This subject is hard to tackle but has to be addressed....I grew up immersed in Hip Hop ...In its early days i was already a big fan of rappers before rap-......Richie Havens....... Gil Scot Heron..............-Last Poets-......Stevie Wonder..........-EWF-.........Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.  The early hip hop consisted of bragging and how hype the emcee could make the party. Then Kool Moe Dee  and the treacherous 3 changed the game with elaborate rhyme patterns..Then Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five with the Message.....Kurtis Blow gave birth to RunDMC and Whodini....and the list goes on and on....But in 1982 Africa Bambaataa dropped Planet Rock and it changed the game of Hip Hop to the business of Hip Hop as it went international and BamBaataa started the International Zulu Nation....Bam was etched into Hip Hop immortality with this song and the Zulu movement...I cant even begin to tell you how the allegations of child molestation affected me. So the first guy comes out Ronald Savage and im like ok this could be some kind of extortion attempt even though he sounds very believable. But the second guy comes out Poppy or Lil B.O. from Bronx River Projects and i know people from the Bronx i was in the feds with that know him.They tell me Poppy is 100%  legitimate stand up guy and his word is good. He is not a snitch  or soft and as a matter of fact he is brave as hell for coming out with this. Who would want to admit something like this coming from a Hip Hop Icon?.If only 3 come out that means Bam raped hundreds of boys over the years.How could we allow this to happen? Is his influence over people that strong?.Is making money more important than our kids?.I have to totally disagree with KRS ONE who said this has nothing to do with Hip Hop. THIS HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH HIP HOP AND HOW WE COULD ALLOW THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR BEING DONE IN OUR COMMUNITY BY US.....HE HAS SINGLE- HANDEDLY  DESTROYED MORE YOUNG BLACK MEN THAN THE POLICE OR ANYONE ELSE EVER COULD, BECAUSE HE HAS MADE MONSTERS OUT OF SOME OF THESE KIDS.THEY WILL HAVE NO MERCY OR COMPASSION FOR ANYONE ELSE AND SOME WILL SEXUALLY ASSAULT SOMEONE ELSE......IF SOMEONE WHITE WAS CAUGHT DOING THIS TO OUR KIDS THE PENALTY IS DEATH. WHY ISNT IT THE SAME WAY IF THE PREDATOR IS BLACK AND WELL LOVED? DOES HE GET A PASS FOR THIS ?

NO and im quite confident it will be handled by people close to the situation,,,,This story broke my heart because I AM HIP HOP... i grew up with HIP HOP and i love HIP HOP...SO TO AFRIKA BAMBAATAA I HAVE THIS TO SAY.......YOU HAVE A SICKNESS THAT ONLY HAS ONE CURE.....WRITE A LETTER OF APOLOGY AND SET UP SOME TYPE OF FUND FOR THE VICTIMS TO RECEIVE HELP IF THEY WANT IT AND THEN ( IT BREAKS MY HEART TO SAY THIS).....SIT IN A ROOM AND PUT A 357 MAGNUM UNDER YOUR CHIN AND PULL THE TRIGGER ...ITS THE ONLY CURE....WE HAVE ENOUGH FACTORS AGAINST US IN AMERICA AS BLACK PEOPLE. THE LAST THING WE SHOULD HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IS PEDOPHILIA FROM OUR ELDERS...WE COULDVE ACCEPTED THE FACT IF YOU CAME OUT AS GAY BAM BUT TO FORCE YOURSELF ON KIDS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE,.....I KNOW PEOPLE WHO REPRESENT ZULU NATION AND THIS DOESNT DEFINE OR REPRESENT THEM OR  ALL THE POSITIVE THINGS THE NATION HAS DONE OVER THE YEARS.....But this has to addressed quickly .Who knew what when?....None of the ways of life permit this kind of behavior ...Muslim...Knowledge of self...5%.....Zulu Nation...None of these permit homosexuality let alone pedofiles .....So Hip Hop its up to us to clean house..Cause if we dont we will look real stupid the next time SOMEONE WHITE does something to us and we want to respond with POWER but when they say well what did you do about Bambaataa? We have to lower our heads in shame because WE DIDNT  DO SHIT!.....and to KRS1  I WANT TO SAY HIP HOP IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE KIDS BECAUSE THEY WERE ABUSED UNDER THE UMBRELLA OF HIP HOP.IF WE DONT PROTECT THEM WHO WILL????? Most wont come forward anyway because they have families now .But those that do NEED HELP OF SOME KIND. TO DISMISS THEIR PLIGHT BECAUSE BAM DID IT IS UNFORGIVABLE....SO HOW ARE YOU GONNA HANDLE THIS HIP HOP???  ARE YOU GOING TO STAY SILENT?? THERE IS SOMEONE OUT HERE RAPING OUR SONS AND WE KNOW WHO IS DOING IT.....DO OUR BLACKS SONS MATTER TO HIP HOP???/ LETS FIND OUT....I BELIEVE HIP HOP WILL DO WHATS BEST...

Rodney Crawford Jr is also the author of the book OPEN LETTER TO AMERICA  available on Amazon