New Q&A With Stic Man of Dead Prez
Sitc Man
Recently we had some time to exchange dialogue with the super ”conscious but gangster” Stic Man of Hip Hop Duo dead prez. Simply put… the conversation was nothing short of enlightening. Dead Prez is known not only for their music but using their cultural and historical consciousness to educate the community on anything from politics to a holistic lifestyle. There most recent records, Stimulus Plan and Runnin’ Wild are amongst some of their most socially aware work. We asked Stic Man about some of the purposeful decisions made to not fall into the shallow river of mainstream Hip Hop but swim in a pool of consciousness and edification. He gave us some great insight.
Is “Hip Hop” dead? Or is it just underground?
Hip hop is a reflection of the power and lack of power in our communities. If we wanna see more liberation consciousness in Hip Hop, It has to start in the same communities that produce the rappers.
It’s been said that a big part of your political and social ideologies comes from an early influence of the Black Panthers. The late 80s early 90s sparked the formation of the NBPP (new Black Panther party). Do you guys have any involvement with them? What’s your take their ideologies vs. the original Black Panthers?
I am familiar with the NBPP and have seen the comrades at work in the streets for many years organizing and striving to do the work the way they feel is most effective. I salute their sincerity and dedication to fill the void of leadership in our hoods. The original Panthers wisdom and analysis could surely benefit the new formation if there are ways the two eras can see to coincide to move forward it would be ideal. There is always a need for new approaches and fresh ideas but also balanced with tried and true experience from those who have ‘paid the cost to be the boss’ so to speak. Long live the Panthers in spirit and in deed and free the Panthers that are U.S. political prisoners like Hrap Brown, Sundiata Acoli, Mumia Abu Jamal, Mutulu Shakur and many others, wrongly locked up to this very day!
They say if you do what you love, you’ll never work another day. It seems as though you guys are definitely doing that. Literally speaking your mind from a major platform (Music). What would you say to a nation full of people who instead of searching for their true calling spend their time consumed with greed and material things?
That’s a loaded question but I say Poor people have a long overdue right to have daily needs met, to provide nice material needs for their families just like rich folks have. The material aint’ the problem. It’s the denial of the wealth that the system and the ruling class steals from the masses of poor people everyday that is the problem. We should all have. Not just a few of us, ya dig?
…So Far, On the Blueprint III
….So far, on the Blueprint III…
…“And I don’t wear Jerseys I’m thirty plus, give me a crisp pair of jeans nigga button-ups”...I’m sure Jay-Z didn’t expect every young hip hop fan to throw out his $200 George Gervin throwback and go to Bloomingdales and pick up a closet full of button ups, but they did. We did. We listened to Jay like he was the headmaster at a boarding school. The only thing was he really wasn’t trying to convince us. He was merely telling us what he did and thought was fly. But with the official release of Death of Auto Tune and Run This Town along with the unofficial leak of Off That featuring Drake off of the highly anticipated Blueprint III album, it seems as though he is now telling us what to do.
Everything evolves, and musically the last two years in Hip Hop have been considerably evolutionary. The Hip Hop scene moved out of New York and into South. The revolutionary but gangster rappers like Public Enemy and NWA were replaced with the more lyrically conscious sounds of the Native Tongues Era. They in turn were followed by very urban/mainstream fusions for a long span that became redundant and sparked the recent uprising of more conscious positive minded acts. These processes are organic and necessary.
With the Death of Auto Tune, Jay is saying very simply, stop listening to auto tune. No subliminal here, it’s very overt. We all know the use of auto tune, although somewhat criticized has been very successful in recent times. It’s built the careers of T-Pain, Ron Brownz and others not to mention that Kanye West recorded his iconoclastic genre breaking album 808 and Heartbreak in complete auto tune and received critical acclaim. DOA seems to have had an invisible “gag order” on the use of auto tune. What was once a musical “Do” in 2007/2008, became an immediate musical “Don’t” in 2009. Should one man have this much power? Run This Town screams, “Look at me, look at me”. He’s Jay. He doesn’t have to tell us that he runs the town. We are all well aware of his relevance and accomplishments. But after your lead single bashes the “In thing” of 2008 and you second single screams “I run this”, eye brows can only begin to raise.
The single Off That is a very dope record. In fact all the songs are great musically. But what is he saying? “Cris we off that, Timbs we off that, rims we off that” Poking fun at lifestyle “don’ts”, almost purposely showing us how powerful he is when the domestic sale of rims, Timbs, and Cristal drop next quarter. Because Jay is so methodical and purposeful with his music you have no choice but to pay close attention to all of this. The point that remains is, if these observations are true, why does Jay feel the need to try and exercise his influence on Hip Hop culture? He used to put people in a frenzy by unconsciously saying things that navigated the direction of Hip Hop. But now it seems forced. Isn’t Jay above an industry wide diss record or another song telling us how much money he has or how powerful he is? Content aside, the songs are all pretty dope and we look forward to the album.
Courcy Magnus-”Dopest Shit Ever” Mixtape
So Japan
In a sea of hipsters, up and coming Pennsylvania based MC Courcy Magnus continues to swim upstream with vivid signs of progression. He demonstrates solid lyrical ability with realistic yet colorful topics. His newest releases Get Rich Quick and Cool Colors and are from the Dopest Shit Ever mixtape which is right now a solo project with production done by So Japan consisting of him and talented producer Atlanta Micky Park. Both Courcy Magnus and Micky Park remain unsigned but continue to put out decorative music.
Get Rich Quick
Cool Colors
Q&A with 88 Keys
Thirty-three year old super producer 88-Keys stepped outside the producer seat and into the role of artist in his album debut “The Death of Adam”, with a 14 track jewel. In the interview he talked about the balance of producing timeless captivating music and being a full time father and husband. 88 Keys comes across as peculiar intelligent and humble. Still a fan of music and more importantly life, we had a chance to talk about his decade long tenor in the music business and his many influences.
How did you come up with the concept for the album?
Basically I started working on an album for a company over seas and at the time it was just beats and rhymes. Then eventually I made a song which became the song on the album, “There’s Pleasure in it?” That sparked the idea for “The Death of Adam. Then I scrapped the previous body of work I was working on , and started The Death of Adam. The next record I touched to sample pertained to the same subject matter so that was my sign for Death of Adam… I winded up not doing the album with the company over seas, because it started to become bigger than they were. Their vision was too small, to underground to back pack for me. So that’s how that happened.
On the Album you had a lot of features; Kanye, Redman, Kid Cudi, J Davey, Phonte…etc. Did you reach out to them or did them hear about the project and want to jump on it themselves?
All the features are done by people who are my friends. The minute I found out that I had the deal to do the album, Kanye was more excited about it that me, He told me he was going to be on it. Ye and I have been best friends since 2001. It was a cool thing for him to strongly volunteer himself on my album. Redman and I go back, but that was the labels call to put him on the album. They wanted him to be on song the Burning Bush. It was their call and I agreed with it. It was a genius idea. The label thought he could add the whole “Funk Docta Spot” vibe to it {Laughs}. Cudi jumped on the song “Hoe is Short for Hunni”. Initially that song was going to be an instrumental, but I felt that the song needed lyrics just to drive the point home. Initially I was going sing on the song my self but my home girl who’s a songwriter came through and I actually tried to sing the song with her, but it didn’t came out that hot. Then I went back to thinking it was going be in an instrumental. I had a few people in mind to do it but, Cudi, his talent was so unique and so raw at the time I chose him. We had already worked together on the “Wasting My Minutes” on my mix tape, so I knew he needed to jump on this. Cudi and I are also friends so it was a perfect match. Everyone on the album is a close friend, not just artists who were hot right now. They were all right for the project.
Why is there still so much confusion over President Obama’s birthplace??
It seems as though extreme right wing conservatives keep trying to convince the nation that Barack Obama is not a natural born citizen of the United States of America. At this point it just seems silly, after the countless still photos circling the internet and the talk show hosts who have held up copies of his birth certificates on live television.
See more on this at NPR
Recruit Zero Presents…Summer Riding Session Vol. 1
Check out the new mixtape from Recruit Zero. Shouts to Llayo and JJ.
K’naan- Dayless Nights
Heard this song and lost my mind.K'naan talks about the Somali pirates that plague his native land. Give this one a close listen.
Shouts to LLayo and Recruit Zero
Download HERE
Chappelle emerges from the darkness
After a long hiatus from the spotlight, Dave Chappelle has surfaced in Oregon doing a free show at Pioneer Square in Portland. Hopefully he will continue to make more public appearances going forward.
Posted by JJ of 3Sidez