How do you prevent your self from being too didactic when writing songs so you can reach a listener that normally wouldn’t listen to a Dead Prez record? For example someone like immortal technique who is overtly political, and whom I respect as an artist and for the most part agree with his politics, even at times is not listenable because you feel what he’s talking about you but just don’t want to fuck with it because you feel like your being beaten over the head with the message?
You just have to express yourself honestly and creatively and whoever digs it; digs it. There’s definitely room for various approaches.
Being the author of “The art of Emceeing”, if you were an emcee trying to convey something political how would you approach writing a song without sounding like your giving a lecture?
Include more than one dimension. include the individual perspectives as well as the collective political vantage points. don’t prescribe solutions that you don’t have. you can even use a little humor. Show the reality and not just the ideal. Communicate in a way that invites the listener in as an equal, not like you are talking down on she or he with all your mighty insight. make sure the music got that thang in it! …some shit u can feel right away. Go for the heart as well as the mind so to speak.
You relocated to Atlanta from Brooklyn, are you trying to spread the RBG movement or you just felt like moving to Atlanta to change scenery?
It was a move for both family and business. We must cover more ground if we are to be more effective.
Atl’s got a sizable black population, what are their feelings toward Barrack Obama?
That if he wins he better watch his back and that he’s gonna be held accountable by the shit he’s saying on them podiums. I think many aware Afrikans realize that he will still be representing the capitalistic, imperialistic American system if he does get elected and
that just because he’s black doesn’t mean he will have any revolutionary objectives while in office. But i think the masses of people still would like to see him win as a Black man to see what kind of difference or not he could make…
