Pa Salieu interview: ‘I believe everything that comes out of my head is spiritual’

In February last year, in a freestyle rap titled Next Up? which Pa Salieu performed for the web channel Mixtape Madness, he imagined his own shooting: “Had a dream that I’m dead-up, head top red-up/Must’ve got blown by a two-barrel, uh-oh.”

In the small hours on a Saturday night in late October, it happened. He was outside a pub in central Coventry, where he grew up. “I got shot in the head,” he says. “It was an event organised by one of my first managers. I got advice not to go, but I don’t believe in nothing. I was forgetting, this is Coventry. It pops off in Coventry. There’s gunshots. I could have avoided it but it is what it is. It’s part of the journey. I knew I wasn’t gonna die. It was bad, but something in my head thought, ‘F*** that. This has just started. Ain’t nothing gonna stop me, no way.’ There’s something I’m supposed to do.”

Twenty shotgun pellets connecting with the back of his head in a drive-by attack could have put a premature end to the career of probably the most exciting new voice in British rap. The 23-year-old’s powerful mix of grime and afrobeats styles have put him at the forefront of the latest wave of homegrown British talent along with the likes of Birmingham’s Jaykae, Manchester’s Aitch and Young T & Bugsey from Nottingham, and Londoners AJ Tracey, Tion Wayne, M Huncho and Headie One.

Shortly after the shooting he struck a confident tone, posting a photo from his hospital bed on his Facebook page, and writing on Instagram: “King Salieu will forever get it in. Best believe. Of course I survived this decade. You can’t defeat a man with pure energies.” Three weeks after the incident he was performing at the O2 Institute in Birmingham with Grammy-nominated American rapper GoldLink.

Today he speaks about his close shave in near religious terms, becoming visibly overwhelmed as he attempts to describe the connections between his life and his songs. “I said what was gonna happen to me before it happened. This is why music is so deep to me. I believe everything that comes out of my head is spiritual. This is a message. And you might find me a hypocrite talking all this about gunshots in the songs, but you’re gonna have to hear the pain before you hear any revelations, any goodness. You’re gonna have to hear the truth about what’s happened in my life.”

And soon about the glamour, too. He recently signed a major label record deal with Warner; a few days after we meet, he posts a picture on Instagram of him in a recording studio sitting beside experimental R&B star FKA twigs. A new single, the double A-side Betty/Bang Out, ought to take him much closer to mainstream recognition. Betty in particular is fantastic, a glowering mix of afrobeats and dancehall over which he chants melodically in his thick accent. Bang Out is faster, closer to grime, and takes the surprising step of sampling the voice of Eighties pop star David Sylvian. Pa has earned early comparisons to big-selling London rapper J Hus, who takes influences from his Gambian and Ghanaian heritage, but he has so much energy that I doubt he’ll stay in anyone’s shadow for long.

Pa Salieu is his real name, first and middle, and he was born in Slough as the first child of young parents who had moved from The Gambia. Aged two, he was sent back to West Africa to live with grandparents, so his parents would have increased time to work and could send more money home. “It was the greatest thing they could do. I know my culture,” he says. “We were near the capital city but in the country. It’s a good area. When it’s time to eat, we call our neighbours. Big plates, you know what I’m saying? It’s different. That’s why I’m proud. Maybe that’s why, when I came back here, they labelled me as a bad kid, ’cause I was very prideful of who I am and where I’m from.”

From the age of nine, he was living in Coventry, north of the city centre in Hillfields. His breakthrough song, the most played track of the year so far on BBC Radio 1Xtra, is about the area. It’s called Frontline, a deliberate war metaphor. “Any way you turn you’ll see crack fiends in Hillfields. It’s a weird area. A lot of stuff happens. I’ve never had a bike for more than two months,” he tells me.

The racial mix at his secondary school was predominantly Asian and white. He stood out, and got into trouble. “My accent is strong. I’m Gambian and I’m proud. I didn’t accept getting bullied so I’d try and fight back. The teachers never understood. They thought I was a bad youth. I wasn’t really. There was reasons why I moved the way I did.”

He says he wasn’t permitted to do music at school, but a visit to the home of a friend who had a rudimentary recording and editing setup was an epiphany.

“I literally fell in love with music and the studio,” he says. “There was a point when I wanted to try and do spoken word, because I used to like poetry in school. I used to write a lot on my phone, what I was feeling. I wanted to try this studio. I started freestyling, we recorded it, and I loved the way my voice was on there. Now you can hear what I’m saying.”

He downloaded Instagram and posted a few of these freestyles. “About 40 people showed love. I was like, ‘OK — well, Jesus had 12 disciples.’ It motivated me to carry on.” For the past three years, he’s taken every opportunity to work and record. When we speak he’s in Shepherd’s Bush, where he’s been holed up during lockdown, working with producers via Zoom as well as teaching himself recording techniques. “There was days when I dodged death because I was at the studio. I’m trying to see another life. I swear to God, I feel like I have so much to say.”

He has been vocal on the Black Lives Matter movement and attended protests in London. Last month he posted a long essay on his Instagram profile: “We need to start explaining why our lyrics contain so much pain. Why violence was dropped upon us. This was never our nature,” he wrote.

“I think it will change. This generation ain’t having it,” he tells me. “Here’s an example: if I’m running through my street and I see someone walking ahead, I’ll cross the road. I don’t want them to get scared. I’m a dark guy, I’ve got a hoodie on. They’ll get shook. This is all normal. I know people are afraid of me. It shouldn’t be like this.”

He continues: “I had a friend that died. We called him ‘the hood representative’. Since he died, that’s me. I’m the hood’s representative. I’ve seen everything. There’s so much in my head. I need to speak out. I’m not going home, just kicking back. I’m taking this serious. I know there’s a power you can use with this music thing. I’m just getting myself ready for greatness.”

Reference: Evening Standard: David Smyth 10 hrs ago July 12th 2020

Kanye West believes coronavirus vaccine will ‘stop people getting to heaven’ and Planned Parenthood is the 'devil's work'

'They want to put chips inside of us, they want to do all kinds of things, to make it where we can’t cross the gates of heaven'

Rapper and potential presidential candidate Kanye West has revealed he views vaccines as the “mark of the beast”, saying that he was “extremely cautious” of a future COVID-19 vaccine.

In a four-hour interview with Forbes, West touched on everything from his political party (the 'Birthday Party') through to his belief that sexual healthcare providers Planned Parenthood do the “Devil’s work.”

West revealed he is against vaccines in the interview, saying they mean “we can’t cross the gates of heaven.”

He said: “It’s so many of our children that are being vaccinated and paralysed… So when they say the way we’re going to fix Covid is with a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious. That’s the mark of the beast.”

Clarifying that “they” were the “humans that have the Devil inside them”, West continued, “They want to put chips inside of us, they want to do all kinds of things, to make it where we can’t cross the gates of heaven.”

“And the sad thing is... the saddest thing is that we all won’t make it to heaven, that there’ll be some of us that do not make it,” he said.

West also implied he believed that coronavirus is divine punishment, as when he was asked about a coronavirus cure he responded: “We need to stop doing things that make God mad.”

West, who has supported President Donald Trump in the past, also added that he believed Planned Parenthood clinics “have been placed inside cities by white supremacists to do the Devil’s work.”

Planned Parenthood clinics provide sexual healthcare to people across America, though they have become a battleground for anti-abortion protestors.

The topic of a coronavirus vaccine has become mired in false conspiracy theories, including the microchip theory that West pushed - which claims that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is implanting people with microchips under the guise of vaccines to track them.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation told the BBC it is a “false” claim and there is no evidence to support the theory.

Speaking to MPs, Oxford University’s regius professor of medicine Sir John Bell said the UK should “be prepared for the worst” this winter - should there be a “significant flu season” in conjunction with another wave of coronavirus cases.

He said that it could be “pandemonium in the A&E departments” if many opted out of a flu vaccine and added: “This could be really serious if people don’t get their vaccines.”

A COVID-19 vaccine is currently undergoing human trials, but Imperial College London Professor Robin Shattrock revealed it could be available “in the first two quarters of next year if things go extraordinarily well.”

A recent YouGov poll conducted by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate revealed that nearly one in six Brits would either outright refuse or were considering rejecting a coronavirus vaccine when it became available, with just 38% saying they would “definitely” get vaccinated and 31% saying they “probably” would.

Scientists have previously predicted three-quarters of the population would require vaccinations in order to successfully suppress the spread of the virus.

Reference: Megan C. Hills London 5 days ago: 8th July 2020

White people are furious that the archbishop of Canterbury said Jesus shouldn't always be white

White people are furious because the archbishop of Canterbury suggested that Jesus, a Middle Eastern man, shouldn't be portrayed as white.

Archbishop Justin Welby said on the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme that he would be reviewing statues in Westminster Abbey and Canterbury cathedral in light of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Asked whether the "way the western church portrays Jesus needs to be thought about again", he said that when you enter churches around the world:

You see a black Jesus, a Chinese Jesus, a Middle Eastern Jesus, which is of course the most accurate, you see a Fijan Jesus.

Jesus is portrayed in as many ways as there are cultures, languages and understandings. 

And I don't think that throwing out everything we've got in the past is the way to do it, but I do think saying 'that's not the Jesus who exists, that's not who we worship' is a reminder of the universality of the God who became fully human.

Welby also said that he would review monuments in Westminster Abbey and Canterbury cathedral.

Some will have to come down, some names will have to change.

We are going to be looking very carefully and putting them in context and seeing if they all should be there.

He stressed, however, that he would not be tearing statues down, and nor does he have the authority to.

Some people reacted with fury to his comments, calling Welby a "disgrace".

It's important to note that Welby appears to want to review the monuments in Church of England buildings, in order to potentially offer a context where the church feels it is needed.

He "very carefully didn't say" that statues should be torn down.

The myth that Jesus was a white man is itself erasure of history, as the historical figure of Jesus was a Jewish Middle Eastern man no matter how he has since been portrayed.

Reference: Indig: Joanna Taylor 3 hrs ago: 26 june 2020

Energy - Cleansing Baths

Every time we walk into an enclosed space -whether it is at work, on the bus, in a shop, cinema or theatre - we are putting ourselves i contact with other people's electromagnetic fields. Our auras mingle, for example, when standing shoulder to shoulder with other commuters in an underground train during rush hour. some of these people may be disturbed , distresses or depressed and in other way energetically needy. The interaction of energies between people involves giving and taking. There is good giving, when we feel enriched energetically, and there is the kind of giving that comes from a hyper person that leaves e

Everyone feeling exhausted. With taking, the issue is willingness to donate that energy. We don't mind giving energy to our children, for example, and we freely allow the people we love to take energy from us, even though it may leave us feeling depleted. But there are also times when people draw the energy out of you - a kind of energetic violation, although most energy vampires may not consciously be aware of what they are doing. I've found that many of these people have been energetically abused at some time in the past and have an unstable personal boundary.

This is just not a physical-presence phenomenon, because we can find ourselves giving and taking in relation to another person, even over the phone. In fact, we don't even need equipment because we can hear the phone ringing on the other side of the room and know from the change in our energy that on the end of the line is a specific someone we don't want to talk to. When they say their name, they just confirm what we had already sensed in some inexplicable way.

The effect of all this can be disturbing to our own vibrational pattern, and there may be times when we feel the need of a spiritually cleansing bath. the purpose of this is to 'wash off' the unwanted thought forms or energies we may have picked up. Spiritual cleansing is about preserving the integrity of our spiritual core. It is of great importance particularly when we've had the unfortunate experience of being in touch, perhaps not literally, with a person whose vibration is altogether more nefarious.

Energy-cleansing baths are not about removing everyday grime and pollution which should be done first by having a shower or bath and washing with soap. First, clear and enhance the atmosphere by using one of the methods in the Clearing the Atmosphere or Holy Smoke - for purification sections in this chapter. Open the window or door to oxygenate the room.

Some of the old traditions would use sound at this point - with clapping, chanting, drumbeat, singing, praying, laughing, shaking rattles or shouting - and if your inclination is to use sound you could use one of these methods, or check through your music collection for something that seems appropriate.

For people who want to bring the four elements of water, earth. fire, and air, these are already there. The 'water' flows into the bath; the 'earth' comes from the salt or crystal (s) you place in the water; the 'fire' comes from the candles you place around the bath; and the 'air' comes from the fresh air you have just allowed in the room and the aroma of the essential oils you will use.

Essential oils on their own are unique amongst the gifts of life in that they incorporate in some sense all four elements - they are liquid and thus water-like; they are products of plants of the 'earth'; they are flammable and burn like fire; and they release a fragrance which is part of the air.

Bathing or submerged in water is a sacred symbolic ritual in many traditions, often signifying full entry into a particular practice or way of worship.it also symbolizes rebirth and change, whether this is a change in the direction of life or in its purpose. Cleaning invisible energies with water is an everyday occurrence at nuclear power stations around the world, as workers finish their shift with a shower to assist in removing any radiation. Bathing is about being 'clean' in many senses.

Focus on what you wish to achieve from your bath and look at Chapter 11, the essential oil spiritual profiles, to choose those which seem particularly useful at this time. essential oils carry the energy of the original flower or plant, yet have undergone transformation through fire and water in the distillation process. Again, we can see the four elements: the earth of the plant material; the fire that lights the still; the water that extracts the essential oil molecules; which are released into the air. The essential oil helps cleanse the energetic field of the water, whether you use single essential oils, make your own blends, or try one of those suggested below.

Energy-Cleansing bath Blends
Add up to two tablespoons of salt to the flowing water. When the bath has been run, add essential oils, swishing them around a bit, with a prayer in your heart.

These blends can also be used in diffusers, herb bundles, misters, water bowls, or essential oil cleansing bundles.

The Elements
When carrying out purification, you may want to incorporate all the elements, or those you consider essential. Some traditions, for example, include wood or metal amongst the core elements and other do not. What you use is a matter of personal choice, as you devise what suits you at any particular time.

When cleansing a room or person with essential oils or herb bundles, focus on four directions in turn - north, south, east and west - and carry the fragrant material in those directions before making a complete circle. In some cultures, before doing the circle, the fragrant material would be lowered to the earth and raised to the sky.

The following chart shows some of the ways people bring elements into purification and cleansing practices.

Reference: The Fragrant Heavens. Valerie Ann Worwood