June 2005

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Am I black or white?

Filed under: Imported

Minneapolis features prominently in this Village Voice examination of why underground hip hop is so white. It's both interesting and refreshing that the article doesn't once bring up Brother Ali's race. (I used to get calls all the time from national journalists asking, "Is Slug black?" I'd be like, "What am I, 'Plessy versus Ferguson'?" Now I get similar questions about Ali. Sometimes, in the name of fighting racism, we forget that race doesn't exist.)

The only place on the net I've seen Ali discuss his identity is here, in the following interview exchange:

If you look at the media, they market things and exploit the product. If Rhymesayers or another label was to try and take your ethnicity and do something with that, would you try and support that because you want your music to be heard, or would you oppose it, and why?

First of all, I bet $150 million that can�t none of y�all accurately judge what my ethnicity is. The marketing would be a bitch. Second of all, no. We don�t want to use that as the main thing to market our music. It seems that a lot of people that interview me end up with that being their whole motherfucking piece. Like I had one [interviewer] at home in Minneapolis do that to me just recently. Actually, he did the whole thing on me being albino. So we talked about that for the first three minutes of the interview and then for the rest of the interview we talked about real shit. And so basically he used quotes from those first three minutes for the whole motherfucking article. I think the reason is that with the advanced racism we have in the world - especially the United States - people are still so much trained to view people by race, which is different from ethnicity. Race is a made-up thing. I think a lot of times people - they understand a lot better, it�s a lot easier for them, if they can put somebody in a racial background. We like to think about things in categories because it takes out a lot of the mental work. If you can put something in a category, and you know where it is, you leave it there, and that�s where you want it to be. It makes it easier for you to relate to it. When you can�t do that, it requires a lot more thought; you have to be a lot more objective. You have to think a lot more about how you�re going to relate to this thing, how you�re going to view it, and how you�re going to perceive it. So I think because of that, a lot of people struggle with me, to try to nail me down racially, or try to understand the albino thing more, but the reality is� I think me as a musician speaks a lot more than just that. So to try to use that as a gimmick you would pigeon-hole me into just that. It would make my shit a lot shorter. It might make it quicker, you know, if we really pushed that and played that up, you know, it might get me a lot of [snapping fingers] quick attention, but there�s no long life in that. After the novelty wears off, all you have left is songs. And all you have left is albums. And all you have left is live performances, which is really what we�re more about.

Yeah we asked Slug about that, who�s actually light-skinned black -

Slug is what almost all of us on Rhymesayers are, which is a mixture of different shit, including black, including white, including Native American. Almost everybody on Rhymesayers is a mixture of some different shit, and a lot of times we�re seen by white people as white rappers.

Puts you in a bit of a stereotype, doesn�t it.

It�s something we have to work with, but I mean, I�m not white.

More discussion of the article here.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 27, 2005 5:16 PM

 

Bob Mould spinning at the Eagle Sunday

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According to his blog, the former Hüsker Dü guitarist (who currently lives in D.C.) will wind up Pride Weekend in Minneapolis by bringing his Blowoff DJ set to the Bolt, next to the Eagle on Washington Avenue, home to hip-hop DJ/producer Tori Fixx. (Here's one of Mould's previous sets.) Anxious to hear Mould's forthcoming full-band recording, with Fugazi's Brendan Canty on drums? The album is now available for pre-order from Yep Roc. Mould also plays Taste of Minnesota on July 3.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 24, 2005 4:11 AM

 

People I met at Saturday's garage sale

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Jim, the guy who plays beautiful piano across the street--makes me feel like I'm in Rear Window.

Jean, from Guinea, whom I lent a couple of my favorite Guinean music CDs, and who is applying for political asylum here in the U.S.

Crazy Amy, local MC from Madison whom I've seen battle, and seen in a documentary, and who wrote a letter criticizing something I'd written in City Pages, but had never met. About my "slacker MCs" comment, Sims ended up answering it on a track on his excellent new album:

A hipster couple from down the block, really nice.

Another nice hipster couple from the neighborhood.

A really cool black guy who bought all my DVDs.

A white girl who bought all my books, practically.

An old man who bought.

 

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 21, 2005 4:57 PM

 

Toki

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http://www.mtv.com/onair/dyn/made/series.jhtml

 

Minneapolis Artist Featured on MTV

 

Minneapolis based artist Toki Wright of The C.O.R.E. and APHRILL makes a major leap this June.  Over the last year as an mc/poet, and community organizer Wright has performed across the United States as well as Brazil and Portugal.  In the new season of MTV's "Made" Toki Wright coaches an aspiring Minneapolis youth with Bronx, NY based Definitive Jux rapper C-Rayz Walz.  The episode also features The Game, Ghostface, and Snoop Dogg.  The new season begins June 15^th.

 

In other news The C.O.R.E. (www.thecore.biz) readies for their first video shoot for the new single "Northern Exposure (Tease Me)" June 25^th.  The single will be featured on their new album "Before You Dig" due out this fall.  Also Toki Wright's side project APHRILL called "Home" with San Francisco based MC Nomi and production by Medium Zach is due nationally this summer.  Toki is also in the studio working on his first solo project entitled "A Different Mirror."  

 

For more info contact 612-874-9696 or toki@yothemovement.org, www.tokiwright.com coming soon.  

**4^th Annual Twin Cities Celebration of Hip-Hop: Be Healthy Aug 19, 20, 21

Photo attached

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 16, 2005 5:04 PM

 

My high school is now a pop icon for oppression

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Jimmy Eat World's "Work" Windows Media/Real Media

This 2004 video by Jimmy Eat World was shot at Madison West High School, where I went from 1985 to 1988. The video alters the song's meaning with snippets of real interviews, including a girl who calls high school a "beautiful prison." It reminds me of Hüsker Dü's "These Important Years," a tune that came out when I was a senior. I was pretty depressed then, skipping classes for weeks, and mostly hanging out in the library. I even started answering the phone at home to catch the automated skip notices. (Back when West High School merely mailed them out, my fellow freak Nick Andreano used to re-send the postage-paid cards to his friends with little notes on them. Somebody must have caught on, eventually.)

Turns out the video's director, Marc Webb, got his diploma at West four years after me, and based the video on his own experience. (Sole complaint: He didn't get Liz Phair to lip-synch her backup vocals.) The only reason I saw the video at all was that an old classmate emailed to say West is holding its 75th anniversary celebration and alumni reunion August 5-7. The school proudly displays the rock video on its web site. Well, this was the building where I learned the meaning of the word "irony."

Happiest memory: During class on the last day of school, somebody left a boombox in her padlocked locker, blasting a looped tape of nothing but Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall." The "we don't need no education" chorus echoed through the halls for a solid half hour. They must have had trouble getting the locks off.

I'm grateful for the good teachers I had, but really, I should have been at Shabazz, the alternative school. Reunion weirdness, here I come. (Here's a page of links for things to do in Madison, Wisconsin, if you end up going to this.)

Also check out: Kulturblog's "Ten Reasons I Love Hüsker Dü"

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 15, 2005 5:02 PM

 

Local Hip-Hip Links

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The TC Hip-Hop Links Page at Complicatedfun.com/hiphop has doubled in size for 2005. You'll find dance studios, an out-and-proud gay hip-hop DJ/producer, Miranda Jane's amazing blog, and plenty of Myspace pages added. I've never tried to be comprehensive with other local genres, but linking every Minnesota hip-hopper is both feasible and hugely entertaining. Click that last link above to hear a 1998 freestyle battle between Slug and Budah Tye: Check the Rich Best reference!

Yeah, we tease him a lot 'cause we got him on the spot

Thanks for the "Welcome back, blogger" shouts from from Christine, Aaron, Mark, John Evans, and Brad Zellar. It means a lot.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 14, 2005 3:10 PM

 

dancers at state fair.jpg

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 14, 2005 3:09 AM

 

DJ Stageone.jpg

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 14, 2005 1:11 AM

 

Tori Fixx Marry Me art.jpg

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 14, 2005 12:21 AM

 

Atmosphere Overcast.doc.jpg

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 13, 2005 11:45 PM

 

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 13, 2005 11:21 PM

 

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 13, 2005 6:48 PM

 

Improv in the park

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 13, 2005 8:41 AM

 

Summer 2005.jpg

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 8, 2005 5:51 PM

 

Minnesota's Greatest Hip-Hop and R&B Hits

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Mint Condition members Ricky Kinchen, Jeffrey Allen, Stokley Williams, Lawrence Waddell, and Homer O'Dell photographed by Daniel Corrigan in 2005, for this article in City Pages.

In addition to Minnesota's Fifty Greatest Hits in today's City Pages, here are eight more Twin Cities funk/R&B classics not recorded by Prince:

Minnesoda

"When's My Season"

from Minnesoda, Capitol Records, 1972

 

The Jets

"Crush On You"

from The Jets, MCA, 1986

 

Mint Condition

"Breakin' My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)"

from Meant to Be Mint, Prospective Records, 1991 

 

The Sensational Joint Chiefs

"Little Sunflower"

from Lost Stepchild, Groove Garden/Firetrunk, 1998

 

Vanguard

"Good God"

from Play, TVP Records, 1998

 

Next

"Wifey"

from Welcome II Nextasy, Arista, 2000

 

Willie Walker & the Butanes

"I Feel It"

from Right Where I Belong, One On One Records, 2004

 

Mint Condition

"Luxury Brown"

from Livin' the Luxury Brown, Image/Cagedbird Records, 2005

 

Minnesota Hip-Hop Mix 

1988 I.R.M. Crew promotional poster courtesy of Charles Lockhart

Including the 13 listed in today's Minnesota's Fifty Greatest Hits, here are 35 recommended tracks for a  Minnesota rap mix. Post your own choices at this thread on D.U. Nation, or at this article reaction thread, or email your favorites to me at pscholtes [at] citypages [dot] com and I'll post them here. 

The Twin City Rappers
"The Twin City Rapp"
Twin Town Records, 1985

The I.R.M. Crew
"Baseball"
Cchill/K-tel, 1987

Soul Purpose
"Soul Purpose"
Wide Angle Urban, 1989

Somethin Smooth
"U Ain't Fat"
from Constipated Notions, Dynamic Records, 1993

Phull Surkle and Casino Royale

"I'm Just a B-Boy"

unreleased track recorded in Studio K at Radio K, 1995

Abstract Pack
"Busy Like We"
from Bousta Set It (For the Record), self-released, 1998

Dead End

"My Deeds Is Done"

G.B. Records CD single, 1998

Atmosphere (featuring Eyedea)
"The Abusing of the Rib"
from Stuck on AM 2: Live Performances on 770 Radio K, No Alternative/770 Radio K, 1999

Unicus and Muad'Dib

"Phone Sex"

Interlock Volume 1, Interlock, 1999

 

Lil Buddy

"What's the Happs"

from We Rocked the World!, Red White Blue, 1999

 

The Sure Shot Brothers

"D.W.B."

from Mental Madness Presents the Sure Shot Brothers, Mental Madness, 2000

 

Raw Villa

"Money First"

from Rebellion EP, Black Corners, 2000

Micranots
"Pitch Black Ark"
from Obelisk Movements, Sub Verse, 2000

Unknown Prophets (featuring Slug)

"Never"

from World Premier, self-released, 2000

 

Musab

"Guard Your Harem"

from Actin' Rich 12-inch, Rhymesayers, 2000

 

Kanser

"Heard It From Here"

from Inner City Outer Space, Interlock, 2000

 

Hot Skeems

"Lost In the Land of the Lakes"

from Twin Town Music Yearbook Vol. 3, 1999-2000, City Pages, 2000

 

Cenospecies

"Hip Hop"

from Indefinition, Peak Records, 2001

 

Young & Da Restless

"Imma Speak Now"

from The Motion Picture, Stray Records, 2001

S.U.S.P.E.C.T.S.
"Sunset @ Lowry Park"
from Delusions of Grandeur, Souls of Life, 2001

The C.O.R.E.
"New Thoughts"
3rd Eye Entertainment, 2001

Heiruspecs

"Meters"

from Small Steps, Interlock, 2002

 

The Many Faces of Oliver Hart (featuring Carnage)

"Prelude to Coaches"/"Coaches"

from How Eye One the Write Too Think, Rhymesayers, 2002

 

Kardel

"She's Just My Friend"

from Daily Journal, self-released, 2002

Brother Ali
"Forest Whitiker"
from Shadows on the Sun, Rhymesayers, 2003

Los Nativos

"Con Tivos"

from Dia De Los Muertos, Rhymesayers, 2003

Nena Brown
"I Hustle"
from The Beginning of the End, Heat Rocc, 2004

Contac (featuring Diamonique)
"Jangalang Jangalang"
from Eeyeaya, Lazyeye Entertainment/Wild Side Records, 2004

P.O.S.

"Music For Shoplifting"

from Ipecac Neat, Doomtree/Rhymesayers, 2004

 

Eyedea and Abilities

"Exhausted Love"

from E&A, Epitaph/Rhymesayers, 2004

 

Set the Smith

"They Don't Know"

from The Example Part One, Chill Records, 2004 

 

EPL & Snakebird (featuring Big Quarters)

"Nightstick"

from Songs, Big Quarters, 2004

 

Mad Son (featuring Big Jess)

"Keep On"

from Peace Amongst the Madness, N.E. Time Entertainment, 2004

 

Kill the Vultures

"The Vultures"

From Kill the Vultures, JIB, 2005

 

Medida

"People"

Now That's What I Call Copyright Infringement! Volume One, self-released, 2005

 

 

About the cover model: April Lindner plays in the local band Bounce, who perform at the Breakaway Bar and Grill in Robbinsdale on Friday. They are apparently auditioning drummers, and here's a list of songs prospective percussionists should learn: "Brick House," "Beautiful People," "Hot in Herre," "Just a Girl," and "I'm With You."

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 8, 2005 5:47 PM

 

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 8, 2005 1:54 PM

 

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 8, 2005 1:38 PM

 

Five more great Minnesota funk/R&B tracks

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[cover photo of Mint Condition]

 

http://citypages.com/databank/26/1276/article13294.asp

 

Five more great Minnesota funk/R&B tracks not on the list:

 

Minnesoda

"When's My Season"

from Minnesoda, Capitol Records, 1972

 

The Sensational Joint Chiefs

"Little Sunflower"

from Lost Stepchild, Groove Garden/Firetrunk, 1998

 

Vanguard

"Good God"

from Play, TVP Records, 1998

 

Triangle

"Back to Squares"

from Triangle, Smoke and Mirrors, 1999

 

Mint Condition

"Luxury Brown"

from Livin' the Luxury Brown, Image/Cagedbird Records, 2005

 

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 8, 2005 6:06 AM

 

Minnesotas greatest hits small.jpg

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 8, 2005 12:55 AM

 

Dance with me

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CLICK FOR FULL SIZE IMAGE. OR LIGHTER ONE IN PAPER. Indigo's son dances with B-Girl Seoul at the B-Girl Be Summit Saturday. Photo by Jeff Luger. (Yeah, that's me standing in back with the press pass around my neck, behind Kuttin' Kandi, Jane Doe, and a bunch of other people. The exhibit continues through Saturday.)

2005 conversation at the Triple Rock:

"What happened to your blog? You should start doing it again. I like your writing. You write what you feel."

"I'll get back to it soon. Real life just intervened. My grandma died. My girlfriend's grandma died. My best friend is in the hospital. I've been really down, lately. But I'll be more rock and roll soon."

Juju dancer, your life is calling

1974 debut album by Sunny Adé (The Master Guitarist) & His African Beats on his own Sunny Alade Records label. Note the price tag: $4.00 at Eclipse Records in St. Paul! I want that shirt, too.

This year I began identifying way too much with Ray McKinnon's preacher character on HBO's Deadwood, whose sermons became progressively more deranged as his brain tumor got worse, though his metaphors actually made sense of the story. Near the end, he was preaching to cattle in the mud, while Al Swearengen, the show's villain, stared down at him from a balcony, amused but visibly moved, a cynic regarding a holyman, unable to dismiss him.

I guess I felt more crazy and pathetic in 2005, trying to fit the world into my story, trying to fit the events of the past four years, and the inadequacy of my response, into an idealism that nobody buys anymore. I spent much of this year saying: What's my story? What's my mission? I went out and danced when I could. Dancing makes the heart remember.

Then last night, I saw Batman Begins, and was taken back to a moment when I was very young, before I began believing in much of anything. I was 8 in the summer of 1978, when I picked up Detective Comics 472 at the corner drug store, and the Batman myth was already familiar to me through the TV show (on my friend's cable television) and Bob Kane's comics, available in a bound edition at the Madison Public Library.

This version of Batman, drawn by Marshall Rogers, is sometimes called the modern template for the character (though you wouldn't know it from the silly movies based on its stories). These comics rejected the camp of the TV show for a more realistic, Ian Fleming, gangster-hunting detective. But all the '70s Batmans connected with the early Kane idea of a figure who scared those that preyed on the fears of others.

I don't know why this idea was so powerful to me as a kid. Maybe because I had grown up with bullies around the corner, and was already developing a strong sense of right and wrong. Batman had no superpowers: Despite his wealth, he was a self-made superhero. Which is what I suppose we all want to be, sometimes. Before I had developed the analytical tools to take the story apart, it attached itself directly to my subconsciousness. Some part of me feels disappointed that I didn't grow up to be Batman.

Christian Bale's Batman is about turning that disappointment into a work week that redeems you. It's also about how pathetic revenge is, a subject addressed only obliquely in other post-9/11 superhero movies. Besides The Hulk, which I'll still defend if you get enough whiskey in me, Batman Begins is the least morally compromised of comics-hero adaptations. Batman does not kill. He does not take revenge. In fact, the movie does the comic one better, and addresses crime as a system, not just a character flaw. The movie admits class as a function of the machine grinding out murderers. (The Waynes, we are told, nearly bankrupted themselves trying to help the poor during Gotham's recent "Depression.")

This is only one way in which Batman Begins is a complete departure from a previously embarassing film franchise. I could mention Michael Caine as Alfred, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, the laughs Morgan Freeman gets (and it's been a while) as Lucius Fox, the truly scary Scarecrow, and the revised Batmobile, which is very funny (though too bad Hans Zimmer didn't realize it when composing the humdrum chase music). The story is completely absorbing, and I can't wait to see it again.

But the heart of the story is Bruce Wayne. Like Ray McKinnon's Rev. H.W. Smith, Bale's maniac is just a fervent idealist who finds comfort in having something to do. Don't we all.

1977 album sleeve for Superstar Verse 1 by Sir Shina Adewale, a juju group formed that year by Segun Adewale and Sir Shina Peters. They look like they're having fun in those tube socks.

Things I've written about since I stopped blogging:

King Sunny Ade and the politics of juju, Mint Condition, the history of the Varsity Theater (updates here, here, and here), Wild Condition and Driver 23 director Rolf Belgum, Bruce Springsteen's new album, Stern's Music closing, Lyrics Born, the Todd Haynes Dylan movie, Marla Ruzicka, R.I.P., the Turf Club's Clown Lounge closing, Let It Be Records closing, Tulip Sweet breaking up, a weird article in The Rake, Deadwood's theme song, celebrity blogging, Susie Bright on Andrea Dworkin, Atmosphere's live-band version, Stephanie Winter, The T.A.M.I. Show, Negroes With Guns, Guess Who, The Take, Mojados: Through the Night, the Soweto Gospel Choir, No Time For Cold Feet, Vagabunden Karawane, the latest U2 album, Dessa Darling and Cecil Otter, the Midnight Evils, the new Go-Betweens, the new Low, the Walker Art Center, downtown clubs, and Low's battle with sanity. Maybe I know how Al feels.

Things I've written about comics:

Geek Squad: review of the first X-Men movie, review of X2: X-Men United, Kiss of the Spider-Man, Azarello and Risso: Backstory Goes Better with a Blowjob, The Vicious, Sweaty, Wonderful Thrill of Mexican Sex Comics, Of Micronauts and Men, It's a New World for Stan Lee's Superbeings in Long Underwear, Take the Paxil, Charlie Brown, The Very Voluptuous World of Comics Artist Gilbert Hernandez, The Mask: The Secret Identities of Rapper MF Doom, Artist of the Year: MF Doom, The Origin of Madvillain (comic), Freshman Disorientation (comic), Ben Affleck Finds a Risk Worth Taking in Daredevil, review of Daniel Clowes's Orgy Bound (scroll to bottom), Complete Comics Links at Complicatedfun.com, The Hulk: Best Film of the Century So Far

From Sarah Sawyer's Critics Camp: Kids Tell Us What They Think of Summer Movies:

CP: Peter Scholtes at City Pages said in his blog that The Hulk is the best movie of the last ten years. What would you say to him?

MEGHAN: I'd say, "Look in your closet"--because it's full of comic books.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 7, 2005 7:45 PM

 

Cut and Shrunk Be Girl image

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 7, 2005 7:36 PM

 

full size b-girl photo

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Indigo's son dances with B-Girl Seoul at the B-Girl Be Summit Saturday. Photo by Jeff Luger. (Yeah, that's me standing in back with the press pass around his neck, behind Kuttin' Kandi, Jane Doe, and a bunch of other people.)

BACK TO "DANCE WITH ME"

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 7, 2005 7:35 PM

 

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 7, 2005 4:42 PM

 

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 7, 2005 4:23 PM

 

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 6, 2005 1:43 PM

 

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at June 6, 2005 12:40 PM

 

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