Ctrl Meets Akil The MC

One rainy night in October, the Ctrl.Alt.Shift team busted out of the capital and headed for Oxford's o2 academy. We were there to big up Ctrl.Alt.Shift and our mission to fight social injustice in the developing world, as well as to check out the dubstep and hip hop heavyweights doing their thing at Dub Politics vs. Wordplay. Jurassic 5's Akil the MC was headlining the show, and sucessfully whipped up one hell of a hip hop storm, having us all bouncing lonnnng into the early hours.

Over the years, Akil has built a varied and prolific musical career, and made his name in the '90s MCing with J5 back home in South Central LA. He's the brains behind many of the group's biggest and best loved hip hop anthems, including 'Concrete Schoolyard' and 'Thin Line'. Plus, it turns out he's a bloody lovely chap with lots of interesting things to say. Always a bonus.

Before it all kicked off at the show, I caught up with Akil backstage to introduce him to the wonderful world of Ctrl.Alt.Shift, and to chat poverty, music, and why hip hop is so important in giving black America a voice...

 So Akil, Ctrl.Alt.Shift is a movement for young people that campaigns against poverty and social injustice all over the world. We tend to focus on problems in developing countries, but there's also a lot of poverty hidden behind the illusion of prospeity in the West. What's been your experience of poverty in the United Sates?

I don’t think we’ve seen poverty in the same way other nations have. However, there are a lot of people living in poverty stricken conditions. I’ve lived in South Central LA my whole life, and that’s a case of two worlds existing one right by the other. So you got Hollywood, and you got the ghetto... that’s where the real actors and actresses are! That’s where they get the material for all their movies.

"We can reach so many people through music. You can get a point across in a three minute song so much stronger than a politician can in a 40 minute speech"

But I can see parallels with other countries, I‘ve seen what poverty forces people to do. It’s basically survival of the fittest. They say America is the land of opportunity, and the reality is you have the opportunity to do good, or do bad. The problem is that the opportunity to do bad can be more available than the opportunity to do good. I can only speak as an African American, and the fact is if you grow up in the ghetto, there are more opportunities to do illegal stuff.

So do you think that African Americans are still marginalised in the US?

Sure, from day one that’s been the programme. It never stopped, it’s just changed faces. What’s happening now is mental slavery, and that’s even more detrimental.

"They say America is the land of opportunity, and the reality is you have the opportunity to do good, or do bad"

You were talking before about where you grew up in South Central LA. Do you think hip hop is a product of marginalised communities?

In the early years, hip hop saved my life. It made me not get into gangs, it gave me an outlet. Options for African Americans were quite limited, and hip hop opened all these doors. All of a sudden it was like, you can be a dancer, an MC, a DJ, a graffiti artist. These elements already existed in the ghetto, it just took hip hop to pull it all together. Bands like NWA told the story of American ghettos to the world, before that all you got sold was Hollywood, glitz and glamour.

You've been in the hip hop game for a while now... how do you thnk the genre has changed over the years? 

I just look at it like everything has a cycle, nothing ain’t never gonna stay the same. I like to look at it like hip hop today, monetarily, is at an all time high, but creatively it’s at an all time low. Having said that, I think that real hip hop as a form of expression will always exist, but what’s popular will always be produced and fuelled by a desire to make money. I think we need to learn from commercial acts, because whether you like the fucking music or not, they on to something that we're not doing on this side.

Do you think hip hop is important for young people?

Absolutely, it gives them something to do, something to be inspired by. Hip hop is so much more than just rapping, and it can encourage young people to get into writing. We’re talking about a billion dollar industry, not just a hobby anymore.  It can provide an outlet for all kinds of talents. You can work in hip hop and be a photographer, a sound engineer, a lighting designer... it can bring all kinds of opportunities.

So we've been talking about using hip hop as a platform to get your message accross.. why is music an important way of communicating with people?

Because music is the universal language, and we can reach so many people through it. You can get a point across in a three minute song so much stronger than a politician can in a 40 minute speech. We ain’t got time to hang around and mince our words either, we gotta get paid too! (laughs...)

Indeed! So what would you have been if you hadn't been a  musician?

A teacher I think. Coming from South Central LA you realise how important youth is. Back when we were teenagers, we knew kids who got killed at 13, 14 years old. I’ve seen a bunch of different generations of kids that thought they were gonna do something. You see that they’re good kids, but they’re caught up in what’s happening around them ‘cause they don’t have nothing else to occupy them. They only want what’s within their box; they’re happy with that. Why jump outside the box and be a tiny speck in the outside world when you can be a big shot in the ghetto?

"Hip hop today, monetarily, is at an all time high, but creatively it’s at an all time low. Having said that, I think that real hip hop as a form of expression will always exist..."

What would be your message to young people caught in that situation? 

Travel. Just travel. Go see the world, get out of that box. See parallel situations with others, see how different things are. Me and my boy here (indicates his DJ, the fantastic Mr T Minus) have been together since ‘83, and it’s his first time in the UK! (The CAS team erupt into a round of applause and mass offers of cups of tea are thrown at Akil’s DJ...)

And before we leave you to go do your thing on stage, what are you working on now and what's coming up for you in the near future?

I’m working on a solo project called Sound check at the moment. Basically sound check is something you do before the performance, and I feel like me coming out as a solo artist... I gotta sound check first. I been touring and spreading awareness about my solo stuff for the last 2 years. I need to build a reputation for myself without Jurassic 5, which is great for me because I love music, but... y’know... you gotta sound check first!

Words: Eva Baker

Photos: Kristen Park

To read a review of the Oxford gig (and to find out exactly how the Ctrl.Alt.Shift team ended up drinking tea with Akil at 6 in the morning...) click here [1]