Gunplay - Bible on the Dash 1 & 2

On Trump

more here

Immortal Technique - 4th Branch

Drezus - Red Winter

Aspects ft. Drezus, Joey Stylez, Cody Coyote - Looking at the Devil

Tech N9ne ft RedCloud - PTSD #NoDAPL

A Tribe Called Red

Mos Def(Yasiin Bey) - Katrina Clap

Korean Buddhist Monks Rap and Beatbox

Ensomniak - Angel Dust

Medieval Graffiti

"Many of the markings discovered in medieval churches are all but identical. A survey of a church in northern England will reveal the same graffiti motifs and markings as those found in a church on the English South Coast. Even more remarkably, the same medieval markings recorded in most English churches are in churches across the whole of western Europe. Essentially, everywhere the medieval Christian church thrived, medieval Europeans inscribed their places of worship with the same graffiti marks. Known as ‘ritual protection marks’, medieval people believed that these symbols warded off evil influences. Today they are more commonly called ‘witch marks’.
...
Why are there no angels? The reason is quite simple. The graffiti on the walls shows only what those who made it thought was real and immediate. Angels were heavenly beings. They littered the pages of the Bible, but could not be expected to play a part in the lives of the people in the world. Demons, on the other hand, were very real indeed. It was demons who were responsible for any sudden illness or unexplained death. Demons brought down a blight upon the harvest crops. Demons unbalanced the mind of the simpleton, and brought on the terrifying storms that could lay waste a whole year’s crop in a single afternoon. Demons were real and to be feared. This fear drove medieval people to carve their counter-curses into the walls of the parish church."

read full article here

Kendrick Lamar and Jeremiad

"Jeremiah was a prophet tasked with guiding the people through the loss of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Kendrick is navigating us through the loss of black life in a “post-racial” America. Both poets’ writings also reveal a deep conflictedness not only with their own inner life but with the realpolitik of their day."

"The all-encompassing, oppressive ideology of Jeremiah’s day was lauded by the urban elite, the religious, the imperial superpowers and local politicians who created hell on earth for the poor. Jeremiah’s cry can be summed up in Kendrick’s lyric, “Some of us never did wrong but still went to hell.” For Kendrick, hell is America’s creation of the ghettos, its prison industrial complex, its clandestine torture dungeons in poor neighborhoods."

read the rest here:
http://religiondispatches.org/kendrick-lamars-hip-hop-jeremiad/

Calligraffiti: “anyone who wants to see the sunlight clearly needs to wipe his eye first.”

"On the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, lies the community of Manshiyat Naser, famous for providing informal trash and recycling services for the city, but also notorious for the mess and smell that go with that role."

"The mural blends aspects of Arabic calligraphy with contemporary graffiti, all while highlighting the architecture of the area. The entire work is only visible from the nearby Mokattam Mountain."

read rest here

MC Hammer - Pray (Prince sample)

Kendrick Lamar - God is Gangsta

Hands of God - Rza

BJ The Chicago Kid - Church (remix)

Busta Rhymes - God's Plan

Jeezy on Black Lives Matter

Guardian interview with Immortal Technique

Felipe Andres Coronel, aka Immortal Technique, is more than just an underground hip-hop legend – he's an activist, humanitarian and a revolutionist. Born in Peru and raised in Harlem, New York, the 34-year-old has struck a chord with those seeking an alternative voice in hip-hop. He represents a thorn in the side of the mainstream with his messages about class struggle, religion, government and institutional racism.

Where does the anger in your music come from?
I think it's righteous fury. If someone shot your mother you'd be angry, right? But would you be wrong for being angry? No. I've heard people criticise me for the most ridiculous things, calling my music abrasive. If you're troubled by the words I speak, then you should probably hang yourself because the world is going to tear you apart or is too real for you to accept. I'm not offended by fuck, shit, pussy, dick, motherfucker. You know what I'm offended by? I'm offended by seeing a child in Gaza who has had his skin burned off by white phosphorus. I'm offended by seeing the graves of civilians that are there because they are the "collateral damage" of a drone strike in Afghanistan or Pakistan. I'm offended when I see people perverting Christianity, Islam or Judaism for their own political purposes so they can justify taking land or killing people in the name of something.

Your lyrics contain a lot of religious messages. What does religion mean to you and do you follow a faith?
If I told people I was a Muslim, people wouldn't say: "Wow, that's wonderful you've found inner peace in your life by embracing Islam." They'd ask: "What type of Muslim are you? Are you one of them fucking Wahabbi, Sunnite, Salafi psycho-niggas? Are you down with Hezbollah and them?" If I told people I was Jewish, they'd ask: "Do you support Israel and do you support the colonisation of Palestine?" It's irrelevant whether you call yourself a Christian, Muslim or Jew because if you don't reflect that in your life, you aren't that at all. I have always been hounded by people about it; people try and pry it out of me. I believe in God and have a faith that's very personal to me. That faith is between me and God. We have polarised religion, rather than it being a personal reflection of your relationship with God and how you communicate with God. I'd rather be friends with a good atheist than a bad religious person. Your religion is suppose to ennoble you, but if all it makes you do is become contemptuous of other people, or make you say other people are going to hell, your religion has failed you, or rather, you have failed your religion.


read the full interview here