Please state for the record who you are and what the components of your band are
For the record my name is Iomos Marad and the components of my band are my drums, the mic and me - the emcee
What is your background?
Well I'm from the south side of Chicago, I am the strong result of a single parent mother. I always loved music and Hip Hop when I was growing up. 1992 is the year I decided that I wanted to rhyme foreal-foreal and I just pursued it the best way that I knew how and that was taking my drums to clubs, poetry sets, subways, parks wherever I could go to rock that's what I was doing. I know your wondering what made me start rhyming and rocking the drums at the same time, well I'm going to tell you that secret. It was my mother & my aunt Gloria (perky) so I was doing that until I was blessed to get with All Natural inc. & Family Tree.
How would you describe your sound? How did it evolve?
I would describe my sound or compare my sound to the mid 90's and the lyrics are soulful & conscious.
What themes do you explore on the album? Do you feel the lyrical content is personal?
The themes that I explore on my album are really, really from my heart and soul and things that I go through. My lyrics are really personal because I can only talk about what I've gone thru and things that I will go through and I try to write them in a way that someone else can relate to them.
Who is your audience? Who are you aiming your music at? The hiphop scene or something beyond that?
My audience is universal. I want to reach everybody from thugs to workers to parents to babies to basically anybody who'll let me borrow their ears for 75:32 minutes. I am actually aiming my music beyond hip hop but it is actually hip hop because what people fail to realize is that hip hop can take on any form or any style of music that it wants - depending on the artist or emcee. Look at Run DMC (RIP to Jam Master Jay) they combined hip hop with rock-N-roll so in the tradition of that I'm combining musical influences that I grew up on and love. Those musical influences being jazz, reggae, soul, & hip hop so there it is.
What are your top 3 favourite albums?
1. All KRS-ONE OR BDP'S Albums
2. All of Tribe Called Quest Albums
3. Anything that Pete Rock has to do with
What are your 3 biggest influences?
1. God-The Most High-Allah, my mother and my Grandmother
The album has very concious lyrics. How important is it to have positive conscious political lyrics?
I think in this day and age that it is important to have something to say because the music industry now is flooded with nonsense and nothingness. I think Rap artists have a very important position because the youth gravitate to them and listen to them even more than they listen to the people that really had something to do with them even existence.
What is the underground to you? What constitutes 'selling out'?
I hate the term "Underground" because I don't feel that I'm under anything but since Americans label everything - if I'm underground, I'm the one holding - along with my brothers under the same struggle like KRS, J-Live etc. If it was for the underground sound being attached to mainstream rap music this whole industry would collapse.
Especially in today's political climate, do you feel it's time for musicians to be more concious and speak out politically?
In my opinion I think that musicians should take the same stand that Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Nina Simone, Donny Hathaway, Sam Cooke, etc. These artists used their art to bring political woes and injustice's to the light. So yes, I feel that musicians should be more politically in tune with what's going on and put it in the most accepted form possible and that's music. It's like Bumpy Knuckles said, "Music should reflect the times." If the climate is hot music should be hot and if the climate is cold……you get the picture.
You used to drum in a railway station, how important is live interaction to you?
I think that if you can't perform live that you're not a true artist and in my opinion I have seen a lot of "Platinum Artist" perform and they look bad and sound horrible. So yeah, I like recording but I LOVE TO PERFORM LIVE!!!
Do you feel there is a link between music and politics?
At this present time I don't think that Music is connected to Politics. Music, or should I say that Rap music, is in a state of Advertising instead of Informing. Anybody can learn something from Hip Hop and apply it to their life I think. That's what I believe my music does for people who listen to it.
What is your message to Bush & Blair and the project for the new American century? What is your message to the children of Afghanistan and Iraq?
My message to Bush/Blair is stop bullying people that you know you can bully. Come at somebody bigger. My message to the children of Afghanistan & Iraq is keep facing the east before sun rise and put all your worries and fears into Allah's hands like Hagar did when her son Ishmael was dying in the wilderness from thirst and Allah provided. God will provide for you and bring you out of this horrible time of hatred and prejudice.
Wise words from a hard-working rapper. With a strong first release under his belt and more projects lining up all the time, hopefully, Iomos Marad's crowd at the Jackson CTA will be growing and growing in time.
"Deep Rooted" is out now on All Natural HipHop.
