"While on a phone call with Bridget Barkan discussing a project we're are working on, she shared with me she had just returned from Zuccatti Park (the epicenter of the Occupy Wall Street Movement) and she'd been playing her cover of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?"

It gave me chills as she desribed the reactions from the people who gathered around her, and the exchange that took place between her and those who listened to her sing her heart out.  My first reaction was of jealousy that they got to hear it live and I didn't.  So to quell that feeling I asked her to let me produce an unplugged version in the studio, once she got to LA from NY.  Ecstatically she agreed.

So I called my songwriting partner from The KAJ, Joel Van Dijk and asked him if he'd be willing to help me lay down a bed of music for Bridget to sing her rendition over.   The recording I produced from that session we decided to make available for free so that anyone could absorb the energy of Bridget being an activist and a native New Yorker, expressing the heart felt question that our Uncle Marvin asked, "what's going on?"                                 
                                                                                                             -By Anas Canon

Inspired by the incredible artist Marvin Gaye and the progressive passionate revolutionaries around the world who dare to ask the question and fight for the answer.   -Bridget Barkan

Produced, recorded and mixed by Anas Canon for Remarkable Current.  www.AnasCanon.com All Instruments by Joel Van Dijk.   www.JoelVanDijk.com

It's what brought you to life, and your living in it
It's flowing through your veins and your swimming in it,
It's the first drum beat and the griots poem, it's the two turntables & the microphone,
It's the perfectly patient, the absolutely urgent
It's the last call, last supper, last sermon . . .

"We made the original CDLU album in 6 days…. This track was one out of 15 that was given to me to chisel out. First, I was happy to do a track featuring Amir because I had been following his work for a while. And I liked the Dub Reggae vibe of the bass. The track instantly placed me in the tropics…some jungle somewhere where fruits grew abundantly, snakes didn’t bite and the women all like exotic flowers “adorned with galaxies, and saturated with the softness of manners…”   If you could only see the picture in my mind!   This song was done IN ONE TAKE. If you listen carefully, you can hear where after the first verse, it's mostly stream of conscious imagery popping up in my head. A poetic freestyle. This was easy because of the pace of the delivery.  My first instinct was to rap in double or triple time on it but. . . . (LOL)"  When I originally told Anas I didn’t know what to do yet on the track, he shrugged and said, “Just talk some smooth sh%* on it.”  I wrote a few lines down and said, “Lets go.”    -Azeem (aka Mark Ultra)

Baraka Blue teamed up with Tyson and 114 from Germany for the video "Come As You Are" shot on location by DJ Anas Canon in Turkey during their tour in 2009, when the Turkish Government invited Remarkable Current to perform twice for their 4th Annual International Orphans' Get Together and tour the country as cultural ambassadors, representing the United States. Their multi-city tour of Turkey for the International Orphans’ Get Together was a smashing success at an oversold 4500 seat auditorium.  The performances aired live on over 145 TV channels and 53 radio stations across Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa. The tour also included visits to Parliament and meetings with the Ministry of Culture.  In between the performances, RC artists were sent on outings with the orphans and visited schools for workshops in several cities.

"What I noticed about Azeem, aka Mark Ultra (of Creme De La Ultra), while on tour in Tunisia, was his uncanny ability to blend into any scene and appear to be a local.  Whether he was kicking it at one of the beach front resorts on the Mediterranean, chilling in the staff lounge at the Radio Mosaique, or having a cup of tea in one of many sidewalk cafés, he always looked like he belonged.  And somehow when rapping on stage in front of a zillion kids who were practically slam dancing as he whipped them into a frenzy, beneath the blaring rock-star stage lights . . . he belonged there too.  Where ever he goes, there he is.  I dig that about a person."  -Tracy Curry, Hip Hop Ambassador's Tour Manager (and often photographer & videographer - except when Logan Grime is on the scene)

"The Tunisian artists were like brothers from day one. So recording the song felt like any other day in the studio-really. It wasn't until I heard the finished song [A Young Man's Spark] a month later that I realized what a unique and powerful moment it actually was.  We made history..."    -Azeem 

“The song “A Young Man’s Spark” represents, for me, the best tribute from the American people and its artists. When we were in the studio recording the song, in spite of all the stress, I felt really proud and honored that Remarkable Current was here among us showing solidarity with the Tunisian people. It is really absurd to say it, but I felt more recognition and friendliness in Anas Canon singing the Bouazizi song’s verse than the whole congress and President Obama applauding our revolution.  This the message that RAP should convey and people-to-people diplomacy is the key for an eternal friendship between the Tunisian and American people.”    -Achref Aouadi, iWatch Tunisia [NGO]