Posted by azeem | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 04-09-2009
Here’s a FREE DOWNLOAD of AZEEM and ZEPH’s brand new track “Don’t Quote Me” in preperation for their new album “Sound Proof” coming out early 2010 on Oaklyn Records.
*skip through for more music including a FREE DOWNLOAD of OPEN EM UP [Air Cartoons - Oaklyn Records]
Also here’s a FREE DOWNLOAD of the Hip Hop and Rock Mash-Up “On The Rocks” from AZEEM and ZEPH [Oaklyn Records] On The Rocks [full mix] by Oaklyn Records
The video for “Latin Revenge” is a digital art frenzy; we sat down with the video’s director, Ben Stokes to pick his brain on how he created it.
Can you quickly discuss your background, education, and career as a multi-artist?
I went to school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and studied video, film, animation and sound.
I have always been involved in both music as well as visual art.
In 1990 I put out a record called House of God under the project name Dimensional Holofonic Sound, which was somewhat of a global dance hit.
While still in school, I founded a video production company called H-Gun Labs with fellow students. Over the years that followed H-Gun did some 120 music videos and many TV commercials, broadcast design and live tour visuals. As a video director I directed music videos for Public Enemy, De La Soul, Ministry, The Orb, Nine Inch Nails, Megadeath, Meat Beat Manifesto to name a few.
H-Gun closed it’s doors in 2001 and I continued to Direct videos as well as work on Live tour visuals. I designed the visuals for DJ Shadow’s 2002, 2006 tours, and then in 2008 designed the visuals for the Cut Chemist & DJ Shadow “Hard Sell” tour. l also became a member of Meat Beat Manifesto in 2004 and have created tour visuals as well as performed live with them since.
Jack Dangers, (who is Meat Beat Manifesto) & I Started a record label called Tino Corp. in 1999 which has a catalogue of about 18 releases. DHS, Meat Beat and a series of breakbeat records which were produced by myself and Jack and others.
Tino Corp. also performs live as an audio visual sound system.
How did you got hooked up with Azeem?
Tino corp. (AKA Jack & Ben) were performing at an event with Azeem. Mostly I credit Ray from Oaklyn Records for getting us together for a creative video project.
What was the inspiration for the style of the video?
Monty Python, Terry Gilliam. Ren & Stimpy. Also, Azeem had told me that the song was partly about the Mission District and I felt that many interesting small shops and cool old buildings were disappearing as the Mission becomes more trendy. So it seemed like a good time to document this stuff before it vanished. In fact several storefronts have been gentrified since I photographed them.
Can you elaborate on actual process of creating it ?
We shot about a thousand digital photos and some video of Azeem on a green screen stage. Over a period of about a week I shot a bunch of pictures of the Mission Neighborhood.
In Photoshop elements of these photos were cleaned up and cut into components to be animated. All animation was done in Adobe After Effects. The lip sync was the most difficult to achieve. I had one additional animator Patrick Siemer who also helped shoot photos.
The characters are built out of still photos so they had to be constructed in a way that they could move like people. Usually the shoulders are parented to the torso, the for-arms parented to the shoulders and hands parented to the for-arms. There is a hierarchy to each character. This creates a lot of layers. Most characters have about twenty layers. With the backgrounds some scenes had hundreds of layers.
How long did it take to shoot & edit?
It took four months to animate everything. The edit was pretty much blocked out ahead of time but some parts of the story changed as I worked.
Any inspiration for a specific part you want to share?
One of my favorite storefronts is Disco Landia. Which used to sell records. I also like that we made the cops friendly, kind of taking the piss out of the old Hip Hop Cliché. These cops are enablers, holding the microphones and speakers for Azeem.
Anything you dislike with the final version?
I have to say I am real happy with this video. I want to do another one.
Any tips and tricks for those looking to do similar things?
Do story boards. This is extremely important for animation because it takes so long. You need to figure out everything ahead of time.
I hear you’re doing a re-mix - any details?
To get the lipsync right I asked for an a cappella mix of the vocals. Once I had that I started making my own mix which included sound effects. This makes it more like a cartoon than a music video. I love the original, this is just a different take on it.
When pilots and police officers or even the local mechanic saw strange lights in the sky or had encounters with what the government calls EBE’s (Extra Biological Entities or Aliens), they seldom spoke of it for fear of ridicule.
Today you can watch UFO Hunters and other related broadcasts of thousands of stories from people around the world. When you add a Speilberg movie or two in, it’s a wonder anyone wouldn’t believe that there was other intelligence somewhere “out there”.
For those few, I present proof. At the very least, a REASON for you to research the subject(s) on your own.
Music has gained a whole heap of new categories in the past 10 years. People who aren’t “in” on whatever underground thing that’s poppin’ may get a lil’ confused.
An easy question would be - whats the difference between Drum & Bass and Dub Step? Or Roots Music and Dance Hall?
When it comes to Rap and Hip Hop, there are very different opinions. Here are ten of mine regarding the difference between the two.
10. Hip Hop is creative while Rap is predictable.
From the classic song The Message by Grandmaster Flash, to what’s known as the “Golden Era”, Hip Hop music has always championed the street poet. To be recognized as a real MC meant your skills were that of a Jedi or gladiator’ king.
To survive was to out wit, out rhyme, out perform, and out shine. In an art form where the language and slang is constantly changing, MCs pushed even further and damn near created new languages. Das Efx, and the Fu Schnickens are great examples of that.
“I can take a phrase thats barely heard/ Flip it/ Now its a daily word”
He was stating the truth.
And that’s a powerful statement. Rap lyrics on the other hand never seem to push any limits. The chorus structures are made in order for 3 year olds to sing along to, but the topics are adult and usually focus on a woman’s ass, the popular brand of “Ak Aka Aka Alchohol”, ego, clothes and money.
9. The production in Rap music is better than in Hip Hop.
Kanye West is a dope producer. A real producer is someone who creates a song with a purpose. They usually have the chorus and idea of the song and only pass it to the lyricist when its ready for the final touch. They might sample a sound here and there but mostly they create from scratch and layer with live keys, horns, etc.
With the exception of a few masters like DJ Premier, most Hip Hop producers sample some shit, loop it, throw an effect on top, and hand it over to the “rapper” who has to come up with the idea, write the chorus, get the singer and the Mexican tuba player all on his own.
Production for Rap music on the other hand, is made to mimic what ever is hot at the moment like, auto tune. If you want to shoot your radio every time you hear a grown ass man whining into a box about cheap love, you’re not alone. But if that’s what sells, that’s what Rap Music is doing. And with big money involved, record labels hire “real producers” to make it.
8. The difference is, Rap sells more.
See above.
7. Rap is about bullshit like money and cars. Hip Hop is about bullshit like how good you can rhyme.
Mike Jones! Who? Mike Jooooones! I wouldn’t know a Mike Jones lyric if it fell on top of me from a Martian space ship. BUT - i know his name.
Why?
Because its simple. So are his songs.
This leads real MC’s to say- “Wat-Da Fuck?”, and start going hard with samurai-like precision about how that shit sucks and they stop writing songs with substance. Instead they get stuck in “battle mode” and write songs about writing songs. Lyrical as he is, Cannibus is a good example.
6. Rap is the way young kids do Hip Hop.
Soldier Boy. I don’t get it. But its not made for me to get. I get THAT. So I can’t judge or diss. Who knows what kind of artist Soldier Boy will become. If he has been blessed with success, maybe it’s for a reason. Maybe he’ll open a youth center, or start a label for kids or become a great producer or the mayor of where ever. The future belongs to the youth so all we can do is lead by example and know some will recognize and “Carry on Tradition.”
5. Hip Hop is a lifestyle, Rap is something to dance to.
See any KRS ONE lecture. Anything I say on this subject would only sound like him.
4. In Italy they innocently just call it “Black Music”.
I got lost in Milan once. I left the venue during sound check, noted there was a park across the street and decided it was an easy landmark to get back. After roaming aimlessly for an hour I realized there were parks everywhere. Little ones, big ones - everywhere.
When I started asking people where the venue was I realized no one spoke English - no one. So I’m stopping people in the street and going into cafe’s doing an insane sign language trying to find the place we are performing that evening. Its hard to explain how frustrated, lost and stupid I looked. After miming my question people would say- “Ohhh Black Music!” “Yes!” I would say - “Black Music! Where?”
Three hours later I saw a poster with our picture on it. I waited by it until two Africans walked by and told me how to get back to the venue. I learned that to Italians, Rap, Reggae, Hip Hop, Jazz, etc was innocently called Black Music.
And their eyes lit up like Christmas lights when they said those words. They couldn’t really tell the difference and probably didn’t see a need for one.
3. Hip Hop has messages. Rap Music has commercials.
Although Jamie Fox isn’t a rapper, R&B and Rap have been merged through production and his song Blame is the perfect example of commercialism.
Now, it may be possible that like St Ides (who actually payed rappers to promote their poison), Jamie Fox could be getting money from Patron, Hennessy, and Grey Goose - but I doubt it. Hip Hop is more likely to have you tear down the department store while rap will inspire you to shop there.
2. Hip Hop is dead. Rap is its bastard child who inherited the estate.
Nas wasn’t the only one saying Hip Hop was dead. People who have migrated to the electronic music scene have known it for years. It may not be dead, but it is being swallowed, and drowned out by the ocean of “new artists” who fall into the rap category. See example #6. This fact brings us forward to a strange conclusion. The number one difference between Rap and Hip Hop…
1. Hip Hop dosen’t get air play. Rap does.
There is a famous quote by J. Edgar Hoover who said,
“There will be no more Black Messiah’s unless we create them.”
When the uninitiated hear the name Tupac Shakur, they think of a trouble maker gangsta’ rap star. Most don’t calculate the reason Tupac turned up this way. His earlier works are filled with the philosophy and attitude of the Black Panther and Street Soldier mentality shared by his mother and step father Matula Shakur as well as his famous aunt Assata Shakur.
His songs like Trapped -
“thinking about what tha streets do to me, cause they never talk peace in tha black community
all we know is violence, do tha job in silence
walk tha city streets like a rat pack of tyrants
too many brothers daily heading for tha big penn
niggas commin’ out worse off than when they went in..”
Notice the subtle twist how “brothers” go into the penn and “niggas” come out.
Is a great example of the message Pac had in his music, until he was sent to prison. That’s when Suge Knight appeared out of nowhere to offer the million dollar bail on one condition. That was, Tupac was to deliver 8 albums worth of Hard-Core Gangsta Rap.
Now, who was really behind Suge and Interscope Records to green light Suge’s infamous deal? None other than Edgar Bronfman of the Bronfman Family- an Illuminiti business dynasty who made its money off alcohol (like the Kennedy family) during the prohibition. The Bronfman Family own’s the Seagram Co. which owns 80% of MCA
MCA owns RCA and Universal Studios. And they also own 50% of Interscope Records. These are the people who were behind Death Row Records and the posters of your favorite rapper drinking St.Ides in your local Liquor store.
It’s obvious they do not have the best interests in mind for the people. Through radio and Hollywood we are being manipulated directed and mis-educated. The fuckery on the radio serves a purpose. Its easier to control a dumb population than an intelligent one. Here is a sad yet comical example.
Have the radio stations been taken over by followers of Edward Bernays where only the base and sexual subjects are aired to manipulate and control the people?
I’m asking you.
Is there a conspiracy between the illuminati and entertainment? Rap and Hip hop? If there is, what should we as artists do about it?
Do we write about the dumb-ing down of the art form, and the people, or, do we bow our heads and do the Stanky Leg Dance like everybody else?
We Americans are too predictable. Malik Shabazz a.k.a. Malcolm X, once pointed out that in WW1, Germany and Japan were viewed by the American public as allies.
Then, using the same media in WW2 the government convinced the people they were enemies.
I know. Your first thought is -” what about Hitler”. Well, a brief glance at the history of WW2 and America’s involvement shows it had nothing to do with the Nazi’s. In Fact, not only was theeugenicsprogram started in California, Hitler was supported by the Vatican, Ford Motor Company, Wall Street, Prescott Bush, and IBM to name a few.
Lets move on.
They keep saying that a countries “confidence” is connected to its economy- right? Then they turn around and tell you how baaaad it is out there. How the unemployment rate is higher than ever. How your home is worth half the price you bought it for….Blah Blah Blah.
You know how many times I’ve heard people say:
“We’ll with the economy the way it is……”
Mafu*##% since WHEN did you study economics? People are just repeating these negative things about money when its all manipulated. If Alan Greenspan (or whom ever is his replacement) said tomorrow- “Duck Shit is worth more than Gold!”
Guess what? There would be a whole lot of duck-napping going on.
So lets stop repeating and being led like sheep to love one people and hate another. Or to have Clinton like confidence or Bush-Bama like Depression, because we are missing the point of life. I don’t know any bank owners. Do you?
It was said: When asked by an apostle how he was able to walk on water Jesus replied - “What is gold to you?”
The Apostle replied - “It is Good!”
Jesus said - “To me it is mud.”
Lets walk on water. And let Ceasar have his mud and duck shit.
Here is a video regarding the illusion of money:
And this is compilation of Famous Quotes from world leaders regarding money.
Thanks to everybody who voted. As I promised, I will buy you all fully loaded black helicopters for your support!
Speaking of Helicopters, anybody seen OBAMA fly by throwing Money and Skittles out to poor people yet? I’m just asking ’cause we were in Colorado for a while and I might have missed his pass over Oakland.
Speaking of Oakland, big UP yourselves for being THE town of 09.
Its gonna be a HOT summer so all Rebels and M.O.B.’s be SMART out here. They’re giving out quarter centuries like pancakes at a homeless shelter.
Keep the “piece” in separate pieces until its time to MAKE peace then put it all together……get it?
Speaking of Together, why does there always have to be a tragedy for us to unite?
Rodney King, 911, Oscar Grant…we need more holiday makers.
I’m a morning person. I like to think I get more done by noon than most people do by midnight. It’s not true, but I like to think it.
Anyway, part of my morning routine like most people is to check emails, myspace, and peep a few sites to see what new songs came out while I slept.
I glance over the sections on who 50cent is beefin with or what DMX did now and wonder why people care if Bobby Brown got a mohawk.
Well, Today on www.allhiphop.com I decided to click on music and saw a strange thing….
A new song by two New York legends - Jadakiss featuring Nas.
Because of Styles P and Jadakiss (pardon my language but) I fu*k’s with D.Block
“Weak ass rappers yall fuckin up the economy/
Rappers is snitches with they lieing autobiographies/ Cop’s is snithces with they lieing
auto-biographies…”
They go hard.
And Nas not only “Ethered” Jay Z ( Nas and Jay Z had a battle where Nas this song called The Ether is considered a classic)
“How can Nas be garbage?/ Semi-auto at your cartilage /
Burner at the side of your dome/ Come outta my throne- I got this”
His classic first album Illmatic cannot be lyrically matched - to this day. So, Imagine my surprise when I saw What If by Jadakiss featuring Nas.
Since my album Air Cartoons has a song also called What If, I clicked it and … well… Ummmm…
That shit sounds a lot MY shit.
Its even the SAME rhyme pattern.
So what am I saying?
I’m saying this-
1. A coincidence. Divine inspiration is what it is. Ideas float around, as artists we grab em out of the air.
2. Sometimes artists hear a lyric or chorus in passing and they forget they heard it. Then when they’re writing or freestyling it pops out and we think we said it.
3. Maybe its a subtle nod like -”Yo Azeem we like that concept. We gonna do a remake”
4. Somebody Bit My Song!
At least I know I can hang with the greats - shit, I even think like them. Or, were they thinking like me?
Yo Jada, Holla at me for the RMX.
What do you think? And who’s version is better? Listen for yourself.
“Listen, No worry where you born. You’s a Jamaican. Ya Hear?”
As a kid I never understood why my father kept telling me that. Like, no shit dad. As if I’m not about to turn into a plantain already.
Growing up, We didn’t eat Mac-Donalds, or “Ken-tucky”. It was ALWAYS rice n peas, fish, porridge, yams, dumplin…ETC. We lived in the “Hood”, played touch football in the street with the other kids, showed off new bicycles, and fought like kids do- BUT, I new we were different. Especially when the kids used to tease me with that old commercial and sing -
” Go BACK to Jam-aaaaica….!”
There were other things besides accents and food that set me and my siblings apart from other neighborhood kids. Like we were sent to a private Catholic school instead of the public one. I remember being in class one day when our teacher Sister Theon, told us that those who aren’t baptized, COULD go to heaven, but would NEVER have the pleasure of meeting God.
Knowing I had never gone through this ceremony, I raised my hand and asked - “What if a baby dies before it gets a chance to be baptized?” She said, “That baby would go to heaven but would NEVER see God.”
Her answer completely dismantled every ounce of respect I had for her or anything she had to say. I was nine years old. I didn’t know a damn thing about the universe, but I knew Bullshit when I heard it. The experience must have stuck with me because I was eventually kicked out of St. Matthias in the middle of 7th grade for being a problem.
Acting up at school or in the streets was one thing. Growing up in the 80’s in our house on Rogers Ave., it was a whole different world.
“You are to be seen and not heard!”
That was my life’s first lesson. As harsh as my fathers command may seem, it was only a law to follow when I was around adults, which seemed to be always. Being the youngest of eight in a three bedroom house in New Jersey taught me to be an observer, an actor, a psychologist, a detective and a criminal all at the same time.
The young mind is a sponge.
My mind had soaked up enough to place me somewhere between people watcher and mind reader. I knew, for example, when you were lying, or sad, where you lost your keys, where you hid your diary, pornography or drugs. I knew my sister K. was gay, I witnessed my sister Sophia’s first kiss. I learned from my brothers how to smoke and steal cigarette cartons to sell at school, to make cinnamon toothpicks and roll weed.
I learned to lie to police when they came searching for Uncle Noni. Ease dropping on the thick patois of my father and “uncles” as they spoke in low tones of crime in Jamaica, often recognizing the names from the cast of characters that came to the all night poker games in our dinning room. I would crouch at the doorway invisibly, or so I thought, until someone needed a drink filled.
“Hey Kid, fill this drink up fi mi. I want brown rum and coke, not di white one. O.kay?”
“Two fingers or three?” I would ask excitedly, referring to a system they taught me to make the proper concoction.
“Give em four Mon! He’s too lucky tonight.” “Yea, and mek sure him tip yuh too.-Ya Hear?”
“Nooooo, Mon! That’s my money him go tip the boy with!”
They would all laugh and go back to the game and side conversations about the latest news like how Nevel burned down his Round Table Bar for the insurance money. Or scam operations involving the Italian Mafia, Jamaican truck drivers and meat.
That winter, hundreds of packaged meat products were dumped behind the fence of our back yard. They sat where they landed, packed into the snow. My father had people over picking out steaks and hamburger to take home. He told me San-ta Clause brought it.
Yea right.
I talked to my pop’s the other day and we chatted about Obama. He told me its only in America that people have to be put into boxes of Black, White, Asian…etc. In Jamaica you have Indian, Chinese, Irish, but if you ask them,- “What are you?” they all tell you the same thing.
“I AM a Jam-aican! ”
Then he says, “I don’t know why I eva come to this country. Then again, if I didn’t, I probably would have neva married your mother so I guess she’s lucky….. and you too..”
We laughed.
That’s when the flash back happened and I heard him say -”No worry where you born. Your a Jamaican. Ya Hear?”
And now that I have a daughter, I get it! I realize its my duty as a father to teach her where she comes from. Without that knowledge, without tradition, culture, and respect for elders. Your Fucked.
And America will eat you alive.
So, if you have to put me into a box, don’t say Black, or Conscious Rapper. Just say he’s a Jamaican.
And like most Jamaican artists, my music has a message - Fi We NO Bow Down!
Thanks dad. Ya Hear?
“Azeem’s lyrics are highly tuned instruments that place you in a brilliant poetic underworld as if Mos Def, William Shakespeare, and Nas wrote an Album together. And asked Kool Keith to write the hooks.”
We Americans are too predictable. Malik Shabazz a.k.a. Malcolm X, once pointed out that in WW1, Germany and Japan were viewed by the American public as allies.
