Bambu, who’s also a community activist who works with youth and whose music strives to end violence on the streets, has had critics question the message of this defiant “fuck authority” anthem. We followed up to get his take on the song:

“When, especially in my/our communities, we're being violently attacked on a daily basis, I advocate for armed self-defense and I stand by the phrase, ‘An eye for an eye.’ I think for too long we've been nice. We've been clinging to ’the dream’, but the enemy ain't playing that game. So the song, at a glance, does sound like we're putting ourselves on the offensive front, but really, the song is about just doing something (marching, rallying, etc.) -- the same as with the "gun" reference in the Native Guns name, It's time we stand up and fight the fire with fire. Sounds cliché and corny, but I do believe it's necessary. We have a whole lot of unity, love and peace songs, and not enough "let's get our freedom" songs.”

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For folks in the Bay Area,Kiwi, the other voice of the Native Guns, will celebrate the release of his new project, The Summer Exposure Mixtape, at Poleng Lounge tomorrow night with One Struggle, Praxis Rock and DJ Phatrick. More info about the event here,

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And last but not least in hip-hop news, the Seattle-based duo Blue Scholars, which consists of Filipino emcee Geologicc and Iranian producer/DJ Sabzi, dropped their second full-length album, Bayani, yesterday. We review the album in our upcoming issue, but why wait to read the review? Why not listen to their music on their myspace page and judge for yourself? (If “North by Northwest” doesn’t make your head nod, then clean out your ear wax.)