[PROMO VIDEO IS POSTED AT BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE]
So then it began... Two south-coast Cali natives took to the streets of Boston to shoot a music video. 1 day available, basic 2 man crew. One with a baller camera, simple lavaliere audios, and a sense of direction. The other with an exclusive Ferrari-drivers pack full of fresh threads, and a boombox. Why would two people who have never officially produced music come to shoot a promo music video?? My best guess is the 24-pack of East-coast ale the night before when it had randomly occurred to us. Like typical drunken fools, we thought: "why not." But this duo goes way back through the terrain of time with familiarity. So much of our pent up potential toward a strikingly tantamount passion for music... always seeming to take an unknown direction. But direction, no doubt. Just a relatively conscious pair of headstrong hip-hop heads with nothing but the most pure feeling for the music and culture. Yet we never managed to materialize any original productions simply because of distance decay and that often-bitchy, black swan named, Fate. The newly purchased camera helped invigorate our video ideation, since "pretty fucking dope" for it is an understatement. That night prior, it made man look like a Valkyrie in rooftop shots.
So the next day we decided to make a promo grime tune. Yes, now it gets more random. It was an intoxicating stupid idea of course, since no one knows what grime really is in the U.S. And don't try and tell me you do, cause I barely know what it is and I know it better than you. No hype-- just reality (excluding UK). Shit, grime barely knows itself on its own terms. It's champions of the sound will concede it as the most ambiguous genre in the current moments of electronic music. That's also what makes it so fresh, exciting and open to new ideas whilst adapting and utilizing characteristics across the musical spectrum. Now it's even being influenced beyond its original stapled characteristic of UKG, dancehall, DnB, and hip-hop. Whatever next level trend develops, grime will have played a role, knowingly or not. I think that unseen legacy will have a bigger impact than its current receptions; similar to that of short-lived 2-step and speed garage had imprinted on the culture, which was so subtle, yet massive.
Now then... is what I do grime?? I have no clue. I would say yes, but if Logan Sama would say no, I would be inclined to take his word for it. The Kiss.100 DJ is after all a foremost figure in the scene. His own words do make me wonder what his actual take on my style would be: "As long as artists retain the attitude, vernacular, style, and slang they learned picking up the mic on pirate radio spitting to grime, they are still grime to me." I believe I execute those characteristics well on my end. I lived on the same block as the CB-1's well-established emcee, Simbad Fresh. Front-man of Cambridge's Restoration Camp, aka Merciless, Sim was a strong mentor. Man just dropped another versatile mixtape, "Smooth Operator," which you got to check out. Dwelling in the UK urban environment gave me an experience, and eventual knowledge, that just listening to and reading about abroad can never achieve. It's a culture thang. Attending events such as East-Anglia's infamous "WARNING!" as well as regular night-by night-travels to LDN on the weekends, which also increased my aptitude of the culture.
During over a year long stay through 2008, it was a post-pirate radio era in the UK. I would never pick up a microphone until the winter preceding 2010; on minimal back-up with SMOG's emcee, Kemst, at Santa Babylon's "Autumn Dubsfest", officially. But I studied the methodologies. I mean, I had wrote hip-hop for a couple years, (just like 1/4 the rest of the world). But let's rewind back to the UK-- vocal-bias aside, dubstep actually introduced me to grime. The first tune that truly broke my initial resistance to 2-step bass' foreign nature, was Plastician and Skepta's now classic FWD>> anthem, "Intensive Snare." I recall blasting Steppa's Delight compilayion with with my 38-year-old mate traversing the streets of London in an inconspicuously, conspicuous white moving-van. Memorably epitomized by a chest pound followed with a shout of, "BASS!", in inter-class cultural harmony. Authenticity.
Afterward, I would attempt to transcend those characteristics into a stateside style,without hijacking any "accents", or elements that should definitely remain in the British realm. Note to people: using British slang, or the linguistic vernacular of speaking/rapping in a UK origin, does not indicate an "accent" simply because you're used to hearing such words and speech in the original English tongue. As Kemst put it straight to me, "they're just words." Indeed... And as emcees they are our tools. Tré Mission, representing Toronto, is gaining recognition on both sides of the Atlantic for his North American grime. As far as I can tell, he is one of the few to realize grimes accessibility and adaptability outside of the UK and has built intelligently upon it. Keep a look out for him, and check out his free "Don't Think" promo release out now. I won't get too into the idea of grime being strictly British, or even as some claim, 'exclusive to London'.
Grime is going on 8 years now. In this exponentially accelerating information age, any original exclusivity is immediately globalized. (All aside, grime is an interesting study of localization). But for those naysayers of grime outside of its roots, I'd ask you to compare it to hip-hop's worldwide outreach. If you aren't American, it ain't hip-hop then, right?? Absolutely not.
After going back to Cali, I started writing strictly-hype party bars for dubstep parties, still devoting 90% of my listening time to grime and trying to translate it to dubstep. I love it, and it still commands a massive amount of my listen pleasure. On the other end, I don't listen to the amount of dubstep I should, considering my Santa Babylon clique throws the biggest pure bass parties in the 805. Bar none. But dubstep is not grime. And my foray into my "stateside grime"; state-grime or grime-state --whatever I choose to call it-- was never really imprinted upon me by dubstep's rise.
Flash-back, after hitting up a Zion I show in Santa Barbara, I got a minute to talk to AmpLive, a massively talented and recognized West-coast producer. Having just got back stateside to Cali in early 2009, I wanted to know his take on grime and if he thought it could explode out here. He brushed it aside almost laughably, saying that grime already hit here, further citing the likes of Dizzee's arrival and quick departures. Then when I asked him what he thought of dubstep, his attitude and feelings on the subject immediately changed. He was currently finishing up his dubstep album "Electro Wonderland Vol. 2" (which I believe has been renamed and released since under a different title). In my opinion, with all respect due, what Amp failed to recognize is that dubstep's continued rise can enable a massive amount of support for its ailing-sister sound. A re-ignition if you will, for grime's potential in the U.S and globally. Stateside bass emcees such as Los Angeles' highly rated Kemst, getting on dubstep are steady gaining artistic exposure outside of hip-hop. Across the Atlantic, P-money has used dubstep to quickly rise to the top ranks in the LDN scene. Aside from dubstep, grime icon Skepta just did a track with fucking P-Diddy. Sorry Amp, but I'm inclined to disagree... don't count grime out yet. Again, Tré Mission demonstrates a prime example of this theoretical process.
In addition to this thought, America loves the artist-centric aspect of hip-hop that it almost bleeds out of our modern youth. This is something dubstep purposefully lacks, and for good reason. Too much noise can filter out the pure sub-low sensation of a Funktion-1 system that the current bass-oriented starchild is strictly known and produced for. Grime is an usually identical-tempo 2-step version of that vocal, artist-centric American admiration. It can feed the needs of a US subculture that has been seriously tarnished after such a commercial, ignorant, and simply unimaginative period for so many years.
Don't get me wrong, I still am hip-hop. And there will always be those hidden gems in the depths of a city, and the corners of the globe. Big up Australia right now. Rhyme Sayers still on it as well. Unfortunately, I've become a bit too disconnected to the current US underground scene, that I shouldn't comment about it. Though I don't see any big changes, just look at "Rock the Bells." But that's not a problem, simply a well-earned legacy. Some people are understandably comfortable living in "golden eras." Others decide to progressively push the boundaries forward. Case and point: Theophilus London.
So grime became my ting. I didn't choose it, it chose me. My efforts could go far easier experimenting with other sounds, but "that's me" I suppose. For the promo video, I used a tune from my top rated producer in the scene: Maniac. A true-to-youth producing savant. Borrowed off his instrumental album from 2009, It's a pure, incontestable grime riddim. I really wish I could inevitably show it to the man... his exit out the game was critical for such a close-knit community and will truly be missed. Big up for being the best producer in your trade and BLESS.
So we used his track with my bars as the promo video. The video ended up out of sync, from the vocals, probably cause we were too drunk by the time editing came around. Basically an introduction to Hoodzpah, the Santa Babylon resident dubstep emcee, finally unveiled from behind the curtain of chest pummeling bass at live dance events only. So Rebel-Elite hit the streets of Boston with only one day before heading off to rave out in NYC for 4th of July weekend. Banged it out quick, then let the chips fall where they may. We had no fucking clue what we were doing, but we also wouldn't have it any other way. Most importantly, we made it a party. I haven't had that much fun with a homie on train tracks since the vodka-induced days of my youth. Shooting music videos is actually really dope. So please enjoy the creation as much as I enjoyed creating it. If not, well... that's me. P.E.A.C.E.
**PS: Here's some Soundcloud links to other grime tunes I've made:
www.soundcloud.com/hoodzpah
Hoodzpah "That's Me" Promo from Jack Cearnal on Vimeo.
All video filmed and edited - Jack Cearnal
All instrumental production - Maniac
All audio mixdown and equalization - Jack Cearnal
All vocals recorded/overdubbed - Wabble & Hoodzpah
Booking Info:
Contact - Hoodzpah
805.252.4108
rob4goods@gmail.com
www.rebelelite.com
www.hoodzinacorner.com
Video Production Info:
Contact - Jack Cearnal
805.895.4391
jackcearnal@gmail.com
www.vimeo.com/jackcearnal
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