Georgia Anne Muldrow and Dudley Perkins

Georgia Anne Muldrow

We can talk about equipment for days, we can go computer nerd, because you know there’s a nerd within. I think it’s important to have one, because my inner nerd encourages me to keep learning and to never stop being a student of this life, and that’s where playing comes in because from play comes joy. So, whatever it is that we play, whatever we use to communicate, whatever medium of this expression we are blessed to have here, I think the primal focus is to be in a place of joy, to be in a place of contemplation about where we’re headed, our direction, and I think that’s when the music can become medicine. And I think that’s what I wanted to come share with everybody today. Because I think it’s something that’s lacking, so I’m calling out to everybody who had a slight interest, even if it was just a hint of interest as to what we was gonna come discuss today. I’ve seen a lot of people out there during the week, thank you for being here everybody, I just wanted to have this as a moment to call out to you guys as artists and to alert you as to us being a medical unit today. You know?

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Can I give you guys a formal introduction?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yes.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

They are known individually as being very creative individual voices. Well, I don’t know how recently, they’ll tell you, joined together to form another vision and creative voice, and they have a lot of things they wanna share today. So, would you please welcome Miss Georgia Anne Muldrow and Dudley Perkins, otherwise known as G&D. Thanks for being here. How are you guys doing today?

Dudley Perkins

It’s nice and enjoying it, you know? It’s like a good vacation to come to school. This is school, so I am enjoying myself, I’m glad even to be here. My girl brought me Red Bull so you know I’m chilling on the Red Bull couch [laughs].

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

I want get to all the things you’ve mentioned, as far as what you wanna put forward and what you are making musically, but I also wanna touch on a little bit just how you guys got together. I think people are maybe familiar with your records individually, and we can go also into that, too, but how did you guys form together to start doing what you do now?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

We formed together through love. Truly, I think through love, because the day we met we never separated and I’m a studio kid, he’s a studio kid. We don’t ever be out of the studio. That’s where we live, that’s our life. That was my life, before I met him, before I met anybody. You had to throw a rock at my window, because I had my headphones on… And I’m sure the same for Dudley. He lived in a garage riding with his peoples that are now doing beautiful things, you know? So, when our lives came together, when our lives merged we just was in the studio together. And it’s just been a blessing, just to watch it all unfold, you know?

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Maybe provide a little bit of the backdrop why you were such a studio kid. What got you into music in the first place?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Because I was always… I was always, always in the studio from being a little kid, because both my parents recorded records. They were session artists.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Yeah, what did they do, for those who don’t know?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yeah, my mother she is a songwriter, singer, choir voice arranger, artistic director. She does anything. She’s momma, you know? So, I love my momma.

Dudley Perkins

She’s kind of a boss, too, you know?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yeah, she is boss. Beautiful woman always having messages in her music and I got a chance growing up seeing her come from her spiritual jazz background, but also to make a living going to the secular world to go make her living. You know, singing at the town house, singing at these smoky clubs, singing in the sidewalk cafes and all that being at the high chairs, seeing that, being at the smoky clubs in the high chair, you know? Seeing what she had to do, but she was playing her music. She had her drum machine and the piano and… do her thing, a lot of that has to do with what I’m called to perform. Because I’d see the feeling. The feeling that she always brought with her and same thing with pops. He was always in the session, playing with anybody, anybody who was needing a guitar player, he’d play, you know? But he drew his line, because he wanted to play his music, so there was a difference in that. But at any rate, as far as being in the studio, that was something that they would take us along for that. They would take me and my brother along for that because they both wanted us to be in the music, very much. Like, very much.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

And your dad was a player with Eddie Harris amongst others?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Eddie Harris, Roy Haynes – rest in peace.

Audience Member

He is still with us. He’s still here.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Oh, he is still here? He’s still with us?

Audience Member

Yeah.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

That’s a blessing. For real? Because my momma said that he had passed. OK, brother Roy, you know what I’m sayin’? Love your plan, keep on, man. You’re alive and well. We knew that. Thank you, brother. Needed that information. I know a lot of people gonna be brighten their day. The day is gonna be brightened.

Dudley Perkins

For a lot of people that affected them, that’s a good news.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Because it affected me. I’ve been there. I’m feeling it. OK, that’s great. OK! Can we clap? Can we clap to this? OK, OK, alright.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

And your mama sang with Pharaoh Sanders or something?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yeah, and with Mongo Santamaría. Just the whole part of the conscious spiritual journey, you know? My father was really close friends with Kenny Kirkland, all them were brothers, man, I guess. My mum and my dad met him in New York, but that’s all small talk to me… They’re beautiful, beautiful. They made a conscious decision to surround us with things to educate ourselves with, things for us to be aware of, you know? We had copies of Stolen Legacy just on the table, or on the bookcase I could find Know Thyself [by Na'im Akbar].

And I think that has been the greatest inspiration for me meeting Dudley. If you wanna know the truth, it has something to do with me living in integrity with what I have educated myself with, you know? And spirit brought him into my life and now we work together to inspire other people to use their works and to use their art as the salve for what is really happening with our human nation, you know? It’s just an honor to be here, because it’s an honor to think that somebody want to ask you about your life and it’s always something that I get real cagey about. Because I just think, “Who am I, man? I ain’t nobody.” And I am honored by that, brother. But, you know, thank you for having me here and thank you for you guys for hearing me to go on and on about some stuff. Most of you probably don’t even know me, you know, so thank you for just being here to listen and hopefully we can all learn together, you know?

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Dudley, what did you see and hear in Georgia, that compelled you to work with her?

Dudley Perkins

For a minute, when I first met her, the label asked us to do music, they wanted a female presence on one of my records. So, I went through a few females listening to their music and stuff. I never really paid attention to her music, except once in the car I said, “Let me meet her first.” So, I called her to come to the show and stuff like that. We hung out for a minute and I really wasn’t still paying attention to the music. I was like, “OK, just do what the label says.” I said, “Oh, this person is trippy,” you know?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Electrical tape on the shoe [laughs]!

Dudley Perkins

A lot of things that she had on her mind, was a lot of the question that I was asking the universe myself, you know? And I was putting it out on records, for a few years, you know? The questions I had for myself. And then we got into the conversation about these questions. So, it was a bond that happened right then and there. OK, we have a message, sort of like a joint message, you know?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yes, yes, yes!

Dudley Perkins

And after a while, she kept showing me music, I’m like, “I’m still B-boy,” you know? “A girl making beats?” You know what I’m saying? “OK, cool. Do what you do,” you know what I’m saying? OK, I wasn’t really hearing the beats. I never really got that deep in my head, female can make beats like that. I didn’t know the whole existence. I was still getting used to them breakdancing, to women breakdancing, you know what I’m saying? Hey, that’s how we are brought up in a way living in America, you know? Like, some women won’t do sort of things men do. Like, when women started bodybuilding and stuff like that, but back to what I was saying... ha ha ha! But after a while, later on she had the laptop that she always carried with her. So, one day I had the headphones on. She was asleep and I’m going to the headphones, and I’m like, “That’s funky right there.” There was a whole folder, you know? Because I know the music she does, she does for albums and stuff. That’s like flowery good girly music, you know what I’m saying? Funky, beautiful music. I looked into the...

Georgia Anne Muldrow

I had a folder called “Money Joints” and I never listened to what I made, I just feel ashamed.

Dudley Perkins

I looked into the “Money” folder, you know, I finished about two blunts. By the time I’m two blunts, I’m in full freestyle to these beats, you know? I’m like, “Hey, what’s up with these?” I wake her up, “What’s up with all this right here?”

She goes, “Those are easy.”

“OK, make the easy ones, I need the easy ones.”

And then one day I see her do this little hit. OK, I did the hit. OK, I just had to really to allow it and really acknowledge that music comes from all kinds of people, because to me honestly it was Madlib. I wouldn’t hear nothing from nobody. Madlib, the bad kid with the beats, and I wouldn’t try to go nowhere else, because I was just for sure he was the main guy God gave us for beats. But when I met Georgia, [it] allowed me to listen to a whole range of music and [my] music range just opened up. So, her opening up that range of music for me, has allowed me to grow, so, it was a blessing in the skies, you know? Just like, “Here, listen to this too,” you know?

So, now, in fact, that took an affect to the whole spectrum of my life, like the whole realm of my life has opened up because of that. To how I see a lot of other things, you know? Like a lot of prejudices have gone. Honestly, just gone. “Whoof!” Gone, completely gone, you know? Egos and everything just gone. Honestly, Georgia is a spiritual person and she comes from spiritual people like big time. America, very big spiritual place where they’re at, and it’s no joke to where we might not seem it, but hey, we have messages for y’all. The world needs to listen what Georgia has to say because her heart is true and open. Like Gandhi people and stuff like that. [Giggles from the audience] Hey, no joke man! I’m witnessing it, you know?

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

So, I guess, with this new record, that you guys have put out under G&D, what is the overall thing you wanna get across with this project?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

I think G&D is just like how they say a bell, or to be a bell of remembrance. Like, how it’s time to go to school or it’s time to breathe in and breathe out. I want this CD to be a bell like that, or this piece of music, you know? Before it was a CD, the idea was for it to be an alarm for people to go within, you know? Because that was what was happening within us, you know? There was an alarm going off in us to go within through life… You know, drinking… becoming, “Hey, this is getting old. Going out ‒ this is old.” There’s something more that needs to happen up in this piece, up in this vessel, you know?

And so, as it was happening to us, we was like, “Hey man, we would wish for this for our closest friends to go through a growth like that, so that there wouldn’t be a sense of alienation or a sense of exclusivity…” For this sound, a certain sound that we produce, you know? And, so, that’s why we called the album [Uni Versa]. Uni Versa means “universal” in Ebonics, OK? That’s universal. And that’s the message and we’re just sharing that through this humble vehicle…

Not yet, no one’s found the correct patch yet, because I’m not saying that it’s impossible, but to this point where we are right now, there has not been a synthesizer, that has been able to stop a bullet. Not to say that it’s not possible, I believe it’s possible. That’s my life’s work and because I know that they are working with the magnetic force right now, up in New Orleans, that’s how they was terrorizing the people of New Orleans during Katrina. That’s how they was terrorizing us with sound. So, I wanna have something that can counteract that balance, because sound doesn’t stop traveling, OK? So, that’s why we made this record as a counterbalance to that. But it’s more than a record. It’s actually our context for living, that we changed…

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Can we play something from the album, share a little bit of that to give an example for everybody here on what exactly you’re talking about?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Oh, sure. Yeah, of course.

(music: G&D – “God Unit” / applause)

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Thank y’all! These speakers, oh, good sound, man. Good sound.

Dudley Perkins

You know, that tells me… that, as men, we better step our games up. When that realm opened up, in fact, I went to all those women pages making beats and stuff and it was huge. Like, all of them got more equipment than men do and a fact is we’ve given a lot of our work away to the ladies. Like, “Hey, do this for me, do this,” and they ran a lot of companies. They know what they’re doing. You women, know what you’re doing in this music right now, I’ve seen it. It’s powerful. It’s true, you know?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

That’s right… [applause]!

Dudley Perkins

I think the women are getting back for being written out of the bibles and stuff.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

What would you wanna say about this song?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

I think just what we was discussing earlier. Just about...

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Well, I guess the skit. What do you wanna say with the skit? And then the song, what was going on there?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yeah. Oh, the skit [laughs]. Yeah, it’s just about what we said about the alarm, you know what I’m talking about? It’s just an alarm to do right. That goes off in your head, like, “OK, OK, let’s do right,” you know? I think that’s what that skit is about, you know? About starting anew and just tightening up your game in whatever you’re doing. And that’s why “God Unit”… It’s time to search our true nature within in whatever we are doing, and that’s all it is, you know?

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Speaking of nature:

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yes?

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Right. Maybe go through the process of, where you guys were, where you were inspired. What environment you were in to inspire you to make some other music that’s on this project.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Oh, yeah.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Where were you guys at? because you guys are both in Los Angeles, right? Set the scene for us. What was going in your lives, how and where you went, in order to find this place to make this, what we were listening to?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

A very small space. Yet a very big space. We were in a place in the Santa Monica mountains, called Topanga and it’s up in the hills, like way up. It’s in the National Reserve park, so the wildlife that lives there, comes first. It’s just a beautiful place. Yeah, where we live, one room, a studio apartment. We have kind of grown accustomed to that, because we was just living in one room. That’s just how we kept it, real humble. A recording studio was at the same place where kitchen was and the same place where the futon was, so guests… that’s where we were sleeping on, “There’s the bathroom!” [laughs] But when you open up the door, that’s when you can look over and see all what was untouched by the city, city ambition.

Beautiful place, full of nature, so I was really inspired by that rhythmically. Hummingbirds inspire me rhythmically, beautiful sound. Always there to talk to you, wake you up, if you overslept. You know, just building relationships with different… like more than just being like different people but just like different expressions of life. It was beautiful, the plants up there start talking. You go like, “OK, I don’t care if people call me crazy out there, because this is beautiful,” you know? And that’s where we were when we made that music right there. That song right there, that’s where we were. I got a change just let my ears to decompress, and I could hear sound and there was enough room. If I kept my windows open, enough room for the sound wave to be itself. because I just learned like, maybe a month ago, that a sound wave is bigger than a room that we’re in, you know? Just because you hearing it from a small radio speaker, don’t mean that the wave ain’t ten feet tall, you know? Like, sound what we’re dealing with to produce is huger than we really kind of perceive it, you know? These waves are huge.

I think having a chance to let it open out over the mountain, you get a chance to hear what the music truly sounds like, you know?

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

But what about this ringing the bell and what you were talking about as far as inspiring and awakening? But you guys said, or hinted at, that you experienced some kind of awakening yourselves.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yeah.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

So what was going on in your lives before, where you were living before, what was going on, what made you decide to change?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Oh, yeah. I mean, really where I was before, real just club kid-type thing, you know? Real living just in the moment. You know, raw freedom. Just crazy living. Drinking too much, smoking weed with the wrong mindset. Like, smoking weed like that in my church time in the midst of everything else. Like, no… Just living real hard, but at the same time like living hard and working hard, even in those moments when I was acting a damn fool, right? I still would have my prayer time, and I found out that every time I would have my prayer time there was a bass in my hand, and it just became time to record that stuff. So, I always got my music done. When I was at my lowest point, just karmically… things that you bring up on yourself. Promises you break, you know? Times when you come up short, when you face the karma of what’s happening in that point. Like, when I was facing the point when that was happening in my life, what brought me up out of that funk and let me take a step up to a better place in my potential, was music. And it was a melody that came out of nowhere and that’s where the Worthnothings music came from and the CDs like that.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

That was very therapeutic for you.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yeah.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

I guess, just as a backdrop, for those who maybe haven’t heard the EP and the album, what was going on with you personally that led to those records?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Same, same deal. That was the beginning. That was the beginning when I became okay with acknowledging what was going on in my human state, you know what I’m saying? That’s what Worthnothings was about because at that moment in time I had some opportunities in the music industry…

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

You moved to New York?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yeah, yeah. I was living there, too, and I was inspired by the music there. Subway trains is music and all of that kind of thing. Really heavy jazz music over there. A lot of elders still teaching over there, which is really beautiful. Influenced by a lot of that, but most of it was really just knowing that it was okay to be myself, do all of that, you know? Knowing really that it is the gift of the expression. Not how much money you can make or how industry-standard your stuff sounds. It’s about you being yourself. That’s how the whole Worthnothings concept came about because I wasn’t worried about making money with my style or my profile. So, there was less to lose, you can go out, you can do some crazy stuff, but know if you do that alt music, [you’re going to end up eating rice for a while].

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Do you wanna share anything from that era as well?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Erm, do I have anything from there? Would I carry it with me if I could? No, I don’t carry anything [laughs].

Audience Member

I got some.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

You got some? Oh, man. Y’all kept it true. Oh, thank you. OK, great, that’s great. I haven’t even heard this stuff in a while, so this is going to be [laughs]…

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

What do you want to play?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Oh man, you kept it real! Oh man, I am so inspired by that, thank you. I’ll play this one. This one is called “Larva.” So, this is like, OK, you got a butterfly, but then you have a caterpillar, too, right? And before that, before the caterpillar, you got a larva, OK? So, that what I was saying in myself, in my personality, in how immature I was acting, that’s what it counts for. Like, I recognized I have a long way to go, you know? And dealing with fear.

(music: Georgia Anne Muldrow – “Larva”)

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Thank you for letting me use this computer, I appreciate that, man.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

You don’t carry this music around with you any more, at least not today. How do you regard this part of your past and catalog? You seem to have some disdain for it right now?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

No, not even like that. Oh, I do? Do I have a disdain? No, actually it’s just one of those things where you put your heart on the plate, you know what I’m saying? And that’s what you do. It’s just a thing like that. I don’t know even if it’s disdain. This is just a thing that you get that shyness. But I’m thankful that I made that music, I’m thankful for it because I’m still accepting that it’s me. Dudley used to teach me that. I’m making this music because for the longest time I’d be like, “That’s not me, I didn’t make it.” Because I really know that there is another spirit inside of me that doesn’t speak English, that doesn’t speak in interviews or nothing like that. That don’t speak in material possessions or nothing like that, that makes the music… I consider that, that’s the elders of rhythm, that’s the ancestors trying to communicate. When I think about Worthnothings and everything I feel like that was my first attempt getting all the ideas out. And I listen to it, but I still feel like it was too personal, like it was a personal record. It was just too much about myself and my ego tripping, you know? So, if there was any disdain you felt, that’s probably from there.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Dudley, how do you regard your past catalog as well. Like what are your feelings? You went from being the B-boy, you know...

Dudley Perkins

Oh, I am always that, till I die. Well, my past catalog, y’all all get it if you’ll ask for it on MySpace, you know?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yeah, if y’all want this Worthnothings, too, I’ll give you free.

Dudley Perkins

That some I did, it’s just that is in the past, I cannot really do nothing about that. Whatever it’s done and whatever it will do, if it continues doing anything, you know? I just put my heart there.

But some of the past things I did, I been trying to speak a message through my music since day one. The day I said, I would drop records, I would have a message for the people and I had to sneak in on there a little bit by being full-fledged B-boy at first, plus the crew I was with and stuff. My mission has been a message for the music. I mean, if you’re going to do music, what would be the greatest thing to use it for? A message for people, you know? To help heal, to reach out with people, to introduce yourself, you gonna introduce yourself, you not gonna sock them in the eye, you know? You gonna shake their hand and hug them. So, that’s what I do with my music. I introduce myself to the world through my music and it’s just so happen that this human being right here, Georgia, is on the same mission. So, I just said, “Two heads is better than one right now, so let’s go get them for reals. Let’s really see if we can cause peace through music,” because hip hop is a big platform. In fact, music is a big platform. It’s just people tend to get caught up in a glamour and glitter and a money thing of it. Getting equipment, man, because I mean equipment is equipment. Bang drums on two garbage can lids, you gonna get where you got to go with the music, you know what I’m saying? But it’s what you put in that music and how far it transcends and who it reaches and what it does when it reaches these people. If it helps, it helps. If it doesn’t, you need to check what you’re listening to. If it don’t make you wanna go out and help and be a server to humanity, check what you’re listening to. And if it has nothing of that, throw it away, because it ain’t from a good place, it ain’t from a good space, I guarantee you. Anything that’s supposed to help is good, that’s no joke. We all know that. You wouldn’t play someone’s dark music to your children, would you? You know? Some people do to keep their kids quiet. You know, they put them in front of TV, you know?

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Well, is there a drawn line between cathartic music that might have some darkness in it and something that is dark?

Dudley Perkins

Hey, I’m a warrior of light, so you know, if it’s dark, I expose every move regardless what it is. If you ain’t talking about divine spirits and divine presence and why you breathe and what gives you that life? Ah man, I’m after you, you know, straight up. Everybody knows this, that’s why they try to keep me out the range of the music. But I still drop these records and I’m gonna show Georgia exactly how to drop these records in God’s name. You can constantly do it. It’s a never-ending flow of dropping records. How you wanna get your message out? It’s gonna get there, if it’s from a divine source, I guarantee you. You know, whether be it a street corner, a show, or a vinyl or a CD. You talk and that’s your job and show people want this, hey, guess what? You have a good job, because you got the tools for it. They are there. Can’t nobody stop you, I’m guaranteeing you that, you know?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

That’s right. That’s right.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

So, your goal is really, you mentioned like ego and that, but is it to create an egoless sort of a creation? As far as you are putting it out there, is it that one way to put it?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yeah, that’s one way. I think so. And I think also, how we were saying at the beginning, just acknowledge our function as medics in this time. Because all music, whether you’re speaking on some light, or speaking on some super slack, you know, whatever, it’s all on you. It’s gonna make somebody happy. It’s a medication for somebody. So, it’s like, while we act this music to know that we are in explaining to maintain the spirit of joy. If you are really in the spirit of joy, you don’t think about yourself. You not saying, “I am joyful!” That’s a fake joy, that somebody says, you know in a valley, you know? But you know what I’m saying? But like, when you’re joyful, you’re just glowing and you just feel like everything just coming together for a good reason and the ego was burned up in that fire. It is burned up in that fire, you know?

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Let’s play some other examples of G&D you want to share.

(music: G&D – unknown / applause)

Georgia Anne Muldrow

What we wanted to do with that was to really just do the whole record, we were seeking to have something that was straight to the heart. because if you heard the difference between that and the other stuff, it’s like before it was a whole bunch of white noise, you know? Static. because I was into static, you know? Chaos of order and order of chaos… With this we made our minds up. You know, like, “OK. This is going to be a deliberate effort towards something that is positive.” You know, like this is a positive effort. You know, there is many efforts, there is all types of efforts, but this one and all of them are beautiful, you know? For their own reasons, because they all teach, but what we wanted to do, was a positive effort.

With my heart, I wanted to simplify my ideas and to see how much I can distill out of just keeping it straight, you know? Play it more straight-ahead and it made the coolest chemistry ever, because I’ve learned it’s all about your expression. You can never hide your expression. No matter what you do, no matter what you dress like, what you talk like, where you live, whatever, you know? Your expression is always itself. So, even if you play the same chord as the next man, it’s gonna be your special way, you know? And so, as far as you say “egoless music,” that’s what a lot of that had to do with making this music, not worrying about making the 13th chord and every harmony and having it all just swirly Sun Ra Arkestra every time, you know? And if it’s not meeting that capacity, you don’t go on tape.

That’s how it used to be. “If it ain’t it, it’s gonna be the next one. We got to be on the next thing,” you know? And then it’s like, where we are and that’s it. What’s next is not important right now… What is is important, if we magnify the beauty that’s there, so I just went one note at a time. In so many words… right, too many words.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Dudley has said, we were in another room, there’s not been really any duos putting out something like this in a while. Was there anybody that you looked to from your musical influences that might have helped you, inspired you guys as well?

Dudley Perkins

Well, I mean, we listen to a lot of Bob Marley, John Lennon. Actually, we’re listening only to music that helps. I’m being real. I can’t stand anything else. It ain’t about my preference, or what I can stand, or whatever. It’s just what makes me feel better and what gets me going a little bit, you know? And it’s really just any artist, who is speaking from the cosmos, who is speaking from another place, another source and you know who they are. They tell you right in the mirror. They speak about it in their music about the stars and space and stuff, about religions and spirituality and stuff like that.

They’re peppered all throughout us. A lot of them become very famous, Earth, Wind & Fire, you know what I’m saying? But there’re some, that are hidden, you know like... Who would be hidden for? Well, you know John Lennon ain’t hidden. They had to take him out, because... That’s another thing, too, when you get to the point in music, I do think, music is for a certain point you supposed to reach causing a complete harmony in the hearts of men. That’s what music is for. That’s why in all the books, religion, they talk about harmony and all that, harps, angels with harps and stuff like that. A peak to music is to cause complete harmony in the heart. You know like they say, what is that philosophy, Buddhist philosophy? You know truth when it rings like the strings of a harp. They always use these musical terms and spiritual they go hand in hand, you know? Speaker:

Georgia Anne Muldrow: That’s right. That’s right.

Dudley Perkins

Yeah, that’s right. My bad man, because I ain’t talking about nothin’ else. There’s kids dying right now, so you know what I’m saying? A lot of us go and do something, do things, we protest till the sunlight, until the sun goes down, but it’s hard for me to speak on anything else other than that. So, right now I am trying to bend myself and I know Georgia trying to give you guys what you guys wanna talk about, but right now it’s not really much to talk about if you talk about being true with music or anything. because there are babies being killed right now. So and I can sit straight with that happening, you know? I don’t know why, it’s not my fault. Maybe it’s because of the music I’ve been listening to. I opened up real crazy, but yeah, but if I would pick up an influence, father George. He speaks about cosmos better than anybody. George Clinton, you know what I’m saying? I don’t think you thought I meant George Bush, right?

George Clinton, he accepted his birth right who he is, basically by speaking exactly from where he was from. “Dog Star,” “Atomic Dog,” dude is from another planet and he ain’t afraid to show it. Michael Jackson – another planet. He is so much from another planet, he almost caused wonders to happen. They had to shoot him some way. Think about it. All this stuff that they’ve put on this guy and stuff like that, the dude is actually a great guy. Look at the stuff he did, he was the light, you know? Somebody that bright, they got to shut it down.

Art messes up everything what’s going on. Your electric companies might falter because of somebody speaking like that. You know, the way your daily life would change when somebody speaking like that. because businesses fall when there is a man speaking that we are all one, you know? Don’t let these bodies fool you, you are connected by some way. You guys have the same colored stuff underneath, you just living in a different part of the country, probably came from a different planet in the solar system, but we all came here to be together. And when somebody speaks on that distrusts the circuitry of technology and men they can’t go to NASA. no more because we wanna go, too, then. “Hey buddy, if we are all one, can’t we go too?” You know?

That’s where you know when the people speak like that through music… that’s who I listen to. I listen to the people who ain’t afraid to tell where they’re actually from. Man, we had to come through something to get here in the first place and that’s proof enough, you know? That we are spiritual beings completely through and throughout and we forgot about this. And the more people do less creative things, like copycat music. You know like on the radio, you listen to the radio, all the music is the same. They use the Camel tactic, you know? The Camel cigarette tactic to aim that at the children and then grown folks figure that out, so they make music into little sing-song things for the kids, they just sit with their mouth open [watching] TV. Listening and wanting no change. You know, not realizing that there’s a kid his age whose arms are chopped off for trying feed his kid from change, you know what I’m saying?

I speak of this because of American society everybody points a finger, you know what I’m saying? People, they point fingers, it’s happening to them also, or it’s about to. I see a lot of things happening now that happened to us about ten years ago. Here “la la la la la,” in every country “la la la la,” but they don’t realize that, hey, our influence was so powerful, because we allowed oneness to happen for a moment in time to where everybody looked at that, like that’s the place to be. But that was a secret society thing popping off that had to do with all other kind of people. You got to realize that if somebody, something had to be started by murder, that might not be a good place to be at. Anywhere, you know?

If somebody had to take their live to inhabit some place, when people were actually saying, “Here, come and share with us. Come, eat our corn too.” No, “Pow,” take your corn. And people wanna come here and see that, you know? The mirror image effect just happened. Australia? Same way. Every country right now, even Third World countries, you know? Nobody is immune to it. We ain’t show, ain’t prove we are one. One country gets angry; the other country get angry just like in a household with children. There is always fighting going on amongst the children, but they love each other, because they realize they came from the same source. We still love each other. Any human being seeing other human being in their right mind and if he’s on the ground bleeding, even in the war, they don’t pick that person up. They’re straight demonic and I ain’t talking about pitchforks and stuff like that, I’m talking about he’s got a bad spirit, you know? And those are the ones who need healing. So, I figure right now, I am in the state right now, that America’s at fault in there. We do music and stuff. So, me and Georgia now are giving messages, pure messages.

Actually, we was gonna give our music away for free. When I say we gonna give some away, hit me up on MySpace, I’ll give it to y’all. I’m not tripping, you know? I don’t see money out of this stuff, music like that, you know? It really is, it’s like me charging for water, you know what I’m saying? I speak the truth for people and I speak for God. And now I have a co-pilot – no, I have another captain on the ship with me. We are on the mission right now. And our mission is to do this, you know? This is probably a more different Red Bull session because everybody would be hyped to tell what’s inside their machine. I don’t know what’s inside those things. I bet she might know some things what’s inside in there, because this is a technical person. Hey, I got an in- house engineer, you know? But it made me lazy, too, maybe I don’t really wanna. You do some music, I’m gonna MySpace, you know what I’m saying?

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

So, what about a song “Good Morning America” from your album. Do you wanna play that because that sort of speaks of some of the things that you just mentioned?

Dudley Perkins

That speaks to America, culturally.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

So, let’s...

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Let’s find it.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Which number is it?

Dudley Perkins

Eleven.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

It’s 11?

(music: G&D – “Good Morning America” / applause)

Dudley Perkins

It’s funky right here, man.

(music: G&D – “War Drums”)

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

So, what was that that we just heard?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Those two, man, I love those songs. That one, that we just heard right there is called “War Drums” and that song is just emotional. Like, all of it was just purely from the heart, just from the music, everything. Just where we was taking it from the beginning, and I just love the way it turned out because where we was coming from it was beautiful.

One thing I wanted to share from the song before – “Good Morning America” – was a concept about time I wanted to share because I know we are lecturing. Before I hit my teeth with this mic again. Yes, it’s a habit that I love. But one thing I want to share with everybody about time and about quantization and things, OK, because to me when somebody is attempting deliberately to kill expression in all forms, when there is an assembly of people, who are paid – because that’s all it is, they’re paid to enforce a certain status quo upon people who are unassuming and unsuspecting, you know? Sometimes there is a standard of living, that’s imposed on us and I see in the music is where they attacked us subliminally and they’re just the ones who don’t know how to funk. That’s all. You know what I’m saying, because they got it in them, like some people hate on the funk, I don’t know why. You know, not a lot of them, just a select a few. They own police stations.

So, I wanna just talk about quantization and that being a form of colonial thinking, OK? Because everybody has a different sense of time, because it’s not really real… everybody has a different of time and that’s the special part. That’s a great part, that’s the beauty of making music. Everybody has their own sense of music. So, that’s why everybody makes different music. There are people walking around saying, “Oh, my drums are terrible and my chords are not where they need to be, and my harmonies are lacking.” All that kind of stuff. It’s like, I want people to be more kind to themselves in this production stuff, man, because I know I can beat myself real bad when it comes to music and that’s what causes writer’s block. You know, editing what’s not even there yet, you know?

That’s the same spirit that causes people to kill. That’s the same spirit that causes people to steal and that’s the same spirit that causes people to feel helpless. That is the same spirit, like this victimhood, and if you are privileged enough to be in front of the computer or something that generates a sound that could potentially cause peace in someone, be thankful, be joyful, you know? Don’t judge the ideas, don’t quantize it, so it could be a song that you could use. Like, be real with the metronome, man, do your work. The metronome is not a bad thing. OK? The metronome is great, because they teach you how to be on the one. The metronome ain’t a piece of equipment, the metronome is your heartbeat. The metronome is your footsteps through your own life, let that be your metronome. That’s all I want to say (applause) .

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Now Dudley, with the song like “War Drums,” I would think…

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Being humble , it’s all love...

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

I would think that some of your personal experience you drew from as well, as far as your perspective, you spoke on the radio a little bit, do you wanna speak on that a little bit as well?

Dudley Perkins

On my personal experience?

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

On your personal experience, as far as war and dealing with that.

Dudley Perkins

My personal experience of war, and I do have personal experience on war and I can speak on it. A lot of things I say in my music, a lot of magazines say, “Oh you just talk a lot of bunch of whatever, he’s drunk.” I don’t drink even more either so, they can’t say that no more. They put down a lot of things I say, because I do speak it from… I’ve seen it, you know, I’ve been to a war, I fought in Desert Storm. I’ve been in the military. So, when I do speak of certain things I say, I can speak it from a first-hand view. I’ve seen people blown up. I’ve seen bodies kindling, like bodies actually kindling. They made my stomach hurt… to where every single day that I was in the United States Navy, I was trying to get out, because I knew I was gonna have to go participate in war. I went in there because I needed a job, I was homeless, I needed something to do. I couldn’t be just living in my sister’s backyard in the shade, I went and joined the military.

I was too young when I got out of high school. I graduated from high school 14-years-old. So, when I got out, my pops was hardcore, “Hey, you’re out of high school, you’re out of my house.” So 14 years old on the streets of America is not a good thing. So, you end up being in gangs and stuff and all that stuff, which did happen. So when I went to the military, it was like, I don’t know, a blind decision to be comfortable, like, “OK, I’m going to have some money in my pocket. I’m not gonna sell dope and stuff like that. I may have to give up weed, smoking weed and stuff.”

But when I went in there, I’ve seen a lot of... you guys don’t see what really happens. You only see what CNN shows you, so it makes you seem like we’re victims, you know what I’m saying? Both sides are victims, you know? But the thing is, the main victim out of this is children. When after you see the face open up of the baby and the facial expression of the father holding the baby, it kind of makes you look at everything different.

Like murder is murder, no matter what. I know that a lot people got family over there, who’s fighting in the war and stuff like that. Murder is murder. You know, on whatever side it come from, whether is religion-induced or manipulated by government, you got to do this for your job or whatever because lots of people over there are doing that for the job’s sake, to send their money to their home. And then it gets to brainwash part. I know about brainwashing in the military. I was brainwashed for a minute, but they couldn’t brainwash me because I had a lighter edge. I was like, “Whatever. I like music, I know about God. I am just doing this for a job.” I ended up getting kicked out after two years.

I got sent home a different way. I didn’t come home with, “Hey everybody!” I got sent home on the jail ship, I went to the brig and stuff, I witnessed crazy stuff. They allowed soldiers to do rapes and stuff. People get away with things in war.

But, like I say, my view on war is this – murder is murder. Regardless what kind or what form it is. You do not have the right to take somebody’s spark because you didn’t choose that spark. That human being chose that spark when they came here. They chose to come here, that spark is theirs. That creative spark is theirs and their own to have. When you take that from somebody, you are in a world of trouble, you know?

But, you know, they say, “God forgives,” but I don’t know about that one, you know? I just can’t see that people getting away with just doing that. Even if it’s by accident, you gotta be careful. Even to yourselves, and that’s one another thing also is paying attention to yourselves and what you put into yourselves… what you allow to be put into you because if you allow something to be put some into you, chemical imbalance is chemical imbalance. Two things that ain’t supposed go together is gonna cause a reaction, right? That’s common sense. We do that constantly, everyday. Down to two thoughts, that ain’t supposed to go together that will cause a reaction that will makes things take form, you know? You gotta be careful what you think about. We thought this war into existence by not changing our thoughts. You change your thoughts, everybody else’s thoughts is gonna eventually change. People gonna see you doing different, “Hey, that’s cool. I’ma do that too, you know?” But if people see people going joining military functions and stuff, “That’s cool, I’ma do that too.” Monkey see, monkey do. We are raised like that.

So, it is really about rethinking about what we do. Where we’re from? Our history. Why we’re here? First of all, realize we are water! And water is ancient. So why would you wanna kill something ancient? You never know what kind of knowledge or wisdom that side of water drops that formed you. You’re here, you’re old as time. You know, once you realize these kind of things... I don’t know the history of a lot of stuff, I just go by certain things I pick up and certain things I feel and certain things in meditation. Y’all do that, you can really get some answers to a lot of things you need. Down to where you can write it down, you know? Like scripted, you can script down history and the past in medicines and anything you need. Common sense, OK? But we have used up the common sense up right now, seriously. Like, I know it’s used up, when you really do got little African boys walking around with no arms, because they’re digging for diamonds for American-Africans.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

That’s what I’m saying.

Dudley Perkins

That’s twisted, you know what I’m saying? That’s a complete sleepwalking mechanism right there. And if anybody says, like I say, point fingers and stuff like that, “America, yeah, America brings war.” Who’s gonna say something about it? Who’s gonna say some against it? What can anybody do? It’s the same way. You take our neighborhood and put them in your hood, in the same situation, a whole different situation going on. Take it without government policy or whatever and no wars going on, but the streets are still the way they are, because the humans are raised in America and put it to other countries. Oh, y’all wouldn’t last a week. Little boys would be robbing you for your shoes. I know this. The drive-bys would have you just on edge. But those drive-bys, I had to put it towards like the war, the drive-bys are bigger over there, but that’s still us doing those drive-bys just in the different form. So really, actually, war is like, who said it? “War is hell”? Bob Marley? John Lennon? Somebody said it.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Marvin Gaye.

Dudley Perkins

They all said it, because it is. When you take a life… babies, I mean, we’re dumb for something like this happening, you know what I’m saying? I don’t care what we do, how much we protest, when the lights come on, we gotta go watch out TV show. We gotta go to the studio. I gotta go to work. We don’t go push the doors in and say, “What’s in these drawers, Mr President, or Mr Leader? What you hide in here? I never got to come in here. I’ma look and snoop everything. Give me the keys of that jet. We paid for it.”

We don’t do that, we go home, so nothing happens. That’s true. We got all these music awards and stuff for America and all that stuff like that. How many came up there and said, “No more war!” That little word. Words are powerful, words are very powerful. The things you can’t see is the most powerful things in the world. Red Bull is based on something you can’t see. The Red Bull Academy is, you know? This right here is based on something you cannot see. Sound, music. God, that’s the best way you can put it, you know? The breath of life and it travels on the airwaves of music and stuff like that.

So, really, you guys, all here right now, while you doing your thing and learning everything like that, when you get to the peak of your music, put that little message in here to stop that war. And if the war stopped, keep putting that message in there, because there will be other wars to come. There is rumors of them also and it ain’t just wars that kill people, wars kill you inside also. These things are true. I went to church for a while and I had to run away from it because it was crazy. But you know what? I meditate a lot, and you guys do music, so you guys are way up on the extra level of meditation than a normal human being.

Music is meditation, pure and simple. No matter how you do, you tap your foot, whatever, it puts you in the state of daydream. And that’s when you daydreaming, you’re looking at God because your mind is almost clearer doing daydreams, ain’t it? Think about it. And real quick, I got a technique. Love is strong, right? Love is very powerful. Here are some things I used to trip. When I was a kid I used to look at the mirror a lot. Ever stared in the mirror for a long time? You never look at yourself like that? Not for vanity’s sake, just to trip out. You don’t make faces in the mirror? Have you split mirror like that and do all that? Your eyeballs go, you know, you guys don’t do that? God made us like that, you know what I’m saying?

But put it this way, you know when you stare at somebody that you love, even to a person that you’re in love and intimate with, it’s almost hard to stare at that person in the eyeball, in the eye, am I right? That’s one of the worst things in the world to do, stare somebody eye to eye. It just feels like you backing down somebody or somebody backing down from you, or something like that. I’ma stare this, but you even got to build yourself to stare somebody in the eye. Do you know what that is? Do you know the core of that is? That’s God saying hello to God. That’s how intense love is. It’s powerful like that till it makes you uncomfortable. It makes people uncomfortable to say the word, because of the power behind it. That’s where we gotta get at.

That’s what this music is that we’re doing… it’s allowing people to look into the mirror. But back to the real practice that I was saying. Look at yourself into the mirror for a long time till it really gets really uncomfortable. because it will get really uncomfortable after a while. You start thinking you’re seeing things. You start thinking you’re seeing your spirit. because you do! Close your eyes on that feeling when you do that. There is God, your divine spirit. And there is no music in there, that’s the sound of the universe. And it’s noisy, you know what I’m saying? Do that every once in a while. It’s hard to do sometimes, but do that, do that with other people more often and guess what? You’ll fall in love with them. And it ain’t no physical thing like that.

I tried this stuff. Freaks me out like, “Oh, that’s crazy!” You know? But it really is true, that stuff is real. And we do need to connect, we are all one. We all do breathe the same air. If somebody is killing one of your brothers, go stop them. If somebody is dismantling a peace of your home, ain’t you gonna go outside, “Hey, leave that alone, get off my building.” You have to expose and remove right now. We have to play the part of expose and remove. If somebody is doing something wrong to us and it might affect the children’s future here, we have to speak up. Even if we have to lay down our lives for it and that’s true, that’s beyond the music, you know? That’s about you guys, human beings and stuff and that’s the real deal.

I hope we can take this and pass it along a little bit because maybe you guys pass it along, “Dudley’s crazy,” or whatever, “Georgia is tripped out.” Yeah and we are because compassion is open right now. And everybody has it, you know? So right now we are just shouting about it. Something’s exciting, you say something about it. Something excites you, you say something about it. It’s exciting that maybe we are coming to a new era in life.

Maybe the Mayans were correct; you know what I’m saying? Hey, hey, I really think they are. But when something excites me, I speak on it. I put it on the record or something like that. If something excites you, go to the corner of your house and speak to it, speak to everybody in your house about it. I am a spiritual being. I came here with spiritual means. It took two to make one, that’s how it is. A co-creator in life. Yin-yang or whatever you wanna put it. All the books of religion that y’all read, find the things that work. Little practices that working it. One of the great ones, love your neighbor like you love yourself. Uuuh, that’s a good one, huh? Sounds corny, don’t it too? because it comes out of The Bible. Love your neighbor like you love yourself.

Simple things to do. Easiest things to do, ones that got the most profound work and spiritual work to do with it and I’m telling you, that stuff works. I use these tactics. I give to the people on the street, you know why? because for some magical reason, my other pocket gets full to give the next guy even more. Constantly give and receive. These things, these are quantum physics things, man, push and pull, stuff like that. Effect and affect, you know what I’m saying? These things is true. These things scientists broken down for us.

Scientology, all that, those religions and stuff, they like, “Man, I gotta find God,” you know? So they get the atom and try to cut them open. And they cut it open. And they found more space and vibration and light. So, we are deep down inside we are connected, completely. So, we, if one of us allow a murder to go on, we’re all murderers, too. So, we are all playing a part in all this killing right now. We are anyways, even if we wanna deny it. Every time we start the car up, every time we leave somebody with the bad look, you killed his spirit. There are all kind of ways to kill. We have to make everything grow and be happy. And in fact, not even happy, just have everything at peace because happy takes energy as well as anger takes energy. So we gotta have everything still for a minute, you know? And that’s what we gonna try to do, right?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yeah, along everybody!

[Applause]

Dudley Perkins

Hey, and honestly, maybe you guys might forget what I’m saying right now or anybody says right now, but honestly, when compassion is open, there is love for everybody. And that’s why I’m not afraid to say these things. I’m a shy dude, you know what I’m saying? Opened up, I drank alcohol to be unshy. And then I got used to drinking alcohol until it almost killed me. So, I had to stop it because it’s a poison. That’s marketing and anything and honestly any things that marketed that much, leave it alone. Anything you look at the package and you don’t know what it says, leave it alone, because it’s not made for you. It’s probably not even a vegetable product or consumable product. It’s not. And that’ll kill you too. And fluoride. You know the deal, right? Y’all know about fluoride, right? Y’all don’t know about fluoride? Many, many eons ago men had an ability to astral travel. They spoke about it in many, many books. That’s why they have the word astral travel. Fluoride has aluminum in it. It messes with your circuitry, when you dream, it messes up your dreams. because your dreams are real. Your dreams are just as real as this. It messes your dreams to the point that this is more the reality than your dreams are, you know? And your dreams, where you get your inspiration and your love? God… that’s where God’s at. Have any of you guys ever went to sleep and got stuck? Yeah, yeah, spooky, yeah? because you were stuck in between. That’s real, that’s real though, that’s real stuff, y’all.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

Has anybody got any questions for Georgia and Dudley at this point?

Audience Member

Hello. You talked about your parents, how they helped you grow up and how they played music. How do you think it would be, if it weren’t for them? I mean, do you think what we have is from the time we were born, no matter what or that we have a procedure that others help?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

I think that it’s all the same because we are always being born every day, so there’s new midwives that show up in our lives. And I think that it’s both, like I had or not had the parents I had, I wouldn’t be the same person… no… but I’d be the same person, yeah? You know what I’m saying? It’s like one of them things, because I chose to have this expression, you chose to have this expression as you, and I think that the chain of events that happen come to support who we are as our expression. Like, it’s all to help you through so we can be talking about something like what Dudley said, you know? Like, just to be here and be open to love each other, as if we was growing up with each other as a result of being on the same planet. But I think that, yeah, it would have been something close to the same.

Dudley Perkins

You don’t really have to clap after everything. President. Kill, kill, kill...

Audience Member

I may ask the question, since I’ve been thinking about it. There is some earlier stuff, that kind of creeped out before the Worthnothings stuff, would you speak on that a bit?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

OK [laughs].

Audience Member

Because before the Worthnothings sessions was sort of like, you know, the after going being a knucklehead, so to speak, but if you would speak about the things prior to that?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Thank you, because you know sometimes I even forget. For real, thank you, thank you, because like, that’s stuff, I was at real… just writer… just wanna do this music and I wanna... I was who I am right now, really, and it was about me returning to that. My whole mind state was, “OK, we gonna wake them up with the funk, we gonna make it funky and we gonna give them hope.” All that music, that In Love Again, all that stuff, right, the Run Away stuff, that was all me at the piano as a teenager. Just was really discovering chords and learning different things. That’s where it came from, really. That kind of stuff was just applying what I felt inside and say, “Maybe this music can carry it.” That was my first songs I wrote; those was my first songs.

Dudley Perkins

It will be out next year. Remastered.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Thank you for knowing about that. That’s really cool.

Dudley Perkins

That’s a church music. That’s a church music. That’s the gospel.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

I get embarrassed by that music sometimes, because you know, I don’t have with me right now.

Audience Member

I do.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Damn!

Audience Member

I have some of them.

Dudley Perkins

You have the one with the piano, with the Rev speaking at the beginning?

Audience Member

Hmmm.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

laughs

Dudley Perkins

Yeah. The Rev, ya’ll know what the Rev is, right?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

That one I don’t have. See, I don’t even have that one.

Dudley Perkins

Hey, have you guys heard of the movie The Secret?

Audience Member

Yeah.

Dudley Perkins

Yeah? What you think about that movie? The manifestation. You know about that movie? Yeah? You heard about that movie? It’s a big movie, it’s really huge. It’s what people used to build empires back in a days, the power that they used? The manifestation power, how empires were build and stuff, you know? Something like that, you know? The secret, the manifestation, the thought, word and deed process, putting’ it together and making things happen quicker for your life. You know, how we wish you see, what you wish for you might receive, that kind of thing, actually make it work. Have you heard about that kind of stuff?

Yeah, it was on Oprah and all that. That’s her people [points to Georgia], you know? The rev, the one who stepped out of it, the one who don’t do it no more. You know, Bob Procter still doing it and everything to get their money on, you know? The Rev stepped away because he was just giving messages about oneness and spirituality and stuff and then he got big, got carried away. To where Puff Daddy and all got interested, Michael Jackson, you know, stuff like that, so there is a big spiritual thing happening right now, there’s a movement. It’s a wake up, people waking up. I guarantee that right now. You can’t sleep at somebody else’s and wake, you gonna make noise. On purpose sometimes, you know?

You know when you sleep and somebody is awake, talking gets louder, they don’t care no more. You gonna get up too. That’s what happens, it’s a natural response. That’s evolution, that’s growth, we gotta look out for each other, no matter what, you know? We have to. But there’s some bad seeds in the bunch, who want to keep the positivity… something like unity, apart. Think about it. Bush is tripping, you know what I’m saying, that dude is off the hook right now, but it ain’t just him. Look at his face on TV, somebody’s telling him what to do. When sometimes he does like, “What did I do?” You know? All of them are doing that now, like damn, you know and there are still a few who are like, “Hey, keep going!” You know? We don’t care Rumsfeld is like “Yeah, yeah,” but hey, any other leader is tripping too. Power makes anybody drunk.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yeah.

Dudley Perkins

Oh, can we play you some new new stuff? You wanna hear some funky funky stuff? Here is a new stuff.

(music: G&D – “All Around The World” / applause)

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

I think we got a couple more questions.

Audience Member

First things first, I want to say that the love y’all show and share between the two of you, that’s the harmony that I want to take away with me, so thank you for that first of all.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

That’s my sister Claudia, she don’t play!

Audience Member

You talked about temporal colonialism before, how do you escape that with your music? Do you play with different time signatures?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Absolutely! For me, I believe there’s bigger time than just 4/4, or 3/4, or 6/8, or 7/9 or 2/18, you know? Or any time signature. For myself, the way I free myself is to start in the moment every beat I play. Every single beat is for God, and sometimes in the music it will speed up slow down, speed up slow down, that’s the expression it takes. But the biggest thing I try and keep in mind is to keep it from an organic place in my soul, you know? And not to be to working in a framework of quantization, so that my music is being corrected in a certain way, you know what I’m saying?

Audience member

Do you have any examples of that?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Everything you heard. And as far as different time signatures is concerned, when I was first writing as a young songwriter, I used to never use 4/4, never. And it would have two different bridges, girl! But I would always be trying to find my own time signatures, writing things in 9/17, 15, all that stuff, because I used to listen to all types of music. I still do. I found that there was a tradition in need of my carrying on, and to join a tradition, and getting rooted in the 4/4 and having a new appreciation because there’s new idioms that can live within there, because there’s no such thing, you know, because every moment is new.

Audience Member

Dudley, you spoke about the Joe Camel thing, and marketing to kids in these sing-song type of songs and Georgia you talked about how people aren’t always feeling the funk, and I was wondering if it’s frustrating to have a message that’s so positive and so light, but have it kind of surrounded with a musical kind of darkness like that, that not everybody’s instantly getting, because a bit of it is more acquired, and it seems like the stuff that you guys hate is the opposite of that, it’s darkness within a really sugar-coated, easily accepted sound. I’m wondering if you can speak on that.

Dudley Perkins

You can’t hate on it, we’re not hating on it at all, it’s just what people choose to do.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

You know what? I’m not even gonna front… yeah, there’s times where I get frustrated, because there’s times where you’ll look and you’ll look up in The Source [magazine] right, and as a sister, the only sister I see is someone who don’t play no music, and it’s like, “Dang!!!”. It’s not like she gotta go anywhere, but somebody else gotta be here, but I feel that way sometimes, and I feel like when they do that throwback article, when the whole thing should be that, and then add in “Here’s who’s new” and then they have that throwback article where it’s someone who’s here right now that’s talkin’ the truth. I don’t like that. I’ll say it right now, because I think that there’s a lot going on and kids are worried about finance. And it’s like, “Man there’s not gonna be a lot of that,” it’s so paper-thin, it’s so see-through. So, it’s just like, at first I get frustrated, and then I go into meditation, so I can keep those people surrounded in light. So, I don’t be slacking on my thing.

Dudley Perkins

It’s kind of cool, too, though, because it always keeps us employed. We always got something to do because of that, it’s something real, we’re gonna do this until we die. And when the music stops, we’re going to keep trying… there will be peace on earth, even if the earth has to stand still first. There will be some form of it.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Thank you for recognizing that.

Audience Member

I wanted to ask Georgia, if anyone knows the Platinum Pied Pipers out of Detroit, they had a highly acclaimed album of that year, and I just wanted to know how you got involved with it, or if any doors were opened because of it?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yeah, really how that happened was through the DJ that you mentioned, through DJ Jamad, he hooked that up, you know? Really, that was like my first hip-hop gig. OK, this is a hip-hop thing because usually I was just experimenting and sometimes I got paid and sometimes I didn’t. But I would always be expressing myself, and that’s when I had just finished the Worthnothings record, but as far as them opening doors… all of it opened doors to see what I could do and what I was capable of, because at that point I had musical ADD, so when I heard a chord that had one chord through the whole thing, I couldn’t fathom it, so it did bring something to the table.

But just the way people reacted to it and responded to it, I never thought that... I was just there for the music. This is a good brother about to pay me for the song, and it really grew and I wish the best for them brothers and sisters, they’re doing good stuff. I just had an urgency in myself to strive for more, you know? To strive for a higher message, because I’m too silly, man. It’s like I speak my mind every time, I wasn’t just gonna say the same thing again and strive to be cool by clowning.

I couldn’t say it better how Dudley put it, because there are people dying right now, and so I want to put my attention to another place. But everyone I’ve met along this musical journey; it’s been a blessing.

Audience Member

Thanks, I just want to ask Dudley a question, if that’s okay. Just about your transition from doing stuff as Declaime to doing stuff under your name Dudley Perkins. You’ve said you’ve always had a message to put across to people. Have you found it easier to put that message across or that people have listened more, just from the change in your vocal style? I know you still rap, but obviously, it’s a bit slower and…

Dudley Perkins

I dunno, I didn’t see it as a big change because in my music I sang it anyways. If you read in any of the magazines, I’m not a great rapper or singer, so I just made up my own thing… My name is Dudley Perkins that my mother gave me, so when I was singing, the topics on that album was… I was going through a lot of stuff. When I do an album, something’s been going on, so it’s something profound that I have to speak on in the music. I don’t have to, but what else am I gonna do when my whole life is based on that? When I get up I go and do music. When I’m talking to someone, I’m talking about god or music. It actually goes hand in hand. So when I spoke up as Dudley Perkins, I was just speaking to my mom at the time, speaking to some of my family members who’d passed, and it was me actually trying to get better in my life and stuff.

A lot of my records are me letting go of ego. So, my last album on Stones Throw, Expressions, was me completely letting go of ego. because a lot of my albums... I’m a B-boy, I’ll beat you rapping, you know? And I had to get away from that, if I’m to give a pure message to civilization through this music. So, Dudley Perkins was just that I’m human, too, I’m not just this name Declaime.

But Declaime is a name I gave myself, and it actually means what I do. If you look in the dictionary, it’s an actual word, I just gave it an “e” to make it “e-fficial.” It means to recite speech in a dramatic or poetical fashion, or rhetorical effect, and that’s what I do. I speak to the people and I’ve been doing that since day one, but I have to talk about God, you know? I know by fact and by my time in the industry that what I talk about is not good for your finance because, in fact, every label I worked with told me to dumb it down.

They say you’re preaching too much and this, this and this. But guess what? I still drop records, and every label that I left when they said that, look at their history now, they’re almost non-existent. You don’t mess with God. I don’t care who you are! You don’t mess with the divine spirit. I ain’t talking about God as a man or anything like that, a big long beard or nothing like that, I’m talking about a heartbeat… you don’t mess with another person’s stuff like that. You keep it real! And as long as I do that, then hey! You step on me, you’re stepping on god, because I’m god’s buddy, and I know this. I’ve followed these rules, I’ve done religions, I’ve done every one of them, you know? I read every single book that y’all can think of, I carry a good one on my back because I’m trying to make some money. Even though these books are for fun, they’re all Buddhism and a little Jesus talk.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Yeah, baby, that’s right.

Dudley Perkins

But when I studied these things, it was more me looking at my duality. MCs get away with a lot of crazy things, smoking weed and stuff. In the household of Dudley Perkins, you can’t get away with a lot, my mom would still slap me in the mouth for cussing or something like that. It’s still hard to get them to hear my message, that’s why when I see people I give away so much music. When I’m with a label, I ask send me a 500 box, I’m about to make some side money, but I give them away by the stacks, I’ll come out and say, “Here’s 30 of them, give them away to your friends or to someone who needs it.” Just like that, all the time! So I make money doing shows sometimes.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

That’s where it’s at.

Dudley Perkins

I might as well sell weed or something. I came to earth with this. When I came here, I drew pictures, I’m an artist, I actually paint and stuff, that’s what I went to college for. So, I came to earth doing that, I didn’t learn that. I don’t know much! So, when I say my message, I don’t get the message from the books that I read, I just go by what I’ve seen and actually I let it flow. You know when you’re in church and the preacher would go on, and that’s when the good sermon popped off? He was flowing. You know in the basketball game, and Jordan got crazy with it? That’s flowing! You got to connect like that with God. It’s just remembering the connection and that’s when all the beautiful stuff happens. What’s that girl’s name?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Akiane.

Dudley Perkins

Y’all know you got a Jesus girl on the planet right now?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

Akiane, she’s crazy.

Dudley Perkins

Have y’all heard of her? Y’all never heard of her?

Georgia Anne Muldrow

She’s a child prodigy painter.

Dudley Perkins

You know some people are born with gifts and stuff. This kid came through the tunnel playing the piano like all the crazy people. Playing classical piano! Kids come through doing that, because they left last time doing that. You bring that stuff with you. This girl came through with a God connect. Picture having that. Completely connected to the divine. That’s her gift. So, every word she says, is of poetry. Everything she speaks on and does, is of the greatest effect. She’ll draw your face as big as this wall without thinking of it at the age of four. She’s 12 years old now, and her poetry is some of the most profound poetry that Deepak Chopra and all them, they can’t hang with this little girl, this blue-eyed blonde-haired little girl. She has no religion in her system, her parents don’t even go to church. They’re tripping off of her. She’s speaking on what God looks like, on humanity, and on abortion, this little kid. There’s tons of them. But not actually with that connect. When you look at her, the holy spirit pops up on your arm and stuff, just by feeling her energy. Yo, that’s the holy spirit, when it pops up on your arm. I’m curious, I’m watching when I go to church for the glow on the dude’s head, if there’s gonna be one.

Go to Common’s show some time when he’s not talking about girls and personal relationships, and he glows a little bit. That’s how he had a number one record out. because his heart is actually open, he’s been building it up for a long time. If you work at something, eventually it’s gonna take form in your life. If you think about it for a long time, you can come and knock over that weight stack – “blam!” Without even thinking about it, by accident even. You can pick things up you never even thought you could lift. You’re opening your heart constantly, even if you’re just playing with it? Eventually, that’s gonna have an effect, which is an open heart. You do the work, you gonna get the effect afterwards.

There ain’t no quick fix, it ain’t happening. I tried it. Quick enlightenment only allows you to fall. When you read all them books and clear your chakras and want everything to be poppin’ off and that I’m gonna get to God quick! You will get there. I guarantee you’ll get there. But if you just made a pact with that moment, you will fall.

It ain’t no fall like, “Wahhhh! I’m falling,” and you’ll be a bum on the street all jacked up and stuff. It’s like the feeling of a friend you’ll miss. And you will know this time that you’ll miss it. It ain’t like just missing it because you just didn’t remember. You’ll remember your friend that you forgot about before, because when you got to that point that was saying hello to your soul and remembering that. And remembering that you were with that thing that brought you here safely, and it’s been with you, but you’ve just turned your back on it. But when you go to that point that heart is completely open, because the books describe it easily, a lot of men can describe it crazy. Tears down the side because the well’s full, and there’s all emotion with it? You’re like, “Why am I crying like this?” You were giving praise for 20 minutes, and you got caught up in it – that’s the knock on the door.

When you don’t follow that knock on the door, say the next day, like, “I just went through that crazy show, or smoke a joint?” There’s the fall. Instantly. And the fall is intense. I smile and joke and laugh, because I’m still in the midst of that fall... The only way out of that fall, say, you fell into a hole that never ends. On the walls of this hole is stainless steel slick walls with oil. You have no fingernails, no clothes, and you’re falling in that. How else will you get out of there? How else will you get out of that?

OK, look at it super-hero style. How would you get out of there? Fly out of there, right? And we know in history, what’s the only way to fly? Wings. So, when you get back on that path, say goodbye, because everyone does get a chance on earth to do this. To do their Jesus walk, their Buddha walk. I had my chance to do this, so I had to give myself a new title, Warrior of Light, because I messed that one up! Next time I get it straight is when I pass.

This is real man, I’m serious! Ask anyone about that stuff, they just don’t put it in that way! I’m saying it from my experience of it. These are my words of it. It not the “thus, thar, thee!” We can’t understand that. That was they autobiographies and experience, you know? Write your own. But when you get to that point, stay there. Please stay there. We need somebody to stay there.

When the mother earth’s in turmoil, it calls out for people like that, and there’s millions of them, there ain’t just one person. There was trillions of Jesuses and trillions of Mohammeds and there still is. There’s a gang of these Buddhas and stuff like that. All over, every one of you is one of them. It’s just the truth of whether you want to get off the ego horse and not be embarrassed by it, because some people tend to get embarrassed by spirituality or something like that. That’s not cool, you go and do it on Sunday and who is me if they see me coming out of the church on Sunday, it ain’t gonna look good smoking weed on the corner with the homies on Friday. We have that little problem with us, you know? So, if we get past that right there, that immediately makes things easier. I’m just talking crazy, man. My bad.

Jeff “Chairman” Mao

We’re gonna wrap it up now, I just want to say thanks to Georgia and Dudley.

Georgia Anne Muldrow

And Chairman Mao!