Thug Life Army

This week (July 30-Aug 3rd) Las Vegas will play host to the 3rd National Hip Hop Political Convention. We sat down with Troy Nkrumah who heads up that organization to get a rundown as to what we should expect at this historic gathering.

He explained that the national Hip Hop Political Convention is broken up into two parts. The first couple of days will focus on the cultural aspects i.e. the traditional 4 elements. This year there will be a special B-Boy summit & competition hosted by icons like Pioneer Popmaster Fabel of the Rock Steady Crew.

There will also be s pecial mini-summit focusing on academia which will feature Hip Hop professors and teachers. Folks like author Jeff Chang, filmkare Byron Hurt and Asheru who we know from the Boondocks will be on hand.

There will also be a mini-summit focusing on being independent. Troy Nkrumah explained that Hip Hop since its beginnings has always had a do for self mentality and has proven over the years to be trendsetter in laying down the independent entrepreneuralial game in all sorts of areas ranging from setting up record labels to journalism. heading that portion of the convention will be the Bay Area local organizing committee, which is quite appropriate considering how deeply entrenched the independent game is..

During our interview, Troy Nkrumah addressed a number of important issues including;

1-What is the political agenda for the Hip Hop community? How is it different from the issues like healthcare and the economy, that are already being spoken about by the major Presidential candidates?

2-With Hip Hop's seeming love for beef and other trivial matters, how will the establishment and ultimate presentation of a Hip Hop Political agenda be taken seriously?

3-Does it make a difference as to who is running for office?

4-Is a Barack Obama a candidate for the Hip Hop generation considering his age and the large amounts of young people he has inspired to go involve themselves in his campaign?

5-What will the Hip Hop Community have to do after the election on November 3rd?

6-How do you see the Hip Hop Political agenda manifesting itself?

7-What's the role of organizations in helping bring about political change?

8-Is Hip Hop a cultural only for young people? What’s the role of elders within the Hip Hop community?

9-How are the young people involved with the Hip Hop Political convention different from the young people involved with the Obama campaign?

10-What's the response to author/ Professor John McWhoter's assertion that Hip Hop cannot save Black America? Are we having too many expectations on the merging of Hip Hop and Politics?

11-Why hold the convention in Las Vegas considering that it was just two years ago the sheriff was trying to ban Hip Hop on the strip? You guys lead the charge to to get him removed from office has there been any backlash?