What would you do if you were holed up in a foreign embassy, pursued by international authorities to answer for a string of offences overseas? Lay down some sweet ryhmes of course.
Which is exactly what Julian Assange has been up to, founder of the infamous Wikileaks which leaked to the media some embarrassing diplomatic cables from the US, as well as some pretty classified information coming out of the war in Iraq.
Assange is currently living in the Ecuadorean embassy in London as a means to escape the authorities who are literally waiting at the front doors for the chance to nab the 41-year-old Australian. He walked into the embassy almost a year ago to the day seeking asylum to avoid extradition from Britain to Sweden over questioned over alleged sex offences.
Wikileaks and Assange have maintained that the Swedish charges are a stitch up just to get him into custody so that he can be extradited to the US and prosecuted over his involvement in the leaks of sensitive US government data.
Ecuador did grant Assange asylum, but Britain have so far refused to allow him to leave the embassy, leaving him stranded. Spending the countless hours now on his hands under a self-imposed house arrest, Assange has been hanging out with political Puerto Rican band Calle 13 and has plans to work on some music of his own.
“We are making an interesting song about the new politics as a result of internet and media distortion,” Assange told News Limited in an interview at the embassy over the weekend. “It is the most popular Latin American political group and they come from Puerto Rico, which has had its problems with the US.”
Indeed, Calle 13 have gained notoriety through out Puerto Rico over the past decade since releasing their controversial song ‘Querido F.B.I.’ (Dear FBI), a song written and released in a day following the killing of the leader of a Puerto Rican Revolutionary group during a raid at his house lead by the FBI.
Angered by the FBI’s action, frontman Residente wrote a song about what happened and asked his record label, White Lion, to allow them to release the single about thirty hours after Ojeda’s killing.
Public controversy about the song’s lyrics ensured immediate attention from mainstream media in Puerto Rico and gave the band instant rise to local fame. Off the back of their success, Calle 13 released its eponymously titled debut album in 2005.
Since then the group have gained success throughout Latin America. For their work, the group has won nineteen Latin Grammy Awards. They hold the record for the most Latin Grammy wins. They have also won two Grammy Awards.
The former computer hacker did not offer any more details of the collaboration, but it isn’t the first time he’s tried his hand at music. Assange appeared in a cameo in 2010 shortly after the cable leak for Melbourne-based Rap News, laying down some sweet rhymes of his own.
