Vigalantee

Last updated

Vigalantee
Birth nameRoger Suggs
BornChicago, United States
Genres Hip hop, rap
Occupation(s)Musician, vocalist, songwriter, record producer
Years active1993–present
Website Official channel on YouTube

Roger Suggs, better known as the rapper Vigalantee, is an emcee, speaker, and social activist based in Kansas City, Kansas. Through his music and activism, Vigalantee has been involved in crusading for human, civil, and labor rights, as well as several outreach programs designed to keep area youths out of prison. Vigalantee owns PhatAhDat Records, an independent label. He has stated in interviews that he took the name "Vigalantee" from the comic book character, Spider-Man, who attempts to help people but is still constantly under the threat of arrest from the police. [1]

Contents

Biography

Early life

Vigalantee was born in Chicago, but spent the majority of his childhood in a small town in Georgia, where he had a daily reminder of racism and segregation. He recalls watching his grandfather "walking like a sharecropper," and living close to poverty, dynamics that made him aware of his second-class citizenship status. As he grew older, he realized that his experience was shared by many blacks living in the South, and came to understand that if blacks could have a shared experience of oppression, they could likewise band together with a common agenda and a solid community to empower themselves out of the de facto racism. In interviews, he often references these painful memories and realizations as the backbone of his present-day activism. [2]

Musical career

Style and influence

Vigalantee's' stylistic signature is the use of acronyms in titles of his albums and songs, such as M.I.S.E.R.Y. and A.N.I.M.A.L. Referred to as the Acronym King, Suggs believes acronyms are easier for the intended recipients of his message. "People relate to it better and it sticks to the mind easier," Vigalantee has said. It's a God-given gift."

Musically and professionally, Vigalantee has been influenced by a wide array of artists, from Curtis Mayfield to Canibus. Vigalantee has publicly expressed his belief that music is the gateway to establishing profound social change, and that these acts create "thought provoking music" as to a way to educate their listeners while also entertaining them. Lyrically, he cites Chuck D, LL Cool J, and Poor Righteous Teachers as integral influences.

Not surprisingly, Vigalantee relies on his albums to make political and social statements. His songs have often contained controversial themes innate to the human experience, such as poverty, racism, prejudice, sexism, religion, murder, justice, religion, civil rights, and politics. In numerous interviews, Vigalantee has expressed his belief in using music as a way to critique social inequalities and establish change. His solo career has largely encouraged his fans to consider their role in being part of that change, asking them to be "called" to action, rather than driven, to turn activism into action. [3]

Much like Jay-Z and 50 Cent, Vigalantee has also branched into entrepreneurial pursuits, most recently in crossing over to the literary world. His first book, an autobiography entitled The Greatest Story That was Never Heard Til Now, is due out in March 2011. A second book, Love, Lust, Defeat, Deceit, a collection of his poetry, is currently seeking a publisher while looking for a spring release date.

Social and political views

Vigalantee considers himself to be a social activist, a role that has distinguished his music from that of his peers. While he's commented on a number of issues pertaining to social injustice, Vigalantee felt a particular stirring in regards to the unsolved murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till. The black Till was lynched during a visit to Mississippi relatives for allegedly whistling at a white woman, and his brutal death is credited with starting the Civil Rights Movement that would define the 1950s and 60's. Shortly before Congress enacted the Emmett Till Civil Rights Bill, Vigalantee recorded an eponymous single sharing the teen's story, feeling a connection to Till's journey from Chicago into the deep South. Vigalantee notes that, while popular artists have all name-dropped Emmett Till in their songs, "the true story of Emmett Till has never really been told," ultimately concluding, "young people don't know nothing about Emmett Till." [4]

Vigalantee has also worked to equalize treatment between the sexes, openly disagreeing with how women are treated in modern forms of entertainment and the media. In response to criticisms that there is a decisive lack of respectful depictions of women in popular hip-hop and rap, Vigalantee sought to deconstruct the traditional treatment of women with his album, "A Second is a Lifetime." One single in particular, "Beautiful Black Woman," encourages listeners to adopt a more compassionate approach to the treatment of women around the globe.

No Jaangle and F.B.O.E.

Though music has been a constant companion in Vigalantee's life, Vigalantee has been performing professionally since 1993. Since 1994, Vigalantee has owned and operated PhatAhDat Records. His independent label has allowed to focus on delivering his agenda with his music, rather than be censored to reflect social trends. With the resources of PhatAhDat, Vigalantee also pioneered the No Jaangle Movement, a social consciousness movement that challenges young people to combat the stigma of "bojangling," a negative stereotype that haunts most minority youths. With the No Jaangle Movement, Vigalantee hopes to motivate folks to realize ignorance isn't a component of success. Vigalantee formed an alliance with a collection of gifted teachers, students, and talented volunteers to help young people establish financial stability, network with community contacts, and gain a sense of purpose. "It means never compromising who you are, and realizing that you don't have to be ignorant to be successful. It also means respecting and recognizing those who've walked before you, taking the black face of shame off, combating "Bojangling". [5]

Vigalantee is also the co-founder of the Fringe Benefits Of Education (F.B.O.E.), a program geared towards empowering young people around the Kansas City in achieving their dreams[5]. Recognizing a noticeable gap in resources available for young men in the 17 to 22 age demographic, Fringe Benefits of Education networks to provide scholarship opportunities and support groups. To date, the program has also been endowed with a $10,000 grant from Kansas City Kansas Community College. [6]

Discography

Film work

Related Research Articles

Civil rights movement 1954—1968 U.S. social movement against legal racial discrimination

The 1954–1968 civil rights movement in the United States was preceded by a decades-long campaign by African Americans and their like-minded allies to end legalized racial discrimination, disenfranchisement and racial segregation in the United States. The movement has its origins in the Reconstruction era during the late 19th century, although it made its largest legislative gains in the mid-1960s after years of direct actions and grassroots protests. The social movement's major nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience campaigns eventually secured new protections in federal law for the human rights of all Americans.

Montgomery bus boycott Protest against racial segregation

The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and a social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States. The campaign lasted from December 5, 1955—the Monday after Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested for her refusal to surrender her seat to a white person—to December 20, 1956, when the federal ruling Browder v. Gayle took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws that segregated buses were unconstitutional.

Emmett Till 14-year-old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955

Emmett Louis Till was a 14-year-old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store. The brutality of his murder and the fact that his killers were acquitted drew attention to the long history of violent persecution of African Americans in the United States. Till posthumously became an icon of the civil rights movement.

<i>Jet</i> (magazine) African-American weekly magazine formerly based in Chicago

Jet is an American weekly digital magazine focusing on news, culture, and entertainment related to the African-American community. Founded in November 1951 by John H. Johnson of the Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois, the magazine was billed as "The Weekly Negro News Magazine". Jet chronicled the civil rights movement from its earliest years, including the murder of Emmett Till, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the activities of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Donald L. Hollowell

Donald Lee Hollowell was a civil rights attorney during the Civil Rights Movement, in the state of Georgia. He successfully sued to integrate Atlanta's public schools, Georgia colleges, universities and public transit, freed Martin Luther King Jr. from prison, and mentored civil rights attorneys. The first black regional director of a federal agency, Hollowell is best remembered for his instrumental role in winning the desegregation of the University of Georgia in 1961. He is the subject of a 2010 documentary film, Donald L. Hollowell: Foot Soldier for Equal Justice.

T. R. M. Howard

Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard was an American civil rights leader, fraternal organization leader, entrepreneur and surgeon. He was among the mentors to activists such as Medgar Evers, Charles Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Amzie Moore, Aaron Henry, and Jesse Jackson; founded Mississippi's leading civil rights organization in the 1950s, the Regional Council of Negro Leadership; and played a prominent role in the investigation of the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till in the late 1950s. He was also president of the National Medical Association, chairman of the board of the National Negro Business League, and a leading national advocate of African-American businesses.

Hip hop activism is a term coined by the hip hop intellectual and journalist Harry Allen. It is meant to describe an activist movement of the post- baby boomer generation.

Mamie Till American schoolteacher and mother of Emmett Till

Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley was an American educator and activist. She was the mother of Emmett Till, who was murdered in Mississippi on August 28, 1955 at the age of 14, after allegedly offending a white cashier woman, Carolyn Bryant, at the grocery store. For her son's funeral in Chicago, Mamie Till insisted that the casket containing his body be left open, because, in her words, "I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby." Born in Mississippi, Till-Mobley moved with her parents to the Chicago area during the Great Migration. After her son's murder she became an educator and activist in the Civil Rights Movement.

Mississippi Goddam 1964 song written and performed by Nina Simone

"Mississippi Goddam" is a song written and performed by American singer and pianist Nina Simone, who later announced the anthem to be her "first civil rights song". The song was released on her album Nina Simone in Concert in 1964, which was based on recordings of three concerts she gave at Carnegie Hall earlier that year. The album was her first release for the Dutch label Philips Records and is indicative of the more political turn her recorded music took during this period.

The Freedom Singers originated as a student quartet formed in 1962 at Albany State College in Albany, Georgia. After folk singer Pete Seeger witnessed the power of their congregational-style of singing, which fused black Baptist a cappella church singing with protest songs and chants, their performances drew aid and support to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the emerging civil rights movement. Seeger suggested The Freedom Singers as a touring group to the SNCC executive secretary James Forman as a way to fuel future campaigns. As a result, communal song became essential to empowering and educating audiences about civil rights issues and a powerful social weapon of influence in the fight against Jim Crow segregation. Rutha Mae Harris, a former freedom singer, speculated that without the music force of broad communal singing, the civil rights movement may not have resonated beyond of the struggles of the Jim Crow South.

The Murder of Emmett Till is a 2003 documentary film produced by Firelight Media that aired on the PBS program American Experience. The film chronicles the story of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago visiting relatives in Mississippi in 1955. He was brutally murdered by two white men after a white woman falsely claimed that he had whistled at and groped her.

Charles "Chuck" Neblett is a civil rights activist best known for helping to found and being a member of The Freedom Singers.

The history of the 1954 to 1968 American civil rights movement has been depicted and documented in film, song, theater, television, and the visual arts. These presentations add to and maintain cultural awareness and understanding of the goals, tactics, and accomplishments of the people who organized and participated in this nonviolent movement.

Feminist activism in hip hop is a feminist movement based by hip hop artists. The activism movement involves doing work in graffiti, break dancing, and hip hop music. Hip hop has a history of being a genre that sexually objectifies and disrespects women ranging from the usage of video vixens to explicit rap lyrics. Within the subcultures of graffiti and breakdancing, sexism is more evident through the lack of representation of women participants. In a genre notorious for its sexualization of women, feminist groups and individual artists who identify as feminists have sought to change the perception and commodification of women in hip hop. This is also rooted in cultural implications of misogyny in rap music.

Aldon Douglas Morris is a professor of sociology and an award-winning scholar, with interests including social movements, civil rights, and social inequality. He is the 2021 president of the American Sociological Association.

L. Alex Wilson (1909-1960) was an African-American journalist during the civil rights movement.

The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act is an Act of the United States Congress introduced by John Lewis (GA-5) that allows cold cases of suspected violent crimes committed against African Americans before 1970 to be reopened. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the legislation on June 20, 2007 by a vote of 422 to 2. The U.S. Senate passed the legislation on September 24, 2008 by unanimous consent, and President George W. Bush signed the bill into law on October 7.

The Eagle Eye was a newspaper for African Americans published by Arrington High in Jackson, Mississippi.

Rest in power

In mainly Black and LGBTQ communities in the United States, rest in power is an expression used to mourn, remember or celebrate a deceased person, especially someone who is thought to have struggled against systemic prejudice such as racism, homophobia or transphobia, or suffered because of it. It has been used to eulogise victims of hate crimes while protesting the social inequality and institutionalised discrimination that may have led to their deaths. "Rest in power" is also used to pay tribute to a public figure who made a difference in the lives of minority communities and was significant and respected within them.

Cant Put It in the Hands of Fate 2020 single by Stevie Wonder featuring Rapsody, Cordae, Chika, Busta Rhymes

"Can't Put It in the Hands of Fate" is a song by American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder, featuring rappers Rapsody, Chika, Cordae and Busta Rhymes. Released on October 13, 2020, it is a funk track with lyrics addressing institutional racism, and associated issues such as police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement.

References

  1. ↑ Pete Dulin. "Vigalantee on the Home Front". PresentMagazine.com.
  2. ↑ Tolu Olorunda (December 8, 2008). "Vigalantee: Hunting for Souls". YourBlackPower.blogspot.com.
  3. ↑ Dr. Boyce Watkins. "Rapper Vigalantee Teaches Hip-Hop How to Respect Itself and Others". Black Voices.
  4. ↑ Pete Dulin. "Song of the Day: Emmett Till by Vigalantee". PresentMagazine.com.
  5. ↑ Pete Dulin. "Vigalantee on the Homefront". PresentMagazine.com.
  6. ↑ Seward, Larry (August 25, 2010). "KCKCC spending thousands on 'Fringe Benefits Education'". NBC Action News . Kansas City. Retrieved February 11, 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.