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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2000)
Tuesday, July 18,2000 Page 3 Tuesday, July i| :udent threats ;ers with gun| ?ENTON, Wash. (AP)- /ear-old boy who studfJ j had talked aboutkillJ oher climbed onto ac| a table and fired as i the ceiling at sunri ool Monday, prompt™ ■oungsters to scatteicj , No one was injured, he boy, who ssed in black andl id hair dyed blue at) s, fled and was ;e hours later, iheriff’s deputies cleaisl building and focused! rch on the woods Dimmitt Middle Schooil Seattle suburb, iheriff's spokespers:| n Urquhart said the! still believed to bet a handgun. oman loses k drunken crash I ROWNSVILLE (AP) -old man faced charges iken driving and assa a motor vehicle striking a woman as >d in her driveway, teariij me of her legs, he woman's other leg hi) e amputated in the followed a police chase 1 Fresnos. os Fresnos police saidl 'ear-old man, whose nan not be released until he: igned Monday, was sed by police on suspicicj -unk driving Saturdaym m State Highway 100. he man reportedly lost®! of the car, crossed thece'| ane and crashed into car ed in a driveway whereS -old Sandra Guerrerosto her husband and jrding to the Brownsil i/d’s Monday edition. LOW Student airfares Europe • Africa ia • South America More Than D Departure Cities! Eurailpasses Bus Passes Study Abroad srudenr „ universe •com ; YOUR WORLD. EXPLORE if identUniverse.cor 800-272-9676 AGGIEv THE BATTALION Return of Funky Fresh~ Independent hip-hop music offers alternative to radio rap V Mireles, Editor in Chief mpf,-Managing Editor Jennyhoff, Aggielife/Radio Efr hlquist, Copy Chief ■r Bales, Night News Editor bung, City Editor e Simpson, Asst. City Editor ickens, Opinion Editor Flood, Sports Editor Hutson, Sci/Tech Editor to, Photo Editor Deluna, Graphics Editor >n Payton, Web Master ON (ISSN #1055-4726) is published i < E Robert Crowe The Battalion Just about every music genre has an inde pendent, underground scene that loathes main stream music. Punk is an obvious example. For every Blink 182 fan, there is a snot-nosed gutter punk ready to burn Blink's albums. Hip-hop music, like punk, has origins in the underground. However, hip-hop became mainstream long before MTV popularized Green Day and Blink 182. While hip-hop was blowing up boom boxes across the country dur ing the 1980s, punk maintained a low profile. Much has changed in hip-hop culture since the old-school days of hip-hoppers Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick. For example, back in 1984, there were probably no drunken Aggies freak ing to booty anthems at the local pick-up bars. Today, however, booty-shaking playa rap has taken control of the local clubs frequented pre dominately by white college students trying to "get their drink on." Underground producers are concerned with main taining the art of creative sampling... the lyrics tend to be more compli cated than the money making anthems by king pin players Master P and juvenile. This phenomenon mirrors what is hap pening across the country: MTV is playing more rap music, white people are using black slang, and hip-hop fashions are influencing clothing retailers. Another side to hip-hop's current cultural revolution is somewhat harder to find in Bryan- College Station: the revival of underground hip-hop. The new crop of underground artists is helping bring back hip-hop's old-school, or ganic flavor, said Adam Brown, a hip-hop pro ducer and senior sports management major. Two new-school groups, Los Angeles' Jurassic 5 and Dilated Peoples, combine the old and the new into an especially vibrant form of hip-hop. Hip-hop fans can catch them when they join the punk bands on this summer's Vans Warped Tour. Brown prefers the jazzy beats traditionally found in East Coast, underground hip-hop. "I've always been into funky beats — the beats that are nasty and ill," he said. Brown said he gravitated toward under ground hip-hop after hearing groups like The Roots, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. He said he learned to appreciate the music's origins. "I didn't get into the underground until 1 re ally got a grasp of the music," he said. "The un derground is pure. People are there to hear the real art form of hip-hop." Underground hip-hop focuses on the same artistic and political issues found in other forms of independent music and art, said hip-hop en thusiast Byung Chung, a senior industrial dis tribution major. "Indie artists cater to a specific audience," Chung said. "It's like independent films. Only John Waters and David Lynch fans are going to support their work." Underground producers are concerned with maintaining the art of creative sampling, introducing sounds into their songs, Chung said. The lyrics tend to be more complicated than the moneymaking anthems by kingpin players Master P and Juvenile. Underground MCs use irreverent word play to rhyme about everything from party ing to politics and philosophy, Chung added. The underground also celebrates the four el ements of hip-hop culture: MCs, DJs, break dancing and graffiti. The hip-hop underground never disap peared; it just stayed close to its roots, said Rus sel Gonzalez, producer of Houston's indepen dent hip-hop crew, K-Otix. Gonzalez and K-Otix have independently produced and re leased underground hip-hop for eight years. K-Otix has five independent releases — mostly on vinyl. The crew has also played the South By Southwest Music Conference and opened for groups like Hieroglyphics, Artifacts, Ras Kass, Outkast, The Roots and Common. As independent artists, Gonzalez said he and his crew write rhymes and produce beats that rep resent the purest form of hip-hop. "Being independent gives you freedom," Gonzalez said. "There are no boundaries. You're free to do whatever you feel and not make a record just because you want to sell a million copies." Gonzalez said DJs and college radio stations are the biggest supporters of underground artists. They help artists build a loyal fan base of hardcore hip-hop fans. K-Otix began pro moting music on Rice University's radio station in 1993. Like techno DJs, hip-hop DJs are re sponsible for buying and playing indepen dently produced records, he said. "Indie DJs are important," Gonzalez said. "The first thing we release is vinyl. Only the in die DJs are buying vinyl. College radio is also important, because it's open to play whatever it wants. They are the only stations playing the indie, underground stuff." Using independent distribution companies helps independent producers to get their records out to DJs around the world. Gonzalez said K-Otix and other independent artists focus on distribution rather than building a local fan base because the Houston scene is too small for them to sell records. Gonzalez is also promoting K-Otix with a Website. The hip-hop curious can learn more at the K-Otix page at www.k-otix.com. There are more links to Texas' underground hip-hop scene at www.stinkzone.com / regional / texas.htm. Gonzalez said his ultimate goal is to sign a con tact with a major record label that will allow K- Otix to maintain the integrity of its underground sound. Being independent has its drawbacks, he added. "After being independent for so long, things become stagnant," he said. "You don't have the large budget to press and promote large amounts of records. You can't run magazine ads. You must live within your means." He said artists like Eminem, Dilated Peoples, RUBEN DELUNA/Thk Battalion Jurassic 5, Common and Black Star self-released their work before signing with bigger labels. Sign ing with a major label should not scare indepen dent artists or upset their hardcore fans, Gonzalez said. It all amounts to maintaining the artistic in tegrity of the group's sound after signing, he said. "Fairs don't lash out on artists for signing ma jor deals," Gonzalez said. "They lash out for the sound that's produced. If K-Otix signs a deal with Def Jam Recordings and starts to sound like DMX or Jay-Z, then that's a reason for tliem to be upset." Jay during the fall and spring semesteis a# 1 ) rsday during the summer session (except UnriW 1, exam periods) at Texas A&M University, f* 116 ' id at College Station, TC 77840. POSTMAN; inges to The Battalion,Texas A&M University, M' 1 ' tion,TO 77843-1111. lattslion news department is managed by stiKW* rsity in the Division of Student Media, a irt of Journalism. News offices are in 014 Reed l* ewsroom phone: 845-3313; Fax: 845-264V ©liotmail.com; Web site: httpV/battalion.laiM. 8 * Publication of advertising does not imply spu® 5 ' | it by The Battalion. For campus, local, and naliP 1 ; call 845-2696. For classified advertising, call iffices are in 015 Reed McDonald, and oflife W 5 ’' n. Monday through Friday. Fax: 845-2678, is: A part of the Student Services Fee entitiese*>' t to pick up a single copy of The Battalion, ipies 25K, Mail subscriptions are $60 perscbo# r spring semester and $17.50 for the summe!.'’ teiCard, Discover, or Amencan Express, call 84^ Jurassic 5 Quality Control CD Courtesy of Interscope Records Now that the gun smoke is settling on the gangsta-rap era, people are start ing to realize that Los Angeles' hip-hop scene is not just a gangsta's paradise. Jurassic 5's major-label debut, Quality Control, proves that Los Angeles is more than a just G-Thang, baybay. On Quality Control, Jurassic 5 stays true to the underground fan base that helped it sell 275,000 copies of 1997's independently released Jurassic 5 EP. Jurassic 5 DJs Numark and Cut Chemist are notorious for their un- ortliodox turntable skills. Here they live up to the reputation by providing funky breaks with quirky samples, old- school snare hits and crazy scratches. The good-time lyrical flows of MCs Chali 2na, Akil, Zaakir and Marc 7even fit in nicely with the innovative beats. The four MCs rap about everything from rocking parties to coming of age and dealing with shady industry types. They trade flows and repeat choruses with precision and finesse. The singsong delivery and chorus repetition bring to mind the golden era of underground groups like The Phar- cyde and Native Tongues Family. Fans of A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Jungle Brothers will become nos talgic for the days of Walkmans and backpacks. Jurassic 5 is at the forefront of un derground hip-liop; liowever, the group is not extremely innovative. Pharcyde and the Native Tongues de veloped cult followings after creating something new. On Quality Control, Jurassic 5 pro vides quality beats and rhymes that celebrate the tradition of independent, underground hip-hop. (Grade: A) t — Robert Crowe Taproot Gift CD Courtesy of Atlantic Records Once again, an uninspired and un- talented quartet of barely post-pubes cent pseudo-musicians releases an al bum lamenting the difficulties of everyday life. Hooray for teen angst. Taproot sounds like a combination of The Urge and Incubus and manages to make that combination sound even worse than expected. This album is filled to the brim with songs that are completely indistinguishable from one another. However, the album's mo notony is actually a positive factor — the songs never get any worse. "Smile," the first song on the al bum, is an amalgamation of dull pow er chords and out-of-key vocals punc tuated by the odd scream. The only breaks in these constants are introduc tions to the songs, which often sound like a 12-year-old trying to copy Korn's guitar solos from tablature, accompa nied by Stephen Richard's forever out- of-key vocals. Music has no corresponding form for film's "schlock," a style of movie in tentionally made badly to be humor ous. Gift is probably the closest the mu sic industry will come. The difference is that Taproot did not intentionally make this album bad. Schlock is char acterized by ridiculous dialogue, and Gift is filled with inane vocals that sound like a middle-schooler's diary. "Emotional Times" is the main culprit: "Life sucks sometimes, friendships turn to lies. It brings tears to my eyes." Modern pop musicians are often criticized for not writing their own songs, but this band definitely needs a professional writer. (Grade: D-) — Jason Bennyhoff SR71 Now You See Inside CD Courtesy of RCA Music "Right Now," the first single off of SR7Ts new album, screams with pop- punk energy. The opening cords mir ror Blink 182's "Damnit" and Fenix TX's "All my Fault." Lead singer Mitch Allan's typical punk-rocker sneering and nasal vocals, stolen from The Clash and The Sex Pistols, make most listeners, think SR71's Now You See In side would be on the "punk" shelves at the record store. While "Right Now" is a catchy and radio-friendly tune, SR71 really shines on the tracks where it drops the punk charade and breaks out the acoustic guitar. Fenix TX would probably be too embarrassed to record a song like SR71's "Alive." But with its soft acoustic guitar strumming and touch ing lyrics about leaving an abusive re lationship, "Alive" is easily one of the best tracks on Now You See Inside. Oth er slowed-down, pop-rock ballads like "Empty Spaces" and "Paul McCart ney" give the listener something all- too-often missing in the punk-rock genre — meaningful lyric$ Now You See Inside showcases a variety of alt-rock sub-categories. "Alive" and "Paul McCartney" croon along much like mopey ballads by The Wallflowers, "Another Night Alone" is a noisy insertion of power-chord pop mimicking Third Eye Blind, and "Right Now" and "Politically Correct" complete the spectrum with the punk- pop of Blink 182. Fans of any of these bands who do not mind exploring other genres will probably enjoy the whole of Now You See Inside. Likewise, those who stick to just one of type of alt-rock will find at least two or three tracks they can sink their teeth into. SR71's first single may give it the punk image, but the variety of songs within the alt-rock category that pop up on Now You See Inside makes the album worth the confusion. (Grade: B) — Eric Dickens A = instant classic D = don't buy it B = a cut above F = burn in effigy C = average