It takes a nation: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam address the Million Man March, 1995.
If, as he did on Sunday, Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, had announced the advent of his last major public speech in, say, 1990, there would have been shockwaves throughout the hip-hop community. As it is the effective retirement of Farrakhan, 73 and recovering from prostate cancer, has been registered as about 1.1 on the Richter scale. This is down to not just to his waning influence but the ongoing fragmentation of the hip-hop world. It's telling that Public Enemy, the group who worked as the filter for many of his ideas - black nationalism combined with some noxious illiberalism - are themselves seen as yesterday's men, even as they soldier on.
Political hip-hop had its moment in the sun in the late 80s and early 90s, but a music that is now more concerned - and apologies to committed activists like Dead Prez, Immortal Technique and the Coup, who all continue to fight their versions of the good fight - with stories of street corner economics and car rim sizes has not been paying mind to Farrakhan for a long time. Many of his beliefs have become concrete "facts" in the minds of many rap-listeners - especially the idea of crack cocaine in the ghettoes being a CIA plot - but they're not listening to what he's saying now, which on Sunday was a message of conciliation, a far cry from some of the inflammatory statements which led him to be banned from the UK.
Farrakhan's biggest achievement wasn't the Million Man March of 1995 - it was in giving a fringe group in politics, religion and race a voice much louder than its modest membership would otherwise have earned it. But times have moved on. If Farrakhan's retirement does leave a vacuum, hip-hop won't even notice. What was a recognisable community in 1990 is now the biggest music in the world. Talking about a hip-hop community today is like talking of a pop music community. It's a monster too big to lasso.
