I just attended a talk led by David Muhammad, and am now wondering how “edited” the above interview was.  The gentleman who spoke tonight was rambling, bordering on incoherent.  At one point in a discussion on the role of black leaders on college campuses he held up pictures that he insisted proved that martians (yep, from Mars) inspired the sphinx and taught egyptians to build wooden helicopters!  I wish I could say I was kidding. 
I could imagine that something as thoughtful as the interview on this website could be pieced together from his ramblings, but only with careful editing bordering on fiction writing.  So again, I would be interested to hear a reply or see a discussion concerning the editing process employed on this site.

hiphop,the music I adored as a youth,has unfortunately become a tool of the libcoms(liberal/communists)its purpose is to destroy the youth through self-destruction,and drive them to the point where they think blind rebeliousness to everything orderly and good is an honorable thing,against the “authority”.more brainwashing…a shame that such a beautiful artform has been hijacked,showing all Black males as gangsters and pimps,drunk off “petron”,high on E,and fucking all their"biatches"further degrading women.how sad it is.

Pretty much nothing seems important. Pretty much nothing noteworthy happening these days, but such is life. Not much on my mind lately. I’ve basically been doing nothing. I just don’t have anything to say lately. I’ve just been letting everything happen without me these days.
breast feeding
hidden camera
http://funny.outsos.info/fetish.html

Your piece is quit interesting though, suffering in the prison of another country for a piece is work is still questionable. i believe nigeria is our mother land which no one can deny that fact. you are a hero in the eyes of the world and i believe Nigerians are proude of you, It is very necessary that one is above human’s destruction in a way of receiving the DIVINE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LIVING PERFECT MASTER (SATGURU MAHARAJ JI) WHICH WILL TAKE YOU AWAY FROM EVERY PROBLEM IN THE PRESENT AND FUTURE. As a native of the land our ancestors always protect his children from every form of danger and i must to say here that it is not only that you are imprison for the piece of the work published but always for racial,political,social and economic reason but with Divine knowleedge one is free forever.

I am from the Eastern part of Nigeria and experienced the same too during the Abacha Coup and recieving the Divine Knowledge today is a total freedom. As a champion you are in the eyes of the world you needed a guide and protection of the real creator.

I would want to know more about you and don’t hestate to ask me any question.

Thanks
premie Zereuwa
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Sent: 2006 08 08

Dearest David,

ITS ABSOLUTELY INSPUTABLE THAT THE BLACKS ARE HIGHLY BEEN REGARDED AS NOT PART OF THIS WORLD BUT UNKNOW TO ANYONE THAT “BLACK IS THE FOUNDATION OF ALL CREATION” AND FOR SOMEONE SUGGESTING THE TERMINATION OF UNBORN BABY’S PREGNACY IS SO EVIL AND PART OF THE HATREDNESS WE ARE TALKING ABOUT, AS ONE OF THE CONTRIBUTOR QUOTED AS AN ACT OF REDUCING THE CRIME. AS THE GODMAN (SATGURU MAHARAJ JI) THE LIVING PERFECT MASTER OF THIS TIME,THAT HAS COME TO SAVE MAN FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT, MAN IS NOT MEANT TO DIE AS IT WAS AT THE BEGGINING…( THE TIME OF OUR ANCESTORS) BUT TODAY RELIGION HAS TURN EVERYTHING UPSIDE DOWN MAKING US TO BELIEVE THAT IS THE ONLY WAY OUT. I REVIEW LIGHT (DIVINE KNOWLEDGE) THAT MAKES ONE IMORTAL AND GIVE 100% GUARANTEED SAFETY ON LAND,SEA AND AIR. YOU SO MUCH INSPIRED ME AND I WOULD WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT YOU IN DETAILS AND FEEL FREE TO ASK ME ANY QUESTION.

THANKS
SATGURU MAHARAJ JI
LIVING PERFECT MASTER

(please add this to my last post)

As to what’s different about music today - 3 things: 1) Headphones - most parents are unaware of what their children are listening to.  My mom came in my room and took my Prince record. 2) Crack - Half of the kids I work with are missing at least 1 parent due to drug use or trafficking 3)The Prison Industrial Complex - when Black teenagers engage in adolescent antics of hypheeism they don’t get a ride home from the police or a call to their parent, they get a criminal record.  Finally, anyone who thinks ecstasy is a throwback to the 60’s summer of love hasn’t purchased it in an urban setting where it is rarely if ever pure MDMA.

Thank you for taking a risk and publishing this excellent article.  I had never heard of truthdig.com before but I know the life-changing work of David Muhammad and have seen very few media outlets that have been willing to tackle this heavy subject in such a thorough way.  Hat’s off to you truthdig.com you’ve won my readership.

My only objection to Mr. Muhammad’s interview is that an “explosion” of ecstasy use in young black men is a bad thing. From my own experience and those others have shared with me, ecstasy may well be the best thing for young black men and women. It is counter-intuitive to link ecstasy with any type of violence, they simply don’t mesh. A gangsta on ecstasy is much more likely to make sweet love to his gun than he is to shoot anyone with it! It’s effects are excitement, euphoria, a sense of well-being and connectedness to the world, as well as simply feeling like the name “ecstasy” implies. MDMA was used for decades as an anti-depressant before it ever found its street culture. It seems to me that much of young black america is in a deep state of depression, as they should be, what with all of the horrors of daily life Mr. Mohammad details. Of course there are dangers in taking any drug, but of all the drugs out there, ecstasy is far and away the least likely to lead to violence. Perhaps what America needs is a national take an e-bomb and get to know your neighbors day. Look at the rave scene, despite random violence, you have hundreds of thousands of ethnically diverse people getting together every weekend, enjoying themselves and each others company, taking ecstasy, and simply having fun…...Is that such a terrible thing? Would not our black community benefit from a little more fun, a little more acceptance, a little less depression, if only for a few hours?

“The People crave War Music
Because the People are at War.”

War with each other? That’s an even worse interpretation of the ‘reality’ than the alternative, which was discussed in quite the informative fashion in this article.

It’s not the music alone it the Video’s that syncronized with the lyrics. Listening to Ragtime,Blues,Rock&Roll; and any music before the advancement of videos meant people listened with their ears not their eyes its different when an image is branded in the mind along with music beause then you can research that tactic back through history its called for lack of better words. ” Brainwashing ” I call it
” brandWashing “.

And I compare it to Nazism, the Grillz and other fashion pieces could be signs of the swazstika or any other icon for that matter.Sometime I even call it Hitler-Hop or Hip-Hop/Crissy the whore of babylons prostituting teen-age daughter and lastly.

The WORD was and is GOD so using the words of ones mouth to say some of these things are blasphemus and I guess the generation/culture in questions don’t believe they’ll be judged by the words they speak or that their was a GOD of their ancestorial slaves

you know maybe if the program directors at radio stations would stop play’n this stuff (but it won’t) than it would go underground, and not so mainstream, maybe this would help to curve this new death system!

Don’t blame the music.
Don’t blame the poetry.
Don’t blame art or even entertainment.
And don’t blame human sexuality.  Don’t blame our desire for pleasure, for love, for touch, for *cum*
Blame the guns.
Blame the war.
Blame the Gang Leaders on the Street and in Washington.
Blame the culture that stole human beings and made them slaves.
Blame the Crusaders.
But don’t blame the Troubadors.
The People crave War Music
Because the People are at War.

I really enjoyed the article.  I believe that the rappers are just as much to blame for damaging black culture as are the record companies.  I mean after all they do write the lyrics.  They are just money hungry and are willing to sacrifice our culture for greed.

We all argue for freedom of speech, but what happens when that freedom is abused? Sure, music itself isn’t the problem - but when you take icons of the music industry, writing lyrics promoting drug abuse, violence, and misogyny, then you have a problem. Kudos to Mr. Muhammad for standing up and saying something, and to Sheerly for writing about it.

f

It’s too bad that only boys are getting this kind of attention from David and others. WHERE ARE THE WRITING PROGRAMS, JOBS, RIDES HOME AND MENTORS FOR GIRLS?

Great interview, but people have been linking violence to youth-oriented music for a century—starting with rag time, through blues, jazz, and, of course, through rock ‘n roll in all its permutations.  And nobody has really found a link between music and violence.  So, without challenging Mr. Muhammed’s ideas, I’d like to know how this time it’s different.  Is is that those earlier music forms did not have lyrics denigrating women and extolling violence, while hip hop does?  Or what?

“Calumny?”

Um, no, I think Mr. Muhammed summarized it accurately. The other stuff Bennett said was just disclaimers to make him sound less horrible (“impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do”)—but he circles back to his claim that if this was done, “your crime rate would go down.”

Take out the anguished disclaimers. You’re left with “But I do know that it’s true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could—if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.” That’s pretty much the same as “if you abort black babies you can improve the crime rate.”

Thank you for posting this.  We need to support uplifiting, creative African-American genres, jazz as an example.  The best jazz musicians are African-American, and they should be proud. 

The misogyny and violence of rap and hip-hop are not helping our country.

Great piece - but the Bennett line is highly misleading:

“Well, I don’t think it is either, I don’t think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don’t know. But I do know that it’s true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could—if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.”

It is bad that someone as sensible as Mr Muhammad would repeat such a calumny.