Asheru, born Gabriel Benn, is an African American hip hop artist, educator, and youth activist. He is widely known for performing the opening and closing themes for the popular TV series, The Boondocks, as well as his pioneering and innovative efforts to forward the Hip Hop Education movement.
Early Life and Beginnings As a Rapper
As a youth, many of Asheru’s musical influences came from a wide range of Hip Hop artists such as Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, KRS-One, Public Enemy, N.W.A., Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, Native Tongues, Pharoahe Monch, and more, as well as the classic Soul, R&B, and Pop records of the 70’s and 80’s eras that his mother used to play throughout the house. At the age of 16, he graduated from high school and attended the University of Virginia, where he finished in 1996 with a B.A. degree in Anthropology. In college he formed relationships with fellow colleagues, a group of like-minded individuals that shared a similar passion for Hip Hop music and the collective Black experience. After college, one of those colleagues, Wes Jackson, founded an independent Hip Hop label, Seven Heads Entertainment, and in 1996 signed its first group, Unspoken Heard, made up primarily of Asheru and Jackson’s older brother, Robert Jackson, also known as “Blue Black". Asheru and Blue Black went on to release a series of 12” singles and EPs, and in 2001 released their first album, “Soon Come”, a critically acclaimed debut, still widely considered a classic in many Hip Hop circles. In 2003, the group released their second album “48 Months”, followed by the “No Edge Ups in South Africa” album, a compilation album of other 7 Heads artists featuring the hit, “Mood Swing” with Talib Kweli.
Asheru, both as a solo artist as well as with the group Unspoken Heard, has gone on to travel extensively throughout Europe, Canada, the US and Japan, performing alongside artists and groups like Common, Mos Def, Jill Scott, Bilal, Ludacris, Edo G, J-Live, Wordsworth, and The Roots, while collaborating and being featured on projects with Hip Hop greats such as Pete Rock, and Jazzy Jeff. His lyrics are categorized by reflection upon the state of affairs of the current-day Black American. Through his music, he demonstrates a desire to improve the attitude of Black people towards liberation through education and self-empowerment. He currently travels with a live band, The ELs, made up of a three (sometimes four)-piece band of accomplished veteran musicians and producers, namely Aquaman, Mr. Hu, and Zo!.
The Boondocks
Most recently, Asheru collaborated with Aaron McGruder to write and perform several songs for the hit TV series, The Boondocks, including the show’s theme song. Asheru’s contribution to the controversial "Return of the King" episode of the Boondocks series helped him to earn the prestigious Peabody Award for Journalism in 2006, making him the first rapper (emcee) to win such an award.
Education
Alongside his career as a Hip Hop artist, Asheru has also served as a teacher within Washington, DC Schools since 2001, specializing in curriculum development and arts-based instruction. In 2004, he went on to earn a Masters degree in Education from National-Louis University. He is the founder of his own community arts organization and independent music label, Guerilla Arts Ink, LLC. As an artist-educator, Asheru seeks to train and provide opportunities for artists of all media to deliver direct training and instruction in the classroom, and currently serves as Director of Vocational Arts at Rock Creek Academy in Washington, DC. He continues to advocate and mentor youth in schools and juvenile detention centers all over the country, with his unique message of promoting literacy as an intervention against youth violence, crime, unemployment, and incarceration.
In 2005, Asheru co-founded Educational Lyrics, LLC, an independent publishing company that creates culturally relevant cross-curricular teaching materials, the first of which being [H.E.L.P., or the Hip Hop Educational Literacy Program'.][1]. In an effort to bridge the gap between Asheru’s two passions -- music and education, H.E.L.P. is a series of supplemental reading workbooks designed to HELP students of all reading levels through the innovative usage of Hip Hop lyrics for critical analysis, multicultural relevance, and effective literacy instruction.
Discography
- Cosmology EP...Unspoken Heard (1997)
- Better/Smiley 12”... Unspoken Heard (1998)
- Jamboree EP ... Asheru (1999)
- Soon Come LP ... Unspoken Heard (2001)
- 48 Months LP… Unspoken Heard (2003)
- Mood Swing 12”... Asheru feat. Talib Kweli & Raheem DeVaughn (2003)
- No Edge Ups in South Africa …Seven Heads Entertainment (2003)
- Black Moses 12”.... Asheru (2005)
- Insomnia Vol.1 LP... Asheru (2006)
- Insomnia Vol.1: Sleepless in Japan…(IMPORT ONLY) (2006)
- Hip-Hop Docktrine: The Official Boondocks Mixtape… Asheru & Dub Floyd(2006)
- 3 Stars, 2 Bars EP… Asheru (2007)
- Insight on Fort Knox Five Album Radio Free DC (2008)
