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I recently recorded a new song with my parnter in rhyme Jeimil, featuring the broski G-Mitch (aka Slavename) entitled “Dream Away.” You can hear this song for free if you visit the Broken Halos MySpace page. I am flabberghasted because our MySpace page recently hit 10,000 views with over 12,000 listens. Now I know that 50 Cent can poop on a cd and sell 10 Million records but I never thought I’d ever be heard by a dozen folks, let alone thousands. I feel blessed, humbled and thankful for all the folks that dig our art and I promise that as long as people listen, I’ll never stop creating. Muchismas Gracias to our fans, friends, family, allies and fellow artists. Now back to the lesson at hand…
This song was produced by mi hermano Akiyoshi Ehara of Dynamic Souls and literally sounds/feels like a dream. Akibeats flat-out GO. G-Mitch came up with the hook, title and topic, and Jei and I ran with it. It go a lil sumpin like this:
Broken Halos feat G-Mitch – Dream Away
HOOK X2 (G-Mitch):
Sometimes I dream about New Orleans and I dreamed I killed a man just last evening / I don’t really ever think about what these dreams mean / baby dream away, baby dream away… Aye!G-Mitch:
Things began, they started out slow in his mind he said “YES!” while everybody told him “No.” but it was here, all his inhibitions disappeared / belief and adrenaline evaporated fear / He had love from his peers but he still felt ignored and things he shoulda said, he kept bottled up and stored / but it’s hard, when people keep saying that you’re crazy, for seeking out a vision in a world that’s so hazy / a lotta times I wish I was a live back when people lived outside of boxes we are now trapped in / everybody’s scarred in an ignorant bliss, drinking away the pain: baby sip, sip, sip / and pretend like all the problems in your life don’t exist / hitting up ya doctor for that zanex fix / in the fear and depression baby popped like 6, slip into that dream baby, drift, drift, drift…HOOK
Senbei:
It was all a dream…a movie scene: a panoramic montage of the life of Schooly-D / a breakbeat mixed with funk loops in my rapid-eye-movement; irate, horrific guns shooting, to pass as “live music.” / a symphony recorded in distortion to static, one’s misery aborted in proportion to Adam, minus the apple / plus the rib is bruised and broken; at the tabernacle, just to give you true devotion / seeing life in ways I never knew existed, mixed with feeling like my days as “Senbei” ended with a quickness / euphoria, to gorier than ever imagined; laborious but warm enough to end all my madness / damn this cousin of death, personified in R.E.M. whose underlying message is to “carpe diem” / a fable being spoken ‘til my temperament’s soft, to my halo being broken and my innocence lost. God…HOOK
Jeimil:
Fell asleep to the 10 o’clock news: “mother weeps, child shot over shoes,” schools closing, but there are brand new / prisons on the daily, the forecast: “hazy.” These eyelids save me from the bull-sh*t lately / when I sleep, I only toss and turn, fighting with my own conscience over things that I’ve lost and learned / earned this insight of self through the urn that carries the remains of this day past, world turns…/ I turn-over like a point guard-rookie, ‘cause I heard that they assassinated Tookie / I’m at the ledge lookin’, above our head putting scrambled images together, like Picasso: crooked / but it’s a masterpiece, like we mastered peace, display it for the world, we aint have to beef / but I’m only dreaming, as the phonies screaming keeps pouring bad news like a levy leaking…HOOK
To me, G’s verse is super deep because of how it speaks to our need as Amerikans to choose escapism. Amerika aka “Prozac-Nation,” is in love with escapism. We seem to be frightened of reality and it is this fact that is literally killing millions of people everyday. As my SHERO Arudhati Roy states: “The Amerikan way of life is NOT sustainable, because it does not acknowledge that there is a world beyond Amerika…” “He had love from his peers but he still felt ignored and things he shoulda said he kept bottled up and stored…” spoke to me directly in my feelings of slight-insanity as a mixed race person of color forced to deal with feeling misunderstood and isolated in a country/world where my privilege and oppression clash violently together inside my brain every single day. G’s verse speaks to the reality that dreams, not unlike Hip-Hop expression (where else in Amerika can a Black man like slavename grab a mic and say whatever the f**k he pleases?) are where the subconscious mind is able to vent freely.
The idea of my verse was literaly to explain Hip-Hop culture as a beautiful dream mixed with a terrifying nightmare. The nightmare is that Hip-Hop is literally a response to poverty and oppression. “Hip-Hop is: sick without benefits…ad-space for liquor…olympic sponsor of the black glock.” (-Mos Def) I use the biblical reference of “Adam, minus the apple” as an analogy of the paradise (without temptation) that Hip-Hop has brought to the lives of so many who historically have been offered little, to no hope. (Even if you don’t like what T.I. has to say, at leats he’s just talking about his reality and not out there selling crack anymore.) “The rib is brusied and broken,” relates to the biblical story of “Eve,” being created from Adam’s rib. She is “brusied and broken,” in Hip-Hop because of the blatant sexism and mysonginy that exists not only in Hip-Hop (contrary to Bill O’Reilly’s beliefs), but in the everyday lives of women across the globe. Hip-Hop is, just like Amerika: Pretty-Ugly.
Jeimil is probably my favorite emcee of all time. I am undoubtedly, incredibly biased as he is my partner in rhyme and has been for about 8 years, but his verses are such that I notice something new and amazing in them everytime I listen to them over again. This one took my about 100 listens to come up with what I am about to explain… *Ahem* I my own analysis, Jei seems to speak to the fact that he rarely, if ever feels completely at ease. “When I sleep, I only toss and turn…” speaks to the pressure he faces everyday (even in sleep) as a working-class, Southeast-Asian/Pacific Islander male living in Amerika. He “turns over (while sleeping) like a point-guard rookie, ’cause I heard they assassinated Tookie.” Jei is a very spiritual dude (though he denounces the Catholic church for brainwashing and enslaving his Pilipino people – FYI: this is initially where “Broken Halos,” comes from) and this is reflected in his rhymes when he states: “I’m at the ledge lookin’, above our head putting scrambled images together, like Picasso: crooked / but it’s a masterpiece, like we mastered peace…” This life is confusing and a puzzle. My Buddhist side sees suffering as a fundamental part of life and that our search is to find meaning in that suffering. My Christian side tells me that from his poetry, much like me, Jeimil seems to believe God/Allah/Jah is LOVE and vice versa. *sigh* If only there weren’t so many misguided devils out there…
Dream Away…
Senbei
I LOVE STUPID HUMOR.
From “Dumb & Dumber,” to “Zoolander,” I just can’t enough of comedians making complete asses out of themselves. There are a few new movies being released that fall under the category of “stupid-funny,” that I am very excited to see.
Will Ferell is a God. There is nothing quite like a hairy, out-of-shape, akward-looking white dude who is just COMPLETELY comfortable being (semi) naked on-screen. From Chad Michael Michaels to Ron Burgundy, this man can do no wrong in my book. Here is the trailer to his latest movie, “Semi-Pro,” co-starring Andre “3-Stacks” Benjamin. (This pan-shot is SO unnecesarry.) =D
[Semi-Pro]
Speaking of rapper-turnt-thespians, Mos Def plays Richard Pryor to Jack Black’s Gene Wilder in “Be Kind, Rewind.” Something about the odd pairing of these two and ’Black Dontae’ stepping out of his comfort zone to try a new role, genuinely interests me. This one looks like it’ll either be a piece of poop smeared onto a film reel, or a hilariously amazing masterpiece. I pray it is the latter, but we’ll just have to wait and see…
[Be Kind, Rewind]
The third and final film I’m awaiting looks the most promising. Thecheddarbox reviewed this a ways back, but I saw the trailer tonight when I watched Persepolis (for the second time) and had to speak on it. Stephen Chow (“Kung Fu Hustle,” ”Shaolin Soccer”) has created what looks to be a masterpiece in “CJ7.” The special effects, comedy, action and story just seem “out of this world!” (pun INTENDED – I’m retarded). *In E-40 voice (feat B-Legit & Kurupt) “Check it out, check iiiiit….”
[CJ7]
You bring the popcorn. I’ll bring the McDummy.
Laugh more. It helps.
C
[Check out the bullets in his hat. That's 'gangstalicious' (Aaron McGruder goes).]
As most of you already know, Baron Davis was snubbed and not selected to the 2007-2008 Western Conference All-Star Team. This was blatant dis and a slap in the face to not only Baron & the Warriors, but also to the city of Oakland and the entire Bay Area. Baron was hands-down, the best player in the entire playoffs through 2 rounds last year, and he has been the heart of the Warrior Franchise this entire year (and everyday before that)! Watch this and tell me otherwise!
2nd year point guard Brandon Roy of the Portland Trailblazers was taken in his place, and while I don’t for a minute discredit him (I’m actually a big fan), numbers DON’T LIE. When the All-Star Reserves were selected the NUMBERS looked like this:
Baron Davis:
PPG: 21.7
Assists: 8.0
Steals: 2.5
Rebounds: 4.8
Brandon Roy:
PPG: 19.7
Assists: 5.8
Steals: 1.0
Rebounds: 4.6
Warriors: 30-20, Blazers: 28-22.
IT IS FOR THIS REASON, I WILL NOT BE WATCHING THE ALL-STAR GAME THIS YEAR. I encourage all Warrior Fans and Bay Areans alike to observe the ongoing shaft that the Amerikan media has bestowed upon a community that is filled with people of color and diversity, and is primarily of working-class background. If the rest of the NBA is going to blatantly ignore the Bay Area and assume we will buy their products and sit through their ad-revenue, they must be smoking crack rocks.
COME ONE, COME ALL and join me in my boycott of this shafty, hater-laden, spiteful snub to Baron “Saved-Bay-Area-Sports” Davis, and read a book, take a walk, go play hoops yourself with the homies, but DO NOT partake in the utter bullsh*t that is the 2007-2008 “All-Star” Game.
Stand UP BAY. Turn that TV OFF on Sunday. Go Warriors.
Senbei
p.s. I WILL however be watching the Rookie game and Dunk Contest Saturday (Baron wasn’t left-out of that). =P
p.p.s. Monta is playing out of his f*cking mind right now!!!
p.p.p.s. I’ma HATER, but I warned y’all bout C-Webb. We’ll give him a few more games because it’s still early, but damn. =T
CHUCK NORRIS sucks balls. Last week, he was seen endorsing Republican Presidential nominee Mike Huckabee and making an ass of himself, when he called out John McCain. Now I’m no supporter of McCain or anything he’s a part of, but I DO know that he has actually seen war, been held in captivity and tortured unlike the current President (who sends working-class people to war) and Chuck Norris (who makes movies about killing poor Brown people). Look at this square-bear:
There is nothing worse than a dude like Chuck making stupid loot off of Asian culture while people like Bruce Lee who are MASTERS of the sh*t, invent a television series (“Kung Fu“) and have their part given to a white dude (David Carridine). I have hated this culture vulture ever since I saw my first Bruce Lee movie. If you’ve never seen “Return of the Dragon,” then peep this clip and overstand me (the best part is when he blows the chest-hair out of his hand…LOL):
And here is Conan O’Brien with one of the most HILARIOUS bits I have EVER seen on television in my whole life (slavename and thecheddarbox feels me).
At least Bruce Lee killed Chuck on-screen before he died. =)
Senbei
p.s. John McCain IS HELLA OLD though.
p.p.s. “American Ninja,” was actually a real movie. Cultural commodification does NOT go. =(
BOB MARLEY would have been 64 years old today.
This man was amazing for so many reasons. While his posters and calendars adorn the walls of many college dorm rooms belonging to those who know him for songs like “Jammin’,” “3 Little Birds,” and “Could You Be Loved,” I love him even more for his message of resistance against white racism and systematic capitalist oppression. “Slave Driver,” “Burnin’ & Lootin’,” “War,” and other such songs of protest and progressive movement, are what solidfy Robert Nesta Marley as a “timeless” musician in my mind.
Marley was also important because of what he did for his native Jamaica and the “3rd World,” at large. He is the first artist from any “developing” country that has achieved GLOBAL success in a way that only Amerikan or European artists had before him. He is also profoundly responsible for the exposure and spread of the rastafarian religion. His compilation “LEGEND,” album has sold 12,000,000 albums to this day and his works continue to sell well, years after his demise.
Though many people don’t know, Bob Marley attributes a lot of his understanding of the world to seeing life through the lens of a Black man of mixed race:
I don’t have prejudice against himself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Dem call me half-caste or whatever. Me don’t dip on nobody’s side. Me don’t dip on the black man’s side nor the white man’s side. Me dip on God’s side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.
CALL ME CRAZY, but I personally believe there are some things that mixed race folk are forced to notice and think about on a daily basis, that our “full-blood” brothers and sisters are not (and vice-versa).
In the recent film release “I Am Legend,” Will Smith’s character had a (somewhat corny, yet) dope take on why his character (a soldier/scientist trying to save the world from a vampire-virus) loved Marley so much. He says: “Marley’s philosphy was much like a virologist. He believed that he could CURE racism and hatred by INJECTING love into people through his music. Even when gunmen came and shot him down in his own home, he walked up onto the stage during a PEACE Concert the very next day…”
Theres a natural mystic blowing through the air / If you listen carefully now you will hear. / This could be the first trumpet, might as well be the last / Many more will have to suffer, / Many more will have to die – dont ask me why.
Things are not the way they used to be, / I wont tell no lie / One and all have to face reality now. / Though Ive tried to find the answer to all the questions they ask. / Though I know its impossible to go livin through the past – Dont tell no lie.
-Natural Mystic
Happy Birthday Robert Marley. Thank you for always “Jammin’” even though you lived in “War.”
Jah Bless,
Senbei
WELCOME TO RICHMOND.
Richmond, California has seen a plethora of problems for all the years of my life. I have always been privileged enough to live just outside of the most hostile parts of my city, but as nice as my neighborhood was it didn’t remain unscathed from it’s surrounding poverty (drug houses being run out of neighbor’s homes, convicted kidnapper arrested down the street, Richmond Police murdering our neighbor in his home, etc).
I recently saw this short documentary online, and it made me think a ton about the resliency of working-class/poor people and people of color in general (particularly immigrants and those of African heritage). PEEP:
As an Asian/Caucasian/Native kid growing up in Richmond, I’ve always felt very “out of place” (so to speak). Those who share my ethnic background(s) generally do not share my class background, and those who share my class background, do not generally reflect my ethnic background(s).
In school (among other places), I many times felt “ghetto” (for lack of a better word) around suburban white and/or Asian kids, and privileged around Black, Latino and/or Southeast Asian kids. My ethnic ambgiuity helped me to fit into the more “working-class” crowd, but my whale (white AND pale) skin did not. My skin tone and politically-active upbringing got me accepted into more “middle-class” circles, but my manner of speech, dress and the fact that I was almost always “on-guard,” (had insults ready to go for anybody/ready to fight if I needed to) made me somewhat of an outsider. Add all this to the fact that I am biracial and you get someone who now questions EVERYTHING.
I now reside in El Cerrito and my parents are doing much better financially than they were during my childhood. When I was born, my Dad sold cash registers and my mom was a secretary at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland. We literally went from losing our house for year (a friend rented it out) and staying with my Great Uncle, who was born in the Camps and hated white people, (which wasn’t much fun for my beautiful Mama) to coming home from College and seeing the inside of my house, IKEA’d out.
I have friends who’ve spent years at Harvard AND in Prison. During Middle School I saw some friends get jumped into gangs AND some be awarded “first chair” in the Symphonic Band. My iPod has Mac Dre AND Coldplay in it. In other words, people who don’t know me usually think I am either: A. Crazy B. Jaded C. Fake or D. Confused. I don’t feel that I am ANY of these but border on (A.) due to the violence, ignorance and disparity on one side of my being, and the opulence, vanity and privilege on the other side.
Only in Amerika could you get a story like mine. I was BORN to study Amerika and issues of class, race/ethnicity and identity. I received my B.A. in Amerikan Studies from UC Santa Cruz, and what I was generally able to pull from those 4 years of reading, writing, listening and dialouging, is that our country is unfathomably ugly AND beautiful. Only in Amerika could George W. Bush AND Tupac Shakur speak publicly to so many people through a Television set. Only in Amerika could Michael Vick be put behind bars for killing dogs while our tax dollars pay the Amerikan Millitary rape and pillage innocent Iraqi women and children. Only in Amerika could I feel this isolated, alone and disconnected, and at the same time, in love with and connected to everyone I see while walking around the sh*tty-ass Hilltop Mall in Richmond, California.
Do it with Pride & Purpose,
Senbei
“SUPER TUESDAY” is here, and in the words of Celly Cel (where they be at?), “It’s goin’ down tonight…tonight it goes down.”
It seems that John McCain is a virtual lock for the Republicans, but in this crazy, narsty, mean and vicious game of politricks, ya never really know. (Mitt Romney makes babies cry btw.) I just left my polling station in Richmond, California where I grew up, and voted for (if you’ve ever read my blog you won’t be surprised) Barack Hussein Obama. I also voted FOR a measure to give more funding to Community Colleges (while freezing some assets in public K-12 schools) because I believe as more and more folks get rejected from UC’s and State Universities (due to overflow), Junior Colleges will provide much-needed Higher Education and opportunity to working-class folk who want something more for themselves. QUITE sad that Community Colleges and K-12 Public Schools have to fight each other for money. I voted YES on all the Indian Gaming Bills for 2 reasons: My Daddy told me he was voting for them, and because despite ads from both sides, I saw that ALL indigenous Tribes in California endorsed these agreements. To me personally, that pretty much says it all.
In retrospect, I prolly should have read-up a bunch more on all of these issues, but I am currently Coordinating an After School program, while at the same time facilitating a 4th & 7/8th Grade ASP Class (30 kids) because I can’t find anyone who will work for 2 hrs a day at a rate of $10-$12/hr to tutor them. In other words, this ninja is f*cking tired at the end of the day and wants to do nothing but watch the Warriors (who return to action this Thursday vs. the Bulls on TNT w/ Chris “he-hasn’t-earned-my-respect-yet” Webber) on my couch.
Regardless of what you believe, I hope you take the time out today to vote. I know a plethora of people feel disenfranchised, that they don’t matter and their vote won’t be counted, but I hope we can all turn out to vote first, and then take SERIOUS action should some bullsh*t go down. The CRAZY thing about this election is despite McCain being a crazy old kook with a terrible sense of humor (singing “bomb, bomb, bomb…bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of the beach boys), if he were to win (God FORBID) things would STILL actually be better than they are now under the Bush administration! OMG. LOL. WTF is the world coming to?
With work and LIFE getting in the way it may feel very difficult to get out there and cast your ballot. I hope if you’re reading this, you put in that extra effort to make it happen (and then you get to wear one of those cool stickers that makes you feel momentarily superior to people who don’t have one!!!).
What I propose is a National “VOTING DAY,” in which ALL Amerikans are given the day-off, and rewarded with a $5 Quiznos gift card for casting their ballot (you can’t tell me that they don’t put crack in those “scrumptulescent” sandwiches…TOASTY!).
And if THAT sh*t don’t bring out the voters, I don’t know what will.
In the words of Sir Smoke-a-Lot from Dave Chappelle’s ‘Half-Baked’:
“God, if you listenin’…HELP!”
BARACK THE VOTE. We want CHANGE!
Si se puede,
C+
p.s. Snoopy telling Larry King like it is.
Speaking the truth and teaching the youth, Adriel Luis, Ruby Veridian-Ching, Nico Cary & Dahlak Braithwaite of iLL-Literacy have been on the scene now for quite some time. I met iLL Poets Ruby Veridiano-Ching and Adriel Luis through performances in the Bay Area and have been incredibly inspired by their groups’ use of spoken word. These cats take “poetry” to new heights, mixing hyphy with political with writings that are critical. I am not only impressed by their incredible artistry but also by their hustle (teach me how u do it Luis!). They have performed with the likes of Kiwi, Phatrick & Bambu (formerly of Native Guns), as well as Zion I and Lauryn Hill (where they be at? we need you!).
(iLL-Lit GOES hard. Check ‘em:)
If you haven’t caught on by now, check out their page ASAP and pretend that knew all along!
SPEAK on it,
Senbei
