5 Years After Katrina, Hip-Hop Continues Its Shameful Silence

Hip-hop was birthed in during an apocalyptic era in the South Bronx where buildings burned nightly. It was a music created to both give voice to the suffering, almost entirely black and latino population of the South Bronx, and to help them rise above their circumstances in celebration. For better or worse we've come a long, long way from those first days, but hip-hop, at its core, will always have its heart in urban communities, which is why I'm ashamed to be associated with a music that has abandoned the people it supposedly represents as completely as the government supposedly established to protect them.

Make no mistake, Hurricane Katrina was the worst single disaster to befall black America in decades, perhaps ever. Five years ago thousands stood outside the Superdome in New Orleans without food and water while their families, friends and neighbors either fought death in the waters below, or had already succumbed. In the end, an estimated 1,800 people would die directly from Katrina, a death toll that places it next to 9/11 in severity. And that's just the damage we can directly measure. Untold others died of medical complications and suicide suffered in the wake of Katrina, and thousands remain displaced. In fact, reports of armed white militias murdering residents in large numbers have recently begun to surface.



Hurricane Katrina is, without a doubt, the worst disaster to befall urban America since hip-hop's birth, and to make matters worth, it was a man-made disaster, not a natural one. The government was woefully under-prepared to handle a hurricane of this magnitude, and the response of the Bush administration afterward was a disgrace of the highest magnitude. It became immediately obvious that the government wasn't truly interested in helping the people there, and hip-hop wasn't either.

Other than Kanye's famous declaration that Bush didn't care about black people, and a mixtape track by Lil Wayne, the response from prominent rappers in the wake of Katrina was as shoddy and non-committal as a FEMA trailer. Although thousands of rapper have been sure to include Katrina punchlines in their raps - "My rhymes flow like water over the levees" - few found the time to record a track drawing attention to the disaster, or at the very least to use their access to the media to draw attention to the struggle.

Diddy, Jay and some other major players could have organized a "We Are the World"-esque track or album to benefit Katrina. Thousands of rappers could have used every opportunity to both shame the government into helping the people there, and let those affected know that they were not forgotten, that at least hip-hop cared about them. Instead, with rare exception, major rappers were too worried about losing their corporate sponsorships to overtly criticize the power structure that paid for their private jets, and up-and-comers didn't dare jeopardize their careers. I know many rappers did everything they could, and much respect to them, but as a culture, as a music, the response was only a fraction of what it could have been.

If ever there was a moment for hip-hop to unite, to use its power and influence to truly help and uplift the people it purportedly represents, Hurricane Katrina was that moment. Instead we got silence. And five years later, that silence is only growing louder. Shame on all of us. It brings tears to my eyes to think of how much people sacrificed to help those affected by Katrina, and how little the music I love did. Shame.