Lupe Fiasco holding a Palestinian flag throughout his powerful performance of Words I Never Said in front of millions in the 6th Annual BET Hip Hop Awards warms my heart. Sami Kishawi @ Sixteen Minutes to Palestine says of Lupe's nationally televised performance :
Watch this stunning performance and smile. The Palestinian cause is a people’s movement that will continue to grow in popularity. We are mainstream and we will stay that way.
I'm smiling and Sami's right.
Word.
damn right!
the tables they be a turnin’
Outstanding Annie!!!! Great find!!!!! This is great PR!!
blame Sami Kishawi and follow him of twitter.
;)
I’ve never heard of Lupe Fiasco, but if millions have then this performance is a Good Thing.
yes, millions. the original has 7.6 million hits since april. lupe’s the show goes on has over 41 million hits.
Big shout out to Lupe!!! He is an incredible artist and incredible human being. Hip hop has an immeasurable amount of influence on our society today and touches the lives of millions Americans especially the young. The hip hop community has always supported the Palestinian cause and this sort of mainstream support from such a powerful sector of our society is tremendously helpful and inspiring.
Although I’m known as a “classical” composer, I’ve had a longstanding interest in hip-hop, particularly female artists and their music-poetry. Hip-hop was a “social network” long before my space, facebook and twitter. Many texting and sexting terms have been stolen from rappers, and the interchange is now a two-way street.
The video embedded above shows the great BET Awards performance from Lupe Fiasco and his band. Interesting to me is how his presentation and song have been [mis]represented in the media, not least by the BET TV web page. Very few articles in the hip-hop version of the MSM even mention, let alone cover the OWS and Palestinian rights angle.
First of all, even better than the youtube above is Lupe’s speech, highlighting Palestinian rights. I can’t quite read the crowd’s reactions. They appear to be mixed.
Second, Skylar Grey, who sang the icy song part to the original hit, was subbed for at the awards by Erykah Badu, who was magnificent.
Third, here are the lyrics to Words I Never Said:
Fourth, sort of reiterating, getting back to media coverage of Lupe’s presentation: Not just BET TV, but the hip-hop and other media in general seem to be slow or unwilling to cover the statement, or the thrust of the song presentation’s imagery as newsworthy. Allhiphop.com’s story, that highlighted the pro-Palestinian presentation, has been pulled. If you google for stories about the Palestinian aspects of the performance, there are no news stories at this time. Yet the band’s continuing efforts to support OWS are being covered.
“I can’t quite read the crowd’s reactions. They appear to be mixed.”
I’d say they’re overwhelmingly positive. Cheers for Palestine, Boos for Obamas veto.
I’ve been posting on Allhiphop.com ill community for years and years and years. Majority of posters on there adamantly support Palestinian rights. I find it strange that it would be pulled. I created a thread on there asking why it was pulled from the front page. I want to know why.
thank you, please report back to us
This is huge.
This is not necessarily a break-through, it’s more of a one time event.
Lupe Fiasco as an extraordinarily brave, honest and thoughtful rapper. He has something to say about Palestine and he has something to say about 9/11 and WTC7. That separates him from many most rappers, even from some of the most socially critical of them. Most of them will maybe say something about the poor and the guns and the drugs, but not about Palestine.
When in the next year, Jay-Z or Kanye West are performing, you won’t hear a peep about Palestine or 9/11, and all is back to “normal”.
justice, i don’t one can get much air play in the US by rapping about palestine but that is not the case in europe/UK. for example lowkey has over 36,000 followers on twitter and his single palestine on the album best of lowkey rose to the top of the charts in the UK and i think Obama Nation is popular too. he is a massively popular rapper and there are others like immortal technique, The Narcicyst and other rappers who introduced his songs on his albums (i am not a specialist on rappers) but do you really know that world? there are many political rappers. many.
so, even if it is difficult for these rappers to get contracts the implications of this performance at BET, which stands for Black Entertainment Television, is huge. it’s not just the world of hip hop, it is the american black culture embracing this which is very significant. they are trend setters in america in terms of social movement imho.
I know what BET stands for, thank you :-)
I’m not as much into hip hop as I was 5-10 years ago. So I won’t claim to know them all. But if you make a diagram where you cross mainstream popularity and social activism, I would say Lupe and Immortal Technique are the only two who at the same time are rather popular and pursuing true justice.
More succesful rappers stick to safer themes like the general poorness or maybe the bad corporations. Look at Mos Def for example, he’s very socially conscious. But I don’t see him or similar types applauding Lupe and announcing on BET that he wants to tour with him or something.
While rappers of high ethical integrity are far less visible in the mainstream media.
Btw, this is just how it is in all entertainment areas, not just music/rapping.
Please note that I’m very thankful for Lupe. This performance inspired me, and thanks to you and MondoWeiss for reporting on it.