Shares

Source: Ebony.com

Chicago native son “Che Rhymefest” Smith wants us to think more broadly about the homicides taking place in his hometown. Here, he talks with author/activist Bakari Kitwana about the ways the gun violence crisis collides with hip-hop, corporate interests, school reform and mental health.

Bakari Kitwana: When you and I first talked about the recent surge of gun homicides in Chicago, you used the expression that this was “a national security threat.” What did you mean by that?

Rhymefest: I believe that when there’s so much systematic violence in the community, it leaves not only [the] city but also the country open to people coming in and gathering young people for dubious tasks. The first person charged with domestic terrorism was actually a Chicago gang member named Jeff Fort. According to the charges, he was working in tandem with Muammar Qaddafi and Libya to commit acts of terror in the US in the 1980s. Since the idea of a domestic terror threat started in Chicago, the fact that violence in Chicago could be seen as a national security threat I don’t think is something that should be taken lightly in 2013.

BK: How is today’s Chicago hip-hop scene overlapping with the national perception of violence and the reality of violence?

RF: It would be unfair for me to just say that it’s hip-hop. We know that all forms of media are promoting a culture of violence, but especially in the Black community hip-hop and radio and the corporations that proliferate it play a huge part in promoting images of the culture of violence as something that is acceptable, cool, or just a daily event—like waking up in the morning, washing up, and going to school. The implication is that violence is a part of your day just like that. That’s the way it’s being promoted within media and hip-hop.

BK: Last summer, you likened the imagery associated with Chicago rapper Chief Keef’s music and videos to “a bomb that is spreading.” How has your thinking about that evolved since then?

RF: The companies that distribute some of the music that we get in our community don’t care if these artists have talent. They’re giving huge signing advances, and instead of artist development, they’re putting artists back on the street and saying, “Keep doing what you were doing.” They’re not trying to help the artist get full perspective or range in their music. I ask the question, “Why are so many Chicago hip-hop artists being signed now rather than at any other time in hip-hop history? Why now, when Chicago’s the national face of violence, are young artists are getting these opportunities?” I think that this is something the artists have to ask themselves.

If these private prisons wanted to advertise, they might ask themselves, ‘what’s the best way to advertise? Wait, through our record label Interscope Records’

BK: What are some of the shifting local dynamics that national media are missing when talking about Chicago gun violence?

RF: We had [508] murders last year. The perception is that it’s all youth violence when the majority of the murders are happening to adults [from the ages of] 23 to 35-years-old. And one of the things missed as we talk about violence in Chicago is that for years we had free mental health clinics, which were being utilized by a lot of people. Half were cut from the budget and closed last year. Maybe we are asking the wrong questions. What do the adults need to combat the majority of the murders? We need mental health facilities to be reopened and not be shutdown. And we need job-training programs, and we need jobs for people to fill when they finish the training.

BK: President Obama was rightly challenged to weigh-in on the violence in Chicago. Do artists and labels have a responsibility?

RF: Well, the labels have no interest in bringing attention to the issue in order to cure it. The only thing they want to do is exploit it for how much it’s worth. The question, ‘Who has the most violent city, New Orleans, Chicago or Detroit” in part becomes a competition between artists on who is the baddest. Artists have to make independent decisions to try to combat it.  And you’re going to see that from artists like myself, Lupe, Killer Mike, Saigon. You’re not going to see that from many artists who are currently in heavy rotation on the radio because it becomes a conflict for them.

BK: You’ve said elsewhere that the artists were like spokespersons for the prison industrial complex. Explain?

RF: Interscope Records is owned by General Electric, a major corporation that has a huge financial stake in the private prison industry. If these private prisons wanted to advertise, they might ask themselves, “what’s the best way to advertise? Wait, through our record label, Interscope Records. We’re going to go find anybody in Chicago rapping about violence and give him a million dollars and let them do it.” The person that they sign to exploit violence in Chicago didn’t

Read the entire article here