I recently got a Myspace message from a HHIR reader critiquing my evident political partisanship. It's a valid argument I suppose, so lemme know what you all think. I've also included the response I sent to this reader, who shall remain anonymous.
____ writes:
Whats up with all this political talk on the blog? You should be giving an unbiased opinion instead of clearly supporting Obama. I feel personally offended that the site has changed its aims to Myspace and Politics when you should in fact be posting important stuff like underground news/videos and giving links to upcoming cd's and stuff that matters. I dont care about the political choices of Rhymefest or Lupe and dedicating that huge blog to them was ridiculous. I'm very close to using the Jay-Z line...you lost one.
My response:
I've always had politic content... From highlighting the best clips of Jon Stewart's 'The Daily Show', to posting Mumia essays, to putting up the newest messages on Darfur, to republishing articles from The Nation... How about this post:
Bush Won't Supply Subpoenaed Documents (June 28th)
It's never been my objective to be a nonpartisan blogger. Hip-Hop originates from all oppressed people of the world, expressing their plight and giving voice to the voiceless. Check the poll (which has been up since I started the blog): over 80% of my readers are hoping for a Democratic candidate as President of the United States. 80%? That's major! Sure, Hip-Hop has a left-wing bias, and I'm proud of that. The only sign of my support for Obama is the 34x34 (tiny) logo. Yes, I support Obama, but I think I've done a good job of not trying to push my vote onto anyone or impose my politics on them. If anything, my posting up of Rhymefest and Lupe's debate has leveled the playing field, giving both sides full validity.
About my 'Myspace aims': You said I should be "posting important stuff like underground news/videos." Why do you think I started Myspace Mondays? Uh.... to post important stuff from... the UNDERGROUND. Inverse is underground Hip-Hop. Praverb (coming up next week) is underground. Ox the Midwest Bully (coming up in two weeks) is underground. Oddity (coming up in three weeks) is underground. If anything, I'm taking a MORE underground route this year, so I dunno what you're talking about.
"I dont care about the political choices of Rhymefest or Lupe and dedicating that huge blog to them was ridiculous." To each his own man, what can I say? When you buy a newspaper do you read the whole thing from A1 to the last page? I'd assume not...
In summation: Hip-Hop is a movement. I believe that Hip-Hop and politics go hand in hand. Hip-Hop is the voice of the proletariat, the working class. You don't need to like it... I'm very close to using the original L-Boogie line... YOU just lost one.
Yup...
And on a follow-up, notice that Hip-Hop Is Read as of yet has a total of 433 posts. Of all those posts, nearly 90 (roughly 20%) of them have been tagged with the 'Politics' label. So it's not like I've "shifted" into political stuff all of a sudden. In fact, 'Politics' is one of the tabs under the header on the top of the page in between 'Reviews' and 'Contact'.
Yeah...
