Tag Archives: Def Jux

Talib Kweli & El-P Recall Rawkus Records Taking A Chance On Underground Hip-Hop

Run The Jewels and Company Flow co-founder El-P is the latest guest on Talib Kweli’s The People’s Party Podcast, with co-host Jasmin Leigh. The two natives of Brooklyn, New York have plenty of history together, including Hip Hop For Respect. They were label-mates at Rawkus Records during an inflection point in both artist’s careers, making albums that galvanized an iconic underground Hip-Hop label that reached the mainstream. The two men relive some history from the mid-1990s when each hungry Hip-Hop artist found a home that was down to put out music by their respective groups. Ahead of the 30:00 mark, El-P remembers working at Lower Manhattan’s Tower Records with Co Flow band-mate Bigg Jus. Notably, some years later, Kweli recalls a job selling incense and oils outside that same Lafayette Street music store. El recalls Company Flow using Tower’s postage to ship demo materials to record labels. “We’d take our money that we earned there, and we’d go record at night,” he remembers of early songs like “8 Steps To Perfection” and others. The trio (also including New Jersey producer/DJ Mr. Len) had room on the 12″ recording. That birthed the eight songs on 1996 Official Records’ Funcrusher. “That was literally as simple as it was,” El says. “Why are we just putting a song and an instrumental on this piece of plastic? It’s gonna cost the same amount of money to put eight of these songs on here.” Talib Kweli Says The New Black Star Album With Madlib Is Done Talib brings up the years that followed. “[You and I] were signed to Rawkus at the same time. Black Star was more jazzy, melodic. We were in the same circles, in terms of crews, but sonically, not so [much]. Did you ever feel like there was a competition between Company Flow and Black Star? Because we were operating in the same spaces and sort of vying for the same fan-base, just different sides of people’s brain.” El responds with what appears to be a joke, “Nah. The only time I ever thought there was a competition was when you got to the B.D.P beat before me. I was like, ‘F*ck those dudes.’ I was mad about that one.” He is referring to DJ Hi-Tek’s “Definition” track for Black Star, which samples Boogie Down Productions’ “The P Is Free (Remix).” El continues, “I think my influences were really rooted in sh*t like B.D.P, and [Public Enemy], and Run-D.M.C., and old Schoolly D, and Fat Boys, sh*t like that, and Slick Rick—big, big Hip-Hop records with stabs. To this day, that’s kinda my thing.” Kweli then reflects, “Like, we weren’t as lo-fi as a Madlib, but it was definitely a warm, fuzzier thing that we were doing.” “For sure,” El agrees. “And that’s why it worked. That’s why we coexisted. Because, to be fair, it never felt like a competition. You were always doing your thing. The thing about that period of time, and that era, which was so special, is that there were so many people doing different sh*t. The ones that really stood one—the ones that ended up being some of the groups that we’d call defining of that era, I think Company Flow is included, and I know Black Star is, and I know there’s a couple others—everybody had their slot that they filled that created this picture. There’s a lot going on in this movement. There was. You remember the open mics and sh*t; everybody would get up and have a style, and everyone was into that different style.” Evil Dee Details What Led To The Demise Of Rawkus Records Talib continues, “For me, when I got to Rawkus, what was exciting about [the label] to me was [Missin’ Linx member] Black Attack was there, and Shabaam [Sahdeeq] was there, and Sir Menelik was there; I wasn’t familiar with Menelik, but I was familiar with Kool Keith, and Company Flow was there. Y’all established it before we got there.” “I feel like Rawkus co-opted this whole ‘independent as f*ck’ thing.” El responds, “I think that Rawkus certainly recognized it, and I think they had the ability to do something about it.” El says that Company Flow came up with the mantra while hand-designing artwork at a kitchen table using glue-sticks. It would eventually become a moniker in the late 1990s and early 2000s Rap underground. Kweli recalls being introduced to Rawkus co-founder Jarret Myer, who produces The People’s Party through then-Fugees affiliate John Forté. “I remember Jarret and Brian [Brater], these two white guys from Brown University, they came to the hood—they came to Crown Heights, and John Forté was there. Everybody was rhyming their ass off; everybody had a blunt and a 40 [ounce beer]. Everybody was trying to get a record deal, rhyming their ass off. At this point, I don’t even think that they had y’all yet. I remember John Forté being like, ‘Why ain’t you rappin’?’ I’m like, ‘This indie label sh*t? I’m trying to get to a major.'” The Reflection Eternal and Black Star co-founder continues, “A short two years later, now my girl is pregnant, now I lost my job. Mos Def [aka] Yasiin Bey comes to me, he’s like, ‘Yo, I think I’ma do a single with these Rawkus dudes.’ I’m like, ‘Jarret and Brian?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah; they gave me some money.’ I’m like, ‘They gave you some money? [Laughs] How much money they give you?’ My whole thought pattern changed.” El-P, J-Live & Breeze Brewin Rap At Fat Beats’ Grand Opening (AFH TV Video) “Meeting those guys, it was very interesting, and I think Jarret can attest to this. Basically, we were having a moment in the underground, but we had very quickly—through people like Stretch & Bobbito—we had started to get a lot of attention, just from the little music that we had put out.” An assortment of major and independent labels took an interest in the New York-New Jersey trio. “Rawkus were the ones who said yes to what we thought it should look like. We were like, ‘We want to do this, and we want to own the masters. We want a 50/50 deal. And we don’t want to promise more than one album, ’cause we don’t know how it’s gonna work out. At the time, these were ludicrous thoughts. At the time, there was no [artist leverage]. We went into these guys’ offices and said the same thing that we’d said to other [labels, and they agreed]. I think that was a really genuine place for us to jump off with that sh*t. Because if they’re in that head-space where they respect that idea, and they’re willing, also, to give us money, then these guys are serious. So when you say the co-opting of the [‘independent as f*ck’ mantra], I think what they did was they [finalized] or expanded the thought. We had the thought of ‘independent as f*ck,’ the thing that became a rallying cry in our collective. We helped define that attitude.” El expands, “There was no independent record label system for dudes like us. Either you were on a major or you just were going around to different places freestyling—Washington Square Park or Nuyorican [Poets Café]. There was no middle-ground. Rawkus became the first step for a middle-ground. [They were] the first people to recognize and say—and they felt the same way that I did, politically—’this stuff actually has a monetary future. We can actually sell this, and not take this and try and change it.'” He expounds that the label offered a step apart from the politics and nepotism of the old-guard label system. El-P and Company Flow broke from Rawkus. El launched Definitive Jux Records, another heralded 2000s imprint. Juss created Subversive, and Len opened his Dummy Smacks company. Talib, who remained with Rawkus until the label was sold, has co-founded labels, including Blacksmith and Javotti Media. While both El and Talib criticized their former label on wax at times, they seemingly look back at the imprint’s positive qualities more than 20 years after signing. 10 Things You May Not Know About Rawkus Records (Audio) Elsewhere in the interview, El-P describes Zack De La Rocha living and recording with him in the days following the Rage Against The Machine breakup. He also remembers Def Jux, and confirms that Rick Rubin is not producing Run The Jewels’ fourth album. Last week, Talib Kweli confirmed that Black Star’s sophomore album, which is reportedly produced by Madlib, is completed. Talib Kweli Rocks A Rawkus Records In-Store At Fat Beats (AFH TV Video) Videos from Rawkus Records-era Talib Kweli and El-P are available at AFH TV. We are currently offering free 7-day trials.

Source: AmbrosiaForHeads.com

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Murs’ Next LP With 9th Wonder & The Soul Council Has A New Video & Release Date

Less than a month ago, Murs & 9th Wonder premiered two singles from the upcoming The Iliad Is Dead And The Odyssey Is Over at Ambrosia For Heads. “Ga$ Station Gucci Belt” (which Heads got a small taste of in late March) and “Night Shift” showed two different sides from the pair’s seventh album together—also involving The Soul Council (Khrysis, Nottz, Eric G, AMP, Kash and E. Jones). It is confirmed that the Murs 316/Jamla Records/EMPIRE album will arrive on July 19. With that news, “Night Shift” comes to music video, including “Ga$ Station Gucci Belt.” The first, a Ka$h-produced song, is about dedication. In a Blockbuster Video sweatshirt, Murs delivers bars at a drive-in movie theater. Perhaps it is symbolism that the Living Legends product of the 1990s underground movement finds seemingly antiquated objects. By today’s standards, the sacrifices that the MC suffered may seem like ancient history. However, Blockbuster has become a nostalgic touchstone of better days for some, and several drive-ins are surviving across the landscape. 9th Wonder Discusses The Benefits Of Owning His Own Record Label (Video) “I didn’t take this lightly,” Murs told Billboard‘s Andreas Hale along with the video premiere. “I sacrificed weeks away from my family, to write in seclusion and work with this team, and hopefully make my best album to date. I am a true artist and my aim for the past two decades has been to master my craft. I am not an athlete. My age and longevity is not a limitation; it is a blessing. My focus isn’t what’s best for my brand—it’s what’s best for the music.” “Engaged to the stage at an early age / And it was years before I started getting paid,” begins Murs at the top. “For the love of the culture, the culture of love / I was k*lling that stage, I was building my buzz / I wasn’t making sh*t that they would feel in the club / ‘Cause I wouldn’t talk about all the k*lling and dr*gs / Yeah, I grew up with the Crips and the Bloods / And while they was busy screamin’ out, ‘*itch, I’m a thug,’ I was really thuggin’, I was sleepin’ on floors and sh*t / I was sellin’ dope just so I could record my sh*t / Turning dirty money into studio time / My family told me I was crazy, I was losing my mind / But I stuck to the script, I was glued to the grind / If I didn’t know sh*t, b*tch, I knew what could rhyme / Serve the sucka MC’s standin’ on the street corner / K*ll a cold instrumental and I make the beat warmer / A former introvert until I put the pen to work / Until my verses started turning heads like a tennis skirt. Locksmith Explains Why He Hasn’t Written A Rhyme Since High School (Video) Murs is built to last, evidenced by footage from his recent cross-country tour with Locksmith and others. Footage from those packed club shows is also part of the video. “Ga$ Station Gucci Belt” is produced by 9th. He and Murs have made the whole LP available for pre-order. This marks the pair’s first release since Brighter Daze, which released without warning on the final day of 2015. Smif-N-Wessun Discuss Giving 25 Years Of Their All To Hip-Hop (Video) Earlier this year, 9th Wonder and The Soul Council produced Smif-n-Wessun’s The All. In addition to a video conversation with General Steele and Tek currently available on AFH TV, stay tuned for our recent chat with Murs about The Iliad Is Dead And The Odyssey Is Over, and so much more. We are currently offering free 30-day trials.

Source: AmbrosiaForHeads.com

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Murs Raps About The Pain From His Past In A Hard-Hitting 9th Wonder Reunion (Video)

At the top of this year, it was announced that Murs & 9th Wonder were preparing to release the seventh album in their union. 2019’s upcoming The Illiad Is Dead And The Odyssey Is Over marks the pair’s first effort since 2015’s Brighter Daze.

This past weekend, the Los Angeles, California MC and the Winston-Salem, North Carolina producer celebrated the 15th-anniversary of Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition. That heralded Def Jux release (which 9th says “changed his life”) introduced chemistry that has stayed bubbling ever since. With milestones in mind, the duo dropped a quick-strike visual for “Ga$ $tation Gucci Belt.” The video finds Murs delivering some bars that honor his story in front of live graffiti tagging.

Locksmith & Murs Are Stars Who Shine Brightly By Being True To Themselves

One verse can put your eye out / F*ck around and find out / Underground for years, it’s too deep for me to climb out / Tunnels and the catacombs / Runnin’ from a battered home / I told my step-pops I would kill him if I had the chrome / Kept the door locked / Prayed to the warlocks / Right around the time Rodney King met the four cops / My psycho was so violent / I was screaming through the silence / Spray painting public property, unruly and defiant,” spits the MC who says that he buys the toys, clothes, and sneakers that he couldn’t in his youth. He emphatically closes: “Was a boy from the hood, still a ni**a from the streets / And I ain’t a conscious rapper, you can get your ass beat.

In a social media post, 9th confirmed that The Soul Council is taking on production for The Illiad Is Dead And The Odyssey Is Over. 9th’s team includes Nottz, Khrysis, Ka$h Don’t Make Beats, Eric G., E. Jones, and AMP. Not only have they produced Smif-n-Wessun’s recently released The All, the collective worked on last year’s Streams Of Thought, Vol. 1 by Black Thought as well as Jamla Is The Squad II.

Smif-N-Wessun Detail The Making Of The Album Where They Truly Gave Their All (Video)

Next month, Murs and Locksmith will begin a nationwide run, the Over The Odyssey Tour.

#BonusBeat: Murs and Brady Watt recently dropped a “Bars & Beats” video. This verse belongs to Murs’ upcoming “Night Shift” song:

At the top of this year, it was announced that Murs & 9th Wonder were preparing to release the seventh album in their union. 2019’s upcoming The Illiad Is Dead And The Odyssey Is Over marks the pair’s first effort since 2015’s Brighter Daze.

This past weekend, the Los Angeles, California MC and the Winston-Salem, North Carolina producer celebrated the 15th-anniversary of Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition. That heralded Def Jux release (which 9th says “changed his life”) introduced chemistry that has stayed bubbling ever since. With milestones in mind, the duo dropped a quick-strike visual for “Ga$ $tation Gucci Belt.” The video finds Murs delivering some bars that honor his story in front of live graffiti tagging.

Locksmith & Murs Are Stars Who Shine Brightly By Being True To Themselves

One verse can put your eye out / F*ck around and find out / Underground for years, it’s too deep for me to climb out / Tunnels and the catacombs / Runnin’ from a battered home / I told my step-pops I would kill him if I had the chrome / Kept the door locked / Prayed to the warlocks / Right around the time Rodney King met the four cops / My psycho was so violent / I was screaming through the silence / Spray painting public property, unruly and defiant,” spits the MC who says that he buys the toys, clothes, and sneakers that he couldn’t in his youth. He emphatically closes: “Was a boy from the hood, still a ni**a from the streets / And I ain’t a conscious rapper, you can get your ass beat.

In a social media post, 9th confirmed that The Soul Council is taking on production for The Illiad Is Dead And The Odyssey Is Over. 9th’s team includes Nottz, Khrysis, Ka$h Don’t Make Beats, Eric G., E. Jones, and AMP. Not only have they produced Smif-n-Wessun’s recently released The All, the collective worked on last year’s Streams Of Thought, Vol. 1 by Black Thought as well as Jamla Is The Squad II.

Smif-N-Wessun Detail The Making Of The Album Where They Truly Gave Their All (Video)

Next month, Murs and Locksmith will begin a nationwide run, the Over The Odyssey Tour.

#BonusBeat: Murs and Brady Watt recently dropped a “Bars & Beats” video. This verse belongs to Murs’ upcoming “Night Shift” song:

Source: AmbrosiaForHeads.com

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Aesop Rock Still Has A Flare For Intricate Wordplay & Bugged Out Visuals

Lyrical wunderkind Aesop Rock was a standout sensation during the Underground Hip-Hop boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. His poetic imagery and didactic bars were complex conundrums that many listeners enjoyed unraveling. The MC/producer worked with the likes of MF DOOM, El-P, and the Weathermen during a celebrated time in Rap music, especially in New York.

While Aesop made his name as an artist with the Mush label, and later, on El’s Definitive Jux squad, this decade he’s been rolling with the Rhymesayers family, co-founded by Atmosphere. As recently as 2016’s The Impossible Kid, Rock has made some of his best Hip-Hop in years. He keeps the art exciting through interesting visuals, rugged flows, and compelling takes on the state of the culture.

Aesop Rock Mourns A Fallen MC & Spits Personal Bars Of Pain (Video)

Outside from his respected solo catalog, Aesop has enjoyed the craft of collaboration. The Portland, Oregon transplant has side groups/projects with fellow Weathermen alum, Cage (2 of A Kind), Homeboy Sandman (Lice), Rob Sonic & DJ Big Wiz (Hail Mary Mallon), Kimya Dawson (The Uncluded), and his latest endeavor, Malibu Ken, with producer Tobacco. The latter duo just released the video for their second single, the slightly uncomfortable and purposefully awkward “Corn Maze.”

As he is prone to do, Aesop raps about his nervous and awkward tendencies. He transforms his own experiences into a poetry so esoteric, it demands dozens of listens to decipher. The beat is similarly challenging but the fuzzy drums and synth plinks are exactly the kind of sound-bed Rock excels on.

This 2003 Conversation With MF DOOM Is The Interview Of His Career

The quirky visuals of “Corn Maze” are a handled by Rob Shaw, Aesop’s longtime videographer. The animation is clearly a tribute to Saturday morning cartoons from the early 1980s, but will likely remind many of Adventure Time as well. The plot is simple: three adventurers must unite to stop gargantuan, cyborg rat.

Aesop’s wordplay is as sharp as ever. In the second verse he raps, “In a lavish rabbit hole with no rabbits/  Young dumb dust bunnies jump into traffic / Casually gussied up and done feeling unsung and savage / Punk we have come for your cabbage / I’m bad news travel like a rat through your cabinet / Spaz Twenty paw pads full of scabs / Often a false ad full plaid all dander / Blast off black jackdaws on his antlers / Zero faithers / Wearily fear his neighbors / Some day we’ll find a way to make these billionaires obey us / Some day we’ll earn a subdivision gaudier than reprobates / Who sit around impressed and guess the order of the Tetris rain / With Biblical as reckoning / Son of surly Satan torn asunder / Private number, public urination / We socialize with pundits who encompass all the wrong stuff / I count the bread quick, I got some walls up.” The full-length album is due next month on RSE.

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Press photo by Ben Colen.

Lyrical wunderkind Aesop Rock was a standout sensation during the Underground Hip-Hop boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. His poetic imagery and didactic bars were complex conundrums that many listeners enjoyed unraveling. The MC/producer worked with the likes of MF DOOM, El-P, and the Weathermen during a celebrated time in Rap music, especially in New York.

While Aesop made his name as an artist with the Mush label, and later, on El’s Definitive Jux squad, this decade he’s been rolling with the Rhymesayers family, co-founded by Atmosphere. As recently as 2016’s The Impossible Kid, Rock has made some of his best Hip-Hop in years. He keeps the art exciting through interesting visuals, rugged flows, and compelling takes on the state of the culture.

Aesop Rock Mourns A Fallen MC & Spits Personal Bars Of Pain (Video)

Outside from his respected solo catalog, Aesop has enjoyed the craft of collaboration. The Portland, Oregon transplant has side groups/projects with fellow Weathermen alum, Cage (2 of A Kind), Homeboy Sandman (Lice), Rob Sonic & DJ Big Wiz (Hail Mary Mallon), Kimya Dawson (The Uncluded), and his latest endeavor, Malibu Ken, with producer Tobacco. The latter duo just released the video for their second single, the slightly uncomfortable and purposefully awkward “Corn Maze.”

As he is prone to do, Aesop raps about his nervous and awkward tendencies. He transforms his own experiences into a poetry so esoteric, it demands dozens of listens to decipher. The beat is similarly challenging but the fuzzy drums and synth plinks are exactly the kind of sound-bed Rock excels on.

This 2003 Conversation With MF DOOM Is The Interview Of His Career

The quirky visuals of “Corn Maze” are a handled by Rob Shaw, Aesop’s longtime videographer. The animation is clearly a tribute to Saturday morning cartoons from the early 1980s, but will likely remind many of Adventure Time as well. The plot is simple: three adventurers must unite to stop gargantuan, cyborg rat.

Aesop’s wordplay is as sharp as ever. In the second verse he raps, “In a lavish rabbit hole with no rabbits/  Young dumb dust bunnies jump into traffic / Casually gussied up and done feeling unsung and savage / Punk we have come for your cabbage / I’m bad news travel like a rat through your cabinet / Spaz Twenty paw pads full of scabs / Often a false ad full plaid all dander / Blast off black jackdaws on his antlers / Zero faithers / Wearily fear his neighbors / Some day we’ll find a way to make these billionaires obey us / Some day we’ll earn a subdivision gaudier than reprobates / Who sit around impressed and guess the order of the Tetris rain / With Biblical as reckoning / Son of surly Satan torn asunder / Private number, public urination / We socialize with pundits who encompass all the wrong stuff / I count the bread quick, I got some walls up.” The full-length album is due next month on RSE.

Slug Unpacks Atmosphere’s New Album & Puts His Rumored Alchemist LP To Bed (Video)

Press photo by Ben Colen.

Source: AmbrosiaForHeads.com

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