Throughout the history of black history, our music has always been a direct reflection of what challenges we were facing at the time. Whether it was the hymns sung during slavery, the songs sung during the civil rights movement and James Brown’s “I’m Black and I’m Proud” and Marvin’s “What’s Going On” to Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” music has always been the score to where we were socially…’til now. Nowadays, if you look at the music that the bulk of black folk make, you’d be under the false impression that we live to make it rain and that money ain’t a thing and nothing could be further from the truth. Forget about black folk being unemployed and struggling to keep food on the table. Oh yeah, and let’s forget the fact that black men are out here being slaughtered by the cops, not to mention each other! And where is the music, films, documentaries that reflect that? I’ll wait…

So, with me & Beezo knowing since we’re calling out the who’s who of the hip hop/entertainment game, we knew that we had to bring sumthin’ to the table ourselves which is where the “Hands Up 63135″ project comes into play. Taking the title from the “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” campaign taking place in Ferguson, Missouri along with their zip code, the project has us challenging any and all MC’s, singers, poets, etc. to jump over these beats (5 produced by me and 5 produced by Beezo) to create sumthin’ positive that not only reflects the Mike Brown tragedy and the struggles that we face with the police but also the senseless black on black killings that take places in our communities everyday. So if you hear a track that you’re feeling…jump on it! Wanna rhyme over the entire project? Cool…make it happen! And when it’s done upload it to your soundcloud, bandcamp, facebook, mixcloud, etc. and not only help get the word out about our “Hands Up 63135″ project but help us get back music back to where it’s supposed to be.

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