After listening to the track ‘The Ashes’ I was compelled to ask Tai Mahmud about his latest offering. SO we met up to dissect his track in a rhyme and reason session.
The track itself is delivered in a slow spoken word/poetic delivery in order to emphasize the meaning of each line. The beat was developed by iLL thought process and was deliberately constructed in a manner that would propel the vocals onto a platform that is instantly recognizable in an authoritative tone so that the audience is invited to listen even if there is someone else around they are enveloped within a surreal atmosphere created by the smoky track forcing an individual to listen to each line and catch the meaning properly.
Each word is actually very simplistic and not complicated at all; the vocabulary is used in day to day language constantly but not compacted into sentences like this regularly. It may seem complicated at first but in reality it really isn’t. If you look at each word individually you will actually see they are words used across the board on a day to day basis and are words picked up through time, reading and schooling. This is why Mahmud has opted to write the track like this, so that it rings an underlying message which is evident over time and not just straight away, because then the audience would not keep interest. Our governments hide things from us consistently, therefore he has chosen to hide things from his audience in a bid to uncover them overtime, which is why this track was created to show the listener that not all is what it seems.
This is actually a spoken word poetry track and not a Hip-Hop track, the only exception is that it is spat over a beat.
**I'm a little.....Conscious of my subconscious**
[In deep thought of underlying consciousness]
**A little worry, on the thoughts that lay beneath the murky waters of clouded contemplation **
[A worry of hostile thoughts that have laid dormant]
**A residue of previous encounters lay solid magnify when I sit alone**
[Sitting alone thinking of inner depressive thoughts can enlarge a problem if the mind wills it to i.e. if you think of something too long, it will become a bigger problem than it was originally which can allow the mind to wander]
**Waiting for depression to swing with swords of ecstasy
And pierce the rubble of sadistic annoyance**
[Highlighting the fact that depression can end at sometime, although when it does it will strike with ecstasy almost piercing. This ecstasy will be like an attacking relief, almost piercing to release from the strains of cruelty from others]
**Blinded by ash and smoke in this matchstick moment**
[Description of the current situational climate]
**This fortress of solitude is still locking in the pores of respiration**
[Locked into a residence of loneliness almost suffocated by its surroundings]
**Skin painted**
[Description of the suffocating habitat again]
**And speech bloated with decorations of vogue statements**
[These surroundings have caused Mahmud to take on their negative influence for himself, incorporating a ‘shining’ like effect]
**Dispatching basal rain to carry salty drops of harboured doubt**
[Basal is a kind of tear (salty in taste) that lubricates the eye and keeps it from becoming dirty. Normal tears disperse, whereas Basal does not which is where he makes the comparison that his doubts on the world will remain forever, to never be cleaned]
**While the moon howls at me**
[Reversion of the werewolf transformation]
**Slipping into my support of lustful vampirical personified lyrical**
[This is his description of the rejection of problems, many actually do this. They seek comfort in life’s obscenities such as immoral sex outside of marriage]
**A split second splits into amplified existence**
[Larger global problems become an explosion of panic boiled by the media, such as the atom bomb which still echoes through our own existence]
**The volume of blood pumping is faster than it needs**
[His blood is pumping faster due to the series of events unfolding]
**Nirvana of tricks my high is shouldered by the rock it bleeds**
[As a Muslim, Mahmud does not believe in Nirvana, so he likens it to governmental tricks that keep people in their comfort zone with nothing to fear, without knowing this it will silently destroy the human psyche. Mahmud then goes on to describe that any high or good he receives is always shadowed and stalked by an entity waiting in the wings and preventing it from occurring is almost like cutting a rock to make it bleed which is impossible]
**Shafted by innocence and mauled by adulthood**
[Our whole existence on this Earth in our societies is a lie and in the realization of this we feel almost physically dismantled]
**Fanned by money, and paying back the shadow**
[Linked to the line above, we are in a credit system which forces us to slave away to pay back an unknown banker who have their own agenda]
**I keep myself within limits and feelings inside of me tighter than bone marrow**
[Now knowing the unfortunate turn of events, Mahmud describes how he is trying to keep his distance and feelings closer to his mind, so much more than to let it affect him physically]
**Walking our own path
signing off small print at a glance**
[Our own choices will lead to our demise]
**Seclusion of profit, so I sacrificed that for a number of prophets**
[Subsidizing wealth for religion]
**Delivering scriptures with priceless worth**
[An immaculate message that cannot be unbalanced – referencing ‘The Holy Qu’ran’]
**And shackling revenue along with accessories of material girth**
[Imprisoning his financial income along with sizable luxury items]
**But now…
Worn out and torn stitched up, salaried tear ducts without any use**
[The violence and pain has become so much that tears are no longer effective as a coping mechanism]
**Building up inside me
So it just wears down**
[A build up of aggression must be contained to cease an outrage of oppression]
**Until lubricant violence, slips past me in comas**
[The violence is so unbearable that an ignorant coma surrounds him, ‘slipping’ past in a lubricant like state]
**Waking up in sunlight and being burnt by atoms**
[The foresight of a pending nuclear attack, referring to a possible conflict between the US/Iran and N.Korea]
**A fruitful suicide...
...but peeling this orange suspense breaks a marmalade silence**
[A lot of Muslims who are not attuned to the true meaning of Islam believe that suicide bombings are an attribute in the struggle, although this would be a contradiction to God’s revelations, almost believing it is ‘as sweet as fruit’ and the ‘suspense’(orange) leading up to the ending is the produce from that nurtured fruit (Marmalade is made from orange skins) which in this case is the silence breaker, producer of anarchy and fear]
**A pin drop of noise will deafen alienated environments**
[The smallest of interventions could cause a backlash]
**I fall into flames but discover a hairline….
Fracture, of amnesty that quickly falls into ropes of jugular squeeze**
[The worst of situations will always lead to a path of escape, although there may be some casualties that could lead you back to where you started]
**A life more detailed than close range portraits**
[Difficult lives indeed have a few stories to tell and Mahmud is referencing to his own and others in his life]
**And vernacular sleeves**
[Fork tongue tricks are hidden, like the star in the sleeve (reference to Nazism apparent in today’s culture and society i.e. BNP)]
**An album of anthrax, equivalent and doctored demolition**
[Referencing to Muslim Hip Hop as the media tried to portray Muslim artists in a bad light and insinuated that they encourage extremism in younger brothers & sisters. This links in with the next portion to this line – ‘equivalent and doctored demolition’ which refers to the trade towers collapse under controlled demolition and not by violent attacks from Muslim brothers or sisters**]
**Frameworks of decisions, collapse under regiments of convolution **
[Frameworks of decisions are no use under a state of anarchy as lines of answers become twisted and are covered up by contradicting information from the Government]
**You think Obama will save you? Or the heart of confusion?**
[Do you seek Obama, the king of backtracking to save you? Or revolution? You decide, the people should be feared by their government not the opposite]
**A puppet on a string, gains no free will when a senates involved**
[referring to the leadership control by other financial groups and individuals and not just the US senate]
**If you do something good a bullet is birthed from the cold**
[Referring to leaders who DO perform good deeds, (such as Abraham Lincoln, Kennedy or Bhutto to name but a few). If a positive step is taken by them almost certainly an attempt on their life is made]
**Preserving a magma interior just dying to**
[Ill feelings from an unnamed country are boiling up just dying to strike another]
**Or are you dying too? But unaware of your rotting carcasses of ungrateful life**
[This line is a reference to everyone in general who do not care about life outside their own country and are happy to go about their daily routine not knowing that one day it will affect them also. If nuclear war did strike, would the people still think they are untouchable?]
**The next poet steps up and preaches his order
Contradicting himself, spitting out lines of profanity
Sniffing lines of white vanity
Inserting lines of casually orchestrated inaccuracies **
[Directly referring to false leaders/rappers/poets who preach freedom and love but once they are out of the limelight they revert back to the life they love most ie – drink, drugs etc]
**Yeah,
Suck on that blunt
Watch ya manhood diminish
Push out that culture**
[This is Mahmud concluding that culture can never triumph over religion and that the general practices of it such as intoxicating the body with drugs is part of the problem]
**A heart full of sulphur
A mindful full of eureka**
[Referring to the leaders of power who see with ammunition and think with a distant detached mind]
**Hypnotized by speakers of microorganisms
That reside within your orgasmisms just coz you left your raincoat in your wallet**
[This is highlighting immoral behavior which is unacceptable, leading to the spread of disease, famine, greed etc]
**I've vomited more morals than common sense in your essence**
[Referring to the fact he always tries to plead with people who commit this kind of behavior and the second part refers to countries of power who continue with their brutish antagonizing ways yet they persist anyway regardless to those opposed to their ideologies]
**Localized pestilence and triggered workflows of famine**
[Directly criticizing the treatment of locals on a global scale by their governments. He has used the term ‘triggered workflows of famine’ as their famine (i.e. Nigeria, Somalia) is triggered by the over taxed, bully tactics enforced by Government in order to reap wealth for themselves no matter the cost of their people]
**Whilst our government talk [explicit deleted] and sit there fannin' their wages**
[Criticism of the UK government in regards to the amount of expenses they claim off the backs of British workers]
**First Iraq 1, then Iraq 2, 10 years down the line your children will suffer a war too**
[Self explanatory line stating a middle eastern war seems to be a regular occurrence every 10 years incited by the US & UK]
By Asshan Khalifa,
(Explanations provided by Tai Mahmud)
The paper is aged and fragile, the typewritten letters slowly fading. But US Military Intelligence report EW-Pa 128 is as chilling now as the day it was written in November 1944. The document, also known as the Red House Report, is a detailed account of a secret meeting at the Maison Rouge Hotel in Strasbourg on August 10, 1944. There, Nazi officials ordered an elite group of German industrialists to plan for Germany's post-war recovery, prepare for the Nazis' return to power and work for a 'strong German empire'. In other words: the Fourth Reich.
Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism. His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy. The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time.
There has been a steady internet chatter about the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty. Remarkably, little of Bush's dealings with Germany has received public scrutiny, partly because of the secret status of the documentation involving him. But now the multibillion dollar legal action for damages by two Holocaust survivors against the Bush family, and the imminent publication of three books on the subject are threatening to make Prescott Bush's business history an uncomfortable issue for his grandson, George W, as he seeks re-election.
While there is no suggestion that Prescott Bush was sympathetic to the Nazi cause, the documents reveal that the firm he worked for, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), acted as a US base for the German industrialist, Fritz Thyssen, who helped finance Hitler in the 1930s before falling out with him at the end of the decade. The Guardian has seen evidence that shows Bush was the director of the New York-based Union Banking Corporation (UBC) that represented Thyssen's US interests and he continued to work for the bank after America entered the war. Taken from the Guardian Newspaper.