Monday, December 28, 2009

INDY REVOLUTIONS: Dec. 2009

Sav Killz

Success is Inevitable

&

Scratchin The Surface

www.myspace.com/savkillz

The sincere street workers we accept in NY hip hop are those that are actually good. Everyone peddles their music. Someone will be outside of Fat Beats, used to be on the corner of Beat Street and even posted by J&R Music World. But we don’t give a shit that some of them were really peace—if you bought their cassette (we go that far back) or just listened to their pitch. They gotta be great like Percee P finally proving he was live enough for 60 solo minutes courtesy of the legendary Madlib on his Perserverance LP. Or Justice asking everybody what an MC really is and then showing us with a dominating career from the Best Part of All of the Above to Always Will Be Revealing the Secret of Then What Happened? So if Percee and J-Live were sincere and honorable in their approach we don’t remember it because they made great music. Sav Killz is another truly peace brother whose amiability will be forgotten because his mixtapes are the best ghetto albums you can buy on any corner.

On Success is Inevitable, it seems that he ought to be good by default with everyone’s ill beat as a backdrop and Boot Camp greats and superior MCs like AZ and RZA dropping verses and shouts throughout. But digging through his own mix, Sav Killz’ skill is taped securely. He has a dirty voice and sloppy cadence that seems like he just took the mic from the nigga you know. And that’s where the rawness begins. He slowly shows a strong command on “Comin To Kill” with Sean P and Rustee Juxx where the so-called sloppiness of voice punctuates his words like human snares. While topically, Killz subject matter is just as the title implies and his persistent realness throughout, his fluidity from each freestyle from “Success is Inevitable” to “Show You How To Do This” is his most seasoned attribute. The energy of Medina (Brooklyn) is necessary within Hip Hop and this is Killz greatest appeal. There are some deeper thought tracks that give insight to Sav Killz making actual albums. On “Restless Nights,” his sincere revelations as a struggling artist and makes the frustration at the wack MC succeeding today more than a battle lyric. Ultimately, Sav Killz is one of the most seasoned MCs without a debut album in a long time.

On Scratchin The Surface, the battle styles and fluid verses are even more refined and powerfully ready us for an official debut. The integrity of the art, its impact on artists as him and the society listening at large are all covered even more deeply here. It’s clear that this mixtape has even greater material immediately heard with “Wonder” and “Brooklyn Renaissance” where, on the latter, he matches up easily with the epic/jigga-like/brooding MCs Skyzoo and Sha Stimuli. His intensity and charisma on tracks is increasing as well as on “We Don’t Look to the Skies” and this is really the natural gift that Sav shares with the audience. When this gift becomes beyond extra ordinary he’ll be able to cement a truly consistent career as a hardcore MC. This mixtape aids wonderfully as most of it are actual songs where Sav is actually performing smoothly with other artists as the great back and forth with Spit Supreme on “Hoodlums and Crooks.” On “Vixens and Violencehis versatility speaking on the female persuasion is enhanced by a great sax laden track ” while “#1 Contender” has an even speedier delivery that gives the lyrics the chaotic energy needed. As all Sav Killz works, guest appearances from greats like Hell Razah are expected and thoroughly enjoyed. Scratchin the Surface could work as a top 20 album of the year if it had to and the consistent rise in Sav’s talent displayed suggests he really is just scratchin…

Kevlaar 7

Unbutton Your Holsters, Vol. 1

www.reverbnation.com/kevlaar7

www.myspace.com/kevlaar7

www.dawisemen.com

There is often the question of definitive proof of the Wu-tang Clan being a completely empowering and ever increasing movement of the best Hip Hop ever made. That legends like Killah Priest and Hell Razah come out of Sunz of Man, timeless works like Killarmy’s debut LP exist or memorable works by La the Darkman, Cappa and others only cements them in one era. But when we look for the Wu Saga as a generational continuation of excellence we must first go to Bronze Nazareth, Kevlaar 7 and the Wisemen. While most will openly see Bronze as a beatmaker harkening the golden days well like 9th Wonder, the listeners hear some of the most insightful and pensive lyricism of the decade. As Bronze first came through as part of The Unkown and ushered in The Wisemen, we now must focus on another engaging lyricist in Kevlaar 7.

Only needing that one impeccable verse on “Mixture of Muhammad” from 2007’s Wisemen debut, Wisemen Approaching, Kevlaar’s music is fight music you sit and deeply listen to. This is makes it the next generation of the Wu without question. On Unbutton Your Holsters, 29 cuts only hint at the depth a Kevlaar album may display. “Final Dark Sip” is filled with quotables with rhymed couplets that work off each other seamlessly. The beauty of rising out of depression and defeating oppression is something Kevlaar and his brother Bronze endlessly excel at. The ability to express the most intense anger with calmly delivered lyricism is a Wu elevation from the Rakim school. “Blood Diamonds” is a beautiful display of this as Kevlaar exquisitely notes:

“The Blood Diamond, I'm exploited for the enhanced, 
The band and the clock is tickin, Been in this position, 
Reaching the tipping point, My vision is bending, 
A stigmatism fitting rusty razors through prisms, 
A dealers deal'n a kingpin, Keeping pawns in prison, 
Leaving thirsty lips drip'n, Affliction was they mission...”

Here, Phillie of the Wisemen bluntly states their creed: “Chastise/Ronald Reagan-ize/ Oblivious,
Inferior cause I aint got millions, I'm not serious, Refuse to be a sellout”
 
On “Streets is My Home” the crack smoke is the inspiration but is relevant to any
and all things our people wastefully inhale. Here Bronze and Sav Killz amazingly hang
with one of Kevlaar’s best verses. With extravagant detail that needs to be rewound again
and again, he begins, “My blood is hazy, smokey gaze/Glazed in ways,
eye lids cook up my hybridI've witnessed every act of violence/ Silence is isolated;
I'm in a crowded basement/ Sitting adjacent, cane vapors raining carbon faces”

to the ultimate summation of “I'm the reason you're homeless habit be speaking in codes/
I explode outcomes, lungs and atoms are blown/The streets is my home, 'cause I need to be sold”
Is this all worthy of being the next generation of the Wu? Easily, this verse would be one of
the best on Raekwon’s superior Only Built For Cuban Linx..Part II.
 
Unbutton Your Holsters is only a teaser.  It introduces us to the rest of The Wisemen from June Megladon,
Beace and Illa Dayz to keeping Phillie and Salute close by.ose by It gives us some taste of Kevlaar’s beats as
he also has great work on the boards but more than anything it primes us for another great lyricist to emerge
and keep a great movement moving powerfully.
 

Infinite7Mind

Mic Divine Vol. 1

www.infinite7mind.com

www.myspace.com/infinite7mind

A chiseled MC is one who we can speak of with good ranking on any of the necessary skills and attributes the MC needs. Some are at unmatched levels on one making none of the others matter. Some are average throughout all rankings but manage. However, the chiseled MC has a developed and high to extremely high mastery of every MC trait. Infinite7Mind, hailing from Union City, New Jersey, is just such an MC. His Mic Divine Vol. 1 is the triumph of an upcoming artist who has put every last ounce of preparation in the performance of this debut work.

While his intensity, focused fury and backing crew of Angelic Army, Azigalaw and Lyrical Ruckus, it all harkens back to the epitome of Jedi Mind Tricks and Killarmy ciphers, yet Infinite’s talent is more KRS-like in his ability to cleverly tackle any and all subjects, the obvious battle tracks uniquely presented, the expected storytelling with special detail and the most arcane of ideas shared.

Expert flow, cadence and wordplay is the norm throughout an album filled with battle verses of an epic lore, great choices on classic tracks to rhyme over and surprisingly refined work on the boards by Maleet, Black Famine and Righteouz Knight on the new backing cuts. The signature battle cut “Lyrical Attack” where we see best here that Infinite7Mind’s boasting has such vivid martial detail is repeated throughout. Yet where Inf excels most is on the endless subject matter. Whether speaking on the Cuban Revolution and its preservation and proliferation everywhere in deft Spanish verses on “Revolucion 2009,” the understood pain of his biological who didn’t bother on “Fallen Angel,” the amazingly applicable metaphysical insights on “Time and Space” and the superior duet with Azigalaw on Christmas for “Yule-Tide,” Infinite has so much more to explore in this offering making this mixtape a best of Infinite for the last ten years.

There are few artists appearing with actual teachings and insight to convey along with a perfectly delivered manner that reinvigorates the greatest vibe of the MC. With Mic Divine Vol. 1, Infinite7Mind is the best new artist of the year we’ve waited so long to hear from.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Indy Revolutions: August 2009


A-Alikes
The Hustler and the Hunted Pt. 3
www.a-alikes.net
www.myspace.com/aalikes

Today’s conscious MC is now known as an active MC. The greatest MCs have only once lived and survived the reality they speak of yet the conscious, righteous MC is expected to continue into the latest battles that they chronicle. Why? Because the shit is real, motherfucker! While all rappers and select MCs are no longer guaranteed eventual riches after being pressed on wax, the freedom fighting lyricist has and always will be on the frontlines. The Revolution is actually a fucking element of Hip Hop. So for the real G’s on the street and those fans outside of Fat Beats that meet, Boots of the Coup gotta teach the kids, Chuck D must be the redeeming presence, KRS the punctuating commentator, DPZ gotta be at the activist rallies and Gods’ and Earths’ parliaments, Immortal Technique is supposed to fund an orphanage in Afghanistan and A-Alikes are supposed to “FTP!,” document oppression and offer the street protocol, codes and honor precisely at all times.

And as they all do, A-Alikes continues making their content a daily way and ethic for dealing with this devilish society. The realness of the MC is required for greatness and since their first full-length, Live or Die followed by the official release, I Eat, You Eat, they show more definitive personas, dexterity and styles with the newest mixtape release, The Hustler and the Hunted, Pt.3. Playing like a full length album, with interesting sound clips, including the chronicling of Tupac’s bucking of two pigs, Ness and K naturally speak to issues of poverty, hopelessness, anger and frustration that have sadly been assumed irrelevant today. Revolution is not a gimmick but the word that focuses one on empowerment (“It’s more than just putting lines together like Revolution is more than just popping a cop top”). A-Alikes have the innate ability to offer the uplift from our degraded survival as oppressed Original people (Black, Latino, Indian, Asian, etc.) with a protocol of war, real ways to uphold one’s honor and a redefinition of manhood that includes taking care of the children or just…fucking caring.

The mixtape certainly shows a growth in delivery as in the rolling flow of “Do Your Time” or the stuttered pace of “A.R.T. (All Real Things), clever and insightful similes (“fake niggas move with no foundation like a mobile home”) being used over nothing but hard breaks and crisp snares. The featured cuts for their upcoming album, “Currency” and “Sirens in the Distance” with the resurgent Mos Def are great appetizers. Mixtapes today are often loosely designed albums of enticing filler for the next album. A-Alikes offer something a lot more and set up their Us Against Them LP right and exact.


Sha-King
Yellowseed
Classic 1824 Music
www.reverbnation.com/shaking
www.kizzlevision.blogspot.com

The MC of great power is one choosing to spontaneously represent his namesake(SHA-KING), show dem beards, make you pump ya fist and provide a headstart for all the poor peoples in the sacred land. What it is is an innate nature, something he’ll say is “inma bag” he’ll be choosin’ to pull out from interlude to interlude offering real change for a better 2morrow as this must be a new day to finally present for the Yellowseed. The Yellowseed for the Gods and Earths represent those Original brothers and sisters often of Latino descent or Asian descent. In hip hop’s history, the inflicted invisibility upon the particular Yellowseed, the Boricua, has been atrocious and taken a forum away from us that we earned in creating and refining.

It shouldn’t be any surprise that when we finally hear a Boricua on the mic, they are of a more tested and able caliber. With no margin for error, Sha-King, a brother known in his Pittsburgh community and on the web for teaching and building with the youth, offers a precocious album that shows insights and the deepest references from arcane insights to untaught history. On “Namesake” he brilliantly shows this raw fury with a stream of conscious flow that is filled with ideas to study on consecutive listens. “It’s like the script from Apocalypto/ we’re acting other than our ownselves/ cocking pistols even though we got potential I’m so powerful/ a nigga almost dropped his pencil/ I write like Peltier from prison on a lot of issues…”

Gneticz and DJ OSO aka Trama provide the majority of the beats to a more than satisfactory effect. There is refinement in the eqs, snares and live melodies that propel the verses. The intro and outro verses set a template for the tracks that are really, in the classic Ice-T mode, a forum for the MC. Still, Living Proofe shines in his appearances. Listening to Sha, there is the clear potential for growth in dexterity and flow while his content is already at an engaging level. Yellowseed is easily one of the better independent albums of the year.


Angel Eye
Eyewitness: The Mixtape
Classic 1824 Music
www.myspace.com/angeleyecali
http://www.imedinapeaceful.blogspot.com/

“Can there be more than 3 female MCs in one room without you trying to figure out the best one cuz only one is allowed to live and shine”

Pittsburgh is throwing away all the chips on their shoulder. Aside from the Latino, the only peoples more degraded and demonized in Hip Hop are the Original women. So while we may be angered by it, a female MC to come with the same anger in response without diluting her integrity, skill and necessary smoothness to destroy the savage indoctrination is very rare. So then the mixtape has its primary specialty, to present the raw and uncut, ascending talents of the said MC. That the vast array of styles and unique preparations of forums are offered to reveal the dynamic nature of the introduced MC.

Begin with an acapella to let loose on like “If My Microphone Could Speak Intro” where Angel Eye attempts to clearly state her issues, present the pros and cons and then definitively reveal what the female MC really is. But the intensity only increased with the rock grooves of “Go the Distance.” Then shifting to the dexterous, bounced flow of “Just A Thought,” the slow, stuttered vibe of “Whatever You Need” she then smoothly glides into maturing tales of “Pathways” and “Third Rock From the Sun” reveals the wonderful feminine traits of the supreme Original female MC, The Earth. An Earth from the Nation of God and Earth, Angel Eye is set to represent but it doesn’t constrict her subject matter or verbal scattering; rather, it offers a large palette to match her varied nature. Angel Eye easily recalls early Queen Latifah with more than the desire—but the need to express countless ideas in myriad ways and styles. While there is much for Angel Eye to develop and refine, these mixtapes project are a wonderful place to eyewitness her explorations and define herself as an artist.

“Wisdom is wise words, ways and actions…you gotta be swift and changeable. You gotta be able to say one thing five different ways to five different people. That don’t mean you lose the essence of who you are. That just means you know how to communicate…you know how to do what you need to do in any environment that you’re in.”


Peace,
Sunez

Sunday, July 12, 2009

BLUE SCHOLARS

BLUE SCHOLARS, from Seattle, are the best MC/producer the last five years and only Madvillian (DOOM and Madlib) can challenge them. They are reminiscent of Pete Rock & CL Smooth precision and Gang Starr's principle. Geology, Filipino brother, has the dead prez ideology, a sincere daily blue collar detail. Sabzi produces with thick, layered drums surrounded by melodic beds of piano loops, vocal soars or blaring horns of choice. The Source never bore witness to their greatness but we should.
Peace, Sunez








Tuesday, June 30, 2009

RIP MICHAEL JACKSON

RIP
Michael Jackson suffered the contradiction of being supremely Black and Black being hated by the world. He was a true soul singer, a most incredible dancer and a singer of songs with much love for us &anger against hatred.
The only concrete evidence is that he was a grown kid at heart, suffered a difficult childhood of extreme expectations and had more power than any devil would ever want to allow.
Peace, Sunez



Monday, June 8, 2009

MANNY LIYES in Culebra


Peace to my brother, Manny Liyes, a great actor who will have his 3rd play in a row appear at the Village Voice Fringe Festival this August. Here is a short piece, Culebra, he performed for a one page play festival in April.

Peace, Sunez




Thursday, June 4, 2009

LITTLE BEAR TALES: Mic Trippin'


The following stories/poems are for my lovely daughter, Luna Luz Allat.
Peace,
Sunez


Mic Trippin'

“I’m really sick, Poppy!”
“Awww, what’s making you feel sloppy?”
“But I’m so sick! I don’t know how I’ll get well quick.”
“Well here. Calm down and sip this water. Tell it to me all and don’t falter.”
“I’ll tell you all of it. No rocky skips cause I’m about to flip. Dizzy like I’m gonna trip. Stomach aching like it’s squeezed with a whip. And my head hurting!---Oh I think I’m gonna trip.”
“Hey, get a grip. Don’t mic trip! Iza will rub your tummy.”
“Okay. And she’ll make me something yummy?”
“Far from crummy, she’s no dummy. Anita Baker will play and it’ll make your day. Relax and tell me mores. Give me the tales on your sores?”
“In my class, way more than four, and a bit less than a score I thought I heard Jay say something about the play.
Went to Kimberly gingerly, ‘Hey, what’d Jay say about the play? Is it about the day or the way we say?’
Kimberly say, ‘Nothing’s astray with the play. No one has to pay to see our way.’
Then I wasn’t worried anymore ‘cause I thought we had to hurry some more.”

“Ok. So it’s all to the good.”
“No, I’m just starting to make it understood. Alex and Alexis cough and sneeze. They cover their mouths but did that make me weeze? Yamile saw my pen fall and I touched the floor after the wall.”
“To pick up the pen?”
“Did I get sick just then? The pen rolled on some dirt and stains got on my shirt.”
“Wash your hands regularly to prevent the hurt.”
“Right, Poppy. Being right I’ll more than copy. Some more to the fable, I think I messed up at the dinner table. Milk and meats aren’t holy treats but I still took that over the beets!”
“Well, milky eats and sweaty meats are trick treats but don’t sadden with defeat. Whatever was taken away can be added stronger today.”
“And did the remedies remedy when friends of me gave ‘em to me? Karla gave me lots of vitamin C and all the germs will flee. Selene gave me sanitizing wipes so I can swipe dirt away wise. More and more of your salad and ballad, working my qi and drinking white tea but I’ll still be ailing and wailing.”
“One last thing, the great song to sing, the only thing you’ll always need to always feed. Your mind is the bind for everything kind. Let it unblind the blind so you can master your fears. Let it hear the unheard so your heart does more than tear. Let it bum any dumb so you stay a blossomed plum. Only and always your thought will wrought all brought round you.”
“Thank you Poppy. I feel better.
Can we play too?”

“All of them to the letter.
I love you too…”


Monday, June 1, 2009

Order the KNOWLEDGE OF SELF Book Now



It is the gift that all of humanity deserves to be presented with. To know the self. To be imparted with the awareness to constantly explore one’s ideas in the most empowering manner. To delve into one’s nature truthfully and share in a way that betters all. To have the greatest weaponry available to identify and protect oneself from any enemy’s oppressive measures. This is done supremely with knowing oneself.
Knowledge of self, where we know we are the creators of our entire universe and subsequent reality, we are not the first. In the history of the world, many of our ancestral cultures and civilizations shared the idea of man as God and the infeasibility of a mysterious and/or unknown God. However, The Nation of God and Earth truly adds on a unique perspective in many enlightening ways.
Firstly, all of these great, poor, righteous teachers did not look for the right student to expose themselves and their ideas; rather, they presented themselves as God or Earth and allowed potential students from any and all walks of life to inquire. This is a departure from the nomadic Sufis imparting insight and safely vacating to see another day or the Taoist masters who lived as mountain men away from society. The Gods and Earths have openly shared their understanding regardless of the consequences. The consequences have been great from the contradictions and hypocrisies of not living it out, being ostracized from one’s family and community to the direct oppression and harassment of the oppressive governments and power structure to even fatal demise. Still, the Gods and Earths continued to teach.
Secondly, the foundation of the teachings, the supreme mathematics made such a complex subject, man’s reality as creator, into a detailed law and order of the universe and description of the Original people with a simple word(s) for each numeral. With this innovation of the science of everything in life so simply defined and ready for application by anyone, these teachings are vital to any age group. It also elevates the insightful teachings of the Nation of Islam, extracted and refined as our 120 lessons, into a mathematical system of study and development.
Thirdly, we are the truth we seek in each and every problem or inquiry of life. A knowledge of self becomes the most empowering tool known because it is an actualizing of statements proven true. The Original man is God/I am the Earth. I am this and I prove it true. What then is within me that enables me to survive and thrive with and for all? Knowing oneself the answer presents itself.
Nothing could be more empowering, beautiful and engrossing as the Knowledge of Self.

Peace, Sunez Allah, Co-Editor
Knowledge of Self: A Collection of Writings on the Science of Everything in Life
presents the thoughts of Five Percenters, both young and old, male and female, Black and white, in their own words. Through essays, poems, and even how-to articles, this anthology presents readers with an accurate portrait of what the Five Percent study, teach and live daily. With a foreword by Lord Jamar of Brand Nubian, contributions from Cappadonna and Popa Wu of Wu-tang Clan, early founders of the Nation and Gods and Earths from the United States to England.
Featured Writings and Topics Include:
• Love, Hell or Right: The many incredible life stories of Gods and Earths getting a Knowledge of themselves. • Who are the Original People?: Who is Black and Who is Not?; Somos Originales, why the Latino is also a Supreme Being?; Who are the Blacks In China? What is a mystery God? Why don’t we believe in a mystery God? • The Mind is the Master Key: What is the Mind, its power and how do we augment it supremely? What are the oppressive conditions we are living, how do we identify them and use our mind to change our reality?• The Martial Law of the Martial Arts: What is the relationship of the Martial Arts and its philosophies and the Gods and Earths? • The Pedagogy of the Five Percent: What are the teaching styles of the Gods and Earths. How do we educate our youth and save the babies? What is the civilization class? An analysis of the P.E.A.C.E. Course, one of the many courses offered at Allah School in Mecca, the first school of the Nation.• Life after Life?: What happens when we die? What is the mental death vs. the physical death? The Gods and Earths’ ideas on the afterlife and death are offered in detail.
To preorder the book go click on the Buy Now button at the right sidebar. Thank you.
THE THREE TREASURES ASSOCIATION: Martial Artists of Bian Xing, the Metamorphosis of 180 Moves.Essays on Bian Xing: The Martial Law of the Martial Arts by Nahlejj Eternal, Infinite Mind and Sunez in the upcoming book, Knowledge of Self: A Collection of Writings on the Science of Everything in Life

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Sabor De 'El Diferente': The Great Angel Canales



Angel Canales was the most underrated Sonero of the 70's and 80's. An impeccable command with an idiosyncratic flow, his punctuation gave sincerity to the lyric. A beautiful voice he could sing the bolero as well as lace the guaguanco with fire as the call and response was always clever and fluid. The musical style of his band was swinging latin jazz with constant features of extended solos and immense merging of bomba and plena. A fighter for equal pay to his incredible band players (i.e. antonio tapia wonderful on congas) and against the diluted romantica trend of the 80's it was said he tore up his compositions and quit. In retrospect, his warm and sincere stage presence had a subtle flamboyance that led some to note he was gay. Whether this was true or not, it may have made his career even more difficult. Ultimately, he was on the level of any sonero that was a Fania All Star and stopped making music in his prime.

It is said that he has toured in the late 90's and possibly may have recorded some new material. Of the few albums available (http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/scan/st=sql/sf=artist_id/se=177/va=searchquery%3dAngel%20Canales/tf=title?kr8oKr2Q;;163) are all superior with the classic 70's salsa dura sound on the early recordings (i.e. 1975's Sabor, 1976's El San Juan, 1977's Mas Sabor sold today as Markolino Dimond's Brujeria. Dimond being the band leader of the group Sabor and great pianist.) and the more avant garde latin jazz recordings with heavy bomba and plena influence recorded on his own Selanac label (i.e. 1978's El Sentimiento Del Latino En Nueva York, 1981's El Diferente, 1984's Ya Es Tiempo).

For the 1970's and early 80's, salsa was New York's Hip Hop for many. It was gritty speaking of the refusal to assimilate, it displayed the swagger of lyrical skill (the sonero literally freestyle rhymes during the call and response section of the song. Every two responses from the sonero is literally a bar) boasting of supremacy in the art and was a challenging music to old ears. It also has a root foundation (Cuban son) that it honors yet veers away from with any and all other great influences and ideas it may find.

Angel Canales possessed all of the classic sonero skills, made incredible albums and spoke to the people. His expression of love and intimacy is uniquely memorable and his rapport with crowds and enforcement of innovation will always be endearing and admirable.

Peace,
Sunez
















Wednesday, May 13, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY OL EARTH (MOTHER), MARIA!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL OL EARTH (MOTHER), MARIA!!!
I LOVE YOU!
(This video is for her from another legend celebrating a birthday, Stevie Wonder)
Peace, Sunez

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

The Ideal Live Diet











'It is the mind that makes the body.' - Sojourner Truth

For a knowledge of self to be actualized the ideal of eating must be engaged in. Those who study the 120 lessons will find that those labeled as the 85%, those ignorant of who they are and believe in a mysterious being, energy and/or force as the creator, are seen as poison animal eaters. Thus, the pig/swine is immediately eliminated from the diet. However, the ideal live diet consists of so much more. For all, the diet must apply a conscious effort for constant research, questioning to embrace what promotes life.

Mentality of Diet:
The mentality of the diet is most important. Why do we eat? What particular reasons will we eat for? This affects what we eat eventually. Knowing your priorities in eating is crucial. The way we eat begins with why we eat. As the Honorable Elijah Muhammad spoke of in How To Eat To Live, Book 2, one should 'eat to live and not live to eat.' Ultimately, the reason to eat is in the need to gain energy for all the things we need to do, want to do and would like to try. For this, we must be healthy inside and outside of our bodies.A crucial component of our reasoning on eating is in our likes and dislikes. Our taste buds seem to tell us what tastes good or bad to us. In actuality, we have denatured them to acknowledge structure and taste by extreme measures (i.e. soft and sweet or salty and crunchy). Our taste buds, at their highest level, are designed to decide what foods are most useful to us. For instance, we will be more inclined toward oatmeal when our bodies need a higher level of quality fats or the green leafy vegetables and legumes (all of the bean family) when we need protein and specific phyto-nutrients (phyto = plant).

The major manner in the diet that one should have in eating is mindfulness. We are not a free people if we cannot control what, how and why we eat? The one thing that must be done, eating, most know nothing about, seeking only to pleasure themselves through it, never seeking how to can engage in it honorably, humanely and in an enlightening way for ourselves and others. Note that many also think this way of rest/sleep, breathing and sex/love.

To begin, eliminate the mystery of your diet. Studying the feeling of all and each food in your body one may better understand the effects of food to your work and rest. Chart how well you perform tasks after certain foods. Reflect on how a comfortably eaten meal propels your activities as opposed to a quickly rushed one. Trace these feelings back to exact foods and then reduce that to particular food ingredients.

In dealing with the proper diet, one is more and more becoming the educated consumer. Exploring the health food store studying why certain foods are actually in this store is a start. Study the nutrients and ingredients and find what is normally not in what you eat. Many of those ingredients left out of health food store products and those included hold some of the keys to better health.

Then match your diet to your lifestyle goals. How much will you study, read, write, train, build, create, share? Prepare a living diet that is the perfect energy fueling the proper culture.

The Ideal Diet:

The ideal diet is one of living foods as far as one is possible. What one eats should be living meaning that it actually has a living energy (i.e. through living enzymes, nutrients, vitamins and is not literally dead and decaying). By simplistic definition, the vegetable is as dead as the cow on one's plate yet it is the vegetable that has living nutrients, phytochemicals and chlorophyll that is actually alive while the nutrients extracted from the dead flesh is in the process of putrefying, rapidly losing its viability as it increases its decay. Essentially the living foods diet is vegan. There is no meat or dairy and all the foods eaten are free of toxins (organic if you can afford) with the right amount of nutrients and supplementation (i.e. the protein is proper to your body and training regime).

“Restraint in diet both as to quantity and quality is as essential as restraint in thought and speech." –Mahatma Gandhi

Firstly, we must study the ingredients of the foods we eat. Below is a beginning list of what to eliminate and what you can begin to replace them with. This is for detoxification meaning that when one manifests disease it is an accumulation of putrefied elements that gather in the body. Your miraculous body adjusts and manipulates these foreign or denatured foods and sacrifices parts of your own body (i.e. baldness, bad nails, wrinkled skin) to preserve the most necessary (i.e. heart, brain, major organs). So by ridding oneself of the following kinds of foods, we begin that process of detoxification immediately.


Elimination for detoxification:
1. Meat [Pork, beef, chicken and fish (except cold-water fish) & eggs]Why?: It's all dead and has no living energy. For example, beef contains vitamin B-12 and many vegetarians (those whom don't eat meat) lack it and suffer. Yet, the B-12 is an anti-oxidant (it rids the body or free radicals or pollutants). Within the beef, the B-12 is literally wrapped around an envelope of rigor mortis that is filled with carcinogens (cancer causing agents) that are the epitome of free radicals. They not only negate each other; rather the free radicals/carcinogens win out.

During rigor mortis, the body’s vitamins, nutrients and minerals wither away as the dead carcass stiffens. This stiffness is the buildup of lactic acid or waste material for energy processes that have ended. Eating a just-killed animal does little to protect one’s health from this process. Organic meats are irrelevant. The advocating of them is in their lacking the additional hormones that are injected into meats to keep them tender or bloody (a process hoping to stall rigor mortis). Nevertheless, meat naturally has hormones foreign to us humans.


Replacements: This begins with the joys of soy. The many forms it may take from soy protein (yet beware of texturized soy protein—a very processed version), tofu (one of the most adaptable foods as far as absorbing the herbs and seasonings offered it), tempeh and miso to name a few. Most meat eaters want mass via protein. Legumes (beans) and green leafy vegetables have more protein than any form of meat or eggs. Also, a quality soy protein powder in a shake daily (about 25 mg twice a day) will allow you to take in all the protein you need properly. Protein is based on the essential amino acids, the building blocks of protein. When they are all in the body in full percentage, the body builds real protein 100%. Wild caught cold water fish (i.e. tuna, mackerel, salmon, etc.) is also acceptable as they are rich in omega 3 fatty acids which are unique to these fish and essential to our body.

2. Dairy (anything made from the milk of a cow or any other animal)Why?: It's from a cow! It's healthy, natural hormones, enzymes, nutrients are all for a baby cow completely incompatible with us. As foreign substances, our bodies store it as fat and we become bulkier. The strong, foreign enzymes force us to produce much more mucus and thus hold disease longer and manifest it later.

Replacements: There are countless substitutes for milk from soy milk, almond milk, rice milk that are all healthy and tasty. There are many versions of soy cheese (beware of casein, a cow’s milk derivative in many soy cheeses). As far as ice cream and any dairy laced pastries, cookies, cakes, there are incredible substitutes that taste great and are actually healthy.

3. Condiments (Flavorings and seasonings, i.e. sugar, artificial sweeteners, salt, ketchup, mayonnaise, butter, margarine, etc.)Why?: They are all refined lacking any nutritional value, actually deadening our taste buds and are extremely addictive. Artificial sweeteners are chemical derivatives that are lethal when taken in high dosages. Sugar (not organic) is bleached to whiten it and has none of the trace minerals it once had. It goes by many names so a company can have 80% sugar content in a drink but list them separately as sugar, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, maltose, caramel color, brown sugar (just caramel sugar added to color it), etc. Any of these forms are dangerous and addictive. The same for salt as many brands actually contain dextrose to be even more addictive. Ketchup is just sugar with tomatoes while mayonnaise is a disgusting egg (fetus) spread.


Replacements: Organic sugar, organic raw honey, stevia extract, agave nectar, brown rice syrup, carageenan), sea salt, vegan mayonnaise, organic ketchup, soy butter)

4. Processed (anything that is prepared and altered for packaging)
Why? They are man made and so health is unfortunately not primarily relevant--accessibility is. They often contain chemicals that keep them ‘fresh’ for years and years. To make them unique products they often take away all the nutrients of the food (i.e. bleached enriched flour is a bleached flour sprayed with a weak liquid nutrient solution afterwards) and concoct a product that is uniquely theirs (i.e. white Wonder Bread). Most importantly, all GMO (Genetically Modified Organsim) foods should be eliminated immediately. Many healthy foods also may be packaged as you develop your knowledge of ingredients you can begin to use all healthy products that are packaged. For now, do your best to eat fresh made and prepared foods.


Replacements: Packaged foods with organic ingredients, better cooking practices (i.e. baked chips not fried) employed on packaged goods and many more fruits and vegetables for snacks. All fruits and vegetables should be cleansed with a vegetable wash. Frozen vegetables and fruits are not processed as they are not picked at the right moment of ripeness. Then the subsequent freezing preserves the living enzymes and phyto-nutrients.The Beginner Vitamin and

Supplements List

Antioxidants:
Vitamin C - The anti-oxidant to begin with. As a water soluble vitamin, it is to be taken throughout day as it is used up. Start with a 500mg - 800mg (about a teaspoon) three to four times a day. Increase as you go along to your liking. Remember that too much will cause the bowels to loosen. So gradually increasing intake is better than overdosing. Buy a buffered powder (buffering is when a vitamin or nutrient is mixed with other phyto-chemicals. Rose hips are often used.) as this form allows one to better absorb the nutrient and control the amount ingested.

Green Tea (White tea)– Its incredible health properties are from its powerful phyto nutrients of catechins, saponin and theanine. Major antioxidant properties and medicinal effects. Add some raw honey and you have a powerful healing brew.

B-Complex - (B-complex 100mg) vitamin taken once a day.


Vitamin B1 (thiamine)
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
Vitamin B3 (niacin, includes nicotinic acid and nicotinamide)
Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid)
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine)
Vitamin B7 (biotin), also known as vitamin H
Vitamin B9 (folic acid), also known as vitamin M
Vitamin B12 (various cobalamins; commonly cyanocobalamin in vitamin supplements)

Omega 3 Fatty Acids – The body needs an equal balance of omega 6 and omega 3 oils. 6 are in many used oils (i.e. olive, sunflower, etc) however, 3 is only available directly from wild cold-water fish. Flax seed will convert to Omega 3 and can also be used. 1000 mg a day to begin with.

Chlorophyll (Green and Red) – In liquid or best in powder form, it has natural chelating abilities and regenerative properties in the DNA structure of the cell. The Red (from fruits) and the green (from plants) have a literal ‘build and destroy’ effect on the body. Green is used for detoxification while Red is used for rejuvenation. The most powerful supplement that can be recommended.

Protein Powder – A soy protein powder, twice a day at 25mg. For the athlete, muscle strength and growth are dependent on the body having the proper combination of the essential amino acids that build up to protein in the body. Taken from a vegan source, it is essential.

Creatine Monohydrate - Creatine is crucial throughout major portions of the body’s physiological functions including the muscles, nervous system and brain. This is an excellent add on for the athlete seeking to train harder. Creatine should be bought alone and is of course vegan. Beware of health shakes and powders using creatine and mixing it with dextrose, whey (water from cow’s milk) and countless other powdered chemical atrocities.

Ultimately, the mentality of the diet must coincide with one’s knowledge of self. It must be constantly building with disregard for any of society’s imposed contradictions that lead to hypocrisy upon embrace. Healthy lifestyles and movements tend to be associated with rich white people stigmatizing its relevance and relation to our people. Nevertheless, historically our people have defined themselves by eating right and exact since at least ancient Kemit (Egypt). As we live in our neighborhoods and shop for foods at bodegas (local corner stores), supermarkets and health food stores, we must begin to take the best part as it belongs to the Original people. These are the foods to eat immediately.

Peace,
Sunez

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

LITTLE BEAR TALES: Snow Food


The following stories/poems are for my lovely daughter, Luna Luz Allat.
Peace,
Sunez
Snow Food

The snow fell all confused. Each of the many snow flakes falling began talking wildly. They were journeying miles down from the sky onto New York City’s streets.
The First snowflake said, “What are we doing out here in April? This is crazy!”
The Second agreed, “None of our friends are going to play with us. They’ll just shovel us away mad.”
But in the despair, the great, wise old snow flake knew what to do? He declared, “It is a full moon tonight. All of the moon, our Luna, will be seen. On nights like these, all the water of the world is under her control.”
One of the many other snowflakes said, “Right! We snowflakes are made of water.”
A sad snowflake sadly said, “With so much water to take care of, she won’t be able to care for us.”
“We must not melt,” The great, wise old snowflake strongly stated. “We must come together as one and find the one with light. In this way, she will know where we are to go to. So that when we melt, it is for a great cause. She will know her math, count us all right and save us.”
The sad snowflake sighed, “If it is out of season for children to play with us, what great cause could there be? We are only little flakes now that fall to bother bouncing boys, get galloping girls groaning and whisk walking workers away.”
“Do not fear!” The great wise old snowflake directed all of them now. “Put out the strongest part of your designs and hold each other together. In this way, we shall all fall as one. Do not be afraid for she will put out her hand and save us flakes. She will know what to do.”
The snowflakes all assembled and as they fell a little seven year old girl became clearer to them. She walked with her father outside in a happy way that had just paused. She looked up at the sky.
She wondered aloud to her father saying, “Papi, I wish that I had some snow to put in my favorite plant. Maybe then, it will grow really strong. ”
“Silly little bear!” her father said jokingly. “Why snow?”
She of course knew and uttered back, “Paaaaapppppiiii! This is special snow. It will heal my favorite plant. So then, is it going to happen?!”
The father only said, “Well now, Luna, what makes rain, hail, snow and earthquakes?”
“Ok, Papi! I will think all about it right now!” She looked up at the sky and then to her smiling father putting her hand out.
Alas, the snow found its cause in her palm. Luna’s favorite plant would grow strong.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Sunset Styles (by Albert Bustos)

I am honored to share this portrait by my student Albert Bustos. It reps my early Hip Hop career through The Source, XXL, Vibe.com, Stress, Blaze.com, etc. Keep building my brother.

Peace,
Sunez

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

MANNY LIYES on THE OSCARS

Peace to my twin brother, Manny Liyes, a great actor and writer, for adding his personal insights on the recent Oscar award show this week, honoring some of the best films of the year.

--Sunez



ROURKE OR PENN?!!

The Oscars have come and gone and a lot of opinions have been stimulated by the choice of nominees and winners by the Academy and the films themselves. I've always used the Oscars as a guide to begin my journey of seeing the best films of the year. It is a beginning and certainly should not be the end. Rarely does a film or a performance win an Oscar that is clearly the best. It usually happens once or twice during the entire show. 2008 was no different.
Last year's Oscar telecast was the lowest rated of any previous Oscar show. That may be partly due to the weak comedy stylings of Jon Stewart (smirking after reading every joke is not comedy!!) but that's an argument for another time. It's my own thing. I just don't find him funny. Only Richard Gere can smirk for two hours and call it art (see Pretty Woman). Well, anyway, no one watched the Oscars. Why? No one saw the movies. In the last 4 years, 20 films have received Best Picture nominations. Only three have earned $100 million dollars in this country (2006's The Departed, 2007's Juno and this year's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). Last year was one of the strongest years in recent memory with classics like There Will Be Blood and Best Picture Winner No Country For Old Men going head to head in a category that included Michael Clayton, Atonement and Juno. All strong, unique films, worthy of accolades. Hollywood just hasn't produced the best films of these times and they are in desperate need of quality which makes 2008 strange because that's exactly what they got.
Superhero blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Iron Man didn't sacrifice quality in their quest to entertain. Wall E was a revelation that we all took for granted because of the consistently high level of Pixar's output. Even the James Bond series has gotten deep with another strong outing with Quantum of Solace. Best comedy? Tropic Thunder. A hilarious, loud, daring and profound satire of Hollywood itself featuring comeback kid number one in Robert Downey Jr. Hellboy II, Body Of Lies, Benjamin Button--all good films to come out of studios. Some made money, some didn't, but the attempt at quality cannot be overlooked. And it's exactly what was needed to boost this year's ratings. So what happens? Hollywood nominates a bunch of good independent films and overlooks their own classics for the top prizes.
I could debate the merits of The Dark Knight for hours and why it is the best picture of 2008 but the discussion on the Academy's choices runs deeper than personal taste or quality. Awards are a statement. That's why they give them out every year instead of every four like the Olympics. It doesn't mean anything to anyone except the system. It enables them to cultivate and alter their image in the public and establish a foundation for the year to come. They nominate independent films with strong messages and gutsy filmmaking to make statements for them. If Milk has so much to say, why was every studio passing on it? Why did it take over a decade to make? Hollywood needs to reflect the times and they do this by utilizing independent film to give them artistic legitimacy and social and political importance and relevance. There's nothing worse than a system that has no relevance. Anything outdated in this fast moving world is useless and leaves room for its replacement.
Now I love movies, films--whatever!! And I know that they can never be replaced. But their controllers can be. This is what these awards are for. So hot button issues like Prop 8 can be addressed through films they had no part in like Milk by rewarding them. Rebels like Sean Penn will not say no to a forum to speak and educate when it is there. It's no wonder he never appeared at these awards ceremonies until recent years, when his political activism and socially conscious art began to have more purpose and focus as our world got worse. Yet the Academy still saw fit to snub his more potent film last year, Into The Wild. Hey, don't get me wrong, I loved the human rights message and I applaud Penn and Dustin Lance Black for their gracious and eloquent speeches. There should be no control on people's personal lives because it only brings out the worst in them. And Milk certainly depicts that worst coming out of people, gay and straight alike.
Yet Hollywood has used these independent films to give themselves credibility, use foreign films like Slumdog Millionaire to spread a message of tolerance and inclusion of all races even though they had no hand or will want any part of making films like these in the future. And they will not reward their best like The Dark Knight or Wall E because of the stigma against comics as true literature and animated films as films and not just really good cartoons. They must be an entity that has no room for any greatness outside of it's accepted template. That's why actors who play real life figures generally win (i.e. George C. Scott - Patton, Ben Kingsley - Gandhi, Daniel Day-Lewis - My Left Foot, Jamie Foxx - Ray, Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote). All great performances with a leg up because they played real life figures. It's more legitimate than playing a person from "scratch." Unless important social concerns are addressed in a performance. Ray Milland won Best Actor for Lost Weekend in 1945 for playing an alcoholic. Fredric March won the same award in 1946 for playing a WWII veteran having difficulty adjusting to civilian life in The Best Years of Our Lives. Real life. Olivia DeHavilland won Best Actress in 1949 for The Heiress, an adaptation of Henry James' classic novel. Laurence Olivier won in 1948 playing Hamlet. What's more artistically legit than Shakespeare? It allows for the perpetuation of an image of artists with their feet planted firmly in the world. This is a very young art form that is still developing. Like baseball slowly desegregating itself, film is slowly (like a sloth) allowing other races and the world to express themselves through this medium. And I mean allow. It takes millions of dollars to make an independent film. Do you have that? I nearly went broke putting on one of my plays off-off-off Broadway!!! They are not giving this up easily.
Their image control certainly made Penn's win possible (and I am in no way impugning the work of this master) despite a performance from Mickey Rourke that was for the ages. A work that in time will stand alongside Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront, Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull, Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood or Charlize Theron in Monster (to name a few) as one the greatest, most explosive, transformative and iconic acting turns ever witnessed on film. Much has been made of Rourke just playing a character like himself. And the parallels between the role and himself are quite uncanny. But so is Brando's work in Last Tango in Paris. In fact, much of that character's background and entire chunks of dialogue are straight from Mr. Brando's own experiences. Does that weaken the greatness of that performance? It is maybe the definitive performance of his career, more so than his Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront or his Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. What makes Brando's Last Tango and Rourke's Wrestler great is just such real life input. It takes bravery to use your own life up there and be naked. Because acting is really storytelling and in order to tell one you need to find an understanding or else your story is without an end. How do you search for that understanding when it can change your own life? Most actors--NOO!! Most people would shy away from such self epiphany. But Rourke attacked it, he built his body up, he poured his blood, sweat and tears over this role and now his life is better because of it. I relate to Mickey Rourke for that. As a fellow brother in acting trying to find his way, I love him for it. If a man doesn't receive an award for that you don't question the man or the work. You look at the system and who's offering the fool's gold.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------






Manny Liyes graduated Baruch College as an English major who spent more time in the theatre than in the classroom. Having studied at The Acting Studio, Creative Acting Company and The School for Film and Television, he has appeared in several films and plays such as Cactus Flower, Breaking Walls, Toughing Slumaria, Six Degrees of Separation and Barcinda Forest. In 2006 Manny wrote, produced, directed and starred in the comedy Burke, his first play. He then wrote, produced, directed and co-starred in his second play, Analog Friend, for the 2007 NYC International Fringe Festival. He returned to the NYC International Fringe Festival this year with his third play, Choke City, which he also starred in, produced and directed. Most recently, he completed his fourth play, Savage International. Manny has also written two novels, which he hopes to see in print someday and hundreds of poems he does not.




Monday, January 26, 2009

A Pedagogical Postcard of The Way

I teach without a desire to make a person become or even be what I know we ought to be. The only reality is to share what I can best discern they may be able to see and actualize at each and every moment.

This is something that brings me to great reflection and study at all times as the more one builds self the more the desire grows to share one's embraced ideas. With this, if one is Black (Original people – Black, Brown and/or Yellow) male, they fit the criteria of being God (a Black woman being Earth/Allat). However, even with this acknowledgment from them, whatever sciences may be shared from our most embraced sciences (i.e. supreme mathematics) to any other (i.e. quantum mechanics, bio-chemistry, etc.), there is no requisite that they be themselves, God, in any organization, including our own Nation.

In this, I then see our Nation (from the etymological latin root of nacie—birthright. Thus, a nation is a society establishing the furtherance--for the children--of their understanding of self, as supreme beings) as those that see their birthright naturally and sincerely making the choice to unite as a society, with organized structure, to promote their acknowledged reality, together. It is the right of any man with knowledge of self to also see whom and what group he sees as his family. I see this must be done sincerely and naturally. To then disagree to making a citizen I refer to the forcing of one, who has learned, to repay his debt of ignorance lost and/or to awkwardly honor his teacher. This honoring must be, and can only be, done naturally, I see, as it was shared unconditionally.

The protection of self as an unconditional teacher may truly be diminished yet it is the natural talent, experience and insight to judge the learnings anyone is ready for that must be at an exceptional form of discernment. I am essentially quite blasphemous for the so-called position I have, as a teacher in the school at the root home of many sages. Still, the truth does not have a right to exist anywhere merely because it was once there so I do not fight to keep it in any one place. I only fight to share truths to everyone according to what they may use at each and every moment.


Peace,

Sunez

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Sunez on Reggaetonica

Peace,

Raquel Rivera, the author of the Reggaetonica blog, is an esteemed scholar and a sister I have much love and respect for. I had the honor of adding on my insights to her book, Nuyoricans from the Hip Hop Zone, an excellent work on Latinos in Hip Hop music and culture.

Posting quotes from my column on Reggaeton (The Real Music) I published in September here, she has received many comments and my own responses. Please click on the link below to check them and her other writings out. Offer your own as well.

http://reggaetonica.blogspot.com/2009/01/sunez-on-reggaeton.html

Peace,
Sunez

Thursday, January 8, 2009

A Saving Crate From the Hoax Texts


Below is an investigative report I wrote on Funkmaster Flex when I was Assistant Editor for The Source in 2005. It is a part of an article series uncovering payola in the music industry. Unfortunately, the reputation of The Source was deservedly questionable as the top brass' personal motives made most of their reports disingenuous.

Much respect goes to the Gods at The Source at the time of my work there. Without Dasun Allah, I would certainly not be hired let alone considered. He is the most talented Editor-In-Chief The Source has ever had. He has also ushered me to many forums that I will always be grateful for. Peace to the God, my brother.

This particular article was made possible by the most necessary and exceptional input and exceptional connections of the God, K-Born. K-Born, whom produced The Source feature interview series, Hip Hop Icons, was and is not your ordinary Hip Hop journalist. He didn't contact legendary Hip Hop artists and cultural pioneers, with the stamp of The Source, to set up an interview. They were all people he knew, had spent time with living out the expressions of Hip Hop and elders whom had taken care of him. Just naturally Hip Hop, K-Born never had to engage in any of the four elements or journalism for validation. He is best described by that bassline in magnificent crescendo on that classic "Scenario" from A Tribe Called Quest w/Leaders of the New School. Once you start building with the God you give this Hip Hop shit another fucking chance. Peace God.

Peace,
Sunez