WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:13.600 [Lyrics] no no no no no can you dig it 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:28.500 [Music] 00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:33.800 [Lyrics] can you dig it 00:00:34.400 --> 00:00:54.900 [Music] 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:06.080 Hip-hop appreciation weekend this is volume eight, 00:01:06.080 --> 00:01:12.640 Hip-hop and Liberation. Digging in the Crate's mission 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:16.240 statement: Digging in the Crates, hip-hop studies at Virginia Tech 00:01:16.240 --> 00:01:20.640 exists to foster a sense of community among hip-hop artists and fans on campus. 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:25.200 We hope to model that students personal interests are worthy of academic 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:28.720 study and further institutionalize hip-hop studies' 00:01:28.720 --> 00:01:31.759 presence on Virginia Tech's campus. Our monthly events 00:01:31.759 --> 00:01:35.360 seek to celebrate hip-hop scholarship via communication. 00:01:35.360 --> 00:01:40.320 Now I would like to ask the co-sponsors to come up and speak about 00:01:40.320 --> 00:01:43.119 their organizations. 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:51.520 yo what's up guys how's everyone doing good all right make some more noise 00:01:51.520 --> 00:01:54.720 it's thursday it's pre friday come on let's have some fun 00:01:54.720 --> 00:01:58.159 yeah yeah all right so what's up everyone my name is Eric Liu, I'm the 00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:02.159 president of the Flowmigos which is the Virginia Tech breakdancing club. 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:05.759 As a part of this second annual hip-hop appreciation weekend 00:02:05.759 --> 00:02:08.800 we have a break dancing competition on Saturday. 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:14.640 It is my favorite price it's free 99. That's right it's going to be at the 00:02:14.640 --> 00:02:19.360 Graduate Life Center multi-purpose room it's a 3v3 breakdancing competition so 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:22.480 there's going to be teams of three the grand prize money is six hundred 00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:28.879 dollars so we got a lot on the line we have djs mcs and judges from all 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:32.480 across the U.S. we have some heavy hitters so the event 00:02:32.480 --> 00:02:35.360 is definitely super official we hope you guys come out it's going to 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:38.160 be from four to nine there's also free pizza so if you don't want to see 00:02:38.160 --> 00:02:41.599 dancing you just always get some free food 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:47.280 yeah what's up make some more noise 00:02:48.720 --> 00:02:53.440 uh what's up everyone my name is jason my name is jose 00:02:53.440 --> 00:02:56.879 and uh we are the students of hip-hop legacy 00:02:56.879 --> 00:03:00.080 uh please come out to our event tomorrow thank you for coming out today by the 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:04.319 way thanks so much 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:07.519 uh as part of the hip hop weekend we're having a cipher at 00:03:07.519 --> 00:03:10.720 harvey's barbershop uh followed by a discussion 00:03:10.720 --> 00:03:14.239 on the role of a barber shop in hip-hop and in the black community 00:03:14.239 --> 00:03:17.280 uh please come out to that starts at seven 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:20.400 seven o'clock so please come on to that 7 30. 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:24.000 sorry about that and in addition to that we'll be 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:27.599 giving away free haircuts so if you come in enter your name in you'll get a free 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:29.760 cut and actually some of the people in the 00:03:29.760 --> 00:03:32.959 cypher are in this room so you may see them here later again 00:03:32.959 --> 00:03:37.040 cyphering so just to let you know yeah scene cyfrin 00:03:37.040 --> 00:03:40.480 what's up everyone my name is Ethan Haley and I'm currently the 00:03:40.480 --> 00:03:43.680 the secretary of VT Expressions, we focus on 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:48.560 students self-expressing themselves we host open mics talent shows poetry slams 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:52.400 you name it uh we have a talent show coming up uh a 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:55.920 week from today in haymarket seven to nine and uh our 00:03:55.920 --> 00:03:59.840 edition period just closed and we got a lot of really good mcs and r b singers 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:04.080 it's gonna be nice but yeah awesome yeah all right 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:07.920 Hi guys I'm Laurel, I'm the music director for WUVT. 00:04:07.920 --> 00:04:11.200 It's a radio station on campus located in Squires student center 00:04:11.200 --> 00:04:14.319 if you guys didn't know we actually have a radio station yes 00:04:14.319 --> 00:04:18.320 uh so tune in to 90.7 FM if you want to listen to 00:04:18.320 --> 00:04:22.720 a variety of whatever's weird now 00:04:23.280 --> 00:04:26.639 so our tagline is kind of radio for everyone we have 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:32.320 mixtures of jazz hip-hop we have new music from 12 to 5 p.m monday 00:04:32.320 --> 00:04:36.160 through friday so if you want to get involved we 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:39.440 actually just had our organizational meeting but 00:04:39.440 --> 00:04:44.080 next actually the week before um 00:04:44.080 --> 00:04:47.919 april 1st whatever week that is i think the last week of march 00:04:47.919 --> 00:04:52.800 is our radiothon which is um where every single dj has a different 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:56.800 theme for their radio show and we're accepting donations for cool swag 00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:00.080 so yay 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:10.320 thank you co-sponsors um now we'll uh get to 00:05:10.320 --> 00:05:16.320 the main event um as i uh read off their bios um the panelists 00:05:16.320 --> 00:05:20.560 and the moderators please come up to us answers thank you 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:25.440 So Dr. Brandy Faulkner's area of specialization includes 00:05:25.440 --> 00:05:29.520 constitutional and administrative law, race and public policy, 00:05:29.520 --> 00:05:33.440 and critical organization theory. She teaches courses in public administration 00:05:33.440 --> 00:05:36.639 constitutional law administrative law research methods 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:40.400 and the politics of race ethnicity and gender 00:05:40.400 --> 00:05:45.840 excuse me her research interests include critical race theory and public law. 00:05:45.840 --> 00:05:49.039 In 2014 she she received the college of liberal 00:05:49.039 --> 00:05:52.479 arts and human human sciences teaching excellence award 00:05:52.479 --> 00:05:55.360 thank you Dr. Faulkner. 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:03.280 Omar Offendum is a rapper poet based in Los Angeles 00:06:03.280 --> 00:06:06.639 known for his unique blend of hip-hop and 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:11.440 Arabic poetry. He has been featured on prominent world news outlets 00:06:11.440 --> 00:06:15.360 lectured a number of prestigious academic institutions collaborated with 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:20.160 major museums and cultural organizations on several high-profile projects 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:24.319 and help raise millions of dollars for various humanitarian relief groups 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:26.880 thank you Omar 00:06:29.280 --> 00:06:33.360 next we have Dumi Right was introduced to audiences 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:37.360 in hip-hop golden age as a member of Zimbabwe's legit 00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:41.840 the pioneering crew widely regarded as the first African hip-hop 00:06:41.840 --> 00:06:46.479 group to gain international recognition he has a solid discography of 00:06:46.479 --> 00:06:50.479 album releases including a claimed Zimbabwe legit house of stone 00:06:50.479 --> 00:06:56.240 ouoo of own unknown origin alternate reality and a slew of guest 00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:59.039 appearances compilations and mistakes released 00:06:59.039 --> 00:07:04.880 worldwide Dumi is a proud Hokie and a member of the class of 95. 00:07:09.280 --> 00:07:16.400 Saba Taj does that get it right yeah okay is a southern 00:07:16.400 --> 00:07:19.759 Muslim artist and activist based in Durham, North Carolina 00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:23.840 heavily influenced by Islamic stories and speculative fiction 00:07:23.840 --> 00:07:29.039 Saba uses mixed-media practice too to illustrate the 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:37.120 oh sorry the elimination liminality is i'm sorry excuse me uh but dysphoric 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:40.319 um ideally through the creation of hybridized 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:44.000 band monsters Saba remixes cultural references 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:48.000 from her south Asian, American Muslim, and queer identities 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:51.599 explores things of this diaspora excuse me 00:07:51.599 --> 00:07:59.840 inherited trauma and upsets thank you 00:08:03.840 --> 00:08:07.199 there we go okay everybody can hear me all right 00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:13.440 this is good all right good good so tonight's topic is hip-hop and 00:08:13.440 --> 00:08:17.759 liberation which is a great topic and um we're 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:19.840 going to engage in some discussion about it 00:08:19.840 --> 00:08:23.440 and hope that all of you will feel free to ask questions 00:08:23.440 --> 00:08:29.919 specifically to our artists and chime in when you feel it's appropriate um 00:08:29.919 --> 00:08:35.519 so let's start just by getting a sense of how you identify are 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:39.519 you artists are you mcs are you djs are you 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:43.200 musicians how do you feel you fit into hip-hop as 00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:45.760 a culture 00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:51.120 all right well first of all thank you Dr. Faulkner it's an honor to be here with you 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:55.519 and much love to VTDITC and to all of the sponsors 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:59.120 can we give them another round of applause please 00:09:00.800 --> 00:09:07.040 so my name is Omar Offendum and i'm definitely uh i've definitely identified 00:09:07.040 --> 00:09:10.240 as an emcee and a rapper and a poet for many many years 00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:13.839 i've also made beats for quite some time uh though that 00:09:13.839 --> 00:09:17.040 hasn't taken center stage as much these days it's really been more about this 00:09:17.040 --> 00:09:20.560 lyricism and the performance and with that i would like to stress 00:09:20.560 --> 00:09:24.240 also that i mean i've always considered there to be like five elements to hip 00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:26.399 hop and the la you know the final one that people 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:31.440 tend to overlook is the knowledge piece and making sure that 00:09:31.920 --> 00:09:35.600 um component to it so so that's uh that's where i'm 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:39.040 operating from excellent 00:09:40.640 --> 00:09:46.240 um yeah so myself um i consider myself an emcee i like the term 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:49.600 mc because you know the master ceremony element of 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:54.640 it i feel like you're in a a very honored position to 00:09:54.640 --> 00:09:57.920 be able to preside over the happenings you know be it 00:09:57.920 --> 00:10:01.920 a jam or be it you know a party or something and so 00:10:01.920 --> 00:10:05.440 it comes with a lot of weight and importance because you've got to convey 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:09.440 thoughts and ideas and you got to keep the party live and get people rocking 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:13.519 and do something and say something um so i also like to call myself a 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:18.399 verbal illustrator because i try to paint pictures and describe things 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:22.240 because i know what attracted me to hip-hop when i started was hearing 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:26.640 you know um different groups in america talk about things they were going 00:10:26.640 --> 00:10:30.480 through and i think the first um first song i 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:33.200 tried to memorize it was it was hard i was 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:38.720 maybe 60 successful was the message but it had so many layers and it was so deep 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:41.839 and so you know multifaceted where he was 00:10:41.839 --> 00:10:44.240 talking about all these things he was going through 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:47.680 and even though i've been born in the u.s i hadn't seen any of that you know 00:10:47.680 --> 00:10:52.160 before i moved to africa so definitely um consider myself you know a 00:10:52.160 --> 00:10:58.839 conveyor a purveyor of words and a communicator and a great one at 00:10:58.839 --> 00:11:02.959 that um i am not an emcee or anything i'm a 00:11:02.959 --> 00:11:06.800 visual artist so i'm a little bit over here on this 00:11:06.800 --> 00:11:11.040 other couch bringing in a different perspective but 00:11:11.040 --> 00:11:19.360 yeah we'll see how it all connects yeah but you like hip-hop i do 00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:24.399 so when i think about um hip-hop and liberation and and connecting those two 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:27.120 things one of the first songs that did it for 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:32.720 me was the bridge is over right i'm old school yes don't add me 00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:39.600 um but do you have a piece of art or lyrics or an artist or 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:42.560 song that sort of made you think about those 00:11:42.560 --> 00:11:45.440 connections at all 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:51.120 good um definitely for me um one of the early people that kind of got 00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:55.600 me excited about ryman was rock him right he was just so 00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:59.920 complex and i think early a lot of early hip-hop was fresh and it was dope but it 00:11:59.920 --> 00:12:02.240 was like straight forward right you know hip hop but if 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:04.560 you do hit me do it hip hop you don't stop 00:12:04.560 --> 00:12:09.120 you know what i mean and it was cool um but then he came along and he was like 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:12.959 making the third word rhyme with the last word and then he wouldn't rhyme for 00:12:12.959 --> 00:12:17.760 like two bars and it was like man and so that got me interested in the 00:12:17.760 --> 00:12:21.519 intricacies of word play and i think was a big influence in me 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:25.839 actually writing as an artist 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:32.079 i've got lots of mcs who've been influences over the years 00:12:32.079 --> 00:12:36.000 i'll just throw some names out because i think they might fit into like the 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:39.920 the idea of liberation uh definitely pock being up there 00:12:39.920 --> 00:12:44.240 and i would say also you know nas on many of his tracks 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:47.920 black thought uh talent quality and most deaf 00:12:47.920 --> 00:12:54.320 lupe sorry i should say yeah lupe kendrick today and others so um it's 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:57.120 something that's been that's been a part of it you know for a 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:01.040 long time and that's the part of it that i definitely gravitated towards 00:13:01.040 --> 00:13:05.360 not exclusively that just has been a big influence 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:10.000 um so there's a movement that many of y'all are probably familiar with called 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:15.279 after futurism um and it spans music as well as 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:18.320 scholarly thought and visual arts as well 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:22.079 and so um i think that's been really influential 00:13:22.079 --> 00:13:26.639 as well as octavia butler um yeah so it's like sci-fi 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:31.600 and artists like guangichi mutu um and kende wiley as well have been really 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:36.399 deeply influential to my work and thinking about how to bring 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:43.199 mythologies specifically islamic stories into a future thinking context 00:13:43.199 --> 00:13:49.120 yeah so at what point in your lives did you 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:53.120 start to do work that you felt was liberating and and 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:55.440 what did that mean to you what does it mean to be 00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:59.120 engaged in liberation work 00:13:59.839 --> 00:14:03.680 um i think art has always been something that felt 00:14:03.680 --> 00:14:07.519 liberating it was a space for self-expression 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:11.440 and then i think when i started out it was much more of a concrete 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:15.120 platform for pushing back against islamophobia 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:18.880 um and i will say that in some ways that wasn't 00:14:18.880 --> 00:14:24.240 a personally liberating feeling um to be doing work in that way although 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:29.120 more broadly i think that is like kind of a collective effort towards 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:32.639 liberation but i think over time in my journey as a 00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:38.079 as a maker it's like finding ways to be really authentic to my voice 00:14:38.079 --> 00:14:41.279 uh which is a struggle truly i think like when you know people 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:44.480 are looking at you and you want to make sense to them 00:14:44.480 --> 00:14:48.160 um and they're coming with their preconceived notions that you feel like 00:14:48.160 --> 00:14:50.560 you have to like deal with them in some way 00:14:50.560 --> 00:14:53.760 um i think that takes practice and a lot of effort 00:14:53.760 --> 00:14:59.120 to do so it's an ongoing journey 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.120 uh yeah i could definitely definitely relate to that and i think um 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:06.880 in my case it's also like dealing with it like in the moment getting on stage 00:15:06.880 --> 00:15:10.560 getting on a microphone and trying to speak you know my truth and 00:15:10.560 --> 00:15:13.199 also knowing that there's all that sort of judgment and the filters that are you 00:15:13.199 --> 00:15:15.519 know being passed through but i'll say this because i'm at a 00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:19.760 university and i attended the university of virginia shout out to 00:15:19.760 --> 00:15:24.720 any cavaliers crickets but that's why i first started 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:27.600 getting into hip-hop making beats writing rhymes participating in like 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:31.839 local ciphers and things and um you know when i first started i 00:15:31.839 --> 00:15:35.120 was kind of like this ethnically ambiguous dude named omar 00:15:35.120 --> 00:15:37.440 that you know kind of could wrap well and stuff but then 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:41.839 halfway through my career 911 happened and my college career 9 11 happened and 00:15:41.839 --> 00:15:44.000 so all of a sudden there was this different 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.800 lens that people were viewing what we're viewing my work through 00:15:46.800 --> 00:15:50.800 um the arab rapper the muslim rapper what's he talking about 00:15:50.800 --> 00:15:54.800 i was vocal about you know the wars in afghanistan and iraq and islamophobia 00:15:54.800 --> 00:15:57.600 the rise of it so i've always kind of been dealing with 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:01.199 that you know on some level and the very act of it even more so than anything 00:16:01.199 --> 00:16:05.680 specific that i've said but just consistently doing that for the last 15 00:16:05.680 --> 00:16:09.600 years or so is is the liberation for me you know and 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:14.480 being given the space to do that and heads nodding back in agreement is is 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:17.600 the liberation as well so 00:16:19.199 --> 00:16:24.959 yeah and um i think for me what kind of brought hip-hop to the forefront and 00:16:24.959 --> 00:16:29.360 where i kind of used it and felt like i had ownership 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:33.040 of what i was doing was when i kind of came to that realization like as you're 00:16:33.040 --> 00:16:35.440 growing up you got to do what your folks do and 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:38.000 your parents do you listen to what they listen to 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:41.199 you know we listen to like you know ours was a musical household so we listened 00:16:41.199 --> 00:16:46.399 to hugh massiquella and miriam keva um lady smith black mambazo 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:50.000 steve kikana like different you know southern african musicians 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.320 and even you know phelan you know west african musicians manufacture 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:58.399 and it was kind of cool you know me dance and everything 00:16:58.399 --> 00:17:02.639 but it was you know my parents music you know it was theirs and i liked it 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:05.679 you know and i enjoyed it but it wasn't like my own 00:17:05.679 --> 00:17:09.760 and um when i started hearing hip-hop oh this is cool 00:17:09.760 --> 00:17:12.640 and you know it's kind of that rebellious thing where it's like oh yeah 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:16.240 they don't even know what's going on um this is our little thing but then i 00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:21.280 started realizing like hey wait i've i can tell stories about my experiences 00:17:21.280 --> 00:17:24.559 through the music and then i remember in the height of the 00:17:24.559 --> 00:17:28.160 afrocentric era we're listening to you know the jungle 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:32.000 brothers and public enemy and and folks like says sonic talk about 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:35.600 africa and we're like yo they should you know i mean you had um 00:17:35.600 --> 00:17:39.440 even on the beat street soundtrack it was like zimbabwe and i'm like yeah you 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:42.559 know what i mean so it was like liberating we're like yes 00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:44.880 they're talking about us we're a part of it 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:49.679 a part of this new thing that's you know blowing up and having people 00:17:49.679 --> 00:17:52.799 tell their stories and so then it occurred to us like 00:17:52.799 --> 00:17:56.799 wait we don't necessarily have to come out rapping about what everybody else is 00:17:56.799 --> 00:17:59.760 rapping about or rapping about going back to africa 00:17:59.760 --> 00:18:03.200 we're in africa we can talk about what we're doing is i mean i was in high 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:05.919 school at the time right we can talk about what we're doing 00:18:05.919 --> 00:18:10.960 and what we're going through and you know you wonder are people gonna 00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:14.080 gonna be attracted to it they're gonna enjoy it they're gonna 00:18:14.080 --> 00:18:19.120 relate to it and when folks in the u.s that we've you know connected with were 00:18:19.120 --> 00:18:22.240 like yo that's fresh like i never even knew 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:25.760 you know people in this country called zimbabwe in south africa 00:18:25.760 --> 00:18:29.280 had even heard us that's a sonic so it was like oh man it was really 00:18:29.280 --> 00:18:33.679 eye-opening so i want to pick up on something that 00:18:33.679 --> 00:18:39.360 you said and you mentioned it as well part of this is being able to find and 00:18:39.360 --> 00:18:42.960 then express your authentic voice how do you 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:48.080 feel like you came to a place where you felt comfortable doing that and and 00:18:48.080 --> 00:18:54.480 you knew who you were as as an artist oh man 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:59.360 i still don't know i mean i'm just working it out you know and i think i've 00:18:59.360 --> 00:19:02.960 been blessed and fortunate to have you know been able to do it for as long 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:05.440 as i have and in that you know constantly be 00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:09.679 dealing and wrestling with this question you know uh and and so the answers may 00:19:09.679 --> 00:19:12.080 change over the years but i think just the 00:19:12.080 --> 00:19:16.000 constantly kind of pushing and asking yourself like what what is worth 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:19.280 saying when i have this responsibility i'm giving this microphone this platform 00:19:19.280 --> 00:19:22.080 there's young people listening to me now as i get older and 00:19:22.080 --> 00:19:24.640 what does that feel like at the same time not losing the sense of what got 00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:27.280 you into it to begin with and why you love it and you know 00:19:27.280 --> 00:19:31.280 what makes it fun and exciting so uh there's a constant kind of 00:19:31.280 --> 00:19:35.039 i guess you know um just finding the balance within that 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:39.440 especially when you know in my case for example my music being connected to this 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:43.200 political dimension that people start to expect you know 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:48.960 every time you grab the mic or you know uh and and while that's also 00:19:49.520 --> 00:19:52.160 empowering in some ways liberating somebody's it can also be limiting 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:56.240 artistically creatively so wrestling with that as well is part of 00:19:56.240 --> 00:19:59.600 it but i'm i mean i'm just re i feel really blessed to be able to do 00:19:59.600 --> 00:20:02.240 it you know and i know a lot of people that i started with 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:05.280 friends of mine rappers who didn't stick with it for whatever reason 00:20:05.280 --> 00:20:08.640 you know and it could have just been purely personal but uh 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:13.200 in that alone i find you know something to be grateful for 00:20:13.520 --> 00:20:16.960 can you repeat the question i'm sorry yeah just talk a little bit about how 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:20.960 you were able to find your own authentic voice and what did it feel 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:25.200 like to express that yeah um 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:29.679 i think kind of going off what was saying is like 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.000 i feel like it's really necessary to be prepared 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:40.480 to kind of destroy everything that i have thought um and that's constantly 00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:43.919 happening i think especially as like you've got young people coming up that 00:20:43.919 --> 00:20:48.000 will challenge things that you never thought were challengeable 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:52.159 and being able to be responsive to that and accountable 00:20:52.159 --> 00:20:55.600 in all the new ways that kind of show up over time feels like 00:20:55.600 --> 00:20:59.120 it's incredibly important so to me it's all about transformation 00:20:59.120 --> 00:21:05.440 and i think like allowing change to happen instead of 00:21:05.440 --> 00:21:09.600 coming up with some fixed idea of ourselves which i think can be really 00:21:09.600 --> 00:21:13.600 limiting um and the more i think i let myself go 00:21:13.600 --> 00:21:17.760 every single direction that i want to i see consistency happen 00:21:17.760 --> 00:21:20.320 there it just happens by default but trying to 00:21:20.320 --> 00:21:24.480 force it or create some sort of brand that you're then like beholden to i 00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:28.960 think is it's not the way to go yeah 00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:32.559 you know you both touched on interesting things and i think as artists 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:39.120 we go through that it's like you are a certain person and you bring that 00:21:39.120 --> 00:21:44.159 to your heart but you also don't want to be boxed and to only do the things that 00:21:44.159 --> 00:21:48.000 maybe you're best known for or maybe that you're really good at and 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:50.559 you want to try other things not necessarily stepping 00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:54.480 outside of who you are but you want to continue to grow like i 00:21:54.480 --> 00:21:56.880 don't want to be the same emcee that i was 00:21:56.880 --> 00:22:01.280 15 years ago talking about the same things or even using the same 00:22:01.280 --> 00:22:04.799 styles and taking you know i mean lyrical techniques 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:10.799 or what have you and so um coming out of you know the afrocentric era a lot of it 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:14.159 is like oh yeah so you guys rapping about africa 00:22:14.159 --> 00:22:16.799 and you know what do you have to say about this and what do you feel about 00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:20.159 this and and you know feeling like well i i don't 00:22:20.159 --> 00:22:24.000 always want to be the spokesperson for every country on the continent 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:28.400 africa is mad diverse right there's places i haven't been and people 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:30.480 have thoughts that are totally different from 00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:35.200 my experiences growing up and so being a position where it's like hey you know 00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:40.320 what i mean i want to kind of be the director of my own 00:22:40.320 --> 00:22:45.520 journey and not be boxed in and i think being an independent musician is a 00:22:45.520 --> 00:22:48.000 blessing and a curse but the blessing in it is 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:52.159 that you can kind of dictate where you go because i know you know having dealt 00:22:52.159 --> 00:22:55.520 with label situations and even producers and production companies 00:22:55.520 --> 00:22:58.880 oh you need to make a song like this that's what's hot right now you need to 00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:03.360 come up with like a bone thugs type song and i was like nah that's not who i know 00:23:03.360 --> 00:23:06.080 but that's what's hidden right now that's what people are checking for 00:23:06.080 --> 00:23:09.440 and i think when you get into that thing of chasing trans or 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:13.520 trying to you know fit into a certain mold 00:23:13.520 --> 00:23:17.600 as an artist i mean it it takes away from what you're really trying to do in 00:23:17.600 --> 00:23:20.799 the essence of who you are 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:24.799 so i'm going to ask one more question and then i'll see if others have 00:23:24.799 --> 00:23:27.120 questions and then we can come back because i got to hold 00:23:27.120 --> 00:23:32.640 this but the autonomy piece of being an 00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:34.840 artist is something that i think is really 00:23:34.840 --> 00:23:39.919 important but at the same time hip hop and hip hop culture is so 00:23:39.919 --> 00:23:45.679 community focused how do you find the balance in that 00:23:45.679 --> 00:23:48.799 what do you consider to be your community and 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:55.279 who are you talking to when you are showing us who you are through art 00:23:55.279 --> 00:23:58.799 uh that's a really good question um i mean i think i 00:23:58.799 --> 00:24:02.840 it's also something that's constantly evolving uh and i'm working to kind of 00:24:02.840 --> 00:24:06.880 make bigger and more inclusive as the years go by like when i first started i 00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:09.600 was definitely speaking to people who kind of might 00:24:09.600 --> 00:24:12.480 have understood my experience more directly whether it was 00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:16.000 you know people from the middle east and north africa or muslims or 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:19.200 immigrants in america what have you uh but as 00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:22.960 as you know as time goes on and i you know i develop like a larger network of 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:26.559 people who appreciate what i do for different reasons it becomes you 00:24:26.559 --> 00:24:28.720 know part of the conversation as well but 00:24:28.720 --> 00:24:32.799 for me it's important to just stay connected and grounded at home like i 00:24:32.799 --> 00:24:35.120 work with a youth group in los angeles that i've 00:24:35.120 --> 00:24:37.679 been kind of working with for a long time and it just kind of keeps me 00:24:37.679 --> 00:24:41.039 plugged into how kids are thinking and failing on the streets in this 00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:45.679 city that i live in and and to be tapped into that and at the same time also have 00:24:45.679 --> 00:24:48.640 connections globally through social media with 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:51.200 family and friends all over the world and these parts of 00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:54.640 the world that i care about uh is also helpful in that but 00:24:54.640 --> 00:24:58.960 i think you know i also don't want to ever 00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:02.159 feel like i'm supposed to be a spokesman for people who are living you know 00:25:02.159 --> 00:25:05.600 thousands of miles away going through very different things than i am 00:25:05.600 --> 00:25:11.039 at the same time there's the feeling of like need to speak to something as 00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:15.600 as tragic as syria and as awful you know to literally to this day seven years 00:25:15.600 --> 00:25:20.080 in people dying as often as they are for things that they have nothing to do with 00:25:20.080 --> 00:25:23.760 it's hard not to speak about you know so just trying to find that balance and be 00:25:23.760 --> 00:25:26.159 honest about it is is what it is you know 00:25:26.159 --> 00:25:29.760 and feel blessed to have any community at all man i mean it's like 00:25:29.760 --> 00:25:34.720 these days you know it's necessary 00:25:36.880 --> 00:25:43.520 um i think making visual art can be very isolating um i think it's the the most 00:25:43.520 --> 00:25:49.279 typical practice is like one artist alone that makes work alone and 00:25:49.279 --> 00:25:57.200 shows it by themselves but i think that there's a lot of ways to to 00:25:57.200 --> 00:26:02.320 subvert that um and i have an amazing community 00:26:02.320 --> 00:26:09.520 in durham that like has saved my life and that goes beyond um 00:26:09.520 --> 00:26:12.559 i mean it's like family truly i mean these are 00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:18.720 folks that are i mean they live out their politics in how they treat one 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:20.960 another and how they show up in the streets 00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:26.559 and at you know the city hall as well um and i think that like that's a really 00:26:26.559 --> 00:26:30.320 beautiful kind of supportive thing just as a human being it's really necessary 00:26:30.320 --> 00:26:37.120 um and as an artist i found folks kind of across artistic mediums 00:26:37.120 --> 00:26:42.159 have been really the folks that i turn to for feedback so 00:26:42.159 --> 00:26:46.320 that's musicians and poets and documentarians 00:26:46.320 --> 00:26:49.679 they're all different kinds of people that i'm i'm looking to but what's most 00:26:49.679 --> 00:26:53.679 important to me is how do they think about the world so 00:26:53.679 --> 00:26:58.159 it's nice to get feedback from other artists but in particular it's like 00:26:58.159 --> 00:27:03.200 who i'm making the work for is who i want to hear from 00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:06.799 and you know people that can give me that critical feedback that's not 00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:11.279 you know just based on painting style or some sort of formal 00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:15.039 uh canon that exists that i'm supposed to fit into but people that get the 00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:18.880 references or have it just a general feeling of connection to the work 00:27:18.880 --> 00:27:26.000 yeah yeah in my case i think um it varies a lot of times 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:30.399 um you know we do as mcs you know preaching to the choir right we're 00:27:30.399 --> 00:27:34.080 rocking to like-minded folks into hip-hop and 00:27:34.080 --> 00:27:37.600 underground you know kind of maybe into lyricism and 00:27:37.600 --> 00:27:41.600 complexity but um i also try to reach out to folks 00:27:41.600 --> 00:27:44.640 that aren't necessarily traditionally hip-hop 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:50.000 listeners you know i mean even you know you know know much about the art form 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:53.200 but all but can appreciate you know words 00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:56.080 and thought because being you know kind of a thinking man's type 00:27:56.080 --> 00:27:59.520 of emcee you know and saying things that you know have 00:27:59.520 --> 00:28:02.640 social and political relevance i think this 00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:06.480 audience is you know beyond the folks that would come out to the club 00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:10.399 you know and watch a dope hip hop show and rocks you know rock to whatever 00:28:10.399 --> 00:28:13.039 tracks are coming on you know there's people 00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:16.880 that you know are like-minded they just not either 00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:19.520 they haven't been exposed to it or they just have different tastes of 00:28:19.520 --> 00:28:22.880 preferences and so i've been trying to you know make 00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:27.039 sure i'm you know um conscious about 00:28:27.039 --> 00:28:31.679 opening myself to do things in non-traditional hip-hop spaces 00:28:31.679 --> 00:28:34.640 i have a friend that plays in the blues band and he's like yo come out and rock 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:37.840 with me i'm like i don't know man like he's like 00:28:37.840 --> 00:28:40.960 i'm telling you man and we'll do it and people will be like 00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:44.480 yo that was fresh i never would have thought you know like i'd have never 00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:46.880 heard this otherwise you know in the places they go 00:28:46.880 --> 00:28:52.799 to are doing shows at art galleries um you know smithsonian or you know just 00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:57.120 non-traditional venues that you have broad audiences i mean it's 00:28:57.120 --> 00:29:01.440 good as an artist to expand your base as well but i think it's also good 00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:04.960 to reach people who might not have heard that message they're like oh yeah i mean 00:29:04.960 --> 00:29:09.520 i had an old lady come up to me and she was like 00:29:09.520 --> 00:29:14.720 great testifying and it took me a second to think about what she meant and then i 00:29:14.720 --> 00:29:16.880 was like oh wow like you know because a lot of times you're 00:29:16.880 --> 00:29:19.760 rapping and you're like oh i don't know if everybody heard the words or whatever 00:29:19.760 --> 00:29:22.159 through the sound system and she's like oh no i heard you 00:29:22.159 --> 00:29:25.840 and she's like they heard you she's like keep doing that and so stuff like that 00:29:25.840 --> 00:29:29.039 is uh reinforcing kind of piggyback on that 00:29:29.039 --> 00:29:31.520 real quick just two things you if you don't have an 00:29:31.520 --> 00:29:35.440 album called think i thinking man's mc's 00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:41.760 and then also just in terms of like uh broadening the audience and doing things 00:29:41.760 --> 00:29:45.200 outside of the box uh it's an opportunity to let everybody know that 00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:48.399 on saturday at the moss arts center at fife we're 00:29:48.399 --> 00:29:52.159 doing something along those lines it's really unique 00:29:52.159 --> 00:29:57.919 hip hop arabic poetry english poetry spoken word style with arabic music 00:29:57.919 --> 00:30:00.880 ensemble backing it up that includes percussion and all sorts of beautiful 00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:05.600 stringed instruments and taking it into like a middle eastern 00:30:05.600 --> 00:30:10.640 north african sort of poetry telling spaces and hip hop with you know 00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:15.279 craig on the decks and then also traditional arabic music that we're kind 00:30:15.279 --> 00:30:18.480 of repurposing for the night so and that's 00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:21.600 all in an effort to to both be a reflection of the community 00:30:21.600 --> 00:30:24.000 that we've been working with here which has included 00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:27.440 um the moss arts center it's included lots of folks within you know bt 00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:31.039 expressions than the hip-hop crews here and craig but also the 00:30:31.039 --> 00:30:33.279 community that's going to be coming out people from 00:30:33.279 --> 00:30:36.559 uh recently resettled families in afghanistan and syria 00:30:36.559 --> 00:30:39.279 you know to help them sort of appreciate what's happening professors who might 00:30:39.279 --> 00:30:42.159 not necessarily be listening to hip-hop every day but 00:30:42.159 --> 00:30:45.600 you know do appreciate the things that we're saying um and so 00:30:45.600 --> 00:30:48.799 so yeah that's that's definitely a part of it and i think that 00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:53.120 just to kind of um put a little capstone on the community piece it's like that's 00:30:53.120 --> 00:30:55.679 why i love hip-hop it's like no matter what i can't 00:30:55.679 --> 00:30:59.120 really do this alone i have to go somewhere and see other people 00:30:59.120 --> 00:31:03.120 to have you know the community and interaction and i think that's 00:31:03.120 --> 00:31:06.159 a feeling i'm quite frankly i'm being addicted to it's like 00:31:06.159 --> 00:31:10.000 like in a time and place where people are becoming more insular and connected 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.320 to devices and things it forces me constantly to be connected you know to 00:31:14.320 --> 00:31:16.640 people and to look in each other's eyes and have 00:31:16.640 --> 00:31:24.480 you know interaction it's important as the cameras stare at me 00:31:25.360 --> 00:31:30.159 great responses i want to see if anybody in the audience has any questions or 00:31:30.159 --> 00:31:37.869 any um thing that they would like to put out there 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:45.519 everybody quiet what no question i saw some people dozing out they're 00:31:45.519 --> 00:31:51.600 like yo this thing's that helpful all i hear is people talking 00:31:52.080 --> 00:31:57.120 okay but one thing i'm interested in you know if 00:31:57.120 --> 00:32:02.880 i started i guess about 45 years ago give or take um and 00:32:02.880 --> 00:32:06.799 basically you know black and brown communities that were systematically 00:32:06.799 --> 00:32:10.399 oppressed and neglected right and now as it's been subsumed as part of popular 00:32:10.399 --> 00:32:14.240 culture kind of like the subversive origins of 00:32:14.240 --> 00:32:17.360 hip-hop um you think about like djs they're 00:32:17.360 --> 00:32:20.960 taking other artists work they're recontextualizing and 00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:22.960 recontextualizing to create something new 00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:27.120 and a lot of times in a way that violates copyright law 00:32:27.120 --> 00:32:31.039 or you think about graffiti artists like guys i grew up with 00:32:31.039 --> 00:32:38.559 have more than a couple of trespassing sure you know other charges 00:32:38.559 --> 00:32:43.120 so as you know this these creative practices become part of popular culture 00:32:43.120 --> 00:32:49.760 and this subversive origin story um i guess even like ownership 00:32:49.760 --> 00:32:53.440 of hip-hop from the communities in which you came as that is kind of whitewashed 00:32:53.440 --> 00:32:57.919 what do you think the art form loses i guess like what 00:32:57.919 --> 00:33:01.600 what are the consequences of that as it 00:33:01.600 --> 00:33:04.720 becomes popular culture 00:33:06.159 --> 00:33:10.159 counter culture i mean from my perspective 00:33:10.159 --> 00:33:14.960 just um i mean the thing that's mad you know as a hip-hop purist hip-hop 00:33:14.960 --> 00:33:20.480 aficionado is like people on the outside looking in 00:33:20.480 --> 00:33:24.559 tend to classify it by what's hot you know like we were talking about before 00:33:24.559 --> 00:33:29.840 and so they exclude you know from the conversation 00:33:29.840 --> 00:33:34.159 things that they think are old or fads and it's like at one point 00:33:34.159 --> 00:33:38.640 the media and outside sources thought that the whole of hip-hop as an art form 00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:40.960 was a fad but you hear people say oh we don't 00:33:40.960 --> 00:33:44.159 listen to those golden age beats you know that's all that's played out 00:33:44.159 --> 00:33:48.720 and it's like music evolves and it spreads and gets broad but that doesn't 00:33:48.720 --> 00:33:51.440 mean parts of it die you know what i mean if it's a plant or 00:33:51.440 --> 00:33:54.559 a tree just because there's new branches it doesn't mean the whole branches 00:33:54.559 --> 00:33:57.600 we can do away with them or whatever you know what i mean and so 00:33:57.600 --> 00:34:00.720 you know people be like oh yeah that you know those dj premier beats 00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:04.000 those boom bat beats you know it's all about trap it's all about this 00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:08.079 and i feel like the mass media does a disservice because 00:34:08.079 --> 00:34:12.399 they hone in and focus on one part usually the commercial 00:34:12.399 --> 00:34:16.079 most commercially viable part of the culture and promote that and dig it up 00:34:16.079 --> 00:34:19.760 you know what i mean and most of the time when they talk about 00:34:19.760 --> 00:34:22.320 hip-hop they're just talking about rap you know they're not really talking 00:34:22.320 --> 00:34:25.839 about djing they're not talking about knowledge they're not talking about the 00:34:25.839 --> 00:34:30.480 graffiti art or anything else with the b-boying they're just 00:34:30.480 --> 00:34:33.679 talking about rap rap music itself you know what i mean 00:34:33.679 --> 00:34:37.359 and they'll be like oh hip-hop is doing this so hip-hop is doing that or hip-hop 00:34:37.359 --> 00:34:40.879 he's really talking about you know materialism these days and so that's not 00:34:40.879 --> 00:34:44.159 what that's what the rappers on the radio are talking about 00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:48.000 and there's all these other artists that are conscious 00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:54.000 or you know doing different things that don't get celebrated and so i think 00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:58.960 it's it's a shame when you know the commercial forces drive 00:34:58.960 --> 00:35:03.040 what hip hop is you know and i always think like if somebody went up to like 00:35:03.040 --> 00:35:06.160 the grand old opry and was doing something weird that was 00:35:06.160 --> 00:35:09.680 not country music and they would be like oh it's not country music you know 00:35:09.680 --> 00:35:12.000 people would think that they're well within their rights you know they're 00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:14.720 defining with hip-hop it's like when people offer 00:35:14.720 --> 00:35:17.920 critiques oh he's a hater you know what i mean he's like oh he's 00:35:17.920 --> 00:35:20.640 hating and it's like no you got to protect the art this is 00:35:20.640 --> 00:35:25.040 our thing you know what i mean we should be the ones who define it 00:35:25.040 --> 00:35:28.640 you know what i mean we're not always going to agree we're not always going to 00:35:28.640 --> 00:35:31.280 be right but we should have that discourse and i 00:35:31.280 --> 00:35:35.200 think the discourse gets shut down with that awesome you know they're hating no 00:35:35.200 --> 00:35:37.920 those are those old rappers hating again you know what i mean 00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:47.599 so that's just my thoughts yeah so just following up on on craig's point 00:35:47.599 --> 00:35:53.280 a little bit and yours as well a lot of people 00:35:53.280 --> 00:36:00.240 do consume this type of art commercially right um they know what's hot in hip-hop 00:36:00.240 --> 00:36:03.200 they think because it's what's on the radio it's what they 00:36:03.200 --> 00:36:06.960 hear it's what they see on the television not necessarily what 00:36:06.960 --> 00:36:13.920 they experience culturally so how do we do a better job 00:36:13.920 --> 00:36:20.560 with exposing independent artists those who are actually connected to the 00:36:20.560 --> 00:36:24.880 culture when so much of media is focused 00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:30.640 away from that and i get frustrated too because i'm like oh you know this person 00:36:30.640 --> 00:36:34.400 madrid never heard this one and what's going on but if you don't have 00:36:34.400 --> 00:36:38.079 the exposure you can't expect people to know so how 00:36:38.079 --> 00:36:42.800 do we get beyond that how do we try to overcome that problem 00:36:42.800 --> 00:36:49.520 um i mean i think it goes both ways you know a lot of times there are haters 00:36:49.520 --> 00:36:52.880 who hate people because they grind and they're like really good at social media 00:36:52.880 --> 00:36:56.079 and their marketing you know it's like yeah and and they're 00:36:56.079 --> 00:36:59.520 not you know yeah i wish the world would listen to me is like but you're not 00:36:59.520 --> 00:37:02.720 doing anything to make people you know i could be able to access it 00:37:02.720 --> 00:37:05.280 there's a lot of incredible tools out there for free 00:37:05.280 --> 00:37:08.480 that you can use now to let you know and that's easier said than done if 00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:10.800 someone might be looking at me in my position having a certain amount of 00:37:10.800 --> 00:37:14.000 followers and say that and i i i just say it's a grind i've been 00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:17.119 doing this for a very long time and i only have this certain amount but i 00:37:17.119 --> 00:37:21.200 never looked at it as a reflection of how hard i should work or you know what 00:37:21.200 --> 00:37:24.400 i mean i'm also from a particular generation that kind of remembers life a 00:37:24.400 --> 00:37:26.880 little bit before all this stuff and doesn't blur it you 00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:31.280 know with how i value myself as an artist but uh it 00:37:31.280 --> 00:37:33.520 takes work you know so it's it's kind of both 00:37:33.520 --> 00:37:37.760 um but when you have like the support of you know community organizations and 00:37:37.760 --> 00:37:42.560 love from people around you and you can kind of work to to get 00:37:42.560 --> 00:37:45.920 institutional support from local universities if you see professors are 00:37:45.920 --> 00:37:48.240 interested in the things that you're doing our students are interested in the 00:37:48.240 --> 00:37:51.280 thing that you're doing you know just try to build on that and 00:37:51.280 --> 00:37:53.680 understand that it doesn't happen overnight and more importantly if you're 00:37:53.680 --> 00:37:56.240 not doing it for yourself because you love it 00:37:56.240 --> 00:38:01.119 you know no amount of eyeballs is going to change how you feel about it you know 00:38:01.119 --> 00:38:06.160 so that's an important part of it too yeah 00:38:06.160 --> 00:38:10.079 um i think it can contribute something a little like generally as far as like 00:38:10.079 --> 00:38:14.800 um there's just there's so many artists making art that are struggling out there 00:38:14.800 --> 00:38:18.320 and there's so many folks who would love to be making art but don't feel like 00:38:18.320 --> 00:38:22.640 they can um and that starts so young 00:38:22.640 --> 00:38:26.320 that those stratifications happen and in visual art there's just such a class 00:38:26.320 --> 00:38:30.240 dynamic in particular uh in terms of like it feels like it's 00:38:30.240 --> 00:38:35.119 for folks who are cultured that we can't interpret the work as 00:38:35.119 --> 00:38:38.000 someone who didn't grow up going to museums 00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:44.320 um all that is its lies you know to to put it bluntly but i think as far 00:38:44.320 --> 00:38:49.280 as like political work as well as like artists go it's like if we shifted our 00:38:49.280 --> 00:38:52.640 focus to who's actually around us to our local 00:38:52.640 --> 00:38:56.000 communities i think our impact is so much greater 00:38:56.000 --> 00:38:58.640 and it's really easy to you know like go 00:38:58.640 --> 00:39:02.320 online and buy you know a reproduction of a gustav 00:39:02.320 --> 00:39:05.599 klimt the kiss that everyone has in their in their home but there's artists 00:39:05.599 --> 00:39:09.520 around you and um they need that support and as 00:39:09.520 --> 00:39:15.040 much as we need artists we need folks to appreciate artists and 00:39:15.040 --> 00:39:20.000 like small amounts of money of support of showing up for them 00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:23.040 has such a greater impact for the artists who are actually in your 00:39:23.040 --> 00:39:26.240 communities and i think even these institutions oftentimes 00:39:26.240 --> 00:39:30.400 will i mean i guess we're also examples of this we'll bring in folks from out of 00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:33.200 town um much more readily than they'll look 00:39:33.200 --> 00:39:37.200 at their own communities for who's doing some really radical shit 00:39:37.200 --> 00:39:43.839 you know and it's happening kind of everywhere yeah 00:39:43.839 --> 00:39:47.920 you have any thoughts in here no just in terms of 00:39:47.920 --> 00:39:55.040 um access to community as well i think it builds up the base of 00:39:55.040 --> 00:39:58.240 artists that'll take it you know to the next phase and 00:39:58.240 --> 00:40:02.160 people that you connect with because um i mean i met 00:40:02.160 --> 00:40:06.960 omar through mcgee and met mcgee through nomadic wax because somebody sent an 00:40:06.960 --> 00:40:10.000 email saying oh you guys do african hip-hop you should connect with nomadic 00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.079 wax because they do shows with artists from different parts of africa 00:40:14.079 --> 00:40:17.760 and i started collaborating with folks from senegal and tanzania 00:40:17.760 --> 00:40:22.560 that i'd have never met if i was just in my little space doing my little thing 00:40:22.560 --> 00:40:27.680 um and so interacting with folks and realizing like oh these guys are doing 00:40:27.680 --> 00:40:31.280 this and they know these things and they do these you know and you kind of share 00:40:31.280 --> 00:40:35.119 info um share spaces you know and collaborate 00:40:35.119 --> 00:40:39.920 and learn from each other and grow and i think just as an artist it's good 00:40:39.920 --> 00:40:42.319 for growth and it's also good for the art 00:40:42.319 --> 00:40:46.960 form because you expose different facets of what you 00:40:46.960 --> 00:40:50.000 know and what they know when you put it together and it's dynamic 00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.640 and it makes for really good music too 00:40:57.839 --> 00:41:05.040 any questions comments okay sure i love hearing about all of 00:41:05.040 --> 00:41:08.800 this i'm talking about with kind of like the the messaging and 00:41:08.800 --> 00:41:12.960 the platform the community the discourse and i think i feel like that's 00:41:12.960 --> 00:41:16.480 in the best case scenario that's really what 00:41:16.480 --> 00:41:20.640 art should be used for is to kind of shepherd that discourse forward 00:41:20.640 --> 00:41:26.640 but kind of the face of um the kind of commercial media and current 00:41:26.640 --> 00:41:31.680 consumption of like bite size stories and 00:41:31.680 --> 00:41:34.800 quick retweets and how do you kind of like 00:41:34.800 --> 00:41:40.480 keep the conversation focused and kind of what's your responsibility to 00:41:40.480 --> 00:41:44.880 your community to say like guys focus get back let's talk 00:41:44.880 --> 00:41:50.079 about what we're here to talk not get about with all this extraneous 00:41:50.079 --> 00:41:55.599 bs excellent questions yeah yeah definitely i mean it's it's 00:41:55.599 --> 00:42:00.400 hard man i'll just say like uh it's a it's a struggle like 00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:03.520 everything else that we're talking about you constantly have to kind of reorient 00:42:03.520 --> 00:42:06.640 and re-center your intention you know and 00:42:06.640 --> 00:42:09.839 remind folks around you the things that are happening here and 00:42:09.839 --> 00:42:13.599 it's you know what are important show up you know uh show up for 00:42:13.599 --> 00:42:16.880 community might not always be the most convenient or the 00:42:16.880 --> 00:42:21.040 most glamorous thing but like only through being consistent does this 00:42:21.040 --> 00:42:26.319 anything ever really change and uh i mean just to kind of bring it 00:42:26.319 --> 00:42:30.160 back to what craig was saying i mean there's in terms of just this 00:42:30.160 --> 00:42:34.240 conversation between like mainstream you know hip-hop quote-unquote or music 00:42:34.240 --> 00:42:36.560 in general and what you can get you know if you're 00:42:36.560 --> 00:42:41.680 digging a little deeper it's uh it is really 00:42:41.680 --> 00:42:46.160 challenging to live in an era of just like complete disposable art and music 00:42:46.160 --> 00:42:49.040 to a certain degree like somebody will just consume something and just you know 00:42:49.040 --> 00:42:52.319 forget about it how much do you invest you know in 00:42:52.319 --> 00:42:55.920 something if you know it's just going to be watching this tiny little screen and 00:42:55.920 --> 00:42:59.200 that all comes back to that conversation about who you're doing it for it's uh 00:42:59.200 --> 00:43:01.760 you know for the people who really love and support your work and 00:43:01.760 --> 00:43:05.680 and hopefully for yourself and you know getting getting something meaningful out 00:43:05.680 --> 00:43:10.480 of that process but uh it's also kind of cool to try to 00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:13.839 experiment with different media and have an opportunity to think about something 00:43:13.839 --> 00:43:17.920 in in like a you know one minute instagram form you know like how can i 00:43:17.920 --> 00:43:20.240 get their attention in this like different medium and 00:43:20.240 --> 00:43:24.400 challenge yourself in a kind of way that even as you go as an artist you 00:43:24.400 --> 00:43:27.119 think you know you've settled and you've come to like a conclusion about what 00:43:27.119 --> 00:43:29.599 your art can be here's an opportunity to think about it 00:43:29.599 --> 00:43:35.119 differently you know and i don't know it's uh it's hard but it's 00:43:35.119 --> 00:43:38.240 you know there's something there's something to it you know to that process 00:43:38.240 --> 00:43:41.839 and to constantly kind of pushing and questioning 00:43:44.720 --> 00:43:47.760 i have a few thoughts and i hope that this will be coherent 00:43:47.760 --> 00:43:55.280 but it might not be which is fine um i think that sometimes there's this 00:43:55.280 --> 00:43:59.040 assumption that things used to be pure and good 00:43:59.040 --> 00:44:05.119 and now they're not and technology is the culprit in some way um and there's 00:44:05.119 --> 00:44:08.079 always been technological developments and i think 00:44:08.079 --> 00:44:12.480 like by and large i mean and my mindset is always more 00:44:12.480 --> 00:44:16.640 focused on visual art so i'll just preface it with that but um 00:44:16.640 --> 00:44:20.319 there's always been bullshit out there like the people that were making art or 00:44:20.319 --> 00:44:23.440 getting art made and why it was a way to show off their 00:44:23.440 --> 00:44:29.200 wealth and i think like now the internet in so many ways becomes 00:44:29.200 --> 00:44:32.319 this much more democratic public platform for 00:44:32.319 --> 00:44:36.800 people to be able to be creators on every level when it comes down to 00:44:36.800 --> 00:44:39.760 like constructing their own image in a public way 00:44:39.760 --> 00:44:43.119 um coming up with a caption underneath it 00:44:43.119 --> 00:44:47.839 sharing their poetry sharing um just the way that they see the world 00:44:47.839 --> 00:44:52.880 um one of the the issues is that like how often does that become something 00:44:52.880 --> 00:44:55.119 superficial does that become something like 00:44:55.119 --> 00:44:58.319 mimetic and just like we're repeating and trying to 00:44:58.319 --> 00:45:03.760 imitate one another and then also there's something about something like a 00:45:03.760 --> 00:45:08.319 meme that i think is astounding you know everyone gets 00:45:08.319 --> 00:45:15.119 to participate and modify an image with agency and 00:45:15.119 --> 00:45:20.560 like there's i think it's not really technology that becomes the issue 00:45:20.560 --> 00:45:24.319 i don't think there's even necessarily something wrong with bite-sized 00:45:24.319 --> 00:45:29.520 pieces of information when we're trying to consume so much we need bite sizes 00:45:29.520 --> 00:45:33.119 because we're not just interacting with our neighbors anymore 00:45:33.119 --> 00:45:37.680 um but it's other systems that are really the things that fault 00:45:37.680 --> 00:45:44.000 um here as opposed to yeah the bite-sized pieces of things because 00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:48.880 like instagram is hugely influential to me um and the artists that i follow 00:45:48.880 --> 00:45:52.160 and like having this access to be able to see 00:45:52.160 --> 00:45:55.520 people's work in this way and then at the same time you've got 00:45:55.520 --> 00:45:59.280 artists out there who are getting thousands of likes and can't pay their 00:45:59.280 --> 00:46:04.560 rent you know it's both yeah 00:46:06.560 --> 00:46:09.359 other questions 00:46:10.480 --> 00:46:18.240 i have a question specifically from what you said earlier it was about 00:46:18.240 --> 00:46:21.520 like as an artist but also just as a person 00:46:21.520 --> 00:46:26.000 and how you know like you're talking all you guys were talking 00:46:26.000 --> 00:46:28.720 about earlier about constantly evolving your art 00:46:28.720 --> 00:46:34.079 and but not allowing change to be something that's like limiting 00:46:34.079 --> 00:46:37.200 but something that's like pushes you further as an artist how 00:46:37.200 --> 00:46:41.839 what other ways you guys practice that both as a person as an artist 00:46:41.839 --> 00:46:46.319 um i think that the most important thing 00:46:47.359 --> 00:46:51.280 i it's just self-reflection you know i think like 00:46:51.280 --> 00:46:54.400 um one thing that's really difficult especially 00:46:54.400 --> 00:46:57.760 in the with the way things are i think there's like 00:46:57.760 --> 00:47:01.599 everyone feels the gaze on them you know people are watching 00:47:01.599 --> 00:47:05.599 what are you posting um on your social media how does that define 00:47:05.599 --> 00:47:11.440 who you are um and then if you fuck up you get torn down in such an 00:47:11.440 --> 00:47:15.280 intense kind of way and i think it makes it really difficult for 00:47:15.280 --> 00:47:19.520 people to be able to make mistakes and then learn from them 00:47:19.520 --> 00:47:28.079 which is really all we can do um and so to me it's like i love saying i'm sorry 00:47:28.079 --> 00:47:31.760 i love messing up and then learning something from it 00:47:31.760 --> 00:47:35.440 um and i think it's a really vulnerable kind of 00:47:35.440 --> 00:47:39.440 position to be in as is art making like all of it to me it's like 00:47:39.440 --> 00:47:43.920 we've got to be able to be vulnerable with one another and with ourselves and 00:47:43.920 --> 00:47:48.960 to admit that we can you know make mistakes or 00:47:48.960 --> 00:47:51.440 that things change and what we thought before 00:47:51.440 --> 00:47:55.440 doesn't work anymore that we suddenly realized that these things that seemed 00:47:55.440 --> 00:48:00.880 okay are now harmful um and that's through being able to 00:48:00.880 --> 00:48:03.200 listen and like kind of shut down your ego in 00:48:03.200 --> 00:48:08.480 some way and be able to be um like readily readily like 00:48:08.480 --> 00:48:13.280 publicly vulnerable um i think that's a really important thing that 00:48:13.280 --> 00:48:19.520 is is hard for folks to do these days um with how much like we're 00:48:19.520 --> 00:48:23.359 being watched and there's such a you know you've got to be perfect all of 00:48:23.359 --> 00:48:27.599 the time or you might get thrown away um and so part of that is you know how 00:48:27.599 --> 00:48:31.040 do we see ourselves how how do we show up accountably how can we 00:48:31.040 --> 00:48:34.079 admit our own mistakes and then also how do we interact with other people 00:48:34.079 --> 00:48:38.480 who are learning and growing um in an effort to actually make things better 00:48:38.480 --> 00:48:43.119 um and grow together and not just be like tossing people off the ship as we 00:48:43.119 --> 00:48:45.839 go you know yeah did that answer your 00:48:45.839 --> 00:48:52.640 questions yeah a question for everybody um i think for 00:48:52.640 --> 00:48:56.960 me it's just um you know trying different stuff trying 00:48:56.960 --> 00:49:01.200 stuff in different places um you know working with bands that i 00:49:01.200 --> 00:49:05.040 haven't worked with that might not necessarily you know just 00:49:05.040 --> 00:49:07.680 rock you know with hip hop and stuff or you 00:49:07.680 --> 00:49:10.720 know trying out and seeing how things work and you know 00:49:10.720 --> 00:49:15.839 kind of you know being willing to you know dive overboard a little bit and 00:49:15.839 --> 00:49:19.440 see what happens um it's good to do it in spaces that are 00:49:19.440 --> 00:49:22.559 you know people are appreciative of 00:49:22.559 --> 00:49:27.200 experimentation you know what i mean um and at all places are you know people 00:49:27.200 --> 00:49:30.800 sometimes tend to go see what they want to see and they want to hear it in that 00:49:30.800 --> 00:49:34.480 form but um being open to you know i mean when 00:49:34.480 --> 00:49:38.960 people suggest things a lot of times i'm like i don't know you know and then 00:49:38.960 --> 00:49:44.000 trying it out and seeing how it goes and invariably you know whether the outcome 00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:46.400 is like you know something brilliant or it's 00:49:46.400 --> 00:49:50.480 just all right um i think it helps with growth and 00:49:50.480 --> 00:49:53.520 development and stuff so i've worked with um i've 00:49:53.520 --> 00:49:56.240 been trying to work with a lot of different international 00:49:56.240 --> 00:50:01.920 musicians i worked with uh this lady i worked with is a traditional 00:50:01.920 --> 00:50:07.040 indian music singer and then 00:50:07.040 --> 00:50:10.720 so she was like hey let's work on a song you know and 00:50:10.720 --> 00:50:14.480 you know she was teaching me about you know her different runs and 00:50:14.480 --> 00:50:18.319 you know the rock style and everything and she was like i want you to 00:50:18.319 --> 00:50:21.440 you know come along and you know fit in right here 00:50:21.440 --> 00:50:26.480 and i was you know you're evaluating it and looking at it but after we did it 00:50:26.480 --> 00:50:29.200 you know her friends were like oh my goodness i would have never thought and 00:50:29.200 --> 00:50:32.079 they don't listen to hip-hop and you know people listen to hip-hop like 00:50:32.079 --> 00:50:35.119 oh man that's beautiful that's a great combination 00:50:35.119 --> 00:50:38.880 just doing stuff that's kind of uncomfortable 00:50:38.880 --> 00:50:42.079 i think as an artist helps you grow and just 00:50:42.079 --> 00:50:46.160 just realizing that it's not going to work every time but that's okay 00:50:46.160 --> 00:50:49.440 that's part of the process 00:50:50.319 --> 00:50:55.440 uh i mean i'll just add that having a kid also makes you 00:50:55.440 --> 00:50:58.559 re-evaluate everything i'm not saying go out there and have a kid 00:50:58.559 --> 00:51:02.480 trying to re-evaluate stuff but it does that and 00:51:02.480 --> 00:51:08.000 it just kind of makes you understand what to prioritize in life you know 00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:11.680 and and so for me also it's been an opportunity to kind of just like 00:51:11.680 --> 00:51:14.559 you know re appreciate things from a different perspective from this little 00:51:14.559 --> 00:51:17.920 two-year-old person's you know viewpoint and of how the 00:51:17.920 --> 00:51:21.359 smallest most insignificant thing that i pass by every day all of a sudden it's 00:51:21.359 --> 00:51:26.640 the most fascinating thing you know it makes me think about it 00:51:26.880 --> 00:51:30.559 and put the phone away and go sit outside for a while and just 00:51:30.559 --> 00:51:35.920 breathe and think and ponder and be with myself and be alone so as important as 00:51:35.920 --> 00:51:38.880 it is to kind of have community peace it's also important to 00:51:38.880 --> 00:51:41.760 really sit with yourself and self-reflect and 00:51:41.760 --> 00:51:45.680 uh and not with this thing the phone that i'm tapping in my pocket but just 00:51:45.680 --> 00:51:48.880 like really be alone you know maybe take a pencil and a paper 00:51:48.880 --> 00:51:54.319 and sketch or write but it's important you know 00:51:54.319 --> 00:52:00.480 and nature too is key i think you know reconnecting being 00:52:00.480 --> 00:52:03.680 outside wherever you are like is one of the 00:52:03.680 --> 00:52:07.839 quickest ways to get centered you know i think so it has been for me 00:52:07.839 --> 00:52:10.160 at least 00:52:10.880 --> 00:52:15.680 other questions okay um you guys kind of mentioned it earlier how you guys try to 00:52:15.680 --> 00:52:20.400 diverse how would you guys all do but do you ever think about getting into 00:52:20.400 --> 00:52:24.880 like that niche role thinking that order order make more successful or 00:52:24.880 --> 00:52:26.880 you'll be able to have more opportunities 00:52:26.880 --> 00:52:32.240 doing that one thing putting something about like your ethnicity religion or 00:52:32.480 --> 00:52:36.800 that's i mean that's a good question i i recognize the fact that like 00:52:36.800 --> 00:52:39.599 people are interested because of where i'm from and because of the things 00:52:39.599 --> 00:52:43.520 happening there you know and rather than feel guilt about that or 00:52:43.520 --> 00:52:45.680 whatever it's just take it and own it and 00:52:45.680 --> 00:52:49.839 and be if it's not i mean as long as it's an honest reflection of me you know 00:52:49.839 --> 00:52:52.559 what i'm saying um but but at the same time it's like 00:52:52.559 --> 00:52:55.200 okay if that's what you're interested in let me give you my take on it you know 00:52:55.200 --> 00:52:59.200 i might not be exactly what you expect but you know it could be a conversation 00:52:59.200 --> 00:53:05.280 starter or a foot in the door and i think sometimes it's helpful to 00:53:05.280 --> 00:53:08.240 meet people where they're at sometimes you know not to dumb it down 00:53:08.240 --> 00:53:10.960 or to like you know play yourself but like 00:53:10.960 --> 00:53:13.680 i i recognize that part of the conversation about broadening the 00:53:13.680 --> 00:53:16.559 audience and everything it's like it's a beautiful thing like i love when a 00:53:16.559 --> 00:53:19.599 grandmother comes up to me afterwards and says that i really enjoyed your show 00:53:19.599 --> 00:53:22.480 i love when somebody says that you know i've never really listened to hip-hop 00:53:22.480 --> 00:53:25.119 but this shit is dope or whatever i mean they might they might 00:53:25.119 --> 00:53:29.760 not say this shit is dope they found a way to appreciate it and i 00:53:29.760 --> 00:53:32.960 think that's great uh but i still have to make sure that my 00:53:32.960 --> 00:53:36.800 homies you know and that like the people whose opinions when it comes to the sort 00:53:36.800 --> 00:53:39.680 of lyricism that i'm striving for gotta make sure that they're 00:53:39.680 --> 00:53:42.000 appreciating it and that their heads are not in and that it's real 00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:46.880 so um so that's a big part of it too you know 00:53:48.559 --> 00:53:52.800 um this is something that i have a lot of feelings about 00:53:52.800 --> 00:53:59.520 um so yeah i i i get a lot of um 00:53:59.520 --> 00:54:06.079 opportunities to speak about my identity very specifically and um my work 00:54:06.079 --> 00:54:09.839 includes that but there's a lot more nuance obviously in the works like 00:54:09.839 --> 00:54:14.400 that's where i'm talking about it most completely is in my art who i am 00:54:14.400 --> 00:54:19.520 and what i'm thinking and all of that um but a lot of times folks want 00:54:19.520 --> 00:54:24.000 me to be a spokesperson for muslims for queer muslims this is kind of like 00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:29.599 unicorn identity um and and it's been a challenging thing to 00:54:29.599 --> 00:54:35.359 navigate because sometimes that identity as a headline overshadows 00:54:35.359 --> 00:54:42.000 the fact that i make work um and still it's like 00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:45.599 that being being out and being public and 00:54:45.599 --> 00:54:49.359 speaking about who i am and about actives and all those things 00:54:49.359 --> 00:54:53.599 it's it's really important and i can see and i've experienced how it's had impact 00:54:53.599 --> 00:54:56.559 i you know i get messages from from folks 00:54:56.559 --> 00:55:00.799 of all ages all over the world who 00:55:00.799 --> 00:55:03.920 you know it just it means so much to have somebody 00:55:03.920 --> 00:55:09.839 who's out there who's claiming that um and then at the same time it's so much 00:55:09.839 --> 00:55:13.359 pressure and you know being a self-reflective person as i mentioned 00:55:13.359 --> 00:55:17.839 it's really difficult in those environments to try to 00:55:17.839 --> 00:55:24.400 pin down in words um who i am and what that means and uh do 00:55:24.400 --> 00:55:28.799 it in a way that doesn't then alienate other folks you know what 00:55:28.799 --> 00:55:32.160 i mean it's like i can only talk from my personal experience and then i'm on this 00:55:32.160 --> 00:55:36.240 platform where i've got to talk about everything and then i'm thinking about 00:55:36.240 --> 00:55:39.440 my parents and i'm thinking about the muslim community and i'm 00:55:39.440 --> 00:55:42.559 thinking about the queer community and everything in between 00:55:42.559 --> 00:55:49.440 um and sometimes i don't want to do it and so like at the beginning of this 00:55:49.440 --> 00:55:52.880 year i think i kind of recognize like that labor in particular is 00:55:52.880 --> 00:55:55.040 incredibly important and i'm never going to like 00:55:55.040 --> 00:55:59.520 put it down in any sort of way but it's not something i can choose to do all the 00:55:59.520 --> 00:56:03.280 time and so now i'm like only things that are 00:56:03.280 --> 00:56:07.040 art related my identity is embedded within that um 00:56:07.040 --> 00:56:10.079 and i have so much love and respect for the folks who are putting themselves out 00:56:10.079 --> 00:56:11.599 there in this way and like really putting 00:56:11.599 --> 00:56:16.000 their identity out there um because even though it's another box 00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:21.359 um it's one that does push edges as well so it is important okay yeah it's 00:56:21.359 --> 00:56:24.000 complicated 00:56:24.400 --> 00:56:28.720 i've got time maybe two more questions you have your one yeah 00:56:28.720 --> 00:56:32.079 my question to you all uh in your respect as 00:56:32.079 --> 00:56:37.680 artists how do you um what keeps you all motivated um each day from day to day 00:56:37.680 --> 00:56:40.319 because i can understand the rules of being an artist 00:56:40.319 --> 00:56:43.599 you have a lot of people looking up to you and things like that so 00:56:43.599 --> 00:56:46.799 how do you guys stay motivated and wanted to 00:56:46.799 --> 00:56:52.480 enrich and keep continuing to preserve your crap good question 00:56:53.280 --> 00:56:57.119 so i think i think it turns out 00:56:57.599 --> 00:57:02.240 so i think um from my perspective uh what keeps me energized is just 00:57:02.240 --> 00:57:09.040 getting energy from the environments in which i'm doing my 00:57:09.040 --> 00:57:12.559 thing or whatever and not necessarily just in a show like 00:57:12.559 --> 00:57:16.000 some of the most enriching experiences when i'm just working with young kids or 00:57:16.000 --> 00:57:17.839 whatever and they'll be like oh can you spit 00:57:17.839 --> 00:57:19.760 something you spit then you rap and they're like oh 00:57:19.760 --> 00:57:22.960 bars and you're like yeah people tell me that little kids 00:57:22.960 --> 00:57:26.160 you know don't like lyrics or whatever you know but 00:57:26.160 --> 00:57:29.440 just seeing them get excited too about their voices 00:57:29.440 --> 00:57:33.119 you know and and and them wanting to express themselves and 00:57:33.119 --> 00:57:36.319 you know listen to this listen to this you know and it's like oh man 00:57:36.319 --> 00:57:39.920 you know you just you know forget about all the troubles and you know the 00:57:39.920 --> 00:57:43.680 industry and this that and the other and just think about this is what hip-hop is 00:57:43.680 --> 00:57:47.520 you know just individuals connecting and sharing 00:57:47.520 --> 00:57:51.680 thoughts and getting excited about what they have to say to the world so 00:57:51.680 --> 00:57:55.359 whenever i have experiences like that it's kind of enriching and it kind of 00:57:55.359 --> 00:57:57.920 it's like fuel you know that's the vibranium that gets 00:57:57.920 --> 00:58:01.920 me the one spot to the next i have to throw that in there 00:58:01.920 --> 00:58:08.079 but um yeah it's just situations like that 00:58:08.079 --> 00:58:11.200 um did you want to say something you want to go first 00:58:11.200 --> 00:58:16.480 go ahead um i have to say actually for me it's like 00:58:16.480 --> 00:58:21.280 very irrational um there's like i 00:58:21.280 --> 00:58:27.839 i like cannot exist without making art it's an obsession 00:58:27.839 --> 00:58:32.559 um i think i make so many choices that are just oriented towards making space 00:58:32.559 --> 00:58:36.960 for that to happen so it's like not even so much about like 00:58:36.960 --> 00:58:41.680 a career that's visible and affirmed in some sort of way but it's like what 00:58:41.680 --> 00:58:47.680 can i do so that all i do is make art and that's and it's a burden 00:58:47.680 --> 00:58:49.599 honestly i just like i feel like an addict 00:58:49.599 --> 00:58:53.680 is the way it like comes out it's like this makes no sense i don't know why i 00:58:53.680 --> 00:58:56.160 want to do this i'll be in my studio like this 00:58:56.160 --> 00:58:59.839 like what is this as a thing to be doing with my time but i 00:58:59.839 --> 00:59:06.559 can't not do it so i think that's that's my vantage point 00:59:06.640 --> 00:59:11.680 yeah um i mean i i would agree 100 with both of them it's kind of the same with 00:59:11.680 --> 00:59:14.480 me um and i said it earlier as well having 00:59:14.480 --> 00:59:17.280 a two-year-old also kind of motivates you 00:59:17.280 --> 00:59:22.079 in important ways um and a wife and a family and just you know people in 00:59:22.079 --> 00:59:25.359 general who have supported my work for so long who want to see me 00:59:25.359 --> 00:59:29.680 succeed and do well and right to that effect and you know just uh 00:59:29.680 --> 00:59:32.960 you want to show up for people you know they invest in you in all these years 00:59:32.960 --> 00:59:35.119 and it's like it's the least you could do is like 00:59:35.119 --> 00:59:38.799 give it your best and you know even if it's not um 00:59:38.799 --> 00:59:43.520 you know necessarily as as fantastic or whatever glamorous or awesome as 00:59:43.520 --> 00:59:47.040 as you might have expected you know it's it's beautiful 00:59:47.040 --> 00:59:53.839 people man you know like literally show up and oftentimes pay hard-earned 00:59:53.839 --> 00:59:58.079 good money to come and watch you make this art and that's a responsibility man 00:59:58.079 --> 01:00:02.240 like you know you got to really don't take that lightly you know uh and 01:00:02.240 --> 01:00:05.920 at the same time there's something so beautiful about that you know 01:00:05.920 --> 01:00:09.040 and i think you know in these times as well just you know 01:00:09.040 --> 01:00:12.559 like with things the way they are in this country right now it's like art is 01:00:12.559 --> 01:00:16.960 what it keeps us sane you know and so in terms of motivation 01:00:16.960 --> 01:00:20.720 like you know it's it's absolutely necessary 01:00:20.720 --> 01:00:24.000 to see and support art and you know make it 01:00:24.000 --> 01:00:28.480 and and strive to be the best that we can with it you know because 01:00:28.480 --> 01:00:31.839 that's what the kids are going to want to look at later on and be like okay you 01:00:31.839 --> 01:00:34.640 were doing something you were saying something like when all this crazy shit 01:00:34.640 --> 01:00:38.160 was going down there was some sanity in there you know 01:00:38.160 --> 01:00:41.839 reflecting on it and so it's also that it's like the for 01:00:41.839 --> 01:00:45.119 posterity's sake you know putting it down um and after 01:00:45.119 --> 01:00:47.760 you do it for a while that's what it starts to feel like you know and now i 01:00:47.760 --> 01:00:51.599 look back at the work of artists who i'm inspired by 01:00:51.599 --> 01:00:55.200 50 years later 100 years later after they wrote it and i find myself inspired 01:00:55.200 --> 01:00:58.880 by it and i want to be able to give that to somebody you know 01:00:58.880 --> 01:01:03.359 that's that's that's incredible to me you know 01:01:03.599 --> 01:01:09.200 so i asked one final question and then some people look hungry so 01:01:11.680 --> 01:01:16.240 but when i think about liberation right i think okay somebody's 01:01:16.240 --> 01:01:23.599 trapped somebody's stuck um somebody's caged and 01:01:23.599 --> 01:01:28.720 we need some way of getting them out 01:01:29.040 --> 01:01:32.960 who is it that you're trying to liberate through your own art 01:01:32.960 --> 01:01:40.880 is it you is it the world is it communities 01:01:45.440 --> 01:01:48.240 all of the above 01:01:49.839 --> 01:01:53.520 permission to shatter the myth of a man who always has his together 01:01:53.520 --> 01:01:57.200 requests to accept me for all that i am on this loneliest of get-togethers the 01:01:57.200 --> 01:02:01.280 famine and the feasts whether the beauty and the beasts tethered the good the bad 01:02:01.280 --> 01:02:04.720 each and every part of a personality compartmentalizing reality speaking both 01:02:04.720 --> 01:02:08.240 softly and loud of me encouraging and doubting me slowly finding the means to 01:02:08.240 --> 01:02:11.119 live together a bench on which we sit together a cup 01:02:11.119 --> 01:02:14.880 from which we sip together discussing a long list of shortcomings that we hid 01:02:14.880 --> 01:02:16.960 together never failing to recognize there are 01:02:16.960 --> 01:02:19.599 some awesome things we did together but there are some things that cause some 01:02:19.599 --> 01:02:22.559 grief we'd ought to make decisions better please believe as 01:02:22.559 --> 01:02:26.880 leaves fall sands and seas brawl refugees on hands and knees crawl it 01:02:26.880 --> 01:02:30.960 might seem small to simply stand on these sides 13 flat feet tall not way 01:02:30.960 --> 01:02:35.200 down by the fate of it all the cold love and high hate of it all but by god it 01:02:35.200 --> 01:02:39.280 isn't that's what i do 01:02:40.799 --> 01:02:43.839 that's going to say the same thing 01:02:59.039 --> 01:03:03.200 um i think that for me it is very personal 01:03:03.200 --> 01:03:08.240 it's about like i think there's just like so much internalized oppression 01:03:08.240 --> 01:03:14.880 that i find reveals itself in the work that i make and the 01:03:14.880 --> 01:03:19.760 boundaries that are difficult to cross um and all of the questions 01:03:19.760 --> 01:03:23.440 that come up in in the process and so i think 01:03:23.440 --> 01:03:27.359 navigating that uh personally and trying to break down 01:03:27.359 --> 01:03:31.200 those barriers has been something that's opened things 01:03:31.200 --> 01:03:35.039 up so much for me and that's not without conversation that's not without study 01:03:35.039 --> 01:03:41.599 that's with other people um but it's something that then is shared with 01:03:41.599 --> 01:03:46.720 others and i think when we can see it on a page or hear it in a song um 01:03:46.720 --> 01:03:50.880 you can help spark that process or be part of that process for somebody else 01:03:50.880 --> 01:03:54.880 um and that's a really beautiful part of creativity and coming up with some kind 01:03:54.880 --> 01:03:59.280 of product from this personal journey of trying to 01:03:59.280 --> 01:04:02.079 extract all of those ideas that you've held 01:04:02.079 --> 01:04:08.240 about yourself and who you are because of what the world tells you yeah 01:04:08.799 --> 01:04:12.000 living life fast won't be no more because it's not just me 01:04:12.000 --> 01:04:15.359 no more i got daughters plus orders from headquarters 01:04:15.359 --> 01:04:18.559 to be home by dark i stop and think about the state of the art 01:04:18.559 --> 01:04:22.240 reminisce about the days and times i started rolling that was an age and a 01:04:22.240 --> 01:04:25.839 stage that was golden holding the mic controlling the dice like mantronics 01:04:25.839 --> 01:04:28.319 back when jamie summers and steve austin were 01:04:28.319 --> 01:04:31.599 bionic from freaks come out at night to jam on it 01:04:31.599 --> 01:04:35.680 heard hip hop i knew exactly what i wanted to be a part of the scene it was 01:04:35.680 --> 01:04:38.160 like a dream and then i ended up in all kinds of 01:04:38.160 --> 01:04:42.559 magazines energized to exercise the vibes that's unseen done by the 01:04:42.559 --> 01:04:45.359 forces of nature that's unseen so before i rest 01:04:45.359 --> 01:04:54.079 i survey the progress thanks for coming out good night and god bless 01:04:54.079 --> 01:04:58.480 i thank you all so much for being here and for sharing with us 01:04:58.480 --> 01:05:01.839 and being willing to consider our questions of course 01:05:01.839 --> 01:05:05.280 and thank you for everything that you do for the art you 01:05:05.280 --> 01:05:16.400 produce and create for us thank you thank you