FREETHOUGHT M.C.

Like crunk or exploitive hip hop? Then stop reading this! FREETHOUGHT M.C. (M.C. standing for "Man of Conscience") creates hip hop music that invokes compassion, spirituality and a language of reverence while grounded in reason, community, social responsibility, science and ethics. But as he boldly states: "From my point of view, I also use it to speak out against relligious wars, biological warfare,depletion of natural resources and lack of respect for one another, among other things". Huma...

Like crunk or exploitive hip hop? Then stop reading this! FREETHOUGHT M.C. (M.C. standing for "Man of Conscience") creates hip hop music that invokes compassion, spirituality and a language of reverence while grounded in reason, community, social responsibility, science and ethics. But as he boldly states: "From my point of view, I also use it to speak out against relligious wars, biological warfare,depletion of natural resources and lack of respect for one another, among other things". Humanism, also referred to as Freethinking, is first a commitment to free inquiry, to the free mind.It's a philosophical and ethical point of view that is opposed to any kind of repression by social institutions--the state, the church, or other dominating institutions. So the central value of his music is the freedom of reason. "We are more universally spiritual than religiously dogmatic but, we are all not totally atheist, either. We may not believe in the concept of "God", but we've been known to work with the religious in social and civil actions", he goes on to note. And his songs are more than mere bars of flowing poetry; rather he is a compassionate storyteller. "I tell stories, but I state facts too", he states. "And I do it with a sense of purpose, to not to put down a certain enity or religion, but to rather say, HEY! Enough is enough; people are dying and suffering and we are letting our past and selfishness cloud our judgement". Like in the song, "Earth 2059, Part One". It is basically a fusing of two creations of fiction. The first is partly based on the book,"The Sparrow", by Marie Doria Russell. In it, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet which will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question the meaning of being "human." When the lone survivor of the expedition, Emilio Sandoz, returns to Earth in 2059, he will try to explain what went wrong. It is also loosely based on an episode of the TV series, "The outer limits". The episode being" The human factor", in which, for humankind to survive in the year 2059, a Space Commander named Ellis, must convince an android that humanity is worthy of existence. On earth an ongoing war is destroying the planet. A quarter billion miles away, a Commander , his android assistant and the rest of his team prepare to turn the barren planet of Ganymede into an earth-like paradise to give humanity a chance to start over. The project is everyone's last hope, but the android (named Link), an expert on human behavior, concludes otherwise. Based on the evidence, Link deems humanity a virus which has destroyed earth and must be stopped from spreading its disease throughout the universe. As Link prepares to terminate the Ganymede project and kill everyone involved, the Commander must convince him that humankind has worth. But that very evidence proves an insurmountable challenge. Besides works of science fiction, he also is greatly influenced by the "big three" of the new atheist and freethought movement: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Thomas Jefferson, Bertrand Russell and Robert Green Ingersoll also round out his favorites among his liberal thinking influences. He also states: "At age 11, I became a Zen Buddhist after reading Allan Watts, D.T. Suzuki and Dogen and it had an impact on me greatly, for even though I was raised a baptist, I could not grasp the concept of God nor take the bible as absolute truth. And while in my college years to my mid-20's, I took it upon myself to study and devote myself in the various religions (Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism,Judism Luthern,Catholism, Jehovah's Witness and even Scientology). And I mostly came out of it with negative effects, with ALL of them. I was basically looking for a respect for all men, fair treatment of women and children and other personal and social issues. Plus, I felt that I needed a practice to supplement my study of Zen; in Humanism (and later on, Unitarian Universalism), "I found that" (after being invited in 1998 to that congregation's church out of Middletown, N.Y.). An avid activist,blogger and poet, FREETHOUGHT M.C. also has his ear to the road when it comes to political issues as well. Take the songs, "Sayanara, Bush" or "Wars of the World", in which he boldy sounds off against corrupt governments,nuclear warfare scenerios, African genocide, and the Iraqi war. Chuckling alittle, he confesses,"Yeah,that Bush song....I actually was so pissed off right before Christmas (of 2007), that I actually lashed out at his failures in a Christmas card. He never did get it because instead of mailing it, I first used it as a myspace blog, and later it was transformed in this song. It is just raw and emotional..." Check out his music and read his blogs to find out more about the man behind the music. His debut album is set to be released in the first week of 2009, under an independent label. Meanwhile, he remains unsigned but is optimistic that his sound can find an audience who appreciates socio-political/ alternative hip hop that spurns memories of KRS-ONE and Public Enemy. - from sonicbids.com press release & interview, December 2008