Pound Magazine by Pound Magazine

october 2006 • POUND 35 •

• POUND 35 • october 2006

october 2006 • POUND 35 •

• POUND 35 • october 2006

october 2006 • POUND 35 •

• POUND 35 • october 2006

october 2006 • POUND 35 •

• POUND 35 • october 2006

october 2006 • POUND 35 •

10 • POUND 35 • october 2006

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 11

off center box Better Left Undone Not to be a party pooper, but there are so many things in life that you’re going to work hard for that are going to be such a letdown when you finally experience them. It might just be the soulcrushing depression that’s clouding my perspective, but I believe I speak from experience when I tell ya that these four things aren’t as fun as this editorial. Expensive Champagne

At $200, one bottle of Dom Perignon will cost you just over 25 minimum-wage hours of work (and that’s before taxes). You’ll drink it in a half hour—or if it’s New Year’s, you’ll share it with some friends and it’ll be gone in five minutes. Now, if you buy it in a bar, you’re looking at $400 for a bottle (51 hours of labour), which you’ll share with some girl who will give you the clap (the antibiotics: another $40). Worse still, champagne connoisseurs know Dom Perignon has “off years.” What? Is there any other luxury product out there that just sucks some years? Could you imagine buying a Bentley and someone saying, “You got a 2005 Bentley? Ouch. That’s the year Hyundai made them.” Dealing Drugs

A 2003 study conducted by RAND researchers showed that the average American d-boy worked 20 hours a week and made $2,500 a year.* That works out to $2.40 an hour. (I ain’t playing maing— how expensive does that Dom P look now?) For this $2.40 you’ll have dirty fiends in your face, be poisoning the community, have po-po on you 24/7/365 and you “might-could-be” funding terr’ism. Political Hip-Hop

It’s commonly held wisdom that the easiest way to get featured in Pound is to rhyme about how much you hate the powers that be. Shit, if I were a rapper, I’d think that too. I mean, how many times have we had Boots Riley in the magazine? Don’t get me wrong, we’re all for educating the youth, but it needs to sound dope first and foremost. On top of that, y’all keep getting the facts wrong. Old Rappers… Live!

This is what psychologists call “projecting.” Check it. Old people go to Rolling Stones concerts and talk about how “Jagger still rocks, man.” But nay—Jagger doesn’t still rock. You just think he rocks so you don’t have to admit that even with millions of dollars and fine women and pyrotechnics, Mick Jagger still looks like a coat hanger covered in flesh-coloured tissue paper, dangling in the breeze. And if you admit that, you admit that with your thousands of dollars and saggy wife and Dominican cigars you look way worse. Now apply this to rap. Ahh, that was fun. I got more for you kids, but I know you won’t listen. Tomorrow you’ll hop off that corner with $450 in your pocket and go to the club to pop the Dom with a hood-rat while you pump your fists to X-Clan. And I’ll be right next to you shaking my head ‘cause you stole my whole steez (and my sagging girl). RODRIGO BASCUÑÁN aka BUNS

*See for yourself, Mr. Frank White Jr.: www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/articles_publications/publications/drugselling_20030401/drugselling.pdf

12 • POUND 35 • october 2006

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 Contributors Simon Black Vanessa Bruno Chris Coates Susana Ferreira Luke Fox Joe Galiwango Tara Henley Majid Mozaffari Jeremy Relph Adhimu Stewart Celine Wong Andrea Woo Photographers Dan Bergeron Che Kothari Ryan Patterson Matthew Salacuse Pound Legal Carina Emnace Cover Photo k-os: Che Kothari & Ryan Patterson Ludacris: 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 #35 October 2006

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 13

ight N aco T s Tuesday i

a big ol mess of rap snacks prepared

by Luke Fox

TALES FROM THE ’HOOD Old-school throw-upper DJ Kayslay recalls his favourite bombing mission:

“It was a top-to-bottom, a whole car. It said DEZ and TRAP, and I had did it and dedicated it to one of my friends called VIC that was down with us and got killed. It was like I was so determined to finish this piece that I was dusted up. When I was younger I used to smoke that PCP shit. They told me that I kept blacking out in the train yard, and they would have to lay me down inside the car. And then I’d wake up and start finishing [the piece], then I’d black out again. What was so crazy is, when everybody seen the piece, they was like, ‘Damn, that’s the best shit you did.’ But they didn’t know what went behind it. Shit, I was collapsing in the fucking train yard doing that shit. And the piece was just crazy. I painted a whole car with a big amount of colours and threw the dedication on top. That was it, right there. I had to be about 18, maybe ’84, ’83.”

I don t know what I like but I know art.

GLASS JOE'S PUNCHLINE OF THE MONTH “You and your hypeman can get beaten ‘til I can't tell who's Will and who's Grace.” — Verbal Kent “Dead Serious”

THIS ISSUE’S DISS-YOU Someone connected to the Internets took the time to edit out all of Lake’s verses and create a Cormega-only version of the album My Brother’s Keeper, originally attributed to “Lake featuring Cormega.” Where was this hacker when we wanted a Treach-only edition of Naughty By Nature?

ES SWEET G’S GAM AY PL E PL PEO Bored at your desk? Kick-push-coast Pharrell around on his two-bit skateboard in this Paperboy-styled video game. More fun than listening to Skateboard P’s album. http://universalurban.com/pharrell/skate.php

14 • POUND 35 • october 2006

CRAIG MACK SAYS, “THAT’S A GOOD LOOK!” Detroit producer Black Milk, a prized pupil in the J Dilla School of Beatmaking, laces Pharoahe Monch’s rabble-rousing street single, “Let’s Go.” A good look for the underrated artist, whose self-produced MC album, Sound of the City Vol. 1, is a must-cop.

HEADZ LINE

Racist Much?

Your niece’s favourite rap act faces police profiling in P.E.I. In a town meeting, the Charlottetown council stated that the city’s entire police force, plus fire and ambulance services, would be on hand to deal with whatever mayhem the Black Eyed Peas decide to get started at Charlottetown Driving Park. Joanne MacLeod, whose home neighbours the venue, will not be shaking her lovely lady lumps come concert time. “It looks like just because the Barenaked Ladies concert went over well that everything else was going to be well. But you’ve got to realize the Barenaked Ladies had an age group of 15 to 60,” MacLeod said. “This concert is going to take 13 to 25 [year-olds]. A lot more alcohol, drugs, needles, whatever can take place at any concert.” In a related story, Anne set Green Gables ablaze to collect on house insurance. The red-headed heroine will use the cash to pump heroin into her forearms.

HATER’S BALL Honourary Guest: The CD’s Bonus DVD Call me Luddite, Brokeback, or whatever is the punk-off du jour, but I have about as much use for the bonus DVD as I do the male nipple, which is none. I know why they exist (the DVDs, I mean)—to help sell a retail CD to a public accustomed to downloading everything but their father’s acceptance. But I will continue to ignore 20-minute bonus DVDs, with their overrated exclusive!!! footage and under-produced videos ’cause I buy albums for the music... and the 476 misspelled liner-note shoutouts.

GOOGLE 4 YOUR NOODLE The best from the Interweb A glorious YouTube clip features the Teletubbies dancing to “Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It.” DFB (or is it D4L?) share much in common with Tinky Winky, La La, Dipsy and Po: four guys only distinguishable by the colour of their outfits who appeal to an audience just grasping their motor skills. www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5WIt6vPfZk

SAY HUH?

nn a/ Go ski nn y“I tak e it off and get nu de if I wa A.G .,“If I Wa nn a” dip pin g in the po ol if I wa nn a.” october 2006 • POUND 35 • 15

YOU RE A PROBLEM! i

By Tara Henley

L GOES WRONG

IT REA wrong Ggoes real EN KEEitPIN WHkeeping When

glorifying street reporter. They insist that they aren’t y. Rappers often claim to play the role of . They name their albums world the of There’s a lot of talk in hip-hop about realit rest the to ica Amer city ng the grim conditions of inner crime or violence, that they’re merely relayi story.” “true and talk” “real like es phras catch after the ty and racism to powerful effect. They share s actually do highlight the results of pover debeen have lives e whos duals Sometimes this stance is justified. Some artist indivi of stories unities divided by violence. They tell the pain of families torn apart by drugs and comm deferred by lack of resources. been have s dream e whos and dice, stroyed by dehumanizing preju leaves of current hip-hop is macho posturing that music only shows part of the picture. So much hip-hop. for real too are that s But, more often than not these days, rap topic five Here’s rap. ’s a lot of subjects that remain taboo in little room for reality. Truth be told, there

HOMOSEXUALITY SUBSTANCE ABUSE Everyone and their uncle is a hustler right now. Dudes will brag about slanging crack all day long, but nobody will admit to smoking it. Rap artists and fans alike spend an inordinate amount of time getting crunk in the clubs, getting weeded out at the crib, and, in some cases, hitting hard drugs with a vengeance. Yet nobody wants to talk about addiction. You hear about rock stars and pop divas and fashion models and Hollywood actors going to treatment centres all the time—trips to rehab are pretty much de rigueur in most circles of entertainment. But the beef-oriented, hyper-masculine climate of hip-hop makes showing vulnerability a liability. Rappers are often too hard, too image-obsessed—too disdainful of anything that could ever be perceived as corny—to get help when they need it. Let alone address the issue on wax.

DOMESTIC ABUSE

When I interviewed Kanye West last year, he told me that taking a stand against homophobia in his speech at the MTV Awards was scarier for him than speaking out against Bush during the Katrina crisis. “People are so homophobic,” he explained. “You bring it up, they think ‘Oh, you must be gay.’ Like you can’t be a straight dude that thinks it’s wrong to gay bash. People are so scared to talk about [it], but it’s in our faces every day.” Statistically speaking, there has to be gay rappers among hip-hop’s upper echelon—but we’ll probably never know, since coming out would almost certainly ether their careers. The funny thing about hip-hop’s homophobia is that the culture is often visibly homoerotic. Prison culture has a strong presence in hip-hop, bringing with it a history of covert gay sex. Male groupie fanboys worship their hip-hop heroes, to the point that online music nerds have taken to adding the “no homo” disclaimer to anything and everything they write. Also, it’s worth pointing out that rappers are regularly dressed by homosexual stylists, and often inadvertently wind up with cover art that resembles gay chat line posters. Word to 50 Cent on The Massacre.

Most dudes do not want to acknowledge that the casual “smack my bitch up” sexism of hip-hop is actually a reflection of reallife patterns of domestic abuse. According to Elizabeth Mendez Berry’s March 2005 VIBE article “Love Hurts” (which quotes the National Centre for Health Statistics), murder at the hands of a romantic partner is the leading cause of death for African-American women aged 15-24. Yet the hip-hop community remains unwilling to deal with the issue. The resistance to dialogue is so intense, in fact, that there was backlash against Big Pun’s widow Liza Rios when she went public with her story.

16 • POUND 35 • october 2006

sound choice G-Unit playboy Lloyd Banks follows up his multi-platinum debut solo album THE HUNGER FOR MORE with his second installment, ROTTEN APPLE. The highly anticipated new album features the requisite cameos by fellow G-Unit soldiers 50 Cent, Young Buck, and Tony Yayo, as well as Scarface. Production by Eminem, Timbaland, Havoc, 9th Wonder, Needlz and Ron Brownz completes the star-studded gathering. Add Banks’ punchline style, and this album is destined to be a classic! Includes “Cake”, “My House” & “Hands Up” featuring 50 Cent.

music ¥ DVD ¥ more

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 17

SPIRITUALITY In the midst of the sex, drugs, and cash hedonism of the music business, anyone that’s trying to live by religious principles is considered an oddball. As such, the growing Christian hip-hop movement (Holy Hip-Hop) has been widely ignored by the media and the industry alike. It’ll be interesting to see how Lupe Fiasco—a Muslim who shares his struggle to live according to his faith—will be received. Rappers are ballin’. They drive pimped-out rides, hit Jacob for iced-out chains, hop on private jets to holiday at exclusive resorts in the Caribbean. Or so they would have us believe. A recent article in the Denver Post shocked the hip-hop community by revealing that Common’s father is facing hard times and recently lost his home. Common, whose last album sold in excess of 800,000 units, was apparently powerless to help him. “What I got, I can give. But things aren’t always how they look,” Common explained. Hip-hop artists are often a lot poorer than they appear, and many are downright broke.

RTY POST-DEAL POVE

ents when we repress these elem hop. It’s just to point out that hipon rag icto add not is with this ng of All heads—folks struggli environment where hip-hop to true be to get ’t of the culture, we create an don lity— , or spiritua closet, with abuse, poverty tion, with coming out of the keeping it real. At all. themselves. And that’s not

outta here METHOD MAN

By Andrea Woo

It is a wholly satisfying experience to throw a clenched fist at the head of someone who has wronged you, connect with a crispy thwack and send teeth spinning violently into orbit as their unconscious owner slumps into a flaccid heap on the pavement. Perhaps with the exception of the spinning teeth, Wu-Tang Clan’s Masta Killa did just that in 1994, with Rap Pages writer Cheo H. Coker on the highly-unenviable receiving end of the fist of fury. Coker had written a rather positive feature on the group, but the editors had run it with a set of caricatures depicting the Clan as less-than-hetero-looking superheroes. The result was an encounter that has become a hip-hop urban legend of sorts, with some accounts claiming that, after the knock-down, Raekwon reportedly snarled, “Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothin’ to fuck with!” With this in mind, it would not be entirely unbelievable for fellow Wu-Tang Clan member Method Man to follow suit, pulling a rap critic’s tongue out his mouth and stabbing that shit with a rusty screwdriver. Or, perhaps, sewing his asshole closed and feeding him. After all, it is no secret that he has been pissed at the media lately. In a recent interview with NobodySmiling.com, he said some variation of “fuck” more than 100 times and called the interviewer no less than 15 names, including “you fucking writing piece of shit.” “It’s like I finally get the inside joke,” said Meth, on a break during the tail end of a recent Wu-Tang Clan tour. “You know, people weren’t laughing with me, they were laughing at me.” Rather than bludgeoning writers, however, Meth has taken a more

18 • POUND 35 • october 2006

carnage-free approach to unleashing his wrath. For roughly eight months out of the past year, he has been crafting his latest album, 4:21... The Day After, which dropped August 29. The 20-track disc is littered with angry references to every critic who’s ever had anything bad to say about the M-E-T-H-O-D Man, culminating in the surprisingly calm “Say.” He spits: “The last album, [they] wasn’t feelin’ my style/ This time my foot up in they ass, bet they feelin’ me now/ ’Cause Tical, he put his heart in every track he do/ But somehow, you find some way to give a wack review/ It ain’t all good, they writing that I’m Hollywood/ Trying to tell you my shit ain’t ghetto and they hardly hood/ Come on man, until you dudes can rhyme, keep that in mind when you find yourself reciting mines....” His worst criticism, arguably, stems from the short-lived Method & Red TV series, which was known for its horrific editing and sigh-inducing laugh track. Meth has criticized the show for these reasons himself. It is no coincidence, however, that it was during the airing of this widelylambasted show that Meth sold 164,000 copies of Tical 0: The Prequel, his widely-lambasted last album, its first week out. The exposure had translated into album sales. This time around, with scant media presence and an appalling lack of promotion from his Def Jam label, 4:21... The Day After, an album widely regarded as being considerably better than The Prequel, sold just 62,000 copies its first week, further fueling chatter that perhaps Meth is on his way out. But it would be too easy—and wrong—to dismiss Mr. Mef on these grounds alone. It is hardly up for discussion that his star isn’t twinkling as brightly as it was in the ’90s, but then again, the suffocating layer of smog known as the music industry has since made some considerable changes of its own. So far this year, only one rap album—T.I.’s King —has gone platinum. The Diddy-assembled Danity Kane is trumping Outkast on the charts. Jay-Z and Nas are BFFs. The world of rap has become a strange place. Combined with the two aforementioned factors—inadequate promotion and minimal television exposure—there are more than enough straws on the Ticallion Stallion’s back to fracture something. So is Meth moseyin’ on “outta here,” as this column so innocently inquires? Kind of. Is it strictly his doing? Hardly. Method Man is currently on a grueling U.S. tour, for which he is performing almost nightly until mid-November, promoting 4:21 ... The Day After. “It’s my best work,” says Meth. “But I think the label needs to push me a little better, at least according to the people.”

PROTECT YOUR COUNTRYâ&#x20AC;ŚBY ATTACKING IT. You are Sam Fisher, covert operative, ruthless terrorist...double agent. Guns and ammo are your tools. Deception, betrayal, and sabotage are your lifeline. As you infiltrate a vicious terrorist group and destroy it from within, the choices you make affect the outcome of your game. How far will you go to complete your mission?

#/-).' 4()3 &!,,

777 30,).4%2#%,, #/-

ÂŠ 2006 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell Double Agent, Sam Fisher, the Soldier Icon, Ubisoft, Ubi.com, and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, the Xbox logos, and the Xbox Live logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. TM, ÂŽ, and the Nintendo GameCube logo are trademarks of Nintendo. ÂŠ 2001 Nintendo. â&#x20AC;&#x153;PlayStationâ&#x20AC;? and the â&#x20AC;&#x153;PSâ&#x20AC;? Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Online play requires internet connection and Memory Card (8MB) (for PlayStation 2) (each sold separately). The Online icon is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. Software platform logo TM and ÂŠ IEMA 2003. Mobile version ÂŠ 2006 Gameloft. All Rights Reserved. Gameloft and the Gameloft logo are registered trademarks of Gameloft S.A. october 2006 â&#x20AC;˘ POUND 35 â&#x20AC;˘ 19

JD Williams as Bo

die, left

SEE THROUG H YOU hbo,S The Wire

By Celine Wong

A million and one stories have been told on TV, but only one show will make you lie awake at night, force you to question your place in the world and show stories of neglect and struggle that will stay with you like an unshakeable nightmare. Now in its fourth season, The Wire is a complex web of characters and plots based on one of America’s forgotten cities, Baltimore. It’s a place that’s overrun by drug-runners, governed by corrupt politicians and policed by cops that aren’t heroic. Plus, it’s your favourite rapper’s favourite TV show. Referenced in song or video by artists including the Clipse, Paul Wall, Common and Talib Kweli, the series is required viewing for any hip-hop fan. So go rent the DVDs and watch from the beginning, then join in on Season 4, currently airing on The Movie Network and Movie Central. Still not convinced? Let The Wire’s creator/executive producer David Simon drop science on how television’s racist undertones influence the incarceration of minorities, and then get up close with actor JD Williams, who’s redefined the thinking thug thanks to his infamous character Bodie.

Simon Says

Intelligent Hoodlum

With Season 4 of The Wire well underway, creator David Simon exposes the criminal affects of TV’s most racist practices.

Step into Bodie’s corner of murder, mayhem and middle management with actor JD Williams.

“I’m very down on what American television has done in terms of fostering a cult of incarceration and what it’s done to sort of demonize people of colour. If you turn into The Wire, we’re not about catching the bad guy. The Wire is about defining what a bad guy really is, and whether or not we have the right to determine any more.

When you think of an overworked and frustrated middle manager, you’re probably not picturing a hoodie-wearing black male with a doo-rag. But on The Wire, the drug corners need middle management too. He’s not the king, who calls the shots but stays off the streets, and he’s not the pawn, who counts off vials for fiends and guards the stash. Instead, by remaining a loyal soldier, outsmarting the cops to avoid jail time, using street and business sense to manage his crew and murdering a friend when drug lord Avon Barksdale gives the nod, Preston “Bodie” Broadus has become one of The Wire’s most memorable managerial thugs. Hailing from Newark, NJ, 25-year-old JD Williams is the actor who brings Bodie to life. He got his start in school plays, earned the role of Kenny on HBO’s Oz, and then joined the cast of The Wire in Baltimore when the show began. “Of all the places I’ve traveled so far, I’ve never been anywhere like Baltimore,” Williams says of the city with a murder rate that’s seven times the national average. “It’s a very hard city to live in. My first couple of years down there, it was depressing.” When Williams first arrived, he toured the streets solo, all in the name of character research. “At midnight, I just threw on a black hoodie and I walked, which I know now not to do,” Williams laughs. “I ran into a lot of stuff that night – questions, dirty looks, running into fiends. I was actually glad to make it back to my hotel.” Right from The Wire’s first season, Williams showed exceptional talent for playing Bodie as a smart-ass pawn with great comedic timing and a punctuating, signature spit. “He’s a thinker first,” says Williams of his character. “Once he acts, his actions are insane, but he always thinks as much as he can before he moves.” “He’s been a stoic survivor,” says creator David Simon of Bodie, the name he also uses to refer to Williams. “We have at times killed off soldiers but we’ve always made sure to preserve Bodie because he’s our best actor as a soldier on the street side.” However, on this show, even the most loved characters are vulnerable to unfortunate fates. In fact, most cast members read their scripts back-to-front, to ensure their character is alive at the end of each episode. “I never worry about being killed off, but everybody else does,” Williams admits. “I think death is a good thing. Everybody remembers the character that dies.” Even with a major regime change on the streets this season, Bodie’s fate hasn’t changed. He’s still stuck in the middle and still managing his corner crew. But tolerating change and outside pressure is something Williams knows all too well. “My grandmother, she hates seeing me be bad on TV,” he says with a laugh. “She’s waiting for me to play a good guy.”

David Simon, second from right , with cast

“The thing about American television that genuinely does go to the edge of racial prejudice, is that on most of the cop [shows] in America, the villains exist to validate the intellect, the heroism and the morality of the cop heroes. They are there to be niggers. Their race will not be held against them, we’re too smart and too post-civil rights to do anything as foolish as that. Nonetheless, they’re there—in their black skin or brown skin, if they’re Latino—in the interrogation room ready to be foiled for the frustrations of the white middle-upper class. And to me, it’s infuriating. “The Wire is definitely not interested in good or evil as defining concepts. But the multiplying growth of American police procedurals, it’s as if the system itself and the law itself and our own sense of selfrighteous superiority has now triumphed over the human condition. That’s been the net effect of so many Law & Orders and CSIs. I think it’s led to an America where there are two million people in federal prisons. “Half of the black males in my city [Baltimore] are in some way under the supervision of some element of the criminal justice system, either parole or probation or locked up. It is so easy to get locked up standing on the corner in Baltimore if you are black. A third of the city has been declared a drug-free zone by the city council, so if you’re loitering, you can take a charge. I can’t tell you how few white drug prosecutions there are. There’s what guys selling coke and dope in the suburbs and in the city too. That’s not a war against drugs, that’s a war on the underclass.” 20 • POUND 35 • october 2006

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 21

Babylon System unfriendly skies By Christian Pearce

As a display of power and skill, of aweinspiring sights and sounds, even your favourite rapper’s stage game doesn’t seem so fly by comparison. Air shows provide the mind with an expensive high, and, as a now unknown author once wrote, “Capture their minds, and their hearts and souls will follow.”

And the experience wouldn’t be complete without the chance to win their very own set of dog tags. “We come to the air shows,” Major Scott Wedemeyer, U.S. Air Force pilot, told the Los Angeles Times on June 26, 2000, “to show taxpayers what they are getting for their money and to inspire kids who are interested in the military.”

According to the International Council of Air Shows (ICAS), there are an estimated 200 events held annually across North America, drawing upwards of fifteen million viewers. Partly subsidized by governments at the federal and municipal levels, and heavily promoted by corporate media, these events feature civilian and stunt aircraft performing high-flying aerobatics. Still, most spectators are attracted to another, less death-defying, aspect of air shows.

“His target isn’t just teenagers looking to enlist in the next few years,” the L.A. Times reported in the same article. “Air shows can inspire big dreams in small children as well.”

Air shows can inspire big dreams in small children For some overseas, the cutting-edge of aerial technology is daily demonstrated—they need not leave home to sneak a glimpse. Back at home, however, the sight of multimillion-dollar military hardware in flight is a rare treat indeed. In the July 2002 issue of its Press for Conversion, the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) reported that of a total of 392 aircraft known to have appeared at Canadian air shows, 326, or 83.2 percent, were military aircraft. Ninety-five percent of those were manufactured by G8 nations: 201 had American origins, while 67 were from Canada. As opposed to the appearance of these planes and choppers in many places abroad, air shows are clean fun for the whole family—especially the little ones. On Labour Day weekend at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto, thanks to presenting sponsor Tim Horton’s— which hopes through its charitable foundation to foster “within our children the quest for a brighter future—” youngsters not only got to gawk at the finest flyers taxpayer dollars can buy, they even got to play with assault rifles, check out the latest in missile technology, and put their sticky lil’ fingers all over the firing buttons on military aircraft.

22 • POUND 35 • october 2006

And with the illusion of moral purity among pro athletes being rapidly eroded, air force pilots figure nicely as alternative role models. “Our heroes are real,” declares the ICAS on its website, “and personify a commitment to excellence not seen in other sports. You won’t find our athletes arrested for drugs and drinking. Their very life depends on flawless execution.” In other words, air shows ain’t a game. As Sergeant Major Herbert A. Friedman, who served more than 26 years with the U.S. military before being honourably discharged in 1995, explained to Pound: “Airshows are (1) a way to get recruits for your service and (2) a way to make a population both proud of their nation’s aerial might and more confident about a nation’s ability to protect its borders. In international air shows it is also a way to build jobs and bring economic benefits since the USA, Britain and France (among others) compete in selling civilian and military aircraft to the rest of the world. We might also say that in the USA it is way to keep the coffers open since the Navy and USAF compete for budget dollars from Congress.” G8 defense contractors are in constant competition with one another for foreign business and with social spending for domestic tax dollars. “Air shows can create a point of differentiation,” says the ICAS, “and can drive business and increase customer loyalty.” The sell functions as well for Tim Horton’s as for Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s biggest weapons manufacturer. On August 30, 2006, the Dallas Morning News reported that Lockheed Martin’s F-22

Raptor, which hit supersonic speeds above Toronto’s lakeshore, advertised the Canadian International Air Show, on “Saturday Only,” costs between C$149 million and $269 million each (US $133 million and $240 million). The U.S. Air Force wanted to buy 700 Raptors, which the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) says gives a “first-look, first kill capability against multiple targets,” but the Pentagon would only approve the purchase of 183 F-22s. As the most lucrative sector in the arms business, the aerospace industry has watched its fortunes soar in recent years. The world’s 100 biggest military companies, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing and BAE Systems, all of which ignored Pound’s requests for information about the role that air shows play in their marketing, have seen sales rise by 60 percent since 2000. This year, arms spending globally, largely backed by U.S. taxpayers, will reach C$1.19 trillion, surpassing the Cold War peak. This number is far from comparable with the C$68 billion being spent on international aid. “In my opinion the arms trade is the modern slave trade,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote in the Globe and Mail on September 15, 2006. Air shows represent a frontline in the arms industry’s marketing campaign against Western citizens. “Thinkin’ how they spend $30 million dollars on airplanes/ When there’s kids starvin’” – The Game, “Hate It Or Love It,” off

The Documentary (2005)

While the cost of the high-tech sector’s success at home is countless American children left hungry, on foreign soil the same fighter planes that amaze Westerners in air shows exact a much higher price. The events bring audiences all of the excitement without any of the destruction. As COAT states, “air shows sanitize horror.” On March 22, 2003, after several F-16s, “still the world’s most formidable fighter” in the words of Lockheed Martin, flew over Iraqi airspace, the Independent reported on the impression the planes had left on those below. According to the story, the F-16s, a fixture in North American air shows, had killed 50 Iraqi civilians in a bombing run

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 23

is it right to make a public spectacle out of war planes that are designed to kill?

over Basra, after which Al-Jazeera “aired grisly and explicit images of the dead and wounded including a child with the back of its skull blown off and blood-stained people being treated on the floor of a hospital.” In a more recent overseas demonstration of the same aerial power on display in air shows, an F-15 killed 25 Iraqi civilians with precision-guided bombs, including 18 children who were making fun out of a burnt-out Humvee. “At Ramadi hospital,” wrote the Washington Post on October 17, 2005, “distraught families fought over body parts severed by the airstrikes, as grieving households laid rival claims to what they believed to be pieces of their loved ones.” “Six-year-old Muhammed Salih Ali,” added the Post, “was buried in a plastic bag after relatives collected what they believed to be parts of his body” Collateral damage due to errant airstrikes has not been limited to Iraq, nor is it a recent phenomenon. Going back to December 30, 2001, U.S. military aircraft were accused of killing as many as a hundred people in eastern Afghanistan’s village of Niazi Kala. A Guardian reporter who covered the scene observed “bloodied children’s shoes and skirts, bloodied school

24 • POUND 35 • october 2006

books, the scalp of a woman with braided grey hair, butter toffees in red wrappers, wedding decorations.” A July 11, 2006, article by the Times of India included more recent information about the death of 60 civilians and the wounding of 30 others in airstrikes over the villages of Deh Jauze, Sarosah and Kakrak in southern Afghanistan. “We’ve been called on in Afghanistan to have a wide range of effects,” U.S. Air Force Lt. General Gary L. North was quoted by Fox News on June 7, 2006, “and we have been dropping bombs in support of the ground component . . . We’ve been having very good success.” North told Fox News that the USAF’s B-1B Lancer bomber, which appeared at the CNE air show on “Sunday and Monday Only,” and the A-10 Thunderbolt II, better known as the “Warthog,” had been involved in the majority of the bombing sorties. The A-10 Warthog not only has the ability to fire Maverick air-to-surface missiles at targets, it also packs a 30mm Avenger Gatling gun with a firing rate of 3,900 rounds per minute. The “Hog” fires shells manufactured from depleted uranium, a nuclear waste byproduct used to give ammunition more penetrating power, but which turns old

battlefields into radioactive hotbeds, causing an increase in cancer among the local population. On September 3, 2006, at an air show in Cleveland, Ohio, five members of the local Catholic Worker Community were arrested in front of an A-10 Thunderbolt presentation. The protestors had rolled out a banner reading, “War is Not Entertainment. These Planes Kill.” According to the website for the 2006 Cleveland National Air Show, “The A-10 is a simple, effective and survivable twin-engine jet aircraft that can be used against all ground targets.” Including coalition soldiers. On September 4, 2006, a day after the protestors in Cleveland were jailed, Canadian Private Mark Graham, a former Olympian and a member of the 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment, was killed when two NATO-controlled, American-piloted Warthogs opened fire on a Canadian platoon with their DU-loaded Gatling guns. Another 30 Canadian soldiers were wounded. In response, the Nova Scotia International Air Show asked that the demonstration A-10 Thunderbolt not make the flight to the Halifax International Airport, replacing it with the F-15E Eagle after talks with the United States Air Force. “We are sorry to be canceling such a popular and interesting aircraft presentation,” said Colin Stephenson, the show’s director. “Many fans have e-mailed and called asking that we still bring it and I’m sure it will be back in the future.” One of those originally opposed to the A-10’s appearance was Nova Scotia’s Joyce Clooney. On April 17, 2002, Clooney’s grandson, Private Richard Green, was killed, along with Private Nathan Smith, Corporal Ainsworth Dyer and Sergeant Marc Leger, when a U.S. F-16, piloted by Illinois National Guardsmen Major Harry Schmidt and William Umbach, dropped a bomb on Canadian troops involved in nighttime live-fire exercises in Afghanistan. Schmidt blamed the incident, in which eight other Canadian soldiers were injured, on the “fog of war,” and said in Chicago Magazine’s April 2005 issue that he and his co-pilot had taken standard-issue USAF amphetamines an hour before the tragedy. Known as Dexedrine in drug stores, “speed” on the streets and “go pills” in U.S. Air Force circles, the powerful psycho-stimulant enhances alertness and self-confidence, but can cause panic and aggressiveness in cases of overdose. “Bombs away, cranking left, lasers on. Shack*,” Schmidt, since grounded and fined $5,000, said as he absorbed the impact of his F-16’s arsenal. To this point, 37 Canadians have lost their lives in Afghanistan, of which 32 died violently. 5 Canadian soldiers have been killed in hostile friendly-fire episodes involving U.S. warplanes, amounting to 13.5 percent of all Canadian deaths in the conflict. In a September 2006 report, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives determined that if the cur-

rent fatality rate continues until the end of our mission in Afghanistan in January 2009, another 108 Canadians will be killed in the conflict. But if the current rate of friendly-fire deaths also remains unchanged, around fourteen Canadian troops will die by fire from U.S. military aircraft in the same time period. All while Canadians back home are dazzled by the sublime trickery of the same machines doing the killing. Asked by Pound whether it is right to “make a public spectacle out of war planes that are designed to kill,” Richard Cooper, President of the show at the CNE, responded, “The Canadian International Air Show has no comment.” “Fire bite invades the night with light/ Loud Fighter planes shower shell rain” – Mos Def, “War,” off The New Danger (2004)

When it comes to air shows, like dead prez said, “It’s psychology, boy.” Modern warfighters understand that technological superiority represents only part of the equation. Bodies numbered on the battlefield only count so much. If you can’t eventually control minds, the larger war can never be won. The U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Publication 1-02 defines psychological operations, a.k.a. PSYOP, as “planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups and individuals.” PSYOP utilize various methods of communication, from showering leaflets to radio broadcast takeovers, to shape and reshape the way human beings think and act. From Sun Tzu to Napoleon Bonaparte to Adolf Hitler, PSYOPs, by one name or other, have been a critical component of war for centuries. And in this regard, writes retired U.S. Major Ed Rouse, “Your primary weapons are sight and sound.” The majestic roar of military jet engines, the image of their sleekly engineered contours and potentially devastating payloads is more than enough to demoralize an enemy or encourage an ally. “PSYOP forces,” reads an Air Force report dated August 27, 1999, “support U.S. national and military objectives through planned operations to convey information to target audiences. PSYOP provide a low-cost, high-impact method to deter adversaries and obtain the support of friendly or neutral target audiences.” “PSYOP?” Sergeant Major Friedman, an expert on psychological operations, asked Pound rhetorically of air shows. “Not in the normal way. The Blue Angels certainly do not mold the hearts and minds of the Shiites or Taliban. Perhaps you could make

a minor case for internal PSYOP since the American citizens that attend such shows might be led toward a certain patriotic zeal.” In general, PSYOP are reserved for foreign populations. Using such Orwellian terminology to describe air shows risks disturbing domestic audiences. Instead, the U.S. Air Force labels gatherings such as air shows as public affairs operations. According to a USAF document dated October 25, 1999: “Commanders should consider community relations activities as a fundamental part of building public support for military operations. Public affairs operations bring together Air Force people and the civilian community through events such as air shows.” Whatever the United States Air Force chooses to call air shows, they serve to gear Westerners up for war, giving us the opportunity to view high-tech warfare as entertainment. We marvel at the aerial technology while our perception is separated, much as it is by mainstream newscasts, from the reality of the bloodshed that the military aircraft seen in air shows are associated with. “Public affairs operations support a strong national defense,” says a USAF paper published June 24, 2005, “in effect preparing the nation for war, by building public trust and understanding for the military’s contribution to national security and its budgetary requirements. These operations make taxpayers aware of the value of spending defense dollars on readiness, advanced weapons, training, personnel, and the associated costs of maintaining a premier aerospace force.” *According to www.urbandictionary.com, “Shack” is defined as: “A term used by military pilots, esp. the Air Force, to indicate to combat controllers, targeters, and air command that the assigned or engaged target has been hit in a manner other than superficial damage.” Sources: Los Angeles Times, “A Sign (Up) From Above,” 06/26/00; FAIR, “NYT Buries Story of Airstrikes on Afghan Civilians,” 01/09/02; CBC News, “U.S. pilots took amphetamines before ‘friendly fire’ incident,” 12/21/02; Paul R. Guevin, “Psychological Operations,” 2004; Canadian Press, “Schmidt haunted by memories of friendly-fire bombing,” 03/16/05; Washington Post, “U.S. Airstrikes Take Toll on Civilians,” 12/24/05; Cleveland Indy Media Center, “Catholic Workers Arrested at Cleveland Air Show,” 09/03/06; TASC, “Kids Play With Assault Weapons and Guided Missiles, War Planes Thunder Over Toronto, and a Small Group Calling for the Demilitarization of the Ex Takes Flight,” 09/04/06; CBC News, “Air show pulls U.S. warplane from lineup,” 09/06/06; Canadian Press, “Nova Scotia air show drops Warthog warplane after friendly-fire deaths,” 09/08/06; Canoe, “List of Canadian casualties in Afghanistan,” 09/18/06; Ottawa Citizen, “Canadians in Afghanistan face greater death threat,” 09/18/06; Steven Staples and Bill Robinson, “Canada’s Fallen: Understanding Canadian Military Deaths in Afghanistan,” September 2006; “Arms spending hits all-time high,” September 22, 2006; www.airshows.org, “AIR SHOWS: Power, Passion, Performance”; www.cias.org; www. lockheedmartin.com, www.psywarrior.com

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 25

Rcade

Keep Your Stick on the ice and Your Beef on the Bar-B-Que former courier, current illustrator, and life-long video game phreak, rcade, has played a lot of games (of the upright variety) in his days. luckily for us, sometimes he puts down the controller and picks up a pen to make some dope art. Pound: What’s with all the allusions to video games in your work? Are you just a video game freak? Is that how the name came about? Rcade: Some of my favourite artwork stems from game art and the companies that make them, Capcom being my favorite. The name, Rcade, came from me trying out new names to write. When I came up with “Arcade,” that was it, that’s me in a nutshell. Then after a couple of days trying tags and pieces on paper I dropped the first “a.” And henceforth, I was known as Rcade. What video games did you grow up with as a kid and where was the local arcade that you frequented? I have been playing games since the early ‘80s, first in restaurants like Chuck E. Cheese and Mr. Greenjeans with my folks. Then as I got older it was in corner stores, billiard halls and of course, arcades. But the corner stores had the biggest influence on me from age 8 to 15. What games, eh? Galaga, Galaga 88, Burgertime, Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede, Tron, Star Wars, 1942, 43, 41, Black Tiger, Arkanoid Revenge of DOH, Ninja Kid, Rolling Thunder, Karate Champ, WWF Superstars, Dodge Ball, Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, Cabal, Operation Wolf, all Street Fighter’s, Donkey Kong Jr., Pit Fighter, Metal Slug series, Magician Lord, Double Dragon, Contra, Jackal, Klax, Bubble Bobble, Nam 1975, Q-Bert, and R-Type just to name a few. But let me just make this clear, these are all arcade games, the ones that stand up and cost 25 cents. Not console versions for Sega and Nintendo, they all originated as an arcade game. And what games are you feeling now? All the games I listed off I still have access to on my computer so, I still play them from time to time. I have slowed down on my system playing over the years. I have a Gamecube with me right now and I’ve been playing Resident Evil 4 a lot. For some reason I can’t stop playing it. I can’t wait for the Nintendo Wii. I have always loved Nintendo but I’ll play anything good. It’s not the system, it’s what software companies can do with the system

26 • POUND 35 • october 2006

and how good the games are that they make. So if you are a devoted Sony guy or a Nintendo guy, that’s great, but there are great games for all systems. Don’t be a hater, be a player, playa. If World War III erupted tomorrow and you had to go and hide out in a secret bunker with your nieces and nephews, what games and what system would you bring with you to entertain yourself and what games would you want to have to educate the little ones? Well, I would have them all master the original games like Pac-Man and Galaxian on a computer. But as for one system, unless World War III started before the Nintendo Wii came out, that would be the one system. Since you can get the complete Nintendo back stock of games for it. Word! One of the sweetest aspects of your work is your ultra clean lines. Because of your steady hand, have you ever thought of moving to Kentucky or Cleveland or to become a fulltime pinstriper? Ah shucks, you sure know how to talk to a fella. No, I was thinking more like setting up in the Junction in Toronto with a members only arcade clubhouse that would also be an artist studio, best sandwiches in the city, toys and T-shirts, bi-monthly arcade competition centre, brothel and pin-striping garage. I remember you saying that you like to go out to the bar and doodle away in the Moleskin. Is that a great way to meet chicks or are the bar hounds inspiration for some of the characters that you draw? Yeah, some people would be of reference use when I would get stuck with something that I would be drawing, be it an ear or nose. And yes, you know, the girls, the girls, they love me; cause I’m the average weight lover r c a d e. It’s been a good way to break the ice with people too and for me everything and everyone is an influence. What projects do you have in the works these days? Well, I have been in Vancouver for the last year just working mostly. Other than my Moleskin project, I have few things on the go, but for the

most part I’m just trying to get out of housepainting full-time and wean my way to doing creative work full-time in the next year or so. I’ll have a website up next in the next few months and for the most part just keeping busy, chilling with good friends, b-b-que’n and boogaloo’n. But I’m always open for business doing T-shirt graphics, murals or whatever, holler. If I were to say Rizdog, what would your response be? Untapped empire. And the only product you will ever need. You were a courier for a while in Toronto and you’re still an avid biker. How has riding around influenced your work or the way that you view life? That’s a deep question yo! Yes, I was a courier for six years on and off. You meet some crazy, awesome, weird and cool people in and out of that business, some of which I miss and don’t miss equally. If the job paid well and had security I would still do it. When I would be right downtown in the thick of traffic, it’s just like a video game. It’s also fun as hell being on a bike. There are a few things that I need in order to keep my sanity, two of them being my art and my bike. Riding is what I do and until my body can’t handle pushing pedals, or ‘til the grim reaper comes a knocking on my door, I’ll be riding these city streets. Shout out time. Well I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my mom and pop, Alexander, Eleanor, Maxwell, Allison and Jason. Task, Wysper, Joe, Kwest, Shane, Patty, Ren, Sny, Nadir, Nery, Sko, Fauxreel, Zebe, Zion, The Bombshelter, Marcus, Mike, Matt and Reg Scapillati, Finish Strong, Sacred Heart tattoos, my shorty Chandel, and everyone else whom I have crossed paths with in my life, there are too many to mention.

For more information about Rcade check him out online at www.rcade.ca or email him at: rcade00@hotmail.com - dan bergeron

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 27

Prism

Refracting GrafFiti’s Essence Onto Welding pittsburgh native, prism, has gone from bombing around steel-town, to bombing with steel. from restaurants to skate ramps, prism can make your ish look tighter. Pound: If you do a Google search on “graffiti and Prism” the first listing that you’ll find is for a Hanoverian stallion. How did you end up with Prism as your moniker? Prism: I first chose the name Prism because I liked the flow of the word and I also needed a name change due to some legal issues surrounding previous antics. It came about because I was and supposedly still am known for using a ton of colour and for painting complicated insides, hence the reference to light refraction. Can you describe the early days of your interest in graffiti and your subsequent destruction of public and private property around Pittsburgh? Initially, I really liked the idea of destruction. My friends and I were always skateboarding and the two just seemed to fit together—skate all day and paint all night. Eventually I was injured while skateboarding and subsequently started paying more attention to graffiti, becoming more influenced by local writers and more interested in painting in general. The destruction came really naturally. When you grow up in any city in the States, you grow up around so much decay and destruction that you don’t really even think about it. It never really felt wrong to paint on things when people just didn’t seem to care about them anyways. How did you make the transition from painting on walls and freights to forging abstract shapes with metal as a welder? I was working on this show I was promoting and wanted to try something a little different. I was actually afraid of a welder when I first saw one because I thought it would make me blind. A couple of local sculptors helped me create my first piece. It was mad literal. Just a piece with the letters made out of metal and the approach was rough, but people really dug it. From there I was just sucked into it. I started making a lot of different work and trying out as many ideas as I could come up with. The people I knew who were music promoters or that owned clubs and restaurants started asking me if I could make things for them, and I saw the potential for a career that was fun and challenging instead of working some boring job everyday. I opened an art gallery and metal design studio in early 2000 and from there I became very serious about my work. Now I completely design and manage the building of commercial spaces like boutiques, restaurants, lounges as well as people’s homes.

28 • POUND 35 • october 2006

Do you think welding and design came naturally due to your involvement in the DIY subcultures of graffiti and skateboarding? Definitely. I learned how to draft designs & floor plans by building ramps and by drawing and spray painting words. I can also draw really fast from my graffiti experience and I find that I can decide on what to do with a surface without much planning. Most of the time I freestyle all of my graffiti pieces, so it just makes more sense to me to work that way now. I’ve started and finished my sculptures and even a lot of the restaurants and interiors I’ve done without much planning. It feels more organic and not as contrived and it gives my spaces and forms character. You know if you go into a place and it just feels really sterile, like it was too thought out or like it’s out of a textbook? This is one of the few reasons where I actually have an edge by being self-taught. I am happy my hands and mind aren’t so tied up by being overeducated and I feel that the approaches and techniques I learned out of necessity have given me a certain edge. I don’t really see any difference in the artistry between a good tag on an alley wall, a metal sculpture in an art gallery or a lounge where people can just chill. At last year’s Static Free event that you organized in Pittsburgh, you created a skateable bench. Any plans in the future for more skateboard-friendly installations?

The New Album by

Me, Myself & I In Stores Nov 11 Log on to www.emimusic.ca/urban and sign up for Urban rEMIx newsletter for the latest news, hottest videos, new music, contests and free stuff!

Appearances by The Game, & Lil Wayne. www.fat-joe.com october 2006 • POUND 35 • 29

I tried to get this group in Pittsburgh that had some funding to allow me to make an entire park with sculptures like that one. It turned out that they were looking for something smaller and more conservative. But it’s still one of my goals to do more with urban planning and design. I’m really into functional public art and I have a couple of projects that I would like to get funded. I also would still love to install the skate-able bench sculpture somewhere. Anyone have a home for this thing? How do you see graffiti now? What’s good, what needs to change? I honestly feel that a lot of graffiti has become a little redundant. I really love to paint, but I’m a little bored looking at it. I liked graf better when it wasn’t so cool to be a writer, when you didn’t see graffiti in TV commercials. That kept a lot of the album filler off the record. Don’t get me wrong, there are still a lot of good people out there doing it and there are new people added to that list every day. It’s really the same as the way the internet and marketing have distracted and overwhelmed us with total information overload. A lot of kids now just steal their style off of what they find online and they’re not learning or developing anything through the process of traveling and painting with different writers. The people that I’m most impressed with are those who are breaking the mold and challenging the boundaries of what we consider graffiti. But I still find myself taking a walk through a train yard once a week. And I still love to see a great throw-up or a good tag on a wall somewhere.

Now that you’re a home and geodesic dome owner and taxpayer, do you regret any of the tagging, piecing and bombing you’ve done and can you commiserate with the city and storeowners who despise graffiti? I think it makes sense that I ended up running a business fixing up properties. It’s sort of instant karma. Likewise, all the cats I knew growing up who stole cars are auto mechanics now. Regrets? Nah. I still hit some shit up every once and awhile and I love seeing good hands, throw-ups and pieces. Graffiti doesn’t destroy the structural integrity of a building, so I think that people in government and other community groups overreact a little. However, I really don’t like seeing small business owners hit when it’s really bad damage and since I am one now, I know just how hard they already have it. But I still get stoked when I see someone hit some big corporation or do something that’s just funny. Painting on retaining walls and freights—that doesn’t really harm anyone. When you think about all the time, money and resources spent on combating graffiti, that could be better spent on education or health care, it’s ridiculous. I’m not gonna lie though—if someone tagged my spot I’d be pretty salty. But as the saying goes, don’t hate the player, hate the game. It’d be pretty hypocritical for me to get mad at some kid that busted a tag on my spot. What’s been the biggest benefit of being involved in the graf community all these years and what have you learned? I’ve been lucky to meet a lot of cool and inspiring people I wouldn’t have met otherwise. Graffiti also got me to travel pretty extensively; otherwise I probably would have just stayed in Pittsburgh on the same corner where I got started. I always find it really inspiring to meet people who are way different than I am, or who have had totally different experiences. I’ve gotten to learn how big and how small the world can be that way. And with painting trains I always find that I come home all calm and with all my shit in perspective. Seeing how small you are in the train yard reminds you of how small we all really are in general.

When you’re out on that super information highway, take time to say hi to Prism at his MySpace site: www.myspace.com/109490520 - dan bergeron

30 • POUND 35 • october 2006

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 31

No wedding ring. No serious girlfriend or kids running around the mansion. Just 40 years of Oak-Town funk, 16 albums worth of yapping that pimp smack, and a knack for weaving narratives naughty enough to make Larry Flynt blush. Heck, Too $hort says he was the leading man in another real-life freaky tale last night. “Seriously, it’s been that kind of life,” he chuckles. Peep game (if you’re 18 or over).

Too $hort

No Offense By MF Luder

Since rap is viewed as a youthful music, how do you age gracefully in hip-hop? You indulge in the young girls. I don’t necessarily mean fuck ’em, but you indulge in ’em by going inside their minds by asking them and finding out by watching what makes them gyrate, what makes them smile, what makes their juices flow. What gives a young girl energy and life? Find that, and you tap into the fountain of youth. If you can tap into what makes a young girl blush, then you can tap into the fountain of youth. Once you get to be an old fogie stogie and you see a pretty young thing and you wanna test the waters and see if you can flirt with her, and she’s like, “This old man tried to flirt with me.” Once you cross into “dirty old man,” you got it. ’Cause there some old men who can wine and dine young girls in their ’60s. They probably have money, though. Well, damn it, you need your pimpin’ tools. Your pimpin’ tools are whatever it takes to be a pimp. If your pimpin’ tool is money, let it be money. Is there a real-life Blowjob Betty? There is not a real-life Blowjob Betty because that would mean that I went somewhere in a bathroom, and the girl sucked my dick, and I came, and she choked on the sperm and died. That didn’t happen. That whole image of Blowjob Betty? Of course, there’s real Blowjob Betties. Tina the Sperm Cleaner is areal person. Did you really get with Superhead? I can’t really say that, but I was close. I was close to the vicinity of where things was going down. I didn’t personally get Superhead, but it

sounded real good to say it in a rap. Did you really put your balls on a girl’s cheek while she was sleeping? All the time, man. Shit. Wake up! Get out of bed! Girls don’t like nice guys, man. Even if she makes a nice guy her boyfriend, she wants a bad boy experience every now and then. On “Strip Down” you rap, “Stop shaving that cat, girl/ You might need to get it waxed, girl.” What inspired that line? Strip clubs. If you know anything about women like I know, some women wax because the razor’s not good for them. Some women can just slap that razor on there, the hair grow back, they can do it. But if you go to strip clubs in Atlanta, you really will see some girls who have been shaving, and it’s like a guy who shaves his face and it grows back, he got that fucked-up leftover shaving shit—razor bumps and shit. On those half-showing a pussy, that shit ain’t cool. I say in the song, if you take off your panties and that pussy’s ugly because of them bumps around it, you might need to get it waxed, girl. Shit. You might need to stop shaving and get waxed. I like to teach in my rhymes, you know? In the middle of all the shit-talking, I like ’em to learn a lesson. How would you turn a nerdy, shy type of guy into a mack? If you were a straight nerd, you had no game for women, I would tell you this. And you gonna get slapped a few times and you might get looked at crazy, but it’s actually going to be a good exercise to gauge how females really are: Just walk up to the prettiest girl you know you can’t have and say—my name is Todd, right?—three words: “My name is Todd, bitch.” And then just see her reaction. It’s gonna actually get you slapped, pushed, frowned on, eyes rolled at, but after a while you gonna get a good reaction. Then what? From there, you just stick with your persona. Once you get that swagger, you overcome the fear of the approach. And after that you can be yourself. You didn’t say, “How do I get girls?” You said, “How do I become a mack?” And if you walk up and say, “My name is Todd, bitch,” eventually you’ll find a girl who wants to be your bitch.

32 • POUND 35 • october 2006

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 33

KELiS

YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF HER By Tara Henley

On Kelis’s lead single, “Bossy,” off her latest album, she announces haughtily: “You don’t have to love me, you don’t even have to like me, but you will respect me.” The Harlem R&B singer is essentially the female equivalent of Outkast’s Andre 3000: innovative, stylish, incredibly talented—and completely uninterested in conforming. Kelis is an anomaly in the music industry. Her tracks exude a natural, comfortable-in-your-own-skin sexual presence that’s a rarity in this age of mass-produced booty clap appeal. At the same time—unlike other female artists that attempt to avoid being exploited—she refuses to play the virginal role. With records like “Blindfold Me,” which features her husband Nas, Kelis insists on expressing her sexuality on her own terms. Time and time again, she opts for playful and cheeky, as opposed to plastic and crass. Sexy Beast, indeed. Pound: Let’s talk about the single “Bossy.” There’s been a lot of focus in the press on the image of the stilettos on the dude’s back in the video, and some people are taking bossy to mean bitchy. What was your intention for the track? Kelis: Bossy just means being in control of the situation, and in control of your destiny—and your life overall. It’s really not about being a bitch. It’s not about a man, or about being the boss of anybody else. It’s about being in charge of your life. It’s a cute, fun way of saying that. I also wanted to ask you about “I Love My Bitch” with Busta Rhymes I know it’s not on your album, but I wanted to ask you about it cause I thought it was really interesting how it played with the term bitch. A friend of mine pointed out that the chorus tends to take the sting out of the word. I wondered how you felt about using that word. I guess it’s the same thing as the word nigga. It used to have a really negative connotation, and it got used so much that it kind of desensitized people. And the meaning metamorphosized into something else. (Laughs.) Um, not a word, but you know what I mean. Now it has a different meaning. It’s like ‘that chick.’ The negative connotation has been taken out of it. There’s some pretty sexual songs on this album. In America—and especially in the music industry—there’s such extremes when it comes to sexuality. Either you are the virgin or the slut. It seems like it would be difficult to navigate that, but you seem to be pulling it off with tracks like “Milkshake” and “Blindfold Me.” How do you approach expressing sexuality without falling into those stereotypes? I think it’s everybody’s individual decision. With me, I know exactly who I am and what I want to be. I’m not exploited easily. I do what I want to do. I feel like part of being a strong woman is being sexual. There’s definitely a fine line to be drawn. But I think it’s absurd to say—I 34 • POUND 35 • october 2006

always find that when feminists or people refer to what a strong woman is or what a woman should be, it’s like this scary, manly kind of woman. That’s not a strong woman at all. That’s a man. You know what I mean? I think being a strong woman is being nurturing and beautiful and sexy—and all these different things. And women are walking contradictions, and I think that’s fantastic. You can’t be one side without the other. There’s got to be a submissive side and there’s got to be a strong side. The track “Circus” seems to be processing issues that you have with the music industry. I mean, it’s an ugly place to be. The world is ugly. In any business where there is major money to be made, there’s evil things that come into play. It’s major corporations that we’re dealing with, with major money, and we shouldn’t expect anything else. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not entitled to speak on it. I’m not surprised, or even offended. It just is what it is. I think that a lot of people don’t really know, and so I felt the need to say it. I read somewhere that you have a lot of gay friends and that you have called yourself a gay man’s best accessory. How do you reconcile that world with all the homophobia in hip-hop? How do you reconcile those two areas of your life? I don’t. Honestly, I feel no need to explain myself to anybody. Do you feel any pressure being in both of those realms? Nope. I’m a woman, though, so it’s not like I’m a gay man in hip-hop. I’m a woman and I’m married and so my sexuality is very clear. The people that I choose to care about and spend my time with are my friends and really have no bearing on my career.

I was wondering what your experiences have been like with the press. How do you feel about how you’ve been dealt with in the press? I don’t really read a lot of my press, so as far as I’m concerned, they must love me. (Laughs.) No, I’m kidding. I don’t really read my press and I think journalists do their job. No offense, but they’re not to be trusted. (Laughs.) Thanks. I mean, they’re doing a job and I’m doing a job. You can’t hate anybody for doing their job. Alright, well, let me put it this way. “Have a Nice Day” versus “Fuck Them Bitches.” “Have a Nice Day” is a “don’t let it get to you” type of response, and “Fuck Them Bitches” is “stop airing out my business.” What would trigger one response over the other? I don’t know. I never know what journalists are looking for. I’ll tell you something, I’m one of those people—I get up in the morning, I take a shower, I get dressed, I do my hair or whatever. I look in the mirror, and I’m like “OK, cool, I look good to step outside into the world.” Once I step outside of my house, I have no idea what people see, or how they take me, or how they perceive me. And the same thing goes for my music. I do it because this is how I am and once I’ve sent it out there, it means this is as good as it’s going to get for me today. But I don’t know what you see or how you are going to take it.

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 35

36 • POUND 35 • october 2006

LUDACRiS

ENEMY OF THE GOOD WORDS: Luke Fox PHOTOGRAPHY: MATTHEW SALACUSE

The enemy of the best is the good. “We only have one best right now, and that’s Ludacris. Everybody else falls short. Ludacris is our only best. Everybody else is only good. 50 is only good. They’re not the best. When you listen to Luda, he’s trying to beat everything moving. He might not, but he’s trying. I’ll make an example: KRS-One wanted to be better than Stevie Wonder. I’m not saying he achieved it, but that was what he was trying to do. Ludacris is trying to be better than John Legend. Not saying he achieves it, but he’s trying. And we only have one best.” —Daddy-O, of Stetsasonic Sitting high amongst the skyscrapers in a swanky W Hotel suite smack in the heart of Times Square, Chris Bridges agrees with the assessment made by a hip-hop veteran. “It’s my job. I think every emcee should feel like they’re the best, and I’m the best of right now. And when it comes to ‘of all-time,’ I feel like I’m working my way up the ladder,” Ludacris says. All of his responses will be delivered in this measured, concise manner. “I’m just a competitive person. I think it’s only right, being a man, just wanting to compete in whatever you do. Playing sports, playing basketball, playing video games, you could race down the street—you always want to win. And I think that competitive edge keeps people on their toes; it keeps me on my toes.” So when he hears what he thinks might be hidden disses directed toward him coming

out of his peers’ mouths, Luda the competitor pounces, unleashing “War with God,” a warning shot off album No. 5, Release Therapy, targeted at would-be pretenders to the throne. “In rap, you hear people take subliminal shots all the time, but no one ever says my name. With that being said, I think I hear subliminal shots, so that’s me taking subliminal shots back, trying to force somebody’s hand. Like, if you are talking about me, then say my name,” Ludacris explains. The gossip-stirring song also made noise for Luda’s admission that, unlike some multi-platinum emcees, he never sold cocaine. “I was just doing that for me personally; I’m not knocking anyone who has done that. I’m just saying this is what makes me different from a lot of other people in the rap game, but I think you can relate to a hustle whether it’s legal or illegal, and I’m a hustler to the heart.” Hustle? On Sept. 11, Chris Bridges didn’t even take his 29th birthday off. He has a new record to promote. “I could’ve taken time off, but I’ll just celebrate another time,” he says. “I worked on my birthday. I was in Detroit on the radio promoting the album.” Success drives Chris Bridges’ hustle. His first two albums scored triple-platinum; his second two went double. His Disturbing Tha Peace label has spawned hit records from Shawnna, Field Mob, Chingy and others. Twelve Grammy nominations in the last six years. One gold gramophone for tearing the spleen out of Ur-sher’s “Yeah!” In 2005 he lent his charisma to two Oscar-worthy films, Crash and Hustle & Flow, and now your parents are familiar with that nuh named Luda. You don’t have to scrutinize his lyric sheets to know he has funds. What’s his current smash single? Oh, yeah, “Money Maker.” “From broke as a joke to rich as a bitch/ I bought a plane and a boat and six other whips.” —“Grew Up a Screw Up” The most extravagant gift Ludacris bought for himself was a $4 million home in Atlanta. And, yes, he really owns his own airplane (“You thought I was lying? We leave here tonight on

it. We go to Philly”). Every time he hops in the comfortable eight-seater, he gazes out window and trips off the fact he’s in his own plane. He says the best birthday gift he ever received was from contractor: a day long helicopter tour so the star could literally be on top of Atlanta. “It was extremely relaxing,” Luda says. “A helicopter ride for like the whole day, and I landed in a parking lot and went to go eat and got right back in. It was like I was in a car.” When you’re on top of the world, it must be hard to muster up that press-andsell-my-own-CDs hunger of his post–Chris Lova Lova days, pushing 1999’s Incognegro independently. “It’s not difficult at all for me. I’m still loving to do what I want to do, and it’s not all about money for me,” Luda insists. “I love it, man. I love doing what I do. So I’m still hungry.” “Who the only little nigga that you know with about 15 flows?” —“Childz Play” “I turn down beats all the time because I don’t like the beat, but I never turn down a beat because it’s too challenging,” says Ludacris, who believes versatility is his greatest asset. “Being able to rap slow, fast, about any subject, aggressive, enunciation, all of these things,” he says, clearly. “I’m never to the point where I feel like I can’t get any better; I feel like I can get better in all areas, not just one.” Surely, no one enunciates better on record. Even if your one-liners are wittier than his (“Pumpin’ out albums like Reverend Run is pumpin’ out children—here’s another one/ So catch me on more 24s than Kiefer Sutherland”), Luda’s pronunciation makes ’em punch harder. He’ll drag out the last syllable in a couplet, tongue-twist his words into a frenzy, whisper in your girl’s ear, or crank the pitch to the left, turn his own verbs into Screw music. If the beat were a mechanical bull, Luda would be the star of the saloon. It’s a gift he attributes to God working through him. Sometimes his performance is so thrilling, such as on the upcoming Tupac album, Luda even shocks himself. “I feel very blessed. So when I say He’s channeling the gift through me, I don’t know where it comes from. Sometimes I listen back and be like, Damn, that’s good. I can’t believe it,” he says. “I’m my number 1 fan.” Pressed to name inspiration for his

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 37

penchant for developing fresh flows and experimenting with vocal patterns, Ludacris, seemingly confused, laughs: “There’s nobody I feel that can do what I do. Like, there’s no one to look up to.” “I grew up a screw up/ Got introduced to the game and fuckin’ blew up”—“Grew Up a Screw Up” As a teenager, Chris Bridges got into “a little trouble here and there,” but he learned from his mistakes early and believes growing up in a gang environment where people were running into the law molded him into a better person, one that now gives back to his community. According to its website, The Ludacris Foundation (the president of which is Bridges’ mother, Roberta Shields) has donated $500,000 to grassroots youth organizations and has impacted 4,000 lives. “You gotta watch the company you keep, because you could do years just by being

around somebody that’s doing something [illegal],” Ludacris warns. He smiles at the irony; he used to steal music and clothes. “I used to thieve, and me going to juvenile for being a thief... I don’t do that anymore. I don’t have a reason to steal,” he says. “When I was a juvenile I did some stuff, but it never stayed on my record. Fortunately it didn’t have to go on my record, so I’m good. I never did hard time.” “Baby momma’s at home and fussin’/ Callin’ up my mobile cussin’/ Always yappin’ ’bout this and that, but she really don’t be talkin’ ’bout nothin’ ” —“Slap” Mid-sentence into an explanation of his acting aspirations, Ludacris’s cell rings. He answers. His daughter Karma’s mother is on the other line, and she’s asking for more money. Over the course of more than 15 minutes, the interview is put on hold as Luda talks to Karma’s mom. Ludacris doesn’t ask her to call back, doesn’t leave the room, doesn’t lower his

I don’t know where it comes from. Sometimes I listen back and be like, Damn, that’s good. I can’t believe it... I’m my number 1 fan.”

38 • POUND 35 • october 2006

voice, nor does he motion for the reporter, sitting arm’s length away, to leave. Separated by seconds or minutes of silence, the following is a portion of Luda’s half of the conversation: “You need more money a month for what?... OK, well, and we already spoke about it, that’s a responsibility that I don’t feel like I should have to take on beyond what I already give you. The amount that I do give, and I know that it’s more—because we already spoke about this one time before, and I said, ‘How much do you need?’ And I gave you more than what you said. And now you’re coming back to me saying you need more than what you said you needed.... There’s certain things that money goes to you because it automatically helps Karma, and there’s certain money that I’m sure goes straight to the things that Karma does. And the amount of money I feel I give every month, in my opinion, since the last time we spoke, I have put more in there than what I thought I should at that point. You’re asking me for more after that? So I would say, give me a breakdown of what you’re talking about. I’m saying, you’re calling me out of the blue like, ‘I need more money.’ I’m not sitting here saying, ‘To hell with that shit—you have enough’; I’m saying, This is not something where I’m going to be like, ‘Oh, yeah. How much do you need?’... See, it’s a situation where I’m always going to be on the same page as you as far as her growth and the things she needs. So instead of saying, ‘I need more money a month,’ you can come to me and say.... [voice raises] Exactly. That’s the exact reason you shouldn’t be calling me saying you need more money, then. We’re both on the same page.... [long pause, speaking louder] She lives at that level. Chris Bridges makes six figures a year. That’s what Chris Bridges does.... What Disturbing Tha

Peace does and what Chris Bridges does as a person are two totally different things, legally, lawfully, everything. And I know this for a fact.... Shit, from what I’m hearing, you’ll probably do it for me, so go ahead and do it! I mean, you can make that happen! Do whatever you please, but I know that I provide like a motherfucker. And I am the one that is providing, and I’m trying to help out just like you said—the mother and my child, so that they both live great and live above standards. And now you calling me saying you want more, and I’m telling you, if you just tell me what it is that you want, I will do that on behalf of me as a father, and, no, I’m not sending more money. I’m not about to do that. We been have this conversation two or three times over.... And all these times, we been like, ‘How much money do you need in order to be good?’ And then you told me a number, and I went above that! It’s just gonna continue this way!”

“I would like to spend more time with my daughter because I move so much,” Ludacris says. A chuckle. “Kind of ironic because I just got off the phone with her mom. Because I move around so much, it’s hard. But being a father, it has a lot to do with timing, so I think that’s very important.” How often do you see her? “Man... it depends. My life is so sporadic. It depends what’s going on in my life. I definitely see her when I’m home in Atlanta,” he says. Karma, and her father’s love for her, is referred to indirectly or directly on six songs on Release Therapy. She even pulls Hailie Jade–style intro/outro duties on one track. “As she gets older, she’s definitely starting to realize [my fame]. When I go out in public, everybody’s calling me Ludacris as opposed to ‘Chris’ or ‘Daddy.’ So it is hard, and as she gets older it’s going to get harder.” The father of a five-year-old, who’s happy playing with Bratz dolls and watching cartoons, tries to explain his position as a famous entertainer. “She’s been on the road with me. She’s been on the plane. She knows that when Daddy goes to work, Daddy gets on the plane and goes and does this and that. She completely understands.” Karma even listens to Ludacris songs—the clean versions, of course, “until she gets old enough to where I can explain to her why I say curse words.” Has seeing your daughter grow up, given you a different perspective on using words like bitch and ho? “A different perspective? No. Because there are still bitches and there are still hos and there are beautiful women and respectable ladies, and when she gets old enough I will tell her the difference between the two.”

“[Lord,] sorry for the things I put my baby’s momma through/ I feel that women are really the strongest human beings/ But why do You make ’em so emotional and other minor things?/ I guess it’s your way of saying we gotta love ’em and gotta praise ’em/ ’Cause without ’em, we’d be nothin’, plus our kids, they gotta raise ’em” —“Freedom of Preach” When Pound first interviewed Ludacris, in 2003, he was promoting an LP called Chicken and Beer. Asked what he’d really like to do next, the rapper went on a brief rant about how much he wanted to win a damn award—and, looking into the Ludacrystal ball, he correctly predicted he would. A Grammy now safe on the shelf, and Ludacris off the phone, we ask the exact same question.

Streets is Talking

Luda clears up rumours and misconceptions On his Busta Rhymes ish, Ludacris chops his locks as a Release Therapy publicity move.

FALSE: “I didn’t introduce my LP by cutting my hair; I just came to a point where I was ready to cut my hair,” says the once braided or ’fro’d-out rhymer. “I come out with an album every year, so people are always going to think I did something for musical reasons. Regardless, I did it for myself.” The only reason you on that song is ’cause he turned that down.

TRUE: “I’ve turned down a lot of different songs, man. I had to turn down Amerie’s ‘1 Thing,’ but nobody else rapped on it. I didn’t turn it down because I didn’t like the song; it was just at a time when I was on too much stuff and I would have been over-saturating. I’ve turned down a TLC song before,” he says. “But it’s funny: because I didn’t do it, I’ll hear somebody else on certain stuff. J.Lo. There’s a lot of stuff.” Rappers operate above the law and get special privileges because of their fame.

FALSE: “Right here in New York, we got pulled over for absolutely no reason. I felt like they were the hip-hop police. We were just riding in a sports-utility vehicle, and they pulled us over and started fucking with us for just no reason. And eventually they just let us go.” As he points out on “Tell It Like It Is,” Luda believes the hip-hop task force is alive and well. “I feel like that’s not right. Shit. But life isn’t fair. I feel like they’re trying to blame rap music and crackdown—they trying to blame us for everything. Discrimination, man. Nothing new.”

he and Jay-Z are both friends and business associates, a potentially awkward situation (see: DMX) that Luda insists is cool. “The only reason that it’s not [awkward] for me is because Disturbing Tha Peace operates as its separate entity. I’m not directly tied to Def Jam, so it’s almost like I’m my own president.” As he spits on “Tell It Like It Is,” “And believe that I’m supporting the Hova, ’cause the industry is shady and needs to be taken over/ But the first rule to accumulation of wealth is don’t trust nobody but your God damn self.” After she edited out something to say to Oprah.

his

defense

his

lyrical

choices

her

talk

show,

Ludacris

has

TRUE: On Release Therapy, Luda asks God to forgive Oprah for cutting his comments. “I learned that a lot of people hear hip-hop music, but they don’t really listen to it,” Luda says. “I would sit down and try to explain to her hip-hop and why I say some of the words I do say, the reasoning behind it, and let her form her own opinions.” Ludacris has a volatile relationship with T.I., but they are working on a movie together.

FALSE: Contrary to Internet in-faux-mation, the rap stars are not collaborating on a film called Ballers. “He put my name in a record about two years ago, and before it came out, he called me to try and reconcile. When we sat down, he was saying it was a mistake. He thought somebody put a trap-something, something that pertained to him in one of my videos, and that wasn’t the case. Ever since then, everything’s been cool. See him, say what’s up.” Ludacris will always put music ahead of acting

Ludarcis re-signed to Def Jam.

FALSE: “It’s not necessarily like I’m signed to them; I’m signed to Disturbing tha Peace, which is in a joint venture currently with Def Jam.” Ludacris says

FALSE: Though his current passion for music comes first, over time Luda sees his love shifting to the screen: “I’m definitely not going to be rapping when I’m 50, but I could still be acting.”

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 39

40 • POUND 35 • october 2006

“You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.” Friedrich Nietzsche

k-os

It’s no coincidence that chose Spike Lee’s crowning flick, 1989’s Do The Right Thing, as the basis for his Pound photo shoot. As with the movie’s main character, Spike’s one and only Mookie, Kevin Brereton just wants to do the right thing, as difficult as it can often be to know what that is, for k-dash, the Mook man, or any of us. And though k-os

always challenges us to think, like Spike’s seventh film, the message can sometimes seem confused, elusive, even absent. But by now, Kevin understands that his only message is his life, a life reflected in his music. And just as Spike Lee seamlessly mixed jazz, reggae and go-go into his film, k-os’s music blends sounds as diverse as Dylan, Hendrix and Prince. At the end of the day, however, it is hiphop that most inspired both Lee’s movie and k’s music. Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” is heard no less than fifteen different times in Do The Right Thing. Kevin’s artistic openness to an array of influences is what separates him from the rest of the rappers. The title alone of k-os’s third album, Atlantis – Hymns for Disco, synthesizes more ingredients than Callaloo. The Atlantis part came about after conversations with David Suzuki concerning water shortages, listening to the blues by Bo Diddley, k-os getting clowned by his homies for sharing with Noah an affinity for alcohol, and the fact that Kevin was born an Aquarius. Taking the H2O connections further, you could say Atlantis, with cuts like “CatDiesel,” “born to Run” and “black ice,” is cooler than illegally tapped fire hydrants under a scorching sun: it’s tons of fun if you let it move you, but it still has the power to knock the unprepared off their feet. “The hymns for disco part,” k-os explains, “comes from the fact I was going out a lot and I was feelin’ empty, so when I got home I used to have to make music to make me feel better about myself, and that’s where all these songs come from: so you did all this, you had fun, you met somebody you liked, you danced, now what? Sunday morning would come and I’d be like, ‘I feel kinda empty, yo.’ And then I’d go to the keyboard and then this thing would come out and I’d be like wowww! Hymns for disco aren’t disco songs—they’re the hymns that help you survive through the disco.”

Pound: In his original review of Do The Right Thing Roger Ebert describes the character Buggin’ Out as a “vocal militant.” In what ways do you most identify with the Buggin’ Out character? k-os: Bug Out was funny because he bugged out as much about his militancy as he did if somebody stepped on his shoes. So we see that Buggin’ Out doesn’t only have to do with the message. Sometimes people’s personalities in their self are volatile because of other things, and I think that’s one way I identify with Bug Out is because when I was on my first record, when people were saying it’s a protest record, where I was militant, or pro-this or pro-that, it really had to do with other frustrations. I think I’m most frustrated with cages and limits and stereotypes of any sort. That to me is what I’m trying to fight the most. It’s like you shouldn’t wear this and you shouldn’t rap like this, and that’s what I think the whole vibe was in ’96 when I started to get angry about hip-hop. It’s like you’re not hip-hop if you don’t have these bells in your beats, or you don’t wear this suit or go to this club, as opposed to growing up and seeing hip-hop being anything and everything, and being fresh in all different angles, everyone from Leaders Of The New School to Everlast. There’s so many differences. So I think I get mad when anybody of any culture puts someone in a box and says this is all you can do or be. If you try to go outside of that then we’re gonna

define you as alternative or left or right, and I been talkin’ about this since day one, but it still frustrates me. Ebert also wrote of Radio Raheem, his “boombox defines his life and provides a musical cocoon to insulate him from the world.” What music do you have on your boombox? I reference Rakim on my boombox as much as I do Michael Jackson. When I get lost in music I go back to those records. And I listen

to those guys who were basically leaders at what they were doing, and were having fun at the same time, and trying to say something. So those are the two records I kinda go back to, as far as if you wanna break myself down to rapping and singing, those are the two guys I kinda check out. And you can kinda hear the influences in my music sometimes; because I think they’re like architects. There’s certain things in music that you check and it puts you in check, and regardless of your ego or how good you think you are or how much people are liking your music, every time I listen to those guy’s music—and also Tribe Called Quest, I can’t front— those records really effect me in a humbling way, and it’s a good soundscape for my life too. Spike Lee’s films, like hip-hop at its best, is about social realism as opposed to pure escapism. Where do you fit your music on the spectrum which puts realism at one end and fantasy at the other? Magical realism is what I’m really about, which is kinda really a forming of both of them. You can’t just present the edited moments of the hero beating up the villain; you kinda gotta make the character vulnerable. And in my music I do that all the time, simply by sometimes having songs on my record in the sequence where one song

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 41

“when someone from the genre does something artistic, the critics, the media, say it’s not really

hip-hop, because

the instant you allow hip-hop to be art then you acknowledge that it’s an attitude and it’s a way of life”

has a dark feel and right after there’s a feeling of lightness. I go back and forth. I’ve always experimented with that idea: could I do a song that’s a crazy hip-hop song that has a dark element, but right after sing a ballad that was so vulnerable and intense that it would make a hip-hop head kinda cringe and go, “I don’t know about this guy?” I think that’s how I, quote-unquote, “keep it real,” because I do have a sensitive side to my persona. And you hear all these clichés, you know, ‘even the hardest people cry,’ but even that’s an extreme emotion: crying. What about just saying that you’re confused? What about saying that you like a girl but she’s not paying you enough attention? It’s not complete, it’s not extreme, but it’s this subtle idea of confusion, of not really being here or there, but just an emotion that’s indescribable coming out in a song or a chord or a musical nuance. I’m trying to push it to where it’s okay to show different ranges of emotions, that to me is the realism in this thing. It’s just not a guy who’s all upset or all 42 • POUND 35 • october 2006

happy or partying all the time or not partying all the time. In DTRT, Radio Raheem captures the human struggle in a conversation with Mookie. Speaking on his LOVE/HATE rings, he says, “The story of life is this: static. One hand is always fightin’ the other hand.” At this point in your career what do you love the most about what you do, and what do you hate the most about your position? That question makes me emotional, and in a way I’m hesitant to answer it, but I’ll answer it like this: I love that I wake up in the morning and I’m just doing music. Sometimes I can’t believe it. I wake up, I’ll go downstairs, and I turn around and there’s a drum machine, or I go to the studio, or I see my voice messages and it’s all about music: “What do you think of this mix?” So that’s the love part. That’s the part where some of my friends go, “What are you complaining about?” “What’s your stresses today?” And I start telling them—‘I wish I had

your problems.’ I wake up in the morning on some Slick Rick stuff, yawning, drinking a can of Nutriment and going, “What? This is what I get to do for a living?” Here’s the part that I hate: I hate that I have to dumb myself down; drink; calculate my movements; worry about how I’m perceived because of what goes along with making music and putting yourself on display; I hate that I can’t always be talking about metaphysics; I hate that I always can’t be sayin’ how much I want to love all the time because the perception is that it’s too intense, it’s too heavy. The whole reason the character of k-os had to move on from “Heaven Only Knows” and giving people music in that purest form is because I believe sometimes it’s too much for people. Kinda saying this blows off the mystery that I try to perceive of k-os, but really and truly, dude, I’m just a kid who grew up in Whitby who listens to too much music, I had too much time on my hands. It’s not a big deal, I’m not a great musician, I don’t play any instruments. I am just a guy who loves music,

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 43

so much a fan of it, that I always think if I heard this on the radio, this would suck, so therefore I change it. So I’m my biggest critic, that’s my love/hate relationship with myself, that’s my self-deprecation, is that in a way I hate myself for having to create a façade to put my music out. And my goal over life is to make my music so that I don’t have to pretend anymore.

deejay: right after Public Enemy I’m gonna play Dionne Warwick, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” everyone’s like, “What da?” They look at you like Buggin’ Out would, “What the hell are you doin’?” Let’s just be real, everyone’s feelin’ the vibe, everyone’s bein’ all jiggy in the late ’90s, and then k-os comes out with “Heaven Only Knows,” of course people are gonna be like, “What’s up with this dude?”

On July 9, 2005, after a concert at the Shaw Centre, the Edmonton Sun wrote in a mostly complimentary piece, “k-os certainly doesn’t seem to be all that ‘hip-hop’—whose exclusionary clique sounds like a bunch of whiners.” How do you respond to statements like that? My conspiracy theory answer is that people don’t want hip-hop to ever be perceived as art, so therefore they want it to be disposable club music, pump it in your jeep, your kid buys it, pumps it, throws it away—it’s just disposable. It’s music, but it’s not art. So therefore when someone from the genre does something artistic, the critics, the media, say it’s not really hip-hop, because the instant you allow hip-hop to be art then you acknowledge that it’s an attitude and it’s a way of life, as KRS-One said, and not just a music: Rap is something you do, hip-hop is something you live. So if hip-hop is not art then it won’t be imitated by life, put it that way. An example to prove that conspiracy theory is that rock’n’rollers can do whatever they want. They could be like David Bowie and dress like a woman, or they could be like Kid Rock and be a macho man—it doesn’t matter, it’s still all rock’n’roll.

Hip-Hop is not what I thought it would be. Just ’cause these kids like it different it doesn’t mean it’s not hip-hop to them, so I’m gonna go listen to Rick Ross and be like, what’s up with that guy? Just to check it out. If I want to be relevant, it doesn’t mean I have to bite his music or try to sound like him, but I’m like, “oh, so you’re using 808s, hmm,” “oh, so you’re rapping at 104 bpms, oh.” Those are things as a musical scientist you can look and go, “how am I gonna take that now”—this is the fun part—“and do my version of it?” No one will know when they listen to “Equalizer” that I was listening to down-south Rick Ross music and going, “hmm,” ‘cause it doesn’t sound like it, but I was listening to it in a jeep like, “oh.” That’s when I realized you gotta be open and just check stuff.

The reality is this: when a music comes out, it comes with certain sensibilities, feelings, style, clothing. When people [went] to hip-hop jams and used to dress a certain way, you didn’t just do it because you were militant about it, because you were tryin’ to fit in—and the guys who were doing that, you spotted them from a mile away—the people who could capture the spirit of hip-hop, which was contagious at the time, it had a certain style to it, and when somebody starts to express their style in a different way, it’s almost like you’re wrecking the party, it’s like changing the music at a party when the flow is on, a wicked flow too—trust me, I’ve tried deejaying, I’ve done it a million times, ’cause I suck as a Photography: CHE KOTHARI Assistant and Retouching: RYAN PATERSON Prop stylist: BIG NORM ALCOCEL

44 • POUND 35 • october 2006

So am I hip-hop? Why is hip-hop the way it is? No one knows what I listen to when I’m in my bedroom—Sons of Berzerk, if you know who they are, then you know what I’m about. If you don’t know who they are you can’t even question whether I’m hip-hop or not because you don’t know enough hip-hop to know what it even is. That’s like somebody in Essence Magazine trying to talk about watching a band like the Strokes and talking about indie rock. Just because the Strokes plays at some festival that Stevie Wonder throws, doesn’t mean that they’re not rock’n’roll, it just means that they’ve made it past being colloquialized just as indie rock. So imagine that, imagine the Strokes playing the Shaw Centre and Essence Magazine saying, “Oh, but it’s not really rock, though,” because one of the songs had a beat like Bob Marley.

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 45

46 • POUND 35 • october 2006

Left to Right: Dyzee: Live Mechanics jacket. Sedgwick & Cedar tee, Artful Dodger jeans, New Era cap & cr8tive recreation kicks, Talia: New Era ladies line, Obey sleeveless hoodie, Obey scarf, Rocawear earrings and watch, Rude: live mechanics jacket,Phat farm tee, Akademiks jeans, Adidas Adicolor Hi, Jamie: Luxirie hoodie, Obey tee, Luxirie skinny jeans with suspenders, Rocawear sunglasses, Andre Marc: Crooks & Castles Tee from Lounge, New era cap, Rocawear jeans and watch, Nike AF1 Portugal, Olympia: Luxirie hoodie, Adidas tee from Lounge, Evisu jeans from lounge, Rocawear belt, Nike Dunk Hi SB

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 47

48 • POUND 35 • october 2006

Clockwise: Rude Akademiks hoodie, Sedgwick & Cedar tee, Phat Farm belt and jeans, Olympia: Rocawear suit, Dyzee: Lifestyle collective hoodie. Live mechanics tee. Avirex jeans, New era cap & Nike AF1 Holland

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 49

Right, Andre Marc: rocawear jacket and hat, Artful dodger jeans, Nike Airmax ‘90 HUF, Second from right, Jamie: luxirie jacket, New era cap, Rocawear jeans, Cr8tive recreation kicks

50 • POUND 35 • october 2006

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 51

Left to Right: Cara: evisu denim jacket from Lounge, Lifestyle collections wrap jacket, Luxirie jeans, Nike blazer mid, Dennis: sedgwick & cedar tee, KX1 sweats, New era cap, Nike humara,NYLDA: Luxerie hoodie, Akademiks jeans, New era hat, Sprint sister Nikes, RocaWear purse, JOHN: Obey hoodie, Akademiks sweater and toque, Nike Blazer SB Thrasher, KEVIN: Sedgwick and Cedar jacket, Obey tee, Avirex jeans, Nike zoom team, DYZEE: lifestyle collection tee, Artful dodger jeans, Adidas, Live Mechanics hoodie

52 • POUND 35 • october 2006

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 53

Clockwise from top: JESTER: Artful Dodger jeans and jacket, Tribal 8 tee, adidas Superstar skate, New era cap, Rebel35 8 shorts, Akademiks 54JAMIE: • POUND • october 2006hoodie and vest, ANDRE MARC: KX1 reversible hoodie, OLYMPIA: RocaWear top and chain, Akademiks jeans, RUDE: Avirex hoodie, Obey watch, Akademiks jeans

Includes “Everytime Tha Beat Drop” feat. Dem Franchize Boyz & the new single, “Dozen Roses” feat. Missy Elliott 9 (3"..: "8"3% 8*//*/( "35*45 3&563/4 8*5) )*4 4&$0/% "-#6. &/5*5-&%

NEW CD IN STORES OCT. 10 www.monica.com www.ilovernb.ca

$% "7"*-"#-& 0$50#&3

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 55

Left to Right: ANDRE MARK: KX1 hoodie, Prps pants from LOUNGE, New era cap, nike AF1, CARA: G-Unit jacket, MAG: Akademiks hoodie and tee, Phat farm hat, RocaWear watch, JAMIE: Rebel 8 shorts, Akademiks hoodie and vest, CRE8TIVE RECREATIOn kicks, DENNIS: Artful Dodger hoodie, RocaWear jeans, Rebel 8 tee, Cre8tive recreation kicks, JOHN: RocaWear hoodie, New era cap, Avirex jeans, Akademiks tee, Adidas stan smith, KEVIN: Live Mechanics Coat, Artful Dodger long sleeve tee, Phat Farm56 jeand and belt,35 NYLDA: RocaWear • POUND • october 2006suit, OLYMPIA: RocaWear top and chain, Akademiks jeans, RUDE: Avirex hoodie, Sedgwick and Cedar tee, Akademiks Jeans, Nike AF1, JESTER- Artful Dodger jeans and jacket, Tribal 8 tee, adidas Superstar skate, New era cap, DYZEE: Obey tee, Artful Dodger jeans, Nike Classics SB

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 57

the

weigh-in beats

o lb.

1/4 lb.

you’re a custy!

¾ lb.

rhymes life

pound review scale

album reviews

1/2 lb.

3/4 lb.

insightful rhymes—is a straight-edge jazz fan that skateboards and collects comic books. In other words, he’s a little nerdy. And, as Jay-Z has famously remarked, he’s “a breath of fresh air.” tara henley

¾ lb.

kid koala

nicolay

your mom’s favourite dj

here

pushin’ weight

beats

1 lb.

rhymes

¾ lb.

life

¾ lb.

ninja tune

beats

¾ lb.

bbe

pound picks µ gimme a k!, stoppin’ traffic, party at eric’s

rhymes

¼ lb.

pound picks µ what used to be, give her everything, the end is near

life

¼ lb.

The knock on turntablist albums is that the expertise and dexterity required to pull off such handiwork doesn’t translate well to the ear only. You need to see those clicking fingers and fancy-pants behind-the-back spin-oramas to appreciate it. Kid Koala, too, is ideally experienced live. But while some of his peers sound either too angry or too deep into some scientifical madness on CD, the Montreal nice guy’s fingers glow with warmth, like he’s biting E.T.’s whole steeze. That’s why your mom likes him. That’s why this yard sale of an EP, which swerves from rock to jazz to breaks to robots to hilarious sound clips and back again, makes you feel happy about music. You’ll have fun because he’s having fun. luke fox

beats

1 lb.

rhymes

¾ lb.

life

1 lb.

lupe Fiasco food and liquor atlantic pound picks µ real, hurt me soul, daydreaming

Rap music is predictably unpredictable. Every time you think things can’t get any worse and it’s time to pen the proverbial breakup letter to hip-hop, an album drops that changes everything. Lupe Fiasco’s debut is that type of release. The Chi-Town rapper is the antithesis of what makes a rapper hot in today’s market. He’s not a dope-peddling trap star; he’s not a slick playboy; he’s not a gun-toting, beefobsessed thug. Nope, your boy—who laces Food & Liquor’s whimsical beats with moving,

dj shadow the outsider island pound picks µ seein’ thangs, keep ‘em close, you made it

I love the idea of DJ Shadow throwing indierock hipsters a curve (and possibly broadening their horizons) by hoodwinking them into buying a hyphy record. So when Turf Talk and David Banner stomp all over the bass-rattling first third of The Outsider, you can picture the hip-hop-for-people-who-don’t-like-rap fans sweating in their skinny jeans. But in jarring conceptual and tonal shifts, Shadow reverts to his exploratory instrumental ways, then chunks in a pair of poorly executed ideas with Q-Tip and Phonte. I suspect Shadow fans will feel about his third proper LP the way heads feel about Mos Def’s The New Danger. Either the master innovator combined two distinct worksin-progress to meet his release date, or this is Shadow’s response to iPod’s murder of the album as a cohesive effort. Here, upload what you like from this and trash the rest. It’s tough to zone out and be guided by this album; it’s like trying to take a warm shower when a leprechaun keeps sneaking in and fiddling with the taps. Curious, since all of Shadow’s previous projects, from his genre-spawning Endtroducing… debut to his break-fest Brainfreeze mixer, have been fully realized ideas. Depending on which side of the fan line you fall, after enduring The Outsider, you’ll either need a healthy dose of Boot Camp Clik or Dashboard Confessional to clean the palette and regain your bearings.

1 lb.

sellin’ to your friends

When I try to think of recent hip-hop albums over 30 minutes that sound more musically accomplished and complete than Nicolay’s new burner, Here, I can only think of The Roots’ new joint. Nicolay’s first project, 2004’s Connected, from Foreign Exchange was an elite release suggesting, with its airy Sunday claps and kicks, that its conductor deserved Rookie of The Year consideration, but nobody was expecting this. Implementing more of a grimy bang this time around, the North Carolina-via-Netherlands producer, with the help of MC Black Spade in particular, wears the growth well. One track in particular, Wiz Khalifa’s “What It Used To Be,” really stays with the listener. With stabbing guitars, nervous piano, and the album’s finest sample, Nicoleezy turns a fine lament into something truly memorable. Tell me what’s better than this in ‘06? Holleratchurboi. chris coates

beats

¾ lb.

rhymes

¾ lb.

life

½ lb.

classiFied hitch hikin’ music halflife/urbnet pound picks µ freezin’ in the cold, live it up, cheap talk

With his common-man appeal and honest likeability, the Nova Scotian workhorse named Classified has carved out a dope little niche for himself in the Canadian hip-hop scene—and he wears the Maple Leaf on his sleeve with pride. Dude has been dropping CDs since 1995, and his album catalogue

luke fox

the undercard - rated but not reviewed beats

¾ lb.

beats

¾ lb.

beats

½ lb.

beats

½ lb.

rhymes

½ lb.

rhymes

¾ lb.

rhymes

¼ lb.

rhymes

½ lb.

life

½ lb.

life

¾ lb.

life

¼ lb.

life

¼ lb.

count bass d

tego calderon

too $hort

a.g.

act your waist size

the underdog

blow the whistle

get dirty radio

fat beats

atlantic

jive

look records

58 • POUND 35 • october 2006

LOON

NO FRIENDS Loon is back from hiatus with NO FRIENDS, the follow up to his smash debut! Features the controversial Mase-diss Nova!

14.99 IN STORES NOW

JIN

100 GRAND JIN

Freestyle battle champion Jin returns with 100 GRAND JIN, the follow up to the critically acclaimed 'The Emcee's Properganda'. Features the buzz-track “F**k Jay-Z!"

12.99 IN STORES NOW

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 59

the

weigh-in

pound review scale

album reviews

o lb.

1/4 lb.

you’re a custy!

has reached double digits. (Too $hort, watch your back.) Produced entirely by Class, who’s evolved into a better beatmaker than an emcee (and that’s not a dis), Hitch Hikin’ Music is confident, soulful boom-bap that makes no apologies and explores more melody than last semester’s Class. A tad bloated at 17 tracks, the album could do without a forced Tash cameo; and Class’s claims to have “ate chicken with Luda… and smoked hash with Keith Murray,” while no doubt true, come off as pleas for acceptance. He’s much more in the pocket spilling witticisms (“Most rappers nowadays claim that pimping’s easy/ But their girlfriends look cheaper than Canadian TV”) and recanting tour antics while playing microphone hot potato with Mic Boyd over a little flute loop on “Live It Up.” Classified lacks the larger-than-life persona of the kiddies’ favourite (t)rap star, but his talent and range grow with every record. luke fox

beats

¾ lb.

rhymes

¾ lb.

life

¾ lb.

k-os atlantis: hymns for disco emi pound picks µ sunday morning, the rain, catdiesel

k-os is to Canada what Kanye West is to America: eccentric, outspoken, and famously critical of the hip-hop press. He is both a watchdog for the culture and a member of its creative vanguard. And, like his stateside counterpart, the Toronto rapper happens to be one of the most gifted artists in the game. It’s no surprise, then, that his third release proves just as impressive as his previous efforts. The album weaves together thirteen innovative, whimsical records that cover subjects as diverse as love, the state of hiphop, world affairs, and personal musings. The production—which is handled almost exclusively by Kevin himself, and draws on rock, pop, soul, and old school rap influences—is nothing short of remarkable. When it comes to vocals, k-os’s rhymes are crisp and his singing is smooth and melodious.

What’s more, there’s a heady sense of risk that permeates the project. k-os continues to experiment, refusing to play things safe. As a result, Atlantis cements his legacy as the country’s most fearless emcee.

1/2 lb.

3/4 lb.

1 lb.

sellin’ to your friends

pushin’ weight

the overly analytical hip-hop populace that Luda might be making some grown man music this time around. There are flashes of this growth on some cuts, “Freedom Of Preach” most notably, but a large chunk of the material sounds like also rans in R.Kelly or Bobby Valentino’s recording sessions.

Tara henley

buns

beats

¾ lb.

rhymes

¾ lb.

life

1 lb.

various artists stones throw: ten years

beats

¾ lb.

rhymes

½ lb.

life

½ lb.

sleepy brown

stones throw records

mr. brown

pound picks µ two can win, whenimondamic, arrive

virgin records

Oxnard, California based Stones Throw Records, which started out by releasing break records for DJs with obscure titles like Super Duck Breaks, celebrates its tenth year with this compilation. Over the course of decade uno, Stones Throw has blossomed into a varied label that has managed to break ground by embracing both obscurity and tradition. Raw off-centre production is the foundation of the Stones Throw sound, and they’ve remained true to it as the label developed over the years, showing how lovely music can be when it’s strange, and how dope it is when it’s done the right way.

Groovy Brown. Soulful Brown. Don’t-needguest-appearances-on-every-track Brown. Rouse Brown. Provocative Brown. Don’t-needto-skip-any-tracks Brown. Talented Brown. Versatile Brown. Inspiring Brown. Jazzy Brown. You get the point. Sleepy is the one word that doesn’t come to mind with this album. After years of production credits and guest appearances, his solo debut is finally here. Is it too late for people to notice? I hope not. Because he finally delivered what we’ve been waiting for… something for the Grown & Sexy.

joe galiwango

vanessa bruno

pound picks µ me, my baby and my cadillac, margarita, till

beats

¾ lb.

beats

¾ lb.

rhymes

¾ lb.

rhymes

½ lb.

life

½ lb.

life

¾ lb.

ludacris

j dilla

release therapy

jay love japan

def jam

pound picks µ grew up a screw up, tell it like it is,

pound picks µ lucy, red light, sun in my face

“Tell It Like Is” and “War With God,” two industry-slapping album cuts released this summer, along with Luda’s high-profile haircut, and images of a frustrated Chris Bridges on his album cover, all created the impression in

Sometimes I think maybe I just haven’t chopped enough records to know exactly how dope Donuts really is. Anyways, this isn’t gonna be one of those reviews where cats are feeling guilty because Dilla never got the shine he

the undercard - rated but not reviewed beats

½ lb.

beats

½ lb.

beats

½ lb.

beats

½ lb.

rhymes

¼ lb.

rhymes

½ lb.

rhymes

½ lb.

rhymes

½ lb.

life

¼ lb.

life

¼ lb.

life

¼ lb.

life

½ lb.

chingy

swollen members

promoe

young dro

hoodstar

black magic

white man’s burden

best thang smokin’

capitol

battleaxe

david vs goliath

atlantic

60 • POUND 35 • october 2006

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 61

the

weigh-in

pound review scale

album reviews

o lb.

1/4 lb.

you’re a custy!

deserved. The Shining was solid with its share of great moments and it all sounds smooth ‘cause it’s been blessed by a legend. Jay Love Japan is the second post-humous installment and you’d never guess but…it’s good. It feels like an EP at 22 minutes in length (in promo form), making it a quick and enjoyable listen with really no one particular highlight. Of course the beats are excellent and J*Davey, comedian Bo Bo Lamb, and Blu and Jontel make notable vocal contributions. Buy this for Dilla’s Moms who could use the $, or go and get Fantastic Volume 1 (again). Go. chris coates

reign

flow for 60 minutes. As an album, I’m thinking, “good but not great.” We know he can rap.

1/2 lb.

3/4 lb.

1 lb.

sellin’ to your friends

pushin’ weight

the year’s heavyweights

chris coates

j dilla donuts beats

½ lb.

rhymes

½ lb.

life

½ lb.

like all dilla records donuts doubles as a manual for producers. damn, these donuts still taste fresh.

method man 4:21: The day after

ghostface Fishscale

def jam pound picks µ problem, say, 4:20

beats

½ lb.

rhymes

¾ lb.

life

½ lb.

ken starr starr status halftooth records pound picks µ relentless, middle fingaz, never too late

Let me begin by saying that this is a quality rap product. The beats are nice, the rhymes are nice, etc. The thing is, when I first heard Kenn Starr on Halftooth Records’ early compilations and various Kev Brown tracks, I was blown away. With an original flow, perfect cadence and lyrics as introspective as they are braggadocious, Starr has all the tools to succeed as an MC. However, what keeps his debut album from fully living up to the hype generated by murdering cats on their own shit is Starr’s refusal to diverge from the same relentless cadence, and from the same generalized approach to his subject matter. Peep: “But I’m big enough to say that I’m wrong, it’s too late/ ’Cause I done became the same type of nigga I hate/ Type of nigga that’s fake, not being true to myself/ Changed through to the anger towards you that I felt letting my past dictate the decisions I make/ But it wouldn’t be fair to say that you made me this way/ So maybe I can’t place all of the blame on you/ Change my views; my days of playing games is through.” Hot bars, right? Now imagine 16 tracks of similar generalization without any real-life specificity (like stories and objects), just Starr’s surefire “I know I’m dope”

doper than a ki of that good good. gfk continues the wu tradition of making the real boom-bap.

Mr. Mef seems real bitter these days. He hates the media. He hates gossipers. He hates doubters. He’s got a point to prove: despite what people might think, he ain’t done with the rap game just yet. Amidst some lines like “These critics saw the train for brains and must of missed it” (I think Dr Seuss co-wrote some of the album), for the better part of The Day After, you start realizing the anger might be working to his benefit. You can preach to me if you want, Mef. As long as you keep it sounding like this, I’ll be part of the choir.

j dilla the shining as if dilla’s production isn’t enough, the shining includes an appearance by d’angelo.

vanessa bruno

beats

¾ lb.

rhymes

½ lb.

life

½ lb.

the roots game theory it don’t feel right that you still haven’t bought the roots best platter since things fall apart.

lake my brother’s keeper fastlife pound picks µ q.u. side, dirty ny, stress and greed

Cormega: potentially best kept secret in NYC hip-hop. Lake: consistent Queensbridge representative, free agent since Death Row’s bankruptcy. My Brother’s Keeper = a concentrated, cohesive piece of East Coast street-hop, at a time when most NYC emcees lack authenticity. A gully yet intelligent thug testament.

lupe Fiasco

food & Liquor the best rapper from chicago not named common or kanye swears he’ll only do two more records. feel lucky to get this one.

adhimu stewart

the undercard - rated but not reviewed beats

½ lb.

beats

¾ lb.

beats

¾ lb.

beats

¼ lb.

rhymes

½ lb.

rhymes

½ lb.

rhymes

½ lb.

rhymes

¼ lb.

life

¼ lb.

life

½ lb.

life

½ lb.

life

0 lb.

outerspace

freddie cruger

one self

glue

blood brothers

soul search

children of possibility

catch as catch can

babygrande

ubiquity

ninja tune

fat beats

62 • POUND 35 • october 2006

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 63

street Fight pound hype scale

o lb.

1/4 lb.

no one knows your name—still

1/2 lb.

3/4 lb.

buzzin’ with the heads

1 lb. they all want you, but who can afford you?

the aphilliates

dj quote

beanie sigel: streetz is watching

chingo bling: dollarado 2 texas

hype

1 lb.

Beans’ fans (and Stans) need no convincing of their hero’s pedigree, but for those that still doubt Philly’s finest, the recently released Beanie answers all questions. Mac is back. buns

¾ lb.

Texas’ most-wanted emcee, the irrepressible Chingo Bling, stitches together jokes that’ll leave you in stitches. Undoubtedly more enjoyable for the bilingual set, Chingo remakes Southern bangers for Southern Beaners. The dopest Mexican rapper ever? buns

j. period the best of the roots hype

J. Period mixes 51 tracks of Tarik, Malik and company for the okayplayers and haters over their own and others’ dope beats. Filled with commentary from the usually silent Black Thought, it’s a musthave for any Roots fan. buns

serius jones king me hype

clinton sparks

1 lb.

½ lb.

Best known for ending Jin the Emcee’s career (who can now be found performing sub-par stand-up comedy, true story), Serius Jones does the hip-hop thing and pronounces himself king before even stepping onto the court. Still, the audio of the battle with Jin is classic.

consequence: the cons vol. 4 hype

Rap journeyman Consequence hops on the best Kanye West album cuts (“Spaceship” and “Gone”), and he’s got a gang of unofficial CDs. Don’t know if an album will ever surface, but who cares when we have the riotous Clinton Sparks–produced Maury Povich paternity-test anthem “Baby”? Sample line: “I thought the books I read would get me more than ready/ For the day her water broke like New Orleans levees.” luke fox

green lantern michael “5000” watts ludacris: pre-release therapy

hype

buns

the aphilliates willie the kid: the day the game changed

hype

½ lb.

Sounding uncomfortably similar to fellow mid-westerner, Lupe Fiasco, Willie Da Kid might get Guerilla Black-balled by the game. It’s a shame too, ‘cause the kid has some promise.

½ lb.

1 lb.

A candidate for mixtape of the year, PRT includes Luda’s tracks that didn’t make the album (some of which are better than the cuts on the album). “He-Man,” which samples the classic ‘80s cartoon into a skeletor-bashing beat, is priceless hip-hop inanity. buns

ras kass eat or die

buns

hype

mick boogie juelz santana and lil wayne: blow hype

¾ lb.

Wayne and Juelz together is good news for the strip (club or otherwise). It’s nonstop crack-slanging action, with some humour to boot. buns

64 • POUND 35 • october 2006

½ lb.

Serving fans, and a Game beef appetizer, Ras Kass is “on some Predator shit/ plant a flag on the Moon, with your head on the tip”, while jacking for beats (and rhymes?) from Lloyd Banks, Shyne, and others. The Nas collabo isn’t real, but G-Unit’s jail talk is. Bon appetit. addi stewart

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 65

vo live st fr ok o ,r m us sia

battle of family planning

pound for pound new school division

ol’ school division

abstinence to the heavens height:

withdrawal a couple feet height:

the pill

condom

height:

...of science

height:

9 inches? (you wish)

weight:

weightless

weight:

a few grams

weight:

heavy on the conscience

weight:

sheath-like

reach:

the bible belt

reach:

... down, please

reach:

ovarian

reach:

to the placenta

kos:

the dreams of many young men

kos:

clean sheets

kos:

‘nuff eggs

kos:

sensation

ol’ school division

new school division

abstinence

The pill

I don’t miss spells with genital warts and pube bugs/ So I choose not to fertilize women, give good hugs/ And I’m zen with my lonely, so effective/ You know you’re gonna break like a contraceptive/ The pill made my last chick itch like latex, so now I mind-fuck her like a Mensa apprentice/ But you don’t need brain when you’re master of your own domain, 100 loads got her pregnant off of 19/ Muhfuckas on some coitus interruptus! Daily-bed sheet-changing-ass muhfuckas!/ And I am one to laugh, loving ass but don’t touch it cuz I ain’t tryna have no fuckin’ baby in my 20s/ Same as the battle, you pulled out, and ruled out a bunch of other bad shit, you’re so clown/ And, as strong as your own will--good luck!--when you sacrifice your life for a good fuck.

My excellence is preventative of your relevance and intellectual estrogen/ Domination over your ovulation ‘til femininity tests come back negative/ Harming your earthly garden so you can’t fertilize/ Then bombing your squadron, black death like murderous turpentine covering earth to sky/ Learn to lie still before I reverse your life back to a demon bitch, twitching in the fetal position/ Can’t turn a ho into a housewife, so leave! You can’t stand the heat in the kitchen/ My sexual predator weaponry effectively neutralizes enemy’s pregnancy intentionally, spread your legs and accept this injection of seventy STD’s/ Forget the hormones, your whore moans when I stick her with my warm bone/ she screams “Oh God in Heaven”/ And forgets her oral contraceptive tomorrow morn’/ But don’t run away, when I cum to play, I’ll cure your lover of her hunger pains/ ‘Cause I’m something even her Mother says she has to swallow once a day!

withdrawal

condom

Ever since I was an embryo waiting to shape up and ship out / Something got into my brains making me refrain from taking it out / Roberta and Charmaine stayed up and tripped out / ‘Cause when I came I was bare backed and dripped out / Slit the umbilical ‘cause my timing was spaced out/ Never trust a brother to pull out—you’ll be assed out/ Just put your back out and let a nigga just black out/ Draw my bat out, the sauerkrauts out/ You outta condoms, so the rubber-covers, they is out/ No pills, no foam, no god, just get the mat out/ I grew up a fucking screw up, I ain’t into getting some brains (no brains)— I fucking blew up / I grew up a fucking screw up, I ain’t into getting some brains (no brains), SHE fucking blew up!

Ooh, baby, I dislike it raw!/ Yeah, baby, I dislike it raaaaw!/ Pilly pilly pop, pilly stop, pilly play/ Put me on when you obey what your thing say/ Slip me off and you tussle with a stingray/ Could die on HIV Day or get burnt by gonorree-hey!/ To the free clinic, on the run style, diarree-hey!/ Ya gotta borrow Moe Dee’s shades so no one spots ya/ When you go see the doctor/ Poppin’ pills is cool, if you can trust that her word is candid/ But some girls wanna get pregnant, call ’em sperm bandits/ They be spittin’ capsules in the sink or gobbling placebos/ So wrap up your Johnson when mobbing with these hoes/ Come complete with funny nubs and ribbed for her stimulation/ So safe, this ain’t even real fornication, just a simulation/ Call me Dr. Novocaine, I dull sensation, prolong an erection/ Stay stiff like a Democrat election selection/ And if you’re single and don’t want every other weekend took/ Use me, I’m 98% effective like an Akon hook…

Finals

abstinence

condom

Lifestyles of the polyurethaneous, breakin’/ Another psycho nymph has your baby/ While I’m playin’ asex, lemme state it basic: / A little bit of friction—I knew you couldn’t take it/ Lemme draw you a diagram, you’re more of a diaphragm/ taking heavy loads by the kilogram/ I’m celibate, you can’t touch how I’m doin’ it/ Son, I used to damage you like oil-based lubricants/ Me and my crew, we discuss you with mostly laughter, they’d rather bone their GFs with a Crunchie Wrapper/ The streets know that you’re 85% effective, which is good but isn’t exactly prevention/ You’re just another old hat getting worn out, removed you from an old boo with your brains torn out/ Man, I told you the flow’s too fast/ You’ll get blown up or popped like in sex ed class, rubber!

85% percent effective beats 100% boring/ Your version of sleeping with a chick involves snoring/ Warring with a virgin here, this rubber match is insane/ Pull out, nut on ’er tummy, that’s what I call an ab stain/ Plain and simple, I block sperm, stop germs, and come in silly flavours/ Cherry-poppin’ cherry, blue-balls berry, plus glow-in-the-dark for ravers/ So when you quit your monkish ways, see sophomore girls doin’ gymnastics/ And think, “Damn I wanna mack this… I just need the right tactics”/ Come and see me, I got crazy prophylactics/ But at the drugstore, Celi-bitch, you must choose smartly/ Your eyes are bigger than her stomach, don’t act like they’re not, B/ Front with them magnums when you need extra-super-duper-smalls/ She’ll find out when the rubber stretches up over your balls…

and the winner is...

It’s a wrap—prophylactic tore abstinence a new orifice (which he won’t be using either).

66 • POUND 35 • october 2006

the new album from k-os

ATLANTIS - HYMNS FOR DISCO AVAILABLE OCTOBER 10TH

Includes

“Sunday Morning” & “ELEctrik HeaT – the seekwiLL” Downloads and ringtunes available now www.k-osmusic.com www.myspace.com/kos

Look for the cellphone game soon

october 2006 • POUND 35 • 67

68 • POUND 35 • october 2006