Peacemaking in Hip Hop Music

When some talk about music that promotes peacemaking, hip hop and rap
often get left out of the conversation. Some critics speculate about that
genre’s negative influence - from hypersexual music videos to glamorizing
guns and drugs. A recent Washington Post headline quotes jazz musician
Wynton Marsalis calling popular hip hop “more damaging than a statue of
Robert E. Lee.”

In this episode of Peace Talks Radio, Hannah Colton explores peacemaking
in hip hop culture and history with one documentarian and one artist.
First, Hannah speaks with Brother Ali, a Minneapolis-based rapper,
community organizer and spiritual teacher. Ali, who is white, was born
albino and partially blind, and says as a kid he found belonging in the
black community and hip hop culture. As a young man he converted to Islam,
and he speaks to ideas of spirituality in his 2017 album “All The Beauty
In This Whole Life.”

Then Hannah speaks with Harry Allen, a hip hop activist who has written
for many publications including the Village Voice, The Source, Essence and
Wired magazines.