I'd like to introduce you to Professor
Griff, on behalf of the Office of
Multicultural Affairs for this event - for
Black History Month. My name is Carla
Javy. Today, we have speaking for us
Professor Griff, who's an internationally-
renowned educator, writer, producer,
musician platinum-record and spoken word
artist, lecturer and founded member of
the [???] and
revolutionary hip-hop group,
Public Enemy. Honored with an exemplary life
of service and an impressive 20-year musical
career, Griff captivates with his
universal call for social responsibility,
within both the hip-hop community,
and the larger culture. Griff skillfully
customizes this extensively documented
lecture to suit the needs of all
audiences, so please help me in welcoming
our guest, Professor Griff!
Let's give a round of applause for that
introduction.
Carla, right? Okay, how's everyone doing? (Minimal audience response)
All right, y'all could do a little bit better
than that. I was - alright hold on a minute - okay, um
I told a few
people that I would be here at East
Tennessee State, and I told them I
was coming to Johnson City, is that
correct? So, you know, some people was just
like, "where?" So, but, I'm glad to be here,
so thank you all very much for the
invitation. By show of hands, how many people
have actually went through the museum
and checked out the exhibit there? That's
beautiful. So during the Q&A, I'd like to
ask you some questions about what y'all
thought, is that cool? Is that alright
with everyone? I'm hearing like, two people
is that cool? All right. I have to
personally thank the faculty and the
staff being so warm and hospitable. It's
not like I get tension everywhere I go,
but being Professor Griff there's just
a little bit of turbulence, I'm sure
you'll understand that. But um, I want to
thank Collett LR Keen (???) for inviting me in
to be a part of his life work. Let's give
him a round of applause.
I think when I was invited in - it's been
now five years - he's been collecting for
20 years, and when I was invited in, I
didn't see it as though I was hooking up
with someone to kind of travel around
the country and rain hail snow and
earthquakes just, you know, just for the
sake of traveling. Part of what he is
doing, or what I'm doing with him, is
actually part of, you know, my life work.
And I'm not just saying that to fill up
space in my introduction,
you know, I truly mean that. When I was
invited in, we had, you know, few talks
and we basically came to the conclusion
that since young people will not go to
the museum, we'll bring the museum to
young people. I don't know if you know
the history of how he put it
together; it was young people in the
community that got together, that gutted
out a trailer, that actually painted and
hammered nails and fixed it up to the
point where he hooks it up to the back
of his car, or to a truck, and we were
bringing it to the campuses. How many
people knew that? So, this is a labor of
love, and not to mention that, I think
if we had no college campus or no high
school to bring it to, we would probably
have to set it up on a street corner. Am
I right or wrong?
Because, it's about raising consciousness
level of the human family - the valuable
pieces that he's labored so hard to
collect, now, I'm gonna tell you it's very
difficult - you may see - "how many pieces
you have out?" 200 pieces out of 1,500
pieces. Every piece was a labor -- meaning
that he had to find it. It's not gonna
come to you. I'm talking about some of
the backwoods places in Buttscratch,
Louisiana we had to go in somebody's
basement to find something - you ever seen
a movie Silence of the Lambs?
Well some of them places we had to go to
find some of the pieces, so if nothing
else, you know, we just need to at least,
you know, look at every piece and just
use that as parts and pieces to a puzzle
that have yet been untold. But, the key is
you have to finish telling the story. Are
you following me? You following me? Okay I
think it was um...
no, no, Frantz Fanon who said, "out of
relative obscurity, each generation must
discover its mission - fulfill it, or
betray it," and it's truly up to you. What
you have to do is use what college is
presenting today as a point of reference.
We may walk through and spend two or
three minutes and look at the things as
though it's entertainment - not the case. I
think Malcolm said, "history is most
attractive, and rewards all of our
research." So if we know what was, we know
what is, and we know what's to come. And
we need these parts of our particular
history to kind of fill in the blanks,
cuz I don't know about you guys, I didn't
get it in high school. How many of you
got it in high school? Not too many.
Alright so um, with that as a backdrop, I
think we owe one more round of applause
to Collett LR Keen, (???) Let's give him
another well-deserved round of applause.
Yeah, I was there at the conference when
y'all met. I don't know where I was when
y'all kind of hooked up to come to, um
where was I at man? Okay, but um it's
always a good thing to know that the
conference actually works this time, I
mean, because I've been going to
conference for five years with you,
and a lot of times when you're not
invited, you don't think the process work,
but this is um - today we can honestly say
that the process work. Someone is
actually looking out for your health and
your welfare and your extended education,
even when you're not. Even when you're
struggling
through classes that you're probably
trying to get through, someone is out
there at the conferences looking to
further your education outside of these
four walls. So um, once again thank y'all
very much for having me. So, I think at
this point I think I need to do a
disclaimer.
Not that we're going to get into anything kind of
controversial, but we might. I'm going to
talk about the exhibit, I'm going to talk
about Black History, I'm going to talk
about history, and from a hip-hop
perspective on what it means to us in
2011. But I think a little bit later on
in the lecture when we dive into hip-hop,
I think we need to get a basic
fundamental working definition of what
hip-hop is before we go into it. Now if I
ask by a show of hands to ask you to
define hip-hop to me, being 50 years old,
coming through the golden era of hip-hop,
we'd probably come up with about four or
five different definitions, am I right
or wrong? Mkay. Just as a taste test, let me
just throw this out there: who knows the
fifth element of hip-hop? Is that you just
scratching your head, or you just... okay...
you counting. He's just counting - okay.
Anyone? See, now your about to make my
job very difficult, because now I got to
explain the four fundamental elements of
hip-hop, synthesize it with this fifth
element, marry that on to black history,
and bring it up to date in 2011, and
that's kind of difficult. So, I'm gonna
need your help, is that cool?
Is that all right with everyone? Alright cool.
So what I think
I'm going to do is just kind of,
basically, read some quotes to see
if we can just kind of set the tone. I'm
going to deal with some theory; it may
sound like a conspiracy theory to some
of you guys, but if you're actually
living it and
it's happening right before your eyes, I
would tend to believe that it's not only
conspiracy - simply meaning someone
conspired and got together to bring
about a certain result, but when I
started to see these things in hip-hop,
it started to trouble me. When I started
pointing out the organizations that was
responsible for dumbing down the music
industry - for dumbing down hip-hop, I
started to point them out. Normally, I
would have my DVDs laid out on the table,
and, in essence - thank you - in essence, this is how it
went down. My DVDs would be on the table,
young people would get them, go chop them
up, put them up on YouTube, and I would end
up getting a hundred thousand phone
calls in a month, which is very critical.
Surprisingly enough, one or two of the
the lectures that I've done had my phone
number, and somebody put it on the
internet, so can you imagine my phone
number going out on WorldStar and end up
getting 750,000 hits? So now that 200
clips that are up on YouTube - can you imagine
the phone calls that I get? Now listen, I
don't mind, it's just that I do mind 3:30
calls in the morning, breathing hard on
the phone threatening me. That kind of
stuff I do mind,
are you following me? So um alright, one last
thing - is there anyone in the audience
working for the government? As agents, as...
you working for the government?
"I work for the State of Tennessee if that's-"
Okay,
that's cool, you safe. Anyone else? *Laughs*
[Different lady] "That's where I'm headed"
That's where you're headed?
We need to talk to you a little bit
later on, then. We need someone on the
inside, all right?
Okay - she's looking at me like, "Yeah right!" Alright, let
me pull this back, up so we can kind of
get started. I'm not going to be able to
go over every slide - this slide was
originally a lecture that I was doing in
Kentucky, and I was preparing it
for two other lectures, which a few of
them have gotten cancelled, so y'all
don't mind if I just kind of run through
some things real quick.
Alright, just by a show of hands, how
many people actively participate in this
thing that was given to us by Carter G
Woodson as Black History Month, which
started out his Negro History Week? Okay,
let's just set the ground rules - "this"
don't count. Alright, so if you're gonna
raise your hand, raise your hand. Okay so,
everyone else with your hand not up
you're just kind of... little 28 days that
they give us this kind of gets by you? Do
you need some instructions? Kind of like
a map - road maps, a lesson plan? The people
that had their hand up - I think it's our
duty and our responsibility that each
one should teach three. If everyone that
had their hand up did so, then everyone
would be able to participate in a month
that our people have sacrificed, at least,
for the 28 days that we get. Are you
following me? And even if it's the
coldest month of the year, we should take
it and use it to our best advantage, what
do I mean by that? We could celebrate all
of the engineers in the office. We could -
we could celebrate all of the people
that laid out their life to see that we
made it to 2011, are you following me? So
if we was to pour a libation, right, by a
show of hands, who do you think we should
mention in these 28 days that we're
given? We already mentioned and celebrate
the life of Malcolm X, right? With the
exhibit - The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad,
Muhammad Ali, who else do we have on the
table? Marcus Garvey - Marcus Garvey, who
gave us - where's my pen - the red, the black
and the green - and then asking
young people what is the significance of
the red black and green. You see - we have
to notice, verbatim, so when we meet
students of other different
nationalities and ethnic groups, we can
have that conversation in the hallways
and let them know that Marcus Garvey -
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, with the UNIA,
gave us that flag
as a liberation flag for our people.
And the red symbolizes the blood that
was spilled. The black is for the people,
and the green is for the land - the
motherland, alright? Now, mind you, coming
right after him was The Most Honorable
Elijah Muhammad, who said that the earth
is our home - we just use Africa as our
throne, are you following me?
So this is a basic conversation that we
should be having, but I'm sure that if you
stopped anyone that was of Irish descent
in the hallway, they'd give you a rundown
in the history of, not only they flag, but
their country and the history are you
following me? The same with Jews, and
Italians, and Mexicans, and everyone else -
are you following me?
We're no different. We have to do this.
Alright, are you following me? All right,
that's cool. Now - pardon me? ... Right. I
was about to get to that - so, we could
talk about Fred Hampton, we can talk
about the Black Panther Party, we can
talk about all the conscious era of
hip-hop that got us to this point. So
just as a small exercise, who do you
know that you could mention to
someone of a different race? - That you could
have a conversation in a hallway with
them to let them know about Black
History Month. By a show of hands, who
would you mention? Yes sir. "Nat turner." 
Why Nat Turner? (Man explains)
Oh, okay. Who else? Yes ma'am -
pardon me? "Rosa Parks." And why Rosa Parks?
She stood up for her rights - who else?
Somebody else, come on. I need one more
person around at all. Just to balance it
out. Yes ma'am. Huey Newton, and why Huey
Newton? Okay - let's give them a round of
applause.
What I'm going to attempt to do today is give
you Professor Griff's perspective from the
inside out - in dealing with how I
approach culture, history, especially
black history, how I'm approaching the
subculture called hip-hop, and I'm giving
it to you from an insider's perspective.
Meaning that I didn't read this on a
bumper sticker,
all right? Now I didn't read this on someone's
t-shirt as I was passing by, alright? So,
when you kind of live these things, you
kind of - I'm kind of giving it to you from an
insider's perspective - to let you know in
most cases what goes on behind the
scenes,
not only in entertainment and in popular
culture, but in hip-hop as I know it. This
is why I entitled the subtitle is - "It's
Bigger than Hip-Hop. It's Beyond Beats
and Rhymes." Now, um, hip-hop. You can remember this, or you're taking notes, hip-hop is higher infinite power
healing our people. Alright? Higher infinite power
healing our people. Why? Because we always use
music in rituals. Always use music in festivals,
because we thought and think
today, still today, that music has a healing power to it.
This why, when you find people that operate
in dealing with alternative medicines -
aromatherapy - music serves as methods of
healing. It aligns the chakra, aligns the
chakras, which are the energy centers. It
brings them in line and connects them
with your aura. we'll deal with some
basic metaphysics a little bit later on,
but hip-hop is high infinite power
healing our people. What we're about to
go over and talk about is some basic
things that I feel, from my perspective,
is beyond beats and rhymes. I'm gonna
skip over a lot of the slides, simply
because I want to get right
to the point, and we don't have a lot of
time. Back in the day, when I was growing
up, when we had the experience of going
to the store when we heard that a new
album came out, we had the experience of
going to the store and buying it. Once we
bought it, we resonated with it, because
we looked at the covers. We read the
credits - are you following me? And this
became part of our knowledge and our
experience with a new record
coming out. Especially if it was our
favorite artists, we wanted to know
everything about the artists. In today's
fast-paced world that a lot of you live
in, with iPads and what else, i-Condoms
and i-whatever else, with super-sized
malls and supersizing everything else -
are you following me -
we rarely take time and spend time
reading and becoming part of, not only
being a fan, which is the root word to
fantastic, which is the root word to
fantasy, and this is exactly what they
want you to do - they want you to buy in
to the fantasy, so from a young age you
become a perpetual consumer of what you
think is music based on a tradition and
a culture - but today, I beg to differ.
And we have to understand that hip-hop
and rap are two different things.
Alright, hip-hop is something that you are,
rap is something that you do. I'ma let
you marinate on that for a minute.
Because I hear a lot of people talking
about rap, and they blame hip-hop. If we
had an umbrella, and the umbrella served as
hip-hop culture, under the umbrella of
hip-hop culture, you have emceeing, rapping,
breaking, DJing,
and graph writing - graffiti. Rapping and
emceeing is only one aspect of it. Then
to synthesize that we have the knowledge
of self, would brings it all together to
understand the four fundamental elements
of hip-hop. The four fundamental elements
of hip-hop
are tied into the four fundamental
elements of the universe. Earth, air, fire,
and water - so there's a spiritual
component to hip-hop that we always
leave out. We hear a song like Laffy
Taffy and listen to it, and say, "I don't
like hip-hop." and then, we end up leaving
out three of the other elements, and we
fall short - are you following me?
Okay let's understand that. So, when we
purchased the album, you know, we digest
and studied the cover. This is my album
that just came out two weeks ago. It's
entitled "The God Damage" so, we studied the
albums, and in most cases, we tacked them
on our walls - I don't know if you used to
do that. They became part of what we were
about - they spoke for us. Are you following me?
Like, back in the day, when hip-hop first
came on the scene, and we was carrying
those heavy boxes around with them heavy
expensive D size batteries... I don't know
if y'all remember that. But anyway, when
we put it down, and we stood in our B-Boy stance,
whatever song was on, represented us - are you following me? So hip-hop served
as a voice of the voiceless,
and that's what it
meant to us. So, when I managed to put
together my book: "Analytixz: 20 Years of
Conversations and Enter-views with Public
Enemies Minsta of Information,
Professor Griff"
Analytixz basically simply means
critical thought - critical thinking. And
that's what I invited people to do. Let's
not look at hip-hop as just one aspect,
meaning emceeing and entertainment. It's a
deeper component to hip-hop on the
spiritual realm that we keep leaving out.
And we missed the boat, alright? The
book that I was putting together is
entitled, "The Psychological Covert War on
Hip-Hop." Inside of this book, was this
particular chapter entitled, "The
Metaphysical Goddesstry of the Soul of
Hip-Hop," which we're going to talk on
some metaphysics in a minute. But what I
had to do is take this particular
chapter out, because I deemed it very
necessary to lend credence to the
fact that we need to start loving,
honoring, and respecting women.
Especially in popular culture, are you following me?
Especially in hip-hop. What I decided to
do, and Sister Rod(?) teaches us, that we
should put the woman back on the throne
in hip-hop so we can balance it out. And
I think this is what's going on.
There's too much testosterone running
wild in hip-hop, and all we're hearing
is music and perspectives that are very
linear coming from a male point of view.
Are you following me?
That any time that we hear something
coming from a woman's point of view, it's
on a low vibration. Are you following me?
It's from the Nicki Minaj's and these
kind of characters. Now I know, you're
probably a Nicki Minaj fan, but let me
just give you my take on it. I watched
the behind the scenes MTV thing that
they did on Nicki Minaj. And I sat there
in shock to know that she said
she would only deal with women. And the
fact that she mentioned that there's a
demonic entity that lives within
inside of her - how many people have heard
this? No one? Just me, I guess I'm the only
one that heard this. Okay, Nicki Minaj
says there's a demonic entity that lives
inside of her, and she gave it a name. She
says it's a male entity that's very
violent and uncontrollable. She calls him
Roman. I called it demonic possession,
are you following me? And this is what I
mentioned several years ago, when I
talked about Beyoncé oftentimes morphing
herself into this demonic character,
called Sasha Fierce. Have you ever heard
of his character? Okay - well, by her own
admission, she says this character takes
over. All right? And in studying the
voodoo and studying ancient mystic
practices, we know what that is. That's
demonic possession, all right? So let's
push forward - so I had to talk about the
metaphysical goddesstry of the soul of
hip-hop, to add the spiritual component
back to hip-hop, so we can be
well-rounded, all right? So when I move
later on into the psychological covert
war on hip-hop, we would understand. So I
have to talk about destroying hip hop's
appetite for self-destruction. I have to
talk about the Illuminati's takeover of
hip hop. Now, let's just not get really too
moved by the term, "Illuminati," I hear that
being thrown around in the music
industry and on YouTube.
The Illuminati simply means "holders of
the light." Alright? The light-bearers.
Listen, I think I need to say this from
the out start - you cannot "join" the
Illuminati. Someone came up to me at the
grocery store, said they homeboy was about to join
the Illuminati- stop that. The Illuminati is
a secret society with subsidiaries that
go by a lot of different names, and the
only reason why I'm going into this,
because I have to use this as a backdrop,
because I know it's on a few people's
minds in the audience. All right? We're
throwing this term around, and we acting 
like it's a Glee Club, or the
Boy Scouts. Which is not the case - it's an
ultra secret society,
all right - started back in the 1800's, and
you have to understand it - you're just
not gonna walk up in there and say, "Here
I am" it doesn't work that way.
They don't - you don't choose them, they
choose you. And if, by chance, you're
chosen to be a part of one of the
subsidiaries of the subgroups of
the Illuminati,
good luck. Are you following me? So we
have to understand this thing and put it
in its proper perspective. Someone's
coming out with a Illuminati mixtape.
What kind of madness is that? Illuminati
clothing line, and this kind of madness.
So, we need to keep things in its proper
perspective - what I'm attempting to do
today is kind of demystify it, all right?
So we can get a better understanding of
what this is, and what's going on inside
of the music and popular culture today.
Simply put, we need our history and our
herstory told by us, to us. All right? If
we're going to tell the history of black
people sojourn, not only in America, but coming
9,000 miles in holes of ships, alright,
being brought to America through the
Caribbean islands up into America and
dehumanized - robbed of a name, language,
culture, God and religion - that story. And
even the story of what we went through
on the African continent, and the
glorious history of black people from
the pre-dynastic Kemet - which you call
Egypt - all through the dynasties right on
up to the time that we was colonized, and
enslaved, and put in the holes of ships, and
brought to America. That story needs to
be told to us, by us - are you following me?
And there's nothing wrong with other
people of other complexions coming to
tell the story, but let's just get the
facts correct - are you following me?
And we definitely have to check it.
Simply because, every time I come to a
college campus, or have a discussion with
young people and I asked them to talk to
me about black history, we always
start with slavery, as though we've done
nothing else. Alright, so let's dispel
that - and stop telling me that slaves
were brought over from Africa. That is
not correct. Proud black men and women
who were kings and queens and gods and
goddesses were put in the
holes of ships and brought to America, and
made slaves. Are you following me - so let's
get it correct - all right? Now, Elijah
Muhammad said it would be very difficult
to free the minds of our people using this
bastard language called English, and I'm
not being vulgar or foul - alright? So even
speaking to you right now, I have to
speak and use a language
that's alien to the very fiber of who
and what we are. Are you following me? Let's
push forward. We're gonna skip over a lot
of things that we don't need to go over,
because they're kind of elementary - all
right? Some things that you should kind
of know already. We need to talk about
the bridges that carried us over. What
you're seeing in Collett LR Keen's (???)
collection, and his exhibit in the next
room
is part of what I call the bridges
that got us over. Now listen, we don't
necessarily have to agree with the
bridge. How many of you have ever driven
out of state and you had to cross some
bridges in order to get to the next
state, or to the next town? Did you get to
the other side and turn around and curse
to bridge out? No? These are bridges that
got us across. These are doorways that
allow us passageway to the next realm. So
even when we talk about Malcolm X, you
may not agree with everything Malcolm
was about. No one's asking you to!
But as black people, is that not a period
in time in the history that we need to
hold on to, know and understand? Can we
not use that as a bridge or a doorway
that got us through? Can we? Can we use
what Harriet Tubman taught us? - When she
was interviewed, she was asked, how many
slaves has she freed.
She says she's freed thousands, but she
probably would have freed thousands more, if
they only knew they were slaves. But
nonetheless, is it a bridge that got us
across? Yes it is. I don't agree with
everything that go down in the black
church, but the black church served as a
beacon light to us - right or wrong. And
it's a bridge that got us over troubled
water. Even when I'm sitting across from
my opponent in playing chess or checkers,
I'm not angry at the dude! I'm playing
basketball - I'm bringing it down court,
I'm not angry at my opponent. I know I
gotta get past them, right or wrong? Okay,
y'all are very quiet - but anyway, just nod
your head.
