Peace Talks Radio

When some talk about music that promotes peacemaking, hip hop and rap often get left out of the conversation. Some critics speculate about that genre’s negative influence - from hypersexual music videos to glamorizing guns and drugs. A recent Washington Post headline quotes jazz musician Wynton Marsalis calling popular hip hop “more damaging than a statue of Robert E. Lee.” In this episode of Peace Talks Radio, Hannah Colton explores peacemaking in hip hop culture and history with one documentarian and one artist. First, Hannah speaks with Brother Ali, a Minneapolis-based rapper, community organizer and spiritual teacher. Ali, who is white, was born albino and partially blind, and says as a kid he found belonging in the black community and hip hop culture. As a young man he converted to Islam, and he speaks to ideas of spirituality in his 2017 album “All The Beauty In This Whole Life.” Then Hannah speaks with Harry Allen, a hip hop activist who has written for many publications including the Village Voice