YOUR CITY IS MINE!

Ok people right now I am on a train going in to Manchester and I thought it would be a good time to write a new blog. Now I am not killing time this is my life and the reason I feel it’s a great time to write is because I am on the way to the magistrate’s court for the second time to be charged with Illegal Street trading of CDs. As ridiculous as it may seem when there are so many real criminals out there the system feels it’s a good idea to try to criminalize a musician for trying to get his own music out to the public.

As many of you know from my earlier blogs I have been at war for sometime with Manchester City Council and have been fined £250 in an earlier case. In the previous case I had no certificate so I was advised to plead guilty as a not guilty plea would have resulted in a steeper fine as the CCTV evidence made it clear that I was selling CDs to the general public. However, I now have a certificate and there is no way that I will be pleading guilty. It’s like the legendary Mohammed Ali said just before the 1974 fight against George Foreman
“I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”
Well am not saying this is case equals the greatest boxing match of all time or that I am equal in statue to the greatest boxer there has ever been but I have done something new for this fight. I intend to defend myself and put these people who accuse me on the witness stand and I have the right by law to do it. I am not sure that will happen today as I think once I plead not guilty they will set a trail date but I will let you know what happens a little later.

The truth is that the council being local government want people like me off the streets and out of the city but my truth is that what you call your city is also my city I was born here and I grew up here. It seems they are saying to me that you can not choose the way you make your money and you can not come into the city centre to make it. Basically they have drawn a line around the city and anyone trading within that line is viewed as a criminal even though there is a law that says I can trade. That’s like giving someone a 3 ft ladder to climb a 50ft wall. Well this is my city and if I can’t sell here I will play here. That is exactly what I have decided to do. I have bought a £1000 worth of equipment In order to take my music to the streets, if they won’t feel me then they will hear me. Not only will I take it to the streets of Manchester but I will go to many other cities. Your city is mine. This also solves the problem of promoters who don’t wanna pay an artist to perform. A problem I have been having a lot lately, no in fact that is just standard in the music game middle men who wanna take but not give. Yeah I’ve been told that if you street perform it will devalue your music and you will be just a busker but the truth is I don’t give one. There are good buskers and bad buskers; there are good street performers and bad street performers. If my music is devalued as a result then so be it. I am looked at as a criminal for selling my music on the streets anyway and in my heart and mind the value I put on my music is not defined by where it is played. At least I will control it and my destiny. And I will have FREEDOM to play where I want to. (Don’t speak too soon Elavi the council may have some agents trying to shut down street performing too). To me this is a logical step in a music business that ignores to a large degree Urban music isn’t it right that I should make it truly urban?

Ok am going into Piccadilly train station so I will give you part two of this blog on my retune journey. In a bit Elavi people……….

Part 2

Ok am back on the train and as I suspected there was no case to speak of I was just asked to enter a plea and now a date has been set which is the 14th January. It’s a pain in a sense am dying to have some fun examining the witnesses. It’s the only time a brother like me is going to get to make these agents answer my questions between now and then I am going to hit the streets and make as much money as possible because in the end I guess the system is stacked in their favour and I may end up have to pay these people more money, but hey life is full of drama right? Plus, I am going to use this case to get as mush press as I can, I mean, you can’t blame a bother for capitalizing on a situation. On the serious side I think we have to highlight things like this case because selling music on the streets is now a way of life. It is making it possible for maybe artist to make a mark on the industry or even bypass it altogether and that is needed because the industry is very sick and no amount of medicine can help it, not only that but the country and world is financially sick too. So what are people supposed to do? Just sit back and accept failure? Say because I haven’t got a record deal I will give up and sign on to job seekers and join the millions out of work? To me the answer is a simple one. I must fight to create the success I desire because life is a fragile thing. There is no guarantee that you will live another year, day or even hour for that matter. So why live your life in despair or in a situation where you are not trying to achieve your dreams and desires. My way is to create my own label which I have done and sign myself to that. Create my own music, market it and sell it. Create my own videos just like the big players do. And who’s in control? That’s right me.

People say to me why don’t I go on the X factor? As an alternative to selling my own music? Well some people say it. People who in my opinion believe that it would be better to sell my soul to the likes of Simon Cowell than it is to sell my music to the public. I don’t hate X factor, don’t get me wrong, its entertainment and if you are bored on a Saturday and want to indulge in the karaoke cheese fest that is X factor then go for it. What I do think is crazy is the fact that so many artists believe that this is the way to go, and pin their dreams on being the next Leona Lewis. This truly is the musical matrix controlled by agents like Cowell who take pleasure in crushing dreams under foot as he dominates as the number one star maker.

I would rather take my chances with the council for now and like Kanye West said and I am sure many before him. What don’t kill you will only make you stronger. And it is making me stronger by the day. I hope that many of you will pass by when am playing in the city (cities). Look at it as a free gig, well unless you want to throw money my way after all I do have court costs to pay. I will be sending out bulletins to let you all know when and where. It might even turn into a tour. The, “Your city is mine” tour. What do you think? Got a little ring to it don’t you think?

Elavi

AKA the Street Disciple





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ELAVI INTERVIEW

BOTH SIDES OF THE COIN

Jim Morrison once said that …

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on and individual level. It's got to happen inside first. You can take away a man's political freedom and you won't hurt him- unless you take away his freedom to feel. That can destroy him. That kind of freedom can't be granted. Nobody can win it for you.”


I firmly believe that all freedoms are necessary and I will come back to Jim a little later, however, let me drop the real reason for this blog on you.

Recently, I went to a venue in Manchester, my home city, called Moho Live situated in the city centre. I went to find out the capacity of the venue in order to hire it out for a series of shows. I was thinking because this venue is relatively new on the Manchester music scene they may not have fallen pray to the Manchester music disease or more to the point the urban music lock down, lock out or whatever you want to call it.

What I mean for those that don’t know and many would have no reason to know this as they are not actively looking to hire venues. Unless you are a musician or promoter working in the so called urban music field you would not come face to face with this situation.

But to explain it let me relate the conversation I had with the guy who deals with MOHO live’s bookings.

I asked how much it was to hire and the capacity, he told me it was £600 and the capacity was 400-500. We chatted a little bout what kind of stuff was happening because as we spoke there was a lot of activity going on and many people were coming and going from the venue. (You know trying to put the brother at ease and chill him right out) The conversation looked promising I was beginning to let my self believe that I would be able to pay the man his money arrange a date and start promoting. But not so quick partner! Cos here it comes, the million dollar question…
So what kind of night you thinking of putting on? What kind of music will you be doing?

My mind started ticking over because I’m thinking should I tell him the truth or should I remix it for his ears should I leave out all references to hip hop , soul , RnB and just tell him am putting on a few indie bands? At lighting speed I did the EL calculations and in my brain box computer, if I told him that it was the indie band option I could get I there but what happens when he sees the promotion or worse still when it comes to the night it self? Or should I tell him the truth that its hip hop? Well I decided to go with the latter, I’ve been here before and I can’t be dealing with lying to get my foot in the door especially when am paying for the door. So I told him the truth. And before you could say “call the cops I think that brothers got a knife” I saw his expression change like blood draining from his veins and he mouthed those immortal words!!!! We don’t have anything to do with hip hop, grime, drum n bass or any urban music mate its just our policy. I knew it was pointless telling him that my music wasn’t violent or that there is never any trouble at my shows. This brother was a closed shop.

Now as I say this situation is more or less the norm when it comes to urban music and when this first started happening I felt that this was like some conspiracy against the likes of me and my music, but now I have a little more insight I can see how complex the situation is and what has brought us to a situation where this can happen.

At one time I blamed the venues and the promoters because they are blatantly excluding people on lines of music so it could be seen as deadly bullet against artist like me who just want to play and reach more people with their music.

But let’s scratch the surface. In recent years it seems that every venue/club dealing with urban music has been shut down and usually for reasons of violence in one form or another usually gun related. It even got to the point where we had the infamous and disgusting Havana club that had more cameras than big brother, cattle gates metal detectors so much so it felt like you was entering Guantanamo bay. Obviously this type of club is becoming more the norm up and down the country, but when it was, and it was for a long time, the only venue of its kind it said a lot about the city and what it had become.

In a sense those go back to the latter days of the world famous hacienda where gangs fought for control of the growing drug culture in Manchester it was also around this time that the city became known as Gunchester. The result of which was the death of the super club and the police and powers that be decided to change the city into a bar culture city and regulate the clubs. There was to never be another hacienda.


We are the product of those days and the violence is still here and it has infected the music, deeply.

As I mentioned in my blog is hip hop dead? There was a time when there was many forms of hip hop prevalent in the mainstream and the so called underground. Today it seems that without talk of killing, cutting throats, lyrics, graphically depicting degrading violence then music is not considered relevant. The grime scene is so infected with lyrics designed to put the other MC down and build your reputation in terms of verbal attacks that it has in many ways become the norm.

What we sow really is what we reap and we have reaped a situation where venues an promoters are afraid of the genre as a whole or at least they would rather just avoid the music to be on the safe side, I mean after all as a venue owner why would you want to loose your licence because it kicks off in your club?

But it goes deeper than that why has music and creativity become a thing used to depict violence in such measures? From very early on in society it has been know that music can influence and even control the masses. It has been know that way of thinking and ideology can be transmitted by musician. You don’t have to go far to see how many politicians align themselves with influential musicians. The list is endless of musicians who back political parties or who influence young voters. Look across the Atlantic to see how many artists have put their weight behind Barak Obama. I will go into this more in a later blog but my point here is that music is a powerful influence over the heart and minds of people but the young in particular. Why, then does the powers that be want the people to be infected with a message that does not embody any hope?
Why do so many MC’s want to embrace a destructive mentality? Snoop Dog can no longer play in the UK after violence at his show in Manchester. At the height of The So Solid crew’s short reign it was their reputation for violence at the shows that put an end to their careers. Which promoter wants to put money into that? Apart from the controversy that’s gains some headlines in the end it back fires.

I need to put the record straight, I need to say at this point that music is not in my opinion about selling fake realities where everything is good and we all lead perfect lives. We don’t and music should reflect this. Hip hop has been a voice of the voiceless and it has been the ghetto internet for many that would never of known what was going in many neighbourhoods but there is truth and there is fiction and there is also soulless individual who make soulless music not to express a terrible situation you might be living through, but because you have become twisted in that mentality.


Ghandi said an eye for an eye and the whole world will go blind. Well I am speaking to the musical blind. It is time for a change in the music. It is time for the brave and strong to find a new way of shinning, a new way of spreading a new word free of hate and violence. We look around and knife crime is the new buzz word of the media and many believe they have to walk with a weapon to be safe. Then what have we become? What has the music become?

Fear is a part of human nature. Fear is the mind killer you can achieve nothing in life with fear inside you and when people fear our music then the way has been closed to us. But for now all is well because the violence is contained within small pockets of Manchester that some call the ghetto and the music is not heard pounding down the walls of city venues.

This brings me back to Jim and the start of this blog. No one has told us to wear a mask of negativity. No one has told us to be studio gangsters. No has made us to use our most powerful resource for hate and destruction. We have chosen freely. But to end this I want you to read what Jim said just one more time.

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on and individual level. It's got to happen inside first. You can take away a man's political freedom and you won't hurt him- unless you take away his freedom to feel. That can destroy him. That kind of freedom can't be granted. Nobody can win it for you.”

Elavi

Aka the freedom writer

CLOCKWORK by ELAVI
WWW.ELAVI.COM