| Help Professor Griff! |
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| by Mumia Abu-Jamal | |
| Tuesday, 04 March 2008 | |
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 Public Enemy Minister of Information Professor Griff While Griff was unharmed - as he wasn't at home at the time - the damage was total. He lost his home, his studio and everything he owned to the fire, possibly sparked by a gas leak. As one of the group's most prolific lyricists, Professor Griff contributed mightily to Public Enemy's sound and messages of Black militance, radical resistance and the resurgence of Black history and memory. Conscious, as ever, he is thankful that he is alive. Millions of people, Black, white, Latino and global, owe their youthful political and social awakening to the throbbing beats, provocative lyrics and moving performances of PE. In an age when corporate interests have made hip-hop virtually synonymous with mad gangsterism, PE turned on their legions of fans by exhorting them to "Fight the Power!" Their albums, infused with the spirit of Black nationalism and political activism, included works like "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" (1988).
Today, their works are regarded as modern classics of hip hop's true golden age. Griff has spent his time since PE's heyday by lecturing widely on Black and hip hop history. He shares his experiences and insights with young people, usually for free, considering it his duty to do so. He really is a professor, for he teaches and lectures on African history, social and political movements, and the like. In the 1980s and 1990s, Public Enemy provided a glimpse into another side of Black life - strong, conscious, rich with historic imagery and trying to project something positive into the psyches of the young. Professor Griff was a central part of that musical and cultural collective. In this his hour of need, please let him know that you appreciated his - and his group's - truly positive contribution.
© Copyright 2008 Mumia Abu-Jamal. Read Mumia's latest book, "We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party," winner of the 2005 People's Choice Award, available from South End Press, www.southendpress.org or (800) 533-8478. Keep updated by reading Action Alerts at www.mumia.org and www.moveorg.net. To download Mp3s of Mumia's commentaries, visit www.prisonradio.org or www.fsrn.org. Encourage the media to publish and broadcast Mumia's commentaries to inspire progressive movement and help call attention to his case. Send our brotha some love and light at: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Greene, 175 Progress Dr., Waynesburg PA 15370. |
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