Our ROTC comrade Denero will be celebrating his birthday with a traditional Hip Hop party in the park! Please mark your calendars; 10/11 at Delores Park, BYOB, BBQ grills, and an extraordinary showcase featuring 2FS, Rick Stevens from the Tower of Power, DJ Kevvy Kev, and many more of our ROTC family members.
Yours truly is now a featured artist on Hip Hop 4 Change, an organization dedicated to fighting social inequalities and injustice through the education, empowerment, and implementation of Hip Hop culture. I am honored to be selected alongside artists I look up to such as Equipto, Melina Jones, and the Coup.
Their philosophy is that “the mainstream music industry sells sexism, homophobia, drug abuse, materialism, and gang violence as if these problems represent the cornerstones of hip hop culture. These are actually symptoms of hollow marketing schemes driven by corporate greed and when young people buy into them, it perpetuates another generation of closed minds and more hollow marketing. Hip hop stems from the roots of artistic, creative, and militant demands for justice and the acceptance of diversity in all its forms. In this way, hip hop is what we as individuals want it to be.”
The organization is dedicated to grassroots activism and I have ran into founder Khafre numerous times raising funds for local causes. Please visit the site, check out what Hip Hop 4 Change is about, and if you feel that the beliefs and objectives are in sync with yours, please don’t hesitate to support.
MC One Werd and I share several things in common besides rapping: we’re both teachers and we both are practitioners of a specific faith. He released his “the Faculty” album this week and I’m featured on the “Addiction” track along with my friend Pure Powers. This one is for my people “in the rooms.” This album also features Orukusaki, Task1ne, Telli Prego, Pete Feliciano, JB Nimble, and Joe Mousepad.
DJ Dolbee is a veteran DJ/ producer located in Tokyo, Japan. He recently released “Still Underground” on CD and on vinyl. Buy it at We Nod Records, the illest independent record store in this solar system.
I met him in the late nineties when he resided in San Francisco, and was working at the now defunct Zebra Records on Haight Street. He was the first person to ever believe in my rapping abilities and is credited as being the first to ever record me and release any material with your boy Kuma on it. The “Nice Kut” mixtape was released in 1998 and features my first released freestyle ever.
Then he returned to Japan, had a label fly my big homie Tenzin and me out there, formed a crew “I.P.S” and featured us on a vinyl release. The 1999 “Catacombs” compilation was my official debut and remains my only vinyl appearance to date.
You probably know by now that I help organize a weekly event called Return of the Cypher, which is an open-mic jam session at John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom Room on Sunday nights. You probably know that it’s the fastest growing Hip Hop event in the Bay Area and that we have a very supportive community. If you were raised by the culture, you will feel like you finally made it home. All MC’s are encouraged to spit. We will be celebrating our one year anniversary on 06/15 with an amazing showcase filled with a diverse range of artists that have come through in the past year.
Preceding the anniversary showcase, the San Francisco Black Film Festival will be premiering “‘Til Infinity,” a Souls of Mischief documentary. Needless to say, it is extremely appropriate to host a world premier documentary about the Bay Area legends before our platoon of independent rappers set it off.
Hip Hop for Change is a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting socioeconomic inequality through Hip Hop empowerment and employment. We bring Hip Hop creativity classes onto public school campuses, enabling students to learn the craft of rhyme writing, graffiti art, break dancing. I am proud to have been chosen to be a director in this wonderful nonprofit organization. HH4C will have a party on May 30th at the Elbo Room (647 Valencia, SF.) featuring B-Pos, SF’s Richie Cunning, and a special beat showcase by Today’s Future Sounds. Hosted by yours truly.
Besides the great sensei DJ Krush, no Japanese producer has ever influenced the global sound scape at the magnitude the late great Nujabes did; from his soundtrack of “Samurai Champloo,” the “Luv Sic” series with Shing02, to his phenomenal solo projects, it’s an understatement to say that he left his mark on music. I remember begging my former engineer Mez to lend me his Samurai Champloo DVD’s and writing for hours to his mellow, jazzy instrumentals. He was and always will be definitely a noticeable part of my Hip Hop experience.
Nujabes released his music through the Hydeout label and they manage a store called Tribe. A new project from the Hydeout label “Black Foliage” will be released on 12/18 and features my producer Cloud NI9E. It’s even more impressive that Cise Starr rocks the track; the Florida MC has been on my radar since he merked “Steady” with his group Cyne. Oh yeah… 9th Wonder is also on the project too… Be sure to cop this one, I’m more than sure that it’ll be available on the Tribe site.
My comrade Khafre of the BPos crew runs Hip Hop for Change, an organization dedicated to educating people about socio-economic injustice and empowering them through Hip Hop. As you can see, Khafre is not playing around at all.
It’s an honor to be performing at the Hip Hop for Change 12/28 Holiday Party @ the Elbo Room. (647 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110.) My crew 2FS (Orukusaki x Kensho Kuma) will be rocking alongside BPos, Seneca, Mint Rock (Bored Stiff,) Davu and the Bottom Hammer Band.
Perhaps one of the most intimidating assignments for a MC is to recreate the “Illmatic” album, arguably the best Hip Hop album ever produced. I personally wouldn’t attempt this feat; it would mean the next three years of my life consecutively being secluded in the “dungeons of rap.” The English language accomplishment was completed wonderfully by Detroit wordsmith Elzhi on “Elmatic.” This free release was critically acclaimed not only for its complex lyricism, but the fact that it complemented the ’94 classic; he also completely murked his corresponding Oakland New Parish performance for this project. I am far from a Hip Hop historian, but we can all agree that utmost lyrical complexity, which stays true to the original feel of “Illmatic” is necessary for any seasoned rapper to even attempt to remake this classic. In other words, you must be at Elzhi-lyricism level to succeed at this assignment.
Last summer, I stumbled by this flier at Bar Ado in Osaka, Japan. Very interesting… A Japanese MC from Osaka remaking the Nas classic.
勝 is pronounced “Masaru” and the kanji character means “to win” and “victory;” this summer, I had the pleasure of not only receiving a copy of “Re: Illmatic,” but also building with him. “Re: Illmatic” was truly a pleasant surprise for me. The artist approaches the classic with his Kansai-dialect and does a fine job of translating the Queensbridge vibe. If any American rapper were to attempt to remake “Illmatic,” that person would probably attempt to get in the mid-nineties Timberland/ gemstar mind state (which I seem to be stuck in a lot of the time,) however Masaru was able to deliver 2012 appropriate lyricism, without compromising his complexity on this project. What I mean is that not only will he receive salutes from the fans who understand what “Illmatic” initially represented, but he will be commercially viable to the eighteen year old that just realized that lyrics hold weight. Well done comrade.
Thizzler on the Roof is a reliable Bay Area Rap portal that closely covers local acts… They have begun a monthly cypher session at the First Friday Oakland Art Mur Mur celebrations; DJ Twelz and Z-Man were hosting the session when I got there and I just did what I do. Props to Deuce Eclipse from the Zion-I crew and Do-Dat from the Attik for holding it down as well. The next one is 08/02/13; I’ll be out in Asia, so go rep for me.