Ok, now listen to a remix this guy did of Wiz Khalifa’s song “No Sleep.”

Then listen to the original:

I literally burst out loud laughing at how shallow Wiz’s lyrics are in comparison. But, other than the lyrics, it’s a good song. I thank Wiz for making it so Hyperaptive could remix it.

We call ourselves KnowMads because we wander our planet and our society in search of intelligent life. In search of those few people who make the world spin and your heart beat. But we’re just doing what we love. When our lights burn out we’ll leave behind our music. So that’s our lives. When the bombs start dropping and kids start praying, we will be up on the rooftop, freestyling and beatboxing til the world goes down. It’s all love…

John Reuben is an American hip hop artist signed to Gotee Records until late 2010. Reuben has sold over 200,000 copies of his first four albums. He released his sixth album, Sex, Drugs and Self-Control on December 22, 2009. The album was nominated for a Dove Award for Rap/Hip-Hop Album of the Year at the 42nd GMA Dove Awards, while the song “No Be Nah” was nominated for Rap/Hip-Hop Recorded Song of the Year. (Full disclosure: Yes, I got lazy and copied Wikipedia Again)

By the way, I apologize for missing a couple weeks. I’m going to prepare some posts in advance so this doesn’t happen again. With that out of the way… I present, John Reuben.

I’m feeling particularly lazy and ADD today, so I’m simply going to skip straight to posting the videos… which aren’t even real videos, but songs with a picture. Except for one. I will edit this when my brain is in a more…. normal state.

Looptroop Rockers is a hip-hop group from Sweden consisting of members Promoe, Supreme, Embee, and CosMIC. They formed in 1991 by a teenage Promoe and Embree. They later added two more members and, in 1998, they started their own record label, David Vs. Goliath. To date, they have released nine full length albums.

“Born in Somalia, K’naan spent his childhood in Mogadishu and lived there during the Somali Civil War, which began in 1991. His aunt, Magool, was one of Somalia’s most famous singers. K’naan’s grandfather, Haji Mohammad, was a poet. He is Muslim, and his name, Keinan, means “traveler” in the Somali language. He spent the early years of his life listening to the hip-hop records sent to him from America by his father, who had left Somalia earlier.

When he was 13, K’naan, his mother, and his three siblings, older brother, Liban, and younger sisters Naciimo, and Sagal left their homeland and joined relatives in New York City, where they stayed briefly before moving to Canada, to the Toronto neighbourhood of Rexdale, where there was a large Somali community and his family still resides. There, K’naan began learning English, partly by listening to hip hop albums by artists like Nas and Rakim. Despite the fact that he could not yet speak the language, the young K’naan taught himself hip-hop and rap diction, copying the lyrics and style phonetically. He then also began rapping.”

Many of his songs are about Somalia and his experiences there.   The following is a verse from his song “Somalia.”

We used to take barb wire
Mold them around discarded bike tires.
Roll em down the hill in foot blazin’.
Now that was our version of mountain bike racing
Daammn!
Do you see why it’s amazing,
When someone comes out of such a dire situation
And learns the English language,
Just to share his observation!
Probably get a Grammy without a grammar education.
So fuck you school and fuck you immigration!
And all of you who thought I wouldn’t amount to constipation.
And now I’m here without the slightest fear and preservation,
They love me in the slums and in the native reservations.
The world is a ghetto with ministerin’ deprivation.
My mommy didn’t raise no fool did she hooyo?
I promise I would get it and remain strictly loyal.
Cause when they get it then they let it all switch and spoil.
But I just illuminated it like kitchen foil.
A lot of main stream niggas is yappin’ about yappin’
A lot of underground niggas is rappin’ about rappin’.
I just wanna tell you what’s really crackalackan
Before the tears came down this is what happened.

And now to embed a couple videos that aren’t that song.

Oh yeah, he can sing too:

And, one more video. But he has more, so search for him on Youtube!

I’d definitely recommend buying his album, all the songs are good!

I discovered these guys a few years ago and quickly became a fan.  Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that they only had one available album and have since broken up.   It’s a great album, though, so check it out!  Hip-Hop rock, and they have songs that’re actually about stuff!   So, I guess that’s the second post.   Very professional indeed. Maybe throw a monkey in there for good measure. Monkey.   Check back next Monday!

Before he became known as a rapper, however, he had been doing slam poetry for years.  Perhaps, in part,  due to that background, his songs generally seem feature thought provoking lyrics.   They’re also very off-beat – a break from the usual.