Official Site of The Millions More Movement (MillionsMoreMovement.com)
NEW YORK (FinalCall.com) – Calling some of the movers and shakers in the hip hop industry here on May 9, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan convened a provocative and enlightening meeting to explain the Millions More Movement and how it has evolved from his 1995 call and vision for the Million Man March, and invited them to join the mobilization.
Artists included Foxy Brown, Remy Martin, Doug E. Fresh, Killer Priest, Praz, Cadillac Tah, Buck Shot and Fedro Starr. Radio and media personalities in attendance were Ed Lover, Benny Boom, D.J. Cut, D.J. Red Alert, Tasha Hightower, Michael Saunders and Jacque Reid of BET News. Various executives joined the meeting including Dave Mays, publisher of Source magazine; Greg Watkins of All HipHop.com;. Damon Dash of Roc-A-Fella Records, and Min. Benjamin Muhammad of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network. Entertainment attorneys Barbara Muhammad and Londell McMillan attended, along with activist Erica Ford.
›“I am not looking at entertainers, I am looking at leaders,” Min. Farrakhan told the standing room-only audience. “I see such a vast array of talent before me,” he added. “Some of you may have been very, very young when the Million Man March took place in 1995,” he observed, outlining the events that led up to that historic call, such as a string of movies that depicted the Black man negatively to the world.
He then carefully painted a picture for his audience of the obstacles facing today’s youth. “The White community has developed macho sports programs such as the PAL (Police Athletic League), basketball tournaments and baseball teams, which allow their youth to exercise the process of growing up,” said the Muslim leader.
“But,” Min. Farrakhan stressed, “in the Black community, there are less opportunities for the youth.” He explained that the break up of Black families has forced mothers to hold more than one job to give their families the same kind of quality of life that is available in White communities, but the programming does not exist in Black neighborhoods.
He continued, with the deftness of a surgeon, to guide his youthful audience through the maze of today’s social engineering conspiracy against Black youth. He said the wise rulers of today have used social scientists to weave a psychological program against a segment of the population, which has become quite effective in fulfilling the mandate of the prison industrial complex.
He informed his enthralled listeners that, “Our people are on a death march,” pointed out an un-seen enemy who wanted to continue the marginalization of Black and Latino people, and how guns have entered the picture.
“The colors that you wear have been turned against you by the social scientists, who say you have formed gangs,” Min. Farrakhan noted. “In the suburbs, they call them teams, but they call you members of gangs. They put you on the front pages of Time and Newsweek magazines with those colors, leading the world to think we are a savage people,” he stressed. They have filled the prisons with Black and Latino people, because there has been no outcry against what is being done in our communities, he insisted.
At times, responding with laughter, affirming applause and affected sighs, the hip hop leaders assembled before the Minister were encouraged when he told them that they had the power to change the reality for Black, Latino and poor White youth.
“The enemy doesn’t want you to know that you, rappers, with your music and lyrics, can challenge people to think,” he stressed. He said that they must now use language for progress, truth, justice and the upliftment of the fallen. He said that society wanted the rappers to play the role of getting our people to shake on the dance floor, to be a “pacifier” for our people, but “every rapper is a leader, if you become politically sensitive,” he said.
The evening was organized by music entrepreneur Don Enoch Muhammad, Sean Muhammad and Khalid Muhammad. “My agenda is to get the artists to Min. Farrakhan for guidance,” 17-year-old Khalid Muhammad, told The Final Call.
Min. Benjamin observed, “This evening was truly an evolution–the quality of the dialogue, clearly the rappers have responded in a positive manner to Min. Farrakhan’s call for the Millions More Movement.” He said he got a sense from their immediate responses that the young leaders were ready to “roll up their sleeves” to “mobilize” the masses.
During the question-and-answer period, rapper Buck Shot told Min. Farrakhan: “I am here listening for a direction, and it was on your word, sir, that we are here. I am bugging out, because some of the greatest minds are in this room, and we are all listening to you. We are here for one common thing–that is to see progress for our people.”
