My personal notes on the Hiphop Summit …

A table fulla mixed emotions circled within myself on the tail end of the Hip Hop Summit. First of all when asked about it my answers are definitely upbeat and positive. In response to the question will it work? My answer is that they always do, especially in the case of emergency. The hip hop nation is in a position to recognize the importance of governing itself, before the UNITED SNAKKKES government steps in with censorship rules. Before, in 1997, I was part of another Summit, upon the aftermath of the killings of BIGGIE SMALLS and TUPAC just six months prior, where MINISTER FARRAKHAN gathered all upon his CHICAGO home and NATION OF ISLAM headquarters. It was a recognized gathering amongst hip hop giants. SNOOP, RUSSELL, SUGE, JT THE BIGGA FIGGA, etc… what I remember the most is that ICE CUBE rented a charter jet from a movie set to get there to settle a supposed 3000 mile East-West beef with FAT JOE who drove 1000 miles to CHI-TOWN. That Summit was to save lives and it worked, although MINISTER FARRAKHAN was given very little credit for gluing the situation. This gathering was quite different and the MINISTER yet again played a key role in the gathering but in the days leading to, and after, his importance was downplayed and even dissed. Which leads me to various speculation on the board.

In 1980 I was introduced to MINISTER FARRAKHAN by PROFESSOR GRIFF, who by then had been two years past his DJ days with HANK SHOCKLEE’S SPECTRUM CITY. Griff used to bring records by occasionally and one record he brought by was MINISTER FARRAKHAN’s address to the JACK THE RAPPER convention in 1979. In that speech he directly dealt with the co-opting of BLACK RADIO, THE DJs, RECORD COMPANIES and ARTISTS for their use of the musical artform and media for manipulating the black community into a ‘take from not give back’ mentality. The one-sided exploitive use of mass communication to influence the masses was nothing new, but now it was done by elitist thinking black folks themselves who thought of themselves as super-negros. Above the public who gained their profits by categorization of calling THE MASSES…THEM ASSES. The statements, so profound 20 years ago, can be applied to right now. I sampled excerpts of that JACK THE RAPPER speech on ‘TERMINATOR X TO THE EDGE OF PANIC,’ which is on PE’s NATION album.

As I flash forward to the speech, which many of you by now have read, heard or heard details from, I recall, as I had the privilege of sitting two seats from the MINISTER with QUEEN LATIFAH betwixt us, seeing the faces of the stellar audience witnessing the direct address. As I looked to my right in the fully packed NEW YORK HILTON main ballroom I saw LL COOL J, AFRIKA BAMBAATAA, CRAZY LEGS, REDMAN and FAT JOE in one glance. Another glance to the left picked up PUFFY, DAMON DASH, SISTER SOULJAH and GRANDMASTER FLASH in another. Not to mention the MANNINING MARABLES, TRICIA ROSES, BOB LAWS and CORNEL WESTS within the mix with a gang of television cameras from the rear. From the beginning, if there was any skeptical faces in the audience, they were scraped off with the look of undeniable clarity by the end. In turn I realized that this was the first time that many cats heard the MINISTER speak, and it was also the first time they heard him directly deal with a situation that is truly connected to everyone’s daily way of life. Many of them might’ve heard him before on tapes or even in person dealing with other issues, but this was frighteningly direct.

The big point that MINISTER FARRAKHAN addressed to the hip hop nation was now that the rap-world is considered leaders of the youth around the planet, would it assume the same failings of the prior leadership that they’ve tuned out and accused distant of it’s concerns. Or in other words, as he put it ‘you’ve become fat and wealthy off the people as leaders, now what are you going to do to feed back the people who’ve fed you? With that in mind I told my hip hop brethren that we were fortunate to ‘borrow’ the minister for a few days of his important time. I told cats don’t get it twisted, although hip hop is large, it’s only a part of real life, and having seen the minister deal with heads of state and presidents of other lands about economies and policies, the least we could do is take his words with weight and govern ourselves.

Which brings me to the pessimistic side of things. I give RUSSELL SIMMONS props for using his star power to get everybody to the same city, and even the same room. It was pivotal and essential. In talking with RUSSELL I evidently saw a concern in protecting, and yet bettering, a situation needing his leadership. After all, Russell’s involvement harks all the way back to 1979, as far back as hip hop recorded music as KURTIS BLOW’s manager, thus I’ve always deferred that power to him because of his seniority. The 100 or so million that he sold DEF JAM to UNIVERSAL was deserved to him because of his contributions. However, as far as the culture is concerned, it is rather limited to think that because 5 corporations opened their wallets to a few, that they should think that they OWN what has come out of the people. They own record masters, NOT the culture.

Thus, I was concerned with the omission of CONRAD MUHAMMAD and ROSA CLEMENTE. At first RUSSELL refused to bend his policy on not letting them in, as well as PETER NOEL, who I heard never made it inside to the minister’s speech. But me, POP DIESEL and JAMES BOMB of PE made headway getting MINISTER CONRAD into the room and he was able to hear the minister address him by name as well. Before that, the Summit seemed to address the issues protecting only the big business of hip hop, not the little man, the small entrepreneurs of hip hop who’ve been the foundation of the rap game. Yes, while the Summit addressed the protection and betterment of the hip hop world at the top of the food chain there were small black record companies from the black communities of CHICAGO, DETROIT, PHILLY and DC sitting in the lobby wondering why THEY were locked out of the Summit and STILL couldn’t get their records played on the same so-called ‘urban’ radio stations who broadcast to the same community they LIVE in…

It’s been a minute and now that www.slamjamz.com is up its now full tilt, especially after September. The system is the issue so even if you don’t like the jams, be prepared for some surprises on the sonic front. The biggest aspect of creating this supersite is how it fits into our internetworks. If you go to the info area of the label site you’ll get another commentary about my driven passion in this. This platform allows myself, along with others within this cipher, to really expound upon our creativity. The mp3 is today’s 45...and I dig the retro comparison.

Again, Allen Iverson’s heart has brought me closer to sport, rumble young man rumble. No, I don’t think he was a sore loser when he chose to not do any post series interviews. I just think he hated the fact of LOSING. It’s past the money with him…I can dig it…

Destiny’s Child getting booed by a crowd of 40 something, jockstrap lovin, white-males in Philly. What did the girl’s management expect? A sporting event is saturated with HOOTERS mentality.

I can’t front, the fish options at HOOTERS are good, I don’t see the comparison to a strip club like some folks say. Yeah, the waitresses are dressed minimal but it’s nothing like the nude waitresses WALTER CRONKITE talked of in the restaurants in 1930’s KANSAS CITY. He told me that the wide open jazz town was an oasis for mid-western folk during the depression. And he dug it...

Just participated in this VH1 project headed by MR. QUINCY JONES himself; ‘SAY IT LOUD, THE HISTORY OF BLACK MUSIC.’ I was invited, along with Ms. ATILLAH SHABAZZ to discuss the power of the music. It’s a five part series airing in October, always glad to be a part of a project like that.

Co-wrote a piece about THE ROOTS for TIME MAGAZINE and some folks might’ve thought I was dissing the mighty WU-TANG CLAN in comparing the two. Just the opposite, I was really saying that WU is still the potentially most powerful force in hip hop, but THE ROOTS actually make the effort of touring and watering their hiphop seeds with intense performances. Hopefully, as I’ve suggested to RZA, maybe the entire WU can wreck the world for a full year on the road…but we’ll see. They have to stick together and really meet all their fans across the globe.

We over here at Public Enemy just finished playing at the one year anniversary of the EXPERIENCE MUSIC PROJECT in SEATTLE. It was one of the handful of gigs we’ll play this year. Always have a great time running into my guys who are scattered across 6 different parts of the country. Flav is doin well as evidenced when he played drums and I did NIGHT OF THE LIVING BASEHEAD lyrics over them. GRIFF hooked up with 3 players JOE HAYDEN, DUMINI DEPORA and KEN SCOTT all outta DETROIT known as the 7th OCTAVE and did a scorching version of ‘WHAT GOOD IS A BOMB?’ it can also be found on www.7thoctave.com as well as www.slamjamz.com next week.

Speaking of www.slamjamz.com this was the story of the label debut covered by Colin Devinish for ROLLING STONE;

P.E. Let Fans Write Music

Chuck D. will collaborate with public on new Public Enemy album

Public Enemy will take the next step into the digital music age by posting re-recorded versions of songs, such as "Public Enemy #1," "Arizona" and "Shut 'Em Down" on rapper Chuck D.'s new Web site/record label SlamJamz.com and asking fans to write new music for the tracks. A longtime, outspoken proponent of online platforms and technology such as Napster and MP3s, Chuck D. says the technology developed in recent years has made it possible for artists to work in new ways.

"I think we're living in interactive times, and technology has made it more accessible to create more creators," he says. "It's not as difficult to make a record as it was maybe fifteen years ago, when you had to record in a professional studio. Now there's a thin line between the listener and the creator, and we're trying erase that line. We like to look at the public not solely as consumers, but also as participants, possibly even as future partners."

Public Enemy will post one song a week beginning immediately and encourage potential songwriters to pursue all styles of music -- from electronica to bluegrass to jazz to metal. Potential songwriters will be instructed to record new versions of the song, download the vocals from SlamJamz onto the track and upload the completed piece of music onto the SlamJamz site. Public Enemy will listen to the submitted versions of the songs, and the ones picked will make it onto a new P.E. album scheduled for release later this year. Songwriters who have their tracks selected will retain co-ownership rights of the songs and earn royalties on the sale of each copy.

Chuck D. says releasing the new Public Enemy album in this way reflects his philosophy for running his online label: "I think online situations have to be super niche-oriented and micro-focused. We need to choose what we deliver carefully and what we should release online, offline and/or both.

"SlamJamz.com releases will be online first, with offline distribution being secondary," he continues. "Online distribution allows us to be far more flexible than offline. The beauty of a company like SlamJamz is that it will serve as an MP3 singles label in much the same way as the record labels of the Sixties, when songs could be cut and released in days."

Not surprisingly, the new material he's writing takes advantage of the new platform by centering around what's happening in the here and now. "I'm writing things that are very current and very reflective of the moment," he says, "which is impossible to do within the slow major label system. With the MP3 format, I am able to write about something that happened yesterday and give it to the public tomorrow."

Although the primary emphasis of SlamJamz will be online music, Chuck D. said the new Public Enemy record and some future releases will be available in traditional outlets. "We're planning to distribute only ten to fifteen percent of SlamJamz releases traditionally, but we will do whatever is best for the specific project. We wouldn't be opposed to using 100 different distribution companies.

In other P.E. news, the group plans to release a live DVD of an October 19, 1999 show at the House of Blues in Hollywood on September 11th."

COLIN DEVENISH (July 13, 2001)

Right now I’m in LONDON where it’s a dual function one. Filmmaker JON MARC SANDIFER is debuting a film called ‘KNOWING RICHARD BLACK’ a flick about a sister from WEST AFRICA who has never before had the experience of dating a black man (it sounds crazy but it’s a true story shot ‘reality style’). JON MARC calls on four of his friends to try to hook up the blind date. It’s entertaining indeed and showcased in front of 150 peeps in SOUTH LONDON as a part of the BRITISH BLACK FILMMAKERS. Professor Griff is scoring and soundtracking the film... which will be a major part of the BLACK BRITISH FILMFEST THIS September 2001.

Then we are playing two gigs, one at the ESSENTIAL FESTIVAL on Saturday and heading to SPAIN the next day, then back. I’ll give yall feedback next week. Now that slam is finished expect to catch me online more notifying changes we’re about to put down...

Mistachuck@rapstati on.com