We caught up with Rakaa Iriscience of Dilated Peoples at the recently held Hip Hop and Chess Tournament here in the Bay Area. I love catching up with dude because he always has some keen socila and political insight to offer. Before 9-11 Dilated had released a song called War. The one minute and half song summed was prophetic as it seemed to suggest a direction that we as a country was headed. At the time I asked Rakaa why they did that song and he stated that when you start traveling the world, you become intuned to the people. He said you could sense something was going to happen. When I asked Rakaa what he was tuned into this time around, he somberly said the World is Big Business and that it was evident by so many of us are no longer valueing life. He then went on to break things down about the upcoming presidential election. He noted that it was good that so many people are excited and are actually coming out and being a part of the process. He said it does no good to be sitting on the sidelines complaining. While he recognized the historical significance of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton possibly being the next president, he cautioned that righteousness and wickedness doesn’t have a color. He went on to add that we should not put all our hopes in one man or woman, but instead participate by really knowing who they are and what they’re about. We rounded out our meeting by tackling the sticky subject of race. We started out by talking about the Black-Brown tensions in Los Angeles. Dilated Peoples had done a song on this topic long ago when things were first starting to surface. In that song ‘Big Business’ Rakaa raps about how much of the Black-Brown conflict is a spill over from prison life. He went on to note that there’s a difference between beefs that happen in all urban environments versus outright racial conflict. He said many of the fights going on between Black and Brown in LA are people just fighting. He said the consistent mainstream media hype has downplayed actual racial beefs and blurred them with things that have nothing to do with race. He said at the root of all this is two groups of people fighting for crumbs cast off the table and not focusing on the feast sitting above them. He said we all need to be concentrating on having a real seat at the table. We then went on to talk about race in general and the success Barack Obama has had in winning over white voters in places that many would least expect. What came out of that conversation was a breakdown of how for the past 10 years groups like Dilated along with numerous others ranging from Living Legends to Jurassic 5 to Hiero to the Roots to many others have been touring in small towns and winning over legions of fans for years. On many levels Obam’s ability to connect in these white enclaves has direct correlation to work that was put in for years by so called underground/ packback groups where they tour. What’s interesting to note is that many of the aforementioned groups have always had a political bent and have not been shy about speaking out. So in essence fans that they started attracting 10 years ago as teenagers and young adults are now older and at least open to hearing new ideas or at the very least might not find it out unusual to support a Black man running for office. Obama in many ways is a beneficiary of the serious bridge building his Hip Hop brethren had been doing for years. We ended the interview by noting that Obama needs to write Hip Hop a big fat check or at least come to the studio and kick 16 bars.. Less