This is awesome. To help raise money and awareness for Gulf Aid (a charity which supports fisherman and the environment in New Orleans as the oil spill continues to desecrates on their ecosystem and lives), Mos Def & Lenny Kravitiz along with the Preservation Hall Band, Trombone Shorty & Tim Robbins jammed for 12 hours and have produced ‘It Ain’t My Fault’. The song is call out to the massive oil companies that continue to take the piss out of the land and sea – it’s a beautiful ode to New Orleans too, with a great message. Go here now to donate what you can.
Mos Def performed this last week during a concert to raise money for Gulf Aid, check it out here.
Janelle Monae promotes her new album The ArchAndroid on BET’s 106 & Park. She speaks about her live show, her parents and also announces that each song on the album will get an accompanying video, resulting in a full on EMOTIONfilm (excited much!!!!).
She did great, I was wondering how Janelle would deal with mainstream promo but she’s doing good I think. Although it does bug me when artists like Erykah, Janelle, Jill Scott etc appear on this show (be real, they do dumb it down), but it’s business at the end of the day and I ain’t knocking that hustle – BET need to step it up more than anything.
Make sure you check out our exclusive interview with Janelle Monae, she talks about her family and her tux in much more detail and a whole host of things. It’s a great watch.
After a little break, Amerie is back with a brand new single. ‘Who’s Gonna Love U’ is a up-tempo R&B/Pop number, featuring some pretty decent vocals and a nice hook. I’ve personally never been the fan of Amerie (well, her music at least), I’ve liked the odd single here and there but never really been that much of a follower. This track is actually pretty decent – nothing life changing here but I think R&B and Amerie fans will be content. For me to really take note, she needs to come hard than this but this is far from terrible.
Update: Amerie revealed to Rap-Up that her new album will be titled Cymatica Vol 1. “Cymatics, derived from the Greek word wave, means the study of visible sound and vibration” – no release date has been set at this point.
Yesterday (May 19th) marked the birthday of Alhajj Malik Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X. (R.I.P). A revolutionary of his time, Mr X continues to be heralded in hip hop culture, more so than any other civil rights leader in history. A man determined to stand up for his beliefs and give a solid up- middle- finger to the institutions that he saw as grossly discriminatory. A bit like Scarface and Tupac Shakur, X represents the hyper masculine, non-conformist rogue (I’m not seriously comparing X to Scarface, promise). The main difference between Malcolm X and other socio-political popular culture figures like Che Guevara or Angela Davies, is that X was initially part of the Nation of Islam, a devout Muslim till his death.
Yet, we have another rising outspoken figure in the world of hip hop who too coincidentally has Nation of Islam ties- rapper & boo to Erykah Badu- Mr Jay Electronica (Jay ElecHannukah…). I watched a recent video interview he did with The Most Influential, where he talked about his spiritual beliefs . For Jay, it’s not so much a case of representing a religion, but more so spiritual awakening. He mentions in the interview that he no longer identifies with a particular religious organization because it causes divide. Still, while hip hop has been used for a tool to voice many injustices and social standings, from gentrification to the welfare system, addiction, racism and sex, it seems to be only a matter of time before outwardly religious music becomes the mainstream. And why not? Since every other aspect of human existence are ingrained in music.
Sure, there are already other Muslim rappers of high standing including Mos Def and Lupe Fiasco (plus even more self determined Christian rappers) but not many of them have dropped “Muhammad Asalaamica Rasoul Allah Supana Watallah” in a 16-bar or proclaimed they want to “… be a servant to the human families of the planet earth” via Twitter in the way that Jay Electronica has. Of course niche rappers voice personal beliefs, but its pretty apparent that Jay will soon catapult out of the underground. This could be the shift into a new era.
Hip hop culture is (was?) the pseudo religion of many; with rappers probably have more sway in youth culture than pastors do. In a climate where (as Fiddy Cent recently outlined in an MTV interview) conscious rappers of yesterday are the hipster rappers of today. Perhaps the new ‘conscious’ minded music artists will move towards a more pronounced depiction of spiritual views, lead by the likes of Jay Electronica (followed by fundamentalist illuminati accusers, obvs). Malcolm X with his unapologetically outspoken nature allured many young African Americans towards The Nation of Islam. He encouraged pride, strength in knowledge, the power of truth and honour. I feel a resurgence of that sentiment, whether propelled by religion or not. This really excites me. Not because I’m advocator of Islam (I’m not), but because it’s encouraging to think the days of hollow hip hop are dwindling. Bring on the renaissance!
