Hard Knock Radio host Davey D checks in with activist journalist Rosa Clemente for a wide ranging conversation that starts with the escalation of state power and lands on a pointed debate about Bad Bunny performing at the Super Bowl halftime show.
Davey opens by naming the moment journalists being arrested, election related chaos, and global militarization including reports of troops on the ground in Nigeria. He asks Rosa to connect those headlines to what she has witnessed first hand, recalling her reporting during Hurricane Katrina, Ferguson, and other flashpoints where law enforcement treated journalists as targets. Rosa says the current crackdown feels like a dangerous continuation of what she has long warned about, only now it is accelerating daily through ICE actions, federal intimidation, and political leaders pushing new measures around elections. She argues independent journalists must speak out, noting recent arrests and the importance of live streamers and community reporters being protected and amplified.
From there the discussion shifts to Bad Bunny. Davey acknowledges Bad Bunny’s huge cultural reach and how his music crosses generations and communities, while also pointing out that a principled political critique is different from xenophobic attacks that treat Puerto Rico as foreign. Rosa gives historical context for Bad Bunny’s rise after Hurricane Maria and his role in the 2019 protests that helped push Puerto Rico’s governor to resign. But she draws a hard line now, saying performing at the Super Bowl while ICE raids escalate creates an unacceptable contradiction. Her petition is less about believing she can stop the show and more about putting a marker in the record books: she wants history to remember who took a stand when it mattered.
Davey pushes back with the idea that a massive stage can plant seeds and that many people are clinging to normalcy for emotional survival. Rosa replies that this moment is beyond nuance. She respects people needing joy, but insists organizers cannot outsource movement hopes to celebrities. She closes by directing listeners to her writing and her upcoming seminar on the Black Puerto Rican radical tradition, urging everyone to take whatever relief they need and then get back to work immediately after the spectacle ends.
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.
