Thug Life Army

Although Paris is virtually unknown in the UK, his four albums ("The Devil Made Me Do It", "Sleeping With The Enemy", "Guerrilla Funk" and "Sonic Jihad") are amongst the most important hip-hop albums of all time. If you haven''t the heard the music you will of course be familiar with the album cover of "Sonic Jihad" which featured the image of a passenger plain flying directly towards the White House. In this case it truly was judge a book by it's cover as the album looked at America post September 11th and scrutinizes the Bush Administration and white supremacy since the inception of the country.

Ahead of the US Elections Designer Magazine rang up Paris in Oakland, California to discuss the fact that Bush & Kerry are different heads of the same beast. We also looked at the issues and facts that made up the bulk of "Sonic Jihad" and looked to the future of Paris's Guerrilla Funk Recordings which is set to drop albums from rap / hip hop legends Public Enemy, MC Ren, Kam, J-Kash and The Conscious Daughters in 2005.

Q: Coming from the UK I guess we''re seeing a different perspective, even in the mainstream media, than the outlets in the US. What are the feelings on ground level from the people? Are people hopeful that Bush is going to be kicked out?
A: It's pretty divided man. Some people are hopeful, some people want him and some people don''t give a shit either way because there's very little difference between the two (Bush & Kerry) or they''re disillusioned with the process and feel that no matter who is in office it's all the same difference. It's a weird time because of the people who are concerned about the outcome, they''re very passionate about it. You have people who really want to see Bush out of office no matter what and I think 99% of those people who are supporting Kerry are only supporting him because they hate Bush, not necessary because they like Kerry.
 

Please click  HERE  to read the full interview.