Eraser
Hip-Hop Political Convention Dates Set
MCs and activists are preparing to Rap The Vote. In an election year where young voters are seen as key players, the hip-hop nation has been at the forefront of issue and voter organizing activities. This summer will see several historic gatherings bring together grassroots activists, non-profit youth organizations, voter engagement groups, and conscious artists in an effort to unify the hip-hop nation’s election voice.
To be held in Las Vegas August 1 – 3, the National Hip-Hop Political Convention opens with a pre-convention gathering July 28 – 31 titled “The State of Hip Hop” before its main kick-off event. The pre-convention event will include a film festival, concerts, art exhibits, academic symposium, and bboy/bgirl battles. Main convention activities will include conferences, entertainment, cross-cultural exchanges, workshops, film screenings, and exhibitions to address the issues and concerns affecting hip-hop culture and the hip-hop Generation.
Confirmed guests and speakers for NHHPC 2008 include Byron Hurt (Beyond Beats and Rhymes), Unspoken Heard’s Asheru, Hard Knock Radio’s Davey D, Rev. Lenox Yearwood, The Coup’s Boots Riley, Rosa Clemente, Camp Lo, Haiku D’Tat, author Jeff Chang, Gamblers Crew, Knucklehead Zoo, Popmaster Fabel, Rebel Diaz, The Welfare Poets, Supernatural, and more to be announced.
Presenters and sponsors include representatives from local and national grassroots organizations and non-profits, including Ruckus Society (Oakland), One Hood (Pittsburgh), Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (National), Hip Hop Media Lab (Boston), Hip Hop Caucus (Washington DC), Color of Change (SF Bay Area/National), Ella Baker Center of Human Rights (Oakland), New Orleans Worker Center for Racial Justice (New Orleans), Safe Streets Strong Communities (New Orleans), Survivors Village (New Orleans), League of Young Voters (National) Universal Zulu Nation, and Temple of Hip Hop.
2008 Convention Chairperson Troy Nkrumah says, “This political convention is the biggest gathering of young activists, mostly urban youth of color, who are often ignored and overlooked when policy is developed. What do these young people care about? What is their position on the education system, the criminal justice system, or even on access to adequate healthcare? If policy makers feel these young people do not care about these issues, then they should pay more attention to what happens at the 2008 National Hip Hop Political Convention.”
Tour Diary: The Grouch
Living Legends crew member The Grouch raps and eats his way through the Southwest.
Sunday, April 6: Reno, NV
I flew into Reno from Burbank with a short layover in Oakland and saw my old-school homey DJ True Justice. We talked about new ways to sell music and who could fall asleep faster on a plane. He did. My boys Buddha and Dot.com run a sandwich shop in Reno (as well as a successful underground hip-hop show on commercial radio!). I had the healthiest thing on the menu, then met up with Zion I at the venue. Fabby Davis (a.k.a. Mistah F.A.B.) killed it with a 10-minute acapella freestyle for the night’s grand finale!
Tuesday, April 8: Hollywood, CA
Asop (of Living Legends) suggested we do an in-store at Amoeba L.A. and then didn’t even show up! About 600 kids crowded the rows of the store to watch Legends and me do a few cuts off our new releases that both dropped today (The Gathering and Show You the World). Perfect timing. Murs was so happy he had to jump up and touch his toes! We signed autographs for two-and-a-half hours. Damn, it feels good to be a gangster. Amoeba gave me $75 credit and I spent my whole thing on the new Jose James CD.
Wednesday, April 9: Los Angeles, CA
Daddy Kev throws a weekly at the Airliner in Los Angeles with dope resident DJs like D Styles, Flying Lotus, edIT, and Gaslamp Killer. I did my record release party there with DJ Fresh on the tables. Abstract Rude and Scarub came through, and a lot of the folks knew the words to the new songs already. The album just came out yesterday! Hmmm, illegal downloads? My daughter Rio has got to eat, y’all!
Sunday, April 20: Indio, CA
4/20, dude! Many chances to smoke that good purple shit. I only smoke on rare occasions–usually at home with my wife so I can just go to sleep if I get paranoid. Dope turnout, the fans had a nice energy, and seemed hungry for hip-hop out there in the desert. I spoke to Myka Nine about the Jose James remake of “Park Bench People” and his ridiculous freestyle on G4 TV.
Monday, April 21: Tucson, AZ
We drove my veggie oil/biodiesel-powered Ford F350 to Tucson (oxymoron, I know). My first show with Collie Buddz of about five. I bet he had a good one the night before (4/20… “Finally the herbs come around”)! I ate at the Cup Cafe at Hotel Congress–coconut curry tofu and vegetables over couscous. I’m on the health tip, man. My brother Brad the Merch Guy “hossed” (that’s what we call driving long distances in the truck) all the way back to L.A. (503 miles) in six hours! Serious business.
Tuesday, April 22: Los Angeles, CA
I played at The Roxy, Sunset Strip–legendary spot. I drove up with my wife and DJ Fresh without a minute to spare and hopped on stage. The whole front of the crowd was fully into it, but I had to convince some of Collie’s fans. Shout out to the soundman, who said he’s been a Legends listener for years. My boy Tone brought me a new DJ Khalil beat CD. Heat! To top the night off RZA was in the house!
Palac “Kind Things Sing”
Journalists and critics love to pontificate about “new media” and the phenomenon of “media convergence” and more often than not the discussions devolve in semantic arguments or grandiose visions of a future that never quite seems to be now. Well, beneath the chattering of people who love to hear themselves speak are the sounds of people who are pushing the limits of digital technology and making that grandiose future exist right now. Take digital-renaissance-man Peter Prautzsch as a shining example; the music he makes as Palac nary enters in the material world. From his field recording sources and electronic compositions to WAV/MP3 only releases, his Palac tracks float instantly from person to person without ever touching anyone’s hands. Take a quick look around his website and you’ll find his video and design work, as well a link to Frozen Elephants, the “Creative Commons Netlabel” he co-runs to release electronic music for free. Of course, it wouldn’t matter that much if his oeuvre weren’t so deeply in tune with a warm, material world that the work itself never exists in. Wyatt Williams
Force of Nature III
Japanese duo DJ Kent and KZA offers a buffet sampler of styles and eras in their third LP installment as Force of Nature. III doesn’t feel very modern: These tunes have a distinct early-’90s-esque big-club flair that feels largely repetitive. Still, these flaws don’t seem that serious amidst the happy, party vibe that the tracks put forward. III somehow makes cheesy, strident synth (“Traderoute” and “Undefeated”) and old-school echo effects (“To the Brain”) sound inviting rather than annoying. Some cuts channel straight-up ’80s vibes: The synth-laden “Supernova,” “Blackmoon,” and “Kontinents” sound like they were yanked from a planetarium laser light show from that era, as if to ask, what’s a little cheddar on the dancefloor now and then?
Axel Bartsch Kiss
Despite a career that stretches back to the ’80s, this is the first solo album from Axel Bartsch, who has DJed, promoted, and produced everything from hip-hop to techno. Here he’s narrowed his focus to tech-house and minimal, slowing building each track from stripped-back starts to peaks clearly paced for the dancefloor, but with varied results. “Mystique,” with its hints of dub, is a spacey success, but “Am Mauerpark” feels awkward and self-conscious, like a techno-by-numbers track. The sweep of “Pannebar,” inspired by Berlin’s Panoramabar, shows Bartsch’s pacing at its smartest, but the album’s intro recalls nothing so much as “Flashdance” (seriously). There’s much that’s good here, but there’s much frustrating as well, constantly on the verge of reaching higher without quite getting there.
The Grouch “Artsy”
The Living Legends crew counts eight west coast members among their ranks, spread mostly between Los Angeles and Oakland, California. Prolific crew member Corey Scoffern, known as the The Grouch, has been releasing solo and collaborative albums for well over a decade now, notably recording with fellow Living Legend Eligh as G&E and appearing on a ceaseless stream of singles. Scoffern gave XLR8R a peek into the touring life in Issue 118 and talked about eating healthy, driving his veggie oil/biodiesel powered Ford F-350, and hanging with RZA at The Roxy. “Artsy” comes from Show You The World, a solo album inspired in part by his latest collaboration-parenting. Wyatt Williams
The Pinker Tones Wild Animals
Barcelona-based duo The Pinker Tones has a reputation for endearing quirkiness, so what’s immediately striking about this album is how much of it is rather conventional. There’s still bubbly electronic pop here–“The Whistling Song,” with reggae star Jimmy Lindsay on guest vocals, and the squelchy “Electrotumbao” are both excellently idiosyncratic. But who needs another tired vocoder-laden robot-sex track like “S.E.X.Y.R.O.B.O.T.”? And “Hold On” never takes its rock groove anywhere particularly interesting. In contrast, the group uses the retro horns on “24” better, and “Biorganised” floats blissfully. Conventional doesn’t necessarily mean bad, though, and as a whole the album manages to balance out its more familiar moments.
Presets Apocalypso
The sophomore album from Australia’s electro super-duo demonstrates that three years of touring, remixing, and DJing have provided the boys ample time to solidify their sound. On the “Girl and the Sea,” spacey, disco-influenced house pop matches with a perfect proportion of fuzzed-out synths and coolly aloof vocals. The occasional killer shark-attack dance beat still emerges (this year’s version of “Are You the One?” is “My People,” accompanied by its spectacularly disarming video), but Apocalypso largely plays to the band’s newly identified target audience, rewarding blissed-out club hoppers and festival junkies with a rich smattering of blompy house beats and throbbing acid lines.
