GOLDEN TEACHERS:
The Change from ANGELENO RECORDS is Blowin’ in the Wind
By Anthony Ewart
M
usic is different now. The most dramatic shift has been in hip-hop. The Sugar Hill Gang started it all with their party hit “Rappers Delight.” Blondie had the world dancing to her eccentric hip-hop narrative “Rapture,” but the The Furious Five released their somber, realistic portrayal of life in their hip-hop classic “The Message” and the genre switched gears. This song set the stage for rappers interested in songs about racism, drugs and social injustice. These artists were ultimately led back to the real foundations of hip-hop: the spoken poet Gil Scott Heron and the powerful writers of “The Last Poets.” In the beginning, these rappers learned, rhyme was about social change. This revelation led to the birth of culturally conscious rap groups, the most prominent being Public Enemy. The late 80s and early 90s saw this new racial and social awareness boom in hip-hop music, and then came the in-fighting, the diss tracks and the deaths. Hip-hop is the only musical genre, with the possible exception of reggae, that has experienced such a mass level of fatalities and carnage among its artists. Whether it’s drug related or outright murder, the body count is tragically high. The rap scene is unrecognizable now. The only
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message delivered through mumble rap and derivative, cloned beats is materialism, narcissism and classism. Angeleno Records is a conscientious hip-hop company stepping into a world at war around us, literally and figuratively. Hollywood has finally cannibalized itself and forced actors to strike, and with the scandalous amount of unpaid music royalties to artists in the recording industry musicians and singers may do the same. In all this chaos the youth of America are essentially standing on a conveyor belt, as in Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” slowly being dropped off into a meat grinder. Three boys who jumped off that conveyor belt at the last moment, dropping a shoe or two into the meat grinder, are Riggy Marz, El Diablo Beats and Sunny Darko, the founders of Angeleno Records. The name of their recording company is an homage to the city these men love, the City of Angels, where Riggy Marz and El Diablo Beats were born. This is not a company with one mission, Angeleno Records has many missions, because these are Artists bringing back a care and concern for social injustice, or the harm we do to ourselves with drugs when we can’t deal with the stress of our
lives or the situation we’re in. There are many ways to get on a conveyor belt to your death, addiction may be the quickest. Angeleno Records was born in the mind of rapper and former addict Riggy Marz, and his dream has finally come to fruition along with his sobriety. ANGELENO RECORDS GOLDEN TEACHER (ONE): RIGGY MARZ “In the end, the disease of addiction stripped almost everything from me. I almost quit music and the though of suicide seemed like a good idea. That’s when I started Angeleno Records, when I sobered up. I started writing a gratitude list with music and sobriety at the top, realizing I’m grateful for the good and bad because it makes me a better storyteller. As an Artist and Healer, what effect would I really have on people if I haven’t suffered through similar circumstances myself and survived? My nightmarish past has become my message and my most powerful tool in life.” Bob Dylan was a contemporary of The Last Poets, and he was an advocate for standing up to oppression when he played folk music acoustically. That all changed when he switched to electric guitar, but a young Riggy Marz fell in love with that
