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

March 3 in LA: Baraka Blue & DJ Anas Canon

Don't miss “Finding Soul Through Sound,” a special concert on Saturday, March 3 in Los Angeles, to be held at the Barnsdall Gallery Theater in Hollywood.  This one-of-a-kind concert will feature the following trailblazing artists:
• Acclaimed hip-hop artist Brother Ali
• Emcee & spoken word artist Baraka Blue known for his contemporary Sufi poetry
• Soul singer Bridget Barkan of Scissor Sisters fame
• DJ Anas Canon, director of Remarkable Current & Hip-Hop Ambassadors
• Syrian American hip-hop artist Omar Offendum

BUY TICKETS

New VIDEO ~ "DMT" By Creme De La ULTRA

Imagine if  Darth Vader n’ them had a grand opening party for the Death Star . . . like that scene from "Eyes Wide Shut" yet in outer space.  Well my friends, I went there once upon a time . . .

DMT is known as the "Spirit Molecule." It exists in many things including the human body.  It is literally the thing dreams are made of . . . immediately it makes you see the geometric world, colors and patterns you’ve never imagined before . . . many people meet little "beings who answer questions"(whoa).  DMT is not something you would do at a party on a Saturday night, but is sacred . . . often used in tribal initiation ceremonies.

The lyrics of this song (2nd verse in particular) are some of my favorite . . . "We are wizards at war with sourcery, the choices are yours" . . . the beat sticks in your head and seems to pop up most mornings and for this there is no cure except to give it another spin . . . because music is medicine.

DMT . . . Doing My Thing,
~AZeeM aka Mark Ultra

www.CremeDeLaULTRA.com

NEW VIDEO ~ 'Modern Communication' by Baraka Blue

An ode to the lovers, those who still write letters . . .

I'm not mad at the technological advances of the human race. Being able to fly through the air to anywhere on planet earth and communicate instantly with people in distant lands is the stuff of our ancestor's fairytales.

Yet in the hyper-paced, high-tech urban landscape it's easy to become alienated from, not only nature, but ourselves as well. My new song "Modern Communication" bemoans the fact that many of our relationships with loved ones have become increasingly cyber-based. As dope as technology is at keeping us connected with distant friends, it can never substitute the extra-sensory experience of sharing human presence. Touch, breathe, skin texture, eye contact, heart beat, vibration, warmth are just a few vital elements of human interaction that don't cross the technological divide.

We have 40,000 Facebook "friends" and don't know the name of most of the people who live in our buildings. We have "140 character" conversations, yet can't have a conversation at dinner, sit alone and meditate, or read a book without instinctually checking our beeping machines. So "Modern Communication" is song about intimacy and love in the 21st Century matrix.  

Take the red pill.  Unplug.  Get high off the un-drug. 

Love&Light,

Baraka Blue