When Von joined us at Purchase, it got serious. It was a drug infested neighborhood, it left a mark on me. I arrived very young on the Lower East Side, which was far from gentrified at the time. She used texts from US rappers that I transcribed for her. Siba: I was born in Paris, to a French mother and an American father from New York, and I arrived in NYC in the mid-80s, I discovered Hip Hop with my mother DesdГ©mone Bardin who taught English at the University of Paris 8 in Saint-Denis using African-American & Hip-Hop culture in her classes. Kiambu: IвЂ™m from Harlem, Uptown, Sugar Hill, 145th Street, but also from all over the city, I grew up in Manhattan, I moved to Queens, in the Bronx, we are from all over New York. Von: I am from the Bronx, and I have Caribbean, Antigua and Bermuda origins. Kiambu: We had musicians so we played original tracks live. Siba: It was a collective, four rappers, two DJs, a singer, other rappers were coming, we also had live musicians, I was also played drums occasionally. We were young, we founded a collective in the early 90s, Hip Hop was exploding in NYC, we were all connected to the street, there were a lot of us. Kiambu: We met in part at an art school in New York in 1992, Purchase University, where musicians, dancers, actors, graffiti artists met. We wrote this text to talk about this sad state of mind. Kiambu: Trump criticizes the Black Lives Matter movement, вЂњYou donвЂ™t believe in America! You want to question our history!вЂќ No, itвЂ™s always been the same. So some things are changing but you see what it takes? An African-American man lost his life, murdered by a crooked cop, LIVE on TVвЂ¦ The Confederate Flag no longer accepted at car races in the US, NY State laws have changed that police are now liable to lawsuits by the people as before they were pretty much untouchable. Like Statues of Colonialists, Slave Owners are being taken down. These young folks feel that itвЂ™s the moment to seize to seek change. It started with riots, which I donвЂ™t particularly feel are effective but after a few days of that peaceful protest continued and has continued. Its been 4 months since they started protesting. Look at the city of Portland on the west coast. Siba: Young people bring hope as they are still marching. I know a lot of people donвЂ™t believe they benefit from any sort of privilege but itвЂ™s just not true and people have to be willing to accept that they are wrong and they need to do more and try harder. No one wants to believe that theyвЂ™re racist but honestly if youвЂ™re not speaking out against it every single day youвЂ™re benefiting from it as a white person in this country. ItвЂ™ll make you fight for every shred of identity youвЂ™ve created for yourself.

Unfortunately, white liberals have it the hardest because they donвЂ™t see that theyвЂ™re part of the problem and itвЂ™s hard to take this bad news when you think youвЂ™re progressive. The issue is the victims of racism have always paid for it while white people have benefited. Kiambu: Unfortunately, a lot of liberal people want to believe that race should be ignored and our differences are not something to celebrate and that they want to get past racism. Siba: Tale of the tape is an expression used when things are clear, things are straight forward, in your faceвЂ¦ And this is whatвЂ™s happening right now in front of our eyes in the world. вЂTale Of The TapeвЂќ is the first single from our album. Nicolas really understood everything we were saying and how this hysterical moment will be burned into our memories forever because of the images we were forced to endure every single day. We wrote this song 2 years ago and itвЂ™s sadly still relevant. Kiambu: WeвЂ™re very proud of NicolasвЂ™s work.

Your first video is the provoking вЂњTale Of The TapeвЂќ directed by Nicolas Milteau which directly evokes police brutality and the BLM movement, Why? GET OPEN вЂ“ вЂњTale Of The TapeвЂќ (Official Music Video)

Here comes to boom fighters