Food for Thought
posted in: Artist Features • Urban
The Thinker: Khalil Ismail
Khalil Ismail may be young, black and from the inner city, but that doesn’t mean his story is one you’ve heard before. While some hip hop artists are content to use their experiences on the mean streets as the only fodder for their music, Ismail transcends his own upbringing to bring other social causes to light. Calling himself ordinary, the Baltimore rapper delivers galvanized hip hop manifestos that are anything but.
On his debut full-length The Calm Before the Storm, he tackles love, war and everything in between. Freedom takes Operation Iraqi Freedom to task. Over keening electric guitars, Ismail unleashes his furor, rapping Is it so different cause the killings overseas / Should we use the word collateral when it’s a human being? Hip-hop is part love song to the genre, part invective against the industry that keeps feeding the masses with fatty acids as if there isn’t an organic alternative that’s good for your heart and tastes even better than the bad did. With too many rappers spitting misogynistic and violent lyrics, Ismail has crafted some serious hip hop you can sink your teeth into. Bon appétit.
