Tag: hip-hop

April 6, 2017

BROOKZILL! The Indie-Life Interview

A smash-up of Brazilian and Brooklyn rhythms in name and in sound: BROOKZILL! recently released their debut album, Throwback to the Future. Indie-Life caught up with the crew after a show at Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia.

Hip-hop went global in the 1980s, but it was a one-way commercial street for at least a decade, until an international audience started shipping back their own brand of worldly rap. Today, American hip-hop is increasingly tinged with international music: island sounds have become part of a standard hit recipe, British grime inflects the way American emcees deliver their raps, a Canadian runs the charts.

But international collaborations don’t often come as natural—or ambitious—as BROOKZILL!, a Brazilian-American hip-hop crew comprising a cast of legends. The group, which released its first album this past fall, is helmed by Prince Paul, the iconic producer of De La Soul and Gravediggaz fame; on the mic is another ‘90s hip-hop legend: Ladybug Mecca, one third of the alternative hip-hop group Digable Planets. She shares the stage with Rodrigo Brandao, a well-established Brazilian emcee, while Don Newkirk, a longtime Prince Paul collaborator, operates as a behind-the-scenes producer.

When Indie-Life speaks with the crew after a recent show in Philadelphia, they frame the collaboration as an organic intersection of mutual friends and collaborators. “We went to Brazil and Rodrigo had these amazing musicians in this really dope studio and, you know, we went up in there and it was cool because there’s no language barrier with music,” Prince Paul explains. “Those dudes spoke Portuguese and I spoke music and they did too…and that’s what you’re hearing man. Total vibe, total live fire.”

Paul is quiet but slinks confidently into his role as the de facto frontman. By contrast, Brandao, the sole Brazilian national on the squad, bubbles like an excited fan in conversation. “Paul was like the foundation, you know like he’s the drum beat,” Brandao says. “He’s the guy that’s been doing that since it was a hip-hop party. Right? So he’s the hip-hop Highlander man.”

“Don is the melody maker,” Brandao continues. And Ladybug Mecca? “The Queen, man, she’s the Queen you know. She’s one of those persons. If you realize, Mecca barely talks on stage because she transmits through her beauty, to her energy you know? Since I’m not a beauty, I’m the guy who talks.” Paul interjects reassuringly: “Somebody gotta do that man!”

Mecca, born in the States to Brazilian parents, shares a mutual admiration with Brandao. “I mean you see his energy,” she says. “What a pleasure it just is to be around him. He’s talking about all of us but he’s just as powerful, important, pure and it’s just an honor to be in this group with everyone…Even if you don’t understand the language like you can feel it and that’s what I love so much about it.” Newkirk chimes in on the pair’s vocal compatibility: “They complement each other so well. It’s like, yo, it’s obvious. We heard the verses back and forth and it was like, ‘Oh ok this is what that is.’”

Listening through the album, Newkirk’s revelation holds: Brandao and Mecca are an unexpectedly organic pair. Both emcees sound relaxed and in-the-pocket, like natural party rockers throwing a bash.

For Rodrigo Brandao, a kid growing up obsessed with 90s hip-hop in Brazil, this collaboration feels almost like fantasy rap camp. He almost seems to pinch himself as he marvels, “I always joke to them, but it’s real, like to watch a show was like my biggest dream,” Brandao remembers. “Because back [then] when Digable played [in Brazil] in ‘94 it was like, ‘Oh my God!’ It was a long time until [you’d] see another act…The Digable show in ‘94 was like a game changer for us, you know? I can’t believe [that] I’m going on stage once again with these people! Every time might be the last one.”

The collaborations on BROOKZILL!’s debut expand past the core group, cleverly weaving other Brazilian and American artists into the mix. “They are dope and they are friends, but they are also like heavyweights on the scene,” Brandao says of the Brazilian musicians featured. “The Sao Bento joint, that one is kind of like about the birthplace of hip-hop in Sao Paulo which is the birthplace of hip-hop in Brazil. So I was like let me get a dope MC from each different generation and then [Mecca] brought Kid Koala to scratch over too. You know so that’s the [Del the Funky Homosapien] connection…There is nobody on this album that there is no relationship [that’s] organic to at least one person. [It’s] grassroots for real in that sense.”

As for the outfit’s next move, each member seems to hint excitedly at more music, more shows, and maybe even a more crowded stage. “As time goes we want to—you know, like turn into [a] Duke Ellington big band,” Brandao says. The metaphor is apt. Like the jazz legend, BROOKZILL! combines energy and skill in their live performances, with a sound that expands and embraces voices from all over the map.

Interview by Rasheed Rafik Abdellah

Words by Jay Balfour

Visuals by Tim Blackwell

September 13, 2016

LIFE’S BIGGEST QUESTIONS: DIGABLE PLANETS

Interview by Rasheed Rafik Abdellah
Words by Jay Balfour

In hip-hop especially, the perfected sophomore record is a rare phenomenon, but Digable Planets have always been charming outliers. The trio, whose members coalesced in Brooklyn in the early 1990s from Seattle, Philadelphia and Silver Spring, found their stride with Blowout Comb, their second and final album and one of hip-hop’s most unheralded classics.

In many ways, Blowout Comb is about blackness and Brooklyn, and the specific blackness of Brooklyn in the ‘90s. (Even straightforwardly so, with the album carrying song titles like “Black Ego” and “Borough Check.”) Musically, Blowout Comb hinges on the trio’s fascination with jazz, and few hip-hop records have ever accomplished such an intellectual dialogue with the genre.

More than 20 years later, the members of Digable Planets have let their collective classic stand as a swan song, but they were revisiting the material for eager fans when we spoke in Ardmore earlier this month. “My daughter was here tonight,” Doodlebug said. “They love music. They’re very supportive, so it makes it easy on me.”

Despite their organic live reunions, the trio have spent their latter careers carving out individual paths. “We’re just working on different things,” Doodlebug contends. “Everybody in the group is working on different projects. You know, musicians, they all have side projects. At some point, we’ll probably get back together again and do some stuff.”

For his part, Irving is currently prepping the release of a comic book inspired by a mixtape he released in 2013. “It’s called The Epic of the Heaven and Earth Association,” he said of the comic. “My lawyer and I wrote it together. It’s based on the storyline of the [Afronauts vs. Wretchen]. I use a lot of musical metaphors. I use my journey through the music world and growing up in Philly.”

Ladybug Mecca, meanwhile, is eying a new and ambitious musical collaboration with a handful of legends. “BROOKZILL! is a project created by Prince Paul and myself,” she said, referencing the legendary producer of De La Soul fame. Rodrigo Brandao and Don Newkirk, a Brazilian artist and another De La-affiliated producer respectively, round out the lineup. “From first conversations, [it’s] about 10 years in the making,” Mecca said of their upcoming debut album, planned for October release. “It was written and recorded in Brazil, Atlanta, New York, Long Island, Queens. It incorporates a lot of very special musicians and guest appearances. It basically fuses the soul of Brazil with Brooklyn hip-hop. We sample and recreate a lot of Afro-Brazilian, candomblé inspired samples. Really old-school records. And throw a hip-hop beat basically under it. And whichever one stuck, we went with it.” Not unlike Digable’s Blowout Comb, BROOKZILL! relies on the intersection between two great black arts. “Hip-hop and those records from Brazil, the root is the tambor, the drum. So, yeah, it’s all linked by Africa.”

Ish, finally, has mined what is perhaps the most successful of the group’s post-Digable careers as one half of the duo Shabazz Palaces, a Seattle-based project that flirts with avant garde tendencies. “We working on a new one now, finishing it up soon,” Butler said of a forthcoming Palaces record, but shying away from details.” More pressingly, Shabazz was on the verge of opening for Radiohead for a two-night stint in L.A. when we spoke. “The Radiohead thing, when they decided to go on tour, they picked certain groups to open in certain areas. I know they see it as giving some of the groups they like an opportunity …They just invited cats to do it. I been rocking with them for a long time. I got on them at Okay Computer and I listened to that quite a bit. And I stayed with them for a long time leading up to the Yorke solo shit. So, to get the call was big.”

LIFE’S BIGGEST QUESTIONS – CRAIG “DOODLEBUG” IRVING

Biggest rule? “The biggest rule would be to stay authentic.”

Biggest regret? “Not being as fiscally responsible when we was first doing our thing.”

Biggest risk? “Being a father.”

LIFE’S BIGGEST QUESTIONS – MARY ANN “LADYBUG MECCA” VIERA

Biggest pursuit? “My biggest pursuit, I would say, is evolving as a human being. Growing.”

Biggest passion? “My passion is definitely art, be it photography or music or dance.”

Biggest purpose? “I think my purpose is to be my true self…Just be an example of my most authentic and unique self. Especially in this day and age. It’s not difficult for me but I think for the youth coming up it can be confusing with what’s around them.”

LIFE’S BIGGEST QUESTIONS – ISHMAEL“BUTTERFLY” BUTLER

Biggest influence? “I have to say the weather, like the atmosphere. That’s why I leave [Seattle] a lot. But even when I’m there, it sets the tone for everything that I end up wanting to do and create. There’s water, trees, mountains, oceans, lakes, all types of air.”

Biggest intention? I think hip-hop captured my imagination, even though I was into music before. It spoke to all the legacy in my chromosomes. From space to Africa. I seem to relate. I liked the competition of it—the undercurrent of boastfulness, but it was always contained in something stylistic. The pursuit of that. Being under pressure to make that happen is something that I pursue. I like that feeling.”

Biggest insecurity?

“I got a lot to choose from. The biggest one? I feel just, like, winding up, in any sense, alone.”

 

Visuals by Tim Blackwell

September 2, 2016

LIFE’S BIGGEST QUESTIONS: CAMP LO

Interview by Rasheed Abdellah
Words by Jay Balfour

On their debut album, Uptown Saturday Night, Camp Lo emcees Sonny Cheeba and Geechi Suede spun their charm into inimitably freewheeling and densely convoluted rhymes. Even a casual listener can shout out the hook to their energetic hit “Luchini,” but it takes a hardcore fan to rap along to more than a line or two of the stream-of-conscious non-sequiturs throughout each verse. “Walk through my heaven,” Geechi raps early on. “With levitation from reefers / Drenching divas in E7 / Showboating with Rugers, flash vines, Belafonte vigor.” Speaking on their latest LP, last year’s Ragtime Hightimes, Sonny cops to an unchanged formula. “I feel like with us, it’s always that ‘do-what-feels-good’ shit,” he says, “never really thinking about time barriers. Just getting in there and doing what feels good.”

Almost 20 years removed from Uptown, the duo remains endearingly out there, popping up recently on the long-in-the-works second album from the Australian electronic outfit The Avalanches. They just wrapped up a summer tour alongside eclectic jazz-rap trio Digable Planets at McMenamin’s Crystal Ballroom in Portland after wowing crowds on both coasts—and in-between—including a triumphant two-night stint at Ardmore Music Hall, on Philly’s suburban outskirts, where we caught up with them.

When they’re off the road, Sonny splits his time between New York, North Carolina and Paris, while Geechi, on the other hand, jokes about his move away from the bustle of the Northeast: “I pressed the eject button, man, went down to the A.” Now that they’re home, the guys have no plans of staying still or jumping on trendy bandwagons. For their next project, they’re digging deeper into fertile creative ground rich with their pre-Uptown Saturday Night inspirations. “We’re coming up on the 20th [anniversary] of Uptown,” Sonny warns. “We’re working on that and some new material … We got the demo—basically the album before the album—so … you could see where cats’ heads was at.”

As Digable Planets preps to continue their roadshow overseas and the Camp Lo gents unpack their bags, Sonny recalls his initial, admittedly-rabid-fan encounter in the Planets’ orbit. Coincidentally, it happened on Camp Lo’s first tour ever—with De La Soul.

“We stopped in Jersey at a gas station and I bent down to tie my shoe and when I came back up, Chee was like, ‘Yo, I think I just saw your boy.’ I was like, ‘Who?’ And he was like, ‘I think I just saw your boy.’ I was like, ‘Who you talking about?’ And then before he could get the ‘fly’ out his mouth, he was like, ‘Butter—’ and I ran out the car, ‘Where? Where?’ He was at his car about to pull off. I was like, ‘Yo, yo!’ This is at a gas station in Jersey. Random. The tour bus stopped at a gas station. He was about to dip. Then he thought niggas was about to stick him up. We ran up on the car real suspect, man. [Laughs] He saw that it was all love. And that’s been the bro ever since.”

LIFE’S BIGGEST QUESTIONS – GEECHI SUEDE
Biggest passion? “I don’t wanna sound so cliche with the music thing, but definitely I feel like that’s what it has been. I feel like it’s even more important that artists like us are putting it out there. It’s needed. We need the D’Angelos and the Maxwells and the Lauryns. We need everybody to come back, put some substance and some diversity back into this shit.”

Biggest pursuit? “Wanting to dive into other forms of art: Film, fashion, music. Definitely … to get some other arts up under my belt.”

Biggest purpose? “Taking the platform we been blessed with and just being inspirational for our generation and generations to come. To continue to push the bar. You can be positive, you can be yourself and be successful. Everybody’s copying each other. Everything revolves around negative stuff and all that.”

LIFE’S BIGGEST QUESTIONS – SONNY CHEEBA
Biggest influence? “Always the force of the ‘70s. The dudes that came before. You always look back and find something new that they ain’t looking at right now.”

Biggest intention? “What’s supposed to be the goal. I guess to not fuck with the status shit, you know what I mean? Mentally, spiritually, whatever. They could have it.”

Biggest insecurity? “To not live forever.”

Visuals By Tim Blackwell

August 11, 2016

EXCLUSIVE MIX: “HARDLY WORKING” feat. DJ JUST DIZLE

GLOBAL FRESH: Indie-View w/DJ Just Dizle

Words by Jay Balfour

Just Dizle is a workmanlike DJ. He’s not flashy or famous, but he’s consistent. It’s an approach exemplified by the Parisian hip-hop fanatic’s digital footprint, which is brimming with eclectic mixtapes that opened the door for his current country-hopping tour schedule. “From 2005 to now, I have more than 200 mixtapes online,” he tells Indie-Life, holding court at La Colombe in Fishtown. “That’s more than 6 million downloads. For me to be able to grow, it wasn’t easy.”

A little over a decade ago, Dizle’s fascination with Philadelphia was purely musical. “I loved the scene in the early 2000s,” he says. “The type of DJ I am, I like to go to a city just to check the vibes. I used to come to Philly like every six months.” Later, Dizle met and married a Philadelphian living in Paris, and his connection with the city is now two-fold. He also name checks Jazzy Jeff alongside DJ Premier as his musical idols, noting of the Philly legend: “In terms of longevity, he’s still rocking it like he just started.”

Though Dizle is one of Paris’ foremost hip-hop DJs, he admits to a slog in breaking through stateside. “The biggest gigs in my career come from my mixtapes,” he says. “Usually I tend to go where people say I shouldn’t go. It might be hard, but it’ll be off my own hustling.” Dizle jokes about an early-career tactic of pretending to be his own manager via an alternate email address, a way of injecting an air of accomplished professionalism into his then-fledgling notoriety. “From 2001 to 2004, I sent over 300 mixtapes to everybody, [like] MTV and stuff,” he admits. “I was thinking, ‘The worse that can happen is they say, “No.”’ Once you got the attention, it’s a wrap.”

After fortunate breaks at BET and Skratch magazine, Just Dizle got his due, wedging himself fully into the American hip-hop industry by appearing alongside Snoop Dogg on “Rap City,” showing up as a guest on Sway’s “Shade 45” morning show, and finding ever-larger platforms for his live performance and mixtapes alike.

As a DJ, Just Dizle is an encyclopedic curator with simple ambitions. “To me, there’s just two kinds of music: good and bad,” he says. “I just like to share what I like with people.” Some of the turntablist’s most prominent mixtapes are deep studies into a specific artist’s catalog, like his discography-spanning explorations of Bob James and Roy Ayers’ influence on hip-hop and R&B. His exclusive mixtape for Indie-Life, “Hardly Working” displays Dizle’s love for Hip-Hop.

“I don’t prepare my sets because I’m comfortable with my musical knowledge,” he confesses. “Usually the three first songs I play tell me where I can take them.” Of course, he’s also practical and shares a matter-of-fact method of approach when it comes to flooding a dance floor: “The girls gotta be happy. If they ain’t happy, nobody’s gonna be happy at the party. Guys will follow. Sometimes guys are on the dance floor, and they don’t care about the music. But when the girls are dancing, they’ll dance also.”

Dizle’s experience with dance-music is familial as well. “My dad has two nightclubs,” he says, referencing his father’s businesses in his home country of Cameroon. “[He] used to write songs; one of my uncles used to produce songs also. I was into music since I was a kid.”

Now, Dizle is raising his own three children—who are nine, four and two—with a similar enthusiasm for music. While his own hip-hop icons are first-wave innovators, Dizle’s oldest has taken to Kendrick Lamar, the self-serious Compton lyricist who has reinvigorated California hip-hop in recent years. Following the release of Lamar’s widely celebrated 2012 debut good kid, m.A.A.d. city, Dizle’s son cried foul that his father was getting to see Lamar in concert without  him. “I had to call the promoter and beg him to let me bring my son to the show because I never saw my son so stressed,” Dizle recalls with a smile. “I took him. Just the look on his face … I’ma tell you, I won Daddy of the Year for maybe 30 years in a row that night. That little kid loves what he loves. He was so passionate about it.” 

Like father, like son.

Visuals by Mzizi Media

July 22, 2016

HE CAME TO WIN: INDIE-VIEW w/CHILL MOODY

Words by Jay Balfour

While other rappers might try to leverage a new music video or mixtape into a blog post, Chill Moody traffics in a different type of traction. “I always wanted to work behind music. I like promoting the brand,” the West Philly emcee says. He’s positioned that passion as fuel for his own rap career, and he’s just as comfortable spitballing in a branding meeting as he is freestyling in a cypher.

You might not yet find Moody’s music on the Billboard charts, but he’s managed to sneak it into your TV set: A few days ago, “I Came To Win,” a triumphant track released without much fanfare online, began airing sporadically on ESPN. As soon as the placement was secured, Chill began campaigning for the song to appear on next year’s NBA 2K soundtrack, perpetually looking for a new audience.

“When I first started rapping, I was trying to be something,” Moody tells Indie-Life between sips of water at Gold Standard Cafe. “I was rapping about selling this, shooting that, all of that. That was me trying.” He’s long ditched the try-hard raps is now constantly stewing on cementing his own career.

“I wasn’t coming up thinking I was gonna be a rapper,” he admits. “Honestly, I wanted to be in A&R. I always had an eye for talent. I was always one of those guys that was like, ‘Oh, y’all not listening to this yet?’ It’s so much easier to be that guy when you’re from Philly because everybody was out, like Major Figgas, Jill Scott. Look at that spectrum there.”

The Roots, of course, sit right at the center of that Philly music spectrum, and Moody has smartly nestled himself into their stratosphere, most recently becoming the first artist to be announced as a performer at the band’s upcoming inaugural New York edition of their swelling Roots Picnic festival. “This is my third time on the Roots Picnic,” Chill says proudly. “I did two in Philly…Nobody’s done it more than me but The Roots. That means everything. That’s the old heads. That’s the one you want to be. I wanna do what they’re doing.”

During our interview, Chill fiddles with his latest piece of merch, a G-Shock reminiscent digital watch with a replaceable wrist band. He talks excitedly about sourcing the electronics and custom manufacturing his “nicethings” logo onto the watchband—the same one he’s not only transplanted onto t-shirts and sneakers, but also water bottles and backpacks. As an approach to marketing, it’s a way for Chill to sidestep a crowded marketplace. “It’s cluttered right now,” he says of the music industry. And pointing out a passerby: “She could put up a song right now on SoundCloud if she wants to. You gotta find a way to separate yourself.”

Moody’s latest distinguishing tactic is a collaboration with West Philly’s Dock Street Brewery. Last month, he hosted a music-themed event for one of Dock Street’s celebrations during Philly Beer Week. And this fall, Chill will release his own beer with the craft veterans. “I’m working on a project tentatively titled Six Really Good Songs,” he says, “so you get a six-pack of beer and Six Really Good Songs. That was my whole thought process.” Instead of competing with eager SoundCloud rappers, Chill is squirming his way into traditionally untapped markets.

This Monday, Moody’s adding flavor to the 2016 Democratic National Convention event roster by headlining at Philly Feast, a daytime food truck fest set at Third and Arch streets from 11am to 3pm. But perhaps his most savvy move is his recent turn towards local politics, where he’s pushing for City Hall’s support for Philly’s growing but frequently stunted music scene. “I see the trajectory of the city right now,” he says. “The Rail Park that they’re building, they got me involved with that, [plus] being a Philadelphia Music Ambassador and doing stuff for City Hall with PHL LIVE Center Stage initiative. We’re starting a Philly Music Commission that’ll be up and running in late October. I’m a heavy part of putting that together.”

Moody doesn’t want Philly artists to feel trapped or stunted by the city as much as supported and fostered by it. “You land in Nashville, and they’re playing independent artists in the airport. We don’t have that. We should. You pull up to the TLA in Seattle as an artist, you get 45 minutes to an hour to unload without having to worry about the local parking authority. We don’t have that. That’s simple. Pass legislation where it’s like, ‘Alright, if you’re artist, we know you’re here to do work. You get your loading time.’ That’s simple, but it shows that we, as a city, care about our city. That, in turn, will make artists want to do more for the city.”

 

Visuals by Mzizi Media