Then Tupac and Biggie died, and arguably the west coast and east coast grip on the sound of hip hop gave way to the southern era. An age of southern Hip hop artist, and music that definitely gave you funk, and soul, but in my opinion, further dumbed down an art form that was already under severe commercial attack(Barring a few exceptions).

If there was any breath in the genre of Hip hop, it was now, virtually extinct. Where you may have been able to point to a wider variety of conscious artist in the 80, or early 90’s, with the turn of the millennium, it seems like Hip hop is now even more so a narrow lane of superficiality, short sightedness, and the echoes of guns, bling, and hoes. The holy trinity of all that is commercially expedient.

I’m not attacking the freedom of choice all artist have to make in the music they choose to create, nor am I marginalizing the corporate forces at play in shaping an environment that arguably stifles true art.  I’m also not discounting a time and a place for everything, and that can also be represented in music.  I guess I’m just mourning the fact that such a powerful medium cant be better shared by a broader range of voices, and sounds.

Over the last few years, as my hunger and thirst for wrestling with the bigger questions in life has expanded, so has my desire for music that was both conscious, not whack, and soul searching. Baring a few exceptions, and since Lauryn Hill went underground, my music palate has grown to other genres and styles of music that seem to better embrace a larger breath of subject matter in their music.

But a few days ago, my brother started playing the new Roots album: How I got over in my hearing and I just had to sit up.

For those of you who enjoy Hip hop, or any music that punches past your epidermis, speaks too the human condition, and contains a much needed politic, societal, and spiritual activist tinge, I highly recommend you check out this new album.

Here’s a great review from Anthony Fantano at The Needle Drop Music Review Website. I’ve also included a couple of my favorite songs from the album. Let me know what you think, and also feel free to recommend your favorite music, Hip hop or otherwise, that actually has something important to say

The journey of life.

In highschool, style was high on my list of priorities, or at least what I then defined style to be.  Now, the thought of going to the mall gives me lower back pain.

Recently the connection between the outer expression(clothes) and who one is on the inside has resurfaced as noteworthy…at least in theory.

In practice, my outward adornment has at times fluctuated between the impression of near homelessness to that of a wanna be scholar.

I’ll give you a recent example of where I’ve been in the style department.

Last week I accompanied an aunt to federal court to celebrate her becoming an American citizen.  My grandmother, along with a couple other family members, came along to celebrate.

Lets just say my cousin kept explaining(jokingly apologizing) to a couple of the guards that I thought we were going to the beach.  You sort of stand out in a room of 100 plus formally dressed foreigners, when you are hobbling around in slippers, shorts, and a t-shirt.

Don’t get me wrong, I was fine.  Rather comfortable if you ask me.  But after relfecting on a particular elderly Caucasian guard, who felt it necessary to continuously reinnact LL Cool Jay impressions, accompanied with spontaneous hoola hoop like dances, while sporadically calling me bro, and commenting on him being more “black” than his fellow black co-worker, I had to think.

What’s going on here?  I mean the guy meant well, and he had us all laughing.  And i really wasnt intending on turning this into an analysis of the various assumptions people make based on race(Maybe another time).  But the experience did make me think about what people see when they see you, and how that may or may not make them respond.

(On second thought he did stick up for my attire, when he jokingly told my cousin..”don’t playa hate, congratulate”)

Maybe I’ve been so in my head lately that I’ve underestimated the importance and significance of what is communicated when the outside world sees you.

After watching the video below, it also reminded me of how one can strengthen a substantive inner philosophy, by how you are dressed, and also caused me to re-access my understanding of the full definition of style.

Style: The way in which something is said, done, expressed, or performed…

Check out Dr.Cornel West being interviewed by Prepidemic.com on the matter of Style. He puts a bit more meat on the topic, and caused me to rethink somethings.  Feel free to weigh in with your thought in the comments.

Hmmmm….Maybe a serious style makeover is in order?

What is Style to you?  Is there a connection between what you look like on the outside and who you are inside?

Highway drivers can be so insensitive.

Inconvenience has the potential to be underutilized.  Its the art of disruption that flies under our radars ability to appreciate the moments that are still, arduous, and dare I say even painful.  The kinds that demand of us the kind of contemplation that comes only through long weary walks down roads we have always speed past…going somewhere quickly…A life lived at 90 miles and hour.

These inconvenient moments slap us out of our hysteria.  Grabbing our attention…shocked and wide eyed we focus in on what matters.

“They” told us stop signs compromised our inner sense of rebellion.  That’s why the kids sprayed paint over them, and shot at them with paint filled balls of suburbia styled revolution.  But the revolution for today’s age may not be as sexy.

No raging fires or wailing sirens.

No service announcements to interrupt a regularly televised dinner.

And definitely no t-shirts with hammered fist or blood red logos to certify your allegiance to the cause.

But just the still small turning of your soul, amidst your crucible.  This revolution is an invisible genetic alteration.  Open for newness.  As still as a cool summer night pregnant with possibilities beneath a star dust peppered blackness.  And you… below, flat on your back, forced to look up.

The situations in our lives right now that are slowing us down, confining us to reclined seats of sickness and pain; these can be the thrones where new kingdoms are formed.  These are the barriers, motes, and enemy affronts that flatten our backs and butts against the walls of life, jagged edges and all, and slowing us to a humble crawl.  But don’t we need the foreshadowing of life’s finiteness?  Aren’t these the very moments, where the seeds of truth are waiting, embryonic…and waiting to be born?

Anyhow….let these words be hands around your shoulders…or if you’re a guy, and that makes you uncomfortable…let these pixels remind you that you are not alone, and that it’s ok to be still and know…

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Again, due to a technical issues, some parts are a bit jumpy.

Exploring Clarity, Congruency & Creativity with Tony Teegarden – Part #2 from Veron Graham on Vimeo.

• 0:15 – Defining Authenticity
• 3:03 – Projecting our greatness unto other people
• 4:36 – Tony shares his view on “Spiritual Marketing”
• 8:18 – Tony shares future projects (blogging as a business, & personal coaching)

Tony Teegarden has helped me grow, particularly in the areas of gaining clarity on my career goals, and developing some important entrepreneurial skills.  I was fortunate to sit down with him(via skype) and catch up on where he is now in his life, and as usual, he dropped a few gems worth careful consideration.

The video is a bit choppy at times, but still very watchable.  Here’s part #1 of our interview.  Hope you enjoy:

Exploring Clarity, Congruency & Creativity with Tony Teegarden from Veron Graham on Vimeo.

Summary of Interview:

• 0:50 – Philosophy on work
• 5:00 – Creativity & congruency as core values
• 7:00 – Gaining Clarity & Advise for those making transition from work to work that connects to core values
• 9:35 – What he’s learned as entrepreneur/solopreneur -
• 10:30 – Getting clear on what kind of life you really want to live?
• 11:30 – Rethinking the Time & Money ratio. Do you have a life?
• 12:59 – Authenticity & life as a blogger

Part #2 of our converssation: Here

What are some things you value regarding your work or career?

Exploring Truth w/ the Nawala Tribe Part 2 from Veron Graham on Vimeo.

If you missed part 1 of our conversation, check it out here

I really appreciate the intentional approach she takes to understanding life, and her willingness to talk to me about some “serious” topics.  It’s not always easy to confront the deeper side of your life, and then turn around and share it openly, with the hopes it will benifit someone.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m just a bit nerdy when it comes to my interest in practical philosophy, thinking critically about life, and questioning aspects of my religious experience, but then I connect with a kindred traveler, and am reminded that the struggle to understand what is really going on is as human as…well…truly being alive.

Nawala definitely defines someone who is taking that pursuit seriously, examining her life, and making it count. I hope this, and future interviews motivate and inspire you in your journey to a better understanding of the human condition, what’s going on in your world, life, and personal development.  That’s a tribe I can get down with anyday…

Check out part #1 of our conversation.  We discuss the various benefits of blogging, pursuing truth, living your purpose, Religion, God, some tree hugging stuff, and more:

Exploring Truth w/ the Nawala Tribe Part #1 from Veron Graham on Vimeo.

• 1:00 – Nawala speaks on what the Nawala Tribe is about, why she began her blog, and the many benefits to blogging(both for writing, and personal growth)
• 3:35 – Why philosophical and spiritual themes are at the core of what she writes, and how she lives
• 5:02 – What makes someone so intentional about pursuing truth in their life?
• 9:00 – Why is it that some don’t take that degree of intentionality to life?
• 13:15 – Religion and how it shapes us
  
• 15:30 – Knowing about God vs Knowing God
• 19:15 – Does religion sometimes obstruct the Truth?

The rest of our conversation will be posted tomorrow.  Feel free to comment, agree, disagree, and all that good stuff!  Oh, and make sure and check out Nawala’s blog, she really has some very insightful things to say, and its very obvious, at least to me, that she’s a down to earth, and all around nice person…

with the sun in their face, and grins in their eyes…

And we watch below the alter

Into the grassy plateau of souls….whispering of yesteryear’s
they march towards the point….

men from the east to the men of the west
The sky looks down and rumbles in knowing….and the earth trembles beneath the iron hoofs, and boots of steel
across the red river, and the skulls and ravens…they go…to the field of swords…

Look to your hips soldier…

take from your holster the venom from tongue….
for across the field…table…or room…comes your brother, sister, mother and friend…

and we plunge our swords together into the souls of our reflections…and fall together again again and again

onto the field of swords…..

feat photo by Rita Crane

Brandon is a 23 year old who quit his comfortable corporate job in order to pick up and travel the world.  His goal?  To live the life of a global vagabond,  and search for more meaning in his life.

He also aims to live life in the moment, face doubt and fears, discover perspectives, meet others with the same vision, learn about what people want out of life, and connect with the world.  A mouthful?  Well, that’s just for starters.

I was fortunate to get him away from gallivanting up Mount Sinai, in Cairo, Egypt, just to sit down and talk to me for a few moments.

We discussed:

• What someone needs to begin to do, in order to travel the world

• Similarities between exploring the world through travel, and growing as a person

• Long-Term travel vs short term trips

• And much more…

Check out the interview below and feel free to leave any comments below:

Part 1

Exploring The Inner & Outer World Through Travel Part #1 from Veron Graham on Vimeo.

Part 2

Exploring The Inner & Outer World Through Travel Part #2 from Veron Graham on Vimeo.

Featured picture by Brandon James