AJ420: When The Chickenheads Come Home To Roost
I wish AJ420 aka Ashana Jha, an Asian Indian disabled queer woman rapper had a chance to not only read Joan Morgan’s book, When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down, but be mentored by an older Hip-Hop woman artists. But now it’s too late because of an accidental overdose she suffered on fentanyl, a notoriously dangerous opioid.
I, Leroy Moore, and Tiny of Poor Magazine met AJ420 at Facing Race 2018, a national conference in Detroit. We were already connected on social media when her Hip-Hop album, Different Faces, dropped in that same year. I was excited to know a woman with my disability, cerebral palsy, doing Hip-Hop so when we met face to face at the Facing Race conference we connected at a deep level.
I played her songs on my radio show at Poor Magazine radio station KEXU 96.1 FM East Oakland, CA. In 2019 Krip-Hop Nation decided to put out a CD entitled, Hell Y’all Ain’t Talmbout: A Krip-Hop Anthology of Women, Femmes and Warriors. AJ420 was the first artist we thought of and she was the spotlight artist of the CD release party in Berkeley, CA.
However, like Joan Morgan writes in her book, it’s hard for women in Hip-Hop. I can just imagine what AJ420 had to go through in the underground Hip-Hop scene as a physically disabled Asian woman. What AJ420 faced in the underground Hip-Hop scene is one reason why we created Krip-Hop Nation, but after the cd release party, I lost connection to AJ420. She hit me up on Instagram recently and told me that she moved back to the Bay Area and was houseless, and was trying to stay clean and drug free. She spilled her heart saying she loved what I’m doing with Krip-Hop Nation and considered me a role model. She told me what she went through when she was houseless, things like her laptop with all of her songs on it being stolen, physical abuse, and more.
She was trying to get clean, living with her parents and looking for a music studio to record new songs. I didn’t know how deep her sadness was until I listened to her new stuff on SoundCloud and viewed her last three Instagram videos. I told her that Krip-Hop Nation is doing big things and I wanted her to come to LA next year to perform. She sounded excited but a month later a Facebook friend told me the news of the death of AJ420. I immediately went to AJ420’s SoundCloud page to listen to all of her songs, and her lyrics hit me. She was rapping for help! Yes, at that point it was so clear that she was in pain, and her songs were a chorus screaming for help!
This Asian disabled queer woman needed to read Joan Morgan’s book, When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost. She needed a space that Krip-Hop Nation is working on to open, Krip-Hop Institute, and Krip-Hop teaching, books and support are all working to try and create. The Hip-Hop industry has recently been dealing with mental health. But I wonder if Hip-Hop supported the work that Krip-Hop is doing, would that support help turn the lives of people like AJ420 around faster. I ask because the last words AJ420 said to me over the phone were:
“Leroy, my mentor, I feel better when I’m doing my music. When I was a teenager I first learned about you and I thought you were A hero very good example of inspiration and perseverance. So I’m just blessed that we’re talking and you love my music to dream come true! Can you help me find a studio? “
I finally did find her one, a music studio, but it was too late. I know she was excited about the Krip-Hop Institute and the other work we are doing, and we will continue in her name.
I also did a poem responding to Joan Morgan’s book, When Chickenheads Come Home To Roost to ask where are physically disabled women in Hip-Hop and honoring the life of AJ420, one of Krip- Hop member who had cerebral palsy and a kick ass Hip-Hop artist trying to make it in the underground Hip-Hop scene. Being a woman of color with a physical disability she used to tell me, “Leroy, I still don’t see myself in Hip-Hop.” R.I.P. AJ420. Listen to her music here. We got to do better, Hip-Hop
When Chickenheads Don’t Have A Home
Hey Joan Morgan
Here we go again
I know I’m a man
Please explain
I’m feeling my sister’s pain
They are caught out in the rain
Home is not accessible
Hip-Hop left the table
The ladies of Krip-Hop
Couldn’t even get at the door of Hip-Hop
AJ420 Rest In Peace
“Hope the industry don’t kill me..”
Hip-Hop woman with a disability
Still don’t see it at fifty
When chickenheads don’t have a home
Who can they call on their Obama’s cell phones
Hey Joan Morgan
Here we go again
I know I’m a man
Please explain
I’m feeling my sister’s pain
They are caught out in the rain
Home is not accessible
Hip-Hop left the table
The ladies of Krip-Hop
Couldn’t even get at the door of Hip-Hop
AJ420 Rest In Peace
“Hope the industry don’t kill me..”
Krip-Hop tried to do our best
She was looking fort that nest
But chickenheads still can’t come home
On the streets in her old wheelchair, she roams
Hey Joan Morgan
Here we go again
I know I’m a man
Please explain
I’m feeling my sister’s pain
They are caught out in the rain
Home is not accessible
Hip-Hop left the table
Remember when Foxy Brown went Deaf
Hip-Hop said f####
What was left
Writing on the wall did I say enough
Shout out to T-Boz yes it’s about time
She teamed up with Prodigy
But the industry wasn’t ready
So she wrote it in A Sick Life
For you, physically disabled woman
Hip-Hop, here we go again
Where do chickenheads go
When home is not accessible, after fifty years, we still don’t know
R.I.P. AJ420
