Davey opens by flagging a broader cultural chill: institutions soft-pedaling Black history (e.g., museum text that erases “slavery”) and artists being penalized for political speech. That lands close to home with news out of St. Louis: after releasing two political tracks during a heated mayoral race, Tef Poe is suddenly the target of a law-enforcement “investigation”—not for violent lyrics, he stresses, but for naming names and challenging power.

Tef lays out his lineage of “diss records for politicians,” noting he’s taken aim at Democrats and Republicans alike. He sketches the local stakes: the city’s first Black woman mayor—elected with movement support—faces a challenger, Kara Spencer, backed by major corporate interests tied to displacement and privatization schemes (airport, even the Cardinals). There’s also a push to shift control of St. Louis policing to the state. Despite disagreements with the mayor, Tef frames his stance as defending Black St. Louis’s right to determine its own leadership without external manipulation.

They connect the dots nationally: outside money and influence flooding races (Cori Bush, Jamal Bowman, even Oakland fights), and the wider hypocrisy around rap lyrics—celebrated when profitable, criminalized when politically sharp. Tef explains “The Ghost of Ivory Perry,” a high-speed drill homage to a legendary St. Louis activist who pioneered direct-action tactics; the song resonated across generations, fueling a groundswell that he describes as the city being “on fire” politically. He and Davey revisit Ferguson’s predatory courts and the DOJ-validated ticket-and-warrant machinery that once blocked basic civic participation.

Midway, Tef widens the lens: St. Louis’s old-money networks, secretive civic clubs, and organized-crime-style power—continuities he argues reach back to segregationist elites. He urges practical, everyday organizing: use your lane (music, radio, classrooms), sit on juries, “pick locks” from the inside, and report back. They critique crime-highlight websites and PR pipelines that frame narratives against Black communities while treating political art as suspect. To close, Tef connects U.S. struggles to global anti-Blackness, warns of a creeping fascism that restricts movement and speech, and issues an urgent call: get active now—write, organize, challenge power—because the next phase of the fight is already here.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

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