KRS-ONE: JUDGEMENT DAY
THE TEACHA KRS-ONE INTRODUCES RIP NICHOLSON TO HIS SCHOOL OF HIP HOP.
KRS-ONE interviewed for Rip2Shredz // Street Press Australia // Hiphop.sh @ @ 08.45 AEST Saturday, 04th February, 2012
Oprah visited down under, even Queen Elizabeth and her grandson Prince William walked our red carpets last year. Now we wait, firmly held in 2012 for the inaugural visit of hip hop’s leading protagonist, acting strictly for the cause and survival of a culture. KRS One, (born Lawrence Parker) is poised in San Francisco to board a boat and head for our golden shores. Afraid of flying, Parker will take the month-long trip down under with an agenda to inject knowledge into our our hip hop culture with a “booster shot.” Following some stringent protocol to get him in session, Parker lets loose over 50 minutes with a booming authority over his words. Holding a genuine concern for the upkeep of his culture, Parker lays out an economic model for the survival of Australia’s hip hop scene in today’s new world, which he believes finds the balance of power shifted in favour of it’s forebearers and creative souls who maintain the culture’s equilibrium behind it’s commerce.
What would your main objective be on this auspicious trip down our way?
I’ve waited a long time for this. There is a couple of places I’m trying to go to over the next three years. And Australia is just one of them that I’ve been trying to get to for a many years. There has always been challenges, so when i come to a place i don’t just want to come to the place, perform and leave. I don’t like flying into a country, flying over a country. Beyond that, go straight to the hotel from the airport and to the venue and to the hotel and to the airport and then say ‘OK, I’ve been to Australia.’ That’s not my style at all so i waited it out.
Promoters have been calling me over the last 10 years, people been calling. Some called but the money wasn’t right, others called and the transportation wasn’t right. Others called but there was opening acts on the bill that i didn’t agree with. So now i have a great promoter and he suggested i get over here by sea. So when i realised we can sail from San Francisco, California to Sydney, Australia i was ecstatic to be able to get this opportunity and this is how the tour all starts. That’s the personal reason as to why it’s happening now, in that sense. This promoter that I’m dealing with is pandering to KRS One and the way KRS One would like to come to Australia. Other promoters were telling me how to come to Australia. This certain promoter is assisting me in coming to Australia…
** Read Full Interview [HERE] **
Rakaa Iriscience - Wearing The Crown
BEFORE THEIR SIXTH ALBUM DROPS, MC RAKAA TAYLOR (RAKAA IRISCIENCE) HAS FRAGMENTED THE DISCOGRAPHY OF DILATED PEOPLES TO INCLUDE HIS FIRST SOLO LP, CROWN OF THORNS, IT’S ALL LOVE, HE TELLS RIP NICHOLSON AND INSISTS THAT HIS RECORD IS “LESS OF A DEPARTURE AND MORE OF A CONTINUATION” OF THE GROUP’S LEGACY.
RAKAA interviewed for Rip2Shredz // Street Press Australia // Hiphop.sh @ 14.15 AEST Monday 17th October, 2011
Dilated Peoples has always played a pivotal role in Southern Cali’s left-sided movement, advancing their hip hop to a more consciously-aware state. Before they set to drop their 2012 LP, MC Rakaa Iriscience enjoys his moment in the sun with his solo work, 2011’s Crown Of Thorns. But, despite holding down his own royal affair, it’s fellow Los Angeleno and Dilated Peoples MC Evidence’s Cats & Dogs (just released) that’s held the main focus of Taylor and the Peoples’ as of late. Rakaa takes time out while campaigning for Ev’s album, to discuss the legacy of Dilated Peoples and his own first solo outing.
You said in a recent interview that Crown Of Thorns is the most honest work you’ve done and the most worldly out of L.A.’s illustrious reality rap scene - what did you do to make it more worldly?
I worked with producers and vocalists from different parts of the world, featured multiple languages and cultures, and allowed my worldview to shine through.
The solo experience - did you find freedom or isolation?
Actually both. It was pure freedom, which can be a bit scary and intimidating after years of support that comes from creative compromise. I did feel isolated sometimes, but I also know that I never walk alone – even though I always stand on my own two feet as a man.
** Read Full Interview [HERE] **
Naughty By Nature: Strike A Nerve in 2011
ONE OF THE BIGGEST BREAK OUT ACTS IN HIP HOP, NAUGHTY BY NATURE HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO STRIKE A NERVE, HOLDING DOWN THEIR TRUE IDENTITY WHILE TAKING IT TO MAINSTREAM NOTORIETY WITHOUT HAVING THEIR GHETTO PASSES REVOKED. TWENTY YEARS AFTER O.P.P. STICKERED THE CHARTS, THE NEW ALBUM ANTHEM INC. IS SET TO CEMENT THEM REAL RAP IICONS. VIN ROCK TALKS TO RIP NICHOLSON.
VinRock (Naughty By Nature) interviewed for Rip2Shredz // Street Press Australia // Hiphop.sh @ 09.20 AEST - Aug 25, 2011
Naughty By Nature went back to their gully, Illtown roots of New Jersey to shoot the video for a new single, but as Vinnie ‘Vin Rock’ Brown explains, they never left. Now fresh from a tour with Redman and Method Man stretching from France to Brasil (and Australia this month), the hardcore hip hop trio feel as young as ever on stage.
20 years in the game now! Congratulations. Are you guys feeling that legacy on your shoulders now?
We been movin’ around so much lately… i can’t even tell. We all still young and very youthful and we’re out there working on stage, jumping around and burnin’ them calories.
Does it put pressure on your new work? or does it feel the same as it did 20 years ago?
Yeah i believe that we have no real pressure and we don’t have to live up to those legacies. We just did it and the accolades came along with it. So we take it like, ‘hey we won this for hip hop.’ We doin’ this for a lot of the people and whatever is whatever on the back end, you know?
** Read Full Interview [HERE] **
Interview with Danny Boy
Chi-Town native and Death Row Records’ son of soul and songbird to most of the notorious 1990’s west coast rap legends - r&b star Danny Boy (Danny Boy Steward) is on the come back with a new album and a dusted off collection due for release by new WIDEAwake/Death Row label. Steward, all grown and still beautiful in voice gave Dynamexx Enterprise and Hiphop.sh an exclusive on where he’s at now.
From the impressionable age of 14, signed to hiphop’s most successful rap label, Danny Boy held down his teenage years as a lasting talent, outlasting Dre, Snoop, Tupac, MC Hammer and even Crooked I’s departure in recent years. He dropped his first solo recording, ‘Come When I Call’ for the Murder Was The Case soundtrack in 1994 and the following year released his first single entitled Slip N Slide. Eventually with the signing of Tupac Shakur in late 1995, Danny Boy aligned himself to the infamy of the rap megastar and hit the high notes throughout one of the greatest selling hiphop albums of all-time in All Eyes On Me for Tupac. While on Death Row imprint, Steward recorded over four albums worth of material but to no release. Now separated from his mentor Suge Knight and Tha Row label, Danny Boy comes by way of his own imprint, “Platinum Pearl” in Atlanta, Georgia. As of April, 2010 Danny Boy is readying the drop of his long awaited debut album, It’s About Time. Speaking on his upbringing within the world’s most dangerous record label, relationship with label mates, Tupac and MC Hammer, Danny Boy Steward drops the 411 on the old days, old music released from the newly owned and revamped Death Row Records and his ATL coffee shop hustle - pouring soul into every cup.
Interviewed by Damien Morgan & Rip Nicholson [April 5th, 2010]
Signed on at 14 years old with Death Row… you must have witnessed a pretty harsh upbringing in the way the label conducted a lot of business dealings, did you feel comfortable in this environment and conducive to creating music for Danny Boy?
It was more a bunch of hype than anything. The Public and the Media made more of it then it was. It was all about the music.
Being that connection from new to old… In your opinion, what really was the final demise of Tha Row and Suge Knight’s hold? Tupac’s passing, Suge’s losing label rights to Harry O?
When Suge Knight went to jail. People didn’t know anything about the music company. When ever the head is gone the body will fall.
After all these years, now, a white corporate Death Row are already priming your debut album… In hindsight, being held down for so long by Suge Knight – would you have broken away earlier to for the sake of furthering your recording career?
I was with the label until the end. Suge was good to me. I moved on to a better spot. You got to keep believing. God will make room for your gift. But you don’t have to do it for free.
The new album covers from 1994-1999, what else is new with Danny Boy?
I have a my coffee shop. “Soul Coffee and Cafe” in Chicago then another in Atlanta “My song, My soul, My coffee” is the slogan. We have a production company here in Atlanta. I’m always doing hooks for different people.
So Platinum Pearl the new label for you, are you still under contract with Death Row or is it a case of they are just releasing Danny Boy tracks of which they own the rights to?
No, I am not under contract with WIDEawake/Death Row. They are releasing albums from the vault that they purchased and asked me to come on and be apart of this release. I want to thank WIDEawake for resurrecting Death Row. It is a great business venture for myself. There’s great music in that vault. I’m glad someone is willing to give that music a new shot. It’s a new situation. I’m trying to see how it goes. I’ve been through the slammer so I feel it will be a much better time than before.
Tupac took you under his wing through his final year under Death Row – you became the soul to his hiphop. Was there a bond you shared with him over anyone else affiliated with Death Row?
Pac was my friend. He was my teacher. He was my brother. I learned a lot from him. I miss him.
One of the more final moves Suge made for the label was adding MC Hammer to the line up in ‘95… How was that chemistry within the label?
Hammer would mentor us. He was a part of the brother system with us. He was a teacher. He did a good job.
What else do you see yourself doing apart from music in the future?
I have a my coffee shop “Soul Coffee and Cafe” in Chicago then another in Atlanta. “My song, My soul, My coffee”, is the slogan. We have a production company here in Atlanta, and I want to act. There ‘s a lot in the works.
*****Interview provided by RIP NICHOLSON for Hiphop.sh // DAMIEN MORGAN for Dynamexx Enterprise*****
