Existence is Resistance

Interview conducted by Ayman El-Sayed

What’s up brother Hasan, how have you been, how is everything?

Everything is good man, working hard, trying to get all my ducks in a row and stay out of trouble.

In 2010 you became the first American hip hop artist to perform in the African nation of Guinea Bissau, how did that come about?

Well it came about cause I had done some work with some artist from Guinea Bissau with an organization that is based out of Brooklyn headed by Austin Dacey, it’s called The Impossible Music Session where they link artist from over here with artist in countries where people are trying to silence their voice and I linked with this group from out there Balaberos Group who put out a joint called 7 minutes of truth basically exposing a lot of the hypocrisy in the government calling people out by name over there and I performed their song in Brooklyn at little field, the translated version of it and it went over really well so some people from over there wanted to bring me out. Hip Hop Harmony wanted to bring me out so I can actually work in Guinea Bissau with the artist and some youth over there.

How was your experience in Guinea Bissau?

Amazing man, I definitely learned a lot, it was my first time in Africa as an adult; I was in Morocco when I was a child.  The performing, you know we weren’t out there on no spoiled artist type shit, it was a very real experience and getting to know people out there and the culture was a blessing across the board.

…being neutral is just as bad as being negative, if you don’t say anything and you allow shit to happen it’s almost the same as being out there pushing that negativity…”

Was this trip to Guinea Bissau what influenced you to release your new album Music Is My Weapon?

A lot of those joints I had already been working on but it led to releasing a project being totally a charitable work.  There’s a sister from California she hit me up, she traced her lineage back to Guinea Bissau and she wanted to try to find a way to actually do some donations, she actually raised money to get dresses for young girls to go to school, she wanted to do something a little bit more massive like build a school and other stuff so she looked me up and saw that I was the first artist to rock in Guinea Bissau and she wanted to see how we can connect and I was originally going to release everything as a free project and I was like u know what my manager Raj who actually went out there, he directs videos, he created FLOW For the Love of Words, he was like yo why don’t we just make the whole project for It Takes a Village.

It was going to be a free download because I hadn’t released a solo since like 08-09 just to give people a taste on what I’ve been working on lately.

Let’s discuss the title a bit?  How can music be used as a weapon and how has it been used as a weapon?

I mean I think when u look at the history of our people in this country, African Americans have always used our music and expressions as a weapon for social justice and education.  I mean a weapon is tool you use it for your defense and we’ve always done that.  If you look all the way back to the songs we used to sing on the plantation, the spirituals, the calls and responses, they had hidden messages to make sure we found our way towards freedom, you know “wait in the water” or “follow the drinking gourd” all the way to hip hop with like Fuck The Police which are attacks on the system which is attacking us.  If u look through all of our culture it’s always been like that with jazz, blues, rock and roll so it’s always been a tool, it’s always been a weapon in our fight for freedom justice and equality here.

All the proceeds from this new album are going to projects you are working on in Guinea Bissau, can you elaborate on them for our readers, how much are you looking to raise and how much have you raised so far?

The goal was 14,500 and that will be going to a school, a fresh water well and a medical facility.  The thing is, that’s the goal to get everything built. For the rest of time that that project is available the money will be going to make sure that there are new books, to make sure there are fresh medical supplies to make sure that the well is up and is a continuing thing.

It’s like, I look at my projects like my babies, they living things.  They take on a life of their own.

This project has already raised enough money to have a school built, the school is already up and running, the next thing that’s going to be constructed is the water well.

Unfortunately right now, there was just a coup in Guinea Bissau a couple of weeks ago, there is some political upheaval over there right now so for peoples safety people are chilling out but inshallah it’s going to be over soon and people will be able to get started back on the work and everything that’s been done over there.

How can people purchase the album?

You can get the album on iTunes, Amazon, you can buy it from me at a show, online you can go to cdbaby, it’s on Spotify, its on Pandora, just about everywhere where good music is sold.

I hope that occupy wall street can continue to make progress in educating people, getting people politically active, getting people more active in trying to help one another and listen to one another.”

How many people are going to be helped by these projects? 

People are moving towards Djati now because they want to have access to the things being done there , so that’s positive right there, but I really couldn’t quantify how many people exactly  are going to be helped by it because like I said people are on their way towards moving over there now, god willing the most people possible.

It’s amazing how projects like these can impact the lives of so many people and give people access to things with a relatively low expense, $14,500 is not impossible, you hear about all these big groups and NGO’s raising millions of dollars for different projects in Africa but you are showing how it is possible for a group of dedicated individuals trying to raise a reasonable amount can change the lives of many people like getting access to clean water.  I’m not saying that $14,500 is enough and all that is needed but your project is making this amount go a long way, would you say that’s true?

Definitely, I mean a lot of times people think they got to raise up a billion dollars to make a difference but if your putting a goal that you yourself don’t think you can achieve how are you going to get other people to work along with you, you have to sometimes start small then work your way up just to prove that it can be done.  There are a lot of people now with the attitude that’s like the world is fucked up and there is nothing I can do about it but if you show and prove yes you can make a difference whether it’s around the world or right here at home, it’s absolutely possible.

When are you planning on going back to Guinea Bissau?

I’d like to go back as soon as possible, I mean with everything that’s going on there right now it’ll be kind of tough but I do want to get down there and get my hands dirty you know.

African Americans have always used our music and expressions as a weapon for social justice and education.”

Can we bring it back home for a minute, what are your thoughts on the protest movement Occupy Wall Street that started last year?  You performed for the protestors at Liberty Plaza.

I mean a lot of stuff been going on before Occupy Wall Street with the anti-police brutality marches, a lot of different things.  I think with Occupy Wall Street that another segment of American society is starting to feel the lash.

When it’s poor people, when it’s black and brown people, when it’s women, people of different types of orientation, the normal people to get picked on by America, the normal people to be attacked by America, a lot of our situations and struggles get overlooked by the mainstream media or just mainstream America in general but now with occupy wall street it’s like the middle class white America is starting to get fed up as well, you definitely see a lot more media attention.

There is like a new face but you know black and brown people we’ve been on the wrong end of the stick for a long fucking time man.  We’ve been fed up.  I hope that occupy wall street can continue to make progress in educating people, getting people politically active, getting people more active in trying to help one another and listen to one another.

It’s so many things, it’s not black and white to me, you understand what I’m saying, there are positive things about it, there are negative things about it, and we got to see where it goes.

I was down there performing to help raise money for peoples legal defense funds, I’ve been arrested at protests before and I lucked out with a really good public defender that was connected to the ACLU but not everybody is so lucky in a lot of cases you know so trying to make sure people who are taking their time and putting their freedom on the line for other people and for making positive change in this world are well represented when it comes to these crooked ass courts.

Do you see a connection between Wall Street’s policies and how it not only affects people here at home but also around the world like in Guinea Bissau?

Oh definitely I mean Guinea Bissau is one of the poorest countries in the world and when you look at a lot of the countries in Africa, South America, Central America, Asia, all over the world, people of color and countries that are considered third world countries, they’ve  been affected by colonialism, capitalism and now corporatism so it’s absolutely direct when these companies go into countries and paying people thirty cents a week to work jobs where the conditions are going to affect their health and going to affect the environment in their communities.

They wouldn’t have those same companies here in America, United Kingdom, or France or Germany or “first world countries”, because they know they wouldn’t get away with how they treat the workers, they wouldn’t get away with the living conditions, they wouldn’t get away with the health conditions that people are subjected to work under there, so it’s absolutely connected.

Another point is that a lot of these countries are stripped of their natural resources, their countries have been raped and pillaged for the last 500 years so it’s all connected, this is one world, so when you say in Islam that Allah is one, everything, all things are connected.

The Trayvon Martin situation is even more a sign I think of the fear of a black man, you know this guy follows a young man, he murdered this young boy, a 17 year old boy just because he was wearing a hoodie and had his hands in his pockets.”

Also in the news recently there have been several cases of police brutality and police killings in the Bronx, many people were shocked by the police violence used against protesters at Occupy Wall Street but many communities have dealt with police brutality and violence way before OWS.  What do you think is behind all this police repression?

It’s been the same thing since we been here.  Even in the case where you have police officers who are people of color, black and brown life is not valued in this country.

It’s sad to say but we are not looked at as human beings for the most part, we’ve been dealing with violence against us even before the police brutality, with the Klan, we dealt with the overseers before they were officers, it’s something that’s been dealt with by people here for 500 years, it’s not nothing brand new.

We could run down almost every year cases of police brutality, police murder against people in the black community. I think that with OWS people were like Oh My God because they started to see the police treat white people the same way they treat everybody else, like in California with that guy who was just running around spraying everybody with pepper spray in the face, that’s nothing new to us.

I think even more so now a lot of police officers feeling they are above the law because there is no ramification.  The officer that murdered Oscar Grant live on camera served less then a year in prison. The officers that killed Sean Bell they served no time in prison and they got their pensions, except for one of them and he was bitching he didn’t get his pension.  They are not held accountable for their actions.

There is this brother in Florida who put out a song talking about he wants to hurt police and he had called  two out by name that had arrested him and brutalized him, he’s serving time in prison for that, just for making a song but police could kill people, excessively.

It’s not like we’re talking one shot, we talking 50 shots in certain cases, reloading and shooting someone again, an unarmed man in the case of Oscar Grant, on camera, not resisting arrest and they face no penalty for it, so you’re just going to see it more and more because they feel like they are above the law.

I’m sure everybody’s seen a police officer breaking the law at least once in their life and nothing happens to them for it add that on top of the fact that most young African Americans and Latino Americans are viewed as criminals already it’s almost like ok well you know not all of them are bad but sometimes you know it happens because we have to watch out for the bad apples or whatever, it’s used as a justification for the way they treat us.

Talking about not being held accountable, what about the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida?

The Trayvon Martin situation is even more a sign I think of the fear of a black man, you know this guy follows a young man, he murdered this young boy, a 17 year old boy just because he was wearing a hoodie and had his hands in his pockets.

The police botched any true investigation of it, they didn’t arrest him for like 45 days, they have him on the phone “do not pursue”.

He had no reason to pursue this kid, if you look at the laws in Florida, where someone is breaking into your home or your property and you can defend yourself, this dude was way off of his property, he was following this kid back to his home, so if anything Trayvon Martin had a right to defend himself.

He was the one being threatened by an older man with a gun. The way everything has been twisted and flipped like George Zimmerman was defending himself and this that, NO, he was the aggressor but because we are talking about a young black man automatically, most white Americans automatically feel threatened by a black man in general and that’s been going on here since we got here, that fear.

There are a lot of people now with the attitude that’s like the world is fucked up and there is nothing I can do about it but if you show and prove yes you can make a difference whether it’s around the world or right here at home, it’s absolutely possible.”

Do you think that is why the police just believed his side of the story and did not arrest him?

That coupled with the fact that his father is a judge and they knew him.  He has called them many times before about black people walking through his neighborhood.  The case itself in my opinion it’s amazing that he’s back on the streets right now.

What if it was in reverse?

If it was in reverse they would have thrown the book at Trayvon.  They had his body in the precinct for three days before they contacted his family,  they had his cell phone. A missing persons report was filed by the family.  That shows you the total disdain for his life.

If it was the opposite and Trayvon had killed Zimmerman he wouldn’t be out on bail.  The disparity of racial injustice in this country is still a huge fucking gap.

So Trayvon would not have been able to use the Stand Your Ground law you were talking about?

He would have been arrested on the spot, it wouldn’t have taken 45 days.  He would have been arrested on the spot.

Back to your music, are you currently working on something else, a new solo album perhaps?

Yeah, the next solo album is called Life in Black and White; it’s going to be the ending of the first series of the joints Paradise Lost and Children of God.  Life in Black and White is the understanding of knowledge and wisdom.

What kind of production did you have on Music Is My Weapon, was it with producers you’ve worked with before and was comfortable with?

It was different, definitely different, pretty much every track was with someone I hadn’t worked with before, Ari Why, Snowgoons, Crossbones T, Bostic beats, Jim B. I think all the joints on there were people I hadn’t worked with before except DJ Insite. I worked with him on the Mohammed Dangerfield project.

What about the videos, you released a few videos off the album, can you talk about them a bit?

Yeah three videos, the first one was 1911, then Musical Chairs and the third was Miss America.  We shot a video for chaos theory, I’m not sure when it will come, i shot it when was over in London.

Your last video Miss America, it’s gotten a lot of attention, people are sharing it crazy, what’s the concept behind it?

The idea behind the video was we wanted to show that not speaking up is like, I’ll  put it like this, one of my brothers said to me sometimes being neutral is just as bad as being negative, if you don’t say anything and you allow shit to happen it’s almost the same as being out there pushing that negativity.

You can’t just sit back and watch the people get beat by the police, or sit back and watch all of the atrocities going on in the world, if you feel something you need to step up and do something about it.

Thank you Hasan for your amazing motivation and dedication, keep up the great work, any last words you would like to leave for our readers?

Thank You.

When you look in the mirror that’s Allah looking back at you so treat yourself as such and treat your brother and sister as such, we can make this world better if we all work toward getting there, so peace, walk on water and thanks to everybody for the support.

To Purchase the album go to: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/music-is-my-weapon/id480204118

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