African Survival and Creativity

Realism is an MC, producer and musician. 

1.     When and how did you first learn about the enslavement of African people (a/k/a slavery, the slave trade)?  Watching the video made me feel confused, disheartened and looking for an explanation. It made me look at England in a different light and it effected the way I felt about my future.    

2.      How did that knowledge affect you at the time?  Watching the video made me feel confused, disheartened and looking for an explanation. It made me look at England in a different light and it effected the way I felt about my future   

3.      How does your knowledge and awareness of the history of the enslavement of African people affect you as an artist now?  How does it influence your work?  It affects me in a big way because, without the little knowledge that was given to me, I’d probably be a signed artist with a platinum chain or lost in today’s society. It influences my work subliminally; the way I speak, and the subjects that inspire me come from the beats of the African drum and the pain my ancestors went through which in a different but funny way it still has parallels with what we’re going through today.  

4.      How have you personally experienced enslavement as an artist?  How have you personally experienced Emancipation as an artist?  I’ve personally experienced enslavement as a human being before I was an artist. I’ve been chained up, put in a meat wagon, beaten to unconsciousness and then freed without charge, haha, they call it free anyway. I cannot say I’ve felt enslaved as an artists cos as an artists I’m not signed to an enslaving major record label so in that sense, for now, I’m free. My music is my emancipation.  

5.      How can we as artists uplift our people, i.e. people of African heritage?  How can we as artists liberate our people?  How can we as artists unify our people?  First thing I think that, as artists, we need to do is show the world that we are one. We all live, eat, sleep and die and need to understand that every man is equal. Too many artists today are puppets on a string, followers not leaders, students not teachers, lost and not found. In order to inspire, we first must understand ourselves. For instance, we have the biggest hearts, the lion’s heart, but yet the puppet master lets the world believe that we are full of hate, confusion and anger which then forms paranoia amongst one another which then stops us opening up to one another and realising that we are all in the same slave master’s boat. As an artist, I choose to uplift people by letting them now that we are the future and that we can make a big difference for the younger generation through unity, planning and organisation. 

Realism is one among the UK’s most inspirational underground hip-hop artists, producers and songwriters. He has achieved acknowledgment from local boroughs and organizations, national newspaper article coverage, national and international radio coverage and a career in his chosen field. Realism is also co-founder of musical movement of social change FirstLove Musik, an organisation consisting of talented and un-compromised singers, songwriters, musicians, rappers, spoken word artists and producers. FirstLove Musik has grown to represent a wealth of underground talent due to become known on a mainstream level such as Ella, Princess Emmanuelle, Uni-Verse, DreadKey, shortMAN and Selftaught. FirstLove have worked with such artists as I.G Culture, Bembe Segue, 3+, Drew Horley, Tiesh Oday, TY, Titan Sounds, K-Nerds and Michelle Escoffery.