IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD THE SONG OF THE WEEK, GO TOHTTP://WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ADVENTISHERE TO LISTEN TO IT.
To make up for this lengthy exposition of 'Advent', last week's track, this one will be a bit shorter. This is also because I have to finish a lecture on the relationship between theology and philosophy in 13th century universities and the major thinkers in this movement. Anyway, let's get to it.
This song contains a triumphant sample from Kate Havenevik's 'Travel in Time', found on her Melankton album. She opened for Air at a concert in Chicago that I attended along with the austere Pastor Jose Morales, Eli and Esteban Rolon. Morales (DJ Rhemaogix to ya'll trance/progressive heads) passed the record on to me, and I was like, 'We gotta sample this.' In the hands of I.B., the atmospheric sounds turned into a perfect introduction into a new way be of being me. IB uses hard yet elegant drums that complement the samples borrowed from Havenevik, thus creating a suitable red carpet entrance for a Tomorrow King. It's so suitable that a wretch like me hesitates to walk on it with my vocals.
Simply, this song draws from the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist at the age of 30 (Matt 3:13-17, among other places in the gospels of Mark and Luke also). There are differing takes on the significance of Jesus baptism, but one that is commonly taken is that this baptism was a 'rite of passage' so to speak, after which was able to embark on 'fulfilling his father's will.' In other words, this was the precursor to his ministry of peace through violence to the current oppressive order, thus ushering in justice for all regardless of their religious, cultural, and class identity. I relate this to my own art, this song being my own 'rite of passage' into a way of being in the hip-hop culture that works toward a consciousness of the interelatedness of all people and things. In a brief sketch (not 185, peace to that TK though), my hip hop history has been about a thesis (Christianity and following it as it was traditionally articulated, as seen in my records up to and including The Darkroom), an antithesis (the departure I took from this in The Darkroom and Death Penalty Shots), and the synthesis of the two (the goal of ADVENT). ADVENT is not about a turning away from me as was stated in my first post on the song 'Advent.' Rather, it is about a turning toward who I am fully, no parts excluded. After going through these joys and pains, I am finally ready to do that which I am supposed to do: use art to make humanity conscious of how the separate is more together than it realizes. For me, 'Baptism' is where the idea/reality/metaphor 'God' intersects with the world, for both are equally represented and enacted. In order for there to be a 'baptism', both God and the world have to be present. What sense does it make to go through a rite of passage and have nothing to pass into but some spiritual fantasy world that may not exist anyway? I'm reminded of John Wesley's phrase 'The world is my parish." For me, it's reciprocal. I can only save the world as I allow it to save me. 'That's what 'Baptism' is about. I shed the dross of useless battle rapping and struggling against ultimate reality and channel both the natural and the metaphysical to change my now into a rich later, and it inevitably changes me also. The song ends with a Deftone scratch from Common, '...writing for freedom.' I write for freedom. You write for freedom. Whatever you do, live for freedom. She will 'baptize' you into this freedom, and will be well-pleased with you.
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