In the fall of 2008, Khari decided to move to Ottawa, back to where he had spent half of his childhood, but also a place where his rap persona "Conspiracy" had developed along with his twin-brother "Mindbender" and a group of like-minded friends who made music under an umbrella crew called the Nextraterrestrials.A couple of months after moving, having been off government imposed medication in Alberta, he started to "go over the edge" so-to-speak. He had trouble holding down some jobs and had worn-out his welcome with some relatives in Ottawa, so he decided to move to Toronto (where he continues to reside, we see each other often). At some point after coming back to the city of his birth; he was profiled at a local mall by security who tipped off the TTC. These officials subsequently handed him over to the Toronto Police Service who booked and sent Khari to the Don Jail (his second "visit"). At the jail, authorities and probably his duty-council realized that this ominous Jamaican fellow had more issues than criminal delinquency. He was sent to a psychiatric ward at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital and spent a few weeks there getting straightened out.
The following is the original English version of a little piece I submitted to a Czech hip hop magazine, courtesy of my friend Lukas who translated it and posted it up on their website. If you can read or speak "Bohemian" you can have a look at that version here, otherwise read on...
Conspiracy - The Ol' Dirty Bastard of Canada[Note: Lukas went with the title of a piece Mindbender wrote about his brother at roughly the same time]
Khari “Conspiracy” Stewart is a rapper from Canada who is part of the Supreme Being Unit (S.B.U.) a group that includes his twin brother Mindbender. In the late ‘90s, S.B.U. gained notoriety for two albums they released: The First Great Pyramid and Mental Reverse/Spiritual Rebirth. Riding on the popularity of underground hip hop and his work, Conspiracy traveled across the country, making contacts with other underground cats and continued to build an underground following.
By 2000, Conspiracy was living in Vancouver where his hedonistic lifestyle finally caught up with him. The situation became so dire that Conspiracy’s mother asked him to come home to Edmonton – a place where he had already spent most of his childhood and where she thought he would be removed from the drug culture that threatened him. It was in this humble northern Alberta city where I met Conspiracy and where The Mars Project saga began.
My experiences with Conspiracy began in the Edmonton rap scene years ago through Max Prime. Conspiracy was an official member of a local crew of rappers the Low Budget Affiliates (L.B.A.), which include: Max Prime, Chris Plus, Add-Vice, Chaz, DJ Nato and DJ Weez-L. When Max Prime and I began working with each other, he schooled me on Conspiracy, introducing me to songs L.B.A. had recorded with him. He also linked me with Conspiracy’s first solo project: Screw the Underground I’m Going Commercial. The sound quality of the recording was rugged, but listenable and it blew my mind – I could hardly believe that this album was produced in my city. Conspiracy was no longer the anonymous shadowy figure at the back of the club, but a creative genius of the highest order. With every show he did and every conversation we had and every poorly recorded mix tape I bought from him, I began to realize that Conspiracy was a unique individual outside of his rap endeavors.
In the summer of 2007 I had started writing more extensively for Ugsmag. Conspiracy had unexpectedly separated from L.B.A. and at the same time, declared that he was finished performing his songs live. I knew that something was awry, but I would never know the full extent of his issues until I interviewed him. In a surprisingly candid conversation, I learned of his excessive tastes in extra-curricular drugs and a possession by the pervasive, intergalactic consciousness named Anacron. The Mars Project is an extension of this interview – a short film I produced that focuses on Conspiracy’s music career and his “metaphysical, magical” experiences.”
According to Conspiracy, during the summer of 1997 he picked up a book called The Necronomicon (said to have been written by the occult author H.P.Lovecraft) and claims to have been cursed by it. While it is true that an ancient and dangerous book called The Necronomicon had been referred to in his literary works, Lovecraft never actually penned a physical version of this mystical piece of literature (although purported versions are sold in bookstores and specialty shops). Despite the apparent and refuted existence of a Necronomicon, Conspiracy continues to believe that this book ushered the possession by Anacron and other spirits into his mind. He describes himself as a medium to these “prank-caller” phantoms and claims that he needs to achieve full “illumination” to properly fight these psychic intruders.
Regardless of whether you believe in these supernatural phenomena or write them off as the tendencies of a lunatic, Conspiracy’s perception of them are very real and have interfered with his life for over a decade. Western medicine has diagnosed him as suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenic disorder – a diagnosis that would be hard for anyone to swallow. Anacron is as real to Conspiracy as the words on this page appear to you, so one can only imagine how difficult it would be for him to simply shed away these spirits as mere problems of perception. With this said, Conspiracy continues to produce music – though I think the belief in Anacron has been a mitigating factor in his recent output. However, with the proper resources and prodding, he can and will produce. Sex is the Key to Immortality is a reflection of Conspiracy’s will to fight these demons through his creativity, but it is also the result of hard work and ingenuity on the part of Chris Plus as well as the rest of the L.B.A.
In order to fully and capably understand Conspiracy, you must resolve yourself to the fact that no one can truly understand the man. He is clever, surprisingly calculating and he has an uncanny ability to warp any shreds of truth into beautifully descriptive fables that you want to believe. I suspect this is a circumstance of a brain that Conspiracy has had difficulty harnessing and one that is especially sensitive to the chemicals he puts into his body. He has been the victim and the beneficiary of this mind and I believe that his views are an intrinsic part of his character. As debilitating as it may seem, his mind has been inspiration for so much that I think it is irresponsible to write him off as another loon or crack-head. While his symptoms are indicative of a condition that our medical establishment calls Schizophrenia, underneath these vestiges of insanity lie an intelligent and imaginative human being. Conspiracy – like all of us at one time or another – has strayed down uncertain paths. I have no idea what the solution is, but I do know that it has to come from within Conspiracy. He has yet to make an outward and sincere effort to make changes or admit that he has problems, but I hope his most recent stay at the psychiatric ward at Saint Michaels Hospital in Toronto will set him straight.
- J.B. May 2009
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