Name: Adam Bernard Home: Fairfield, Connecticut, United States About Me: Entertainment journalist w/ over a decade of experience. Lover of good music, fringe movies, day baseball & chicken shawarma. Nerdy, but awesome. See my complete profile
Today marks the 30th week The Adam B Experience has been on RapReviews.com, and when someone, or in this case, something, turns 30 it’s a cause for celebration. How am I celebrating, you ask? Well, I’m doing it by bringing you a special “Best Of” edition of the podcast featuring songs and artists that you, yes YOU, the listeners, have told me are some of your favorites. Enjoy!
You can download or stream the entire show at RapReviews.com.
Playlist
Homeboy Sandman w/ P. Casso – Wise Up P. Casso – Mr. Hollywood Homeboy Sandman – GGGRRAA!! 8th W1 – Drunken Saturday Substantial – Resurrection of the House Party Rugged N Raw – Broke and Proud Lauren Ianuzzi – A Funk I Won’t Forget Conscious – Neck on Froze Dyalekt – Melt Vinnie Scullo – Digital Molly Jake Lefco – Comfort Zone PreZZure – Lost My Mind Skila w/ Creature & Gab Gacha – No Rest for the Wicked
Remember back in the 90’s when pop/rock groups were experimenting with electronica? Some of the music they created was really extraordinary. I felt that same vibe again recently when I gave a listen to Taxi Doll’s just released full length LP, Hear and Now. Taxi Doll is made up of (pictured from L to R) guitarist Matt Emmer, bassist Brian Hendrix, keyboardist/producer Gregg Allen, lead singer Dhana and drummer Jason Graham, and while the men of the band are from LA, their leading lady is from Europe, which has led Taxi Doll to create a style of music that gives pop/rock a much needed kick in the pants. Some of the band’s work has been featured on a number of high profile TV shows, including CSI New York and The Hills, and this week I caught up with both Dhana and Jason to find out what those placements have done for them, how each member of the band stands out on their own, and what kind of stories they have from their time spent in taxis. That's right, it's time for some Taxicab Confessions from Taxi Doll.
Adam Bernard: Start me off by hitting me with the history of Taxi Doll. How did a European girl end up linking up with an LA guy and in what ways did their musical visions fit together? Gregg Allen: Well, Dhana got an opportunity to go to LA and who doesn’t want to go to LA, right? Once here she was introduced to me by a mutual producer friend who knew we were interested in making the same music, then we just started writing together. We have very similar musical tastes which was conducive to our great collaborative songwriting. Actually, a lot of the music I was inspired by at the time was by UK artists, many of whom were also favorite artists of Dhana’s. We often describe the songwriting process as “finishing each others musical sentences.”
Adam Bernard: You look like an interesting group of unique personalities. Could you go down the line and describe each member of the band and what makes them stand out, both within the group and in life in general. Gregg Allen: I guess you could say that Dhana and I are the electro/pop element of the band and Jason, Matt and Brian bring the rock element. I guess it’s that combination which defines our sound. Dhana speaks 4 languages. I like to jump the highest on stage. Jason has a different hair color every show. Brian is the shyest of the bunch. And Matt loves to stand on speakers. {laughs} But if we were to break it down yearbook style this is probably how it would look:
Most likely to succeed – Dhana, as she is the most driven of the bunch.
Class clown – Me. I am usually never serious and am always joking around.
Best dressed – Brian. He just has just kick ass style.
Most popular - Jason. He gets along great with everyone… unless you get him mad, then he’ll crush you. He is our band ambassador and peace keeper.
Craziest Hair - Matt. Have you seen his curly golden locks?
Adam Bernard: Why did you choose the name Taxi Doll? Gregg Allen: Well, it’s named after the bouncy dolls on the dashboards of cabs. I think the first time we said it out loud we knew that name was the one. I think we have a giant list of band name suggestion somewhere that’s pages long. It’s kinda like the process you go through when naming a child, I think. We don’t have any children that we know of.
Adam Bernard: What’s the best, or most interesting, thing to happen to you in a taxi? Dhana: Probably coming up with the name Taxi Doll. {laughs} In all seriousness, I took a Taxi in Italy once and told the cab driver to take me to the airport “ASAP.” I will never do that again. The guy ran red lights, stop signs, you name it. I never thought I was going to make it to the airport alive. I was rolling around in the back of the cab, like Madonna in that Guy Ritchie BMW short film.
Adam Bernard: Sounds like a great ride to me! Now, from what I hear you were signed to a major label, but ended up deciding to go the indie route. Was this a creative control issue or were there other things that were concerning you, as well? Gregg Allen: We usually do what feels natural and the indie route just felt right. If and when the major route presents itself again and the timing is right then anything is possible, but right now we are happy writing and releasing music on the Taxi Doll schedule. As an artist it’s great to be able to write, record and immediately release a new song to people who are waiting for it. It’s tough sometimes to be on someone else’s schedule.
Adam Bernard: In addition to your album your music has been featured on a number of high profile television shows, from CSI New York to The Hills. Have you found a way to measure what that exposure has done for you? Dhana: It has been a great way for people to discover us. As TV and film are becoming a new forum to discover new music and bands, this and the blogs are instrumental in finding new fans/friends. After certain placements we have seen loads comments on our MySpace or emails to info@taxidoll.com and on others, not a blip. The amount of traffic usually depends on the type of placement, or how we were credited in the show or film.
Adam Bernard: What’s the Taxi Doll groupie situation like? Dhana: We like to think of fans, groupies, etc. all as friends. We just thank our friends for supporting us and are grateful they have the same taste in music we do! We should all get together and make mixtapes someday.
Adam Bernard: In the end, other than gaining you unbelievable wealth, power and fame, what are your goals for your music? Dhana: We just want people to have fun, forget about their day and get lost in the music with a big smile on their face.
If you haven't picked up P.O.S' Never Better yet you're totally sleepin on the best Hip-Hop album of the year so far. Here's the latest video from it. Enjoy!
When you turn on a traditional newsmagazine show you’re usually subjected to either something political, a reporter attempting to scare you, or a feature story that borders on coma-inducing. In response to this cable TV network G4 has created G4 Underground, a new kind of newsmagazine show that looks to cover everything from ninja schools, to real life superheroes, to urban spelunking. The thirty minute program debuts on Sunday, March 29th (9pm EST), and this week I caught up with host Morgan Webb to find out more about it, including what sparked the idea behind G4 Underground, who some of the unique people are that the show’s initial episodes focus on, and why downtown LA isn’t necessarily the best area to make your nighttime hangout. Oh, and there’s something on amateur porn, too!
Adam Bernard: Let’s talk about G4 Underground. This is G4’s first newsmagazine show, correct? Morgan Webb: Yeah, and it’s pretty exciting. There are a lot of topics that traditional newsmagazine media outlets are not going to cover because they like to cover things in a more “your children may already be dead!” kind of way whereas we’re not trying to sensationalize, we’re really trying to investigate some of these cool geeky things that are going on and some of the crazy things people are doing.
Adam Bernard: You kinda stole my next question. I was gonna ask how this will be different from a 60 Minutes? Morgan Webb: I think it’s gonna be topics that people are interested in. Young guys aren’t necessarily gonna watch To Catch a Predator, or “a new disease you may already have!” That’s not necessarily as interesting as going to a ninja school and checking out how people can actually become real life ninjas.
Adam Bernard: Do you have anyone with eyebrows like Andy Rooney? Morgan Webb: No, but we should get one. {laughs}
Adam Bernard: You could wear them. Morgan Webb: We’d have to get extensions, eyebrow extensions.
Adam Bernard: What were some of the brainstorms that led to the creation of the show? Morgan Webb: We meet so many interesting people when we’re on X-Play (which Webb co-hosts with Adam Sessler) and Attack of the Show (check out the current issue of BRM for more on AOTS) and there isn’t really an outlet for talking about them and going more in depth because X-Play is a half hour show and Attack of the Show is an hour and they have so much to cover and we do news and updates and everything. We felt it would be nice to take our time and really check out the urban spelunkers, for example, who are crazy by the way, like totally insane. It’s shocking how brave they are and how much they want to just explore what is unseen and I don’t think anyone else would really do a story like that.
Adam Bernard: There are some illegalities with some of the things that you’re covering. Are you ever worried the cops are gonna bust in while you’re filming? Morgan Webb: That’s an interesting question. Maybe the cops will start following us around. {laughs} I don’t know, I hadn’t really thought about it that way, but now that you brought it up maybe I’ll look behind me once in a while when we’re going on these things.
Adam Bernard: When I saw some of the synopses of the episodes I was just thinking, man, if anyone’s following them they’re ALL in trouble! Morgan Webb: Yeah, we try to really respect people’s privacy and also when we go into these stories we want to make people really aware and understand that we’re not there to make them look bad, we’re not trying to NARC on them, we just want to know more about this interesting lifestyle that they have and we’re not gonna try and make them look bad, we’re not gonna try and make them look dumb, we’re just gonna explore what they have going on and people can really judge for themselves. People don’t need to be told what they need to be afraid of and what is bad and what is good. I think if you present them with a fair assessment of the people and a situation they can make their own decision and that’s kinda part of the fun.
Adam Bernard: I know you’ve been involved in production before, so while you’re the host of G4 Underground are you also involved in any of the production aspects of it, as well? Morgan Webb: Yeah, this is something that is really personally exciting for me. I love X-Play and I’m not gonna stop doing X-Play, but I’m so personally interested in every single one of these topics that it was just hard for me to keep my hands off and hard to keep from wanting to be involved.
Adam Bernard: Was G4 Underground partly born from the success of the special G4 did on Silicon Valley Fight Clubs? Morgan Webb: You know that’s a really interesting point. That show did well. I actually wasn’t involved in it at all, but I thought it was a fantastic show. When you first heard about it you were like “huh, tech fight clubs? I wonder how that’s gonna be?” And when you watch it the reason it’s so good is because it doesn’t say “these guys are crazy and insane.” No one’s looking down on them. You feel like you’re entering their world and that’s what really made it so exciting. I think that totally caught our interest and caught the viewers’ interest, so G4 wanted to expand on that a little bit and say hey, we have a market for this, people want to learn more about this kind of stuff.
Adam Bernard: Your first episode of G4 Underground airs on Sunday, March 29th, what topics will you be covering? Morgan Webb: Real Life Superheroes and Porn 2.0. Real Life Superheroes is about people who dress up like superheroes, they spend thousands and thousands of dollars on their superhero costumes, and then they walk around fighting crime for real. Like in New York City, they’ll go after drug dealers in Washington Square Park. You gotta have some balls to do that dressed up in a costume. But these are fascinating people and it’s interesting to see what people can do given the internet, some free time and some cash. There’s like a world superhero league on the internet and they care and they want to make an impact on the world and this is the way they found to do it. It’s just a different way of looking at the world and it’s really cool.
Adam Bernard: It’s like a post happy hour Watchmen. Morgan Webb: {laughs} Yeah, but these people are passionate about fighting crime and this is the way that they can do it.
Adam Bernard: And in the same episode you also have something on porn. Morgan Webb: Yeah. It’s sort of an exploration. We wanted to look at how you don’t need even a video camera, all you need is a camera that takes video and you can sort of start to make a name for yourself in porn. We talk about how the people next door are getting into it, what kind of social networking tools there are, and how this industry has evolved within really a short period of time.
Adam Bernard: So you go from people who are dressing up in costumes to people who are not dressing up at all. You’re balancing out the clothing. Morgan Webb: Exactly.
Adam Bernard: The amateur porn industry is crazy because, like you said, I don’t even have a video camera, but I have a digital camera that shoots video. Morgan Webb: You have everything that it takes. I mean… I don’t know… {laughs}
Adam Bernard: You couldn’t have just stopped at “you have everything that it takes?” Damn. Switching gears significantly, have you had a scariest moment yet while you’ve been filming the show? Morgan Webb: Well, we filmed some of it in downtown Los Angeles at night and as it gets later and later the citizenry gets less and less respectable and you’re just hanging out there in the streets of downtown Los Angeles kind of like a target. It’s not necessarily scary, but it was sort of that time where things could get scary because people come up, they’re trying to get money by disrupting the shoot, they’re trying to be threatening so you’ll pay them to go away, and those kinds of things. It actually gets pretty hairy, but we have a security guard, so it’s safe, hopefully.
Adam Bernard: Well, you’re not tiny. You’re not a four foot eleven person. Morgan Webb: Are you calling me Amazonian?
Adam Bernard: No, but you can command some respect. Morgan Webb: Sure. I guess. I’m not like a wilting flower.
Adam Bernard: I was in LA a couple weeks ago, but it was my first time there. Would the area you’re talking about be comparative to a bad part of Harlem or Brooklyn at three in the morning? Morgan Webb: You know, the thing about downtown Los Angeles is there’s nothing really there. Most of it’s like warehouses and businesses. There isn’t a lot of housing and there are no liquor stores or restaurants, it’s just nothing, it’s empty, and that’s, of course, why people go there, because they can sleep undisturbed and do whatever they want to do. So it’s not like there are any people living there, it’s just empty, so it doesn’t feel like Harlem or Brooklyn in that respect. It’s just like you and the crackheads. {laughs}
Adam Bernard: Lovely. Finally, since you are also a co-host of X-Play, give me three video games where I might have a shot at beating you. Morgan Webb: Pssh. Good luck.
Adam Bernard: Oh, whoa, gauntlet thrown! Morgan Webb: I dunno, what kind of games do you play?
Adam Bernard: Let’s just say I can complete The Legend of Zelda pretty quickly, and Super Mario Brothers. I’m also a wiz at Ms. Pac Man. Morgan Webb: Dude, I got you.
Editor’s Note – Post-interview I challenged Morgan to a game of Madden. If that game ever happens my video camera will be ready to take it all in and I will have a full report for you on adamsworldblog.com, including what will more than likely be humiliating results for yours truly.
The next time you’re at a newsstand, or your local bookstore, check out the April ’09 issue of Inked. In it I have a two page feature on Atlanta tattoo shop and art gallery City of Ink. I’m also featured in their Contributors section with a picture and a brief bio.
For those who are all net-savvy (as I’m guessing most of you are since you’re on my blog right now), you can check out the City of Ink feature at InkedMag.com.
Fairfield is probably one of the last places you’d think to look to find some high quality Hip-Hop dancers. The town, however, is home to an expert, Paul Herman, who teaches Hip-Hop Dance at Flash Pointe Dance Station. Paul and his brother Brian, who teaches on Long Island, are known as Double Up Dance Group and in addition to being instructors they’ve worked with a number of big name artists, including Kat DeLuna, whom they tour with, Eve, Sean Paul, Alicia Keys and Beenie Man. Their story doesn’t start in Fairfield, though. It starts in the South Bronx.
Growing up in the South Bronx, Paul notes he and his brother were surrounded by inner city pressures such as gangs, violence, and crime. Dance became one of their outlets to stay away from such negative influences. Paul explains that their parents’ backgrounds had a lot to do with this, saying “our parents are of a Caribbean background. Our mother’s Jamaican and our father’s St. Lucian and Caribbean people are very in tune with dancing and celebrating. At a young age we were taught to showcase dancing and express ourselves through dancing.”
The brothers’ first experiments with dance were with the Caribbean staple Dancehall, a style of dance seen most in the world of reggae music. Thanks to living in one of the birthplaces of Hip-Hop Paul and Brian were also quickly put in tune with the world of Hip-Hop dance. There was another factor that influenced the duo, as well – television. Through TV they feel they “got more in touch with the Hip-Hop side of things from not just a Bronx perspective, but from all over the United States.” In 2000 Paul made the move to Fairfield to attend Sacred Heart University and the town has been his home base ever since.
Even though Paul and Brian teach Hip-Hop dance, don’t expect to see them spinning on their head on a flattened out piece of cardboard on the street corner. In fact, according to Paul, Hip-Hop dance and breakdancing are two totally different animals. “We don’t classify ourselves as b-boys,” he explains, “the stuff that Justin Timberlake may do, or that Usher may do, that’s the style of dance that we are known for.” Paul continued to explain the difference, saying “breakdance is more floor motion, powerful hard moves, explosion. You might see someone doing a flair, or spinning on their head. Stuff like that. Versus in a concert you would see some styles of b-boying, but at the same time you wouldn’t see it that much because you can’t do all that while you’re performing. Justin Timberlake can’t drop the mic and start spinning on his head.” He adds teamwork is essential for Hip-Hop dance. “When you’re actually in the moves everyone has to do them together. Sometimes in b-boying people can do stuff together, but after that they break up (and do things solo).”
The Double Up Dance duo received their first big break in 2007 when they heard about contest where the top prize was a spot in Kat DeLuna’s “Whine Up” video. “There was a big contest on Z100 where you had to submit a video dancing to her song,” Paul remembers, “at the time she was coming out as an artist and she was looking for a dance that was symbolic to what the song was saying, whine up.” Paul and Brian’s Caribbean background would work to their advantage as they came up with something that struck a chord with the young singer and her people. “We took our style of dance of Hip-Hop and most of that Caribbean vibe and meshed it together very well. From there Kat and her management team saw the video and requested that we come down to Times Square and perform it in front of them.”
The duo made their way into the city thinking they’d be led to a dance studio or event space of some kind. They were slightly shocked to find out there was no studio or event space, Times Square was going to be their stage. The brothers shook off any jitters they may have had upon finding this out, aced the audition, and went on to the next round where they met renowned choreographer Tanisha Scott. After all was said and done Paul and Brian ended up being chosen to be in the video and can be seen as featured dancers in the clip (which has over 12 million views on YouTube).
The success Paul and Brian have had mixing genres of dance is something that they take great pride in. Paul explains that even though they’re teachers, “we’re eager to learn new things. We pull pieces away, so whatever we learn, whether it’s capoeira, ballet, tap, jazz, we always try to pull something away from there and bring it back to the table.”
What’s next on the table for Double Up Dance Group is a March 29th workshop they’ll be teaching at Fairfield University as a part of the school’s Diversity Week. The workshop is scheduled to be held at the Barone Campus Center in the afternoon. After that it’s more teaching, more touring, and more auditioning as there is no rest for this dancing duo.
Raised on a unique combination of gang life and yoga, Unity Lewis figured out very early on that the events of his youth were preparing him for something big. PBS took notice while he was still in high school and ended up filming his entire senior year for a documentary. Now a full grown adult, Unity is an emcee, teacher, and grad school student studying for his masters in education at Mills College. This week I caught up with him to find out more about his musical career, which includes both solo work and the work he’s done with the group he co-founded, The Napalm Clique, and why “Revolution” has been in his vocabulary since his teenage years.
Mr. Beatz has always been inspired by the greats. Whether it was the lyrical skills of Big Daddy Kane, Rakim and Kool G Rap, the DJing prowess of DJ Jazzy Jeff and Red Alert, or the production mastery of DJ Premier, Pete Rock and The Bomb Squad, he recognized the best of the best and wanted to do something to rank right up there with them. Now a proficient emcee, DJ and producer, Mr. Beatz says the most important thing people should know about his work is the initial reason it all began. “I always have to mention that I'm a fan first,” he explains, “because that always keeps my love strong for the culture and all of its elements and characteristics.” After a short hiatus from making music Mr. Beatz returned to the booth and the boards a little over two years ago and this week I caught up with the New York native, whose latest video can be seen on Video Music Box, to find out what he’s been up to.
Adam Bernard: Start everyone off by letting people know a little bit about who you are musically. Describe a Mr. Beatz song for those that may not have heard one yet. Mr. Beatz: When you hear a Mr. Beatz song you're gonna hear lyricism, boom-bap style production, and scratching in a lot of the hooks. I'm just about raw Hip-Hop, plain and simple. Also, the music is a huge reflection of who I am as an individual, so you're never gonna hear anything from me that follows what everyone else is doing, or talking about, in their music. If there's some serious stuff going on in my life I'll record about it. No swagger or gunplay, though. {laughs} I focus on making music that's creative and raw while trying to raise the bar with everything I do. Anytime I step in the booth, or on a stage, I try to bring a different level of lyricism that stands out. There's no way I'm ever gonna try to spit a mediocre rhyme when I know that there are cats out there like G Rap, Pharoahe Monch, Kweli, etc., who are walking the planet and would not appreciate such a lack of effort. Cats like that always make me want to raise the bar with what I do. I always try to push myself to the point where it’s not even questionable as to as whether or not I have skills. The same goes with the production and every other aspect of the music I create. Even with any video of mine you'll definitely see quality and creativity and it won't look like someone ran around with a camera phone behind me. {laughs}
Adam Bernard: When you started rhyming did you ever consider changing your name? Mr. Beatz: The funny thing with that is that I was actually an emcee first before ever making beats. I first got into making beats because when I was coming up in Westchester, NY there weren't too many cats around my way who made beats. You were always able to find emcees on every block, but beat makers were really hard to find. I came across a couple that I was supposed to connect with, but it never ended up really happening due to a lack of dedication on their part, so I started looking into buying some beat making equipment myself and just took it from there. Then, since there weren't too many cats around my way making beats, word started spreading around my way that I was making beats and soon I started gaining a rep as "that dude with the beats." I've thought about changing the name a couple of times, but I figured why bother since beat making is a big part of who I am anyway. It can definitely be deceiving, though, because a lot of times I'll meet, or network, with people and right away they might think that I only make beats.
Adam Bernard: Your video for “Plain and Simple” was recently placed in rotation on Video Music Box, which, incidentally, was the first music video show I ever watched. What does this accomplishment represent for you? Mr. Beatz: I've watched Video Music Box for so many years, and that was always the place where you would get a chance to see the dope Hip-Hop videos that you would never see anywhere else, and also see those artists just hanging out with Ralph McDaniels, so you had a chance to see them as people instead of just that person who recorded the song you liked. Having a video of my own played on Video Music Box was always a dream of mine, but I had no clue that this dream would ever become a reality. To me, Video Music Box is like the Grammys in a way. Like, when someone is nominated on the Grammys, from that point on in their career they're announced as a Grammy nominated artist. So for me I feel like I'm a Video Music Box-aired artist now because I feel like Ralph McDaniels made my video official by airing it.
Adam Bernard: Is an album on the way? Mr. Beatz: It's actually in the works at the moment. It will be an album called Spit Therapy. I gave it that title because I'm actually doing a lot of venting on this album. In my opinion, music is a great gateway for stress or frustration and I can get into the booth and easily just let go whenever I'm going through a situation. There are also a bunch of other joints that Hip-Hop heads can relate to as far as culture related topics, humorous stuff, etc. I got a few collabs in the works for it, too, but I’m restricting those to a small few because I wouldn't want to be like a guest on my own album. {laughs} Another thing about the collabs for my project is that I'm also working with a few other producers so it won't be just my production on the project. I'm producing some of the joints, of course, but the rest will be from other cats who I think are extremely dope with beats. I chose to do this because I want to feature different styles of beats for the songs I have and also get a chance to focus a lot more on lyricism. In fact, the song that I put out the video for was produced by The Avid Record Collector. Shout out to him! I'm also doing collabs with a few of my other peeps in the underground as far as spitting on a few of their songs and even doing some production for a few of their joints. So hopefully from the way things are going, you'll continue hearing a lot more about me.
Adam Bernard: Talk to me about your blog. What goes up there and what are your plans for it? Mr. Beatz: My blog is a place where I want to build with people, debate on different Hip-Hop-related topics, and share important Hip-Hop news that I come across. I’ve always been into the historical details of Hip-Hop culture and I also like to debate and build with people on topics that you never really hear too much about in Hip-Hop publications, or the media period. The blog is very different from my music website because my music site is specifically for my own personal music promotion while the blog is a place for Hip-Hop heads to interact and share info.
Adam Bernard: What else should people know about Mr. Beatz and his work? Mr. Beatz: I want people to know that my music is love driven. By that I mean that the reason I do this music is because I want to be creative and try different things with it in order to keep bringing something different to the table. I'm basically making music so that I have more music to listen to. If big money starts coming in from it, cool, but if not I'm content with making great music, developing a following of those who appreciate the music I do, and rocking live as much as possible for them.
Substantial, who is one of the original B-Listers, released an amazing album last year titled Sacrifice. If you recall, the first single off the album, "It's You (I Think)," ended up getting airplay on BET and MTV. On the heels of that success comes "My Favorite Things." Check out the video, it might end up one of your favorite things.
Big Stat has accomplished a lot in his twenty five years, and all of it – the tours with the Method Man and Redman, the write ups in national magazines, the major radio airplay - can be attributed to his steadfast refusal to give up. Since 2007 Big Stat’s had a film crew following him, documenting this refusal to give up, because both in music and in life he’s had numerous opportunities to throw in the towel, starting with when he was just 12 years old and his mother was murdered.
For a lot of kids the loss of a parent can send them spiraling down a negative path in life. Big Stat, however, took a look at the situation, saw his father having to take care of three children on his own, and decided that as soon as he was able to he’d start making his own way. His first opportunity came at 14 when he was offered a job at a tobacco farm. It was grueling labor, but he did it, and by the end of the summer of 1998 he had saved up enough money to purchase a used car, a set of turntables and recording equipment. It was time to get to work as an emcee and producer, where once again his refusal to give up would be tested numerous times.
Big Stat’s career started as a member of The Akolytes, a group based out of his hometown of Enfield, CT. They broke up due to differences in work ethic, but out of that breakup he and another member of the group, Diadem, formed Hushh, which stood for Help Us Save Hip-Hop. As a duo they created a huge buzz thanks to a combination of unparalleled talent and relentless networking. Hushh was written up in XXL and on Billboard.com. They were featured on major radio stations up and down the east coast from New York to Miami, and on satellite radio on both Shade 45 and Hip-Hop Nation. Local TV affiliates for NBC and FOX interviewed them as did ABC’s national news. The duo was getting love from everyone from Rakim to Talib Kweli to Akon. Even Howard Stern had them on his show.
It was during this time that Big Stat also developed a close friendship with Wu-Tang legend Method Man. A tireless networker, Big Stat first approached Meth at a local fast food restaurant, but at the time the renowned emcee wasn’t interested in hearing him. As the month’s passed, and Meth started seeing Big Stat politicking at more and more concerts, the two started to connect and now Big Stat, who ended up touring with Method Man and Redman in 2008, refers to Meth as a “mentor.”
Despite all the success Hushh was having, five years and three albums into Big Stat and Diadem’s partnership the duo began to grow apart musically. Once again Big Stat, who’d already accomplished more than any other emcee from his area, was presented with an opportunity to give up. “Quit,” however, wasn’t about to make its way into Big Stat’s vocabulary. Instead, he decided to go another route, and for the first time since he started rhyming in 1997 he became a solo artist.
With everything on him now, Big Stat’s work ethic is shining brighter than ever. He already has a mixtape ready to be released titled Don’t Quit Your Day Job that’s hosted by Redman and he’s currently recording an official album, as well. Documentarians Mark Covino and John Kane are still busy at work following him and plan to continue to up through when he signs his first major label deal, which is something everyone involved with Big Stat’s career is confident will happen because giving up is something he simply doesn’t do.
Big Stat didn’t give up when his mother was killed. He didn’t give up when Method Man walked away from him the first time they met. He didn’t give up when it became necessary to disband Hushh. Now on his own, one can be sure Big Stat isn’t going to give up until he reaches the solo success he’s working for. At this point he only has a few obstacles left to hurdle. Obstacles he anticipates seeing in the rear view mirror sooner rather than later.
As the exes of the six remaining girls on Bret Michaels’ Rock of Love Bus dished the dirt on their former flames this past Sunday two girls were eliminated and one of the final four was labeled as a “groupie.” The girl who was given that label was Jamie. Jamie, in addition to being on Rock of Love, is also the part time personal assistant of Broadway actor, and former American Idol contestant, Constantine Maroulis, and she wasn’t exactly thrilled with her new title on the show. Shortly after the episode aired I caught up with Jamie to get her thoughts on how everything went down. She also revealed a little more about the “ex” of hers who showed up and discussed what life is like on the Rock of Love bus.
Adam Bernard: In the episode that debuted on Sunday (March 15th) you ended up being labeled a groupie and you were slightly upset by this. Jamie: Yeah, I think it was kinda like my turn for, I don’t want to say bad editing, but unflattering editing, I guess. Of course, I’m not stupid, I know they’re gonna edit it how they want. I’m not completely blaming whoever decides what’s shown, but I think if you look at some of my reactions from when I was being interrogated, it was kind of chopped up. Some of my answers were not the answers to the questions that they showed being asked.
Adam Bernard: Was your big issue that you didn’t feel you were a groupie, or did you feel that it was unfair that only you were given that label within the group of girls? Jamie: I mean, yeah, c’mon, we’re on Rock of Love to date Bret Michaels. Maybe I’m the only one that will admit it. I think groupie kind of has a negative connotation, though. Yeah, I’m obviously a rock chick and I think there’s kind of a weird line between a groupie and a rock chick that gets sort of blurred, and my friend that showed up didn’t exactly help the situation.
Adam Bernard: I was about to ask, who is this Hamboussi character that showed up as your ex? Jamie: Character is right! Hamboussi is actually Constantine’s old drummer from the band Pray for the Soul of Betty. Obviously I met him through Constantine when he was in that band. I was surprised to see him walk through the door. I guess the ex-boyfriend that was supposed to show up for me backed out like three hours before his flight to Florida, so the producers, or whoever, were in a mad panic to get anyone that’s a dude that knew me. I guess I really shouldn’t complain because poor Beverly didn’t have anyone show up, but I think I might have been better if no one showed up cuz some of the stuff he was saying was not at all true and I’m not trying to talk bad about him because he’s great, but I think some of the stuff he was saying might have been to make himself look kinda cool, make himself feel like a rock star, which he is, but I think a lot of stuff was very out of line and not really accurate. You can tell by my reactions, most of the time I was looking at him like “what the F?!?! What are you saying?”
Adam Bernard: You mentioned the editing, but it really did look as though you implied you wouldn’t date Bret if he wasn’t a musician. Is that true? Jamie: Absolutely not! That’s really the thing I’m most upset about. The reaction that they showed of me answering was from when they asked me something about my ex-husband and I just got really upset and I was like “oh my God.” I’m not stupid enough to say no, I wouldn’t date Bret Michaels if he wasn’t a rock star, first of all, and I would, I’d still date him. I don’t care if he was a janitor or something.
Adam Bernard: Why did you move to New York? The implication was you moved to New York to be a Pray for the Soul of Betty groupie. Jamie: Oh my God {laughs} I could have strangled him. First of all the band didn’t even exist when I moved to New York, that’s why I was like what are you talking about. When I moved to New York I had a job with a website company. I moved for that.
Adam Bernard: How accurate has the rest of the portrayal of you, the other girls, and your exploits been? Is there really that much alcohol flowing? Jamie: Oh yeah, there’s probably more alcohol flowing than what they show. We were definitely drinkers. Everybody except Taya was drinking. Most of the time we were all buzzed and I think some girls just took it a little extreme and you could tell that they were more drunkey than others, but there’s nothing else to do when we’re not doing a challenge or out on a date. We’re locked in a hotel room, or locked in a bus, so might as well.
Adam Bernard: So it’s fairly accurate then. Jamie: Yeah, the drinking part is definitely accurate. We all had our nights. As far as being portrayed, I have been kind of under the radar, I think. I’m not really like a fighter, I’m not super aggressive and stuff, so maybe they kind of made me look negative as a groupie this episode to make that my thing. I don’t think I really had a thing before this.
Adam Bernard: And you were one of the girls who made their debut in the middle of the show. Jamie: Yeah, that was so scary. They brought three new girls in when the original cast was down to eight from twenty something and they (the girls who had been there from the start) were not happy. They kind of got over it after a day or two. Honestly, everyone was pretty friendly to me because I wasn’t trying to start fights. I don’t think they thought I was a threat either.
Adam Bernard: Well, now they know that was wrong, you’re in the final four. Jamie: Yeah, I was like alright, I’m just gonna sit here, be quiet and drink my drink.
Adam Bernard: Are there any moments you really wish hadn’t been caught on tape? Jamie: There’s a part coming up that I’m probably gonna wish wasn’t shown, but it’s not that bad. I don’t think I’ve done anything that bad, really.
Adam Bernard: So you can still show up at Thanksgiving? Jamie: I can show up at Thanksgiving.
Adam Bernard: Which girls are you cool with and which would you rather throw yourself in front of a tour bus, or perhaps sleep on a speed bump, than see again? Jamie: Aww, poor Kelsey. Beverly is like my best friend from all this. We still hang out. I think she’s great and thank God she was there. You know there really wasn’t anybody I really despised. Of course Ashley was a bit much at times, but you know what, she’s smarter than I think they really let on.
Adam Bernard: Let’s close out this interview by giving out some high school yearbook awards to the cast. Start me off with most likely to succeed. Jamie: God, succeed in what? {laughs} I don’t really want to say Taya, but it’s gotta be her. She is like (Penthouse) Pet of the year, even though it got really annoying hearing about that, but she is at the top of what she does and more power to her.
Adam Bernard: Most likely to be seen at the principal’s office. Jamie: A tie between Ashley and Farrah.
Adam Bernard: Most likely to be caught making out under the bleachers. Jamie: All of us. I mean, c’mon! Ten way tie!
Adam Bernard: Most likely to be caught sleeping with a teacher. Jamie: OH! God, lemme think here. I don’t know. I guess I kind of want to say Ashley.
Adam Bernard: Finally, and most importantly, most likely to hook up with a charming, bespectacled writer? Jamie: {laughs} Myself. And I could see Mindy dating a reporter.
Adam Bernard: Alright then. How you doin? Jamie: How you doin?
With Virgin announcing the closing of all the Virgin Megastores across the country, the FYE in Fairfield packing up its things and calling it a day, and Tower, Sam Goody and Nobody Beats The Wiz being nothing more than distant memories, true school music consumers have a quandary on their hands – where the heck are we going to go now?
The question is one that doesn’t just focus on the actual buying of music, but also on the notion that for a lot of people stores like Virgin were hang out spots. In December a buddy of mine and I were roaming around NYC and made an effort to make it to the Virgin Megastore in Times Square. The two level space provided a few hours of entertainment and yes, we even ended up buying a few things as it’s almost impossible not to if you hang out in a store long enough.
Hours of my life have been spent looking through discount bins to find rare or forgotten gems. In that particular Times Square session I found an Ace of Base Japanese import CD in the $5 bin. It was enough of an oddity for me to pick it up. Going on a website like Amazon.com this would have never happened. They don’t have such a bin. I don’t count clicking on a “$5 albums” section because Amazon knows the “correct” price of everything and there is zero chance of finding an oddity in there. In fact, I looked up the Ace of Base CD on Amazon (is talking about this purchase totally ruining my street cred? I knew I should have talked about the Public Enemy import. I knew it! I knew it!), their price for it new was over $40. The same thing happened when I found an old No Limit Records release in an FYE dollar bin, the price for the tape on Amazon broke the $40 barrier.
I’ve also used record stores (I’m going old school with my terminology) as meeting places, most notably the Virgin Megastore in Union Square. The city is huge and when Whenever I’ve wanted to meet someone in that area the easiest thing to do has always been to say “meet at the Virgin” (no, this was not some code for finding rookie hookers. Though, now with the death of the stores it might be). This made sense because record stores are (or I guess were) landmarks unlike any other type of store. Bookstores will garner you dirty looks for being loud, and clothing stores will have employees tracking you if you happen to be browsing for more than ten minutes. Yes, I realize, these are not acts that keep a store in business, and the business aspect of things is what’s killed off the record store, but the fact is people were constantly IN these stores. The stores should have been able to sell them something.
As a thirty year old I am part of a generation that grew up waiting for Tuesday. When new releases came out we all wanted to be the first to get them. There was one Super Tuesday back in my college days (September 29th, 1998) when Outkast, Jay-Z, A Tribe Called Quest, Mos Def & Talib Kweli and Brand Nubian all released albums. The question wasn’t “are you going to the record store,” it was “which albums are you going to buy?” It was almost a community thing. We didn’t go to the store singularly, but in groups.
There’s no such thing as a Super Tuesday now. Discount bins are disappearing by the second (if the FYE in Trumbull Mall closes I’ll really be S.O.L.) and a public that’s become content with staying at home and logging on to purchase music seems fairly oblivious as to what we’re really losing here.
I’d like to think that there are still plenty of people out there like me who long for the days of going to multiple record stores in one Tuesday afternoon, or of going through discount bins until one’s eyes became blurry from reading too many album covers. I’d like to think that there are still plenty of people who think it’s kind of lame to log on to purchase their music and that there’s nothing cool about little white earbuds.
Call me a dinosaur if you want, but the death of the record store is a personal flatline for yours truly, as well. When I roam through a city, or town, or even my own town, I now feel as though I have nowhere to go. Where can I spend an hour looking at music and entertainment with a group of friends? Where can we spend that kind of time hanging out without being forced to purchase a drink of some kind, but it alcoholic or caffeinated?
The internet was supposed to connect people, but in the case of the music world it’s only making us drift further and further apart and the question remains – where will we go now?
Nowadays you’ll hear a lot of artists talk about how downloading and the internet are subtracting from their potential sales and hurting their careers. Not Keelay and Zaire, though. The dynamic production duo who released the critically acclaimed Ridin High earlier this year actually credit the internet for bringing them together. Keelay hails from Cali while Zaire is from VA and this week I caught up with both of them to discuss how they came together, what a “white furry dude” had to do with it, and how they go about creating a beat as a team while living so far apart from each other.
I have NINE debuts for ya with this edition of The Adam B Experience and a hilarious story about sleeping with Kim Kardashian (well, sort of). As always, The Adam B Experience is podsafe and edited for radio airplay, so feel free to blast it in front of your baby cousin or your grandma, just don’t be surprised when they come up to you and says “turn that ish up!”
You can download or stream the entire show at RapReviews.com.
Playlist
Top $ Raz – King AR-15 – I Get Movin Uncut – Still Standing Lee – Sometimes Substantial – My Favorite Things P. Casso – Mr. Hollywood Rue Melo – Check It Homeboy Sandman – Parallel Perpendicular 8th W1 – Small Crib Vinnie Scullo – Workingman’s Tune Coole High – Who SumKid – Chuck Norris on Drugs Shamroc – Movies in Real Life
Growing up in Far Rockaway, Queens, Top $ Raz knew how to rap before he even attended his first day of school. “My brother used to blast Hip-Hop music all day long,” he remembers, “and if I didn’t learn the words to Biggie I would be exiled out the room.” A pretty rough sentence for a kid who was only six at the time, but it was that influence that not only led him to Hip-Hop, but to some very specific types of Hip-Hop. Top $ Raz explains, “my brother made sure I valued and understood the essence of the music and never let me get into the cookie cutter stuff.” While in second grade, when he was just learning how to write, Top $ Raz penned his first rhyme and he hasn’t looked back since. This week I caught up with him to find out more about the depth and diversity of his work, where he gets his incredible stage presence, and the inspiration behind his video for “King.”
Adam Bernard: Let’s start out with the basics. Why should people be excited about Top $ Raz and want to check out his music? Top $ Raz: People should be excited about my music because it’s real without trying to be. I never feel like I have to be conscious or uplifting, if I’m in that mood then that’s what you’ll get. Sometimes I feel like being an asshole, or just coming off like I’m the man on tracks and I don’t feel the need to explain myself. As people we have different sides to ourselves and shouldn’t feel any way about it, because that's life. People have degrees and that’s what my music shows. I am a real person on every track. Nothing is forced, it’s all organic and it comes from the heart, as corny as that may sound.
Adam Bernard: Your album is called The Narrative and as you just noted your work features a wide variety of topic matter. Where did you find the inspiration for some of these stories? Top $ Raz: My inspiration comes from my surroundings. Things haven’t been so great for me in my life, but I thank God for the struggle cuz it’s beautiful. There can be no art without struggle. Our best musicians and artist were all depressed. So yeah, I just take everything I see and spit it back out. Take for instance “SSDD,” that song gets a lot of people because they actually see that shit everyday in their neighborhood. They know I didn’t make it up, all of it is so true, and that’s how I get the heads bopping at the shows, cuz people know it’s something I actually saw. The same goes for songs like “Chicken Spot,” it’s real shit. I wrote “Chicken Spot” after Stack Bundles died, realizing that he had been killed after hitting up a KFC. I started to think about all the chicken spots in my hood and how they’re just a place that attracts sin, whether it be drug sales, fights, robberies, and not to mention the food'll kill you dead. So when people in poverty hear that track, they get it, and those who don’t know are intrigued by it because they know it's real.
Adam Bernard: That’s dope. You also have a video out for one of your singles, “King.” Something that I find really interesting about it is that the song is a braggadocio track, but the video shows a lot of humor. That kind of a juxtaposition is really rare. Talk to me about the concept behind it and how you got permission for some of the bigger scenes, like the one in the grocery store, which was HILARIOUS. Top $ Raz: Yeah, see I was going to do a video for “SSDD,” but I was thinking nah that’s too serious, I want to have fun, cuz by nature I’m just a clown. Anybody who knows me knows I’m a serious joker. I like to keep my music mostly serious, though, so I wanted a video that showed that other humorous side to me. I also wanted to show people that emcees need to just have fun and stop taking themselves so seriously. After all, we do this music because it’s fun and we enjoy it. The concept was basically I am the king of Far Rockaway, but no one has seemed to get the memo on that. It was an homage to Coming To America. It’s a funny thing about getting permission for scenes, shit like that can really tell you what kind of town you’re in. For instance if we were in the city, them stores would’ve wanted permits and money, but out in Far Rock where there really ain’t much to do, the people were just happy I asked them and were more than willing to let me use the grocery store, same with the barber shop. That’s another thing I wanted to do with the video, bring pride to Far Rock. I mean yea it’s fucked up out there, but we can still have fun. We’re not living like complete savages, there are Black owned businesses out there and really cool down to earth people that I wanted to show in the video
Adam Bernard: I first became aware of you when I saw you perform at one of Conscious’ Bondfire shows at the Bowery Poetry Club in NYC. You had a tremendous stage presence. Whose shows have you studied and what kind of preparations do you go through before a show? Top $ Raz: Strange enough, I will be going to my first real concert on the 19th, The Roots, so whatever I do on stage I learned from folks I see everyday at the Dub, or the Nuyorican, or Bowery. I’m just learning from what I see, what to do and what not to do, what moves connect with the crowd and what doesn’t. I also just remember to have fun up there because if you’re having fun the crowd will have fun, they will feed off your energy.
Adam Bernard: Why is live performance so important to you? Top $ Raz: The live performance is important because it’s what gets CDs sold! {laughs} Nah, it’s good to connect with people. People want to see you and feel like they know you, that’s how you get fans for real. The internet is cool, but there’s a difference between shaking hands with an emcee and downloading his track off Zshare.
Adam Bernard: Finally, I have to know, how’d you come up with the name Top $ Raz and why did you decide to go with the $ symbol rather than spelling out the word? Top $ Raz: The name has evolved over time. It was just Raz for a while, just an abbreviation of my government name, Rasheem. Then I was doing this verse and I was like “Top Dolla Raz,” and it worked. I liked it. It made me think of the other names from the past that were like that - Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, Kool Moe Dee, etc. The $ sign just looks better on paper. Top Dolla Raz is a lot space, it looks awkward.
Hasan Salaam totally skewers American Idol in this video for his latest single, “15 Minutes,” which is off of his 2008 album Children of God. The song was impressive on its own and now with it having such a fantastic, and potentially controversial, video there’s no telling how big it may become. Enjoy!
I recently completed Troma Entertainment co-founder Lloyd Kaufman’s book Everything I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned From The Toxic Avenger and I want to share a short passage from it about art that really struck me.
The artist who says, “I don’t really care what other people think, I only create art for myself,” isn’t really an artist at all. Art is simultaneous acts of creativity, expression, and communication. If you don’t care how the art affects others, you’re expressing very little and communicating nothing at all.
Essentially, Kaufman is saying being an artist requires a relationship with an audience, even if it's just one other person, and if you’re doing something artistic JUST for yourself, although the act itself may be artistic, it doesn’t make you an artist. To use myself as an example, would I really be a writer if all I did was keep a journal that I never let anyone see? Kaufman says no (and I happen to agree).
I have always thought it was a bit of a cop out when artists would tell me that they made an album “just for themselves” and if anyone else likes it that’s fine, but other people liking it isn’t “the point.” How can that NOT be “the point?” That’s almost a preliminary excuse for poor record sales (“I told you I did it just for me.”)
Now, this is not to be confused with the artist that says they made something about themselves. Something made about oneself is usually done in an effort to connect with people, making it totally different from something made for oneself.
I know a lot of artists come to this site, so I’m going to make this post a quick one and end it with a question; what are YOUR thoughts on this idea? Do you agree with Kaufman, or do you subscribe to a different philosophy regarding art? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
For twenty eight years I wondered why my father, the lawyer, would constantly be on the move, traveling all across the country, and the world, to go to meetings. As a kid I thought, why couldn’t these meetings be done over the phone? As I got into my twenties the question became, why can’t this all be done over email? Flying home on Sunday night from a successful networking trip myself, this one to LA, I realized the answer is simple; in a world where it’s very easy to communicate electronically face time separates a person from the pack.
My trip to LA last week was for two reasons, to see some friends and to network (OK, three reasons, I also was also looking to get out of the damned snow!). I wanted to see as many of the California folks I’ve been working with as I could. On Thursday I met with my people at E! and G4. I came bearing numerous copies of the brand new issue of Beyond Race, which has my five page back cover story feature on G4’s Attack of the Show. I gave copies to everyone and by doing so got more people interested in working with me. I was given the grand tour of the PR department and this included meeting quite a few folks at E!, G4 and the Style Network. Everyone received an issue and a business card and I’m already securing a few interviews as a result of this.
After the tour of the PR department I attended in a live taping of Attack of the Show and prepared for my evening. I invited as many of my Cali people as I could to an old school Hip-Hop night - Afex at Temporary Spaces. The night is run by a friend of a friend, so I was happy to show support. The mix of people that ended up showing up from my invite included some folks I’ve worked with - AR-15, David Levy, Blair Urban - and some good friends, both old and new. When dealing with a limited time frame, as I was, and wanting to see as many people as possible, this was a great way to see a large number of people in a small amount of time. As an aside, the night also said something about the people who didn’t respond to the invite in any way, shape, or form. When I’m busting my ass to see you and trying to make it as easy as possible for us to meet up and you don’t even hit me to say “sorry, I can’t make it,” it certainly puts a person lower on the priority list when it comes to who I want to work with.
Friday I hit up Nicole Balin over at Ballin PR to meet up for lunch. Thankfully we were located very close to each other and could easily make it happen. We grabbed a nice bite to eat, talked about work, and got together on some story ideas for BRM while exchanging some industry news. Nicole is someone I’ve worked with for a number of years, but had never met in person. I felt it was high time to make that happen and a number of positive things came from it.
Saturday I continued with the networking, having a brunch meeting with my homegirls Norma Portillo of Fighter / Custard Records and Rue Melo (if you’ve read this site for any length of time you know about my appreciation of the musical abilities of Rue Melo). We’d all hung out before, but that was in New York, and by making the effort in Cali it showed I was willing to go the extra mile, both literally and figuratively, and that’s really what this trip was all about, going the extra mile to make sure my contacts didn’t just know me as an email address, a voice, or a Facebook picture. Also, in the case of Norma I linked her up with my buddy Paul. I knew they had contacts in common, so it was natural to make sure they met each other.
After years of wondering why my father traveled so much I not only understand it completely now, but I’m going about doing business in exactly the same way. A business relationship is just like any other, you need to do certain things to make it grow, and when you show you’re willing to make an effort for people they’re much more likely to make an effort for you.
The NYC Hip-Hop trio 3rd Party has already produced two Adam’s World Artists of the Week (Hired Gun and Rabbi Darkside), and this week the third member of the trio, Farbeon, is ready for his close-up. Born in El Paso, Texas, Farbeon’s musical journey started at a very young age as a singer in his church’s choir. He jokes that “little old ladies” were his first groupies. Farbeon would go on to study poetry at Georgetown University during Allen Iverson’s reign there and in 2000 he linked up with the Blow Up Co-Op in Phoenix, Arizona. After moving to NYC in 2002, Farbeon quickly found Rabbi Darkside and Hired Gun and the trio formed 3rd Party. This week I caught up with Farbeon to discuss his many projects, from all things music related, to his work with Alzheimer’s patients, to his development of his own Master’s program at NYU. One thing is for sure, Farbeon is far from being your average artist.
Adam Bernard: I want to focus on your solo work, but before we get to that let’s talk a little bit about 3rd Party. What do you feel you bring to the group that’s unique? Farbeon: I bring the melodic soul with a poetic sensibility. The soulful power of poetry lies in its precision and brevity. Poets cut away the fat to develop texts that are rich and multi-layered. Their goal is to create pieces that leave room for interpretation, but still deliver profound truth and meaning deliberately through the use of concrete images. A poet’s role is not to tell you that they are sad, it is to write a poem that invokes sadness in the reader. My approach to writing songs is based heavily in research and pre-writing. Once I decide on a theme I look for the precise words to communicate what it is I want to say, and then I weave those words into a lyrical form that lends itself to vocal exploration, i.e. the use of melody and harmony. I guess you could say I’m not as renegade in my approach to Hip-Hop, though I do love freestyle. Oh yeah, I’ve also been known to drop Sinatra covers during my solo sets.
Adam Bernard: Now you’re about to release your second solo album. How much do you feel you’ve grown as an artist from album to album? Farbeon: Few and Far Between will be my second solo release in… six… years. Not that I’m self-conscious or anything, but having only two solo records in that time has got me a little vexed. I think this record is as far a departure from where I was six years ago as it could be for being six years removed from the life of a 24 year old artist/emcee/educator moving from Tempe, Arizona to the Big Apple. In many ways this project is like a second debut record. My level of life experience is greater, my mastery over music is greater, and the deliberateness with which I approach each track is greater. I’m working more with non-traditional song structures and relying less on a 16 bar verse standard. More importantly, I’m working with some of the best producers of independent Hip-Hop today, including Baba Israel, Yako 440 and Core Rhythm. If someone had told me six years ago that I’d be where I am today, I would have believed them, but I wouldn’t have been able to comprehend how good it would feel.
Adam Bernard: What about Few and Far Between do you feel people will relate to most? Farbeon: First off, my next project isn’t really an album in the traditional sense. My goal as an artist is to continue to create new pieces of work and give them instant life via the inter-web. In other words, I’m looking to distribute my music for free… kinda. Starting in April I plan to release three to four new tracks every month on farbeon.com. With each installment of tracks I’ll also be posting new photos, videos, essays, and survey questions that speak to the themes of that month’s installment. At the end of four months I plan to produce a limited hardcopy of the project with a couple of additional songs for the diehard fans, friends and fam. All that I ask in return is dialogue. I want heads to respond. I want them to share their ideas with me. I want them to push me to think. In that sense, I think that people will relate most to my desire to make an authentic human connection. I’m not rapping about being a Super-Farbeon, minus the single “farBEon,” I’m rapping about being a 32 year old artist, educator and agent for social change. I’m not waiting for the world to get better, I’m singing it into existence as best as I can with the gifts that the Lord has given me. Hopefully, I can inspire others to do the same in their own lives. So I think people will be able to relate most to the inspiration, to the passion.
Adam Bernard: Speaking of your passions, tell me about your work with the Alzheimer Poetry Project. Farbeon: Beginning in 2005 I began working with the Alzheimer Poetry Project. The APP is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for people with Alzheimer’s disease, their families, and professional health care workers. We perform poems, both original and classical poems that they might have learned as children, directly to the folks, often holding their hands. This is not the type of poetry reading that takes place from a podium. The APP is about making contact with people who may have very little physical contact in their lives. It is typical to be reciting a poem and have a client wake up from their dementia and finish the poem with me. To say that the experience is a powerful one does not do it justice. As an emcee hustling to find that “big break,” my work with the APP has been integral in keeping my feet planted firmly on the ground. I was quickly forced to consider my purpose in pursuing music. Though I’m still concerned about making a living with my art, I’ve come to the conclusion that focusing too much on that prevents fulfillment. I need to use my gifts to service the community, both young and old alike.
Adam Bernard: Both Hired Gun and Rabbi D are also involved in education in NYC. On the low, are you the superintendent of schools? C’mon, you can tell me! Farbeon: Nah, not the superintendent, but I am a badass! I’ve been teaching for about a decade. I began after college with a two year stint with Teach for America. I quickly developed my own approach to teaching writing that was extremely effective in helping kids who were two to three years below grade level catch up. After teaching traditionally as a full-time classroom teacher for five years I was finally able to make the jump to being a teaching-artist. I’ve been working with the Urban Arts Partnership for five years and I’m now teaching Hip-Hop history and culture, poetry, performance, songwriting, music production and even photography. I’ve co-taught classes with Pharoahe Monch, Talib Kweli, Fab Five Freddy and Rosie Perez. I currently run an art program that includes eight art forms at the Facing History School. I’ve been with them since day one and this year we will have our first graduating class… but not until they complete their final requirement. This semester I’m guiding sixty 17 and 18 year olds in the development of independent art projects. Master emcee? Arguable. Master teacher? Fo’ sho’!
Adam Bernard: A master teacher, and also a master student as I hear you’re developing your own Master’s program. Talk to me about this. Farbeon: This past fall I began developing my own Master’s in Hip-Hop Re:Education at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Studies. This program gives me the opportunity to take pretty much any class throughout all of NYU, and even classes outside of NYU. I’m studying Hip-Hop as an artist/ethnographer, both researcher and participant. I’m looking at the historical/cultural foundations of Hip-Hop. I’m taking private lessons in music production at Dubspot. I’m researching the development of Hip-Hop throughout the world. And I’m also working on developing a stronger business acumen, i.e. the grant-writing/fundraising and telecommunication skills needed to make all of my artistic endeavors financially viable. If culture is a commodity, then it is up to each artist to come to terms with how he or she earns a living. I’m renaissance about my approach. Whether writing, recording, performing, teaching, or researching, there is a market for my work. This Master’s program is just legitimizing what I’ve been doing for the past ten years and creating a platform for me to take it to the next level. When in doubt: Re:Define, Re:Invent, Re:Educate!
This week’s Vid Pick comes from the California duo Jupiter Rising. Their mix of Hip-Hop, pop and dance creates a very enjoyable sound and “Falling Away” is the lead single off of their soon to be released album The Quiet Hype. Check it out!
The other day a friend of mine sent me the above video of Cam’ron answering “fan questions.” It cracked me up. Not only that, it made me realize how Cam has not only maintained his career over the past eleven years, but has become more popular as those years have gone by - he has a personality and he isn’t afraid to show it.
No one is ever going to think of Cam the second coming of Rakim or KRS-One, but Cam has always had an incredible connection with his listeners and this stems from the fact that his rhymes are injected with some of the same humor and personability he shows in the video. Heck, he even survived his ridiculous comments regarding the “stop snitching” phenomenon and that was in large part because of his connection with his fans and the fact that many of them view him as a human rather than some kind of a god-like star, and everyone knows humans have faults. When rappers build themselves up to be gods and are later revealed to be flawed, or in some cases frauds (*cough cough* Rick Ross *cough cough*), it’s much harder to mount any kind of a comeback. Cam knows the secret that personability is just as important as musical ability; in fact, sometimes even more so.
Of course, personability doesn’t always have to be achieved through humor. Last week one of my artist friends told me after he got off stage from performing a woman came up to him and said she just wanted to hug him because his work touched her so much. His lyrics were so personal that they truly affected this woman who related to them in a very deep way. That’s another way an artist can be personable. In the end it’s really all about relating to people.
So much can get lost in what I call “rapper posturing.” Gangster rappers always try to act hard, socially conscious rappers always try to be serious, and none of them have long careers because they all lose sight of the very important fact that fans like whole, complete, people, and will quickly get bored with an artist who only has one side to themselves.
If you want to know why a lot of rappers from back in the day aren’t around anymore it’s because they never let themselves get out of having a singular mindset and the majority of their fans got bored with them. When you show people more of who you really are the connection is always better and much longer lasting. For another great example of this just look at Redman. He’s been around for nearly 20 years and while his lyrics are tight it’s his personality that has truly made him a superstar.
“Doing you” isn’t about just doing one aspect of yourself, it’s about doing your entire self. Be a whole person and watch your fan base grow to new heights.
It’s ninety minutes before Kevin Pereira, co-host of Attack of the Show, has to be live on air and he’s just been handed an overly accented t-shirt to wear. “I’m actually sending a text message to our wardrobe to please get me a shirt without so many metal studs on it,” he says with a laugh, “this is my life. This is what I do.” Actually, what he, co-host Olivia Munn, and the rest of the Attack of the Show crew do is prove on a nightly basis that geeks and nerds have flipped the script and are now the new “cool.”
The show’s executive producers, Vinny Rutherford and Joshua Brentano, have seen this shift coming for a while now. Brentano notes “nerds and geeks are the people that are running everything. We grew up with computers, we grew up with video games, we grew up with all this stuff and now that’s what’s cool.” Rutherford seconds this, adding “when the iPhone is like the number one thing that hits the front page of CNN.com, just the sales of it, when that kind of stuff is really popping up, obviously the culture has taken a change towards technology and those guys are the guys that sat in their basements doing Bulletin Board Systems in the 90’s, like Kevin.”
Pereira is actually quick to admit that he was a “gigantic nerd” growing up, but adds that in addition being a programmer, making games, and yes, doing Bulletin Board Systems, “I was also dating the head cheerleader and drove a pretty sweet car.” The reason he feels he could pull this off is the same reason more and more of his brethren are making it happen, he changed one very important aspect of the labels “nerd” and “geek.” “I never looked at it like oh I’m a huge nerd, I can never fit in with anybody else. I just looked at it like I’m a huge nerd and that’s exactly why I should fit in with everybody else, because I’m really into things no matter what they are.” Pereira’s co-host, Olivia Munn, feels that inherent fanboyness has worked wonders to redefine people’s outlook on geeks and nerds, saying “I think a lot of geeks have a passion and that’s really what geeks are now. It’s not about a sweaty overweight guy wearing glasses who has a bunch of fan fiction. It’s people who have a passion for anything. That makes you a geek.” Munn continued, adding “if you look at the nerds now, their ability to be able to code and make websites, to be able to play video games, and to do these things that are very difficult, gives them this kind of empowerment.” This redefinition of “geek” and “nerd” is one of the key ideologies that is the backbone of Attack of the Show.
Born in 2005 when the TV channel G4 bought TechTV, Attack of the Show actually has roots in an old TechTV show called The Screen Savers, which Pereira was a part of. G4 took their favorite elements of that show and used them to start the creation of Attack of the Show, which now airs live five nights a week on the network. The program was named by way of an internal contest that producer Mike Shaw won when he not only came up with the name Attack of the Show, but, according to Pereira, “he wrote an entire manifesto as to why the show should be titled as such and for all that time and effort and hard work and passion he got himself an iPod.”
Thriving on short packages which stay on the cutting edge of a variety of topics, in just a single one hour episode of AOTS one might find everything from the top five web videos of the day (Around The Net), to a review of the latest electronic gadget (Gadget Pron), to sex advice (In Your Pants), to information on the pop culture of Japan (What’s Up With Japan?). “We have a very diverse audience,” Pereira explains, “so if you’re not into this segment that we’re doing about robots no worries because in five more seconds you’re going to see Olivia run down the top ten cell phones, then after that I’m going to have a serious discussion with a director about his movie and after that there’s probably going to be dogs humping and vomiting at the same time. So you know right around the corner something else is coming up and chances are you’re going to find it interesting.” Interesting is one aspect of things, but the staff of Attack of the Show also lives for being the first to show people things. According to Brentano, “if you watch our show, four weeks later when your buddy shows the same thing to you, you can say oh that’s old, I saw it a month ago. LAME!”
Another one of the biggest joys of the AOTS crew is putting together Around The Net, which features some of the most interesting, and oftentimes most ridiculous, web videos that they’ve come across that day. Pereira’s mention of dogs humping and vomiting is actually a reference to one of his personal faves that had to be taken off the air. “We tried to say it had educational values. Obviously you didn’t see it on the air so that didn’t go over too well.” When it comes to Around The Net Pereira says the staff has some “go-to’s” that they know are always good for a feature. “We love Pruane. We love Reh Dogg, who does songs about why he cries. We love chimpanzee riding on a Segway. They’re our comfort virals in our times of need.”
Featuring videos of angry teens, awful singers and animals riding things, both alive and man made, it’s pretty clear that in addition to being cutting edge, AOTS is also heavy on the humor and as Olivia Munn has found, there are very few limits to what they are allowed to say or do. “I will do some pretty outrageous stuff for a laugh,” she notes, but I never really hear ‘you’ve gone too far.’ I have gone too far and I know that. Sometimes I do it and I’m like wow, I am way over the line on that one, but I never get called on it.” Pereira loves Munn’s ability to be over the top, saying “if we came in and said we want to dangle a hotdog from the lighting grid and have her eat it she does it and it lives on in internet infamy forever.”
Even with such potentially raunchy humor abound both Pereira and Munn openly admit that their mothers watch the show. Munn says hers turns the volume down during the sex advice segment, In Your Pants, but Pereira says his mother can handle just about anything. “My mom managed to make it through 2 Girls 1 Cup without looking away,” he says with pride, “she’s a fortress of solitude. She’s made of steel.”
According to Munn the goal of AOTS isn’t necessarily to be raunchy, it’s just to be more like people are when they hang out with their friends. “When you’re with your friends you kind of push the line, or you say things that are crazy, or you do stuff because you have the security of your friendship and your home,” she explains. “To keep people coming back, and to basically keep a good audience and keep a good show, we really do push that limit so that it’s just like you’re hanging out with your friends.” This vibe has led to some personal matters coming out publicly on the show, including Munn’s very real fear of balloons, or more precisely the knowledge that they’re going to pop. “Don’t ever bring me balloons,” she says, quite seriously. Only a month ago she had her latest incident with one after being handed a balloon at a birthday party and leaving it in her car. “I get into my car the next morning and because of the heat in the car, as soon as I opened the door it popped.” Her reaction wasn’t good. “I swear, I think a little pee came out. It was like my worst nightmare.”
The personal nature and unpredictability of the show stems from the fact that Attack of the Show is done live. Being live, however, can lead to the occasional slip up. One of the most infamous for Munn was when she incorrectly read the teleprompter and said “McHammer” instead of “MC Hammer.” “That is probably one of my favorite moments,” she says, laughing, “when you see it I really got to a point where I could just laugh at myself and not go oh my God, I’m such an idiot. I just think that’s hilarious and yeah I’m an idiot, but maybe this made somebody laugh.”
Munn has actually been doing a lot more than just making people laugh; she’s been turning herself into quite the hot commodity. In addition to her work on Attack of the Show her resume includes a number of acting gigs, most notably two seasons on The N’s Beyond The Break, the recent DVD release Insanitarium, and the upcoming Broken Lizard film The Slammin’ Salmon. She also has a book in the works, tentatively titled Why I’d Rather Date A Geek, and according to her, “I’m also developing an SUV hybrid and an alternate fuel source.” She notes she’ll get to those last two things whenever she finds the time. Even with all that going on it’s been her work on AOTS that has vaulted her into sex symbol status, which is something she finds interesting as she’s quick to point out, “I don’t have fake boobs, I don’t have any plastic surgery, sometimes I decide to eat pie for a week and I can’t button my pants, I’m not stick thin, so if people out there are making me a sex symbol I think that’s a great thing for the impression of what women should be.”
Attack of the Show actually features a number of lovely ladies, including Munn, The Feed correspondent Layla Kayleigh and occasional fill in host Alison Haislip, among others. Pereira, however, is more likely to be seen flirting with the litany of gorgeous female guests who appear on the show. Sadly, he says nothing has come of these flirtations other than some good television moments. “It never happens,” he laments, “they always leave the studio and everybody’s like ‘wow, Anna Paquin was totally into you! Did you see that?’ I’m like no, I was talking to Sam Jackson more than her. ‘Oh yeah, Anna Paquin was totally into you!’ Really? Well cool, maybe I’ll see her again never.” Pereira points to his place on the fame totem pole for many of his post flirtation non happenings. “No one’s following me out of Mr. Chow’s with cameras to get me on TMZ just yet,” he says with a laugh, “I walk into a Best Buy and there we go, that’s like Moses parting the nerd sea and I love it, but I’m not TMZ worthy yet. If a girl wants to go to a Fry’s or a Comp USA then she will feel like a queen walking in there with me, but that’s about it.” Pereira can also add Comicon to that list of places as this past year’s event had people squatting in their chairs and sitting through other people’s sessions just to be a part of Attack of the Show’s. Rutherford notes they were given a 400 person room and the line was so long they ended up having to turn away double that.
Comicon is only one of the many highlights Pereira and Munn have experienced as hosts of Attack of the Show. They’ve run the Ninja Warrior course in Japan, tried their hand at dog fighting in WWII airplanes, been to Amsterdam and Jamaica, taken home a High Times Stony award for their special 4/20 episode, and Pereira has even drummed with Raymond Herrera and Coheed and Cambria. According to Pereira, what makes everything they do work for the audience, no matter how far out of the box it may be, can be summed up in one word – authenticity. “We just try to be as authentic as humanly possible and say, are we into this? Did this viral video make us laugh? Is this cell phone really worth spending $400 on? We just try to cut through the BS and say let’s be real with our audience.”
At this particular moment what’s most real for Pereira is that wardrobe has found him a much nicer shirt to wear for tonight’s show. “We have no sequins, no studs, it hasn’t been Bedazzled, it does look like and Esdee artist threw up on it, but that’s fine, that’s OK, we’ll call it a design element and I will wear it. I’m happy.” In about an hour an audience overflowing with trendsetting geeks and nerds will feel the same way.
Story originally ran in the March ’09 issue of Beyond Race Magazine.
By now most people have heard about all the drama Nore’s been involved in of late - the Fatburger incident, the comments regarding Kanye West, the beef with Perez Hilton. Wanting to separate rumor from reality I sat down with both Nore and his CNN partner Capone to find out the facts. What I ended up getting was an apology to Kanye, a thank you to Perez, and a whole lot more.
Five Adam B Experience debuts highlight this brand new episode of your favorite rapper’s favorite podcast. There’s a ton of heat squeezed into 63 minutes here so give it a listen while you’re chained to your desk at work. The Adam B Experience is 100% pod-safe and there are no curses, so the boss can’t get mad at ya for playing it. Enjoy!
You can download or stream the entire show at RapReviews.com.
Playlist
P. Casso – Mr. Hollywood Coole High - Who Sketch The Cataclysm – The Revolution Will Not Be… AR-15 – I Get Movin Gif – Invisible (Ramona Moore) Dyalekt – Square Peg Syndrome Maiysha - Sledgehammer Euphon – Fresh Fish Crew54 w/ Alpha 20-20 – Feel Me Lee – All U Need Dirty Elegance w/ Big Pep – The Scrivener Senor Kaos – Cut The Check Homeboy Sandman – GGGRRRAA!!
B-Listers are a select group of artists that were featured in my Artist Of The Week series that ran every Monday from April of '06 to April of '11. All of these artists have two things in common; extreme talent, and a flight path far too under the radar for my liking. They took on the title of B-Listers as they embraced being featured by me, Adam B. Check out the AOTW Archives for all the interviews.
Featuring videos of angry teens, awful singers and animals riding things, both alive and man made, it’s pretty clear that in addition to being cutting edge, AOTS is also heavy on the humor and as Olivia Munn has found, there are very few limits to what they are allowed to say or do. “I will do some pretty outrageous stuff for a laugh,” she notes, but I never really hear ‘you’ve gone too far.’ I have gone too far and I know that. Sometimes I do it and I’m like wow, I am way over the line on that one, but I never get called on it.” Pereira loves Munn’s ability to be over the top, saying “if we came in and said we want to dangle a hotdog from the lighting grid and have her eat it she does it and it lives on in internet infamy forever.”
Attack of the Show actually features a number of lovely ladies, including Munn, The Feed correspondent Layla Kayleigh and occasional fill in host Alison Haislip, among others. Pereira, however, is more likely to be seen flirting with the litany of gorgeous female guests who appear on the show. Sadly, he says nothing has come of these flirtations other than some good television moments. “It never happens,” he laments, “they always leave the studio and everybody’s like ‘wow, Anna Paquin was totally into you! Did you see that?’ I’m like no, I was talking to Sam Jackson more than her. ‘Oh yeah, Anna Paquin was totally into you!’ Really? Well cool, maybe I’ll see her again never.” Pereira points to his place on the fame totem pole for many of his post flirtation non happenings. “No one’s following me out of Mr. Chow’s with cameras to get me on TMZ just yet,” he says with a laugh, “I walk into a Best Buy and there we go, that’s like Moses parting the nerd sea and I love it, but I’m not TMZ worthy yet. If a girl wants to go to a Fry’s or a Comp USA then she will feel like a queen walking in there with me, but that’s about it.” Pereira can also add Comicon to that list of places as this past year’s event had people squatting in their chairs and sitting through other people’s sessions just to be a part of Attack of the Show’s. Rutherford notes they were given a 400 person room and the line was so long they ended up having to turn away double that.
