![]() While he does produce solo material, he works closely and extensively with Tha God Fahim heavily using the moniker "Dump Gawd". He has drawn attention for the high prices he charges for his work (between US$300 and $3000), as well as his anonymity and reclusiveness. I know that people are always making babies, and there's a little bit of hope wherever there are babies.Mach-Hommy is a Haitian-American rapper from Newark, New Jersey. Every day - a phenomenal musician is born. There's this euphemism, "Every day, a sucker is born." And then, every day, everything else is born as well. It's the children – because no matter what's going on in the country every day, there's constantly blank slates being produced, ready to be programmed for the future. It's a source of, like, a lot of my power.īefore I let you go, what is giving you hope for a better future for Haiti right now? And they look to everyone else, not for a handout but for recognition and acknowledgement for what they've contributed, as a culture, to the book of humanity. And even through all of that, these people are still willing to share their culture. I want people to know that that's there, even through all the trauma and assassination attempts and. I'd like the conversation to be about the resiliency of these people and the untapped wealth of skill, thought, language, art. What would you like the conversation to be about? There was an interview with you that I read where you said that you regret the fact that you don't want Haiti to be always seen in the context of this trauma loop. I think that's something that I live with, for sure. So I'm hearing a lot more of that kind of talk in terms of "Well, what will become of us as a nation?" The dialogue is always, "What atrocity occurred today" now, and "How are we going to deal with it tomorrow?" We've just been consistently doing this collective crisis management since 1804. A lot of people are extremely depressed, more than anything, at the recent events. So when I call my family, it's, like, the same conversation. To me, it's a broken record that's on repeat. Well – what's going on right now reminds me of what went on with Aristide in the early '90s and the whole exodus, the whole " boat people," the whole political asylum. do you find yourself calling relatives every day just to check on them? But still, you know – the president killed in his own bed, his wife wounded. You say this has been what you've been living with. My personal mythology, insofar as the way I think about my origins and when I ponder whether or not there are powers beyond our understanding and comprehension, that influence what we do from day to day and where we go in life – for me, that thing in the tangible form is Haiti. It's "Kriminel," and in it, you talk about memories of hunger – I'm wondering whether the centrality of Haiti to your art is something that you arrived at, or was it always there? So I just want to play a short track here from your latest album, Pray For Haiti. And like all great art, it's universal, but it's also specific. Haiti has always been so important to your art. This kind of theme is a recurring theme with our nation and our history in the Western Hemisphere. So I wasn't really shocked by the recent events. A lot of our psychological energy and makeup is split between two places, because we have to be where we are, but we also can't leave where we come from. ![]() What's going on right now is kind of like the norm for us – especially abroad, where, most of us, we send more than our prayers back home. So it never really came as a shock to me. my predecessors, they kind of passed that concern down to me. ![]() The people that came before me, my role models. ![]() Well, for me, I've dealt with these kinds of issues insofar as political unrest and human rights violations and, you know, a whole other laundry list of other struggles that, you know, one just deals with, you know, as a member of the Haitian diaspora. How are you holding both those thoughts in your head at the same time? Michel Martin, Weekend All Things Considered : You just released your latest project, Pray For Haiti, it's gotten a huge response – and yet so much going on in a place that you care so much about. ![]()
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