Rappers Pump Up Their Activist Voices

Sporty Thievz made a name for itself last year with “No Pigeons,” a flippant response to TLC’s hit “No Scrubs.”

But now the group from Yonkers, N.Y., has more serious issues on its mind. The trio--King Kirk, Big Dubez and Marlon Brando--joins Common, De La Soul’s Posdnuos, Mos Def, Rah Digga, Talib Kweli and a host of other rappers on “Hip Hop for Respect,” a five-song CD being released Tuesday that addresses police brutality, especially the controversial deaths of Amadou Diallo and Tyisha Miller.

Diallo, a Guinean immigrant who was unarmed when he was shot at 41 times by New York police officers, was killed Feb. 4, 1999. Miller was killed in Riverside on Dec. 28, 1999, after being shot 12 times by police.

“One Four Love Part 1,” the first single from “Hip Hop for Respect,” features short verses bemoaning the effects of police brutality. The song’s quick-moving video is receiving frequent play on BET.

What about its potential for radio exposure?

“We would play a song like this in the afternoon drive and in the evening,” says Dorsey Fuller, music director of L.A.’s 92.3 the Beat (KKBT-FM). “Will it be commercially viable and a hit from a radio perspective? I’d have to say no. This record is done in the vein of noncommercial hip-hop, but as a radio station that plays the negative side of things, we also have to expose the positive side of things. And we’re going to do that.”

Rappers have long voiced their disillusionment with law enforcement, most notably in N.W.A’s “F--- Tha Police” in 1989. Still, the “Respect” project sets a precedent of sorts for all-star hip-hop collaborations. Although it is not the first time a number of high-profile rappers have united, it marks the first time rappers have come together to specifically address the issue of police brutality.

“Everybody knows what the situation is with police,” says Sporty Thievz’s Kirk. “It was realer than we thought. [This song] was something that needed to happen. It was beyond Diallo. It’s not that someone just got shot. This police brutality has been going on. We had to let people know. Now that we’ve got the song done, people are looking at it from a bigger perspective.

“Talib Kweli says that artists are not the ones who are aware, they’re simply the ones who bring issues into focus. There are plenty of people in the hip-hop generation who are politically active. There are kids in the streets and the colleges doing it, but they’re not represented in the mass media. It’s not that they’re not there.”

A decade ago, rap seem poised to be a politically charged medium. In 1989, the Stop the Violence Movement released “Self-Destruction,” a gold single in which KRS-One and Public Enemy urged listeners to curb violent behavior. The following year, the West Coast Rap All Stars delivered “We’re All in the Same Gang,” a cut calling for unity that featured Eazy-E and MC Hammer.

But in the late 1990s and for the first part of this year, political commentary has been scarce in commercially successful rap. Contemporary political rappers such as Common and Dead Prez tend to remain critically acclaimed but overlooked in the marketplace.

Many of these artists say their impact on listeners is immense, despite their limited sales.

“In some ways, we are the mothers and the fathers of the community,” Common says. “Entertainment always helps influence the children. It is our duty at times to spread the message when you’re aware of it. We have the knowledge, so we have to spread it throughout the community.”

Even though rappers performed the new “One Four Love Part 1,” it was jazz musician Weldon Irvine who suggested to Mos Def the idea of recording a song addressing police brutality. Weldon, who has recorded with everyone from Nina Simone to A Tribe Called Quest, felt that hip-hop artists would be able to make a positive statement with such a recording.

Mos Def and Talib Kweli, who record collectively as Black Star, decided to execute the idea during a recording session for Mos Def’s “Black on Both Sides” album. To rally support for the project, Mos Def wrote an open letter to the hip-hop community last spring, urging artists to join him in speaking out against injustices.

Proceeds from “Hip Hop for Respect,” which is being released by Rawkus Records, a joint venture with EMI-owned Priority Records, will go to the Hip Hop for Respect Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to encourage members of the entertainment industry to undertake community activities.

After maintaining a relatively low political profile in the last several years, hip-hoppers are taking a more active role in all manner of philanthropic endeavors. Mos Def, the Pharcyde and Del tha Funkee Homosapien were among the artists who participated in the Boarding for Breast Cancer, a snowboard and music festival held in Northern California last weekend.The event’s goal is to increase breast cancer awareness. Common recently launched his Common Ground nonprofit organization, which helps schools buy computers, while the Beastie Boys have lobbied for the liberation of Tibet for several years.

“A lot of people’s agendas weren’t necessarily about doing things that were active in the community,” Common says. “All it takes is one person with power and respect to do it.”

Adds Kirk: “We’re making the youth realize that we can come together and rap about something more than our skills. Sometimes we’ve got to stop and address the issues.”