With the Paralympics well under way, I’ve got to congratulate the creatives over at Channel 4 for using Public Enemy’s “Harder Than You Think” as the anthem for the marketing campaign for the Paralympics.
Here’s the official video of “harder than you think”, from their 2007 album “how you sell soul to a soulless people who sold their soul? in case you never saw it before:
Goosebumps indeed!
“Check the facts expose those cats
Who pose as heros and take advantage of blacks
Your governments gangster so cut the crap
A war goin on so where you at?
Fight the power comes great responsiblity
F the police but whos stoppin you from killin me?”
Public Enemy released their latest album “most of my heroes still don’t appear on no stamp” recently, I recommend it and support the best politically concious rap group of all time.
“This is not just a new album, but a new chapter. There’s a kind of democratic reawakening in people at this point in time. I was really looking to take these topics and really hit them hard. To try to open ears and hearts and invite people to take some action and feel empowered. To be engaged and take some agency and responsibility for what’s going on in the world.”
Fully recharged and inspired by his eye-opening first trip to Mecca, the 2011 uprisings in the Middle East, and the worldwide Occupy movements, Brother Ali is prepared to unveil Mourning In America and Dreaming In Color. Created during a prolific, self-imposed two-month exile in Seattle and helped by platinum-selling producer Jake One, the album represents a brave new phase in Brother Ali’s remarkable career trajectory. Mourning In America and Dreaming In Colour presents a scathing, yet honest, critique of America and its many flaws while simultaneously presenting a hopeful outlook of its possibilities.
Mourning In America and Dreaming In Colour, in all its sonic and lyrical glory, promises to be both the voice of a burgeoning new critical American consciousness as well as the beacon of hope for those that hold fast to its ideals and potential. This is Brother Ali as you’ve never heard him before.
“Ronald Reagan was an actor, not at all a factor
Just an employee of the country’s real masters
Just like the Bushes, Clinton and Obama
Just another talking head telling lies on teleprompters
If you don’t believe the theory, then argue with this logic
Why did Reagan and Obama both go after Qaddafi
We invaded sovereign soil, going after oil
Taking countries is a hobby paid for by the oil lobby
Same as in Iraq, and Afghanistan
And Ahmadinejad say they coming for Iran
They only love the rich, and how they loathe the poor
If I say any more they might be at my door
I’m dropping off the grid before they pump the lead
I leave you with four words: I’m glad Reagan dead”
It’s the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee & here’s a few facts, Akh style, to help you celebrate;
In 1917, in the midst of the First World War, The House of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha decided to rebrand and became known as the House of Windsor. It’s leader and King of England, George V didn’t want the English public knowing of his Germanic roots, it wouldn’t go down too well knowing the English King was actually a German.
While we’re on the subject of the First World War, any idea how many millions died all over a Royal family feud? England’s King George V – Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II – Russia’s Czar Nicholas II were all cousins, all Grandsons of Queen Victoria.
Millions died because of an internecine family feud between the Kings of Europe.
So hang the bunting, bake a cake, throw a street party.
Lupe Fiasco bought out a Palestinian flag at his performance at the recent BET awards, with co-performer Erykah Badu donning a Niqab for their rendition of “words I never said”
Bet that got the americans & the tall israeli’s that run the rap game really happy.
Since December, musicians have been responding to — and provoking — the protests in countries like Egypt and Tunisia, and much of the music being made about these movements is hip-hop.
Some of these songs have played a direct role in popular uprisings, while others have helped galvanize international support. Songs are rapped in both English and Arabic, and international collaborations have helped to spread the music over the Internet, via Facebook and YouTube.
If you go back to the early days of rap, its whole culture was created by the era’s disaffected inner-city youth. Nowadays, this outspoken form of entertainment has itself been distorted and made redundant by the very street culture that implemented it; instead of expressing a disenfranchised youth, hip hop artists exploit it.
It’s interesting to see how artists are adopting the former approach, to use their voices to wax lyrical about modern-day political strife – except on a global level rather than urban.
Here’s five of the best tracks:
Khaled M, Libya: “Can’t Take Our Freedom (feat. LowKey)”
Rapper Khaled M was born in the U.S. after his parents fled the regime of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. For “Can’t Take Our Freedom” he raps in English, drawing on the story of his father, a poet imprisoned by Gadhafi who fled with his family to Lexington, Kentucky, while also referencing the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.
Omar Offendum: “#Jan25 Egypt (feat. The Narcicyst, Freeway, Ayah, Amir Sulaiman)”
“#Jan25 Egypt” was made by Arab-Americans, African-Americans and Canadians, most of whom were living in the U.S. at the time of the Egyptian Revolution. Syrian rapper Omar Offendum told Al Jazeera he contributed to the song to show “solidarity with the Egyptian people” and told NPR that the “true music of the revolution” was made by protesters on the fly. “#Jan25 Egypt” begins by refuting Gil Scott-Heron’s oft-repeated line: “I heard them say the revolution won’t be televised / Al Jazeera proved them wrong.”
Ibn Thabit, Libya: “Benghazi II”
Rapper Ibn Thabit’s website says he “has been attacking Gaddafi with his music since 2008.” On the site he offers dozens of songs for free, many of which were produced in collaboration with other Libyan rappers, producers and singers, musicians from Egypt and producers and engineers from the U.S.
Arabian Knightz, Egypt: “Rebel (feat. Lauryn Hill)”
Arabian Knightz trade a verse in Arabic for one in English, then allow their song to devolve into a sample of Lauryn Hill singing “I Find It Hard To Say (Rebel)” during her 2002 MTV Unplugged performance, in which the singer rasps “Rebel, rebel, rebel, rebel,” over and over again. According to the group’s YouTube channel, they recorded the song in late January, and weren’t able to release it until the government stopped blocking the Internet a couple of weeks later.
El General, Tunisia: “Rayes Le Bled”
Hamada Ben Amor performs under the name El General. His song, “Rayes Le Bled,” which hit Facebook in late December, is a direct indictment of then-president Ben Ali’s rule, specifically, widespread hunger. Ben Amor’s arrest in early January sparked further protests in the already turbulent country, and when the revolution ended, “Rayes Le Bled” could be heard on radio stations across the country.
Mark Thomas was far more forthcoming in his endorsement.
Truth is, if you upset Israel or any of her paid stooges, you know you are doing something right, may the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions programme continue to strenghten, until the people of Palestine are given their rights and equal status on their own land.
Oddisee & Apollo Brown team up on “The Times”. Oddisee, who is half Sudanese, doesn’t normally bring his politics to the table, but in this rare moment Oddisee offers an entire song devoted to the turbulent changes occurring in Northern Africa, in particular the historic vote that split his home country of Sudan into two separate nations.
The Republic of Southern Sudan is now the newest African nation: listen to Oddisee break his thoughts down over the Apollo Brown beat.
As you know, every so often The Akh hits you off with some quality, concious, revolutionary rap, this time I’m pleased to offer the “Al-Jisr (Bridging Cultures) Part II Mixtape” bought to you courtesy of the brother Big Hass over at Revolt Radio.
Spare your ears that rubbish thats played on mainstream, get yourself something a lot more meaningful than the bling-bling, money, hoes and clothes posturing that passes as rap today.
"Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil & believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold that never breaks. And Allah hears & knows all things."
(The Qur'an, Al-Baqara, 2: 256)
“Political authority & religion are kin brothers, neither would stand but by its companion; because religion is the foundation of political power & its pillar, & political power is the guardian of religion; political power is not established with a foundation & religion cannot be implemented without authority.”
- Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi
"War is not merely a political act, but also a political instrument, a continuation of political relations, a carrying out of the same by other means" - Clausewitz
"O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things)."
(The Qur'an, Al Hujurat, 49: 13)
* Al-Quran.
* The Sealed Nectar - Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum.
* Muhammad: As a Military Leader.
* The rare and excellent history of Saladin, or, al-Nawādir al-Sulṭāniyya waʾl-Maḥāsin al-Yūsufiyya.
* Islam in Britain, 1558-1685.
* Hadji Murat.
* Imam Shamil The First Muslim Guerilla Leader.
* The Autobiography of Malcolm X
* Manufacturing consent : the political economy of the mass media.
* Unspeak : words are weapons.
* The bear trap : Afghanistan's untold story.
* Soldiers of God: Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan & Pakistan.
* Unholy wars : Afghanistan, America & international terrorism.
* Orientalism.
* Bad news from Israel.
* Image and reality : the Israel-Palestine conflict.
* American dream, global nightmare.
* The Israel Lobby & US Foreign Policy.
* The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering.
* The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
* The Politics of Anti-Semitism.
* McMafia : crime without frontiers.
* Confessions of an economic hit man.
* Freakonomics.
* The Watchmen.
* Footnotes in Gaza.
* Safe area Goražde: The War in Bosnia 1992-1995.
* Palestine forward by Edward Said.
* Pride of Baghdad : inspired by a true story.
* Shooting War.
* Islam, the West & the challenges of modernity.
* iMuslims - Rewiring the house of Islam.
* Yo, Blair!
* Churchill and the Jews.
* The Jews of Britain, 1656 to 2000.
* Weimar and the rise of Nazi Germany 1918-1933.
* The Invention of the Jewish People.
* The Middle East since 1914.
* Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos.
* Clausewitz in the Twenty-First Century.
* Strategy and History.
* Energy Security and Global Politics.
* The State of the World Atlas.
* The Prophet.
* Warrior of the Light: A Manual.
* Art of War.
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