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Hip Hop Artist Michael Franti Speaks Out on US Government Surveillance of his Band and MTV Self-Censorship
by
Michael Franti, Amy Goodman, and Democracy Now!
Dissident Voice
April 4, 2003
Democracy Now! radio program, March 27,
2003
NOTE: This is a rush transcript
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Host: For nearly a decade hip-hop artist and activist Michael
Franti has been a leading progressive voice in music. He grew out of the Bay
area music and political scene of the 90’s and in 1986 he founded the drum and
bass duo “The Beatniks” paving the way for his next musical endeavor “The
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy”. His most recent musical project is the
musical collective “Spearhead” begun in 1994 and he’s used his music to push
social boundaries, speaks out against sexual violence, encourages his community
to prevent the spread of HIV and has been very vocal in his opposition to war.
And now it maybe the reason why the government is looking at him and his group
Spearhead. Welcome to Democracy Now Michael.
Michael
Franti: Hi Amy.
Amy
Goodman: It’s good to have you with us. Can you talk about what’s
been happening as you’ve been touring the country with songs like “Bomb da
World.”
Michael
Franti: Well we’ve been touring for the last year and a half
performing that song and everywhere we go it gets standing ovations, people begin
to cry. People are just very grateful to hear any voice out there right now who
are speaking in support of peace and human rights.
Amy
Goodman: What’s happened as you’ve been on this tour?
Michael
Franti: Well, what’s happened most recently is that we performed at
a rally on March 15th in San Francisco and the next day on the 16th—that, that
rally was out here—and on the 16th on the East Coast, a band member of mine who
prefers to go unnamed, his mother received a visit from two plain clothes men from
the military and this band member of mine has a sibling who is in the Gulf. And
they came in and talked to her and said you have a child who’s in the gulf and
you have a child who’s in this band Spearhead who’s part of the “resistance” in
their words, and they had pictures of us performing the day before at the
rally, they had pictures of us performing at some of our annual concerts that
we put on that are in support of peace and human rights. They had his flight
records for the past several months, they had the names of everybody who works
in my office, our management office “Guerilla Management”. They had his
checking account records. They asked his mother a lot of questions about where
he was, what he was doing in this place, why he was going here. They
confiscated his sibling’s CD collection that they had brought over to listen to
while they were in the Gulf, and basically were intimidating—told her which
members of the press she could talk to and which members of the press she
should not speak to.
And
basically what this signals to me is that—I don’t feel like we’re being
particularly singled out or under any investigation for any activity because
all the activity that we do is very much above board and all the events where
photos were taken out were all public things we were at. But what it does
signal to me is that there’s a lot of us who are now making a blip on the
radar, you know, whether we’re organizers at rallies, whether we’re musicians,
whether we’re people who are speaking out, authors, writers, actors. And we’re
beginning to make little blips on the radar. They’re starting to pay attention
and collect information about what’s going on. You know , more important to me
or more important than me you know, being a part of that is the fact that our
civil rights are being eroded across the board for every person.
And for
musicians in particular it’s a really hard time. Last week our label received a
letter, a mass e-mail from MTV instructing the fact that no videos could be
shown that mentioned the word bombing or war. No videos could be shown that had
protesters in it. Any footage from military—they gave a list of prior videos
that could not be shown, yet MTV has aired videos that show troops saying
goodbye to their loved ones and going off to war in a very heroic fashion and
troops which are going to be coming home traumatized, wounded and dead and then
be treated and thrown onto the scrap heap of veterans, as we’ve seen veterans
treated in this country. And at the Academy Awards, there were also letters and
talk that went around saying not to speak out. Radio—mainstream radio, Clear
Channel in particular, of course has put the word out not to air songs that are
in opposition to the war and in support of peace. Meanwhile, our song “Bomb Da
World” which we just put out is now in heavy rotation on a top youth radio
station in Australia and in Denmark and it’s expected to get added to a lot of
stations in other countries.
Amy
Goodman: A few days ago, Democracy Now! Correspondent Jeremy Scahill
and I were at the Ani DiFranco concert at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center
to talk about Democracy Now and the importance of independent media in a time
of war, just before she went on. And Clear Channel, which owns New Jersey
Performing Arts Center, runs that venue, told her no political information
could be given out and threatened—it seemed the venue threatened to close down
the concert if there was any political speech.
Michael
Franti: It’s incredible, it’s outrageous and I think it’s something
that we all need to be aware of and need to support the art, you know, whether
it’s music, whether it’s films, whether it’s dance performances or whatever,
this is the last place, apart from Pacifica and a few other stations around the
country, where these voices are being heard.
Amy
Goodman: And Clear Channel that runs 1,200 radio stations now, runs
many of the big venues in this country for musicians.
Michael
Franti: So it’s important that we call these stations and demand
that these voices be heard.
Amy
Goodman: Well Michael Franti, I want to thank you for being with us,
as we go out with your voice, with “Bomb Da World.”
Listen
to Interview: RealAudio||
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Democracy Now! is an
investigative news radio journal that’s a vitally important antidote to the
lies and deceptions of state/corporate media. The program is hosted by Amy
Goodman and Jeremy Scahill. To find out what radio stations near you air
Democracy Now!, or to listen to the program on-line, visit: www.democracynow.org