Hip-Hop On Trial: ?uestlove x Jesse Jackson x dream hampton & More [Live Debate]
UPDATE: Video of the full debate is now viewable above.
Today, June 26th, at 2pm EST our guy ?uestlove AKA el patron AKA the afro-lord will take up the torch for hip-hop in a public debate billed as "Hip-hop On Trial." The other debaters include intellectual heavyweights Jesse Jackson, Tricia Rose, Q-Tip, Michael Eric Dyson, KRS-ONE, Touré, dream hampton (a few of whom also happen to be longtime okayplayers. We only roll with intellectual heavyweights) as well as virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier, P.J. O'Rourke and adviser to UK Prime Minster David Cameron on youth & crime Shaun Bailey. Also some dude from Fox News (see Jason Whitlock's take on hip-hop below and find the complete personnel after the jump). It all goes down at the Barbican centre in London, UK, part of a series of called Versus put together by Intelligence Squared and Google+. Versus is the first ever global live debate using Google+ Hangouts, and live streamed on YouTube, bringing together the world's leading experts and advocates on either side of a particular issue--and connecting the conversation right to the masses with the latest social media technology. Best believe we'll be covering this trial closely and we recommend you buy tix here if you'll be in the UK and log in via the Versus YouTube channel and Versus Google+ channel to make your voice heard.
Chair
Emily Maitlis - BBC Newsnight presenter
Web host
Jemima Khan - British writer and campaigner, associate editor of the New Statesman and European editor-at-large for Vanity Fair
Advocate for the motion
Eamon Courtenay - Attorney at Courtenay Coye law firm in Belize
Advocate against the motion
Michael Eric Dyson - Hip-hop intellectual and professor of sociology at Georgetown University
Speakers
Shaun Bailey - Special adviser to the Prime Minister’s office on youth, crime and welfare issues
Deeb - Egyptian “Arab Spring” rapper
Estelle (via Google+ Hangout) - Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter
dream hampton - American hip-hop journalist, cultural critic and film-maker
Jesse Jackson - Civil rights activist, Baptist minister and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition
KRS-One - Hip-hop pioneer, record producer and activist
Jaron Lanier - American computer scientist, virtual reality pioneer and musician
James Peterson - Director of Africana Studies and Associate Professor of English at Lehigh University and founder of Hip Hop Scholars LLC
P. J. O’Rourke (via Google+ Hangout) - American political satirist and author
Q-Tip (via Google+ Hangout) - American rapper, producer and frontman of iconic hip-hop act A Tribe Called Quest
?uestlove (via Google+ Hangout) - Co-founder of Grammy Award winning band The Roots, DJ, music journalist and producer
Tricia Rose - Brown University Professor and author of the groundbreaking books on hip-hop: Black Noise and The Hip Hop Wars
Tony Sewell - CEO of the charity Generating Genius
Slaughterhouse (via Google+ Hangout) - Rap supergroup made up of Joe Budden, Crooked I, Joel Ortiz, and Royce Da 5’9
John Sutherland - Emeritus Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London
Isiah Thomas (via Google+ Hangout) - Former top 50 NBA basketball player and Chairman and CEO of Isiah International
Touré (via Google+ Hangout)
American TV presenter, novelist, journalist and cultural critic
Jason Whitlock - Columnist for Foxsports.com
Benjamin Zephaniah - Dub poet and musician