Today is the first day of Occupy Wall Street, a leaderless protest and resistance movement protesting the role of powerful Wall Street interests and the turmoil they've caused in the US and global economy. Twitter's buzzing with people in the streets gearing up for a long and peaceful protest, modelled and inspired in many ways by recent events in North Africa. Activist, Kalle Lasen, editor-in-chief of Adbusters, said of the protest, "It takes a lot to rise up and reform the global economic system, and maybe this time we fail. But if we do, we're just setting the tone for the next revolution."**

According to his twitter feed, one of those in attendance this afternoon is hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco. Lupe's a kick-ass artist with a knack for turning social issues into good music. Today he also donated 50 tents to the Occupy Wall Street cause. In support of the protest, and in honour of Lupe for backing-up his lyrics with actions, tonight's Juke box is all politically conscious hip-hop.

Much of mainstream hip-hop, what's played on music stations and MTV anyway, is pretty shallow stuff. It's about bitches n' hoes, money, cars, and bragging. But there's a long history of political activism in hip-hop that expresses far more than the boisterous claims of the shiny-clad majority. The tradition hails back to Grandmaster Flash's 1982 hit, The Message, which offered an honest (yet catchy) account of conditions in poor black neighbourhoods of American cities. Since then the music has evolved along the message, from early champions of Black Nationalism, to lyrical assaults on systemic rot, and now more specific attacks against US policy post-911 and G.W. Bush in particular.

I'll warm-up the juke box with this song from Lupe that I've posted here before but that deserves listening again.

Now a bit of a throw-back with the album Fear of a Black Planet, by Public Enemy. "Make everybody see, in order to fight the powers that be". Now I recognize that the powers they were talking about are white powers, and last time I looked I happened to be a white guy. But fuck it. The powers that be are on Wall Street today wiping out bank accounts here and abroad with the press of a button. So I'm commandeering this song for the rest of society, borrowing it for a minute to address the issues of the moment. I don't think Chuck would mind.

And if you've got an extra minute, their single Don't Believe the Hype is still an awesome call-out to a corrupt and bias media.

Next up is Dead Prez the self-styled "revolutionary but gangsta socialists" from New York (and one of them is vegan, so watch-out!). I like a lot of their songs but the one below seems most fitting given the Wall Street protests today.

The song, Hip Hop, by Dead Prez has one of the best beats ever, while Politrricks slams US politics, and Know Your Enemy takes it to terrorism, US imperialism, and US policy post-911.

Common and Cee Lo slow it down a bit for us with this beautiful tribute to Black Panther, Assata Shakur. Shakur (also the aunti of rapper Tupac Shakur) was wrongly imprisoned under harsh conditions for six years until her escape to Cuba. In Common's eyes the song is "for all those who've been oppressed".

Here Immortal Technique (with some help from Mos Def) challenges the US patriot act, income inequality, and CIA funding of foreign wars.

And last but not least, Mos Def on Hurricane Katrina, Bono, and US policy.

** It's now 8 hrs after the protests in New York began, and still no major new media - except Al Jazeera - has covered the story. I dug hard to find even this little article from ABC News. Apparently, the revolution will not be televised.