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
Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from 2Pac being honored by Congress, to Tori Spelling’s claims that she’s being contacted from beyond the grave, to the classic songs Carlos Santana hopes to bring back, and since it’s Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.
Summer is officially here and that means grills are being lit and barbecues are happening on a near weekly basis. Heck, I was at my first barbecue of the year two weeks ago.
Aside from good food and good friends, the third requirement for every barbecue is good music. The DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince classic “Summertime” has been part of everyone’s summer soundtrack since it was released in 1991. The song encapsulates, both lyrically and musically, everything that we love about summer.
DJ Halo explains the importance of a summer song’s vibe saying “you need to have something that makes you think of outdoors, and summer songs have a light and sunny feel to them. You can, just by hearing one, imagine a sunny day, green grass, maybe even a grill.” Halo’s feelings are seconded by emcee godAWFUL, who says summer songs have “a refreshing, laid back sound,” jokingly adding that they “not only accompany gorgeous cleavage and a delicious buzz, but intensify the joy they bring.”
According to Workforce producer Dirt E. Dutch a good summer song “has to make you feel like a kid again, every time you hear it,” and emcee Chase Davis adds that another important aspect is that “it has to be played everywhere and most everyone has to like it. The energy has to be undeniable.” Soul singer Omar Wilson seconds this, saying summer songs need to be “uptempo music” with “an infectious melody” and “a contagious hook.”
“Summertime” has all of these qualities, which why it’s been a staple of summer playlists for nearly twenty years. “Summertime,” however, isn’t the only great hip-hop song for the season. Some of Connecticut’s most prominent hip-hop and R&B artists have plenty of favorites they feel deserve to be in rotation with it.
Both Dirt E. Dutch and godAWFUL suggest A Tribe Called Quest songs for creating a great atmosphere. Dirt E. Dutch feels “Check The Rhyme” should be in everyone’s playlist. Although he notes that one of the reasons he loves the song so much is because of the activities it was part of the soundtrack to one summer, he adds that it has “the perfect balance of bass and crispy hi-end,” and that “it makes you actually think of the summertime, even in the dead of winter.” godAWFUL nominates Tribe’s “Electric Relaxation” as another great summer song, saying “it's just got that perfect amount of energy. Not too much, but enough to put a grin on everyone's face,” adding “it also goes great with a Corona and a lime.”
Emcee Plus says the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” is a song his summer can’t do without, as he explains “everything about ‘Juicy’ just feels good. The beat, the hook, and of course Biggie.” Since Biggie will forever be linked with a certain West Coast emcee it only makes sense that Wilson pulls out 2Pac’s “Picture Me Rollin’” for his summer listening.
Chase Davis stays in that era of artists, choosing the Method Man and Redman classic “How High” for his summer gatherings. “Everybody was pumping ‘How High,’” he remembers, “you had two of the biggest rappers of that era going in. These dudes had kids from the pjs rocking sun visors. And let’s not forget the video, it epitomized summer.”
DJ Halo has a variety of songs to add to people’s summer playlist, with many of his favorites being of the old school variety. “Most breakdance type tunes are good summer tunes,” he explains, “because you can visualize the breakers dancing, and the outdoors, if it’s done properly.” Halo also likes to throw a little funk into things, which is why he always keeps The Blackbyrds’ classic “Rock Creek Park” handy when spinning at outdoor summertime hip-hop events. Classic hip-hop is also in Halo’s summer crate, as Smif-N-Wessun’s “Bucktown” and The Geto Boys’ “Bring It On” are two songs that always give him a good summertime vibe (although you might want to wait until the kids aren’t around before breaking those out).
Not all great summer music comes from the past, however. There are still groups looking to capture that vibe today and according to Dirt E. Dutch one of those groups is Super Chron Flight Brothers. He says their song “Reggie Miller” makes him “want to fill up the cooler with ice, fire up the grill, and stick my feet in a kiddie pool.”
So just because we have summertime staples like “Summertime” doesn’t mean that people should stop digging through their collections. There are a multitude of classics that are worth remembering and putting on. These have just been a few examples, brought to you by some of the state’s best artists, of what can get your party jumped off correctly and have everybody feeling alright.
It is officially summertime, and with that comes a bevy of new music. This month’s podcast has ten great new songs, including the ABX debuts of four artists you’ll definitely be hearing a lot from. As always, I encourage everybody to download the show, burn it onto a CD, and blast if from their ride, because during the summer the music must be loud and it must match the temperate, meaning it’s gotta be hot. Believe me when I tell you I have all that and then some for ya. Enjoy!
Billy Drease Williams - Good Morning Amy M.A.E. w/ Ayinde - Fuck Dancing Homeboy Sandman - Yeah, But I Can Rhyme Though Side Effect - The Fever ScienZe - Dawn In Me My Brother’s Keeper - Power Up Rabbi Darkside - Thank Hip-Hop BS & Truth Now - Cosmic Surfing Kalil Kash - Bang Rugged N Raw - I Win, You Lose
This week's free song from Coolzey's Coolzey and the Search for the Hip Hop Hearts - Volume I: He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper is "No Reply." The Rhombus provided the beat, and the video by Jason Hennesy features source footage from the social engineering film, "Angry Boy," which is REALLY creepy.
I may not like their sports teams, but man oh man does Philly have some fantastic emcees. One such emcee is Side Effect. Side Effect’s been building his name in Philly’s underground scene for nearly a decade. His first album, Underground Concoction, was a self-released effort that came out in 2003. He followed that in 2004 with Rocking Chair Theory, which was released on Krush Unit Inc. and featured the single “Spitacular,” the video for which earned Side Effect a few dates on that year’s Vans Warped Tour. A few more albums, and a few collaborations with Snowgoons, later, Side Effect is bringing people Cabin Fever. The Karma Response Unit Records release features production from Happ G and some of the best lyricism around. This week I caught up with Side Effect to find out more about his music, the audience he hopes it reaches, and the reasons why Philly’s underground hip-hop scene sometimes flies pretty far under the radar.
Adam Bernard: For starters, what are you the Side Effect to, or from? Side Effect: Side Effect is an acronym, it stands for Spittin Ill Dope Extra Extraordinary Funky Flows Every… sike! I wish I had some deep meaning behind my name, but truthfully, I don’t. When I started rapping back in the day everybody was MC this and MC that, I just wanted to be different, so I picked the name Side Effect and I’ve been stuck with it ever since. But who is Side Effect? I’m a dope emcee from Philly just doing my music and putting it out there for people to enjoy.
Adam Bernard: What’s your path in music been like? Side Effect: Similar to most artists, my path in music has been all uphill, but definitely worth the trip. I started rapping when I was about 13 years old. My older brother was in high school and had a wrestling buddy named Tauheed who could rap. He used to come by our house after school and he would freestyle in the basement while I played instrumental records or beatboxed. He was the first person I ever met who knew how to rap. That’s when I decided to pick up the pen and give it a try. I soon hooked up with Jae’, my childhood friend who lived across the street from me, and we started a group called II Scandalous. We borrowed a 4-track and a Roland R8 drum machine and started putting together little basement demos.
Adam Bernard: Did the group make it out of the basement? Side Effect: Yes. One of the most memorable shows we did was at the Philly Uptown Theatre in North Philly. It was a talent show during Greek weekend that we won and we got the chance to perform with Ultramagnetic MC’s and the U.M.C.’s that night.
Adam Bernard: There’s a song on your latest album, Cabin Fever ,where you say you stopped rapping for a ten year period between 1992 and 2002, but from your life story it doesn’t sound like that’s the case. I’m confused. Straighten me out here. Side Effect: I never stopped rapping, I just stopped performing during that time. I focused more on writing and learning how to make beats and produce songs. During that time I really lost touch with the Philly scene as far as performing goes. I recorded a lot of songs over those years, mostly just songs that my homies have heard. Basically, I was honing my craft, teaching myself how to work MPCs and becoming a better songwriter. Around ’99 I started venturing back out, hitting up open mics on South Street, and going to underground shows to check out the scene. Then around ‘02-’03 I started performing again, giving out CDs and trying to get my name known. I don’t think I’ll ever stop writing rhymes. Hip-hop is one thing I never get tired of.
Adam Bernard: Let’s continue to talk about Cabin Fever. How did this album come together? Side Effect:Cabin Fever came about sometime in ‘09 when my man Happ G approached me about doing an EP. I didn’t have anything going on at that particular time so he gave me some beats and I started writing. Earlier this year, during the worst winter Philly has ever seen, we hit the studio and started banging out songs. What started as an EP began to turn into a complete album, and it just so happened to be finished around the spring. This is how we came up with the title Cabin Fever, because we had just come out of that crazy winter. Also “Right Back,” one of the very first songs Happ and I ever recorded together, which we did back in ’04, made the album, and in that song I say “cabin fever/flow contagious.” It kind of ties the whole concept together.
Adam Bernard: With age comes wisdom, but in Hip-Hop youth is king. How are going to go about bridging that gap? Side Effect: Honestly, I’m not making a direct effort to bridge the gap. Hip-hop music is youth driven, but there is an audience of grown people who still enjoy hip-hop music. Those are the people that I focus on. These people grew up on it from the beginning so they know the real when they hear it and see it. I can’t do what the new generation does the same way they can’t do what I do. I’m not saying I wouldn’t do songs with younger artists, it’s just musically we would have to meet somewhere in the middle.
Adam Bernard: What’s the hip-hop scene like by you? Philly seems to be forgotten at times. Why is that? Side Effect: I personally think Philly’s hip-hop scene is poppin! I don’t hang out in the scene as much as I used to, but just from the music, pictures, and video footage that I hear and see online, there are lots of good artists contributing some great music to the scene. You have to search for it, though, because similar to most underground music, it’s not blatantly out there in your face. Philly also tends to be very clique-y, people tend to stick to their own crews. I’m just as guilty of it myself, but there are many artists here whose music I really enjoy and there are a lot of artists and crews doing their thing in Philly, like AOTP, Gargantuans, Cimer Amor, Karma Response Unit, Jakk Frost, Bee-Eater, Krush Unit… too many to name. Don’t sleep on Philly!
Adam Bernard: Finally, since you’re on Karma Response Unit Records, tell everyone why your karma is good. Side Effect: Well, technically I’m not on Karma Response Unit Records. Cabin Fever is a one-off project Happ G and I decided to get together to work on. Hopefully it does well for us. We may get together and do another one. But my karma is good because I’m a good dude, I treat people with respect and the same way that I would like to be treated. Happ G, I just made up a new mission statement for KRU! {laughs}
When critics talk about how hip-hop has lost its essence I know full well that they haven't listened to Sav Killz. Very few artists spit reality raps on the level of Sav, and although he does have a smile in his emotional repertoire, when he gets his ice grill on I'm fairly sure the streets run from him, and I don't just mean the people on the streets, I mean the actual concrete rolls itself up and gets out of town. Click play on Sav's latest, "We Don't Look To The Skies," for examples of all of the above.
Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots has a very special announcement - we’re one year old! That’s right, today marks the one year anniversary of Pop Shots, and I’m proud to have brought you all the news of the pop world, complete with snarky commentary, every Wednesday for the past 52 weeks. Over the course of the next 52 weeks I hope to expand Pop Shots to include interviews along with the news and occasional special edition columns you know and love, but before we get to that I figured a party was in order, so I’m throwing one, RIGHT NOW. Check out who made the guest list with this exclusive live look in at what’s going on at the official Pop Shots One Year Anniversary House Party (you had to know I’d be doing this Kid ‘N Play style!).
Chali 2na has a voice that makes a person take notice, and when you mix those deep vocals with his lyrical prowess the result is a truly unforgettable emcee. Many people know Chali 2na from his time as a member of Jurassic 5. Others know him from his appearances with Ozomatli. Most recently, however, listeners have been getting to know Chali 2na from his Fish Market series of mix-CDs, the second of which he released earlier this month. This week I caught up with Chali 2na, who was more than happy to take a few minutes from the painting he was working on to tell us about what’s been going on in his life, the unfortunate breakup of J5, and the rapper he was once mistaken for while walking in Brooklyn.
This week's free song from Coolzey's Coolzey and the Search for the Hip Hop Hearts - Volume I: He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper is "Put Me Away." Omatic provided the beat and the cuts, and the video was shot by Geoff Boothby, instigated and edited by Jason Hennesy, and performed by Jay Johnson, Matt Kendz, Sara Lindsey and Zach Lint (and it's really freakin good!).
Sometimes I meet artists in the most interesting of places. After learning a little bit about Truth Now from BS’ Artist Of The Week feature, I finally met him after Homeboy Sandman’s album release party earlier this month. I didn’t meet him inside the club, though. Rather, I met Truth Now in the subway station as we were waiting for the 6 train uptown to arrive. He, Grey Matter, and I ended up hopping on the 6 when it arrived and within minutes an impromptu Subway Series freestyle session broke out with Grey Matter providing the beat boxing and Truth Now killin it with the rhymes. I was impressed, and after hearing the first song off of Truth Now’s collaborative effort with BS I decided to catch up with him to find out more about the man and his music. Turns out that in addition to his skills on the mic, Truth Now has some very unique thoughts on politics, which he shared with me, along with some news regarding his upcoming album with BS, and where he likes to chill in NYC that isn’t hip-hop related.
Adam Bernard: Start me off with the Truth Now story. Where are you from and what has your journey in music, and life, been like up to this point? Truth Now: When I was born in the middle of September in ‘85 my parents put Gregory Lawrence Funicello on the government mandated receipt. This was in south Westchester, NY, where I was raised middle class. My journey in life has been pretty wild; from the source farm in Johns Town, Jamaica to behind bars in Toronto, Canada. In music it's been just as nuts as far as I’m concerned. I’ve done jam sessions with friends and a verse on stage at a KRS show. I’m just getting warmed up in life and in music as well.
Adam Bernard: Hit me with some more info on your Jamaica and Canada stories. Truth Now: I worked on an organic farm in Johns Town, in the parish of St. Thomas. I lived with two close lady friends for two months growing food and building things. In Canada I was abducted by undercover police, beaten, and held with out a phone call for four days until my friends tracked me down and bailed me out. It was all over seven grams of weed and a pocket knife. Everyone called me New York and the quartermaster liked kicking my ass in chess and listening to me talk about politics when I wasn't busy converting to Islam.
Adam Bernard: Your name has some urgency to it. Tell me how you decided on the moniker Truth Now. Truth Now: I always played around with a lot of names when I was a kid. Truth Now was the name I was going by when people started to pay more attention, so I was like, bet. It means there’s been a lot of lies, and frankly, I’m not about that. Now, my truth is naturally going to be different from yours or theirs, or whoever’s, but being familiar with who I really am, and who I’m going to be, thats just "Truth Now." I am a young man with a lot to say. What happens after that {laughs}, who knows?
Adam Bernard: What are some of the most important truths about Truth Now? Truth Now: Thank you for asking that question. When I was 13 I saw six lights in the afternoon sky playing tag and then they made the jump to light speed, dig? This was before I ever got high, before I did anything that would "alter" my consciousness. They are out there. I don’t know who’s driving, but they are part of my experience. "The movement" might disown me for talking about classified technology before mentioning my namesake, but for real, tower seven didn’t blow itself up. Buildings that fall into their own footprints in 6.7 seconds do so because someone filled them with demolition charges, and I don’t know who did that, but Google the offices that were in building seven; CIA FBI IRS. Osama bin Laden didn’t pick the locks one night and put some c4 in the basement. 1200 architects and engineers at ae911truth.org are risking the food on their table to tell us about the real physics of what actually happened that day. The other thing is, to me, reality is exactly what we make it. The fact that there are children starving, that’s cuz some people would rather have diamonds weighing down their necks then some peace and justice in this world.
Adam Bernard: Heavy stuff, both literally and figuratively. Moving to your music, I know you’re working on a project with B.S. titled The Truth About Bullshit. How far along is it and what can you tell me about it? Truth Now:The Truth About Bullshit is coming sooner then you might think. The single “Cosmic Surfing” is out and I want to thank you personally for bumping it. "Cosmic Surfing" was produced by, and features, my good friend SriKala. He's the hardest working human in the scene right now as far as I'm concerned. BS and I are doing the intro last, which is kind of funny, and that’s what we're focusing on right now. So you will be able to hear the project in its entirety very soon.
Adam Bernard: Some of your previous work, such as “Obama Can’t Save You” and “Not So New World Order,” had a political angle to it. Will The Truth About Bullshit continue in that vein, or go in a completely different direction? Truth Now: I don’t want to say too much about this right now because I want to let it speak for itself, but let me just say it will pleasantly surprise my base while "truthing" out some people who have never heard of me. There’s a softer side to some of the tracks we are working on now and that is kinda new for me.
Adam Bernard: What inspires your political rhymes? They’re certainly not your run of the mill type of concepts. Truth Now: What inspires my politics is the fact that no matter what political party the president has been in the last 50 years they all had one thing in common - they expanded upon and centralized executive power. People think we live in a democracy; thats 51% telling the 49% they don’t matter. These United States make up a Constitutional Republic. The Bill of Rights is the only thing keeping us from the techno-corporate fascism the elite would love to see become sanctioned with global governance. It’s like this: I grew up in a liberal house, so as a kid I was told Republicans are stupid fucking rednecks. Well, when I grew up a bit, I found out wow, I have more in common with a conservative Christian who doesn't want a microchip in their skull than I do with some yuppy neo-liberal prick who bleeds Africa all day from his desk at the IMF. Plus I listen to a lot of Rage Against The Machine and Immortal Technique... but I'm not a commie.
Adam Bernard: Moving away from music, where’s your favorite non-hip-hop related place to hang out in the city, and why do you dig that particular spot? Truth Now: I'm going to cheat on this question a little. See, I tell you what I'm going to do before I do it, like the illuminati. OK, so Union Square, sorry, I know that cyphers go down there every Friday and they're hype as fuck, but I skateboard, and it’s really smooth riding there. The scene is live no matter if you don't even know anyone; just kicking a soccer ball in a circle of strangers, chilling with whoever is protesting something, or all of the above, and the women are beautiful. What more could you ask for?
Adam Bernard: Finally, what’s this BS told me about you and him being kidnapped by Megan Fox? Truth Now: It's true. I mean, its bullshit, damn... it's as if I just don't know the difference anymore! On some real shit, though, people need to wake up. This BP shit for example; how long do we seriously think we can drill our mother like Oedipus? Free energy is real. Stop eating garbage and drinking fluoride. BE LOVE AND YOU WILL BE LOVED. One.
Animated videos have always held a special place in my heart ever since I first saw A-Ha’s “Take On Me” as a kid. Thankfully, hip-hop has a few creative geniuses of its own, one of whom is Breez Evahflowin, whose clip for his latest single “I Know” is one part animation, one part live action. The video was directed, animated and produced by Arjen Noordeman, and in addition to some killer visuals, the rhymes are seriously nice, as well (which is to be expected from Breez!). Click play and check it out.
For more Breez Evahflowin check out the Artist Of The Week feature on Troublemakers.
Five years ago Leela James burst onto the scene with her single “Music,” off of her debut album, A Change Is Gonna Come. Critics hailed her as the next great female soul singer, saying her vocals were comparable to the great female soul singers of the past. The masses, however, weren’t ready for James, and the album flopped.
In 2009 James put her spin on some of the classics from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s with Let’s Do It Again, but not until this year’s My Soul had she released any new work of her own. In a way My Soul picks up where A Change Is Gonna Come left off, but it’s also a whole lot more.
Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on all the “official” World Cup songs, to Eminem’s leakage, to Belinda Carlisle’s tell all book, and since it’s Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.
Earlier this month I was at Homeboy Sandman’s album release party for The Good Sun at SOBs in New York City. Sandman’s an emcee I’ve known for a number of years and have had the pleasure of watching grow into being one of the best hip-hop artists on the planet.
The crowd was packed wall to wall and included many emcees from the scene. Throughout the evening I spoke with a number of people about the event and it became obvious to me why Homeboy Sandman can take his show to, and pack, a big place like SOBs, while our local artists are still playing to the same crowds in the same event spaces. Yes, talent is certainly a factor, but we have talented artists here. Packing the house also has to do with support, and I’m not talking about the support of the fans, I’m talking about the support of other artists.
What Homeboy Sandman has accomplished over the past three years, and what I hardly see at all in Connecticut, is that he’s worked to not just be a great artist, but to also be a great supporter of artists. Everyone has seen him at shows, towering over the entire crowd (unless X-Plane, or a similarly height blessed artist is also in the house), usually at, or very near the front row, staying positive and hyped about the artist who is performing on stage, whether they’re long time friends or they’ve never met before. This is exactly what our local acts need to start doing.
Unfortunately, most of our artists tend to stick with their our cliques and crews. They show support when it’s one of their own who has a show, but if someone else has a show in the area they’re nowhere to be found. This is no way to build an artist community, and it’s no way to build a career. Support is a two way street and you can’t expect people to be at your shows when you’re not at theirs.
I understand, a lot of artists here have families, which is something less of the NYC hip-hop community has to worry about being that the average age of the emcees in NYC is slightly younger than those here, but if you’re attempting to live off of your music at any point in the future you have to realize shelling out $5 to $10 and hanging out at a couple of local shows a month is part of the job, especially in a state like ours where it’s not like we have a ton of shows every month. Call it networking, call it scoping out talent, call it being seen, call it whatever you want to call it, but get out there and make it happen.
After the show, introduce yourself to the artist if you’ve never met them before. If you have met, just say what’s up. The next day, send them a tweet or post on their Facebook wall that you enjoyed their performance. They’ll send something back thanking you for coming out, and when you have your next show, guess who’ll more than likely be in the crowd with a few friends? Yup, you guessed it, the person you just showed support to.
A lot of artists act as though networking is this big hardship and that it involves getting your music to all sorts of people and accruing the most Facebook fans, when in reality it’s as simple as saying hi and staying in contact. You don’t even have to like an artist’s music that much (although it would certainly help), you just have to be there, because the more you’re there the more exposure you’ll get and the more people will recognize you as someone who cares about the scene and not just yourself. Fans in the crowd will also start to recognize you and you’ll begin to achieve local celebrity status.
This is the launching pad our local artists are looking for, and it’s inexpensive, and pretty easy to do. Just realize not everything is about you, and after a while everyone will be all about you, but until you get involved in your own scene you’re not giving anyone else any reason to.
He may not have a lifetime supply of Colt 45 back at his crib, or have ever been frozen in carbonite, but Billy Drease Williams (formerly Edreys) has his own unique brand of cool, most notably that it’s cool to create a style of hip-hop that anyone can relate to. The Buffalo native will be releasing his latest effort, Good Morning Amy, on June 22nd, and this week I caught up with him to find out more about who Amy is, the very unusual audience the album was tested on, and why dog poop has become such a big part of his life. Don’t worry, we also talked about hip-hop. I swear!
This week's free song from Coolzey's Coolzey and the Search for the Hip Hop Hearts - Volume I: He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper is "MPC+MIC." Woodstock of the Crown City Rockers provided the beat, and the video from Jason Hennesy features footage from a dozen years ago that was shot with a Hi-8 camcorder at the Filing Cabinet in Iowa City, IA. In the clip Coolzey does an interpretive dance to Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill a Man," Jason tries to host a talk show called Beer Friends, and their friends Adam and Kerstin draw comics.
I’m always open to suggestions for my Artist Of The Week features, so when my buddy Clyde over at ProHipHop.com, who rarely recommends artists to me, told me I had to listen to a singer by the name of Michelle Shaprow I immediately went to his site to check her out. Clyde wasn’t lyin, Shaprow has some serious skills. Having once charted on the Billboard dance charts as a vocalist over club tracks, Shaprow has slowed things down a bit and much of her new work, some of which can be heard on her Purple Skies EP, has a jazzy feel to it.
The internet has actually been a longtime friend to Shaprow; she met her current manager, Collin Stanback, via Facebook. Her story, however, starts with her nomadic childhood, which saw Shaprow and her family move all over the country. The songstress eventually set up shop at Yale for college and quickly found her way into the music industry. One interesting ride with Warner Bros. later, she’s now enjoying the freedom of being an indie artist. This week I caught up with Shaprow to find out more about that freedom, what brought about her shift in musical stylings, and how her dance fan base has reacted to her new sound.
Adam Bernard: Why don’t you start me off with the Michelle Shaprow story? What has your journey in music been like up to this point? Michelle Shaprow: I first started to play music when my mom forced me to take piano lessons when I was around seven. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to learn about the piano, I loved it, but my attention and focus was everywhere. I was just one of those really airy fairy kids that kind of floats around unless you pin them down and make them focus on something. I was the kind of kid who would walk into a room looking for something and then forget what I was looking for. While I practiced piano my mind would wander and I’d get the urge to make up new songs instead of playing the ones I was supposed to practice. If my mind got a hold of a song idea it kept on wanting to pursue it to the end. In the eighth grade I got the chance to compose the music for our eighth grade musical. We put the story of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit to music. Our school was so artsy and progressive that we actually got excused from classes to spend most of the day working on the production and performance of the musical. My music teacher, Lucious Bell, was really encouraging and told my mom that she should get me a synthesizer, and she did. I got an Ensoniq in my room and from the moment it arrived I had trouble tearing myself away from it. Through using the synthesizer I learned about arrangement and production.
Adam Bernard: Wow, you were one dedicated eighth grader! What did that lead to in high school and college? Michelle Shaprow: For my senior year (in high school) I decided that I wanted to write my own musical. The school was really flexible and let me write, direct and perform in my own musical for my independent study. I did an adaptation of the story Rumpelstiltskin. When I went to college I decided I wanted to figure out a way to make music for a living. I made a demo and sent it off to music industry professionals and labels. Eventually I caught the attention of a music manager which led to getting signed with Warner Bros. during my freshman year of college. I only released one white label single through Warner Bros., but I recorded countless demos. Eventually I parted ways with the label. I wandered around confused for a bit, finally connecting with brilliant producers, Beethoven Inc. (Joshua Valleau and Alex Elena), who helped me complete the album I had long set out to create.
Adam Bernard: When did you decide to switch it up musically and go from singing over dance tracks to slowing things down and getting a little more jazzy? Michelle Shaprow: It wasn’t like a conscious decision to shift musical styles. It was more like a conscious decision to finally focus on making the music I’ve always heard from inside of me, regardless of how unusual it might be. Instead of thinking from the outside in, i.e. what trends are going on and how can I latch on to them, I started thinking from the inside out, like what is the music I hear in my head, how exactly does it sound, and how can I create the most faithful representation of that sound. That was the main shift of focus. The music on Purple Skies was not written with any genre in mind. The only thing we were concerned with was letting the music sound exactly like it wanted to. Fortunately, we’ve been getting a lot of love for the sound from soul, alternative, pop and dance music listeners.
Adam Bernard: Has your audience followed you, or have you found yourself developing an entirely new fan base? Michelle Shaprow: Dance fans are some of the coolest, most open minded, music listeners, and I love that we’re reaching new listeners, too. I’m also noticing in my journeys through this interspace that there are more and more people in the world who embrace a multitude of musical styles. The world is becoming smaller. The boundaries of race, geography and genre are blurring.
Adam Bernard: It’s a beautiful thing. Unfortunately I have to move to something a little less beautiful. You have experience with a major label, but like a lot of artists who get signed, you never ended up releasing an album. Would you consider this a major label horror story, a learning experience, or something different altogether? Michelle Shaprow: It was both AND something different altogether. It was an immense learning experience. When things were bad it was a horror story... and a drama... and comedy. When things were going good it was a comedy, musical, and mind bending science fiction fantasy. Both good and bad could be filed in Netflix under faith and spirituality, and rockumentary. The whole being signed and unsigned experience was like a very long interdisciplinary independent study in music, music business, life and spirituality. When things didn’t work out as I hoped they would with the label it shook my confidence a bit and I started to question my sense of things and the way things really worked in the world, so I rearranged my bookshelf. I put all the new age spirituality books on the bottom, the self improvement books in the middle, and the business books on top. I was going to figure this out. I was going to work my way out of this predicament with brute mental force. Eventually, when the books on the top of the bookshelf weren’t doing the trick, I found myself browsing the books on the bottom. I listened to an audio book my mom had gotten me by Wayne Dyer on the intention. I started meditating, visualizing, moved to L.A., learned about the secret, upgraded my attitude and started to believe in magic again. I then met the amazing Jackson Perry, who helped me find Beethoven Inc. I learned so much from the process of being signed and the process of recovering when things didn’t work as planned.
Adam Bernard: What would you consider some of the most important things you learned? Michelle Shaprow: When I was signed I learned a lot about how the business works by interacting with my A&R, manager, and other people at the label... and I learned A LOT about how things work by watching them not work. When I got signed it was a bit premature in a lot of ways. I hadn’t quite payed my dues at the time. I didn’t have a strong team infrastructure in place and I had no live performance experience and no fan base. I actually got signed off of a four song demo I had produced myself. We sort of did everything backwards, finding the manager and lawyer once there was already label interest, and looking for producers once I was already signed. Because of this experience I have a greater appreciation for the importance of a strong business team, live performances, and each and every fan. This time we’re doing everything forward. First thing’s first.
Adam Bernard: You went to Yale, which means in addition to being a singer you’re also a bit of a smarty pants. Everybody knows smart girls really know how to cut loose, so what do you do for fun both publicly, and when nobody’s looking? Michelle Shaprow: I go to the bookstores, meditate, do yoga, journal at restaurants, play the piano, drink red wine and eat blue cheese with truffle oil, go to water parks, browse Duane Reade, see movies, cuddle.
Adam Bernard: Finally, when fame hits, what’s the one thing you can guarantee we’ll never see you in the tabloids for? Michelle Shaprow: Giving birth to alien triplets up in the club while dancing on the table.
Everybody knows there are A LOT of music videos on the net, and unless you’re Lady Gaga doing a jail scene, it’s hard to get views. Cat videos, however, get a ton of views, which is why I think Guante is a freakin genius for putting the remix to his song “Spirit Bomb” over a video of a cat playing fetch. Click play and check out Yoshi (that’s the cat’s name) having a good time while listening to something really dope from Guante.
Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from recent relationship heartbreaks for a Saved By The Bell grad and Miley Cyrus, to M.I.A.’s heartbreak over bad press, to the heartbreak experienced by a bunch of spoiled princess when they get told You’re Cut Off!, and since it’s Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.
When I hopped off the 1 train at Houston a little after 9pm on June 1st and crossed the street to Varick I was ready for an amazing night. Homeboy Sandman had released The Good Sun, his third full length album, but his first that has national distribution, earlier in the day and the album release party was being held at SOBs. Just the fact that the event was being held at such a prestigious place was a huge achievement in and of itself, but when I walked in to see it was already filling up at 9pm I knew the night was going to be special.
This week's free song from Coolzey's Coolzey and the Search for the Hip Hop Hearts - Volume I: He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper is "Ten W.A." Copywrite provided the beat, and the video mix from Jason Hennesy, which was inspired by the work of Kent Lambert, features what might be some of the earliest Juggalo footage known to man.
Every once in a while I get an album that makes me step back and say “whoa, this guy (or woman) is really good.” It happened most recently when I first heard godAWFUL’s Beats & Rhymes In The Key of Awful Vol. 1. A seriously talented emcee and producer, godAWFUL has all the skills and personality one could hope for in an artist and is potentially one of the few emcees who could really make a big impact coming out of Connecticut. When he’s not writing or recording, godAWFUL says he can be found in places that feature “good vibes, strong beverages and pretty women,” and while I couldn’t find a place quite like that to interview him, I did catch up with him this week to find out more about his music, why he has no problem spending time in the Penalty Box, and what he considers God awful.
Adam Bernard: Why don’t you start off by telling everyone what’s so God awful about godAWFUL? I happen to think he’s a damned good artist. godAWFUL: {laughs} Well, thank you sir. I guess sitting back and looking at it now, it's kind of lame. The name derives from a point in my life where I essentially had little to no self esteem in my music. In fact, even under my previous moniker, my solo EP was titled The W.O.M.B.A.T. EP, W.O.M.B.A.T. being an acronym for "waste of money, brains, and time." As I continued, however, those feelings diminished, and that's when I looked deeper into the term God awful. Although most people believe God awful means poor in quality, the true definition is more along the lines of disagreeable, and I can totally relate that to my music now. My beats can be very abrasive to the ears and my lyrics can be confrontational at times. Plus, it also helps me stand out in a world where most emcees like to carry braggadocios aliases. I mean, I would definitely check out a band called We Play Our Instruments Poorly, or Dude, We Suck.
Adam Bernard: Sadly, I know a lot of bands that should be called Dude We Suck. For those who may not be aware, tell everyone where you’re from and what your journey in music has involved up to this point. godAWFUL: I spent the first eight to nine years of my life in New Haven, CT, before I moved to it's slightly more suburban neighbor, Hamden, or as I like to call it, the Porkden...THAT'S GONNA CATCH ON, DAMMIT! I began writing songs, poetry, etc. as somewhat of a hobby. I grew up at the peak of the internet growth spurt, so at 12 I began looking for hip-hop forums and online communities where we could post our stupid little verses and text battle. Before I knew it I was pirating crappy software and trying to make beats and record myself. Surprisingly, I received a lot of positive feedback. After collaborating and making songs with a lot of talented dudes I was approached by Collin Gibson, who was then named Dr. Delux, to join an online group called I.M.A. When I was 16, the youngest in the team, our group released an album nationally. Did I mention my name was Orange Juice at the time? {laughs}
Adam Bernard: Now that’s a God awful name! Moving to the present, as we both know, Connecticut is a rough state to make it in as an emcee. Do you have a master plan for how you’re going to make it happen, and if so, how much of it can you reveal? godAWFUL: I'm actually building a device right now, just completed the blueprint the other night. I can't get too detailed because it involves a lot of new-age technology and some of it is still patent pending, BUT I can tell you that once it's complete... through an intricate and precise process, it will remove the stick from everyone in this damn state's ass.
Adam Bernard: You recently released Beats & Rhymes In The Key of Awful Vol. 1. From what I understand you listened to rock music almost exclusively while writing and recording the album. What went into the decision to stay away from listening to hip-hop and what do you think was gained by listening to rock? godAWFUL: The way I see it, everyone is influenced by everything around them, whether they want to admit it or not. I knew when I started this EP it would be the one that defines me, which can be nerve wracking and a lot of pressure. I wanted a clean palette and I didn't want to risk inadvertently biting/swagger-jacking/emulating anything. Listening to rock is nothing new for me, though, particularly really heavy stuff. I've always been a sucker for blast beats, tempo changes, and fast double bass, and I think you can really recognize the influence of that vibe of controlled chaos in my beats. I always take pride in my drums, and they get a little wild, while still, I feel, maintaining that raw boom-bap essence. I also feel being a big rock fan benefits my energy during my performances. As much as I hate to say it, there is just no way a hip-hop show is going to have that same amount of intense energy a hardcore show has, but I always strive to make it comparable.
Adam Bernard: Are you still inspired by hip-hop, and if so, what aspects of it still inspire you? godAWFUL: Of course! I don't think I'll ever be uninspired by hip-hop music, despite the fact that the majority of recent releases have become quite bland. Although rock music is mostly what I like to listen to, nothing gets me excited and in the mood to create the way hip-hop does. When I hear an Alias of an El-P record, those beats totally inspire me to step my production game up, and then I'll hear emcees like Joell Ortiz, or MF Doom, and I have to step my writing game up! There is absolutely no feeling comparable man. That's probably why I do what I do.
Adam Bernard: You’re part of a crew with L.O.G. and Alley Hood called Penalty Box. What are you looking to achieve with that? godAWFUL: Penalty Box isn't really a crew. Rather than it being a faction of artists, it's more of a movement, something people can rally behind. If I had to say it was comparable to anything... *cringes* it's something like the Juggalos. Fuckin' posses, how do they work?! I can't speak for the rest of the guys, but my feelings are like this: we're all playing our own game, our own struggle. There are those that shine, and those that don’t as much, and then there are those that are remarkably talented, but they can't seem to play by the rules, constantly getting themselves ejected from the game, causing the ones that aren't even really THAT good, to get more shine. That's Penalty Box to me, and I know there are a lot of people out there that can relate to that vibe. Not only in hip-hop, but in the daily grind of life, so what we're really trying to say is "yo, you feel like this? Come get with it! You back us, we back you! Eventually these referees are going to lose control."
Adam Bernard: What does godAWFUL consider God awful, in life and/or music? godAWFUL: Hmm. In life I'd have to say girls that can't hold their liquor, religion, and MTV. I think the world would be a better place if all those happened to vanish. Oh, and as far as music, you know... I can't hate on anything, man. I give everything a chance and if I can't vibe with it I won't say it's "bad," just not my cup of tea. I'm a hater-free type of dude... but I really can't stand country music.
Adam Bernard: OK, so you don’t like country music. That being noted, why don’t you close out this interview by revealing your most interesting guilty pleasure? godAWFUL: Lady Gaga, easily. Every track that chick drops I love. No homo.
I know this might come as a revelation to some, but every once in a while, here at Adam’s World, we like shaking our asses to some club music. I never said we shake our asses well, or that we’re on beat, but there’s nothing wrong with cutting loose when you feel the need to. When we feel that need, our good friend Frankie Finch helps provide the soundtrack. “I’m Such A Problem” is her first official video, and after clicking play you’ll see she’s a problem you probably wouldn't mind dealing with.
This is a blog post that’s been a long time coming. As many of you know I’ve been writing about music for close to a decade now (this December will mark ten full years). During that time I’ve written for a number of major music publications. When I first saw the downfall of music magazines coming I was still too new in my career to write about it - criticizing the industry that pays your bills is never a good idea. Now, however, I feel I’ve done enough to earn my stripes, and I see that the situation has become dire, so I’m willing to take a potential loss or two if it serves the overall good of our struggling industry.
A magazine is only as good as its written content, and writers and editors are judged on which artists they can get in their magazines. This is why publicists are an essential cog in the music industry. Now, I want to preface what I’m about to say by noting that some of my best friends work in publicity and do an amazing job. I have a great deal of respect for them. That being said, I think some of them may be doing too good of a job. How can a publicist be doing too good of a job? Simple, when they make the writer feel like they don’t have to seek out new music anymore.
The dirty little secret of many music magazines is that they’re now essentially controlled by publicists. I can pick up any hip-hop magazine, flip through it, and instantly know which publicists they’re working with. Why is this a big deal? It’s a big deal because when EVERY article is one that’s been pitched by a publicist it means a couple of things aren’t happening at the publication that need to be happening in order for music magazines to survive.
1) It means the writers and editors are no longer moving their butts out of their desk chairs to go out and find great music. I can’t tell you how upsetting it is to see writers only showing up at industry events. Yes, we get in for free and occasionally get some food and a drink or two, but is that why you started writing about music? If you’re writing about music it should be because you love music, and if you love music you should be out enjoying it at any show you can make it to and not mind paying the occasional $5 or $10 cover charge to get in. That $5 or $10 could mean hearing the next great artist and being the first to cover them, instead of having to wait to read about them somewhere else.
This is where the internet is truly showing the print world how it should be done. Everyone likes to talk about the immediacy of the internet, saying that’s what’s killing print publications, and while that’s part of it, a very large, forgotten, aspect of things is the fact that many bloggers started their blogs because they love music and enjoy going to shows and telling people about the artists they see. For all the mocking people do of bloggers, labeling them as shut ins who do nothing but hide behind their computers, many of them are at shows on a regular basis. They pay to get in, they enjoy the show, and they write about it and post it online... because they love music. This is why bloggers are currently destroying print magazines when it come to breaking new artists.
2) It means that there’s little difference between publications because there are a limited amount of artists being covered. It’s a publicist’s job to get their artist everywhere, and there quite a few publicists who are incredible at that job. As an editor or writer, however, when all you do is write about the artists publicists pitch to you, you have to get an artist to reveal something truly amazing to separate your magazine from the next one because when everyone works that way everyone has roughly the same content, just with different bylines. Hip-Hop websites suffer from this problem, as well.
3) It means the content of publications is limited to what’s going on right now. Publicists aren’t hired by artists to hype nothing, they’re hired to hype albums that are coming out, major shows that are coming up, or major news an artist wants to get out to the world. When a magazine limits its editorial board to what is being pitched to them it drastically limits the amount of time it will be relevant. People shouldn’t want to throw away your magazine as soon as the next issue arrives, there should be something in it that’s still relevant and worth reading no matter when someone opens it up. The term for these type of articles is evergreen, and while the kind of journalism it entails requires more work, it’s also much more rewarding, and as a writer you actually learn a lot from each evergreen story you do.
As an aside to all this, I know a lot hip-hop artists were extremely disappointed that neither XXL nor The Source had Guru on their cover after his passing. I’m going to give both magazines the benefit of the doubt that their issues that came out immediately following his death had already been laid out, and possibly even gone to print, when it happened, making it impossible to make such a move. That being said, both publications should do Guru cover stories, and those stories should be huge pieces that take up a number of pages. They would be evergreen stories that, in addition to memorializing one of the most important voices in hip-hop history, would give the younger generation of readers some insight into hip-hop’s past.
I know XXL and The Source might argue that Guru’s fan base is older and no longer reads the magazines, but doesn’t it stand to reason that if you put him on the cover, and did an extended feature on him that was too long to read on the newsstand, and didn’t do something stupid like also put it on the net, you’d gain those readers back for an issue, and maybe, if you have some other great content in there, you might even get them buying the magazine again on a semi-regular basis?
Now, let me reiterate I’m in no way saying cut out publicists. That would ridiculous. A number of publicists have great artists who are doing great things, but magazines need to stop their total reliance on them. Editors and writers need to get back to having minds of their own, and if they think they’re too cool to wait in line to see a lineup of bands or emcees where they may have only heard of one act on the bill, they need to stop writing about music, because it means they’ve lost their love of it, and we need people who still have that love to be running the show.
I’m sure quite a few writers and editors will be mad at me for writing this, but that’s tough. I’m tired of seeing an industry I love die and I really felt like if I didn’t speak up now, while there’s still a chance to save it, I’d regret it.
Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from who’s not feeling like a winner after the Alicia Keys - Swizz Beatz engagement & pregnancy announcement, to the big winners coming from American Idol and the Eurovision Song Contest, to the huge loss 50 Cent recently experienced, and since it’s Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.
After going through emcee after emcee at New York City’s legendary Fight Klub, taking on some of the finest the area had to offer and disposing of them routinely, Ill decided he’d had enough of the battle scene. “It’s good exposure,” Ill explains, “but it only gets you so far.”
In battling, Ill, who is originally from Bridgeport, but now resides in West Haven, saw a cycle that was going to repeat itself over and over with no end in sight. “There’s always going to be a younger crowd of rappers that want to be on the up and coming, trying to get a name, so they’re gonna see who the hot battle rappers are and they’re gonna wanna be battling them.” While thinking about that issue an even bigger reason to move in another direction came up, “I saw that the music was taking me further than the battling was.”
Ill says the transition from being a battle rapper to a fully formed artist “wasn’t really too hard,” since it had always been a part of his repertoire, but “it was more difficult to make people accept me being more than a battle rapper.” Part of convincing people that he’s a well-rounded artist has involved opening for a number of big name acts. Recently, Ill has been performing at Toad’s Place, rocking crowds right before the likes of Canibus and Jedi Mind Tricks. Ill also performed at Amateur Night at The Apollo and was invited back for a second performance that will come later this year.
Listeners who know Ill from his battling days may recognize one major aspect of his work now that comes from his battles. “What I take from (battling) is the force of... the rawness.” It’s a rawness that, just like when he utilized it in his battles, can sometimes get very dark. Ill says that darkness comes from a combination of a childhood that “wasn’t really that great” and the lack of support he’s felt while working his way up in the music world. “The darkness,” he explains, “comes from that drive of those that didn’t believe and it comes out in pretty raw form.” He adds that “it fuels, and going by Ill, I always try to have the shock value of ‘damn, that’s sickening, he shouldn’t even say that.’”
There’s an issue that comes with performing rhymes that get that dark, however, and Ill knows the potential negative consequences. “It does scare some people,” he admits, “but most people on the underground level, it’s what they want to hear. They want to get the raw lyricism back in hip-hop. The radio is washed up with whatever it’s playing, the same old thing over and over and over, and I’m just trying to really show lyricism can be accepted.”
In addition to performing, Ill is also building his audience through the mixtape scene, releasing albums and making guest appearances at a blistering pace, most notably on datpiff.com on mixtapes by DJ What It Iz. “We drop one to two mixtapes a week,” Ill says of the collaborative efforts, some of which include The Best of New England, Street’s Best, and the Ill Filez series of mixtapes, as well as the Ill vs. Drake mixtape. Ill is also featured on the FTI Records mixtape Robocop on a Unicorn (yes, that’s one of the best names for a mixtape ever), and FTI Records will be releasing Ill’s upcoming official full length album, Mental ILLness.
Mentall ILLness was produced entirely by Swedish beatsmith Full-Aim. Ill will be touring regionally in support of the album, but is also planning on going overseas. He jokes that Full-Aim continually reminds him about the ladies he’ll meet in Sweden. “He always tells me, ‘you’re gonna meet your Ms. Right when you come out to Sweden.’ He tells me that every time I’m on the phone with him.”
According to Ill, what listeners can expect, whether they’re attending one of those shows, or picking up one of his CDs, is 100% pure, unadulterated Ill. “I always gave 100% as far as the projects I was working on,” he explains, “but when you work with certain management, I was working with the Ruff Ryders, they always want to steer you in certain directions, and I feel like I’ve done that. If you hear past CDs you’ll hear I have club songs, I have life songs, so they can’t say that Ill just raps about this, because I have a variety, so now it’s more like me in its rawest form, without anyone saying you should tone this down a little, or maybe you should do a song about this. Now it’s me to the fullest.”
After years of going head to head against other emcees, the only battle Ill has left is to continue moving forward with his music, and if the past is any indicator, anyone who gets in his way is in for some major trouble.
This week's free song from Coolzey's Coolzey and the Search for the Hip Hop Hearts - Volume I: He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper is "Faces of Death." The late, great, DJ PRZM provided the beat, while Jason Hennesy used clips from an informational cartoon titled "Man and Safety," courtesy of the United States Department of Defense, to create the video.
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.
