BOOM BIP
HOW TO BE PART OF THE AVANT-GARDE RAP SCENE
Question: What does the aspiring modern beat and rhyme combo do when faced with accusations that the music they make is too weird to be considered "hip-hop"?
Answer: Simply respond with the phrase, "But we don't make hip-hop!"
Well, you do if you're Boom Bip anyway. So HHC got him to palm some tips our way into understanding that whole avant-garde rap scene. Then he went to look at some skinned bodies at an art exhibition. There's nothing wrong with that, of course.
1. GROW TIRED OF HIP HOP!
"I don't think anyone really listens to hip-hop right now, even the purists. I'll often listen once and go back to something older. A lot of people are afraid to admit that.
2. SOCIALISE WITH PECULIAR FRIENDS!
"I love working with Doseone and my prediction is in five years he'll probably just be singing, like in a leisure suit and all that."
3. PURCHASE YOUR USED VINYL IN CINCINNATI!
"Records are pretty pricey over here. I'll pay 60 cents in the US for something that's 20 pounds over here. Cincinnati is an absolute goldmine 'cos it was the funk capital of the '70s. There were The Isleys, Roger Troutman, James Brown's King records, Roy Ayers, Freddie Hubbard lived there and Bootsy Collins still lives there today. It was nuts."
4. AVOID OLD JAZZ TRUMPETERS!
"There are Herb Albert records every-fucking-where in the states. Talk to any deejay and his Whipped Cream & Other Delights LP is like the most unbought but widely distributed record ever put out. I've seen lots of Perry Como Hawaiian records too."
5. ADORE SHINY SILVER!
"On my solo record on Lex I'm using some old keyboards. I've got this big silver monster from the '80s - a Yamaha one - and the album will credit all the things I use."
6. MAKE FREE AND UNFETTERED USE OF THE INTERNET!
"I'd be a hypocrite if I said that I didn't download songs myself. I think that if you're under the age of 30 and are not then you're either really dedicated or not paying your phone bill. Since Napster went away it's tailed off a bit, but when it was around I was pretty healthy clicker, and for the majority of the underground hip-hop I'd say that it might actually be helping them from an exposure point of view."
7. EXPERIMENT WITH PROG-ROCK!
"When I first started experiencing alcohol as a young kid it was old '60s progressive rock that we'd all listen to. Something like Manfred Mann is amazing."
8. DIG CLASSICAL MUSIC!
"I've been listening to a lot of classical music lately, like Stravinsky or orchestras doing covers of famous pieces. I love classical CDs that you can find for a dollar but they're the highest quality. If fact, I've used some on the new record."
9. PONTIFICATE ON RE-SCORING MOTION PICTURES!
"Someone was telling me about a place here in east London where you can re-score a film's soundtrack live on decks and samples. Some guy did Charlie's Angels and it was like a death metal thing. I think I'd do some old black and white film, like maybe North By Northwest. I wouldn't do anything corny like the Wizard Of Oz, although my girlfriend does like that terrible blaxploitation remake of it, The Wiz."
10. ENJOY THE FINER POINTS OF EUROPEAN TRAVEL!
"I really enjoy being in London, other than the fact that I've been blowing black snot out of my nose. The other day Buck 65 came out of his hotel room and he said, 'I just blew my nose and it was black!' Then three days later it happened to me. It's got to be the tube."
PHILLIP MLYNAR