"Yes, I'm an extremist. The Black race here in North America is in extremely bad condition. You show me a Black man who isn't an extremist and I'll show you one who needs psychiatric attention"
-- Malcolm X

Paris, a world renowned center of culture, and more importantly, the setting for one of history's most profound upheavals: the French Revolution. Fed up with King Louis XVI's oppressive policies and special amenities for the ruling class, the underprivileged Parisians "bum rushed" the system and seized control of the government, thus establishing their voice. To further solidify their actions, the mob executed the greedy monarch in January of 1793 on grounds of treason.

Two hundred years later, Paris is once again a maelstrom of revolution, discontent, and violent disdain for the ruling class. But today's Paris is a 23-year-old U.C. Davis University graduate with a degree in economics, a career in music, and one hell of a disagreeable attitude. And his solution for affecting the necessary changes in society is no different than that of his French counterparts — to eliminate the problem by executing the "King," who, in this case, is the president of the United States.

"I've always been one for an 'eye for an eye' philosophy," Paris nonchalantly relied when asked about what his influenced "Bush Killa," the controversial song that led to Time Warner's refusal to distribute his Sleeping With the Enemy album. Sitting behind his desk at Scarface records, his own self-distributed label, the intelligent, powerful young Black man whose birth name is Oscar Jackson Jr. seems completely at ease with the radical, impressively articulate ideas he puts forth. Like ice Cube, the most potent indications of his emotions come not from his rumbling baritone but from his penetrating eyes.

"Even though my record is a fictional assassination attempt," he continues in his tempered Bay Area drawl, "it's still a character assassination attempt, something far less serious than actual murder, which George Bush, through his abusive policies, was guilty of."

Tommy Boy records was ready to release the follow-up to Paris' successful 1990 debut The Devil Made Me Do It, but embroilment over Ice T's "Cop Killer" delayed all Time Warner rap projects. Controversial cover artwork — a doctored picture of Paris standing behind a tree waiting to assassinate the former president — and lyrics to "Coffee, Donuts, and Death," a song with homicidal anti-police scenarios, were leaked to various police organizations and to Warner Media Group by an unknown source inside Scarface records. In every meaning of the clichι, the "shit hit the fan," and legal setbacks ground the wheels of production to a halt.

"After meeting on top of meeting on top of meeting in Burbank at Warner Music, when all the hot air passed and everything was said and done, they said Enemy couldn't come out on any Warner subsidiary if I wanted to leave it the way it was.

"Of course I did," he notes with a look of determination, "so I approached Polygram, and they ended up stopping that. So I approached Rick Rubin, who was very supportive, and he started a third label called Sex records, which ended up getting shut down because he's a Warner Brothers Vice President. So Warner's, under contractual obligations, cut me a substantial settlement check, and I used that to secure this building, hire a staff, cover production costs, and get my own label rolling." Paris' train of thought is momentarily deterred by the sounds of his pager, fax machine, and phone buzzing almost simultaneously. To say things are moving quickly at Scarface is an understatement. Try warp seven.

Visiting Scarface records is an experience in itself. Located in the heart of downtown Oakland, the label occupies two suites of a nondescript building on Telegraph Avenue. Perhaps the company's most distinctive feature, especially considering the way the business side of hip hop works, is that the entire staff is Black or Latino. Like Spike Lee's 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Scarface is one case where a politically minded entertainment figure practices what he preaches by actively pursuing Black economic self-empowerment.

"One thing I had noticed from my experiences with Tommy Boy, Polygram, and Def American ," Paris explains, "is that there is a lack of Black control in hip hop. All the time Enemy was getting delayed, pushed back, and censored, there was a lot of anger and determination building up. I was like, 'Fuck this, I'm a do it on my own.'

"Right now, with Scarface, we're under a situation where we don't have to answer to anybody. There's no parent label involved so we're able to determine our own destiny. And if I feel there's something that needs to be heard and nobody else is willing to put it out, then I need to have the means to do things on my own."

As far as the content is concerned, Sleeping With the Enemy is very much the record that Paris wanted to release — and the type that Time Warner avoids like the plague. The rapper is relentless in his attacks on the status quo, whether it's former president Bush on "The Enema" and "Bush Killa," the Oakland Police Department with "Coffee, Donuts, and Death," Uncle Tom sellouts on "House Niggas Bleed Too," or self-inflicted misery from within the Black community with "Think About It" and "Days of Old." His smooth as ice baritone, laced with equal parts of Chuck D's bass and Rakim's resonance, has a way of drawing one in, his words imprinting themselves in one's memory the first time heard. The album's best cuts "Bush Killa," "Make Way for a Panther," "Coffee, Donuts, and Death," "The Days of Old," and "Assata's Song" are where Paris sounds the most impassioned, the words ringing with true emotion, not rehashed rhetoric. Black nationalism and the need for Black people to awaken are a few of the things Paris sees as integral to his social message.

"Contrary to popular belief, political consciousness is not soft," says Paris. "I think it's soft to have a bunch of babies and not take care of them. Or to slap your woman around — that's soft. And a lot of brothers can't relate to that for whatever reason. I attribute it to socialization and the way Black folks have been trained to relate with one another.

"A lot of these problems that exist within our community," Paris continues, "we can reconcile by coming to consciousness. And that's what a lot of the focus of Sleeping With the Enemy is about. There are much more important songs than 'Bush Killa.'"

So what's the obsession with George Bush? Can one man really be blamed for all the Black nation's ills?

"For the last twelve years really, but specifically his four years of term, George Bush had the real power, and quality of Black life decreased — steadily decreased. An ape's as can put two and two together and see that there's a cause and effect thing going on. And if there isn't, well, the end result is still the same — that even if Bush didn't cause them, he didn't do anything to adequately rectify the problems. That being the case, I still have to hold him to blame.

"'Bush Killa' is only a record though. If you're gonna be upset about it, you should be up in arms about many other things that you see in media — police getting shot, murder, presidential assassinations. Shit, get mad at Arnold Schwarzenegger. Get mad at Cannibal Corpse (on Metal Blade records, owned by Warner), who talks about stabbing women and fucking the stab wounds. Don't get mad at me. Everything I say makes sense."

Talk of "Coffee, Donuts, and Death" unearths more interesting points. A track about police's hostile relationship with the Black community, it was inspired by a specific case where a Black Oakland Police Department officer named Bernard Riley raped a white woman and got away with it. At least on this front, the song escapes racial diatribe and ends up becoming statement against cops in general and the way they frequently over exert their authority. When asked if he ever met a cop he liked, Paris gives a response straight from the Black Panthers' "Why I Hate Pigs" handbook.

"Look at it like this," Paris says cynically, his voice raising a notch. "You go to a foreign country in a war. You got your uniform on, they got their stuff on. Under any other circumstances this man you're about to murder could be your best friend. But because he has that uniform on, you've got to view him as your enemy, 'cause you know he's trying to kill you. That's how I feel about police officers when I see them in uniform. By them representing the oppressive arm of this oppressive regime, I have to view them as other than friendly, 'cause I know when they see the black hat and sweatshirt, they're saying, 'I hate this nigga!" It's evident by their actions. They don't know I'm educated or rational; all they see is this one nigga who looks like all these other niggas. So I have to adopt a similar outlook towards them.

"People always say, 'You're advocating the murder of police officers by making these records. Well, nobody asked the cops that beat Rodney King's ass what tape they were listening to. As long as you're cool with me, I'm cool with you. But I have to view to police as enemies until they show me otherwise."

Paris has caught much heat for his less than congenial solutions to problems facing the Black community, but plenty of people support his solutions as well. Sleeping With the Enemy, with no major promotional push, sold more than 300,000 copies, debuting at Number 23 on the Billboard charts. By cutting out the "middle man" — Time Warner — Paris stands to earn more money from his investment while maintaining complete creative control, all making hardcore hip hop much more economically lucrative than the law career he had originally planned on when entering college.

"People are really being receptive to what I'm talking about," Paris concludes with a hearty chuckle, "and that makes me feel good. 'Cause there are much easier ways to make money than to rap about killing the President. I could be dancing with my shirt off and singing, but that's not what I choose to do. It sends a statement loud and clear, a message not only to the recording industry but to the general public that self-empowerment is the way to take care of things."



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