a day with jahsun
the man really is close to the most high. this is an addendum because how could i really compress 5 hours of conversation into 500 words (coming in the April issue of Nightlife)-more like 9 hours if you count the words exchanged during the (way too long) wyclef show. here are some notable quotables:
“we don’t need individualism, we need self-love because it leads to the love of others.”
“i don’t really get mashups, or whatever they’re called. they sound like you left your record playing and by mistake started another one, hit too many buttons on your i-tunes or something.”
“my attitude towards major label artists with influence on the youth is that they have a responsibility to that. if they don’t uphold it, there should be a council that takes their ass down.”
“people want to know when we’re gonna do something, i wonder when we’re not? we’ve just been practising in front of our audience instead of in our basement.”
“sports? how can i play sports? if i hurt any of my appendages, i’m screwed, there is no drumming for me, and then what?”
“it’s not about the messenger, it’s the message. sometimes the wicked are schooling the righteous.”
“people think it’s cool to open for big acts, but it’s not. there’s so much drama, they turn down your levels, stack the odds against you so that you don’t outshine the ’star’.”
“what is reverse racism? in order to reverse something, it had to be there in the first place. if you’re calling it, you’ve finally encountered someone strong enough to reflect a reaction.”
“once you innovate, it’s not up to you to say it’s good, it comes in other people saying it through immitation. but you can’t be innovative just in your own right, if people can’t recognize what you make as music, how can they connect to it?”
“everybody knows Bob Marley, but if they really loved him, why wasn’t he being pushed while he was still alive? who’s making the money off his music, man?”
“when you ask people why they go to school, nobody answers that they wanna learn, no they do it because they think it’s going to get them money. but money’s on its way out, it has no value anymore. we’re going to have to go back/forward to people power.”
“there’s two ways to revolution. one-you burn everything down. two-you divert your energy into building your own movement because then you don’t have time to work for anyone else’s efforts but your community’s, and you don’t have time to beg those who have already made it clear that they don’t want you to survive.”
“if you want to build a black school, build it. why you on the news asking for funding? then, you expect the young black youth to go to a school paid for by people who don’t want them to learn? build your own, man. we can find the resources amongst ourselves, money that we spend otherwise on smoking or drinking.”
“james challenger is a master because he never stops learning.”
“entertainment is a byproduct of what we do and i’m glad it happens, but we are there to communicate, not entertain.”
“if you can’t play with others, you’re not a real musician. just because you can handle your instrument, if you can’t handle your personality and allow for others, it’s the difference between being a male and a man.”
go all out.
