Refugee Nation by freesoulJAH

“I’m seeking asylum,” freesoulJAH sings on the first track of his new EP, immediately establishing a more direct and issue-based lyrical focus. After experimenting with increased electronic and psychedelic elements on the single release “Hash Head” earlier this year, freesoulJAH takes a different route: an explicitly thematic concept album about the political hypocrisy of a manufactured “refugee crisis” in a country whose borders were established by pillage and genocide. The funky, sludgy groove, nineties hip-hop backbeat and heavily filtered vocal on “Que Te Pasa Wey” recall fellow protest rocker Everlast, but this is no “What It’s Like” retread, and it’s no whimsical Paul Simon look at the suffering of another people either. There is righteous rage in freesoulJAH’s usually laid-back voice as he repeats “babies in cages” on the song of the same name. Even for a performer so tied to a modern agitprop movement as freesoulJAH, this is the most explicitly political and action-oriented record in his catalogue to date, like an indie-stoner groove answer to Rage Against the Machine.

Blending modern indie and lo-fi production style with late-1960s agitprop folk, FreesoulJAH’s guitar, loop and vocal based songs hypnotize, inspire and empower. His simple, mantra-like lyrics cut through the barriers of poetry and ambiguity to “speak truth to power” and offer a light in the darkness.

freesouljah.com
Instagram
YouTube