With 2012 upon us, expectations are naturally high for new music from established and newer artists. 2011 was a cool year from a hip hop perspective, with high profile releases such as Watch The Thone, The Carter 4, Cole World, as well as under the radar gems such as Charity Starts At Home, The Wonder Years, and countless others that may or may not ring a bell within hip hop circles. I was excited because hip hop did not stay contained within the box; hip hop matured a little more in 2011. Kanye had us excited in the first quarter of the year with his most recent solo release, while Common closed out the fourth quarter with an excellent offering that harkened back to his hungrier Windy City days.
On the local front, a wide range of talented wordsmiths ripped microphones and showed what the art of mastering ceremonies was all about: Gods'illa, Last Born Child, OOH from BrownFish, Los, Mullyman, Jay Mills, Jay McGraw, Oddisee, Si-Notes, Caddy Da Don. These names and many more showed the diversity that the Baltimore-Washington region offered. Some were strictly underground, some reached for a broader audience. The common thread with this diverse listing was the desire to be true to what he or she brought to the table within the hip hop realm. I, along with many others, welcomed this musical diversity.
I had the opportunity to witness many a performance during 2011. Controlling the stage seemed to be a lost art over the past few years, but I noticed that creating that aura from a performance standpoint was something that was being sought by artists nationally and locally. Royce Da 5'9", Lauryn Hill, Phonte, 9th Wonder, Rapsody, The Away Team, Median, Pharoahe Monch, Sean Price, Smif N Wessun showcased what true, authentic performance skills are all about on the stage when I witnessed their unique appearances. Here in Harm City, NowChild Soundstage was the proving ground for many up and coming artists and emcees, with the soon to be famous Judah's Juke Joint taking center stage on Thursday evenings. As the coined phrase goes, "Thursday Is The New Saturday". Thursday evenings did much to heighten expectations for a Baltimore and beyond hip hop scene. The aforementioned Gods'illa, DMV royalty in my humble opinion, brought a 90's aesthetic to the 409 E. Preston Street location. Others took turns breaking molds and creating new ones at Judah's Juke Joint, the brainchild of Mr. Baltimore City Slicka himself OOH, a staple on our burgeoning hip hop scene for the better part of two decades. Last Born Child, one of the dopest artists here AND abroad, time and time again showed what true hip hop and mic mastery was all about. UllNevaNo, Golden Seal, Si-Notes, The Bangladesh Project, Eazzie Da Tattman, Greenspan, and so many others made their separate and collective spirits known within the cavernous walls of the creative hotbed at NowChild. There are so many other artists that I have seen at Judah's Juke Joint (including my sons A-Dub and Coppa, known to the hip hop community as Flight Squad). To me, that has been THE high point of creativity in 2011, because of the communal vibe that was, and still is, present.
So what does 2012 hold for us as a hip hop community? I envision new releases by Rick Ross, OutKast, Jay-Z, Kanye...the list goes on and on. I see the boundaries of this artform expand to a limitless area, where cats won't be necessarily judged by pop culture OR the underground circuit. I want to witness much respect for artists that paved the way for the newer breed of emcees. I believe that we are going to be in for some surprises, so stay tuned.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Lab Sessions (Hosted By Last Born Child)
Courtesy of BluVision Productions we have Lab Sessions 5 and 5.2, filmed on location at The Fish Den. This cypher-based series allows an assortment of emcees to do what they do best: SPIT. Hosted by B-more Renaissance Man Last Born Child, these two videos showcase the talents of some of the best in the region. The initial video features talented artists Last Born Child, Voice, Kae Fields, Akkillis, Prime Zeggy, and Eazzie Da Tattman trading vicious verses. The second segment is a collection of varied artists Akhi Mandriq, M.E., Lonnie Moore, and OOH from BrownFish spitting flames. Don't forget to visit http://www.bluvisions.com/ for more information about this dope series. Enjoy blogosphere!
Part I:
Part II:
Part I:
Part II:
NEW TIGALLO NEW TIGALLO NEW TIGALLO VIDEO: "Dance In The Reign"
Directed by NC stalwart Kenneth Price we have the visuals for "Dance In The Reign" by the incomparable Phonte. I've been anxiously awaiting this video, because if there is a song from Charity Starts At Home, this is indeed the track. In my opinion, "Dance In The Reign" set the stage for CSAH to be the acclaimed success that it is, at least from a true musician's standpoint. As Phonte so eloquently stated at the beginning of the song, STAND CLEAR...
"DANCE IN THE REIGN" (directed by Kenneth Price)
"DANCE IN THE REIGN" (directed by Kenneth Price)
Thursday, January 5, 2012
KRS-ONE INTERVIEW
Happy New Year and Happy Hip Hop my blogosphere family! Wisdom is back to illuminate the true tenets of hip hop culture, be it on the turntables, microphone, canvas, dancefloor, or in the heart. 2012 promises to be a year of growth, development, and renewal. Whatever your endeavors this year and beyond, be productive and positive. With that being said, to start off my Wisdom Seeker for this year, I bring to you this gem found on YouTube. KRS-One will always be an upper echelon emcee to me, someone who can COMPLETELY show what the art of mastering the ceremony is truly about. Courtesy of The Archivest, you have a very dope introspective into the artistry, creativity, activism, and insight of Mr. Parker. For more than an hour, you will hear AND feel the passion that KRS-One has for the very culture of hip hop, a culture that I live and breathe on a daily basis. When he says that "he is hip hop", he is indeed the living embodiment of an artform that has completely transfixed and transformed our landscape. I thoroughly enjoyed this enlightening piece of documentary, as I am sure you will!
WE ARE HIP HOP!
WE ARE HIP HOP!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
LAB SESSIONS
This is a first for Wisdom...allowing someone access to one of my most prized possessions. My blog is my escape from the mundane and crazy world we live in. The irony is that hip hop itself can be considered both mundane and crazy in this day and time. Bucking conventional wisdom (pun intended), the first access from an outside entity within the sphere known as WISDOM SEEKER is granted to the one and only Tiffany Welch. Ms. Welch is someone I've known for a short period of time, seeing her at the soon to be infamous NowChild Soundstage for Judah's Juke Joint. She is probably going to be known as much for her intoxicating Thursday evening creations as she will be for her dynamic writing skills. With no further need for explanation, here is my first guest writer with her dissertation on Lab Sessions.
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LAB SESSIONS
Written by: Tiffany Welch
A convention of techniques, a swarm of ambition, a night where honesty is appreciated and fuck-ups accepted. Amidst potent stratus swirling in conflicting directions across a low basement ceiling, there was a distinct reason for this gathering and a purposeful plot to unfold...Hip Hop’s organized sport...The Cypher.
A call from architect, Last Born Child, instigated this compilation of emcees in this suburban basement for what would be known as another installment into BluVision’s Lab Sessions. Spread across this small room, stood ten artists with ten flows and skills that range from the trendy Drake-like ability to intersect rhyme with vocals, to the ability to educate the masses through Baltimore-coined slang and clever metaphoric punch lines. On this Wednesday night the catalog of hip hop talent emerging and existing in Baltimore looked strong. The 9 man (ladies included) roster, handpicked by Last Born Child, was an impressive spread of more and less notable Baltimore artists. The lineup: Voice, Prime Zeggy, Kae Fields, Akkillis, Eazzie Da Tattman, M.E., Ahki Mandriq, Lonnie Moore, and OOH of BROWN FISH.
With some familiarity to many of the artists, I expected a certain entertainment value to come from this lyrical exhibition. New to me were Prime Zeggy and Ahki Mandriq, (both who will now stay on my radar) and of course Kae Fields, Last Born Child, and OOH of BROWN FISH have proved their hip hop worthiness, so if all else failed, I walked in knowing at least 30% of the bars would be dropped with enjoyable execution.
The “Who” of the night was equally as important as the “What” of the night; Last Born Child designed this Lab Session, so it was bound to have some extra elements. As precisely as he created the roster, Last Born Child created this two round Cypher to include 20 different tracks, two per artist, including his own bars, which would commence each round. Upon getting a peek at the playlist, I was excited to see how each style would be executed upon the familiar tracks of such artists as Biggie, Birdman, The Clipse and Crime Mob. With a nod to DJ Eclypse, WU-Tang’s C.R.E.A.M. belted out, Last Born laid down his bars to warm up the mic, and Lab Sessions officially was underway.
All the ingredients were there: Cocky punch lines, humble re-dos and take 2s, hat tilts, expressive hands (reference Kevin Hart’s “real talk” stand-up routine), and mean mugs and confident smiles aimed directly at Zea’s camera (BluVision Productions). Even if you put the room on mute, the room looked and smelled like Hip Hop. By the end of Round 1, emcees confidently awaited what beat was to be dealt to them in Round 2. It was an atmosphere of respect as much as it was a venue to “go off”.
When the signal was made to begin Round 2, I looked up and the room was twice the capacity, however there were no spectators. The room was full of artists, in one form or another; Ramadan and Supa Man of the band seeWEED, Bangla of the Bangladesh Project, Wombatt55, D. Boi, Free Agent and a hand full of up and coming emcees, graphic artists, and producers. Called up one at a time again, Round 2 was the opportunity for some to out-do their previous flow while others completely switched up the flow. While no one took Round 1 as a scrimmage, this time, the emcees had a second coming type confidence and pulled out the dramatics, props, extra long runs, and references to the faces in the building that night.
At the conclusion of the night, Last Born thanked everyone for making it possible, a group photo was taken and this Lab Session was done…..or was it???
In true Hip Hop fashion, even as DJ Eclypse broke down the equipment, Banlga and Eazzie were still near the keyboards and monitors, and as a spontaneous beat came on, thus began Hip Hop’s version of an after party. An open circular Cypher ensued centered around the one lone mic in the room; a part of this circle was now Wombatt55 and Banlga dropping a few bars to have their linguistics documented for the night as well. After that impromptu meeting of emcees shook out the last couple of bars they had in them for the night, the Lab Session and after party was officially wrapped.
Emcees and artists networked, brainstormed collab projects, and shared resources before disbanding for the night. As the crowd dispersed, one last reminder was made by OOH of BROWN FISH to join him and his band seeWEED the following night (Thursday) for their weekly event, Judah’s Juke Joint, at NowChild Sound Stage. With only a small group left, the atmosphere began to return back to the normal haze that hovers close the drop ceiling tiles and seeWEED and OOH began their usual Wednesday night rehearsal.
Stay tuned to BluVision Productions for a full video recap of Wednesday’s Lab Sessions.
(Voice) (M.E.)
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LAB SESSIONS
Written by: Tiffany Welch
A convention of techniques, a swarm of ambition, a night where honesty is appreciated and fuck-ups accepted. Amidst potent stratus swirling in conflicting directions across a low basement ceiling, there was a distinct reason for this gathering and a purposeful plot to unfold...Hip Hop’s organized sport...The Cypher.
A call from architect, Last Born Child, instigated this compilation of emcees in this suburban basement for what would be known as another installment into BluVision’s Lab Sessions. Spread across this small room, stood ten artists with ten flows and skills that range from the trendy Drake-like ability to intersect rhyme with vocals, to the ability to educate the masses through Baltimore-coined slang and clever metaphoric punch lines. On this Wednesday night the catalog of hip hop talent emerging and existing in Baltimore looked strong. The 9 man (ladies included) roster, handpicked by Last Born Child, was an impressive spread of more and less notable Baltimore artists. The lineup: Voice, Prime Zeggy, Kae Fields, Akkillis, Eazzie Da Tattman, M.E., Ahki Mandriq, Lonnie Moore, and OOH of BROWN FISH.
With some familiarity to many of the artists, I expected a certain entertainment value to come from this lyrical exhibition. New to me were Prime Zeggy and Ahki Mandriq, (both who will now stay on my radar) and of course Kae Fields, Last Born Child, and OOH of BROWN FISH have proved their hip hop worthiness, so if all else failed, I walked in knowing at least 30% of the bars would be dropped with enjoyable execution.
The “Who” of the night was equally as important as the “What” of the night; Last Born Child designed this Lab Session, so it was bound to have some extra elements. As precisely as he created the roster, Last Born Child created this two round Cypher to include 20 different tracks, two per artist, including his own bars, which would commence each round. Upon getting a peek at the playlist, I was excited to see how each style would be executed upon the familiar tracks of such artists as Biggie, Birdman, The Clipse and Crime Mob. With a nod to DJ Eclypse, WU-Tang’s C.R.E.A.M. belted out, Last Born laid down his bars to warm up the mic, and Lab Sessions officially was underway.
All the ingredients were there: Cocky punch lines, humble re-dos and take 2s, hat tilts, expressive hands (reference Kevin Hart’s “real talk” stand-up routine), and mean mugs and confident smiles aimed directly at Zea’s camera (BluVision Productions). Even if you put the room on mute, the room looked and smelled like Hip Hop. By the end of Round 1, emcees confidently awaited what beat was to be dealt to them in Round 2. It was an atmosphere of respect as much as it was a venue to “go off”.
When the signal was made to begin Round 2, I looked up and the room was twice the capacity, however there were no spectators. The room was full of artists, in one form or another; Ramadan and Supa Man of the band seeWEED, Bangla of the Bangladesh Project, Wombatt55, D. Boi, Free Agent and a hand full of up and coming emcees, graphic artists, and producers. Called up one at a time again, Round 2 was the opportunity for some to out-do their previous flow while others completely switched up the flow. While no one took Round 1 as a scrimmage, this time, the emcees had a second coming type confidence and pulled out the dramatics, props, extra long runs, and references to the faces in the building that night.
At the conclusion of the night, Last Born thanked everyone for making it possible, a group photo was taken and this Lab Session was done…..or was it???
In true Hip Hop fashion, even as DJ Eclypse broke down the equipment, Banlga and Eazzie were still near the keyboards and monitors, and as a spontaneous beat came on, thus began Hip Hop’s version of an after party. An open circular Cypher ensued centered around the one lone mic in the room; a part of this circle was now Wombatt55 and Banlga dropping a few bars to have their linguistics documented for the night as well. After that impromptu meeting of emcees shook out the last couple of bars they had in them for the night, the Lab Session and after party was officially wrapped.
Emcees and artists networked, brainstormed collab projects, and shared resources before disbanding for the night. As the crowd dispersed, one last reminder was made by OOH of BROWN FISH to join him and his band seeWEED the following night (Thursday) for their weekly event, Judah’s Juke Joint, at NowChild Sound Stage. With only a small group left, the atmosphere began to return back to the normal haze that hovers close the drop ceiling tiles and seeWEED and OOH began their usual Wednesday night rehearsal.
Stay tuned to BluVision Productions for a full video recap of Wednesday’s Lab Sessions.
(Voice) (M.E.)
Video-----"Cortisone", Charlie Smarts feat. Rapper Big Pooh
It's been a good while since I've graced my blog pages, but coming to the close of 2011 I find it necessary to make my presence felt. There has been some good music during the interim, such as this Charlie Smarts gem featuring Rapper Big Pooh entitled "Cortisone".
Saturday, November 19, 2011
2ND ANNUAL HIP HOP FOR THE HOMELESS EVENT
The 2nd Annual Hip Hop For The Homeless Food Drive will be in effect, ready to show the solidarity that the Baltimore hip hop community is showing. Last year's drive was a huge success, banding together a scene that often gets a bad rap (no pun intended). For 2011, the event takes on a bigger scale, as it covers ground from December 14th-18th across the Baltimore metropolitan area. It felt very good last year to show support and donate to such a worthy cause, because there are countless individuals that are suffering through the homeless epidemic that plagues our fair city and abroad. According to reports from Baltimore CityPaper, there are approximately 4,000 persons that are classified as homeless, and I strongly believe that these numbers are not accurate. Take a walk or drive through various pockets of Baltimore and you will see a homeless man or woman camped out on a bench or sidewalk, with nothing more than a blanket and a few bags of their prized possessions keeping them company. It can be a grim, daunting sight, so participating in Hip Hop For The Homeless is a no-brainer to me, being on both ends of the spectrum with this epidemic. I am looking forward to the Baltimore hip hop community showing up and showing out to support such an important cause. Hip hop started as a means to band together communities and show unity within the culture, so that tradition must continue.
Here is the schedule of events for the 2nd Annual Hip Hop For The Homeless:
DECEMBER 14, 2011 TOY AND FOOD DRIVE KICKOFF
CATONSVILLE COMMUNITY COLLEGE 7-10PM
900 S. ROLLING RD
CATONSVILLE, MD 21228
BARN THEATRE CAMPUS
THIS EVENT REQUIRE A CANNED GOOD OR OTHER NON-PERISHABLE FOOD ITEM TO GAIN ENTRY
DECEMBER 15, 2011 MATTHEW BLU ART SHOW
EUBIE BLAKE CENTER 6-830PM
847 NORTH HOWARD ST
BALTIMORE, MD 21201
THIS EVENT REQUIRE A CANNED GOOD OR OTHER NON-PERISHABLE FOOD ITEM TO GAIN ENTRY
DECEMBER 16, 2011 FREE CONCERT-AN OUTSIDE EVENT
WHEEL DEAL 4-10PM
3200 REISTERSTOWN RD
BALTIMORE, MD 21217
DECEMBER 17, 2011 FREE CONCERT-AN OUTSIDE EVENT
RIM SOURCE 4-10PM
4810 BELAIR RD
BALTIMORE, MD 21206
DECEMBER 18, 2011 DISTRIBUTION
AUTOGRAPH PLAYHOUSE 4-10PM
9 W. 25TH STREET
BALTIMORE, MD 21212
Please do YOUR part and donate time, money, non-perishable foods, blankets, and/or clothing to this cause. I strongly believe that blessings will come by blessing someone less fortunate than yourself. If you are not directly affected by the homeless epidemic, then indirectly there is someone you may come into contact with that is a part of that suffering demographic. I hope to see the strength in numbers during this event, and I also hope that we as a community will not only focus on this event, because this is an ongoing problem. For more information for this event, contact hiphopforthehomeless@gmail.com. Special thanks to those participating in this life-changing event, especially Anita Foster. She, along with her team of individuals, has been a tireless advocate on the scene, garnering much support along the way to help combat this ailment we face known as homelessness. Make a difference now B-more!
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