Paradise Freejahlove Supreme introduced a new hybrid of Spoken Word/Rap. To launch this "brand new sound" he calls Jazz-Funk-Hip-HoPoetry (pronounced jazz-funk-hip-hop-a-tree), Paradise teams up with musician/composer/producer Bill Jackson, to create eight electrified spoken word pieces woven intriguingly through dramatic Jazz/Funk/Hip Hop arrangements that float and punctuate his rich, deep vocals and thought-provoking lyrics.

As the perfect opener, How to Be a Black Man in America sets the stage for the conscious-raising spoken words delivered by Paradise, his talented crew of rappers, and vocalist Rufus Wonder over tight, muscular funk beats—getting quickly to the point that "A king wears his bling on the inside!" The relentlessly funky Keepers of the Flame pays homage to African American cultural heroes. Cocoa Venus, an infectious, flirty Latin groove, presents cajoling rhymes celebrating the sultry charms of women of color. The soul-stirring It's Ok To Be a Black Girl provides food for thought. Paradise delivers a one-two punch—powerful, poetic messages that stimulate your mind and straight funky percussive beats that move you to dance.

Paradise, a Xavier University  English/Creative Writing major (he was admitted on an athletic scholarship to play basketball—he also played professional basketball in Argentina) and well-known Bay Area author and prolific poet laureate, has been an active proponent of the Slam Poetry performance art movement. He is credited with organizing the Bay Area Black Poetry Movement with the Afrometropolitan Poetry Series; producing the Best in The West Grand Slam Poetry Contest and the World's First Poetry and Poetry Film Festival at the Parkway Theater in Oakland and he helped organize Slam Poetry Workshops at the Famous Poets Convention in Orlando, Florida in 2004, and Reno, Nevada, 2005. He was also a member of the 2001 Berkeley Slam Team.

Paradise Presents Jazz-Funk-Hip-HoPoetry, has a striking, energetic presence. This CD is a mesmerizing mix of socially positive, poetic words, percussion rhythms and Jazz/Funk/Hip Hop arrangements-collectively providing the intoxicating power of wordplay set to music.

CDs are available at the following websites:
Tunecore.com
Customflix.com (Subsidiary or division of Amazon.com)
Amazon.com
Radioindy.com
Ohigo.com
Nokia.com
Musicfist.com

Soul-Patrol.com Best of 2006 - Live

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1. How  to Be A Black Man in America (Extended Remix)
2. Equal Opportunity Lover
3. Keepers of the Flame
4. Cocoa Venus
5. It's OK to BE a Black Girl
6. Ain't Yo Mama Black
7. Two-Minute Warning
8. How  to Be A Black Man in America (Single

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FEATURES

A PERSPECTIVE ON THE HISTORY of the SPOKEN WORD

by Paradise Freejalove Supreme

 

 

 

History of the Spoken Word (part one): The Original Blessing

 

"In the beginning was The Word. And The Word was with God. And The Word was God. In essence these very first words of the bible are all you need to know. The whole rest of the bible and all other scriptures are but variations seeking to give you a greater understanding of this one divine truth: The Word is God! Everything begins and ends with the word. This has been true since the very first Poet and Spoken Word Artist said, "Let there be light!" so I can write uni-verses across the skies at night. So the most revolutionary thing black people can do right now...the most revolutionary thing every person on this planet can do right now...is stop cursing! If you don't want your communities to be cursed, stop cursing your communities! If you don't want your planet to be cursed, stop breathing curses into your planet's atmosphere! If you are a true follower of Ahkenaton, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Confucius, Mohammed, Moses, Marcus, Marley, Selessie, Emerson, Shakespeare, Gibran, Ghandi or any of the other immortal poets and spoken word artists you like to brag up on then - REPRESENT! Step ya game up and stop cursing! I guarantee you that out of all the collective texts and public discourses on record for these great men you will find as a common denominator nary a profane utterance amongst them! Because they all spoke about and strove for "A Word Supreme"! In my opinion poetry is the opposite of profanity, as much as music is the opposite of noise, and the ultimate goal of poetry and every true poet is to eradicate all things profane from the face of the earth and manifest Paradise! Let me show you what I mean.

"When I was a child I spoke as a child." But the more you become a man of power and influence the more you have to "watch what you say". Men, the onus is on us because where ever the head of the fish goes the body is sure to follow. And every child who comes into the world cursing and kicking and screaming and punching the air is reenacting the Fall of Man and the Original Curse. "Aw bleep!" may be a natural reaction to the realization of Paradise lost for grown folks or for babies when pushed out of the comfort zone of the womb! But babies holler and curse because it's the only survival mechanism they know, and because they have yet to learn how to speak the language and articulate their feelings and desires. And sadly some never learn otherwise because their parents curse the children, the children turn around and curse their families, and the family goes outside and curses the community; and the next thing you know there's an exodus of the very people who are most capable of doing something for the community, proclaiming, "Man, I had to get outta there! That place was cursed!"

And always I find it amusing when I hear poets say they aren't going to read a particular poem because there are children in the audience. There are always children in the audience! "All the world's a stage" and there are ALWAYS CHILDREN IN THE AUDIENCE! Even if you can't see them, there are always precious and impressionable souls in the audience and in the vicinity of influence of the spoken word. What difference does it make if a child gets the Killer Curse Virus directly from you or from somebody you gave it to? Your words don't stop speaking for you just because you stop speaking them, ever! Which is why you can remember what people said years ago! So the Killer Curse Virus, poisoning the water of the human soul, is passed on from generation to generation.

I call profanity the Killer Curse Virus because usually just before a killer kills somebody he curses them first because when you dehumanize somebody it makes it easier to kill them! The Killer Curse Virus is the deadliest dis-ease known to man - ever!  It can be transmitted to and from even a two year old, through the air waves, radio waves, telephone, internet, films, books, CDs and by every public medium known to man! It's been said that there's only six degrees of separation between any two individuals on the planet. So when you shake your head in pity and disbelief when you see a young brother being arrested for murder on the 10 o'clock news, are you sure that the Killer Curse Virus he used to pull the trigger can't be traced back to you!?!

There used to be a time not too long ago when you would rarely hear a man curse in front of a woman. Even if he were the foulest and most despicable man on earth he still might have the decency not to spit ugly in front of one of nature's finest creations. And I find it a tad hypocritical that so many people try to paint Michael Jackson and catholic priests as the poster boys for child molestation, when far worse than molesting a child's body is molesting his mind! As bad as it is to molest a child's body, when a grown man teaches a child to curse and be vulgar not only is he adversely affecting that child's future, but he could be jacken whole generations with his indiscretions! And it used to be, just a few years ago, that you would rarely hear a woman curse! It seemed incongruent to see a beautiful woman open her mouth and show her behind! Women were too dignified and graceful and cognizant of the fact that they are the first teachers of the children of the world and, thus, hold the future of humanity not just between their hips but also between their lips! Today however women and children are some of the biggest carriers and distributors of the Killer Curse Virus; and often seem proud to verbally contribute to the sorry state of the world we live in today!

There is a direct historical correlation between the rise and fall of civilizations and their esteem or lack thereof for the gift of speech, language and communication. The Original Blessing was and is The Voice! being able to speak dreams, worlds and universes into existence. The Original Curse, abusing the Gift of Speech, was the root of evil. The perpetuation of the Original Curse is the spider's web that is shot out from person to person until it entangles the whole world! So, in this shout out to and for humanity, I reiterate, the devil can have no say in this world unless we let him speak through us; And the most revolutionary thing you can do right now...is upgrade your communication skills...and stop cursing. Word up!

I am The Word Made Fresh,

Paradise Freejahlove Supreme

 

 

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"The History of Spoken Word in Black America"

 by Paradise Freejalove Supreme

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The history of the spoken word in Black America began with the angst and first anguished cries of the tortured slave when Africans were first dragged across the Atlantic, kicking and screaming, to the shores of the New World Stage. The first couple of this historic movement, I think most scholars would agree, had to be Phyllis Wheatley and Paul Laurence Dunbar. Phyllis Wheatley is heralded as being the first black person invited to the white house. Dunbar spoke Ebonics, a black dialect of the English language, before anybody new what Ebonics was. And I've noticed that on the internet today Dunbar's style of expression is making a comeback; people in the high speed technological world we live in today are using words like "dis", "dat" and "dem" instead of "this", "that", and "them" just to save a little time.

The Harlem Renaissance of the 30s and 40s gave birth to "The New Negro", James Weldon Johnson, who coined what was to become the Black National Anthem, "Life Every Voice and Sing", and to a man who may be considered the Poet Laureatte of Black America, Langston Hughes, and his signature piece, "I've Known Rivers". The Black Power Movement of the sixties blessed us with the likes of Don L. Lee, Sonia Sanchez and scores of others, including Nikki Giovanni, who became such a household name she may have been our first rock-star-poet. Marvin X is widely accredited with starting the modern Black Arts Movement in the U.S. Teaming with such notables as Ishmael Reed, Ed Bullins, Ted Joans and Leroi Jones (now Amiri Baraka), who has been pertinent from before the time he wrote one of the most important books in my life, "Blues People", to the controversial, "Somebody Blew Up America" and beyond; "If racism don't kill me, capitalism will". He and Bob Kaughman were the key brothers behind the The Beat Movement in the Fifties that gave rise to the likes of Beat Icons, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. But during the Sixties there emerged a new militant revolutionary group called, The Last Poets. When I first heard these guys I thought, "Oh my God! Can they say that in America!?!" "Blessed are those who struggle to survive because oppression is worse than the grave! Better to die for a worthy cause than to live and die a slave!" I told Umar, from The Last Poets, personally, "You guys helped me come into my manhood. If you guys could say what you said, so poetically, I had to do better and step my game up!" However the apex and plateau of the spoken word movement may indeed be Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. He articulated what every enslaved and free black person in the United States had been feeling and thinking and dreaming for over 400 years!

Billie Holiday's, "Strange Fruit", has been called the first protest song in America! It would be followed by such anthems as, "Say It loud! I'm Black And I'm Proud!" by James Brown. Gil Scott Heron's, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", Marvin Gaye's, "What's Going On?" "The Message", by Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five, Public Enemy's Fight the Power!" and now, "I Love Everything About You, But You!" by yours truly, has been called amongst other things, "The song of the century" and "The new international black anthem." .

Who knew when we all heard that first big rap song by The Sugar Hill Gang, "Rapper's Delight", what would follow.  To today's first spoken word couple in  Black America would probably be, Amiri Baraka and Maya Angelou. But today we have a new spoken word art form called Slam!  Def Poetry Jam's Cable TV show has brought poetry to the mainstream media for the first time ever! Also out of New York and carrying the torch from the Last Poets was a group called The Nile River Gods; and from that group the number one selling spoken word artist worldwide, Talaam Acey. There are a number of young up and coming spoken words artist right here in Oakland starting to receive national acclaim; including Wordslanger, a firebrand poetess, Ise Lyfe, who said, "We done went from being freedom fighters to being dumb fa free", and Nercity, "Marvin Gaye was the Tupac of your parents generation." Indeed, Marvin Gaye may not only have created the first seamless album with, "What's Going On?", where each track flowed smoothly into the next without stopping; he may also be the Godfather of Rap! Hip Hop is the lifestyle and culture started in the late 70s, early 80s and Rap (or flow-etry, spoken word poetry rhymed to Hip Hop beats) is its highest art form. There's this one instrumental on the album "Trouble Man" which predates any other Hip Hop beat that I can think of. And the first Rap Song may indeed have been, "Funky Space Reincarnation", on Marvin's, "Hear, My Dear", double album which slipped under the radar of most black music enthusiasts, but in my opinion is one uv his funkier albums! I want to take up where Marvin left off, with a brand new sound! A kind of Holy Hip Hop or Talk Music, if you will, that's so fresh and so clean that, although up until this time no spoken word artist has yet to break the glass ceiling and hit the mainstream, with your help...Paradise Freejahlove Supreme and JazzFunkHipHoPoetry will usher in a new era of great music!

 

I hope u njoyed my freestyle!?!

 

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From my one man show: "My Dr. King Speech, 'I Still Have A Dream': What Dr. King Might Say If He Were Alive Today Paradise Freejahlove Supreme

 

I have come to you today....to answer....a question. A question that I know is on many of your minds...and that is at one and the same time a cry of despair and a plea fa hope. I have come to you today because I know that your collective minds are in a quandary. Your spirits and morale is sagging, and many of you are wondering if all our blood sweat and tears, all our efforts to realize the American Dream have been in vain.

 

I have come to you today because I know that many of you are realizing perhaps for the first time - that racism is not some little puppy that you can just pat on the head and teach new tricks overnight. But it's more like an enormous and stubborn ol' pit bull filled up with millenniums of hate.

 

I have come to you today because I know that many of the promises that were made to us have been reneged upon. And much of what we've fought for and against in recent years have been retracted, revised and reconstituted. And although poverty and homelessness in many places all over the country today is worse than it was 40 years ago in the old rural south...the answer to your question is, yes: I STILL HAVE A DREAM!

I still have a dream although it seems that we have lost complete control over our young people today, and some of our own children are poisoning and terrorizing our neighborhoods with the kind of drugs and violence that fulfill the purposes of white supremacy.

I still have a dream although many of my own people have mistaken my dream of brotherhood through integration, for assimilation and the loss of self-identification; and have become like scattered little black ants trying to avoid being trampled by the ubiquitous feet of the oppressor.

I still have a dream because I never have and I never will give up on my people. A people upon whose broad and capable shoulders much of the destiny of the entire world has been entrusted.

I still have a dream because I've been to the mountain top...and mine eyes have seen the bigger picture, its process of development, and the paragon of glory that has only just begun to embrace us as a people.

I still have a dream but today I come to you with a new hope! A dream not so much for a nation, but for the wisdom,  power and salvation of self-realization! A self-realization in which we use our books and religions as guides to remind us who we are, and not as barriers we allow to come between us and the Divinity we are all striving to become. 

I have a dream that someday we'll look upon the whole universe as our place of worship, we'll make love the common denominator of all our religions and try to worship the Supreme in everybody and everything all of the time!

 

I have a dream that someday soon we'll bring our faraway Gods and Heavens home, by realizing them on the inside and actualizing them on the outside!

I have come here today to assure you that someday in the not too distant future freedom will ring all over this great land! Freedom will ring from the great memorial of the Twin Towers of New York to the Great Pyramids of Cairo, Egypt! Freedom will ring from the foothills of East Oakland to the sand hills of the Middle East! Freedom ring from the abandoned neighborhoods of Detroit to the abandoned peoples of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast! Freedom will ring on all the southsides! South Philly, Southside Chicago, the South Bronx, South Central L. A., all the way down to South Africa, let freedom ring! And I am as sure of this as I know the sun is rising somewhere out there even though you can't see it right now! Freedom will ring until one day we'll all be able to sing as they did in that ol' negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!

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