The Kids Are All Wrong

Zaki Ibrahim, or ZakBird as her father (Bush Radio pioneer, Zane Ibrahim) calls her, just released her new album, Every Opposite. One of the joints theblagg loves on the Iqra/Motif Records offering is Kids Are Talking. We asked her how it came about and she said, “It’s like a childhood experience, you know. On the playground when kids are telling you who you are. Here, I say the kids as in the masses. They’re the ones telling you what you are, what’s wrong with you, why you don’t belong. The whole world revolves around ‘kids’ talking. I remember when I was younger and I was complaining to my mom, who is a caucasian woman, about a kid who’d made a racist comment about me. Kids would call me ni99a and paki and just navigate in an ignorant environment. [My mom] didn’t know how to deal with what I was telling her, I guess, and she said that the kids were just jealous of me. I was like, the kids aren’t jealous! But then she told me to not be afraid of how much love I have inside. To stop listening to what people say. So the song is about that and also about how you can’t hang on these things. Remember your identity as a child of God and a person who can rise above and you’ll be a beautiful human being.”