May 18, 2012

Back to School Special “Lyrical Mindstate” August 29th

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“If Rap Gets Jealous” K’naan

“Go Go Gadget Flow” Lupe Fiasco

“If You Only Knew” Jurassic 5

“Doin’ My Thang” Zion I

“The E.N.D.” The Pharcyde

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With the entire week dedicated to Street Scene, I thought it’d be fitting to ease you back into school with a playlist of some tracks you’re bound to enjoy.

Coffee and Coversation with Sabzi of the Blue Scholars

Three days before I head south to San Diego, I met up with Sabzi (Saba Mohajerjasbi), the man behind the beats of Seattle’s Blue Scholars. At Victrola Espresso in Beacon Hill, Sabzi and I sat down to talk about the Northwest music scene, being a global musician, record labels, revolutions, Soulja Boy, and the future music in a conversation that reiterated just why the Blue Scholars have earned international acclaim for their enlightened, educated, passionate contribution to hip-hop and independent music alike.
As Sea-Tac International Airport bound planes passed above us, we began discussing the Northwest music scene–dynamic, diverse and rich, but often ignored by those outside its borders. “I would say its very difficult to pick a sound from the Northwest, though I used to think you could. One of the things that is interesting, there is a dominant group which is the Indie Rock group. But for hip hop, its gonna be constantly changing. You’re going to hear some Dirty South stuff, some Backpacker stuff, some Gangster stuff, and everyone’s going to say, ‘that’s the sound of Seattle’. And they’re all right. One of the things that makes the Northwest scene distinct is that its eclectic,” Sabzi said.
Since meeting through the University of Washington’s Student Hip-Hop Organization, Sabzi and MC Geo (George Quibuyen) have released their self-titled first album in 2004, The Long March EP in 2005 (which Seattle Weekly’s named Album of the Year), and Bayani in 2007. Each was warmly greeted by critics and fans alike, as the Blue Scholars’ blend of Sabzi’s smooth, eclectic beats  and Geo’s intelligent and engaging lyricism captured audiences well beyond the duo’s regional roots in the Northwest.  Yet as Sabzi arrived in a humble Toyota, I knew the “Ordinary Guys” mantra–as explained the track from Bayani–was spot on and central to the duo’s work.
While typically overshadowed by other American regions, the Northwest has seen a recent bourgeoning in the hip-hop scene. Though the music industry has left the region relatively untapped, Sabzi addressed the talent and potential. “People need a sound, a clear story, something to easily comprehend in order for word of it to travel. But we just haven’t had anyone with commercial success represent Seattle since Sir Mix-A-Lot. But I’m glad I grew up here, I’m proud to rep this area wherever I go.”
Sabzi continued by expressing interest in developing the talent in the 206.  As an artist and producer in Seattle he has been involved with numerous artists in the area, including Common Market. “I would love to do collaborations with people in the Seattle area, like the Physics guys, Khalil, or Khingz. But it comes down to time. There’s just not enough time. I wish I was back in high school so I could do that.”
Much of the Scholar’s acclaim derives from the global perspective grounded in their music,  exemplified in Sabzi’s diverse beats rooted in his eclectic musical background ranging from Jazz to Ska. Geo’s poetic lyrics cover everything from the Nicaraguan Contra scandal to the pitfalls of the American education system to the 1999 WTO Protest in Seattle. Additionally, Sabzi’s Iranian/Persian heritage and Geo’s Filipino heritage distinctly color their music. The duo’s ambitions back up the content of their music, and Sabzi elaborated on being a globally oriented musician in 2009.
“One of the last designers I worked with was out of Argentina. I met him through a dude I knew in New York, who has also plugged me with guys in Brazil and Germany. I’m seeing with people our age, all of us all over the world are not that different. This generation has a lot in common. There’s cultural literacy. There is a generation that is sharing a space where they can be universally culturally literate, in Johannesburg, Tokyo, Dubai. That’s a big deal. That’s a really big deal.”
Indicative of their culturally diverse background, the Blue Scholars named their 2007 album Bayani, meaing “heroes (of the people)” in Filipino and “the divine word” in Farsi. While Sabzi mentioned his pride for the Northwest, he insisted his perspective carries much greater scope. “As much as I love the tribal identity and a region, what I’m interested in focusing on and contributing to is that global culture. Anything that is contributing to a global identity, recognizing that there is a space we are all a part of. More so than repping Seattle in the United States. How narrow is that thinking? It’s more about a person’s thinking and how they perceive things, as oppose to where they are physically.”
In 2006, the duo opted to create their own record label, MassLine Media, to adhere to their independent ambitions rather than working through the bureaucracy of a larger label. Sabzi discussed the enigma of record labels in a changing music industry.
“When people use the word label or independent, everyone has an different understanding of what that means. No one really knows what a label is like until they actually worked in that business. When I was 15 or 16, I was like ‘fuck labels’ and all. Back then I didn’t even know what I was talking about. What a label actually is completely changing. From a business model perspective, the recording industry has always been about selling CDs or tapes. And that’s done. 50% of all U.S. teenagers last year bought zero CDs”. As artists emerging through the remains of an era when the Big 4 labels (Sony, EMI, Universal and Warner) owned nearly 80% of global music distribution, the Blue Scholars represent a new school of music entrepreneurs. “The label is really just a brand now. Whatever it needs to be done to get the music get out there, that’s what needs to be done.  If that means being independent, great. If that means being a part of a label, cool.
While gaining notoriety through Blue Scholars, Sabzi has worked on numerous other projects in the region. A testament to his ambitions to expand the limits of what music production can be and contribute to a truly global music community, he is experimenting with new models with the Scholar’s upcoming EP “OOF!”.
“I think [artist collaboration] is great. It’s not new to me, not new to the world. Dance hall reggae culture has been doing that for a long time. And we’ve seen it with the mix tape culture in the US. But I think there’s a lot more than can be done with that kind of activity. When we put this record out, we made the instrumentals available to as their own distinct things. It comes with the CD, you get two discs. Now those are out there for anyone who wants to make anything of it. Even if they want to chop it up and do their own thing with it, that would be great. I don’t think people really get it the way I want people to get it. Right now, it’s a special time with the Hawaii tour, the videos on the net. I am inviting anyone to be a part of it by adding their new version. In a year it won’t mean the same thing, right now they can be a part of the history as it unfolds.”
We moved the conversation towards music’s developments in the past decade, when Do-It-Yourself Garage Band basement bands and MySpace redefined and expanded  horizons. “These days, anyone can make pretty good music. Anybody can. It’s not the 1950′s where you have a few really good artists and that’s it. A 19 or 20 year old can make better beats that I did at that age. But everyone’s just making pretty good music. So what sets music apart from other work is its meaning. Or I would hope that’s the direction music is headed in”.
“Everything is for sale now. So when you meet an individual with an upright character or a moral conviction that they will not sell out on, that’s very impressive. A person who has that kind of character, regardless of what they do, it will show in their craftsmanship. You could be a carpenter, a mechanic or anything, but if you have integrity, it will show in your work.. It’s very important to have integrity. It will always come through. It seems like music may be headed in that direction. Especially because, look how quickly things become popular and fade away. Things that stick around have meaning.”
I interrupted to ask if Soulja Boy might fit that bill. But Sabzi backed him up.
“No, Soulja Boy is doing what he believes in. What kid actually does that, says ‘this is garbage, but it will make me a lot of money’. No he just said, ‘this is tight’. He totally believes in what he’s doing, and may be what’s behind the success. Think about grown men, who are 35, making club songs. That’s a little different.”
As lyrically conscious artists who have been compared to A Tribe Called Qwest, Talib Kweli & Mos Def and Common, I asked Sabzi how he felt to see the deterioration of hip-hop in the rise of Auto-Tuned, Club Hit rap.   “I have really gone through a lot of questioning. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing. I don’t even know what [hip-hop] means anymore. What has become “real hip-hop”, its crappy. Even the so called “underground” sucks. There’s no underground anymore. In the nineties, there was. You had a radio and a tv, and each of those boxes had channels on them. Anything that wasn’t on there was , by definition, underground. Naturally, anything on the box had to fit an agenda, so it wasn’t as honest as the underground. Now, there’s no underground as there used to be. There’s an underground being sold. I know this, because I pay a PR person. When you read the blogs or whatever, it’s as fake as the radio was. This is all engineered. Its marketing teams with behind them.”
However frustrated with the current state of hip-hop, Sabzi confirmed the Blue Scholars’s aspirations to use their music to progressively address global issues. “I don’t want to hear raps about revolutions. That meant something in the past. When people talked that way in the 60′s, it actually moved people. But let’s be honest, things are different now. Revolution is still needed. We still live in a very corrupt society, there is still massive economic disparity, the reality has not changed. But we need to evolve our language of how we talk about it. Inspirational, motivating language is needed. Not some self-righteous stuff.”
As we finished our conversation on the avenue mentioned in so many Blue Scholar verses, Sabzi concluded with optimistic expectations. “The future of music will be about embodying new forms. I don’t want to hear about what’s been lost from the past. 2009 and the future era will be about giving tradition the finger.”
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“The Inkwell”

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“Opening Salvo”

www.myspace.com/bluescholars
The Blue Scholars “OOF!” EP drops August 25th

“Lyrical Mindstate” August 12th by Michael Lu

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“So Live!” The Cunninlynguists

“Heard ‘Em Say” Kanye West feat. Adam Levine

“Special” Strange Fruit Project feat. Thesis

“For Pete’s Sake” C.L. Smooth & Pete Rock

“enecS eht no kcaB” One Be Lo

“New York Strait Talk” Gang Starr

“Be Healthy” Dead Prez

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Artwork: Courtesy of fixins.com

A Review of Kanye West’s “Late Registration”

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Knock, knock. Who's there? Kanye. Kanye who? Kanye West. The registration table is on your right Mr. West.

Even with the aid of a dictionary, it would simply be impossible to describe Kanye West with a single word or phrase. We’ve often debated amongst ourselves whether we truly love or hate him, depending entirely if you embrace his skills and talents as a producer/emcee or if you have been overly frustrated with his child-like tantrums he has occasionally thrown at award shows. Since he’s crossed over from producer to record selling artist, Kanye has made himself into a commodity in reference to his own music and fashion sense, as seen with him being labeled as the “Louis Vuitton Don”. He has always been honest with his upbringing as a middle-class child growing up in Chicago and that part of his life has never needed to be altered just to gain street credibility.

Late Registration is another addition to the mighty staple of dominance that Kanye has had over the hip-hop industry and has become my favorite album out of College Dropout and Graduation. It not only has a surplus of  guest appearances highlighted by Jay-Z and Nas but the beats he creates are so brilliant and noteworthy. Every track Kanye lays his hands on is similar to that of Michelangelo and his work on the Sistine Chapel. Although, he would rather be known for rapping than producing, I believe that Kanye belongs in the same category as DJ Premier, Dr. Dre, Pete Rock, J Dilla, and 9th Wonder as one of the best producers of our generation. The material on every album he has released has never been stricken with boundaries and Kanye has never been afraid of speaking his mind especially about the Bush Administration and Hurricane Katrina.

My favorite tracks include: “Touch the Sky”, “Hey Mama”, and “Crack Music”. He has certainly learned how to differentiate himself from the conventional emcee and I have always appreciated the content he’s put forth into each and every one of his albums. He is a perfectionist and that mentality is seen through the passion and fire that he uses to conduct himself every time he enters the recording studio, a sure sign that he will continue making albums that will be mentioned in the same breath as Illmatic and Reasonable Doubt. Music is a craft that only a chosen group of people can really develop and make their own, an art form that Kanye has solidified and single-handedly reformed.

When I first listened to “Jesus Walks”, I was amazed to see religion being used as the forefront in any musical capacity. I never quite knew who Kanye was or what he did to gain so much attention until I listened to Jay-Z’s The Blueprint and The Black Album. I then realized that he was the mastermind behind “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” and “Encore”. However, watching interviews of Kanye in the past few years have given me a different impression about him, especially the way he handled himself during the 2006  European MTV Awards. However, the negativity that he’s faced never seems to faze him, something I must give him much respect and admiration for.

He has definitely become a connoisseur of not only hip-hop/rap but with R & B (808s & Heartbreak) as well and will continue to dazzle critics and listeners with his charm but most importantly, his voice.

“Touch the Sky”

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A Review of The Cunninlynguists’s “Will Rap For Food”

All you need is food and water to be content in the world.

“Knowledge be the key/To unlock your brain/And set your mindstate free.”

Before Florida MC, Mr. SOS joined the group in 2002 and departed in 2004, followed by the addition of Natti in 2004, the Cunninlynguists was composed of the tandem of Deacon the Villian and DJ Kno. Hailing from Lexington, Kentucky, they have recently started gaining nationwide attention throughout the hip hop community. They are in a long line of successful acts from the south including Outkast and the self-proclaimed king of the south, T.I. Their debut album, Will Rap for Food speaks for itself with the different inner cuts that focus on Deacon and Kno rapping in exchange for them asking people for money to purchase food.

They have fast become one of my favorite groups, even when I have been severely critical of southern hip hop music. Both the “Hyphy” movement in the Bay Area and the Crunk” movement in the south have not always sat well with me because I have always believed in the adage, “quality over quantity”. The Cunninlynguists do not have a hidden agenda and the material on this album in particular will swallow you whole. The fortune and the fame concept that many emcees and groups use as fuel for their music is not even a primary concern for Deacon and Kno who concentrate more heavily about the issues that they have faced while building up their stature and reputation as the Cunninlynguists.

My favorite tracks on the album include: “Mindstate” and “Family Ties”. Personal experiences are seen throughout this album by both artists, most notably Deacon the Villian, who raps about losing his sister and changing his ways in order to help support his family and provide an example and leadership for his younger sister. The cuts produced by Kno on this album combine the usage of hip hop, classical, jazz, and other musical genres. He has also been praised for his remix of Jay-Z’s Black Album, the White Al-bu-lum. Not only have they opened themselves up to hip hop with this album, they have also introduced newcomers who have used Will Rap For Food as an outlet to display their skills, including: Mr. SOS, Tondeff, Cashmere the Pro, Braille, Celph Titled, and etc.

Although this might seem like a stretch, I truly feel that the music that the Cunninlynguists have been releasing for the past 5 or 6 years is really reminiscent of old school Outkast, pre-2004. If you have not already heard or checked out an album by them, I heavily emphasize that you should do so immediately. Even though the south has ruled the hip hop world for quite some time now, the Cunninlynguists stand out on their own because of their continuous efforts to touch upon issues that are not one dimensional, something more artists should be more conscious of.

“Mindstate”

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A Review of Gang Starr’s “Moment of Truth”

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R.I.P. Guru

“Gang Starr has got to be the sure shot/And its like that”

What makes a group so successful and relevant through the eyes and ears of modern hip-hop listeners? Is it the combination of clever and crafty rhymes mixed with uncanny and unique beats all in one? If that is the case, then that has been the calling card of Gang Starr for almost 2 decades. The duo, consisting of MC Guru and DJ Premier, have collaborated with each other since 1989, the end of an era that featured the likes of Public Enemy and N.W.A. They broke up in 2003 over creative differences but reports have surfaced in the past few years that a return has been mentioned. Both Guru and Premier have gained notoriety as solo artists as witnessed with their continual impact on the industry but their chemistry together as a duo was nothing short of magical.

They have been considered one of the most influential East Coast hip-hop groups and were responsible for jump-starting the careers of such artists such as Afu-Ra, Jeru the Damaja, and Mobb Deep. The music that Gang Starr created was presented in a form that was very intellectual and well-versed. The subject matter found throughout the Moment of Truth is positioned at different angles and directions. Each track on the album is blatantly different from another, which is indicative of Premier’s talents on the board and Guru’s skills on the mic. The album is part of a tradition that Gang Starr has steadily upheld and the music is definitely a reflection of the reputation that Gang Starr has attained.

My favorite tracks on the album include: “What I’m Here 4″ and “Make ‘Em Pay”. My introduction to Gang Starr was prompted by my interest in listening to new artists whose songs were not being played on the radio 25 times a day on the radio. A friend of mine then told me about a group called Gang Starr and for the past 2 years, I have managed to buy every Gang Starr album ever released. A wise investment in my opinion but my parents have often gawked at how much I spend on music. However, what matters to me is music that challenges me to think in a different light and to me, Gang Starr is one of only a few artists that do that for me.

If I could sum up Gang Starr in a sentence: A dynamic duo that sacrificed the evil intentions of the hip-hop industry for the good of making music without selling out or compensating for anyone else.

“Make ‘Em Pay”

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“”The Real YAYarea” May 3rd by Elliot Williams

Educated with baking soda

This is my first attempt mixing my own set. I think it sounds legit, gimme some feedback
“Intro”
“White Girl” – Young Jeezy
“Wow” – Tyga
“Takeover” – Zion I
“Crank That” (remix) Soujha boy
“Sideshow” – Traxamillion
“Geek to tha Beat” – Zion I
“Track 19″ – The Pack
“Speeding” – RIck Ross
“The Bay” – Zion I
“It’s Gettin Hot” (Oakland Allstar remix) – The Team
“Trilla” – Rick Ross
“It’s Me Bitches” (remix) – Swizz Beats
“Blow Your Mind” – Styles P ft Swizz Beats
“Dumb” – The Pack

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“Audiophiles Anonymous” May 2nd by Jimmy Constantine

mind-blown

Strugglin’ – K’naan
Soldier – DJ Vadim
All There Is To Say About Love – Bike For Three!
Feel.Love.Thinking.Of (Mexicans with Guns Remix) – Faunts
Caught in a Riot (Feat. New Moscow) – Andreas Tilliander
MERLINFIST! – Mux Mool
Robo Tussion (Feat. Lil Wayne) – Flying Lotus
Pretty Soon – Koushik

Excuse me as I go on an electronic binge this week.
Break chains, make change.
Music so good your head might explode.

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“Hip-Hop for the Daily Grind” April 20th by Drew Howard

“Get it Right Now!”
“Stay Awake Like an Owl”
“Take Over”
“Blue Bird”
“Digital Dirt”
“Retro Dance”
“Passin Me By”
“Acid Raindrops”

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A Review of Black Star’s “Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star”

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New York's finest! Reporting for duty.

As a fan of both Mos Def and Talib Kweli in regards to their creativity and messages they spread throughout their songs, I was more than excited when I found out they had released an album together. Both of these MC’s exude nothing but the utmost success in association to their individual careers. However, listening to them on this album gave me a greater appreciation of their ability to coexist with each another so beautifully. The lyricism of both these MC’s combined with the beats produced by DJ Hi-Tek pave the way to an album that showcases the talents of two MC’s who share a deep motivation and passion for music.

My favorite tracks from the album include “Definition” and Respiration”. Every song on the album focuses on different topics whether relating to modern-day issues, philosophical ideas, or just every day life. To be honest, I was skeptical when I had first bought this album. I did not know what to expect and the reputation of both Mos Def and Talib Kweli was what drew me into buying this album in the first place. After listening to the whole album, I realized that the $9.99 I had spent had clearly paid off. These two artists are like peanut butter and pickles. You think they will not go well together but they create a delicious sensation as soon as you put them together.

If you asked me to list the top 10 all time hip-hop/rap duos, Milli Vanilli would be #1 and Black Star would come in at a close second.

“Definition”

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