Right, I’m going to try and post a ‘conscious classic’ every week. To kick things off, check this incredible lyrical performance from Skinnyman, taken from his 2004 album ‘Council Estate of Mind’. Three minutes of pure knowledge and depth – with no hooks!

In a relentless indictment of the music industry, Skinny explains why UK hip-hop artists have difficulty getting signed – because they talk too much realness! No doubt the likes of Lowkey, Akala and Black the Ripper will relate to this, given that they get a bare minimum of exposure on commercial media, in spite of having massive underground popularity.

One positive development over the last few years is that good artists don’t have to be as reliant on the music industry as they once were – the internet gives new opportunities for guerrilla marketing and distribution that mean you can get music into people’s ears without having to spend tens of thousands of pounds. Without a doubt, some of our best conscious/political rappers are using these opportunities with great effect.

Anyway, check the lyrics.

I don’t wanna blow up, throughout every era I’ve been here
So far the underground circuit has been fair
The home of hip hop, can you say you’ve been there?
Home’s where the heart is so hip hop lives right here
I’m from UK, to you that might seem rare
I’m steppin’ up now to make sure I seem clear
In every council estate we’ve got pure talent
No one don’t care because they’re seen as a challenge
I suppose we’ll never be the balance that you’re lookin’
You wanna dilute the realness then sling a hook in
Most A&R cats I’ve ever met was all shookin’
I’m lost for words if they don’t bring a chequebook in
I’m livin’ in a place where you can get your life tooken
For half steppin, by kids that’ll blast weapons
Pull up at the lights they’ll have you out in half seconds
Think your rough hang around if your ass reckons
Don’t have to look for trouble, trouble it’ll find ya
Don’t turn around it’ll be right behind ya
Maybe September the 11th will remind ya
Nobody ain’t too major nor minor
If you’re bruck in the street or in a brand new recliner
Grab ya dicks and girls rub your vagina
Pay the pound I’ll provide the punch liner
Might look young but I’m a real old timer
Been around ever since the days of Boogie Down
You can check my résumé, the evidence can be found
Forever been blessin’ eloquence over sound
Before they had the lino for spinnin’ on the ground
Since then shit’s changed man, shit goes down
But we’re still gettin’ down to the same old sound, it’s hip hop
It’s good shit for rockin’ a crowd
Where there ain’t no space for mistakes allowed
I feel proud if I’m leaving crowds crying for more
This year I’m really thinking ’bout trying a tour
Is hip hop worth dying for, if your life’s on the line and your only crime is being poor?
This time around I feel I want more
I wanna see my son’s future set secure
Without havin’ to go out and start breakin’ the law
I’m sick of being sat in the flats shotting the draw
I’m sick of watchin every day come and go by, tellin’ titch and fat boy, hold ya head high
See others come and go, watchin’ their mothers cry, singing “why did my boy have to die?”
And still we try
As others might choose to get high
But we must up rise through to get by
It don’t take too much to figure out the facts, who’s bringin in all the coke and the crack?
This week an 82 year old got her throat slashed in the flats, cats are lookin’ cash for their crack
And we’re the kids whose left facing the facts
Now used for lookin’ mobiles that match their straps
As if it’s fashion, everybody’s ready for the action
Ready for the mashin’ and thuggin’ it with a passion
Only takes two egos to start clashin, bullets start flyin then the blood’ll start splashin’
Social rage is really climaxing
Everyday I see it getting worse by a fraction
Droughts for the weed, but ‘nough of that crack thing
Nobody round here is gonna be relaxin’
And this ain’t a whites or a blacks thing
It’s if you’re livin in the council flats and on a brack ting
They got us on a lab rat thing
And it’s funny to me how easily we’re all adapting
So I’m jus gonna keep on rapping
You lot keep ya next snapping, but fuck the hook
Just say fuck the hook, fuck the hook.

Massive respect to the one and only Skinnyman! Please please please give us another album!

Tupac Amaru Shakur was assassinated 14 years ago, on 13 September 1996. He was one of most important and influential rappers of all time. He may not have been the best lyricist or battle MC, but his voice, his passion, his politics, his background and his personality made him an exceptionally powerful vocalist.

The son of a very well-known New York Black Panther, Afeni Shakur, Tupac was exposed to the ideas of black power and freedom from a very early age (his godfather was Geronimo Pratt, one of the leading Panthers and a long-term political prisoner). Nonetheless, unlike a lot of other ‘conscious’ hip-hop MCs, Pac was from the *street*. He didn’t go to college; he didn’t grow up in relative comfort. He grew up in the projects, and he always identified with the disenfranchised, disenchanted, impoverished young people he grew up with.

Pac grew in the aftermath of an intense political struggle in which many of his family’s friends and relatives had been killed or imprisoned. In her book ‘The War Before’, Safiya Bukhari (another New York Panther who was a close friend of Afeni’s) points out that everyone who came through this struggle was, to some extent, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. To see your friends die in shoot-outs; to operate ‘underground’; to go to prison; to suffer solitary confinement – all of these things have an impact on your psychological health. Afeni, like a number of other Panther veterans, became addicted to crack cocaine in the early 1980s. As a result, Tupac’s childhood was highly unpredictable, and the contradiction of his family’s Panther legacy and his own erratic, impoverished childhood is one of the main themes that defines his life and his music.

Tupac more than any other rapper bridges the generation gap between the black power generation of the late 1960s and early 1970s and the hip-hop generation of the 1980s onwards. He brings the Panther legacy to his music, but he does it in order to bring certain ideas to bear on the struggles of his generation, rather than just giving a history lesson. Unfortunately, once he hooked up with Death Row records in the later part of his career, his music took on a much less positive, much less revolutionary, much more gangsta aspect. However, his earlier albums stand out as some of the best works of political art in recent memory.

Here is the video to ‘Changes’, one of Pac’s most heartfelt and memorable songs, the lyrics for which contain some real depth and insight. The song is an indictment of the oppression of African people in the US, and a call to oppressed people to start working together and to stop killing each other.

Pac makes an important point that many seasoned politicians (even on the left) don’t properly understand, relating the situation in the Middle East to the situation in the ghettoes of the United States:

And still I see no changes, can’t a brother get a little peace?
There’s war in the streets and war in the Middle East
Instead of war on poverty, they got a war on drugs
So the police can bother me

With a note of desperation, he points out that the most vibrant struggle of black people in the US to gain freedom and equality was struck down ruthlessly by the state:

It’s time to fight back, that’s what Huey [Newton] said
Two shots in the dark, now Huey’s dead

But the real message of the song is more optimistic: we need to stop doing what the oppressors want us to do, and we need to unite.

I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere
Unless we share with each other
We gotta start makin’ changes
Learn to see me as a brother instead of two distant strangers

Tupac Amaru Shakur, RIP

Lowkey is on a serious roll at the moment – everything he is putting out is lyrically, musically and politically on point. The latest video from his forthcoming (and much-anticipated) album ‘Soundtrack to the Struggle’ is called ‘Terrorist?’, and it explores the true meanings of the concepts ‘terror’ and ‘terrorism’.

Lowkey starts off by quoting the dictionary definitions as follows:

Terrorist: the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coersion.

Terror: violent or destructive acts such as bombing, committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands.

He proceeds to compare some of the people that are labeled in the media as ‘terrorists’ (ie. Iraqis and others using primitive explosives against colonial domination) with the powerful states and corporations that are terrorising millions on a daily basis.

What’s the bigger threat to human society,
BAE Systems or home-made IEDs?
Remote controlled drones killing off human lives
Or man with home-made bomb committing suicide?

Although the ‘terrorist’ label has primarily been used to describe Muslims, particularly since the twin towers attack, Lowkey points out that resistance to imperialism isn’t limited to any one religion or racial group, and that all oppressed people are united by their opposition to the empire.

This is very basic
One nation in the world has over a thousand military bases.
They say it’s religion, when clearly it isn’t
It’s not just Muslims that oppose your imperialism.
Is Hugo Chavez a Muslim? Nah, I didn’t think so.
Is Castro a Muslim? Nah, I didn’t think so.

He brilliantly exposes the hypocrisy of western colonisers describing anybody as terrorists:

Lumumbah was democracy
Mossadeq was democracy
Allende was democracy
Hypocrisy, it bothers me
Call you terrorist if you don’t wanna be a colony
Refuse to bow down to a policy of robbery

The song is summed up by its beautiful, haunting chorus:

They’re calling me a terrorist
Like they don’t know who the terror is
When they put it on me I tell them this
I’m all about peace and love.

They’re calling me a terrorist
Like they don’t know who the terror is
Insulting my intelligence
Oh how these people judge

All in all, another very powerful track from Lowkey, with excellent production by the ever-reliable Red Skull and a highly professional, innovative video by Global Faction. Please spread the word!

Follow Lowkey on Twitter
Red Skull’s Facebook page

Today is the 33rd anniversary of the murder of Stephen Biko at the hands of apartheid police in South Africa. Although only 30 years old at the time of his death, Biko had become one of the leading intellectuals and activists of the anti-apartheid movement. A talented organiser, a sharp mind, a courageous heart and a passionate revolutionary, he is one of the most important martyrs of the struggle against apartheid.

This poem about Biko is written by Benjamin Zephaniah, without a doubt one of the best poets and writers alive today. Zephaniah is also a great activist and an inspiring personal example to us all. Brought up in the Handsworth ghetto, he left school at the age of 13, unable to read or write, and soon became involved with petty crime, doing a short prison stint for burglary. However, inspired by his love for all oppressed people and driven by a great personal desire to impact the world positively, he developed his abilities as a poet and a writer. Today he continues to be one of the greatest cultural representatives of working class and oppressed people everywhere.

Biko the Greatness

Wickedness tried to kill greatness
In a corner of South Africa
Where they believed there were
No mothers and fathers
And
Where they believed
One could not hear the cries of another
Wickedness tried to kill greatness

Wickedness tried to build a nation
Of white tyrants
In a corner of the planet
They arrogantly downpressed
They did no overstand
As they suffered the illusion of the God complex
But these words are not for wickedness

These words are for greatness
The greatness that inspired doctors and nurses
To become educated in the art of freedom getting
The greatness that inspired educators to become liberators
And a nation of children to become great themselves

South Africans in the valley of the shadow of death
Feared no wickedness
Because greatness was at their side
And greatness was in their hearts
When the wind of change went south
Greatness was its trustee, guided by truth

Now we who witnessed the greatness
Sing and dance to his legacy,
We who muse his intelligence
Spread the good news in Reggae, Soul, Marabi
And the theatre of liberation,
Knowing that nobody dies until they’re forgotten
We chant Biko today
Biko tomorrow
Biko forever.

Wickedness tried to kill greatness
Now wickedness is dead
And greatness lives
In Islington
As he lives in Cape Town

Interview with Steve Biko (PDF)

Interview with Benjamin Zephaniah, Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

Article by Zephaniah explaining why he rejected an OBE

This is a very potent and very slick track/video from Detroit rapper Invincible. Invincible smashes a *lot* of stereotypes, as a white female rapper, an anti-zionist from a Jewish family (she was born in Israel) who raps about gentrification, racism, Native American rights and the occupation of Palestine. Without a doubt she is a highly proficient rapper that people need to start taking notice of.

Check this interview for more details about Invincible.

Many London hip-hop heads (myself included) first heard of Mangaliso Asi at the Jay Electronica gig at the Jazz Cafe back in November 2009 when Jay hosted a short open mic segment. Mangaliso stepped straight up and, to the amazement of the crowd, absolutely merked it! Jay Electronica looked pretty much dumbfounded. “Daaamn. Most times you let people on the mic and they can’t really spit. This motherfucker can SPIT!” Jay went on to instruct Gilles Peterson, who was in the crowd, to get Mangaliso on his Worldwide show on BBC Radio 1.

A few months later and Mangaliso has released his much-anticipated debut mixtape, ‘Heartbeat of the Street’, an incendiary and emotional statement about the statement of the world and Mangaliso’s place within it.

Mangaliso Asi’s diverse cultural heritage clearly plays a major part in forming his style – his biog describes him as the “son of a Jazz singing father and a single mother raising her first child against the back drop of Apartheid South Africa.” Now living in London, the influence of Soweto is still evident in his music, as he deals with topics that the average rapper wouldn’t touch with a barge pole, such as AIDS (actually, if you think about it, it’s incredible that so few rappers are willing to talk about AIDS, given that it is one of the leading causes of death in the US ghetto – what happened to keeping it real?).

As indicated by the mixtape’s title, Mangaliso places himself firmly at street-level, representing the dispossessed and downtrodden. It’s not the type of ‘street’ that glorifies the crack industry or promotes a negative attitude to women; it’s the type of ‘street’ that rejects the suicidal prejudices that come from the corporations, the mass media and the governments.

Through me the street speaks
I am the voice that gives speech to the freedom we seek.

For a new artist, his voice is impressively well-honed and his lyricism appealing. I think it’s fair to say that his technique is strongly inspired by Rakim.

Cop the mixtape now – it’s a free download – and keep an eye out for Mangaliso. DOWNLOAD LINK

Mangaliso Asi on Bandcamp
Mangaliso Asi on MySpace
Mangaliso Asi on Twitter
Mangaliso Asi on YouTube
Mangaliso Asi on Facebook

There have been some amazing F64s (big up SB.TV for the initiative and a whole lot of hard work), but the one that really got people talking was Akala’s. I honestly can’t think of an example of a rapper dropping so much knowledge in such a short space of time. And the best thing is: it’s Akala – one of the most talented and widely-respected rappers on the scene! It’s not patronising, it’s not neeky, it’s not coming from someone who’s paid to ‘teach’ a curriculum full of irrelevant bullshit designed to put kids off learning; it’s just 100% relevant, interesting ideas from a guy who’s studied a lot and lived a lot and who loves humanity.

Thankfully Akala took pity on me when I told him I was going to transcribe the lyrics, and emailed them over. Here goes.

---

The lyrics for Akala’s F64

Sorry kids let me apologize before I go further
Unfortunately I don’t rap about how many man I have murdered
And you may find it boring appalling and I ain’t scoring braps
From your little rat packs for just stating facts
See I lack not the ability to murder man lyrically
I just thought that killing should not be glorified, silly me
Apparently murdering man has become an aspiration
But what would happen if you reversed the situation?
Every black rapper claiming he clap a black in the face, talked about killing white people as much, would he still get embraced?
Or would you find the applauding would quickly turn to appalling and you got no career here by the next morning
I ain’t saying you should do that, it is true that would be just as dumb
I am just pointing out how absurd it has become
If a Chinese rapper were to say die ‘Chink’ die
Everybody would be like ‘What is wrong with this guy?’

But some of us have become so accustomed to just behave disgusting
We think it’s just our behaviour and it ain’t worth discussion
Or worse yet that it is cultural expression
But who owns Baretta and who owns Smith and Wesson?
Who owns the car you’re driving that you think’s defining who you are
Running from yourself you’ll find there is no hiding
So you can boast about your Prada and your Christian Dior
Still security will follow you when you’re in the store
And you can boast about your platinum chains and your diamond rings
While kids in Sierra Leone keep on losing limbs
Act like you got no brain and you ain’t got no shame and say so what I am getting dough
But you’re pawns in a game
They are laughing at the little coons
Who really think they are goons
Real goons don’t wear platinum chains they wear ties and suits
They don’t live in estates and sell flake
They invade with guns and tanks and take your whole state mate
So pardon me if I don’t find it funny
You boast about it but do you even know what is money?

See it’s hard to act dumb when you have read a couple hundred books
But still in anybody’s hood so tell me who is shook?
When you have been to Brazil and stood in favela streets next to kids holding hand grenades and M16s when you come back to London it ain’t serious
The ghetto is in our heads
We are delirious
If you lived in a real slum without food or running water
Where police drive by and kill sons and daughters
You would give your right arm just to go to school
Instead what do we do?
The killer the trigger the play the fool

I ain’t saying school is the answer, educate yourself
See it’s not the money you make, you are the wealth

I ain’t saying we ain’t got a struggle right here in Britain
But you’re taught to act inferior and play position perfectly
It’s disturbing me, the verbal murder be absurd to me
It occurred to me if you have not heard of me
It’s probably because I do not rap about Gucci and booty
Quite enough for the urban scene to fully salute me
But I don’t really care, I’m too busy writing my master thesis
It’s hard to play the stereotype when you study Egypt
Plus urban scene we’re racist to ourselves
Elevating words of hate we’re merely hating ourselves
And if you are musically broad or dare to speak intelligent
People look at you like who the hell you think you are better than
I’m better than no-one on this earth and I know I’m not
But I refuse to play small just to fit in your box

And I don’t hate none of these other rappers
In fact it’s quite the other
Look at me as your bigger wiser older brother
And as a brother should I tell you you’re in trouble
If they clap when you’re talking of killing do they really love you?
If record label bosses kids were dying, would they sell us violence
As quickly as they are ready to desensitise us?
They tell you to shit on your floor while holding all the scoops
Then throw you a bone like a dog jumping through a hoop
Don’t take it as a compliment because it is not that
If I tell you that you’re African you tell me it’s not that
But humanity is African even if not black
The truth can be painful
Sshhh better stop that
It’s so inconvenient
For those at the top that you talk too much truth and you might just get popped at

And if women are such hoes that we do not want to kiss them
What does it say about us that we want to put our dick in?
I’m done with the lies third eye open wide I see the tougher that you act the weaker you really feel inside
So all the killer the trigger and when we call ourselves niggas
And want platinum chains bigger than jigga’s
It’s just to run from the fact that we feel insecure
Get as many things as you want but you cannot restore
The core of who you are truly that will surpass beauty
That comes from knowledge of yourself and a sense of duty
So all my brothers pretending that we are thugs
Know if we are honest we just want to be loved

But we feel that we are not worthy and that we are not smart
So we act aggressive to protect our fragile little hearts
But we’ve got to deal with this pain or it will consume
That’s enough honesty now lets resume…

Turn this off go back to rappers that tell you kill
But inside of yourself you know that this is real
Akala on sbtv DOUBLETHINK May 3rd check the CD
If you want a little knowledge bigger than college
I PROMISE YOU the metaphorics that will offer you solace like…

The Great Pyramid alone 2.3 million stones
If you took them apart and placed them in a row
They would stretch 2/3 way around the earth
That is more stone that there is in every single British church (put together)
Each one cut to a degree of accuracy of 1/1000 of an inch
Well what does that mean?
In 1978 the Japanese ran an experiment to rebuild them with modern technology and failed terribly

But anyway that’s enough for today.

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Follow Akala on Twitter
Download ‘Doublethink’ on iTunes
See Akala on tour this autumn

If you’re into conscious hip-hop (or political rap, or freedom rap, or whatever you want to call it) and you live in or around London, it was always gonna be the night of the year. The legendary Dead Prez – true veterans of the scene – supported by some of the brightest and best UK hip-hop talent: Skinnyman, Akala and Sway.

The show got off to a great start with the help of the one and only MC Skinnyman – the man behind what to my mind is the best UK hip-hop album of all time, ‘Council Estate of Mind’. Skinny was at his brilliant best, giving an energetic performance with Mudfam collaborator RTillery. They came on to the massive hit ‘Ballistic Affair’, before Skinny went into acapella mode, dedicating his performance to the oppressed and dispossessed youth. The crowd didn’t hesitate to join him in chanting “F*** the police” 🙂

Skinnyman and RTillery’s performance of ‘Music Speaks Louder than Words’, a new track from Skinny’s forthcoming EP, was definitely one of the highlights of the night. A near-perfect beat is laced with an uplifting vocal, cursing out the politicians and putting forward the truth for the youth in the language everybody understands – music.

Next up was Akala – without a doubt one of the smartest and most talented people on the scene. Sporting an impressively large Africa medallion, he moved the crowd with several bangers from his new album, Doublethink. Never one to stick with the tried-and-tested formulas, he came on with a live drummer, which definitely helped to make his set stand out.

An impassioned performance of the beautiful ‘Find No Enemy’ had the crowd eating out of his hand, but he saved the best for last, bringing out Lowkey, Black the Ripper and Sway for a live performance of the ‘Yours and My Children’ remix. For anyone into UK hip-hop and particularly the revolutionary brand of music that people like Akala and Lowkey are pushing, it was an inspiring, deep moment to see some of the scene’s best talents uniting to make music that uplifts the people!

As if that wasn’t enough of a surprise, Akala then brought out one of the kings of Brazilian hip-hop, MC Marechal, who delighted the crowd with a big track. I’d love to know what he was saying, but it was in Portuguese. I’m pretty sure he’s on the right side 😉

The last act before Dead Prez was Sway, who put in a very solid performance including tracks from his most recent ‘Delivery’ mixtape as well as some classics from his first album (I’d almost forgotten how good it was).

Now don’t get me wrong, I like and respect Sway. He’s a talented brother, a great lyricist, a positive human being and a capable performer. However, one of my few gripes about the gig was that I don’t think Sway should have performed directly before Dead Prez, simply for the sake of continuity of content. Dead Prez, Akala and Skinnyman are revolutionary in their lyrics. Sway’s a good guy, but his lyrical focus is not consistent with the lyrical theme of the other artists on the night. That small gripe aside, Sway definitely put in a lively performance and got a great response from the crowd, so all respect due.

Next up was of course Dead Prez. Well… actually, Sway was followed by around an hour of waiting for Dead Prez! DJ 279 took the chance to get the party moving, playing some utter classics, including ‘Nas is Like’, Mos Def’s ‘Mathematics’, Mobb Deep’s ‘Shook Ones’ and Klashnekoff’s ‘Murda’. It was kinda funny to see the conscious rap crowd shockin’ hard to a Snoop track though!

Just as we were all starting to wonder if Dead Prez were ever going to make it, the RBG soldiers ran on stage to start off a phenomenal performance that showcased tracks from across the range of their 14-years-and-counting existence. M1 and Stic.man’s endless energy and their profound devotion to freedom were shining brightly as they performed classics such as ‘Mind Sex’ and ‘Hip-Hop’, as well as hits from their 2009 album ‘Pulse of the People’ such as ‘Gangsta Gangster’ and ‘Stimulus Plan’. A couple of numbers from their most recent mixtape (‘Revolutionary But Gangsta Grillz’) got a fantastic crowd response, including the epic ‘Malcolm Garvey Huey’ and their Drake cover, ‘Far From Over’.

M1 let slip that he and Stic.man had spent the previous night in the studio with Lowkey, recording a follow-up to Lowkey’s enormous ‘Obama Nation’. Definitely something to look forward to! I was hoping Lowkey might join DPZ on stage for a tune or two, but it wasn’t to be.

To close a mindblowing set, Dead Prez turned down the tempo a little, playing Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together’ and leaving the stage to loud cheering from the crowd. Safe to say they rocked the party. It was a privilege to be there, celebrating the ten-year anniversary of one of the greatest LPs in hip-hop history, ‘Let’s Get Free’.

All round a great night. My only serious complaint would be that the sound quality was far from perfect. HMV Forum, please fix up!

Heads from the scene spotted in the crowd: Ms Dynamite, Genesis Elijah (good to meet you bro), Logic (you disappeared!), Stylah and DJ Gone. Big up!

Download DPZ ‘Revolutionary But Gangsta Grillz’
Follow Dead Prez on Twitter
Follow Akala on Twitter
Follow Sway on Twitter
Follow Skinnyman on Twitter
Follow Lowkey on Twitter
Follow Black the Ripper on Twitter
Follow RTillery on Twitter
Follow MC Marechal on Twitter

Uhuru!

Via Rhyme and Reason

Great interview with a true innovator of the UK hip-hop scene. Big up Skinnyman for representing the marginalised and disenfranchised youth! If only more artists took some responsibility for their communities.

In part 1, he gives some insight into his outlook on life, how he got into hip-hop and why he raps the way he does.

In part 2, he gives a great rundown of the cipher culture and how the ‘battle’ within hip-hop plays a positive role. He also addresses his charitable work with WaterAid.

Much respect to a legend. I for one am looking forward to his performance in London tomorrow night!

In a thought-provoking video, Jasiri X and Paradise compare real gangsters – the corporate criminals that rule the world with violence – with the people that label themselves (or are labeled by the media) as gangstas.

Jasiri doesn’t hold back, with lines such as these:

“Real gangstas make billions making slaves of civilians, making slaves of your children, making slaves through they killings.”

“800 billions in bailouts is what the banks get; Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch – throw up your gang sets.”

“If your land got resources, you’re getting attacked for it, cos real gangstas run the world on the backs of the poor.”

The video ends fittingly with a clip of George Carlin’s classic sketch: “It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

Jasiri X is a talented, militant rapper with a message that needs to be heard. That’s why no major label would be stupid enough to give him a deal!

Follow Jasiri X on Twitter.

Join his Facebook group.