Interview w/ Blame One

[ “Music is the only time I feel like I can go outside of myself and become something greater.” ]

'The Don' of North County San Diego, Blame One gives an insight into the life of a slept-on emcee in the day of commercial rap music:

Me: How did you first get into hip hop culture? Describe the moment you fell in love with hip hop.

Blame: I first got into hip hop in Edgewood, Maryland. Cats used to breakdance in front of my house. I joined in at a young age because I was mesmerized by EVERYTHING about the hip hop culture. I was even blessed to be walking and find Run DMC's first self titled cassette on the ground. I can still clearly see myself walking through the snow with my mom with Lasonic in hand playing Dana Dane’s ‘Nightmares.’ I started writing rhymes around 8 [years old] and recording at home shortly after. I still have the tapes. Some of those old self recorded songs are used as interludes on my upcoming album…

How and when did you begin actually making music and/or recording
tracks? What were you rapping about back then?

Like I mentioned earlier, I started writing around 8 and recording shortly after. I really didn’t think about it until Exile pointed it out to me recently but I was actually addressing some pretty socially conscious topics at a fairly early age. Of course I had some girl rhymes and the typical battle type shit as well.

How have you developed as a person because of your participation in hip hop? How has hip hop had an effect on your life?

It’s hard for me to say how I have developed because of hip hop because hip hop is all I have ever known. It’s more like a natural progression. For instance, I listen to all types of music now but that is due to people that I met through hip hop as well. Hip hop has
affected me in a tremendously positive way as far as the experiences that it has led me through. I’ve also been foolish enough to get caught up in hip hop trends like drinking Hennessy, which would be the negative effect it has had on me.

What do you mean by 'Grown Man Rap'?

I mean rap brought to you by cats who grew up in the era that I grew up in. Cats that were raised by Rakim and BDP.

What is the purpose of your music?

The purpose of my music is to be as human as possible. Have a positive attitude, reflect reality and show my flaws as well. I’m not a super star and I never will be. I want my music to be heartfelt even if I’m just spittin’ braggadocio lines. I want the listener to believe every word. Music is the only time I feel like I can go outside of myself and become something greater. It’s almost like my music is its own entity aside from me.

What does hip hop music mean to you?

Hip hop means the world to me. It has connected me to people all across the world and that sort of carries the one-love feeling that life needs.

What kinds of artists/producers/people do you tend to collaborate with?

I tend to collab with like-minded people or just people that I have respect for as artist. Other people that are passionate about the craft they work on, basically.

What's it like working with Exile? Anything new on the horizon? I'm
watching out…

I’ve been working with Exile for like 10 years plus now. He is basically the only person that has made me re-write shit, do-shit-10-different-ways-until-he's-satisfied type shit. But I respect that because I am happy with the end result. I just signed with a label called Soulspazm in New York. My upcoming album is called ‘Days Chasing Days’ and features Exile, OH NO, Black Milk, ALoe Blacc, Johaz, Blu, Sean Price, Rath Khy, Kan Kick, & More. Check the myspace for release dates www.myspace.com/rudebwoyblame After ‘Days Chasing Days’ comes out you can check for an entire album I am working on with my man Hoax…

What's being slept on right now? Who should people be checking for?
Musicians, artists, authors, books, movies, restaurants, philosophies…?

Jah is being slept on right now. Righteousness and being humble are being slept on right now. Kindness and brotherhood are being slept on. 100 artists in a sea of 100,000,000,000,000 myspace artists are being slept on right now.

What’s the significance behind your name?

Me and my homeboy Dame got arrested for doing a runner on clothes back in the days. There was a girl in the store at the time that he went to school with and she identified him in her yearbook for the police. Of course, He didn’t believe me when I told him that shit. Nevertheless, I never ratted him out. He later found out that I told the truth because the girl showed up to court. While I was doing my 40 days in juvenile hall, I started scribing the windows in my unit with "Blame" due to the fact that I took the blame.


Any last words to leave us with…

I think its time for all of us to change ourselves so that we can change the world. That’s the only way. If everyone attempted to Master Self, we would all be in good hands. Each one teach one. Thank you for taking the time to interview an underpaid and overworked artist. Blessings.

Check Blame's web page: http://www.myspace.com/rudebwoyblame

Interview w/ Qwel

[ “You don’t make yourself a king, other people make you a king.” ]

Rapper/graff writer Qwel of Galapagos4 hands over the keys to beats, rhymes and life:

Me: How did you get into hip hop, Qwel?

Qwel: Well, my first participation in hip hop was graffiti. I grew up in Harvey on the South side and I moved to Chicago right before I became a freshman in high school. It was funny ‘cause we didn’t have no graffiti writers in Harvey – it’s super ghetto, just gangbanging bullshit. So there was no organized hip hop scene, it was more like gangster shit. But I was always doing graffiti. I used to live right by the Metra tracks over on a 147^th and man, I’d just go paint those freights by myself before I even knew there was a world of people painting freights. But when I moved to Chicago in ’93 – we moved uptown – there was this big-ass wall called the Wall of Fame and it was right off the Sheridan stop on the El. There’s a big cemetery and there’s like a huge alley that’s right under the train and it’s painted – it’s like two and a half blocks long. Man, I used to just walk past there and see all these pieces and trying to read them and I would be out bombing doing my own thing. I didn’t even know that there were crews! I’d see X-Men and UAC and I was just like, ‘That’s a weird name for someone’s nickname…’ Then I found out they were abbreviations for crew names. But there was actually a building over there, between Clark and Broadway – I think it was the Alderwoman Helen Schiller’s headquarters over there. And she’d let some of the greatest Chicago graffiti writers of all time write over there. And the whole building would be decked and it wasn’t a big building, so it was like, really respectful – you’d let pieces ride. But I didn’t know nothing about graffiti, I’d just bomb little tags. But then this one day I was walking to the store with my mom and I walked passed and this guy DJ Trust – used to run All City Records – he was over there with these dudes Thor and Sec and KC and all these legends were just over there painting. So I just went and chilled and watched these guys for a while. I was like 13, 14, something like that. And they were super cool – super chill with me. They were showing me how to do it. So I’d say I’ve been actively participating – and it’s probably thanks to that Alderwoman, Helen Schiller, she’d just let motherfuckers paint over there. And it was broad daylight! But yeah, I met Denz over there – just prolific graff writers over there. And that’s how I got in and started learning about crews and dudes and heads of crews and beef with other crews – they just broke it down for me, they fathered me in that shit. So I’d say it was like ‘93 when I got into graffiti really hard. But, I mean, everybody listened to hip hop our whole lives. Everybody who was born after 1980 – we all listened to Too Short as kids and NWA and then went crazy when Sun Rises in the East came out and Nas came out. It was a good time for hip hop. And I participated but I don’t think I was that aware of the implications of participating in a culture, I was just trying to get my nut off, you know? I wanted to bomb for me, but the culture helped me learn – it’s interesting how it does that. It’s like a little underground railroad or whatnot. You can do it all your own but you save 10 years worth of making mistakes just talking to somebody who knows. It’s like passed down secrets to young bucks… But I didn’t even start rhyming until like ‘99…

How would you describe your music? What kind of message are you trying to pass on?

It’s hard… I would say my message – ‘cause I mean, I do songs about weed and songs about graffiti and whatnot. I guess if I have a message it’s like, trying to be the man ain’t that big a deal and while we’re in this motherfucker, the thing that’s important on this plain of existence for us now is to communicate between each other. We have to be honest with each other. And love isn’t always being nice to somebody sometimes. Love can be tough. Love can be mean. Vincent Van Gogh said that the only thing he could think of that was necessary for art to be classified as art is that it has to be consoling on some level – it has to console, and that’s what it is. That’s all this shit is. It don’t matter how cool I am, how slick I put my words together, how well I teach you two plus two is four or none of that shit. Man, you are not alone and I am not alone and we relate to each other on that level and that’s a beautiful start for anything, everything – that’s a good start. Love is something you do, it ain’t just some thing that happens – you know you gotta do it, it’s a verb. I could go on forever and ever about all the sub-messages but I don’t have a main message, I guess. I keep growing, I just had a kid and he just turned one. I got another baby coming in June. Man, you think you know what’s going down in the world and then you have a shorty and then you really know what’s really going down in the world. And you don’t know what’s going down in the world the whole time, you just kind of move along with it.

What are your thoughts on Chicago hip hop?

Well, first off I have to say that Chicago is, in my experience – and I’ve been to almost every major capital in Europe and every major capital in the US – there’s nothing like Chicago. It just breeds art. I just know from hip hop and the shit I know intimately, like my guys, the Nacrobats, the Molemen dudes, and all of our guys are just like… Other cities, they can have a good team – the Lakers can have their little three championships in a row and New York can have their big-money Yankees and all that, but when Chicago is the champ, Chicago’s the all-time champ, you know? Chicago’s not concerned about your little trophy, we’re concerned about having the greatest basketball team in the history of basketball, the greatest football team, you know? I think it comes from the third man complex that we have. Like, in Chicago, you’ll be in a cipher and your shit will be wack and they will let you know. And that’s what I mean about love not being nice all the time. I don’t think it’s out of hatred though – I’m sure hatred is everywhere though. I think we really feel a sense of urgency – just the mind state you get from living in Chicago. It’s this little square block by block city – just segregated little sections. It’s this ‘go big or stay home’ kind of mentality. And the thing is, Chicago doesn’t have an image. The hip hop scene does not have an image. You find more diversity, just if you look at DC5 or CMW. Man, they have more styles of graff writers in their crew than whole other cities, just because we don’t have no image. We have to make our own way. I think it’s a good place where people will be in a cipher and people will be honest with you and be like, ‘Man that shit is garbage, you better go work on that shit a little bit.’ It makes you go work on your shit. Something about the music – the blues in the city – I don’t know… But with the scene right now, it’s hard to say. I think what’s happening is that there’s going to be a big backlash. Five or six years ago people were like, ‘Man, fuck commercial shit. All that shit is wack, blah, blah, blah’ – never would listen to 50 [cent]. Now, some of the most righteous emcees listen to 50. I think ‘cause there’s a sense of Kanye blowing up and Lupe blowing up that people are starting to reach for the money. I think when they find out that you’re not gonna get paid because of your skill or your talent, necessarily – that there’s a whole other thing – I think Chicago’s underground is about to become really strong. And I tell you for a fact right now, when we go to LA, they are a hundred percent Chicago. The kids there like, ‘Chicago has the freshest underground music on the planet!’ We go to Berlin, the kids there tell me Chicago has the freshest underground music on the planet. When we go to Vienna, Paris – everywhere we go, except for New York ‘cause they don’t really give a fuck about nothing except for New York stuff. Everywhere now is like, ‘Man, Chicago is running the game.’ But we’re not getting rich or living their standard of running the game. As far as the art coming out, there’s nothing coming out of Chicago that doesn’t earn the utmost respect in other places. It’s funny. A lot of my homies, until people were jocking them out-of-town we didn’t get no love in Chicago. But I think a lot of the get-rich-quick-let’s-do-the-political-musical-latter-to-the-top-and-let’s-do-videos and all this bullshit everybody’s trying to reach for, that’s gonna wither away sometime pretty soon. People are gonna realize that it’s about the music you make. And in the meantime, all you can do is make good music, so just focus on that. There’s a lot of people who have been doing a lot of dope shit for a long time that ain’t getting their props. Matlock, The Molemen – they get some props but I mean, The Molemen should be making beats for everybody on the top of the game. I think it’s gonna be dope though when it does get discovered – the whole complete scene. I think somebody’s gonna be honest. Somebody’s gonna blow up from the scene and tell everybody about Chicago and then the world is gonna come in and start digging up old Nacrobats tapes or Ill-Nature shit or Vakill and them guys and Qualo and all this shit and it’s gonna be a treasure trove for the world. It’s an honor to be part of the Chicago scene ‘cause it is one of the world’s best-kept secrets. People are going to find it all at once and there’s gonna be so much diversity and style, man, people are just gonna gobble that shit up.

What do you think about the development of the hip hop industry in Chicago?

There is no hip hop industry in Chicago. There’s consignment at record stores still for some of the best emcees in the city. The politics in Chicago is going to single-handedly destroy underground hip hop in Chicago ‘cause they’re trying to make everything 21 and up for all the shows. Well, by the time you’re 21, if you’re not a fan already, you don’t give a fuck who’s on stage. You get the fire from hip hop when you’re like 14, 15 maybe – some younger, some a little later – but that’s when you’re really trying to climb the mountain and shout from the top of it, “This is my shit!” And if you can’t see shows until you’re 21 years old, all them kids are gonna be chillin’ at keggers complaining about ‘there’s no scene’ when there is a scene but you have to go buy beers to witness it. It’s fucked up man. One of the best places we ever had in Chicago to do shows was the Bottom Lounge – perfect size, perfect sound. The sound was butter. It was a perfect little club – low ceilings, the bass doesn’t resonate too hard – beautiful. And we did two shows over there – sold out. Crackin’ shows, all ages, no bullshit, no beef, no bullshit at all – just positive vibes. But then the dudes who throw the hip hop shows were like, ‘Yeah, the Alderman says we can’t do shows over here because the underground hip hop attracts punks and they go and tag up the block.’ They did that and they fucked themselves over. Now the building is gone and it was a perfect location, right off the Belmont stop. Same thing happened over at the Hothouse. G4 became like a pillar of hip hop in the city. People would come out and so much building got done. Our crew doubled in size just from communicating. We started helping put other people on. Then they were like, ‘Sorry, 21 and over now.’ They are going to kill this shit if they keep doing this. Nobody wants to go over and learn about hip hop at SubT[erranean]. No disrespect for that, but if you’re going to SubT you’re going to have a drink and kick it, you’re not trying to build.

What’s your goal with hip hop music?

Man, if I was trying to make money I’d’ve stayed in college. I would say my goal in this music – I want to ensure that while I’m here, none of the bullshit is going to be passed off as real shit. Every second I get is a chance I get to set the record straight. I want to be known as the illest of all time. I want to be known as being honest in an age of phoniness. And I love the fact that I’m not rich. And every one of my fans knows and every one of my homies knows that if I wanted to go make the money I could’ve made money off of this music – that I would’ve taken some deals that these people have come to me with already. And I could go do that bullshit. But instead I want my kid to listen to my music when I’m gone and by like, “Man, my pop was on some real shit. He did what we were supposed to do. He was trying to console people. He wasn’t just sitting around trying to do something he could’ve did flipping burgers” – you can rich flipping burgers too. I want this shit to get better, man. I compare us to the kids from 15 years before us and I see the advancement. And I want to hear our advancement. I want to hear the kid that grew up listening to my shit and now he’s twenty times better than me. I can’t wait to hear what that sounds like.

Where do you fit into Chicago hip hop?

I guess it was the Nacrobats. It was the first emcee crew that I was ever down with. They were the first dudes that ever showed me the ropes. They were honest with me. They let me get on music. And then Scam Artists – that dude Prime – hella put me on. Pugz hella put me on. Those two dudes are the reason you even know who I am. I was just some scumbag kid with no direction and just started freestyling with ‘em and shit and they were like, ‘Yo, man, you kinda cool. Let’s do a track.’ I was like, ‘Serious? We can do tapes?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah. Doin’ tapes is easy.’ And I was like, ‘Man, just to hear myself on a song would be fucking unbelievable!’ Then I think the Molemen really helped me get out of the city. Where I stand in Chicago hip hop – I think I’m one of the most respected. I think people really have a good sense that they can trust that I’m not gonna turn my back on the city after my shit is good or after I’m in a better position. I don’t know, I think maybe I can be the one that can be honest and tell the whole world, ‘Man, you never heard of Qualo? You love that double time shit? You love that chop shit? So why not go listen to some of the originators of that shit?’ Or, ‘You guys like punchlines? You ever heard of Vakill or Juice? You ever heard old Rhymefest shit? Why don’t you go check that shit out? Why don’t you go check out some PNS beats, while you’re at it? Why don’t you go check out NoID or Doug Infinite, you ever heard of him? Just go check this shit out.’ I hope I’m a king in this Chicago hip hop scene. But you know, you can never know you’re a king. You don’t make yourself a king, other people make you a king.

What Chicago artists do you consider to be legends of hip hop?

Capital D. That motherfucker threw the whole punchline age into many different phases of hip hop trend that people caught on to back in the days when Chicago emcees would front like they were from New York and didn’t give a fuck about the city. He always was just doing his thing. Probably all the All Natural dudes. I’d have to say the most slept on is probably Qualo – I love that shit. Some of their shit is a little bit rough for most people, but it’s journalism. That shit’s phenomenal. Their shit is nasty! The Molemen – they get respect but it’s a shame they get more respect out-of-town when I go places. Kids in Germany never heard of nothing I ever did except for shit that’s been on compilations I did with the Molemen. Man, there’s so many. For music, I’d say Juice – you can’t sleep on Juice. That motherfucker… it’s probably easier for him to freestyle than for him to conversate. I really love Kanye’s beats. He has already changed the bigger mainstream, he dropped a rock in the mainstream that put ripples and now everyone’s trying to put the same ripples in the stream now. I really respect Matlock a lot – he’s really witty. Infinito – he was putting out vinyl back when we were still trying to get our mixtapes. Pugslee gets the most respect from me out of everyone in Chicago, just for the fact that he was the gateway for more people than will be honest with you than I’m being. He is one of the main reasons why probably 60 or 70 percent of everybody in the city is rhyming right now, just because he wasn’t like, ‘Hey, get on my record,’ he was like, ‘Hey, let’s go a compilation record. Why don’t you get your shit out and then I’ll show you how to do this shit yourself and then you go do this shit yourself?’ Prime has been grinding on this shit – he’s changing his music right now and it’s really hard to know that people are conscious of one of your sides and then you try to show them another side. That’s really hard for a man to do – it’s just making yourself vulnerable. But I think once he gets through that shit he’s gonna have a lot of people’s respect. And then, for hip hop in general – Raven, a graff writer from SB Crew. That motherfucker’s a school teacher. He teaches kids how to break. Walka from the Brickheads teaches youth classes for breakdancing. That’s another thing about Chicago people forget about – Chicago people ain’t no joke, especially compared to the rest of the people on the planet. Chicago’s one of the last b-boy cities there is. …Just everybody, man. And I’m excited about this generation too ‘cause I think this generation is more willing to instruct the youth. I was lucky that those OTR and THC dudes were cool with me ‘cause a lot of the crews in those days didn’t take on young bucks – I don’t think our generation is like that. I think we’re gonna make it better. The list goes on and on. Of course, my crew. My crew been through so much shit – just individual walks of life…still being broke. You know one thing that’s really hard is knowing that you’re one of the freshest emcees on the planet – and not being egotistical – but just knowing that you’re one of the most innovative crazy motherfuckers that’s changing this shit and just being broke as fuck while wack-ass dudes are getting all the shine …but that’s just how it works. You know David Bowie records didn’t really sell until after they came out? People didn’t discover the shit until years after they came out! Same with Pink Floyd. Same thing with grips and grips of motherfuckers who are innovators. I talk too much. Speaking of which, I gotta go, man – gotta go pick up some groceries with my girl… Peace.

Check Qwel's home page: http://www.myspace.com/qwelg4

Interview w/ Iomos Marad

[ “Rap is business music. Hip hop is cultural music.” ]

Chicago emcee Iomos Marad of All Natural, Inc. speaks his peace:

Me: How long have you been involved in hip hop and to what capacity?

Iomos: I been doing it for like fifteen years as an emcee and a musician—I play the drums.

Can you describe any common message that runs throughout your music?

Yeah, basically it’s about high morality and value. I don’t curse in my rhymes ‘cause, I mean, we’re supposed to be intelligent people. Anybody can curse, but I’m trying to be an intelligent person that can speak coherently in a time where there’s a lot of music that’s incoherent, you know what I’m saying? I’m basically trying to keep my eye on morality value and talk about social things that’s going on in America and abroad.

What are your feelings on hip hop in Chicago?

I would say it’s good and bad. Good in the sense that Chicago artists are coming out, but bad in the sense that I don’t like the direction that hip hop is going in. It seems to be geared more toward what you got on—what you wearing, your image. It doesn’t really have anything to do with a message, you know? I’m not knockin’ artists that do what they do, but in this day and age I think we really need to talk about some issues that’s going on instead of talking about what we’re driving or what we got on our backs.

And you think that’s what’s going on in Chicago right now?

No, I wouldn’t say here, per se. But there’s a few groups—I’m not gonna name any names—that seem to be on that.

But what about the recent surge of rappers that have blown up in Chicago? It seems like they’re talking more about social and political issues and taking the mainstream of hip hop in a new direction.

I think we got more to offer—I think Chicago has a lot to offer. And I think that the people that’s been doing it for a long time are not getting the recognition that they deserve. And I’m not even talking about myself, I’m talking about artists like Akbar, All Natural, Primeridian, Mass Hysteria—these are artists that have been doing it for a long time and they’re not getting the recognition they deserve.

What do you think about the hip hop industry here?

Is there industry here?! In my opinion, guys like Kanye and Common are putting on people that they know. That’s how it is though—when you get on you want to put your people on. But what about the people that paid their dues—people who have been doing it for way longer than them? To let you know what my position is, I’m a hip hop purist. I think a lot of this music is effecting the way that young people—I look at it from young people’s perspective. Ain’t no rappers telling them to abstain from having sex until you get married or to build a family. Even the so-called conscious emcees—their life ain’t living up to what they actually talking about. They could do a positive joint but then after a show you see them dippin’ out with three groupies—like they’re not living what they’re preaching. And that’s what we need more than anything. I think that you should give [listeners] a variety. Don’t just give them Snoop Dogg, give them Asheru, give them some KRS-One, give them some Rakim, give them some Lil John, you know? Back in the day there was more variety. You didn’t just have Poor Righteous Teachers. You had Poor Righteous Teachers, NWA and Del the Funky Homosapien—you had a wide variety of music that people could choose from and not just one particular sound. Let the people choose what they want to listen to, but that’s just my position…

It seems to me that the hip hop underground is moving along slowly but surely – like the demand for a wider variety of hip hop sound is shifting the market a little bit. What do you think?

I would agree, but another problem that’s in Chicago is that all the wrong people are in the right positions. What I mean is that you got somebody that’s showing favoritism or whatever. They put their people on just because they know them or whatever. If they don’t know you but they know you’re talented, they’re still going to put their people on before you—that’s just politics I guess. And I believe that’s why All Natural, Inc. isn’t where it should be. I’m a part of All Natural—anything I do represents All Natural 'cause I’m on that label. And that’s one of the reasons I chose to roll with All Natural—because All Natural has a standard and a positive image that they want to portray. Even myself, when I first got down with them, I had to grow and mature ‘cause I was out acting ignorant myself while putting out positive lyrics. And it comes to a point where it’s like “Man, am I gonna keep acting this way or am I gonna act the way my songs portray?” It’s just a level of maturity and once I came to that level…I’m back in school getting my education. I’m doing other things besides just music. I want to be an activist in the neighborhood. I want to be somebody that’s not talking about “we need to change this and that”—I want to be in the trenches with the people. That’s my position. I been down with All Natural for about seven years ‘cause I like what they stand for, I like what they represent. And sometimes I thought maybe I should get with a major [record label] but if you get with a major label they’re going to try to give you an image that they want you to portray and I want to be myself. I want my music to represent me. I don’t want my music to represent my A&R or represent some record label that’s gonna have me talking about things I never did before. I feel what Busta Rhymes said a long time ago: “There’s a difference. There’s hip hop music and there’s rap music.” And everybody is trying to shove rap music under the umbrella of hip hop but it’s not! Rap is business music. Hip hop is cultural music. Hip hop music instills the culture—tagging breaking, DJing, you know? It ain’t something you just put on and take off. We live this everyday. I think about rhymes all the time, even when I’m reading a book I’m just consciously thinking about it. But rappers will say anything to get dough 'cause it’s business music—they’re in it for the dough, they ain’t in it for the love. That’s just my opinion and I’m sure a lot of artists that are emcees would agree.

What’s you personal goal with hip hop music?

I don’t really have any particular goals. Basically what I want to do is keep putting out music. I’ma definitely keep putting out music. I got at least eight more albums in me, ten more albums in me, and I’m thirty-five! I look young but I’m thirty-five! It’s a blessing that I look young 'cause a lot of people think I’m sixteen 'cause of how young I look, but I’m thirty-five years old and I still got at least ten albums in me, man. And it seems like I’m falling in love with the music more and more, especially since artists like Oddisee and Kev Brown and the Low Budget Crew out of Maryland, Asheru—I been inspired by Asheru for a long time, seeing that he’s a [school] principal now. I’m inspired by that. J-Live, who’s a school teacher. Sadat X used to be a teacher. Defari is still a teacher. I want to put myself with those names, with those artists as being a school teacher. I’m doing music ‘cause I love it and I think I’m good at it. If the money comes, it comes, but that’s not my main goal. My mother says I should think that way but when I sit down and write a song my intentions aren’t like, “Man, I’m ‘bout to make some cake offa this song.” My intentions are, “I hope somebody hears it and it can help change somebody’s life or help somebody look at life in a different way.” My ultimate goal is to become a teacher and keep putting out records. That’s it, that’s all I want to do. That way—me working as a teacher—I’m already set financially and I can keep my message the same. And I want to get into other ventures too. I want to own a bookstore, kind of in the tradition of Mos Def and Talib Kweli. There’s a lot of things I want to do that’s sort of outside music but you can incorporate all of them within the music as well. I want to open a twenty-four-hour Rec. center for kids so they can go play ball instead of the running the streets, you know—teach them how to get jobs, teach them how to be entrepreneurs. I want to be involved. But I think music is the key to unlock that door. I think TJ Crawford [of the Chicago Hip Hop Civic Engagement Project] is a guy that’s doing it socially as well. He ain’t just talking about it, he’s being about it here in the community. In the African American community there’s a void—the family is broke down. Most kids are raised by their grandmother or their aunt, no mother and no father in the home. We need everything in place—I want to see that in the black community again and the Hispanic community as well. So I’m just trying to be uplifting, man. And I think music is the key to do that.

Where would you say you fit into the Chicago hip hop music scene?

I started back in high school with my cousin, Leon Rogers, who’s a personality on TCI now. When I was young I wanted to do whatever he did. He was the one that introduced me to hip hop. I remember the first time I went to his crib he was playing the Jungle Brothers’ ‘Straight Out the Jungle’ and I was like, “Dang!” And then I heard Q-Tip and I was like, “Yo, I wanna do that!” And all through high school my cousin was known for rapping—his name was Clever back in the day. He was the dude that rapped in our neighborhood. I wanted to do everything he did—he went and got a Gumby haircut, I went and got a Gumby haircut. So I went away to school to Rutgers University and wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing as far as school, and I met a guy named Tuffy from Baltimore and he taught me how write my first rhyme. Then I started getting into rhyming and stopped going to my classes. So then when I came back home I figured out I had a talent for free-styling. I didn’t have to write it, I could just come off the head, so I was like, “This is what I want to do. I want to do music.” So I got back to Chicago and my mother came to one of my talent shows and she was like, “Man, you’re just like everybody else standing up there rapping. Why don’t you try to do something different? Why don’t you do different poses when you rhyme or something?” And I was just shooting down her ideas. Then she said, “Why don’t you play the drums and rhyme at the same time,” and I was like, “Dang, that’s a good idea!” So then I went and developed drumming on my lap and rhyming and was like, “Dang, that’s it!” So then I went to do my first show and I brought the drums out and I did it and everybody was like, “Man, that’s your ticket!” So I just kept performing whenever I could and eventually got up with Jesse De La Pina who was doing the Elbo Room and the Double Door on Monday nights. He had me doing a bunch of shows with him at the Blue Groove Lounge and that’s where Tone B Nimble saw me, and that’s how I got down with All Natural. That, and also I used to hang out up at Columbia all the time and that’s where I met Mr. Greenweedz. And Greenweedz was telling me all about All Natural and the label and I was like, “Word?” He was like, “Yeah, you can try to get down too.” So Greenweedz saw me perform and told Cap D [founder of All Natural, Inc.] about me, like, “Yo, you need to check this dude—this dude raw!” So he did and Cap D was like, “Dang, yo! I want you on a song.” So then he called me up one day and that’s when we recorded ‘Deep Rooted’ and that was first song I ever did with him. Then Tone was like, “Yo, man, we want to be on our label.” But it started as a love for me—it was always a love for me. I never had the intention that I wanted to be a star. I mean, I always wanted to be like Tribe or De La Soul and be on a platform like that when you can tour and see the world, but I have a whole different goal to it now. Marvin Gaye said, “Music should reflect the times that we living in,” and the music that’s out right now ain’t doing that, as far as rap music. There should be a lot more rappers talking about the war [in Iraq] or what’s going on in these neighborhoods—they pushing people out their homes, man, and building condos! Music should reflect the times and I don’t feel the majority of the music is doing that.

Who are some local Chicago hip hop artists you consider to be legends?

Akbar, Cap D and All Natural, Danski, Common, of course, Primeridian, Mass Hysteria, GQ the Teacher—those are the majority of the ones right there.

Is there anything else you’d like to add about hip hop in Chicago?

I think Chicago is one of the realest places that’s doing the music the same way. I heard Large Professor when he came here—he was like, “Yo, man, I feel like I’m in New York back in the heyday!” Chicago is a beautiful city, man. I love where I’m from, but sometimes I feel like it’s not represented correctly. Back in the day, Common was all about Chicago—the perfect representation of Chicago: bubble coat, skull cap, baggy jeans. That was Chicago all day, you know? And Twista, he represented the West side, but it was still Chicago. Crucial Conflict—West side all day. The music industry, period—not just Chicago—seems watered down. It’s watered down, man! We need somebody who ain’t scared to speak the truth—like Biggie and Pac. Pac could tell you the truth in a minute. Biggie could tell you the truth in a minute. KRS-One could tell you the truth in a minute. Rakim is speaking the truth. Akbar, Cap D—speaking the truth. Cap D, with his last album ‘Return of the Renegade,’ is saying so much stuff that expands the political and social and worldview. And I’m an avid book reader—the books that I read got me open. They help people discover what their worldview is. It ain’t just about Chicago—with the internet, we living in the age of information. The world is getting smaller, so there needs to be more information in the music. I could go on and on about this… We need more activists, man. When you die, you can’t take all that jewelry and stuff with you!

Check out Iomos' home page: http://www.myspace.com/iomosmarad

Interview w/ Ayentee

Former producer/rapper of Secluded Journalists and current solo artist and Berkeley local, Ayentee shares some perspective:

Me: How and when did you first discover hip hop? Is there
a specific memory, moment, track or show that you can
pinpoint as the catalyst for your genesis as a hip hop
head? What era do you consider yourself a part of?

Ayentee: I guess I was just fortunate enough to grow up
immersed in it. My earliest childhood memories
include and sometimes revolve around hip hop. It
wasn't really a choice. In fact, I didn't even know
there was another option till I was 8 or 9 and my
cousin tried to get me to listen to Guns & Roses. But
by then I just wasn't interested.


When did you begin making music and why?
What was your motivation—were you trying to get
rich, champion battles, mack girls or just kick flows
for fun? Have you ever shifted in your
reasoning for making hip hop music?

I started making beats right after I heard Dr. Dre's
'The Chronic' in 92. I just started playing around
with a cheap keyboard trying to recreate the beats on
that album. I figured out a way to layer sounds using
a pause button method and a spliced cord going into my
aux input into my stereo. I was just bored, trying to
be creative. I tried to recreate a lot of my favorite
songs at the time. Good practice. A few years later
I met a kid in high school that had some real
equipment so I started getting down on his stuff. And
then around junior year of high school I had a part
time job and bought my own gear. Back then it was a
bit more difficult to make beats since you needed
hardware. Computer music was still very much in its
baby stages and was too expensive to afford. As for
writing lyrics, I started when I was real young.
Again, just trying to emulate my favorite songs, I'd
rewrite other people’s songs and rap them with my
words, but in their style. Who knew that that would
catch on and become a mixtape phenomenon. hahahah. I
didn't get serious as a writer until around senior
year of high school when I realized that I could think
of things to say that haven't been said yet. Or
at least I hadn't heard it. As far as motivation goes,
I was hangin around a lot of kids doing the same thing.
It was always competition for us, trying to one-up
each other. I'd hear a song that my boy did and be
like, ‘Damn, I wish I made that shit!’ So I'd go home
and try to make a song that made him say the same
thing.


Is there a particular vibe (musically, lyrically)
you’ve tried to capture with each of your
albums—Public Diary, The Manual and Peasant Symphony?
Could you condense the themes or messages of each
album?

‘Public Diary’ was my emo album before I knew there was
a word for it. I got the inspiration from such great
emo artists as Bushwick Bill, Tupac, Shock G, and
Boots from The Coup. They aren't "emo" but they knew
how to make a personal and moving song. I learned
from them. I figured if I was going to make a
personal album, I'd do it right. So it became a
diary. ‘The Manual’ I made during a time when I began
to realize that life on earth wasn't going to be
possible much longer if we didn't start making drastic
social changes. All the music I made around that time
had that theme to it. I wove a sub theme into that
album that had to do with underground hip hop. The
album was made to stand as a sort of instruction
manual for those two themes. With ‘Peasant Symphony’ I
directed my focus onto the people. People who were
struggling – whether it was with money, love, death,
whatever. It was an album dedicated to struggle. The
new album I’m working on which is nearly complete is
entitled ‘Curiosity Saved The Mouse’ and that album's
main theme is to focus in on the other side of things.


What’s your mission, Ayentee—as it pertains to the music
and giving it away free, and with your life in
general?

I think my mission is to express ideas that are
rattling around in my brain in an entertaining way. I
get the most satisfaction out of my life when I’m
creating, so I guess that’s what I'm supposed to do. I
think people just need to find ways to feel fulfilled,
useful, needed, and a part of something. I don’t
necessarily think giving away music free is the end
all be all answer to my problems. But it has helped
free me of some very cumbersome issues that I was
having with my music and the industry in general. I'm
pretty much free to live a normal life and go to work,
do my things that regular people do, come home and on
occasion put ideas down for songs. I just can’t be
apart of the sickness that seems to envelope aspiring
artists, actors, screenplay writers, whatever. It
just reminds me of a bunch of rats climbing over each
other trying to get out of the barrel.

How has being in Berkeley, or the Bay Area in general,
affected your music? Have you been influenced by
local artists or styles?

For sure I was influenced by the D-I-Y philosophy that
many artists around here took to. It was easy to see
results on a small scale by doing it that way. And
small scale results was really all I was after. As
far as being influenced by styles, man, I am
influenced by damn near everyone. That’s one thing
about me, I pull rhyme patterns from other songs all
the time. Different words, same feeling and style. I
am a biter and I can’t help it! But fuck it, what can
you do? I keep working and writing, hoping to find my
own way some day.


What does hip hop music mean to you?

For me it means relaxation, relating, vibing,
understanding, and building energy.


What do you think about the current state of the hip
hop industry?

It’s just like every other industry. Exploitive,
excessive, capitalistic, and wasteful. I don't really
listen to the shit that the industry is force feeding
the kids. I seek out the underground rappers. The
myspace rappers. I look out and check for the ones
that have their heads on straight, who refuse to
dance, the ones with integrity and character.


How do you stay healthy—mentally, emotionally,
spiritually?

I remind myself that I am on a decent path. I
remember to bring myself back to the moment when
possible. I try not to dwell on the past or worry
about the future. I make people laugh when I can and
try to find things to laugh and smile about often. I
breathe deep from time to time to remind myself that
I'm here right now and that’s all that really matters.
I do not worry about money—ever, really. But you
know, there's always things to work on.


Who are/were some of your greatest influences,
musically or otherwise?

Stevie Wonder is a big influence for me. I love that
guy. I don’t think I ever seen Stevie not smiling. I
am influenced by truly happy people.


If you were going to recommend a few artists you think
people should check out, who might they be?

Check out The Coup if you haven't got around to it.
Um, Bambu, formally of Native Guns.
www.myspace.com/bambumusic.
www.myspace.com/macklemore, myspace.com/onebelo, you
know the deal.


Any words of wisdom for the listeners?

Take it lite. Stop trippin off tomorrow and live
today. Love yourself and your neighbor (I know he's
an asshole, but try anyway). Create and share. Give
what you can when you can. Enjoy life.

Ayentee is currently in the lab working on another album ('Curiosity Saved the Mouse'). Check out his music -- it's free to stream and to download ('cause the dude's badass like that for ya'll) -- and other info on his web site:
ayentee.net

...so you don't have a reason not to give him a listen!

The Opening

Check it out, yall--the grand opening. This is what I'm about:

Hip hop isn't dead, despite what your favorite underground emcee might be preaching.

Hip hop has shifted; stretching and evolving like it always has. It has been commodified by major record labels and big business, which turned the tide on the culture from localized activity to global phenomenon seemingly overnight. Hip hop got sold out (decades ago), it's true, but that doesn't mean it's dead and gone forever...

Here in the twenty-first century, computer technology has enabled anyone and their moms to freely peruse, explore and purchase hip hop with the click of a button. Pro Tools software + internet = hella music everywhere. It's the reality, so get used to the fact that your white yuppie computer-programming neighbor is 'working on a hip hop album' with his homeboy co-workers from Jamba Juice. I have (adjusted to the fact that hip hop has become a social epidemic, not put out a rap record), and you need to also if you're going to allow yourself to elevate past the nonsense and give my recommendations a chance. And I think you should.

There is good music being made all day everyday everywhere. Call it hip hop, rap, emo-rap, underground hip hop, indie rap or whatever you want--it doesn't really matter because it's ignored by most people anyway.

This blog is meant as a way for me, an avid devourer and connoisseur of all types of hip hop music (mainly obscure stuff, which is why I'm so special and you should pay attention to me), to share my thoughts with you about what's good and worth a listen, a glance, a peep, a purchase. I'm not here to bash mainstream rap or gangsta grillz or whatever (leave that to the cats who believe the radio killed hip hop), so I'm only going to post love for the musicians I think deserve to be heard.

I hope you enjoy and check some of these dudes out. They deserve the support.


Sidenote:
I personally view these underground and independent rappers, emcees, truth-speakers and flow-poets to be the saviors of our dwindling culture here in America. They swim against the current of this perpetual wave of profit-driven commercialism we see on television and in our cities everyday. They drop knowledge and promote personal expression (...which are good things, I'd say). Rappers I'm going to discuss on this blog are ones I consider especially exceptional at one, the other or both. They tend to be above the money and fame but "deeper than the wells sunk in the earth for gold and oil. " But I digress...