Why I started "blogging"

I started “blogging” a couple of years ago. “Blogging” as the practice is called, is starting like a journal through such websites as blogger.com or typepad.com. On these blogs, an individual can talk about anything. This has become really popular with political types, who use the weblogs to give their opinion of what was going on in Capitol Hill. I decided to take this and use it to talk about hip hop and politics. Hence, I named my weblog hip hop politics. The purpose of my weblog is to give a “hip hop” perspective of the news. In the world of weblogging, these days mostly anybody who starts a weblog either likes President Bush or doesn’t like him. What I wanted to give the “blogosphere” was a political hip hop perspective. What is a political hip hop perspective?

Coming from a small town in CT back in 1988, I went to Howard University, and it was much different than it was now. Brothers were listening to Public Enemy, wearing black medallions, reading “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and adopting politically radical attitudes. I was exposed to the teachings of the 5% Nation and Minister Farakahn and the Nation of Islam. The campus was very volatile back then, from the protesting of politician Lee Atwater’s seat on the Board of Trustees because he produced racist campaign ads for the Bush Administration, to the South Africa issue, to the issues in the city of Washington DC (crack and crime). It would take years really for me to learn what goes on in the House of Reps and the Senate, but now with my background in hip hop, radical politics, and an ability to see what goes on in Capitol Hill, I wanted to bring this out to the world in the form of my site.

One time I spoke to a co-worker about Common. I broke down the beef that happened between Ice Cube and Common, and how Cube did that song “Westside Slaughterhouse” and Common did that song “The Bitch In You” and put Cube in his place. Beef in hip hop has a lot in common with beef in politics. For example, there has been a running scandal in which people in the Bush Administration outted a CIA agent, and it has been causing quite a ruckus on Capital Hill. Without going into too much detail, the whole situation is an example of the product of beef between those who are against the Iraq war and those who are for the war. The husband of the CIA agent proved that one of the reasons for the war was wrong, and they made the couple suffer for stepping out of line.

Not many of us really concern ourselves with these situations. We all know, however, the beef that 50 Cent has with Dr Dre. This is what my weblog is about; breaking down and following the politics of hip hop, focusing in on the political side of hip hop and promoting music that is not really promoted on BET or VH1. I feel that most of us don’t really follow what is going on in the world of politics, but we know what 50 is saying all day everyday. If we could see the similarities in 50 Cent dropping Dr Dre if Dre works with The Game, and Bush dropping Karl Rove because he may have had something to do with the outing of a CIA agent, we could see the common drama that rappers and politicians share rather than feel like outsiders in the political arena.