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YOU: I am truly sorry that you feel that way. I probably should have mentioned a lot of underground artists, but the fact is that I today use approx 0.5% of the time i use on politics on music, and I really do not know the underground hip-hop scene that well.
This is your excuse for only mentioning mainstream-commercial hip hop groups? That you do not listen to underground hip-hop? So, you live in a bubble of your own music and the mainstream corporate artists that you mentioned? How can any trust what you say if you do not listen to your peers? American hip-hop just does not compare to the underground political music the rest of the world produces. How can you even call yourself a hip-hop artist listening to old Ice Cube, 2pac, and calling yourself a Marxist gangster?

YOU: Also in the interwiew I wanted to tell the truth about what artists have inspired ME, when I came into hip-hop and on from there, and these artists were commercial artists who in addition had a message (or who simply had rhyming skills). Very few (if any)underground artists made it over to Norway in those days. Today I unfortunately have little time to follow the hip-hop scene at all. I also feel that your total rejection of commercial artists is politically wrong.
I do not totally reject mainstream hip hop, I reject your poor, weak, sell out (sans dead prez) list of “inspiration.” And I call your definition of Marxism politically wrong. You are touting a dangerous position to look towards mainstream artists to change the system. I bet you felt Kanye’s comments to be radical…and support Puff Daddy’s “vote or die” movement…and Eminem’s pathetic “mosh on the White House’s lawn” song to be “the shit.” Have you read any Trisha Rose, Michael Eric Dyson, or any fucking radical writing on the subject? Actually, every Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American hip-hop writer disagrees with this premise you suggest. Audre Lorde has a saying that “only the master’s tools can take apart the master’s house,” but she is suggesting using the Internet, software, computers, and the infrastructure of capitalism to destroy capitalism. Your position is taken by very undereducated hip hop consumers or people who want to be famous. You fit into both.

YOU: If you have got a chance to spread a revolutionary message using capitalisms own weapons, go ahead I say. I of course agree with you that these artists also have problematic sides to them (altough the sides you feel are most problematic may not neccesarily be the same I find problematic, I do not like Ice Cubes affiliation with the Nation of Islam f.ex. in one period).
Westside Connection? Fridays? Children’s movies? Ice Cube is towing the bourgeoisie’s rope and has capitalism’s dick in his mouth. Rakim has long been in the The Nation of Gods and Earths, commonly known as the Five-Percent Nation, the Five-Percent Nation of Islam, or the Five Percenters. Problematic is a sissy way out….
YOU: I really have very little experience with how black nationalism works in the US today (being norwegian) and as such know little about the progressive and/or reactionary possibilities that lie in such an ideology (I am sure there is a potential for a little of both).
It seems you have little knowledge of political hip hop in general. So, why not say that instead of making up a sell out list off the top of your head and tossing dead prez in the mix? M-1 is a socialist and a former leader of the Uhuru House and pan-African socialist party. Do you fucking know anything about the music you appropriate for your own use. Or should I say culturally steal? How can you listen to hip hop and not have studied Black Nationalism? Do you understand the manner in which rich whites can casually take up cultural tools for their own purposes and remain ignorant of the most basic ideas? I surmise you are a rich Norwegian who likes to play rapper on his computer. What does your music mean to poor people? To people of color around the world living in poverty and oppression?
I will still hold on to, howeaver, the fact that the music of 2pac, early Ice Cube, PE and Dead Prez, does have a progressive potential.
I forgive PE somewhat for their liberal stance and specifically Chuck D. BUT FUCK FLAVOR FLAV! His most political song was “911 is a Joke.” Which is probally over your head, because to unbderstand you most actually know something about Black people and law enforcement.
Dead prez does not below in your weak list. How can you mix M-1 and Stic with those other fakes?
If you have got other artists you feel I should have mentioned, why the f**k don't you list them in your comment in stead of complaining that I don't list a long line of artists I really don't know that well? As you can see from the next paragraph in the interwiew, I do promote the Norwegian radical MC's I know. Do you know/promote these?
I did promote YOU even though I felt your gangster nonsense was convoluted and “problematic.” It was not until I saw this weak ass interview that I realized you are an opportunist and don’t know shit about the music you appropriate (and apparently don’t care or want to know anything about except other Norwegian artists). Like I stated, rich white people love to steal some shit and not learn ANYTHING about the shit they steal. Even going as far as to say they invented it themselves!
YOU: Most of my political time and resources today go into work in the party I am a member of (www.rv.no), work in a much broader front against neoliberalism (www.attac.no/www.attac.org), and work in my union (www.ntl.no), plus I try to write essays, articles etc. for different newspapers. I have however not given up on hip-hop completely, and I hope you do not judge my entire work based on one sentence from an old interwiew. I have downloaded quite a few of your tracks over the years, and I must say you generally keep a high standard. If you feel there is something in particular I should do to support you or any other particular artists, please let me know.
Well kudos for your “activism.” But is this an excuse for treating hip-hop, which is a way of life, a vehicle against oppression, a tool of building solidarity all around the world—as your hobby and to cover for your ignorance by throwing out that you are really busy in every other facet of life to learn anymore about the art and political form?
Yes. Mention the hip-hop artists who really paved the way. And do me a favor and do some downloading and listening to the music you appropriate.
Sabac, Blue Scholars, Akil Ammar, Mystic, Quinto Soul, Native Guns, Akir, A-Aikes, Ricanstruction, Zion I, Ise Lyfe, I.R.A.N., Shadia Monsou, Boca Floja, Mr Lif, Red Cloud, Nate Mezmer, Resonate Sun, John Brown….it would take me an hour to list all the real revolutionaries that you “do not listen to” because you are too busy doing politics.
YOU: On my end, I don't have anything bad to say about your work (apart from an obviousley sectarian wiew of the black liberation movement). It's good, so keep it up.
Do not even know where you got that…150 songs made and you pull that as your criticism? You would have had better luck accusing me of being sexist…because I was young once…
YOU: *Clenced Fist*
Ice
Oh…by the way…is it a coincidence that your album “Sex and Revolution” resembles the title of my album “Love and Revolution”??????????????????
What the fuck?

Love this line by the way:
Opportunism=“Ahh - who am I kidding, if I got a good deal, I'd probably take it…”
Please in the future do not admit to being a sell out….

I still support you as a socialist comrade…but your rhetoric is weak like toilet paper.
I am writing my graduate thesis on weak positions like the one you take.
I’ll be sure you get a copy…

Z