MUTAMASSIK + MORGAN CRAFT: Text

 

Full length album download.

 

http://www.roughamericana.com/publicfiles/MorganCraft-ACycleOfSeven.zip

 

Copyright © 2011 Circle of Light Recordings.

 

Q:  What is the concept or idea behind this new album?

 

MC:  Seven year cycles for us as humans can be seen as shifting points or markers of change.  Most spiritual traditions recognize the number seven as having special powers, oftentimes associated with a transformation of some kind.  The septimal law carries with it the blueprint found in all aspects of life, namely; birth, growth, fruitage, decline.  This album is being released on the seven year anniversary of my coming to Italy.  It represents a closing of a circle, an ending of an era, and the beginning of something new.  I see it also as an offering of respect to this experience.  My primary concern in coming here was to utilize the time and space to solidify my musical foundation.  That was my mission.  I knew that if I was going to go out into the world and contribute on a level with respect to the masters then I had to find my methodology and my music.  I had no idea it would take seven years and evolve into what it has. 

 

I’m impatient by nature, and I’ve felt the pressures of supporting my family, watching nearly all of my thirties fly by, and seeing my peers out there working.  But this year I realized that I had actually been given something much broader, something that came to resemble mythology more than a music career.  Seven years on a mountain, isolated, surrounded by forest, conducting sonic research in a studio laboratory definitely isn’t the standard business model.  So what was it then?  I found that when I tried to understand it logically, intellectually, I’d get very agitated and fearful.  But when I widened my scope out to seeing my experience along mythological lines I felt stronger and more confident that my work had a deeper purpose.  What all the myths tell of, at their essence, is transformations of consciousness of one kind or another.  In order to find something new, one has to leave the old and go in quest of the seed idea that will have the potentiality of bringing forth that new thing.            

 

Q:  And what is the broader perspective or deeper purpose?

 

MC:  The broader perspective is realizing that music has the power to change the world, and in order for it to do that in a positive way, we have to recover the essence of the art form and bring it into the future.  As a musician, there is a great responsibility to create sounds that carry vibrations which can help humanity.  None of the old forms or styles will work for what the world needs now; there is no going back to the good old days.  It is the job of the re-defined musician to find a new approach that is inspired and will allow music to reveal even more of its higher potentials.   

 

Q:  You’ve said that ‘no new music ever preceded the new musician.’

 

MC:  Precisely.  It means that music is the result of the musician and not the other way around.  Perhaps a better way of looking at it is: all creativity derives from the same infinite source.  This source could be called energy, spirit, God, whatever you’re comfortable with, and it is the quarry from which all things are hewn.  The musician translates this energy into sonic form, while the poet translates it into words.

 

That being said, the ground zero of any new music must be the musician.  By re-defined I mean one who understands that if the source is infinite, then the sonic palette must be also.  In most western music, the harmonic system, or building blocks of the music can be roughly boiled down to the twelve tone chromatic scale.  Seen from the vantage point of the new musician, these tones are comparable to twelve tiny fragments taken from a glacier.  Even that analogy is misleading, because a glacier has boundaries and can be measured.  The new musician embraces infinite sonic possibilities. 

 

Another characteristic of the creative source is that it is in constant motion.  Nowhere in nature do we find a static or fixed element.  A common analogy is that of a river, always flowing but never the same.  The key to a new music then is aligning oneself to the governing principles of life as we know it.  Within music, the process by which we come closest to this natural reality is improvisation.  Most musicians have a belief in the power of a first take.  The energy or vibe of doing something for the first time can’t be duplicated.  I know that it’s possible to create a music based on that principle, one that is alive and in the moment, which is what improvisation truly is.

 

Thirdly, with the advent of sampling technologies, the concept of the band; drums, bass, keyboard, guitar, vocals, all playing their prescribed and traditional roles, is entirely out of date.  A single musician can now build structures that previously required the efforts of twenty instrumentalists.  Every musician is now an orchestra.  Not only is this a breakthrough for the self-reliant types, but when collaborations do occur, as in the form of a group, each person’s role will have to be entirely re-assessed.     

 

Q:  There seems to be a general ennui in the world of music these days.  You hear people say that such and such band or artist gave them hope that real music was coming back.  What is it we’re yearning for?

 

MC:  I believe we’re yearning to be inspired again, especially now.  I think we’ve been drifting so far away from what it means to be creative that we only have a dull or vague sense of something not being right.  Bands come and go and we like them because they remind us of something else.  People say they want real music, but that shouldn’t be confused with what real music was thirty years ago.  What we long for from our musicians is that sense of adventure, that spirit of transcendence.  And what we long for in our music is to be transported and transformed.  The modern musician has to be honest with what has run its course.  What I mean is, thirty years ago, going to the big city seemed to inspire new ideas; the rents were cheap and people had the time to explore.  But now, the major cities are corporate strongholds, intent only on bleeding the creative spirit dry.  The new musician needs to go in search of new inspiration. 

 

This is the first time in history where we can affordably take a whole studio, in the form of a laptop, and make industry standard albums wherever we are.  And with downloads becoming the accepted method of hearing new music, the possibilities are exciting and endless.  Why not live on a boat and make an album in the middle of the Mediterranean, or on the beach in Bali, or up in the Himalayas?  A balanced relationship between the new technologies and what it means to be human could provide the necessary leap into a new era.

Music has been sold out.  Finally this elephant in the room will be talked about and acknowledged, so let’s not waste any more time.  I believe that the state of music today is the worst in history, full stop.  There, I said it.  Can’t you breathe a little easier now that we’ve gotten that out into the open?  This is not a new development.  It’s old news in fact.  We’ve allowed ourselves to be led into a cul-de-sac and diverted from the truth; the truth that music, or the essence which animates great music, has almost completely disappeared from the landscape, the same as the Mekong giant catfish or golden headed langur.  And yet we all still carry the memory, deep in our subconscious, of times when music was not just a diversion but an actual force which could lift us above the mundane or confusing world around us, a music that resonated in our souls.  All of our debates about the collapsing industry are keeping us from what we really want to say but don’t want to admit.  Namely, that the music of today doesn’t inspire us.  It doesn’t carry with it that dimension of wonder and possibility.  We’re all responsible.  We all sat back and watched as certain forces systematically narrowed and flattened its higher potentials.    

 

What is music?  Music is emotionalized sound.  Music is energy.  It can be used as a weapon or it can be used to heal.  Sound is the result of that mystery of mysteries, existing independently of us as much as the stars in space.  Emotion is the result of the human experience.  So the source or nexus of music is midway between the human and the divine.  Without our emotional engagement, sound remains ordinary, even dull.  Wouldn’t you say there is something intrinsically unique about this art form?  It is invisible, and its ability to cross borders remains unparalleled.  These facts alone should alert us to the special qualities of emotionalized sound.  Is there a limit to what is possible through music?  Has everything been heard?  My feeling is that we’ve only scratched the surface and that this period in history will usher in a new sonic approach that will help us contribute to this new world.  We need music to come back to us.  I’ve missed it terribly.  We need it to come back and show us a positive way forward by filling our hearts with the assurance that what we dream is truly possible, and more.  But what will it take?              

 

If music is to be saved it will take a new kind of musician to do it, a magician of the sonic realm, one who is fully conscious of what is at stake and what it will take.  This new musician is once again an adventurer, for the inspiration s/he seeks lives out on the frontiers of the heart, mind, and soul.  It is a spiritual realm, a diving deep into oneself in search of that which is real, timeless.  It will require the patience and diligence of an ox, but it’s not without reward.  The inspiration uncovered could be seen as a key, spark, or seed that is alive and in motion, with the musician as go-between, carrying it into the world.  Once this seed is planted it grows into initiative, which in turn grows into creation.  The creative person is the properly aligned person.  Creative in all walks of life, in every pursuit, in every situation.  As all of the political and economic promises continue to trip, stumble, and fall short of real change, the inspired individual is the one true currency.  Without this, all of our oil and gold would be so much black water and yellow rock. 

 

I feel that music wants to come back, is ready to come back.  It had to wait for its freedom in order to speak without consequences or copyright infringements.       But, life works in strange ways.  Perhaps without the ridiculous demands and foibles of a corrupt, and now moribund, music industry, we wouldn’t be as hungry and ready to really hear again from our hearts.  Whatever the case may be, we stand poised to create a new habitat for this force called music.  And I, for one, am grateful.

 

Spring 2011 / Castell’Azzara

The making of "That Which Death Cannot Destroy": a studio tour into stabbing strings, thundering drums, howling conviction 

  

  Going from a predominantly raw urban experience (see: childbirth on Medicaid in Brooklyn, many etcs.) to a raw, rough, rugged rural experience has taught me many things.

  Let me give props where props are due:  A decade plus+ in the streets of New York City and Cairo cut my teeth; half that time in Nature, however, has kicked my ass.  Not just once, but continuously.  This has been a boot camp.  If inner city life made me hard, Nature made me harder. 

  During the making of my latest record, I was mostly wearing a parka, long johns, 2 pairs of socks, 2 sweatshirts, pants and a hat and every time I exhaled a condensed pulmonary fog clung to the air undisputed-by-modern-science measuring the harshness of the situation (I'd take the parka and hat off when I got sweaty on drums and cello).  I have to frequently cuddle my DAT which I record my masters onto to get it's digi-electronic guts warm enough to function.  Couldn't an electric space heater solve the problem?  No.  The excess wattage makes the old, faulty electrical circuit jump.  {The American gear (which 99% of our gear is, brought over from N.Y. on a ship with the entire $5,000 given to us by the U.S. government for being hard-working, poor and with child) is converted and stabilized by voltage transformers used by the U.S. military in the hairiest parts of Afghanistan--not proud, just real}.  There is no central heating.  We go deep into the forest to collect firewood, chop trees, burn burn burn.  We make fires to stay warm (9 months out of 12).  CAVEmen-style.  We hike 4 miles up the mountain 5 days a week, bringing empty bottles to fill up at the mountain spring--whatever we can carry, our daily drinking water.  Since the local water has been privatized it's chlorinated vapors (which we have to pay handsomely for) are best avoided.  We've learned to cement up falling ceilings, maximize a piece of dirt to grow food (picking up some ripe sheep shit on the way to  the mountain spring to make the vegetables pop), make a 3-month supply of fuel for heating water last 1 year by only having 15 minutes of hot water every other day--no matter how harsh the winter-- and feed 3 people on a buck.  Our only form of transportation has been our son's stroller which we used well after he started walking to haul up large tanks of cooking gas.  From it's beginnings on Atlantic Avenue, and after many brutal years of international service as person, baggage, tank, garbage rickshaw, it has once again been recycled as a safe home for cats.  {Note:  None of this new or harsh to anyone but us city slickers/urbanites/suburbanites/industrialites}.

  We have a relationship to Nature that is mostly not Soft, Ethereal, Romantic as somehow propagated by Dabbling-Vegan-Hallmark-Hippies, but rather Tense, Negotiating, Respectful...Intense.   There aren't many affectations here:  When I bark and howl on 'Future Ancient Ruins' and many other tracks, it's a reflection of what I hear around me.  Just as unaffected as the helicopter blades that incessantly circled my apartment in Brooklyn in 2002 (scanning the Atlantic Ave Falafel/Atlantic Seaboard/East River circuit just after 911?) and found their way on my tracks while I was making the 'High Alert' Ep. 

  I'm telling you this, a bell'100th of it all, because this has made me confront many things, including accountability/consumption... 

  But the sparkling gem has been the molecular realization that Resourcefulness makes you funky.  Being able to make 'Something' useful and/or inspiring out of what most people call 'Nothing' is a gift usually bestowed upon the meek.  <<<Something to think about when choosing Comfort over Hardcore>>> and/or when Life slips the comfort right out from under your feet.

Which leads to my upcoming P.E.I. theory....more later.

 P.s./disclaimer:  I'm not a luddite.  Neither am I a glassy-eyed naturalist who proposes everyone 'drop out' to swing naked on vines.

http://www.roughamericana.com/publicfiles/MUTAMASSIKThatWhichDeathCannotDestroy___.zip

 

  The term 'Mash-up' (said to be coined in 2001 by dj Freelance Hellraiser?) really embodies the Zeitgeist.  But before I blow the term to bits, let me take a moment to appreciate it's use as contaminant and destroyer of corporate systems, in line with hackers, adbusters, pirate radio broadcasters, etc .  Also, to be clear:  this is not a semantics debate.   I had fair warning from my dad when I was little with our first drug chat.  He used to tell me that 'cocaine', for example, as a word and even a drug shouldn't necessarily be demonized.  It's how people use it that makes it 'bad'.

  So how is this term being used in music/art now?  Glibly, superficially,  glossed-over to make sure it's party-ready.  Ready to be consumed and vomited. 

  We're living in an era of the ultimate Cliff Note, of Cultural Bulimia. 

 In whatever blaze of creative brilliance it may have started, 'Mash-up' has become synonymous with 'Skim-Skam' (aka Lay-Z!), my term for the current musical/journalistic/PR trend that nonchalantly quotes and glibly references African, Jamaican, Arabic, Celtic, etc music (i.e., music embedded in a culture that means alot more to it's people than an outsider could ever understand) without going deep (Skim), regurgitating it back out into the world with an air of 'Uh-huh, got it'  and making a career out of it (Skam).   {Seems to have become an especially useful cover for people who really have no ideas of their own, but still want to appear cool by affiliating themselves with whatever they're 'mashing up'}. 

  Adverse effects include the ubiquitous and oblivious, existential-ontological-digital delusion that all that IS must BE online (I'm googlable therefore I am).  All of this neatly disposes of the harsh reality of how experience + information + spiritual weight used to be got:  from donkey shit squishing between your toes (then losing your flip flop in it), power shortages, grumpy locals and bumpy bus rides.   The Mash up Zeitgeist dictates that entire sounds, cultures, peoples can be gotten as quickly as an FTP(Flippant Tourist Pretention). 

  The grand and sapping illusion of the "thumb generation" is that everything in the world can be found online...somewhere.  The fact remains that there is an infinite, valuable myriad of phenomena that is NOWHERE to be found online (I have proof). 

  And while I'm amped to be part of the beauty of uploading, inputing, sharing rare information via this neo-Alexandrian-human-rhizome library (maktoub ya’ll), what I'm seeing is a gradual evolution of humans into the Wellsian Elois prototype; limp-wristed, brain-heavy, bloodless, nutless, post-humans living in paralytic fear of anything that operates with a body, blood, breath, meat, death, pain, passion  (last time I checked-this morning- most humans still take stinky shits). 

  I hope this fact encourages more people to get off their asses and actually leave their safe abodes to physically go check things out--empirical knowledge-style before ripping it off.  Of course, I'm addressing mostly the part of the world afflicted with this new disease, which is the privileged world (people who have access to food, water, 'peace'-redefined as no bombs dropping on your house, education, money--which nowadays does not only mean the 'West' anymore). 

 We still have bodies for a reason.  "Use 'em or lose 'em".

 

NEW RELEASE.  MORGAN CRAFT / “THE SILVER BULLET”

Free full length album download.

(Clinical Archives Release)  2009.

 

http://clinicalarchives.blogspot.com/2009/10/ca324-morgan-craft-silver-bullet.html

 

Q:  So the name of the album is "The Silver Bullet", what exactly are you trying to say with that?

 

MC:  I mean it to work on a couple levels.  Obviously the most common use for silver bullets comes from folklore, against werewolves, witches, or certain monsters.  In looking around today at the music scene it's hard not to feel it's being propped up and run by real life monsters.  The endless barrage of negativity and regression, the focus on style over substance, laziness, misinformation, theft, greed, lies, all point to a certain kind of evil.  So, metaphorically, the only way to stop them is with a silver bullet.  But my bullet / album doesn't kill, it enters the body through the ear and acts as a catalyst for realignment and mutation.  As a more general metaphor, the term silver bullet refers to any straightforward solution perceived to have extreme effectiveness.  The phrase typically appears with an expectation that some new technology or practice will easily cure a major prevailing problem.

 

Q:  So you're taking it upon yourself to illustrate another approach?

 

MC:  Someone has to do it.  I don't see anybody else stepping up and taking the heat.  I don't see anybody cutting against the grain with anything revolutionary.  I feel like it's time to lay the cards out on the table and really walk the walk.  I've talked so much about my generation and its lacks and now I'm really trying to move beyond all the complaining.  I feel that criticism really is very weak in terms of actually effecting some kind of change.  What is needed are musicians willing to show and prove that a new direction can and does exist.  I'm interested in art and artists that inspire humanity to think, feel, and act on the highest possible level for the good of the planet.  I'm interested in innovation and expansion.  I think we're at the end of a particular cycle that has allowed so much negativity to flourish.

 

Q:  The title also brings to mind the Lone Ranger.  He used silver bullets in his gun.

 

MC:  (laughs) That's true, I never thought of that.  I can't say I ever watched the show but the premise is definitely one I would agree with.   I think the world is ready for a new hero.  And I don't mean this penchant for identifying with comic books and naming yourself after one of the characters, or being a politician waving words around and posing as something heroic.  I mean a real flesh and blood hero going out to fight injustice.  Yeah, I think it's time for that.

 

 

MORGAN CRAFT: INTERVIEW 2009.

 

Q:  Where do you think music is going now, especially with the availability of affordable technologies making it easy for practically anyone to become involved in the production, distribution and promotion of new music?  How does this shift affect your thinking?

 

MC:  I've been making the comparison of what's happening now in music to the advent of photography and what it did to the painters.  It forced a major change in the medium and I think the same will be true now for music.  I'm very excited about this, actually.  I like the fact that things are coming to a head, becoming congested and overpopulated because it forces a new direction.  Musicians or sound artists who are dedicated to the progression of the form are going to have to discover a way to continue.  Part of my whole research these last few years has been about building a new machine.  I've been thinking about the entire field of creativity and improvisation as opposed to just the audio or aural.  Part of me doesn't even want to focus on being a musician anymore, I almost don't want to call myself that.  I'd rather hold out for something other.  But the important question is / what is music for?  Is it ironic, sexual, materialistic, glib, sound used for base entertainment or is it something else?  Well, we know it can be all of those things, but it's also a great responsibility.  Music is not a game, it is a spiritual thing.  You don't play with music, its power cannot be underestimated.  When the higher forces give you the gift of musicianship it must be well-used for the good of humanity.  So if, as a musician, your concern is communicating or being a vessel then it's only a matter of time until that separates what you're doing from the masses of people just doing it for kicks. 

 

Q:  How have you maintained your optimism over these last five years despite the lack of gigs, rewards or attention?

 

MC:   Well, on one level the work becomes it's own forward momentum and positivity.  As an artist, when you begin to break through your own boundaries and create something new, just for yourself, it gives you energy.  The art keeps you uplifted.  Also, something that I think about a lot is that I could not continue simply through my own willpower.  I have felt led by the hand, so to speak, for many years now.  All along the way I have followed the signs or intuitions that were put in my path and have led me here.  Then, it's easy to think, 'well, where is here?  I'm invisible.'  But underneath the paranoid mind is a belief that this is what I personally have to go through in order to make music that is timeless.  I've never wanted to just be in the music business, you know, doing sessions and making a living.  My inspirations are those people who created something that was not constrained by thoughts of money or popularity.  And as you grow and do the research on who has come before, you begin to notice a pattern.  Obviously it varies and there are fast starters but there are also the ones who had to marinate for awhile and had to endure long stretches of total obscurity.  I've trained a long time to listen to my soul, going on instinct, intuition, emotion and inspiration rather than logistics or whatever standards are currently in vogue for being a success.  I have more energy now than ever before in my life.  I'm following that.  That's the force that allows you to see the possibility everywhere.  This is what I mean when I say it isn't about me and my will and what I want to do, it's about what I've been given and asked to do.  I don't have a choice.  For me, life is about being inspired and the rewards have to do with flowing naturally, the earth, space, feelings.  All kinds of glorious things begin to happen when you accept your duty of contributing at your highest possible level and potential, whether or not anyone is giving you praise.   

 

Q:  Why do you think there hasn't been more of a response yet?  You've got a pretty good resume, you've done the New York grind, etc.  It seems like a perfect time to be out there.

 

MC:  The music that is currently being supported right now falls in line with certain regressive tendencies that the world is still entertaining.  It's so much easier to market and sell something that has already proven to be successful, from the styles of music to the way people are playing their instruments, and it's also much safer in terms of cultural influence.  The power structure obviously doesn't want any renegade forms to get much room, they never have, and it's always been a struggle between power and the creative sector.  We've been programmed to all nod in unison at the rightness of the current state of things.  Obviously it starts from the beginning, with the media, with schooling.  I don't think I have to talk much about this, it's a pretty basic thesis and there's enough great research out there already.  (John Taylor Gatto's essay 'Against School' and Noam Chomsky's 'Media Control' for starters)  What I find uniquely disturbing about this particular moment in time is the overwhelming lack of progressive opposition.  You'd be hard pressed to find a line of thought that runs contrary to the status quo.  And if you do find an opposition it usually sits nice and safe within a school syllabus or well established form, like conceptual art or jazz or Marxism.  Artists, musicians, writers have become respectable.  They've become careerists.  Somehow the old notion of the independent artist has been replaced by the specialist willing to work for whomever has the cash or the power to bestow a title.  This, I think, is a new development.  What I'm concerned or nervous about is a generational black hole, a kind of void where exciting individuals, groups and sounds used to be.  That's my area of responsibility.  I want to be the proof that you can blaze your own trail outside of the institutions and not have any inferiority complexes because of it.  You can be as literate as you want, as aggressive as you want, as uncompromising as you want, all the while creating your own niche and setting your sights on doing something original and fresh.    

 

Q:  You mentioned something about 'a new machine' you're trying to create and I assume you don't mean a gadget or mechanical device.  Could you explain a bit more what you have in mind?

 

MC:  It's absolutely human.  The body and its intelligences are a machine.  It's about using all of your talents and all of your interests as one complete expression, without having to divide yourself up to fit into a box.  I'm obsessed with composite forms, new kinds of agglomerations and energies.  The new machine is not some fixed definition, it's a constant unfolding and I have no idea where it will go.  It's really just a phrase that keeps my attention facing forward.  Let's look at it a bit randomly.  I've talked a lot about the new black American avant-garde and improvisation.  For myself this involves a melding of my particular cultural attributes to the point where there is no division or hesitation between the parts.  I'm interested in rhythm, the rhythms found in nature, the relationships we have with the seasons, the ocean, cosmology.  I'm interested in literature, writers like Jean Genet, Virginia Woolf, Samuel Delany.  I'm interested in cultural theory, Camille Paglia, Nietzche, athletics, Kobe Bryant, Randy Moss, Usain Bolt, poetry, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath, photography, Cecil Taylor, video, Dogme 95, freestyle motocross, Fleetwood Mac, big wave surfing, volume, excess, discipline.  The new machine isn't concerned with boundaries, only whether it can be of use or not.  It can take energy from any arena and apply it where needed.  But it must be functional, it must be real and not languishing in theoretical musings.  The new machine should be severely physical.   

 

Q:  You've said before that every instrumentalist must discover the infinity within their instrument, what do you mean?

 

MC:  Every instrument must be exploded, atomized and seen for what it truly is.  If you accept that sound, not only the twelve tones of our western system, but the entire world of sound, can be used for communication and expression then you must discover the point at which your instrument liquefies. 

Originally commissioned by the New York Foundation for the Arts(www.nyfa.org) for their 'rants and raves' column. due to word-count restraints, the entire piece couldn't make it on their site. this topic, in fact, has been edited/damn-near censored by every publication/interview i've brought it up in except for in Veronique Mortaigne's piece in Le Monde(1998) and Nebulisa's African Sun Times interview (1999).   Republished at http://ambassadors.net/archives/issue26/opinions3.htm

1) Egypt: a Brief thought on North African colonialism or "de-Nile" of/to Vulcanize or Afro-Asiatic Mokkassar

North Africa is under the Arab umbrella now. Egypt, for example, has officially been the 'Arab republic of Egypt' since 1971, 1300 years after the original Arab invasion. surely as Israel's expanding threat grew, so did the need for the surrounding nations to come together under one banner. there have been many attempts in history at forming a Pan-Arab league. when it was for the sake of peacefully unifying quarelling peoples, liberating Palestine and dissolving colonialism and imperialism all over N. Africa and the Middle East it was truly a noble feat. but what happened as a result is that alot of fundamental Aboriginal/pre-Arab cultures have been disregarded or generically assimilated.

 the original colonialist became the colonialized to become once again the colonialist.

the fact is that many N. Africans are not entirely Arab if at all: the Gnawa of Morocco, the Berber- the Tuareg- the Kabylie of Algeria-, the Copts, the Nubians... Egypt, like the other N. African countries, has always been made up of incessant waves of foreign conquests/migration in some form or another: Persians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Turks, Romans, French, Arabs, British, Assyrians, Kushites, Babylonians, and yes, Nasser, even Jews... and perhaps even Spacemen! and let's face it, they've all tried to claim Egypt as their own. and despite their misgivings they've all made it what it is today--to try and extricate one thread would be to destroy the entire textile. from a cultural point of view, the fabric has fused, Vulcanized. politically though, that kind of Idealistic Unity(which in fact is quite Real) doesn't make for profit and therefore it is more opportunistic to proclaim it solely an Arab republic. economically, it would gain nothing from being called an 'African' country, which as far as i'm concerned is what it is First. it wouldn't be such a problem if the Aboriginal Cultures of N. Africa were not so unappreciated in their own countries. the interest in them comes mostly from the outside rather than from within the country of origin--- from Black scholars, uprooted mestizos, the sanitized French museum, the German anthropologist, the British cultural center, the 'world' music festival where musicians are paid to play barefoot in galabeyyas for rich Scandinavians while after the gig they're rocking pepe jeans and nikes, the hip producers begging to have their tracks laced with some Gnawa soul authenticity...{reminding me of what is being done to the Aboriginal People of America. nearly wiped out, then corraled & pieced back together for some archive.} undoubtedly, the people of the Arabian Peninsula brought with them a cache of knowledge, Science, Poetry...that Illuminated the world . and the African-Arab marriage in particular has bred an incredible breadth of culture (Music that i fanatically promote worldwide, Mathematics, Science, Medicine, Spirituality, Art, Philosophy, Meta-Physics, Architecture, etc). but it has been fraught with strife, one partner just being too domineering.

examples of this: the Algerian guy in Paris who was getting fresh in French. i snapped something back in Arabic, thinking he looked pretty F.O.B. [also assuming a certain unspoken comradry between Arabic-conquered/speaking peoples dispersed in the West--the Yemeni & Palestinians in the N.Y. bodegas appreciate even my primitive Arabic]. i was shocked by his explosive reaction. 'ena mabakallamsh el a'aaa'aarabeyy!!'('i don't speak aaaarabish'), overpronouncing the "a'ayen" in a derisively exaggerated manner. he went on spurting some insults in French. a nearby table of Maghrebeen burst out laughing, somehow knowingly. as it turns out, my man was a Kabylie, some of the most fiercely resistant people to the Arab conquest, insisting on speaking their Vernacular instead. they are not alone. the Nubians became ever more insistent on retaining their Pre-Arab language after the slap-in-the-face of the Aswan High Dam from 1960-71 forcing 90,000+ people from their homes(on a tour bus with the Nubian-Egyptian singer Mohamed Mounir going to a show past the Pyramids, his brother Mahmoud explained to me his intense need to go back down home to open a cultural center for preservation of the Nubian language). the Copts of Egypt and Ethiopia in a usually more passive way have been resisting for 14 centuries, Berbers protested vehemently in 1980 against the mandate making Arabic the official language of Algeria... and then there's the late-night arguments with my Sudanese friends in Cairo, a couple of whom consider themselves absolutely & completely Arab(those more devoted to the Prophet) and the rest who consider themselves a mix as they very well are. the dictionary defines an Arab as anyone who's primary language is Arabic...oh, if it were only so easy...!

why is it so important for the world to consider Egypt African? (Libya, Tunisia, Algeria & Morocco are more likely than Egypt to be identified as African countries). because Africa must be given it's due, unabridged props. in the broadest sense. because Africans and Europeans have been in 'de-Nile'- claiming the 'real' Africa begins sub-Sahara (and here's what's really messed up-- i don't know too many Egyptians that claim to be Africans. you're likely to hear, 'i'm an Arab' or 'i'm a descendent of the Pharaohs' or 'i'm a Muslim' before you hear 'i'm an African'. is it because Egypt is physically connected by the Sinai to the Middle East? or does the tug of the Mediterranean sea pull too hard? or has Africa been purposely truncated to curb it's mind-blowing riches or have the various colonialists brain-washed Egypt with their standards of Eurasian beauty and power?) peoples' conception of what Africa looks like has to be revised to include the North African populations Pre-Arab & Post-Arab. [like Pan-Arab efforts that united the Arab-conquested lands, this is a Pan-African-Derived movement that is not based on territorial expansion and dominance, but on geographical, anthropological and continental fact]. African-Americans have been quick to realize this. maybe that's why combining this Music with Hip-Hop feels so good.

i find that one of the only sanctuarys is in the Music i do where the arguments and influences can battle themselves out, convulse, break bread together, get bashed into place in an inspiring, juicy pulp, still alive and kicking as sonic plasma should be. Afro-Asiatic Mokkassar.

epilogue: it's time for anyone who has roots in that part of the world to step up and represent correctly. but, do we in the West, have to dumb down to Americans' cultural illiteracy by coming up under one generic umbrella (it's way more complex than that, what about Iranians?) to shed a positive light on a part of the world that is deeply misunderstood and unfortunately misrepresented in the West more than ever? all of us here in the West that would be considered 'moderates' or 'liberals' by this ignorant U.S. govt. can help it. but not at the expense of not also recognizing the variety within what is politically known as the Arab world. some people in the movement fear that such discussions will detract from the show of unity and solidarity and hurt the cause. it is not to fracture unity, but to EXPAND the world's notions about who we are, how broad and deep this 'we' really is. just in the same way that Egypt has to be reconfigured into the African dialectic as a whole to expand peoples' notions of what Africa means. it is the truth. otherwise, this kind of homogenization is nothing short of colonialization/ imperialism.

p.s. upon my husband's urging, i have to add that my father is Italian(Tuscan from Rome) and my mother is Egyptian(Sa'aidi Copt from Cairo) and i was born in Italy where i grew up partly, but mostly in Ohio, WV & Pittsburgh (Rustbelt, U.S.A.). in our household, we were only allowed to speak Italian which my mother learned fluently. my father, however, never learned Arabic. he used to joke that he bought my mother from a Bedouin caravan for 4 camels and a donkey. a sort of domestic colonialism(a whole other essay). the roman emperor's dream of pharaonic war booty... (and the rest of the rants...)

2) hark ye, goddess/empress! since i've been in n.y., i've come across an ever-expanded circle of people who simply adore stroking egos by calling eachother 'goddesses'. the people i'm referring to generally have nothing to do with santeria, candomble', hinduism, yoruba, etc. you can tell by how glibly they use the term. beyond even 5 %er speak(which, come on dudes, i got less brains than you?). if you've ever been an artist in n.y. you probably know what i'm talking about. maybe it's to compensate for their lack of self-worth as humans. to lift themselves out of the banal backdrop of their past lives and rise beyond mortality, to banish the mundane and mediocre with one wave of their magic batons(oh yeah, when they're not stumbling around on heels over-promoting their latest gig or throwing a benefit party...for themselves!). maybe you really are a 'goddess'(i can't be the judge of that), but i am not. suffice it to call me a perceptive human, and unneccessary to call me 'empress'(i'm decidedly anti-imperialist!), 'queen'("God save the queen, WE MEAN IT, MAaAN!") or any other ridiculous faux-regalia. thanks for the compliment though. fyi, i produce fouls stenches and liquids. i don't know what kind of shits 'these goddesses' of your self-canonizing mythology take. i'll have to read up on it. [re: advise Gray & Moore, Homer, Edith Hamilton, E. A. Budge...]

3) "breaking my nuts about 'breaking my nuts'" for every time i've used that phrase there's been someone on the other end of it(often my older brother) chiding or correcting me with 'what nuts?!'. this is the response i should have prepared: the ovaries are almond-shaped and sized (almonds=nuts). furthermore, they 'break' cyclically, prompting a mess of blood and guts and stuff. now to be used with clinically approved aplomb.

4) selective unconscious: art dies regurgitated As artists, we need to write about, document, reflect on our work, for sure (art/music are interchangeable). especially with more daring explorations of sound that have not yet rotted in the ornamental container of established forms. Words can be: a frame for the work to be viewed through, part of the music itself, a springboard from which the listener's mind can jump confidently into the otherwise inaccessible body of water, a motivation for artists to understand and develop their work, or a preemptive note to future critics who might think they know better...and yet, all of these metaphors for words and music can be meaningless rhetoric spiraling further away from the intuitive nature of it & into the convoluted passages of the inner intestinal brain where art is not made but digested and excreted!

5) which came first, credit addiction or pharmaphilia? (both promote the bad habit of unaccountability for one's self) the problem with credit cards is that they validate consumption by any means neccessary, proliferating irresponsibility for actions, eating away at any sense of a shared responsibility as a societal whole, that an individual's actions affect the whole. each of us being a microcosmic reflection of the national 'big picture'. "Why shouldn't we have a cushy ride through this life", my-ex-neighbors-in-Brooklyn-who- have-a-RangeRover-and-you-know-for-a-fact-they're-poor-as-hell & so many other Americans ask. The 'piece of the pie' ideal was to use the plastic to borrow an opportunity for a better life, pay it off diligently and rest in peace. That's not the reality of the situation. Some people are addicted to gambling/risk-taking/luxury. early education on the gravity of the matter is what's lacking. (and by gravity, i mean literally people are seduced into digging their own graves) Ignorance is calculated in the interest of Interest. (once in the grave, one can barely shovel out a little dirt that would be the monthly interest, never quite able to chip away at the principle itself). accountability just does not seem to factor into the american way of life(it took the Catholic Church 500 years- by way of J.P. II, a Pole who stepped up, because the Italians & Spanish were troppo preoccupati con 'la figura'- to apologize for the Inquisition/Crusades!!!). similarly, the legal drug-pimping by the pharmaceutical industrial army staffed by it's medic mafia(the hardly legible print or barely discernible rapid-fire t.v. disclaimers ("side effects may include nausea, insomnia, liver disease...death...) nurture this unaccountability or fear of confrontation.... so people are digging their own graves. both, in effect, never give one the chance to dig themselves out of the hole.

Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys, Beyonce’, Michelle Obama and her mom Marian Robinson and the Obama girls Malia and Sasha, Santogold , most of Bruce Springsteen’s backing Gospel Choir, Oprah Winfrey, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Queen Latifah…

All present at Obama’s Inauguration. All processed.

{Disclaimer: I know there are lots of African-descended women out there representing with their real hair. The vicious cycle about it is that who the photographers are paid to capture and what the editors decide to put out in the world leans heavily toward the women with the processed hair. Also, no disrespect to Mrs. Robinson because my own beloved grandmother and mother and aunts and cousins did and do process their hair). So, we have a (half) black president (with natural hair and undyed greys {as expected from a powerful man--whole other essay}), so why is he surrounded by black women with processes!? Given the fact that I have never seen a picture of the most ‘powerful’ black women currently (Michelle Obama, Oprah…) with ‘natural’ hair (only God, their men, maids and hairdressers know what their natural hair really looks like), I’m assuming that they’re operating out of the very familiar “wouldn’t-be-caught-dead” philosophy/mental illness.

We’re all well aware of the options for fitting in: For the woman who wants to look ‘professional’, the Barbara Walters hairstyle is the standard, as is the long, glossy Eurasian style for the woman who wants to be seductive/”beautiful”. Women with kinky hair complain that they ‘have’ to straighten it to avoid discrimination in the workplace. Conventional people need to stick to conventional things I guess, but there are plenty of women who have had the courage to bend convention. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO SET A NEW STANDARD. (God bless the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, but a 5 ft- circumference Afro isn’t the only way to show you're black and proud).

Unfortunately, celebrities have a higher platform for societal impact/change and squander it on status quo. What seems to be an inconsequential, girly- fancy of hairstyle choice actually poisons the cultural stream. Of course, not every one agrees that there’s a problem with this gross lie of ubiquitously processed hair.

It wouldn’t be a big deal if it weren’t for the “wouldn’t-be-caught-dead” virus. I know I will be lashed for misogyny for criticizing the aesthetic freedom of women. Changing hairstyles is a woman’s prerogative in this ‘free’ society, as elemental as ‘tampons or pads?’. But we all know that this goes beyond simply the myriad of expressions of feminine vanity. Given the recent shifts of power (even if Symbolic), we cannot keep blaming it on C.J. Walker or whitey or even the ancient wig-wearing Egyptians anymore. This is brainwashing and cultural oppression that has gripped the heads in Africa too. (i.e., anyone who was born with non-straight hair but believes that silky and straight is simply more beautiful is BRAINWASHED!)

This is such an old and tedious discussion (because it’s an old and tedious reality), but what I need to point out is that this is not strictly limited to African-American women or African-descended women in the Diaspora. In fact, I felt prompted to write this opinion largely to show how vast and far-reaching this problem is. Blame it on colonialism (and the British truly did a number on the heads in Egypt, among other places…guilty, nappy heads on ironing boards, Elvis adoration…), but what did people sacrifice their lives to ‘free’ their people for?

Visit my family in Egypt on any given day. None of the women will be caught dead opening the door with their natural hair. There was a great collective embarrassment over my hair, despite it being ‘smoother’ than theirs, and continuous pressure by the women to take me to the salon for a straightening to make me marriageable and derision and disgust from the men. You would not believe the amount of negative attention placed on my (in my mind) innocuous, natural hair (often squeezed down into a braid (unassuming, but kinda country, Fellaha-ish, ‘namean?) to avoid aforementioned attention), e.g., like when I was coming out of the St. Teresa metro stop in Shobra and this guy sneered, ‘Meen a’amelt sha’arik?’ (Who did your hair?...God how I should have said, ‘Ommik!’{meaning ‘Your mama!’ ,but also the second and last word in one of the most heinous insults in colloquial Egyptian} ).

Pick just about any country in Africa today and you will find profuse advertisement for hair-straightening products like it’s the norm, as opposed to some whimsical fashion ‘alternative’. Like the veil which is not forced in moderate Islamic countries (e.g., Egypt), unspoken pressure from the community bends women to the collective will. When the convention of the day (mind you, in a time and place when/where personal ‘freedom’ is so greatly valued) tells you that you and millions of other people were born with features that are ‘uncivilized’, ‘ugly’ or ‘bad’, it must be addressed and inverted.

I have disgusted myself over spending this much time on such a superficial topic as hair. Yet below the follicle is a deep-rooted illness. So that’s it! Effennuff said.

Women (from Michelle Obama in D.C. to my cousin Amel in Cairo) please, just have some more nuts!

p.s. for an explanation of womens’ nuts, please view my previous essay called, “breaking my nuts about ‘breaking my nuts’”. (see below)

In response to Thomas Golianopoulos' article in issue #13 'where the female mcs?': who gives a fuck. Where the female PRODUCERS?!!! Here's one theory for why there aren't more women producers: from an early age, it is proved to a girl over and over that alot of doors open for her just by looking good and sexy. The weak ones take this easy road. The message is: the world will reward you instantly if you just concentrate on looking desirable. Show a little sumpin'sumpin' and alot of doors will open. Why bother sitting all alone in a room looking busted, breaking your head over OMS, m-points, extension conflicts, bass lines, serial & firewire cables, NS-10 fuses, phasing, hot kicks, old SCSI ports & rca shorts? There is no time to perfect wily feminine affectations when you're hunkered down in the lab. You best believe that. (And i do not wanna see a chick trying to rock an MPC with a french manicure unless she's Flo-Jo or Sheila E.). Yes, I've seen your little spots on CynnaMixx & Miri Ben-Ari(#6), Tachelle(#10), Dj Naturally, Spinderella and Stoni (all issue #5), but only a couple of them are actual beat-makers and please leave the bitch in camel-toe shorts (#13) & the worse-than-useless Trina spot (#8) for your dumb cousin XXL ! Let me be clear by saying that this is not about affirmative action- put a woman on just cos she's a woman neither, cos if women aren't gonna come correctly they may as well stay in the salon. This brings up another topic: the fact that most of these so-called 'super producers' don't even touch all their gear! Call me naive, but i was convinced the heavy producers won their title cos they were bangin' out the beats, sampling, sequencing, recording into protools, editing & mixing, in addition to bringing the creative juice. The trusty excuse is that these guys get big and upgrade to working in expensive studios where you can't just come in and rock an SSL after running your Mackie for a decade. Fair enough. But some of the hottest tracks i've ever heard was when these guys were still hungry, making tracks by any means neccessary, on any piece of gear they could get their hands on. Resourcefulness is the soul of hip-hop and the undisputed hot shit! So because the term 'producer' is so misleading these days, let me clarify. Why your magazine was kicking ass is because it's been speaking to the active producer: the hands-on-the-gear-diggin'-in'-the-crates-wiring-they-own-patchbay-producer as opposed to the the passive producer, i.e., the-sit-on-the-couch-at-the-back-of-the-studio-smackin'-on-popeye's-chicken-giving-orders-kind-of-'producer'. I got my start producing in '96 on the Ensoniq ASR 10 & EPS 16+, then on an Atari ST 1040, Akai S900, 2 turntables and a mixer, then moved on to a Mac, Topaz 24 track board, E-mu SP-1200, Akai S3000, Cubase vst, Lexicon mpx-1, blah blah, etc. I play & record drums/instruments into my Mac, loop them, sample hits into my Akai, scratch from the Technics hooked up to distortion pedals, play bass lines, bang on the SP, mix it, etc. Shit, it's humble, but i thought that's what i was supposed to do as a 'producer'. Take this letter as a roll call, first for all the hard-working producers who take pride in being on top of their vision from start to finish and secondly, for men and women to awake from their mental death chamber. And to address another reader's (Slash) on-point letter in the last issue--please, please, please don't sell out, i.e., forsake the dedicated producers by taking the short-cut to what you think the masses want to chew on because don't we all know it, there is so much bullshit out there. That's why your magazine was so exhilirating. Y'all responded to his plea to leave the artists off the cover with this: "great producers are DEFINED by breaking artists". This statement is only valid from an a&r, money-grubbing point of view, not a musical one. CASE IN POINT: how many straight accappella albums have rappers put out vs. how many instrumental albums have producers put out? (I'll be generous and guess it's 1 to 1000). And of all people, why couldn't Primo have his own cover (#9)? The dude is blessed producer-general magic and you had him all squashed up against a wall behind Nas like an unwanted step-child! (p.s. Jerry, i know your job is mad stressful. You gotta deliver to the man. Welcome to the modern slave trade. Was it Mr. Rheingold that made you add the rapper-starlets on the cover to up the sales? I appreciate the energy you're putting in so please help uplift colored people by staying on track. I promise to God, I will sacrifice making that extra cash for my son in exchange for him knowing that there are some people trying to live in truth. Word on my seed and fruit! p.p.s. Lizz, I know you gotta care about this subject as a top-position woman of color.) -Mutamassik

1. OMANI REVOLUTIONARY ARMY- "a'aish el shaab" (vendemiaire) raggamuffin mix 2. O.H.M. w/ CORE- "hold ya horses" (wordsound)/ RAY KEITH- "keep on" (multiply) 3. MUTAMASSIK- "high alert a'al geddu" (sound-ink)/ M.B.S.- "deltna" (island) 4. TIMBALAND- "roll out" (blackground promo)/ ANTI-POP (PRIEST)- "disorientation" (anti-pop)/ M.B.S.- "deltna" (island) 5. ABDEL WAHAB- "zeina" occupation mix 6. ?- "baba oppa" (cazer) castor mix 7. KHALED- "hbibti madjatch" (triple earth) natar mix 8. FRIZ-B- "my favorite mistake" (baraka)/ EMBEE- "get funky" (juice) 9. WU-TANG CLAN- "34th chamber" (geffen)/ Z. MOSTAFA & ORCH.- "salwa el helwa" (ibis enterprises)/ TORTURE (& SUPHALA) "do it again" (sound-ink) 10. "salwa el helwa"/ GROUP HOME- "inna city life" (ffrr)/ PRIEST(& EARL BLAIZE) "chase active" (wordsound) belly shebang mix 11. MUTAMASSIK- "war booty" (soot) recorded summer 2002 at G.G.S.S., Brooklyn, NY for Bidoun, DUBAI U.A.E. 9/13/03 for the euro-dashdish/AC-blasting internationally arabified sand people. big up the breakdance crew at the Kasbah--you made it live! shokran ya Rabb, dayman dayman khaliss khaliss. thanks to shehab and the bidoun crew. love to big M.C. and little M.C. and all the family. like they say, "IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE RESISTANCE, END THE OCCUPATION" 'Glory to God in the Highest and Peace to His People on Earth' 'bidoun' and other titles can be bought here:  http://www.roughamericana.com/products.html