“Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?”:
Interview with Zaakir of Jurassic 5

Interview by Chhay Chhun
Photo of Zaakir from www.jurassic5.com

By the end of the Jurassic 5 concert in Boston on April 26, it was clear that the group had accomplished in one hour what not many Hiphop artists are able to do, or are willing to do. Throughout the show, J5’s 4 MCs (Chali 2na, Zaakir, Akil and Marc 7) and 2 DJs (Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark) voiced their objections to President Bush and the war in Iraq and urged for peace. Like in the beginning of the show when DJ Cut Chemist vertically scratched a record, without skippage, on a turntable strapped to his shoulder, J5 was able to “flip the script” by moving the crowd not only with the hot beats and feel-good rhymes, but also with conscious messages that burned through the wax of right-wing battle cries and home-security propaganda that has been shoved into our ears. After the performance, we took the opportunity to ask Zaakir a few questions.

HHA: One thing that sets you apart from other groups is how you inject political consciousness into your shows. Can you speak a little about that?

Zaakir: Well I mean, just for me, being a black male in America, the injustice that my people have been through, I feel I have to say something, not only about the things that happened from back in the days when I wasn’t born and when my grandfather and them had to deal with [the injustices], but also about the youth coming up today. And it’s not so much about, you know, I don’t wanna alienate any other race because everybody has their struggles and everybody has a story to tell. I think it’s just, with Hiphop, you can be able to say things like that, and it’s able to relate and connect to so many different cultures, man. So many different parts of people’s lives come to connect through Hiphop. And we’ve met so many people, we’ve been all over the place, man, and to be able to say something somewhat conscious of what’s going on is important because it’s not all about having fun, but at the same time, it’s not always about being serious, so you have to have a balance and J5 just try to have the best balance as possible.

HHA: Can you comment on the war in Iraq?

Zaakir: My whole thing is that, man, regular innocent people are gonna die, man. You know what I’m sayin? I mean, the people that’s calling the shots, that’s telling people to go over there and bomb or telling people to fight, they’ll never have to touch the grounds over there to fight, they’ll never have to pick up the gun. It’s the regular working class people like me and yourself who’s gonna get that phone call and find out that their son is dead or that their wife, tell that wife that her husband is dead, or tell those kids that their father or mother is never coming back. And war is never cool man, because usually with war, it’s a money thing. It’s never just for the injustice of what’s going on. It’s always money-oriented when you’re dealing with war, so I ain’t never, I’ll never be with anybody that’s going over there and bomb people or do stuff to people just for the hell of it.

HHA: Is there sort of a battle for y’all to get your music out and what J5 represents as music?

Zaakir: Somewhat, yeah, somewhat. Because of what’s being implemented on the radio everyday and what’s being implemented as far as MTV and BET. Yeah, it is hard because, you know, people look at us like we’re the black sheep of the family or the odd ball, so it’s harder for us, but at the same time, it’s good, because you can still have the opportunity to reach other people, and I don’t have a problem with what’s being played on the mainstream. It’s just that it should be a balance, you know. And until that happens, J5 is just gonna have to keep chippin away at it, and maybe we’re not the ones to break through it. Maybe we’re chippin, and then somebody else come thru and do it, but however man, we gonna keep doin it. If you guys keep likin it and supportin it, we gonna keep doin it.

To learn more about J5, check out www.jurassic5.com.

Contact: Chhay Chhun chhun@hiphoparchive.org