?UESTIONS: Brisk In The House

A connoisseur of punchlines, BriskInTheHouse embodies wit with wisdom. His style welcomes you to listen. A true messenger, he delivers the essence.

What inspires you to create?

My inspiration comes from legends that did it before me. Hip Hop is a culture I live out to the fullest and I wouldn't be me without it.

Artist like AG and the Ghetto Dwellas, Styles P, and Planet Asia are my main inspirations when its comes to rhyme format or style especially on the wonderful journey of Allah.

How important is music with a message?

Because I have knowledge of self, music with a message is the most important. I first heard "the black man is god" through my favorite artist.

I grew up loving the knowledge and verbiage of great minds on the mic. Before I read a book for knowledge, I listened to Hip Hop for it.

Can you tell us about your book "tell the truth shame the devil?

The book is about the condition we go through living in the wilderness of North America. I go into detail how western civilisation came into existence and how you can survive it.

The main theme of the book is programming and social engineering done by the powers that be. The first step of war is information, so I wrote the book to reveal the actions of devils.

Instagram: @god_cipher

Website: bkrsclb.com

?UESTIONS: Visual Goodies

Sculptor, illustrator and muralist, Visual Goodies embraces the spirit and mystical warmth from our ancestors. Wielding cosmic power, his art is distinct and limitless.

How important is expression to you?

Expression is everything. Our very existence is the expression of some force or being that we barely understand. Expression has allowed us to build upon and create a mytho-historic narrative that helps us make sense of it all. Black expression is vital because our control and output has been extremely limited in recent times.

Black representation has fallen victim to stereotypical, fear based cultural myths that have even influenced our own depictions of ourselves. Its important that we recreate and control our narrative to have a better understanding of the past present and future of universal blackness.

What inspires you to create?

I'm inspired by what's done long ago and what we have yet to do (ancient futurism) . I’m inspired by the many expressions of nature, music and art. As a visionary imaginative artist most of my inspiration comes from the unseen parallel realm.

Indigenous people were inspired by reality but were comfortable deviating from realist depictions for original expressions of what they were seeing. I appreciate reference based work but it shouldn’t be the standard that all art is measured by. Imagination in combination with technical ability is priceless. My favorite work is a combination of the two.

If your artwork were music, what would it sound like?

Afro ancient futuristic beatstrumental. Roots, Soul, Jazz, Doug Carn, Ras G, Albert Ayler, Alice Coltrane, Kutmah , Sun Ra, Dj Krush, U-Roy, Fela, YNQ , Brainfeeder, Dome of Doom, Lionmilk and sooooo many many more....

What is your message, your philosophy?

My message and philosophy is to strive for originality and be patient. You may see people “blow up” over night but that isn’t the case most of the times and you don’t know the work someone has put in, or the funds and support put behind them (different discussion).

It can take decades to become established as an artist so you have to really love it and be ready for the long haul. Be original don’t hop on the hot thing and try to come up, it’ll work to your disadvantage as you run out of ideas. Read, research and investigate daily. We have the world at our fingers tips, its important that we stay focused and take advantage of all the information available.

Create from a real place, not for fame or fortune. Social media has definitely created a great window for artists to 'grow sell and expand but its also allowed some to get by without paying, while taking from those that came before them. Greater levels of respect from Black people for Black culture is in order.

All images by and courtesy of Visual Goodies

Instagram: @visualgoodies

Facebook: Visual Goodies

?UESTIONS: Dopereaders.club

An important platform to share books and encourage reading and conversations in young adults. Dopereaders.club is a growing community who share a mutual love of literacy, words, language, and stories. Que speaks to Culture is Free to tell us more.

Can you tell us about Dopereaders Club?

Dopereaders is a community dedicated to encouraging reading, improving literacy, and promoting diverse authors and books. How does Dopedistribute work - how can people support the cause? Dopedistribute is essentially us picking up any books you may not have space for or want to get rid of and redistributing them to free community bookcases around London. You can support by donating books: support here.

What impact have you had and intend to have on the community? Our platform has helped new readers pick books; it has helped current readers pick their next reads. It has encouraged conversation from our social pages to our (IRL & Virtual book clubs). We currently have active community bookcases that we placed and stock at Kensal rise and the Royal London Hospital (the trauma ward).

I believe the space we have created, the community we are a part of and continuously creating, is even more needed given our current state of affairs, we hope to continue a make an impact.

How important is the power of Word? It's very difficult for me to articulate this as LARGE as I want to, the fact that words have the power to create, gives you an idea of how important it is. Here is a quote I like that reflects my feelings towards the importance of the power of the word.

"Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate, and to humble." - Yehuda Berg

Website: Dopereaders.club

Instagram: @dopereaders.club Facebook: Dopereadersclub