“And
Mister President is a natural ass, he out treating niggaz worse than
they treat the trash..And if you poor, you black, I laugh and laugh,
you better off on crack, dead or in jail, or with a gun in Iraq.”— Mos Def
On
August 31 MTV’s Video Music Awards commenced at New York’s Radio City
Music Hall. By 10 p.m. television viewers were still waiting for the
excitement of quintessential American pop-culture spontaneity circa
2006. You know, those most uplifting of episodes, like the time Britney
Spears made-out with Madonna thus making international headlines. Or
when rapper Lil Kim wore a dress showing cleavage, or one of the many
times Chris Rock commented on Jennifer Lopez’s body as if it were a
choice cut of meat in a butcher shop.
So it was an incident
of actual social and cultural import-not to mention courage and
heroism-when Brooklyn ambassador to the Universe, Mos Def, rolled up
the Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan’s midtown on a flatbed truck.
Days after the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which was
fresh on the minds of millions of Americans, Mos Def staged a guerrilla
performance of “Katrina Clap” (itself a remix of New Orleans” rapper
Juvenile’s “Nolia Clap”). Recorded immediately after the Hurricane last
year, at the beginning Mos Def dedicates “Katrina Clap” to “the streets affected by the storm called America.”
He began to perform the song in
front of hundreds of MTV fans lined up on the sidewalk. Barely a minute
into his performance the police surrounded the truck, and one officer
surged into Mos Def. Surrounded by a swarm of police officers Mos Def
was arrested for, get this, performing without a sound permit!! He
wasn’t run through the system and only received a summons, well after
his performance was attacked and sabotaged, an act clearly meant for
public humiliation and stringent intimidation. Compared to the crimes
committed against the people by this government all this would have
been unjust done to anyone, but let it be emphasized that the artist
arrested is a well-respected award-winning Hollywood actor.
By
virtue of the fact that this recent action was staged outside an event
with hundreds of prominent artists it is clear that Mos Def is not only
telling “the Boss he shouldn’t be the Boss anymore” but also
challenging others with voices of prominence. Mos Def had some words
for Bono (singer for rock & roll supergroup U2) as well: “[Katrina
is] enough to make you holler out, like where the fuck is Sir Bono and
his famous friends now? Don’t get it twisted man I dig U2, but if you
ain’t about the ghetto then fuck you too!”
Many an artist
have made work of late that, indirect or overt, challenge the whole
direction society has been going and, in particular, call out the Bush
Administration. In the time it took me to write the previous two
sentences I thought of over 20 such bands and artists. We need more and
more artists stepping out like this, and we need to get their back when
they come under attack, all while connecting this up with the movement
organizing for October 5, The World Can’t Wait Drive Out The Bush Regime.
So
hats off to Mos Def for his brave and defiant move at the Video Music
Awards. It is not simply that Mos Def recorded and performed his
“Katrina Clap” remix. It is the fact that he did something heroic and
risky, something which broke the mold for its element of surprise and
truthfulness and therefore caught the attention of the people and the
authorities.
There is, in actuality, a large reservoir of
people wanting and waiting to do something to go up against the Bush
Regime. That mass of people needs to hear from the artists, and those
artists need to hear from the multitudes of people that the time is
yesterday for routine as usual. This must happen now.
You
can watch the incident of Mos Def being arrested on the internet at
youtube.com, where you can also watch the music video for “Katrina Clap” (type in “Mos Def Katrina”).