Case Study: ILL Se7en

ILL Se7en

Who: A local rapper and activist

When: 2008 to present

Where: Denver, Colorado

Practitioners: Michael Acuna

Further Insight:

http://www.illse7en.com/

https://soundcloud.com/ill-seven

https://www.facebook.com/ill.seven

 

For nearly ten years, Michael Acuna has been making music that speaks to “the social ills that plague the urban spectrum.” Acuna is Denver-based hip-hop artist that combines his music-making with activism under the pseudonym ILL Se7en. Acuna began his activism as a teenager by engaging in dialogue about the systemic injustices of society, and particularly how they pertain to young, African-American men.  “Eventually, I stopped wanting to just talk about it. I wanted to engage in it,” says Acuna. He began volunteering at schools and detention centers, and he started to see himself in a lot of the young people he was helping. He saw them facing struggles similar to what he had gone through growing up. Acuna was already making music when he had this realization, and so he decided to incorporate activism into hip-hop. “It was a natural incorporation,” says Acuna. And thus, ILL Se7en was conceived.

“Hip-hop is like folk music,” says Acuna. “I tell stories that come from experience. Either from my own, or from stories that I have heard.” A lot of Acuna’s music comes from what he has observed in his own community. Through ILL Se7en, Acuna challenges young African-American men to change the way they think about themselves in society. His belief is that it is important for these men to work towards establishing a legacy for themselves among the dominant white narrative that exists within our current culture. Through his music, Acuna wishes to speak to people of a variety of ages and demographics. He seeks to create dynamic music that is palpable to everybody on some level. “Even if you have never lived in the environment [I talk about in my music] you still get a sense of what it is like,” says Acuna. “It’s like a spiritual connection from me to the messages in my songs.” Hip-hop engages young people and has the ability to rally people together. It allows for unlimited perspectives to be shared. In addition to ILL Se7en, Acuna acts as the keynote speaker at universities and schools. In 2016, he spoke at the Black Male Initiative Summit at the University of Denver, where he led students in an exercise to create an action plan that outlines how they can achieve excellence in school, their community, family and within themselves.

Welcome to the underground. Bare arms when the stranger’s knock. Pull trigger, no question, it might be the cops… with my fist up to fight this, raise up the righteous. This system is going to be overthrown. There is going to be a fight. It’s going to mean a lot of white people risking a lot of things.

These are lyrics from one of ILL Se7en’s songs, Track the Underground. “Much of what I was talking about on this project had to do with the under current of the reality of our system,” says Acuna, “and that reality…we still deal with.”

 The song ends with the perforating line, Freaks are revolutionaries and revolutionaries are freaks.

Acuna’s next big project is called Thoughts from a cinematic night. It will connect movies to relevant political topics. For instance, the movie New Jack City will be used to comment on the hustle and the struggle of life. Acuna is using this project to talk about how drugs came to America and the divide within black culture. “I want to talk about who we are within that blackness,” says Acuna. “Why do we break ourselves down and divide ourselves into groups instead of build ourselves up?”

Replacing a common narrative with a new, accurate one, Acuna speaks to the systemic injustices that plague the lives of young African American men. He tells young men to change their story and break the mold aids in perpetuating the stereotype.

Why it Works

Hip-hop is engaging and interesting. It allows for multiple platforms of performance and avenues of getting the message out. With a song, one can tell a long narrative in a unique and disarming way. Music appeals to many people of many ages.

Theories

Narrative Power Analysis (244)

Pedagogy of the Oppressed (246)

Tactics Used

Direct Action (32)

Forum Theater (48)

Strategic nonviolence (88)

Key Principles at Work

Choose Tactics that Support your Strategy (112)

Reframe (168)

Shift the Spectrum of Allies (172)

New Principle Used

Use Poetry and the Power of Culture

Sometimes, commenting on your environment is the most effective way to relay that perspective to others. Observing the culture around you and putting it to words can be a very powerful tool. Combine that with an awesome beat and an enthralling chorus, and you’ve got people’s attention.