So here I am, sitting in a airplane heading to JFK, NY and I am incredibly bored. So I figured that I would revive the blog, at least for a single post.
Todays post will be about Hasan Salaam’s most recent release Life in Black & White (Listen to it at the bottom of the post as usual).
“I’d rather you hate me for who I am, than love me for who I ain’t”
– Hasan Salaam #OGJM
Black and White photography brings the grey area of life to the forefront, and that’s what this Hasan Salaam’s “Life in Black and White” is.
Hasan Salaam is the son of a caucasian father and a black mother and this acts as inspiration for this album. In 2011 Salaam released an EP called “Music is my Weapon” and he donated all the profit from this album to build a school, a well and a clinic in Guinea-Bissau, a very poor westafrican country. He is known for incorporating themes such as post-colonial exploitation of African culture, African diaspora, racism and what he calls “the true Islamic jihad” into his lyrics.
My approach to this post will be a bit different than usual. Instead of me giving my view of this (somewhat controversial) release, I will let the artist himself share his thoughts behind some of my favorite tracks of the album. How will I do that you might ask? We are in luck, Hasan Salaam has annotated several of the tracks on the popular website Rap Genius. However, I will pitch in with some of my thoughts here and there, but the majority of this post will be straight from the mind of the artist.
This album is Hasan Salaam’s life set to music. From the racism he experienced within part of his family to the soul food that kept the rest together. From nights where his involvement in pornography put food on his table and a roof over his head to seeing The Most High in what some would consider the lowest places.
The album’s theme of cultural exploration comes through right from the beginning. “Definition” provokes thought in its literal breakdowns of the respective positive and negative stigmas behind white (“the color of pure snow”) and black (“absence of light”), from here Salaam never looks back.
My favorite track on the album is “Jericho” where Immortal Technique and Hezekiah is featured. Salaam himself annotated the following about Jericho:
Jericho Phillip Pannell was killed by Officer Gary Spath when I was 10 years old in Teaneck, New Jersey. Phillip’s cousin and the daughter of the cop’s partner were both in my class. Phillips cousin and I were bussed to “The White Side” of town. Blockbusting real estate in this community in the 1960s led to a very segregated town; the busing of students was done to “desegregate” a community with growing racial tensions.
It all boiled over when sixteen year old Phillip was murdered. I remember seeing Phillip a few times in passing at the park where we would play ball. After his death, I remember that the white teachers and staff took special interest in making sure the cop’s daughter was ok and even took her to the guidance counselor. Nothing for Phillips cousin. Phillip was Black and Spath is White. Spath claimed Phillip was reaching in his pockets when he shot him in the back. An autopsy concluded Phillip was shot in the back with his hands raised in the air, proving the officer lied. The usual cast of characters showed up, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Riots ensued. Spath was charged and acquitted of manslaughter, no more Sharpton and Jesse. The Pannell family and the community were left to pick up the pieces of injustice. Spath is walking the streets free after killing a child and Ms. Pannell is left without a sun.
This story is not uncommon in Black neighborhoods all over the country. There is no difference today than when Phillip was murdered. There are walls all around us; some of them block our progress from the day we are born. Some of these walls cannot always be seen until you apply for a bank loan, drive while Black or stand before a judge. The walls are built as color and class lines.
I often hear Caucasian Americans in arguments about race; recently I heard on Fox News “I’m tired of talking about race”. If they are tired of talking about it, imagine being stifled by these walls for generations. Our community has suffered at the hands of America from the written law of Jim Crow to the unwritten codes of racial profiling. These walls of racism, bigotry and oppression are beginning to crumble around us. What was once hidden behind the veil is now on blast for the entire world to see. Police brutality is being witnessed and shared via social media showing the world the unjust ways we are treated. Racism, Classism and every other ism are used to create the walls that separate humanity. It is up to each and every one of us to use our skills, talents and strengths to break down the walls brick by brick.
-PEACE
#HasanSalaam
#LifeInBlackandWhite
Another track that I really enjoy, albeit it also has a rather unpleasant theme is “Father’s Day” where Salaam talks about his relationship with his dad and how their relationship has turned him into the man he is today, for both good and bad.
My father gave me this 6 month old magazine he ripped from a doctors office for my bornday after calling me on the wrong day. There have been years he missed it all together. Anyone with a family member dealing with substance abuse issues knows the in and out nature of these relationships. Funny thing is in some warped and twisted way, this liberated ESPN The Magazine with whoever’s real address missing from the bottom left corner is a microcosm of my interaction with my pops. Nothing has ever been right with it, except boxing. Ironically fighting is the only thing we can talk about without fighting and is the only practical thing he has ever taught me. I learned to fight as a kid while he was fighting for his sobriety. He would pick me up, put me on the chair and tell me to put my hands up to defend myself. He would use his palms as mitts and call out “jab, jab, cross” “jab, cross, left hook”.
I learned the natural counters for each punch and how to use footwork to evade my opponents attacks. I had gotten away from training for years especially when our interactions were limited and then non-existent. There were unresolved issues that boxing couldn’t solve unless we stepped into the ring with each other.
“It’s just like riding a bike, once you know it, you know it”, he told me. I had just caught an assault charge in Ft. Collins Colorado after landing a punch only he would appreciate. I walked into a bar with a few friends and was called a nigger by one of the patrons, who proceeded to take a swing at me. I slipped it and landed a right clean across his jaw, no need for a combination, goodnight. The charges wound up being dropped by the state mostly because the dude woke up spitting blood on EMT workers and was on record telling them “I’m gonna kill a nigger tonight”. Proving self defense wasn’t a problem. Sitting here reading this magazine with a history of hand wraps, corner cut man techniques and behind the scenes information on Floyd Mayweather and his tumultuous relationship with his father, it all comes together. We as human beings are naturally flawed, but if you can find some way to connect with family, do it. It’s worth fighting for. We sat down, had a meal and spoke about old fighters, recent match ups and how I’m going to train people at Body Altitudes using some of the techniques he taught me as a child. The discussion left the ring, we fought and went our separate ways.
TKO.
Goodnight Fight Fans.-PEACE
#HasanSalaam
#LifeInBlackandWhite
From the rather dark and unpleasant songs talked about above, let’s move on to something different. “#OGJM” as a track is noting special, but I believe that the message Salaam wants to convey is an important one, and one that a lot of people should pay attention to. The abbreviation OGJM means “Only God judge me”, and though I am as far from religious as one can come, the meaning behind it: that none other than a deity should judge us is as important as ever. A lot of people care so much about what others think of them that they live their lives as an empty shell depleted of personality in fear of being hated or judged by their peers. Salaam starts out with reminding us that all of us has a past and a story that has formed us into the person we are today.
Every saint gotta past every sinner got a story
In the chorus, which I quoted in the beginning of this post, Salaam states that he would rather be hated for who he is, than loved for someone he is not. This ties with what I wrote above, and this theme goes on throughout the entire song. If someone doesn’t like you for who you truly are, then they are not worth your time. Remember that! Other notable track include “Modern Warfare“, “Scars Over Scars” and “UnOrganized Religion”
Overall this album is one of my favorite of 2015 so far, and as always, I enjoy when artists talk about things that are not “how rich they are” or something similar, and boy does Salaam deliver on that point. Do yourself a favor and give this a spin. If I can find time for it I will try to cover some the following 2015 releases in the coming weeks/months/millennia
- Fashawn – The Ecology
- Lupe Fiasco – Tetsuo & Youth
- Mello Music Group – Persona
- Joey Bada$$ – B4.Da.$$
Something missing you think? Yes, this year’s biggest (and probably best) release To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar. I absolutely love this album and there are more than enough room to dive into it, but the primary purpose of this blog is to write about artists that people would otherwise overlook, and I don’t think that will ever be the case with TPAB or Kendrick Lamar in general. But who knows, I might get stuck in another boring place again in the near future and then anything can happen.
J
Delirious Obsessions 