KPFA - Hard Knock Radio

Host Davey D welcomed Jamelle Bouie to Hard Knock Radio for an in depth conversation about disinformation, political manipulation, identity politics, and the growing threats facing American democracy. Bouie, one of the nation’s most prominent political commentators, is a columnist for The New York Times and is widely known for connecting current political events to larger historical struggles around race, power, voting rights, and democracy. Before joining the Times, he wrote for Slate, The Daily Beast, and The American Prospect.

The interview began with Davey D reflecting on a recent discussion Bouie participated in about disinformation and the growing distrust many Americans have toward experts and institutions. Davey pointed out the contradiction of people claiming they trust nothing while simultaneously believing conspiracy theories, social media influencers, and emotionally driven narratives without question. Bouie explained that skepticism toward expertise is not necessarily unhealthy, since experts can sometimes be wrong, but he stressed that today’s political culture has moved beyond healthy skepticism into a dangerous rejection of truth itself.

Bouie argued that much of this is tied to identity. Many people now see themselves as individuals who reject “elite” knowledge and trust only their own instincts. According to Bouie, organized political movements have deliberately fueled this distrust in order to manipulate public opinion and weaken belief in objective facts. He described the phenomenon as part of a larger political strategy where “nothing is truly knowable,” making people more vulnerable to propaganda and fear-based messaging.

Davey D pushed the conversation further, comparing modern political messaging to “scam culture” and social engineering. Bouie agreed, saying politics increasingly resembles the tactics used in advertising and scams, where people are sold stories that emotionally satisfy them even if those stories work against their own interests. The two discussed how racism, resentment, and fear continue to shape political identity in America, especially around attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

The conversation later shifted toward democracy, gerrymandering, and Bouie’s recent columns criticizing Democrats who fail to aggressively push back against Republican efforts to restrict voting rights and consolidate power. Bouie argued that too many Democratic leaders still behave as though politics can eventually return to “normal,” despite growing attacks on democratic institutions. He stressed that Democrats need more creativity, urgency, and willingness to fight politically at both the national and state levels.

One of the interview’s most striking moments came when Bouie referenced Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Quoting Lincoln’s statement that “you can’t put together a broken egg,” Bouie argued that America cannot simply return to an earlier political era. Instead, the country must recognize that democracy itself is under pressure and requires active defense.

The interview concluded with both Davey D and Bouie emphasizing grassroots organizing, local elections, and long term movement building. Bouie stressed that political change requires more than voting every few years. It demands community organizing, pressure campaigns, and a willingness to fight for power in order to protect democracy and ensure meaningful representation for all communities.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Disinformation, Political Manipulation, Identity Politics, and the Growing threats facing American Democracy appeared first on KPFA.

On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with homeless advocate Needa B to discuss troubling allegations surrounding Mandela House, a transitional housing facility located on the border of West Oakland and Emeryville. The conversation examined whether public funds intended to support unhoused residents are being used effectively and whether vulnerable people are receiving the services they were promised.

Needa B explained that Mandela House was purchased with millions of dollars in public funding and was designed to provide more than temporary shelter. According to grant agreements and resident contracts, the facility was supposed to offer housing navigation, job readiness training, workforce development, permanent housing preparation, and ongoing support services. However, she alleged that many of those promised services never materialized. Instead, she described a system plagued by mismanagement, a lack of oversight, and inadequate accountability.

A major focus of the discussion centered on allegations of mistreatment of residents. Needa B claimed that some residents experienced financial, emotional, and administrative abuse while living at Mandela House. She also raised concerns about residents being forced out before receiving the support needed to transition successfully into permanent housing. Particularly troubling were allegations that some individuals were removed from the facility despite having nowhere else to go.

Throughout the interview, Davey D challenged local officials and policymakers to answer difficult questions about oversight. The discussion examined the role of city government, nonprofit contractors, and elected officials in managing homelessness programs. Needa B argued that Oakland has invested significant resources into homelessness initiatives but has failed to establish meaningful standards, independent monitoring, and transparent grievance procedures. She called for countywide shelter standards and the creation of an independent ombudsman’s office to investigate complaints and protect residents.

The conversation also explored the broader political climate surrounding homelessness. Both guests discussed how public frustration, housing costs, and encampment sweeps have shaped policy debates. Needa B argued that homelessness is increasingly treated as a nuisance to be hidden rather than a humanitarian crisis requiring long term solutions. She called on listeners to demand greater transparency from city leaders, invest in more shelter and housing options, and support the use of public land for safe, service-supported communities.

As the interview concluded, Davey D reminded listeners that homelessness is not an abstract issue but a human one. He emphasized that many people are only a paycheck or two away from economic hardship and urged the public to pay attention to the stories of those most affected by Oakland’s ongoing housing crisis.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Oakland’s Homelessness Crisis Under Scrutiny: Needa B Raises Alarm Over Mandela House Conditions appeared first on KPFA.

On this edition of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D welcomed longtime author and journalist Lawrence Ross and acclaimed filmmaker and former college quarterback Byron Hurt for a timely discussion about race, higher education, athlete activism, and the growing call for Black student athletes to reconsider attending universities in states that have rolled back voting rights, attacked diversity initiatives, and restricted Black history education.

Ross, author of Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America’s Campuses, explained why he has publicly supported calls for Black athletes to boycott certain Southern universities. He argued that successful protest movements require clear goals, strategic thinking, and an understanding of leverage. According to Ross, colleges and athletic conferences rely heavily on Black athletic talent while simultaneously benefiting from political systems that often work against Black communities. He emphasized that athletes possess significant influence and should understand the power they hold within these institutions.

Drawing from more than two decades of visiting college campuses, Ross noted that students are often more politically aware than many assume. He stressed that education and peer to peer engagement remain critical tools for helping young people understand how social movements operate and how they can participate in meaningful change.

Hurt brought the perspective of a former college athlete. While supporting activism, he acknowledged the difficult choices facing young athletes who dream of earning scholarships, NIL deals, and professional opportunities. He recalled how coaches often discouraged players from pursuing interests outside sports, including Black Studies courses, student organizing, and fraternity involvement. Hurt described a culture in which athletes are frequently isolated from the broader campus community and encouraged to focus solely on athletics.

The conversation also examined the political climate surrounding college sports and the controversy involving New York Giants quarterback Jackson Dart’s public support for Donald Trump. Hurt argued that athletes must be free to make informed decisions while recognizing the broader consequences of leadership and political expression.

Throughout the discussion, Davey D highlighted the importance of relationships, political education, and community accountability. Ross and Hurt concluded by encouraging listeners to support young athletes who choose to take principled stands and to provide them with the information needed to make informed decisions. Both guests emphasized that meaningful social change often begins when individuals recognize their collective power and are willing to act on it.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Lawrence Ross and Byron Hurt Discuss Athlete Activism, Campus Racism, and the Power of Protest appeared first on KPFA.

On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D spoke with peace activist and Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin about what she described as a dangerous effort to deepen military ties between the United States and Israel through a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Benjamin explained that for years the United States has provided billions of dollars in military aid to Israel through agreements that guarantee long term support. She argued that growing public opposition to these expenditures, from both progressives concerned about Palestinian rights and conservatives questioning foreign aid spending, has led supporters of Israel to pursue a new strategy. According to Benjamin, Section 224 of the NDAA would move beyond financial assistance and create a framework for deeper military cooperation, including joint weapons production, artificial intelligence development, surveillance technology, and defense coordination.

Davey D questioned whether this proposed arrangement could evolve into something resembling a new military alliance and what it might mean for domestic policing and civil liberties. Benjamin responded that while NATO remains important to U.S. military interests, Israel has become a major force in the global weapons market. She noted that Israeli weapons manufacturers have expanded their influence by marketing technologies that have been tested in conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, and elsewhere.

The conversation also explored concerns about police militarization. Davey D pointed to longstanding training relationships between U.S. law enforcement agencies and Israeli security forces, raising questions about how tactics developed in occupied territories could be applied domestically. Benjamin acknowledged those concerns while emphasizing that U.S. policing already has deep roots in its own history of repression and militarization.

Later in the interview, Benjamin discussed the political support behind the NDAA provision and encouraged listeners to contact their congressional representatives to oppose Section 224. She expressed disappointment that some Democrats, in addition to Republicans, have backed the measure.

The conversation concluded with a discussion of Cuba. Benjamin criticized U.S. sanctions and what she described as escalating economic and military pressure on the island nation. She warned of worsening humanitarian conditions, highlighted efforts by international allies to provide aid, and urged listeners to support congressional efforts aimed at preventing military intervention. Davey D closed by stressing the importance of recognizing the human impact of sanctions and policies that inflict suffering on ordinary people.

Throughout the discussion, Benjamin and Davey D framed the issues of military expansion, foreign policy, and economic sanctions as interconnected struggles that demand public awareness, civic engagement, and accountability from elected officials.

The post Medea Benjamin Warns of Growing U.S.-Israel Military Integration and Escalating Pressure on Cuba appeared first on KPFA.

Community Leaders Demand Accountability After Fairfield Police Assault of Teen Maurice Williams

On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D spoke with community advocates George Galvis of CURYJ and Berry Accius of Voices of the Youth about growing outrage over the violent arrest of 16 year old Fairfield High School student Maurice Williams. The conversation examined the incident, broader concerns about police culture, and ongoing efforts to hold Fairfield police accountable.

Accius described Williams as a standout student athlete and varsity quarterback who, according to witnesses and video footage, was not posing a threat when Fairfield Police Officer Bianca Camacho Brown allegedly grabbed him by his hair, slammed him to the ground, and repeatedly struck him. He argued that community outrage intensified after a second video surfaced showing the same officer forcibly pulling another young woman from a vehicle during a traffic stop. Accius contended that both incidents revealed a troubling pattern of excessive force and raised serious questions about the officer’s fitness to serve.

Galvis connected the Fairfield case to larger statewide concerns about police accountability. He noted that Officer Camacho Brown previously worked for the Vallejo Police Department, an agency that has faced national scrutiny over allegations of officer misconduct and controversial police culture. Galvis argued that communities must look beyond individual officers and examine the systems that allow misconduct to continue across departments.

A major theme of the conversation was Black and Brown solidarity. Both guests stressed that police violence disproportionately impacts communities of color and warned against allowing racial divisions to distract from demands for accountability. Accius emphasized that meaningful change requires collaboration between organizations, families, and activists throughout the Bay Area. Galvis echoed those sentiments, arguing that the struggle is larger than one officer and requires sustained community organizing.

The guests also discussed the legal and political path forward. Accius reported that civil action is being pursued on behalf of Williams and said community members are demanding both the firing and decertification of Officer Camacho Brown. Galvis explained that decertification requires action by local authorities and California’s POST commission, a process advocates say should be pursued aggressively.

The interview concluded with a call for continued public pressure, coalition building, and community participation in local government meetings as residents seek justice for Maurice Williams and broader reforms in Fairfield policing.Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Community Leaders Demand Accountability After Fairfield Police Assault of Teen Maurice Williams appeared first on KPFA.

Beginning around the 48 minute mark, the conversation moves beyond campaign endorsements and into a broader discussion about political strategy, representation, and the future of grassroots organizing in California and across the country.

Dr. Melina Abdullah challenges listeners to think beyond the traditional Democratic versus Republican framework. She argues that voters should support candidates they genuinely believe in rather than continually settling for what they view as the lesser of two evils. Abdullah openly discusses her support for Green Party candidate Butch Ware and pushes back against the notion that third party votes are wasted votes. Instead, she notes that stronger third party showings can unlock public funding and create opportunities to build long term political alternatives. At the same time, she stresses that representation must be more than symbolic. Communities need elected officials who actively advance policies around housing, education, reparations, and social justice.

The discussion then expands into a deeper examination of political power and movement building. Kalimah Priforce raises concerns about what he sees as a growing neglect of Black men within progressive political spaces. He argues that while many important conversations are happening around race and equity, insufficient attention is being paid to the specific challenges facing Black males, including economic opportunity, educational outcomes, political engagement, and pathways to leadership. Priforce contends that any serious effort to strengthen Black political power must include intentional strategies aimed at uplifting and organizing Black men rather than assuming their concerns will be addressed indirectly through broader policy discussions.

This sparks a larger conversation about coalition building, political priorities, and the importance of creating spaces where different segments of the community feel seen and represented. Participants wrestle with how movements can remain inclusive while still addressing the unique challenges facing specific populations.

The final portion of the discussion turns toward media influence and political education. Davey D and Ludovic Blain examine how right wing organizations have successfully invested in youth focused media, podcasts, influencers, and online personalities that shape political attitudes among younger generations. They contrast this with what they view as a lack of comparable investment from progressive organizations. The panel agrees that winning elections alone will not be enough. Long term success will require building cultural institutions, developing new voices, and creating media platforms capable of reaching younger audiences before political narratives become entrenched.

The overarching theme of the second half of the program is that meaningful political change requires more than voting. It demands sustained organizing, political education, community accountability, independent institutions, and a renewed focus on building power from the ground up.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Part Two: Beyond the Ballot Box and Building Independent Political Power appeared first on KPFA.

Beginning around the 48 minute mark, the conversation moves beyond campaign endorsements and into a broader discussion about political strategy, representation, and the future of grassroots organizing in California and across the country.

Dr. Melina Abdullah challenges listeners to think beyond the traditional Democratic versus Republican framework. She argues that voters should support candidates they genuinely believe in rather than continually settling for what they view as the lesser of two evils. Abdullah openly discusses her support for Green Party candidate Butch Ware and pushes back against the notion that third party votes are wasted votes. Instead, she notes that stronger third party showings can unlock public funding and create opportunities to build long term political alternatives. At the same time, she stresses that representation must be more than symbolic. Communities need elected officials who actively advance policies around housing, education, reparations, and social justice.

The discussion then expands into a deeper examination of political power and movement building. Kalimah Priforce raises concerns about what he sees as a growing neglect of Black men within progressive political spaces. He argues that while many important conversations are happening around race and equity, insufficient attention is being paid to the specific challenges facing Black males, including economic opportunity, educational outcomes, political engagement, and pathways to leadership. Priforce contends that any serious effort to strengthen Black political power must include intentional strategies aimed at uplifting and organizing Black men rather than assuming their concerns will be addressed indirectly through broader policy discussions.

This sparks a larger conversation about coalition building, political priorities, and the importance of creating spaces where different segments of the community feel seen and represented. Participants wrestle with how movements can remain inclusive while still addressing the unique challenges facing specific populations.

The final portion of the discussion turns toward media influence and political education. Davey D and Ludovic Blain examine how right wing organizations have successfully invested in youth focused media, podcasts, influencers, and online personalities that shape political attitudes among younger generations. They contrast this with what they view as a lack of comparable investment from progressive organizations. The panel agrees that winning elections alone will not be enough. Long term success will require building cultural institutions, developing new voices, and creating media platforms capable of reaching younger audiences before political narratives become entrenched.

The overarching theme of the second half of the program is that meaningful political change requires more than voting. It demands sustained organizing, political education, community accountability, independent institutions, and a renewed focus on building power from the ground up.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Part One: Beyond the Ballot Box and Building Independent Political Power appeared first on KPFA.

On a recent episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D spoke with Elaine Brown about a controversial police raid at a newly built affordable housing complex in West Oakland known as The Black Panther. The conversation moved far beyond a single incident and became a broader discussion about police power, gentrification, Black self determination, and community survival.

Brown explained that the 79 unit housing complex was created through her nonprofit Oakland and the World Enterprises. The building provides affordable apartments for low income residents, many of them Black single mothers and families. Residents receive furnished units, free WiFi, free laundry, solar powered utilities, and access to community centered programs designed to create stability and dignity. Brown emphasized that over 7,000 people applied for the housing, highlighting the desperate need for affordable living spaces in Oakland.

The discussion centered on an incident where roughly 25 to 30 San Francisco police officers descended on the building while searching for an 18 year old accused of stealing jewelry. Brown described the officers arriving in plain clothes, refusing to properly present a warrant, handcuffing security personnel, breaking through the building’s entrance, and terrifying residents while conducting a search. She called the operation “fascism 101” and compared it to the historic assaults carried out against the Black Panther Party during the late 1960s.

Davey D questioned why such a massive police response was deployed for what appeared to be a relatively minor case while larger public safety issues in San Francisco continue unresolved. Both he and Brown suggested the raid may have been intended to intimidate or undermine an independent Black led housing and economic development project.

Brown also provided historical context about West Oakland, describing how Black communities built thriving cultural and economic centers along 7th Street before urban renewal, BART construction, and gentrification displaced thousands of residents. She connected the housing project to the Black Panther Party’s original platform of providing decent housing and self determination for Black communities.

Throughout the interview, Brown remained defiant. She detailed plans to expand cooperative businesses around the complex, including a restaurant, urban farm, tech center, fitness center, and neighborhood market. Rather than discouraging residents, she said the raid strengthened their resolve and reminded people nationwide that community control and collective action remain necessary in the fight for justice and survival.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Police Raid Sparks Outrage at New Affordable Housing Complex in West Oakland — Featuring Elaine Brown appeared first on KPFA.

On a recent broadcast of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D welcomed Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad, scholar, Buddhist practitioner, and founder of the Initiative for Black Buddhist Studies, for a wide ranging conversation about her new book, The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. What unfolded over the better part of an hour was less a book promotion than a working seminar on the inseparable bond between interior practice and political resistance.

Vesely-Flad told listeners that her path to Buddhism began in the Bay Area, where she sought an internal foundation that activist circles, however vital, had not provided. She had moved in abolitionist communities filled with extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, but she found herself unsteady, in need of ground to stand on. Buddhist practice, she explained, gave her that ground. It also led her to Baldwin and Lorde, both of whom appeared again and again in the Dharma talks of Black Buddhist teachers she admired.

The pivotal passage came from The Fire Next Time, where Baldwin writes that those who cannot suffer can never grow up, and that those who survive cruelty attain an authority that is unshakable. For Vesely-Flad, that line names what Buddhism teaches as suffering skillfully. It is not a glorification of pain. It is a refusal to be ruled by it.

Davey D pressed her on the word suffering, observing that Black communities have long been told their pain is somehow acceptable, while others receive comfort and care. Vesely-Flad agreed the term demands precision. Drawing on the ancient teaching of the two arrows, she distinguished the first arrow, which is the pain inflicted by unjust conditions, from the second arrow, which is the self inflicted suffering that follows when we react without awareness. Baldwin, she emphasized, never excused white America’s role in producing Black suffering. He indicted white avoidance of death, sexuality, and self examination as the engine of racial violence. The construct of the so called nigger, Baldwin argued, exists because white America needed a receptacle for everything it refused to feel.

The conversation turned to Palestine, and here Vesely-Flad offered some of the most striking material of the broadcast. She walked listeners through Baldwin’s 1961 visit to Israel, his recognition of the colonial enterprise unfolding before him, his observation that everywhere he turned there was a border, and his refusal to call it anything other than what it was. Baldwin rejected anti-Semitism with equal clarity, she noted, drawing on lifelong friendships with Jewish classmates and a deep grasp of Jewish suffering. What he would not accept was the conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, nor the moral cover extended to a state selling arms to apartheid South Africa.

Asked what Baldwin would say if he were sitting beside her at the Café de Flore today, Vesely-Flad did not hesitate. He would say nothing has changed, or it has gotten worse. Refugee camps remain. Checkpoints multiply. Whole communities live under the barrel of a gun. The rage and grief he named then would be the rage and grief he names now.

Vesely-Flad was equally clear about Audre Lorde, whose distinction between pain and suffering shapes the book. Pain, Lorde wrote, is an event to be metabolized into strength or knowledge or action. Suffering is the nightmare of reliving unscrutinized pain. That insight, Vesely-Flad noted, took on a different gravity when Lorde was diagnosed first with breast cancer at forty four and later with liver cancer. From that bedrock came the line that has since traveled into countless movement spaces: caring for myself is not self indulgence, it is self preservation, and that is an act of political warfare. Vesely-Flad was firm that Lorde was not describing the wellness industry. She was describing the daily discipline that allows organizers to keep going without collapsing into reactivity or harming those closest to them.

Davey D pointed out that every chapter of The Fire Inside closes with a practice, from mindfulness of the breath to the Tara Mandala practice of Feeding Your Demons. Vesely-Flad explained that the practices answer the question her readers most often ask. They understand the analysis. They want to know how to actually do this work. For people running on empty, she offered a single instruction. Create space. Sit, move, breathe, whatever fits your energy, but do it every day. Consistency is the practice.

The most personal moments of the broadcast came when Davey D invited Vesely-Flad to speak about her own family. Born to a Black father and a white mother, raised after age seven without her father, she grew up inside what she described as an extremely toxic white family. Her maternal grandparents, descendants of Eastern European immigrants who had paid what Baldwin called the price of the ticket to become white, refused to acknowledge her or her brother. Photographs of white cousins lined the walls. She and her brother were nowhere to be found. Her brother was once kept inside their grandparents’ house for a full week so that neighbors would not see him.

Davey D named the pattern bluntly. It is, he said, a quintessentially American story, the way newcomers fleeing their own forms of suffering arrive in this country and absorb anti-Blackness as the price of belonging. Cicero, where her mother was raised, was a sundown town. The same Cicero where Dr. King later said he encountered some of the worst violence of his life.

At forty seven, while writing this book, Vesely-Flad hired a private investigator, used a small DNA match on a genealogy site, and finally found her father’s people. She now has hundreds of cousins, aunts, and uncles. She traveled to the Mississippi Delta and visited the graves of her great grandparents, learning that her great grandfather had been a pastor and a union organizer who raised twelve children. That arrival, she said, was its own form of resolution.

Buddhism, Vesely-Flad insisted, did not deliver her into easy reconciliation or a soft refusal to name harm. It gave her something more durable. The capacity to stay with whatever arises, to feel safe inside her own body in an outer world that has never been safe for her, and to act from grounded clarity rather than reactivity. She named the lineages she stands in, the Asian and Asian American teachers and monastics who carried these teachings forward for more than two thousand six hundred years, and refused the polite erasure of calling the practice anything other than Buddhist.

Asked which chapter she most hopes readers will sit with, Vesely-Flad pointed to the chapter on anger. In a moment defined by unaccountable power, by genocide, by impunity at every level, she said, the work is to validate the rage and to metabolize it, so that those resisting domination do not collapse under its weight.

The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde is available now. Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad will appear at the Bay Area the following dates:

The post Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad on Hard Knock Radio: Baldwin, Lorde, and the Discipline of Liberation appeared first on KPFA.

On a recent episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with rapper, author, and longtime community figure Mopreme Shakur for an in depth conversation about his new memoir, This Thug’s Life. The wide ranging interview explored family, politics, Hip Hop culture, and the untold stories behind one of the most discussed families in modern Black history.

Throughout the conversation, Mopreme explained that writing the book was deeply personal because so many people have attempted to tell the Shakur family story from the outside. He said he wanted readers to hear directly from him about his experiences with his father Matulu Shakur, Afeni Shakur, Tupac, and the revolutionary environment that shaped their lives. He also addressed common misconceptions about Tupac, noting that many of his brother’s controversial decisions were thoughtful and strategic, even if the public did not fully understand the circumstances behind them.

A major section of the interview focused on Matulu Shakur and his role in Black liberation struggles during the 1960s and 70s. Mopreme detailed his father’s involvement with the Black Panthers, the Young Lords, and the Lincoln Detox program in the Bronx. He described how activists transformed Lincoln Hospital, once known as “The Butcher Shop,” into a center for community based healthcare and addiction treatment. The discussion highlighted how Matulu helped pioneer acupuncture treatment programs for heroin addiction at a time when those methods were criminalized and politically targeted. Davey D connected these struggles to broader conversations about healthcare, surveillance, and government repression, including COINTELPRO and the criminalization of Black political organizations.

The interview also gave listeners a rare glimpse into the personal side of the Shakur family. Mopreme spoke warmly about Tupac as a fearless and energetic child who always tried to keep up with older relatives. He described Matulu as a loving and present father who walked his children to school, encouraged them, and balanced parenting with intense political organizing. The conversation emphasized how family within the Shakur household extended beyond blood relations and included a wider community rooted in liberation politics and collective responsibility.

As the discussion shifted toward music, Mopreme reflected on growing up around church choirs, spoken word traditions, and the early rise of Hip Hop in New York City housing projects. He described Hip Hop as an extension of revolutionary poetry and Black creativity, influenced by artists like Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets. Mopreme also shared the story behind his appearance on Tony! Toni! Toné!’s classic hit “Feels Good,” revealing that he landed the opportunity after investing in his own demo sessions in Oakland following his time in the Army. He recalled how the success of that record opened doors for him and inspired Tupac to further pursue music professionally.

Later in the interview, Davey D and Mopreme discussed the rise of Digital Underground and the Bay Area Hip Hop scene during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Mopreme reflected on the creative energy surrounding artists like Shock G, Money B, and others connected to the collective. The conversation also explored Tupac’s long term vision for groups like Thug Life, the Outlawz, and the Have Nots, all of which were meant to build community and opportunity for younger artists.

By the end of the interview, This Thug’s Life emerged not simply as a memoir about fame or celebrity, but as a layered reflection on Black political struggle, family bonds, survival, and Hip Hop culture across multiple generations.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post This Thug’s Life by MoPreme Shakur appeared first on KPFA.