Nadir Omowale
Artist – Producer – Creative Strategist
Michigan in 2008. There were complex challenges and dramatic stories everywhere, from the “Uncommitted” Democratic primary to the landslide in November.
While covering the state for MTV’s Emmy-winning Choose or Lose Street Team ‘08, I came to appreciate the soul and grit of Michigan’s people in new ways. Here’s a look back at my attempt to record history in the making.
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Michigan in 2008. There were complex challenges and dramatic stories everywhere, from the “Uncommitted” Democratic primary to the landslide in November.
While covering the state for MTV’s Emmy-winning Choose or Lose Street Team ’08, I came to appreciate the soul and grit of Michigan’s people in new ways. Here’s a look back at my attempt to record history in the making.
More than anything, the historic 2008 elections and Barack Obama’s election day victory were a testament to the power and the promise of democracy in the United States of America. In the face of long lines, dirty politics, threatened voter suppression, and the legacy of racism, the will of the American people ruled the day and made history.
And what was the deciding factor? Young people and African Americans – two groups that historically don’t exercise the right – discovered politics.
Young folks and black folks have always complained that voting doesn’t change America, and to a degree that’s correct. Voting by itself has never changed anything. Continue reading
More than anything, the historic 2008 elections and Barack Obama’s election day victory were a testament to the power and the promise of democracy in the United States of America. In the face of long lines, dirty politics, threatened voter suppression, and the legacy of racism, the will of the American people ruled the day and made history.
And what was the deciding factor? Young people and African Americans – two groups that historically don’t exercise the right – discovered politics.
Young folks and black folks have always complained that voting doesn’t change America, and to a degree that’s correct. Voting by itself has never changed anything. Continue reading
Nadir’s Workin’ For The Man cd received another great review, this one from Germany’s SoulSite.de. On the site’s Sonic Soul section, Joerg Michael Schmitt offers his perspective on the latest new music from around the world.
If you Sprekense de deutsch you can read the original review HERE. For you English speakers, here is the translation, courtesy of my big brother, James Kevin McFarland (aka The Big Black Guy). And don’t worry. Joerg confirms that my brother, the poet, didn’t take poetic license with the text.
Distorted, meaning: bent, twisted, deformed, or unusual. Aha! Now it has been made clear that Nadir’s “Working for the Manâ€, is not simply classified as Nu soul, or R&B, but that he has forged his own way into the Universe of Soul.
The man takes strong elements from the styles of the past, including the energy of James Brown which lends a rhythmic basis to Nadir’s distinct guitar sound. And of that sound, the artist sees himself as a commentator of political events and holds strong opinions he openly shares on a diverse profusion of issues not only in the U.S. today, but the world.
Funk & Rock and political awareness make an explosive mixture because Nadir and his smooth energetic music are on point with his driving beats, hard hitting guitar and radical opinions. Nadir, in the tradition of Gil Scott Heron with the power of James Brown and the explosive force of Public Enemy equals Molotov Soul. Not easy, but easy to move to as Nadir himself explains it “I’m about telling stories, singing songs, and making music that moves people spiritually, emotionally, physically, politically, what ever. Don’t just sit there, do not sit there, do something! Do Something!”
What does “Molotov Soul” sound like? Click HERE to grab your copy of Workin’ For The Man TODAY!
Anybody searching for some political anthems to fire them up during the last week of “decision 08” will find it hard to do better than the work presented by Nadir and his band Distorted Soul on the soul/funk/rock band’s latest effort, Workin’ For the Man. Quite simply, this album is stocked with powerful songs that are at once angry, eloquent, passionate, insightful and very, very good.
From AfterDowningStreet.org:
Having spent the past several years trying to end wars and militarism, I have just voted for a presidential candidate who seems intent on expanding them.
Having won the Democratic primary largely on the strength of his extremely limited and inconsistent opposition to the war on Iraq, Senator Barack Obama chose as his running mate Senator Joe Biden, a man who had led efforts in the U.S. Senate to support the invasion. Obama’s staff have told reporters that he is inclined to keep Robert Gates on as Secretary of War (or “Defense”) – exactly the same plan proposed by Senator John McCain’s campaign. Continue reading
From AfterDowningStreet.org:
Having spent the past several years trying to end wars and militarism, I have just voted for a presidential candidate who seems intent on expanding them.
Having won the Democratic primary largely on the strength of his extremely limited and inconsistent opposition to the war on Iraq, Senator Barack Obama chose as his running mate Senator Joe Biden, a man who had led efforts in the U.S. Senate to support the invasion. Obama’s staff have told reporters that he is inclined to keep Robert Gates on as Secretary of War (or “Defense”) — exactly the same plan proposed by Senator John McCain’s campaign. Continue reading
From TheRealNews.com:
Historian Howard Zinn provides his opinion on the major decision that the incoming US president will have to make; the decision between maintaining the US policy of intervention abroad and providing jobs and health care to the American people.
From TheRealNews.com:
Historian Howard Zinn provides his opinion on the major decision that the incoming US president will have to make; the decision between maintaining the US policy of intervention abroad and providing jobs and health care to the American people.
