HASAN SALAAM, “JERICHO”

New Jersey rapper Hasan Salaam presents the Wayne-directed music video for “Jericho”, his new Hezekiah-produced single featuring Immortal Technique and Hezekiah. “Jericho” will appear on Life In Black & White, Hasan’s forthcoming Viper Records full-length also set to feature Kendal Good, Maya Azucena and Drue Davis as well as production from Snowgoons, DJ Static, Denny Carson, Remot, dj INSITE, Craig Rip, Hezekiah, Beatnick Dee, Crossbone T, Southpaw, and Douglas G. Simpson & Kareem Knight of the Aqua League. Hasan has performed live on NBC, Fuse, CSPAN and PBS. All profits from his 2012 EP Music Is My Weapon (listen) were used towards his “It Takes A Village” project which funded a school, clean water well, and medical clinic in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

A community organizer, he works with troubled youth, and helps run a monthly food and clothing drive in Jersey City, N.J. Hasan has taught “The Socio-Political Importance of Black Music in American Society”, a self-created lecture, at universities across the country. Also a master fetish trainer and sex educator, he speaks at shelters – specifically to abused women – helping them reintroduce sensuality back in their lives. Hasan is a Sexpert blogger for Calexotics, a sexual wellness and novelty website, and recently founded his own erotica/fetish company, Sensual Noire/Jet Setting Jasmine, as well as opening his first fitness studio, Body Altitudes, in Florida. After touring with Brother Ali and Immortal Technique, Hasan Salaam was signed to Viper Records. “Phillip Pannell was killed by Officer Gary Spath when I was ten years old in Teaneck, New Jersey,” says Hasan. “Phillip’s cousin Keith and the daughter of the cop’s partner were both in my class. I remember seeing Phillip a few times in passing at the park where we would play ball. Phillip was black and Spath is white. Spath claimed Phillip was reaching in his pockets when he shot him in the back. An autopsy concluded Phillip was shot in the back with his hands raised in the air, proving the officer lied. Riots ensued. Spath was charged and acquitted of manslaughter. Spath is walking the streets free after killing a child and Ms. Pannell is left without a son. This story is not uncommon in black neighborhoods all over the country. There is no difference today than when Phillip was murdered. There are walls all around us; some of them block our progress from the day we are born. I often hear Caucasian-Americans in arguments about race; recently I heard on Fox News ‘I’m tired of talking about race’. If they are tired of talking about it, imagine being stifled by these walls for generations.”