"Artist have choices," Black CEO Karen Mason of Atlanta-based Destiny Talent Agency told The Final Call. "They can decide what they will sing, act and do. They are fully responsible for all that they do. And we as the consumer must challenge them.

"I mean, how does someone go from the rhetoric of the Five Percent Nation (Busta Rhymes) to hawking Courvoisier (liquor)—for free—without us holding him or her accountable," she charged. "I don’t think it so much a matter of being radical or not. It’s really about right and wrong. Is it right to peddle Courvoisier to our youth? Is it right to drop inferences and outright commercials for ecstasy (drugs), oral sex and immoral behavior to our youth?"

A strong public outcry from hip hoppers everywhere successfully forced Music TeleVision (MTV) to reverse its decision to ban PE’s latest video, "Gotta Give the Peeps What They Need." The song is from their latest album, "Revolverlution." The video and lyrical content speaks to the freeing of political prisoners Mumia Abu Jamal and Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, the former H. Rap Brown. Both are former Black Panther Party members.

MTV originally refused to air the video unless all references to Mr. Abu Jamal were censored out. It was their position that the content was glorifying "cop killers." Both Mr. Abu Jamal and Imam Al-Amin were convicted of the killing of law enforcement officers. Both maintain their innocence and say the actions taken against them is part of a government conspiracy.

"I deal with media hijacking and the uses of technology on us," Chuck D told The Final Call in an exclusive interview. "The key, and I learned this from (researcher) Steve Cokely and others, is to try to talk about new sciences and new effects without sounding like I’m talking Japanese to our people.

"It’s not the fact that MTV turned down the video and we’re trying to get the video played. I don’t give a damn. I make music to make a statement," he said.

After public outcry intensified via e-mail petitions, editorials, commentaries and the threat of boycott and demonstrations outside of MTV’s New York studios, MTV reconsidered its position and recently announced plans to air the video free of censorship.

Apparently, the issue of freeing Black U.S. political prisoners—which America claims not to possess—is a larger threat to White-owned music stations and labels than social issues raised by White artists like Eminem. The PE track, although tremendously popular in underground hip hop communities across the world, is hardly heard on radio or seen on music television stations. The same goes for other dominant Black male artists in hip hop like Kam and Dead Prez.

"The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that if you know better, you will do better," PE member Professor Griff told The Final Call. "But that’s a two-fold process. First you have to know, and then you have to do. And these artists—they know. They just refuse to take a proactive stance, maybe from fear of losing some fans or some money. They are up in the millions of dollars anyway, but they fear the loss, when they could at any time be sued for the foolish things they do and lose it all anyway," he said.

On the other hand, Eminem is in heavy rotation as he calls for the removal of the Bush administration. In his latest effort, "The Eminem Show," on the track called "Square Dance," the White artist rambles strong social commentary against the U.S. government’s war policies, terror and Mr. Bush.

"There is indeed music that offers more than booty-shaking, sex, drinking and drugs," commented WAOK radio talk show host Chris Askew in Atlanta. "The problem is, we collectively seem to ignore it. It’s easy to say we are being force-fed this music, but why do we consume it in such volume?

"One way to address this problem is to understand that we have power in how we determine to spend our money. We are the trendsetters. Each and every dollar does count. I will never knock an artist for the work he or she creates and I will always defend their right to create it, but we are lacking balance in the presentation of the arts across the board," he said.

"The bottom line is artists have to become more aware of what is going on in our community," said Kenya Jordana James, the 13-year-old editor-in-chief of Blackgirl magazine. "A lot of these artists are not in touch with the pulse of their community. It’s all Hollywood now. At the same time, there are artists who are saying something. There are artists out there who are conscious of what is going on … and we need to support them."

Some of those artists the youth hear, she said, are the group Nappy Roots; singers India.Arie, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and reggae artist Damian Marley.

"We need an inner-anarchy," Chuck D said, suggesting that people in the industry should organize and go after individuals in these corporations and make them personally accountable.

"That will start something," said Chuck D. "You got people who remain anonymous that make decisions on programming for millions of people and nobody knows who the hell they are. If you start naming the names, social security numbers, names of their kids, the schools they’re at, they’ll start running like roaches with the lights on, and they will start making more conscious decisions. We would have knocked away the corporate veil and force them to make statements as individuals.

"You know my name and you attack me and you hide under the corporate name of MTV. If you can know my name and attack what we do as a group, I have and the people have the right to know you—first, middle, last name—and everything about you, like the corporations have on all of us," he said.