LB witnessed PJ’s live act and quickly swooped Pigeon up to Quannum Records. Around the same time, he appeared in a Nestle Crunch commercial, and things finally looked optimistic for the young boy from Nebraska.

But before penning his Quannum debut, he had a life changing trip to Africa which opened his mind, eyes and spirit.

“That was a beautiful experience… There’s culture, unity, wealth, there’s poverty, there’s business, there’s full entire black cities, which I’ve never seen in my life. This was beautiful but it also made me real sad [for] American black people, because, I think slavery created years of disarray and I don’t think it’s ever going to be the same...And it seems like it’s the only people that are in disarray. Like you have a lot of Jewish people that went through World War II and everything, but there seems to be a lot more unity and there’s actual areas and they work together. [Many other races] all stick together pretty much. And it’s real sad because in Africa, there is a culture and they are sticking together. It paints a real clear picture of how far we are as American black people.”

This trip also made him further aware of the impact that the mic has on future generations.

“They way I raise my kids and the way my kids raise their kids…I think that is the only way to really change things. That comes back to how we present ourselves in our music, how we present ourselves when people are looking and how we present ourselves when people are not looking. I think it’s real important to really stop with the negative implications. I think it’s one thing to tell the truth, like if a person comes from a drug background and to be him or herself with no editing at all, just being real. But when it crosses the line to glorifying that, then I think it just repeats the cycle over and over again,” he adds.

Furthermore, John goes on to explain how he feels today’s Hip-Hop lends itself, in some way, to this disarray.

“If you ask ‘Who are your favorite MCs?’ Usually, it’s ‘Jay-Z, Biggie, Nas, Tupac…’ And if you look at them, they are all black, all affiliated with drugs, crime, pimping and so forth. In history, when you look back [and ask] ‘Who’s the King of Rock?’ or ‘Who’s the King of that Jazz element?’ Sooner or later, it’s going to be ‘Who was the King of that Hip-Hop movement?’ And all of them were drug dealers, pimps, and the stereotypical black male. That’s very dangerous and that’s happening right now. And dudes that don’t affiliate themselves with that don’t have any street cred and really don’t get affiliated with the top 5 or 10 MCs."

Currently, PJ claims there are some signs of change. Continued on page 4 »