Reviving Rap: The Imprisonment of Assata Shakur and its Effect on Modern Rap Music

Rebecca Burgan History Department Honors Thesis December 6, 2011 2

In the spirit of Assata Shakur. We make this movement towards freedom For all those who have been oppressed, and all those in the struggle.1

1 Thomas Decarlo Burton, A Song for Assata, CD-ROM, performed by Common, (2000; MCA Records).

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 – Assata Shakur i. Wanted ii. Trial and Imprisonment iii. Escape

Chapter 2 – Reviving Rap i. The Evolution of Rap ii. Spreading Assata’s Story iii. Assata’s Views on Rap iv. Rapping for the Cause

Chapter 3 – Continuing Struggle i. Prison Reform ii. Women in the Struggle

Conclusion

4

Introduction

“White House Defends ‘Cop Killer’ Rapper.”2 “Obama’s Poetry Event Draws Fire Over a Rapper Named Common.”3 “NJ State Police ‘Outraged’ Over Rapper Invite to White House.”4

In May 2011, President Barrack Obama hosted rapper, Common, at the White House as a performer in Michelle Obama’s White House Music Series. As soon as the media got word that this invitation had been extended, the Obamas were under fire for supporting the sympathizer of a cop killer. Major Gerard Lewis, spokesman for the New Jersey State Police, commented, “We cannot dictate who is invited to the White House, but we will always view Joanne Chesimard as a fugitive who killed one of our own. We will continue our pursuit of her until she is brought to justice.”5 Joanne Chesimard, the cop killer of whom Common wrote a rap in support, is a former

Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member also known as Assata Shakur.

Assata Shakur, born JoAnne Byron on July 16, 1947, was an avid member of the Black

Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army throughout the 1960’s. In 1973, at age 26, she was convicted in the murder of two people in New Jersey, one of whom was a police officer. She contends, however, that she was convicted despite a lack of evidence against her in her trial, and that she was essentially held as a political prisoner as a result of her involvement with the Black

Panther Party and Black Liberation Army.6 It is widely believed by black liberationists that throughout Shakur’s trials and the seven years she spent in prison before she escaped, she was subject to unfair treatment as a result of her race and affiliation with “the greatest threat to the

2 “White House Defends ‘Cop Killer’ Rapper,” Fox Nation, May 11, 2011, http://nation.foxnews.com/michelle- obama-poetry-event-controversy/2011/05/11/wh-defends-cop-killer-rapper-calls-him-socially-c. 3 David Jackson, “Obama’s Poetry Event Draws Fire Over a Rapper Named Common,” USA Today, May 11, 2011, http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/05/obamas-poetry-event-draws-fire-over-a-rapper- named-common/1. 4 Brian Thompson and Marcus Riley, “NJ State Police ‘Outraged’ Over Rapper Invite to White House,” NBC New York, May 12, 2011, http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NJ-State-Police-Outraged-Over-Rapper-Invited-to- White-House-121596869.html. 5 Ibid. 6 Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1987), 252.

5 internal security of the country.”7 Throughout her imprisonment and the years following,

Shakur has made an effort to publicize the racism within the United States’ penal system and has had her story widely disseminated among young black audiences by rap artists who have taken up her cause.

The goal of this thesis is to counter the arguments that criminality detracted from the movement and examine how Shakur’s time in prison rallied positive support from rap artists who have chosen to continue the fight for black liberation through their music. Previous scholars who have studied Shakur have focused largely on her role as a woman within the Black Panther Party, as well as the ways in which she utilized her autobiography to gain support for the Party. There are also a variety of scholars who have studied how the criminality of Black Panthers negatively influenced the movement. The thesis will not only explore the autobiographical works that

Assata has written, but also rap lyrics that have been dedicated to her, to explore how the support

Shakur has gained from rap artists helped her influence the social movements in which she was involved. In today’s popular culture it is a widely-held belief that rap and hip-hop artists have strayed from the origins of their music by promoting themes such as sex, partying, and the degradation of women. By examining how rap artists have helped Shakur impact the movements in which she was involved, this thesis demonstrates how this genre of music is still used by many artists for its original purpose, which was to lyrically combat the constant oppression that blacks face.

I first learned Shakur’s story when I read Assata: An Autobiography for an English class.

I was instantly intrigued by her story and began doing research in online archives. I also discovered many popular websites like HandsoffAssata.org and AssataShakurSpeaks.org that post messages and interviews from Shakur, as well as other Black Panther Party members and

7 Assata Shakur, “Assata Shakur: Profiled and On the Run,” The New Crisis 107 (December 2000): 23.

6 political prisoners who support her. The websites also offer discussion boards on which anyone can post comments expressing their hope that Shakur will gain her freedom. It was on these websites that I first discovered the large following of rap artists that Shakur has acquired, and I became very interested in their connection to her story. I attained most of the information I needed for this thesis online, in the libraries at the University of Florida, and over interlibrary loan. Later, however, I discovered The Freedom Archives in San Francisco and the Huey P.

Newton Archives, which are housed in Special Collections at Stanford University, and knew that

I needed to take a trip to California.

The Freedom Archives contain video and audio clips of interviews with Shakur ranging from her time in prison to special reports from Cuba. In these interviews, Shakur comments on her repression by COINTELPRO, her trial, her time in prison, and her life in Cuba. There are also recordings of Shakur reading her poems; television programs dedicated to Shakur from as far back at 1977, the year she was convicted; and interviews with other political prisoners, such as Mumia Abu Jamal, regarding their feelings about Shakur’s trial and imprisonment. The archives also house audio recordings of major events within the BPP, such as the first correspondences from Weather Underground and readings from the funerals of George and

Jonathan Jackson. Most important for my research are the original recordings of poetry and rap for Black August, which is a hip-hop project founded to promote human rights and honor fallen

Freedom Fighters. The archive at Stanford, which is in close proximity to the Freedom

Archives, was indispensable to my research because it is the largest collection of Black Panther

Party materials in the nation, and allowed me to better understand the organizational ties for which Shakur was targeted. The archive contains BPP chapter minutes, Party correspondences, advertising pamphlets, transcripts of phone calls to the central headquarters, community program

7 curriculums, and financial records. By having access to these archives, I was able to gain a critical understanding of the culture surrounding Shakur’s activism and imprisonment.

I am personally unable to make a decision for or against the innocence of Assata Shakur.

While I believe in her cause and what she stands for, I do not have enough information to make an informed judgment regarding whether she actually committed the murders. I have, however, collected enough evidence to confidently assert that Assata Shakur was wrongfully imprisoned due to a lack of evidence presented during her trial. I also believe that the story of Shakur’s imprisonment represents the overriding racism that still perpetrates American society today.

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Chapter 1

Assata Shakur

My name is Assata Shakur, and I am a 20th Century escaped slave.8

Shakur was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York, but she spent most of her time growing up in North Carolina with her grandparents.9 She experienced many acts of racism in the south but was always able to overcome them. Her mother taught her from an early age that most white business owners would rather allow a black person to enter their business than have them cause a scene as a result of being turned away.10 Therefore, Shakur was a frequent visitor of a local amusement park and movie theater that were white-only.11 She considers her youth as the time before she was enslaved, not because blacks were not oppressed at this time, but because she had not yet matured enough to realize that she was already facing discrimination.

It was not until moving to New York as a young adult that Shakur first experienced the realities of racism. She argues that, as her symbolic slave owner, the United States subjected her to a process of discrimination in New York that caused anger and hatred to build up within her.12

Eventually she felt she had no other channel to express her anger than through her family, and this resulted in her decision to run away from home at the age of thirteen.13 During her time living alone, Shakur witnessed the vast poverty and oppression of black people within the United

States. Despite the fact that she was in her early teens during this period in her life, the only job

8 Assata Shakur, “Assata: In Her Own Words,” Assata Shakur Speaks, accessed November 30, 2011, http://www.assatashakur.org/. 9 Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1987), 18. 10 Ibid., 39. 11 Ibid., 27. 12 Ibid., 74. 13 Ibid., 75.

9 that she could find was as a server at a bar. She also narrowly escaped being raped by a group of young men by threatening to reveal the rape to the boys’ mothers.14

As Shakur grew older, she returned home and attended college in New York, where she began to meet other black people who could relate to her anger over the treatment of her race.15

It was during this time that Shakur first discovered the fraternal bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood and the intellectual impact that these bonds could make.16 She began reading communist literature, like Mao’s Little Red Book, and she became increasingly involved in community activism. Shakur was arrested for the first time while she was in college as a result of a protest against faculty members to include a Black Studies curriculum.17 Shortly after her arrest she married Louis Chesimard. They quickly divorced due to differing beliefs about gender roles within the marriage.18

In her early twenties, Shakur took a trip to California to explore racial activism on the west coast.19 On this trip, she discovered the Black Panther Party, which was well-established in Oakland, and she decided to get involved in the Party in New York. It was during this time of activism in New York that Shakur recognized that slavery was still an institution being upheld within the United States and began to rediscover her African roots. As a result, she made the decision to cast off her “slave” name, and adopt the first name Assata, which means “she who struggles” and the last name Shakur, which means “the thankful.”20

14 Ibid., 114. 15 Ibid.,137. 16 Ibid., 173. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. 19 Ibid., 185. 20 Ibid., 186.

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Wanted

In the early 1970’s, the two major leaders of the BPP, Huey P. Newton and Eldridge

Cleaver, began to have conflict over their ideologies and goals for the Party. Newton envisioned an organization based on community service and self-defense, while Cleaver urged for a more radical and militant organization.21 These conflicts resulted in a split, after which Shakur began to have issues with Newton’s organization, specifically its lack of knowledge about and focus on black history. As a result, she started to become more involved with the Black Liberation Army

(BLA), which was led by Cleaver.

The BLA was an underground movement that had the primary goal of overthrowing the government and was well-known for its extreme militancy.22 Its members were former Black

Panthers and the name was inspired by one of the twenty-six BPP rules, which stated that the only army a Party member could join was the Black Liberation Army.23 Members of the BLA felt a “sense of duty and pride” in defending their community.24 The members were prepared at all times because the Army demonstrated the possibility of armed opposition, which was something the black community was told it was not allowed to have for years.25 Once the Army formed, the United States government used all of its forces to crush the BLA.26 Most of its members were either forced to leave the country or imprisoned.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the FBI began a counterintelligence program, now known as

COINTELPRO, with the goal of uncovering and sabotaging domestic threats to the United

States. When COINTELPRO began its effort to disband the Party, Shakur watched many of her

21 Brian Baggins, “History of the Black Panther Party,” Marxists Internet Archive, 2002, http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/. 22 Susan Motsack, “The Black Panther Party: Its Legacy and Importance Today,” Teen Talk Radio, CD-ROM (New York). 23 Ibid. 24 Ibid. 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid.

11 friends go underground, and eventually she had to do the same.27 COINTELPRO is believed to have executed an investigation called CHESROB, which was named after Shakur, whose married “slave” name was Joanne Chesimard.28 Although CHESROB targeted multiple black nationalists, its main goal was to link Shakur to all of the bank robberies and other crimes that had been carried out by black women on the East Coast.29 Shakur was eventually caught when she, along with two other Panthers, was pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike for driving with a burnt-out taillight.30 This routine traffic violation soon turned into a murder accusation against

Shakur because a shoot-out occurred between the police and the Panthers, resulting in the deaths of Black Liberation Army member, Zayd Shakur, and New Jersey State Trooper, Werner

Foerester. In addition, another Black Liberation Army member Sundiata Acoli and New Jersey

State Trooper James Harper were wounded in the shoot-out. Oddly, when Harper made his way back to the police department after the shooting, he never reported seeing Foerester at the scene.

Investigators did not know of Foerester’s involvement in the shooting until his body was found at the scene during the investigation the following morning.

Trial and Imprisonment

Shakur stood trial in the 1970’s not only for murder, but also for several bank robberies.

She was acquitted in all of the bank robbery trials, but was convicted of murder. One bank robbery was particularly controversial because Shakur testified that after the bank robbery took place, the FBI posted “Wanted” ads around New York City in which she was not the woman

27 Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1987), 241. 28 Kenneth O’Reilly, Racial Matters: The FBI's Secret File on Black America, 1960–1972 (Collier Macmillan, 1989). 29 Paul Wolf, "COINTELPRO: The Untold American Story" (presentation, World Conference Against Racism, Durban, South Africa, September 1, 2001). 30 Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1987), 13.

12 pictured in the surveillance photograph. The problem was that Shakur’s name and all other identifying information about her was listed in the ad.

During Shakur’s trial, evidence was presented that disproved the accusation that Shakur was shot because she was threatening the safety of the police officers. Shakur’s aunt, Evelyn

Williams, served as one of her attorneys and fought continuously to overcome racism within

Shakur’s trial. Williams and Shakur assert that these trials were unconstitutional, as well as racist, because the all-white jury was not a jury of Shakur’s peers. They also believe that

Shakur’s trial for murder had racist implications because evidence supporting her innocence was ignored. Among the evidence ignored were medical records proving that the injuries sustained by Shakur after being shot would have rendered her unable to shoot the gun that killed the New

Jersey police officer. Medical evidence also demonstrated that at the time Shakur sustained her injuries her hands were in the air. Other evidence suggesting Shakur’s innocence that was ignored during the trial was the fact that Shakur had no traces of gunpowder on her fingers. The only real evidence that the jury was able to use to convict Shakur was the blood that was found on her clothes. Both Shakur and Williams contend that Shakur’s murder conviction, in light of all of the overwhelming evidence in her favor, was an act of racism on the part of the all-white jury, as well as an effort by the FBI and COINTELPRO to frame Shakur in order to imprison someone whom they considered to be a “domestic threat.”31

After the trial, Williams and Shakur had to fight continuously for better treatment of

Shakur within the prison system. Some of their complaints included the fact that Shakur was being held in an all-male prison, and that Shakur was not provided with adequate medical care,

31 Assata Shakur, “Assata Shakur: Profiled and On the Run,” The New Crisis 107 (December 2000): 23.

13 both for her injuries sustained during the shooting and during her pregnancy.32 Williams also advocated against the two years Shakur spent in solitary confinement, in which she was secluded for so long that she forgot how to speak.33 Both Shakur and Williams attributed these issues to the overriding racism within the United States penal system.

Escape

Shakur was able to spread the word of her mistreatment through her writings and poetry, which she smuggled out of prison one at a time and then had published. In 1979, Shakur escaped from prison with the help of three members of the Black Liberation Army, including Marilyn

Buck, who was a white woman. Reports of the event stated that the three accomplices took two guards hostage during a visit with Shakur at the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women.34

They were then able to sneak Shakur out of the prison with ease, leaving their hostages and everyone involved unharmed. After being on the run in the United States for a few years, Shakur was offered political asylum in Cuba by Fidel Castro and has resided there ever since. Castro commented that the United States wanted to portray Shakur as “a terrorist, something that was an injustice, a brutality, an infamous lie.”35 In Assata: An Autobiography, Shakur discusses her love for Cuba, not only for accepting her and understanding her innocence, but for the lack of racism that she has witnessed in her years spent there.36

Since her escape, Shakur continues to be an important influence on the movement for black liberation in the United States. To this day, she is still on the FBI’s Most Wanted List of

32 Evelyn Williams, “Statement of Facts in the New Jersey Trial of Assata Shakur,” Assata Shakur Speaks, 2005, http://www.assatashakur.org/. 33 Ibid. 34 Robert Hanley, "Miss Chesimard Flees Jersey Prison, Helped By 3 Armed 'Visitors,’" The New York Times (New York, NY), November 3, 1979. 35 Fidel Castro, “Assata Shakur,” Social Justice Movements, accessed April 18, 2011, http://socialjustice.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/index.php/Assata_shakur. 36 Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1987), 271.

14

Domestic Terrorists, with a reward of over one million dollars being offered for her capture.37

Although the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army were disbanded by the FBI,

Shakur is still fighting for black liberation.

Shakur’s legacy of activism is continued by many blacks, and especially by black rappers. Rap artists have written songs about Shakur that teach their audiences of black youth about her fight for black liberation. Their music could provide for a young generation of activists that is educated about the continued oppression of blacks in the United States that the government has taken efforts to cover up. These artists’ music has developed a political cause that is believed in popular culture to be absent from contemporary rap music.

37 Assata Shakur, “Assata Shakur: Profiled and On the Run,” The New Crisis 107 (December 2000): 23.

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Chapter 2

Reviving Rap

Hip Hop can be a very powerful weapon to help expand young people's political and social consciousness.38

The Evolution of Rap Music

Rap music began emerging for the first time in the 1970’s, but during the “gangsta rap” era of the 1980’s and early 1990’s rap music took a more political direction and became the

“most controversial and written-about element of hip-hop culture.”39 Throughout the late 1990’s and 2000’s, rap music began to become more main-stream, selling “big-time fantasies.”40

Despite the fact that many rap artists are struggling to survive financially, their music videos are filmed in “fancy clubs, casinos, rented mansions, around rented swimming pools, rented yachts, rented private planes, rented helicopters.”41 It is a widely-held belief that by the beginning of the

21st century, the capitalistic, misogynistic, and violent themes heard in rap music widely lost their political undertones.

Jeanita Richardson argues that rap music has always been used for many different purposes. She discusses the trend for rap artists to portray violence in their music, which has given the genre a stigma in popular culture. However, the use of violence in rap music can be traced to the culture of violence in America.42 Rap artists have seen how Americans have profited from the violence depicted in television, movies and video games, and they have found

38Assata Shakur, “Assata Shakur: The Interview,” The Talking Drum, (1998), accessed November 30, 2011, http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/bla4.html. 39 Gail Hilson Woldu, “The Kaleidoscope of Writing on Hip Hop Culture,” Notes 67, no. 1 (2010): 11, accessed November 30, 2011, http://web-ebscohost-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu. 40 Assata Shakur, “Assata Shakur: The Interview,” The Talking Drum (1998), accessed November 30, 2011, http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/bla4.html. 41 Ibid. 42 Jeanita W. Richardson and Kim A. Scott, “Rap Music and its Violent Progeny: America’s Culture of Violence in Context,” The Journal of Negro Education 71, no. 3 (2002): 175, accessed November 30, 2011, http://www.jstor.org/.

16 an outlet in which they can make a profit themselves.43 Although rap artists displayed a political consciousness in earlier decades, Richardson acknowledges that by the turn of the century, rap artists were aware of the success they could achieve in popular culture by rapping about common violent themes.

However, many scholars who study rap would argue against Richardson saying that violence in rap music arose from the expression of rap artist’s feelings about growing up in the midst of poverty, drugs, and gang violence. According to Gail Hilson Woldu, “a sense of powerlessness to change conditions grounded in complex social, political, and economic issues has led artists to seek ways to express their discontent.”44 Even Richardson agrees that "rap music… is not in and of itself, a genre created solely for profit. Deprivation and unequal opportunity nurtured the hopeless[ness], distrust, and early death depicted in Tupac Shakur's lyrics...."45 These arguments suggest that rap artists did not necessarily stray from the politicization of their music, but instead began writing songs that reflected the environments in which they were accustomed to living.

Similar to the phenomenon of violence in lyrics, rap music has been heavily criticized in popular culture for its misogynistic themes. Terri Adams argues that “misogynistic rap has been accepted and allowed to flourish, generating wealth for some of the artists and the music industry as a whole.”46 Messages that are highly sexualized and degrading to women have become popular in the music industry, and many critics believe that rap artists have adopted these themes

43 Ibid. 44 Gail Hilson Woldu, “The Kaleidoscope of Writing on Hip Hop Culture,” Notes 67, no. 1 (2010): 11, accessed November 30, 2011, http://web-ebscohost-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu. 45 Jeanita W. Richardson and Kim A. Scott, “Rap Music and its Violent Progeny: America’s Culture of Violence in Context,” The Journal of Negro Education 71, no. 3 (2002): 175, accessed November 30, 2011, http://www.jstor.org/. 46Terri M. Adams and Douglas B. Fuller, “The Words Have Changed but the Ideology Remains the Same: Misogynistic Lyrics in Rap Music,” Journal of Black Studies 36, no. 6 (2006): 940, accessed January 28, 2011, http://www.jstor.org/.

17 in order to obtain financial success. Like violent themes, however, “misogyny in its varied form does not exist in a vacuum but is instead a part of a larger social, cultural, and economic system that sustains and perpetuates the ideology.”47 For centuries, black women have been discriminated against as a result of both their race and sex. Derogatory ideas about black women have become a part of black culture because of the racism that still exists in American society, as well as the attempt for black men to assert their masculinity. These ideologies are portrayed in rap music as a result of their cultural relevance, not because they sell albums.

Popular society has placed a stigma on rap music in the 21st century because people believe that rap artists use violent and misogynistic themes throughout their music with the hope of gaining financial success. However, scholars like Tricia Rose argue:

Hip Hop is a cultural form that attempts to negotiate the experiences of marginalization, brutality, truncated opportunity, and oppression within the cultural imperatives of African American and Caribbean history, identity, and community.48

While rap artists are widely acknowledged for their political consciousness throughout the 1980’s and early 1990’s, contemporary rap music, even when portraying negative themes, demonstrates aspects of racism and black culture that still exists in the United

States. The telling of Shakur’s story through rap is an example of how contemporary rap artists not only portray the status of black culture, but still take blatant political stands for the cause of black liberation.

Spreading Assata’s Story

Popular rap artists such as Shakur’s nephew, Tupac Shakur, Mos Def, and Common have dedicated songs to Shakur and continue the fight for liberation through their song lyrics. One of

47 Ibid., 942. 48 Tricia Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1994), 21.

18 the most influential rap artists who has taken up Shakur’s cause is Common. He wrote “A Song for Assata” (2000), which portrays details of Shakur’s arrest and imprisonment, while putting himself in Shakur’s shoes and wondering how he would have handled the same situation.49

Common’s dedication of a song to Shakur is a significant help to her cause, due to the influence and popularity of Common’s music in mainstream rap culture. This music reaches wide audiences throughout the United States and allows young adults to have more access to Shakur’s story, which is little known in popular American culture.

Other rap artists, such as Paris, who sings “Assata’s Song” (1990) and Public Enemy, who sings “Gotta Give the Peeps what they Need” (2002), use Shakur’s story to spread messages of black liberation, as well as the empowerment of black women. Public Enemy, in particular, plays a significant role in the support of Shakur’s cause by singing about a long list of Black

Panthers who were targeted by COINTELPRO in the 1960’s and 1970’s and who are still serving as political prisoners in the United States.50 In the line, “Gotta lotta nerve never know’n

Assata/ Gotcha mind wadin’ in the water,” Public Enemy criticizes blacks who are uneducated about the history of their race.51 He suggests that blacks are dedicating their thoughts and desires to insignificant things when they could be educating themselves about their culture and fighting for black liberation. Public Enemy and other rap artists, like Common, write lyrics that teach their audiences that the fight for black liberation is not yet over and encourages them to continue the struggle.

Common wrote “A Song for Assata,” on which he collaborated with Shakur, because he

“read this sister’s story, [and] knew that it deserved a verse.”52 His main goal in writing the

49 Thomas Decarlo Burton, A Song for Assata, CD-ROM, performed by Common, (2000; MCA Records). 50 John Rosado, Gotta Give the Peeps what They Need. Public Enemy, CD-ROM (2002). 51 Ibid. 52 Thomas Decarlo Burton, A Song for Assata, CD-ROM, performed by Common, (2000; MCA Records).

19 song was to publicize Shakur’s story, because the horrors he describes promote black activism and nationalism in and of themselves. He describes the shooting on the turnpike and how

“scandalous the police were as they kicked and beat her.”53 He then describes how the police came to question Shakur in the hospital and “put guns to her head, every word she got hit.”54

The horrors of Shakur’s time in prison are also detailed, stating how she was “away from people so long she forgot how to speak.”55 Common further describes “the foulness they would feed her, hopin’ she would lose her seed” when Shakur became pregnant in prison.56 This occurred during her trial, while she was being held in a secluded room with Sundiata Accoli.57 Shakur became pregnant and was denied medical attention for her pregnancy in prison, as well as the ability to see her daughter after she was born.58 Common finishes his portion of the rap by mentioning Shakur’s escape and political asylum in Cuba.

The song concludes, significantly, with words spoken by Shakur, herself. Her words end the song by describing the lack of freedom that the United States has provided her – “I know a whole lot more about what freedom isn’t/ Than about what it is, ‘cause I’ve never been free.”59

Common acknowledges in the song that he read Shakur’s autobiography and based the song on the story of her life. He understood that his music could reach an adolescent black audience better than a book would, so he wrote this song in order to spread Shakur’s message to an audience that she could not reach. The fact that he collaborated with Shakur on the song gives more credibility to Common as a political activist, as well as the details provided in his song.

53 Ibid. 54 Ibid. 55 Ibid. 56 Ibid. 57 Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1987), 119. 58 Ibid., 126. 59 Thomas Decarlo Burton, A Song for Assata, CD-ROM, performed by Common, (2000; MCA Records).

20

In “Assata’s Song,” Paris attributes his decision to end his abuse of black women to

Assata Shakur. The song begins with Paris wondering “how the perception came to pass of a Queen bein’ just a piece of ass.”60 He talks about the habit black men have of mistreating black women and how Shakur’s story made him realize that by harming black women the entire black race is being harmed. He demonstrates this through lyrics like, “Don’t ya know there ain’t no future in hurtin’ our own?”61 Paris also establishes Shakur as the epitome of an abused black woman and uses her story to persuade black men to reform their attitudes and actions towards black women. He advises, “Quit bein’ so quick to taste the juice/And diss us tryin’ to taste another’s fruit.”62 Although it is easy to see Paris’ lyrics as an argument against the abuse and mistreatment of women, on a deeper level it is actually a piece that supports and encourages

Black Nationalism. In the lyric, “And sister ya don’t need a man/Who cheats and mistreats and beats ya bad,” Paris argues that black women need to stand up for themselves in order to promote

Black Nationalism.63 He encourages black women to fight back against their abusers, in the same way that Shakur fought against her white suppressers.

At the end of the song, Paris makes a final stand against the oppressive United States by mentioning “ameri-ka-ka-ka.”64 This was a common phrase used by Shakur throughout her autobiography and other writings to both downplay the superiority and greatness of America by using a lower-case a, as well as to suggest the racist undertones of American society by referencing the Ku Klux Klan through the sound of “ka-ka-ka.”65 By using this phrase in his

60 Paris, Assata’s Song, CD-ROM (1990; Guerilla Funk Recordings and Filmworks).

61 Ibid. 62 Ibid. 63 Ibid. 64 Ibid. 65 Ibid.

21 lyrics, Paris not only shares his beliefs about America as a racist institution, but he also shows support of Shakur by utilizing her language.

There are also a myriad of rap artists who, although they have not dedicated songs to

Shakur, have taken up her cause and speak out about it. One of Shakur’s biggest supporters is

Mos Def. He has stood up for Shakur on the internet by posting articles he has written such as

“Assata Shakur: The Government’s Terrorist is our Community’s Heroine.” In this article he describes Shakur’s trial and imprisonment, and argues about the fallibility of the United States legal system.66 Mos Def also speculates that the United States government has attempted to use its embargo on Cuba as a bartering tactic to capture Shakur. He states, “Perhaps what is most insulting about the government’s latest attack on Assata is that… they vigorously pursue her extradition…using it as a bargaining chip for lifting the embargo itself.”67 Mos Def’s claim suggests that the United States is willing to surrender fifty-one years of an economic standstill with a foreign nation in order to see Shakur re-incarcerated.

Mos Def is also known for speaking out publicly about Shakur’s innocence at a press conference that was held at New York’s City Hall after Shakur’s bounty was raised to

$1,000,000.68 Mos Def was joined at this press conference by rap artists, Talib Kweli and

Dead Prez, who had the opportunity to travel to Cuba and meet Shakur and have since taken up her cause. Although Mos Def has not written a song specifically for Shakur, he still has a history of singing about her. At a concert where Mos Def and Common performed, Mos Def changed

66 Mos Def, “Assata Shakur: The Government’s Terrorist is our Community’s Heroine,” accessed April 18, 2011, http://www.assatashakur.org/mosdef.htm. 67 Ibid. 68 Remmie Fresh, “Mos Def, Talib Kweli, dead prez Speak Up For Assata Shakur,” accessed April, 18, 2011, http://www.handsoffassata.org/content/allhiphop-5-26-05-text.htm.

22 the lyrics to his song “Umi Says” in order to talk about Shakur. He sang the new lyrics, “I want

Assata to be free/Hands off Assata…remember Malcolm…hands off Assata.”69

The rap artist most closely linked to Shakur’s story is Tupac Shakur, who was Shakur’s step-nephew. His step-father, Mutulu Shakur, is Assata Shakur’s brother and was on the FBI’s

Most Wanted list for four years for assisting Shakur in her escape from prison. Other members of Tupac’s family also have had significant ties to the Black Panther Party. His mother, Afeni

Shakur, was part of the New York Panther 21 case, in which she was on trial for over 150 counts of “conspiracy against the United States government.”70 Afeni was a close friend of Shakur’s, and Shakur mentions her often throughout her autobiography. Tupac also had close ties to his godfather, “Geronimo” Pratt, who was a leader within the Black Panther Party, and was convicted of murdering a schoolteacher. Tupac’s sister, Setchua Shakur, provides insight into the life that she and her brother led with parents in prison. She describes how they were haunted by the FBI, constantly covering for parents that they did not know and denying any relation with them.71 Tupac spent his childhood attending rallies, visiting political prisoners, and witnessing police brutality.72 It was these circumstances of his childhood that gave him the political awareness that resonated in his music. In his early albums, Tupac wrote about the Party, Black

Nationalism, and the oppression of the black race. Tupac’s connection to Shakur and so many other Panthers enabled him to develop a social consciousness that would allow his rap music to

69 Ibid. 70 "Afeni Shakur," 2Pac Legacy, accessed April 18, 2011, http://web.archive.org/web/20080409074113/http://www.2paclegacy.com/images/assets/bio_afeni_shakur/afeni_sha kur_biography.pdf. 71 Susan Motsack, “The Black Panther Party: Its Legacy and Importance Today,” Teen Talk Radio, CD-ROM (New York). 72 Ibid.

23 become so successful, as well as allow him to become one of the best-selling musical artists in the world.73

Assata’s Views on Rap

Even Shakur is aware of the major impact that rap artists are making towards raising public awareness about her situation. In an interview with The Source magazine in 1998, Shakur commented on how surprised and honored she was when she first heard the Public Enemy song dedicated to her.74 In the interview, Shakur talks about how she was never a huge fan of rap music because she thought it was just a lot of “noise.”75 After she heard the Public Enemy song and began to hear other rap music throughout Cuba, Shakur realized that many rap artists have an awareness of political prisoners and the black liberation movement, and use their music to spread the knowledge of these issues among young adults.76

Shakur has made an effort to keep in contact with her supporters in the rap community since realizing how they have helped her cause. She has welcomed visits from rap artists like

Common, Public Enemy, and Mos Def, despite the threat she faces of having her whereabouts reported to the United States government by American visitors to Havana. She has also made an effort to keep in contact with rap audiences by occasionally sending letters and correspondence to popular rap websites. As recently as 2011, she sent a letter to AllHipHop.com, which was published for all of the fans to read. In the letter Shakur discusses her trial, but also comments on the efforts of the United States government to arrest her.77 She compares these efforts to the

73 “100 Greatest Artists of All Time,” Rolling Stone (2011), accessed December 4, 2011, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-artists-of-all-time-19691231/tupac-shakur-19691231.

74 Assata Shakur, “Thoughts on Cuba, Black Liberation and Hip-Hop Today,” The Source (January 1998): 136. 75 Ibid. 76 Ibid. 77 Assata Shakur, “Open Letter from Assata Shakur,” accessed April 18, 2011, http://allhiphop.com/stories/editorial/archive/2005/05/05/18135208.aspx.

24

Fugitive Slave Act, and argues that she is a “20th century escaped slave.”78 In regards to Tupac,

Shakur stated in 1998:

I think Tupac was a genius. He had so much talent. I love his music, even when I don't agree with what he's saying or the premises he's operating on. He was able to touch so much gut stuff, that most people don't even recognize, much less have the ability to express.79

Shakur recognizes the support that rap artists have acquired for her among the black community, and therefore finds it important to build relationships with these artists, in the hope that their support might extend the cause of black liberation to youth in the black community.

Shakur does, however, recognize that rap artists’ desire for fame and notoriety often causes them to overlook important social issues in their music. The artists who are guilty of rapping for these reasons often degrade women and send messages to their audiences that glorify sex and drugs. She states, “Rapping is communicating – it should be an instrument for our liberation.”80 Although she acknowledges that there is a growing movement of rappers fighting against the oppression of blacks, it needs to grow at a more rapid pace and promote more causes.

Shakur argues:

We need to start rapping about ending not only racism, but ending sexism, and start talking about how to have a more human life. We’ve got to rethink the language that we use and the concepts that we’re promoting; concepts that end up being promoted to African people all over the world.81

Despite her changing opinions on rap music, Shakur advises artists to continue struggling and expand their efforts to other oppressed groups.

Shakur also warns rappers to be wary of the way that they are using their music. “Hip

Hop can be a very powerful weapon to help expand young people's political and social

78 Ibid. 79 Assata Shakur, “Assata Shakur: The Interview,” The Talking Drum, (1998), accessed November 30, 2011, http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/bla4.html. 80Assata Shakur, “Thoughts on Cuba, Black Liberation and Hip-Hop Today,” The Source (January 1998): 136. 81 Ibid.

25 consciousness. But just as with any weapon, if you don't know how to use it, if you don't know where to point it, or what you're using it for, you can end up shooting yourself in the foot or killing your sisters or brothers.”82 Shakur believes that the United States government sees the threat that rap artists pose to the political and social structure that is upheld in America.83 She acknowledges that there may even be a COINTELPRO program against rap artists. In an interview for The Talking Drum in 1998, Shakur was specifically asked if she believes there is a

COINTELPRO program against rappers. Her response was, “If you don't believe that the FBI has extensive files on every popular Rap artist, you probably believe in the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy.”84 In the interview in which Shakur expresses these opinions, she also suggests that rape accusations against her nephew, Tupac, may have been set up by the government. Shakur’s advice to rap artists is, “I don't care who you are or what you do, when they put that microphone in front of you, try to make sure you have something worthwhile to say.”85

Rapping for the Cause

The case of Assata Shakur proves that rap music has retained some of its political credibility. There are a multitude of rap artists who have resisted mainstream rap culture and continue to promote the cause of black liberation and spread Shakur’s story. Many listeners of mainstream rap music, as well as scholars who study the music, agree that rap music lacks political significance in the 21st century.86 Some listeners and scholars like Errol Henderson have argued that rap has become a “fad” over time, as the lyrics have evolved into subjects like

82 Assata Shakur, “Assata Shakur: The Interview,” The Talking Drum, (1998), accessed November 30, 2011, http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/bla4.html. 83 Ibid. 84 Ibid. 85 Ibid. 86 Terri M. Adams and Douglas B. Fuller, “The Words Have Changed but the Ideology Remains the Same: Misogynistic Lyrics in Rap Music,” Journal of Black Studies 36, no. 6 (2006): 938-957, accessed January 28, 2011, http://www.jstor.org/.

26 sex and violence.87 Henderson believes that rap had more emotional power as a genre when rap artists had a cause to promote.88

However, many members of the black liberation movement believe that rap and hip-hop are still relevant to promoting political activism among youth. A recent study conducted among a wide variety of black and white adolescents concluded that while both black and white adolescents view rap favorably, blacks find more meaning and affirmation within the music, while whites listen more for entertainment value.89 This study is significant because most black artists who sing for a cause have the goal of appealing to black adolescents in order to get them involved in the continued struggle for Black Nationalism.90 Tupac’s sister, Setchua Shakur, believes that hip-hop allows youth to keep in context what is going on in their communities and how it became this way.91

Even Common, who is a mainstream artist and often sings about partying and women, has a social and political consciousness that he conveys to his audience. He may be the most successful artist at spreading Shakur’s cause because he writes songs that help him gain popularity in American culture, and then uses that popularity to spread a message to young adults of all races. Even though messages about Black Liberation are not often aimed at white audiences, or even well-received by them, any white listener who hears Common’s music will be educated about the horrors of black history and the story of Assata Shakur. His popularity as a rap artist is what makes white audiences interested and gives him an amount of political credibility. Common also collaborates with Cee-Lo, who is a mainstream rap artist popular

87 Errol Henderson, “Black Nationalism and Rap Music,” Journal of Black Studies 26, no. 3 (1996): 308-339, accessed January 28, 2011, http://www.jstor.org/. 88 Ibid. 89 Rachel E. Sullivan, “Rap and Race: It’s Got a Nice Beat, but What About the Message?” Journal of Black Studies 33, no. 5 (2003): 605-622, accessed January 28, 2011, http://www.jstor.org/. 90 Ibid. 91 Susan Motsack, “The Black Panther Party: Its Legacy and Importance Today,” Teen Talk Radio, CD-ROM (New York).

27 among white audiences, in “A Song for Assata,” which allows the song to have more appeal to a white audience.

Shakur’s story, though unique, is not the only story told by politically conscious rap artists. These artists have a history of writing songs referencing Black Nationalism and

COINTELPRO, as well as other political prisoners like Marilyn Buck, who assisted Shakur in her escape from prison. The Black August hip-hop movement has brought together a variety of politically conscious rap artists. Black August is a benefit concert held every year to spread awareness about political prisoners.92 The artists involved in the movement have also come together to record music in support of these prisoners, namely Assata Shakur and Mumia Abu

Jamal.

Abu-Jamal became “perhaps the best known Death-Row prisoner in the world” after he was sentenced to death for purportedly murdering Daniel Faulkner, a Philadelphia police officer.93 Much like Shakur, Abu-Jamal was a member of the east coast Black Panther Party and was targeted by COINTELPRO for his association with the Party. Shakur has served as an inspiration to Abu-Jamal, and he has spoken out on her behalf on many occasions. In one of his public broadcasts, Abu-Jamal spoke in Shakur’s honor and stated that “to label this woman a terrorist is to bleed all meaning from the word.”94 He argued that “she was terrorized by a system that wanted to punish her for daring to rebel.”95 Shakur has since taken up Abu-Jamal’s cause as well, and has published many letters to him. On his birthday, Shakur wrote a letter to

92 Dhoruba bin Wahad, Legacy of the BPP, CD-ROM (San Francisco: The Freedom Archives). 93 Commonwealth v. Abu-Jamal, Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, First Judicial District, Philadelphia, Case Nos. 1357-59. 94 Mumia Abu-Jamal, Assata Shakur (May 13, 2005), accessed April 18, 2011, www.youtube.com. 95 Ibid.

28

Abu-Jamal stating that his “voice has always been strong and unwavering” and he has “indeed been the ‘voice of the voiceless.’”96

Abu-Jamal’s trial and imprisonment have gained notoriety throughout the world by groups like the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which argue against racism and capital punishment.97 He has also gained international support by being named an honorary citizen of over 25 cities, including Paris, Montreal, and Copenhagen; and he has recently had a street named after him in Paris.98 Abu-Jamal is a star in popular culture, including television, movies, and music. Like Shakur, Abu-Jamal has become a common character in rap and hip-hop music. He has had songs written and performed about his story by Mos Def, Eminem, Snoop

Dogg, and Immortal Technique. However, Abu-Jamal has not only been a popular icon among black artists performing for black audiences; he has also been honored by rock bands and other popular music groups throughout the world. For example, he has had songs dedicated to him by rock bands, Rage Against the Machine and Anti-Flag. In Anti-Flag’s “Vices,” Abu-Jamal is featured discussing the injustices within the United States Prison System.99 Anti-Flag dedicated another song to Abu-Jamal titled, “Free Mumia.” Abu-Jamal was also referenced by the popular band, Chumbawamba, who chanted “Free Mumia Abu-Jamal” on The Late Show with David

Letterman.100

Despite Abu-Jamal’s celebrity within popular and political culture, his story does not overshadow Shakur’s. Abu-Jamal has gained his notoriety because people around the world are angered with the United States’ penal system and the threat of capital punishment that he faces,

96 Assata Skakur, Birthday Greeting to Mumia Abu-Jamal, accessed April 18, 2011, http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/our-prisoners-war-pow/7229-birthday-greeting-mumia-abu-jamal.html. 97 "A Life in the Balance: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal," Amnesty International, February 17, 2000, http://web.archive.org/web/20071211192158/http://www.amnesty.org/en/report/info/AMR51/001/2000. 98 J. Patrick O’Connor, The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal (Chicago: Laurence Hill Books, 2008), 199. 99 Anti-Flag, “Vices,” Bright Lights of America (2008). 100 Chumbawamba, “Tubthumping,” The Late Show with David Letterman (January 2008), accessed April 18, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDkVQvhZx04.

29 despite questions about the legitimacy of his trial. Thus, Abu-Jamal represents a continued need to battle for black liberation. On the other hand, although Shakur’s trial and imprisonment have stirred anger among blacks in the United States and people abroad, she stands out as a significant figure as a result of the hope and heroism that she provides for the black community. Rap artists are drawn to her cause because she is like an “escaped slave, a heroine, not unlike Harriet

Tubman.”101 They have been able to use this heroism to rally positive support from black youth and rap audiences.

101 Mos Def, “Assata Shakur: The Government’s Terrorist is our Community’s Heroine,” accessed April 18, 2011, http://www.assatashakur.org/mosdef.htm.

30

Chapter 3

Continuing Struggle

We can't afford to be spectators while our lives deteriorate. We have to truly love our people and work to make that love stronger.102

An overriding belief among former Black Panthers and current black liberationists is that there needs to be a change in the way that Americans view the Black Panther Party and the struggle for black liberation. Setchua Shakur explains that the Party was more about the Panther

Papers and free breakfast rather than about guns.103 Panthers were taught to believe that everyone should love everyone and their main fight was for the redistribution of wealth.104 She believes that the United States has portrayed the Party in a negative light and this portrayal needs to change in order to continue the struggle.105 Assata Shakur hopes that Americans will understand how the “BPP gave people a rhyme and a reason.”106 She realizes the legacy of the

BPP, which is that it helped society view black people sovereignly, and hopes that one day all

Americans will share the same opinion. Shakur acknowledges that black people with guns spark fear and terror, but she hopes that the movement for black liberation will allow black people with guns and politics to be viewed as revolutionaries.107 Dhoruba bin Wahad attributes the lack of knowledge about black liberation in society to the fact that the “FBI ransacks history.”108 It is for this reason that there is such a misconception about the Black Panther Party and its legacy.

102 Assata Shakur, “Resources,” Assata Shakur Speaks, accessed November 30, 2011, www.assatashakur.org. 103Susan Motsack, “The Black Panther Party: Its Legacy and Importance Today,” Teen Talk Radio, CD-ROM (New York). 104 Ibid. 105 Ibid. 106 Dhoruba bin Wahad, Legacy of the BPP, CD-ROM (San Francisco: The Freedom Archives). 107 Ibid. 108 Ibid.

31

Prison Reform

With the help of rap artists, Shakur has successfully been able to spread her story and ideology to a variety of black audiences. She strongly believes that the United States still upholds the institution of slavery within its prison system, and that blacks are still continuously criminalized in order to maintain white supremacy.109 Shakur often justifies crime among the black population in the United States because she believes that crime is a necessity for the oppressed.110 Throughout her autobiography, Shakur provides anecdotes about her friend, Tina, who steals to support herself, as well as her friend, Miss Shirley, who prostitutes herself for her livelihood.111 Shakur sympathetically portrays characters like these in her writings to argue for the necessity of crime when systems in the United States create barriers to the survival of blacks.

Shakur feels that, although she has escaped direct oppression in the prisons, she still suffers the effects of oppression by the United States from her asylum in Cuba. She does not have true freedom because she was forcefully disconnected from her family and friends and is unable to return home to her native country.112 She also will never be able to liberate herself from the emotional impact of prison “slavery,” including the years of discrimination, battering and attempted rape that have shaped her ideologies and hatred of the United States.113

Shakur’s goal for her activism is to call to action the blacks of African descent in the

United States. Her purpose in doing this is to bring about the realization among her people that the discrimination they experience in everyday life should not be accepted, but should stir up anger at the fact that the system of slavery of blacks in America still exists. Many prison reformers argue that the prison system supports the phenomenon of “felony

109 Assata Shakur, interview by Dorsey Nunn, Yesterday is Not Too Soon, 1997. 110 Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1987), 77. 111 Ibid. 112 Ibid., 266. 113 Ibid.

32 disenfranchisement.”114 Today, 30% of the population of black men is imprisoned.115 Due to the fact that prisoners do not have the right to vote in the United States, this large portion of the black population has been disenfranchised. Shakur believes that this is an act of discrimination and suppression against black people and encourages other blacks to educate themselves and fight for reform.

Shakur argues that United States prisons are concentration camps within a police state and she calls upon all Americans to support political prisoners, as well as prisoners of war.116

She acknowledges that support in prison makes a huge difference to the prisoners’ experience there. Since these prisoners have been victimized, she encourages communities to be more involved and understanding of the situation of prisoners. In 1989, citizens of New York showed their support for Shakur by naming a community center in Harlem after her. The city government pushed for the center to be renamed, but New York City Councilman and former

Black Panther Charles Baron took a stand in order to save the center, arguing that, “You can’t determine who our heroine is.”117 He stated, “We won’t tolerate people who build more prisons than schools.”118

To people in prisons, Shakur says, “Do not let anybody try to turn you into an animal.”119

Prisoners need to understand that they are there to grow and gain a better understanding about the need for change in the United States.

Women in the Struggle

Although Shakur is very adamant about prison reform in general, she feels closest to the cause of freeing women from prisons. Since 1977, the population of women in prison has risen

114 Dhoruba bin Wahad, Legacy of the BPP, CD-ROM (San Francisco: The Freedom Archives). 115 Ibid. 116 Assata Shakur, interview by Dorsey Nunn, Yesterday is Not Too Soon, 1997. 117 Dhoruba bin Wahad, Legacy of the BPP, CD-ROM (San Francisco: The Freedom Archives). 118 Ibid. 119 Assata Shakur, interview by Dorsey Nunn, Yesterday is Not Too Soon, 1997.

33

757 percent.120 Shakur believes that there needs to be alternatives to prison for mothers. These women are separated from their families and Shakur states that “their children are being thrown in the street.”121 She acknowledges that during her time in prison, “one of the most raging pains

[she] had was being separated from [her] child.”122 In many cases, children are forbidden from visiting prisons. Shakur attributes many of the issues with violence and drugs among youth to the absence of their mothers, who are in prison. It is because of the growing phenomenon of women in prison that Shakur feels it is important for women to become activists in both the prison reform movement and the black liberation movement.

Shakur’s most recent area of activism is getting black women involved in the movement for black liberation. In a message from Cuba, Shakur argued that “black people will never be free unless black women participate in every aspect of our struggle.”123 Throughout her years in the Black Panther Party, women were heavily excluded from the movement for black liberation.

She senses that part of this was sexism on the part of male Party members, while part of it is apathy among black women.124 Today, it is black women who are primarily recognizing the urgency of the situation that African Americans face. It is women who have the responsibility of raising children and dealing with the welfare system, schools and doctors. Shakur acknowledges that women “see their kids grow too old too soon.”125 Shakur believes that the black struggle is

120 Robert Kravitz, “Women in Prisons,” April 5, 2010, http://www.corrections.com/news/article/23873-women-in- prisons. 121 Assata Shakur, interview by Dorsey Nunn, Yesterday is Not Too Soon, 1997. 122 Ibid. 123 Assata Shakur, “Message to My Sistas,” Social Justice Movements, accessed April 19, 2011, http://socialjustice.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/index.php/Assata_shakur. 124 Ibid. 125 Assata Shakur, interview by Dorsey Nunn, Yesterday is Not Too Soon, 1997.

34 primarily lacking masses of people who care deeply about the cause.126 The only way that

Shakur’s goals for her race can be attained is if all black people, especially women, join the fight.

126 Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1987), 267.

35

Conclusion

I am still a revolutionary, because I believe that in the United States there needs to be a complete and profound change in the system of so called democracy.127

In an interview with Dorsey Nunn in 1997, Shakur was asked how her political ideologies have changed after all that she has been through. Her response was that she believes in “freedom and justice for all people and self-determination for the oppressed.”128 She believes that the priorities of all people need to change from gaining profit and destroying the planet to building a world community and providing protection for all people.129 She believes that socialism is an integral part in making these changes.130 Unfortunately for Shakur, she sees the

United States government moving in the direction of the right wing. She explains that blacks are becoming expendable as excess labor that can merely be replaced by machines.131 As a result of the United States government, blacks will have no future in America.132

Shakur’s advice to future generations of blacks is that they should not have a “subjective, distorted view of fear. [They] need to stay calm and look at the reality in America.”133 She uses

United States history to warn youth that the American government is capable of anything – they wiped out the Native Americans and created a culture where black children are on drugs and selling their bodies.134 She argues that integration, legislation, and the ballot won’t win black

127 Assata Shakur, “Assata Shakur: The Interview,” The Talking Drum (1998), accessed November 30, 2011, http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/bla4.html. 128 Assata Shakur, interview by Dorsey Nunn, Yesterday is Not Too Soon, 1997. 129 Ibid. 130 Ibid. 131 Ibid. 132 Ibid. 133 Ibid. 134 Ibid.

36 liberation; instead, a black nation needs to be formed.135 Shakur urges black youth to take this advice because they are “victims of America, not citizens of America.”136

After collaborating with rap artists like Common, Shakur has ventured to record her own rap music, with her debut song, “I Love Tha Future.” In this song she expresses her wish to

“make it sweet” because she wants to be “free to live.”137 She also continues to write poetry in order to express her feelings and to spread her story to her loved ones and supporters from whom she has been separated.

Despite efforts by a small group of twenty-first century rap artists to politicize their music, rap and hip hop continue to have a stigma as a result of the violent and misogynistic themes that are often portrayed. Even Setchua Shakur, the sister of one of the most politically conscious rap artists of the twentieth century, argues that in many ways rap music demonstrates that slavery still exists in the United States. She calls on blacks to “understand [that] chains have been taken off our wrists and placed on our minds.”138 Rap music keeps the black race oppressed through the promotion of drugs, “gangsta” names, and “gang-banging.”139 Setchua believes that rap music has declined in political relevance over the years and urges rappers to pay more attention to the government and form stronger connections with local communities.

In order to overcome negative stereotypes against rap, American youth need to be educated about the cultural circumstances behind derogatory themes in rap music. Ironically, rap artists are able to do the teaching by spreading positive political messages to youth through their music. While Shakur strives to reach youth through her own writings and interviews, she

135 Ibid. 136 Ibid. 137 Assata Shakur, I Love Tha Future, MP3, 4:26, accessed April 18, 2011, http://www.assatashakur.org/ilovethafuture.htm. 138 Dhoruba bin Wahad, Legacy of the BPP, CD-ROM (San Francisco: The Freedom Archives). 139 Ibid.

37 understands the connection that rap artists have with young audiences. Assata Shakur’s story and the political causes for which she stands provide rap artists with a means with which they can promote the cause of black liberation and spread it among young blacks.

38

Affirmation By Assata Shakur

i believe in living. i believe in the spectrum of Beta days and Gamma people. i believe in sunshine. In windmills and waterfalls, tricycles and rocking chairs; And i believe that seeds grow into sprouts. And sprouts grow into trees. i believe in the magic of the hands. And in the wisdom of the eyes. i believe in rain and tears. And in the blood of infinity. i believe in life. And i have seen the death parade march through the torso of the earth, sculpting mud bodies in its path i have seen the destruction of the daylight and seen bloodthirsty maggots prayed to and saluted i have seen the kind become the blind and the blind become the bind in one easy lesson. i have walked on cut grass. i have eaten crow and blunder bread and breathed the stench of indifference i have been locked by the lawless. Handcuffed by the haters. Gagged by the greedy. And, if i know anything at all, it's that a wall is just a wall and nothing more at all. It can be broken down. i believe in living i believe in birth. i believe in the sweat of love and in the fire of truth. And i believe that a lost ship, steered by tired, seasick sailors, can still be guided home to port.140

140 Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1987), 3.

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Appendix A

A Song for Assata By Common

Common, born Lonnie Rashied Lynn and formerly known as Common Sense, began his career in the underground rap scene in the early 1990’s. He gained popularity for his political consciousness, supporting the causes of numerous political prisoners, arguing against themes of violence and misogyny in rap music, and striving to better the lives of children in Uganda. In 2000, he made a deal with MCA records and produced his first major record, Like Water for Chocolate. Since then he has been nominated for numerous Grammy’s, winning Best Rap Solo Performance for “The Light” in 2001. Recently, Common has put more focus on his career as an actor.141

(Common) In the Spirit of God. In the Spirit of the Ancestors. In the Spirit of the Black Panthers. In the Spirit of Assata Shakur. We make this movement towards freedom for all those who have been oppressed, and all those in the struggle. Yeah. yo, check it-

There were lights and sirens, gunshots firin' Cover your eyes as I describe a scene so violent Seemed like a bad dream, she laid in a blood puddle Blood bubbled in her chest, cold air brushed against open flesh No room to rest, pain consumed each breath Shot twice with' her hands up Police questioned but shot before she answered One Panther lost his life, the other ran for his Scandalous the police were as they kicked and beat her Comprehension she was beyond, try'na hold on to life. She thought she'd live with no arm that's what it felt like, got to the hospital, eyes held tight They moved her room to room-she could tell by the light Handcuffed tight to the bed, through her skin it bit Put guns to her head, every word she got hit "Who shot the trooper?" they asked her Put mace in her eyes, threatened to blast her Her mind raced till things got still Opened her eyes, realized she's next to her best friend who got killed She got chills, they told her: that's where she would be next Hurt mixed with' anger-survival was a reflex They lied and denied visits from her lawyer

141 Steve Huey, “Common: Biography,” All Music, accessed December 6, 2011, http://www.allmusic.com/artist/common-p276488/biography.

40

But she was buildin' as they tried to destroy her If it wasn't for this German nurse they woulda served her worse I read this sister's story, knew that it deserved a verse I wonder what would happen if that woulda been me? All this shit so we could be free, so dig it, y'all.

(Cee-lo vocals) I'm thinkin' of Assata, yes. Listen to my Love, Assata, yes. Your Power and Pride is beautiful. May God bless your Soul.

(Common) It seemed like the middle of the night when the law awakened her Walkie-talkies cracklin', I see 'em when they takin' her Though she kinda knew, What made the ride peaceful was the trees and the sky was blue Arrived to Middlesex Prison about six inna morning Uneasy as they pushed her to the second floor in a cell, one cot, no window, facing hell. Put in the basement of a prison with' all males And the smell of misery, seatless toilets and centipedes She'd exercise, (paint?,) and begin to read Two years inna hole. Her soul grew weak Away from people so long she forgot how to speak She discovered freedom is a unspoken sound And a wall is a wall and can be broken down Found peace in the Panthers she went on trial with One of the brothers she had a child with The foulness they would feed her, hopin she's lose her seed Held tight, knowing the fight would live through this seed In need of a doctor, from her stomach she's bleed Out of this situation a girl was conceived Separated from her, left to mother the Revolution And lactated to attack hate Cause federal and state was built for a Black fate Her emptiness was filled with beatings and court dates They fabricated cases, hoping one would stick And said she robbed places that didn't exist In the midst of threats on her life and being caged with Aryan whites Through dark halls of hate she carried the light I wonder what would happen if that woulda been me? All of this shit so we could be free. Yeah, I often wonder what would happen if that woulda been me? All of this shit so we could be free, so dig it, people (Cee-Lo)

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I'm thinkin' of Assata, yeah. Listen to my Love, Assata, yeah. Your Power and Pride, so Beautiful... May God bless your Soul. Oooh.

(Common) Yo From North Carolina her grandmother would bring news that she had had a dream Her dreams always meant what they needed them to mean What made them real was the action in between She dreamt that Assata was free in they old house in Queens The fact that they always came true was the thing Assata had been convicted of a murder she could'na done Medical evidence shown she could’na shot the gun It's time for her to see the sun from the other side Time for her daughter to be by her mother's side Time for this Beautiful Woman to become soft again Time for her to breathe, and not be told how or when She untangled the chains and escaped the pain How she broke out of prison I could never explain And even to this day they try to get to her but she's free with political asylum in Cuba.

(Cee-Lo vocals) I'm thinkin' of Assata, yeah. Listen to my Love, Assata, yeah. We're molded from the same mud, Assata. We share the same Blood, Assata, yeah. Your Power and Pride, so Beautiful... May God bless your Soul. Your Power and Pride, so Beautiful... May God bless your Soul. Oooh.

(Assata) Freedom! You askin' me about freedom. Askin' me about freedom? I'll be honest with you. I know a whole more about what freedom isn't than about what it is, cause I've never been free. I can only share my vision with you of the future, about what freedom is. Uhh, the way I see it, freedom is-- is the right to grow, is the right to blossom. Freedom is -is the right to be yourself, to be who you are, to be who you wanna be, to do what you wanna do.142

142 Thomas Decarlo Burton, A Song for Assata, CD-ROM, performed by Common, (2000; MCA Records).

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Appendix B

Gotta Give the Peeps What they Need By Public Enemy

Public Enemy was formed by rapper Chuck D in 1982 while he was attending college at Adelphi University. The group became an instant hit, paving the way for politically-conscious rap, primarily through its support of black militancy. The group hit a lull in the 1990’s when various members experienced run-ins with the law and struggled with drug abuse. However, in 2002, they made a comeback with the album Revolverlution, which reintroduced their black liberationist attitudes to a twenty-first century audience.143

Our society is fucked up, they're fucking our brothers and sisters up These white motherfuckers have fucked us up... This ain't by no goddamn accident...

Cameras, action, lights What, lookout, civil rights Whiplash, po-po, fed-killers, killin' kids Crisis, c'mon, get it now, sound COINTEL, going down Projects, pop offs, issues, payback Sickness, lockdown, get it Free Mumia and H. Rap Brown

Before you get what you want, gotta give the people what they need

What you know about Soul If you gots none then we'll loan ya some...

C'mon!

Flow on, the project, the pop off Low tempo to go off, COINTEL better go to hell Bout that time hear the bell y'all .. (c'mon) Gotta lotta nerve never knowing Assata Gotcha mind wading in the water.. contract.. Gotcha! Motown, Stax, bring the beat back (Bring that beat back!) The Sound, free Mumia and H. Rap Brown Sure enough going down now Jamil Al Amin, nahmean? (yeah) Y'all missin' this is like dissin' this See your Uncle Sam pissing on this

143 Steven Thomas Erlewin, “Public Enemy: Biography,” All Music, accessed December 6, 2011, http://www.allmusic.com/artist/public-enemy-p86/biography.

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He's running real low on my shit list Take 'em all out with the quickness

Before you get what you want, gotta give the people what they need Before you get what you want, gotta give the people what they need

Cameras, action, lights What, lookout, civil rights Whiplash, po-po, fed-killers, killin' kids Crisis, c'mon, get it now, sound COINTEL, going down Lookout!

Before you get what you want.. gotta give the people what they need Before you get what you want.. gotta give the people what they need Before you get what you want.. gotta give the people what they need Before you get what you want.. gotta give the people what they need

New breed of MC and get the flow on Body, mind, soul enough to go on Ughh!! Better go on Gotta get on so I can spit on Guitar to get on the pick on (damn) Shuffle now, the popcorn Free H. Rap c'mon Nothing new uhh.. better walk on Ughhh... get my talk on Never knew how to get your money on So on and so on Do it like Mike - "Sha-mon!" The original right here, Uptown Saturday Night Uggghhh, get it, and get your head right Ya'll don't know nothin' about this ... ughhh Real thing ughhh make your soul ring

Before you get what you want… gotta give the people what they need Before you get what you want… gotta give the people what they need

Cameras, action, lights What, lookout, civil rights Whiplash, po-po, fed-killers, killin' kids Crisis, c'mon, get it now, sound COINTEL, going down Going down, going down, going down, going down Going down, down, down, down144

144 John Rosado, Gotta Give the Peeps what They Need. Public Enemy, CD-ROM (2002).

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Appendix C

Assata’s Song By Paris

Paris began his career in rap music in the Bay Area, after earning an economics degree from the University of California. He first worked with Tommy Boy Records, producing his first album, The Devil Made Me Do It, in 1990. He quickly gained notoriety as an artist when his music was banned from MTV for its politically controversial messages. He released four more albums, including Guerilla Funk, throughout the 1990’s and has recently begun to focus on an acting career.145

Thinkin’ of you, and how the perception came to pass Of a Queen bein’ just a piece of ass So I ask ya how that sound It’s for the sistas I missed the last time round Because I can’t forget what ya been through Can’t forget the hardships in what you do So I’m payin’ ya the ultimate respect Because I love ya and that’s what you should get And it’s a shame that it comes as a surprise From the man in the land of do or die That the word could ever reach and educate It ain’t nothin’ but a style to set us straight And I’m raised right, so ladies still first But smooth with the groove for the fools that doubt your worth Still thinkin’ of a master plan to protect and respect Cause the fact is I love the black woman

And anyway I remember there was a time When I would see ya and try and go for mine Push up in the guts for a month or two Leave a stamp, break camp, y’all know the rules And if somethin’ went wrong it was your fault The time was cut short and so were the phone calls Then someone would ask if I know ya Come up in my face and I would be like "what?" "who?" But then I seen that the game was ignorant The time had come for me to break away from that Don’t ya know there ain’t no future in hurtin’ our own? It’s bad enough that the trust and love are gone So I strive for one to provide for and hold and take And elevate and die for So many people wanna destroy But I can’t and I won’t stop ever bein’ true to black women

145 “Biography: Hard Truth Soldier,” Guerrilla Funk Recordings: Paris, accessed December 6, 2011, http://www.parismusiconline.com/#!bio.

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Now brothers, one last note to help us Keep check cause some are livin’ life reckless Runnin’ with women who don’t have respect for self And too foul to wanna get help And sister ya don’t need a man Who cheats and mistreats and beats ya bad It’s better to have nothin’ then somethin’ at all And end up like a case bein’ worse than a close call So listen to the message in the song It ain’t nothin’ but a way to make us strong Quit bein’ so quick to chase the juice And diss us tryin’ to taste another’s fruit In the land of Ameri - ka -ka -ka I gotta hold my own and stay down with ya Cause everybody wants to wreck But I’ma love ya and show respect I need ya black woman146

146 Paris, Assata’s Song, CD-ROM (1990; Guerilla Funk Recordings and Filmworks).

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