Photo by Jack Grisham
We’re only halfway through, and so far, 2020 has been an emotional one, with an invisible, viral enemy sweeping the globe and painful-but-necessary civil unrest burning in the U.S. and out to the rest of the world.
The one thing that the human race could use right now is a healthy dose of positivity, a hopeful mindset to deal with an unpredictable, and at times, dire situation. Since tossing the punk scene on its head in the late ’70s, Washington D.C.’s Bad Brains have promoted P.M.A or “positive mental attitude” in their electrifying music, transforming a scene that was about violence and vulgarity into one that was about the opposite.
Before Minor Threat, before the Beastie Boys, before Rage Against the Machine, and before a multitude of well-known bands that you love and care about, there was the untouchable Bad Brains who ignited a fire that continues to blaze in 2020 through the immeasurable number of artists influenced by their music.
Bad Brains dramatically terraformed the sonic landscape into a place where you could find hope and happiness amidst the grit and grime of punk rock and hardcore.
While they haven’t released anything since 2012’s Into the Future, legendary Bad Brains vocalist Paul “H.R.” Hudson is finally giving the world some more, much-needed P.M.A with a new children’s book titled I’ve Got the P.M.A! – a partnership with HE Creative, a U.K.-based group of illustrators and graphic designers who have released a number of unique, punk-rock-inspired books.
Appearing as an endearing, younger version of himself, H.R. says that he has wanted to create a children’s book for a long time, a book that would help open young minds to the P.M.A message and philosophy.
“I wanted to do the book to spread P.M.A to younger generations,” H.R. explains about this collaboration for which he wrote the catchy words, and HE Creative created the vibrant illustrations. “The boy of today is the man of tomorrow, making it important for me to write a children’s book because we see the child of today being the child of tomorrow. It is important for me to send joy and blessings, and by putting out this book for the youth, we are doing that together.”
The seeds of this collaboration were planted in 2019, when members of HE Creative met H.R. at Rebellion Punk Music Festival where he was performing. A year later, H.R. reached out to the U.K. group about this project, which is the first in a new series that turns well-known punk songs, in this case, “Attitude,” into vibrant, illustrated books for children.
“We loved the idea of a book spreading the message H.R. has been spreading for the last 40 years—positivity,” says He Creative. “Which, right know, is something everyone needs.”
This idealistic and worthy doctrine infuses all of H.R.’s music, which can be traced back to memorable Sundays at places of prayer, growing up wherever his naval father was stationed.
“As a child I was shy but very driven to music because my father used to take me to church, and it was there, where I was influenced to do good gospel music,” he explains. “Later on, I took those influences and formed a rock band called the Bad Brains.”
Purchase I’ve Got The P.M.A! here.
