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dept. of: rap is not pop, if you call it that then stop
After bringing family and friends to tears with last issue’s editorial, I’ve decided to rein in the melodrama this issue. For the next 500 words or so, everything in the world is A-OK with Buns. Five Songs Strongly Tied To Buns’ Memory and the Memories They’re Tied To (In order of appearance)
1.
Herbie Hancock “Rockit” (1983) — I know this isn’t an original sentiment, but when I saw this video, I felt like I was part of the future. Put another way, I felt like the future had arrived. Me and my friends would make the “da-dun, dun-dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun-nanan-nanan” sounds all day and pretend we were breakdancing robots.
2.
Queen “Radio Ga-Ga” (1984) — You ‘80s babies (and ‘90s babies) won’t remember this, but there was a time when nuclear war felt imminent. I know it’s hard for you to fathom that, so here’s a tip to help you visualize it: it’s like The Game versus Fiddy except with bombs, guns, death and the relentless fear of a nuclear holocaust. Anyway, this song had the most Cold War feeling video ever and had me convinced that I was going to die by the age of ten.
3.
Nocera “Summertime, Summertime” (1987) — This is a very specific memory of being at the local community center (St. Bruno’s Catholic School) and my friends’ older brother, Mychel, standing int the gym with a boom-box and “Summertime, Summertime” playing on heavy repeat. It made the perfect backdrop for sweaty working-class ginos and ginas playing ringette.
4.
Mellow Man Ace “Mentirosa” (1990) — I used to sit in my room playing this on the bummiest little tape recorder ever. It was taped off an equally shitty radio dub, but I swear I must’ve bumped this song like 20 times a day for two weeks. Even my dad noticed, he was like, “why are you always listening to the same song?” But I denied that it was the same song. Years later, one of Pound’s original coowners, Mario, said, “we should do an article about how shitty rappers get people interested in hip-hop. You know, like Mellow Man Ace.” I was all like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But deep down I was scared he knew something.
5.
Nice & Smooth “Hip-Hop Junkies” (1991) — I never hung out in Parkdale, but one time, I went to a party there with some friends, including one of the toughest guys from my neighbourhood, Courtney, who used to run a gang called The Untouchables—if you’re over 28, you know who they are. The party was a week after a model had been shot in her Parkdale apartment by accident. When “HipHop Junkies” came on, the little apartment jam went nuts and everyone was licking shots. I knew all the lyrics and Courtney, who was a hip-hop head, noticed. I thought I was so fucking tough and cool at that moment. I was such turd back then.
RODRIGO BASCUÑÁN aka BUNS
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pound worth Fighting for
Publishers Rodrigo Bascuñán Michael Evans Editor-In-Chief Rodrigo Bascuñán Senior Editor Christian Pearce Graphic Design pylit.com Reviews Editor Roozbeh Showleh culture Editor Dan Bergeron Fashion Editor KeunAe Choe Contributors Simon Black Andrew Cappell Chris Coates Herman Chan Susana Ferreira Luke Fox Joe Galiwango Tara Henley Majid Mozaffari Matthew McKinnon Kostas Pagiamtzis Ph.D. Jeremy Relph Young Salt Adhimu Stewart Andrea Woo Photographers Dan Bergeron Nicolas Burtnyk Che Kothari Matthew Salacuse Pound Legal Carina Emnace Cover Photo Matthew Salacuse Pound Headz’ Quarters 181 Hallam St. Suite 2 Toronto, ON M6H 1X4 CANADA pound@poundmag.com 416-656-7911 © Copyright 2006 Pound Magazine Corporation All rights reserved Pound #33 June 2006 30,000 copies for the children
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BETWEEN
THE RHYMES Ghostface Killah… speaks on child discipline and his own real-life beatings as told to Luke Fox Photo: Isidro the Don
“When I was a lil’ dude, her son was a lil’ rude/ I picked the peas off my plate and pour juice in her nigga food/ Get beat, then I’d run and tell Grandma, ‘Mama hit me for no reason’/ She whipped me hard when I finished eatin’/ And felt that belt stingin’ after I wet that bed.” —Ghostface Killah, “Whip You with a Strap” GHOSTFACE: “The parents gotta chastise ’em. The parents gotta fuck
around and let ’em know: Don’t do that. Watch your fuckin’ mouth. There’s ways to talk to ’em. You ain’t gotta curse at ’em all the time, but you do gotta put your foot down. And I know that, coming up as a kid, even when a nigga got cursed at or screamed to with a certain type of voice, you know not to do what you do. “Nowadays, kids don’t get nothin’. They don’t get barked on. They’ll mess around, go out on the street and curse someone else’s mother out. They just mad disrespectful to women and whoever. But that starts in the house first. That’s what you see in the streets today. So, you see a kid coming up wildin’ with no guidance, no chastisement, no discipline, no nothing. You just see someone just going crazy, running wild and shit. Look at the world: The world is crazy, man. If you look at the world, you lookin’ at our future. And if our future’s about to take off, in another 10, 25 years, it’s like, yo, it’s chaos. “We was more family-orientated. We had to sit down at the table to eat. Nowadays, the kids take they plate and go in the living room, or
“Nowadays, kids don’t get nothin’. They don’t get barked on. They’ll mess around, go out on the street and curse someone else’s mother out. They just mad disrespectful to women and whoever. But that starts in the house first.”
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go in they room and eat. Do what they wanna do. It’s not family-oriented no more. The father was there [back in the day] a lot of times. With the father there, if he a good father, he ain’t puttin’ up with that shit, because he was raised on some other shit. Nowadays, these kids is raised without no fathers. And like, yo, the household is just bugged out. “A kid is a kid, man. You deserve whatever you ask for. You a kid, man. You can’t ask me that question: Did I deserve a beating? Did you deserve what you got? Yeah, of course. I was doing everything, man. I can’t sit here and tell you everything. I was just getting into shit. Not listening. Get over here! Get in the room! Do this! Just being hardheaded, being in grown folks’ business. When you a baby, you don’t do that. “[What I write about] is never too personal. It’s just what I feel, that’s all. I don’t know [why other rappers don’t show vulnerability on record]. Maybe they don’t know how to use that part of their emcee skills to lay it down that way. I don’t know if they’re afraid. Or if they are afraid, they probably don’t want to be looked at as a soft dude or a sucker.”
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speak of the
Devil By Joe Galiwango
In Pound’s effort to bring you the hotness, behold an interview with the ultimate gangsta—the fallen angel, Lucifer, a.k.a. Satan, the original O.G. of the original Triple Six Mafia. This ain’t about religion or his beef with God or whether he is, or isn’t white. On the eve of June 6, 2006, (6/6/6) Satan wants rap to show him some respect. I’d like to thank you for taking the time to speak with us; journalistically, it’s a privilege. You must be busy, they say the devil’s work is never done. It’s absolutely true. You have had a strong influence on most genres of music, other than gospel of course. Don’t be naïve, I invented gospel music—I run gospel. That’s very interesting. Interesting is an understatement, it’s a beautiful thing. My influence on all of the world’s music has been sublime proof of the creativity of my children and their loyalty to me. All except for rap music. Out of all the musical genres that I have spawned and molded, rap music has been the most ungrateful. I’ve not received my rightful accolades, despite the fact that I gave birth to rap. You gave birth to rap?
The more that rappers keep wearing diamond Jesus pieces around their necks and talking about “God’s son” and “Peace God,” the more that the music is going to go straight down the drain—like the Wu. Rap music is the newest manifestation of music produced by black people from America. The beginning of black music in America is known in your history as spirituals sang by black slaves deposited from Africa, is it not? Those spirituals became “The Blues” and one of the greatest talents of blues music is Robert Johnson, you’ve heard of him? Of course, he was born in Mississippi, was known as the greatest Delta blues musician ever. Legend has it that he sold his soul to the devil in return for his extraordinary talent. That is a rather pale version of what happened. You’d be wise to consider that example as a drop in the water with regards to my persuasion on your music and culture. My gifts are not exclusive to any one race, or style of music. My chorus can be sung in many tunes by all of my children, from Elvis to James Brown; from Jerry Lee Lewis to Rick James. Are you saying those artists sold their souls to you as well? Those artists are all legends in your musical history and their craft has been deemed “the devil’s music” at one point or another. They’ve been condemned by critics and still those artists, my gifted children, did not refrain from giving me my props. Consider Elvis. His song “Devil in Disguise” had the following lyrics. “You look like an angel/ Walk like an angel/ Talk like an angel/ But I got wise/You’re the devil in disguise.” It was elementary, but still respectful and the message resonates. But that was a love song and Elvis performed mostly cheesy sappy music. His music wasn’t scary and it wasn’t about you, the devil. Have you ever heard “Viva Las Vegas?” Your naiveté is holding you back. Consider the theme of that song, an ode to Las Vegas, an ode to greed. Greed is my second favorite sin. I have been respected in rock and roll music, from Robert Johnson at the crossroads to, Madonna and Marylin Manson, all the way up to Bono from U2, who consorts with your politicians. These artists have cherished my embrace from the shadows, but rap music has gone astray. It’s almost unfair to compare hip-hop with U2 or Marylin Manson. Rap is different. It’s from the streets and about the struggle. The greatest MCs are not about the devil, they’re about the Benjamins. Ah, the Benjamins, one of P. Diddy’s classics. You must remember the final
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song on the Ready to Die album, Suicidal Thoughts. Notorious B.I.G.’s first words are ‘When I die, fuck it, I want to go to hell.’ This is the album that made him and P. Diddy demigods in hip-hop culture and throughout the album, Biggie kept it dark and stayed close to me. By the unfortunate end of his career, he was wearing pink suits, and rocking two Jesus pieces in every photograph. And his music was obviously worse. The list goes on with some of your greatest rappers. They start out with me and their music is wickedly great. Shortly after they become seduced away from me and their music turns to crap, or they die young. Sometimes both. That’s an extremely disturbing theory. But Biggie is only one example and he was very depressed when he wrote that song. The disturbing thing is that rappers continue to reject me after I ignite their creativity. Every time rappers stray from my dark guidance, the results are unfavourable. Do you remember Big L’s first single? “Devil’s Son?”, yeah. He had that line “I kill chumps for the Cheapest Price/ I’m rolling with Satan not Jesus Christ” He started out being down, and by the end of his career he was wearing ugly Coogie sweaters like Biggie and screaming “flamboyant fo’ life”. What kind of shit is that? But what about Kanye West? His song “Jesus Walks” was major and he wasn’t singing your praises. Kanye is fighting a losing battle. Ozzy Osbourne’s been with me throughout his whole career and his success continues to blossom. He is happily married with children, and his gorgeous family was the hottest thing on MTV. Kanye ain’t never going to be as big as Ozzy. Now consider Nas. Nasir Jones, the God’s Son? Do you remember one of his most famous verses? The one that got all of New York claiming he was the new messiah of rap? Yeah. “Live from the Bar-B-Q” with Main Source. That was the first time he was ever recorded. In that song he said that when he was “twelve he went to hell for snuffing Jesus.” Brilliant! That’s what I’m talking about. Now, every time he’s on TV he’s acting like groupie for Jay-Z and he still can’t get a hit. What does that tell you? Oh my goodness. That’s right. The more that rappers keep wearing diamond Jesus pieces around their necks and talking about “God’s son” and “Peace God,” the more that the music is going to go straight down the drain—like the Wu. Now you’re going too far. Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nuthin’ to fuck with. I think you’re also forgetting something. When Biggie said he wanted to go to hell it was because he wasn’t focused on record sales, he was rapping about how he felt. I know, I was there. And?… Consider the fact that today rap music is drastically less about feelings and expression, and is synthetic and motivated by mega-materialism, record sales, and sneaker endorsements. I’ve noticed this development. It is because rap music has abandoned me. Rap music is the most ungrateful… What I’m suggesting is that your influence has corrupted rap music in a way greater than even you realize. Laffy-Taffy gets more love than Raekwon. Did you hear Fat Joe’s last album? For God’s sake, the Ying-Yang twins are one of the most successful rap groups right now—it’s your fault! Hells bells, you’re right! I can’t believe I didn’t realize it. The pitiful condition of hip-hop today is my greatest triumph! All of your heroes may wear golden and platinum heads of Christ around their necks, but it is pure vanity, my favorite sin of all. Rappers have been blinded by their vanity, just as I was partially blinded my own greatness. I could not see the dark light that I have shined on rap music for what it was. I’ve poisoned rap music beyond any other genre and now greed is supreme in your culture. Instead of spending the all the riches from rap on anything righteous, like investing in your own communities, the wealthiest members of the rap community buy Bentleys and start their own clothing lines. Not a new library or black-owned grocery store in sight. And it’s all thanks to me. So do you still think rap music and hip-hop culture are ungrateful? On the contrary, hip-hop culture has made me most proud of all. As long as rappers keep preaching my gospel of vanity, greed, and ignorance, I foresee even more glory in the future.
ALL PRAISES DUE Five Songs With “Devil” In The Title
1. “Horny Little Devil” — Ice Cube Devil: Whitey Choice Lyric: “Black women have bodies like goddesses/ Sorta like Venus, but put away your penis/ ‘Cause the devil is a savage motherfucker/ That’s why I’m lighter than the average brother”
4. “The Devil Made Me Do It” — Paris Devil: Whitey (again) Choice Lyric: “They spit on your flag and government/ ‘Cause help the black was a concept never meant/ Nigger please, foodstamps and free cheese/ Can’t be the cure for a sick disease/ Just the way the devil had planned it/ Rape then pillage everyone on the planet”
2. “Devil’s Son” — Big L Devil (according to Big L): “Murderers, thieves, armed robbers, serial killers, psychos, lunatics, crackheads, mental patients, mental retards, and a special shoutout to all the niggas with AIDS” Choice Lyric: “On my skull the 666, no tricks/ When I catch fits, my mom picks up the crucifix/ And I kill chumps for the cheapest price/ I’m rolling with Satan, not Jesus Christ”
5. “Devil’s Night” — D12 Devil: D12 Choice Lyric (courtesy of Eminem): “I make music to make you sick of fake music/ Hate music like devil worshippin Satan music/ So say your prayers, your Hail Mary’s and Jesuses/ Take two sticks, tape ‘em together and make a crucifix”
3. “Dance With The Devil” — Immortal Technique Devil: Greed, capitalism, cocaine Choice Lyric: “He turned away from the woman that had once given him birth/ And crying out to the sky cause he was lonely and scared/ But only the devil responded, cause god wasn’t there/ And right then he knew what it was to be empty and cold/ And so he jumped off the roof and died with no soul”
Five songs with “Devil” in the title performed by Detroit’s Esham 1. “Devilshit” 2. “Devil’s in The Soup” 3. “Devil’s Groove” 4. “Devil’s Night” 5. “Devilish Mood”
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sight
Crews: BA, BSM, DP Reppin’ From: Toronto, Victoria and everywhere in between
sight On His Moniker
“I actually started writing in 1990, but I usually say 92’ because I don’t want to count all that dumb shit that happened during the first two years. My first tag was Opus, but I don’t know if I even want that printed. Then I started writing Kraves because my breakdancing name was Kid Kraves. I also wrote Dream before I wrote Sight. I was completely oblivious to graffiti and I thought Dream was original, until I was confronted by a more educated head. I ignored him and still wrote Dream and even Dream2 until I saw some photos of Dream’s work and I it scared the shit out of me and I stopped writing Dream.” On Getting Serious About GrafFiti
“In 1994, I drove across the country with three friends and came out to Toronto. I had already been influenced by the work of AA crew and Take 5 and Krewz work in Vancouver, but I hadn’t really seen what a city with a full-fledged graffiti scene was like. I saw the Keele Wall and it blew me away. When I returned to Victoria afterwards, I really started to concentrate on my graffiti work more seriously.” On Learning a Lesson
“When I was younger I was really into the illegal aspect of graffiti. But now that I’m older, I enjoy the freedom to do whatever I want artistically. I still go out now and paint illegally, but let’s just say that I’ve learned from my mistakes. Unfortunately I did a weekend in Don Jail. It was
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pretty awful. My aunt bailed me out and my whole family found out. They laughed. I’ve got a cool family, but it was embarrassing none-the-less. I never imagined that I would see the inside of a jail. When I got out I stopped drinking so much when I was painting.” On The State of GrafFiti Today
“Someone who’s just starting out might think that graffiti’s at the most amazing state ever. But for me I think it’s been overexposed. I think that there’s amazing work coming out from all over the world and the level of communication is greater and faster than ever, but maybe the Internet is a little detrimental for it. There was more of a hierarchy before. Now, anyone can slap some photos up of something they painted that day. However, I’m still inspired by a lot of the work that I see, yet at the same time; graffiti needs a change or kick start because it’s been the same for years. Graffiti doesn’t need to move into the gallery-accepted fine art scene. It’s already proved that point. I think that graffiti has to get more savage and more gutter. It needs to be more drastic in every sense. It needs to be executed in a way that’s more shocking because it’s lost its shock value. It needs to be more vandalous.” On Our Generation’s Acceptance of GrafFiti
“It’s easy to say that graffiti will be more accepted because our generation grew up with it, but as we get older, the acceptance will change. The same person who can appreciate graffiti in their mid-
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twenties is going to buy a condo, open a business, is going to get hit with graffiti. And as much as they like graffiti, when their property gets damaged they’re not going to like it. I think it’s the adage that we end up becoming our parents.” On Walls vs. Canvas
“When I paint a canvas, I don’t want to do letter based work. I want the work to mean more than that. I want my graffiti art to exist within the parameters that it should, but when I do canvases I want to experiment and do something that I haven’t before. I’ll do things on canvas that I wouldn’t do publicly on a wall. Work on canvas is more personal, whereas I kinda just follow the masses when I paint “Sight.” On the Changing Landscape of the Walls
“It would be boring if all I saw was wild-style colourful letters everywhere. I think that it’s great that anybody can jump in and use whatever material they want. I’m not one of those graffiti writers who is going to hate on the next guy postering or stenciling. The more, the better and the more different the styles, the better.” On Those Who’ve Inspired
“I’ve got to shout out BA, BSM, HSA, DP, IBC and TCM. I really need to
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say that it was Ghost (RIP) and Pawn’s work that led me to get into graffiti. Kwest, Mike Giant, Prism and Case have also been influential. I also have to shout out TRIK. Non-graffiti; Andy Howell, Jim Phillips, Robert Williams, Pushead. I also always liked Frank Miller and Dali for sure.” On The Future
“I have a great admiration for tattoo art and I understand that it takes a higher level of focus and discipline than anything that I’m doing right now. That’s the direction that I see my art career headed.” “I think most people would find it surprising that I feel like I’m just getting started. I actually got all this stuff out of my system, I got all this work done, done all this crazy illegal shit. I feel that I‘m ready to change and evolve and grow and I’m just getting started to move into a new direction.” Interview: Dan Bergeron
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Lauryn Hill — The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
A Tribe Called Quest — The Low End Theory
eric quebral
Classic Hip-Hop Covers Remixed In Wood What do pop art, vinyl wood veneers, the Internet and X-acto knives have in common? Absolutely nothing, unless you’re observant like Eric Quebral, originally creative like Eric Quebral, get noticed for your work like Eric Quebral and you like to cut things up like Eric Quebral. For the past couple of years, this Toronto born and bred Visual Studies graduate from the University of Toronto, who’s now tackling an Industrial Design degree at OCAD, has been chopping up shoes, portraits and now album covers in his own unique way. Over some hi-speed we caught up with Eric to get a small glimpse into his life and why he does what he does. What’s your family like?
Eric Quebral: I’ve only got one sister and she’s doing a masters degree in social work. My mom is a nurse and my dad is an accountant. We fit perfectly into the category of the nuclear family unit. At a young age my parents forced us to piano lessons, swimming lessons and skating too. I think from this was born the seeds of expression. On a more general level, I get from them a sense of determination to succeed.
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How would you describe your style of artwork to someone and how did you come up with it?
EQ: I came to this style through my thesis year at U of T. At first it started out working on the computer, kind of like mocking up colourways. It quickly evolved into the layering and cutting of wood grained sheet vinyl. In essence I owe everything to the X-acto knife and fake wood. The process is meticulous like marquetry [Ed Note: Marquetry is the art of creating decorative works composed of shaped sections of wood veneer, sort of like a puzzle], but not cutting real wood. At this point in time, I’m content in the form that the pieces exist. Marquetry takes it to another level that I am not yet ready for, but perhaps in the future. Do you have any direct influences regarding this style you’ve developed?
EQ: I take my cues from pop culture and because of that I think my work belongs to the realm of pop art. Ultimately, I find inspiration in all things and am influenced most by everyday life.
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Outkast — Stankonia
What’s the most important lesson that you’ve learned?
EQ: It is all a hustle. In the end it’s all about loving what you do. Everything else will fall into place. What are you strengths and weaknesses?
EQ: I think that my strongest trait is that I’m patient. I like to think that I have a good eye for observation, because in a sense creating things is like magic. What others find mundane, I look to for possibilities. In terms of improving myself, I think I need to work on my time management, articulating myself better and being better at the hustle. If you weren’t focused so much on a career as an artist, what other profession could you put all your effort into?
EQ: If I wasn’t creative, I’d love to own my own shoe repair shop. Fixing shoes; giving them new life.
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Mos Def & Talib Kweli — Black Star
Let’s talk about these album covers. Are you picking them based upon your interest in their sound or on the way that you think the look of the cover will adapt to your vinyl veneer steelo?
EQ: It really is dependent on the music. I have to love it before thinking about translating the artwork into wood grained versions. But if someone requests a cover, I’m up for the commission. Part of the reason why I started the album cover series was because there is a generation of consumers who know the artists and the songs but not the cover art. For those interested in Eric’s work, Please contact him directly at professorq@rogers.com. Interview: Dan Bergeron
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“ On TV, the radio, or in one of Toronto’s daily newspapers, use of the term “black community” is pervasive. Black Torontonians are culturally diverse... The assumption that a culturally heterogeneous black population constitutes a “community” has negative consequences for how Toronto— its citizens, politicians, and police—deal with gun violence.”
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babylon system My Hood? Simon black
The so-called “internal cleansing” of the Bandido motorcycle gang got me thinking about gangs and guns in the white community. What drives so many of my community members into motorcycle gangs? Is it the failure of the white family structure? Too many single mothers and absent fathers? What about heavy metal music? Surely the culture promoted by bands like Metallica and Korn have an affect on the behaviour of white men. Maybe we should ban their concerts? Or am I on the wrong track: Could it be my community’s creeping materialism and its shift away from family values that is the real problem at the root of the motorcycle gang phenomenon? I ask these questions to illustrate the absurdity of the media’s fixation with the so-called “black community” when it comes to Toronto’s gun violence. On TV, the radio, or in one of Toronto’s daily newspapers, use of the term “black community” is pervasive. Black Torontonians are culturally diverse: they are Jamaican and Nova Scotian, Bermudans and Afro-Brazilian, Somali and Senegalese. The assumption that a culturally heterogeneous black population constitutes a “community” has negative consequences for how Toronto – its citizens, politicians, and police – deal with gun violence. Sure, there are common experiences that link black Torontonians by virtue of
“The premier seems quite willing to download his own government’s responsibility onto a “community” that will clean up its own proverbial house and take ownership of social problems.” their skin colour. You’re more likely to be pulled over by a police officer or face racism in the school or workplace if you’re black. But the shared experience of racism is not enough to constitute a community out of a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. This myth of “community” has functioned to put the burden of responsibility for gun violence onto black Torontonians. A black Torontonian is no more responsible for gangs and guns than I am for the actions of the Bandidos or the Hell’s Angels. The myth is perpetuated by the media’s tireless search for the authentic voice of “black leadership”. Who the media anoints with this title often depends on the message they’re seeking to convey to the public. Throughout this recent period of gun violence; The Toronto Sun has turned to a few black church leaders, whose mantra of family values and community decay fits perfectly with the self-help conservatism of the newspaper’s editorial board. When no black ministers are available for comment, The Sun turns to other so-called “black community leaders” such as Toronto city councillor Michael Thompson. Surely, The Sun surmises, a black man who’s grown up in the squalor of Scarborough has special insight into the behaviour of troublesome black youth. To The Sun’s delight, Thompson’s contribution to the gun violence debate was to recommend a stop-and-search policy that accepts racial profiling as a legitimate police strategy.
for the authentic black perspective. In recent months, youth activist Kofi Hope (of Black Youth Against Violence) has emerged as one the media’s stars of black authenticity. The Toronto Star profiled Hope as one of the city’s “10 To Watch” in 2006. Hope helped organize the BLING (Bring Love In, Not Guns) conference, a welcomed initiative that brought youth together to discuss issues of gangs, guns and violence. Although Hope advocates for more participation of youth in the development of their own communities, according to his Star profile he also sees the rise in gun violence amongst young blacks as linked to consumerism and hip-hop culture and the shunning of community and family values. This is something to be proved sociologically, not taken as truth. Unfortunately, activists like Hope and Laws have little control over how their positions are articulated by the media. The authenticity game reached preposterous new heights when premier Dalton McGuinty grandstanded with Boston minister Rev. Eugene Rivers, who came to Toronto to share his knowledge about black-on-black (never referred to as poor-on-poor) violence. After meeting with Rivers and other members of Toronto’s “black faith community”, McGuinty stated that he “was very heartened that representatives of the faith community have decided that they’re going to take on still more responsibility for the black community when it comes to addressing the issue of crime and guns.” The premier seems quite willing to download his own government’s responsibility onto a “community” that will clean up its own proverbial house and take ownership of social problems. What the Reverend Rivers said to the Toronto Star must have been music to McGuinty’s neoliberal ears: “This is a family conversation. It requires that the black community come together, stop making excuses, move beyond rhetoric, the race card and focuses on how do we as a community become more accountable?” Such a statement could have come from The Sun’s editorial pages or some other conservative commentator. Activists like Hope are stuck in a catch-22. By organizing a conference such as BLING or speaking on behalf of a “community”, many well-intentioned campaigners have accepted the media’s framing of gangs and guns as a black problem. This does little to challenge racist views amongst the general public that are in part generated and perpetuated by the media’s coverage of Toronto’s gun violence. Yet if there is no attempt to address the social problems faced specifically by black youth because of their skin colour, then racism and social exclusion will go unaddressed. Racism fuels higher dropout rates among black high school students. In addition, black Torontonians, especially black youth, are disproportionately represented in the ranks of the city’s poor and unemployed. Yet take all the articles and reports about Toronto’s gun violence, replace the words black with poor, race with class, and an alternative picture of the issues emerges; one which challenges the framework in which many Torontonians now think about gangs and guns and one which also challenges the idea that a “community” should take ownership of social problems. No white Torontonian will be approached by the media for special insight into the Bandido massacre or why white men participate in motorcycle gangs. As it sits now, in the eyes of the public, gangs and guns are a “black” problem. We need to work to disarticulate the link between race and crime, while continuing to insist on the racialized nature of poverty and social exclusion that can lead to despair and criminal activity.
Simon Black is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at York University in Toronto.
In the 1990s, Dudley Laws was the media’s go-to-man
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when he was a child. On the contrary. “I always enjoyed writing and listening to music, but making music wasn’t a real driving passion until about 3 or 4 years ago. I wasn’t really sure until I started university and worked a couple co-op jobs in some offices and realized that music was what I really loved and what I was good at.”
SHAD K
Testify Words and Photos: Dan Bergeron
There’s a story in the Old Testament in the book of Daniel about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (surely you’ve at least heard of The Beastie Boys song of the same name). In a nutshell, this biblical trio were so entrenched in their beliefs that they risked their lives so as not to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar and his demand that all must worship his image of gold. Although Shadrach Kabango, the guitar playing emcee whose independently distributed and immediately unforgettable debut album, When This Is Over, is certainly not facing a deadly pit of fire for sticking to his beliefs like his predecessors were, he is taking some risk by not proclaiming allegiance to the numerous false gods that run amok in today’s pop-hop music scene. Instead of claiming a fat assed ho as a trophy, Shad wants a Claire Huxtable to be his rock. Instead of dressing up rhymes with unappetizing images of violence, Shad would rather rap about imagination, aspiration and patience. Instead of paying a gaggle of greenbacks to an American heavyweight for a single verse and instant radio play, Shad would rather invite his mom to drop a poem she wrote for the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. For a young man who’s so laid back and confident in what he feels his music should express, you’d think Shad would have decided that making music was what he wanted to do
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So while attending Wilfred Laurier to complete a degree in Business Administration, Shad decided to give music a go, first by creating with his former band, Bread and Water, and then by recording a couple of tracks in 2004 with UK based DJ TM Juke. Later in the same year, Shad entered and won the Rhythm of The Future unsigned talent competition through
doing what I love, but at the end of the day, my number one goal is to be responsible with what I’ve been given because that’s ultimately what makes me feel happy and fulfilled.” Citing Common and Lauryn Hill, “…for their talent and integrity,” as his musical heroes, Shad still feels that the best lessons he’s learned in his life came directly from his parents and God. “[My parents taught me] to always treat people with respect, especially the people closest to you. It sounds really simple, but my parents really lived it out for us. I’ve never seen them fight once in my life… We have a lot—in this society especially—that would make us think
“We have a lot—in this society especially—that would make us think that we’re pretty invincible. But I’ve come to realize that I’m awfully limited as a human being.” Waterloo/Kitchener’s 91.5 FM. Since, the Kenyaborn Rwandan has used his winnings wisely to record his album and work on his engaging, effervescent and energetic stage show. Luckily for Shad, his choice to stick with his vision and his belief that music should be fun, entertaining and enriching is starting to pay off. Not only is his record hitting home with critics, it’s also selling well, with little promotion. His recent performances around Toronto as part of Canadian Music Week were also received warmly by both fans and industry, earning Shad a score of 96 out of 100 from Chart Magazine. “It would be great to make a good living from
that we’re pretty invincible. But I’ve come to realize that I’m awfully limited as a human being. Thankfully, there’s a lot of wisdom and love that God puts out there to help us get through life. That’s been critical for me.” For more information about Shad and to find out where to buy his album visit his website. www.shadk.com
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Ghislain Poirier
Making Beats In Between Genres interview and photos: Dan Bergeron
For the past 5 years, Montreal-based producer and DJ, Ghislain Poirier, has been living a simple, focused life. He sleeps, he eats, he makes beats, he eats again, he shoots some hoops and then he rinses and repeats. And although Ghislain’s daily grind has remained much the same, his results and notoriety have grown tenfold. Not only has Ghislain just released a new EP entitled Rebondir, the first on his own Rebondir Records imprint, but he’s headlined a tour for Lady Sovereign, collaborated on a track with Beans and often flies off to places like Paris and Amsterdam to play his collision of hip-hop and electronic music. How did music become the main focus of your life? That’s a three-part equation. When I was 15, I started listening to college radio in Montreal. That was the beginning of my musical education. The second step was actually getting my own show in ’95 on 99.3 CISM, Université de Montréal radio. I did that until 2000, and then began part three when I started to record my own music that same year. As you’re musical sound is so diverse, who are your influences? It started off when I was younger with strictly hip-hop; Public Enemy, Black Sheep, Gangstarr. Then I got into electronic music with Aphex Twins, Autechre, Rhythm & Sound and Tikiman. More recently I’d have to say that
How do you try and make the listener feel when you’re making music? Music is very psychological. I try to do things that are very innocent so that the listener won’t be scared. It has to be catchy on the first
“I think that the French scene is in a deeply awkward position compared to the English scene, just as the Canadian scene is in a deeply awkward position compared to the American scene.” Roots Manuva and Madlib have been my favorites. People think Manuva only raps, but he makes great beats. He knows the bass and he knows the deepness of the sound. I do have to say that Prefuse 73 gives me a lot of hope by combining hip-hop and electronic sounds and he’s definitely the last artist that positively shocked me. I also really like Busta Rhymes. This guy is fucked up. He can rap on the weirdest beat ever and make it happen. I’d love to work with him. What’s your approach to making beats? I never wait for the moment. Put me in front of my laptop and I’ll start making a beat. I never think about it while I’m doing it. It’s more an action of creating, than thinking about creating. I never walk down the street and go, “oh” and get influenced. I just see what happens when I’m there. 26 POUND 33 may 2006
listen, but still be appealing on the tenth. This is what I try to do most. I want my music to last for years rather than six months. I think that when you make art, the goal is to create work that fights against time and is enjoyable ten years after you made it. Has it been hard to break into the Anglophone music scene as a Francophone? Not for me luckily. I think that many Francophones believe that they can’t break into the Anglophone world. And I think that this is an error. The first hip-hop shows that I did in Montreal were opening for Anglophone groups like Anticon, and at the same time I do collaborations with Anglophone rappers all the time. I think that in hip-hop and electronic, if you make good music it’s just a matter of having the guts to push yourself into new territories.
Have you noticed any difference between the French and English hip-hop scenes in Canada? I think that the French scene is in a deeply awkward position compared to the English scene, just as the Canadian scene is in a deeply awkward position compared to the American scene. It’s very hard for Anglophone Canadian rappers to compete against the big acts from the U.S., and as a Francophone it’s very hard to go outside of the borders of Quebec into English Canada. But music can travel. As Francophones, we have to push ourselves to other parts of Canada, France, the United States. We have to use our exoticness as a benefit and not as a negative. That’s why I use my real name, which is unpronounceable by many English people, and why I release tracks in English and in French. I’m not scared of who I am. The difference is a positive. What does Ghislain do when not making music? I eat and sleep and I play basketball and that’s it. The saddest thing is that it’s true. For more information about Ghislain, visit www.ghislainpoirier.com
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that, I think it’s good. ‘Cause ain’t no way but up for you. If this is not what you really into, if this is not what you really focused on, but you can do it and you can make some money off of it—eh! Do what you do. But for the cats that are out here, that know they good emcees, but just don’t know how to make a hit record— hey—sorry. I can’t touch you.
JUVENILE
STRICTLY BUSINESS iNTERVIEW: BUNS PHOTOS: DAN BERGERON
What’s the Juvenile emcee bootcamp? First, emcees need to learn how to rhyme, they need to determine if they really got what it takes to sell a record, ‘cause you know you got a lot of emcees that’s great rappers, but to actually make a hit song—sometimes being simple is what works. [So], I try to look for the rapper that can be most complicated but knows how to be simple, I think those are the ones who prosper. A lot of them need to learn the fundamentals: how to say the words, when to stop a line, how to count [bars]. Do you see more cats these days that don’t have their artistry down, but have more of the hustle side going? Now for those cats that jump in the game like
You said in a recent interview that it’s 90% business and 10% talent. At what point did you realize that? Oh, the Cash Money [Records] era. When I started having to go to trial and stuff with them, I started realizing: “man I shoulda knew all of this from beginning and I wouldn’t be in this position.” Were there things that you learned from Slim and Baby business wise? Not from them. I didn’t learn nothing from them. I had to take them to trial—I learned from the lawyers and reading all these different documents and taking control of publishing. I learned all of that from basically being hands-on. But you were always a hands-on guy, even your first deal with Cash Money was a 50/50 deal between them and your UTP label. Yeah, but not really. It was a 50/50 with me and [Cash Money], but when they got the deal with Universal everything changed. What’s the best career advice that anybody’s ever given you? I like the advice DMC of Run-DMC gave me the most. He said, “it’s not about us, it’s about hip-hop. Because when we die and we go,
“...for the cats that are out here, that know they good emcees, but just don’t know how to make a hit record—hey—sorry. I can’t touch you.”
they not going to say our names, they going to say ‘hip-hop.’ They going to say you was a part of hip-hop. So you need to do whatever you can do to show your appreciation.” I couldn’t understand. But then he said, “you know how you show you appreciate it? By bringing other people in the game. All of us are out the game because we didn’t appreciate it.” I was like “damn.” LL Cool J told me, “you really understand when you know what you’re worth. When you know what you worth and you know you marketable and you know how to apply that—that’s when you really going to understand.” How about advice that you give? I give advice to all these cats! I try to give advice to Chingy, I try to tell Chingy, “you try to make your situation the biggest situation and then you move on. Just walk away from your situation.” That was the mistake he made. He was in a good situation that came overnight, he should’ve been kind of smart about walking out. He should’ve dropped another album on the DTP and have it set up where he could walk out of there and get a major deal with somebody else. But he didn’t get an opportunity to do that because he left so quick, and took it personal so quick, and it kind of ruined him. Because Ludacris is still a big artist, and DTP is getting more popular by the minute. So it kind of hurt. So what mistake do you see new artists making? They don’t learn the business. Money start coming to them so fast that they don’t take time out to learn the business. So what’s the one person that they should hire from the get go? You should definitely hire an entertainment lawyer out the gate. You should have a good agent for your shows. You should have a CPA—paralegal—or something of that sort—someone who can do all the other things for you. And you definitely need a good tax lawyer.
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potential, GLC got potential,” motherfuckers weren’t like, “Ah, he that nigga.” But A-Trak saw something in me that made him want to do the mixtape. This is the first mixtape he ever did. He chose to do it with me! He’s a five-time world champion DJ. He won his first title when he was 15. And he chose to do it with me. So that got me thinking: Damn, maybe I am good. So, we did the mixtape, and everybody saying, “Damn, you good.” So, I guess I was right.
GLC
Hyper Off That Ginseng Brew interview and Photo: Luke Fox
How did you meet Kanye? I met him through a mutual friend back in, like, ’93. We’ve been best friends since we were 15, man. He put me on. And usually people would be like, “Oh, that’s just Kanye’s friend, but the verses I spit on both his albums are stand-out verses. So motherfuckers know I’m really solidified. I’m not just a motherfucker that’s like a homie; I’m a motherfucker that really can rap, that’s got talent. How would you describe the beats on your album? I got like six unknown producers out of Chicago, so we got that Midwest sound. It’s the real shit. I’m not an artist that’ll be like, “I gotta get this producer or that producer ’cause they the hottest thing that’s out right now;” I do what works for me. I’m trying to bring something to the table. I don’t wanna change my style to make people like me. I want to introduce you to my world. My music comes from the heart, so therefore, if you like me, you love me. If you don’t, then it’s not for you. I’m not gonna be mad, but it’s just not for you. But I got that shit, so hopefully it will be for you. What is your earliest hip-hop memory? Probably when I saw the Afrika Bambaataa video for “Planet Rock.” My brother was in the basement playing the record downstairs and shit. I was a little shorty in grade school, but I was tryin’ to rap. I did a talent show when I was in third grade. That’s probably my fondest
How do you pay Kanye back for all he’s done for your career? I ride for him to the death. I live for him. And I come out and create a massive piece of my own that’s gonna better him, because it’s got his name on it: “executive produced by Kanye West.” But it’s the thoughts and actions of GLC. Everybody gonna be saying my name just like they saying his, and I’m not gonna let him down. I stay loyal to him. Because there’s so much deception in this game, so many fallacious people. Once you come from the bottom and start rising, the same motherfuckers that never fucked with you are now like, “Oh, GLC!” What’s one of the craziest things that’s happened on the road? One time I was in London. I performed at Abbey Road, the famous studio where the Beatles performed. We did “Live from Abbey Road with Kanye.” I came out there, did my thing, the crowd was going crazy and shit, I go back upstairs to my dressing room, I feel a prettyass hand touching me, and I turned around… it was Beyoncé. She said, “You did a very good job.” I said, “Thank you very much.” Then there go Jay-Z telling me I did a good job. These are legendary people—Beyoncé, Jay—beautiful people, and they acknowledged my work. It was like wow. When Jay-Z told me I was good, it just had my head fucked up. Back in the day, Dame Dash and Biggs—the owners of Rocafella—told me I had a classic, I was the shit. Fucked my head up. And these people—I’m used to watching on TV. I’ve been drinking, that’s why I keep gushing, on the real. But it’s beautiful. One time when I got offstage, Patti Labelle told me I was nice: “Boy, you just keep working. You got it.” [points back to booth playing video] That me talking! I’m probably on that screen right now!... Even with Three
You sound like a southern rapper. Bottom line is, my mother is from West Virginia, my father is from Mississippi, my whole family is from the South. I used to go to Mississippi every summer in the country, Columbus, Mississippi, when I was a shorty. I used to get up and there’d be a motherfuckin’ bull running around, or pigs and all that shit. So, I was really exposed to all that shit as a shorty. And Chicago ain’t nothing but a bigger metropolis than Mississippi, ’cause everybody from there migrated to the South during the great Chicago migration because there was opportunities to work in the steel mills and the cotton factories and shit. So, people left and came there. It’s in my blood; it’s something I can’t run from. And I’m not ashamed of it. But I’m definitely from the Chi, Midwest till I die. See how I talk right now? This how I talk, how I sound on music. It’s not an act. I don’t have a rap voice and shit. I be me. It’s all I know how I do. I could rap about flying on private jets and being over in London and all that. I could do a whole album on that ’cause I really did it. I performed all throughout Europe, but there’s other shit in my home base that people need to be aware of. I’m trying to raise the awareness ’cause to be aware is to be alive. Like what? Growing up in Chicago, it’s such a gangster city. It’s so mob-influenced. The organization that I happen to be a part of is Broken Development—it’s a beautiful thing. But the media classify it as a gang or some fucked-up shit. And the history is kinda fucked up, but now we trying to make the transition from Gangster Disciples to Broken Development. There’s a lot of goddmanit street shit goin’ on, there’s corruptness in the politics, the mayor is up for some investigation over some corrupt shit. It’s a mob-run city, man. I wanna talk about shit like if I had a ’92 Cadillac Sedan Deville with a TV in it, I was a motherfuckin’ ’hood celebrity. Like, we’ll ride old schools, a box Chevy and shit, over a brand-new Lexus or a brand-new Benz. That’s the shit to us; that makes us feel good. It’s the ’hood rich mentality. But I also want to take it a step beyond and let motherfuckers understand that you can progress. ’Cause the five P’s is relevant in everyday life,
“I wanna talk about shit like if I had a ’92 Cadillac Sedan Deville with a TV in it, I was a motherfuckin’ ’hood celebrity. Like, we’ll ride old schools, a box Chevy and shit, over a brand-new Lexus or a brand-new Benz. That’s the shit to us; that makes us feel good. It’s the ’hood rich mentality. But I also want to take it a step beyond and let motherfuckers understand that you can progress.” hip-hop memory, as a shorty trying to do what I saw them rappers doin’ on TV. At that youngass age feeling like, “Man, I could do it too.” So I hit ’em with that spectacular vernacular, I came with the flow, and I had to let the people know. You’re down with A-Trak. We did the mixtape together. Kanye West presents GLC and A-Trak: Drive Slow. All I did was write all the cold-ass raps, but he was the brains behind producing the shit, putting it all together, arranging the songs and everything. That’s one of my best friends, and I love him like a brother. He put me on. Because even when motherfuckers was like, “GLC got 30 POUND 33 may 2006
6 Mafia, when they saw Kanye, they was like, “This dude right here”—referring to myself—“is the hottest motherfucker, period.” It fucked my head up because as a shorty I would always listen to them. Three 6—yes! “I’m a chicken, chicken, chickenhead! Who run it?! Who run it?!” Also, in Bahamas, I performed at the Power Summit, and at that time, Sony didn’t know what they was gonna do with GLC. They was unfamiliar. I don’t sound like no other rapper. They was like, “Who does he sound like? How are we gonna market this?” When I performed at that Power Summit, it was people I never seen before standing up like, “Oh, shit!” So when I got back to the States, Sony was like, “GLC up next.”
and that’s proper preparation prevents poor performance. That’s something I learned from the streets of Chicago, and that’s something I’m-a go teach the rest of the world. On the real. Do you freestyle? Hell, yeah, man. That’s all I used to back then. Freestyle, do that and this. But the only thing with freestyling is, that shit don’t get you paid. Everybody freestyles now. It’s like there ain’t nothing special about it no more. Everywhere you go there’s a cipher. You get DVDs with motherfuckers freestyling. The whole thing is now, can motherfuckers make songs? Concept shit and stick to it. Take it to the next
level. So, I try to take it to that next level, speak in my G vernacular, and the ladies love me, that’s why I’m so spectacular. Do you feel pressure to make a radio single? Hell, no, I don’t feel that pressure. I speak from the heart, bottom line. I don’t do contrived songs; that’s not my style. I’m not reachin’. My shit sounds different because it is. My life is so crazy, man. I went to college for a year, I was in the streets hustling, I worked a job, I got a brother and a sister with a college degree, I got another sister that goddman it was exposed to drugs and shit, I got a host of nieces and nephews and shit, I got nephews that don’t even know they fathers. My life is like a lot of people’s lives wrapped into one. I’ve been exposed to so much shit. I could go into a boardroom and talk like, “Yes, sir. What do we have to bring to the table today?” Or I could be, “Man, what up, Chali?” It’s all me. I went to Mississippi for college, too. Jackson State for a semester. I left with a 3.5 GPA, so I’m not no dumb motherfucker. Why’d you leave? Because it was too slow for me, Mississippi. Then I went back to Chicago, right back in streets. It was fucked up. I got locked up. I was only on lock-up for two days and I was like, I’m not going to jail. So, goddamnit, I kept my ass going to work and I did my thing on the side. My whole thing is, I’m trying to uplift the community. In my neighbourhood, we don’t own shit. Mainly the Arabs, the Koreans or whatever, they come around. Not to knock ’em because they businessmen, and I’m definitely not tripping, but I feel like we should own shit in our community too. I’m trying to influence the whole economic and political movement in our community as well. Just because you a rapper and shit, you don’t have to talk ignorant all the time. You could let people be aware that you have knowledge and it’s cool to have sense. It’s cool to be a quote-unquote thug but have an intelligent vernacular. So, whatever it is you do, do you and do it to the fullest.
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Mobb Deep They Reminisce Over You
Words: Rodrigo Bascuñán Photos: Matt Salacuse
I first met Havoc in 1995 after The Infamous dropped. He was walking into Play De Record in downtown Toronto with one of his weed carriers—a tall, skinny, droopy-eyed, light-skinned kid who played the yang to Havoc’s short, muscular, beady-eyed, dark-skinned yin. I had just read the latest issue of The Source where they gave The Infamous 4 and a 1/2 mics, so I told Havoc he needed to get his other 1/2 mic. He looked at me confused. His weed carrier told him, “you got 4 and 1/2 in The Source.” Havoc was like, “oh word?” Having made myself useful to one of my idols, I asked for an autograph to prove that I had met him. After scrambling for a scrap for him to write on, I passed him a crumpled up lottery ticket. “What’s your name?” Hav asked. “Rodrigo,” I said. He wrote for a few seconds and passed me the paper. It said, “Peace Rodrido, Havoc.” Oh well, I had seen worse manglings of my name. Skip forward a near dozen years and I sit with Hollywood Havoc and the sleepy-eyed Prodigy in G-Unit’s New York offices. Havoc calls out to his current weed carrier, “I need to hold something.” “How much?” comes the response. Hav’ holds up an open hand, “five.” Weed carrier exits. The Dutch Masters on the table tremble. Looking back on The Infamous, how do you see that era now? Havoc: Looking back on that album after all these years. I didn’t know how monumental it would be back then. We just wanted to make something that was a dope album. We didn’t go in there and say, “We gotta make a classic.” We just made the album. Prodigy: Definitely, when we look back at our career we just be buggin’ like, “wow, look what we did”—and we still ain’t done. We definitely never thought [The Infamous] would affect the world the way it has. We knew we had something that meant something to us and [to the people] around our way, but we didn’t know the world was going to be feeling it like that. How did your process change over that time? P: The way things changed? Nothing really changed that much. We got some more recording equipment. We got a bigger studio,
we got a real studio—that’s the only real difference between then and now. Where were you recording with back then? P: We had smaller production equipment, smaller boards, inexpensive things. On “Daydreaming” you reminisce about going from Manhattan to Coney Island everyday… P: We just basically reflecting on how we was little shorties wanting to get on in the rap game and sitting on the block and just seeing the cars drive past and seeing different people in the magazines and in the TV with the jewelry and the hot clothes and with the girls. It just inspired us to do that song. ‘Cause when we did this album right here with G-Unit, everybody was like, “Aww, Mobb Deep, all they talk about is money now and all the jewelry and all the cars and all the flashy shit.” Since they was saying that, and we was getting a lot of that from people, I was like, “aiight, we gonna do a song like this.” ‘Cause that’s what’s really going on in our heads, all the time, no matter what’s going on in our life, we still sit around and be like, “aiight, we need more, it ain’t enough. I want that whip now, this one is old.” H: In that song, we was talking about before Juvenile Hell days. The days when we was trying to get on, when we was like hungry-hungry. Like fresh new rappers not knowing how to get on really but doing everything that we could. If it meant riding all the way from Manhattan to Coney Island, walking up 28 flights of stairs to get to a studio and we did that.
ery in your music, where did this come from? P: When I said, “illuminati want my mind, soul and my body.” I was just basically talking about, you know, the real illuminati and the secret societies that control this world. Where all I got that from was from research, studying, going to the library, just researching stuff and reading a lot, observing the world. The imagery on the new album and the Blood Money title is just basically about the same thing. It’s just to show you, that that’s a reality that ain’t going nowhere. That’s reality. H: As far as all that Illuminati stuff and all of that, you know, it’s something that I might discuss with P or whatever from time to time but it ain’t something that I’m interested in, I don’t really follow all of that stuff. When you rapped about religion on “Pearly Gates” did you have the feeling that people were going to step to you on that song?
Is there anything you recording in there that got put out later?
P: On “Pearly Gates” we talk about religion and points of view on religion and how us young niggas in the street view religion. I said stuff on the song about God that’s shocking to people and that they’re not used to hearing. They was always told all they life, “oh, you not supposed to say stuff like that.” Basically, where I’m coming from is, I really don’t care what people think, I’m speaking my mind and I’m being an artist and I’m drawing my art through music. So I’m thinking about it, I’m thinking about how people are going to react to it, but at the same time, that ain’t holding my tongue, so I’ll say whatever comes to my mind and then somebody else will say, “yo man, you can’t do that.” And they did, like some higher-ups over at Interscope was like, “you gotta change that lyric. You can’t say that about God and Jesus and this religious stuff.” Basically why I said that was the same reason I said, “illuminati want my mind, soul and my body,” same reason we called the album Blood Money, same reason I say any of the shit I say that make people say “did you hear what he just said?” Is that it’s real like that—it’s a reality that’s not going away, you going to have to deal with it.
H: Naw, it didn’t get a chance to make it, you know, that’s how things happen sometimes.
You have the lyric that talks about God not showing you proof of his existence…
You’ve always had esoteric lyrics and imag-
P: Where I get that from is basically from all
Who’s studio was that? H: The studio was this guy Sylvan who we hooked up through Tefari. One of our old high-school friends who knew this guy in his projects who had his own studio and the dude was nice enough to let us go on in and record our demo.
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To me, I think God is in you. Everybody got God in them. God to me is just like a word that somebody put together, we don’t know what the creator is called, we don’t know if it’s a man, a woman, an energy or what it is—nobody can tell you what it is. If they try to tell you what it is, they just lying to you.
the times I’ve been through in my life, where…sickle cell has got a lot to do with it, and just going through hard times. Just seeing my folks go through hard times and just seeing people pray and pray and pray and pray until they dyin’ and in they coffin and their prayers never got answered and never got shown a sign that shit is real. Like if it’s real, real, real—show us something. To me, I think God is in you. Everybody got God in them. God to me is just like a word that somebody put together, we don’t know what the creator is called, we don’t know if it’s a man, a woman, an energy or what it is—nobody can tell you what it is. If they try to tell you what it, they just lying to you, they just going off of what they think. You just gotta know and believe in yourself and be a good person, you gotta be a positive person, you gotta be benevolent, you can’t do evil, you gotta be good and the good is gonna come out. The creator is going to shine in you. The reason I wrote that song, “Pearly Gates,” like that is basically to let people know that my mind is not in chains like other people’s minds, and maybe they don’t know that they mind is chains, a lot of people don’t know that. And I don’t care what people got to say about it—I really don’t give a fuck. Truthfully, I’m not scared of nothing for real. I see right now, that you both wearing crosses… P: Let me answer that real quick. The reason I’m wearing this cross right now is the same reason I’m wearing this hat right now—I don’t even know what team this is. …Pittsburgh Penguins… P: There you have it, I got a Penguin hat on and I ain’t even know what team it was, I wear it because I like the colour. [Holds up cross] I wear this because I like how it look, I’m not wearing it because it’s a cross, I wear it ‘cause I like how it look. It’s like when I go out and buy a basketball jersey or something, I’m not even into basketball, I couldn’t even tell you one thing about a basketball player—but I like the jersey. I like the cross. H: For me when it comes down to religion, I believe in the higher powder, [laughs] I mean, the higher power. When times get rough, that’s who I confide in. It doesn’t mean any specific religion, I’m not an atheist, but there’s a lot of unanswered questions out there now. So I just can’t go with one religion and say that this one is right, but I do believe in a higher power.
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Rare (Meat) Species What’s the origin of the beefs you’ve been in? P: The origin of a lot of the beef we’ve been through is jealousy. They jealous because we shine how we shine. They jealous because Hav’ make hit records, they jealous because we write hit songs—I don’t know. People got they own reasons to say why they don’t like you for, whatever reason, they look at you a certain way. A lot of people might be like, “I don’t like that nigga P, he ain’t really from Queensbridge.” So he don’t like me now and he decides to have a beef with me. I don’t know, go ahead, do what you gotta do. But most of the drama, most of the bullshit we’ve been through was from jealousy. Niggas is just jealous because we shining stars. We super-shining, super-stars. What do you think are the greatest beefs of all time? P: Two greatest emcees battles, gotta be MC Shan and KRS-One. That was the most monumental battle in rap music. How did you feel hearing “The Bridge Is Over” while living in Queensbridge? P: It was crazy, cause niggas was still playing that KRS-One song—that shit was hot! But at the same time, niggas was tight. But if the record was hot, the record was hot, Queensbridge was hot, the song The Bridge is over, that song was hot—it was just good music. But there was definitely a lot of tension. What about you Havoc, what’s the greatest battle in your opinion? Havoc: From more recent times, you would have to say Nas and Jay-Z. ‘Cause that was kind of crazy—the lyrics that they both brought to the table for it. It really made you feel the tension between the two. They was trying to outdo each other with the songs that they was coming back and forth with. That’s going to go down in history. It’s crazy that they’re collaborating now… H: Yeah, you know, [it’s] a business move for them. Could you see yourselves collaborating with people you’ve had beef with? H: For Mobb Deep to work with anybody that we had beef with in the past, I don’t know, you never know, life takes strange turns. But I just tell it like this, when we don’t like somebody, we really don’t like them. So I don’t see us doing songs with someone we got beef with.
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Cut The Cheque Was there any specific reason you came up with that line, “my rhymes make Intratec sales go through the ceiling?” on Big Pun’s “Tres Leches?”
P: Was there any specific reason I came up with that line? Yes. When we rap, the things that we say…if we mention Hennessy, Timberland, Tec-9—anything we say is going to turn popular. If we say your company name, you owe us a cheque. You lucky if we say your company name. That’s why we starting our own companies—so we can say our own company names. We’ll fuck around and start our own gun company, so I’ll shout my own guns—fuck Tec-9—them shits jam too much.
I’ll start a gun company, I’ll start my own cigarette brand, I don’t really give a fuck. We about to put out our own liquor—whatever it take to make money in this world, this world’s a business. It’s one thing to shout out Champion, but don’t you think it’s a problem if you know that kids will do what you say and you still promote guns?
P: Hell no, not really, because this world is fucked up. Put it like that. So anything that I say in my lyrics, I’m just coming from the heart. I don’t give a fuck if I’m promoting guns. Like I said, I’ll start a gun company, I’ll start my own cigarette brand, I don’t really give a fuck. We about to put out our own liquor— whatever it take to make money in this world, this world’s a business. They forced us into this business-ass world and now we living it to the fullest, and we gonna do what we gotta do to survive. Promote whatever, as long as it’s feeding my family and as long as that shit ain’t gonna get me locked up or dead I don’t give a fuck. Straight up and down. I don’t care what people say about it. We can have a big debate about, “oh, listen to his lyrics.” They don’t want to start that debate with me, because I won’t scratch the surface like Kanye West, I will fucking beat a nigga up in a debate. Not physically, mentally and with my mouthpiece. I will destroy anybody. Straight up and down, bring it on, you can’t debate with me.
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SAigon
yOU MUST LEARN “When you see dudes in jail in the videos, they acting like jail is some cool shit. Niggas all diesel walking through, looking at the guard all tough. That’s not going to happen. That guard is going to say, “What the fuck are you looking at?” and he’s gonna bust you in your head with a stick, and you not gonna be able to do nothing about it…”
worDS: TARA HENLeY
New York rapper Saigon has been getting his hustle on in the mixtape circuit since he was released from prison in early 2000, steadily building buzz for his debut album, Greatest Story Never Told. Easily the top contender for Next Big MC, this cat has it all: flow, witty wordplay, charisma. What’s more, Saigon comes with a fresh perspective, offsetting his thugged-out street ethos with a political savvy worthy of dead prez and a narrative ease reminiscent of hiphop’s greatest storyteller, Nas. The streets are feeling Sai, but so are the Internet nerds. In the past year, the “Yard Father” signed with Just Blaze, landed a role on the HBO show Entourage, and swagger-jacked a stick-up kid that tried to chain-snatch him. Now that the hype surrounding Saigon has reached a deafening pitch, heads wanna know: where is the damn album? Pound caught up with Saigon at Baseline Studios in New York to check up on it. Where are you from? You don’t seem to rep for any one spot. From my birth ‘til today, I probably never lived in the same place for more than two, three years. I never went to the same school longer than a year and a half. I bounced around because my mother was young and she had more than one child. So it was like whoever had room for me, that’s where I stayed at. That’s why it’s hard for me to say one place without being biased to the next place. So I just leave ‘em all out. I represent me.
What was your life like growing up?
the things that are fun growing up.
My childhood was crazy, man. I got a big sister who is two years older than me and my sister taught me everything she learned as she was learning it. So I could read when I was three years old. School came easy to me. I just had this bad temper. I get it from my father. My father is twenty-two years older than my mother. My father is like the dictator—he’s a mean dude. That’s where I get my temper from. Ever since I was little, I just always got in trouble. My answer for everything was violence. Anything somebody did to me, I felt like, “OK, you wanna do this? I’m going to do something physically harmful to you.” And, you know, to this day, sometimes I find myself in stupid situations. I can’t even get booed at a show without wanting to fight.
With books like Queens Reigns Supreme, it’s becoming clear to fans all over the world that a lot of gangsta rappers have never actually done much in the street.
What was it was like being locked up? To tell you the truth, I didn’t realize I was even in jail. I didn’t realize the severity of my situation until three years into my bid. You go in there and you fighting every day—adolescent shit. So you don’t realize that you are being stripped of your freedom. Until you start growing a mustache and your voice start getting deeper. Then you see all your significant birthdays passing. Your sixteenth birthday and then your eighteenth birthday—these birthdays are supposed to mean something growing up as a child. Then it starts to be like, “Goddamn, man, I wanna go home.” At the beginning, it was fun almost, until I started to realize that this was my life. Like, I don’t get these years back. I don’t get a chance to be a teenager again. I’m never going to a senior prom. I’m never doing that. I’m being deprived of all
Of course. I’ve been trying to tell people that since I came out. I used to sit in jail and watch these videos and feel like these dudes were profiting off my pain. That shit used to make me sick to my stomach. I lived that life, B, and I’m in here paying with it with years of my life that I’m never gonna get back. And these dudes go to the studio and they glorify it. They’re not giving these kids the harsh realities of this lifestyle. When everybody talk about gangs, they show the Crip walk—they don’t show the funeral, they don’t show the nigga with his head splattered all over the floor. They don’t show the mother crying over the casket. When you see dudes in jail in the videos, they acting like jail is some cool shit. Niggas all diesel walking through, looking at the guard all tough. That’s not going to happen. That guard is going to say, “What the fuck are you looking at?” and he’s gonna bust you in your head with a stick, and you not gonna be able to do nothing about it…This whole gangsta rap shit has become so mainstream that the word don’t even hold no validity no more. If you have a throwback jersey and a fitted cap, you’re a thug, a gangsta. If I go in the street and a kid come up to me and be like, “I rap,” nine times out of ten I know what their rap is going to be about. It’s gonna be: “We bust glocks, we got hammers, we got drop-tops.” Meanwhile, the kid got dirty sneakers on and he’s looking dingy. Where’s your drop-top? Where’s all your ice
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“We praise entertainment too much. We call that coming up, cause we making movies. The Black man won an Oscar. So what? That ain’t a come up. Where’s the Black distribution companies? Where’s the Black movie studios? Black Entertainment Television is owned by Viacom. Ain’t nothing Black about BET.”
at? You don’t have to fantasize. You can rap about being fucked up. You can rap about wanting to get out the ghetto. We so stuck in this fantasy world that it’s like reality doesn’t exist anymore. I heard that you taught other inmates while you were in prison. When I was eighteen years old, I was teaching a class with forty year-old students. It was bugged out to see a forty year-old man that couldn’t read or write. All they knew was crime their whole life. I’m sitting there teaching these dudes how to read and do basic mathematics—multiplication and division. You know, shit you learn in fourth or fifth grade, and they clueless to it. But you put a shank in his hand and he’ll show you some shit. What was the class you were teaching? Black history class. I’m real big on black history. You gotta know where you come from to know where you going. You would think that—being that we built this country from the ground up—that we would be better off as a race in this country. You wouldn’t think ourcommunities would look like they look. They stick us in these ghettos, and we work for just enough to get by. We’re taught to go to school to get a job. They don’t emphasize business on us. We just now learning the importance of buying property. Motherfuckers are just now realizing that you should buy a house before you buy a car. We’ll go buy jewelry and nice clothes and look fresh, but we don’t own shit. You go to any Black neighborhood, they have no Black-owned businesses. That’s because we have no sense of direction. We’re the descendents of slaves and we don’t even know who we are anymore, as people. They killed our leaders. We don’t have nobody guiding us in the right direction. It’s like we have to have the steel boot of oppression placed on our throats for somebody to step up and be like, “Hey, this ain’t right, we gotta change this.” It’s like we gotta be damn near dead before somebody step up. I feel like we damn near dead right now. Because what do we have? We don’t have shit. They say we free because we can walk around. That ain’t freedom, B, that ain’t freedom to me. 42 POUND 33 may 2006
Do you see yourself as a leader? I know people listen when I talk. And I know I lead people in the right direction. I know I’m not leading people into the bullshit. So yeah, I know for a fact there’s a lot of people that look up to me and follow me, and are inspired by my music and my words, and it touches them. I see it every day on the street. I had a dude meet me and start crying. People gravitate toward me ‘cause of the songs that I put out on the street on the mixtapes. I’m letting them know: “Look, we still got a chance. It ain’t over for us.” A lot of niggas gave up hope. That’s why everybody is trying to be a rapper or trying to get in the entertainment world. Entertainment is nothing, man. Entertainment is exactly what it is—it’s clownery. We praise entertainment too much. We call that coming up, ‘cause we making movies. The Black man won an Oscar. So what? That ain’t a come up. Where’s the Black distribution companies? Where’s the Black movie studios? Black Entertainment Television is owned by Viacom. Ain’t nothing Black about BET. Cause right after twelve o’clock, you got a man up there swindling niggas for they money. “Yo, come here, order this holy water right here. $49.95. Come pay for your blessings.” That’s after Uncut. That’s after the booty clap videos. And what do you think about the booty clap videos? No comment. You brought it up. I think that shit is buffoonery, man.
on.” Leave or we’re bombing. That’s it. It’s like the bully in school. “Gimme your money or I’m gonna beat your ass.” America’s a bully. America is like thirteenth or fourteenth in education in the world, but they have the strongest military. That’s why they are the superpower of the world. It has nothing to do with being smarter, it has nothing to do with being kinder. It just has to do with being the most deadly, most violent country ever. And they quick to call other people terrorists. Come on, when y’all invaded Iraq, y’all was killing so many innocent babies. And they’re terrorists? What the fuck do you call that? Who is there to judge you? Whose judging you for your actions? Let’s talk about your album. How did you end up on Atlantic with Just Blaze? Just Blaze wanted to know who was that nigga in the street. He finally decided he want to step out from just being a producer and take the label hat—take the CEO hat. He called this DJ named Sickamore, who is real in tune with what’s going on in the street, like, “Yo, who is the hottest artist who ain’t signed?” He’s like, “Saigon, hands down.” So that night, they had a meeting. I’m driving up to the Bronx, and Sickamore call me, like “Yo, would you work with Just Blaze?” And I’m like, “What is that, a trick question?” He was like, “Would you think about signing with him?” I was like, “Hell yeah.” So he was like, “Come to the studio right now.” Turned around, came down to Baseline. I played my music for Just. Came back and brought him my press kit. He had never even heard of me. I had magazine covers, I had all kinds of stuff. He was like, “Oh, I must have been under a rock.”
Where’s the line between sexy and sexist? There is no line between sexy and sexist in America, man. You gotta understand— America is sex, it is violence. That’s what this shit is based around. They try to make it taboo, so they can sell it more. Porn is a bigger industry than music in this country. And we already know about violence. Any little problem they have, what do they do? Do they wanna talk it out? Or do they say, “Saddam, you got ten minutes to leave or we’re bombing you”? Not, “We’re gonna come negotiate and figure out what’s going
How come Greatest Story Never Told is taking so long to come out? I could have put out five albums already. It’s all about setup. Timing is everything, man. I only been in my deal a year and three months. If I had come out before, there would have been no Entourage. That shit opened me up to a whole new demographic. There would have been no MTV commercials. I was never more ready than now to come out. So I would have been making a mistake, had I come out before.
“My album is pretty much trying to uplift. It ain’t about beefing. I’m not trying to destroy, I’m trying to add on. I’m trying to make motherfuckers see. The first song on my album is called “Greatest Story Never Told,” and I pretty much shut all that shit down. I got a line that say: “When y’all make them diss records, do you know what you do in the Black community?/Market and promote the fact that we lack unity” How is the album different than your mixtapes?
lower-class suburban kids who is fucked up in the game and rap music is their voice.
The beats are a lot better. They sound big. The thing about Just, he got a big sound. You know what I’m saying? A lot of the beats I’ve been rocking on have been— aside from Scram Jones and Alchemist— most of the mixtape work was just random dudes. Put a sample with some drums and that’s the beat. You know, with Just Blaze, he knows how to bring in people that play instruments and horns to give you that big sound you need to compete in this game.
Tell me about the recent chain-snatching incident.
What about the content? On Warning Shots you had such a wide range—so many different sides to your personality. Yeah. This is a little different. This is more “Shock TV,” more “Color Purple.” There’s not a lot of “Stocking Cap,” “Papi,” “Contraband” tracks. It’s mostly all positive. I got a song called “Enemies.” You know, I got my little bit of gangsta shit in there. But you know, I mostly stayed away from that gangsta shit. I only did that gangsta shit to get people’s attention. To let niggas know I ain’t no fucking Mos Def. I love Mos Def. I love Talib. I work with and I’m close with both of these people, but we not the same kind of people. But we got the same plight. We both trying to open up some doors. I just wanna open up some doors in these kid’s minds. I just wanted to touch my target audience, which is poor inner-city and
Somebody attempted to rob me. I got stabbed in my head because of me thinking, “Hey, I can still go anywhere with a $20,000 necklace and nobody is gonna do nothing to me. I’m in the hood, I’m hood.” Nah, it’s not like that no more. Unless you out there with the gun on you, ready to lay something down—which would be stupid. You gotta start using your head. How did it go down? Dudes was just trying to get me. I was somewhere where I shouldn’t have been wearing this and some other jewelry. And, you know, dudes felt like: “He’s slipping. We gonna get him.” They tried me for my shit. And I fought for my shit and they stabbed me. And I still fought for my shit. You know, I lost a lot of blood—I almost died off that motherfucker. Trying to hail a cab instead of driving your own car to the hospital. Yeah, I didn’t want to get no blood in my car. You should have seen it, though, when I was done. I still be finding blood in it. I brought the shit to detailing twice.
Have you been hurt like that before? Yeah, a few times. I’ve been in a lot of shit. I’m so used to it now, I think if I got shot I’d be like, “Lord, if you save me, thank you. If not, then please take me in heaven—if there is a heaven.” When I was on my way to the hospital and I felt myself going in and out of consciousness, I was like, “Damn, am I gonna to die? Am I dying?” I thought I was dying, cause I couldn’t even stand up—that’s how dizzy I got. I was like, this is it. I was just waiting to see the light. And I’m laughing to myself, like, “Look how I’m going out—over a fucking chain, B.” I could just think of Tupac, and Biggie, and all the rappers that died, and I’m like, “I ain’t even put out my fucking album yet. They could of let me put my shit out first.” It was scary at the time, but I’m used to that shit. I’ve read in interviews that you’re critical of 50 Cent. But I’ve also read that you two are friends. Where do you stand on that? I love 50 Cent, man. I don’t like his music that much, his later music. But who he is as a person—I ain’t mad at the nigga. My whole thing was never an issue with him as a person. My whole issue was, “Alright, brother, you getting a lot of power now.” I’m looking at it from a Black standpoint. Like, you got all these kids following you, now you gotta teach these niggas something good too. And when I saw that he wasn’t trying to do that, I kinda lost a little bit of respect for him. Like, come on, man.
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He knows his influence. If I knew all these kids was listening to me, and they all worshiping me, idolizing me, I’d make a song called “Take Your Monkey Ass to School.” Go to school motherfucker, ‘cause without education you don’t stand a chance in life. Nobody is telling these kids that. They telling them: “Hustle. Get your paper.” In this climate right now, with all the beef that’s going on, do you feel like... Ain’t nobody ever said nothing about me. I do all the talking so far. One person said something about me, and he ain’t really say nothing crazy. Cassidy. But I just brushed it off. In some magazine, he said some shit about we was supposed to battle and I backed out. That’s not true. I ain’t battled since prison. I can’t battle ‘cause I would fight any one of these niggas. You not going to be up in my face with little spit particles hitting my face. You’re not going to disrespect me. You’re not going to be talking about my Moms and all that. Nah, that’s not going to happen. ‘Cause then I’m going to want to fight. But, like I said, my album is pretty much trying to uplift. It ain’t about beefing. I’m not trying to destroy, I’m trying to add on. I’m trying to make motherfuckers see. The first song on my album is called “Greatest Story Never Told,” and I pretty much shut all that shit down. I got a line that say: “When y’all make them diss records, do you know what you do in the Black community?/ Market and promote the fact that we lack unity/ Then white people look at you and laugh/ You look like a porch monkey dancing for cash/ Wanna get on a record and talk trash/ See him at the awards and don’t do shit but walk
past.” They’re showing that we can’t get along. They’re emphasizing Black hatred. So you’re against beef tracks? It frustrates me when dudes do it to try to sell records. If you’ve got a problem with a nigga and you a real man, both of y’all managers got each other’s managers numbers. Your managers could set up a boxing match. If you’ve got a real, official problem, do the old school shit and man up and y’all go in the bathroom and shoot five, man. Don’t put that shit out in the atmosphere, B. Don’t do that. ‘Cause people see that and they think it’s cool for motherfuckers to be going at each other’s throats all the time. If you really feel that strongly about it, shoot the five with the nigga. And then after that, y’all can shake hands and be buddies. There’s no need for you to be harboring animosity. Especially in New York. The reason why Down South is killing us right now is ‘cause we have this crab-in-a-bucket mentality. Ever since Biggie came out with this whole King of New York concept, everyone wants to be king. So once they see one man coming up, everybody is trying to pull him down to get up, instead of people congratulating him. We’re never going to win like that. Them Atlanta artists and them Houston artists, they stick together. Bun B just did a song with all them Houston artists—they were all together. I just saw a photo shoot with all the Atlanta artists. You don’t see that shit with us. You see diss records. Jay dissing Nas, Cam dissing Jay, this one dissing that one, 50 dissing everybody. We’re never going to win like that.
“The reason why Down South is killing us right now is ‘cause we have this crab-ina-bucket mentality. Ever since Biggie came out with this whole King of New York concept, everyone wants to be king.”
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The Chef has said before that he likes serving up many different dishes, implying that he wouldn’t have necessarily made a follow-up up his own volition. “Nobody’s ever satisfied,” he told MTV.com in January. “At the end of the day, [Cuban Linx II] is gonna be the album dudes want. It ain’t gonna be the album Rae felt he should have given.”
Raekwon
Respect Heat Holders Story and photo: Andrea Woo
At the mouth of Vancouver’s touristy Gastown district is a newlyopened sneaker and apparel shop. On a rainy April afternoon, a lineup has formed along the cobblestone road outside. Some are holding umbrellas, others are holding CDs. They are all there for one reason; inside the store is arguably the best storyteller of the Wu-Tang Clan, Raekwon the Chef. It’s hard to believe that more than a decade has passed since the release of his archetypal solo debut, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. Despite having dropped two other solo albums since—1999’s Immobilarity and 2003’s The Lex Diamond Story—fans have rallied incessantly for a Cuban Linx follow-up with all the grimy street appeal of the original. That’s the reason why Raekwon is in the sneaker shop today.
When pressed on that, Rae says he’s simply serving his loyal fan base, giving them what they want. “I make these albums for the people that live with the legacy that we done already did,” he says. “I can’t try to open up anybody’s eyes that don’t want to be open…. I tend to work for my era of individuals, you know, from like, say, 22 to 35 [year olds]. These are the ones that grew up in the era that we did. They’re the ones that really knew about it. That’s what we care about.” “I love the passion of this album right here, because it takes it back to the hunger of hip-hop. It’s needed right now,” he says seriously. And with a little braggadocio, adds: “I understand that I may be the last man on the totem pole that can pull off such an album with this kind of sound.” Whereas Ghostface Killah has said openly that he felt the last two Wu-Tang albums – The W and Iron Flag – were “wack,” Rae disagrees. “We make good albums, man,” he says. “You compare any Wu artist to anybody’s album and they can’t fuck with us when it’s more than one song…. I don’t never make nothing wack. Any of my songs, we might not have as much focus as we wanted to, but we don’t make wack shit, so I’m not going for that.” Raekwon has been doing it big in the rap game, but as father to a 10year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son, he’s been careful not to lose sight of the family man in him. “[I] basically try to spend a lot of time with them and my lady, be close to home, stay around my mom, make sure she’s alright,” he says. “You know, everything ain’t always consist of rap. [I] been trying to do some of the other things that I haven’t really got a chance to do the way I want to, and that’s spend time with family. That’s important.” “I’m a teddy bear inside,” he says later on, with a laugh. “It’s about having balance. I think when people meet me, they realize that I move according to how a grown man is supposed to move. It ain’t all about being a rapper. I really move with the times. I am a true icon.”
Wearing ripped jeans, a lot of black—a black Michael Jordan shirt, a black leather jacket, a black Oakland Raiders hat—and enough ice around his neck to sustain a small country, the Chef is mingling with fans, signing autographs and taking pictures. At least one man has
“I can’t try to open up anybody’s eyes that don’t want to be open…. I tend to work for my era of individuals, you know, from like, say, 22 to 35 [year olds]. These are the ones that grew up in the era that we did. They’re the ones that really knew about it. That’s what we care about.” brought an OG version of the “purple tape,” the nickname for Cuban Linx due to the color of the original cassette, for him to sign. Heeding the call of the streets, the man born Corey Woods is out generating buzz for Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II, which is tentatively set to drop this summer. While Rae is admittedly very secretive about details of the album, he confirmed to Pound that one of its strongest selling points will be its production. “I basically zoned out and got on some strong production shit, you know,” he explains. “Compliments of [Dr.] Dre, RZA, Scram Jones, J. Dilla, God bless him. He’s a maniac on the beats. [There are a] couple of things that are already going to make it classic, so I feel good right now.” Shallah Raekown also confirmed that other producers will include Erick Sermon and Alchemist, Busta Rhymes will executive produce, and that the entire Clan—minus the late ODB—will appear on the album. 46 POUND 33 may 2006
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Picking sideS Photography: Che Kothari & Ryan Paterson Styling: KeunAe Choe
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Picking sideS Photography: Che Kothari & Ryan Paterson Styling: KeunAe Choe
Hair: Vili Make-Up: Caitlin Wright Main Model: Niki from Ford Management Production Assistants: Nicki Ho and Cynthia Bullock Models: Angie Choi, Adrienne Lorico, Derrick Pierre, Sanga Genesis, Frost Flow, and Monique Moses
Extras: Nicki Ho, Masia One, Mensa, Jedi, Raykwon, Casius Special Thanks: Abbas @ El Mocambo Photography Studios Melvin @ Fish Shak Roger & Billy @ Flashback and Kings of Kensington Jaime Wilson Zion @ Bombshelter Ed Mousa @ Flags International (422 Spadina Ave)
LEFT PAGE: Pink Halter with Bangles/Baby Phat, Yellow V-Neck Sweater/m-ONE-11, Rock for Republic Jagger Jeans/CABAN, Nike Denim Dunk Lo/Goodfoot, Yellow Halter/Lady Enyce, Tangerine off the shoulder sweater/Baby Phat. On the Table: Exclusive “World Cup” Tagua and Brass necklace + Beige Wood Bangles/The Beadery (www.thebeadery.ca), Dark Wood Bangles/Courage My Love, Painting/Jgar, earrings/Caitlin Wright. RIGHT PAGE: Exclusive “World Cup” Tagua and Brass necklace/The Beadery, Shopping Flat Bag in Turquoise /M0851, Beaded Necklace/By Emilyee, Mustard zip-up Hoody & Red/blue stripe zip-up Hoody/m-ONE-11, Red Jumper with Hoody/Nike, Black Halter/Apple Bottoms, 7 for all Mankind Capri/CABAN, Nike Pink Airmax/ Nike, Adidas Lola/Goodfoot, Baby blue Sneakers/Nike.
LEFT PAGE: Niki: Black Halter/Apple Bottoms, 7 for all Mankind Capri/CABAN, Royal “Florin” Slip-on/Get Outside. Monique: Red Halter/Apple Bottoms, White sports socks/Adidas. Sanga: “The Pure” in White/Sean John Footwear, Red/white zipup/Enyce, Black “Kingston Haze” T-shirt/Sean John, Dark Denim “Vista” Jeans/Sean John, LRG Red zip-up/Uptown (4 Edward Street). RIGHT PAGE: Niki: Femme Halter/Lacoste, Butterfly Top in white/Apple Bottoms, “World Cup” Tagua and Brass necklace/The Beadery, Gold Belt/Lady Enyce, Jean skirt/Rocawear, Garter Belt/Avec Plaisir, Baby blue sneakers/Nike, Wood bangles/ the Beadery, Brass bangle/Courage My Love, Rubber green flashing ring/Treasure Island Toys Ltd. Derrick: Apple Green button-up shirt/Phat Farm, Five Four white t-shirt/FiveFour, Blue wide leg jeans/Sean John, Nike Court Force Hi in black and lime/Goodfoot. LRG army green zip-up/Uptown, “Brazil” Jersey/Nike, Turquoise “Enyce” tank top & tube halter/Lady Enyce, Yellow “Brazil” Jersey/Nike
LEFT PAGE: Niki: Yellow Halter/Lady Enyce, Tangerine off the shoulder sweater/ Baby Phat, Grey shorts/m-ONE-11, Gold “Enyce” belt/Lady Enyce, Nike AF1 (World Cup Ed.) in black/Goodfoot. Pammy Polo in yellow/space fb, Red “Apple Bottoms” beaded halter/Apple Bottoms, Red Polo/Sean John, “Germany” Sports Cap/Kappa, “Germany” Jerseys on wall/Adidas. RIGHT PAGE: Niki: Red Jumper with Hoody/Nike, Navy Blue Tank with white trim/ Lacoste, Silver belt/Lady Enyce, Red/blue stripe zip-up hoody/m-ONE-11, Adidas Lola/Goodfoot. Zoo York red zip up/Uptown, Checkered button up in red and white/Phat Farm, Red t-shirt/Enyce, Pepe Jean white zip-up/Uptown.
LEFT PAGE: Niki: Jean vest/Lady Enyce, Beaded Necklace/By Emilyee, Nike Denim Dunk Lo/Goodfoot. LRG tri colored zip-up/Uptown, Green “Enyce” t-shirt/Enyce, Nike FC’s (World Cup Ed.)/Goodfoot, Yellow “Brazil” jersey & soccer ball/Nike. RIGHT PAGE: Niki: Cecilia Checkered Shorts/space fb. “Korea” jersey zip up/Nike, Nike Pink Airmax/Nike, “Germany” Jersey zip-up in white & blue /Adidas, Nike soccer ball/Nike.
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it was written
reviews by dan bergeron
the book report
behind the beat raph gingko press
Are you ready to drool? Do you need a room to model your setup around? Are you hardware-based or softwarebased or both? Do you have any idea what I’m speaking about at all? If you’ve ever dreamed about what the Loop Digga’s hideaway looks like, or how Uncle Nu’s Log Cabin is arranged, or how Reconstruction suits a DJ with a Shadow just fine, then you’ve got just the right book in your hands. Apparently Raph, the dude that put this book together, was so enchanted by his friend’s home setup over a dozen years ago, that the idea stuck and a gang load of photos were compiled to illustrate how producers from the east and west coasts, England and Australia get their creativity on. Obviously, embarking on a task of this nature, one is going to miss a producer or two. Can’t really fault a man for that, however, it would have really been nice if some interviews were done with the various producers featured in the book, so we could read the trials and tribulations associated with getting robbed, getting their studios in order or getting their studios out of disarray. Nonetheless, its definitely a solid present for any DJ friends you may have. As an added bonus, the book comes with a nice mix CD featuring tracks by J Dilla & Rocc C, DJ Shadow and Theme featuring Toronto’s own, Arcee.
skate and destroy thrasher magazine universe
It seems like 25 years flies faster than a fastball off the bat of a juiced up Barry Bonds these days. I remember being seven or eight years old when I picked up my first copy of Thrasher Magazine. I’m pretty sure that the cover featured artwork by either Pushead or Robert Williams, not that I can’t distinguish between their styles, but rather the years of chocolate addiction and abuse of salted snacks has warped my brain and left me useless at retaining information for more than 10 minutes. In Skate and Destroy you’ll find some amazing photos, some really cool reprints of original columns like “Photograffiti,” “Zounds” and “Thrash” and according to the press release, “…no other book will take you as close to the risk taking, bone breaking world of what has since become the world’s fastest growing extreme sport.” Howdy Doody, brah. Forget the hype, get this book because you know Bonelesses are rad, because you skate for yourself and not to look cool and because Thrasher’s been hesh since day one.
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They say good things come to those who wait. This little nugget of knowledge applies two-fold then to this enchanting morsel of goodness. Not only has Other—a.k.a. Troy Lovegates, a.k.a. that kid out in the train yards bleeding soul onto metallic freight other and sixtoo bully projects cubes—been killin’ it for years, but it’s about time that a solid collection of his work appear in print and becomes available for the commoner to purchase. The other half of this aforementioned waiting equation will revolve around your anxious Christmas morning excitement as you hold your breath for the arrival of the book at your doorstep. And in reality, unless you track down Other and stalk him and mug him for a copy (in no way are we suggesting that this should be done), the only way you’re going to get one is if you attend one of the book launches that already has or will be happening in the coming months, or if you visit the website at the end of this review. When you finally get this limited edition (numbered at 1000), 88-page perfect-bound collection of linocuts and drawings, you’ll realize why Other does what he does; because he’s good at it. The book also comes with a mini mix CD with tracks by Sixtoo and a silk-screened outer sleeve that comes in 7 different flavours (we are suggesting that you buy one of each). New Ungrateful, Who Deserves What, Hurt—maybe you’re confused, get the book and you won’t be. Find it at… http://www.bullyprojects.com/bp002.html
Fight
art, skateboarding and life andy howell gingko
If you don’t know who Andy Howell is by now, then maybe you should give up. Dude’s been a pro skater, started a couple of super influential skate companies (think New Deal and Underworld Element), helped bring the video revolution to the kids through his involvement with 411 video Magazine, ran a successful action sports branding company called Imagewerks and developed a style of painting that’s been copied by kids from Pittsburgh to Paris. All in all, talent, originality and a willingness to never stop creating, especially when the chips are down, have led Andy to produce a mind-boggling array of work. In Art, Skateboarding & Life you’ll find Andy’s paintings, advertising work, doodles, skate tales as a pro and as a kid and tonnes of stories and anecdotes about Andy from friends and collaborators like Shepard Fairey, Paul Schmitt, Chris Miller and Dave Kinsey. With the book, you’ll also find 2 DVDs with a documentary about Andy, directed by Ted Newsome, some old skate footage and gobbles of goodies. The best thing about this book and really, Andy Howell in general, is that, it and he, don’t take things too seriously. His approach to creative expression hasn’t changed much since his original handiwork with his first zine, Sic Nature. DIY attitude to the fullest, and he’s even hung out and made beats with Premo. What!
MAy 2006 POUND 33 59
the
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life
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mobb deep blood money g-unit pound picks µ give it to me, pearly gates, it’s alright
They were once infamous and free agents, but all it takes is a poorly-promoted record to drive anyone, in this case Mobb Deep, to sign where the dollar signs and dotted lines lie. Long story short, the QB rap vets signed with 50 Cent with the hope of going multi-platinum and getting that international paper, hence the title “Blood Money.” The problem is after six albums, they’re still not a household name and even with 50 Cent at the helm, this album is their worst effort to date. Lyrically, Hollywood Hav and V-I-P are lackadaisical in both their delivery and content. Banks, Buck and Yayo don’t fare better and 50 Cent spits the best verse on the whole record on “Creep.” The beats, which saved the last few Mobb Deep albums are a snoozefest, with the exception of Profile’s Middle Eastern-flavoured tune directed at the females, “Give It to Me.” The rumoured Dr. Dre track is notably absent and the Alchemist hands in a second-hand banger, “The Infamous,” and encourages Havoc to recycle the same sample he used for a Nas and Prodigy duet two years ago (Compare “It’s Alright” to “Tick Tock”). It’s hurting to know that they dropped back-to-back-to-back classics in the ‘90s and now it’s all lazy Prodigy flows and overall indiffernce. herman chan
beats rhymes life
madlib the beat konducta volume 1-2: Movie scenes stones throw pound picks µ filthy (untouched), tape hiss (dirty), third ear (more), friends (foes)
What kind of fractured, schizophrenic, Kubrick-meets-Fellini movie are these beats
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the soundtracks to? Madlib’s first official instrumental album (errrr, beat CD) is just what you’d expect from a man who pioneered an original underground rap group (Lootpack), a multiple-piece jazz outfit with only one member (Yesterday’s New Quintet), and laid snare on Madvillainy for hip-hop’s coolest nerd (MF DOOM): an ill mosaic. Between the quasicrunkness of “Box Top (Cardboard Dues),” the Diana Ross-steeped “Friends (Foes)” and the 70s-born funk-rock organry of ‘Money Hugger (Gold Diggin’), Beat Konducta Vol. 1-2—in its eccentricity, blips and tweaks--shows that Madlib really is the Miles Davis of hip-hop. Play while high for matured effect. chris coates
beats
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rhymes
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life
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various artists up north trip volume 4 under pressure pound picks µ commodore 64, headnodish, craig’s house
From the A-Trak juggled intro to the Josh Martinez kiss-off, “Cheers,” the fourth edition of Under Pressure’s Team Canada compilation, reheats the recipe cooked up by its predecessors: capable rhymes and better production from homeland heroes both established (DJ Serious, Eternia, Classified) and ’bout to blow (DJ Furious, Euphrates). A diverse offering that tags both coasts while keeping its feet firmly planted in the true school, Up North Trip serves up a taster menu from 18 talents. Frustratingly, a few of the tighter jams can already be heard on the respective artists’ 2005 albums—a drawback the bonus DVD of graffiti festival highlights helps counter. While the CD scores with consistency, it lacks the knockout punch of a holy-crap-dude-rewind-that burner. luke fox
beats
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life
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lupe Fiasco food and Liquor fnf/atlantic pound picks µ ghetto story, no place to go, close your mind
Although 2006 isn’t half over yet, Chicago native Lupe Fiasco is arguably hip-hop’s rookie of the year. He stole the show on the Kanye West party-starter, “Touch The Sky,” challenged the status quo with the skateboard anthem “Kick, Push” and has dropped one of the freshest debut albums in recent memory. Lupe lists Biggie, Jay-Z and Nas as influences growing up and it shows, judging from the quality of his first project. Like a popular neighbourhood corner store, “Food & Liquor” has what a lot of hip-hop purists want: dope flow and storytelling (“Never Lies”) backed by a balanced mix of acoustic instrumentals (“Ghetto Story”) and sampled production (“Hustlaz Song”). Lupe is as down to earth as they come, as a result, Chi-town’s nerdiest delivers the goods the first time, like it was his third. herman chan
beats
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life
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tanya morgan moonlighting loud minority music pound picks µ We Be, The Warm Up, Pretty
Through the magic of AOL Messenger, you strike up an online relationship with a clever, hot girl (according to her) who wants you bad. So, you agree to meet in-person for the first time at midnight in the middle of a highschool football field. Turns out, HotGurl69 is neither hot nor a girl—instead you find yourself shaking hands with scruffy a 43-year-old dude who wants to “take some Polaroids.” Names can be deceiving. Tanya Morgan is not a solo
o lb.
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female neo-soul singer but rather three “Brooklynati” dudes trying to hoodwink you into listening to their demo. Good thing Von Pea, Ilyas and Donwill spit good-natured, humour-laced everyman raps over snappy, soul-sampled boom-bap—or else you’d be pissed. luke fox
beats
1 lb.
rhymes
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life
¾ lb.
soul position things go better with rj & aL rhymesayers pound picks µ blame it on the jager, i need my minutes, keys
Could there be a better MC/DJ combo in the world right now? I’m bettin’ all my MySpace friends, my firstborn and a pair of vintage Rod Lavers that there isn’t. Whereas 8 Million Stories was deeper subject wise, Things Go Better With RJ and AL is more fun, has more soul samples and proves the earlier success was no fluke. On “Hand Me Downs,” Blueprint laments, “Rap nowadays is by a bunch of ignorant cats/No young, gifted, and black, just guns, bitches, and crack.” Thankfully this duo isn’t part of that ill-fated demographic, instead RJ and AL resurrect rap beat by beat and rhyme by rhyme. dan bergeron
beats rhymes life
¾ lb. n/a ½ lb.
prefuse 73 security screenings warp records pound picks µ no origin, mud in your mouth, creating cyclical headaches
Clicks, claps; blips, baps; dips, daps. Scott Herren knows how to chop it up. Security Screenings, the latest in Prefuse 73’s installment of frenetic follies in his post a-rap-alyptic cum electronica world of soundscapes plays at a pace to be reckoned with. Don’t listen to this when writing an essay or you’ll suffer a brain hemorrhage, and forget about playing it around girlfriends and children because it’ll probably drive them crazy. Instead, try it out while driving in the rain or running errands for work. Background craziness that’ll keep your pace fast and mind reeling. dan bergeron
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together with Zach de la Rocha–styled raps. The intent is aimed in the right place, but the execution is wide right. beats
¾ lb.
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rhymes
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life
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life
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georgia anne muldron
theology 3
worthnothings
the time ep
stones throw
arlington ave. pound picks µ Everything’s Changed, Drop a Jewel, Day in the Life
pound picks µ nothingness, cool world, lo mein
One’s first impulse is to assume that Georgia Anne Muldrow is the latest in an ever-growing stack of aliases under which Madlib releases his experimentations under the Stones Throw stamp. But one would make an ass out of u and me. Although the multitasking Muldrow makes her own dusted/dusty beats with a side dollop of thump, the lone female Stone Thrower is a real live chanteuse whose layered, Jill Scottesque vocals move everywhichaway and whose old-soul wisdom belies her 22 years. Although her beats and her warm, unpredictable vocals are lovely, the two components don’t mesh as they did on last year’s brilliant Platinum Pied Pipers’ LP. Think of this EP as a prelude to something potentially big. luke fox
luke fox
beats
½ lb.
rhymes
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life
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lord jamar
Toronto community worker and coiner of the city’s crab-bucket nickname (Screwface Capital), Theo 3 has knowledge of self. Early on in this generous 10-track EP, the lyricist admits that he’s the guy “known for mixing punch lines with cultural awareness.” Theo flips more sports metaphors than Lanny Macdonald has lip whiskers (no surprise coming from an emcee who names Bunny Laroque, George Bell and Donovan Bailey as influences) and spills perspective on such hot-button issues as the youth’s relationship with the local police. But Theo reaches his apex and reveals fresh talent midway through the record, when he masterfully narrates a grimed-up tale on “Drop a Jewel” and ups his cadence to match DJ Grouch’s swift cuts on “Day in the Life.”
The 5% Nation, a.k.a. The Nation of Gods and Earths, is the muslim sect that some of hiphop’s most respected belong to: Kane, The Wu and Lord Jamar’s original crew, Brand Nubian, all claim allegiance. It’s also provided the foundation for some of hip-hop’s most precious slanguage: “Peace,”“Knowledge,”“Gods,” “Word,” and the criminally underused “Dropping Science.” As a religion, it’s Scientology-like in its supreme weirdness. Still, as long as you’re not trying to convert me, we can hang. Just don’t start with the mathematics shit.
luke fox
young salt
the 5% album babygrande pound picks µ deep space, original man, the corner
beats
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life
dj spinna intergalactic souls
the procussions
murs and 9th wonder
sony
5 sparrows for 2 cents
murray’s revenge
rawkus
record collection
pound picks µ Miss January, American Fado, Little People
pound picks µ yesterday, dark skinned white girls, silly girls
pound picks µ current events, we can change the world, back 2u
If there’s one producer out there who truly dips his brush into almost every palette of music he can, it’s Vincent Williams. While many heads out there know Spinna for his work with The Jigmastas and numerous collabs with the likes of Kweli, J-Live and Mos Def, Intergalactic Soul finds Spinna grinding with lesser-knowns this time, and definitely with mellower, meandering beats than many out there are used to. Although the album is a little soft in its singy songs, the beats are perfect for a lazy Sunday morning read of the paper over eggs benny and a smoothie. dan bergeron
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“As big as hip-hop is, I don’t think we really know our place yet,” Res, one third of The Procussions, told Chicago Innerview while promoting the Colorado Springs trio’s 2005 indie debut, …As Iron Sharpens Iron. Boosted and burdened with the task of reviving the once-almighty backpack seal of approval, Res, fellow mic handler, Mr. J, and producer, Stro, are still trying to find their niche on Rawkus’ first LP since 2004. Low on cussing and high on 10dollar words like propaganda, the poorly titled 5 Sparrows for 2 Cents amounts to a soulless jumble of electro rhythms, dancehall flecks, R&B snippets and funk-rock tidbits, all patched
The second offering from the Murs and 9th Wonder combo, a collabo that lacks a de riguer alternate handle like, DangerDoom, MadVillain or Gnarls Barkley (MursDro?, MursDer?, WonMur? Gnarls Oakley?). 9th provides a smooth, steady, but slightly unspectacular, soundscape, Murs raps about racial identity; his smoggy hometown and other pedestrian, germane, topics. That’s Murs’ allure, his man-ofthe-peopleness, delivered in his casual flow, but the album and his flow sometimes slides into monotony. YOUNG SALT
Rampage
Have You Seen?
$
A childhood friend of Busta Rhymes, Rampage hooked up with Busta to become the lieutenant of the Flipmode Squad. His critically acclaimed 1997 debut album “Scout’s Honor…By Way Of Blood” featured the smash hit “Wild For the Night”, which topped charts and playlists nationwide. Now Rampage is back with his much anticipated follow-up, “Have You Seen…?”, featuring production from The Neptunes, and guest appearances from Busta Rhymes, Sean Paul, Flipmode Squad, Sizzla, Capleton, & more.
99 .
14
In Stores June 6
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scarface
coughee brothaz
cam’ron
my homies part 2
collector’s edition
killa season
rap-a-lot
coughee brothaz
asylum
pound picks µ street lights, we out here, never snitch
pound picks µ the more i smoke, we gettin’ high, dime a dozen
pound picks µ here come the gangsters, can’t leave rap alone, the buck stops here
If you had friends like ‘Face, you could chirp Beans and The Game and be like, “whatchy’all niggas doing? Come to the studio... niggas.” But you can’t rap like ‘Face, so you don’t have friends like ‘Face. It’s all good though. That doesn’t preclude you from getting your friends to pose behind you in ski-masks for photos like ‘Face. We all got homies. It’s just that your homies can’t rap for shit. young salt
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1 lb. pushin’ weight
I shit you not when I tell you that I write this review exactly 4 years and 1 day after my tragic divorce from Mary Jane. True story. It’s a fucking travesty that that shit had to end, but unlike most modern-day potheads, I know when my ass has been defeated by a power mightier than INI. I always tell these cotton-mouths that weed is about 7 times stronger than it was in them thar Woodstock days and yet you still roll joints with a three-paper in rotation. Fuck you. This CD costs less than two grams and won’t show up in your piss.
For all the pomp surrounding every Killa verse, this album still managed to show up on a website out of nowhere. But I see it as a triplicate of good signs. ‘Cause to me this means several things: getting shot just don’t move units like it used to, some rappers are getting wise to fabricated beefs, people have started to realize that the devastation that crack leaves behind is not at all cool. Cam does expand his subject matter, but it’s still mostly snow business. Seriously, the mocking admiration has to stop.
YOUNG SALT
YOUNG SALT
RICK ROSS
—Port Of Miami in stores July 18th Debut album features Jay Z, Trick Daddy, Lil Wayne and street anthem “Hustlin”
SHAWNNA
—Block Music in stores June 27th New album features Ludacris, Three 6 Mifia and more as well as the club smash remix “Gettin Some”
WAIST DEEP SOUNDTRACK
in stores June 13th Album features new music from Ice Cube, Xzibit, Jim Jones and the sexy single “Bad Girl” from Black Buddafly. Check out www.waistdeep.net for a theatre near you
More than a trend, its a lifestyle...
June 6th Don Omar – King Of Kings
June 20th Hector Bambino ‘EL Father’ – Los Rompe Discotekas
July 18th N.O.R.E. – Y La Familia… Ya Tu Sabes MAy 2006 POUND 33 65
vo live st fr ok o ,r m us sia
battle of the celebrity babies
pound for pound pampers division
gerber division
vs
vs
sean preston spears
jolie-pitt fetus
suri cruise
violet afFleck garner
height:
a bud beer-Amid
height:
an orphan-amid
height:
a thetan or two
height:
smaller than jen’s GIant, dog-like jaw
weight:
couple o’ buds
weight:
couple o’ orphans
weight:
a million thetans
weight:
lighter than ben’s giant, dog-like dome
reach:
d-cup-like
reach:
ORPHAN-like
reach:
xenu-like
reach:
daredevil-like
kos:
spears’ dna
kos:
last shred of jen aniston’s dignity
kos:
any hope of katie getting free from “scien-tom-ogy”
kos:
the cachet of hyphenated surnames
pampers division
sean preston spears
jolie-pitt fetus
The first rule of fight club is don’t talk about fight club/ Especially when SP Spears clocks an unborn infant’s lights out/ That’s right, make noise, I’ll punch a baby like Dane Cook/ My womb-raider tendencies got mama Laura Croft’s whole frame shook/ Mr. & Mrs. Smith, meet Mr. & Mrs. Fist/ That ain’t SIDS, your wee one just signed a death wish/ So start making plans to adopt another one/ ’Cause like a bad nanny I’m about to smother one/ I know you’ll say my daddy can’t act, my daddy can’t rap/ True, but sucking Britney’s feminine fat?/ Whatchu know about that? I know all about that!/ This battle will be done quicker than my mom’s first marriage/ Watch you flop like that weak routine with the horse and carriage/ Not talking about Cam’Ron but your father in Troy/ Imagine that: getting sonned before they know if you’re a girl or a boy…
Head crack head crack! Preston’s broken skull’s from neglectful dad and mom/ Kid’s falling off faster than Britney’s last song/ Her Snatch stinks breeding fat pigs from that half wit Stan with wack bland euro-dance shit/ Fact is, ass kicking happens from the babe magnet slash Se7en-like savage Brad Pitt/ Plus Angelina’s meaner than that sleazy Lolita Mousketeer cheerleader that gets even less respect than X-tina/ Rhymes are hurtin you lying virgins cause I’m a violent person like Tyler Durden/ You a retarded snitch aka: Special-K-Fed/ Admit your disco-”rap” fanbase consists of flaming gay men/ It’s okay when hip hop cops convict you, just get that PopoZao!/ In the state pen/ Bitch, please, I quickly say ‘fuck your life’/ Britney won’t live to say ‘hit me baby one more time’
gerber division
suri cruise
violet afFleck garner
For you to beat me is more than Mission: Impossible/ bitch ass gimp in a ditch, twitching wishing for airlift to a hospital/ I cannot die before you, my dad’s The Last Samurai/ Newborn Wit’ Attitude blastin tykes cuz of my love for destruction appetite/ I spray some words and reign supreme, call ‘em my Days Of Thunder/ gay thugs make your bum hurt when you’re an inmate with nameless number/ it’s Good Will Hunting when I kill you Mallrats cause you’re so greasy/ the Sum of All Fears is wack Affleck making a sequel to Gigli/ fuck Alias, we’re some aliens L. Ron Hubbard declared most special coming from Earth/ ayo, the wackest Marvel movies were Elektra and Daredevil, motherfucker!
Roses are red, Violets are dope/ So I flip the bird at Scientology like the new Pope/ Your Mommy and Daddy make a real cute couple/ But a couch-bouncing loony doesn’t deserve breasts that supple/ Yup, it’s the born daredevil, here to school you in ga-ga-goo-goo violence/ Ask your pops, I’m dropping pseudoscience/ Enough to blind your eyes wide shut/ By the way, straight up, Vanilla Sky sucked/ Harder than me on Mommy after a long nap/ How much money did your dad show the PR guy to come up with “TomKat”?/ You can’t handle the youth—your verse will fall flat/ Word to Rain Man and Mike Jones: Your verse will fall flat/ After I mush ’em up, I eat toddler emcees like fresh placenta/ So when your nut-job father gives his own offspring severe dementia/ Just make sure he doesn’t catch you with the depression pills Doc sends ya….
Finals
sean preston spears
suri cruise
The evil progeny of a lip-syncher and her male backup dancer/ Squirmed out the birth canal lookin’ like the Supreme Chancellor/ All wrinkly, wrapped in a cloak/ The National Enquirer knows I ain’t no joke/ Eighteen inches tall, flipping that intoxicating flow like a kegger/ I thank your mom Joey for smoking while she was preggers/ That explains while you babble that slow, off-beat flow sounding dumb funny/ I’ll have you crying like that baby from “Are You That Somebody?”/ Leave your Pampered ass up Dawson’s Creek without a paddle, just a rattle/ And if you dare retaliate, to a grownup I’ll no doubt tattle/ No more apple sauce or OshKosh B’Gosh/ Sorry, Suri, you’ll be stuck on Tiker’s Island, getting your salad tossed…
Suri Cruise, nothing to lose, like a bum holding an empty bottle of booze/ Ask your pops about that, Kevin knows about all about that/ Trailer trash, vomit choking and a little coke snorting/ Fucked your moms, then started the extorting/ Another baby that should’ve been an abortion/ Call the good Reverand Al Sharp—torn/ Please start the exorcism/ Please stop this abberation/ We don’t need mo’ trash in the nation/ Ain’t nathan sacred of crossing slut with rapist/ It’s all Satan when crossing slut with rapist/ Don’t make me call my Sea Nation/ My dad’s teammates and ‘em/ Do worse than cremating ‘em/ Spend time berating ‘em/ Brainwashing ‘em/ Gettin them to spend every cent on ‘em/ What? Ya’ never heard of a thetan son?
and the winner is...
66 POUND 33 may 2006
Ain’t nothing gullier than celebrity families, from the womb to the tomb, Hollyhood rides harder than the Rolling 20s—it’s real cuz. But heirarchy is paramount in the underworld, and the King of Los Angeles (The KOLA), has gotta be the bred-in-the-bones, trailer-parking,, bud-chugging spawn of Spears.
THIS FRESH 18 YEAR OLD MC HAILING FROM L.A. WANTS TO KNOW
WHERE MY LADIES AT?
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www.aksent.com MAy 2006 POUND 33 67
68 POUND 33 may 2006