...
The answer is ~three~, not two. Why?
Because there's a difference between a decision and an action." - a story I was told by a wise man in Austin, Texas
~~~
TALIB KWELI, BEHIND THE SCENES:
I LOVE THIS SONG AND VIDEO:
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WEEZY'S NEW SINGLE, LOLLIPOP:
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LUPE: HIP HOP SAVED MY LIFE (THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMM....)
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BANNED EPISODE OF THE BOONDOCKS?
(MORE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMM....)
~~~
just the beginning....
I got more to say, like about Austin Texas!
Addi Stewart: blog one
Its a warm 25 degrees celsius when my plane lands in Austin. The cloudless baby blue sky and flat lands let me get oriented to the new environment better, as I have little knowledge of this city except that it is "the live music capital of the world" thing. I see
cowboy hats as frequent as seen in Calgary, feel southern hospitality, hear society quietly function, smell crisp yet moist fresh air, and taste anticipation of the overwhelming music schedule. I'm going to explore what's up with sxsw having a smaller percentage of hip hop music than the cmw festival of last weekend.
I spend the night at the hotel of 4th Pyramid, staying in the Omni West. Our cab driver clearly and blatantly detoured from going straight to our hotel before doubling back, charging us an extra 8 dollars, and then, upon discovering we were musicians, strangely turned from surly to sagely, dispensing 5 minutes of career and life advice to us about how to succeed in the music business, and how we needed to collaborate more. The road to hell on earth is paved with good intentions.
The adventure begins....
~~~
Addi Stewart: blog 2
Another cloudless day is here for us music lovers to enjoy. Two generous friends of 4th Pyramid pick us up to help run some errands, like grab up some clothes to look kosher for the Motorhead/High on Fire/Napalm Death show he's hosting tomorrow, and to also find breakfast. This is when I discover Austin's anti-corporate attitude to city culture. We spend nearly an hour driving for breakfat' and see only 2 McDonald's restaurants (not that I consider it "food", I just know that there's always a better option in life), and one Wendy's, amongst dozens and dozens of independent businesses, most of which are rather colorful and creative, with names like Texadelphia and The Potbelly Sandwich Works. The name escapes me right now, but there was an amazing pizza store that looked like half Jetsons/half Flintstones designed by Andy Warhol on acid. Then learn they have Connect Four, dominoes and other games cause you -will- be waiting fle your pizza. What's up with that.
I discover the town slogan on some tourist t-shirts: "Keep Austin Weird", and I start to see it. But beyond the wackyness, pure live music flows through the veins of Austin all year long, I'm informed. I also see the most spirited harmonica player ever, busking "for a good cause: me!"
After eating a respectably delectable veggie burger at famous vegan-friendly restaurant called Mother's, we go to the main stage across from the convention center to see the grand hip hop finale of Megazoid, Scratch Bastid, Sixtoo, Weez-L, Cadence Weapon, Grand Analog, and Ghislain Poirier. Grand Analog ripped it open with a blistering mic check, and a couple viciously grinding electro funk jams.
Cadence Weapon continued on the same wavelength but just amplified the energy a bit more, especially when he brought up his lanky length homeboy Subtitle to freestle something dope. Then seeing Scratch Bastid and DJ Weez-L tag team the turntables was utterly jaw dropping. Seriously, they two of the best DJs in the world right now, straight up. And they are proud Canadians. The intensity of the concert reached a fever pitch when
Sixtoo and Scratch Bastid and all the DJs were cutting the records like clockwork, moving like a rhythm is a android dancer, with everyone trading places like Eddie Murphy. It was insanity!
Word was that it was the first hip hop electro fusion segment of the annual Canadian blast, and though it was energetic and exciting, the vibe sadly started to fade when the reggae portion began. But it was a proud moment for the Canadians representing for 2008, and a realistic hint of the future.
Bed time now. I'm done for the day. And boy do I already have some stories for tomorrow!
Love, Addi
~~~
Addi Stewart: Blog 3 ~ Thursday Morning,
Hello To My Happiness Hangover
SXSW is easily the most overwhelming and intense music gathering of my life, and I've been to Sars-stock, Rock The Bells, The Getting Up Festival, and many others that I hazily remember. I ran around like a madman trying to see and hear everything and everyone possible. Here in Austin, 6th St. is basically the main strip of the festival, and it far surpasses Adelaide St. (or is that Richmond? I always mix the two up) for the amount of venues with live music. Clubs of all shapes and sizes and genres and designs and sound systems abound, catering to almost every type of music lover there is.
As I was walking to see the Duck Down vs. Stones Throw show at Habana, I bumped into Cadence Weapon and DJ Weez-L, with Orly, their kind manager. She drove us to the venue, it was directly across the street from where Cadence was playing. He gave me a copy of the CD, "Afterparty Babies", and seemed non-plussed at the harsh review Tim gave it. Opinions vary, and I haven't heard it yet, but he was performing at least 6 times this weekend, and from the Canadian showcase, it looks like his style of electric, intelligent party rocking hip hop is winning over ears steadily. Irony kissed me gently when I left Cadence to bump into Tim at the Hip Hop Showcase, where him and I caught up for the first time, and chatted about our masterplan to attempt omniscience at SXSW. He left to another showcase, and I covered what I thought would be more impressive than it actually ended up being, for a multitude of odd reasons:
1) DJ Rhettmatic - sharp, talented turntablist. Crowd-rousing jam master? Not so much. He played a few good songs, but spent more time noodling around with some tricky scratching and dropping obscure jems that don't do much to build anticipation. "Move the Crowd" doesn't only apply to MCs. But that new MF DOOM jam he dropped was sure dope to get a whiff of...
2) Kids in the Hall - Duck Down's attempt to tap into that questionably lucrative hipster market? Kinda sounds like it. Nothing they performed was even remotely close to the "hoodies n' timbz" grime crime rhyme style of the rest of the Boot Camp, and personally, I thought that, though they have potential, they were not where they needed to be, to capture either the fickle, fleeting hip hop audience or the self-absorbed hipster douchebag crowd. While failing to impress with their sloppy performance over deadprez's immortal "Hip Hop" beat, they almost had me with their earnest attempt to pay homage to Souls of Mischief's "93 Til Infinity". Other songs of theirs were not exactly wack, but not exactly super dope either. They tried though.
3) Percee P - I bought a CD off this relentlessly-driven hip hop entrepreneur because last time I saw him in Toronto at the Opera House, I promised him I'd buy it one day. He signed it for me and gave me 5 minutes of wisdom about how he never lets other's negativity deter him from his mission to rap. As a Screwface Capitalist, I took it to heart, and thanked him for his time. When he took the stage, he didn't enthrall as much as he did on the Stones Throw tour that passed thru Toronto last fall. Percee's fingers twitch when he spits his multi-syllabic rapid-fire spray of lyrics, and it's interesting to see someone so in the zone keep going and going. His mic control wasn't on point for some reason, or his voice was weakening, but the crowd was actually generous with their praise, though not ecstatic. I forgot, people might cheer for above average music, this is not Toronto, where phenomenal moments can meet cold shouldered silence! Percee ended it off with 'Lung Collapsing Lyrics', and walked off stage proudly.
4) Sean P - quintessential Brooklyn hip hop monster. Makes people laugh. Could also make people cry. Makes people think a bit too, when he does his hilarious drop-out ad-libs. "Wu-Tang Clan ain't nuttin ta fuck with/ and Boot Camp Click aint nuttin ta Wu-Tang!" is just wonderful. Sean's commanding stage presence kept ears tuned in to his 'Jesus Price: Superstar' hits, 'Operation: Lockdown', a throwback from Heltah Skeltah's glory days, and some promo for his upcoming LPs, 'Mic Tyson' and 'Da Incredible Rap Team: D.I.R.T'. Can't leave rap alone, the game needs him.
5) DJ Weez-L wisely noted: "the energy at the Canadian hip hop showcase was much higher than this." And my vision of Canada saving international hip hop, both now and in the next few years, became that much clearer.
Sadly, I decided to leave the showcase before Guilty Simpson got on, and I missed Buckshot Shorty because I've seen him before... so I headed over to Fuze nightclub to attempt the impossible: get into the Pimp C tribute by Bun B, and many others.
Let me interject: what "they" say is it's true: just by walking up to someone and asking them one question can lead to an adventure you'd never imagine. I met up with some MCs from Houston who I ended up trading verses with, as one of them curiously stated: "I've never heard an MC from Toronto! What does Canadian rap sound like?" After delivering a bit of the Mindbender Experience to his head, they got excited and joined me, showing me where the Bun B show was at. While waiting in a massive line-up of angry, anticipating patrons, the bouncer kept shouting about "fire marshall" and "capacity full" and what not, and I saw hip hop man of the town, Matt Sonzala. He was stressed and very busy, so I chose not to introduce myself. I hope to see him again.
What I hope to not see again, is a fight break out in the front of the club where a tribute to a dead hip hop superstar is happening. I decided to leave with my new found friends to go see Devin tha Dude at 1 PM up the street. We crossed paths with a guy wearing a shirt that said "Poon Hurter", then got to Devin, which was too late to stick around for, as my friend from Houston really wanted to see what the Cadence Weapon phenomenon was all about. So we left and I took him to see Cadence Weapon's "darting intelligence" flow and intense stage energy going ballistic in front of 75 eager listeners, where we moshed, listened to Edmonton tributes and saw DJ Weez-L slice vinyl with surgical precision.
After parting ways, the icing on today's ultra-sweet cake was sliding into the Saul Williams show half way through it, at club Vice. Saul was in his element, wearing blue eyeliner and large white feathers in his afro, as his post-punk-rap-soul-ska-spoken-word explosion stole the hearts and souls of the lucky audience members. His 3 bandmates were equally out there, one wearing a silver penguin mask, one with a magnificently fucked-up half-mohawk, and the third just emanating weird aura everywhere, providing the perfect foundation for Saul to go balls to the wall. His berzerker cover of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" might have been the best of what I saw, but everything I saw him do was edgy and inspiring. He's still the future. He's still unreal. He's coming to Toronto within a month or two. You have officially been warned.
I crashed after that.
Today, I woke up, and the sun isn't as shiny. I still expect greatness: today, Del tha Funky Homosapien and El-P are performing.
Good times!
love,
Addi Stewart
~~~
Catharsis in Austin
There is a prevailing theme to SXSW 2008 for me: Canada is the future. So many genres, so many ideas, such a consistently great reaction from the crowds... it was a sight to behold.
Bubbles blew through the air in the sharp sunlight of the VICE Chromeo party that zombified partiers populated slowly but surely at Stubb's, the scene of yesterday's crimes: The Cliks, Sia, and N*E*R*D*, the last two who I've seen multiple times in the last few weeks, and witnessed the entire experience change due to the acoustics and audience.
Digitalism was one of the opening acts at the open bar party, where magazine legend Suroosh Alvi of VICE fame was reunited with. I hung with him in Montreal over a decade ago, as he drove me around with a mind-bogglingly humble DMC world champion DJ A-Trak through the cold streets of Montreal. How times have changed.
4th Pyramid hosted the hangover therapy session with appropriate concern, but the Daft-Punk-ish throb of Digitalism electrified people awake.
A girl from Windsor, Texas saw me dancing up a storm, came over and asked where I was from. I said Toronto, and she said: "It's always the Canadians that are the most enthusiastic!" She relocated to Texas, but I could smell the sweet aroma of her Canadian politeness within seconds.
The 120 bpm bangers didn't have as many peaks and valleys as I might like, but the consisten future ancient tribal kickers with warbling white boy soul glazed on top was delicious. They did that song that's the Rogers commercial, "The Sun Is In The Air", and it kinda ended the show on a weak note.
Chromeo came to the stage triumphantly, with their sexy lady leg keyboard stands lighting up the stage, and vocorder hot. "Side By Side" was glorious, and their Montreal dedication was heartfelt. "I Am Somebody" resonated deep with its pop funk power, but the mini-cover vocorder versions of "I Want My MTV", "Small Town Girl" and other jams was utterly delightful. Strike one, Canada. you
I ran over to the Soundstage on the water and caught the end of secret superstar Lyrics Born's set, featuring the tasty vocals of Joyo Velarde and a 5 piece back up band. Quannum isn't only just DJ Shadow, you know. Lyrics Born announced what should be one of the year's great albums (I hope, but I also bet), called "Everywhere At Once", coming in April, he says. I anticipate.
Pete Rock comes on next, and DJs up some delirium. He drops 2Pac's secret sparkler, "I Get Around", sure to put a smile on the face of the playful. Snoop, Das Efx, Wu Tang, and his own immortal hit 'T.R.O.Y.' are unleashed, and the couple thousands of people in the field are lovin' it.
Next up to bat was secretly the best active female MC in the hip hop game: Jean Grae. She proved how lethal she is with a pen and with her mouth, but as someone who has toiled in the underground for so many years and has been bubbling and ready to blow up for years, the darkness of the Phoenix must be controlled before she can rise to the top. Her acidic asides and demanding demeanor kinda rubbed off the wrong way. But she still had the crowd in the palm of her hand, as DJ Chaps kept the dope ass beats bumpin'. Funny enough, just as was formulating my thought about 'what Jean needs to do', she (psychically?) responded to me and spit: "you don't like my flow, you need to be more emotional/ I'll give you emotion when kneeling there with you're holding your broken nose!"... or something to that effect. She's a villainess, but she's ready to win. Watch out now.
Then Talib Kweli's collab with her on his top-five-album-of-2007 'Eardrum' introduced him with gusto, and he jumped right into the mix.
'Listen', 'Definition', some classic dub riddims, Jammin' by Robert Nesta, into a freestyle over KRS-One's 'Sound of tha Police' was Kweli's combination, knocking out the crowd with determination. A 5 piece live band joined him after, INCLUDING GRAPH NOBEL on back up vocals, and Res, as 'Everything Man' floated in. The miraculous 'Hostile Gospel' (which has a video filmed in Africa that you must see) was brought to life divinely, before faithful Kweli chestnut 'The Blast' was dropped. Kanye's funkalicious 'Get Em High' beat ignited the crowd before Talib twisted his verse from "Country Cousins" with UGK as his verse over the 'International Players Anthem' beat. This is a monumental moment.
Depressingly, the crowd of thousands somehow loses their heart when 'Get By' starts, and Kweli reeeewinds it, cause that's just not right.
Graph Nobel and Res bless that song, and the previous Kweli nugget 'Too Late', like supreme soul singers, and the show is done.
Interestingly, Kweli's "R.I.P." shoutout list included Soulja Slim and many other Southern legends, then ended it honorably by adding "Dr. Donda West". Kind.
Ironically, when speaking to Graph Nobel backstage, she says one of the main reasons she left Canada is because the music industry doesn't want to see black people with power or influence. In America, green is the most racist color, in a certain way, and her refusal to get caught up in the invisible discrimination of so-called educated Canadians made her leave Toronto, move to Los Angeles, and sing back up for Talib Kweli in Austin, Texas! She could have been in the "State Of Canadian Hip Hop" article too... but I digress. :)
Ice Cube headlines. Hype builds. "A yaye yay!" is heard. Cheers erupt. Cube comes out in all black jeans and sweater, with partner in crhyme WC of Westside Connection crip-dancing his way into young mothers and daughters hearts alike.
Cube performs a weird chunk of his catalogue (cause of him being on the West Coast? methinks so), starting with "Natural Born Killaz", "Smoke Some Weed", then thankfully the Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five funk remix of "Check Yo Self". A big 20 foot inflatable W shaped like a hand appears on both sides of the stage. Then Cube goes into "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It", facetiously stating the government can blame rap for global warming, high oil prices and the war in Iraq. Noble message, but over such a sluggish beat, it reminds me of that early 2000's part of Ice-T's rap career. Not working now, must upgrade.
Cube can still incide love-coated fear in a mob though. Proclaiming his "world's most dangerous group" pedigree, he launched into "Straight Outta Compton" and "Gangsta Gangsta", rap masterpieces eternal. Insanely, DJ Crazy Toones cuts up "No Vaseline" right after. Um... WTF mate? Are you seriously playing Cube's scathing shot at Compton's Most World-Famous Wrecking Crew right after he rocked his N.W.A. hits? That was unbelievably weird. Especially considering "One Nation Under A Groove", his mid-90's George Clinton link was next in line. "We Be Clubbin" and "Go To Church" is where I broke out.
Saw some southern rap in a club where Bushwick Bill just got off stage. I wanted to see Houston legend K-Rino, but they were sooooo late, I missed it. The rest of the show was... not far above average.
Walking down the street, I look in a window, see AN 11 YEAR OLD BOY MAKE A GUITAR BLEED AMAZING GRACE.
In the blues book of future history, the name "Eddie Blue" will have a big ass chapter, mark my words. I can't express how special this moment was to behold. This 11 year old soul replayed Santana's "Supernatural" like it he was born to do more than that by the time he turned 16. A true miracle that had everyone within earshot captivated. If someone YouTubed this, you will learn. Phoenix, Arizona, what are you feeding your kids? And where can I buy it?
Canada strike two: (I didn't forget) - ROCK SAVIORS FROM VANCOUVER: PRIDE TIGER.
I saw 4 songs of theirs. I loved every fucking minute of it. The drummer was lead vocalist, and was like Animal-from-the-Muppet-Babies-level-awesome. The other dudes killed it too. I'm not going to over-intellectualize what I think about them, I just love them, and blame Canada for exporting more uncut dope to SXSW.
Off to see MSTRKRFT kill the night. And after DJ Z-Trip mashed up "For the Love of Money" and after Killa Kela beatboxed a solid and short set, I SAW MSTRKRFT KILL THE NIGHT. That Vice party was the place to be on a Saturday night in Austin, without a doubt. The head-crushing, knee-knocking, hips-hurling, neck-snapping percussive penetrations never stopped viciously hurtling people forward into digital electro-rock-disco bliss. Once again, those damn Canadians were a notch above most, and proceeded to destroy their moments in the spotlight with relentless excellence. Words cannote convey how powerful the beats exploding the speakers in this MSTRKRFT party were, but crowd-surfing, dancers on other shoulders, and never-ending twirling were in full effect as evidence of how much of a zoo that spot became, especially when 'All I Do Is Party' lit people's asses on fire. Strike three, Chretiens, you're out!
I wrote all this so one day I could look back and remember it accurately, cause right now, at the end of day 4, SXSW is already indescribably overwhelming to completely comprehend. Yesterday is already a furious blur. Even my inviting artistic mind could not imagine the rate of expansion you can experience here with all the impressive music and overall sensory stimulation. I saw and heard so many genres, artists, styles, ideas, legends, rising stars, surprises, disappointments, mediocrities, rumors, tricks, jokes, and future classics that I don't know what to do with myself. My head will need silence for a good day when I get back to Toronto. But then... all these lovely SXSW seeds must get watered... and the insanity grows....
the night ended with me seeing GZA at Stubbs. He was dope, and performed 'Guillotines', 'Triumph', 'Animal Planet' and something else. I saw Tasha from Ninja Tune and said goodbye, she would have been here with Isis of Thunderheist rocking out if things worked out. I saw the Thunderheist party poster that got cancelled, and thought to myself:
"Canadians are going to be absolutely amazing at SXSW in 2009."
Love,
Adhimu "Mindbender" Shabazz Stewart
word up!
time to get ready for the Now Magazine showcase!
www.nowtoronto.com
WE'RE JAMMIN @ WRONGBAR TONIGHT! 1279 QUEEN ST. WEST, TORONTO, IN THE UNIVERSE :)
11 PM SHARP, I'M ON! DON'T FUCKIN' SLEEP ON ME, YO! HA HA
MINDBENDER LOVES YOU ALL
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