High Decibels in Superbowl Ad

Smack in the middle of the 2009 Superbowl’s high drama 4th quarter, 100 million viewers were treated to a blast of the High Decibels’ “That Dude” Check out the commercial here:

“Sphere of Summer” (Bud Light Lime)

High Decibels #6 on CMJ Hip Hop

In advance of its release next week, the High Decibels’ debut album has reached a chart position of #6 on the CMJ Hip Hop chart!

High Decibels Review: “The Second Coming of Schoolyard Funk”

New, awesome reviews of the upcoming High Decibels album:

Okayplayer “The High Decibels” ”I was caught unawares by their simple-but-striking visual style, care-free but conscious true-school-isms and rootsy Blues-Rock riffs.  I couldn’t help but admire the way they simultaneously practice ’90s Rap revivalism while paying tribute to proto-Rock Rhythm & Blues and the Rock & Roll and Soul revues of yesteryear.

SF Weekly “Miss Cindy”: “This awesome track ‘Miss Cindy’ is straight up early days of Beck … everything from country rock to hip-hop to Zeppelin blues and hard funk.”

Pensatos “Miss Cindy”: “Gliding from hip-hop and rock to blues with frightening ease is the second coming of schoolyard funk in the form of Oakland trio HIgh Decibels”

Duke going to National Slam Poetry Finals

 

Duke is slammin'

Duke Johnson, lead MC of the HIgh Decibels, will be going to the Slam Poetry National finals in Madison, Wisconsin, August 5-9.  Better known as Dre in his poetry circles, he had consistently been at the top of the San Francisco rankings all year, but had to prove his mettle at the San Francisco finals in order to go to the nationals.  He did.

from the bookshelves

I was sort of excited to see a small wave of what seem to be hip-hop theory books hitting the shelves, but the reviews coming in have sort of changed my mind… The first one that caught my attention was All About The Beat: Why Hip-Hop Can’t Save Black America by John McWhorter.  

The LA Times gave this snippet:

Finally McWhorter asserts that “being art, especially popular art, hip-hop is automatically disqualified from being meaningfully political.” If this were true, the specifics of McWhorter’s musings would be irrelevant — even to him. Why write a book detailing the case against a particular form if you believe no art can be political? Why not do something else with your afternoon?

They end with a zinger:

For McWhorter, hip-hop may be all about the beat, but only because he isn’t listening. 

The Boston Globe gives a rundown of All About The Beat next to Party Crashing: How the Hip-Hop Generation Declared Political Independence by Keli Goff, revealing the latter to be more about the political affiliations of hip-hop lovers than the politics present in the music.  The Globe points out the point that both books are missing:

What does it say about the political impact of the hip-hop generation that the Democratic nominee is not only African-American but evidently fluent in hip-hop culture, and able to craft a message that speaks to the politically disaffected young people for whom hip-hop is the air they breathe? No more than rock ‘n’ roll, hip-hop will never revolutionize politics, but its ethos – of skepticism, of brash outspokenness, of unconscious diversity – will begin to seep into the mainstream of political discourse.

Most of the reviews tear huge holes in these books, from being so outdated that they are irrelevant to not quite bringing the game their titles promise (although another big promotion of the term “Hip Hop generation” from author Goff gets big props from The Globe).  I’m not running to Borders anytime soon, except maybe to pick up this.

High Decibels rock Dolores Park

You just don’t get that many nights like this in San Francisco.  72 degrees and clear skies at 7 pm.   That’s how it was last Thursday for a High Decibels concert in Dolores park, to kick off the weekly DP movie night.  A great event and a memorable concert in front of 600 people.

 

High D’s review

 Check out The High Decibel’s review on CNET Asia’s Music Center!

 …complete with a free download and a space for reviews…

 

 

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interview: Yo Majesty

 

I know I just posted about Yo Majesty, the all-female underground hip hop group from Tampa, FL that is fastly rising to national acclaim.  I think writing about their show in San Francisco only got me more pumped about them (ie: I think “Club Action” has played first thing in the morning in my house for two weeks straight) – so I decided to get the gospel straight from their mouths.  Shunda K is a busy woman – as a leader of Yo Majesty, a solo artist, and an entrepreneur starting her own management and production company (GMEQCA; pronounced “G-Mecca”), it’s amazing she had time to answer my questions.  Here are some of the ones I got to ask:

 

Emily from Rolling Jack: You’ve been working so hard for so long – now you’re getting written up in the New York Times and playing Coachella.  What’s the measure of success for you?

Shunda K. from Yo Majesty: There is no measure of success. Success is…it jus keeps goin and goin and I want as much of it as I can get during this life time. 
 

E: Who do you want to listen to your music? Who are you speaking to? 

SK: I would love for the people in general to listen to me. I’m speaking to the whole wide world. The Lord has called me to be a prophetess to the nations and my mouth piece is for the people. Some of my messages are inspirational, and then some are words of judgement if people don’t get themselves together. The world has a responsibility to itself, and as a people, we are failing the most important test of all: LOVE!!!
 

E: By default you represent a minority in the industry – strong, talented women who aren’t being pimped out.  Now that you are here, what do you want to say to other women/girls out there who are looking at this industry (myself included) and not seeing themselves in it?

SK: In the word of God it says that we are in this world but are not to be a part of it. In my opinion, the music industry is the modern day slave master. The slave, sadly to say, is everyone, even the ones who think they’re gettin over on others, because what you sow you will reap. So, my responsibility is to sow good, not to reap good, because that’s what’s needed in this world. My heart is for the people and I intend on restoring as much as I can when it comes to the lives of the people through this music…jus spitting the truth even at the cost of my life!
 

E: Where do you start writing a song – hearing the beat first? the lyrics?

SK: Most of the time I write from listening to music. However, when I go into a season of my life where I’m jus so hungry to write and have a lot to let out, I jus write with or without. I jus have to get it out ya know!!!
 

E: What are now classic quotes on the death of the genre aside, what are your thoughts on the state of hip hop?

SK: Hip Hop, jus like every other genre of music, is suffering. The character and integrity of music has almost vanished. Nowadays people are portraying illusions to be the truth in the minds of the people. This is one main component of the industry I plan to put a stop to.
 

E: Who are you listening to?  Who would you go see live?

SK: I listen to Yo Majesty, Shunda K, Bla’que Pop, Josh Bloom, JEERZY…basically jus my camp. I can’t listen to that other stuff… 
 

E: What’s up with your beats dude? Is it a different guy now? What’s up with the beats for the new album? They sound so good live, are they being re-done for the album in August?

SK: The main producers of the YM album are HardFeelingsUK and David Alexander “The Great”. We also have a track on the album that Basement Jaxx produced. In addition to those 2, you’ll hear production from StarShip, Mercedeez Bendz, and RadioClit!!!

 

A million thank yous to Shunda K for getting back to me so quickly, and to both current members of Yo Majesty for being such an inspiration.  You can hear them on MySpace; links are posted in-text to check out the peeps Shunda recommended.  If you didn’t pick up on it, the album drops in August!

Oh, and if I have to tell you one more time to go see them, it’s not gonna be pretty.

Next show on schedule:
June 20 – Barcelona (Sonar Festival) 

 

(photo cred goes to another fan at the SF show – Gretchen Robinette)

Viewpoints: Hip Hop & Crime

The UK’s Guardian ran an article this week featuring the views of Ice-T and Nelson George as they will appear in a book coming out in June. 

The basic perception of a lot of black people is that white people buy hip-hop to enjoy the violent tales of black people killing each other. It’s really that simple. When you hear that 70% of all rap records are purchased by white kids in the suburbs, that makes people insanely mad. White people are enjoying this, especially young white people, and we’re allowing them to say things like “n****r”. They hear it on the record so they feel like they can use it as well. And then there’s the question: what is this doing to black people? When you look at the numbers of people incarcerated, you look at the unemployment numbers, the dropout rate, you can see this downward spiral that has been happening since the 70s. Rap records have been a phenomenon of this period, so people want to blame it all on the music.

Read the article here.

Thankfully, Hiphop is Everywhere

I’m a sucker for hip hop and I know this because as soon as a back beat was added to Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner (-eh-), I felt as though the song had been religiously transformed, taking me along with it.

Of course I’m not alone in this thinking. Since hiphop was discovered, musicians have been using it to give life to all kinds of songs, even to the macarena. I would never say the White Album was lifeless (far from it) but Danger Mouse certainly gave it a second life through hiphop. There’s even a hiphop educational song series (the next generation of SchoolHouse Rock) that teaches math and science (and they’re not bad songs either).

I just saw the movie Iron Man, and though it was a great movie, I can see where adding a beat here and there might have helped. The movie did get me back in touch with the classic Black Sabbath song (which, no disrespect, has no hiphop in it and also drags a bit with that long guitar solo). However there is a remake of the song by the Cardigans which I think is awesome, and probably not coincidently because it contains that familiar beat we all know and love.

Besides being a really fun movie, Iron Man also makes a plug for truthtelling, which in our current election cycle is extremely relevant. I won’t give away the ending, but I think Iron Man and Barack Obama have a lot of similarities.

So in a nutshell: Go somewhere and tell the truth. And if you can use hiphop to do it, all the better.