Episode 35- Professor Griff (Public Enemy) with Christina Tobin

Christina Tobin interviews Professor Griff of hip-hop legends Public Enemy before Free & Equal’s Open Colorado Gubernatorial Debate on October 8th, 2014, moderated by Griff. In the interview they discuss why musicians/artists with integrity and insight shouldn’t be shunned from speaking truth to power, how the election system is corrupted by things such as the Electoral College, the illusion of choice between major establishment political parties and candidates, and how music and activism go hand in hand with shifting the consciousness of the masses, especially the youth, to create a better world for the entire human family. Professor Griff is the author of several books, including The Psychological Covert War on Hip-Hop, about how hip-hop was once a vessel for speaking truth to power, but was subsequently and deliberately subverted by corporate America. This action brought an end to the intelligence and political prowess of groups like Public Enemy, which helped uplift and empower the minds of blacks as well as all people throughout the world; replacing them with the open display of apathy, reverence of materialism, and corporate product placement as we see with modern commercial rappers and ‘reality’ television. Chuck D of Public Enemy referred to this phenomena as the continuation of the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program, which covertly created a rift within the Black Panther movement in the 1970′s, targeted civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, and has now culturally targeted the cause of liberation by corrupting the music that helped to politically awaken so many people in the early days of hip-hop’s true form, speaking truth to power.