Tuesday, July 18,2000
Page 3
Tuesday, July i|
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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 )
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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