Don’t Sleep On will.i.am’s Artist LGP Qua. His Video Is Eye-Opening

will.i.am has a proven ear for talent. Outside of his 2000s uber-success with the Black Eyed Peas, Will has taken Pop acts up the charts while piloting resonant songs for Hip-Hop mainstays Too Short, Talib Kweli, Nas, and The Game. In 2018, the Peas (now will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo) released the video to “Street Livin’.” Meanwhile, the group front-man has been focusing on his Hip-Hop comic book animation series Masters Of The Sun: The Zombie Chronicles and building his iam Media Group.

One of Will’s newest signees, LGP Qua, continues to demonstrate aggressive rhyme skills in his politically charged raps. After freestyle videos and covers of political Rap anthems “Fight The Power” and “Self Destruction,” the 23-year-old Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native (born Quidere Johnson) has a video with will.i.am in the same vein titled “Insomniac (Woke).” It is the first single from his upcoming mixtape, The Voice Of The Youth. 

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The song has a pounding bass drum and a melodic, jazzy woodwind sample to make the track ascend. In the visual for the song, it opens with a dictionary definition of the word “insomniac” to stand behind the song’s theme to stay woke during the political unrest in our society. will.i.am sings the sobering chorus and walks beside Qua through Skid Row in black-and-white imagery.

Qua jumps out with his bellowing voice first on “Insomniac (Woke)”: “Shout out to the Eagles we did it, we brought the ring back / So when I tell you change gone’ come, better believe that / Go get a diploma, youngin’s say, ‘I don’t need that’ / He’d rather grip a .30 / Rob a ni**a with a ski mask / Streets is where the good die young, man, it’s sad to say / Just graduated Friday, got killed Saturday.”

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After Qua completes his verse and exclaims his support for political figures like NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Will drops science about the oppression and rampant political apathy in Black America: “We went from moving African oxes to affirmative action / It’s apparent they hated our parents because of their black skin / I question our actions and ask what are we doing? / Our ancestors pass on a fight that we aren’t pursuing / We went from Blacks chained up to Blacks locked up / The cops train on our block to get us all shot up.”

Despite will.i.am’s superstar status, he and Qua offer a striking portrayal of what’s really going on “behind the front” of America on “Insomniac (Woke).”

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Photograph by Ural Garrett.

About Ready Or Not: “Ready Or Not” is Ambrosia For Heads’s platform for showcasing new videos and having you, the people, decide whether they are ready for primetime. Each week, AFH will showcase music from artists on the verge, looking for their seat at the table among Hip-Hop’s elite.