LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts/ Miles High Productions) - Guerilla Black's grandfather used to say, 'Be fast to listen, and slow to speak,' and
Black (born Charles Williamson) has seen and heard a lot during his life. With the release of
God Bless The Child , he is ready for us to listen because he's got a lot to say about God, the hood, and the miracle of life.
As he watched his son come into the world he says he saw the light, and at that moment the words 'God bless the child' became a sort of mantra for Guerilla Black. This event made him reflect a great deal about his own childhood and how his legacy would affect that of his newborn son.
Born in Joliet, Illinois, young Charles never got to know his father very well because Pop was serving time in prison. At the advice of a close relative his mother moved him and his brother out to Los Angeles where life was challenging for the small family. They spent those first rocky years living in various homeless shelters while Mom worked to get a roof over their heads. Finally she established a home in the Watts section of Los Angeles known as Compton.
Falling asleep to the rhymes provided by Compton lyricists such as N.W.A and New York rapper Rakim, Charles idolized the street heroes of Rap and always dreamed about success as a rhyme-slinger, but after several false starts in his attempt to build a Hip Hop career he wound up settling for a regular job. He was content to live the life of a working man but after the death of his wife from a bout with meningitis, G.
Black was at serious odds with the world. That's when his younger brother came to him with some advice � Get back into rap and follow your dream.
With sales of his debut record Guerilla City (Virgin) topping 300,000 copies,
Black has found a sizable audience, and for this latest release he has teamed up with Hip Hop artist/producer Big Hollis and Executive Producer Dolla Figga. The twelve tracks on this album are founded on heavy beats with a touch of soul folded in to complement Blacks poetry and prose. He doesn't write his thoughts, but writes his heart, and now he is ready to pass along some of his personal experience on his new CD,
God Bless The Child . 'Pay close attention to this shit that's about to go down,' he says, 'I'm one of y'all!'
