Life Without You by Baraka Blue

In this chapter of the Lost Memoirs, Majnun confesses that an all-consuming love has rendered rational thought mute and torn him into a world in which the beloved is all. Although unable to reunite with the beloved, the universe has become an expanse of innumerable mirrors, which at every moment reflect her face from new angles. Woven together indistinguishably are the ecstasy of contemplating the beloved and the pain of separation from her lips. The tension of love builds until ultimately the lover finds his own self-awareness to be but a veil.
Life Without You (Feat. Anas Canon) by Baraka Blue

This house of mirrors
got me deep in the zone
you know how I feel
Nina Simone
dig inside your chest
and unearth apocryphal poems
evil is what we do that makes you leave us alone
cuz life is gifted
every time we breath is a loan
you just want beef?
come on sink your teeth in the bone
and such the marrow out
now tell me what is it you care about?
Mosesing my ego
I'm still trying to get the Pharaoh out
and if they ask about my whereabouts
I'm writing in the sands of foreign lands
like West African marabouts
to remember my original tongue
but now I'm stuck in this Babylon
under digital suns
born into the tent
and like the rivers we run
but the air is too polluted
for my physical lungs
so I inhale through my heart
and beat the rhythm it drums
and turn with every cell in my body
to the Infinite One 

It’s so hard
living life without you
Habibi, uhibuka fi’llah
(Beloved, I love you in God) . . .

CLICK HERE TO VISIT BANDCAMP TO SUPPORT THE ARTS BY DOWNLOADING THE SONG & VIEW THE FULL LYRICS TO "LIFE WITHOUT YOU"

SONG CREDITS:
Produced, Recorded and Mixed by Anas Canon for Remarkable Current.
Music Written by Anas Canon.
All Music by Anas Canon and Fred Nilsson.
Lyrics by Baraka Blue and Anas Canon.
www.RemarkableCurrent.com
www.BarakaBlueMusic.com

NEW: "Sounds of Making Love" by TheKAJ

There's an art to making love.  Pay close attention to the sounds.  Know the inside of her body better than she does . . . be in tune with it.  Caress her secret spaces. Pay close attention to her language . . . the body will speak to you.  This is a love song.  A making love song.  Become one with the rhythm while your bodies create the beat . . . 
Sounds of Making Love

FEATURED SONG on DJBooth.com

"Thought The KAJ‘s first Booth feature, single "Somebody Move" was grown and sexy? You ain’t heard nothing yet. Newly-released album title track "Sounds of Making Love" is so steamy that it’s likely to spark an amorous encounter with whoever happens to be in the room—so listen with caution.
Best enjoyed with the lights low, this cut finds Joel Van Dijk and DJ Anas Canon layering soft, jazz-inflected guitar riffs over mellow yet driving percussion, as emcee Kumasi Simmons helps a special girl get comfortable. Singer/songwriters M. Spivey & Bridget Barkan top the record off with some seductively cooed hook and backing vocals. Craving more smoothness? Then be sure to cop the Los Angeles trio’s "The Sounds of Making Love" EP:  http://remarkablecurrent.bandcamp.com/album/the-sounds-of-making-love "

http://www.djbooth.net/index/tracks/review/the-kaj-sounds-of-making-love/


CLICK TO DOWNLOAD 4-track EP - "The Sounds of Making Love"

IN THE NEWS: Music As Public Diplomacy

Remarkable Current's Hip Hop Ambassadors program highlighted as an "innovator in public diplomacy" in the new issue of
Public Diplomacy Magazine!  

PD Magazine is a publication of the Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars (APDS) at the University of Southern California, with support from the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School, USC College’s School of International Relations, the Annenberg School for Communication and USC Annenberg Press. The publication's unique mission is to provide a common forum for the views of both scholars and practitioners from around the globe, in order to explore key concepts in the study and practice of public diplomacy. 


CLICK HERE for the online article "Remarkable Current: Music as Public Diplomacy" By Maytha Alhassen or read the full article below.

Dizzy Gillespie leads the first State Department tour.

Dizzy at a reception with Princess Shams Pahlavi, elder sister of the Shah of Iran, and her husband.
Abadan, Iran, 1956

Dr. Curtis Sandberg, Senior Vice President for the Meridian International Center, asked the question in a recent article: “Does jazz have a healing role in a world divided by conflicting ideologies?” This question could have been posed to a member of the audience at a Dizzy Gillespie concert in Zagreb in 1956. In fact, an attendee, one of many in the region who were given the opportunity to hear Gillespie perform as part of a Jazz Ambassador tour of the region, remarked, “What this country needs is fewer ambassadors and more jam sessions!”

The comment remains poignant today. Tunisian youth activist Achref Aouadi recently asserted, “Remarkable Current has more of an impact on Tunisia than Secretary Hillary Clinton.” What is Remarkable Current, and how could it have more of an impact on U.S.-Tunisian relations on a grassroots level in post-uprising Tunisia than seasoned, internationally recognized politicians?

In 2006, Remarkable Current, the American musician collective founded by Anas Canon, launched a cultural envoy and musical exchange program called “Hip Hop Ambassadors.”[1] This initiative is modeled after an earlier century’s “Jazz Ambassadors,” a program that emerged from the Cold War context of the mid-1950s to the 1970s and was run by the Department of State. Led by jazz greats Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Quincy Jones, these tours included concerts and “jam sessions” of intercultural dialogue and musical exchange.  In keeping with this mission, Remarkable Current (RC) intentionally recruits American musicians who are eminent in their fields and  ”exude a loving spirit and a disposition of universal inclusiveness.” Canon explains, ¨When walking on to the stage or visiting an orphanage, you don’t have to speak the local language to communicate that you are there to share yourself with them. People can feel when you are as excited to meet them as they are to meet you.”

Having toured Tunisia, Algeria, Indonesia, Tanzania, Turkey, Morocco and Egypt, Remarkable Current artists have created a unique formula for engagement, building on the successes of their predecessors, the Jazz Ambassadors.  Jazz envoys were highly influenced by the cultures they encountered.  In many cases they experimented with the traditional musical styles and scales of countries they visited on these tours and learning from largely informal “spontaneous exchanges” with locals. In contrast, RC’s Hip Hop Ambassadors appear to be more intentional with their mission to build cross-cultural relationships through the medium of music and people-to-people interfaces. In every country they tour, the Hip Hop Ambassadors aim to work with local musicians, speak with press and facilitate workshops with youth around questions of American culture, foreign policy, and music.

Musicians Bats Ukz & Wav Taroek from Jakarta, Indonesia

For example, in Indonesia, RC auditioned local talent to join the band on its 2010 countrywide tour, filling the positions of bass and guitar. In Tunisia they fruitfully worked with their US Embassy sponsors to arrange studio time interspersed among Hip Hop Ambassador tour rehearsal sets, sound checks, and workshops to collaborate with Tunisian hip hop artists such as El Général and Empire, and record tracks about the Tunisian revolution. The first song RC recorded, “A Young Man’s Spark (Bouazizi)”,[2] was inspired by the 26 year-old Tunisian street cart vendor whose self-immolation has been popularly mythologized as the catalyst to the Arab revolutions.  Amen Ben Koussa of the rap group Empire testifies, “There was a positive message through the song and that’s what motivated us and connected all of us. ‘Bouazizi’ a martyr, as a symbol of peace, as a call for justice, gave us the power and feelings that bridged the gap between us and that’s what totally impacted our collaboration with Remarkable Current.”

The rap group Empire from Tunis, Tunisia

El Général, Anas Canon, Kumasi Simmons

The other song that Remarkable Current recorded while on tour in Tunisia, “Pick Up The Pieces,” was co-written by Anas Canon, Kumasi Simmons and El Général after an inspiring meeting the band had with this notorious rapper in his hometown of Sfax.  El Général received worldwide recognition after penning what has been deemed “the anthem of the Arab revolutions.”  “I was excited to meet this guy,” Canon said, “because he was into using his music to express an important socio-political message, which is one of the reasons that I still produce hip hop music today.”  Canon recognized the unique opportunity at hand. After hearing that local recording studios in Sfax were booked, he set up a make-shift studio in his hotel room for El Général, so that fans in the region and the US could be a part of this collaborative experience.Both collaborative songs have been played on Tunisia’s national radio station Radio Mosaique[3] and were made available online by RC for free digital download, as were their accompanying music videos. Creatively employing today’s technological innovations in its catalogue of programming is a bold example of how Remarkable Current distinguishes itself from its ancestors, the Jazz Ambassadors. The technology of the time did not allow for the Jazz Ambassadors to record spontaneously on the ground with the local artists during their tours. Advances in technology and Canon’s skill set as a producer enabled him to write, collaborate, record and share these experiences in the form of songs/videos with far-reaching impact.

Local artists were not the only in-country collaborators.  On the last day of RC’s Tunisian Revolution Tour, the American Corner library and community center hosted a workshop with the Hip Hop Ambassadors and local university students. “I have been waiting for this opportunity since I saw this on Facebook,” began Institut Superiour de Science Humaine de Tunis (ISSHT) student Amir Weslati during his enthused introduction to the roundtable. “I love hip hop music and rap. I cannot spend a day without listening to music.” During the workshop, he shared “Free Tunisia,” a rap written on his phone during one of the nights he and other community members volunteered to guard their community from Ben Ali’s militia. The song demanded the collective action, “Let’s get rid of Ben Ali’s ghost.” Multifarious views on the US role and response to international conflicts, and even an artist’s allegedly creative responsibility to “speak out” against “injustices” were complicated. Also complicated were monolithic, and for the most part mass mediated, impressions of African American culture.

RC rapper Kumasi Simmons reflected on the exchange during the workshop, arguing that it, and others like it, “are bigger than a concert.” This is an educational moment for Tunisian college students trying to design incorporation into their state’s democratic transition and for band-mates from the US, who learned from the people they encountered and grew from those exchanges. Throughout the workshop, RC artists were surprised to hear Tunisian college students’ well-versed backgrounds on African American history. At times they exhibited their veneration for Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X by quoting them. The students even explained how they appropriated American civil rights movement sit-in tactics to protest certain decisions made by the transitional government.

Abasi & Quanti Bomani

Beyond valuable interpersonal exchanges, the tours have been a dramatic personal growth experience for the young Hip Hop Ambassadors, who tour under the mentorship of older, more experienced artists in the collective.  Twenty-one year-old Hip Hop Ambassador Quanti Bomani’s reactions to touring Tunisia and Algeria in the summer of 2011 exemplifies this sentiment: “As a young artist, Remarkable Current amplified the power of the voice I have as a musician. My passion for the arts lay in the fact that true appreciation for music still exists. My horizons were broadened and love for the universal language reassured, while first-hand I got to witness the power a small group of musicians can have on a country that rarely sees visitors or one in the midst of a revolution. When the music begins to play, the smiles and entranced movements of the spectators instill a hope within my soul. Co-existence lies within the arts.”

In keeping focused on youth outreach in the era of social networking, Hip Hop Ambassadors continue to collaborate with artists they have met on the road and have made lifelong friendships with concert-goers, workshop attendees, and embassy staff, which are now easily sustained through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The success of RC’s Hip Hop Ambassadors program can be attributed to its emphasis on people-to-people exchanges at a grassroots level, speaking the global youth language of hip hop.  Canon explains that, “what jazz was for earlier generations, hip hop is for today’s generation.” Canon clearly understands what former Jazz Ambassador Louis Armstrong knew, “A note is a note in any language.” If cultural diplomacy can be characterized as an “exchange of ideas, information, values, systems, traditions, beliefs, and other aspects of culture, with the intention of fostering mutual understanding,” as political scientist Dr. Milton C. Cummings defines it, then Remarkable Current’s Hip Hop Ambassadors are an innovative update to the 1950s and 60s Jazz Ambassador program and to the entire field of cultural diplomacy. The initiative’s vision, one that centralizes the use of today’s music, continues the tradition of the soft power of cultural outreach and using music to build bridges of understanding.

Maytha Alhassen is a Provost Ph.D. Fellow in American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Alhassen regularly appears on the Al Jazeera English program “The Stream” as a co-host and digital producer and is a co-editor of the forthcoming book on the Arab revolutions “Demanding Dignity: Young Voices from the Front Lines of the Arab Revolutions” this Fall 2012.

*(co-producers of the photographic exhibit “Jam Session: America’s Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World”) (http://www.meridian.org/jazzambassadors)
“A Young Man’s Spark” Free Download Here: http://soundcloud.com/remarkablecurrent/anas-canon-a-young-mans-spark
“Pick Up The Pieces” Free Download Here: http://soundcloud.com/remarkablecurrent/pick-up-the-pieces-anas-canon

[1] “Remarkable Current, ‘Hip Hip Ambassadors of the 21st Century,’” Accessed Web May 5, 2012, www.hiphopambassadors.com

[2] “A Young Man’s Spark (Bouazizi) – Anas Canon & Guests,” Youtube.com, September 17, 2011. Accessed Web May 5, 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKFpkfPXqaU&feature=youtu.be
[3] “Mosaique FM,” Accessed Web May 5, 2012, www.mosaiquefm.net.

ONLINE:  http://publicdiplomacymagazine.com/remarkable-current-music-as-public-diplomacy/

NEW TRACK: "Purple Eyelids" by Baraka Blue

The next chapter from "Majnun's Lost Memoirs"



Synesthesia • syn·es·the·sia / noun / \ˌsi-nəs-ˈthē-zh(ē-)ə\1. A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color.
2. A sensation felt in one part of the body as a result of stimulus applied to another, as in referred pain.
3. The description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another.

Human beings are points of consciousness: each person's perspective is formed by their unique experiences, knowledge, and innate dispositions.  Each soul perceives reality according to its perspective. When perception is altered, reality is altered. This was clear to the ancients, which is why all spiritual paths aim, above all else, to transform the subjective seat of consciousness of the individual.

Importantly, they maintain that there is a pure and true divine perspective (that of the prophets, saints, sages, and wise (wo)men) that can be attained through transformation of your subjective lens. Below this ultimate perspective is a full spectrum characterized by varying degrees (states and stations) of light and darkness.

Despite modern scientism's inability to measure or quantify subjectivity, (and thus its denial of the existence of these realities) we can't honestly talk about knowledge without discussing and defining the locus of gnosis: the 'self that knows'. Just as the color, shape, and material of the lens over your eye will affect how you see the physical world; the paradigms and purity of the point of perception will affect all that you do, see, hear, and contemplate.

Therefore, this song is a meditation abundant with mantras and dhikrs about maintaining intentionality of perspective characterized by love, sincerity, and service to Creator and creation in all endeavors. It also honors the path and the process of transformation in that what we love becomes what we do and what we do becomes who we are.

Purple eyelids: everything love
You make it what you is
if you make it what you does;
You make it what you do
If you make it what you love
So it's purple eyelids: everything love.


From the album, Majnun's Lost Memoirs, track released 18 September 2012:

Produced by Anas Canon for Remarkable Current
All Lyrics by Baraka Blue
Music Written by Anas Canon
Music Performed by Anas Canon (drums, keyboards, bass & percussion) & Fred Nilsson (Guitars)
Guest Vocals by Bridget Barkan

RemarkableCurrent.com

BarakaBlueMusic.com

CONCERT DATE:: TheKAJ performs in Los Angeles

South LA Summer Power Festival:
Turn Up Your Power!

Don't miss this FREE arts & music festival on Saturday, Aug. 25, featuring
The KAJ, Aloe Blacc, Maya Jupiter, Sunni Colon,
Las Cafeteras & more!

JOIN THE FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE:  www.facebook.com/events/469298379747634/?ref=nf

FOR MORE FESTIVAL INFO:  http://www.cocosouthla.org/node/770

Enjoy the new EP from The KAJ for your summer jams!

The KAJ  www.thekaj.com

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/remarkablecurrent.TheKAJ

Twitter:  twitter.com/thekajmusic

New Single:  Somebody Move  http://soundcloud.com/thekaj/somebody-move

Feature:  http://www.djbooth.net/index/tracks/review/the-kaj-somebody-move/

NEW TRACK:: Somebody Move by The KAJ

NEW RELEASE from the Neo Doo Wop sensation The KAJ, as in casual or cashmere . . . 
"Somebody Move" . . . and nobody gets hurt!


Delectable, Pretty everything
I'm on the dance floor searching for a wedding ring
Sensual smile, Loving ur style
Full of class now, But bet you can Go wild?
You got a good job I'm seeing what u working with,
I’m not a killer, but Baby I promise ima murder it.
Make Ya’ feel like- You ran a two-mile quick,
I’ll wear that out like a new outfit - Come on!

FROM THE NEW EP ~ The Sounds of Making Love

Credits for "Somebody Move" by TheKAJ:
All Music Joel Van Dijk and Anas Canon.
Lyrics by Anas Canon and Kumasi Simmons.
Vocals by Kumasi Simmons, Anas Canon, Joel Van Dijk, Bridget Barkan and Michael A. Spivey.
Produced and arranged by Anas Canon and Joel Van Dijk.
Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Anas Canon for Remarkable Current.

NEW VIDEO "Glad Tidings" by Baraka Blue

Ahmed James Bond

 

"I'm not a rapper I'm a strap with pin filed down-
blaze a cap at ‘cha
With a pre-columbian map of the new world-
from Muslims down in Africa
Raising the dhikr rate per capita,
Turks, Moors and Moriscos
spit flows, turn pros from ametures-
undercovers better tip-toe!"

- excerpt from "Glad Tidings" by Baraka Blue

Deep in the heart of China Town a mystery unfolds. The dark forces have devised a plan to steal the Golden Chain in order to invert love and co-opt the reLOVEutionaries.  They plan to launch their attack amid the festivities and merriment of Chinese New Year.  But have no fear lovers, for Majnun, and the Imo the Tantrafarian oracle, have anticipated their latest attack and preserved the coveted Chain!  Now, before they are cornered by the dominions of darkness they must smuggle it out of China Town and into safe keeping without being suspected . . . Glad tidings to the strangers.

Glad Tidings [To The Strangers] is a song about embracing "outcastedness" in relation to the monoculture current.  It is about celebrating alternative modes of being . . . individually and communally, globally and locally, traditionally and presently.

If you are planting a good seed and the last day comes, keep planting. This is the END OF TIMES anthem!

Video Produced, Directed, Styled & Edited by Anas Canon for Remarkable Current
Song Produced by Anas Canon & Jeremy Abdul Malik
Vocals and Lyrics by Baraka Blue
Additional vocals by Spendthrift.
Music by Anas Canon, Spendthrift, Joe Rudd, and Jeremy Abdul Malik.
Song Produced, Recorded, and Mixed by Anas Canon for Remarkable Current
Special video guest appearance by Imo Abraham

JOIN REMARKABLE CURRENT ON FACEBOOK:   www.facebook.com/remarkablecurrent
www.remarkablecurrent.com
www.anascanon.com
www.barakabluemusic.com

©2012 Remarkable Current. All Right Reserved.

NEW TRACK:: Adverse vs Ease By CremeDeLaUltra

Adverse Vs. Ease (Featuring Baraka Blue) by Creme De La Ultra

in·spi·ra·tion - A divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul.

It’s hard to describe how a complete song is born. Most times, it’s snatching images out of the ethers and recreating them with sharp words that string each picture together to make a verse. CDLU’s single "DMT" is a great example . . . . flashes of UFO’s, Moors, Mars, and Sorcerers are all present in just 8 bars. ~ BUT SOMETIMES....

   
A different process takes place. Sometimes, a song will seem to write itself.  Each word whispered a second before it's written. Each word, like a single gold brick strategically placed creating a cathedral, which, up to that point, you didn’t know you knew how to build.

What I’m saying is, I didn’t write Adverse vs Ease . . . maybe the birds did it and I just tapped into what they where busy whistling about.  Maybe it was an old song lingering in the air.  Something unsung that refused to die, that I happened to attract to an empty page. Some angel, drunk from light who swam too low that day?

   
I don’t mean to say there is some unheard divine revelation in this. In fact, most of the lines are based on words from the Quran or the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him).  I am saying that the WAY this song came to be was unusual and the fact that my brother Baraka Blue is on the chorus only adds weight to its purpose, which is to be heard and give comfort to ALL who hear it.  Verily, after adversity cometh ease . . . 
                                                                Yours In Music, Azeem

Baraka Blue shares his contribution to the hook:

"Honored to work with CDLU on this joint.  Love the creative spaces they venture into & the envelopes they push artistically. Adverse vs Ease specifically stuck out to me because of the depth and nuance of the spiritual struggle it expresses.  The bittersweetness of defeat, loss and facing overwhelming odds inside of trust and faith in the divine plan. The beat and the lyrics captivatingly open you into the intimate conversation between a soul and it's Source in such a moment.
I was hyped that they asked me to write a hook for it. I didn't even think about it.  It was one of those instances when the words came to me instantly." 
                                                                 Love&Light, Baraka Blue

NEW TRACK:: Body of a Neo-Nazi by Baraka Blue

Is this a braggadocio rap song? A song about a schizophrenic white supremacist who develops multiple personalities of the individuals he hates? Or a deeper commentary on the legacy of white racism and its effect on the collective American psyche? YOU decide.

SEE BELOW to read a critical review of "Body of a Neo-Nazi" by Dustin Craun, scholar of Ethnic Studies, author of the forthcoming book Decolonizing Whiteness and writer for Adbusters, among other publications. 

The Lighter Shade of Resistance: On Whiteness, Hip Hop, and the Revolutionary Spirit   By Dustin Craun

Cover Art by Paul Bellas

From poems of ecstatic spiritual experience in the form of the classical Sufi canon to Hip Hop battle Raps, to say that Oakland based emcee/poet Baraka Blue has range would be an understatement. While his first full solo album Sound Heart and his first book of poetry Disembodied Kneeling's, put out simultaneously by Remarkable Current in 2010, beautifully represented these two sides of his lyrical musings, it is with great anticipation that we await his forthcoming album Majnun’s LostMemoirs, which he describes as “the diary of a madman torn from his beloved homeland and forced into exile in an industrialized, mechanical, dystopian, Babylon concrete profantuary.” 

It is in this place of a profane existence filled with the stench of death and decay that we are immersed in the newest track released from Majnun’s Lost Memoirs, “Body of a Neo-Nazi.” While most White rappers take from the privileges of their skin tone Elvis Presley style, there have recently been a few exceptions to this rule that have dared to confront America’s deepest form of racial agnosia as they take anti-racist/ new abolitionist stances in songs explicitly about Whiteness and White racial rule. This short
list includes Brother Ali’s songs “Daylight,” “The Travelers,” and “Mourning in
America and Dreaming in Colour,” the Flobots track “Anne Braden” about the White
anti-racist civil rights activist Anne Braden, Macklemore’s song “White'Privilege,” the
Poet/Anti-racist educator Ariel Luckey’s poem “ID Check,” and Adam Mansbach’s
novel Angry Black White Boy. 

Baraka Blue like Brother Ali, is a White, convert to Islam who places himself squarely in
this debate as he takes a radical anti-racist stance in his track “Body of a Neo-Nazi,” that
will surely upset the White people who refuse to talk about race and prefer to imagine
themselves in a post-racial America. This, while also raising the ire of the vile racists
David Horowitz, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and their like, who are more
infamously known as the leaders of the Islamophobia network in the United States.
While making important anti-racist critiques each of these tracks could also be said to
be making important poetic contributions to the nascent field of Critical Whiteness
Studies. Founded by one of the United States most important intellectuals, W.E.B.
DuBois with his essay written in 1910, “The Soul of White Folks,” DuBois was
attempting to theorize in his work the global, systemic, and psychological nature of
White supremacy. At the time of DuBois writing, the state of Whiteness was such that
he called it “the new religion of Whiteness,” which White people followed as they
looked past their own ethnic roots and any form of class solidarity. Somewhere
between our European ancestors migration to these lands and our present moment,
most White people paid what James Baldwin called “the price of the ticket” to fit within
the normative idea of what Whiteness was and is today. A category always related to
the tropes of benevolence, innocence, and racial purity. As Baldwin wrote of what was
created in this space of cultural nothingness and lack of true community created by the
idea of Whiteness, “It bears terrifying witness to what happened to everyone who got
here, and paid the price of the ticket. The price was to become “white.” No one was
white before he/ she came to America. It took generations, and a vast amount of
coercion, before this became a white country.” 

So while Whiteness was once not a uniform identity as people were Italian-Americans,
Irish-Americans, Jewish Americans, etc., today this amalgamation of whiteness into one
racial category has created an identity, which is as complex as any other racial identity.
However, because the reality of living in the skin of the dominant racial group goes
unrecognized by the majority of White people, its complexities are most often ignored
and not discussed publically. In my research, which I explore in depth in my
forthcoming book Decolonizing Whiteness: Race, and the Genocidal Mentality of Colonial
Modernity I have found there to be at least eight sub categories which form White racial
consciousness and identity today: White benevolent innocence, the White supremacist
consciousness, poor Whites/ White victim mentality, the ethnic White consciousness, White liberal color blind consciousness, White melancholia, culturally specific White people, and finally Anti-racist White double consciousness. 

Over a hundred years after DuBois’ writing, plenty of people still bow down to this
false god of Whiteness, as the Southern Poverty Law Center recently reported there
were 1018 hate groups operating in the United States in 2011, many of whom have
explicitly White supremacist agendas. While this is representative of a distinct group of
White people, the majority of White folk today would rather not talk of race, and when
race is discussed it is talked about as an abstract issue only pertaining to People of
Color. This stance of White racelessness or White racial denial has created its own form
of twenty-first century racism, what the Sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva calls, “Colorblind
Racism,” a concept with central importance in the so called ‘color-blind’ era of
Obama. 

Then there is a growing population of White people who are working to confront
Whiteness head on, who have done in-depth studies of race and who work to build
anti-racist alliances with the hope of creating a new world free from White racial rule,
White racial/ historical amnesia and a world which begins to heal from racial hatred
and division. After 500 years of Western modernity’s unending colonization, war,
genocide, rape and continuous exploitation of the world’s people and resources, we
know that we must turn inward to make these critiques, we must critique Whiteness
and its reign of death ourselves as White people for it truly is our ‘burden.’ It is our
burden because, regardless of our personal stance on race, we reap the benefits of the
legacy of White Supremacy by virtue of the fact of our belonging to the category of
Whiteness and its societal implications domestically, internationally and
psychologically. 

Bearing this “White Mans burden of liquor, lust and lies,” as DuBois called it, instead of
looking at the world through the eyes of the pale skinned world conquerors, we look at
the world from below and centered in our hearts. Our heroes are not the great
colonizers of Western civilization, instead we see them as merchants of death and at the
same time we realize that this burden is bred into our skin and is always with us. We
do not follow the attempts of others to ‘abolish the White race,’ for we know its false
signification has become too deep of a global reality and Whiteness is an inescapable
fact of life that is central to any White persons social identity whether they want to
recognize this or not. 

To develop a critical anti-racist consciousness amongst White people today it is
necessary to constantly deploy what the Latina Feminist philosopher Linda Martin
Alcoff terms, White double consciousness. She states of this idea that, “for whites,
double consciousness requires an ever-present acknowledgment of the historical legacy
of white identity constructions in the persistent structures of inequality and
exploitation, as well as a newly awakened memory of many white traitors to white
privilege who have struggled to contribute to the building of an inclusive human
community.” 

This is precisely why this track “Body of a Neo-Nazi,” is so important, because it
artistically employees this idea as a constant back and forth throughout the song of a
revolutionary consciousness versus the reality of living in a White body. For the ever
presence and possibility of White supremacy, indeed the historical trauma of its endless
facts are always with a community if it is unwilling to confront this legacy. While we
ourselves are not guilty of the sins of American Indian Genocide, of the enslavement of
Africans brought to the Americas or the endless genocidal wars fought by the United
States all over the world. The reality is its legacy lives on for as long as the lie of White
supremacy has currency in the world. For as long as its myths stand and as long as we
are given false privileges for simply having light skin. Much of this song then is about
orientation, and how we orient ourselves, who we align ourselves with and ultimately
who we look up to for our examples of moral character and great examples of living
lives of truth. As Baraka Blue raps throughout the course of the song weaving different
revolutionary figures into the chorus, 

“I’m a problem pappi, nobody could stop me,
I’m the Black Panther Party in the body of a neo-Nazi.
I’m a problem pappi, nobody could stop me,
I’m Mahatma Ghandi in the body of a neo-Nazi
I’m a problem pappi, nobody could stop me,
Harriet Tubman in the body of a neo-Nazi
I’m a problem pappi, nobody could stop me,
I’m Crazy Horse in the body of a neo-Nazi.” 

As the song continues he also mentions Bob Marley, the Dalai Lama, Marcus Garvey,
Oskar Schindler, Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, Che Guevara, Rumi, the Libyan anticolonial scholar and revolutionary Omar Mukhtar, the twelfth century liberator of
Jerusalem Saladin Ayyubi, and the Senegalese anti-colonial Sufi saint Amadu Bamba.
And perhaps most surprisingly for the uninitiated he raps, “I’m on my Mahatma
Mohandas Gandhi like Ahmad taught me,” referring to the teachings of mercy and
justice of the Prophet Muhammad (referred to here as Ahmad). Finally as the song
draws to a close Baraka Blue raps, “I’m a problem pappi, nobody could stop me, I’m
John Brown in the body of a neo nazi.” The abolitionist John Brown of course being one
of the first great traitors against White supremacy who helped organize a slave rebellion
in Virginia in 1859 and who was ultimately hung for his efforts. 

For Uncle Sam (pappi), that great symbol of American Whiteness and imperialism
surely has a problem if White folk start to develop revolutionary consciousness like
Baraka Blue describes here. Rather than looking at the slave masters George
Washington and Thomas Jefferson as our heroes, we’ll take as inspiration the great
representatives of truth, and righteousness throughout history. We’ll take those like
John Brown who fought against slavery. And rather then aligning ourselves to Western
modernity’s age of death, we will instead align ourselves with the age of life that we
hope to bring into the world as we work in alliance with people of color to help create
critical interventions in confronting White supremacy and continuing the anti-racist
legacy that many have set for us. It was our great exemplar and teacher of anti-racism,
moral character, and political consciousness, Malcolm X, who said it most plainly, “In
my opinion it’s with this young generation of Whites, Blacks, Browns, whatever else
there is. Your living at a time of extremism, a time of revolution, a time when there has
got to be a change. People in power have misused it and now there has to be a change,
and a better world has to be built… and I for one would join in with anyone, don’t care
what color you are. As long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists
on this earth.” Without confronting the legacy of White supremacy, White racial rule
and the false privileges that come from its legacy, this world will always be divided and
we will never move towards the type of holistic and global transformation that is
necessary today. 

Dustin Craun is a writer, educator, community organizer, and strategic
communications consultant who lives in Berkeley, California.
Follow him on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/dustincraun

Dub De La Ultra MIXTAPE:: Créme De La ULTRA

Dub De La Ultra MIXTAPE by Creme De La Ultra

ser·en·dip·i·ty - The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

After a long day of writing and recording new material,  DJ Anas Canon and I.S.H. "Azeem" were winding down with classic Dub Reggae playing in the background.  On one particular song, Azeem began to recite lines from a poem he had just written called “Magic Fruit.”   As the poem (along with its hidden meaning) began to blend with the music, it became clear that something special, and what can only be called serendipity, had occurred.


This was the birth of the Dub De La ULTRA Mixtape, recorded in Brooklyn, New York, during the hot winter of 2012.

It is a Dub Reggae/lyrical mash-up of songs created for Créme De La ULTRA and reggae fans alike.  A journey formed without rules, seamless, and organically blended for your imagination and enjoyment, which you will play repeatedly over and over again.  As Azeem announced to a energetic crowd while at a party in Brooklyn, “We come bearing gifts from the Best of the beyond!”   . . . the Dub music layered with his lyrics turned a CDLU performance into a celebration . . .

LIKE:  https://www.facebook.com/cremedelaultra
FOLLOW:  twitter.com/cdlultra
HOME:  http://www.cremedelaultra.com
LABEL:  http://www.remarkablecurrent.com

In Memoriam:: Khalil Shaheed~1949-2012

The Remarkable Current Musician Collective mourns the loss of Brother Khalil Shaheed, who passed away on Friday, March 23, 2012, in his home in Oakland, California, surrounded by family and friends.

Khalil Shaheed was a integral member of RC's Musician Collective for many years and contributed his talents to almost every album release and countless songs.  He collaborated with all of the other artists on the label and his creative and experimental trumpet performances added depth and dimension to so many Remarkable Current Ventures.

As an individual, award-winning performer of international repute, Shaheed’s accomplishments are as memorable as they are many:  In addition to touring with Buddy Miles for 7 years, he has also performed with Jimi Hendrix, Woody Shaw and Taj Mahal, John Handy, and Billy Higgins and has been featured as a jazz soloist with the Oakland East Bay Symphony Orchestra. As a recording artist he has appeared on over 30 albums, many with Miles and Hendrix, as well as Ledisi, Babatunde Lea, Sidi Yassir, Tyson, Baraka Blue, DJ Anas Canon, and many many more.  And as a performer, he maintained an active schedule playing over the years with four different bands: Big Belly Blues, Mo’ Rockin Project, the jazz improvisation group Open Mind Ensemble, and the Redwood Brass, a classical quartet.

In addition to leaving a legacy of jazz performance, Khalil also founded Oaktown Jazz Workshops, based in Oakland and formed in 1994.  Oaktown Jazz Workshops (OJW) celebrates jazz music as an American indigenous art form of profound artistic and cultural significance.  OJW's purpose is to promote, preserve, and present this music so that all youth develop a sense of ownership and pride in jazz music as a uniquely American cultural tradition.   The goal of OJW is to provide young musicians with focused opportunities to develop a new or deeper relationship with this rich medium of expression; both as skilled performers and as informed and involved listeners. OJW creates a safe, structured environment in which young people with different levels of musical experience are able to come and be a part of a creative jazz ensemble under the guidance of professional master musicians. Through new initiatives, OJW continues to make jazz music accessible to Bay Area youth as our programs bring together young musicians from diverse backgrounds, joined by their common interest in jazz.

IN LIEU OF FLOWERS, PLEASE MAKE A DONATION TO OAKTOWN JAZZ, TO HELP PRESERVE KHALIL'S LEGACY:   http://oaktownjazz.org/

Rest in peace, dear Brother.  You will be missed but never forgotten, and the legacy of your music will remain alive in our hearts, minds and ears.

Please enjoy one of Remarkable Current's favorite tracks that Khalil's trumpet graced, "Salam Alaykum" by Sidi Yassir:


UPDATE - A NOTE FROM KHALIL'S FAMILY:

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow we will gather to bury our brother, Khalil Shaheed.  At 1 p.m., we will have the janazah prayer at the Jess Spencer Mortuary (21228 Redwood Road, Castro Valley – directly off of the 580 freeway.)  Immediately following the prayer (around 2 p.m.), we will go to the Lone Tree Cemetery (24591 Fairview Avenue, Hayward) for the burial. 

Note to non-Muslims:  The janazah is a traditional Muslim funeral service.  There are two parts – the prayer and the burial - and it is perfectly acceptable to come for one part and not the other, depending on your schedule. 

Plans to gather in the next few weeks, to celebrate Khalil’s life and work, are underway.   If you would like to help with the upcoming memorial celebration, please contact our friend, Tracy Curry at tracycurry@me.com.  We will keep you in the loop and would love to see you at this wonderful party! 

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Khalil’s nonprofit – Oaktown Jazz Workshops.  Gifts can be made online at www.oaktownjazz.org at or sent to P.O. Box 3568, Oakland, CA  94609. 

Peace & Love,

Kate Shaheed & Family