“Giving a different meaning to hip-hop, Frazier is using the musical genre to bring attention to issues affecting young people.”

Congratulations, WAE!

Click HERE for more info about the Silent Heroes Night Awards

Nadir and Distorted Soul are nominated for Seven 2009 Detroit Music Awards!

Outstanding Urban/Funk Artist or Group (Nadir’s Distorted Soul) ~ Outstanding Urban/Funk/Hip Hop Recording (Workin’ For The Man) ~ Outstanding Live Performance (Nadir’s Distorted Soul) ~ Outstanding Urban/Funk Songwriter (Nadir) ~ Outstanding Urban/Funk Musician (Kris Kurzawa) ~ Outstanding Urban/Funk Vocalist (Nadir) ~ Outstanding Record Producer (Nadir)

Khary WAE Frazier picks up Two DMA nominations!

Outstanding Hip Hop Artist/Group ~ Outstanding Hip Hop MC

Music industry professionals can register and vote at the DMA website: www.detroitmusicawards.com

The Detroit Music Awards Show is Friday, April 17 at The Fillmore.  Congratulations to all the nominees!!

One by one, people spoke about the special meaning of Kwanzaa in their lives — how unity is needed to strengthen the African-American community and why faith, purpose and support for one another are valuable.

After they spoke, Khary Frazier of Detroit lit candles representing each of the seven principles of Kwanzaa.

“We do this so people of all ages can have a better understanding of the universal beliefs,” Frazier says later.

While celebrating Kwanzaa isn’t unique, the ceremony Frazier organized Sunday was.

It was held at a trendy downtown Detroit restaurant — the Woodward — and organized by Frazier, 26, a hip-hop artist and educator, and William Cartwright II, 39, co-owner of the restaurant.

Some observers say Sunday’s program shows how a new generation is taking Kwanzaa — a 42-year-old tradition — and making it their own.

The seven-day observance of Kwanzaa is a cultural celebration of principles rooted in African beliefs.

Each day represents a different principle — starting today with Umoja, which means unity, and ending Jan. 1 with Imani, which means faith. For the next seven days, people like those who gathered at the Woodward will come together in public places and private gatherings to honor the principles and pay homage to ancestors who struggled and sacrificed to improve the lives of African-American people.

When California activist and educator Maulana Karenga conceived the idea in 1966, he envisioned people focusing on one principle a day for each of the seven days. While that still happens, many people now celebrate all the principles at one gathering, usually including a feast called the Karamu. Karenga also sought to combat the commercialism of Christmas. If gifts are given or exchanged during Kwanzaa, they should be homemade in recognition of the principle of Kuumba — creativity.

Sunday’s celebration was infused with Kuumba, including a spoken-word performance by poet Khary Kimani Turner, pouring of libations to honor the ancestors performed by Oya Amakisi, a gospel song led by the Rev D. Alexander Bullock of Greater St. Matthew Baptist Church in Highland Park and a musical performance by Frazier’s band, General Population.

Frazier says he wanted to put on the program — begun last year — to help his generation understand the importance of history, culture and community. Many Kwanzaa celebrations are put together by baby boomers or planned for young children.

A celebration organized by the members of the hip-hop generation, but meant for people of all ages, is rare.

“We want to help the community, especially our young people, connect to our culture,” Frazier says, adding that hip-hop’s roots are culturally based and relevant to Kwanzaa principles.

Cartwright not only opened his restaurant for the event, but provided a free meal of baked chicken, rice and salad for approximately 120 people.

“Being an African American-owned restaurant, I just think it’s important to recognize and celebrate it,” Cartwright says. “Kwanzaa is also about supporting African-American businesses, and this is my contribution, my way of giving back.”

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, who was honored for her community service, praised Cartwright and Frazier for recognizing the importance of Kwanzaa.

“I just came from a conference where the founder of Kwanzaa, Mr. Karenga, was among the people there,” Watson says, “and to come home to see these young men leading the next generation in a Kwanzaa program and connecting with people — from young people to our elders — it’s extraordinary.

“This is what we’ve been working for, to have young people like this who we can hand the mantle to.”

Watson adds that renewing the principles of Kwanzaa is especially important in today’s economy.

“At these times of economic challenges, people need hope, faith, unity and self-determination,” Watson says. “We need these principles of Kwanzaa to see us through and provide a vision to propel us to a better future.”

Contact CASSANDRA SPRATLING at 313-223-4580 or cspratling@freepress.com.

“Working at Excellence” once defined the initials in Khary “WAE” Frazier’s name. He used to tell folks this meaning more often back when he simply called himself “WAE.” And even though this worldview could be called “inspirational,” he admits that, in the world of hip-hop, it can get corny.

Nowadays, he just lives the philosophy. It describes the way Frazier approaches his song lyrics and music. And the acronym, he now says, connotes his tendency to approach his music “eight ways.” Get it? WAE? “Way”?

All puns aside, Frazier — Detroit’s answer to a ’90s-era Ice Cube — is raw enough for the streets but thoughtful enough for fans of substantive hip-hop music. His is a forward-thinking steeze but with a very contemporary feel. It’s not as much pulpit-preachy as it is corner-store concentric. And he does it all by design.

“I always think that I’ve thought more in the past about where I wanna be,” Frazier says when asked about the inspiration for the songs that comprise his fine new album, Preaching to the Choir. “But now I’m thinking about what I’m doing and saying in the present. I wanna combine the music and the message to get people to start questioning everything. Through music, I believe we can change the way we think about life.”

And Preaching to the Choir is a direct testament to Frazier’s unconventional influences. Whereas most rap artists claim other rappers as their primary influences, Frazier includes artists like late reggae superstar Peter Tosh. It was a book, Up From Slavery, by Booker T. Washington that inspired the emcee to write Preaching. He can go deeper than that when naming inspirations, to his upbringing, in fact, at Detroit’s African-centered Aisha Shule Academy. His parents, both staunch activists, sent him there. And although he admits he “was not tryin’ to hear all that shit” about black history and kings and queens of antiquity at the time, somewhere in his maturation process, it all still sank in. He internalized it, along with a worldview that enables him to disagree with some of his heroes without being disrespectful of their accomplishments.

And he doesn’t necessarily completely agree with the overall ethos of figures like the aforementioned Cube, Tosh and Washington. But he is nevertheless driven by their content and their willingness to speak their minds unabashedly. He adapts their drive to his style — a simple, dressed-down guise typical of a clean-cut hood dude. Adaptable, yes, but also clear.

“When I listen to hip-hop, it can drown me out,” he says. “No offense to a lot of the guys, but if I was influenced by Shawty Lo or something like that, there’s no tellin’ what my feeling would be. I would cut off a lot of the instruments, a lot of the subject matter. I wouldn’t challenge myself.”

Preaching to the Choir certainly ought to distinguish itself from the current hip-hop crop because it is a true concept album, a rarity in today’s single-driven music environment. It underscores Detroit’s traditionalist musical landscape, an enclave where many hip-hop fans still appreciate full, completed albums as much they do downloads and mixtapes. It’s here that philosophically charged emcees like One.Be.Lo, Invincible, Finale and now Frazier are buoyed by waves of respect that earn them heightened levels of loyalty from their fans.

“He’s definitely an artist-activist,” says Nadir, one of this area’s foremost funkateers and producer of “Runnin’ Rebel,” a Public Enemy throwback that is one of the new album’s highlights. “He prefers the term ‘artist advocate.’ The thing I appreciate about him is how hard he works and how much he is about business.”

Frazier’s business has always been an endeavor to combine art and community work. His General Population organization is a band, a web community and a platform. He’s put his skills behind local movements like Buy Black Weekend and a successful Juneteenth celebration earlier this summer at The Woodward restaurant in downtown Detroit. Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of African-Americans from slavery.

Frazier will cop to his involvement in activities for and about black people. He might even tout songs like “Black Fist Up” as some of his best work. But don’t single his music out as being simply “pro-black.”

“I would hope that anybody who’s black is pro-black,” he says. To understand his message, he says, you’ve got to listen to his lyrics. There are life lessons inherent in them, although not always overstated. And he’s right. His voice is a strong tenor that connects to the angst-driven, intense areas of the psyche. And if you’re not careful, you may take him for an angry black man with a greater need to vent than plan.

Frazier will bring his live show to Black Star Community Bookstore on Sept. 26. Black Star’s known for bringing musicians into the store to conduct hybrid programs that are edutainment-driven. Frazier plans to share some of his favorite books with audience members during his presentation and may even attempt to spark conversation about contemporary politics. The topic fascinates him, especially when it’s about the connection between politics and technology.

“In all seriousness, the cameras was supposed to be off,” he says, moving into a tangent about Jesse Jackson who, in July, was infamously caught by Fox News cameras expressing a desire to, er, cut off Barack Obama’s nuts. Jackson felt that Obama’s campaign strategies too often “dis” would-be supporters.

“Barack Obama is not a black politician,” Frazier explains. “He’s a politician. And he’s running a campaign better than anybody ever has. The way he’s using the Internet to raise money is just new and unique. And it’s harder for people that are used to the old structure that once was to accept what he’s doing. It challenges Jesse Jackson to think that this is the way a black man can win a campaign.”

Just as Obama has revolutionized the way campaigns are run, Frazier wants to challenge fans of contemporary hip hop to think that an emcee with a conscience and a personal politic can be just as normal as T.I. It’s not a “sexy” plan. But it can work, if fans understand his balance the way he does theirs. In other words, where’s there’s water, Frazier visualizes bridges.

“A Heavy D. or Biz Markie may not have considered as heavily things like marketing strategies back in the day,” he says. But he adds that it’s now OK for young artists to think about promotion and marketing as a part of hip hop. “That guy listening to Young Jeezy, one day he’s gonna be a manager of 300 people. And he’s learning and taking lessons from his life and lifestyle. And he’s gonna apply that someday.”

A song on the Preaching album, “Block to the Boardroom,” perfectly captures this take on record. It sums up Frazier’s vision. Try it! It might make similar sense to you.

Article by Khary Kimani Turner

For more information about Khary WAE Frazier please visit GeneralPopulation.org