Last night the city of San Francisco was treated to an incredible free
Hip Hop street concert that featured Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Michael
Franti and Spearhead, Goapele, Crown City Rockers, ?uestlov,
Hieroglyphics and dozens of others along with actors, Sean Penn,
Leonardo Dicaprio and former Vice President Al Gore.

All these people along with a capacity crowd numbering into the
thousands showed up in front of SBC Park where the SF Giants play to
celebrate Independent media and to kick off the launch of a new
television network started by Gore called INdTV aka Current. For
those who are unfamiliar this is a new MTV style type TV network with
a political edge that's designed to appeal to the Hip Hop/MTV
generation. Its ultimate goal is to be a viable and much needed
alternative to Fox News, CNN and MSNBC which at this day and time all
seem to be in lockstep with the Bush administration.

Turn on any of these networks when they do their Sunday morning
roundtable discussions, not only do you never ever see anyone under 35
lending their perspective on key issues of the day, but you hardly
ever hear any of the key issues impacting young people and communities
of color being spoken about in any meaningful way. The Current says
its wants to change that...

Last night's free concert was a good start as it was a sight to behold.
Mos Def, Al Gore, and Leonardo sharing the same stage with Sean Penn
somewhere in the wings... Michael Franti and Spearhead kicked off the
set with an incredible performance that was complimented by Spearhead
rapper radio who got busy on the beat box tip... The Poets from Youth
Speaks did their thing as did local acts Crown City Rockers and
Goapele. The highlight of the night came in the middle of Goapele's
set when a Mos and Talib came together and did an impromptu Blackstar
set which was soon followed by surprise guest appearances by Dwayne
Wiggins of Tony Toni, Tone, Taje of Heiro and Dizzee Rascal to name a
few of the many luminaries who blessed the mic and the stage. The
whole show was dope.

The free concert was followed up with a huge after party at a SF club
called Mighty which had?uestlov of the Roots holding it down.

I spoke with Franti after his performance and he said he was hopeful
that that Gore and his company would stick to their commitment of
being a viable TV alternative. Franti went on to explain that this
had been along time as we chopped it up about his past projects
including the 'Stay Human' album which was dedicated to the issue of
media control. Folks who recall Franti from his early days when he
was with Disposable Heroes will remember he had an incredible song
called 'Television' which spoke about some of the negative impact we
are experiencing today do to it being so politicized.

Franti also noted that we as Americans are severely being impacted by
the terrible job the mainstream networks are doing in both reporting
and what they show around the world. He related what he saw and
didn't see in news coverage when he was in the Middle East and during
his recent trip to Iraq. The most glaring omission are all the dead
bodies and wreckage that every other country shows around the Iraq war
while there is an across the board news blackout of such atrocities
here in the states.

Franti also spoke about the historic role commercial media played in
stifling important messages due to the infamous counter
intelligence-program of J Edgar Hoover which had among others Bob
Marley as a target. He talked about how Marley had tried everything
to be get airplay on urban radio stations to no avail. Apparently his
revolutionary message of show love in times of war and strife was too
threatening and not appropriate for airplay... We will play that
interview in the near future so you can hear how Franti breaks this
whole thing down...

On another note he explained that he has been working with the Beastie
Boys Producer Mario C as well as with Sly and Robbie and he plans to
release two albums that will reflect his thoughts and travels in war
zone territories like Iraq and Palestine.

We also caught up with Talib who showed up as a last minute surprise
guest. he noted that he wish he had known things were going to be as
hyped as they were so he could've been better prepared in terms of
what songs to do. Nevertheless he was in good spirits and noted that
because his record labels wasn't putting anymore promotion behind his
Beautiful Struggle album, he has filmed and produced his own videos to
keep things moving..