The Welfare Poets - Using Culture as a Tool of Resistance
The Welfare Poets have brought the passion of change back to the forefront of consciousness. You may not agree with the political views of these artists but their talent, intelligence and guts cannot be denied! I’m excited to remember that we all have voices. The question is... do we use them?
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Who and what are "The Welfare Poets"?
The Welfare Poets is a socio-political Hip Hop fusion band out of New York City. We have been around since the early 1990s and came out with our first album, Project Blues in the summer of 2000. We make music for those who fight for justice everywhere, using our culture as a tool of resistance.
Over their 15 year existence, the Welfare Poets have been not only cultural activist, but they have been directly involved in efforts for social justice, most notably against police brutality, political prisoners, the colonial status of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Naval occupation of the island, environmental justice in New York City and elsewhere and the death penalty.
How did you first get involved in music and poetry?
The collective started while a few of us were up at Cornell University (Ray Ramirez/Rayzer and Hector Rivera/Hec-1). We were influenced by the things we were learning up at college at that time regarding the world and the national/international fight for self-determination. Cornell surprisingly always had a history of student organizing and up rises. Students of color in the 60's took over key buildings in protest of the curriculum and Cornell's hallow promise of diversity. These actions led to the creation of institutions where critical thought would be embraced – these institutions are still around today. Our poetry/rhyming was an outlet for all of this new information.
Musically, Hip Hop was the rhythm of our childhood. You can add the creations of the Last Poets and Pedro Pietri. Bob Marley can never be overstated. Also the music of our parent with regards to R&B, Soul, Salsa and things like that defined our understanding of what we wanted to create. Initially it was just Hector and myself with 1 conga (afro-Cuban percussion). Since then, it has grown to a full band, but at the root is just the voice and drum.
Your work is so strongly influenced by your passion for social and political justice, how did this evolve? I guess I'd like to know if the art inspired the responsibility or did responsibility drive the art? Is there a diff?
For our collective, we have always based our work on the African proverb, which states that the job of the poet is to expose the king in his nakedness. For us, there is no art for arts' sake. Cornell was a big part of that foundation – the environment and space to reflect on the world and our part in it. So art has always been an expression of our will to change the world and make a better place for everyone. Anything less is not art – at least to me.
What would you say to readers that might want to follow in your footsteps?
Just focus on your goals and do it. Do not let anything stop you. Also make sure you control your art and just continue to do it to change the world, regardless of everything.
Have you achieved your goals? Where do you see yourselves in 5, 10, 15 years?
We have so many goals for the group, and so far we have only scratched the surface on what we have set out to do. A critical goal for us is to handle the business side of things better – a lot of this is related to assembling a strong team of more-knowledgeable people regarding the things we do not know or do not have the time to deal with. We are doing this.
We also want to expand the reach of our music to fully extend outside of the US. We feel that there is so much more of an appreciation for our music (and music like ours) in other places like Latin America and Europe. Although we have played in the Caribbean in the past, we recently made our first trip to South America in the summer of 2005 for a performance at the World Youth Festival in Caracas, Venezuela. You can see footage of our performance on YouTube (search – the Welfare Poets). We are planning a return trip to Venezuela to shoot a video for a song on an upcoming album regarding our time in Caracas and the meaning of Venezuela's revolution to us (you can check our secondary myspace page for a preview of this song – myspace.com/rayofthewelfarepoets). We will also be heading to Europe in September for the 1st time, hitting a few countries.
In a nutshell, we just hope to continue to put out good music and have it distributed. This last part is most important and we're looking at some companies now. We just want to be as consistent and pertinent as possible and have our music reach the people it needs to, attacking the issues and filling in the huge gaps that the news leaves out. We are also planning for the future creatively. There is no retirement for me though I will be rhyming way after I leave this Earth. If I am here at age 90, I will still be rapping. If a rocker can rock to their 70's imagine what a rapper can do. But adding to this, we have been embracing the youth, as always, cultivating the future of the world and the Welfare Poets, and our newest member, a former student of mine, is a 21-year-old Puerto Rican emcee/producer out of Harlem. The brother, the Legendary Mic is an amazing talent and truly a legend in the making.
At this point, we are finishing up my album (The Welfare Poets: Rayzer Sharp – see “So Alive” on our main page for a preview at myspace.com/raythewelfarepoets) as well as the next band album. We released our second album, Rhymes For Treason in 2005, and recently put out a Hip Hop compilation against the death penalty called Cruel and Unusual Punishment (dropped Feb. 2007). It is a fundraiser we put together to combat and abolish the death penalty, and in doing so brought together some of the most brilliant Hip Hop artists to make it happen. You can learn more about that album and how we got involved with the project by logging on to myspace.com/deathpenaltycd.
There is so much happening now. We are also working on a new fund raiser/compilation to assist the Puerto Rican Political Prisoners – some locked up for over 20 years and a few other music videos (check out our first video at myspace.com/thewelfarepoets – Sak Pase: a commentary on the US backed overthrow of President Aristede of Haiti in 2004). There is no stopping us. So remember the name. Remember the message. Remember the website and myspace.
The Welfare Poets
“Uninformed is the worst way to be unarmed”
Rayzer Sharp
Band Leader and Co-founder of the Welfare Poets
May 16th 207
06/07 AM