Layla Music Lyrics

Primordial and poetic: Hip hop according to Baraka Blue

As the state ponders the release of its prisoners, some community groups are calling for a more rehabilitative approach to incarceration. Prison can be a transforming experience for many. It can also be enlightening, with prisoners finding solace and guidance in spirituality.

While African American civil rights leader Malcolm X was in prison after a young life of crime, he made a transformation. He found spirituality in the form of the Muslim faith. Muslims are now in the midst of Ramadan, the holy month where they fast from dawn to dusk. And Islam has been a part of the black community for some time. That comes through in the culture, and in the art.

Artists like Mos Def are open about their Muslim faith, and how it influences their music. and there are many others – Big Daddy Kane, Lupe Fiasco, and members of the iconic 90s hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest.

Local hip hop artist and poet Ahmad James draws inspiration for his music from Sufi Islam. But he’s not African American – he’s white – and has been in the West Coast hip hop scene since he was 13, writing poetry, freestyling with this friends in ciphers, performing at clubs … but also getting high, stealing, and getting in trouble.

Then, he came across the poetry of Jalal-uldeen Rumi, the 13th century Sufi poet, Muslim theologian, and mystic. And, he was inspired to change himself, his outlook on life, and his music. I sat down with Ahmad James, known in hip hop circles as Baraka Blue about how he discovered his art.

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BARAKA BLUE: I started when I was really like in fifth grade, sixth grade writing lyrics to songs that were on the radio, doing our own kind of renditions, and doing our own dances to it and stuff. At first it was just imitation you know? It was just hearing what we hear on the radio.

But as I got older I started to get exposed to the local scene and started going to the local hip-hop shows, and then it became more than just about imitating; I realized there was kind of actually a consciousness behind it and there was actually a movement and there was all kinds of different currents and people of different backgrounds, all these different types of art forms, influences of jazz, influences of blues, and then also free-styling, which is jazz but it’s with meaning because it’s with words.

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