Bio

We want rebel music, street music. Music that breaks down people’s fear of one another. Crisis music. Now music. Music that knows who the real enemy is. -Dave Widgery, Rock Against Racism

Music, so we are told, has no real role to play in changing the world. Musicians are better off when they “shut up and sing” and leave politics to the politicians. Rebel Frequencies is dedicated to exposing and fighting this myth—to defending music as a product of human creativity and genuine community, and insisting that it can only be ultimately liberated if it joins in the wider struggles for freedom and equality.

Alexander Billet, a music journalist, activist and DJ living in Chicago, runs Rebel Frequencies. He regularly contributes to SocialistWorker.org, Green Left Weekly, ZNet and Dissident Voice. His articles have appeared at TheNation.com, Z Magazine, New Politics, CounterPunch, PopMatters.com, Electronic Intifada, the International Socialist Review, the Washington Peace Letter, MR Zine and Razorcake.org among others.

His article “Is Russell Simmons Playing Politics with Hip-Hop?” appears in the academic collection At Issue: Should Music Lyrics Be Censored For Violence and Exploitation? released in 2008 by Greenhaven Press.

Billet has also been interviewed on CKUT Montreal’s “Roots Rock Rebel,” Radio Free Adelaide in Australia and W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Internet radio show. He is a member of the National Writers Union/UAW Local 1981 and a founding member of Punks Against Apartheid, which successfully campaigned to cancel the Tel Aviv show of former Dead Kennedys’ front-man Jello Biafra. He is heavily involved in organizing the Occupy Chicago Rebel Arts Collective (OCRAC), a network of artists in support of Occupy Chicago. Over the years he has been active in various anti-war, anti-racist and economic justice movements.

His all-time top five artists are the Clash, Public Enemy, Nina Simone, Massive Attack and Rage Against the Machine (with a close sixth being a tie between Lauryn Hill and Radiohead).

Contact him at rebelfrequencies@gmail.com.