CREATING A LEGACY street art on the edge THE BEAT MAKER: PART 1 plus:
An interview with sytycd’s ISSUE #01 FEB 2012
jesse rasmussen
A NOTE FROM... Thank You Australian Hiphop Scene. With the strong support of Intercultural Community Exchange (ICE), Night 2 Sunrise (N2S), Flow City, The Unthinkables, Jason Li Photography + Design, AsCanvAs Photography, Macrocurio digital media, Krosswerdz Recordings, and more, this dream is now a complete publication. Equipped with a full staff of writers, directors, and a headstrong editor, we are now ready to grow the Australian Hiphop Culture. - Diego Zelada
CREDITS DIRECTOR EDITOR ART DIRECTOR BUSINESS MANAGER MEDIA DIRECTOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER COVER PHOTO
Diego Zelada Alexander Panagiotou Jason Li Alex Ong Ambar Sidhwani Yuka Yanai Wesley Tan
CONTENTS HIPHOP LEGACY 03 The Beginning of a Legacy Diego Zelada STREET ART | ARTICLE 07 The Outpost Project: Street Art on the Edge Alexander Panagiotou
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MUSIC | ARTICLE 09 The Beat Maker Zahir Shah DANCE | ARTICLE 13 Jesse Rasmussen Binti Alisha Mohinani
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FASHION REVIEW 15 Summer Essentials: Chambray Daniel Bouzo MUSIC REVIEW 17 A$AP Rocky – LiveLove A$AP Jay-Z - Glory Rick Ross - Rich Forever Con Gerakaris
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FINAL THOUGHT 19 Making a Legacy Diego Zelada
“ There is so much going on in
Australian Hip-hop and it’s powerful.
The word needs to be spread. ” [ PAGE 03 ]
[ HIPHOP LEGACY ]
THE BEGINNING OF A LEGACY Words: Diego Zelada | Photos: Jason Li Welcome to Hiphop Legacy! We’re here for one reason, and one reason only: to bring the Australian hip hop scene together and give it the resounding voice it deserves. The plan is to take Aussie hip-hop from around the country to the public, showcasing the talents that may shy away from the spotlight. You know the ones. The talents that are on the mic, free-styling at clubs, battling at the local dance schools, graffiting works of art and producing beats to blow your mind. How do we plan to do get this done? Well, consider this. When you look at the development of any culture, there are really only two things at play. People need to know about it, and people need to like it. For hip-hop here in Australia, this means that we aim to spread information about the scene, while at the same time offering readers the opportunity to experience getting involved in it too. That is, taking dance classes, graffiti classes, jams, donning the fashion, spitting the verses, and much, much more. One of the problems of course, is that for such a ‘roots’ based culture, it’s a very, very fast moving one. MC or dance battles are sometimes only organized two weeks before the event! And moreover, photos, dance routines and street art are created daily, on the fly. And that’s where you come in. Our magazine and website, www.hiphop-legacy.com, is a portal where you, the hip-hopper, can both read about and participate in the scene we all know and love.
Log in and exhibit yourself! Paste links to your work, whether it is on youtube, vimeo, flickr or soundcloud, hit “submit” and log off. Your work will be posted on the website within 24 hours and you can actively share it with friends and networks. Want to be published in the magazine itself? E-mail us and tell us about yourself at magazine@hiphoplegacy.com. Need event media sponsorship? Send us your details to sponsorship@hiphop-legacy.com and we’ll send a camera man and writer out there as soon as we can! The hip-hop Legacy Magazine team hope you love the publication and feel excited to contribute to this underground world of expression, energy, and youthful passion. We’ll leave you now with a little vignette from our founder and in house dance master, Diego Zelada, whom, when asked about his motivation for the magazine, told us this: “Because I’ve seen shy little kids step up to the battle floor and destroy dancers twice their age. I’ve seen DJ’s produce music so powerful that dancers have “lost it” at battles and busted moves they’d never busted. I’ve seen graffiti artists create huge, vibrant, and meaningful murals, within only minutes. I’ve seen MC’s raise entire venue’s to their feet and almost blow the roof off of some places. There is so much going on in Australian hip-hop and it’s powerful. The word needs to be spread.” And there’s no better place or time than here and now.
the [pictorial] ingredients of a trailer:
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[ HIPHOP LEGACY ]
WHAT’S THIS? N2S dancer chris CHIAPOCO busts a move filming the hiphop legacy trailer.
Sitting cozily in the middle of Sydney harbor, Cockatoo Island has long been one of the city’s understated havens of cool. Where else, after all, could play host to the biggest street art festival in the Southern hemisphere, and in such spectacular fashion? For five big weeks, the island was nothing less than the home of the very first Outpost Project, bringing together the works of more than 150 local and international artists, together with DJs, rap crews, artist battles and do-it-yourself art stations taking the public right into the beating heart of street culture at its most dynamic. Strewn throughout the long stretches of old warehouses and towering 1950s cranes, works of graffiti decorated the open spaces, together with walls of stencil art and installation pieces, all of which felt right at home in the gritty, industrialized space. Elsewhere, even t-shirts got their own place as part of the T-World NEXT collection, with rows and rows of tees adorning the skylights of the steel lined “Heavy Machine Shop”, like so many prayer flags in the wind.
The Outpost Project:
Street Art on the Edge Words: Alexander Panagiotou | Photo: Jason Li What made this exhibition what it was however, was not simply the art – which was uniformly magnificent – but the very space itself. Rather than organizing works into neat gallery spaces, most of the art simply appeared where it was convenient or interesting, reflecting the free spiritedness of the art form itself. At once both reverent and edgy, the sheer scale and wonder of the Outpost Project reflected the fact that street art, once relegated to the realms of the underdog, has begun to finally find its place – both literally and figuratively – in the sun it deserves.
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[ STREET ART | ARTICLE ]
Interested in seeing more? Visit the cockatoo island website for more info: WWW.OUTPOST.COCKATOOISLAND.GOV.AU
Interested in more? WATCH OUT FOR THE Beat maker: part 2 in the next issue!
THE BEAT MAKER: PART 1 introduction Words: Zahir Shah Photo: Jason Li [ PAGE 09 ]
[ MUSIC | ARTICLE ]
Do you comment on the lyrics of the rapper? Do you gasp at the notes that the vocalist is able to belt out? Or is your first reaction, “DAAAAAYUUUM THATS A PHAT BEAT”. Mine is usually in fact almost always the latter. The drum, the base line, the melody just wash over me in a trance like fluidity, and it’s precisely these facets of a song which give birth to a shift in my energy and mood. In reflection of the music, this uncompromising passion is part of the wiring of a music producer, the toil in which they immerse themselves. Now by some definitions the music producer is part of a number of factors when creating a song or album, and does a multitude of tasks including
journey while evoking a sequence of emotions. Their role in creating the music we love differs from the traditional sense of what a composer does. Rather, the producer wears a series of hats (fitted, snap back, bowler… whatever you identify with) encompassing that of sound designer, composer and audio mastering specialist. When it comes down to it, a music producer can generate a complete masterpiece - the thumping bass line, the snappy drums, and the sweet melody. They create a whole plethora of sounds just by themselves. Now in the times of the ol’skool (70’s through to late 80’s), being a producer involved having a lot of expensive equipment and hardware to generate and
What is your initial response when you listen to a new track that has descended onto your ear drums? recording with artists, sound designing and composing, to name a few, but the way they are credited for their work is somewhat ambiguous. In a number of genres such an EDM (Electronic Dance music), alternative and so on, the producer is known to all and sometimes elevated to the status of a musical god. In hip-hop this isn’t always the case, with the fame, fortune and recognition bestowed upon the writer or performer, while the facilitator of the rhythms we enjoy is given a side credit in the dimming background. This happens to producers in pop and rock too. Ultimately it is the role of the music producer to seize your attention and take you on a melodic
synthesize these sounds. Also the producer was kind of characterized as the nerdy hermit who lived in his music studio, not moving from there for hours on end listening to same loop, trying to perfect the sound of a kick drum. In today’s realm, expensive hardware and studio space has been replaced with virtual instruments, midi controllers, bedroom studios, digital sample packs, PCs and Apple machines. So with the advances in technology today, it means that virtually anyone can partake in the art of music production and take up the mantle of being a producer. Next issue, we take a look at the production process itself.
GOT A HIPHOP RELATED PHOTO TO SHARE? EMAIL YOUR IMAGE TO magazine@HIPHOP-LEGACY.COM WITH YOUR NAME, A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF YOUR PHOTO AND YOUR DETAILS. NO LOW-RES IMAGES PLEASE! [ PAGE 11 ]
[ MUSIC | SNAPSHOT ]
TECH N9NE, HEATWAVE FESTIVAL missouri rapper TECH N9NE hypes up the crowd with some ‘devil horns’ at the heatwave festival at the enmore theatre. Pausing briefly in his fast paced set, his incredible stage presence has been captured in this shot. photo: jason li for more of jason’s work, visit: HTTP://I-M.CO/JASON/DESIGN
jesse rasmussen Words: Binti Alisha Mohinani Photo: Wesley Tan Photo Editing: Ambar Sidhwani
Interested in more? Visit JESSE’S website for more info: WWW.FLOWCITY.COM.AU
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[ DANCE | ARTICLE ]
FEATURE ARTICLE:
A popular contestant on ‘so you think you can dance australia,’ we sat down with jesse rasmussen to discuss his career prospects and his new project. Here’s what he had to say… “I am feeling a bit vulnerable about dancing for my life, I just want to get my personality across through dance and it’s very me” - Jesse Rasmussen, a young choreographer with a shine his eye, said to millions of people watching on Television for his fight to survive on ‘So You Think You Can Dance.’
creativity is that I like to succeed in whatever I put my mind to. I’m not one to give up easily. I like getting to the end of a project and saying to myself ‘Yes! I did that’. I’ve learnt that once you think you know everything, that’s when you close your mind and you stop learning.”
Jesse has had an exciting and memorable career in the dance industry. Having being trained in the Gold Coast as well as internationally at The Edge Performance Arts and Millennium Dance Complex in Los Angeles, his career doesn’t stop there. Known as an international dancing star, hip-hop is the art through which he expresses his personality and style.
It wasn’t until he moved to Sydney that Jesse understood the opportunities to join the commercial dance world and take hip-hop as his mistress. “There is always a workshop or dance event happening every other week. People have caught onto the market, which is a great thing because people no longer have the excuse anymore that there is nothing going on in Australia.”
This modest dancer has been involved with several projects including musical productions of Hot Shoe Shuffle, Grease and Oh What a Night. He lent his talents to feature films such as King Kong, and the Australian bred animated hit, Happy Feet. He explains that his creativity stemmed from his effort to discipline himself, “I think the thing that drives my
Jesse’s new project Flow City-Australian Dance Convention is visiting five cities every year. Jesse told Dance Informa Magazine “I want people to walk away from the Australian Dance Convention and say… ‘WOW that was amazing, I am so inspired and I want to be a better dancer.’ That is what it’s all about!”
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[ FASHION REVIEW ]
SUMMER ESSENTIALS: CHAMBRAY Words: Daniel Bouzo Whether you’re after a new shirt for summer, just something different for your favorite t-shirt, or even a new pair of shorts, chambray has become a very popular and desirable fabric for the summer months. Its soft and lightweight character adds to the fabrics appeal making it particularly comfortable. Chambray is utilised in many ways, but most commonly in button up shirts and shorts. It has a similar appearance to denim both in texture and colour and is similarly strong and durable.
With a similar aesthetic but a much more comfortable and lighter weight to them, chambray shorts are great alternative to denim. Streetwear veterans 10 Deep offer their Holmes Convertible shorts in a chambray available through Brisbane sneaker boutique Laced. This pair of shorts has a comfortable straight fit and features a stash pocket on the right leg, a button pocket at the thigh, as well as a button if you choose to cuff them to sit above the knee.
1 American Apparel offers chambray shirts in a variety of colours and fabric weights at quite a reasonable price. This basic button up is very versatile in an updated slim fit, which could be paired well with a pair of chino pants or shorts.
Other Sources
2 Although chambray is typically associated with an indigo color resembling denim, it is also produced in a number of colours, such as white and red, which in particular are great for the summer. Chambray was also historically the fabric of choice for the workingman’s blue shirt leading to the use of the term “blue-collar worker”.
Carhartt throw back to their heritage workwear aesthetic with their Clink shirt, a long sleeved, two chest-pocket design featuring contrast white stitching in a comfortable regular fit. The shirt is stone washed giving it a desirable authentic workwear character. Also check out their Flagstaff shirt. 3
Land’s End – A regular fitting chambray shirt in blue, red and grey with triple stitch details for added durability and work aesthetic details. Very reasonably priced at $57.99 inc. shipping. LL Bean – A slightly tailored fitting chambray shirt, comfortable around the chest and tapering in around the torso. Comes in a variety of colours including a dark-red clay colour and a cool forest green. $49.95 inc. shipping. Country Road – Straight fit indigo chambray shorts with a coin pocket, sit on the knee and available for $67.46.
FEATURE REVIEW:
A$AP Rocky – LiveLoveA$AP Shared largely among low-profile producers, A$AP Rocky and his list guest performers channel the sound of the south, with layered beats flowing in the musical space that is LiveLoveA$AP. It ignites with the huge “Palace”, the first and best of four cuts produced by Clams Casino. The first breadwinner of the mixtape is “Brand New Guy” featuring another performance from ScHoolboy Q with heavily reverberated chimes complimented by thundering bass kicks. From this track, LiveLoveA$AP kicks into an unbeatable sound of “Purple Swag: Chapter 2”, “Get Lit” and “Trilla,” the final track driven along by a western guitar line, and a snare to accompany some brilliant egotistical swag rap. Don’t expect the proficiency of Andre 3000 or even that of Rocky’s contemporary Big K.R.I.T. - that simply isn’t the intent of the mixtape. Instead, if you’re after some well produced hip-hop, perfect for the party and the Sunday afternoon after, you could do much worse than this gem. CON’S RATING: [ PAGE 17 ]
[ MUSIC REVIEW ]
Jay-z – Glory Last year on “New Day” from Watch The Throne, we heard Jay-Z dedicating a song to his fictional son, bitter sweetly apologising for the forthcoming paparazzi, vowing to never repeat what his father did.
rick ross – rich forever Rich Forever is bombastic, audacious and, at almost two hours, exhausting to listen to all in one sitting. Most of the cuts on Rick Ross’ new mixtape are dirty jams, sounding very similar and all containing production that completely rips off Lex Luger (who produces the painful “Off The Boat”), which I dearly hope isn’t a sign of what’s to come with his forthcoming album. The following tracks “Rich Forever,” “Triple Beam Dreams” and the soulful “Mine Games,” along with the banging “Keys To The Crib” are the only ones really worth keeping as a serious indication of Rick Ross’ ability. Reveling in his own self-proclaimed glory, Rick Ross actually produces some really energetic and ferocious performances, angrily grunting and hooting every which way. Rich Forever is a hype mixtape worth downloading officially for free, but be prepared for hearing Rick Ross’ label bumper well over twenty times.
CON’S RATING:
A year later we hear a new father lavishing his new daughter Blue Ivy Carter with nothing but love. “Glory” is a sugary track where Jay pours out his heart over the best Neptunes beat in recent memory, and a bassline reminiscent of a Motown love song. After managing to eloquently articulate his feelings, Jay-Z returns swiftly to the scene as a changed man, vowing to drop “bitch” from his vocabulary in honour of the “child of destiny.” While not to be taken too seriously, “Glory” is simply just a new father coming to terms with his newfound responsibility and ultimately transformed role in life. A truly pleasant way to start the new year.
CON’S RATING:
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[ FINAL THOUGHT ]
MAKING A LEGACY
Words: Diego Zelada | Photo: Jason Li
So how exactly does one create an Australian Hiphop Magazine? Easy. You just need a vision, a contact list, and one amazing, dedicated and hard working team. Hiphop Legacy magazine began when I stood back at a hip-hop event one and a half years ago and thought to myself, “How is it possible that so few people have come to such an amazing event”. I mean, the event had the dancers, it had the music, it had the huge venue, and within the audience there definitely seemed to be energy, but there just weren’t enough people. Thus, Hiphop Legacy Magazine was born! Sort of… The first concept of this magazine was developed in 2010 and was titled “The Street Dance Hub (SDH)”. It was initially meant to be a newsletter on hip-hop events and it was meant to go out monthly. Our first problem was that hip-hop events are generally pretty last minute and don’t get organized until two weeks before the date. Our even bigger problem was that nobody seemed to get what it was about.
So yes, we were a little unmotivated after our first attempt and we each went our separate ways for a few months. It wasn’t until Jesse Rasmussen turned to me at the Flow City Workshops with Shaun Evaristo and Ian Eastwood and said “Dude I liked what you guys did, we should talk” that we started thinking “Hey… we must have done some¬thing right”. So we brainstormed, changed the name to Hiphop Legacy Magazine, and decided to try again, but this time do it right. We decided that above all, we wanted to grow the scene. It would be an online magazine for all things hip-hop in Australia and abroad, aiming to get at both the casual reader and the hip-hop specialist. Rather than simply ad¬vertising ‘within’ the scene, we want to expand the hip-hop audience to those who may not even know they have an interest in the first place! So far, people seem to like the idea. The last four months have been dedicated to developing the website, getting together the right digital media, and recruiting the perfect right staff with strong skills and a passion for hip-hop itself. It’s been hard, nerve wrecking, and exciting as all hell. Most importantly, it was worth it. Hiphop Legacy is now ready to represent the Australian hip-hop scene – all we need now is you!