GlockWerkOrange

READING MATERIAL:

earlier this month Frank mag released their DOOM curated issue for free. i spent most of two weeks ago reading it, and it’s the best music writing I’ve read in a LONG time. Not only are the history and trajectory of DOOM’s career covered, but DOOM’s artistic process, and how other individuals/artists/hip hoppers were part of developing and documenting that process speak on it. It’s as much about DOOM as it is about how hip hop culture existed into the late 90s and early aughts (even some touches on Hip Hop in the 80s). Though most of the material related to his discography speaks either of only Operation: DOOMsday or Madvilliany, THE WHOLE issue is worth every minute of your time. There is great art within the pages, classic DOOM rap quotes, and Prince Paul, Jeneiro Jarrel, Masta Ace, and DOOM himself all get interviewed. Their is also some nice musings on the use of masks throughout various cultures in history, and the mythology around super heroes and villains in America. The whole issue just feels centered, well thought out, and original… kind of how Wax Poetics use to be.

DOOM, a GOAT

babylonfalling:

Busta Rhymes in Beat Down (1996)

Read the interview here

EVERYTHING REMIAN RAW!!!

piece on The Coming, coming soon

babylonfalling:

Beat Down Newspaper (1992)

Sacha Jenkins article and a couple more photos here

Click, Read… Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal

hiphopfightsback:

“I was young, I was survivin’ the times” - Nas

When I was 12, went to hell for snuffin’ Jesus

titoaj:

Very fine year

The Distance Between Love & Machines

PIECES OF YOUTH PT. I

In my previous post I talked about Midnight Marauders being one of two semiol albums to drop on Nov. 9th, 1993. Enter the Wu Tang: 36 Chambers was the other certified classic to drop that day. Unlike Midnight Marauders, which was an instant platinum selling success because of Tribe’s built-in fan base, Enter the Wu Tang was much different. It was a slow burn that developed on the eastcoast from a grassroots level before it went national, and eventually international.

36 Chambers and Wu had a mystique and intrigue for a multitude of reasons: Wu consisted of 9 members (unheard of at the time), had a symbol that was being branded into your mind, and a slang that seemed to be only for the initiated. Also unlike MM, which was more of an artist statement than groundbreaking LP, Enter the Wu was the latter: street narratives masked by insular reference, highly developed braggadocios and battle raps, and verse stealing mic personalities; hooks were rarely used; and the sound came off as though it was created in a secret smoked out basement, and dragged though mud after a poor mix and one take. Not to add that Kung Fu movie snippets acted as a guide through the listening journey.

Furthermore, as Rza became known for the obscure soul sample and chop, what he actually developed was a swaggering disjointed form of modern blues. This wasn’t the G-Funk of the west, the jazz loops and positivity of Native Tongues and Digable, or the poltical polemics of PE, Kris or Poor Righteous Teachers. This was unfilterd baggy jeans, Tim boots and hoodies eastcoast rap. Add all the aka’s Wu members had for themselves, and you had one of the most avant-garde voices rap music had produced.

Since G-Funk was the dominant force on westcoast urban radio, Wu wasn’t getting play, but their light eventually shined through video shows like The Box, Yo! MTV Raps and Rap City. When the the third single C.R.E.A.M. was released, it pretty much ushered in the Wu empire and movement. The gritty videos with a bunch of hoods bouncing around the lead emcees in front of some dilapidated project building, the slang like flower-pot heads and broccoli, the infusion of 5% / Zulu Nation Gods-Earth-Seeds rhetoric, the popularization of Wallabees, the gambino rap personalities, the emcees signed to one label as a group, yet still able to sign to other labels as a solo artist, the brand endorsement, the clothing line, and the tireless stream of high-quality music, Wu’s presence was felt.

To this day I still remember not actually having 36 Chambers on cassette until ‘95, but knowing half the album, because “Protect Ya Neck”, “M.E.T.H.O.D. Man”, “C.R.E.A.M”, “Could It All Be So Simple”, “Da Mystery of Chessboxin”, and “Wu Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin’ to Fuck Wit / Shame on A Nigga” were all released as videos over a year and a half span. Beyond that what album has skits as memorable as the songs: “Killer Tape”, “Shameek Juss Got Buss In His Head Three Times God” and “I’ll Fucn, I’ll Fucn”. I even recall me and a couple of my boys being some of the first kids in our area to rock Wu shirts before the bubble-gum chain stores carried them, because we copp’d them from the order forms inside the albums. For the next 5 years Wu music dominated the selections of my Walkman and discman and those of many others heads. Forever, Enter the Wu Tang: 36 Chambers, will be a joyful cigarette burn on the soul.

“Stomp a mud hole in that ass, cause I’m straight out the swamp”

PIECES OF YOUTH PT. II

Yesterday, thanks to the wonderful world of Okayplayer, I was reminded that Nov. 9th marked 17 years since the release of two seminol Hip Hop albums. One is Midnight Marauders. I know 17 isn’t anything special like 10, 15 or 20 years, but since this is my first year with a blog/tumblr, its a chance to speak on it from a personal, more than cultural relevance perspective.

MM is memorable to me for two reasons: one, ‘93 was the first year I was beginning to develop my own musical taste; and two, it was also months before my family moved from the hood to the burbs. Growing up in a household full of Motown, Oldies But Goodies mixtapes and Mexican Rancheras definately shaped my taste, but before ‘93 I was still bumping MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Bel Biv Devoe and Kris Kross. Also, the fact that I lived in a predominantly Latino neighborhood, House music just as much a the sound of the streets as was Hip Hop. Yet, due to my sister Zaira begining to date my future brother in law Ray, my system was beginning to have heavy doses of Cypress Hill, Cube, Digable Planets, Pharcyde, and Pete Rock & CL Smooth.

At the time Power 106 and 92.3 beat had its steady stream of Dre, Snoop, Kid Frost and the like, which I dug, but Midnight Marauders was a whole different atmosphere. Already a fan of “Who Got the Jazz” and “Scenario” from Low End Theory, Tribe was the sound and image of cool. It was really the summer of 94 when I dubbed the whole album to a 60min tape and without a doubt, I bumped that dubb until their 4th album, Beats Rhymes & Life dropped two years later.

Much like the youth I work with today, whose IPod’s are full of cover-less singles, I wasn’t up on the legendary cover until years later. So in a way I acquired and listened to the music on its “purest” form; no hype, no image, just sound. And to this day, Tribe’s sound is some of the most intelligent, progressive, and soulful music ever generated. It also existed a couple of years before the whole Eastcoast-Westcoast beef that ultimately had Biggie and Pac murdered. So it existed at a time when Hip Hop was still fun, though the Gangsterisms were dominating and lyricism was getting more cerebral.

Not political, or socially conscious as its usually misrepresented to be, Tribe and Midnight Marauders was socially responsible street music from Queens, New York. Tribe consciously chose to not focus on the aspects of the hood which make it difficult to inhabit, but instead they focused on what made their hood vibrant and unique: gear on a budget, digging pretty brown skin woman, partying, schooling sucker emecees, with an occasional dip into a song about the social or political plight of Black life. Songs like “Award Tour”, “Clap Yo Hands”, “Sucka Nigga”, “8 Million Stories”, “We Can Get Down”, and “Lyrics to Go” are more than timeless or time capsules, they are teaching tools for future music generations and examples of Blackness that encompass knowledge, a measured masculinity and an uncommodified voice, though working within the machine. Their are moments when I feel Midnight Marauders is THEE greateast musical achievement of America… and others when I know it to be what it is without the pretense: an example of how powerful Hip Hop music is.