Love is Growth / Butter&Gun$ EPLove is Growth
Taiyo Na (birth name: Taiyo Ebato), 25, is the curator of the aforementioned SULU Series (a monthly showcase of Asian American talent at the Bowery Poetry Club), combines hip-hop and folk/acoustic/soul in his debut release. His voice reminds me of Korean Am rapper/poet Denizen Kane's--raspy, somewhere between rap and song, weaving through poetry and music. Through his lyrics he articulates life on the grind, the push forward, the growth in love:
Pain is my dealer who break me with the language
Bless me with the insight to illuminate my canvass
My hurt got a honey, so you can comprehend this
Rock it like a rosary and walk with the anguish...
Taiyo Na - Love is Growth
Heavy on acoustic guitar and strings, the album features the creative input of an arsenal of East Coast Asian American artists--among them, Koba, Vudoo Soul, Craig Chin, Kevin So, and, my personal fave, Emily Chang (formerly of I Was Born With Two Tongues) lending her addictive voice on "Moonlight City (Reprise)." Other highlights include "Kasama," an ode to a sister in the struggle; "Lil' Tookie," in remembrance of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, the Crip-turned-peace activist sentenced to death by the state of California; and "Immigrant Mother (Lovely to Me)," Taiyo's ode to his, believe it or not, immigrant mother.
However, I definitely enjoyed the first two-thirds of the album the most; the last few songs, where Taiyo dips more into the acoustic-folk part of his repertoire, begin to blend together and lose the distinctiveness of the rest of the LP. Other than that, though, Love is Growth is a solid debut from an artist with much in store for the future.
Butter&Gun$
Blue Scholars, the Seattle, WA hip-hop duo of emcee Geologic (George Quibuyen) and deejay/producer Sabzi (Saba Mohajerjasbi), has recently gained national prominence through their distribution partnership with legendary label Rawkus Records and their 2007 sophomore album, Bayani. Since then, they've released two digital-only EPs, the first revolving around "Joe Metro," Bayani's closing track and Geo's ethnographic narration of riding the Seattle buses. (See my post on the somewhat surprising ballad, "Southbound.") Butter&Gun$--referring to an economic model that weighs a government's spending on military versus social service--operates more as a single for "Loyalty," a sonic ode to the group's followers and, in my opinion, the best track hands down off of Bayani.
Aside from the original version of the song, the EP features a reconceptualization of the theme, chopping-and-screwing segments of the original (I'm kinda ambivalent about that) amidst Geo's unusually rapid-fire delivery:
They put us in competition to cause affliction with opposition
The friction is part of their fiction, they’re looking for pots to piss in
Watch the bosses up in the loft laughing, upping the cost of living
To cop a billion while the cops are killing ‘em off, women and children
Politicians who mock religion and talk tradition to all, just wishing
That all the listeners fall victim, the pistols are drawn, the sinister laws
Is killing the cause, the citizens march, the sinners will start repentance
The minister calls deliverance, guerillas defending their villages...
Blue Scholars - Butter&Gun$ (Loyalty Pt. II)
The other original song, "27," recalls Geo's childhood as a military brat, developing a penchant for hip-hop in Honolulu. As always, Sabzi laces the beats with an eclectic mix of jazz, soul, and funk as Geo paints personal experience and popular struggle in the same breath. Butter&Gun$ is best described as a continuation of Bayani-- a fitting showcase of their talent, yet built upon the same formula that most of their recent songs follow. Nevertheless, Blue Scholars has been getting lots of attention in recent years and I'm excited to see where they'll take their music.
... then blow a kiss at YouTube. I caught these on camera - too bad I only did this for only three artists. Still, here they are: Magnetic North, El Gambina, and Koba with DJ Boo. This is all from Taiyo Na's release party at Sunday March 16th's Sulu Series.
Magnetic North (We later saw Direct at Kenka's)
El Gambina & Marie Choi
Koba & DJ Boo
We're back! And back from an awesome night of knowledge-gathering...
Wish we could get this sort of attendance at an AAA event...
"Beyond Beats and Rhymes", which brought together tonight distinguished guests such as Talib Kweli, Piper Anderson, Lumumba Bandele, La Bruja, and Tim'm West (as well as our very own Bryan Mercer, honorary PC member!) was smashing success. Sixty minutes of documentary film and sharing truth with an all-star panel of hip-hop and spoken word artists... events don't get much better than this.
What did we take away? Among all of the complaints in contemporary America about misogyny, homophobia, and violence in the world of rap, very is little is talked about masculinity in communities of color. For the first time, these qualities in hip-hop are deconstructed not as the faults of a culture but the effects of persistently being on the short end of the power stick. (Think: What would you do if a highway built by your city destroyed your neighborhood? Disenfranchised by your country? How would you assert yourself?)
Of course, the dynamics of this pressured identity associated with assertion and virility plays out differently in Asian American communities, but the logic is absolutely the same - the gangs in schools and ethnic enclaves, domestic violence against wives and children, and overcompensation against constant emasculation... all the effects of similar issues. Think about it.
P.S. There was another hip-hop related event tonight at NYU - the Magnetic North concert. I'm not sure who on The Blaaag went, but I doubt it could have been anything less than spectacular.
