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CounterPunch
November
9, 2002
And the Beat(ing)
Goes On...
And That's
the Way It Isn't
by DAVE MARSH
Cops in New York seized the opportunity provided
by Jam Master Jay's senseless murder to declare the dawn of a
new "hip-hop war" that allows them to put rappers under
surveillance. There is no possibility of such a war, and if there
were, the last people to be involved in it would be Run-D.M.C.,
consistent apostles of peace.
The minute it was discovered that one
of the snipers came from Jamaica, MSNBC produced a shrink to
compare the murder spree and the plot of the reggae film, The
Harder They Come. Yet no one at MSNBC has pointed out that Bush,
Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Ridge, Ashcroft and Rice crafting a
lame remake of The Magnificent Seven.
The snipers' messages contained a common
slang phrase (used by Ice-T in New Jack City, for instance),
so U.S.A. Today rushed in a pundit who "revealed" a
connection to the 5 Percent Nation, a Nation of Islam offshoot
that's influenced certain rappers. Media coverage portrays the
 5%ers as villainous thugs. In fact, the
5%ers are best known for porch step philosophizing and their
felonies probably amount to providing one another with smoke.
As Davey D (www.daveyd.com)
points out, "police departments all over the country have
been collecting and now have very detailed dossiers of rap artists
and who they're affiliated with. From New York City which actually
has a 'rap task force' to Oakland to Mountainview, California
where the police chief sits down and determines what RAP acts
are allowed and not allowed to perform" New York cops declared
the Zulu Nation, of Afrika Bambaataa fame, a "gang,"
then arrested 34 of its members for tutoring students in a Staten
Island park, suddenly declaring it illegal for more than 20 people
to gather in a public park. The "war on terror" features
accusations that suicide bombers recite 2Pac lyrics and FBI interrogation
and surveillance of hiphop activists. Yet, as Davey D also points
out, "Let's roll" came out of the mouths of DC rapper
Doug Lazy California's Chill EB long before it came out of Flight
93, but nobody is giving hip-hop credit for that. This story
stretches back to the 1989 arrests of five Harlem teenagers for
raping and beating a jogger in New York's Central Park. According
to the cops, these kids had been in the park "wilding,"
a supposed piece of rap jargon derived from Tone-Loc's "Wild
Thing," and meaning a vandalism spree. In reality, "wilding"
came only out of the mouths of cops and the media.
In reality, someone else raped and battered
the jogger; that person confessed and the DNA confirmed the confession
six months ago. The forensic evidence used to convict the kids
is unquestionably bogus. The cops coerced their confessions,
as the kids and their families said all along. The state denied
one of the police victims parole for 13 years because he refused
to deny he'd been framed.
The ongoing vilification of poor young
people and especially minority youth began so far back that even
The Birth of a Nation, another "wilding" fantasy, is
but a midterm marker of its progress. As Jimmy Breslin wrote
in Newday, "the cops, news business and prosecutors-white
to the last thought-decided to base their lives on a vocation
that is esentially vicious: the framing of the not guilty."
Meanwhile, E.R. Shipp, a black columnist
with the Daily News, argues that the convictions represent an
acceptable error because the kids must have been out there doing
_something_ bad. Shipp's words are important because they establish
that this battle isn't purely white on black. It's also privileged
on poor, a category that cuts through racial lines.
That's why Eminem has two hit albums
right now.
DeskScan
(what's playing in my office)
1. Sam
Cooke with the Soul Stirrers: The Complete Specialty Recordings
(Fantasy, 3 disc box)-Forget everything you know about Cooke
from his pop recordings. What's here is the greatest music he
ever made. Maybe ten of the 84 tracks rank with the greatest
gospel recordings ever made. Four ("That's Heaven to Me,"
"The Last Mile of the Way," "Touch the Hem of
His Garment," "Jesus Gave Me Water") rank with
the greatest records of any kind ever made. Great notes by Cooke
biographer Daniel Wolff.
2. Let
It Bleed, The Rolling Stones (ABKCO)-Greil Marcus recently
nominated "Gimme Shelter" as the greatest rock record
of the past 30 years. Certainly, this mix of dirty blues and
sexual dysfunction must be the Stones' greatest album, although
I plan to wade through all the band's reissued catalog for certainty's
sake. It'll cost less than a ticket to the show, and the music's
guaranteed to be better.
3. Dirty
South Hip-Hop Blues, Chris Thomas King (21st Century
Blues)- Southern to its bones, a sort of halfway point between
B.B. King and Outkast. Over the last four minutes, he's like
a one-man Public Enemy, if Chuck D and the Bomb Squad had hired
Catfish Collins or Eddie Hazel to do the guitar licks or, actually,
scratches.
4. Nothing to Fear, A Rough Mix by Steinski
(bootleg)
5. The
Rising, Bruce Springsteen (Sony)
6. Jerusalem,
Steve Earle (E Squared)
7. God
and Me, Marion Williams and the Stars of Faith (Collectables)-This
1963 album was the best Williams ever made. Including the great
title track, "His Hand," the group's breathless Hallelujah
chorus, plus twelve additional tracks, from who knows where 'cause
the creep who runs Collectables doesn't give enough of a shit
to say.
8. The
Lost Tapes, Nas (Columbia)
9. Revolverution
Public Enemy (Koch)
10. The
Naked Ride Home, Jackson Browne (Elektra)
11. Live
at Newport, John Lee Hooker (Vanguard)-Do you think I
can safely save at least one slot here for renewed Hooker revelations
for, say, the rest of my natural life?
12. Shootout
at the OK Chinese Restaurant, Ramsay Midwood (Vanguard)
13. When
Lightnin' Struck the Pine, Cedell Davis (Fast Horse
Recordings)
14. Louis
Armstrong and His Friends (BMG France)-In 1970, Armstrong
explains to "some of you young folks" why he believed
it is a "Wonderful World." He proves he meant it by
singing triumphant versions of "We Shall Overcome,"
"Give Peace a Chance" and, most startling and beautiful,
Pharoah Sanders' "The Creator Has a Master Plan."
15. "The Talking Sounds Just Like
Joe McCarthy Blues," Chris Buhalis (demo)- Ashcroft's response
to "Give me liberty or give me death"--"Don't
tempt me." P.O. Box 2896 Ann Arbor MI 48106 or chrisbuhalis.com.
A patriotic $5
16. The Year of the Elephant, Wadada
Leo Smith's Golden Quartet (Pi Recordings)-The most graceful,
not to say grandiloquent, of recent recordings by members of
the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Malachi Favors Maghostut's bass
and Jack DeJohnette's drumming define gravity; Smith's trumpet
and flugelhorn and Anthony Davis's piano and the various synths
define acceptance and defiance of gravity's rules. (Box 1849,
NY NY 10025)
17. Groove
Recordings, Charlie Rich (BMG UK)-Rich's most obscure
period came when he was doing jazzy blues-rock saloon singing
over countrypolitan choruses for this RCA subsidiary from 1963-1965.
Imagine Billy Sherrill orchestrating tracks produced by Sam Philips.
Damn straight it's a trainwreck but Rich still sings great.
18. Sleepless,
Peter Wolf (Artemis)
19. Bluegrass
and White Snow, Patty Loveless (Columbia advance)-It
already snowed a foot in Minnesota, so it's time. For the best
bluegrass Christmas album ever, I mean.
20. Dope
& Glory: Reefer Songs der 30er & 40er Jahre (Trikont,
Ger; 2 discs)
Dave Marsh coedits
Rock and Rap Confidential.
Marsh is the author of The
Heart of Rock and Soul: the 1001 Greatest Singles.
He can be reached at: marsh6@optonline.net
Yesterday's
Features
Bruce Jackson
Don't
Mourn, Bake!
Anthony Gancarski
Jeb
Bush: Left-Liberal?
William Evan
A Diplomatic
Strategy
How Carter and Castro Could Avert War on Iraq
William A. Cook
Blinded
by the Right
Pierre Tristam
Hypocrisy
at Camp Delta
Mayor Walid Hamad
Settlers
and Trash
Matt Siegfried
Questions
of War
Alexander Cockburn and
Jeffrey St. Clair
Nosedive:
the Democrats the Day After
New
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- Saddam's Amnesty: Could It Happen Here?
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October 26
/ 27, 2002
Michael Wolff
A Place
of Tears
Ilija Trojanow
Bali Mon Amour
Ben Tripp
Crocodile Tears
Hope Shand and Silvia Ribeiro
The Great Containment:
GM Fallout from Mexico to Zambia
M. Junaid
Alam
The Wolf Who Cried Wolf:
Charging Anti-Semitism & Extending the Iron Wall
Gavin Keeney
The Fusion Thing:
Landscape + Architecture
Adam Engel
A Good Man is Hard to Misfit
Anis Shivani
Is America Becoming Fascist?
Jason Leopold
Is Thomas White Fit to Lead the Army?
Philip Farruggio
Let Them Eat (Crumb) Cake
Josh Frank
The Grassroots of Hope
Anthony Gancarski
Concerned Citizen: episode 5
Night School
M. Shahid
Alam
The Civilizing Mission
October 25, 2002
Wayne Madsen
Pappy
Bush on Wellstone:
"Who Is This Chickenshit?"
Stuart Timmons
Harry
Hay Dead at 90:
He Paved the Way for Modern Gay Activism
Vanessa Jones
Australia
Votes Green:
Historic No Vote to US War Plans
Ben Terrall
Rep.
Tom Lantos' Big Lie
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Behind
the Drive for War:
The Escalating Bush Military Budget
Will Youmans
Israel's and Divestment
Norman Madarasz
Lula
on the Verge
October 24,
2002
Jo Freeman
How the
Christian Coalition Boosts Israel
Ben Tripp
George
W.: Caught Between Iraq and a Hard Place
Harry Browne
Ireland's Dreary Yes to Nice
Anis Shivani
A Guide
for the Perplexed:
the Major Countries of the World as Defined by the Office of
Strategic Influence
T.W. Croft
America's
New Improved War
William Hughes
A Free
Press, But for Whom?
Alan Farago
Jeb Bush and the Environment
October 23,
2002
Daniel Wolff
Pataki,
Witt and the Indian Point Nuke
Wayne Madsen
A Saudiless
Arabia
Sam Bahour
and Paul de Rooij
Abritrary
Imprisonment
Chris White
Why I Oppose
the US War on Terror:
an ex-Marine Sergeant Speaks Out
Anthony Gancarski
Back to Bali
Adam Engel
Twilight
(of the Idols) Zone
Robert Fisk
How to Shut Up Your Critics
October 22,
2002
Jack McCarthy
A Letter
to C. Hitchens
Carol Norris
This Message
Brought to You by Breast Cancer, Inc.
Joanne Mariner
Just
Say "Not Until We're Married":
Legislating Morality and Understanding HIV/AIDS Prevention
Kathleen Christison
Excuse Me?
How Israel Justifies Killing Palestinians
Linda Heard
Iraq War
Mongering:
A Game of Chess with Lives at Stake
Roger Peacock
Marketing the War on Iraq
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
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