Weldon Irvine – The Amadou Project

The more educated I become about the history of hip-hop, the more inspired I become. It is becoming increasingly clear to me that hip-hop is much more than an art form and a genre of music. For the urban-dwellers who have sufferred episodes of tragic violence and police brutality, hip-hop is a soundtrack for survival.

The story of Weldon Irvine and The Amadou Project is a double-tragedy that starts and ends in death.

Amadou Bailo Diallo was a 23-year-old Senegalese immigrant in New York City who was shot to death on 4 February 1999 by four NYC plain-clothed cops. The shooting took place at 1157 Wheeler Avenue in the Soundview section of The Bronx. All four officers were acquitted at trial in Albany, New York.

Diallo came to NYC in 1996 and was selling videotapes, gloves and socks from a 14th Street sidewalk, apparently with the intended goal of earning enough money to study and start his own computer business.

As reported by the Washington Post, “In February 1999, four New York City policemen searching for a rape suspect knocked on Amadou Diallo’s door to question him. When he came to the door he reached inside his jacket, at which point the officers shot at him 41 times, hitting him with 19 bullets. The object Diallo was reaching for turned out to be his wallet.”

According to wikipedia, the acquittal of the four police officers who shot Diallo to death “sparked massive demonstrations against police brutality and racial profiling, resulting in more than 1,700 arrests over the course of many weeks. Those arrested in the daily protests at the entrance of One Police Plaza came from all walks of life, and included former NYPD officers, former mayor David Dinkins, Congressmen Charlie Rangel and Gregory Meeks, the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, New York State Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr., actress Susan Sarandon, as well as British documentary maker Louis Theroux, and more than a dozen rabbis and other clergy, and numerous federal, state, and local politicians. Charges against the protesters were later dropped. In 2001 the Justice Department announced that it would not charge the officers with having violated Diallo’s civil rights.”

Irvine commented about The Amadou Project in a lengthy interview conducted by Oliver Wang:

This is a project, as I stated in my own liner notes, I call it Master Wel, by the way, Master Weldon is the name I use when I rhyme, but it’s titled Master Wel presents the Price of Freedom, subtitled The Amadou Project. Such a serious set of circumstances to imagine a person could be shot at 41 times, hit 19 times but be guilty of no crime and in the end, those who took his life, be rendered not guilty of any wrongdoing. Believe it or not, I anticipated the verdict as soon as I had read of Amadou’s plight. And Amadou has not been the first victim of unwarranted shooting in anyone’s view. And I felt that this needs to stop.

So the Amadou Project was an attempt on my part to speak about the whole subject of police brutality in general and Amadou in particular. I was very fortunate many spoken word artists including Mums the Schemer, Rah Goddess, Rich Medina, Tree, so many people, Sister Nzingah. From hip hop we had Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Q-Tip, Don Blackman, Carla Cook, even Amadou’s mother herself. I sampled her. But all of us collectively had so much to say about this tragedy, this unjust act and under the title the Amadou Project, which I hope people will avail themselves of we spoke very passionately about not only the fact that he was killed, but things that we feel as a society we should do to stop this from every happening again.

Born in Hampton, Virginia on 27 October 1943, Weldon Irvine began playing piano as a teenager and later studied literature at Hampton University. His love of poetry and jazz led to a string of Fender Rhodes-infused jazz-funk albums in the 1970s. I recently read a blog post that described Irvine as the Fender “Rhodes Scholar.”

When Irvine settled in NYC in 1965, he joined Kenny Dorham and Joe Henderson’s big band, and would eventually become Nina Simone’s organist, bandleader, arranger, and road manager. His most notable success with Simone was penning the lyrics for “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, which was inspired by a performance of Lorraine Hansberry’s play of the same title.

After his split with Simone, Irvine formed his own 17-piece ensemble that included some bright lights of the period: Billy Cobham, Randy Brecker, Bennie Maupin, and Don Blackman. He started the “Nodlew” record label and published his debut, “Liberated Brother”, in 1973.

Irvine’s style and fusion of jazz, funk, soul, and blues would later be credited with inspiring the “acid jazz” scene. He also waxed poetic over his musical meanderings, making him one of the true forefathers of the hip-hop sound.

After a 15-year recording lapse, Irvine re-emerged as hip-hop was coming into its own. The rising leaders of the “New School” sampled heavily from Irvine’s Nodlew catalog, and they eventually sought him out for collaborations.

While he was inspired by the new hip-hop sound, it was more likely that common politics brought Irvine together with Boogie Down Productions, A Tribe Called Quest, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Q-Tip. Irvine began rapping himself under the name Master Wel, and all worked together to produce “The Price of Freedom” in response to the death of Amadou Diallo.

One would think that the inspiration of these collaborations (which can be seen in the liner notes for The Price of Freedom) would have been enough to keep Weldon Irvine going for years to come, but on 9 April 2002, Irvine committed suicide outside a New York City office complex at the age of 58.

The Price of Freedom is T-R-U-T-H!
The Amadou Project
Produced by Weldon Irvine

1) Amadou – Weldon & The Poets – 6:36
2) Hip Hop Speaks – Mos Def, Talib Kweli – 1:53
3) Make It All Better – Black Star & Q-Tip – 4:08
4) Prankster Gangster – Master-Wel – 5:56
5) Prayer for Peace – Hopewell, Woodson Reverend – 1:16
6) A Plan Don’t Get Up – J. Mtume, B. Pickett, C.W. Etheridge, Weldon Irvine – 1:04
7) No Laughing Matter – Punchanello, Todd B. – 2:28
8) Break Bread – Future Heads – 6:09
9) Hollow Points – Don Blackman – 0:51
10) Beyond Belief – James Mtume – 0:40
11) Said & Done – poem by Weldon Irvine performed by Jackie Ale.Xander – 6:23
12) Pleasure-Pain-&-Me – Carla Cook – 4:12
13) Unify – Rha-Goddess – 2:54
14) Love Supreme – Joselyn Mirabal – 1:37
15) Blues for Amadou – Don Blackman, Weldon Irvine – 1:57
16) My DNA’s Ok – Mums The Schemer – 2:41
17) Descended from Kings – Master-Wel – 1:42
18) Motha Goddess – Sister Nzinga – 4:35
19) You & I-Verse – Soul Kid Click – 3:16
20) Destiny’s Finger – Rameesha Perry – 0:50
21) Black Male – Tree – 2:12
22) Sun Drops – Sun Drops – 5:02
23) Tears for Amadou – Ngoma, Didgeridoo – 2:58
24) Amadou’s Journey – Don Blackman – 2:29