Off the Radar
North Hollywood, CA
Tommy Boy
February 2007
Statistically, growing up in a single parent home doesn’t bode well for the child. But for Bennett “Laze” and Justin “Royal City” Talmadge Armstrong, two 16-year old twin brothers who also double as the West Coast group 2XL, it was their mother’s heroics that pushed them to beat the odds stacked against them.
“When we were younger,” Royal says, “we were like, ‘Ma, can you get us a microphone?’ She bought us a cheap 40-dollar mic, but we couldn’t even use it that month because we didn’t have electricity. Instead of paying for the bill, she bought us the microphone.
It was faith such as this, though, that actually makes the release of the brothers’ debut album, Neighborhood Rapstar, bittersweet, as their biggest fan, who at press time, currently lies in a hospital bed paralyzed from her third bout with terminal cancer. “She was never the kind of mom who would follow you into the studio,” Laze says. “Everything that’s happening now is because of her.”
And everything that’s happening now is pretty big. Signed by Tommy Boy Records (Coolio, Naughty By Nature), and with a hit single, the party friendly, “Kissing Game,” the two brothers have a fan base that is growing,
But whether their success lasts down the line is still unknown. What is known, though, is that they won’t give up, no matter how high the odds are against them. They are their mother’s son, after all.
Showing posts with label The Source Magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Source Magazine. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Wade Waters
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Off the Radar
Wandering Soul Records
Columbia, MD
January 2007
Wade Waters had a lofty goal in mind when they decided to revitalize old school Hip-Hop with their debut album, Dark Water. So lofty, in fact, that they called upon some of rap’s greatest raconteurs as their inspiration. “When we made the album, we looked at it like, “What if Nas and AZ made an album together?” says Jason “Haysoos” Nickels, who, with his partner, Ashley “SoulStice” Llorens, decided that if they were going to do this project together, they might as well channel the best in the business.
But if you think this sounds overwhelming, you should hear what they do at their day jobs. “I’m an electrical engineer for the military,” SoulStice says. Haysoos’ job isn’t too shabby either—he teaches African-American studies at the University of Maryland. “Being a teacher, I find that I can actually incorporate rap into my lectures,” he says.
Heady stuff, but if the notion of a rapping electrical engineer and teacher conjures up images of pocket protectors and braces, then you don’t know Wade Waters. “We don’t want to say we’re not street, because you tend to alienate the audience when you say that,” SoulStice says. “But when you think about it, the opposite of conscious is unconscious, and we’re definitely not that either.”
While Nas and AZ never did make an album together, Haysoos and SoulStice are doing their best to come as close as possible to that dream collaboration.
Wandering Soul Records
Columbia, MD
January 2007
Wade Waters had a lofty goal in mind when they decided to revitalize old school Hip-Hop with their debut album, Dark Water. So lofty, in fact, that they called upon some of rap’s greatest raconteurs as their inspiration. “When we made the album, we looked at it like, “What if Nas and AZ made an album together?” says Jason “Haysoos” Nickels, who, with his partner, Ashley “SoulStice” Llorens, decided that if they were going to do this project together, they might as well channel the best in the business.
But if you think this sounds overwhelming, you should hear what they do at their day jobs. “I’m an electrical engineer for the military,” SoulStice says. Haysoos’ job isn’t too shabby either—he teaches African-American studies at the University of Maryland. “Being a teacher, I find that I can actually incorporate rap into my lectures,” he says.
Heady stuff, but if the notion of a rapping electrical engineer and teacher conjures up images of pocket protectors and braces, then you don’t know Wade Waters. “We don’t want to say we’re not street, because you tend to alienate the audience when you say that,” SoulStice says. “But when you think about it, the opposite of conscious is unconscious, and we’re definitely not that either.”
While Nas and AZ never did make an album together, Haysoos and SoulStice are doing their best to come as close as possible to that dream collaboration.
***
DJ Shadow
Critical Beatdown
December 2006
Josh “DJ Shadow” Davis has always had music in his life—and even a little before that. “Four hours before I was born, I was at a Tower of Power concert with my mom and dad,” he says. It’s this closeness to music that has made DJ Shadow world renowned for his ability to take obscure melodies and mix them into masterpieces.
With trendsetting albums like Entroducing and The Private Press made completely out of samples, everybody thought they had DJ Shadow figured out. That is, until he released his latest album, The Outsider, a kaleidoscope of sounds featuring everything from Hyphy to Hard Rock.
And with the album’s single “3 Freaks,” a dance-friendly track, getting played on the radio, some fans have cried foul, claiming DJ Shadow has changed.
“People get comfortable when they think they have you pegged,” Shadow says. “Hyphy is something people in the Bay Area feel passionately about, and when I made [the album], I was channeling all the heroes of the movement, just as I was channeling all the heroes of the early Hip-Hop movement when I made Entroducing.” With a mindset like that, maybe change isn’t so bad after all.
December 2006
Josh “DJ Shadow” Davis has always had music in his life—and even a little before that. “Four hours before I was born, I was at a Tower of Power concert with my mom and dad,” he says. It’s this closeness to music that has made DJ Shadow world renowned for his ability to take obscure melodies and mix them into masterpieces.
With trendsetting albums like Entroducing and The Private Press made completely out of samples, everybody thought they had DJ Shadow figured out. That is, until he released his latest album, The Outsider, a kaleidoscope of sounds featuring everything from Hyphy to Hard Rock.
And with the album’s single “3 Freaks,” a dance-friendly track, getting played on the radio, some fans have cried foul, claiming DJ Shadow has changed.
“People get comfortable when they think they have you pegged,” Shadow says. “Hyphy is something people in the Bay Area feel passionately about, and when I made [the album], I was channeling all the heroes of the movement, just as I was channeling all the heroes of the early Hip-Hop movement when I made Entroducing.” With a mindset like that, maybe change isn’t so bad after all.
***
Hasan Salaam
October 2006,
Off the Radar
Jersey City, NJ
5th Column Media/Day by Day Entertainment
Sitting across the street from the opulent law building at Rutgers’ Newark campus in New Jersey, Hasan Salaam obsesses over the dichotomy of wealth and poverty. He’s been that way ever since the movie Malcolm X. The movie jolted him into new social awareness.
“When that movie came out, we saw the preview and my mother said I couldn’t see it until I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X and I had this bigger perspective,” says Salaam. His take on American oppression was punctuated by a cop peering down at him suspiciously from the nearby campus steps.
This expanded outlook led Salaam to become a Muslim. He discusses his ideologies on his debut release, Paradise Lost, an album that garnered attention after Salaam won Best Live Performance and Best Underground Song of the Year for Lost’s “Blaxploitation” at the 3rd Annual Underground Music Awards in 2005. He attributes his vitriolic lyrics to the belief that, “If we don’t recognize our worth, others are going to take our culture and do some Elvis shit to us. They’re going to take it and 10 years from now they’re going to say they started it.” And for that reason, Salaam continues to rage against the establishment.
Off the Radar
Jersey City, NJ
5th Column Media/Day by Day Entertainment
Sitting across the street from the opulent law building at Rutgers’ Newark campus in New Jersey, Hasan Salaam obsesses over the dichotomy of wealth and poverty. He’s been that way ever since the movie Malcolm X. The movie jolted him into new social awareness.
“When that movie came out, we saw the preview and my mother said I couldn’t see it until I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X and I had this bigger perspective,” says Salaam. His take on American oppression was punctuated by a cop peering down at him suspiciously from the nearby campus steps.
This expanded outlook led Salaam to become a Muslim. He discusses his ideologies on his debut release, Paradise Lost, an album that garnered attention after Salaam won Best Live Performance and Best Underground Song of the Year for Lost’s “Blaxploitation” at the 3rd Annual Underground Music Awards in 2005. He attributes his vitriolic lyrics to the belief that, “If we don’t recognize our worth, others are going to take our culture and do some Elvis shit to us. They’re going to take it and 10 years from now they’re going to say they started it.” And for that reason, Salaam continues to rage against the establishment.
***
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