Conscious lyrics to ignite your conscious; Hip-hop turns up the volume on Human Rights!

Set in an underground, Concrete basement, in Shoreditch, on a Saturday evening hip-hop and lyrical talent exploded on an intimate stage in the name of Human Rights! When Aruba Red tweets the Restless Beings ‘Human Writes’ gig to be ‘The official Roots/John Legend pre-party’ you know you’re not going to be disappointed! With a massive line up of the most established and upcoming artists in conscious music, Restless Beings supporters were certainly in for something special!

Despite the winter freeze and the forecast for snow, over 300 activists and appreciators of real music attended to help give a voice to the voiceless! Welcomed by the usual Restless Beings goodies of lollipops, badges and pencils, a hub of good vibes and shared love of musical talent resonated from the offset, with the illusive DJ Snuff playing classic hip-hop tunes to warm the guests up.

Opening up the night was a talented 15 year old, Sindy, followed by RYU & Onoe. Muslim Belal, moved the audience with his account of his transition to Islam calming the audience poignantly. Mohamed Yahya with Serena, and Poetic Pilgrimage blessed the stage and got the crowd moving, with their upbeat progressive tracks and the positive rapper, Logic MC also performing with Crazy-haze most definitely got the “People’s Army” mobilised. Later, Lady Ny had the audience mesmerised with her beautiful voice and also sang with the illustrious Purple. Pugnacious MC, currently a SOAS undergraduate student also bought raw talent to the stage with his tracks! Restless Beings were then blessed with a surprise appearance and support by the artist that Benjamin Zephaniah describes to be “One of the best lyricists in the Western Hemisphere” – LOWKEY! Performing the iconic ‘Long live Palestine’ and ‘Terrorist’ the crowd were reminded lyrically of human rights issues around the world. The message was further reiterated by the Iron Braydz performing a Restless Beings favourite ‘Free’.

Employing the true beauty of hip-hop and conscious music, audience participation was key in raising the atmosphere. This was conveyed in abundance in the Open Mic session of the gig which aimed to promote boxfresh talent. Out of 500 applicants, 10 artists were chosen to perform for 2 minutes to impress both the crowd and the judges- consisting of the established artists. The Open Mic artists, for some being their first organised performance, included Electric, J Kas, Zak, Sunshine, Mitz, Curious, Ruthless MC, Farhat, Little Moh and Suspect MC. All performed with their own original sound and style and the judges then painfully selected the two acts they thought to be the best- Sunshine and Curious! Both were very different in the style, Sunshine enthusing her melodious soulful tones to champion love and peace. Curious, on the other hand, by day a secondary school teacher, employed cleverly articulated lyrics to win the crowd round. After another performance, this time for 3 minutes, the crowd chose Curious to be the winner of the Open Mic Competition, with screams and cheers that reverberated off the concrete! In an industry that places more power and value with the audience, rather than a record label, the prize for Curious is invaluable as he is set to be endorsed by not only the crowd, but by the established artists/judges and Restless Beings! Among social mediums alone, his voice can be projected to over 250,000 people with RB and artist followers combined!

To close the show, following the more up tempo tracks, the crowd were able to sway to a more serene acoustic set by Natty, performing ‘Coloured Souls’. Other highlights of the night were Natascha of Aruba Red, a long time supporter of Restless Beings, performing an impromptu collaboration with our Open Mic Champion, Curious, beat boxing!

The underlying message of the gig was to raise awareness and charge the activism of human rights around the world. As a hub for activism and social change, and after the success of Project 1- helping the street children of Dhaka, Restless Beings launched Project 2 earlier this year. This project consists of the issues of Uighur Women’s Rights in Kyrgyzstan, the persecuted Rohingya people in Burma and Bangladesh and the marginalised Roma Gypsy community in Eastern Europe. Despite living in a so called ‘modern’ society, it concerns, in different ways, the restoration of basic human rights, which are greatly lacking for such communities as they live in stateless conditions. Our aim is the restoration of these basic fundamental rights on these communities that have been discriminated against, and displaced on the basis of who they are, how they are and what they believe in.

The spotlight is on them and change is coming, with YOUR support!

Despite the gig being more to do with raising awareness of the key issues behind the persecuted communities, a staggering £1,500 was raised, all of which, will go straight towards the human rights project! The support of the artists and the audience was humbling and it is testament to the movement of change out there. However, although the gig is over, the process of change continues. The importance of those post event ‘Monday morning discussions’ at work, school/university , the gym-wherever, helping to spread the word of change cannot be forgotten.

Voice the Voiceless and stand up for Human Rights!

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