In honor of Black History Month, Atwood Magazine has invited artists to participate in a series of essays reflecting on identity, music, culture, inclusion, and more.

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Today, Chicago rapper Juice Mazelee shares his essay, ‘Time Is Black,’ as a part of Atwood Magazine’s Black History Month series!

“Emotionally and creatively I can feel stuck,” he says. “Somewhat feeling confined to a linear idea or space. I think what I want the reader to take away from this piece is a different perspective. Time is a moment, a collection of your past, present, and future. People experience moments differently. That’s what I’m expressing here. What time feels like in my Black skin.”

Mazelee has always collaborated with artists across Chicago — including Ifeanyi Elswith and Wyatt Waddell on the debut — and his latest record, HERE NOW N FOREVER,’ features a wide array of Chicago artists from hip-hop to jazz, including D2G, The Third, Rudy P. Magic, Vani Indu, Christopher Robbin’, Chris Greene, and more.

Atwood Magazine previously wrote, “Every song in Mazelee’s arsenal is another deep-dive into the human experience, picking apart what it means to be a person navigating what can too often be a cold, hostile, unforgiving world. And yet, the songs themselves are full of raw passion and the rapper’s own fiery spirit.”

Juice is also an active member of his community, working with local theaters and even meeting former president Barack Obama through Juice’s involvement with the organization, My Brother’s Keeper.

In his essay, Mazelee reflects on time itself – and its relationship with his own Blackness. “This piece is an extension of thoughts that I can’t express through raps,” he shares. “A lot of time I need moments to completely document the current feeling or moment that I’m in. When these moments arrive, I dive into my author bag. This is also an excerpt from a chapter in my book that I’m currently writing, titled ‘HVN AINT HARD TO FIND.’”

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TIME IS BLACK

by Juice Mazelee

Time is reason.

Of course we all struggle with the logic of time and how authentic it really is. Many times I find myself in deep thought about the beginning and the end or how it is imminent for us all yet such a complex topic.

Given what we know about time, it is precise to an exact moment – or at least, what we are taught to believe. Time gives reason to no reason. Time exists so that we recognize the moment. So that we’re to tell someone how old we are, when our birthday is, what time we have to be at work.

Time can be a construct of control. Control we don’t have.

Being a Black artist has given me the ability to create something that exists irrespective of time.

Something I can control with or without the influence of others. I often think of what time means in space.

Pure Blackness, where silence lives; where so many things are happening at the same time. New life, New death, Knowledge of The Known, and Secrets of The Unknown.

For me, time is identical to the Black experience. So again, start this passage with the question, what is time?

My answer is, Time Is Black. – Juice Mazelee

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