One of the major purposes of “Written Off – America and Americans” is to provide hope and help for people drowning in the oceans of pain brought to us by the Great Recession. Certainly, no people in recent history have experienced the bleakness of such times. Right? Wrong.

An interview with “Brother Ernie” Paniciolli, a famed photographer who was there at the very beginning of the Hip Hop movement proves otherwise.  As a man who prowled the dusty streets of the Bronx where poverty ruled and “urban blight” described the art that decorated the walls of seemingly bombed-out neighborhoods, he saw – and recorded – things differently.

Who could have been more “written off” than the black and Hispanic youth of that time?  What would be more unlikely than to see grow from the graffiti scratches and the poetry being spoken sound – a major economic and cultural force we came to call Hip Hop .

Ernie was recently featured in a December edition of Hip Hop Weekly as one of the seminal photographers to chronicle Hip Hop from its very beginning. The author, Dasun Allah, captured him beautifully in this tribute: “He is the native sun who illuminated a world with his flash-bulb; a First Nation’s descendant and one of the first to ever do it, he has walked among and is of the ranks of Hip Hop immortals.”

In an hour-long interview on my PWRNradio.com show, “Down, But Not Out – America’s Revolt Against Being ‘Written Off,’” Ernie takes us through the genesis and evolution of Hip Hop and the resultant $200-billion-plus industry it has evolved into…and how that experience helped him to develop the rules that determine success in any enterprise and under any circumstances.

Ernie demonstrates a mind as sharp as his lens, blending references to the Dalai Lama, the Black Panther Party, Public Enemy, The Universal Zulu Nation, Will Smith, Biggie, LL J Cool, Queen Latifah, economics, politics, and wars to shrewd views on what it takes to survive and even thrive.

Want to hear the three requirements that – if met – will make you a success?  Tune in now (anytime, really, as we are “on-demand”) to an interview that you will remember for years to come.  Oh yes, and don’t forget to visit Brother Ernie on Facebook and search for Ernie Paniciolli’s books on Lulu.com.

PWRN Radio: Down, But Not Out: America’s Revolt Against Being Written Off – Show #4