MORE SUPPORT FOR KANYE WEST

While the number of people outside of Brit Hume's close circle of friends and George Bush's immediate family offering to argue against Kanye West's comments on Bush's slow, apparently couldn't care less approach in the first few days after Katrina, there's no shortage of musicians backing his comments. Like David Banner:

"We've been screaming this for five years. You listen to your David Banners, Dead Prez, listen to rap music period. This is what rappers have been screaming all the time. The problem is America concentrates more on our cuss words. They don't hear the pain in the music all the time. You just finally had somebody who has the power Kanye has, who said it at the right time."

Like Diddy, who stopped being trivial for ten seconds:

"We can't wait around for the government to help. We're not waiting, we're taking action. We can find money to bomb people oversees, but not to help our brothers and sisters?"

Like TI:

"It's been seen that the government don't really give a fuck about our situation. All those people who are down there without homes and shelter, those are folks from the 'hood. That's the urban community."

Like Twista:

"I'm like, 'What is it?' " Twista said Tuesday. " 'What are we looked at as? Do you look at us as less than human?' The response said something. Any other people, people [suffering a catastrophe,] you get people from all over the world to come and jump right on [the problem]. But you get mostly poor and black people, and we get the slow response."

Like Jay-Z:

'I'm backing Kanye 100 percent,'' Jay-Z told Billboard by phone from London. ``This is America. You should be able to say what you want to say. We have freedom of speech.''

Jay-Z admits he shares some of West's views about the slow response to the disaster. ''It's really numbing,'' he says. 'You can't believe it's happening in America. You wonder, `What's going on? Why were people so slow to react?' I don't understand it.''

Maybe it is the case that George Bush really, really does value the poor and the black as much as he does the rich. But it's sure funny that so many black artists - notably, successful black artists - seem to share the impression that he doesn't.

Having said which, just as it'll be interesting to see if those who've finally found a voice and a reason to question the Bush White House will follow their initial reaction through once the news waggons start to roll away from New Orleans, it'll be interesting to see if the rap community keep this new, defined political edge for more than a couple of months, or if it'll be back to bling, birds, bang-bangs and booze by Christmas.

For now, as well as questioning the official response, the rap community (and those are words that don't often sit easily together) are also pulling their weight in other ways: Banner's Heal The Hood Foundation is work with TI, Young Jeezy and Juice magazine to distribute food and water in Mississippi:

"I called everybody's bluff who be talking all that ballin' shit," T.I. said. "Popping all them bottles in the club ... talking about how much girls and jewelry and cars they got. Let's see how much money they've got for a good cause. Basically, I told everybody to put their money where their mouths are, and if you ain't got no money to give to the cause, I don't want to hear that shit no more."

music katrina hurricane katrina kanye kanye west jay+z david banner TI Twista