He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper
Posted Mar 13 2006
There's considerably more testosterone percolating at Raparations, helmed by Ambessa the Articulate (frontman for hip-hop/reggae group Fiyawata) and Korise Jubert (half of the emcee duo Boogie Shack). The fact that this satellite is run by career artist-activists rather than public school instructors or youth employment counselors is evident from jump; you can tell from the label's name alone that it's politicized to a stronger degree than other DJ Project satellites. Compared with Horizons' vision of rectifying the digital divide and Unity's emphasis on critical thinking, Raparations is definitely on more of a self-empowerment tip. As four young producers -- most of whom double as hip-hop emcees -- noodle with computers and keyboards, the wall facing them displays a list of tenets that form "The Way of the S.A.M.U.R.I.," or Scholastic Authentic Movement of Underground Raw Intuitive hip-hop. Ambessa explains that being a Samuri means taking "the five pillars of hip-hop -- graffiti, DJing, breakdancing, beatboxing, and emceeing -- and turning them into credos."On a typical Thursday evening, Raparations opens its doors to a motley crew of teenage bootstrappers. D-Nok lethargically clicks his mouse while twelve-year-old Shelby stares over his shoulder; A-1 Nemesis and Chuck Wester huddle at another screen reading e-mail. In a far corner sits the emcee Dark Sage, who named himself after a black doctor from the TV series Little House on the Prairie who "had to work on livestock because the other doctor wouldn't give him no play."
To describe these emcees as "enterprising" would be an understatement, considering that most of them are around sixteen years old and have already recorded in four different studios; D Nok can't say more than a few words to you without pulling multiple flyers and business cards out of his pocket. Yet as much as these emcees orbit the deflected dreams of the rap game, they ground their authenticity in their reality, rapping in a style that's disarmingly truthful. The emcees and producers at Raparations are the kind of hip-hop hucksters who will break your heart and then try to sell it back to you.
On "Better Days" -- a gloomy but melodic track coproduced by Dark Sage and Tone from Unity High -- each of the Raparations emcees kicks down an eight-bar verse about some cruel twist of fate in his life. A-1 raps: One of these days I'm gonna go crazy and snap/My wise words to you are forget friends, they don't have your back. Later, he recalls when he was thirteen and a friend set him up to go to jail for a crime he didn't commit. "He burglarized a house, and the description they had was black kid with dreads, which fit both of us," the emcee says. "So he told me to walk down the street with him, and when the cops saw us they picked me up instead of him, and I ended up going to jail for a year and a half. I've been shot by one of my so-called friends, too."
Granted, the cult of stardom at Raparations is at cross purposes with the DJ Project's "social bottom line." But there's some crossover -- D-Nok gives props to Ambessa for teaching the group that "there should be more to your lyrics than just Shoot 'em up, bang bang." But in a moment of candor, the emcee confesses that he still puts out shoot-'em-up songs. After all, he says, "That's what's selling."
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