take the stage x huck magazine collab

14
83

Upload: ed-andrews

Post on 22-Mar-2016

218 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

DESCRIPTION

In December 2012, Take The Stage - Stories of Hip Hop curated the back section of HUCK Magazine.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

83

Page 2: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

84 HUCK

PHOTO

GRAPHY

by

MA

X H

AM

ILTO

NPHOTO

GRAPHY

by

TIM

SM

YTH

PHOTO

GRAPHY

by

LIZ

SE

AB

RO

OK

PHOTO

GRAPHY

by

LIZ

SE

AB

RO

OK

PHOTO

GRAPHY

by

PAU

L W

ILLO

UG

HB

YPHOTO

GRAPHY

by

Ed

AN

dR

EW

S

PHOTO

GRAPHY

by

Ed

AN

dR

EW

SPHOTO

GRAPHY

by

AN

GU

S M

AC

PH

ER

SON

PHOTO

GRAPHY

by

LIZ

SE

AB

RO

OK

TOP ROW: Nathan ‘Flutebox’ Lee, Stig of the Dump, Skitz.MIDDLE ROW: Dr Syntax, DJ Woody, Scroobius Pip.

BOTTOM ROW: Sarah Love, Chemo, Fatlip.

Page 3: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

85

P r i n t i s D e a D

L o n g L i v e r a P !

As the print publishing model continues to throw up a shit-storm of obstacles, and media big-wigs decry that ‘Print Is Dead’, determined self-publishers are finding ever-more inventive ways to get their stories out into the world. In the summer of 2011, a new digital magazine devoted to hip hop came blasting out of obscurity with a focus on the human narratives threaded throughout the world of rap. Founded by Ed Andrews – writer, photographer, AV-dabbler – Take The Stage: Stories of Hip Hop was a refreshingly honest conduit for everyday tales that deserve to be told. And it still is. Now in its fifth incarnation, and with a video element newly launched, Take The Stage will likely find a way to muster on, because its publisher is prepared to work while others moan.

Take The Stage: Stories of Hip Hop is a pretty simple

concept really. It’s a collection of profiles of hip hop emcees,

producers, deejays, beatboxers, promoters, record label

owners – anyone stepping up to articulate a love of beats

and rhymes – published in the form of a digital magazine

and now video, too.

One thing I didn’t ever want it to be was an arbiter of

cool. All too often, self-appointed spokesmen draw lines in

the sand, claim ownership and spurt clichés about what and

who hip hop is. ‘Keeping it real’, ‘the elements’, ‘knowledge

of self’, ‘taking it back’ – people preaching and bickering

over these sorts of things makes me want to run screaming

from the room. True, conversations like this usually stem from

a love of hip hop, but you could spend a lifetime arguing

over the intricacies and interpretations of the form and get

nowhere. Life is too short to bicker over such trivialities. All

I can suggest is that people take from hip hop what they

want; see the dopeness, not the wackness.

Anyway, I released the first volume in July 2011. This

was after a year or so of inaction due to general laziness. I

finally pulled my finger out and did it because I got bored

hearing myself telling people that I was thinking of doing

it. You can ‘think of doing’ pretty much anything you want

in the world, but it’s all just self-aggrandising bullshit until

you get your head down, give up days off and nights out

to hunch over your laptop and actually do it.

At first, I wanted to release it as a thick, hardback book

– like the ones you see sold in trendy clothing stores like

Urban Outfitters and record shops like Phonica in London’s

Soho. It made sense in my head to create a beautiful coffee-

table object that trendy hip hop heads would skin up on.

The big problem, however, was money.

I got quotes from printers and quickly realised that, to

fund a modest run of my dream book, I would probably have

to sell my kidneys on the black market. People suggested

crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter, but it just didn’t seem

likely that I would get enough people willing to part with

a good chunk of money for a tome devoted to mostly

obscure artists.

So instead I turned to Issuu – a free website where you

can upload styled-up PDFs to be read as a digital magazine

– and decided to try and get the stories out there in bite-

sized volumes, slowly build an audience and maybe one

day attract a sponsor who would be willing to cough up the

cash for the print bill. Nearly five volumes deep and it still

hasn’t happened... yet. But I have received a few kind emails

and tweets from people telling me they like it, had some

very talented photographers and writers volunteering their

services, had thousands of people reading each volume and

I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to try something other than

writing for a change – learning a little about shooting photos

and video, and hosting a film screening for readers, too.

I can’t complain but really the project isn’t about me. It’s

simply about publishing stories about quality independent hip

hop and giving exposure to some great artists moonlighting

as zookeepers, boxing coaches, PhD students, financial

magazine editors, direct marketing executives and swimming

instructors, as well as those struggling to make ends meet

with music as a full-time hobby.

Hip hop may be awash with hype, bravado, misconceptions,

egos, idiocy and some just plain embarrassing shit, but I’d

like to think Take The Stage is showing that there's another

side to it: people united by a simple, honest love of music.

Ed AndrEws

facebook.com/storiesofhiphop

Page 4: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

86 HUCK

that’s a generational thing and people who aren’t even that

nerdy are making music that sounds like video game music.

But I also try and bring a bit of folk into my music as I like

the idea that hip hop should really sound like it’s from a

specific place. If you are from Ramsgate in England, you

shouldn’t be making hip hop using the same soul samples

as Kanye West.

A lot of people, especially in the UK, have quite a

nostalgic view of hip hop where they see it as a certain

sound, but for me it’s not really a genre of music; it’s a

method for making music. When you don’t have access to

musical instruments, it’s a contemporary version of skiffle –

using exactly what you’ve got to make some sort of sound

and not caring too much about what ‘people who know

about music’ think about you.

I live in Ramsgate and for a lot of people living somewhere

like this, it’s really just boredom that makes you want to

make music. If you live in a city where there’s loads of

music going on, it's more of a competitive thing with other

people. In terms of ambitions, I don't have massive ones.

You do the recordings so you can do gigs because gigs are

fun. I’d never really aim to not have a normal job. It would

be nice but I’m quite realistic about it. If you can get away

with playing a few festivals a year and not have to pay to

get in, that’s pretty good. JoEy ProlAPsE

soundcloud.com/joeyprolapse

Hailing from the small fishing town of Ramsgate, experimental UK rapper/producer Joey Prolapse is known in the provincial Kent hip hop scene as a core member of The Brewdem crew. Formerly going by the name of Yosh, the full-time PhD student changed his moniker to something that “wouldn’t get lost in a Google search”. As a rapper, he’s lent vocals to albums from producers Mr Boss, Vee Kay and Mr Loop, and as a producer disappeared off into weirder sounds for his recent mixtape, Unexpected Item in Bagging Area, alongside a selection of mash-ups of classic acapellas and samples from eighties kids TV shows. Here, he tells us why he’s all about dreaming small and living large.

I came into rhyming from making beats, because I wanted

vocals on them. I'm not deliberately experimental; it’s

probably because I'm tone deaf or something.

Hip hop-wise, the first person who came to my attention

was Roots Manuva, so when I started rhyming I had this

really dodgy fake patois that made me sound like some

fifty-year-old West Indian geezer. I got cussed for it and I

suppose I’m only really finding my own voice now.

Growing up in my house, it was always about reggae,

punk and grunge so the reason hip hop stuck with me

was because it was the music I found on my own. I like hip

hop that’s a bit dark: sci-fi nerdy influenced stuff. At the

moment I'm really loving El-P, Busdriver and Open Mike

Eagle. Outside of hip hop, the things that have an influence

on my sound are comic books and video games but I think

Page 5: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

87

I OD’d or something to be honest. Amazingly, this bit

is a true story.

There was a cocktail of substances… That’s pretty much

all I'm gonna say on that. I've been advised not to talk about

that stuff directly. But not E45 cream. Fucking useless. Good

for moisturising skin but terrible for recording an album. I

wouldn’t advise it.

dr GonzillA, son of thE sAmoAn I met Duke Rango when

he was trying to buy drugs from Oscar The Grouch. In his

own words, he’s “a drug-taking freak-a-zoid!” We decided

to make an album together through our mutual fear of

V-like reptilian life forms dominating the earth. That, and a

shared interest in the life and

work of James Brian Hellwig.

You want specific dates,

times and locations? Do you

work for the authorities? Or

are you simply hoping we

reveal our secret formula

for making uber-def-super-

stupid-fresh hip hop hits that

will rock any roller-skating rink

in the known universe? Is that

your game?

For the most part, I was just

lost in a marijuana-induced

trance, rocking back and forth

and banging the pads of the

MPC repeatedly with little

or no awareness of Rango’s

physical presence whatsoever.

If I’d thought about it at the

time I probably would have opted to bring out the ‘cute

and cuddly’ aspects of his personality – the traits that make

him so endearing to women and children. He’s actually a

very sensitive guy, in touch with his feminine side. Sadly,

we just got all the foul-mouthed, chest-beating, gun-toting,

drug-shovelling chauvinism and bravado of his would-be

alpha-male side on this record.

I didn’t want to get on the mic, but most of the time my

client would just pass out cold on the floor of the studio

mid-session and there would be no other option for me

than to finish his work. If you want a job done properly…

Kingdom of Fear is out now on YnR Productions.

Drawing on the life, works and indulgences of Hunter S. Thompson, rapper Kashmere The Iguana Man and rapper/producer Jehst went down the rabbit hole in an East London studio to create a new body of work. They emerged as Duke Rango and Dr Gonzilla, Son of The Samoan, a hedonistic duo bent on channelling the spirit of Rolling Stone’s most wayward reporter and indulging lyrically, metaphorically and quite literally in the proclivities of the legendary author himself. The result is new album Kingdom of Fear, a psychedelic slice of Gonzo hip hop that takes the listener around the bends. As for how Duke Rango and Dr Gonzilla, Son of The Samoan met? Prepare to be weirded out.

d u k E r A n G o I met Dr

Gonzilla at a motivational

speaking engagement. Lis-

tening to James Brian Hell-

wig speak just helped me in

a way the shrinks couldn’t. […]

Who’s James Brian Hellwig?

I don't think he needs much

introduction. If you don't know

who The Ultimate Warrior is

then this interview is over. But

if you mean who’s Dr Gonzil-

la, I’d say he’s a complicated

man… like Shaft. I think he even

went to Africa once.

You ask why [make an

album together]. We ask, ‘Why

not?’ There's a lot of money to

be lost and we want to make

sure we lose money with as

much flair as possible.

[The atmosphere] was very tense man. I was always

pretty much ready to leave. Dude kinda freaks me out. You

just never know what’s going to happen. The man pulled

a gun on me in a few of the sessions. Another time I was

kinda stuck on lyrics and he suggested a game of Russian

roulette. I flatly refused but he just went ahead and played

on his own. That was a pretty dark session.

I had a particularly fucked-up experience on DMT.

Safe to say I won’t be fuckin’ with that shit anytime

soon. But it did unlock something. It was like being

unexpectedly thrust into an intense chaos dimension

that kept getting more consuming by the second. I think

Page 6: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

London-based deejay, producer and occasional rapper The Last Skeptik is constantly grinding to make a living as a professional musician. With eclecticism being key to this mission, he’s shared stages with Damon Albarn, Flea and Danny Brown, produced for the likes of The King Blues, Kate Nash and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, and recorded albums with rappers like Rewd Adams, Verb T and Sway. Come 2013, he’s set to release his long-awaited solo instrumental album, something that he calls his “magna opus”, on the prestigious BBE Records. Here, he digs out some of the vinyl that’s made him who he is today.

B A B y l o n – ( o s t )

Va r i o u s

Jeez! This has to be one of the best reggae-related

soundtracks ever made. The Dennis Bovell original score

tracks are so unbelievable I’ve lost weeks listening to them.

Serious dubbed-out madness. I sampled it on my first-ever

release when I was sixteen, which surely was about fifty

years ago now. I forget.

r E s P i r At i o n

B l a c k s ta r

This is one of those songs I never know whether to cry

or punch someone to. There is more emotion in this one

song than any human can comprehend. The production is

galactically incredible.

w o r d s E A r c h

t h e l a s t s k e p t i k

Well, this was my first-ever release on vinyl. I was at university

at the time, and had thought my entire life that my biggest

dream was to have a song on wax. I got it. I ran to the uni

radio station, and the moment the needle touched the record

I knew I had to try and set myself bigger dreams. Moral of

the story: don’t have dreams.

i n d o J A z z f u s i o n s 2

J o e h a r r i ot t & J o h n M ay e r

My dad gave me this record when I was too young to really

understand what a fusion of anything really was. The mix of

jazz and Indian instruments blew my mind, in the same way

I’m sure this record blew his way back when it was released.

I sampled the shit out of it, obviously.

s h u t ’ E m d o w n ( r E m i x )

p u B l i c e n e M y

Those horns! Those Pete Rock adlibs! This shit right here

changed the whole game. It’s one of, if not the best remix

of ANYTHING. For the simplicity, the swing of the drums

and Flav’s adlibs. I spent years copying the filtered bass

line and horn decay.

s i n At r A At t h E s A n d s

F r a n k s i n at r a

If you don’t like Sinatra, you’re a dick. This guy has to be the

most listened-to dude on my iTunes. I listen whatever mood

I’m in and this album in particular has got me through a lot.

Quincey Jones produced it. Count Basie plays on it. And

Frank has more swag than any rapper out today. Big band ftw.

s u i c i d E

s t r ay

Stray were a little-known seventies prog rock band that my

dad was really into, so I inherited these quite rare copies

of the records (ha, and you won’t get ’em back now!). The

Suicide album is perfect in every way. Completely bonkers

and each song switches eight billion times within itself. When

I heard this, in some weird way it taught me never to settle

on one loop. Always make all your songs textured, layered

and constantly changing. thE lAst skEPtik

thElAstskEPtik.com

88 HUCK

Page 7: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

89

PHOTO

GRAPHY

by

Ed

AN

dR

EW

S

Page 8: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

90 HUCK

Formed in 1996, Bristolian hip hop crew Aspects – the core comprising of emcees El Eye, Probe Mantis and Bubber Loui – have greatly contributed to the city’s acclaimed musical pedigree, alongside the likes of Massive Attack and Roni Size. Through their fiercely original beats, rhymes and subject matter – and refusal to tone down their regional accents – the crew earned the respect of many, from Radio 1 deejays John Peel and Steve Lamacq through to core UK hip hop artists like Task Force. Their debut album, Correct English (2001), met with mainstream-press applause.Follow-up album Mystery Theatre expanded on their determination to not stick to the beats-and-rhymes formula and instead craft an eclectic array of hip hop songs. Soon after, however, they split, having fallen out of love with the music industry – and each other. But in 2011, the three emcees, along with beatboxer Monkey Moo, reunited; older, wiser and determined to recapture the vibe from the early days when the simple pleasure of making music together triumphed over everything else. Here, El Eye (Ian Merchant) talks us through their creepy new track, ‘Trouble in Town’.

‘Trouble In Town’ was originally penned last Halloween, I

couldn’t have written it in spring or summer, it’s an autumn

song, written under the threat of dusk and the smell of fires.

I've got to thank Dan Jones who showed me the poem

Full Moon by Simon Armitage, which was the cell-division

moment for the song’s birth.

The song is from the perspective of my seven-year-old

self, during an era of playing in the dirt and riding my Raleigh

Tomahawk around the estate. When you were too scared

to get your ball from crazy Jack

Hawker’s house (yes, he’s real)

because you heard he murdered

one of the Jones twins who

foolishly entered his overgrown

garden. Another mass ive

influence was an obsession I

share with producer Memotone

– who we collaborated with on

this song. We’re both rural horror

film buffs; flicks like The Wicker

Man, Kill List, Blood on Satan’s

Claw and Witch Finder General.

We really wanted to capture that

tone, where countryside is a wild

and dangerous place; isolated

towns, closed communities,

secret places and buried bones.

It’s all part of the Aspects pledge to preserve lyrical

freshness; to say new things and engage new subjects.

There’s a whole universe of ideas and events out there to

play with – why retread heavily walked paths? The new

Aspects album is a walk into the unknown! El EyE

soundcloud.com/aspects

Page 9: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

91

T r o u b l e i n T o w n

W R i t t e n a n d P R o d u c e d b Y a s P e c t s & M e M o t o n e

( i . M e R c h a n t & W. Yat e s )

Spring was round the corner, The dead bodies dance in a summer like a sauna,

So old Jack Hawker's half daughter caused quite the stink when she surfaced from the water,Now Jack was feeling nervous and he oughta,

Cos she remember every single lesson that he taught her,He was found swinging like an apple in the autumn

They were buried miles apart because it seemed important,To the great and the good something strange is afoot,

They’d chisel their names off their graves if they could,You can hear the children playing games in the wood 

Ring-a-Rosie round the hollow where the apple tree stood.It rained for like nine days straight

Disturbing the forgotten on the bottom of the lakeHow many met their fate, well nobody really knows

But they dug up Jack anyway and left him for the crows.

There's Trouble in town, there's Trouble in townAt the old Casino they're doubling down

they're doubling down, they're doubling down,There's a witch in the wood and a bubbling sound

A bubbling sound? A bubbling sound?That girl’s disappeared and they're covering groundthey're covering ground? they're covering ground?

There's trouble in town...

It was a quarter past autumn When my friend killed himself and they still haven't caught him,

He sent me a text his way of a warningWe won't have to wait for dawn to see mourning

So you can ask the bones on the riverbedIf instead of accidental death it was deliberate

If old mad Lily was really a witchAnd if it’s true what they say about the digger of her ditch

Yo, they sniggered at the snitchDidn't care about his ghost when they pushed him off the bridge

But as we know rumours are a virusAirborn and there for they arrest Silas

Now he sits in silence and waits for the hour he’s devoured by the violence.Did you hear about the house on the hill?The cat burglar found a skull in the kiln,

A hand in the well and a man who demanded we tell the police he was under the command of a spellNow he's remanded in hell cos his candid account didn't even amount to a cell

It was a half past summerA thumb was a strange find even for a plumberI guess they wished they never climbed under

The porch on the corpse was carved a prime numberAnd I wonder 

Why the old clock tower’s midnight strike signifies an extra hourYou can hear the truth if you close your eyes and listen

And also see the truth if you use your inner visionLose your inhibitions and choose to be inquisitive

Isn’t that the house where the clock tower killer livedHe had a pair of scissors with an appetite for little kids

Never seen again were those who visited...

Page 10: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

Having risen to prominence under the guidance of UK hip hop legends Terra Firma, North London-based emcee Melanin 9 combines intricate, hard-edged flows with intelligent wordplay. He’s opened for the likes of Immortal Technique and Wu-Tang, and is being tipped for greatness by the chattering musical classes thanks to a collaboration with Roc Marciano on his new album Magna Carta. Here, he explores the rhymes that drew him towards the mic.

A r t i s t : n A s

s o n G : ‘ tA k E i n B l o o d ’

A l B u m : i t wA s w r i t t E n

‘Just the killer in me, slash drug-dealer MCEx-slug filler, semi mug peelerDemi, bottles of Mo', yo simply follow me flowPut poetry inside a crack pot and blow’

When you’re looking for deep imagery, multi-layered metaphors, an

immaculate flow and deliverance, I personally think this has to be the

greatest verse Nas has ever written. To compare poetry to a crack

stone you put in a bottle and smoke like a fiend is incredible. That line

changed my life when it came to understanding how to use metaphors.

A r t i s t : r A s k A s s

s o n G : ‘ r E E l i s h y m n ’

A l B u m : S o u l o n I c e

‘Life’s a bitch named monogamy - you only get one I'm trapped in this path of pathology’

Even though I’m still unsure if this is my favourite track on the album,

because it’s so hard to choose, this verse stood out and to this day

every time I hear it something explodes inside me and I start to sweat

a little – no joke. Personally, I feel Ras is one of the most underrated

emcees in the history of hip hop. His ability to execute some of the most

intelligent metaphors while so accurately addressing his thoughts on

worldly agendas seems to be as easy as tying his shoes.

A r t i s t : t h E r o o t s

s o n G : ‘ n o A l i B i ’

A l B u m : I l l a d e l p h h a l f l I f e

‘While you not possibly escaping what I'm meditatingMy shackle of thought tackle you while I'm educatingYour dome's resonating from inhalation of darknessWhile I spark the smart shit from what you waiting’

Black Thought is one of my top-ten lyricists of all time. This particular

track was my favourite from what I thought was their greatest album.

These particular lines along with many others show Black Thought’s

knowledge of how to carefully place the right phonetics to make such

an incredible verse that little bit more appealing to the listener.

A r t i s t : c A n n i B A l o x

s o n G : ‘ i r o n G A l A x y ’

A l B u m : T h e c o l d V e I n

‘I rest my head on 115But miracles only happen on 34th, so I guess life is meanAnd death is the median and purgatory is the mode that we settle in

I’ve got that Eve’s Bayou sense of touchSo I fought, to touch every hand of a fan to read their thoughtsBattered wives, molested childrenRoaches on the floor, rats in the ceilingCats walk around New York with two fillinsOne is in their mouth the other does the killin’’

This has to be one of the greatest verses ever written. As a writer myself,

what I respect the most about Vast Aire is his ability to make you think

that what he’s saying is so obvious and simple because of the clarity

in his deliverance, yet that could never be so far from the truth. As for

comparing life to the rules of mathematics? Unbelievable. There are

countless mind-blowing metaphors from this man on this album. Please

do yourself a favour and go check out this album.

A r t i s t : J E h s t

s o n G : ‘ E s P ( E x t r A s E n s o r y P E r f E c t i o n ) ’

A l B u m : fa l l I n g d ow n

‘A brick-house built with porcelain featuresA fragile creature grief stricken apparent in alopeciaThe peacekeeper, the key to life beyond usI love her beyond lustMy trust placed in herIllustrious face with a great figureForbidden fruit of youth in the fingers of the grave diggerManipulated my late-night sanctumThe lone catalyst of my tantrumHer tender touch turns to talonsIn her tempers clutch I bleed burgundy gallonsHer crimson lips lick my woundsHer tongue tastes the claretMy pain is vintage, her comfort is twenty-four caratIn a golden moment of havoc my heart beats haphazardMy brain bleeds black ballads that embarrass the authorMy favourite tortureI drown in the depths of my mermaid's waterAt war with the storms’ daughterThe tornado’s sister, she’s twisting my auraI’m caught in her barbed wireBurning up in her heart’s fireBathed in the flames of my furyShe wears me out like jewelleryThe duel-edged tool of her tomfoolery cuts my characterA quick-witted challenger to any bachelorBad-attitude chick, intellectual calendar bitchBaby-faced battleaxe make a man switchMy lip-licking sex sandwich the grand dishMy delicious delicacy, my delicate enemyOur friendship connects with a sexual chemistryMy opposite energy the cause of my pain and the remedyI need her readily availableMaking dreams seem attainable’

This song inspired me to write many songs in my rap career, absolutely

flawless poetry and imagery from the UK wordsmith. mElAnin 9

Melanin 9’s new album, Magna Carta, is out now on Red snow Records.

melanin9.com

92 HUCK

Page 11: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

PHOTO

GRAPHY

by

Ed

AN

dR

EW

S

Page 12: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

96 HUCK96 HUCK

PHOTO

GRAPHY

by

JAK

E G

RE

EN

Page 13: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

97

Founded in 1996 by deejay Peanut Butter Wolf, Los Angeles-based record label Stones Throw has become synonymous with quality independent hip hop. It’s been home to a roster of critically acclaimed artists including the late J Dilla, Doom, producer Madlib and Guilty Simpson. But building on hip hop’s fundamental eclecticism, the label now reaches far beyond its original genre with artists like The Stepkids, Mayer Hawthorne and Aloe Blacc. Ahead of a new documentary about the Stones Throw story, Peanut Butter Wolf (who opened for Nas and The Pharcyde when he and Chazma were a duo) gives us a quick rundown on how the label has stayed afloat for the last sixteen years.

G E t t i n G i n I’ve always kinda surrounded myself

with ‘music people’ since I was in high school. My

friends were deejays, rappers, musicians. My first

time flirting with the idea of being a deejay was

in 1983 when I was twelve. By around 1985-86, I

was making my own beats for rappers and playing

electric bass in bands. After getting signed and

dropped by a major label and losing my twenty-

year-old friend and music collaborator Charizma,

who was murdered in 1993, I eventually decided

to start my own label in 1996. That’s kinda the

short version.

s i G n i n G A r t i s t s I just try to find things that

sound as good as the best of my 100,000 or so

records in my personal collection. As my taste in

music got broader, so did the music I was putting

out, but even in the eighties I was into a lot of

different things: goth, punk, new wave, reggae,

hip hop, soul, funk, electro, house. Sounds so ugly

when you mention them all in one sentence. […] The

only thing they have in common is that I believe in

them and they believe in me. That’s it.

B r A n c h i n G o u t The first ‘non-hip hop’ record

was El Captain Funkaho in 1999, I think. The name

was a take on E-40’s song ‘Captain Save A Hoe’,

but it was basically a cross between Black Sabbath

and the [early funk/hip hop] Jonzun Crew. Most

people hated me for releasing it, like they do every

time I release something new that strays too far

from hip hop.

s u c c E s s My idea of success is cultural impact.

Every time I see someone on a larger level

doing something we were doing five years ago,

it reminds me that we’re still on track. […] We

make a lot of collectable merchandise. Every

time we do that, we’re trying to have fun and do

something different. Mayer Hawthorne wanted his

record to be a red heart-shaped vinyl and I didn’t

even really wanna do it because I thought it was

too gimmicky, but we did it to keep Mayer happy

and the public loved it. I have mixed feelings

about the marketing thing though. I got a degree

in marketing and basically did the opposite of

everything I learned in school.

s tAy i n G i n The main way [the music industry]

has changed is that there are no record stores

and nobody buys records anymore. Other than

that, it’s the same. […] I probably wouldn’t start

a record label if I knew the industry would

eventually collapse. There was no record industry

100 years ago, so why should I have assumed it

would last. Shoulda just been a psychologist.

PEAnut ButtEr wolf

Page 14: Take The Stage x HUCK Magazine Collab

98 HUCK016 THE GOMORRAH ISSUE

WORDSEd Andrews

PHOTOGRAPHYJake Green, Max Hamilton,

Paul Willoughby, Tim Smyth, Ed Andrews

ART DIRECTION

Evan Lelliot

CONTACT [email protected]

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/STORIESOFHIPHOP

©2012