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About Jackson
…testing the limits of journalism – one story at a time.
Since the death of his mother in August of 2009 and since the demise of the news website MENASSAT(dot)com (English Editor, 07′-09′), Jackson has returned to his roots – embracing hip-hop and (African-influenced) soul music in the Middle-East. Archivist, storyteller, reporter, filmmaker and music selecta with the Beirut Groove Collective - Jackson has been organizing and writing about hip-hop and its musical predecessors for nearly 20 years — from Durham, NC to Los Angeles to Houston to New York City to the Balkans and now the Arab world.
In 1996, Jackson co-founded the groundbreaking Los Angeles-based production company – Working Class Productions - with the left coast’s most gifted purveyor of soul music – Carlos Niño.
From 1996 – 2000, Jackson and Carlos put together some of the most seminal musical collaborations in LA-history – inter-generational events bridging the divides between hip-hop culture and the elders that made them – jumbled in with the new soul springing up in between. Think: Horace Tapscott, Billy Higgins, Pharoah Saunders, Gil Scott-Heron, Brian Jackson, Gary Bartz, Les McCann, Eugene McDaniels, Derf Reklaw, Dwight Trible, Kamau Daáood, Terry Callier, Phil Ranelin, Charles Owens, Jessie Sharps, Dr. Art Davis, Leon Mobley, etc. hip-hop generation DJ Prince Paul, The Original Scheme Team (Divine Styler & Cokni O’Dire), Saul Williams, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, DJ Nu-Mark, Abstract Rude, Aceyalone, The Beat Junkies (J-Rocc, DJ Babu), Anti-pop Consortium, BLK Sunshine, Rob Smith, Mike Ladd, Sonic Sum, Huge Voodoo, and the beat goes on…
Although Jackson turned to journalism full-time late in 2002, he has maintained his connections to this soul and hip-hop past. Since the Spring of 2006, he’s lived and worked in Beirut as an editor, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He’s currently working on a book about the rise of Arab hip-hop in the Middle-East and the Diaspora, and has spent the last four years in Beirut focusing particularly on the 961 (Lebanese) hip-hop movement.
In 2010, he completed a 15-minute documentary film with Lebanese filmmaker Siska (edited by Wissam Charaf) about two young rappers from the Palestinian refugee camp south of Beirut – Bourj al Barajneh. The film – Life from the BBC – is about the group I-Voice and their struggle to find a backup power generator at their home studio in the camp.
Life from the BBC premiered at South by Southwest Music Festival in March 2010 and was an official entry at the Houston Palestine Film Festival in May 2010 and at the Human Rights Film Festival in Beirut, January 2011. It continues to travel and affect those that know nothing about this burgeoning musical resistance movement in the Arab world.
IN THE NEWS
Since launching the site over one year ago, Beats and Breath has been featured in publications like The National, The Guardian, The Daily Star (Lebanon), The Wall Street Journal and several regional events/culture websites. Television and radio appearances include interviews for CBC, France5, Re-Volt Radio, Pacifica Radio, Free Speech Radio News, Future TV (Lebanon), and Murr TV (MTV).
To inquire about interviews or for questions about stories posted on this site, please contact site administrator: jacksonallers@gmail.com
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