by Troy Landrum Jr.
Rapper, hip-hop artist, and Emmy Award-winning songwriter Draze released his highly anticipated single “Mazvita” on March 10, along with a sensational music video that showcases the depth and layers that have been permeating in his mind over the last four years.
Continue reading OPINION | With His New Single, ‘Mazvita,’ Draze Builds Toward an Album and a Grassroots MovementThe Morning Update Show — hosted by Trae Holiday and The Big O (Omari Salisbury) — is the only weekday news and information livestream that delivers culturally relevant content to the Pacific Northwest’s urban audience. Omari and Trae analyze the day’s local and national headlines as well as melanin magic in our community. Watch live every weekday at 11 a.m. on any of the following channels, hosted by Converge Media: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Periscope, and whereweconverge.com.
We also post the Morning Update Show here on the Emerald each day after it airs, so you can catch up any time of day while you peruse our latest posts.
#FeelGoodFriday | City to invest in violence disruption | Draze — LIVE Keanna Pickett — LIVE | The Seamoss Boss | Madaraka Festival
by M. Anthony Davis
The Seattle Globalist was a daily online publication that covered the connections between local and global issues in Seattle. The Emerald is keeping alive its legacy of highlighting our city’s diverse voices by regularly publishing and re-publishing stories aligned with the Globalist’s mission.
After success from his last single, “Black Wealth,” that not only accumulated over 2 million views across social media platforms, but launched multiple Black marketplace events that showcased Black businesses nationwide, hip-hop emcee and musician Draze is back with another new single, “Born to Win.”
Both singles will be included in an untitled album set to release this summer. “Born to Win” pays homage to Draze’s Zimbabwean roots with a new sound that he calls “Ancestral Art.”
“Being a Black man, and being from both Seattle and Zimbabwe, it was the merging and the meshing of these two worlds,” Draze explains. On “Born to Win,” these two sounds are merged seamlessly. The track opens with Ngonidzashe, who is Draze’s younger cousin, singing in their native language. His melody smoothly washes over hip-hop drums, before he transitions to English and is followed by Draze who delivers a verse that explores nuances of being a Zimbabwean growing up in Seattle through lines like, “ I remember the third grade them n***** they had waves, I had them beady bees you know the Zimbabwean grade, so they threw shade.”
Continue reading With ‘Born to Win,’ Draze Pays Homage to Zimbabwean AncestryThe Morning Update Show — hosted by Trae Holiday and The Big O (Omari Salisbury) — is the only weekday news and information livestream that delivers culturally relevant content to the Pacific Northwest’s urban audience. Omari and Trae analyze the day’s local and national headlines as well as melanin magic in our community. Watch live every weekday at 11 a.m. on any of the following channels, hosted by Converge Media: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Periscope, and whereweconverge.com.
We also post the Morning Update Show here on the Emerald each day after it airs, so you can catch up any time of day while you peruse our latest posts.
LIVE — Draze | LIVE — Besa Gordon | LIVE — Barbara Nielsen | A look at SAM | The Commitment | #FeelGoodFriday
Continue reading The Morning Update Show — 5/7/21The Morning Update Show — hosted by Trae Holiday and The Big O (Omari Salisbury) — is the only weekday news and information livestream that delivers culturally relevant content to the Pacific Northwest’s urban audience. Omari and Trae analyze the day’s local and national headlines as well as melanin magic in our community. Watch live every weekday at 11 a.m. on any of the following channels, hosted by Converge Media: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Periscope, and whereweconverge.com.
We also post the Morning Update Show here on the Emerald each day after it airs, so you can catch up any time of day while you peruse our latest posts.
#FeelGoodFriday | Councilmember Strauss | LIVE — Paula Sardinas | LIVE — Draze | LIVE — DJ Topspin | LIVE
Continue reading The Morning Update Show — 3/5/21The Morning Update Show — hosted by Trae Holiday and The Big O (Omari Salisbury) — is the only weekday news and information livestream that delivers culturally relevant content to the Pacific Northwest’s urban audience. Omari and Trae analyze the day’s local and national headlines as well as melanin magic in our community. Watch live every weekday at 11 a.m. on any of the following channels, hosted by Converge Media: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Periscope, and whereweconverge.com.
We’ll also post the Morning Update Show here on the Emerald each day after it airs, so you can catch up any time of day while you peruse our latest posts.
Draze Live in Studio | Tragic Night Near Jimi Hendrix Park | Building Black Wealth | CDC Official Recommends Double Masking | Black History on TikTok
Continue reading The Morning Update Show — 2/10/21by Elizabeth Turnbull
Since the Seattle protests began in late May, demonstrators have gathered in front of various police precincts and city buildings to protest police brutality and systemic anti-Black racism. Two protests this summer, including one held two weeks ago, have shifted to focus on the issue of gentrification in general, and on one pot shop in particular: Uncle Ike’s.
On the evening of Aug. 7, a rally organized by the Engage Team, a group of young activists who posted their first rally in July of this year, gathered in front of the pot shop’s newly-opened location on East Olive Way, and marched to the original Uncle Ike’s storefront on 23rd Avenue and East Union Street, in the Central District (CD), calling for a boycott of Uncle Ike’s weed shops and a halt to predatory development.
“The main goal is to pretty much expose gentrification, expose what’s going on and how it’s working in Seattle,” said Peyday, one of the organizers with the Engage Team. “We want to expose the little details of racism that people don’t really understand, and so now we’re trying to expose gentrification as well.”
Continue reading How a Weed Store Became a Symbol of Seattle Gentrificationby M. Anthony Davis
When rapper Dumi Maraire, also known by his stage name Draze, dropped a video for his song “Building Black Wealth” back in February, the world was a different place. COVID-19 hadn’t yet pushed us into three months of quarantine, 33 million Americans still had their jobs, and George Floyd was still alive.
“I put out the song right before COVID hit,” Draze tells me. “It was supposed to be the first single from an album I was about to drop, but as soon as COVID hit, I paused the album. It ended up being a blessing in disguise because the video is now at 2 million views [on Facebook] and it sparked the movement.”
Continue reading Rapper Draze Continues Building Black Wealth With Juneteenth Virtual Marketplaceby Reagan Jackson
(This article was originally published on The Seattle Globalist and has been reprinted with permission)
My relationship to hip hop has always been complicated by my upbringing as a fourth generation black feminist. I love music and great beats, but lately I’ve found mainstream hip hop to be intolerable. Continue reading What the South End Sounds Like: Draze Drops “Seattle’s Own”
by Reagan Jackson
If you haven’t gotten your sugar fix yet, you have a few more days to purchase a “Seattle Sweeties” cupcake from Cupcake Royale. With your purchase of any of the six new flavors, Choco-latte, Vanilla Dream, Chai Cinnamon, Caramel Delight, Lemon Cherry Blosson, and Banana Cream, a portion of the proceeds will go to Runway to Freedom. Continue reading Seattle Sweeties: Cupcakes, Women, Hip Hop, and the Fight Against Domestic Violence
