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shouldn't be shocked at the idea of
censorship. But one problem that
people don't really raise in any
courtroom when they're dealing
with this, or any classroom,
anywhere for that matter, no one
ever talks about the consciousness
of the masses of the people that
listen to this music - music that is
deemed obscene, or music that is
labeled explicit. No one is looking
at . .. everyone is looking at the
artist, but no one looks at the
masses of people buying the
record. Because if you look at the
masses of the people buying the
record, you have to look at who
taught those people to think, and
respect what it is they're buying.
And if you point the finger at who
thought and taught those people..
. who taught those people to
respect sex and violence, you have
to point to the religious and
economic and educational system.
(It) plagues our minds everyday
and makes us respect sex and
violence. So the problem with
censorship, I think, is not with the
artist. It's with the educational
systems that teach the people to
hate themselves. It teaches the
people to buy 2 Live Crew.,.. and
mostly women. It teaches women
to respect ... disrespect. It teaches
women that if somebody calls you a
bitch, you agree. If someone calls
you a ho, you agree. You buy the
record, and agree with them.
"The only way you can be
absorbed by this business is if you
attach yourself to it. If you attach to
yourself to anything, the
attachments will absorb you. That's
the whole point of "Material
Love." If you fall in love with
material items, love sneaks right up
and snuffs you. So when you fall in
love with your industry, your
industry is gonna swallow you up. I
look at everything as it can come
and it can go. Period. I manifest
four, five, six different entities at
any given time. I'm just giving out
two right now. Lecturer, rap artist,
period. I have other talents, other
things that I can do. I'm a thinker, I
can do anything I want to do. . .
I'm absorbed in the industry. The
industry has already absorbed me,
now. But not to the point where I
forget what I'm talking about, or
forget
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There'sa good reason
your Collegiate Reps know
how students think.
Tey re students.
Bnan Cantoni/Weekend
fI--
Is Duderstadt proudly paying a 1.8 million-dollar-a-year cleaning tee to
silence student voices or Is it realy an art endowment In disguise?
When it comes to knowing what it takes to get your mend the right match for you
work done, Collegiate Reps know where you're from the affordable line of
coming from. IBM PS/2s
They can demonstrate how easily you can use To find out what an IBM
an IBM Personal System/2' to write papers and PS/2 can do for you, come in,
create graphics and spreadsheets for your classes. or call someone who thinks
They can answer your questions and help recom- just like you do.
"Art is always and everywhere the
secret confession and, at the same
time, the immortal movement of its
time"
-Karl Marx
Time magazine reports this
week that civilian protest against
Syrian President Hafez Assad's
military alliance with the United
States in "Operation Desert
Shield" is showing up "in what is
ordinarily an unthinkable sight in
the Syrian capital: anti-
government graffiti." Managua is
covered with political slogans, and
all over Latin America, graffiti has
long been used to expose mis-
information about u.s.-backed
death squads. Even closer to
home, racism and exploitation are
denounced in Detroit with graffiti
which transcends "defacing"
status, manifested in fantastic
murals and splashed slogans.
And then there's good-ol' Ann
^rbor..
Local curators speculate that a
new politically-charged art
movement is sweeping our
community. Or is it being swept
up? The medium can be any
sidewalk or University Building.
The message is, "No Guns, No
Cops, No Code". And the method
has been affectionately termed
graffiti cdaling.
Political activist and artist
Arron Hoxie is a 19-year old Ann
Arbor resident. He spent four to
five hours a day, for five days,
Kris, rapper and edutainer
chalking the campus after
students held a sit-in in the
Fleming Administration Building
to protest the deputization of
University security personnel two
weeks ago. And he sees chalking as
a means of personal expression.
"A bunch of my friends went
in the building to protest
deputization," Hoxie said. "I
wanted to get involved too. So I
decided to chalk all around
campus against deputization. I
just wanted to inform people."
Hoxie says he didn't really
consider himself a "political
activist" or an "artist" prior to the
anti-deputization movement, but
now proudly upholds both titles.
A variety of organizations
including the chalker, the
Washtenaw County Democratic
Party, the Ann Arbor Democratic
Party, the Feminist Women's
Union, the Conservative Coalition
and even the Greek System have
voiced their opposition to the
deputization of campus security.
But Hoxie, along with other
crusaders of the chalk movement,
remains convinced the "guerrilla
art" remains more effective -
and perhaps a little more
adventurous. Hoxie recalls fleeing
campus security a few times when
they spotted him chalking. He's
always managed to get away so
far. Others haven't been as lucky.
One University student was
actually arrested for the recently-
defined high crime ofrdalking.
"I'm on a lecture tour right now,
as we speak. It's just, I'm home for
these two days, and then I'm outta
here ... I did St. John's University
the night before last, and last night
I did Fashion Institute of
Technology. I'm just in New York
today ... We have a few shows
within these lecture tours. What
happens is, all of that ends around
November 21, my entire schedule
is over and I go to Jamaica for ten
days. Why? Because I'm doing
Ziggy Marley's new album. He's
flying us out to Jamaica to talk
about the album ... When I get
back, we work on Shabba Ranks,
who just signed to Epic. He's real
huge in reggae right now.
"And then after that, the HEAL
project will be out, Human
Education Against Lies project will
be out, which is a record called
Heal Yourself. Which features, uh:..
. Latifah, Lyte, Big Daddy Kane,
3rd Bass, Run-DMC, L.L., me,
Melody, Harmony, Kid Capris,
Freddy Fox. And the proceeds
from the record will pay for a book,
called Civilization Versus Technology,
a free book that will go to the high
schools and to the colleges. We're
looking to press up about sixteen
million of these books.., and uh,
that's it."
Public Enemy, Paris, Too Black
Too Strong, Professor Griff, Boogie
Down Productions, X-Clan, and many
other contemporary rap artists are
taking an extremely intransigent,
radical, even militant stance these days,
some of whom Iam sure Kris was
refering to on the back of
Edutainment. One of the bigest
problems in this method of raising
people's consciousness is obviously the
basic format. Anyone with a vague
knowledge of the '60s and an
awareness of today's trend of
commodifiedsocial consciousness can
see the paradox in using the music
business, a corporate industry, in
attempting to change the world.
"Music can change people for the
better or for the worse. But it's
really up to the artist, in terms of
what music they're gonna say and
do. Not in terms of how the music
is gonna influence the masses of
the people. Like in other words,
music isn't gonna change people.
Education will. And if the artist is
educated, then he can change the
masses of the people. And that's an
opinion, that's not a fact.
"Rap ... I think rap is the best
form of, the best tool we have to
influence changing people's
perception, the way they see
things. Mainly because rap is not
limited by bars and notes and
whatever people call real music.
Real music is limited. Rap music is
not limited like that. Even off-key
is on-key. And to all the people
who would not normally listen to
music that is on-key, 'cause they
think it's too soft, or whatever or
whatever, will listen to rap. That's
the whole generation of youth
rising up now. The whole
generation of youth can care less if
music is on-key or off-key, hip-hop,
whatever. They want something
they can relate to. And rap music is
the only thing that the masses of
people can really, really relate to."
"Where do you think rap is headed?
Do you think that rap will break the
system? Or do you think that rap will
be broken by the system?"
"I think ... I think both. I think
in the scheme of rap breaking the
system, it itself will be broken. But
it will break the system. But it will
die too. Because rap is generated by
the corruption of the system. So if
the system falls ... rap falls with it.
"The idea of censorship ... is
truly American. And I think we
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WEEKEND
November 30,1990