Damon Albarn on Live 8, Geldof on G8 Protestors

Damon Albarn predicted the increased album sales we've seen since Live 8 and prior to the event said that labels should be charged for artist participation since they would benefit. Albarn also questioned whether this approach was the best way to support Africa and stated that "Live 8 treated Africa like it was 'a failing, ill, sick, tired place'." Albarn's own experiences in Africa taught him that, though awful conditions persist, Africa is also "incredibly sophisticated - the society and the structure of people's lives is as sophisticated, if not more sophisticated in some ways, than in the West."

Now generally I don't talk politics at ProHipHop the way I do at Hip Hop Logic and recently I haven't done too much of that there either. But I believe that it takes wide-ranging efforts from a variety of forces to create change. Live 8 seems like a productive event to me which can only partly be measured by the amount of aid and debt relief that the G8 is pressured into providing.

Folks like Geldof and Bono are a necessary part of social change and so are G8 protestors, many of whom are anarchists, my people. Of course, most of my anarchist friends have no idea why I'd write a business blog other than as a scam and that's just fine. That topic will be clearer as time passes but I just want to say that protestors are a necessary part of the puzzle and have been out there continuously providing what Jesse Jackson used to call "street heat" while folks like Bono were partying in between concerts and meetings. I mean, where's Geldof been all these years and where does he get off condemning them as if his way was the only way?