for this), but also ethnic Persian political dissidents and gender and sexual minorities.

The history of the 1979 revolution speaks to the development and rise of Khomeinism in the 1970s as a bourgeoisie opportunism that claimed the martyrs of Iranian communists while at every turn promising the disenfranchised baazaaris the protection of their private property. The purge of the Mojahedin in the months after the revolution, the associated purge of all deemed communist, and the immediate suppression of Kurdish autonomy movements in the northwest, all form the legacy of Khomeinism. It is important to be honest about this, to be honest about the reformulation of institutional misogyny and the other ills of Pahlavi Iran under the IRI, while simultaneously recognizing that the revolution was successful in one thing: exorcising the puppeteering hands of the united states from the country. It is important not to fall into the trap of valorizing an imperial power, while understanding that the only liberatory future for the people on the plateau and surrounding regions is revolution from within and below, not external intervention. These are compatible and, indeed, complementary halves of a whole politic!

As a Tehrani, and particularly as an ethnic Persian/Iranian Azerbaijani (Iranian Azerbaijanis being subject to linguistic and cultural suppression, but nonetheless perhaps the most integrated minority), it strikes me as my responsibility to talk about this. And it is something I talk about regardless of what is going on. As an esoteric Shi'a, it especially seems like my responsibility to talk about what Khomeinism has wrought.

And all of that is to say nothing of the fact that in my post I was just critiquing left-Shi'a infatuation with Khomeinism qua ideology, with no mention of the IRI—whose relationship with Khomeinism is varied, nebulous, and I would say secondary to the three decades of theocratic nationalism that has developed since Khomeini's death.

[haveyouheardthisband]

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

Wesley's Theory • For Free? (Interlude) • King Kunta • Institutionalized • These Walls • u • Alright • For Sale? (Interlude) • Momma • Hood Politics • How Much A Dollar Cost • Complexion (A Zulu Love) • The Blacker The Berry • You Ain't Gotta Lie (Momma Said) • i • Mortal Man

Spotify ♪ YouTube

[canmking]

T u p a c

[therealmackenson10]

If you have the time please check out my latest single. Now streaming on Spotify.

Napoleon stated, “History is a lie agreed upon.”Once you do your own research, you will see that what we call history has been re-written to fit a narrative. Break free and free your mind.

[jacks-weird-world]

I bₑ ₒₙ ₘy ₛᵤᵢₜ aₙd ₜᵢₑ

ₛₕᵢₜ ₜᵢₑ

ₛₕᵢₜ ₜᵢₑ

I bₑ ₒₙ ₘy ₛᵤᵢₜ aₙd ₜᵢₑ ₛₕᵢₜ,

ₜᵢₑ ₛₕᵢₜ

Caₙ I ₛₕₒw yₒᵤ a fₑw ₜₕᵢₙgₛ?

[dudja]

Me on my first day of work ( after a long weekend: #comedy #memes #joebiden #biden #funny #meme #lol

[reckonslepoisson]

We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, Armand Hammer (2023)

We Buy Diabetic Test Strips is rather easily the most demanding record by billy woods and Elucid, either individually or as Armand Hammer – and that is an exceptionally good thing. It is the first of their records with an aesthetic that reverberates long after the work itself has finished, a hallucinatory, haunting, spectral, miragelike piece. Those qualities only heighten the existential angst and unflinching nihilism that both woods and Elucid are renowned for – and yet, in sending listeners to more severe depths than ever, the two show even clearer genius than ever before in wrangling humour (or even joy) from such depths.

Pick: ‘I Keep a Mirror in My Pocket’

[leftistfeminista]

Revolutionary hip hop inspired by Palestinian Popular Front women commanders outraged at finding their underwear and lingerie stolen as trophies and displayed like flags, but vowing to fight on fiercer.

[fivepercentgodsandearths]

Credit:“Peace Interrupted”

Sonya Massey should be Alive. I can’t imagine her emotion in those final moments when Officer Grayson aimed at her, but I tried to capture the peace and tranquility of her home and the fear, surprise, and confusion of the moment.

#SonyaMassey

[haveyouheardthisband]

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

KUTALI • VIBANDA • NYAMA • MUZUNGU • ZIGOLO • MULUNGU • JUJU • NFWITI • KUMOTO • MUKAZI

Spotify ♪ Bandcamp ♪ YouTube

[i-c-a-r-u-s]

Μάνα πες μου τι θες,

Να μη μιλάω για το κράτος, για τις εκκλησίες κι όλες τις στολές

Να μη χαθώ σ' ένα φανάρι κάπου στην Αθήνα μέσ' τις συμπλοκές

Να μη με νοιάζει αν ο δίπλα μου όντως πεινάει, έχει μέρες κακές

Να μην κρατάω στιγμές

[turbomnstr]

[cal2024elections]

Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘Hotties for Harris’ Performance

JULIA BEVERLY/GETTY IMAGES

"Now I know my ladies in the crowd love their bodies. If you want to keep loving your bodies, you know who to vote for," Meghan told the crowd.

Vice President Kamala Harris held her first rally as the presumed Democratic presidential nominee in Atlanta, Ga., on Tuesday (July 30), and popular hip-hop artist Megan Thee Stallion opened the show.