Archiv des Autors: nobigbutL

The Truth on the Surface and the Passion Behind

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What would be the acoustic equivalent to “visibility”? Well, whatever the right terminology: amplifying “it” lies at the end of strategies that aim at creatively counter-striking androcentric ignorance in HipHop music. Soon, the Female Focus Festival (July 17-19th 2015, Berlin, germs) opens a forum for the exchange, critique and networking all around this issue.

 

In exited anticipation of that I’m gonna dig in my collection and polish some of my most precious picks to add to your in depth knowledge and reckoning of what is captured behind the label “female” in rap. This time I am going to present you the acoustic equivalent to authenticity- and that would be: Oh Blimey!

 

 

When I got to meet Oh Blimey and see her perform here in Berlin along with Gavlyn, I was amazed at two things foremost: First, the way she looks and appears so much the same, like, as the exact same person I ‘know’ from the music videos and interviews.   How can a person be this present, this real, and authentic? “When there lies so much passion behind it, you got no other choice, but be it.” she states when I asked her, how she gets to channel all of herself to the very surface as a performer and into her music, as a voice.   And this presence does not seem to be about self-expression and performance only. Once you talk to her you feel a certain attentiveness, a ‘being in the moment and listening’ which is actually quite rare among performers. Back on stage she addresses her crowd with the same attitude, and that is just beautiful.

 

What amazed me on a second level while seeing her perform live on stage are her abilities and skills as an MC. Boi, is she good. She’s on point and her delivery is as clear as clean water. Not one syllable swallowed, every word pronounced to the last letter – makes you understand the lyrics even if you just heard them for the first time.   So, as a rapper Oh Blimey is just  heavyweight. Uh, no, you better believe me: the idea that this attribute might be related to her appearance only occurred to me as a second thought. And you know what? As a personal preference I actually am into big girls. And she is big: big in the game that they call battle rap. Which means: Oh Blimey handles her mouth well, is not afraid of serious language and knows how to align words resulting in a proper punch – no violence needed:  “I got them white girl lines but no cocaine / I make verses kill themselves – Cobain” (Sparrow)

 

On her way through the market, aiming at a more sustaining frame for her musical career she doesn’t forget to cultivate her relations and cooperative bonds with the right people, like Gavlyn, Snow Tha Product, Micatron, and G.L.A.M.   About Gav she states: “I am really grateful for what she does for me, I mean, holding her neck out for me and take that risk. …and I feel like I am a risk.” Why? “Because I am the opposite of Hip Hop. … Hip Hop tells me, it’s supposed to be male, it’s supposed to be black, and heterosexual and I am not, so…”    Yo. If you ask me, standing up for yourself, being yourself against all odds, raising your voice for others and being this attentive and assertive to the struggle of others is what Hip Hop is about. Not the categories, but the empowerment. period.

 

 

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Honest Independence

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What would be the acoustic equivalent to „visibility“? Well, whatever the right terminology: amplifying „it“ lies at the end of strategies that aim at creatively counter-striking androcentric ignorance in HipHop music. Soon, the Female Focus Festival (July 2015, Berlin, germs) opens a forum for the exchange, critique and networking all around this issue.

 

In exited anticipation of that I’m gonna dig in my collection and polish some of my most precious picks to add to your in depth knowledge and reckoning of what is captured behind the label „female“ in rap. This time I am going to present you the acoustic equivalent to honesty – and that would be: Eternia.

 

 

„I refuse to be subordinate!“

Writing about those artists who mean the most to me isn’t easy. You need to know: Eternia is one of my first and dearest. When I got so lucky to see her live on stage in 2008 I instantly was overwhelmed and cried of excitement. Part of it goes back to her energetic presence, her deep, loud voice, that resonates quite intensively in my chest. And what still strikes me with Eternia is her relentless honesty about the cost we pay for being independent as ordinary straight women who live to make this world our own.

 

 

 

 

Eternia’s writing is very biographic, based on personal experience. Based on deep disappointment, frustration and the blunt abuse of her vulnerabilities and longings, of her desire for freedom and love.

 

„You never see what I see yo /
You never see that unless you was me yo /
…
Ladies never loose who you be yo
never loose sight always be free yo!“ (Control, off It’s Called Life)

 

For some that might be too personal, too intimate.  But once you feel how she steps from that to a more general perspective you learn a lesson about „female“ HipHop: in our case, being real about the hardships in life means to reveal spheres of our live others might be privileged to disclose as „private“, as the last bastion against life’s hardship: intimate relationships. For some of us, however, they’re the very heart of danger as much as they might be the target of our last longing. Struggling with all that as a central contradiction of a woman’s live and being open about it: that’s Eternia. Writing rhymes about being abused and raped, about abortion and the awareness how such details of our biographies devalue us culturally and socially in the eyes of a possible future male partner (To the Future), without ever wailing: that’s Eternia; swearing at haters without ever hating: that’s Eternia; claiming a room of her own (Goodbye): that’s Eternia. She is: Honest Independence.

 

And she is independent as an artist: based in Toronto and New York and well known in several hiphop communities. She is touring worldwide, released several tapes and two studio albums (It’s Called LIfe and At Last), runs the „my favorite rapper wears a skirt campaign“, and is being saluted to by MC Lyte for her dynamic stage performance. Nevertheless, the MC never went in chart wise. Because she never tried. Because she never felt the urge to do so. Because she wants to run her own business. Because she celebrates live concerts, jam sessions and the street life. And the freedom to write whatever she feels like.

 

Reading this contribution it’s more than obvious: I am a fan, identifying, admiring, celebrating. A fan of this strong persona who left home early as a teenager, moving to New York, diving in the scene, being one of the boys, realizing she’ll never be one of them, who later graduated from college, who survived sexual violence, who participates in girls education programs against sexual abuse as an activist, who is outspoken, who is a writer, who is a rapper, who is one of my favorites, who sometimes wears a skirt.

 

L

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Resistance is a he|art.

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La bruja21 – the Berlin homegrown witch from Moabit finally put her pens together and spelled some impressions on the West Coast (South) MC Zita Zoe. As this is bruja’s debut on noboysbutrap, I want you to clap your hands and minds together and welcome our future head of resort of Spanish written rap who will open your ears for – or just keep you up to date with the South American variety and state of the art.

 

During her recent stay in Buenos Aires (Argentina), bruja21 got the chance to talk to Sara Hebe and enjoy her performing live – an experience pushing hard enough and on the right spot to spark that passion again… Soon we’ll get to read about the encounter, right here. And while Miss Bolivia missed out on the opportunity for a personal interview la bruja21 opens her legacy on noboysbutrap with the portrait of another castellano MC, hailing from 1111 kilometers west, Santiago the Chile: the independent artist Zita Zoe.

 

 

 

>> Over the years, little by little, L sent me a collection of hinds and links to Spanish speaking artists with the invitation to write some notes for this blog. I am a Hip Hop fan. But a time of mourning had estranged me from the joy of listening to music and being a supportive audience. And from dancing, which to me has always been an important element of my love for Hip Hop. It’s since some months now that music touches me again – the rhymes and the beats, the stories and the personalities, the criticism. It was Sara Hebe who made me remember that when you move your ass – your mind will follow. So eventually I got back to that link collection and saw a punchline that L had chosen for a profile: „Hay resistencia en mi corazón“. It grabbed me. And then it was Zitazoe on my earphones for days… And although Zitazoes notion of resistance does not correspond very much with my own current sense of life, I find her impressingly powerful, a struggeling but self-confident artist.

 

 

 

 “Zitazoe is the worst of me, the perfect symphony of head and heart. Zitazoe is the worst of myself on a paper. Zitazoe is me, my writing, my everyday life, my friends, my eyes, feet, hands, my nose, my tits, my fringe, my hard work. Zitazoe is that.”

 

For Zitazoe rap is “the formula, my passion and my crisis” (You tell me). Rap is her journey through life, a way of struggeling with herself, of growing and learning. She chose rap as a “profession” and as her “life line” (Daría mi pela). Her songs and lyrics rise from particular experiences, and much of it is the living in a hostile world. About the process of creating songs and albums she states: I live, I feel, I write and I record. Zitazoe raps about self-assertion against injustice, but also about self-destruction and constantly about the relief to be found in alcohol.

 

Zitazoe is present in the Chilean hip hop underground and on the world wide web stage since 2010, tirelessly uploading videos and albums. Her audiovisual work ranges from freestyle shootings at home to well edited video clips. Much of it is produced together with the Dead Jonkies crew, formed by Marea, Piwi, Loko Way and her. Between 2011 and 2014 she released five solo albums and one collective EP with Eskape, Stefancan and Biorek, named Soul Violent.

 

Zitazoe’s style is puristic and hard, with much focus on her rhymes. She performs a devotion to the old school, states it without any doubts and from the very beginning, as well as her belonging to the south of Santiago de Chile. To her being an old schooler means to love “the competition, I do it without any purpose“ (Mala Dama). And the old school represents the viewpoint from which she manifests scepticism about the current hip hop boom in Latinamerica: too much fashion and too little realness.

 

Interviewers almost always ask her to position herself as a female rapper. Zitazoe refuses the notion of hip hop as a masculine culture and the idea of a female counter culture. “I am not very feminist. Rap isn’t masculine, it’s rap, as it always was, we don´t have to create a feminine rap.” To the contrary she reclaims a masculine style, a male-associated roughness, stating “I don´t sully the name and I do it like a man, rough and indifferent” (Mi demencia). That this is not to be understood as a rejection of solidarity among women and girls shows her participation in the Femme Rap Fest Chile in 2014. Since pushing that event she positions herself in favor of organized female visibility in hiphop culture in order to resist the stereotypes of women lacking rap skills. She does not refuse to be a role model, but prefers not to be that as a woman but as an individual old school and competitive rap artist.

 

bruja21, May 2015

 

 

Aus dem Spiegel in der Hand ein Mikrofon

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 Ms.AT4 hat gerade ihre zweite EP Close to you veröffentlicht. aus gegebenem Anlass haben wir uns neulich dann auf einen frühen Abend in Altona getroffen.

 

 

0004612427_10…die letzten Minuten des Interviewspaziergangs mündeten am Hamburger Hauptbahnhof in die Absurdität des ganz Normalen. Gerade wollte ich abschließend einen draufsetzen und mich ein bisschen darüber lustig machen, wie Authentizitäts-Geschichte schreiben im Rap funktioniert und persifliere: „wenn ich Dich jetzt dissen wollte, würde ich in Dein Profil so was schreiben, wie: die Rapperin aus Rostock, Bezirk sowieso, ist auf der selben Straße in den gleichen Platten groß geworden wie ihre lokalen Rapkollegen Pyranja und Marteria…“.  AT, die gerade auf die Rolltreppe klettert, muss unkontrolliert laut lachen, bei der Vorstellung, sich darauf zu beziehen, dass sie ja mal auf der Geburtstagsfeier der Freundin des besten Freundes von Marteria, usw…  Zwei Stufen weiter dreht sich ein wirklich bitteres Gesicht zu uns nach unten. Und in einem Tonfall zwischen Direktorin und Pastor, so trocken und aggressiv, wie man sich das nur vorstellen kann, presst sie zwischen ihren rotgeschminkten, schmalen Lippen hervor. „So lacht ein Mädchen aber nicht!“ „So lacht ein Mädchen nicht?“ kontert AT teils provoziert aber vielmehr noch amüsiert,  „darf ich mal fragen warum?“ „Das mögen die Männer nicht.“ „Ach ja?“ „Nein, das mögen die Männer nicht.“ True story. Darauf erstmal ein Bx Gold (#frauenbier) zwischen die zehn Minuten, bis AT’s Regionalzug nach Lübeck einfährt.

 

 

 

Dort lebt sie mit ihrer Freundin und arbeitet als Lehrerin. Während des Referendariats wurde ihr am Kneipentisch von einem Kollegen empfohlen, dass gleichgeschlechtliche Paare, die Kinder haben wollen, doch besser woanders hinziehen sollten. Und wohin? Na dorthin, wo es mehr davon gebe, zum Beispiel nach Hamburg Altona. Denn in der Provinz würde das die anderen ja schon stören und die Kinder (der Normalen) auch zu sehr irritieren… sigh.

 

Ms. AT4 kommt aus und bleibt in der nordeutschen Provinz, against all odds. In Rostock findet sie als Teen einen Plattenladen, verliebt sich in HipHop, kauft das Vinyl, „Ich brauchte ja auch die Instrumentals, um darauf schreiben zu können“ und entwickelt offenbar völlig unbeeindruckt von allen Rollenzuschreibungen eine englische Schreibe auf Beats, die sich mit der Zeit in stabile Flowvarianten verwandelt hat. Warum Englisch? „ich mochte die Sprache einfach gerne. Und sie war das, was ich mit Hip Hop verband. Ich habe manchmal auch das Gefühl, mich in English schöner ausdrücken zu können. …und außerdem konnten mich meine Eltern dann nicht verstehen, wenn ich zu hause in meinem Kinderzimmer geschrieben und gerappt habe.“  Und warum schreibst Du überhaupt, wie bist Du drauf gekommen? „Ich hab das Gefühl, ich muss das einfach machen! Und jetzt will ich einfach immer besser werden mit meinen Flows und den Rhymes. Das ist meine Motivation.“  hmmm, was eine schöne Antwort. Und mal ehrlich: wie viele Mädchen und junge Frauen* kennt ihr, die selbst in den Plattenladen gehen und sich einen eigenen Musikgeschmack entwickeln und zusammen stellen? Deren Playlist nicht von den Charts oder Boyfriends gefüllt wird? Die sich so zielstrebig beatgrundlagen für ihre Lyrics besorgen? Fiva MC hat in einem Interview vor vielen Jahren mal beschrieben, wie sie ihre überspielten Tapes am Anfang der Songs immer zurückgespult hat – die ersten 4 Takte sind ja meistens instrumental, ohne Lyrics – um so an Beats zum drauf schreiben zu kommen. Gut, dass es in Rostock diesen Plattenladen gab, gut dass AT dort reingelaufen ist und nach Hause gebracht hat, was ihr gefiel.

 

In Kiel, während der Studienzeit, traf sie schließlich ihre Beatproduzenten, darunter auch Lars Minute, mit dem sie ihre beiden EPs 4reignness (2012) und Close to you (2015) gebaut hat. Die Zweite ist gerade diesen Februar erschienen. Ihr Cover zeigt eine wunderschön geformte Frauenstatue aus Stein. „Ich finde diese Frau so schön, und sie erinnert mich an meine Freundin.“ In der rechten Hand hält die Figur einen Griff. Das war mal ein Spiegel, der ist aber abgebrochen. So sieht es nun aus, als habe sie ein Mic in der Hand…

 

 

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