In 2008, three police officers were acquitted of the murder of Sean Bell – who they had shot dead two years prior outside a strip club in Queens, New York, as he left his bachelor party the night before he was to be married. Despite firing over 50 bullets at Bell, who was unarmed, and wounding two of his friends, the officers were deemed not guilty in his shooting death. Following the verdict, rapper The Game responded with the song 911 Is A Joke (Cop Killa) – dedicating it along with his track My Life to Bell.

In a statement ahead of the track’s release, The Game said that he was “outraged and speaking out for my generation that are afraid to speak out against police brutality and murder… I grew in Compton and had to stay silent because of the fear that was prevalent in my community, but now that I have a voice I’m speaking out.” What he found, however, was that it became difficult to find artists who were willing to speak up with him. In recently resurfaced interview footage following the release of the song, the rapper is seen crying as he describes the disheartening experience of being unable to convince people to collaborate with him on the track for fear of speaking out: “I reached out to a lot of rappers and a lot of them… I just got … excuses. Nobody wanted to stand up… We don’t have a problem putting out a mixtape and dissing each other, but when it comes to the problems that affect us like police brutality, excessive force… Nobody wants to stand up for that.” As the interview progresses, he says that he doesn’t want to be a part of the hip-hop community anymore because no one wanted to be vocal anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWYyzCpHUDs&feature=youtu.be&t=1m55s

In the time since the interview, a number of artists have spoken out, be it through statements or music, on the issues facing black people in the United States, as well as throwing their support behind the Black Lives Matter movement. From TINK, Immortal Technique, Killer Mike, Talib Kweli, Kendrick Lamar, J Cole and more, the list is ever expanding, unfortunately prompted by the ever-expanding list of victims. Rappers and industry heavyweights are throwing their voices behind the movement, even calling out each other when it comes to ignorant and misguided comments or lack of involvement.

Recently, following the release of his video for 16 Shots, which details the graphic, violent shooting death of Laquan McDonald in 2014, Vic Mensa commented on Lil Wayne distancing himself from the movement when asked to comment by a Reddit user. “I think it’s a very ignorant, selfish and isolated position to take… even someone as big as Wane is just a black man minus all of his ice and fame, and can be treated the same way.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPWXOAYlgOc

Image: Billoard

With the major success of his Broadway music Hamilton and a second mixtape well on the way (it’s looking to drop next month according to Billboard), man of many titles (actor, composer, rapper, writer) Lin-Manuel Miranda is in high demand. He’s been doing the press tours as of late, with one of his stops being Marc Maron’s acclaimed WTF podcast.

While the conversation was naturally centred on Hamilton and the success of the musical, there was a brief mention of rapper Immortal Technique (who just a short while ago gave his thoughts on Kanye’s YEEZUS collection) which has been making headlines and heads spin. While Miranda himself was undoubtedly gracious throughout the discussion and tweeted to ignore the click-bait headlines, it seemed as though the two share a less than amicable past when discussions turned their time in high-school together at around the 39-minute mark in the interview.

According to the playwright, Immortal Technique was in fact the bully of his high school who enjoyed, rather unceremoniously, throwing other kids into the garbage. . “He terrorized kids, he threw them in the garbage. I got thrown in the garbage by him… He got a part senior year [in the school play] and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m in a f–king play with the dude that scares the shit out of all my friends.”

However, Miranda was sure to preface his comments with nothing but admiration for the man his high school bully grew up to become. Long-gone are the rapper’s days of dumpster tossing and he has gone on to become an incredible social activist whose music deals with everything from classism and institutional racism to religion and imperialism. “He’s one of the most political, ideological [MCs]. He really made an incredible life for himself as a rapper… He was a really angry kid and it’s been wonderful to watch him grow up and find a political outlet for that anger.”

 

Image: Billboard

As someone who is an enormous fan of Kanye West but who holds the whole idea of ‘high fashion’ in complete and utter disdain for being so shamelessly ridiculous sometimes, comments from Peruvian-via-Harlem rapper Immortal Technique today had me chuckling and nodding my head in approval.

After premiering his Adidas line at New York Fashion Week today to what I can only imagine was some pretty sycophantic applause from the crowd (including wife Kim Kardashian, rappers Tyga and Common as well as the editor-in-chief of Vogue, Anna Wintour) Kanye might have been feeling like his latest foray into fashion was a great success, but Immortal Technique was having none of these artsy-fartsy clownshit clothes, taking to Instagram immediately to voice his thoughts.

yefashionAfter posting the above image with the caption ‘After the Death Star II was destroyed over Endor, Luke Skywalker and Kanye West opened up a new Jedi Academy’. Not content to end his verbal barbs there, Tech went on. ‘No I’m not a fashion designer. But then again, I don’t spend millions of dollars to look like an idiot’.

Kanye is going to have gravel rash after getting dragged like that. Concluding the post by getting a little bit political, Tech stated ‘If that was the case, I would be running for president as a Republican. lol.’ adding in hashtags including #TheForceAwakens and #whowearsthisshit?

I’m inclined to agree with Immortal Technique here, Kanye has these models dressed like a bunch of Tusken Raiders trying to organise a game of pick up basketball. I’m a fan of Kanye the rapper, Kanye the producer, Kanye the future president and Kanye in just about any capacity you can think of, but when it comes to fashion design he is coming up unintentionally hilariously well short of the mark.

Check out our Flashback Friday on something good Kanye has done or read more about his unintentional hilarity right here and also here.