each bar the sky is what once walked the
soil we exist beyond the realms of
what’s considered realistic we are like
from a future galaxy exploding in the
illusion of time black lives are matter
of fact just as a seed is a seed on the
tree of life what did you get a chance
to learn can you read or write did it
bear rotten fruit did you get a bite
some study Isaac Newton we survived from
in the new world before the prison’s
floated the top endless warrants you
heard fathers and fathers corners and
messages through coated ribbon children
born unification ceremonies and
encouraging reminder of the heart
beating close against the breastplate
rate increased by imposition and
conquests most ripe picking from broken
branches to dance on a deck of death and
death precious cargo stole stole but you
can’t erase soul a great storm cast down
upon our village pillaged and set ablaze
for days pulling the darkest clouds
upwards from the ground to cover the
sun’s radiance in the new land drum
taking yet replaced in rum barrel and
stretched goatskin we say new songs
between low and weight in water the
sambas are sons of the congo and angola
the blue is a daughter of molly
gospel of hybrid developing at a court
in Freetown Sierra Leone and the new
land seized from the indigenous here we
are
[Music]
we danced an imprint into Earth feel the
tears spilling into the ocean for the
one-way ride chain naked in the depths
of beasts belly impregnating the ship
giving birth to economic prosperity for
empires outside found by wrist and ankle
crimson mixing with the planks the first
dance floors that brought forth and so
on and so what was the sound made by
those who chose to sing and join them
that did not survive on the other side
their life force splashing percussive
against the shores of all nations and
the waves made by their faces browse
soaked in spirit
the dust kicked up the clasp of hands
the songs they say every wing into
[Music]
take a moment and think back to the most
important moments in your life how did
it look how did it feel and most
importantly how did it sound it is my
belief that a song can do so much to
bridge gaps and divide because we are a
song if you think of music as an
opportunity for bringing together people
of all walks of life through art through
dance through creative writing what are
the possibilities for this culture what
can be developed through our differences
to help bring us closer to one another
whether it’s the generation gap sexual
identity or preference religious
affiliation geographical lines or other
forms of other ring music is that one
thing that allows us to have a
conversation across the world because we
are all connected by the beating of our
heart as we know the heart is an
instrument the heart is a drum if we
look back and we go back through this
idea of diaspora we can understand how
we have gotten to the place that we are
at today and how we are all connected
through the heartbeat and just as people
have been transferred throughout the
world through many different events of
which we will speak of we have also been
connected by the genres and by the
people that have stepped forth before us
culture provides us an opportunity to
connect
hip-hop culture is the culmination of
all of our differences being played at
once hip-hop is another step in the
Diaspora of African music and the
Diaspora of African people so to go
forward we have to look back and see
where how we got to our current position
diaspora is spreading out of one from
their origin the spreading of the seed
from a tree and if we can understand how
hip-hop is functional we can understand
ourselves though Africa is not
monolithic we understand that in African
society in West African society in
particular that music is part of
everyday life it is not something just
to be bought and sold music is in your
cooking music is in your cleaning music
is in your hurting or when you plant
seeds music is in the birthing of our
children and when our elders pass on so
what does it mean to have a song within
ourselves what does it mean when we can
understand our heartbeat and connect
through that heart a few years ago I put
out a project called Pangea with the
producer by the name of big cats and if
anybody understands the Pangaea theory
and many scientists have hypothesized
that 300 million years ago the entire
planet was one supercontinent and on the
supercontinent you had one large mass
and through a series of violent events
each of the continents began to divide
so what you’ll see is that through these
violent events that include ice ages the
receding of the waters comets hitting
the earth plate tectonic shifts and
volcanoes that these violent events
caused the separation by looking at the
shores of all of these continents you
will find similarities in the rock
formation in the plant life in the
marine life in the animal life just the
same we have separated as people we all
come from a similar in same origin and
through a series of violent events we
have separated whether it be war famine
sexual violence the idea of religion of
picking one idea over another or this
millimeter of skin so what happens when
we start to see ourselves as one human
race what are the possibilities when we
reconnect to each other hip hop as a
culture is fully integrated it is the
words that you say it is the music that
you play the words I say as an MC or a
master of ceremonies or a spoken word
poet it is the music through as a DJ or
a producer it is the movement of your
body as a hip-hop dancer or breakdancer
b-boy a b-girl it is your visual
representation whether you are painting
a mural on the wall or your painting on
a train so that it could travel
throughout the world and show people
your importance in other places my
experience as a hip-hop artists started
at the age of 14 growing up in North
Minneapolis at a time when North
Minneapolis was given the title murder
apolis I knew that to be a title but I
didn’t see it in my home I didn’t see it
in my friends I didn’t see it in my
neighbors and I wondered how this box it
so I had a choice there are two things
that I could do I could stay and believe
that whatever this stereotype or idea
about me was was to be true or i could
venture out and start to speak for my
I would sit on my porch and I’ll play
this boombox we still call boom boxes
the speaker neither the stereo system so
predecessor to the ipod okay so i will
play this boombox on my porch and there
are two main things i would do in the
summer so i’ll play the music on my
porch or ihop on this little ugly
scooter ahead and I ride as far as I
could before it got dark and I would
come back home now there’s two things
that I was doing it subconsciously I
didn’t know it until later in life I was
one riding as far as I possibly could to
see the possibilities that existed
outside of my neighborhood and to I was
listening to other people’s
possibilities I was able to transplant
myself to other places in the world one
minute I would be in staten island with
wu-tang clan in the next minute i would
be in Compton with NWA and then I would
be in Chicago with twister common and
then I would be in houston with UGK and
all of these look him up the good so I
got to travel to all these places
outside of my home and ice and I felt my
home I could go to Paris and hear people
like MC solaar speaking in French and
not have any idea what they were saying
but I knew I could feel them so what
happens when we start to feel and not
just pay attention to what’s on the
surface throughout my life I’ve been
able to travel to so many places across
the world and interact with so many
beautiful people many look exactly well
not exactly like me many look like me by
skin definition many look totally
different by skin definition many speak
the same language others do not but what
I would happen is in all of these
different places i was able to interact
with people and big groups
like right now today I was able to have
the sum total of my life experiences
pulled together and put on a platter for
people to digest and I could get
response in real time how am i doing you
make me feel better about myself so as a
performer you’re able to interact with
diverse audiences you’re able to do so
much more than then just writing
something and sending it out into the
world if I’m able to reach out to you
and interact with you and touch you I
can prove that I’m real I can prove that
I exist and so many of young so many
young people just want to prove that
they exist I’m going to show you
something as a teacher I’ve been able to
work with young people from across the
world I’m the department head of the
first fully accredited hip-hop Studies
program at mcnally smith college of
music
and I’ve been able to work with kids
from India to Finland to Connecticut
Alabama all across the united states all
across the world and they all come with
a similar story nobody believes that I
can do this thank you nobody believes
that I can tell my story in my own voice
and for it to be believed and for it to
be valid and respected so here’s an
so that was ill win in theory so ill
ones from Dayton Ohio and theories from
Indiana and to some people that’s just a
silly hamburger helper commercial right
and it is right we had a relationship
between general mills and the hamburger
helper team and mcnally smith College of
Music where we worked over two semesters
to develop original work and this
original work got released on April
fools day of this year that music became
the number one trending topic on Twitter
it was beach worldwide it was featured
on The Today Show in Time magazine it
was called one of the biggest viral ad
campaigns of 2016 it it received to
Cannes Lions silver awards in France and
helped propel these artists to the next
Plateau in their life with 10 million
so imagine what we could sell if we had
support right so think of what do you
want sold what kind of messages do you
want to go throughout the world and how
do you carry those messages where people
actually listen to you I’ve been able to
travel to so many beautiful places and
meet so many beautiful people as a
diplomat as a as someone that is an
ambassador of hip hop as an art form
working in places like Kenema in
Freetown Sierra Leone with young artists
who are all going through the same thing
wanting to be heard and wanted to be
respected and being able to develop
their own work and display it back for
their community and finally for them is
to hear you’re really good I never knew
you were that good and for them to be
able to feed themselves from their art
to go into northern gulu in uganda and
working with heels a health education
literacy and sports program with former
child soldiers that have escaped the
Lord’s Resistance Army who’s the who’s
main focus was to be educated and to
play and when they got out of the lra
what did they want to play the most hip
hop so we started a program with break
dance project Uganda that still exists
for six years now with young people
coming out of civil war and having
and right in our own backyard being able
to go to places like Winona st. cloud
and work with young people who don’t
feel like anybody cares and they’re
bored to death and when you’re bored
what do you do when you’re bored there’s
so many options so ask yourself how do
you connect people to doing what they
already can do and what they want to do
rather than forcing them into being
someone that they’re not today I’m able
to use my platform as a vice president
of so tools entertainment multimedia
company we do a lot of interactive work
through multimedia whether it’s
releasing projects or film and we’re
able to connect with people across the
world through this idea of diplomacy
traditionally as you can see diplomacy
is seen as the work of maintaining good
relationships between nations and that’s
usually done through the diplomats that
come from the governments of a nation
and if anybody knows about the United
States relationship with the rest of the
world sometimes we’re not always invited
so what would happen if we sent people
that had a relationship through the
heart this idea called track to
diplomacy in a book called foreign
policy according to Freud track to
diplomacy refers to non-governmental
people coming together to take our loves
and our passions and actually build
based on them based on our our belief in
music and dance in art what can happen
if I shared a song with you and a dance
with you and I spoke my truth to you no
matter how ugly it was or how beautiful
but as long as it was true
would you believe me would you break
bread with me we are in this place in a
very critical moment in history I don’t
know if anybody’s been paying attention
to the news like you have a choice we’re
at this critical moment where I’ve never
felt such divisive pneus such division
in my entire life and it’s already hard
enough just being me what are we going
to do to make sure that we reconnect
with our heart what are we going to do
to make sure that we can share a song we
can share a dance and we can make new
memories for our children to carry on
into the future thank you [Applause]