I stumbled across this by accident, but its amusing how many views and comments videos like these pick up in their linking of Hip Hop and Freemasonry. Its like the whole genre of conspiracy and secret societies has filtered down from the mass media culture of TV and movies and into the urban hip hop community.
It speaks volumes to the outreach that the fraternity has in those communities in engaging and educating them as to their work, but I wonder if the results are even more devastating in the way that the greater ideals of the fraternity are being perverted into the thought and imagery we see in the videos below. Interesting is that they are coming from an Islamic stand point (as you’ll see at the beginning of the 2nd video).
I say this because even as I post this, it will reach only a few thousand people who happen to find the material through a search, but the videos mentioned have already filtered through several thousands of computers (in come case several million) influencing and shaping the thoughts and perspectives of its viewers.
In other words, even though the detractors are wrong, they are telling the story of Freemasonry and not Freemasons. Even in the commentary the second video suggests that the artists are being approached by secret societies to spread their message.
This is the outcome of staying locked in our temples and not engaging with the greater society.
It really becomes a rabbit hole of imagery and videos on the internet. Traditional mass media is shaping the thinking of the viewers, even creating greater suspicions of institutions that already have a degree of conspiracy against them in society.
What to do?
Who knows? But the makers of these videos, like a Anti-Masonic party 150 years ago, know what they’re doing even if its happening by accident.
How on earth does the hip-hop community not know about Prince Hall Freemasonry?
When I was 20ish, a hiphop magazine called The Source published the release of a book by William Cooper called “Behold a Pale Horse”. It was all the buzz in hiphop at the time. Mainly because he made the claim that the Masonic ran secret government (CIA) was trying to exterminate the black population in Africa by giving them HIV hidden in what were supposed to be humanitarian vaccines. A quick search just revealed this.
http://www.thesource.com/articles/47688/Black-History-Bars-(21611)-'Why‘?thesource-prod=
So I guess it is still buzzing over 10 years later.
I learned about Freemasonry from this book and heard about the book from friends who told me it was in The Source Magazine, not sure when though. At the time it was circulating around college campuses where hiphop was exploding in popularity.
One subtle example of a lyric in a hiphop song that is often overlooked is Dilated Peoples track Annihilation. The rhyme goes like this… “Gemini, this twin peaks like david lynch do, Or does, bustin off for every place I been though, I’m hard to see through like lodges wit no windows”. This verse is referencing both Twin Peaks (known for it’s supposed Masonic Symbolism http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_-WYMBvU30 and all out wierdness) and a statement made by William Cooper which was said in an interview with a Canadian radio personality Nardwuar that if you want to find a masonic lodge “all you have to do is wonder around town until you bump into a lodge with no windows”. Here is the link http://www.nardwuar.com/vs/william_cooper/.
I personally think that you can pretty much trace all the conspiracy paranoia in almost all of hiphop culture back to “Behold a Pale Horse”. Today it has flipped from being against it to promoting and participating in it. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.
Thses guys are probably Thelemites. Jay-Z uses phrases from Thelema. Thelema is the study of Magick (founded by the pos Crowley), but doesnt master the wonderful concept of Masonry.
Seriously, wearing a top-hat signifies your Masonic allegiance?
Dang, I always knew that guy from Monopoly was up to no good.
I’ve been writing about this since 2009, in case anyone’s interested.
True story.