Who Stole the Soul?

Description

I was a 7-year-old Chicago kid when Hip Hop was born in the Bronx, NY projects. It had been around for some years getting its legs under it before I got a taste of it around junior high school. Being from Chicago, my foundation is house music, but when I heard the Ultramagnetic MCs, I was sold. Hip Hop is a part of my being, I was raised on it, and it has been the soundtrack for some of the best moments of my life. Hip Hop married lyricism, djing, graffiti art, breakdancing, and later, Knowledge of Self — every component equally as essential to the vibe. Over the years, as with other music forms created by African people, we’ve witnessed Hip Hop being compromised, co-opted, and commercialized. It has been whittled down gradually to something that is unrecognizable to its beginnings. The profit motive has crept in along with overarching agendas that anchor Black people to the bottom rung of the capitalist ladder. One of our great ancestors, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, put it best: ‘music is the weapon.’ Hip Hop was OUR weapon.