Artist Of The Week - Truth Now

Sometimes I meet artists in the most interesting of places. After learning a little bit about Truth Now from BS’ Artist Of The Week feature, I finally met him after Homeboy Sandman’s album release party earlier this month. I didn’t meet him inside the club, though. Rather, I met Truth Now in the subway station as we were waiting for the 6 train uptown to arrive. He, Grey Matter, and I ended up hopping on the 6 when it arrived and within minutes an impromptu Subway Series freestyle session broke out with Grey Matter providing the beat boxing and Truth Now killin it with the rhymes. I was impressed, and after hearing the first song off of Truth Now’s collaborative effort with BS I decided to catch up with him to find out more about the man and his music. Turns out that in addition to his skills on the mic, Truth Now has some very unique thoughts on politics, which he shared with me, along with some news regarding his upcoming album with BS, and where he likes to chill in NYC that isn’t hip-hop related.

Adam Bernard: Start me off with the Truth Now story. Where are you from and what has your journey in music, and life, been like up to this point?
Truth Now: When I was born in the middle of September in ‘85 my parents put Gregory Lawrence Funicello on the government mandated receipt. This was in south Westchester, NY, where I was raised middle class. My journey in life has been pretty wild; from the source farm in Johns Town, Jamaica to behind bars in Toronto, Canada. In music it's been just as nuts as far as I’m concerned. I’ve done jam sessions with friends and a verse on stage at a KRS show. I’m just getting warmed up in life and in music as well.

Adam Bernard: Hit me with some more info on your Jamaica and Canada stories.
Truth Now: I worked on an organic farm in Johns Town, in the parish of St. Thomas. I lived with two close lady friends for two months growing food and building things. In Canada I was abducted by undercover police, beaten, and held with out a phone call for four days until my friends tracked me down and bailed me out. It was all over seven grams of weed and a pocket knife. Everyone called me New York and the quartermaster liked kicking my ass in chess and listening to me talk about politics when I wasn't busy converting to Islam.

Adam Bernard: Your name has some urgency to it. Tell me how you decided on the moniker Truth Now.
Truth Now: I always played around with a lot of names when I was a kid. Truth Now was the name I was going by when people started to pay more attention, so I was like, bet. It means there’s been a lot of lies, and frankly, I’m not about that. Now, my truth is naturally going to be different from yours or theirs, or whoever’s, but being familiar with who I really am, and who I’m going to be, thats just "Truth Now." I am a young man with a lot to say. What happens after that {laughs}, who knows?

Adam Bernard: What are some of the most important truths about Truth Now?
Truth Now: Thank you for asking that question. When I was 13 I saw six lights in the afternoon sky playing tag and then they made the jump to light speed, dig? This was before I ever got high, before I did anything that would "alter" my consciousness. They are out there. I don’t know who’s driving, but they are part of my experience. "The movement" might disown me for talking about classified technology before mentioning my namesake, but for real, tower seven didn’t blow itself up. Buildings that fall into their own footprints in 6.7 seconds do so because someone filled them with demolition charges, and I don’t know who did that, but Google the offices that were in building seven; CIA FBI IRS. Osama bin Laden didn’t pick the locks one night and put some c4 in the basement. 1200 architects and engineers at ae911truth.org are risking the food on their table to tell us about the real physics of what actually happened that day. The other thing is, to me, reality is exactly what we make it. The fact that there are children starving, that’s cuz some people would rather have diamonds weighing down their necks then some peace and justice in this world.

Adam Bernard: Heavy stuff, both literally and figuratively. Moving to your music, I know you’re working on a project with B.S. titled The Truth About Bullshit. How far along is it and what can you tell me about it?
Truth Now: The Truth About Bullshit is coming sooner then you might think. The single “Cosmic Surfing” is out and I want to thank you personally for bumping it. "Cosmic Surfing" was produced by, and features, my good friend SriKala. He's the hardest working human in the scene right now as far as I'm concerned. BS and I are doing the intro last, which is kind of funny, and that’s what we're focusing on right now. So you will be able to hear the project in its entirety very soon.

Adam Bernard: Some of your previous work, such as “Obama Can’t Save You” and “Not So New World Order,” had a political angle to it. Will The Truth About Bullshit continue in that vein, or go in a completely different direction?
Truth Now: I don’t want to say too much about this right now because I want to let it speak for itself, but let me just say it will pleasantly surprise my base while "truthing" out some people who have never heard of me. There’s a softer side to some of the tracks we are working on now and that is kinda new for me.

Adam Bernard: What inspires your political rhymes? They’re certainly not your run of the mill type of concepts.
Truth Now: What inspires my politics is the fact that no matter what political party the president has been in the last 50 years they all had one thing in common - they expanded upon and centralized executive power. People think we live in a democracy; thats 51% telling the 49% they don’t matter. These United States make up a Constitutional Republic. The Bill of Rights is the only thing keeping us from the techno-corporate fascism the elite would love to see become sanctioned with global governance. It’s like this: I grew up in a liberal house, so as a kid I was told Republicans are stupid fucking rednecks. Well, when I grew up a bit, I found out wow, I have more in common with a conservative Christian who doesn't want a microchip in their skull than I do with some yuppy neo-liberal prick who bleeds Africa all day from his desk at the IMF. Plus I listen to a lot of Rage Against The Machine and Immortal Technique... but I'm not a commie.

Adam Bernard: Moving away from music, where’s your favorite non-hip-hop related place to hang out in the city, and why do you dig that particular spot?
Truth Now: I'm going to cheat on this question a little. See, I tell you what I'm going to do before I do it, like the illuminati. OK, so Union Square, sorry, I know that cyphers go down there every Friday and they're hype as fuck, but I skateboard, and it’s really smooth riding there. The scene is live no matter if you don't even know anyone; just kicking a soccer ball in a circle of strangers, chilling with whoever is protesting something, or all of the above, and the women are beautiful. What more could you ask for?

Adam Bernard: Finally, what’s this BS told me about you and him being kidnapped by Megan Fox?
Truth Now: It's true. I mean, its bullshit, damn... it's as if I just don't know the difference anymore! On some real shit, though, people need to wake up. This BP shit for example; how long do we seriously think we can drill our mother like Oedipus? Free energy is real. Stop eating garbage and drinking fluoride. BE LOVE AND YOU WILL BE LOVED. One.

Related Links

Website: truthnowmusic.com
Bandcamp: truthnow.bandcamp.com
Twitter: twitter.com/truthnowmusic