Professor X was Vanglorious!!

In 1992, I started Rap Coalition out of pure disgust after seeing how my favorite rappers were treated-- specifically, Eric B and Rakim, and X-Clan. In the late 80s and early 90s, these were my favorite rappers. I just got an email from Afrika Bambaataa saying Professor X has passed away from Meningitis. Fuck.

Lamumba Carson was great because he stood for something. He had something to say and he said it. He was the son of New York based (now deceased) activist Sonny Carson (how difficult it must be to be the son of someone so driven, focused, and important to humanity). Lumumba always rose to the occasion.

I always avoided meeting Professor X and Brother J (who, together, comprised X-Clan and were heavily involved in the organization Black Watch, which Lumumba founded years before), out of fear that they may not be what their image portrayed. At that point, I had met so many of my rap heroes and been completely disappointed in the past because often the reality of the person was so far from the marketing image of the rap star (a painful lesson for someone devoting a career and life to helping her heroes for free).

I found that J and Lumumba were serious about what they were accomplishing. And while I found Professor X to be human with all the human frailties (thank God!), over the years I have found both of them to be exactly who they portrayed themselves to be--strong Black men, loving and caring for a race of people often too tired to fight for themselves. They were not hypocrites.

Like most rappers, and certainly like the majority of rappers from their generation, they did not make much money from their art form. In fact, they had the further degradation of watching others become wealthy on what they built, and on their art form (a BIG fuck you to Lou Maglia and 4th and Broadway).

I just spoke with Lumumba for the first time last year. I had received an email that was making fun of him because he listed himself on eBay, and was auctioning off "a day with Professor X" to the highest bidder. How he must be struggling financially to do something like that, I thought to myself. I became the highest bidder. The fact that I could barely afford to pay my rent at the time did not enter my mind. I bought a day with Professor X.

He ended the auction before the final deadline (doesn't matter, I would have won regardless) because of the hateful emails circulating on the web about him putting himself up for auction. I was disgusted by the reaction. It was a fucking lunch date with Professor X. Had it been Justin Timberlake for a charity, no one would have said shit. But a hungry man was not supposed to eat this way, I guess.

Somehow others who have made a career from (read: pimped) Hip Hop had the right to say what was acceptable or not for one of the pioneers. All of a sudden, people making money critiquing what others create had the power to say what was the proper way for Professor X to make income. It pissed me off beyond words. I received disrespectful, opinionated emails from self-appointed authorities asking me why I supported such a gimmick. (If you do a search on the internet, you will still see the worst offender. His one-sided diatribes still exist on his poor excuse for a website. I refused to grant him an "interview" because he phrased his request so disrespectfully regarding a man who was my hero. I saw him for what he was--an negative opportunist pretending to be a "journalist" when his agenda was so evil and so obviously meant to belittle Lumumba. He chose to air out his frustration with me publicly and cowardly).

Lumumba called me. He knew who I was. He was excited that I had been bidding on his post. I had the opportunity to tell him what he meant to me. I told him how he influenced me to go down the path I am on without ever having met me. Now THAT'S power.

The price for Lumumba was high on eBay. Not high financially, but high in negative reaction, high in lack of support, and high in the realization that this unforgiving industry has no love for those who have come before when the fucking VH-1 cameras aren't running. I think my last bid was under $100. I would have bid $1,000.

We quietly disrespect our artists for not being Billionaires, and then we disrespect them if we perceive them to "sell out" (read: earn a living). They can't win. We bemoan artists today for selling misogyny, crime, violence, and materialism, but we didn't support the ones who had a positive message once they were no longer perceived to be "hot!"

I wanted to spend a day with Lumumba. He would not take my money. We spoke at length about the industry and Afrocentricity. We discussed his father and his legacy. We discussed a lot. It was the first, and last, time we spoke.

I never got my day with Professor X. But what I did get was far more priceless. I got the real Professor X, and he is and was what he always said he was. He was REAL. And he loved people. Especially Black people. He will sorely be missed!

Please understand if the next time you see me I am wearing my big black boots.