Bustin’ nuts is a lot like bustin’ rhymes. In other words, Rap and porn. Porn and Rap. Whatever combination is chosen, it is a marriage we are somewhat familiar with in Hip Hop. Fanatics of the two domains can catalogue various personalities that have allied themselves in both fields. Icons Kool Keith, Lil Jon, Too Short and Coolio, to name a few, spring to mind. In 2012, Young Money artist Tyga was annexed to list with the launch of his adult site, RackCityXXX.com.
New Jersey native and VIPER Records recording artist Hasan Salaam offers a slightly different perspective on the adult sex industry though. His marked passion for porn is much deeper than chasing a thrill under the guise of a job title. For those familiar with Hasan’s narrative, his aim is an exact facsimile of everything he stands for. He actively seeks to bring about change in every aspect of his life, not just through music. Hasan and his business partner, Jasmine, sat down for an exclusive interview to detail their quest to aid people sexually and personally. Through their famed “Fantasy Flight Parties” the two do more than what may be at first reputed by its title.
Adjacent to his work in the porn industry, his domestic and foreign energies are catered towards the betterment of the people. Among others, The Socio-Political Importance of Black Music in American Society is a self-created lecture Hasan delivers to universities across the country. Meanwhile in his hometown of New Jersey, he works closely with the local community organizing events and activities. In 2010, he became the first American emcee to perform in the West African country of Guinea-Bissau and has continued to help its people ever since. The proceeds of his 2011 release, Music Is My Weapon, helped to fund schools, wells and medical facilities in the remote village of Djati.
And then we get to the music. Hasan’s been navigating the Rap game, independently, for the better part of a decade. He first emerged onto wax in 2004 with the group 5th Column and their project 5th Column Mixtape Vol. 2. Since then, his musical efforts have offered a different perspective on religious-minded Rap, and he is now gearing up for the release of his much awaited studio debut Life In Black And White.
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Hasan Salaam Recalls His Porn Industry Upbringing
HipHopDX: How did you get into the porn industry?
Hasan Salaam: Life. I got kicked out of my house. I got kicked out when I was like 17, and a lot of my peoples were doing all kinds of other crazy shit. One of my boys got locked up for armed robbery, and another bunch of my peoples was selling. I used to sell bud or whatever, but they all stepped up to something else, and I couldn’t do it. My father used to be on that shit, and I saw what it did to my family.
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So, my homegirl used to dance in Philly and she was like, “Yo, these people want me to be in a magazine. Would you do it with me? I don’t want no random guy with his stuff all in my face, so why don’t you do it? I know you crazy, just come do it, right?” So I did it. It was like $400 for one or two hours work, and we didn’t even have sex. It was all insinuation for a magazine. So I was like “$400? Two hours? To just do this? Or shall I stand out on the corner, get harassed by the police, get shot at, locked up, whatever the fuck? It’s a no-brainer to me.” So I wound up getting into that industry for a while.
DX: Was this when you were in Jersey?
Hasan Salaam: Yeah. It was in Jersey… New York.
DX: How did the transition go from insinuation to shows and videos?
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Hasan Salaam: First off, New York is more of a fetish market than Los Angeles. Los Angeles is where they make the movies. But in New York, fetish is really big. I know a lot of women that make a lot of money as dominatrix in New York, ‘cause there’s so many businessmen that want to get their ass whooped and all that kind of stuff. So one of the photographers that I was working with was like, “We know white couples that would pay to watch people such as yourself.” He was like, “Black man, Puerto Rican girl, black woman…whatever.” They were like, “Yo, they will pay just to watch y’all in person,” And that’s how I got into that. It was good money, so I wound up doing that shit for a while.
DX: How much does it pay?
Hasan Salaam: That can go a lot. It usually starts off at about a grand or something like that depending on the time.
DX: Is it at their house or is there a studio?
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Hasan Salaam: A hotel. Sometimes the photographer might want to shoot it up at the studio or something like that, though.
DX: What’s your porn name?
Hasan Salaam: I don’t have a real porn name. My performance name was King Noire.
Hasan Salaam Explains The Evolution Of The “Fantasy Flight Party”
Hasan Salaam: I stopped [doing movies] for mad long because I wanted to do more work with the youth and things like that. So for a while I had stopped ‘cause I was just doing the youth work. But with budget cuts, I wound up getting laid off. Then one of my homegirls was like, “I need a male dancer for my birthday party.” I was like, “Shit, I’ll do it. I need to pay my rent [laughs].”
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And then I wound up meeting Jasmine because of her brother, DJ Victorious. They interviewed me for their radio show, ‘cause Victorious knew I used to do porn, so they had this whole show. It was me and Sinnamon Love, talking about the other side of porn and how it deals with personal relationships or people’s outlooks on you. Then from there, Jasmine was like, “I wanna pick your brain about some stuff.” I said, “You should let me come work one of your parties,” and that’s it. It’s been about two years we’ve been working together now.
DX: So break it down for me. I don’t know anything about these “Fantasy Flight Parties.”
Jasmine: Sure. So let me ask you. Give us your most recent fantasy.
DX: My most recent fantasy? Well I’ve been looking at a lot of married couple porn, so maybe that’s my fantasy now.
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Hasan Salaam: Is it to be with a married couple? Or is it to be married?
DX: Probably to be married these days. Probably. I mean it goes through waves. I feel like you really don’t know what someone’s into until you look at his or her porn history. And that’s what I’m looking at right now.
Jasmine: Do you have a partner right now?
DX: No.
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Jasmine: OK. So for you, we may set up something like a Co-ed Party. Now, we can’t marry you off, [laughs] but we may set up a co-ed party and perhaps do some role-play. So help facilitate role-play between you and your guest. And knowing this about you without maybe necessarily sharing it openly, but creating a scene that you’d be able to be married and show you some different demonstrations in the sex swing or things that married couples would do. We do this thing in the swing where we help couples communicate out an issue that they may have had earlier in the day, and turn it into something very sensual. We teach couples how to take an environment that is very married and family oriented and turn it into their honeymoon all over again. So maybe make your bathroom something that you would invite your wife into and let you act out that role-play. At some point we leave. We just set up your fantasy and we leave.
DX: You just go ahead and walk out?
Jasmine: Yeah. That’s kind of an example of something we would perhaps do for you. They’re completely customized, so it’s hard to say.
DX: And you do it at my house?
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Jasmine: Absolutely.
DX: Word up.
Jasmine: Just to tie into your Hasan Salaam persona as well, your career, and helping people. For Domestic Violence Month and Women’s History Month, we partner with different organizations. We’ve done domestic violence parties to help those women re-explore sexuality from their own, as independent women, not what their partner or their abuser has introduced them to. Then we’ll do parties and we’ll donate our profits to that organization.
DX: How often do you do these parties?
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Hasan Salaam: Two or three times a month, I guess.
DX: How many events have you guys done?
Hasan Salaam: Close to 50.
Jasmine: Yeah, close to 50 in the last two years.
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DX: Do you view working in the sex industry as a career?
Hasan Salaam: I mean, what we’re doing now I do view as a potential career. Besides just doing the parties that we do, we also do physical therapy—training and stuff…boot camps and things like that. Jas is actually about to open up a studio to do Zumba, and I can do boot camps and teach boxing, which is another one of my favorite things to do—anything involving sexual health. You’re not going to have a good sex life if you don’t have a good everyday life. It’s about keeping yourself in shape and keeping yourself healthy.
Hasan Salaam Talks “Life In Black And White” Recording Process & Concept
DX: What are you working on now? Music-wise.
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Hasan Salaam:Life In Black And White. It’s going to be my first album coming out on a label—coming out on VIPER Records. I’m excited. I’ve enjoyed the process of working with Immortal Technique, Southpaw, Ryan Burg, and everybody at Viper. When putting out an album on your own, you have to think of everything and pretty much do everything. With Music Is My Weapon, Raj, from SimplyFlow, helped me with all of that, but now I realize, “Whoa, this shit is great when you have somebody else to help you with shit. I can actually write rhymes instead of sending out emails all day.” So it’s been really good working with them so far, I’m just ready for it to come out. It’s like 80% done.
DX: Contextually, what direction are you going?
Hasan Salaam: It’s really just life music. For all of my albums and people that have been following me from jump, they know that Supreme Mathematics mean a lot to me. My first album was knowledge. The first track on the album I’m talking about The Holocaust, The African Holocaust, the slave trade and how we got here. It’s the foundation of all things. The second album, was working with the kids, and it was all about wisdom. “Children Of God” just had to do with that wisdom and life experience. And this one it’s the understanding. To me, it’s that same thing. I can’t point the finger and say, “You know, this country is fucked up,” without also recognizing the things I can make better in myself…positive changes I can make in myself.
DX: Do you say nigga?
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Hasan Salaam: The only time that I’ll use that word, in music, is when I’m using it as a point like, “White folks in Iowa call each other a ‘nigga’.” Sometimes I will slip, but it’s a word that I prefer not to use, ever.
Additional reporting by Justin Hunte
RELATED:Hasan Salaam Gives West Africa’s Guinea-Bissau First U.S. Hip Hop Performance [News]
