It's September Already
I'm writing again. And still rapping, still cooking, still DJing, still trying to find the beauty in these ugly, fuckshit times
Hello again, friends and fam, comrades and ex-comrades, co-conspirators and spectators, stalking-ass opps and algorithmic passersby. How are your cortisol levels today? Damn, sorry to hear that. How’s mine? Welllll. Considering everything still happening in Gaza, in America, in my feed, in my head, in my struggling business that people seem to think is “thriving,” in my weird state of restlessness and fatigue—I guess I’m o.k.? Thanks for checking in.
It was worse earlier this week, though, as I’m sure many of you can relate. But I’ve found it helpful to follow the 20-20-20 rule, hit the sauna, and feed my affinity for dense, lyrical spiritual miracle raps, when done right, like JID does on his newest album.
What’s also keeping me anchored in the empire’s dying days are amazing friends and family. Healers and space-holders who refuse to let the spectacle of violence and bad internet energy desensitize them. They help me dig the moat between me and despair. It’s no accident that many of them will happen to be where I’ll be tomorrow—at the Palestine Will Live Forever: All Of Us, Or None Of Us festival, going down 12pm-9pm at Seattle’s Volunteer Park. One of them is Gabriel Teodros, who I’ve been working on an album with (I’m rapping, he’s producing). It’ll drop soon. I’m in awe of bro, watching him handle multiple roles in organizing the PWLF festival, produce multiple album projects simultaneously, and somehow keep his Substack current with content including this mix featuring artists who are performing at the festival.
If you can’t physically make it to the festival but have the means to make a donation, please consider contributing to some of the recipients of the festival proceeds, including Heal Palestine and Baladna. Read about them and more of the organizations.
Read about the elements of the festival artwork piece by Zahyr Lauren.
Vanishing Seattle put on an dope exhibit titled My City’s Filthy at Bumbershoot. I checked it out in between watching Digable Planets and Janelle Monae. Beautiful and bittersweet, as I anticipated, seeing artifacts and images of a city I remember but my kids don’t. I bought the last two remaining copies of the exhibition book, which featured a photo from my guy Nam Nice. I believe the physical copies are no longer available, but you can flip through the pages digitally.
Saul Williams, Carlos Niño & Friends have a new record out:
They’ll be in Seattle soon. Hoping to be in the building when they do a LIVE on KEXP session on Friday, September 26 at 3pm (open to the public). They’ll also be headlining the Walk the Block Festival arts festival at Wa Na Wari on Saturday, September 27 (get tickets).
I’m 2/3 through an advance copy of Jeff Chang’s Bruce Lee biography Water Mirror Echo, which will be available on September 23. I’ll share more thorough thoughts on it after I’m done. For now, I’ll say: with all the pieces of Bruce’s story I’ve absorbed over the years from other books, movies, documentaries, museum exhibitions and even first-hand stories, this is the first telling of Bruce’s life story that truly immerses into the context that Bruce existed in as much as the man himself. The excellent 30 for 30 documentary Be Like Water moved in this direction, but was limited by the medium’s more finite form and time, and tended to mythologize at times, because ESPN.