On July 25 2011, Claudia Garcia-Rojas, AREA Chicago contributor, interviewed Libyan-American emcee Khaled M regarding the parallels between his father’s political refuge from Muammar Gaddafi and his own naissance into a unified anti-Gaddafi community. While the depth of his experiences sparked his involvement in the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL) and Enough Gaddafi, it does not completely define his persona. Khaled M is also a socially conscious artist with a strong lyrical dexterity that moves full-force. What follows is the last of three interviews.

In an interview with Rap Review you mention being a part of National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NAFL) and Enough Gaddafi. Does this work inspire your art, such as your lyrics?

Definitely! The National Front for Salvation of Libya was formed decades ago and it was the first main opposition group. I grew up listening to these songs - Libyan songs - that our parents had made. My father was a poet. Another good friend of mine, [his] father was a singer. Another one was on the keyboard. Another one played the [inaudible], which is similar to a [Spanish] guitar. I didn’t think much of them when I was a kid. All of this was normal growing up because that’s what I knew. Looking back and listening to these songs that I heard in the 80s and they’re all about freedom and struggle, and these were mostly members of the NFSL, really influenced me.

Even on a subconscious level, I draw a lot of my experiences from those organizations. I draw inspiration from them in my music. It taught me about what type of person I wanted to be.

This is a group of people that were very affluent back home. They were generals in the army; they were lawyers; they were doctors; they were teachers. They sacrificed everything. They haven’t seen or spoken to their families. They came here. All of us were poor. Nobody had money. At fist everybody was working for a magazine that was a part of the [NFSL]. My father was the editor. They started driving cabs and being bus drivers and bussing tables. These are old established people from back home but they made strong sacrifices. And none of us had money growing up, but I had a happy childhood. Had an amazing childhood! It really taught me to always stand for principle and when you do something, do it to really check your motives. Do whatever you do based on your true desires and true inspirations and don’t do it for financial gains or financial means. That’s helped navigate me through the music industry.

In the same interview you state that you don’t consider yourself “a political artist, or a conscious rapper” and that you make music that is a reflection of you at the time. However, your lyrics tend to reflect the struggles of people and liberation. Has your perspective changed?

I feel like both of those are labels that are thrown on people. The label makes the music seem contrived. I don’t go into a song consciously trying to make a point about this or that. I draw on my experiences and I try to offer a piece of myself, in my music. Naturally, if I feel a certain way about what is happening in this country or about police brutality then I’m going to do it, but I never aimed for that niche.

The first overtly political song that I made was “Can’t Take Our Freedom,” which coincidentally, became my most popular song. It just turned out that way. I would say before then it wasn’t always overtly political or conscious, but at the same time, I don’t shy away from it or shun it. It’s basically that my music is an artistic expression of me, my thoughts, my beliefs, so naturally, that’s going to come out in the music. I feel like I am a songwriter as well. I think I can make songs. I was ghostwriter for a long number of years. I feel when people say political rapper there’s this stigma that they’re lyrical but they can’t really make songs and they can’t make hits for the radio and I feel like I can do that. I make my music in a manner where people that are really into good lyrics and good content are going to gravitate towards it. The real hip hop heads and the people that like political, subversive music; at the same time, its catchy and there’s a nice flow, nice beats to where casual fans can really gravitate towards it.

It’s not just about me being boxed in but I don’t want to exclude certain fans. You put yourself in this political rapper box and you find yourself preaching to the choir a lot of times. I don’t really want that. I don’t want just Libyans listening to my anti-Gaddafi music. I want your everyday running-of-the-mill people that may not be exposed to certain things going on in the world to become exposed through music. And at the same time, I just want people to listen to good music and have fun.

Growing up I didn’t only listen to political or conscious music, I just cared that somebody was talented. Sometimes somebody would be really talented. They might not have been talking about much but I respected their art of writing and putting a song together. At the end of the day, that’s what I would want people could say about me: “Khaled is a really talented songwriter , [has] lyric ability and he can put together catchy songs that we enjoy.” You can be a political rapper and not be a good rapper and make horrible music but you’re really talking about good things, and I definitely wouldn’t want to be that.