February 2017 Issue 1: Evolution of Consciousness Volume 1 of 12 | Page 43

if i hate white people . No , I hate WHITE SUPREMACY . I hate what ’ s happening to my people . It ’ s not hate , if it ’ s self defense . “ It ’ s like someone running up on you with a knife and you shooting them in the knee and everyone gets made at you but that person just ran up on you with a knife . it ’ s out of Defense of what ’ s happening to me and my people . This was against me first ; im just retaliating . Like im said im passionate . If i really mean something iom going to say it . Theres no inuendos . You dont have to search for the point ; you hear exactly what i said .... And I meant what I said .
for being a “ conscious rapper ”. Kanye didn ’ t give himself the crown , the people did . So when he changed up , the people got upset . We tend to take the versatility of the music for granted keeping artist locked in a box . We respect the versatility in sports , in acting , and in other artforms but when it comes to music , the artist has no room to move without some sort of backlash from his supporters . So when asked if Shareef feels that labeling himself as a political rapper puts him in a box , he quickly says it ’ s
I went ahead and asked him his view on today ’ s mainstream music and why he feels people ae more prone to listen in on music that has no substance than that of political rap , and he states ,
“ First you have to look at who go to the concerts of mainstream music . It ’ s teenager and kids . They love catcher music and positivity is not really popular . Let ’ s be honest , we laugh at things that are positive . What did you call the guy who got good grades in school ? Oh You GOODY GOOD , Goody two shoes . Its that same thing .”
People are quick to put a label on artist and that quickly kills the artform . For there , he gave expounded , using Kanye West as an example , saying he changed not the case . “ I don ’ t want to just have one lane . Even though my main lane is black power and black culture , i just don ’ t want to stick to one subject ”. For his most known music to be so hard he has a softer side that you can find it tracks like “ Unify ” and “ My Black is Beautiful ” which are more sentimental He want to make more music but music on what he do likes and less about what he doesn ’ t like . Check out his music on soundcloud @ Sharif aka Reef Reality .