Hip-hop DJ Biz Markie pushes for clean energy

On Monday afternoon, approximately 120 students showed up to see legendary hip-hop DJ Biz Markie perform in the IU Fine Arts Auditorium.

After Markie’s 20-minute set and his departure, only half the room remained.

The event was part of a bus tour called “Hip Hop Caucus Clean Energy Now!” and was sponsored by the Hip Hop Caucus and Repower America.

The tour aims to merge hip-hop and environmentalism through a panel discussion encouraging student involvement in a clean energy movement. The tour will end Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

The panel discussion featured Reverend Lennox Yearwood, president and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus; IU’s Director of the Office of Diversity Education Eric Love; sophomore Renee Davis; freshman Lauren Kastner and graduate student Juan Berumen. Biz Markie was also briefly on the panel.

Davis is a member of the Black Student Union and Kastner is the president of Coal Free IU, while Berumen researches social justice platforms in education.

Yearwood, who has worked with names such as T.I., Keyshia Cole, Jay-Z and even P. Diddy on his 2004 Vote or Die! Campaign, is used to people not getting the message.
Yearwood said he has seen people in his neighborhood in Shreveport, La. die of heat stroke and cancer due to poor environmental choices of urban areas.

He said he has seen how Hurricane Katrina left many of his loved ones displaced.
Yearwood said he served in the Air Force before he realized the current Iraq War was an environmental dispute over oil.

Because of these experiences, Yearwood decided to engage urbanized youth nationwide in the idea of a new movement that will promote a cleaner, sustainable planet.

The solution, Love said, is hip-hop. Its cultural staples have the power to move the youth. And if hip-hop is an institutionalized part of American culture, the same should go for clean energy.

Diversity of this movement should include everyone, because, as senior and INPIRG intern Rachael Watkins said, social movements tend to be one color.

“Usually when you think of environmental activists you think of white people,” she said. “But this really does affect everyone.”

After students progressively filed out, Yearwood took the mic, addressing those who remained.

“The opposition to this movement is just as vicious as anything civil rights leaders faced back then,” he said. “When celebrity is used to draw a crowd and that celebrity rolls out, and everyone rolls out with ’em, you’ve got a problem. The opposition isn’t going to take your stance seriously.”

One student challenged the panel and called attention to the many lights in the auditorium being used for the forum, pointing out that the mic seemed unnecessary.
“We’ve talked about what we should do, but what can we really do?” he said.

Panelist Berumen answered him.

“Let’s take responsibility for what we do to negatively affect our planet,” he said. “If you don’t like what you see, take small steps to start something that will change things.”
Yearwood’s message is one of pride. He said he is inspired by how anti-slavery abolitionists fought for the freedoms he enjoys today. 

“I want our children’s children to remember us and say, ‘Thank God they fought for clean energy,’” he said. “Thank God that they fought a movement for existence.”