I got at Afrika Baby Bam of the Jungle Brothers to explain himself. I am a fan of the JB’s from way back and was startled at some of the rumors that had leaped from the online community. So, I reached out to the dapper dressing fellow to see what exactly was going down with those photos circulated on the Native Tongue founder and his new movement. In case you didn’t know (or care to know) Baby Afrika has a new clique called Pagan Society. Here is what the Hip-Hop legend had to say -word for word. There seems to be some subliminal verbal jabs on individuals and very blatant bolos thrown at Hip-Hop itself.If it helps, according to Merriam Webster, a “pagan” is “1: heathen; especially: a follower of a polytheistic religion (as in ancient Rome), 2: one who has little or no religion and who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods : an irreligious or hedonistic person.” “In the wake of the death of Hip-Hop as an authentic culture, from the ashes rise Pagan Society. Before Hip-Hop had a name it experimented and mixed together existing genres of music to evolve into itself. It was a rebellious movement that later conformed and allowed itself to be pimped by corporate interest who initially gave it the cold shoulder. It had more juice when it was underground and only those in the know were up on it. Now it’s been reduced to one hit wonders and token puppets who are being used to sell everything but music. We the people of Pagan Society are not nostalgic underground backpacking culture vultures, Hip-Hop groupies trying to bust a rap star nut for our ego’s sake so we can say we f##### her too; correction some of us are culture vultures. Nor are we trying to create another sub-genre of the style to get you gassed up on the new cookie cuttin’ s### we baked to get your deflated dollar. We’re a movement with leaders that are opening the gates of hell and letting out a fury of creativity that has no boundaries. The way you thought the world would be before your brain got child molested by social norms. Like the internet we are not regulated by rules. We’re Pagan and everything we do is Pagan! We’re not studio gangsters and we’re not fake self-righteous conscious rappers. We’re demons on the loose taking all you fake, pretentious, industry-n****s to hell for your own good. We say whatever we want and do whatever the f**k we want because we’re Pagan. We Paganize every THING until your brain can’t remember what it was ‘told’ to call it. The leaders of our movement are B.A.M.(BadAssMuthfuka) (Baby Bam) and 2nen Bladez. Both made attempts to save the cash cows from going to the slaughter house. But the grass was too green on the other side of the fence for cash cows to resist. After the platinum plaques, the rented jewelry, the rented cars and MTV crib houses, the chicken commercials, the energy drinks, the clothing lines, the Grammy’s, the Oscars and the layaway b***hes, they watched the skeletons of these cash cows get dumped back on the streets where they came from like toothless crackhead ex-convicts released from puppet purgatory. Like Martin Luther King these cows under the control of crafty poverty-pimps fought to be integrated in the systems date-raping machine. To be prisoners in the Pretty Hate Machine’s asset column for a few grains of grass. Well now it’s time to mow the lawn and the PaganSociety is in charge of waste disposal. We have Bone Collectors, CultureVultures, ScavengerHunters, and GrimStoners. Like Haysuess(Jesus)- as if such a person really existed- you won’t find us in any Temples of hiphop because they’re all hollow vessels of corruption and bogusness. Any crusader purist of Hip-Hop’s past are just hollowgrams; ghosts in the machine screaming “yes yes yall” hoping to evoke the spirit of Kid Creole. And you won’t find us singing like Magilla Gorillas in the window telling the world we’re “Crazy” even though we know we are. And we do like corruption by the way but only when we’re doing it. You might call us demons not because you view us as something bad for you. The opposite is true- we’re demons because we’re something good for you that you don’t want to eat, but what could be worse than all the b####### you already ate. We know some of you’d rather have a K.West d**k burger in your mouth because you thought a gay-rapper could save Hip-Hop. But you found out that it was just neatly packaged dissolved-middle-class-low-testosterone-throwback-Black orphan-Emmanuel Lewis-Cosby-Kid-era-junk-food-rap-for-the-Soul? We predict certainly, because we know that after you get in bed with us, everything you experience through your six primitive senses will be sent back as a message to your brain that says, “Pagan.” Every bit of your essence including what little bit of collective soul society has left will tell that what your experiencing is Pagan, Pagan? PAGAN! We welcome all 65 billion sheep on the planet to your new world – PaganSociety! “Be Pagan and Proud!” We hate when you’re fake but we love when your PagaN.”P.S.101–Baby Bam aka B.A.M. aka BadAssMuthfuka
THE JUNGLE BROTHERS[The Jungle Brothers “My Jimmy Weights a Ton” – Q-Tip on production][The Jungle Brothers “40 Below Trooper”]
[The Jungle Brothers “Beyond This World” – yes, that is Chris Lighty]