Sakinah Iman's music video 'Waiting Tables'.

My good friend Sakinah Iman just released her new video for her single "Waiting Tables" featuring rapper $mitty. The message of the song is. "Why are we, who chase our dreams, for as long as we have, not successful yet, still working these unfulfilling jobs?". Sakinah takes it from the perspective of a waitress, hence the name..Waiting Tables. Here's the video below, check it out!

Also, here is a link to her Soundcloud. You can check the rest of her music out!

Black Man in America song by Johnny Hobbes

I normally don't showcase other artists work here on my blog. But my homie Johnny Hobbes recently dropped this song called "Black Man In America", not only is it important to hear but it really is a good song. I love all forms of Hip Hop, and as long as it sounds dope I fucks wit it. The first time I heard him perform the track, was live at a show we were doing together. In Bushwick, Brooklyn at this spot called "Terra Firma".

The energy and message are strong! The timing of it resonates with the world we live in today. I provided the soundcloud link below the picture of my dude and also the lyrics to the song. Also take a drop by his website: http://www.johnnyhobbes.com/

https://soundcloud.com/johnny-hobbes/black-man-in-america-prod-by-tomas-spisak

Lyrics:

Intro:
Death before dishonor
There’s no honor
in this death
we’re hunted
that’s why so many stay blunted
not many ways
we can deal with the stress

When I uprooted my life
made it more appealing
morning i be reborn
to be dead by the evening

Steady emasculated
Can’t imagine the hatred
And the weapons you came with

To make a
History of Violence
We only found
misery silence

I gotta speak up
Turn that chin and cheek up
These wounds are deep cuts
No more that’s enough

Chorus:
All eyes on me
Black man in America
Will I try and make peace
Or return fire
And tear it up? x2

Verse 1
That's what they asking
We tried asking
For a slice of that pie
Now we die fasting

Really dying out
The well drying out
AND we’re hungry
You ain't happy
Til we inside ya house

Pardon
the incendiary comments
Life is incendiary,
Scary to be honest
Cemetery seems less scary
Or even harmless
Compared to your pipeline
Keystone school to prison

Wasn't in my my right mind
To ever think you'd listen
I just wanted heal
This whole time
400 years
We just wanted to heal

And I will
With or without you

Wonderer what'll look like
When the meek inherit earth
You're about to

bring pon dey revolution
You gave us the how to.
The manual on the ground rules

Pre Chorus

If Al Qaeda shoots, we shoot back
If the Taliban shoot we shoot back
If ISIS shoots we shoot back
But of you shoot,
We supposed to take it x2

Chorus

All eyes on me
Black man in America
Will I try and make peace?
Or return fire
And tear it up x2

Verse 2:

Here's the theme
Common motif
For Every one in the white house
Millions dead in the street
If I turn lights out
Would you be willing to speak?
If we couldn't see
Are you then able to speak

You can't fight fire with fire
But either way we get burned
Eugenics, death and destruction
Feeling our ancestors
All bled for nothing

So old self rest peace
I aint going back
to that life
Not in the least

I’m trying
Be more present
I'm tired of not trying
I don't got time
Every second
An eternity loose
Time left on this lease

Can't waste another minute
I can taste the lies
You invited as spew 'em
Out of your mouth Piece
I'm blessed beyond Vengeance

Pre Chorus

If Al Qeada shoots, we shoot back
If the Taliban shoot we shoot back
If ISIS shoots we shoot back
But of you shoot,
We supposed to take it x2

Chorus
All eyes on me
Black man in America
Will I try and make peace
Or return fire
And tear it up? x2

Bridge

I might be a convict
that don’t mean i lack
conviction
or I'm another victim
there’s bigger
schemes at work
gotta look at the root
not only the fruit
of lynched men

I used to be pacifist
But I’m feeling like I'm past this shit
I didn't ask for this
This is the world that you gave me

Chorus

All eyes on me
Black man in America
Will I try and make peace?
Or return fire
And tear it up x3

How I overcame my fear of busking in my hometown of New York City.

Not much intimidates me when it comes to being a performer. I've performed in front of a number of diverse crowds. They range from angry, loving, or blank stares until you come off stage and everyone tells you how much they loved your performance.(That one still confuses me sometimes even though I don't show it, and it makes me laugh a little).

  

Imagine this face staring at you for 15-30 min of your set. I wonder what goes through the head of a person that looks like this? "He's not Kanye, where's my Kanye???".







Here is your Kanye but he's giving me a face  worse than yours,lol. If you are an artist we have all been there to some extent. You can put your all into a set. Mind, Body, and Soul. Still..The stinkface.

It happens to the best of us. Then there is the angry mob. Which I have to say I enjoy performing in front of. That to me is a Hip Hop crowd, those are the types of crowds I came up through. Just absolutely no mercy! Haha! And I loved every minute of it. I know, I know, I'm a masochist.


If you don't drop a hot 16 nigga!! You in trouble!! 

Now I don't want to stray too far away from the main point of this blog, but what I've mentioned above has given me some ideas as to what a future blog will be about. Namely being dope, in front of a non reactionary crowd. or any crowd for that matter that gives you the opposite reaction you were expecting from your music.

Back to my main point. Busking was one of those things, for some odd reason, scared the shit out of me. Only through out the years of doing music have I become more extroverted and it really has given me the courage to exploit talents I never knew I had. So it's safe to say that feeling the way I did about it was frustrating to me, and I was ready to change it. So I made a post on Facebook, putting the word out to anyone who wanted to join me in doing it, figuring that a group effort would ease the pressure of not having to do it alone. 


An artist by the name Johnny Hobbes reached out to me saying he wanted to join forces. So, cool it wasn't a group but I had someone else on board which eased my mind. He also had to work up the nerve to perform in public. Checkout the videos below to see our first time out busking on NYC trains.

You can probably see how nervous we were in our first outings, but as we progressed, maaan!

We would just walk into train cars and start rapping. The nervousness was gone and we could see a greater power in doing what we were doing. We even broke off and started busking individually. I will admit it takes a bit more energy out of me than being on stage but the liberation is completely there!

Happy Accident Hour 2.0 : Live band, Jam, Cypher at Terra Firma, 119 InGraham st. Brooklyn New York Free show!! TONIGHT 8/24/2016!!

I'm rocking this show at 8pm tonight with all these amazing acts, and it's totally free. Here is the facebook invite https://www.facebook.com/events/1117894608318104/ It's sure to be a great one! Plus there is a live jam session afterwards. So if you are a hiphop artist or artist in any other genre come thru and rock with the band after the performances. 

"Zero Comfort Zone Hip Hop Challenge" Starring Super King Armor and Johnny Hobbes

So I have something to admit...I have a fear of performing in public places by myself or even with someone directed at a crowd. It is something that drives me crazy knowing how comfortable on stage I am and all the intense situations I have been in over the years as a MC. So I finally decided to take matters into my own hands because this shit was fucking with my pride. So I mad a post on facebook about it and another MC I know, named 'Johnny Hobbes'. He told me he had a similar fear of performing in front of crowds. So I said BET! let's do this together then. He agreed and the following video below is the result!

I kept the editing to a minimum so you could see our progress as we went from car to car and train to train. I'm going to continue this project until I ween this shit out of my system and just kill it on the trains and anywhere I go period!

Enjoy guys. Happy New Year!