Colin Powell: Hip Hop Star

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell took the stage at a London benefit concert for Africa on Tuesday to give an impromptu dance and rap performance.

The BBC and The Telegraph have the must-see photos of Powell dancing with Nigerian hip hop group Olu Maintain at the Africa Rising festival.

Powell said that it was still important that he talk about his African heritage.

“I stand before you tonight as an African-American,” he said, according to the BBC. “Many people have said to me you became secretary of state of the USA, is it still necessary to say that you are an African-American or that you are black, and I say, yes, so that we can remind our children.”

He added: “It took a lot of people struggling to bring me to this point in history. I didn’t just drop out of the sky, people came from my continent in chains.”

Powell also noted that Africa didn’t see the kind of growth elsewhere in the world, seen after the West took on Communism. But he said that Africa should be able to move forward today.

“Asia is expanding, it created jobs for people, and Eastern Europeans are doing the same… it’s now Africa’s turn,” he said.