by Minister of Information JR

The cover of Bicasso’s “Rebel Musiq” When people say rebel music, I automatically think of the classic Bob Marley song where he captured the pain, passion and rebellious spirit of an era. Now two decades and some change later, in 2009 Oakland, artists like Bicasso are the musical spokespeople for criminalized Black neighborhoods that are literally at war with the police; must I remind you of the cases of Oscar Grant and Lovelle Mixon?

While the mainstream media continues to portray young Black males specifically and Black people in general as only athletes, criminals and entertainers, the Black community of Oakland has always depended on independent music to truly inform and inspire us, from the times of the Black Panther Party, which was founded in Oakland, singing “Piggy Wiggy” or “Free Huey” or whether it was Askari X explaining how he felt to be “A Ward of the State” or violence in our community with “Giants versus Giants.”

Bicasso is fruit from that tree and is continuing that legacy today. “Rebel Musiq” hits stores May 5. Make sure you get it. And until then, here is Bicasso in his own words talking on everything from his new album to Oscar Grant and Lovelle Mixon.

Malcolm X MOI JR: How did you come up with the title of your record, “Rebel Musiq”? And tell us a little about what went into making this album.

Bicasso: The title of the record just came outta wanting to put a stamp on the project that says exactly what it is: some music that goes against the grain from a lot of what corporate America and the minds of the masses are thinking about. It’s a call for action.

The album is a concept album, in the sense that it’s a collaboration between me and Dj Fresh. He made all of the beats. To me, when I heard his production, it reminded me of a lot of what the Town could feel, but with a different twist to it, stylistically. I had never heard beats like that before, but I felt they could be well received by Black people and the masses that are mostly tuned into the radio.

So my idea was to write a “street conscious” record that touched on issues as they related to the people, rather than one that was just self-serving typical subject matter; kind of trick heads into bumpin’ something that could benefit them lyrically but never lose that slap.

MOI JR: What did you think about the police murder of Oscar Grant? and about the Oakland rebellions?

Bicasso: The police murder of Oscar Grant was a horrific glimpse of the state of America right now. As it is, racism and classism are still alive, and they dictate the methods and tactics implemented by the police.

That murder was the first thing to set off the New Year in Oakland, and that’s some shit! To me it meant that there is no time to sit and be wondering what needs to be done. It’s either move or be moved on.

Assata Shakur So we mobilized as a community, much in part by the fact that technology had made it possible for even the most complacent to be outraged, simply by turning on YouTube and checking it out. I wonder what the turnout of young Black kids would have been had the incident been suppressed and never caught on tape.

It’s a lot more things just like this and beyond that we need to be paying attention to and demanding change from. It’s an eye opener, a glimpse of just the tip of the iceberg of what to be prepared for at any moment.

MOI JR: What do you think about Lovelle Mixon killing four police before he was killed?

Bicasso: So that brings us to Lovelle Mixon and the same scenario of taking the law into our own hands and playing out the court, judge and jury, all in one swoop. There was no surrendering or going back to prison for this young man. He took his destiny by the horns and ended up leaving an everlasting mark on America.

Unfortunately, the magnitude of the incident has taken away most of the leverage - politically - from the Oscar Grant case, in that the system will be able to justify uses of excess force and abuse by lobbying around the Mixon case. But in all, I have to say that guns in the streets and guns in the hands of young, inexperienced cops is a recipe for destruction, oppression, disparity. Greed and fear can only go on so long before there is a scenario like this that is played out.

I feel that many people feel helpless in the face of the police and, even worse, what awaits them after the courts are finished with them, in the prison system, parole, unemployment etc. It’s designed to end up at a dead end, so it really doesn’t surprise me, especially within the culture of violence that our society embraces, that something like this would eventually take place.

Violence is not the answer, but it sure is a trip when the tables turn. May God bless all that have lost.

MOI JR: How do you think these two historic incidents will affect the Bay Area? How will it affect the Bay Area’s music scene?

Huey P. Newton Bicasso: I’m not sure how it affects the Bay beyond the fact that it actually went down here, and it’s almost like another chapter in our extremely rich text of rebellion and revolt, as sad as it is. There will always be rallies and people that are aware of what’s going on out here, but at the same time there is a huge amount of apathy and ignorance purveying the streets, and heads are falling into the exact conditioning that the system wants to flourish.

So unless the youth begin to wake up and see their position in all of this as the voice of the streets and the pulse of the people within the music and their power to organize - and make change - then Oakland and the Bay have a long way to go. There is so much raw talent focused towards violence and a self-serving role of expression.

It is obvious to me that our battle is much bigger than either of these shootings. We have to begin to take our minds back, and that is a very abstract thing to think about, and abstractions are hard to concentrate on in the face of the media and all the other distractions that exist. It’s big!

MOI JR: Can you tell us a little bit about the workshop you host: Beats, Flows and Videos? How did it start? What do y’all do? And how can people join?

Bicasso: Yeah, I do a workshop at the East Side Arts Alliance at 2277 International Blvd in East Oakland. It’s called “Beats and Flows.” Basically it’s a resource for youth to come through and make music, receive mentoring and learn about their role in the legacy of movement building and organizing through the arts.

I focus on writing and building personal character and morals with the youth, and DJ Fresh assists me with the software based production element. We both lace game on recording techniques, the industry, and what it takes to be really doing it, for yourself and the community at the same time. It’s a free class, with some basic guidelines, and small monthly dues, offered Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m. Come down and check us out.

MOI JR: How’s the rest of the Living Legends crew?

Bicasso: The crew is doing real good right now. We are working on releasing various albums throughout the spring - “Rebel Musiq” being one of them - and looking to collab in the studio to finish up the crew album and hopefully tour this fall.

The music has reached a very mature and eloquent level, and it’s really been a blessing for all of us to still be doing this and staying relevant through the test of time. Legends, Baby!

MOI JR: Where can people get “Rebel Music”? And how do they stay online with you?

Bicasso: Check for “Rebel Musiq” at your local Mom and Pop record shops (Amoeba, etc.) or place an order for it online at Legendary Music. Also check for paintbrushfunk.com coming soon, which is a website that will focus on everything Bicasso and beyond. A lot of visual art that I make will also be available there as well. Some real sick stuff.

Minister of Information JR Email POCC Minister of Information JR, Bay View associate editor, at blockreportradio@gmail.com and visit www.blockreportradio.com.

by Mary Ratcliff

Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now, interviews Robert Rosenthal, executive director of the Chauncey Bailey Project, her only source for Democracy Now’s coverage of the murder of Chauncey Bailey on April 17, 2009. Today’s Democracy Now show dramatized the crying need for a Black community perspective in the news when host Amy Goodman reported on the latest developments in the case of Chauncey Bailey’s murder by interviewing ONLY a representative of the Chauncey Bailey Project, a coalition of mainstream journalists whose goal, according to their website, “is to hammer home this point: ‘You can’t kill a story by killing a journalist.’”

Democracy Now, broadcast weekdays on 750 stations around the country, including KPFA, is to me an essential news source and I try never to miss it. While the show is generally respectful of the Black community, the lack of a Black perspective on this issue was painful.

Who else could Democracy Now have talked to? How about the person who worked most closely with Chauncey Bailey and knew more than anyone else what stories Chauncey was working on: Paul Cobb, publisher of the Oakland Post, where Chauncey was the editor.

Paul has said from his first utterance after Chauncey was killed that Chauncey had been investigating the Oakland Police Department. No one - certainly not the Chauncey Bailey Project team - followed up.

Paul also says Chauncey was looking into misconduct by Jerry Brown, the immediate past mayor of Oakland and currently the California attorney general. Again, no follow-up.

Both the Oakland Police Department and Attorney General Brown are investigating Chauncey’s murder; both apparently assume that Chauncey was killed to kill a story he was working on. But so far as I know, no one is considering the possibility that the stories Chauncey was writing about them - the OPD and AG Brown - may have given them a motive.

On Jan. 28, 2009, the Post published a front page story headlined “Police Chief Resigns” with the subheads “Chief Tucker: ‘We Made Mistakes’ in Bailey Case; Bailey Investigated Attorney General Brown, Police Corruption, Drugs and Murder” under the byline “Post staff.” Beginning with the eighth paragraph, the story reads:

“Former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, now the State Attorney General, is also [in addition to the OPD and Judge Henry Ramsey Jr., former Alameda County Superior Court judge and dean of Howard University School of Law] conducting an investigation into the Oakland Police Department’s handling of the killing of Bailey, who was editor of the Oakland Post.

Mourners filled the church to overflowing for Chauncey Bailey's funeral Aug. 8, 2007. - Photo: Minister of Information JR “Brown is participating in the investigation, even though Bailey at the time of his death was investigating allegations of misconduct in the OPD, including murder, drugs, murder investigations, corruption and allegations of misconduct on the part of then Mayor Brown.

“Just weeks prior to his death, Bailey had written a story about Officer Bob Valladon. According to Post publisher Paul Cobb, Bailey reported that he had a ‘frightening phone call’ from Valladon that ‘scared me.’ He said it was the first time he had felt threatened by a police officer who warned Bailey to ‘not ask any more questions’ from him or his other officers.

“Bailey had also sought answers from Brown and City Attorney John Russo concerning Brown’s destruction of police and economic development records prior to his departure from the mayor’s office.”

In this story, Paul Cobb’s newspaper was implying that the OPD and Brown should be investigated as suspects in Chauncey’s murder, yet nearly three months later the investigation continues to focus solely on Yusuf Bey IV and Your Black Muslim Bakery.

Chauncey Bailey was probably the best known Black journalist in the Bay Area, yet his own Black newspaper is ignored by every agency investigating his murder. Justice for this Black journalist cannot be achieved by silencing Black journalism.

The Black public affairs show on KPFA that the Bay View has long championed could point out to a vast audience this critical disparity between the priorities of the Black press - both the Oakland Post and the Bay View, which has published many stories on this issue* - and those of the Chauncey Bailey Project, whose executive director, Robert Rosenthal, who happens to be white, was the only person interviewed this morning by Amy Goodman in her coverage of the Chauncey Bailey case.

By interviewing no one else or mentioning no other perspective on the case besides that of the San Francisco Chronicle, Democracy Now is implying that the Black press and the Black community has nothing significant to say about the murder of the Black editor of a Black newspaper. I wonder what Chauncey would say about that.

Ironically, Chauncey was fired after a dozen years as a staff writer for Oakland’s daily newspaper, the Tribune. Reportedly, Tribune management considered him too strong an advocate for the Black community. They also may have resented the fact that he wrote for a Black paper, the San Francisco-based Sun Reporter, during the years he was writing for the Tribune.

Democracy Now is implying that the Black press and the Black community has nothing significant to say about the murder of the Black editor of a Black newspaper. I wonder what Chauncey Bailey would say about that.

They also, I suspect, were uncomfortable with his frequent criticism of the Oakland Police Department. He often wrote about the OPD’s penchant for shutting down Black clubs and other venues. The Tribune is the lead medium in the Chauncey Bailey Project, which has not, unless I missed it, ever mentioned that the Tribune fired Chauncey.

A comment posted by a reader at the end of the Bay View story, “The Black Hole at KPFA,” which argues for a Black public affairs show on KPFA, asserts: “During the ‘70s there was a brief period of time when Black journalism was in vogue, but the White power structure did not want an informed and knowledgeable Black populace. And from the late ‘70s to the present, the destruction and suppression of Black news in the media has been ongoing. KPFA is no exception. …

“So even in the nonprofit world of media [such as KPFA and Democracy Now], if the program or commentator is too raw or gets too close to the inconvenient truth that no one wants to look at much less deal with or presents a view that is not part of the mainstream (read: socially acceptable), then that program or commentator will not make it to the airways but BE BLACKED OUT!”

*Stories and videos at www.sfbayview.com on the murder of Chauncey Bailey and the press coverage of it include:
Betraying the legacy of Chauncey Bailey
Chauncey Bailey on ethnic media
A journalistic critique of the Chauncey Bailey Project
One on one with Yusuf Bey IV: Part 1
One on one with Yusuf Bey IV: Part 2
Investigating the assassination of Post Editor Chauncey Bailey, Part 1
Investigating the assassination of Post Editor Chauncey Bailey, Part 2
Investigating the assassination of Post Editor Chauncey Bailey, Part 3

Bay View editor Mary Ratcliff can be reached at editor@sfbayview.com.