
Music and books I listen to

John Wesley Gilbert
Born into slavery. Beautiful academic mind. I didn't know that it had once been against the law for black people to be literate. Evil.

Kehinde Andrews
Life and soul changing. Listening to him makes me want to write. I never knew any of this. It feels like I've been living in an unreal world all this time and suddenly someone's just explained the essence of it all. What's really going on. Hearing some of the disgusting methods of the colonialists in slavery that I never knew about scarred me for life. What this amazing, selfless writer is saying is we need to not just acquire success for ourselves but think about the countries our blood comes from. In all the race politics I've heard no one's said that to me before, it was always just about the struggle in these lands. I feel more alive and more allowed to be me now. Less alone. More comfortable in my own skin and the country. I'll never be the same again. Testament to the power of books. How come it's taken 41 years for me to feel comfortable in the country? Taken the words and voice of someone like me to take away that alienation and outsiderness?. Leftwing politics could never help me before because they failed to realise that the sense of alination through was race was so great within me, that I could barely function. Now I feel fired up politically because someone has acknowledged my race, instead of like the left ignored it like an elephant in the room.

killer mike
Michael
Combination of gospel and rapping beautiful, makes for such a rich, amazing sound. He gives respect to women, they are equal to him on the record.

Archaeology
I love reading these books I got from Wolverhampton library. To learn about lost African, Indian and Mexican cities and civilizations.

Native americans
They just seemed like they wanted to share with the colonialists, were interested in working together, being equal. But the oppressors wanted nothing less than complete dominance. Shocked to discover that one of the tactics of the colonialists was biological warfare, by gifting the Native Americans clothing infused with small pox.

NLE Chopper
Cottonwood 2.
Beautiful creative beats. Bit sexist, the women are just recepticles but I just ignore the lyrics. He's young maybe that's how his life is, a lot of sex. The more I listen. the more I get addicted t he sounds. It's like opening a box of ingenious aural delights. A Nymphomanical Bach.

NAS
Magic 3
Genius. As perfect on the inside as out. An exquisite human. Like a book about everything that goes on his head. Existentialist masterpieces. If you wanted to hear Psychology.

Ancient African Kingdoms
I heard the colonialists destroyed many Ancient African cities. Knocked them down and swept them away. I want to know about them. I also watched a you tube documentary about how Nubia inspired Egyptian philosophy.

Magna Carta Holy Grail
I see each rapper as a classical composer. Jay Z is Handel. Lil Wayne, Mozart. Rick Ross, Beethoven. Beautiful beats. Some critics said he's showing off in this. I think that's ok. He made me want to rich when I heard it, to live in a more beautiful environment.

Mesoamericans
The Spanish wiped out the Maya. These were genius people. Art was central to their world. Instead of just boring buildings like we have in England, they built great sculptures into them. Animal heads and forms.

The Black ALbum
Some of my favourite hip hop sounds ever on here. Just beautiful, classy sound. Jay Z was rich inside before he amassed is fortune. He deserves his wealth.