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Archive for May, 2008
28
May
08
High D’s review
27
May
08
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)
21
May
08
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.
19
May
08
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.
The High Decibels have begun a guerilla hip hop campaign, just plunking down on the streets and playing wherever people are. This photo is from a recent impromptu concert in downtown Berkeley, where the HD’s plugged in a battery powered PA and let ‘er rip. It was a shock to a neighborhood more accustomed to acoustic troubadours, but a small crowd of people coalesced and was more than into it.
15
May
08
What’s Going On?
At a recent street concert by the High Decibels in Berkeley, a young guy came up and asked if he could do a guest rap. We were having a minute or two of downtime, and he seemed nice enough so I said okay.
Immediately he started rapping about n*****s and b***ches, and how he was gonna spray people with bullets. As soon as I could get to the sound system, I cut the power. I guess that’s censorship for you, but I’m sorry — that’s just not going to happen on my PA.
I’m probably going to keep coming back to this topic, but how have we gotten to the point where kids think its cool to talk like this? This guy actually seemed like he might be a nice person. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he had never held a gun in his life. But the gangsta rap musical culture has made listeners believe that it’s cool to brag about killing people. Simply put, it’s glorification of violence.
Tough-talking MC’s who rap about injustices really need to take a hard look at what is one of the greatest injustices of all, that people in the black community are murdering each other, and there’s a whole genre of music that makes killing seem cool.
We’re barely through four months of the year and there have already been 48 murders in the city of Oakland. I don’t know the exact statistics, but I would bet that close to 40 of those murders have been black on black homicide.
Of course it would be wrong to say that music is responsible for murder. But if you’re an MC gleefully rapping about spraying bullets, I think you’ve got to ask yourself, “Am I part of the solution, or part of the problem?”
Support independent hip hop!
The Paid Dues Festival comes to the Berkeley Community Theatre June 14.
Why is it sweet? This is from their mouths:
Paid Dues is a new urban event presented by Murs 3:16 [an underground MC looking to change the face of hip-hop, whose past albums boast the complete absence of swearing or the n-word] in association with Guerilla Union. There’s a vibrant rap scene with advanced lyricism, stinging political commentary and quality DJ performances that continues to flourish in a seemingly parallel universe, largely shunned by the mainstream media.
Festivals like this are fighting to counteract this truth. Plus, check out the lineup (Berkeley):
De La Soul, Blackalicious (here we go BAY AREA), Little Brother, Sage Francis, Hieroglyphics (Oakland), Supernatural and Scratch (the Roots), Kidz in the Hall, Braille, E. Dolan.
The festival will also make its way (with a few lineup changes) to NYC, Ft. Lauderdale, and Denver in June.
Tickets are through Ticketmaster. We’ll be out there – say what’s up!
12
May
08
upcoming shows in East Bay
Two shows next week!
The High Decibels are hosting Tuesday night open mic at The Starry Plough in Berkeley – then on Thursday, they head over to Club Anton’s in Oakland for Thursday night R&B/soul showcase (DJ, dancing, $5 wells before 11). Ya ready?
Tuesday May 20 – Starry Plough
no cover!
3101 Shattuck Ave
(uphill from Ashby BART)
Berkeley (map)
Thursday May 22 – Club Anton’s
428 3rd Street (off Broadway)
Oakland (map)
(You can send an email to
bayareabreedz(at)yahoo(dot)com
to get a discounted pass)
07
May
08
New Rolling Jack Artist
We’ve got a new artist recording her first track with us. Kanndi, all of 17 years old, is one of the freshest MCs we’ve heard, period. Superfunky, bright rhyming over soulful acoustic guitar and breakbeats. Stay tuned for some samples, you’ll want to hear this.
edit: It’s totally premature, but we had to post because album-cover-wardrobe shopping is way too ridiculous and exhausting to not mention!
Last year I was looking for some MCs to do some session work and I stumbled upon Youth Movement Records. YMR is a real record company that makes albums, produces videos and promotes their artists, but in reality this is just a part of what they do, because their real mission is to mentor youth through music. Since its inception five years ago, YMR has been conducting ongoing classes, seminars and events to help young people learn about the craft and real-world skills that go into creating music.
My first experience with YMR was at one of their “Mad Hatters” open-mike sessions. A 13-year old kid was tearing it up at an MC battle, and everybody in the room was loving it. When somebody else started dissing his opponent by calling him a “homo”, YMR director Brutha Los, also a local hip hop veteran, got up and smoothly shifted the direction. ”If you can’t battle without being homophobic or misogynistic, you ain’t really MCing,” he said. ”So let’s keep it real, all right?” And then he instantly busted into some superfunky rhymes of his own that had the room rocking.
A couple of minutes later I met YMR founder and executive director Chris Wiltsee, who explained how the YMR approach differs from most other social outreach programs. ”Most other programs try to find the youth that could use some help and then try keep their interest. We sort of do things in reverse.”
And when you think about it, it’s brilliant. So many young people in Oakland want to rap, sing, DJ, and record. Here’s an organization that’s offering free classes on how to do that. (And I should mention that the instructors are top-notch.) Along the way, there’s a built in environment that teaches people to be responsible and respectful of others.
Over the past few months I’ve been volunteering my time at YMR, photographing and filming classes and events, and I’m constantly impressed by the effect that the program has on its participants. The mentors are intelligent, they care, and they’re cool and hip too. And the young people are listening.
