Hip Hop is Bigger than the Occupation - Q&A with Lowkey at the Manchester screening 05/07/11

(For transcription see below) Two questions and answers in the Q&A with Lowkey, after the Manchester screening of 'Hip Hop is Bigger than the Occupation' at John Dalton building, Manchester Metropolitan University on Tuesday 5th July 2011.

Sorry for the few seconds of panning in the middle when I realised that Logic was somewhere in the audience - it appears the camera only captured the projector. I have also tried to make the script as easy to understand as possible by using square brackets to show what I added (either words for clarification or ellipses where I have chosen not to include certain parts of speech).

Q. "What do you suggest that [... the] post-hip-hop generation can do to involve and represent more women (51% of the [... population]) and other sexualities (that don't conform to the hyper-masculinity that hip-hop can often promote), and [...] also, do you think this is important?"

A. "Well, I think the fact is that [...] hip-hop is very much a creature of capitalism today, and we live in a very, very sexist society, without a shadow of a doubt, so hip-hop is ultimately used to maintain women as this, almost like the only measure of a woman's worth in hip-hop today is her sexuality. There is no other definition [...]. So that's a really [...] big problem that the rappers need to address, and they need to turn round and say 'These aren't our morals. This isn't what we believe. This is what you believe and this is what you want me to tell the rest of the world to believe, but we don't believe this.' So, I think that we do have an opportunity, as rappers, to address those blatent, obvious sexist and racist inequalities which are there. [...] What power structure are they supporting? Who are they working for? [...] that's how I feel about it."

Q. "[...] I love what you do, and I've been following [...] Logic's music as well. [...] I love that you work within the system of hip-hop [... and that] you understand that it serves the power [... and] reinforces sexism, capitalism and classism, [...] and [I love] how you use it [...] as an instrument of now unity and [...] liberation and emancipation. I want to [...] know now if you have got any future plans [...] working, maybe here, [...] within the Conservative government, [... or] if you have got any [...] projects coming up [...] working hands-on [... using] hip-hop with working-class kids in schools."

A. "[...] I've been lucky enough to teach in a couple of different [...] places, in a few youth clubs, in a few further education places, and in [...] a seconday school as well. [...] Yeah, as much as I have [...] as many opportunities as I have, to be useful in some way, yeah, why not?"

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Lowkey
• Nana Dankwa
• Occupation
• Palestine
• feminism
• hip hop
• Manchester
• Logic
• women
• hyper-masculinity
• hip-hop
• sexism
• inequalities
• hiphop

[88HappyBunny]

@NightstalkerKK Hi, no problem. I'm not sure if anyone else actually recorded it in its entirety though, sorry.

[NightstalkerKK]

Hey thnx for the upload, i couldint make it down my self.

Can anyone upload the full version of this interview.

Much appreciated.