South African Hip Hop Pioneer, Emile Jansen, founder member of Black Noise Hip Hop Group, creator of African Hip Hop Indaba, Battle of the Year, African Battle Cry, Shut Up Just Dance, Our Hip Hop and the Heal the Hood Project will be heading to San Francisco, California on the 13th May 2006 to expand the Heal the Hood network for exchange between young hip hoppers, youth and families globally…

Emile YX? : I am tired of South Africans living their lie, when we ignore our exploitation by the current global financial monopoly. This monopoly no longer says that you are too militant and anti-capitalism, but that your work does not fit in with their marketing strategy and clients. So they are still able to censor you, but use euphemisms to avoid the truth. Censorship is easy if you control all DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS and MEDIA in a country. This is where the real control and money lies. As soon as you are a threat to capitalism, they will find those misguided souls in your community to do their dirty work for them, while they wash their hands in innocence. Artists in South Africa get no more than R5 from each CD sold by record labels and that is the norm. That is not an industry, that is legal piracy of the artists/ creators wealth. We just had the SAMA awards that is based on sales of artists and exposure offered by these record labels. It has nothing to do with the quality of the artists skill. It is a lie. It represents Gauteng and not the whole of South Africa, so why call it South African Music Awards. It should be the industry stroking its own ego. Government suggest that these corporations should have equal opportunities for healthy competition to exist. I dont see them having to compete with George Bush and his cabinet for their jobs. It is not equal. Locals get minimal radio, Tv and media airtime because these internationals financially and mentally have purchased our minds. We are slaves to their financial control. We are becoming another state of the USA and Europe. And yes that will mean that they will continue to give us aid to survive in the future. We dont need aid, we need to stand our ground and regain our own NATIONAL PRIDE. But, Proudly South African is a joke and an empty slogan. WHAT DO WE CREATE AND CELEBRATE NATIONALLY? They financially control the sources of information and thus control the minds of the masses. Their control of global media has the same song and movie playing in every major country globally and thus dictates global trends. Obviously, they only play artists who sell their financial agenda and products. This stifles the minds of people globally from expanding their view of the world and learning anything beyond what they allow people to learn. They know that knowledge is power, so they wish to control the information that makes up that knowledge, so that they can maintain control of your mind. When I started as a hip hop activist, I wrote long letters to people on every continent and when they wrote back it was a package from another world that fascinated me about how similar we are and how interesting people are and how human we are. The internet has taken alot of that away, but we can learn to use both and learn from each other, instead of only watching travel channels and CNN or BBC to find out what is happening in our brothers and sisters countries around the world. We are family and just need to lower our mental and electronic fences and walls that we have built up with the bias information and propoganda they have used to keep us DIVIDED. Democracy was a brilliant idea before they made us hostages in front of their TV sets, where they force-feed us their visual propoganda to control our vote. It has become so sad, that they now tell us what is happening outside our door and we are too afraid to go and see if it is the truth or not. Heal the Hood Project aims to introduce young people and their families to each other globally once again and hopefully help recharge our humanity and hope.

Here is a list of activities that Heal the Hood is undertaking for the rest of the year:-

In May, Heal the Hood Project will send 5 Cape Flats breakdancers to Germany and Austria for six months, as part of the "Afrika, Afrika musical". This opportunity is one of many opportunities the project is planning to create for young people. Heal the Hood will also assist Conquering Lions to release a single called ‘Heal the Neighbourhood’

From May to July Heal the Hood Project will tour schools to do hip hop developmental workshops, where they will select 2 young people that will tour Sweden in September.

July will see the release of book of poetry, rhymes, short stories and articles from youth around Cape Town. It will include pictures of the places in these writers communities and toured to their libraries to place local on these shelves too.

June to August will see Heal the Hood Project expand nationally as part of the African Hip Hop Indaba national tour. Heal the Hood also assist Conquering Lions to release their album on June 16th.

September will also see Heal the Hood Project selected dancers through their paces for the first Hip Hop Dance Play called My Hip Hop is African and Proud.

In Ocotber Heal the Hood plans to send Black Noise Hip Hop Group to Kristiansand, Norway

November sees Conquering Lions take Heal the Hood Project to Angola and AIDS awareness concert in Durban

In December, Heal the Hood Project will host the 10th Anniversary of African Battle Cry throughout Cape Town. Community Safety and Heal the Hood Project will do an anti-crime holiday programme throughout the Western Cape Region.

March 2007 will be the return visit by the Swedish Heal the Hood group to the Our Hip Hop Concert as part of the Cape Town Festival.

For more info contact:-

Emile Jansen – http://people.africadatabase.org/en/profile/11711.html

P.O.Box 31184, Grassy Park 7888, Cape Town 8000, South Africa

Ph# +27 21 7060481

email:- emiley@mweb.co.za or emileyx@hotmail.com

Black Noise – www.blacknoise.co.za

Heal the Hood Project:- www.healthehood.org

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