Jasiri X

Pittsburgh is not only the home of stoner rap with acts like Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller, it’s also the home the politically charged emcee, Jasiri X. X is known for writing topical tunes that touch on issues that affect the black community. ‘Free the Jena 6’, ‘Trayvon’, and ‘What if the Tea Party Was Black’ display Jasiri X’s creativity and his compassion for the oppressed.

Jasiri’s rhymes led to a recording deal with Wandering Worx Entertainment. Jasiri’s first release for Wandering Worx hit retailers this week and is titled Ascension. Ascension is produced entirely by Canadian producer Rel!g!on and showcases the sentient Jasiri X in addition to the spitter.

Jasiri X spoke to The Real Hip-Hop about his desire to be respected as a lyricist, working with producer Rel!g!on, and his new album, Ascension.

TRHH: The last time we spoke in 2010 you said Ascension was coming in early 2011. Why did it take so long to finally release the project?

Jasiri X: [Laughs] We wanted to do it right and make sure we had the business part of it down. We wanted to have the videos. We shot six and two of them have been released—we have four in the chamber. We just wanted to make sure we had the full push. We wanted to get a distributor on board to get it to iTunes and everywhere so people would be able to have access to the album. In hindsight I’m kind of glad. As we kept making more music the album got better. I’m in a much better place in my own personal life than I was in 2011. I think it shows in terms of how I’m writing the stuff I’m writing. If we would have dropped it in 2011 it would have been a much different album and I don’t think it would have been as good.

TRHH: You released the Rappers on X mixtape last month. Why’d you release that so close to the release of Ascension?

Jasiri X: People know me as this guy who deals with politics and current events. I wanted to give people an idea that I can really spit on this mic. I can go in. I kind of wanted to share that with people. Rappers on X was a compilation of features that I’ve done with other artists. It’s kind of a perception thing like, “I see Jasiri X with Sadat X. Oh, he’s with Mac Miller, Planet Asia and Ras Kass.” It was also to show people that as an artist that I’m beginning to be recognized by other artists that are established and well known. Also, I can spit with them as well. The idea was to inspire people to say, “Hey, this is good; let me see what this album is working with.” Hopefully it worked [laughs].

TRHH: A couple of the songs on the album don’t have the socially conscious themes that we’re used to hearing from you. Is it difficult for you to not speak on specific topics and just spit?

Jasiri X: Nah. I wanted it to be a real album. A couple of projects that I dropped whether it was American History X or #TheWholeWorldisWatching those projects were more like compilations of the current event stuff that I was doing. I wanted to create an album that had a theme, but also create an album that shows more of me as an artist. I always have a lane to speak on something that happens. As I was writing the album Trayvon came so I could speak on it. This album was almost therapeutic in terms of exploring myself as an artist. I think it gives people more of an idea of who I am. It’s like, “You’re speaking on all these politics but why? What drives you? What motivates you?” I think this album helps fill in some of those blanks.

TRHH: You mentioned how on the mixtape you had a lot of guest features but on Ascension you kept it to two emcees, Brother Ali and Rhymefest. Talk about how the collaborations with those two guys came together?

Jasiri X: Rhymefest was actually one of the first established artists that reached out to me. It was through a mutual friend. Rhymefest has been very politically active in Chicago. I think he saw what I was doing with community activism and decided to deal with me. This is a guy that’s behind some of the biggest hits in Hip-Hop. The Kanye that you hear on Cruel Summer is choreographed by Rhymefest. It was cool for me to build with him and we did a few songs. The song ‘By Any Means’ is closest to the political Jasiri X. Rhymefest set it off when he wrote his verse on the day Steve Jobs died. I wrote my verse on the day Troy Davis’ sister passed away. It’s a pretty hardcore song.

Brother Ali just hit me on Twitter one day and told me he liked my work and if I needed anything to holler at him. I hit him back like, yo can you hop on this album? I sent him the track to ‘Pillars’ and he smashed it down like he does. Brother Ali is one of the coolest, most humble, dopest dudes in Hip-Hop. We shot a video for the song and the brother came out the day before his tour. We shot the video on skid row in L.A. at night. We were holding torches and doing all types of illegalities [laughs]. Brother Ali was cool and I got a lot of respect and love for that brother.

TRHH: Was it strategic to have Rel!g!on produce the entire album?

Jasiri X: Absolutely. The thing about Rel!g!on’s production is he doesn’t have a signature sound. His beats are so diverse and that’s what so good about him doing it. We wanted to go back to that time in Hip-Hop where there was one producer and one rapper. It gives it more of a synergy. He’s not just throwing me beats. On certain songs like ’21 Forever’ he’ll say, “I have a concept for this,” and he’ll guide me through that process. Nowadays in Hip-Hop a lot of times it’s one rapper and twenty producers and it can lead to a project that’s not as cohesive.

TRHH: Talk a little about the single ‘The Wheel’.

Jasiri X: Rel!g!on sent me the beat and said he wanted some real conspiracy type stuff. That was one of the earlier songs that I wrote and at the time Minister Farrakhan had done three lectures in a row and the topic was called The Wheel. I wanted to explore it in a Hip-Hop way that’s why the hook is clips that talk about the reality of what they call UFO’s. I have my own footage that I personally recorded. It wasn’t good enough for the video but I’ve seen these objects myself when I was in Miami, Florida. I thought it was an interesting topic to explore. It’s the last track because it kind of represents literal ascension. It’s Rel!g!on’s favorite song on the album. He loved it and said we gotta do a video for this. We went out to the Mojave Desert and shot an incredible video with CGI and everything. It’s just me basically saying, these wheels exist. All these other countries are saying it and Jimmy Carter to Buzz Aldrin saying it, to different footage. It’s just me saying this is something that’s’ real.

TRHH: I love Minister Farrakhan and he’s been a huge inspiration to my life but for most of his critics outside of the Jewish community, that’s the one thing that people question, the wheel. They say, “What’s he talking about with these wheels?”

Jasiri X: It’s funny. Maybe back in the day before YouTube and cell phones but it’s so much evidence now. It can’t be that many weather balloons in the sky. An article just came out in Huffington Post where in Amherst, Massachusetts all these people saw this thing in the sky and the Air Force said, “Oh yeah, we have this plane.” The people were seeing this thing move very fast and it was silent. The Air Force said the plane that they had was a huge B-6 that was big and loud. Even the people writing the article said it can’t be true. One of the people that I have on that song is the former Governor of Arizona. He was Governor when the Phoenix Lights appeared over Arizona. This is a Republican Governor who is a former Air Force pilot and he’s saying, “Unless somebody can give me some information that’s different that has to be a UFO.” I just think too many people have witnessed it, seen it, wrote about it, and videotaped it at this point to just dismiss it. France and Brazil have opened up files about it.

TRHH: I think it’s because the Minister speaks in detail about it. A lot of people are like, “Hey, I saw something and I don’t know what it is.” I think people are more comfortable in ignorance than in him giving details about what he experienced.

Jasiri X: That’s somebody that is talking about his own experience. I was driving real late one time and I was listening to this interview with this woman who had written a book about people in the military’s experiences with seeing UFO’s. I don’t know who is in the wheel. I’m not trying to say it’s this person or an alien. I just know what I saw and I know what evidence is being presented. That was what she was saying, she said, “When it comes to unidentified flying objects I’m an agnostic.” We can’t at this point deny the existence of these. Do we know who is flying them? No. But you can’t deny the existence of them.

TRHH: What do you hope to achieve with the new album?

Jasiri X: The album is called Ascension and the concept of the album is if Hip-Hop is dead where does it go? It either goes up to heaven or down to hell. The concept of the album was to raise Hip-Hop to a higher lyrical, spiritual reality. I’m hoping the album can bring Hip-Hop up and I hope it was achieved whether it’s production or lyrical. I tried to create an album that had a lot of spirit to it—the frequency was spiritual. I hope to raise Hip-Hop up to a higher level. - by Sherron Shabazz The Real Hip-Hop.com

During the long, hard-fought 2012 Election season, Hip-Hop had a soldier named Jasiri X, who was an active participant on the front lines of the battle for the White House.
AllHipHop.com sat down with longtime rapper/activist Jasiri X to capture his final thoughts about the 2012 Election, including a Lupe Fiasco encounter and the crazy, cross-country schedule he maintained. Check out our frank discussion with Jasiri X:

AllHipHop.com: This political season found you all over the place! What were you involved in that had you both speaking and performing in so many cities?

Jasiri X: I was a part of two incredible tours that prominently discussed Hip-Hop and Politics. “Ignite 2012″ was sponsored by the League of Young Voters and their executive director, Rob “Biko”Baker. We went to Pittsburgh, Philly, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati with a panel of artists like myself and Dee-1, and prominent bloggers like AllHipHop CEO Chuck Creekmur, The Well Versed founder Andreas Hale, and Bossip senior editor Janee Bolden; plus, author Dream Hampton and Source magazine’s editor in chief, Kim Osorio.
“Rap Sessions” is facilitated by author and founder of the Hip-Hop Political Convention, Bakari Kitwana. We also traveled to various cities and college campus, with discussions featuring Chuck D, David Banner, Rosa Clemente, and Dr. James Peterson.

I also performed at the DNC and went to Tuscan, Arizona with The Sound Strike and Culture Strike to learn about the plight of undocumented families. To raise awareness, we recorded an amazing cypher at the U.S./Mexico border.

AllHipHop.com: Wow, that’s a lot! Do you have any specific memories you care to share?

Jasiri X: We were doing “Rap Sessions” in Philly, and I got a question about Lupe Fiasco and his recent “Twitter Beef” with comedian DL Hughley and pundit Roland Martin. [It was] over Lupe expressing the fact he was not voting in the presidential election. I made it clear that Lupe was talking about not voting in the national election, but he’s been very involved locally in Chicago politics.

The people in the audience were tweeting about our discussion, and Lupe responded, “I’ll be there in five minutes.” He happened to be in Philly that day promoting his new album. Not only did he show up, but he came onstage and eloquently defended his position. The next day, I did a “Stop and Frisk” rally in New York City, and the person who introduced me for my performance was none other than Talib Kweli!

AllHipHop.com: You’ve got to love social media. You never know who is watching! That’s dope! OK, Jasiri, now that the election is over, and the campaigning is all done, what do you think are the most important lessons to take away from this voting season?

Jasiri X: Around $2 billion was spent on this campaign, and we’ve pretty much got the same group of people governing the country, so I think we have to look seriously at the tremendous influence big money has over politics. I also think it’s very clear that the demographics of this country have been changed forever. The question is, can we use this new-found political power to hold our elected officials accountable and see real change in our communities?

AllHipHop.com: Well said. Your music has been known to carry a political message from time to time. Which one song of yours, out of all of them, would you hope that President Obama would have on his iPod to remind of a specific cause or situation?

Jasiri X: Definitely my new song, “Don’t Forget About The ‘Hood”.

AllHipHop.com: Finally, in a single word, can you sum up how you’re feeling about the election coming to a close?

Jasiri X: Accountability. - by Skyyhook AllHipHop.com

Jasiri X couldn’t have come up with a better title to describe his new album, Ascension. While at the core the album remains consistent with the path that he’s taken to this point, calling out and taking action against corruption in politics and society, Jasiri mixes in some of the raw elements of hip-hop that have influenced his rap career. On “42 Bar Thesis,” you’ll find him lyrically attacking fraudulent rappers, while on “Warrior,” he reflects on his rise in the ranks of hip-hop. The album features fellow conscious rappers Brother Ali and Rhymefest. We spoke with him about the new record.

This being your most anticipated release to date, and you having been on tour pretty much since its release, what has the response been?

I’ve been getting a great response, nothing but love. We did a show with Ab-Soul and Dead Prez and got a tremendous amount of love. I’ve been in the Bay Area, actually, since the 29th [of March]. I’ve spoken at middle schools, high schools, colleges, panels, performances. So, yeah it’s been love.

One of my favorite joints on the new album is “Intro (He Shot Satan).” The concept of the song and the way you end it on the lyric saying “I hope they write my history like ‘remember he shot Satan’” is super dope. Can you take me through the thought process and writing process when you came up with that song?

It was the last song that I wrote for the project. It was really, like, me coming up saying this project is finally here. And that’s why [in the song] I say “what does it mean when you see a thing in a dream and bring it into existence, see it through to fruition.” It was more so, like, me just talking about and taking you through my feelings in terms of the type of artist I am. You know, in the hood it’s like, you tell stories about people like ‘Yo, you remember when so-and-so, like, knocked out homeboy,’ you know what I mean. So, that was me saying that I hope they write my history like ‘Yo, remember he shot Satan?’ More so, like, remember I was somebody that’s coming with something contrary to a normal industry thing. I hope to be remembered as somebody that was kind of on the side of good and right, and not for, like, what’s currently being packaged and sold as the culture of hip-hop.

Your song “42 Bar Thesis” opens with comments about you being in the studio with a lot of legends and flying over seas. Who have you been working with and what’s the feeling been as you’ve began touring various parts of the world?

Brother J, Wise Intelligent, I did a song with Arrested Development that hasn’t come out yet. Chuck D is somebody that’s embraced me and mentored me. It’s like, "wow." I’m building and doing songs with these guys, like M-1 of Dead Prez, Brother Ali. It’s like seeing yourself at one moment on the local level struggling to get known and then next thing you know I’m hanging with Talib, and Lupe, and hanging with M-1 and Dead Prez. And then it’s like, "Oh yeah, that’s Jasiri, that’s one of the new dudes on the scene that we’ve passed the baton to."

In the first verse of that song I say ‘My life’s a whirlwind/picture in the paper, I read it on the plane to Berlin.’ When I was flying to Berlin, Germany - I did a week out there, I was part of a conference and also did some shows — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had done a story on, like, me, Wiz, Mac, Formula 412, and I think maybe Boaz. They had all of our pictures kind of together with articles about us. And literally I bought that paper the day that I was flying to Berlin. So that’s when I’m like, "Yo, watchu gon’ tell me now?! You know what I mean." (laughs)

I’m in the paper and I’m getting on the plane to go to Berlin, Germany. Right when I came back is when I left my job and began to do it full-time. So now I’m like, yo, feeling like a rap star with my name on the shirt, that’s how I felt at that moment.

You’ve been involved with hip-hop since the mid-90s. What was it like to make it to the point where you were able to quit your job to do this as a career? To take that leap there’s risk involved, but it’s obviously what you love. What was the feeling at that time?

It was a risk. I remember even when I left, it was just … the sad part was that it had nothing to do with how I was doing my job, it was the politics of the board of education and I was kind of targeted to be let go. You know, they gotta go through their vaccinations because it’s a union. I really should’ve let them fire me, but I didn’t, I just came in one day, handed them the keys and was like, "I’m out."

But, I remember getting that last check and realizing, like, ain’t no more direct deposit. I gotta go all-in and go hard. So, there was a moment of fear. But I remember a year after I quit doing the taxes and realizing that I made twice as much on my own than I did at that job, and being like ‘yo, damn!’ Cause in the midst of it I didn’t really realize it. So yeah man, there’s no greater feeling than being able to, you know… I was able to say ‘I’m gonna be out in the Bay for a week and a half,’ then I go to Seattle, then I go to Dayton, Ohio. So, I’m able to take two weeks and go to promote my album and I’m able to do that and have the resources and the funds to do that. There’s nothing better than being able to wake up where you wanna wake up and do what you wanna do, especially if it’s something that you love.

On “The Unmasking,” in a story of you searching for yourself, how closely related is the storyline of that song to what your reality has been?

Oh, that is my reality. That’s probably the most personal song that I’ve done. When I started writing the album, I put a little blog out there because I was going through some serious changes. Really, “The Unmasking” is a clearer picture of what was happening in my life at the time. They said I was buzzing, so I’m starting to feel myself a little bit, you know what I’m saying, cause I had this online buzz. It was weird, because I never had that experience. So I started to feel myself, and I started to really act in a way and make decisions in a way that wasn’t me, you know what I’m saying. Because I was having this “success,” I ended up going off-line for three months, man, and kind of just getting back to myself and my real life, trying to put everything in perspective. But, that was very real for me. And that song is a 100 percent real story of kind of that trial I went through at that time, like I said feeling myself and then making decisions that weren’t coinciding with what I was rhyming about or supposed to be living.

Jasiri X is scheduled to return from his tour later this month. His new album, Ascension, is available for purchase on iTunes and physical copies will be available in the coming weeks. You can stay updated on the latest with Jasiri X on Facebook and Twitter. - By Rory D. Webb PGH City Paper

"I'm a talk about poppin' champagne forever/I'm a go to the club and make it rain forever/I'm a spend my rent money on a chain forever."

That's Pittsburgh rapper Jasiri X from his new album "Ascension" and if you know anything about Jasiri X, you might be wondering if he just went crazy or if he's selling out big time.

The answer is neither.

The song is "21 Forever" and while it kicks hard like a club banger, it's Jasiri's sly attack on the culture of refusing to grow up, or think, or take responsibility.

It's a consciousness rap song but it's also a twist for Jasiri X, who made his reputation with political songs like "What if the Tea Party Was Black," "Occupy (We the 99"), "Trayvon" and "Candidates for Sale."

On "Ascension," he steps away from the headlines and creates something with more shelf life and a more spiritual/personal side, an album that speaks more generally about living in these times.

"I felt like I could always drop a topical political thing," he said in an interview last week. "I just put out a song like literally five minutes ago kind of talking about Kimani Gray [the Brooklyn teenager whose shooting by police prompted riots last week]. I always have a lane for that. So I wanted to make a real album that kind of had a theme and stuck with that. The title 'Ascension' is kind of like me saying I want to take hip-hop to a higher level."

Jasiri Oronde Smith is a Chicago native who grew up in a gang-ridden neighborhood there before moving with his mom to Monroeville in the '80s and graduating from Gateway High School at 16. He started college with the intention of being a lawyer, first at the University of Maryland, and then at the University of Pittsburgh, but dropped out.

He started doing spoken word performances, and then, inspired by Louis Farrakhan, he joined Nation of Islam and became a social activist working out of a mosque in Wilkinsburg.

Since dropping the song "Free the Jena 6" in 2007, his focus has been on spreading the word through hip-hop, and he's traveled the country doing shows, lectures and seminars, mostly at colleges. His 2010 debut album, "American History X," which won Album of the Year at the Pittsburgh Hip-Hop Awards, was loaded with topical tracks from his YouTube channel and online show "This Week with Jasiri X."

"Ascension" is his debut album for Wandering Worx, a Vancouver label that launched in 2010 and has a roster that includes Rel!g!on and Planet Asia. Rel!g!on expands Jasiri's horizons musically by producing tracks, with real instruments, not samples, that are as polished and heavy as the mainstream rappers.

"I think the production is really well done," Jasiri says, "so you can put certain songs that I have right next to songs from A$AP [Rocky] or songs from Wiz [Khalifa], because a lot of times people are drawn by the melody, drawn by the hook, and then you realize that I'm saying something a little bit deeper, a little bit stronger. I tried to make an album that musically could reach beyond my core audience, beyond the people who are interested in just politics."

Jasiri and Rel!g!on met online, and the relationship began with Jasiri appearing on the Canadian rapper's album "Revelationz." The "Ascension" project started with Rel!g!on sending him a beat for what became the song "Lost in a Virtual Reality." It was part of a group of songs Jasiri wrote in 2010 when he was struggling with his direction and social media identity.

"Now you're addicted," he raps, "a slave to the toxin/gotta keep typin' to keep your name poppin'/now your grave is a box in a screen on the site/where you're far more important than in your real life."

"When I first began to do 'This Week With Jasiri X,' " he says, "I kind of had this, I guess you would say, virtual fame. People began to know me, but it was online. I started to take this online interaction really seriously," he says laughing. "I was like, 'Whoa, this is cool, wow.' But then I'm walking the streets of Pittsburgh and nobody knows me, but people online were throwing me so much love. I got to the point where I had to go offline in early 2010 for three months. I had to put it in perspective and say, 'Dude, calm down. You have a real life.' "

In a similar vein, "TV Land" is a song about the influence of reality TV creeping into people's own reality. "Ascension" is a dreamy, atmospheric track about finding the light spiritually. "Pillars," with an old school Public Enemy vibe and the verbal riff from "Rapper's Delight," challenges gangster culture with, "To the drug dealers and killers/we the foundation, we the pillars."

"By Any Means," featuring Rhymefest and a Malcolm X sample, is a hard-hitting call for political/economic justice: "So many sons dead/I wanna take every drop of bloodshed/and paint the White House blood red/'cause every time we go to court, we face Judge Dredd/while these billionaire bankers get sent to Club Med."

And then there's "The Wheel," a rare entry in the category of rap songs about UFOs. This one deals with the Phoenix Lights and Lake Erie UFO sightings in 1997 and 2010, respectively, and it allowed Wandering Worx, also a movie production company, to create a cool sci-fi movie video starring Jasiri.

"So, Rel!g!on sends me the beat and he's like, 'I want some real conspiracy-type stuff.' At that time the story about Lake Erie UFO sightings was a big story. If I was on a major label, they probably would have been like, 'Nah, this is crazy.' Then, they were like we have to go to the Mojave Desert in California. They came up this whole idea of hunting UFOs."

These are songs that don't have the same expiration date on the label, like a Tea Party song, and they also show a different side of his poetic command.

"I talk about this on the song '42 Bar Thesis,' because people hear me rap politically, but there's a part where you want to show 'I'm skilled on this mic,' " he says. "People always want to label you and put you in a certain box. When you create a song for that time or that moment and that moment goes ... I mean, certain songs, I don't do anymore. Songs like 'What if the Tea Party was Black' and 'Republican Woman' [about Sarah Palin], they're not even relevant anymore. They're good songs, but that moment is gone. I wanted to create timeless music, because when you listen to A Tribe Called Quest today, it's like 'This is great music.' "

His next challenge is to go out and promote "Ascension" to a hip-hop market that's mad for party songs. Nonetheless, he sees a lot of hopeful signs.

"What was the most significant hip-hop album of 2012? It was 'Good Kid, M.A.D.D. City' [from Kendrick Lamar]. In my opinion that was the most important hip-hop album since 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill." There was so much consciousness in this album, I was literally blown away, and he sold more than 2 Chainz."

He also points to Nas' "Life Is Good" and Killer Mike's "Rap Music" as successful albums with something to say.

"Real lyricism, people saying things, that's back. The younger generation are looking at popular music and saying 'This is garbage, I want more of this.' When I see all of that, I think it's my time. People want to see more. We're coming around to real hip-hop with consciousness in it, and it's going to force other artists to change, too."

"Ascension," released Tuesday, can be found on itunes or at wanderingworx.com. A CD release show is in the works for Pittsburgh this spring. - Scott Mervis Pittsburgh Post-Gazette