“When the MC’s came to live out the name...” Gza

After the hype, the talk and the articles the MCs For Life conference was with us. Beyond just Britain; Italy, Sweden, Holland, New York, Philadelphia, South Africa, Congo and Canada were in the house. I was excited by the Canadian contingent; as a result of living there, you can call me part Canadian. People from Toronto are usually mad cool, so when I meet a Canadian I automatically roll out the red carpet. I had heard much about the singer Zaki. She was getting a lot of buzz in Toronto. We had a few mutual friends, and had crossed paths once, so I was excited to know she was added to the weekend. I bumped into her in the lobby with her Torontonian crew Tanika and L’Oqenz; I started talking to them as if I had known them for years. They must’ve thought I was a little too hype for a first meeting.



As we were leaving the hotel, a dark skinned brother with dark glasses and red coat came through the lobby. (The Lobby be the place, fe real) I asked if he was going to the conference, he said yeah, I introduced myself as Tuggs, “Hi I’m Tariq” he said, (As if I didn’t know) “Nice to meet you” I replied out loud. Inside I said “F**king Black Thought from the legendary roots crew.” 

It was one of those days you just felt, like Ice Cube says, was gonna be a good day; with the gathering of MC’s, writers, poets, programmers that featured lost names, rising stars and established MC’s, It couldn’t not be. Though with so many aspiring MC’s around, there was always the danger of inflated ego’s, but to be honest, I didn’t experience any. And even if it did exist, you weren't around long enough to discover it. I think all the artists were humbled by the presence of other great and intriguing individuals, each with their own stories to tell. For example, Saturday morning, I had breakfast with Lord Finesse, Rich Medina, and Giuseppi Seppi, a journalist from Italy. He was explaining the effect hip hop had on him. When he heard Public Enemy, he was as curious about the names he heard in their songs, so he went to the library to find out who this prophet called Farrakhan was, who this man named Huey P Newton was; it was a fantastic testimony to the transformation potential of hip hop.



MCs FOR LIFE...
As Hip hop grows into middle age, it has spawned many offspring’s, but the art of the MC still reigns; and with some Microphone Controllers, you can never really see them giving up. Black Thought is one such Master of Ceremonies. On one of his panels he said he has invested so much of himself into Mcing he can’t really afford to do anything else. The Roots perform around the world more than any other rap group and still find time to churn studio album after studio album. Their love is more than just love but its being in love with the art. You see it when Black Thought climbs on stage and turns from a quiet unassuming brother to a microphone animal. He could rhyme for days. He arrived early for a mic check, no one was really ready, instead of waiting, he asked for some music to be played and he freestyled for half an hour. Without question his tank is full with the same love the founding fathers once had of this culture. 

          

As the one time youth generation grows into mature adults, we now have middle aged and old men still rocking. It was only April that a middle aged Public Enemy were entertaining a full house at Brixton Academy. It’s a trend that will only increase as the years do, like Rolling stones and Aerosmith with rock, some rappers will indeed rock till they drop.

US vs UK
British hip hop is very much different than American hip hop. It hasn’t thrived, nor penetrated the mainstream; we’ve had glimpses, but nothing substantial. You may say we have Dizzie now, but he is no bigger than Monie Love once was. You may mention Bashy, but MCD was just as prevalent in his prime. The Problem with British hip hop is it does not grow old. MCs disappear, become irrelevant and every few years it reinvents itself without progressing. Even today, new British MCs think the American market is not aware of British rappers. That was the answer I got from current British freestyle champion Stig. I didn’t want to get into a public argument but that’s straight nonsense. It was Ice-t that signed Hijack in the late 80’s. And I’ve met few Americans that aren’t at least aware of Blak Twang, Roots Manuva and Ty. Stig was genuine in his answer, but without the knowledge being passed down we’ll continue to remain at the same point of the wheel. 

        

For example, my father was recommended a computer engineer when his computer went down earlier this year. I oversaw the repair. It took a few months and during that time I got to know the engineer pretty well. I told him I’m a journalist and an artist. He said he used to dabble in hip hop, used to go by the name of Brian B, of the Twilight Firm. His brother is DJ Devastate and they did the production for the Demon Boyz. If I didn’t know of the Demon Boyz, I would’ve thought he was just a local bedroom producer, not knowing he holds valuable chapters to the missing pages of British Hip hop history. We talked for hours; he told me that Demon D (one of the Demon Boyz rappers) couldn’t mentally deal with fame being ripped from him. He and his brother DJ Devastate reverted back to a 9-5 to pay their bills. For up and coming MC’s, these stories are just as valuable as success stories. The reality is not every MC is gonna make it, the question is what to do when we are at the crossroads. That’s why it was a good sight to see Million Dan aka Mike J, the other half of Demon Boyz present at the conference. I sat with him on the panel, along side John Kieffer, Ursula Rucker and Lord Finesse discussing routes that an MC can take. I think this is arguably the most important conversation an MC can have. The older members of the hip hop generation have no role models to inform them of how they can apply their MC skills to anything other than what they do. But many people are trail blazing different genres. People like Fallacy are now into event management, Jonzi D is a producer. Those who are able to penetrate different industries must infect their hip hop experience like a virus, so when Bashy gets too old to spit, his skills can be transferred and he can be mentored by someone who knows his culture.



Hip hop is more than just making music. Arguably it’s those hip hop personnel that don’t make music that will help the art form progress. You can hardly call Russell Simmons an artist, but his impact in the art was more significant because he didn’t rap. I feel hip hop in Britain is so isolated we don’t have allies. We beg people in positions of power for favours. This was highlighted in the most interesting panel in Manchester, where MTV base founder Lindsay Walker went to war against British Hip hop videos. For those that think there is a big team of researchers that debate the merits of a video. Walker broke the myth. He said the commissioning process is that he watches the videos, and if he likes it, it’s in, if he doesn’t its not. His biggest advice to MC’s was for them to listen to the likes of Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey and Farrakhan and their appreciation of oratory and the spoken word. (Trust me, he actually said it.) He was adamant that the reason British hip hop videos do not frequent MTV base is because they are not good. DRS of Broken English put his arms in the air and said “That’s bullsh**t” to which the Canadian contingent even said amen. 

          

Nonetheless, come the evening I was the host of the spoken word event. And again I have to big up Punch, they didn’t just disrespect spoken word and put us in a small little corner for a few people. But they programmed it so we went on before hip hop, so people won’t be torn about whether to see Tuggs.t.a.r or Black Thought, as he travelled too far to have no one watch him. 

I decided to do a little open mic. How could I not let Rich Blk get a chance to spit or refuse Jonzi’s request to get on the mic. He can be critical of poetry, but he said it was dope and he couldn’t leave. And it was. Omekongo wrecked it, I gave Zaki a hype introduction and she lived up to every sentence, I predict big things for that sister and her female team, Tanika and DJ L’Oqenz. Can’t remember the last time I saw a female DJ as part of an act. Maybe I’ve just been at too many spoken word jams. Ursula without the band was just as hypnotic, perhaps even better with the intimacy of a spoken word audience. (Though it was noticeable on both days that the contingent seem to have more respect for poetry than the British MC's. For especially in Manchester the Americans were a noteable presence in the spoken word hall. The British MC's however, were a noticeable absentee.) At the end of Saturday spoken word jam we all made our way over to the hip hop stage. We got home late, ready to awake in a few hours for our coach trip to Manchester.