Ask Raoul to describe the essence of his work in a few words, and you’ll get quite an interesting answer: “Poetry & Politics.” No, not necessarily Shakespeare and Trudeau (although he does respect both) – more like 2Pac and Sun Tzu.

“What a lot of people don’t realise is that in its purest form, the essence of Hip-Hop is poetical words with a political edge,” Raoul insists. “I think the biggest mistake someone can make is to judge an entire art form solely on the ‘pop’ style that the mainstream presents – I mean, would you base your whole opinion of female vocalists on Britney over Sade?”

He has a point. Raoul, also known on the airwaves as Deejay Ra, attributes his strong support for Hip-Hop to growing up in New York, where he gained his music “edutainment” courtesy of legendary local emcees like KRS-One and fiery Los Angeles rappers like Ice-T. But it wasn’t until he settled in Toronto to start high school that he made a life-changing discovery.

“I couldn’t believe that Canada had brilliant Hip-Hop artists like Tara Chase and Citizen Kane, who were using both their verbal skills and conscious lyrics to make a difference as well,” Raoul reveals. “That’s when I realised that Hip-Hop had the power to effect people around the world, which is why I chose to dedicate a large part of my life to its survival.”

This “pledge of allegiance” eventually manifested into Raoul becoming the only Media student at Western University to be presented with shows on CHRW 94.7 FM & TV Western before his first school year even started. The Deejay currently known as Ra says it was an offer he couldn’t refuse, despite a few doubts he had about leaving the city he loved.

“Of course I was concerned when I first left for London, considering the huge ‘urban’ community we have in Toronto,” Raoul points out. “But at the same time, I saw it as a chance to help Hip-Hop expand to places it may not have otherwise reached right away – somewhat like Wayne Gretzky leaving Edmonton to promote hockey in Los Angeles, you know?”

And although Raoul hasn’t worked with “The Great One” yet, his Spotlight Radio and TV Specials have received the support of countless other award-winners across Canada and the States: from Russell Peters (“stand-up’s great brown hope”) to Maestro (“Canada’s Prime Minister of rap”) ; from Panjabi MC (“the king of beats”) to Spike Lee’s Huey P. Newton play (“a modern day American revolution”) ; and most recently from Elmore Leonard (“America’s greatest crime writer”) to the Van Peebles’ BaadAsss project (“a turning point in movie history”).

“The Spotlights were first just a way to get the labels’ attention so Hip-Hop shows could come to London,” Raoul explains. “But then I start getting love from some real conscious comics and emcees, along with support from a few ‘political’ TV and film productions – since they were my reason for doing all this from the start, I knew I had to plan something big.”

These inspirational thoughts materialised in Raoul, or Deejay Ra, deciding to put out a CD in order to pay respect to all of his supporters and show the mainstream the amazing potential of combining “Poetry & Politics” with a twist of laughter – entitled, you guessed it, Comedy Meets Hip-Hop.

“The opportunities I got at Western are the reason anyone is even reading this, but I have to keep my eyes on the prize,” Raoul exclaims. “To be on London and Toronto airwaves at once, or perhaps aired across Canada, or even on a station in the States – that’s when I’ll know people are truly ready to help me represent the Hip-Hop nation in its highest form.”

-- Mahatma Gandhi, 1942