Featured Post

Conservatism, Reaction, and the Elder's Responsibility: A Message to My Age Grade

Image
Conservatism, Reaction, and the Elder's Responsibility: A Message to My Age Grade Great Day, Fam. This one right here? It’s not for everyone. If you’re not at or approaching Eldership—defined in our tribe as about 55 years old and up—you might not feel all of this. But if you’re curious, or if you’re one of those younger souls already walking with wisdom, you’re welcome to keep reading. This message is for the Elders. For those of us who should know better. And yes—I’m including myself. Let’s Start With the Mirror I’ve got to confess something. I’ve been guilty. Guilty of being reactionary. Guilty of falling into the trap of conservatism. Guilty of romanticizing the past. Guilty of looking at our young people and calling them “soft”—as if we were born warriors, as if we didn’t have to become who we are through fire, failure, and guidance. Many of us Elders are stuck in a loop. We remember only the highlights of our youth—the toughest times we survived, the boldest moments ...

New Age guerilla tribute to Jimon Jones Part I

Che Guevara (Jim Fitzpatrick's style)Image via Wikipedia
Guerrilla in midst/
Using Hip-Hop as weapon/

Waking consciousness/
I woke up today with several things on my mind but one of my ancestors was calling out to me. I have for years been involved in my community as a NationBuilder, and one of the task that I took upon myself was raising boys into men. For years my house was full of young men and their friends. This brought me great joy and great pain. I have lost count of how many young warriors have passed through my house (known by many as the Gye-Nyame house). I have been blessed with the fact that many of these young people developed a love for me and affectionately called me dad or big bra.
Back to the reason I'm writing this piece I woke up with one of the Young men who was in the Gye-Nyame house on my mind heavy. His name was Jimon Jones. He lived next door from me and eventually ended up staying at Gye-Nyame house. Unfortunately he was murdered in the short north. When he died I wrote an article about him and his music. You see one of the ways I was able to work with these young men was that I not only challenged them I encouraged them to pursue their dreams. A few of them including Jimon, Mythic, Midwest Spider and a few others chose to pursue music. When I first heard what they were making I was pissed, but as time went on and I listened and discussed their music with them I began to understand. After Jimon passed I compiled all of the music I could find and put it out as a 2 cd set called "fear none but God vol. I and II. I will be offering them on the blog as soon as I figure out how to get them in the right format for MP3.
Well anyway here is the article that I wrote saluting Jimon and the other warriors involved in the project. its been sitting on the shelf collecting dust.



NEW AGE GUERRILLA


"For that don't know sks sound like this,
  Berettaguns sound like this,
  Guerrillagrime life ride like this,
Gye-Nyame mother fucker I'm gonna die by this,
I never asked to be a gangster the hood made me this,
I never asked to be a writer God gave me this,
I've always been a fighter and my life and shit,
  I'm a mother fuckin rider bitch,
Revolutionary minds"
Jimon Jones some time between 2003-2004

These were words spoken by my little brother on a track called "Revolutionary Minds" on an album entitled "Fear none but God Vol.1". These were words spoken by a true warrior that was struck down early in life.
When I first heard Jimon talking about the  concept he and my other suns came up with 'guerrilla Grime life i thought they had went over the edge. I didn't know at the time that I was in the presence of a modern day messenger, and in many ways a street prophet. It's a shame that we don't recognize genius until it is removed from our presence.



Enhanced by Zemanta

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

GNJ Mall - April 27

How to pour Libations

Unlocking the Power of Honor: A Guiding Light for Our Tribe's Future