Hakim Tafari: Music, Mindfulness & The Art of Transformation

Hakim Tafari joins GEMS.From sound system culture in the UK to hip-hop, soul, spiritual jazz, DJing, running, Buddhism, and mindfulness, Hakim Tafari has lived a life shaped by music, movement, art, and transformation.In this conversation, Hakim discusses growing up in England with Jamaican roots, discovering hip-hop, traveling to Brooklyn, DJing, making music, and finding refuge in records, sound system culture, and community.We talk about how music became a path into deeper questions of identity, spirituality, health, healing, and survival.Hakim shares his journey through Rastafarianism, the Five Percent Nation, Buddhism, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, running, trail running, visual art, modeling, and the mind-body practices that helped him rebuild his life.We discuss the spiritual power of music, including Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, spiritual jazz, Black liberation, reggae, sound system culture, and the records that shaped his worldview.In the Drop a Gem on ’Em segment, we discuss Eugene McDaniels, Cal Tjader, Phil Ranelin, Henry Franklin, Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane, Les McCann, RAMP, Lonnie Liston Smith, Rudolph Johnson, Gang Starr, and more.GEMS is a show about beat digging, records, production, and other things.Subscribe for more conversations on music, creativity, records, culture, and the deeper stories behind the artists, DJs, producers, and collectors who shape the sound.Full episode available now.#HakimTafari #GEMSWithShom #GEMSPodcast #SpiritualJazz #HipHop #Mindfulness #Buddhism #SoundSystemCulture #Reggae #SoulMusic #DJCulture #BeatDigging #RecordCollecting #AliceColtrane #JohnColtrane #ALoveSupreme #RunningCulture #MindBodyConnection #TaiChi #QiGong