Introducing Atlas Greene, a 19-year-old-newcomer whose debut mixtape, Sweaters and Cigarettes, impressed us with its homemade beats and well-developed lyrical content. The project is a must-listen for anyone craving a  unique style of  “Indie-Trap-Wave” influenced by lyricists like Aesop Rock and Atmosphere. While this young blood says he’s still learning the game, Sweaters and Cigarettes proves that he’s already putting in the time to master his craft at an early age. Check out our exclusive interview where Atlas drops the details on the making of his first mixtape and his plans to put Hip Hop on his back.

RESPECT.: I see on your Soundcloud you’re from Orlando-Miami- Atlanta. What’s up with that?

Greene: My Soundcloud doesn’t just represent me; it represents all of  Tape Deck Music. Tape Deck Era co-produced most of my album. He lives in Orlando, I’m in Atlanta, and a lot of our label mates are in Orlando.

How would you describe your sound in a couple of words?

Lately we’ve been calling it Indie-Trap-Wave, ’cause it’s got trap elements but we use indie samples and different sounds to try to differentiate ourselves from a lot of other artists.

How long have you been pursuing rap as your career?

I’ve really been rapping seriously for about two years. This album was my first serious project.

When did you first learn how to mix music?

Still learning today. Like today we just studied a bunch of different techniques and stuff with my buddy Clint and my buddy John.

What kind of music production software do you use?

I use Mixcraft 5.2 –  it’s a really old version of the software.

How  long does it usually take you to make a beat?

It depends; sometimes we get things done in thirty minutes.  Other times we need multiple days.

How do you know when a song or a beat is finally done?

Well it’s never actually done until we get the final mixes, because all through the process the beat can change constantly. Even after I rap on it we may add something in there, or take something out, or change a sample, or add in different parts to the song.

What other producers have you been working with lately?

Clint Ford and John Adams from The Hit Academy. Those are my main two collaborations that I’ve been working wit, as well as Tape Deck Era and Tape Deck Music. Clint and John go to school with me, so I met John through Clint and Clint was in my music class. We were in a classical music class together last semester.

Have you made beats for anyone else?

I’ve made beats for my label mate Goose, and I’ll be producing on his new project.

How did you first get into rapping specifically?

I always just freestyled. At lunch I would freestyle with my friends, just as a joke. Then it got more serious and my friend Vonte, whose actually on the album, we did a little mix tape. We just got some beats online, went to this producers house, and in one hour we made four songs. We released it to my school.

How was your school feeling it?

It was well received. We were selling them for a dollar and we got $33 (laughs).

This was in high school?

That was 9th grade.

What are you biggest inspirations as a rapper?

Aesop Rock, most people confuse him with A$AP Rocky, but whatever. I really like his music and his production. Other influences? I listen to a lot of Grizzly Bear and old rappers like Pete Rock, CL Smooth. Just a lot of Golden Era like Big Daddy Kane.

What are your inspirations as a beat maker?

Not a lot of Hip Hop these days. Again, a lot of Grizzly Bear, but also Prince and a lot of soul music.

What there ever a song or a project you heard where you were like, “Damn I want to make music like this”?

Labor Day by Aesop Rock.

What’s the first C.D or tape you ever bought?

It was this 90’s hip hop party mix I got from Boarders when Boarders was still open. It was the 100 greatest hip hop songs for house parties.

Did you burn through it?

Yea I listened to it a lot. It had LL Cool J, Heavy D, Big Daddy Kane, and all the greats.

What’s up with your name?

I was studying mythology and Atlas is the Titan that Zeus cursed to hold the planet on his back. I took that and ran with it. I want to put my family on my back, so I took Atlas and my family name, Greene, and put it together.

So is Atlas Greene really who you are, or is that more your alter ego?

Kind of because outside of hip hop I don’t really do much. I don’t have hip hop activities, so it’s kind of a persona.

Sweaters and Cigarettes is your first serious project, but what was your first tape before S&C?

The first solo tape I ever before Sweaters and  Cigarettes was  called The Greene Room.  It didn’t do well numbers wise, but I thought of it as a personal success. It was an  actually mixtape, another instance of where I got a bunch of beats that  I was enjoying at the time and wrote raps, and rapped over it. Structurally it was just a bunch of songs and I would write two minute versus to them, and just rap those two minute versus. No chorus, straight boom-bap style rapping.

Can people still find it online?

Yeah it’s on Datpiff. That was the only place that would accept it at the time.

How does Sweaters and Cigarettes compare to The Greene Room?

Its just so much better production-wise. I’m just so much more proud of it. It’s more of a stand out project because we did everything that’s on there. We made the beats, recorded it in my dorm room, mixing out of pocket, and all of that. I’m just really proud of it as a project.

How did you get that title?

Well that was a process, too. We started out with a different name and it graduated to Sweaters and Cigarettes because the concept changed throughout the course. Initially, it was going to be called  ARTIFICIAL, but it didn’t really fit anymore by the time we were done. Then we looked at it and we were like, “this is basically a coming of age story,” so we took the two things I really enjoy. I enjoy sweaters a lot. Like, I’m all about sweaters.

In Atlanta?

Yeah people are always like, “Aren’t you hot?!”  I tell them that these sweaters are my life. But yeah, I’m all about sweaters, and I was chain smoking cigarettes throughout the course of my first semester, more than I had during the summer. So the album title is a metaphor for going from something comfortable to the real world where it’s cold and harsh. Like going form the comfort of sweaters and home and things that remind me of comfort, to going into the real world and experiencing life with cigarettes and drugs and whatever.

What kind of cigs do you smoke?

Paul Maul 100 menthols.

What do you think Sweaters and Cigarettes bring to the table?

I think it’s a good spin on several popular genres of music. The different types of sample we used and the way that we sample definitely stands out.

How long did the project take you to make?

That’s an interesting question. We started making it in September. But we didn’t really have full album until late January early February. We did most of the album from January 1st to February, yeah that’s when most of the album got done.

Its clear on the tape that you’re a heavy lyricist, a “conscious rapper” so to speak. Do you feel any type of way about being called a “conscious rapper”?

When I  say that I’m conscious, I mean that I’m more in tune with my spiritual side. Before I came to college I used to meditate frequently, read books about my culture, and when I cam here that kind f fell by the waist side in exchange for going to kickbacks and smoking and partying.

My two favorite songs on the album are “Anti-Calm” and “Rellos.” I particularly like the beats on both of those songs. Correct me if I’m wrong, but on “Anti-Calm” you’re just talking to yourself right?

That was one of the songs that I did first in January. I had received a phone call and the label was basically saying they didn’t like the direction the project was going in. So that songs was kind of a soliloquy. I was talking to myself like, “What happened? You used to be all about rap music and you swore you were going places, and that you were going to be the greatest ever and now you’ve fallen off.” It was almost like a reminder to myself, me attacking myself to kick it into gear and get ready.

What’s the sample on Rellos?

Saltkin by Purity Ring. Tape Deck Era made that beat.

Describe what kind of mindset you were in while making that song.

My mindset was exactly how the song sounds. It kind of describes my day, what we used t do here. I’d wake up after having fallen on my friends couch in her dorm room in the morning, and then we’d just go through the day. Go to class and whatever, and in the evenings we didn’t have any money to do anything, so my friend at the time had a car, and we’d just sit in it, go to the gas station, and just smoke black and milds and listen to Kendrick Lamar and A$AP Ferg. We’d just turn up, but we weren’t really celebrating anything, it was just that this is what we expected from college, so even if we don’t have any money to do anything exciting, we’re just gonna chill anyway and kick it.

What college are you at?

I’m at Gwinnet College. I’m doing good so far. Right now my major is biology, but I’m not sure if I want to keep it there.

Are you pre-med?

I was. Well, currently I am.

What kind of doctor do you want to be?

I was looking to be a psychiatrist honestly. So I was going to have to do more work after medical school. I’m thinking about changing it.

So Ian Greene is your real name. Who is Ian Joseph?

Joseph is my middle name, and so whenever my family calls me, I’ll answer, and they’ll be like, “Hey Ian Joseph.” They call me by my first and my middle name.

How is your family reacting to your music career?

They’re proud tat I’m doing it, and  that I’m following my dream. My mom just listens to the album.  She said she laughed, she got excited, and her eyes watered when I talked about not having money and stuff. She said she rode the emotional roller coaster with me the whole time.

How did the breakdown in that song end up working out?

It went over well. I got over it. It’s the same thing as Bum Loosey, an in-the-moment thing. When I wrote it I felt like I was struggling, but when I step back I realize I’m not doing so bad.

What’s the sample at the end of “Grambling”?

That’s Cornell West talking. He’s giving a lecture about life and virtue and who you’re going to be as a person. Then we end it with, “The rule of big money” which is that everything is for sale – everybody is for sale, ’cause that’s how life kind of works. I hope that doesn’t become me though.

According to Bum Loosey, you were religious for at least one part of your life, right?

Yeah that goes back to the whole conscious thing  I was telling you about earlier. Also, I was raised Christian, but I kind of strayed from that. You know sometimes you just think about it like, “Damn I should have gone to church today,” or “this isn’t right, I shouldn’t be smoking this and drinking this.” But that’s all a part of life.

Are you going to be gong to church on Easter/420 weekend?

I don’t know. I’m not gonna be home, so I don’t think I’ll be going to church since I don’t have a church out here.

Is your school really rural?

It’s kind of a ways from a metropolitan area. We’re like 40 minutes out from Atlanta.

Was that school your first choice? Did you always know you wanted to go to college?

It was one of those things where you just get in where you fit it, or where the most money is coming in from. I didn’t have any student loans at the time. My first semester here I was full ride, so it was free completely.

The Higher Learning sample on “Paradox” is great. How did you go about getting that on track?

It was relatable at the time. It was one of those things, like “I can relate to this,” so it just fit in with the vibe of the song.

What’s your favorite movie in general?

Akita, its an anime movie. The animation style, it was made a while back, but the animation still holds up today. And I like he whole concept behind it.

Are you really into anime?

I’m not quite fanboy status, but yeah I am into anime.

What’s your favorite anime?

This year I got really into Welcome to the NHK.

What’s your favorite piece on the tape?

Paradox. Everything came together in a way that just resonated with me. We were going to kick backs and things like that, and i would get really uncomfortable and start getting paranoid. My girlfriend would just be like “calm down just chill out,” so it was the most relatable at the time. I recorded it on a night when I was really feeling like that, so its just my favorite song.

So you seem to be a really in-the-moment kind of recording artist. Is that pretty much how your creative process goes?

It pretty much all about the feeling.

What’s your studio situation like?

I have a microphone and an inbox in my room. That’s it. Its just out in the open, so if you listen to the audio on the tape by itself you can hear my fan in the background and people coughing and stuff. That’s the beauty of mastering.

Are you thinking about touring?

I might do some touring this summer on a small scale.

Are you thinking about doing any videos?

Yeah, we’re thinking about doing a video for Rellos  and maybe something for Grambling.

What’s your favorite project so far in 2014?

It doesn’t count because it wasn’t in 2014, but my favorite project of the last year was the Childish Gambino album, Because the Internet.

So according to twitter your porn star name would be Flash Flood. How’s that career coming?

(Laughs) Definitely no time soon!

The post Interview: Atlas Greene On Sweaters & Cigarettes and Producing For Himself appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Michigan, as a region, has been the breeding  ground for some of the most vital figures in hip-hop.  Many of these producers and emcees from the Wolverine State have actually turned to music just to speak out against the many adversities that Michigan faces.  And others, like producer and rapper Kendall Tucker, better known by his alias, 14KT, turned to music because of faith.

KT, who calls Ann Arbor his home, got his start making music as part of the 90’s collective, The Athletic Mic League.  Also, his roots with music came in the church where he grew up in the church choir.  While in church, 14KT learned the fundamentals of music.  Following the release of his new single “Crown” featuring MED and Black Milk, later this month, he will be releasing his album Nickel & Dimed, which is an ode to his spiritual background in a sense.  RESPECT. got the chance to speak with the producer about his upcoming release, his faith, and what exactly is Errol Flynn, among other things.

*********************************

RESPECT: I know you were apart of the Athletic Mic League with Mayer Hawthorne.  So since his album just came out, what do you feel about his new album?

14KT: Aw man, I think its dope.  I think it’s really, really dope.  What I told him when I first heard it was that when he was apart of the Athletic Mic League he was DJ Haircut and what I loved about his new album is I heard a lot of DJ Haircut.  It was kind of like he put every single element of what he does or what’s apart of him into the album. Whether he played instruments, whether he produced, whether he sings, whether he puts scratches, or he made beat breaks, all of that stuff is on the album so I thought that was really dope that he incorporated everything that makes him who he is.

Aren’t you guys working on something together?

 Me and him, we’ve been working side by side since like the mid-90’s so we’re always working on something. We’re always working on something.  We’re definitely working on something.

I’ve heard some of your new album Nickel & Dimed already and what I like about it is that it sounds like you, but it doesn’t sound so much like you that everything stays the same.  You have West Coast Elements, there’s Detroit Elements. When you were creating this project,  how did you find the creativity?

 That’s great.  Thanks for that man.  That’s perfect because one of the goals when I was making it was to make every track sound different from the other one.  That was the only thing that I wanted to do.  Of course, there are some tracks that sound like me but, I picked tracks that when you listen to each of them, they all sound unique in their own way. There’s something about it that doesn’t sound like the last one or anything else that is on the album.  I tried to make sure that each one had some unique thing in it that was different. When you listen back to all of it, I think I captured that pretty well.

What was the concept behind the way the album was formatted?

The album is 15 tracks… The first song is a song that I rhyme on and then there are 14 instrumentals afterwards.  I formatted it that way because I had something to say.  I wanted to rap on the first track and I wanted it to be the first thing you heard before I gave you the instrumental album. The vocal verses at the end, I was working on the vocal verses at first, and they weren’t supposed to be apart of the album but they ended up sounding super dope that I was like they’ve got to be on here.  It’s pretty much kind of like an EP of vocals. I ended up putting the EP as part of the album, so you get all the instrumentals and vocal verses on one album.

Oh okay.  Also, with the first track where you’re rapping, it goes with the title of the album.  Like when I thought of Nickel & Dimed I thought of the cliché like how people try to squeeze so much out of you – is that what was your idea with the title?

The one thing that I usually do with my projects, I did a bad job when I was younger of keeping a journal or diary, so when I make projects, I always put the name or something in the project that tells me kind of puts the moment in time of how I’m feeling and being nickel and dimed was the theme of the time while I was working.  I was a little frustrated and kind of felt like I doing a lot of work and just frustrated that things weren’t really working out the way I wanted things to work out. When I thought of the theme, it could be taken in two ways.  For me, it could be something or somebody that’s really cheap or trying to be really cheap.  Or, it could be somebody that’s trying to be expensive and pull everything. When you’re an artist, you go through a lot of that especially when you’re an independent artist.  You go through a lot of people always wanting free music from your or not trying to pay and you end up working harder for not that much in return.  You also get people that will treat your music or you or your worth a little cheap always trying not to pay as much or do as much to get more.  It’s kind of like if you go to a clothing store and you try to find the flyest stuff but you don’t try to pay a lot of money for it.  Granted, it’s not about the money, but it’s really about worth and seeing the worth of certain things and seeing the worth of people and seeing worth in a person’s art or an artist seeing the worth in their art.  Not really nickeling and diming their art just for the industry or what you have to do or what you feel you have to do to make it as an artist. That’s pretty much where I got the theme.

You said that you’re not necessarily doing music for money; what do you do it for?  What’s your motivation?

In the album I wrote a line that said, “The spirit told me peep it, keep your eyes on the greater purpose, go to use your craft to show the weight of what your worth is,” and there’s a deeper meaning to it.  I’m a Christian, that’s my faith.  My relationship with God is number one.  When I was working on this album, I didn’t have a name for it and at the time was I was fasting and that’s when the theme nickel and dime came about.  It actually came from a book in the Bible, Ecclesiastes.  Solomon who was one of the wisest men in the bible writes it and he said it kind of sarcastically, what is the point of working hard if you’re going to leave all your hard work to a generation of people that are not going to appreciate it later in life.  I thought that was pretty deep because the main thing he was saying is there is no point in working hard if you don’t have a purpose or you’re not working in your purpose that God intended you to work with.  You could end up working hard on a lot of things and spending a lot of time on things, but if you’re not supposed to do it, you could just waste your time away.  I know that I’m supposed to be doing music and I’m supposed to be inspiring people.

You have a deep faith and spiritual understanding.  Where does this come from?

I grew up singing in the choir, that was my first impression of music like creating or being apart of it.  I was one of the kids where you had to go to church with your mom and dad and you had no choice.  They kind of forced you into the choir because you looked cute and they wanted to see you sing and stuff like that.  You may not feel like going to church and you may not feel like doing certain things but your parents make you. That’s kind of how I was at first.   My turning point was around the time I really fell in love with music it was with hip-hop.  I was always listening to music but hip-hop music I could really connect with. It was around like maybe 92’ or 93’ when all these crazy albums were coming out at the same time like: Pete Rock, CL Smooth, Wu-Tang Clan, Souls of Mischief, A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Biggie, Pac.  I was like yo, I want to be apart of this, this is amazing and I really got into creating. Also, around that time, in 96’ I was growing more in my faith and I got baptized right when I was 15. That was around the same time I was really heavy into Hip-Hop music and I wrote a song about this on Athletic Mic League’s first album (here). It was about when my mom asked me if I felt different after I got baptized and I was like no, not really.  I got baptized in water, but it just didn’t feel like I have changed. After that happened, that’s when different things would start happening and I realized I have to make more faith-based decisions in terms of how I felt or what I thought was right like in my own mind.  When you start making decisions you end up going places you’ve never thought of going because you’re make a decision for you but it’s just a different type of decision.

Where have your faith-based decisions led you in terms of music?

I started doing music when I was in high school, and when I graduated from high school I ended up going to college at FAMU in Tallahassee, Florida.  I wanted to get away from Michigan and go to a Black college and be different and while I was there; I was still working on music but I was being a student.  But, something led me into thinking, “You need to do music.”  I dropped out of college after my first year and I moved to New Jersey because New York was the place to be in the 90’s.  I was going against everything.  I was going against school.  I was going against my parents – they were pissed off, like super pissed at me for doing it like your son tells you they’re going to drop out of college to go rap and go to move to New Jersey. It was like what are you going to, where are you going to work at, what are you going to do with your life, it just didn’t make any sense.  But like I said, when you make faith-based decisions, they don’t make sense all the time.  I did it. I learned a lot but it didn’t work out how I envisioned.  I ended up coming back to Michigan, and I started to get deeper into my faith.  I went back to college.  It took me a long time to get out but, in 2006 I finally graduated from college so yay.

Yay!

When I graduated, I was like alright, and what am I going to do with my life.  I had never fasted before in my life and around that my church did a church fast where everyone in the church fasted at the same time.  It was a 40-day fast.  Usually, for a fast you fast from food or something like that.  For my church they would teach that fasting is really the act of denying yourself or self-denial so you can spend more time with God.  It could be anything that you deny yourself from – it doesn’t have to be food. I was like word, okay, what am I going to do.  I prayed about it and God told me you should fast from music. I was like what, how do you fast from music? God told me if you really want to do music, give it up for 40 days and I’ll show you how important what you’re about to do is.  So, I said I don’t even know how to do that but okay I’ll do it – it shouldn’t be hard.  But man, that was the hardest fast I’ve ever done in my life and I couldn’t explain it to anybody because no one fasts from music.  It doesn’t make sense but faith-based decisions don’t always make sense.  I did it and I figured out through the 40 days how important music is to our lives even if we don’t see it.

Music is everywhere. Music is in movies, you can’t go to a movie without hearing it. You can’t go to the grocery store. You can’t go to the mall. You can’t go to the club. You can’t have a conversation with friends about music. You can’t drive in your car with the radio on like it’s so much that music is entailed with and I didn’t notice it until I couldn’t listen to it.  That let me know if I create music, you never know how it is going to affect somebody or touch somebody.  In many ways, it gets into your subconscious because it’s everywhere.  I just realized the importance of it and God was like all right if you get into music you have to realize how important what you’re doing is and how it affects people.  And during that time I couldn’t work on music and I was getting all these calls and crazy calls about you have to send a track to so and so I’m in the studio, with Dr. Dre, and he needs beats I was getting that.  And I couldn’t do anything about it; it was just crazy.  That stuff would have probably happened if I didn’t fast and ever since then, every year I fast.  And something crazy happens.  That’s how I know it’s real because it happens that way, and that’s one of the reasons I started to take music full time because after that fast I realized that’s what I’m going to do and realized how important it is.

That’s really tight.  I knew that you had a sense of faith about you just never knew to what level.  Going back to your new LP, do you have a favorite song on the album?

I would probably say some of the vocal verses are my favorite because I got to work with a lot of artists that I really always wanted to work with and never got a chance. I reached out and they made it happen so I though that was really great.  My favorite moments are probably all the vocal versions on the album.  I got to work with Blu and me and Blu been talking about working for years.  I hit him up and he just made it happen and I thought that was amazing to me.  It just seemed like a lot of that started to happen even with Black Milk.  I got to a track with the legendary Kokane from all of the Snoop Dogg joints.  I just reached out and people came through.  That was my favorite part that I got to work with all these artists on the album.

What about the track “West Coast Errol Flynnin’ ?” How important is Errol Flynn to Michigan? I know it’s a gang and an actor.

Being from Michigan way back in the day there was a gang called The Errol Flynn Gang and they ended up using a dance.  There was a dance that the gang used to use when they went to parties to let you know they were in the gang.  They would do this dance with their hands – there’s a dance called the Errol Flynn that people from Detroit do. If you ever hear something from Detroit, you do the dance.  We’ve kind of adapted it as our own thing. The name came from the actor, I have no idea why they called it that or used that guy’s name—that’s the weird part I never figured out.  I called it West Coast Errol Flynn because when I was in California, they put their fingers up for the W.  It was a lot of Michigan and Cali people in the same place and I think they played some Dilla or something from Michigan and we started Errol Flynning and they started throwing up their W’s.  We both started combining it and throwing them up at the same time and when I made that song, it always reminded me of that moment.  I was like I wanted to make music for that moment.

Speaking of which, you lived in California.  I know a lot of people from Michigan either move to LA or Chicago when they leave.  Why do you think that is?

You know it’s really ironic because I go back and forth there and I’ll probably end up there for some point of time.  But I don’t know man. Chicago is not that far from Michigan but its far enough to get away to feel like you’re somewhere else and it’s a great city.  If you wanted to be close to home because your friends and family are here and you don’t want to live too far, but you want to try to do a bigger city.  Chicago is a closer city that we all like to go to that is not very far from home.  I think that’s a reason why.  A lot of my friends live in Chicago and a lot live in Cali but most of them are artists so if you do an art, whether you’re a photographer, most of the time there’s just a lot of opportunity out in California. You’d think it’d be crazy because there are so many people that live there but going there myself there’s always something going on.  There’s always some kind of showcase, there’s always just people that you randomly meet, there’s always shows going on.  Anything that you can attend to be apart of and you can just meet people and network it’s a really great place for that.  Of course the weather is awesome, it’s totally the opposite of how it is in Michigan, but it’s just so many like if you were thinking about the perfect place to move if you’re leaving Michigan, Cali is the perfect place – it’s always that perfect place.

14KT’s new album Nickel & Dimed, is out on August 27 but you can pre-order it now here.  Also, check out his new single “Crown” featuring Black Milk and MED here. 

The post Interview: Producer 14KT Talks New Album, Faith, Los Angeles and Errol Flynn appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Phoniks is a producer from Portland who recently dropped a nostalgic album of remixed 90’s hip hop tracks called Basement Vibes. All of the gems that made the cut were already equipped with some of the best production of the 90’s, but Phoniks skillfully remasters them with in a way that is nothing short of flavorful and impressive. What could be better than a collected of classics with a dash of soul, jazzy horns, smooth saxophones, deep bass lines, and fresh samples? In truth, it’s hard to imagine how Phoniks was even capable remaking rap classics in a way that wasn’t corny or untasteful, but as you will hear, the new sounds on Basement Vibes are very welcomed.

01. mathematics – mos def (phoniks remix)

02. communism – common (phoniks remix)

03. these eyes – jay-z (phoniks remix)

04. take you there – pete rock & cl smooth (phoniks remix)

05. c.r.e.a.m – wu tang clan (phoniks remix)

06. fast life – nas & kool g. rap (phoniks remix)

07. kick in the door – biggie smalls (phoniks remix)

08. the world is yours – nas (phoniks remix 2)

The post New Mixtape: Phoniks “Basement Vibes” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Pete Rock’s DJing set, which included timeless hits by A Tribe Called Quest and Mobb Deep, suddenly came to halt. Once in a while, technical issues can mire a live performance. Faulty microphones or speakers blowing out are just some of the difficulties that can cause a lull in the show.  Last Thursday night at Hip-Hop History Live, it was the turntables. So while Pete Rock fiddled with the cords to restore any type of sound, owner Marcus Linial of the Canal Room appeared on stage to speak about the significance of bringing together historical MCs.

Younger and older admirers gathered to the Canal Room, which all appreciated the nightclub’s milestone of reaching eight years since its renovation. From the music mecca Shine to the Canal Room, it has become one of Manhattan’s go-to destinations for a sensory overload of music and a lively scene. Performers, Nice & Smooth, Brand Nubian and Pete Rock & CL Smooth, headlined the night and are considered some of hip-hop’s most revered artists.

(Brand Nubian – From Left to Right: DJ Alamo, Sadat X, Lord Jamar & Grand Puba)

These were the guys that helped birth the lifestyle and feel of early ‘90s hip-hop and they had the rhymes to back it up. Just listening to every verse, their legacies carried through samples and borrowed lyrics in later songs, showed they have influenced many. In celebration of the Canal Room’s achievement, they were bringing the flavor of 1990 that can heat up any winter night.

Nice & Smooth, consisting of Greg Nice and Smooth B, took the stage first and performed a longer set than planned. Nice joked that they were scheduled to perform for 20 minutes. Of course, they provided enough material that kept the crowd mesmerized with their funky rhymes. “Me and Smooth come from the era of MCs.” Nice yelled, as he hopped into the crowd. “We ain’t rappers, rappers wrap gifts.”

The duo weren’t just MCs, they were veterans. Nice & Smooth opened with “How To Flow” and brought along backup dancers to show off some throwback dance moves.  “No Delayin’” displayed the dynamic of these two, feeding off the atmosphere of the room by emphasizing every punchline with powerful back vocals.

After Nice danced with a few fans in the audience, he maneuvered his way to the VIP section. To watch two performers continue on with their set, even at opposite ends, proved that they weren’t just your run-of-the-mill rappers. First and foremost, they were entertainers, often lighting up the mood with humorous comments about beepers returning from the grave, reminiscing about their blunt smoking habits and using the profit from this show to “pay a light bill.” (Good one, Nice.) Their performance was a showcase of how classic artists keep playing their music to replenish the soul.

(For an old school refresher check out T.R.O.Y. by Pete Rock & CL Smooth)

Brand Nubian, the group made up of Sadat X, Grand Puba and Lord Jamar, were next to perform. Shouts of “It’s who?  Brand Nubian!” by Sadat X, continued the back and forth connection between the crowd. Known for their politically-charged content, the group gathered some of their greatest hits to perform. “The Return,” “What’s The 411?” “Love Me or Leave Me Alone” and “360 Degrees” amped up the energy for the whole night. Together with Pete Rock  and a whole crew behind them sharing the spotlight (and a couple of drinks), Brand Nubian made it known that they were leaders of the old school just having some fun.

Maybe it was the fact that both Nice & Smooth and Brand Nubian performed longer playlists, but Pete Rock & CL Smooth did a very tight six-song set. Either way, the duo from Mt. Vernon further illustrated why they were a part of hip-hop’s rich history. CL wore a menacing scowl nearly every time he laid down some bars, while Pete Rock encouraged him with his signature ad-libs. The duo jumped into  “The Creator” and “One In A Million.”  There wasn’t one person in the room that didn’t know the lyrics, as indicated by CL pointing the mic to the crowd.

(CL Smooth performs T.R.O.Y.)

When CL serenaded the female fans with “Its A Love Thing,” it set off a string of shrills.  Although, he knew what everybody wanted to hear them perform, the single that has been covered many times,“They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y).” Paying respects to fallen troops, Pete Rock was all smiles as he paused for a minute before playing the familiar saxophone and bass sample. CL let the crowd recall the song’s acknowledgment of family members and lost ones before retaking over his MC duties.

Even if you wanted to compare these legends with today’s up-and-coming artists, the answer is probably the same. There are old school purists that will tell you that this type of hip-hop trumps anything. Others will say the newer generation is leading the hip-hop game and taking it to another level. But Hip-Hop History Live tells us this: Its MCs like Nice & Smooth, Brand Nubian and Pete Rock & CL Smooth that are passing the torch to the younger generation. Call old school real hip-hop or call new school the next wave. But on this night, these guys were the ones that created history.

(Peace, Beats and Respect from the Legendary Pete Rock)

Photography by Far Fetched Future. Catch more flicks from the night here.

The post Concert Review: Hip-Hop History Live at Canal Room appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.