Wasun

Freedom Fighter of Revolutionary Sorts -Raised in the streets of the working-class suburbs of the ..hill.., Wasun is one of the T-Dot..s best kept secrets, thanks to the production efforts of in-house producer Octave.Wasun first began recording as Genetix in 1994 at 4-Betta Studios with his rhyming partner Quiz with Eglinton West producer C-Wisdom and released a number of demos as a youth growing up in Richmond Hill. In February 1995, Wasun was one of headliners of Ron Nelson..s Road to Change MC Battle at Jane/Finch Mall, packing up the mall with hundreds of real Hip Hop heads. Wasun also met Nefarious at a Zulu Nation MC Battle that same year and soonafter began recording various tracks with the infamous group..s Kwedro (R.I.P.) and Collizhun at Don-D..s studio in Jane/Finch. From 1996-1997 Wasun was a lead performer along with Nefarious at the underground lyricist lounge, Planet Mars in the north end of Chinatown. At Planet Mars Wasun (then Genetix) gained the respect of various crews throughout the GTA as a premiere ..conscious.. underground rapper in the city, at a time when that title held currency.In the mid-90s Wasun was a regular participant in the historic Fresh Arts program where he was influenced by local T. pioneer artist/poet Motion and met Figures of Speech artists, Kardinall and Saukrates, among others. In 1996 Wasun recorded with underground female artists Sage, Graph Nobel and Tara Chase who belonged to the infamous Circle clique. By 1997, Wasun joined Da Grassroots and Black Employed (BE) Records in Rexdale, working with the label..s artists Blue Scorpion and Red Life. Also, that year, Wasun recorded the never-to-be released posse-cut ..Father Time Remix.. building on the strength of Saukrates..s ..Father Time.. 12.. single that made a lot of noise in New York..s underground. The track also featured Choclair, Saukrates, Madlocks and Jay-B from Flemo..s Guilty Crime Posse (GCP). That year Wah also did tracks with Kardinall and other upcoming artists under Gadget who was notorious for bringing artists from the ..hood on the ..come up.. to record demos and records at Trebas Institute on an ongoing basis throughout the ..90s.In 2000 Wasun joined Justus League Records and the Dope Poets Society, to do Hip Hop activism, such as going up north to perform at a Native Music Festival at the ex-Ipperwash Reserve with a number of Native rappers from rez..s all across Canada. In 2001 Genetix changed his name to Wasun to symbolize his growth as an MC and activist who underwent a transition in the late ..90s as a student of the 5 Percent Nation of Gods n.. Earths, going back and forth from T-Dot to Mecca (Harlem, New York) and studying under Godly Math Allah in True Cipher (T.O.). Once while recording in the studio with Wasun, Scarborough-bred MC Saukrates told him he was not surprise that he hailed from outside the city because ..that is where the best artists always come from... With Wasun..s new tracks featuring Octave and the best production the T-Dot has to offer, he..s arrived in 2005 to remind heads that ..Outside the city.., there..s a force unparalleled by anything inside the city!WHAT MUST BE DONE - In 2004, Dead Prez released an album called Revolutionary But Gangsta (RBG). In response, I would like to address this contradictory statement with the following question: Revolutionary or Gangsta? Gangstas are not revolutionary, although some revolutionaries used to be gangsta. For instance, Malcolm X started out gangsta and later became reborn as a revolutionary. To give another example, in 1960s Oakland, a number of people in the Black Panther Party were former L.A. gang bangers, but were forever transformed when their ..gang.. joined the panthers: a Black Power Movement that unified local street gangs into one revolutionary political organization. With the demise of the Black Power Movement in the early 1970s (due to U.S. government repression) we saw the rise of the Bloods, Crips and other gangs who went back to fighting each other instead of the system. Although we recognize gang warfare to be a historical necessity under capitalism where the gap between the rich and poor is increasing, it is important to distinguish revolutionaries from gangstas. Why? Because once one chooses the revolutionary path they enter into a different relationship with the oppressive capitalist state and white power structure. According to V.I. Lenin, a revolutionary is one who makes revolutionary activity their profession. In other words revolutionaries are in the business of making revolution, unlike gangstas who in the business of sex, drugs, and guns. In reality, gangstas are adored by the ruling class because they don..t challenge capitalism, which is their system of organized crime against the masses. Revolutionaries on the other hand, cannot be tolerated by the capitalist class because they fight to change the system, which Blacks and other poor working people in the ..hoods.., prisons, and Native reservations of this country. Revolutionaries are public enemy number one, because they teach the poorest people that theyare the ones whose labor produces all the wealth of this decaying society. To all my revolutionary soldiers, workers, and gangstas, let us not make music that brings comfort to the corporate elite that oppresses us as wage slaves. Instead, we will make revolutionary music that makes the ruling class tremble, because it reminds them that we are the gravediggers of capitalism. This is what must be done.