Village Voice article about Russell Simmons

The Village Voice has a piece about Russell Simmons worth checking out---about his many initiatives to empower the hip-hop generation. It also includes this exchange:

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Chavis and Simmons reject the idea that one of hip-hop's biggest problems is itself. "Rap is a mirror image, and all of it is not pretty," says Chavis. "What hip-hop does is take the negative and flip the script. 'Dog' is now a term of endearment. 'Pimp' has become a term of endearment. 'Bitch' and 'ho' have become terms of endearment. It's hard to take the dictionary of the oppressor to understand the dictionary of the oppressed."

"That's bullshit," counters Bakari Kitwana, author of The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture . "I think if we can't be self-critical, then that will be the death of hip-hop. It's just backwards. Just because we all love hip-hop, we shouldn't defend something that is indefensible." Kitwana is working with other grassroots hip-hop activists on the National Hip Hop Political Convention, slated for June in Newark. Its aims are similar to HSAN's, although the group will be pushing the hip-hop generation to be more introspective, to look to themselves for solutions.

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