Coinciding with famed film director Melvin Van Peebles lending his voice to the Occupy Wall Street Movement is the rumour that the radical OG was “the first African American trader on the floor at the Wall Street Stock Exhange.”

Personally, I’m not convinced of the latter but who knows with a man who has done everything from driving a San Francisco cable car to recording with Madlib and playing live with Greg Tate’s Burnt Sugar.

This is  a man who, with a  $50,000 loan from Bill Cosby, produced, wrote, directed, edited, scored and marketed his own film – Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song – which grossed more than $10 million. That makes it one of the most successful black indie films of all time.

Melvin Van Peebles is a man who likes to make shit happen and he’s cool about his 1971 song ‘Love That’s America’ – from his first Hollywood film Watermelon Man – being  used by various OWS promotional videos circulating on the web now.

Check this & Fight The Power!

Tune to  #OccupyWallStreet : The Roots, Kanye, Russell Simmons, Talib Kweli, Q-Tip, Moby, Angelique Kidjo, Baaba Maal, and so many more stand with the 99%.