Before the Benjis and the bling, hip-hoppers were all about a backbeat and a message. Whether it was De La Soul talking peace and love or KRS-One dropping knowledge, these "golden age-rs" emphasized content and commotion instead of an image or street cred. A wave of locals are returning to this ethos of early hip-hop only to take it in a new direction. Some are taking it to its more abstract, its more extreme, while others infuse the genre with new ideas and sounds. The results can be strange and abrasive one minute and propulsively upbeat the next.
BloodThirsty Vegans started as a cadre of artists playing only a once a year benefit show. A lineup began to solidify around a couple of MCs and the same core group has been together for about eight months. MC Vendetta, née Janna Willoughby, and My Rap name is Alex are the two vocalists/ MCs that anchor the variety of musical styles that the band delves into. While the term "skip hop" has been thrown around, in reference to the band's frequent fusion of ska and hip-hop, the Vegans musical style varies widely and remains difficult to pin down. Both MCs deliver rapid-fire quasi-ragamuffin style lyrics over this bubbling stew uptempo musical styles. The band says they differ from most live hip-hop acts in that they write tightly compacted definitive songs as opposed to a more "jam bandy" approach. Alex explains one unifying musical theme: "You should get up off your ass and dance."
Unifying the band as well is the message-driven content of their lyrics. The Vegans espouse a "call-to-action" mentality and challenge their audience both to appreciate what's around them and to get active, not only on the dance floor but in the community as well.
"I started writing to have an impact," says Alex. "But you can't have nearly the impact if people don't enjoy it."
"And we try to (have an impact) with the way we produce as a band too," adds primary drummer _dave. "We're getting our CD cases printed locally and on green materials; and we get our shirts prints locally."
The band continues to play more frequently than ever including many benefit shows that support a variety of causes.
"At zero money," says _dave. "But that's just cause we like playing a lot."
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Another message driven artist steeped in the hip-hop ethos is Jack Topht (which, by the way, not a stage name). Along with The Vegetables, his partner Lindsey Grate who plays a drum kit and a variety of keyboards, Topht takes rap music to that more bizarre, abstract place. Adding elements of folk, punk, bedroom pop, and freak rock, his act is one part music, one part performance art.
"Me and Linds never really fit in with anybody," says Topht. "We do three or four rap songs, and then we got these quirky pop songs that don't really sound like anything... so I think we fit in with a lot of bands, but at the same time we don't fit in with any bands. We're like a punk rock band, or like, a weird pop band and we kind of make sense with noise bands too, cause we have an original sound."
Topht raps and sings over a myriad of beat-driven songs, which he describes as "light-hearted, upbeat and fun." He also tries to include what he calls "pep talk songs", songs that exude a positive, motivational message to serve as reassurance in a harsh reality."Those are the major theme's I try and cover: life's weird, do your best, stuff like that you know?"
The band recently took these themes on the road, playing shows across the Midwest and up the West Coast. Topht says the band played with a variety of acts, in a variety of settings: a sweltering basement in Reno, a garage rock fest in San Diego, an art-house/performance space in Montana. He says they translated well at almost every show in almost every city. They returned to Buffalo ready to record another full length album.
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Zev is another artist skewing the old school ethos. A Ph.D candidate at SUNY Buffalo, Zev has his fingers in many pies. He performs both as a solo act, backed by prerecorded beats, and with live bands as well. As a solo performer and producer, his sound can be dark, rich and cinematic.
"I definitely like lush soundscapes and multi-layered stuff," says Zev. "A lot of influence (for me) comes from really early boom-bap, real stripped down stuff. But I definitely prefer more lush stuff."
As someone who's been performing with bands since the late 90's, Zev is also in touch with the live, more tactile approach to musical performance.He tailors the live hip-hop versions of his songs to arrangements written by the particular group he's working with at the time, whether it be with local indie rockers notic or musicians from an artist group called the Intangible Collective.
Some 80's and 90's rappers had an overtly political or social messages. Public Enemy, NWA, and Ice-T all drove home their message with scathing indictments of both the community and the system around them. Zev tends to stay away from hot button topics that might turn off listeners and instead focuses on more introspective issues.
"I talk about the sense of alienation (that comes from) living in this sort of, weird post-modern world and the sort of questions of identity that I think a lot people in this country and around world that people are asking themselves," he explains. "So, basically the unrest that comes from being a compassionate individual in this exceedingly violent world."
Zev performs, when time allows, at traditional venues and art spaces alike. He says while school and other endeavors take up much of his time, making music and performing in Buffalo are passions he finds time for.
"Buffalo has such a great music scene: its close knit, its good size and its definitely made me feel that I should keep doing this stuff cause there's really a lot happening here."
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