I think everyone knows, including those that are part of it, mainstream American Hip Hop is slowly destroying itself. Thats why it is so refreshing for an artist like Emmanuel Jal to get a chance to release his music. At the age of seven, Emmanuel Jal, became a child soldier in Sudan's civil war. In a song called "Forced to Sin" he actually details how he had to eat fallen soldiers to survive. They have a short but good interview of him over at Rolling Stone, and they also have a music video and couple of songs you can listen to. Musically, it isn't anything fantastic, but subject wise it is pretty moving and groundbreaking. "For me, I wanted revenge for my mother, wanted to revenge for my village, for my auntie who was raped in front of me, for our house that burned," he says on how most child soldiers actually want to be a part of the war. One of the most interesting things he says, is about 50 Cent and the nature of gangster rap. "It was like you can't kill people and then talk about it on the TV. Because if you take somebody's life, for the rest of your life it will haunt you." He actually has a song called "50 Cent" where he quite respectfully(I'm not being sarcastic) tells 50 Cent that what he is doing is wrong. If you want to read the rest of the interview, or check out his music click on the Rolling Stone link.
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