Martin Luther King vs. The Radio As we get ready for this week’s Media Conference in Memphis I thought I’d get you in the mood and give you something to think about with this little remix I made… It features excerpts from this rarely heard speech Martin Luther King gave in 1967 in Atlanta to Black radio deejays.. He talks about the importance of radio and how it impacted the Civil Rights Movement. It’s more relevant today than it was given 40 years ago..If you replace some of the words he uses with Hip Hop and you’ll get my point..You will also understand why Black radio was undermined Also on this mix is a short excerpt Minister Farrakhan gave to a similar body of Black radio deejays in Atlanta in 1980 at the Jack the Rapper Convention. He chastises the deejays for only wanting to Get Funky and Get Down.. he says they are being used as agents within Black music to destroy the movement. One of the last speech excerpts you hear is from Chuck D in Atlanta where Hip Hop, radio, media were discussed with Cynthia Mckinney.. Chuck talks about the type of strategy being used to keep us in permanent state of adolescence. He says its a result of us not owning our words.. Also on this mix you hear speech excerpts from H Rap Brown, including remarks he made in Atlanta sometime in the 1970s about the way media controls entertainers and uses them as political weapons against the community. Although I didn’t play this part, but he goes into detail about all the big entertainers including James Brown who were being used to push forth conservative agendas. he talks about how James brown was forced to make the song Black and I’m Proud. If I have time I may pull that speech and play it in its entirety.. I will try and make copies to give out during our media panel. Lastly we also have Rosa Clemente and her immortal words from the landmark Hot 97 protest in NY from 2005 after the tsunami fiasco..where she talks about corporate media being used as a weapon and how she is determined to fight and not let them harm her child..The full speech is in the remix I did called Afrika Bambaataa Vs Hot 97 Anyway enjoy. I’m gonna drop a few more interviews from people like Blackdot, Paul Porter, Jared Ball, JR from the Block Report, Opio and number of others on Breakdown FM starting tomorrow regarding media and the steps we need to take to change things.. I’ll see y’all in Memphis.. Lets make some serious history this week and garner a few victories.. One Luv Davey D Less