User:Ppleen/Ppleen/ThaTruth

Tha Truth is a political hip hop artist and left-wing political activist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His lyrics center around human rights, equality, and social justice.

Biography
As an independent musician, Tha Truth has gained most of his fan base through live performances, self-promotion and activism. His choice to operate without major record labels (The Big Four) has allowed him to express many unadulterated views in his music. Throughout his lyrics, he voices his condemnation of poverty, bigotry, government corruption, corporate media, pollution, imperialism, religious fundamentalism, the prison industrial complex, capitalism, jingoism, and colonialism. Angela Davis and historian Howard Zinn were significant influences on his music. This was evident in 2008 when Tha Truth released a musical version of Zinn's renown book "A People's History of the United States," in the form of the singles "The Real History & The Real History Pt. II." These two songs were both included on Tha Truth's CD "Tha People's Music," which was released in 2008. Howard Zinn also made an appearance on this CD speaking in between songs, as did Angela Davis. Artivist MK Asante, Jr.'s book, "It's Bigger than Hip Hop," was another influence on Tha Truth and Asante collaborates on Tha Truth's latest CD "Tha MisEducation of the Masses." Another notable guest appearance on this CD was made by human rights activist Anna Baltzer, the granddaughter of holocaust survivors who now advocates for Palestinian human rights.

Tha Truth has performed at various colleges, benefit concerts, and political conferences and events including the 2008 Green Party National Convention and the 2009 Veterans for Peace National Conference. He has been compared to renown political rappers Dead Prez, who he performed with at The People's Peace Conference in Newark, NJ in 2007. He is also a writer who has written several articles on political issues for independent media organizations such as SleptOn.Com, for which he wrote a scathing critique of the U.S. criminal justice system. His music contains no profanity because of his desire to keep his music and message accessible to people of all ages and to educational and classroom settings. On the day before the 2008 presidential election Tha Truth was interviewed on Temple University radio and spoke of his view that it was more important to eliminate poverty and corruption than to vote for a particular candidate.

Full discography

 * Tha Civil Rights Movement (2006)
 * Tha Civil Rights Movement Part II (2007)
 * Tha People's Music (2008)
 * ''Tha MisEducation of the Masses" (2010)