Curtis Mayfield Lyrics

FinalCall.com (FC:) Many people refer to the “Golden Age” of Hip Hop as an era when there were conscious songs permeating the airwaves. It is generally believed that the era is long gone and it'll never be like that again. Perhaps we will never get back to a time where socially and politically conscious artists dominate the airwaves. In a time when Hip Hop artists still impact and shape minds, what are your thoughts?

Wise Intelligent (WI:) I think it's just a gross misconception of Hip Hop from what Hip Hop is in a broader sense. I think that we're allowing mainstream mediums through which corporations propagate a particular brand of Hip Hop. We're allowing that medium to interpret for us what Hip Hop is or isn't. I think that's where we fall short of understanding.

It's a plethora of MCs young and old who are still on the front lines of social and political relevant conscious music; it's just that mainstream media is not allowing a particular brand of Hip Hop because they only want to propagate one ideal. And we have this ideal that those ten MC's that we hear in every rotation in mainstream mediums are what Hip Hop is. So if it's not in the mainstream it's apparently not in the bloodstream for a lot of people because they are allowing mainstream media to dictate what Hip Hop is or isn't for them. But we're still right here. MC's are still touring, still putting out records and a lot of people don't want to get back to that era especially corporate people and for social, economic and political reasons also. Basically, more so political reasons. So I say that it's a myth that we are not going to get back to that era. For me it's not a matter of getting back to that era. It's a matter of becoming aware of the fact that that era hasn't left us. It's still here.

FC: When you were making songs in 1990 on the album “Holy Intellect” and then in 1991 with “Pure Poverty” as a follow-up, there was an ideological underpinning acting as a catalyst for your lyrical content. What was it primarily that caused you to inject that kind of information into your songs? Books, speeches, the general atmosphere in the community, what was it?