Hitting #2 on Mixcloud's "Conscious Hip-Hop" Chart

I’ve been guided recently to recognize abundance. A night earlier this month felt like a demonstration of it from many corners, not unlike a break in clouds after a rain.

Anyone can listen on Mixcloud. If you dig either the beats or the lyrics, please share the link! The track list is accessible to paid subscribers at the bottom of this post.

My residency at Madrone Art Bar brings me to San Francisco’s Lower Haight on the 2nd Wednesday of every month. On the heels of a 6-hour set in July (which turned out to be too long to post to streaming audio services), this month's set on August 10 was memorable to me for a few reasons.

First was a creative performance milestone. For my birthday in 2021, I received a piece of DJ gear with functions that I’ve always felt terrified of using in public because it’s so easy to get them confused—but I used them (a lot) that night for the first time. It felt almost like growing another set of hands!

Second was a return to my creative roots. I came up spitting rhymes in the 90s before ever jumping behind the decks in the 2010s, and (while my vocals weren't recorded) felt moved to hit the mic a few times the other night. Several people approached me later to say they wanted to hear more, which felt like an invitation I’m inclined to accept.

Third, even though I’m excited to escape politics, it felt fun in the moment to riff on my vision through the music. Tracks like Public Enemy’s “Power to the People,” and an excerpt I edited from Greta Thunberg’s powerful words in 2019 to the U.N. gave the set a political edge, but I didn’t realize until later just how sharply political it turned out to be.

Old habits die hard, it seems….

Finally, I was surprised to discover this morning that—in the time since I posted it over the weekend—the mix hit #2 on Mixcloud’s conscious hip-hop chart!

Anyone can listen on Mixcloud. If you dig either the beats or the lyrics, please share the link (or this Substack post)!

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The track list is accessible to paid subscribers at the bottom of this post.

I'll be back at Madrone on 9/17. See you there!

In the meantime, I’m also working on some new original music continuing my practice of creatively speaking truth to power.

My previous musical highlights include a 2007 album, “Get Outta Your Chair” (which featured tracks like “the Baghdad Blues” and “Bumpin in My SUV”) as well as the 2014 “NSA vs USA” music video. NSA vs USA, in particular, fused dance music, conscious hip-hop, documentary film, and contemporary protest with a history and civics lesson. I hope to craft more projects like it in the future.

My next original music project is an EP that I hope to release later this year featuring a new CIA diss track, as well as a tech-house anthem (which I played at Madrone this month) observing the international connections between police and state violence from Ferguson to Jerusalem.

Eventually, I’d like to produce music videos for each of those songs to enhance their usefulness as teaching instruments, while continuing to MC over my DJ sets in settings from weddings and nightclubs to parks, festivals, back yards, churches, convergences in the desert, and protests.

Thanks for reading (and listening!), stay tuned, and enjoy the remains of the weekend!

Shahid

PS — As promised, below are the funk, afrobeat, hip-hop, trip-hop, and house tracks that I played in my set at Madrone this month. I hope you find as much to appreciate as I have from these inspiring musicians and producers!...