This might be your first introduction to me - greetings, my name is Propaganda.
I wrote my first rap in '93, simply put:
fire-baptized battle rapper who was heavily influenced by folk music and found creative
freedom in poetry. I don't know that much,
just the Gospel and good hip-hop. I'm a pretty simple dude.
All I have is my all, and I promise to give you that.
I grew up around a whole lot of gang life,
infidelity, just drugs, alcohol.
I grew up around a lot of that, and it just turned me off. It just totally turned me
off.
Art - that was my saving grace. It kept me away from so many other things,
and God used that to introduce me to himself.
I'm working on my next record.
It's called "Excellent" and it came out of a Robert Henry quote,
a Renaissance painter. It says the presence of good art will unconsciously refine a
community,
and poor art will do it incalculable harm.
And it like, hit me so much so like, I got it tattooed,
like it's on my arm. It's broken up like, I broke it up so there's breaks in between 'cause it's
long.
Those are the two that we'll record today.
The crux
of the album basically is pointing at our duty
to present ourselves as excellent as possible, to
to keep that standard high, to do its best for all of us.
But then the other half of the record, the other side of the coin is that I don't
measure up.
I'm not reaching that bar. I'm not doing that,
and that sings of our need
for a savior. One song I've kinda been thinking on
is called "Forgive me for Asking." It's a pretty heavy spoken word piece.
I have personally asked
a lot of questions about whether I believe what I'm preaching,
whether I believe what I proclaim to believe. I've asked those a lot,
you know. "Like the little you know about our universe,
you ready to draw conclusions about its origins - maybe we don't know as much as
we think we do.
Science still can't explain yawning.
Forgive me for asking." There are things that I feel like are still question marks
even in my life now that I'm like, you know,
you know what, I don't know. I know that God is real. I know that he died for my sins.
I know that there is an answer; I just know I don't have it.
I feel like that's art's role in society - to
ask questions. I believe in art for art's sake.
It's function is the display of beauty.
It's beautiful because it screams of our designer.
What art does and what music does is it reminds us that there is more in the
universe than the material,
that our existence is not just what you can measure.
It reminds us that there are things that transcend
the physical world. It reminds us that there is something more
than what we can touch and in that sense,
I believe it, it sings of, of
the beauty and the, the splendor of God or at
least an intelligent designer.
"Yeah. Listen, I came out a town in gangs and a gang of grace 'cause for
sure sin abounds and around these parts, crowns is made of
tin foil. And them boys play Halo with real guns, lay low.
Right there, I blang slang - that twice born rhetoric. Our Papi pound the
ground and out came all humanity. But for those who would listen, I break you out your radio
prison, redefine manhood, blackness, and time,
shape and define culture. Let me fashion you some shades,
introduce you to a trend that transcends the will of men. Lord.
The ultimate hope for people that hear my music is
that they would meet a loving God who provided a way
to redeem their souls through his son. That would be the ultimate.