“I didn’t invent Thug Life, I diagnosed it!” -Tupac Shakur

Malcolm X to the Panthers to Tupac

There is nothing so dangerous in America as an articulate Black Man.; except a Black man with something to say.  And today the Media, for the moment, may be in the hands of the people.  What a concept.

Is this the story of your life time?  Have you lived through any of this?  A Black Man with something to say and a way to be heard and seen and to be reckoned with.  Revolutionary!  With all respect to Gil Scott Heron and the Last Poets, this revolution is being televised.  In 1996 the revolution of Death Row Records was brought to you by MTV, St. Ides Malt Liquor, Timberland, Hilfiger, Hennessey and Ghetto Fabulous.  But the crack epidemic was brought to America by the CIA and Bush I in their entire drug running glory.  Did it bother anyone else that this 'mash-up' of a DVD was brought to you by the same MTV that pump-pumped-it-up ratings by fueling rumor and he-said, they-siad smack until it got both Biggie Smalls & Tupac killed?

Does it surprise anyone that during a time when the law furthering the education & employment of 'minorities' was enforced that the resulting rise of a black middle class was met with yet another attempt at genocide aka crack?  Heroin crippled and killed the best & brightest in the 1970's.  Incarceration of those who dared to stand up and declare 'by any means necessary' had only created a ‘twenty to life’ era of over crowded prisons and the occasional cause celebre.  A non response to Aids had had its ‘rule by fear’ uses. 

But crack? Watching a very young Tupac bring the truth from the crack infested & invested street to the NAACP was electrifying.  It was as a definitive a moment as the finger of God writing on the wall in Babylon.  Tupac even called them on abandoning his mother while she was going through rehab. This young man was above and beyond the time he lived through.

I lived in NYC when Afrika Bambatta & Fab 5 Freddie started something ORIGINAL!  Sampling and was the roadblock to a new form of creative expression.  And that is what we are being asked to consider when we discuss recut/reframe/recycle.  What is an Original?  Define Original image, sound, thought.  YOUR Original Idea expressed in any form is Intellectual Property.  Ownership, distribution, and reuse are at the crux of digital IP domain.

The Media may change in form.  While the need to express your own unique self is 'constant as the northen star'.  The challenge is to balance the rights of the artist with the needs of the Artiste. Individuals have traditionally responded to art, music, image, and thought with alters, shrines, parody, caricature, collage and homage; imitation being the most sincere form of flattery.  A spontaneous creative response should not be punishable by 'fine or imprisonment'.

And that is where the Centre for Social Media enters into this discussion. 

The American University's Centre for Social Media has our very own text book authoress Pat Auferheide ably at the helm.   Pat and Peter Jaszi are defining what is and is not the enemy.  You have got to love the Ford Foundation for funding this legal & ethical oddesy.

First writing a new law(s) is Sisyphean in its expected progress.  Apparently these two have attracted the best minds in the country and are doing just that.  Their Statement for Fair use is economical in defining the terrain of this skirmish.  I was even more impressed with both the Durinationar and Open Course Ware. 

The first program/website allows you to check material in the public domain.  The second is brought to us from those mensa minds at MIT.  Go to the website and read if you want to know details.  (I spent a lot of time on this website.  First, it is good to know that Pat is not yet another academic with 'publish or die' ringing in her ears.  It was great to see her laugh at the clever chipmunks clip included in the video.)I was intrigued by the recent Innovate/Activate Conference at NYLS and the fact that we are in the midst of this sea change.

The internet has made all Media from all times, available for All TIME.  How do you propose to control a Media Hydra that burns through YOUR life's work in seconds on YouTube?  Sony and Disney and Death Row Records are about the Benjamin’s and control.  Tupac called it the Illuminati after being in prison, and possibly died for giving this a name. 

Because to call your enemy by his true name is to seize power over your enemy.  From the Ancient World to the New World this is how you control and defeat your enemy. You pick your battles and name your enemy.  Just like Tupac, Afeni Shakur, the Panthers, The Last Poets, Mamie Till, and Malcolm X; carpe diem. To paraphrase; 'this is how WE roll' in Political Documentary!  All of the films we are watching have an unimagined afterlife on the Internet.

And with the establishment of the World Wide Web, utilizing innovative digital recording & transmission formats widely available to individuals, we may have achieved the ancient dream.  We are immortal.  We live forever in code and electonica. 

"In the beginning was the word.  And the word was God" 

 Just make sure you have something worth saying.