The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

Talib Kweli: The next thing is um... when he was burning the flame he said, 'This is for the FBI.' And, he was, maybe, a fiery speaker and had... had passionate ideas, but he was a calm, cool, collected person. And so, he's singing about; 'this is for the FBI'; but it's just words. It's just song and words. A few years ago, I was listening to Stokley Carmichael speeches while I was preparing for a new record I was working on, and umm... it was shortly after 9/11 in America. I was making a reservation on JetBlue airlines to fly to California. Uhh... when I got to the airport, the FBI, the CIA, the TSA; they came and intercepted me. All these guys in black suits. And they took me in a back room and started questioning me about the Stokley Carmichael speech that I was listening to. They probably, you know, have some sort of bug, or some sort of tap or something... But, umm... they were very concerned with me listening to this Stokley Carmichael speech from 1967. You know? Forty years ago. So, words that he said forty... now, we have gangsta rappers - we have rappers who talk about shooting other people all the time; killing... but the FBI's not looking for them. They're looking at me because I'm listening to this speech from forty years ago. And it shows you the power of those words, is that they resonate even to now. The FBI is still scared of this man. He doesn't have nearly the same influence over our community as he did then, but yet, they still stopped me at the airport for listening to his speech.