RH First Look: Vic Mensa
"The only way it's really affected me personally is by making me feel like I have to get it popping ASAP while I still am so young, but a bit of motivation never hurt anyone," says Vic Mensa, the youngest member of Brainiac Society a collective of artists, DJs, and producers handpicked by Naledge of Kidz In The Hall.
Mensa was added to the crew in the winter of 2009, attending studio sessions as soon as the final bell rang at Chicago's Whitney Young where he is still a student. "I’ve pretty much always been able to get by in school without having to do too much, so I've really just kept on doing what I've been doing. There have been those nights when I miss homework time because I'm in the studio, but it's all good."
It's all good because Mensa displays "better than good" emceeing abilities. Put in his music and it's very easy to forget that he's not old enough to vote. On the heels of his first release, an EP titled Straight Up, we turn our First Look spotlight on Chicago's youngest hopeful, Vic Mensa.
[Interview] DJ Premier: Even On My Bad Days...
What do you write about DJ Premier that hasn't been written before? His technical skills as a DJ is the stuff of urban myth, and his influence lives everyday in every city in clubs, basements, and bedrooms where DJ's study and mimic his moves. Talk about his production? Come on! After starting a groundbreaking career as part of Gang Starr, Premier's production is often used to define a style of beats and rhymes meant to connotate the truest forms of Hip Hop culture and music... "I want a Premier type of beat," is something every emcee has said at some point in his or her career.
"Some people do it for the corporate reasons, I do it for the cultural reasons and that's the difference," Premier told me last week after arriving in Chicago after a brief tour of Europe. "I'm corporate too in certain avenues, but not when it comes to sacrificing the culture and compromising my views... If that ends up being the case, you can count me out and let somebody else take that gig."
After 22 years of gigs, DJ Premier is still a highly sought after DJ and producer. His Chicago set at The Shrine last week was sold out, and counted Pharrell of N*E*R*D amongst its audience members. Aside from his skills, Premier's longevity can be attributed to his passion for Hip Hop, something he said has led him to study the culture devoutly. He knows his history as well the moves of young guns such as Drake, Wacka Flocka and others who have captured Hip Hop's spotlight.
"I applaud all of them for even wanting to do Hip Hop as long as they respect their elders and they respect the culture, go on and do what you want to do," he says about Hip Hop's rising stars. "We all have different audiences that we touch and I will never knock an artist on the audience they attract... At the end of the day, we're all doing a service to the culture. There are consequences that will come down the line if you don't do it right, and they are consequences that will haunt you financially to where you could completely disappear and you can't even do it anymore," he adds, issuing a warning that is more matter of fact, than some kind of threat.
We caught up with DJ Premier last week while he was in Chicago to play The Shrine's 1-year anniversary party. He shared knowledge about what's kept him going for more than 22 years, why he'll never stop, why there's never any dirt on his name and why even on a bad day, he's still the nicest. Read the full interview on the next page.
RH First Look: Jose James
This is a somewhat special First Look for RubyHornet. The column, which has run on Mondays since our inception, usually highlights very, how do you say, up and coming artists. Many of them have been without a proper debut record, ones we've seen on blogs and websites, those that who's buzz has been building on the e-streets and/or the streets of Chicago. Today's First Look is different not only that is it our first one featuring a Jazz musician, but also in that Jose James, while perhaps new to our audience, is on his third release, a recently dropped album entitled For All We Know on Impulse Records. That LP follows up the re-release of Blackmagic, a fantastic LP that caught our attention and thus propelled this First Look. While the title may conjure up images of brewing pots, gypsy spells, and vodoo dolls, the title means something different to James who told us, "I literally mean the magic of Black people and the power of music and culture."
Coming to music at a late age, James was inspired by the works on Blue Note, his recording home Impulse, A Tribe Quest and De La Soul. For James, being a performer is a dream come true, one from which he does not hope to awaken anytime soon. "I listen really obsessively to whatever I'm working on," he said. "There are so many steps - writing, recording, editing, mixing, mastering. After all that you make it live, which is completely different - you are living your own material and performing it night after night. When it's so internalized, you don't need to listen anymore, because it is you."
Keep reading to learn more about Jose James and his music in this new RH First Look.
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RH First Look: Das Racist
photo: Jackie Roman
Das Racist can be a tough group to figure out, and as our attempt shows, an equally tough crew to interview. With songs such as "Combination Pizza Hut Taco Bell" and Rainbow In The Dark" and the ever always fun, "Chicken and Meat" you may think the duo of Victor and Himanshu are just fun, games, and jokes. And for the most part, you might be right.
We set out to discover more behind the multi-cultural crew that is shaking things up in more ways than one. For all their randomness and jokes, there's seems to be a serious side that is hard to get at, but there none the less, tracing back to the duo's introduction during their college years and shared living quarters in their school's Students of Color For Social Justice dormitory. From the name to the music, Das Racist's main goal appears to be either be a brilliant strategy of remaining hard to catch and figure out... That, or they're just as clueless as everyone else, and still trying to figure out if they're at Pizza Hut or Taco Bell. Get to know them (or at least try) a little better in this new and exclusive RH First Look.
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RH First Look: Miz Metro
Who's that girl? One she's pretty. Two she's betty boop cute. Three she's dope but not too dope. Four she embodies the NYC sex in the city rapper that can be a hero to all women searching for empowerment, and individualism. Her style, passion, and a betty boop tone combats Marilyn Monroe's poses with rhymes and voice. She's in a musical League of her own if you will, sans the madonna baseball skills. Shoot, she's even got a cosign from Perez Hilton.
And she's just graduating college!
I recently played a pre-Austin warm-up gig in Brooklyn and got to see her rock an awesome set with DJ Vinyl Richie and her bassist. It was more than enough to make me think, this girl needs to be on the road now.
Her debut album, Unlimited, is fresh she'll tell you the rest in this new RubyHornet First Look.
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RH First Look: Priceless The Kid
I first met Priceless the Kid in August of 2009 at his release party for his No Barcode EP. Performing for a sold-out crowd at Atlanta’s King Plow Arts Center with support from a full live band, Priceless tore the house down with a stellar set complete with guest appearances from Yelawolf and The Mad Violinist. Since then he’s been grinding away on his latest project, Diamond Life, and indulging in the occasional marijuana cigarette. We caught up with the Atlanta-based artist, who was gearing up for the March 29th release of his sophomore project supported by California streetwear and skate brand Diamond Supply Co.
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RH First Look: B. Dolan
B. Dolan just released his second LP, Fallen House Sunken City, and he already has the perfect way to exit the rap game thanks to his labelmate and longtime friend, Sage Francis.
"When I met Sage Francis in 2002, both of us looked distinct from each other. I was a little bit taller than him. We were both bald, but I don't think he had a beard at the time we met," B. told us a few weeks ago. "Over the years however, we've somehow grown into the same f**king body type. All that healthy gas station cuisine and living the dream, I guess. So now people physically confuse us... And neither of us are willing to shave our beards, because it's a horror show under there. Luckily, Sage Francis is a dude I respect forever, and the association doesn't cause me to lose any sleep at night. And the physical similarity may just allow us to work out some imposter-scheme a la Doom. Might be a good retirement plan."
The retirement is a long way off, as Dolan is currently on a marathon tour of Eurpoe before criss-crossing the USA with Francis on a spring/summer tour. Dolan's new record is a realistic, morbid, and sometimes morbidly funny take on the music industry as well as the well-being of our society. Dolan's double-duty as the founder of the consumer's right advocacy group Knowmore.org adds to the passion of his music while his music offers him a release from his activist endeavors. The two compliment each other to enhance Dolan's mic skills as well as his ability to write real life stories. Such is the case with Fallen House, Sunken City. At first glance the album's title appears to be directly related to the collapse of the housing market and ensuing recession, but Dolan insists the title was thought of before the s**t hit the fan, as he told us.
"There certainly was a spooky correlation between releasing an album about underwater houses just as that started literally happening to people. It isn't the first time that kind of strange coincidence has come along. I like to think it comes from being sensitive to the world around me and paying attention to signs. Although, it doesn't take a psychic at this point to know we're headed for all kinds of collapse."
We put B. Dolan under the First Look microscope to find out more about his debut album, knowmore.org, and much much more. Check out the full interview below.
RH First Look: Aleon Craft
Last fall I made a trip out to Atlanta. While I was in town I asked a few people about artists that were "bubbling" as the tastemakers say... One name was repeated a little bit more than others, and I got a real vision of things when this young man's music came on at the club... Everybody went nuts. The person I speak of is Aleon Craft, who retooled the spelling of his name a little bit, the direction of his music, and the mentality of his hustle from the harder way to the smarter way. Craft says, "I've more so just started moving smarter and strategically.... I have grown and matured, mentally and musically."
That growth was in part manifested by a unique collaboration with Atlanta's Symphony Orchestra, a musical partnership that was perhaps as unexpected as musical partnerships go. Craft spoke to us about working with the symphony, his not so out of this world partnership with SMKA, and more in this new RH First Look.
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