My Mother & Great Grandmother marched with Dr. King, sat in at white-only lunch counters, and fought alongside countless others for our right to vote. I am neither Democrat nor Republican. I don’t think any human being is 100% Liberal or Conservative. All that to say, if you do not vote you deny the sacrifices of our elders, who risked and even gave their lives to give us a chance to have our voices heard.

Sitting on your ass is not the the next step towards freedom. Skipping an election is not a stance for equality. No this election won’t save the world, but every small act builds on to the greater. This is about more than the Presidency. If you feel that electoral politics don’t matter, run for the school board in your city and make it matter. Start in your community and make a positive change. All the revolution talk means jack shit if you yourself are not willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the world.

I would never tell anyone who to vote for, but I do think your complaints are hollow if you choose not to participate. Honestly speaking, part of my voting is just because people told us we couldn’t and some still think that we shouldn’t.

So, whatever your reason, and whether you vote for Obama, Romney or write in your own name, be active and be a part of something more than talking shit. 

-PEACE

I am human.

I have many faults.

I am not religious nor do I consider myself to make religious music.

I have a deep spiritual idea to be the best man I possibly can. I am not dogmatic. I study all I can & find truth in many walks of life. I see Allah/God/Yahweh in all things. To limit yourself is to limit the most high. This is soul music because it comes from every ounce of my mind, heart & soul…. It’s for all people regardless of how we choose to label or not label ourselves.

It’s good to have faith in something, whether it be a higher power or yourself. Beliefs are good as long as you respect others rights to have their own. You shouldn’t need me to agree with your beliefs to justify them. Your faith should not be based on crushing others. So for all the religious zealots criticizing and critiquing every word and movement I say this:

While yall are debating and going to war over 1,000 year old books; we are building schools, wells & clinics. While you are judging people, we are engaged in conversations to learn from each others mistakes and triumphs, and while you are busy lip professing we show, prove & live our ideals everyday. Whether it be Atheist, Agnostic, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Yoruba, or Self proclaimed, if it makes you a better person for yourself, your family and for humanity all I could say is PEACE.

Walk on Water,

-Hasan Salaam

‘Your audacious life goals are fabulous. We’re proud of you for having them. But it’s possible that those goals are designed to distract you from the thing that’s really frightening you - the shift in daily habits that would mean a re-invention of how you see yourself.’ - Seth Godin

There’s about 45 billion $$$ sitting at that table - I’ll say no more! #ThinkDifferently

‘I don’t move creatively unless I get that inclination to really be inspired. I’m not one of these dudes that’s gonna do a freestyle a week for a blog, ya know? I’m not even tryin to play that game … but, we are trying to give you something unique visually, and every time there is something, you’ll be like, “That shit was pretty good!” *laughs* It has to be above the standard, because otherwise I think Pharoahe becomes disposable, because music is disposable right now! You erase it off your computer, download it - its not even a tangible thing anymore, so for me to put out high levels of freestyles a week, it becomes something that’s disposable, because then you expect it from me.’ - (Still True) Excerpt from ‘09 Interview with Pharoahe Monch by Sav One.

The concept behind Hasan Salaam’s EP “Music Is My Weapon” is the belief that music can be used as a powerful tool in the pursuit of freedom, justice, and equality. With the release of the project, Hasan is aiming to prove that music can change people’s lives, literally. All profits from the sale of the EP will be used to fund a school, clean water well, and medical clinic in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. In November 2010, Hasan became the first U.S hip hop artist to ever perform in Bissau. On the same trip he worked with the young artists, taught creative writing to the youth, and headlined a concert to promote freedom of speech. The “Music Is My Weapon” project is the next step, in an effort to provide change to a country that remains one of the poorest and least politically stable in the world.

Clean drinking water, a proper education, and adequate healthcare are basic human needs that many countries continue to struggle with. Guinea-Bissau is a small, and often forgotten, West African nation that exemplifies this dire situation. Only 56% of its population has access to clean drinking water. The youth remain part of a cycle that leaves 47% of them without the opportunity to attend primary school. The 1.5 million citizens share access to the country’s approximately 45 doctors, leaving them with an average life expectancy of 48 years.

The remote village of Djati suffers even greater extremes due to its 160 mile distance from the capital city of Bissau. Djati has no source of water, school for its children, or medical facility. Young women and children walk 2-3 miles per day getting water, which is often contaminated, to bring back to the village. The youth utilize a makeshift school made of sticks and hay that they must rebuild every year after it’s destroyed by the rainy season. Djati has no medical clinic, so the sick must be transported 35 miles away to the village of Quebo before they can be treated.

Djati is the land that time forgot. This project can change that…

100% of the profits from the “Music Is My Weapon” project goes to the “It Takes a Village” Project. For additional information, please check out HasanSalaamMusic.com and visit iTunes to purchase a copy of the EP. If you have any questions, please email me at: DJ.Sav.One@Gmail.Com

My train campaign put me on the map in a major way, in a short amount of time. Basically I was like, “I’m nice, but nobody knows it. How can I get people to know it, and on a budget?” I bought the domain name homeboysandman.com from godaddy, threw up some joints. Not even too many bells and whistles, ‘cause the truth is that my music speaks for itself.

I’m always riding trains where you can always find people just looking up and reading all the ads. So, I figured I’d put up some ads!

Of course, I couldn’t afford the zillions that companies pay to put up those full-car ad campaigns, but I did have enough scratch for colored paper from Staples. My pop has a copy machine in his office…all it took after that was tens, possibly hundreds, of hours taking this full page sheets & sliding them behind the plastic where the MTA ads go.

The first ads were very simple - they’d have the website, and then a legendary MC that would approve of how I get down. Like, “HomeboySandman.com, Black Thought would approve,” or another, “HomeboySandman.com, Big Pun would be proud.”

And we’d do entire trains, car by car; we hit every line in the city, most lines multiple times. At first, people were caught off the jump just from the colorful paper everywhere, but then the caliber of emcees I was shouting out, cats in the know were like, “this kid thinks he’s in the same league with these cats? Maybe I should check him out.” … Tens of thousands of people saw those ads. They worked like a charm. - Excerpt from an ‘09 Interview with Homeboy Sandman by Sav One.