Jasiri X and MC Lyte at the Dear Dr. Hip-Hop: Speak, Be Heard, Be Considered event in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Tanya Pugh)

MC Lyte was the feature panelist at the Dear Dr. Hip-Hop:Speak, Be Heard, Be Considered event in Dayton Ohio. In the above clip, Hip-Hop author and activist Bakari Kitwana asks MC Lyte about the impact of the Stop the Violence movement, and the iconic song Self Destruction. Later, she goes on to talk about how Hip-Hop once encouraged youth to stay away from drugs, but now rap artists are promoting drug use, and how todays rap is brainwashing our children.

Most interesting to me, was when MC Lyte began to talk about the history of Hip-Hop and it’s treatment of women. She credits east coast rappers with respecting and protecting women, and says she didn’t see women being outright degraded until the emergence of NWA. You also might be interested in hearing who she named as the first east coast Hip-Hop artist to be openly disrespectful to women.

Later on in the clip, I talk about the creation of our organization 1Hood and how we responded to the violence in our community and the police brutality taking place in the city of Pittsburgh.