Via I am 808

This October we get hit with a dose of some real underground Hip Hop! With only a matter of weeks left until the highly anticipated Immortal Technique ‘Return Of The Rebels’ tour, I was lucky to catch up with the man himself for an exclusive interview to find out what we can expect!

Finally you return to the U.K with a strong line-up of artists supporting you, Tell us a bit about what we can expect from the Return Of The Rebels Tour?

Me, Poison Pen, Dj Static, Swave Sevah are all coming to represent for the Hardcore Underground Hip Hop fans, already about half these shows are sold out so I’m just hoping that there is enough room in some of these places so that people won’t be left out in the cold. Get your tickets now, you were warned.

What material are you looking to perform at the show? Any new tracks that touch on any current issues?

I’m going to hopefully have a chance to perform songs from the last album I put out for free “The Martyr” that coincidentally had over a million downloads. The 3rd World, Revolutionary Vol.2 and Revolutionary Vol.1. I think it’ll be a big mix of what people know me and love me for. As far as whether it touches on current issues, all the music I have does that.

What do you love about coming to the UK? Are there any spots that you love visiting when you are here?

London is a very wild city that reminds me of New York City about 10-15 years ago the way they show so much love for Underground Hip Hop. It’s actually bigger in many places than regular mainstream music. I have always had such love shown to me from the people of England. I actually studied a great deal of middle age and early British history as I have an ancient Norman ancestor, I love to visit historical sites and also to see some of the Reggae clubs that I always have a good time in. And even though mutton is disgusting they actually have delicious food from around the word, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, etc.

With the elections coming up in the USA how do you respond to people who push for re-electing Obama especially when much of the world sees him as a war president? And is the negativity and the danger of a Romney president make pushing for Obama legitimate?

The two party system has become so corrupt people are losing faith in Obama, yes very much so, his drone strikes, unwavering support for the IDF military action. But then again he’s really an impossible position. In the United States of America, it is political suicide to say anything critical about the foreign and domestic policy of Israel. And this lack of debate is perhaps some of the most dangerous methods of silencing real criticism. Because there are real idiots out there, who are Holocaust deniers and frauds, but labelling anything that’s critical that will put the world community in a position where you will not be able to tell the difference one day and that is not only alienating it’s defeating the purpose of defensive mechanism that Jewish people technically have to determine who is a real Anti-Semite. When it comes to Romney, there are so many people on the Right wing (not even the left) who despise him; they don’t see him as a real Christian, since in his Mormon Faith they believe that Jesus Christ was not the last prophet but that a man named Joseph Smith from the 1800’s was a prophet from God. The conservative elements of the society here are very religious and they are barely warming up to the premise of him as president, but I think that ultimately it will be decided in swing states. But fundamentally this process of choosing a candidate has hurt Romney by giving Obama a head start but his debate stumbling has closed a little bit of the gap.

How are your other projects outside of music coming along?

The orphanage in Afghanistan is doing great. The scholarship program is almost complete. The (R)evolution of Immortal Technique did great and like I said The Martyr had over a million downloads and The Middle Passage is coming along.

What are you currently working on?

Being happy. I heard that it’s a lifelong struggle. haha

Buy tickets for the Return of the Rebels tour

Big Frizzle drops one of the biggest tracks of the year so far! You might be more accustomed to hearing him singing choruses, but don’t forget Frizz is a dope rapper too. With All Black Everything, he brings the black consciousness vibe very effectively over a bouncing beat from Anno Domini, with Global Faction supplying the visuals.

Follow Frizzle on Twitter: @BurgundyBrick

Nice to finally see Logic on SBTV, with this Warm-up Session where he addresses himself to all the young rappers trying to build a career by fronting as gangsters.

“If every gangsta rapper really was a gangsta, all you’re doing is making it easier for the feds to catch ya”.

There’s a lot to be said on this topic, so it’s positive that Logic is helping to open up the discussion and is holding rappers responsible for their actions. It’s also important to remember that young rappers are playing in to an image that is perfectly acceptable to the music industry – and the racist power structure in general. This image is glamourised, glorified, distorted and then sold to us so forcefully that many of us start to actually accept and expect it (and this is a process controlled overwhelmingly by rich white men, not poor black boys). MK Asante’s excellent book It’s Bigger Than Hip-Hop explores these issues in detail.

We have to fight the music industry by continuing to develop an alternative, independent, positive, resistant, radical culture that meets the needs of the communities that make it, rather than serving the interests of corporate profit and the political/economic/social status quo.

Follow Logic on Twitter

Must-watch. Jaja Soze explains the transformation of PDC from a street gang to a community-focused business, and explores the importance of economic empowerment. He also discusses the problems in the UK rap scene, where there is a lack of balance – everybody talking negativity and very few talking sense.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Marcel Cartier ft Akala and Nana D – Get Your Hands Off Africa (prod Agent of Change)

Check this brand new track by Marcel Cartier, featuring Akala and Nana D, and produced by Agent of Change. A Kwanzaa gift for y’all 🙂

Lyrics:

[Marcel verse 1]

Those who do not move do not feel their chains
But the African people are aware of the pain
Aware of the game, invader deception
Black presidents who are White Man extensions
People from Cape to Cairo rebel
Cos fake independence and ongoing hell
Colonial ties still keep ’em chained
The richest continent’s getting robbed again
The IMF and World Bank criminal schemes
What about reparations? To me it seems
That every metropole from Amsterdam
To Paris and Brussels was built with the hands
Of African labour, a slave relation
Developing Europe at the expense of their nation
But Africans rebelled from the first conquest
Took back independence at last accomplished

[Nana D chorus]

You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!
You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!

[Marcel verse 2]

Look at Africom, the African Command
That’s the US and her puppets shaking each others’ hands
They went in for Libya, going for Uganda
When will we learn we can’t be sleeping any longer?
Still salivating over claiming Zimbabwe
The worst man alive to them is Robert Mugabe
But land should belong to the African masses
Not a small group of white settler bastards
My fellow Europeans wanna whine and groan
About losing what we stole, that is not our home
That is not our land, need to choose the side
Of the future of humanity, the old has expired
If you ever want peace then you better want justice
Most of the continent is far from accustomed
Sarkozy, Cameron and Africa’s son
Better know that their war can never ever be won

[Nana D chorus]

You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!
You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!

[Akala verse]

The mother continent where we all originate
Eugenics ain’t dead so it’s cool to eliminate humanity’s darker shade
Genocidal AIDS, ancient civilisations
Not a continent of slaves
In every step of the way the elites have helped pave the way
For all the madness that we’re seeing today
But that in no way excuses the centuries of rape
But if we’re gonna solve it it’s an issue we have to face
Because every brother ain’t a brother just because of their colour
Look at the hand that killed Patrice and Thomas and others
While millions murdered in the Congo it don’t make the news
But if a footballer’s wife should buy a pair of shoes
I’m supposed to give a fuck, apparently
I do not! The world’s a reflection of your block
And if you think a world that can profit from African death
And be totally cool
Thinks that you’re better cos you live here
You’re a fucking fool

[Nana D chorus]

You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!
You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!

Follow Akala on Twitter
Follow Agent of Change on Twitter
Follow Marcel Cartier on Twitter
Follow Nana D on Twitter
Check the Agent of Change Soundcloud for more free downloads.

Some serious emotional and lyrical depth from London-based rapper Ghetts in this track. As his skills continue to grow and his subject matter diversifies, Ghetts has a real chance to establish himself as one of the very best rappers in the history of UK rap.

People are being made redundant
Some of my friends and family are amongst them
And everybody’s family depends on a lump sum
But some ain’t gonna see a salary when the month’s done
How you gonna tell a kid he aint got to rob
When the only role model he has just lost his job
Unemployed without another choice
Heading down the same path he tried to make his son avoid
Jobseekers allowance aint for everyone
We grown, there’s no power in a pellet gun
You tryna tell a n***a that’s a breadwinner
Forget dinner and he’ll do things he’s never done
It’s the story of the pauper
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
But don’t get me wrong
Three out of ten will cross the border
And be out the ends, but still it weren’t a shortcut
I understand what it took to do that
How Naomi Campbell had to look to do that
What Levi Roots had to cook to do that
The kinda weight the top shottas had to push to do that
What kinda singer Diz had to get on a hook to do that
And when you’re tryna push out of the same place you come from
Everybody has a goal, and pulling you back
So it’s bullet proof this, and bullet proof that
And I don’t expect those from outside the slums to understand this
How you gonna relate? Your mum and dad’s rich
Welcome to my ends, it’s gully
And none of us are getting no inheritance money
What’s your life like round here? I bet everything’s honey
Yeah we all got problems, but I bet yours has never been the money
Wait, I don’t know you so I shouldn’t pass judgement
Vice versa, but sometimes assets confine a person
You ain’t gotta tell me that you’re rich cos I know you are
Your life is perfect – is that why you turn your nose up at the lower class?
Or is your life just as fucked as mine behind the curtains?
But you don’t wanna show it cos you’ve got an image to uphold
I know, but when you come home, you unload, stress
Staring in the mirror like “I’m so depressed”
And now you wanna jumbo to jet, yeh I get it
Cos I feel like that six out of seven days
And that’s why a n***a be addicted to lemon haze
Listen when I’m spittin’ a system is devil-made
The government have got the nation brainwashed
A close friend of mine just left the Caribbean
When he got here he said he shoulda stayed in Barbados
I could explain but I’d rather let you read between the lines
Yo don he switched the brain on
You can’t even read the signs, where’s your brain gone?
What can I say dawg?
The truth lays beneath the lies
But it’s like I’m tryna lead the blind
And they would rather remain lost.
Forever in the rat race
Life ain’t getting no better and it’s facts mate
So I’m lighting up the lemon on a bad day
And as I let the zoot settle in my ashtray
I’m thinking of all the terrible things man-made
Things that caused this inevitable rampage
I’m hoping I ain’t got vegetables for a fanbase

Download the new Ghetts mixtape
Follow Ghetts on Twitter
Check out this classic collab from Ghetts and Akala

Really happy Cash made a video for this track! Inspiring, heartfelt lyrics. Nice to hear an up-and-coming UK rapper bringing some REAL TALK.

My little brother’s 10, I feel like I’m slacking
He shouldn’t be hearing me rap about gun-clapping
…
There’s bare mums crying round ‘ere
Cos there’s bare sons dying round ‘ere
If you think I lie, watch the news then
Every other week another ghetto yout’s dead
And I can guarantee that as I wrote this song
Another ghetto yout bled
Ghetto people, it’s time for us to rise up
And open up our eyes, cos our eyes shut
And we don’t seem to educate our minds much
Cos we’re too busy throwing gang signs up
Putting knife workin or gun blastin
We’re all pissed while the government’s laughing
Little man pay attention when I’m talkin
You don’t want your mummy paying for a coffin
Little girl stay in school, keep grafting
Allow the baggaman ting this ain’t Sparta

Follow Cash on Twitter

Nekz – London’s Burning *Free Download* by Nekz Music

Excellent, insightful lyrics from my bro Nekz, an up-and-coming hip-hop artist from West London.

I liked it so much I typed the lyrics up.

The system’s fucked and the yout dem are rioting
Running round the city mad hyped on the violent ting
Look how dyou think it got to this, they lost a whole generation
Police is what I’m hating
Screaming burn the fuckin stations
I don’t care, let the p**syholes come for me
The city burned while you holidayed in Tuscany
And we don’t know luxury
Look can’t you see the poverty
I’m speaking for the unheard
Licence to kill, the pigs are quick to let their gun burst
RIP Mark D, Smiley Culture and everyone killed by police
And peaceful protest just don’t work
But it’s a shame a petrol bomb will get your voice heard
The situation’s getting worse
Youts need a help but who disowned and left them on the kerb
Think about it for a sec before you point and curse
The feeling’s so worthless
No jobs, so many futures are uncertain
And education doesn’t help
When you’re cutting EMA it’s like you wanna fail
9k for uni, I’m a hit the road and risk the jail
Is the mindset of most, the ones that need the help
To grow, to evolve into a fine man
People lets not harm our own
Spare the local shops and homes
Soldiers aim for the throne
Fight for the people bro
They wanna see us lose and they paint themselves as innocent
I swear they make 50 gs from the prisoners
I mean prisoner, that’s each one, do the sums
They slashed the throat of the slums when they made the cuts
But they don’t give a fuck
So I ain’t giving up
Cos one day we will rise and now they see it cuz
But they don’t give a fuck
So I ain’t giving up
Cos one day we will rise and now they see it cuz
They had them all running scared
Cos the feds were all unprepared
Stereotype the clothes I wear
Goes and causes fear
But so does the black and whites in their riot gear
Don’t be a slave to the system and the news you hear
They had them all running scared
Cos the feds were all unprepared
Stereotype the clothes I wear
Goes and causes fear
But so does the black and whites in their riot gear
Don’t be a slave to the system and the news you hear

Follow Nekz on Twitter

Thanks to whoever ripped this from the Charlie Sloth show last week! Inspiring lyrics from up-and-coming artist Cashtastic. Someone needs to play this to all the eedyats that are saying UK rap is the cause of the riots.

My little brother’s 10, I feel like I’m slacking
He shouldn’t be hearing me rap about gun-clapping
…
There’s bare mums crying round ‘ere
Cos there’s bare sons dying round ‘ere
If you think I lie, watch the news then
Every other week another ghetto yout’s dead
And I can guarantee that as I wrote this song
Another ghetto yout bled
Ghetto people, it’s time for us to rise up
And open up our eyes, cos our eyes shut
And we don’t seem to educate our minds much
Cos we’re too busy throwing gang signs up
Putting knife workin or gun blastin
We’re all pissed while the government’s laughing
Little man pay attention when I’m talkin
You don’t want your mummy paying for a coffin
Little girl stay in school, keep grafting
Allow the baggaman ting this ain’t Sparta

Follow Cashtastic on Twitter