Hasan Salaam: Sending A Message

As you listen to Hasan Salaam spit and speak, it's not hard to tell that he is a politically and socially conscious young man. He's also Muslim and happens to be a rapper. However, he's not into being confined by labels. The 24-year-old modern day Nat Turner with a northern boom-bap swagger makes music aiming not to only set things right in his life, but also to inspire others.

Sitting down with Ballerstatus.com, the critically acclaimed newcomer spoke candidly on his debut LP Paradise Lost, life as a bi-racial child, domestic violence, and why it's cool being an independent artist.

BallerStatus.com: What exactly does Paradise Lost mean?

Hasan Salaam: Paradise Lost is just dealing with being lost in a personal since. We're all lost. Most people live in a society that's based on a individual. We're not really taught to connect with different people on certain levels unless it's like your family or your wife or whatever. We're not really told to build with our neighbors, so it's like we feed into a machine. It's like we're lost in that sense. Human beings are supposed to connect; that's how we're gonna get somewhere and they keep us separate in that sense. In the cultural sense, colored people on this part of the planet are the lost tribe of Israel [in my opinion] and it's like we lost our culture and we lost our history. All of these things have been taken away from us and stolen from us and we're forced to live something different. So, it's like in that sense too, we're lost.

BallerStatus.com: Paradise Lost dropped in June '05, but since then, you've been getting a lot more notoriety. What has life been like since?

Hasan Salaam: I don't think it's really been too much different. People who were referenced in the album -- like with personal stuff -- liked it a lot. And I got a lot of good feedback from it on that level. My momma is proud of me, [and] that's always good. The other good thing about it is being an independent artist. You can focus on a project as long as you want [so it comes out better]. It's not like a major, where if it doesn't blow up in three months, they don't have anything to do with you anymore. I don't have to look at it like a product. I can look at it like what it is...it's a baby, so I can try to work with it.

BallerStatus.com: Speaking of majors verses independents, a while ago, you mentioned that you didn't like the term "underground" to describe you, can you elaborate?

Hasan Salaam: When it comes to that it's like I want as many people to hear my music as possible, but I'm just not willing to change my music or have a record company rape me. I think that's the only thing that separates us. I think my music should be played on the radio. I just don't want them to put a limitation on me. I think a lot of the terminology that they put on music doesn't make any sense. For example, they're like, "This is mainstream," but what makes it mainstream? There might be some mainstream artists who haven't sold as much as an underground artist; it's just that they got push from a label. I think it's the label's way of trying to stop people from listening to other sh--.

BallerStatus.com: Speaking of songs playing on the radio, you have a song playing on WBLS (New York radio station 107.5) about domestic violence. What inspired you to write the song and how did it get picked up by a radio station with nationally syndicated shows?

Hasan Salaam: It got picked up because we did a show in Queens [me and Red Clay] and Ann Trip [from WBLS] was there. She said she liked my stuff and that WBLS was going to be doing a PSA dealing with domestic violence. She wanted to know if I could write something and I had something -- that's actually just a piece of a song that's probably gonna be on my next album.

BallerStatus.com: Since you already had a song about it, how were you personally affected by domestic violence?

Hasan Salaam: Growing up, I had a friend who used to date this dude who used to beat on her. No matter what we did...like we'd jump him and sit down and talk to her for hours on end, she would never listen. Also, from other situations that I've known like nights sitting in my apartment, my neighbors used to fight all the time, and there are other random times where I'll just see how men treat their women. It usually ends up bad and I was just thinking about that. I think the most p---- thing you could do [as a man] is hit a woman. Especially because that's your earth, that's the mother of your children and you're gonna beat on her. That makes a real bad cycle that's very hard to get out of.

BallerStatus.com: A lot of times women may feel as though men don't take their issues like rape or domestic violence seriously, but obviously, you're a man that does. What would you say to men to make them more aware, in terms of men who are doing it and men who are passively witnessing it?

Hasan Salaam: The backbone of every civilization is a woman. The woman is the first teacher to your child, so you're not gonna have intelligent, strong-minded soldiers, kings and queens growing up if you beat up your woman. If you make your woman afraid of you and the children see that, your kids -- probably about 99% of the time -- are gonna hate you. Also, you shouldn't be beating up anybody period. If you're gonna raise your hands to somebody, raise your hands to the people who are killing you, who are oppressing you. Don't put your hands to the person that's trying to love you. That's doesn't make sense.

BallerStatus.com: What's your ultimate goal in regard to your music?

Hasan Salaam: I'd like to inspire people to want to get free, basically. I remember this quote from Che Guevara where he was like, "The propaganda is just as important as the revolutionary." And I think...like I said before, I'm far from perfect, but Allah gave me a gift to be able to write songs, so I gotta use it for something righteous. I don't think there's anything wrong with certain joints or whatever, but if that's all you do where you got the people listening, you gotta give them some kind of food. You just can't eat junk food all day.

BallerStatus.com: Speaking of music and themes, you're a bi-racial and your next phase is going to explore your issues as such. Can you elaborate on that?

Hasan Salaam: The title of my next album is Life in Black and White. The way I'm doing it is I want it to read like chapters of a book. So, on the last album I left off with "Prayer of a Sinner," which is real personal, and "The Drinking Gourd" is also real personal, so I just wanted to get deeper into it because we live in a society where everything is so race motivated and they just beat you in the head with that all the time. For me, my father is Caucasian and my mother is African-American, so I had to experience some wild, racial mind f---s [even from family], and that's the only way I can put it. It's like I know some of my brothers and sisters that have never been in a white person's home, so they might think all white people live like "Friends" on TV, but it's not like that. And, I know some Caucasian people (I got some in my family) that have probably never been in a black person's home before, even though they have family that's Black, Puerto Rican, and everything, so that's crazy. It makes it so much easier for the powers that be to divide us.

BallerStatus.com: What's your 5-year plan?

Hasan Salaam: My 5-year plan is to keep making more music that moves people inshallah [if Allah wills it] and try to get better at it and try to keep on with this community work that I do (after school program). I'm also gonna work on putting out some other projects, other artists and try to get 5th Column together as a media outlet.

BallerStatus.com: What other projects can people look out for from you?

Hasan Salaam: We're working on a 5th Column compilation album, The Grassroots Artists Movement is putting out a compilation soon and I'm definitely trying to be part of that.

BallerStatus.com: If you could have a conversation with anyone living or dead, who would it be and why?

Hasan Salaam: Can I answer two?

BallerStatus.com: Yes.

Hasan Salaam: As far as people that passed away, I would want to talk to Dr. King about the poor people's movement that he was trying to organize. And I want to talk to Malcom X about how he was about to bring up the United States on charges at the United Nations. I want to understand where they were going with that because I see so much greatness in what they were about to do.

For people that are living, I want to talk to Assata Shakur and Castro. The only other person I can think of is John Coltrane...just because I want to be like, "How did you get to that point with your music?" I just want to know how he got to where he was musically...he's so free with his sh--. It seems like he never did anything to please anybody, but it was still meant to please people. It's like there might be times, even with some of his solos where he might repeat the same thing over and over again because he didn't find a way to get over it, but he didn't sound like he doubted himself. He was trying to work something out and he was working it out through the music. That's my favorite artist.

BallerStatus.com: Being that John Coltrane is your favorite artist, it's probably safe to say that you correlate hip-hop to Jazz. Why?

Hasan Salaam: I think all black music in this country is spiritual -- blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, moving all the way to hip-hop, with a bunch of offshoots in between. Jazz in particular, it's like cats get up there and freestyle, but they have to be technically sound in order to do it correctly. I think that people don't look at Hip-Hop as deeply as they should, but how brilliant do you think a person like Jay-Z has to be to just be able to put words together like that without writing it down? Or someone like Black Thought, who freestyles the way he does -- it's incredible. On top of that, the syncopation in the words, the rhythm, and all these other things reminds me of when I listen to jazz. If I listen to a Charlie Parker solo -- the way that he bounces and bops over a joint [bee-bops] -- I might think of it like the way Twista goes over a joint.

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