Professa Griff Speaks

Professor Griff talks about the net is watching and that the Illuminati: a secret society do exist”. Watch the Professor drop jewels and expose what those who are sworn to secrecy do not want you to know.




Professa Griff

This blog site is about creating a voice for the voiceless. Now a little about Professor Griff ………. Professor Griff was exposed to hip-hop as it came to the Long Island, New York town of Roosevelt, where most of the founding members of Public Enemy grew up. By the 1980s, Griff had become a martial arts enthusiast as well as having done a stint in the U.S. Army. After coming home, he started a security service to work the local party circuit, calling it Unity Force. Griff was then a part of the Spectrum City DJ-for-hire service led by Hank Shocklee, and Spectrum City and Unity Force frequently worked side-by-side at local events. When Public Enemy was formed and signed to Def Jam, Chuck invited Griff to be a road manager and the leader of the S1W’s. Unity Force was Griff’s organization renamed “The Security of the First World”, or S1W for short. The S1W’s were brought along, and became a curious combination of bodyguards/Souljahs for the band. Their stage routines were a tight combination of martial arts and military drill. While technically not a signed artist at Def Jam, he was nonetheless a key traveling member of the band, serving as de facto road manager for several years. At the same time, Chuck D was in talks with 2 Live Crew leader Luther Campbell, who then signed Griff as a recording artist for his label Skyywalker (later, Luke Records). He recorded three albums for Luke, Pawns in the Game (1990), Kaos II Wiz-Dome (1991) and Disturb N the Peace (1992). These LPs were critically acclaimed by most in the Hip-Hop press, while getting heavily mixed reviews from the Rock press, who tended to cite his recent controversies as a sticking point. Griff eventually moved back to Atlanta and did a brief stint working as a bounty hunter for a family member’s bail bondsman service. By 1996, he and Chuck D resumed their relationship as Griff did some guest vocals on Chuck D’s solo The Autobiography of Mistachuck album. By 1998, Griff had formally re-joined the band, performing on “Game Over” on the He Got Game LP and he went on tour with Public Enemy for the House of Blues/Smokin’ Grooves tour, which was a kind of hip-hop-centered Lollapalooza. That same year, he released his fourth solo album, Blood of the Profit, on Lethal/Mercury Records. And the Word was Made Flesh followed in 2001- In an unfortunate coincidence, its release date was on September 11 of that year. An accomplished percussionist/drummer, Griff’s role in Public Enemy has expanded, as he has contributed vocals and production work to Public Enemy’s There’s a Poison Goin’ On, Revolverlution and New Whirl Odor LPs. When not on tour with PE, he fronts a funk/metal/rap side project called The 7th Octave. The four-piece unit released their debut EP in 2004 on MVD Recordings, and plans to re-release it in 2005. Creating his K.I.D.S (karing individuals developing skillz) project called “KidHoppaz” Releasing his book Atlanta Musick Biz (R.I.P Resource Information Publication) and began writing his next book “The Psychological Covert war on Hip Hop” Lecturing across the global and educating people on the Metaphysical Goddestry of the soul of Hip Hop. Professor Griff: “Who is the face of hip-hop today? Whoever says Jay-Z is an idiot.”

The question: “Who is the face of hip-hop today? Whoever says ‘Jay-Z’ is an idiot,” Prof Griff of the legendary hip-hop group Public Enemy bluntly responded during a recent forum in Muskegon Heights. Griff was addressing more than 150 people who attended the event, which was held Saturday at the Muskegon Heights Boxing Club. The program, sponsored by local radio station 103.7 The Beat, is one of a series of culturally related workshops that the station is hosting this year. “The face of hip-hop today is white — white, corporate America,” added Griff.

Griff’s lecture was titled “Black Music: The Psycho Analytical Destruction of a Stolen Legacy,” and anyone thinking they could cruise through this class was quickly put on notice by “The Professor.” “You’re not going to agree with everything I’m going to say, I’m just going to tell you that from the beginning,” said Griff. “Those people who are going to get angry and red-faced with me, that’s fine too, because I have to move you out of your comfort zone. “If you listen to the local radio station and you’re digging what’s going on the station and you’re going down to the club and partying into that same madness, you’re going to have a problem with The Professor today,” he continued. “If you think — someone on the panel said Jay Z is the face of hip-hop — if you think he is, you’re definitely going to have a problem with Griff today.”

With that, Griff served up a music history lesson that highlighted the contributions of socially conscious singers and musicians such as Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Curtis Mayfield. He also pointed out that the roots of hip-hop stem not just from music, but also poetry. Some of the early rap and hip-hop pioneers include Gil Scott-Heron and Afrika Bambaataa, he said. Griff argued that the white music industry has profited from black music — including jazz, blues, R&B, rap and hip-hop — for years. The same music industry frequently rewards black performers who live up to negative stereotypes, such as the rap “gangsta,” he said.

Griff launched his most brutal salvos at black entertainers who, in his opinion, are nothing more than modern-day “minstrels,” portraying the most demeaning, stereotypical images that already exist about black people.They do that because they believe that is the only way they can find success, he said. Those name-checked by Griff included several well-known celebrities including Michael Jackson, Usher, Beyonce and his former band mate Flavor Flav. He also blasted rappers and hip-hop performers who glorify drugs and violence, and use derogatory lyrics to describe black women. Hip-hop was created to raise the consciousness of black people, not destroy it, Griff said. Black people must set higher standards for themselves and stop reinforcing those negative stereotypes, he said.

Griff also charged that those negative images are already consistently promoted in the media. For example, he referred to the newspaper USA Today, which recently published a pictorial homage to the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson. The portraits featured in the paper were of a “very bright, damn-near white Michael Jackson that looks like a white woman,” said Griff. “And this is who they are portraying to our young people as our “King.” “What’s the subtle, subconscious symbol that they send people? That you got to be like this in order to come in and make it in this world. We have to be defendents of our culture and defend our children from this kind of madness. Are you following me? We have to at least do that.”

Not all panelists at the forum agreed with Griff. Muskegon resident Joe Walker, who has written extensively about the hip-hop culture and is a community activist, said he doesn’t always agree with some of the derogatory remarks rappers and hip-hoppers make, but he supports their right to express those opinions. Female hip-hop performer and poet Naeink, of Muskegon, disagreed. She said the black community needs to hold accountable those performers who use words like bitches and ho’s in their song lyrics. “When you have a mic in your hand, it’s a responsibility,” said Naeink. “If you put a mic in the hands of someone who is ignorant, you’re going to get nasty messages.”