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Music Issue, Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Former wrestler Conti excels musically Story on page 14
Volume 62 No. 38
2 Chainz turns up downtown Buffalo Story on page 10
Lovin’ the crew
Childhood bond, talent propel R&B group Nuzzcrew to campus success BRIAN JOSEPHS Senior Managing Editor It’s a brisk weekday afternoon and junior biological sciences major Uwaoma Silachi is relaxing in his apartment at the Villas at Chestnut Ridge. As he opens his MacBook and plugs in his keyboard, he explains he’s not really in a music-making mindset, but creating songs isn’t necessarily something he can get away from. It’s an art form that has been built into him since he was a young talent in his Bronx church choir. Creating pleasant instrumentals, singing those ethereal vocals and his poetic lyrics isn’t his job – it’s his stress reliever. So it wasn’t a surprise when Silachi composed an entire instrumental in about 20 minutes. He started by quickly making a melody on his keyboard, even though he said he never had formal training with the instrument. Then the percussion kicks in with the effects following right after, and soon, Silachi has a well-crafted beat on his hands. But the ambitious artist said this beat is only a start – a foundation – much like the current hype for the music group he’s a part of, Nuzzcrew. Nuzzcrew, an R&B/soul group from the Bronx, is composed of Silachi; his lifelong friend and cousin, Nnabu Eric Enyia, a junior pharmacy major; and Justin Johnson, a Sanford-Brown College graduate. Together, they’ve accomplished what many other college artists haven’t. Many in the UB community have praised Nuzzcrew’s amiability and raw musical talent, which is apparent through the 1,015 likes its Facebook page has gained. In addition, Nuzzcrew can claim something few college musicians can: they have hits. “Don’t Die On Me” is the trio’s most well known song and it has earned well over
Satsuki Aoi /// The Spectrum
Nnabu Eric Enyia (left) and Uwaoma Silachi are two-thirds of Nuzzcrew, an R&B/soul group that grabbed the attention of many UB students over the course of just one semester.
35,000 views on YouTube. “Mysterious Girl” – a song that borrows the instrumental from Rick Ross’ popular “Diced Pineapples” – is receiving coverage from Cleveland radio station Z107.9 and is also a hit with local fans. But Silachi and Enyia are still hungry. To them, their current accomplishments are only a start.
“Who we want to be and where we are now are nowhere close,” Silachi said. “If I don’t see the buzz, if it’s not in my face, there is no buzz.” Choir boys Enyia and Silachi aren’t the type to flaunt their talent. Both carry a humble and quiet personality, which juxtaposes their larger-than-life vocal performances. They don’t crave to be the center of attention, either;
The harpist AMI DIALLO Staff Writer Most 10-year-olds spend their time playing outside, watching cartoons or enjoying the “Hakuna Matata” life of being a kid. For Taylor Gorman, a freshman mechanical engineering major, her memories from age 10 are quite different. She was busy performing at a wedding; she was playing the harp. “When people walk into a room and see you play the harp, there’s always an initial shock because it’s not every day you see that,” Gorman said. “It’s kind of awkward at first because they stare at you like, ‘What is she doing?’ And when I came to UB, people didn’t believe me at first when I told them I played the harp, so it was funny seeing their reactions.” Gorman was playing at her friend’s aunt’s wedding when she was 10 years old, and though she was one of the younger guests in attendance, her talent with the harp stole the show. Eight years later, with more experience under her belt, Gorman continues to awe spectators with her talent, while living out her passion for music. Since being introduced to the piano and the harp at the age
Enyia’s only performance at UB was at an open mic night at the Perks coffee shop in Ellicott Complex. They’ve had this calm demeanor since they were boys in the First Igbo Seventh-Day Adventist Church in the Bronx. Silachi and Enyia were the first youths to join the small church’s choir. Continued on page 7
Ain’t nuthin’ but a P thang With UB Ph.D. in hand, Dr. A prepares to teach class on hip-hop LISA KHOURY Senior News Editor
Courtesy of Meg Bragdo
Taylor Gorman has been playing the harp since she was 10 years old and doesn't plan on stopping because she is an engineering major.
of 5 by her mother, Gorman has taken lessons to improve her skills. She became a member of her high school orchestra in her hometown of Orchard Park, N.Y. “I enjoyed playing them both simultaneously, but the harp is different and it’s really rare to find a harpist,” Gorman said. “When I’m playing the harp and performing, I feel driven to give it my best. When I’m stressed or need a break from keeping up with school, I often sit down at the harp or piano and play to release these feelings.”
Inside
To Gorman, the hardest aspect of playing the harp is the technique. She said many people think it’s only about plucking strings, but it has a lot to do with posture and finger positioning. As a freshman, Gorman has achieved academic accolades along with her strides in music. With her busy schedule between participating in UB Concert Band and taking 18 credits, Gorman’s biggest challenge has been managing her workload. Continued on page 4
To some, rapper MF Doom’s lyrics are trivial: “The rest is empty with no brain but the clever nerd/ The best emcee with no chain ya ever heard.” To Alex Porco, they’re poetry. The assistant professor of poetry and poetics at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) received his Ph.D. from UB in 2011. His focus was rap music. “What I discovered is people who have been doing work in cognitive psychology and linguistics had developed ways of explaining why rhymes work, but they’ve never applied it to rap music; they’ve only applied it to poetry,” Porco said. The 32-year-old, who taught English classes at UB from 200511 as a Ph.D. student, doesn’t just see rap as poetry. He believes the sounds in rap music that have sent parents into hiding and kids into raptures are actually a form of primal connection.
Humans can connect intimately at a rap concert, he explained. “You go to this place, and there’s this sound that connects everyone there because we all know the lyrics,” Porco said. “So you get an actual, real sense of community, an intimacy through sound that you don’t get through visual. I see people at the show; that’s not what’s connecting me to them. It’s the fact that – and I mean this in a real way – we’re all sharing the vibrations of the music. You can feel it.” Porco, an author of two books of poetry and editor of one, believes elements like rhythm, sound, rhyme and voice matter in how people make meaning of the world. The Canadian native grew up listening to ’90s rappers like Raekwon, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. He was inspired to study his passion for a living after taking Distinguished English Professor Bruce Jackson’s graduate seminar, Oral Poetry from Homer to Tupac. By fall of 2008, Porco began relentlessly studying the sounds, poetic elements and social meanings in rap music. Continued on page 8
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