Tuesday 30 April 2013

ARTISTS WHO SUFFERED FOR THEIR MUSICAL SUCCESS #4


ARTISTS WHO SUFFERED FOR THEIR MUSICAL SUCCESS #4

'Be brave..read this book.' Sartre

We artists know that to be successful in the music industry there is a price to be paid and sacrifices to me made.  For the artist below the price for successful label manufactured musical liberty was eternal vigilence (on what they could say).  If it was like this more than 20 years ago imagine how careful and responsible or (read cautious) todays artists have to now be. What with Tweets, and Utubes all the rage? 


CLUE: Black, militant and so called conspiracy theorist whose legacy still isn't altogether smothered today



ARTISTS WHO SUFFERED 
FOR THEIR MUSICAL SUCCESS #4

I was raised in a Long Island New York project.

In my youth as a Robin Hood for my clique I would rob drug dealers.

My life on the edge robbing and looting lead me to a prison sentence.

I reformed myself from overcoming the 'adapt or die' mindset in the US Penitentiary where I was also starting to integrate the teachings of Nation of Islam and Black Development into practical solutions.

I reformed myself and saw the US Army as an escape from ghetto life during the Ronald Reagan crack-filled projects era.

I am still alive, no I am not TUPAC

I am not 50Cent but am also part of those in the scene who refrain from booze and drugs intake.

In my youth I set up the Universal Revolutionary Freedom Fighters Security (TUFFS), to provide study and martial arts for young people. I have kept this up for the last 25 years.

In the mid-eighties I met and provided security for the DJ Jams and gig nights for what was to become the most politically potent rap-hip-hop groups of all time.

I was assigned the role of minister of information for this group and was made responsible for personal security, media relations, and to be a general spokesperson for our affairs.


    YOU COULD NEVER GUESS WHO I AM 

I integrate martial arts into my spoken word.

I expressed my freedom of speech and without accurate information or personal discipline in the matter made a ‘racially derogatory’ statement that would plague my career in the mainstream infinitely.

I became the first casualty in the break-up of hip-hop's version of The Clash.

I was fired from the group over the phone, newspapers and TV.

My media mis-fortune led to a drastic change of sound for the group that was raging against the machine six years before Zach De La Rocha, and Tom made it even cooler.

My media mis-fortune led to more policing control over what rappers could say in interviews for fear of label bosses and moguls losing their cash cow.

I was chased by community and organisational leaders who pursed the case to see that I would never sign on a label in the US of A.

Because of me rappers learned to watch what they say (except of course Kanye).

My media-misfortune and exile lead me to swallow my artistic direction and sign on a label that promoted the very sex-fueled lyrics the media loves and that I was raging against.
Me loves you long time.

           YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WHO I AM 

I believed naively - just like the hotbabe Jane Fonda in the sixties -  that musicians and artists could express their speech without devastating consequences.

I subsequently used my new record label to successfully make five albums of note, some critics even highlighting some of my content as being far more potent than that of the most powerful voices in rap group that I was a part of.

I am still interviewed and made to apologise for my remarks of 20 years ago.

I do not believe a YouTube bedroom upload can be considered an underground activity 

I do not educate on sex, drugs and rock and roll, but rap, personal discipline, and self-control. 

I rejoined the most lethal rap group on the universe briefly but the sounds and climate was never the same - we parted ways later. 

I now successfully lecture at various academies and inner-city education faculties on request teaching the youth about positive images of hip-hop and rap.

I successfully continue my platform for educating ghetto youths on self-development and organisation through martial arts

You may find me speaking at a platform near you one day

No comments:

Post a Comment