Alphä performing “Disneyland” at the Lounge in Minneapolis, MN. For more from Alphä, see his MySpace.
24
Oct
09
Videos from “Up in Arms”
Here are the spoken word performances from this month’s “Up in Arms” event, which took place at Macalaster College. The event was designed to raise awareness and funds for the family of Fong Lee, who was shot and killed by a Minneapolis Police Officer in 2007 and featured many, many of the Twin Cities’ best spoken word and hip-hop artists, as well as guest artists from across the nation. I’m editing the hip-hop performances and will hopefully have those up in the next week or so.
For more information on the Fong Lee case, see here, here, and here.
It’s a strong statement to Franz Diego’s character, both as an MC and as a person, that the first words you hear on his debut full-length are about other folks. “This one goes to all the people who helped me who/ nurtured my growth and kept me so healthy,” he speaks on the album’s opening song, “Quest for Self.” The South-Side reppin, boombox-carryin’, dookie-rope rockin’ MC, who prides himself not just on his own skills, but on a dedication to communities both within and beyond hip-hop.
Franz’s words are a mix of swagger (“Nokomis Kid” and “Par Le Vu FranzD” “ vulnerability (“Quest for Self,” “Cloudy Day,” “Father Song) and lady-lovin’ (“Pretty,” “MVD,” “Discipline,” and “Grenadine,” and righteous fire aimed at all the right targets (“Move On, “Pearly Whites,” and “Duel Citizen”).
While the whole album is a testament to Franz’s rhymin’ versatility, it’s this last group of songs on the album that really makes it, and its creator, stand out. Burnished with an alley-wailin’ noir saxophone, “Move On” views the difficulty, yet necessity, of living consciously in the face of people who could care less. “Times gettin’ rough,” he says, “but we treat it like it’s casual.”
The target of “Pearly Whites” is a similar one, as a plodding, almost herd-like beat [undergirds] Franz’s derision of those who exchange thoughts of speakin’ truth to power “for the almighty dollar,” politicians and non-politicians alike who live only to “Shake a hand, shake a hand/Show them pearly whites.” Closing repetitions of “spend money” of “keep smilin’” offer a satirically grim coda.
Finally, a dope semantic flip of Slick Rick’s line from “I Own America” becomes the heart of “Duel Citizen,” a ferocious critique of xenophobia and anti-immigrant hysteria. While Ruler’s talkin’ about his own deportation when he says “Even if I got deported/I own America,” Franz and producer FireLikeWater refunction his words to stress not that immigrants, refugees, and indigenous need “room” made for them, but that such superficial attempts at change and integration only mask, and hence perpetuate, devastating social inequities. In the end, Franz demands that his listeners “open your eyes right now and start witnessin’” because, without all of the immigrants, refugees, and indigenous folks living in artificial borders, “this country wouldn’t be shit.”
Franz’s extensive work as a community organizer in and through hip-hop, both on his own and with groups like Yo! The Movement, make these words much more powerful than the usual MC political posturing
All that being said, “Nokomis Kid” is definitely one of the album’s best songs even without rabble-rousin’. Jaunty piano and bass syncopations provide the basis of Franz’s audible documentary of growing up in one Twin Cities neighborhood I’ve never heard rapped about on record. With its spoken interludes fluidly blending into the verses—from tagging to dog bakeries to what would eventually become Ill 3’s Bedroom Studios—the song should go down with “Twin Cities Rap,” “The Shh Song,” “Ice Cold,” “Always Coming Home Back to You,” and “No Coast” as one of the best rap songs about the Twin Cities by somebody from the Twin Cities. While Franz would no doubt be humbled by such a statement, there shouldn’t be any disagreement.
On this 8th anniversary of the events of 9/11, e.g. bailey has crafted “Twin Towers (Dreams of Possible Tomorrows),” an eloquent statement that both captures the emotions and experiences of 9/11 as well as how to respond and remember them.
The piece opens with singer, guitarist and fellow TrúRúts artist Chastity Brown. She delivers the first part of bailey’s poem, a collage of observations that sound like fragments of a broken news report, the frame through which many saw the events of 9/11.
No death today
No war
No justice comin’ down
Reports say peace is on the way
Yet this news report flips the usual broadcasts of death and destruction associated with 9/11, setting the stage for a poem that looks forward to something greater, something better than images of smoking towers. Brown’s dirge-like intonations of “And I watched the buildings crumble,” however, delivered with a voice that itself sounds ash-choked, leads into the body of the poem and takes the listener back to 2001.
bailey does well to navigate the over-loaded and hyper-emotional associations with 9/11, be it jingoistic drum rolls of war, uncritical celebrations and memorializations a la “Patriot Day,” or reactionary conspiracy theories. Instead, he focuses on the bewildering experience of that day, bodies and towers falling from the Manhattan sky. He wonders “whose truth to trust” as the poem’s narrator goes “stumbling through the fog” (one of more than just ash, smoke, and debris), while children and lovers suddenly find themselves alone.
The other theme of “Twin Towers” is how to remember these events, be it 8 or 80 years afterwards. bailey calls for unity, a familiar theme of course in 9/11 responses, but his has a critical edge. The unity he calls for is not for a nation to wage war in hopes of short-sighted revenge, but rather a call to humanity, his words moving swiftly from the individuals itself who died in the events 9/11 and, presumably, in America’s response to it, but rather a unity to stop these events from ever happening again without perpetuating violence, “no matter the politics of color or creed.” It is a tone of remembrance that cannot be captured by commemorative “never forget” anniversaries or lapel pins, but rather a remembrance that is as much about actively and peacefully shaping the future as it is about the past.
There are two versions of “Twin Towers,” one with the poem recorded by Twin Cities spoken word godfather J. Otis Powell, the other by bailey himself. While the words are the same, the difference is palpable. Powell’s delivery is deeper, more measured, adding a gravity and weight to the words simply through his bass intonation alone. bailey’s version, while no less meaningful or emotional, is slightly faster, and reflects more the mental state of someone actual experiencing the events, be it in person or through a screen, while Powell’s sounds much more reflective and pondering. Both versions, however, are a powerful testament not only to the past, present, and future of 9/11, but also of bailey’s skill of mobilizing poetry for contemplation, remembrance, and subtle, but no less insistent calls for action.
06
Aug
09
“A Breakdancing Phoenix”
Peep my latest article, a feature for the Twin Cities Daily Planet about the re-birth of B-Girl Be. With awesome photos by B-Fresh.
04
Aug
09
New Blackbird Elements Video
Here’s a video I made of the highlights of the Blackbird Elements‘ appaearance on CHAT Radio last month. The hosts said it was the most calls they’ve gotten in a year!
The debut mixtape from the Blackbird Elements, “Saving the Roots,” is out NOW.
Duce Khan and Tsis K, the two best MCs who rap in Hmong, performed together live for the first time at Boom Bap Village 2009.
Over the past couple of months, I’ve been working on a project with The Blackbird Elements, a group coordinated by Tou SaiKo Lee and featuring a number of the best young Hmong MCs the Twin Cities have to offer. Their debut mixtape dropped this week, and here’s a little video I put together for the occassion. Plans are to do a longer video on the group, so watch for much, much more soon.
From the mixtape’s notes:
The Blackbird Elements project is a fresh movement to bring visibility and elevate Hmong MCs that strive to make an impact through Hip-Hop music with words that move, inspire, and connect and “save” elements of Hmong heritage, history, honor hip-hop culture.
The first step for this movement is a Mix CD project that includes at least one song from every MC or MC crew that have met all the requirements of the Blackbird Elements project process.
This CD brings together MCs with the potential to move hip-hop forward by representing genuine experiences of the Hmong people in Minnesota.
For more information, see http://www.myspace.com/blackbirdelements
06
Jun
09
Dinkytowner, R.I.P
Here’s a video I put together from footage shot at the Dinkytowner’s last night. Thanks to everybody who shared their thoughts, memories, and laughter.
The good folks over at Minnesota Microphone have a wonderful write-up of the Minneapolis Slam Finals, held last week at Kieran’s, which included four videos that I shot.
