#Humans of Hip Hop

[pwh3]

Harlem, 125th Street, August 13th, 2023. Instagram: https://instagram.com/pwh3_ig

[useless-catalanfacts]

The rap singer Valtònyc (wearing dark green in the first photo) has returned from exile. It's the first time he steps in his homeland Mallorca in almost 6 years.

He was sentenced to 3.5 years of prison because when he was 18 years old he wrote a song where he criticized the Spanish monarchy and uploaded it to YouTube. He wasn't famous and his most listened song on YouTube had 8,000 views, but in Spain it's a crime to say "injuries against the crown", and the laws are often applied more harshly against national minorities (Valtònyc is from the Catalan Countries). His song was found and he had to go to trial over it, and was sentenced guilty of the crimes of injuries against the monarchy, praising terrorism, and threats.

Valtònyc refused to accept the so-called "justice" of the Spanish judicial system, so he decided to escape. He managed to sneak to France unnoticed by the police, and went to Belgium, where there was already a community of Catalan people on exile for their political involvement in the Catalan independence process. He has lived on exile in Belgium these last 5 years and a half.

Had he come back to any Spanish territory, Valtònyc (same as the other exiles) would have immediately been jailed. In fact, Spain issued an international order of extradition, demanding Belgium arrest him and send him to Spain to be imprisoned. But the Belgian courts found that these kind of cases should be allowed under freedom of speech and, instead of sending Valtònyc to Spain, Belgium got rid of their own law that punished "injuries against the crown" as a crime. With no Belgian law to punish him, he was allowed to stay in Belgium. This is a similar process that had happened with other Catalan exiles, who Spain has demanded be extradited multiple times but Belgian law has protected for human rights and freedom of speech reasons.

By the way, the song that got him sentenced to prison had been a commission from the Spanish politician Pablo Iglesias (leader of Podemos, the left Spanish party) for his TV show La Tuerka. Valtònyc has explained that Iglesias never called him, never showed any solidarity nor interest in his case. Iglesias was vice-president of Spain during Valtònyc's exile.

The crimes expired six months ago, meaning he can no longer be imprisoned for it. However, the Spanish courts did not notify him of it (as they should have done), so his lawyer and him just found out.

After saying goodbye to other Catalan people on exile in Belgium, who are not allowed to come back yet (in the photos, shared by Valtònyc on his Twitter, he is saying goodbye to the politicians Lluís Puig and Carles Puigdemont), he has come back home.

He was welcomed by 200 people in his hometown. He has thanked all the people who helped him and showed solidarity. He also reminded that Pablo Hasél (a rap singer from Catalonia) is still in prison for the lyrics of his songs and the contents of his Tweets, sentenced guilty of injuries against the crown and praising terrorism. You can read more about Pablo Hasél's arrest in this post, and an explanation of the tweets and lyrics that got him sentenced in this post.

As we celebrate Valtònyc's return, we cannot forget that Spain has repeatedly ranked number 1 in the whole world for country that sent the most musicians to jail for the content of their music, in 2018 and 2020. By the way all the 14 rap singers condemned to prison for their lyrics were Catalan (Pablo Hasél and the 12 members of the band La Insurgencia from Catalonia, and Valtònyc from the Balearic islands), not one of any other culture group or from any other area. Curious, 100% of the sentenced, when the population of the Catalan Countries is less than 29% of the population of Spain. Wonder why!

[soupy-sez]

Salt-N-Pepa, Hilversum, Netherlands, 1988, © Paul Bergen

[ogrodytoprawda]

Najbardziej niebieska woda zawsze tam, gdzie nie pływamy

Kukon-bezludna wyspa

[therealmackenson10]

Please check out my latest track now streaming on Spotify.

Mr. Mack- Planet Earth

Is there hope for humanity? I'm trying to find it in myself to conquer this insanity.

Is it genocide if it’s done right before our eyes?

We can’t hear those mothers and fathers cry.

[blogalahezy]

ALL KAPS PLZ

[tha-wrecka-stow]

You Can Find The Original Version -> Here

[musicmattersmedia]

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[my-memories-cruddy]

[s3znl-gr3znl]

hmmmmmmmrrrggggwehhhhh amron corb braingworms

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[bodrewritten]

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[lasvegastrillgod]

In this time of weirdness why not just be you. We might die or we might live. But I’m still gonna fight for what I believe and love.

[ogrodytoprawda]

A czy Pani jest dziś wolna, dla mnie?

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Working a 9 to 5 pays the bills but it also sucks so much energy out of me from complying to that schedule that I spent my two weeks of vacation confined to my home and refusing to see anyone so I could just recharge.

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