Greetings on this special ‘Fro’back Friday’ “It Was A Good Day” back in 2006, because “The Soul Survivors Magazine” with the permission of Dave Fraser, was officially first distributed at Soul Village weekender this ‘Fro’back Friday’ 10 years ago. This is the front cover of a venture founded by Anna Marshall and myself as the ‘Info provider for the soul survivor”. There are no “Words I Manifest” like Gang Starr that can explain the journey this magazine has been on to still be here in the digital and technical age we live in. All I can say is “Thank You, Thank You” like Roy Ayers and the late Wayne Henderson for all the attention over the last decade. This next part I thought hard about whether to share but as an unorthodox journalist I have the “licence to thrill at will” and “it’s my part and I’ll cry if I want too” :O)

That song title “It Was A Good Day” an Ice Cube rap classic with soul sampled The Isley Brothers classic “Footsteps In The Dark” and depicted the typical day in the life of many dark skinned “Boyz In The Hood”, a film that Ice Cube providentially starred in circa 1991. It’s just a song right? Nah it’s ‘REAL TALK’ because sadly it paints the reality of surviving a catalogue of Tribe Called Quest “Scenario”’s, if you’ve grown up in the projects or The Fatback Band “Concrete Jungle” environment in the USA, initially but in any part of the world. That song was made in 1993 and 23 years later it’s a prophecy that unfortunately was not the desired outcome for two African American black men In Louisiana and Minnesota. Not only were they ‘allegedly’ assassinated excessively and unnecessarily,the evidence of their brutal death was has been filmed and broadcast on the various “So Shall Mad Ya” (Social Media) platforms. This is deep so please read on or switch off at this point because from here I rhyme and get Grime like UK hip hop!!

I was very moved today by a post from my fellow Spurs fan and soul survivors bro from anutha mo Cav Manning now residing in Bushwick Brooklyn USA. Your words “Touch Me In The Morning’ Like Diana Ross today bro so “I Still Got Love For Ya” like KAM. I was only having this same conversation last night about about the my own awareness. I know we are living in the subliminal age of the logical becoming the illogical and the illogical been seen as being logical. And I’m sure Roy Walker of TV program ‘Catchphrase’ used to say “Say what you see”, but are you seriously telling me like Pleasure that “I’m Mad”, and that this is a case of a Talking Heads classic “Seen And Not Seen”? James Brown said it in “Funky President” “People, people we got to get over before we go under”. This really is a Kool & The Gang ”Summer Madness” situation we have here.

Angie Stone in our forthcoming interview for issue 65 explains why she did the song “Brutha” to highlight to those who do not understand or are ignorant to the plight of the African American, and their fight for a Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five “Survival”. Many of you reading this have an affinity with the “Sound Of Universal Love”(SOUL) and it’s musical offsprings, albeit, jazz, funk soul, disco,latin, house RNB, hip hop, rap jungle or broken beat. Now we are all soul survivors aren’t we? If you really want an insight to “Know The Ledge” like Rakim about the situation in the USA, I urge you to listen to Main Source’s “Friendly Game Of Baseball” sampling Lou Donaldson’s “Pot Belly”, KRS1’s ‘Whoop whoop thats the “Sound Of The Police”, Ice Cube’s You “Ain’t Gonna Take My Life” or Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”.

The songs three Hip Hop and the other pre Be Bop speak of the brutality carried out by those swearing an allegiance wearing certain “uniforms” to protect their way of life, in the name of the USA flag. They do this with an ‘alleged’ 007 licence to kill black people and watch the RED blood splatter across their WHITE and BLUE attire, like ‘Black Lives DON’T Matter’. Is that really what the colours of the AmeriKKKan flag really represents? It’s kicking off like The Jets and The Sharks in West Side Story in JR Ewing territory Dallas with 5 officers dead, because for some disgruntled members of the community ‘allegedly’ like Barbara Streisand and Donna Summer “Enough Is Enough” . As a humanitarian any life lost is a life lost and I’m saddened in more ways that I can say, and my full hearts cup..has runeth over, hence then outpour.

I saw some footage from an African American police officer who believed she was doing right for her community and acknowledges there are epidemic issue within the black community, but when she saw the footage “Over & Over” like Shalamar, she felt ashamed and understood the outrage because she said if that was her son she couldn’t tell you what she would do as African American mother. She advised anyone who was caucasian that worked with her, if they have any racial issue to take the uniform off and delete her. These are the types of The Family “Screams Of Passion” that are being aroused on this emotive matter. As one of those Curtis Mayfield “We People Who Are Darker Than Blue” here in the UK of Jamaican and African ancestry, I guess I’m a Leroy Hutson “Lucky Fellow” not to be experiencing what’s happening to many of my long distance sister, cousins and brothers from anuva mutha. But let’s not get this twisted as JB said “People Wake Up And Live” because what we see on the “Tell Lie Vision” has a degree of positive and negative information. It depends if you understand or overstand what Jack Nicholson meant in a “Few Good Men” film, when Tom Cruise demanded “the truth”. Jack Nicholson bellows with attitude “You can’t handle the truth”..As a flip on a Shakespeare Hamlet quote “To See or not to see ..that is the question” fellow soul survivors..Enjoy and have a blessed day..Fitzroy