Trailers for the "The Ugly Truth" feature two songs by the High Decibels
The High Decibels’ “That Dude” was featured on a recent episode of HBO’s “Entourage”. The High Decibels debut album has been on a licensing tear recently, with three placements in major film trailers (“Prophesy”, “That Dude”) and the ABC series “The Unusuals” (“Miss Cindy”).
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:
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!
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 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.
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.
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.
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?”
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.
