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All New Flavor Lifesavas bring new life to Portland hip-hop with their first album, Spirit in Stone. They tell us about the album, their live show, and the thoughts behind the lyrics by David Also In an attempt to bridge the gap between mainstream, uninspired rap and dirty but heartfelt underground hip-hop, Lifesavas have released their first album, Spirit in Stone, with one of the most successful independent hip-hop labels in the world. Their music moves from one style to another, sometimes aggressive, sometimes jazzy, sometimes compassionate, sometimes sarcastic. The production is clean. The beats and samples are top of the line. The lyrics are positive, and the style is street. With the kind of distribution and management they're currently using, they might actually build that bridge. Quannum is the brainchild of a crew named Solesides. Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel (Blackalicious), Lateef and Lyrics Born (Latyrx), and DJ Shadow are the core members on Quannum's list. Before Jumbo, Vursatyl and Rev Shines (Lifesavas) were invited to the party, Quannum was only dealing with Bay Area artists. But now that's changing. I met with them at Reflections, a black-owned café just off of MLK on Killingsworth. In conversation, they have a lot to say about commerce in the Northeast. In the music, they express opinions about black culture throughout the country. One segue on the album, called Thuggity, is a spoof on gangsta rap. Imagine a vicious promoter yelling, "You ain't heard of Thug Dog!?" On the other end of the spectrum, the song called Living Time is less about dividing culture along racial or political lines, and more about embracing life, whatever level you happen to be on. Much like the NE neighborhood these men grew up in, their group is going through an infusion of new interest, and they have yet to reach a ceiling. But no one could seem better equiped to deal with that responsibility. Says Vursatyl, "The way we look at everything is: that's the outside and this is the nucleus. And so when anything new comes in, between the 3 of us, we're the team, and we see ya'll. And any time you're approaching us as a unit, that makes us tighter." Before anything else is their friendship. It reaches back to middle school playgrounds and community dances. Now, they're grown men with the respect and love of each other's children. With this album, and an amazing live show, they're getting even more respect, from artists and fans alike. Citing an admiration for the pioneers of hip-hop, they've been able to put together one of the most entertaining shows in town, even more so that many other more established national acts. I asked them to talk a little bit about what makes a Lifesavas show special: J: A lot of artists today kind of have a microwave mentality, as I dub it, which means their attention span is about 2 minutes and then it's hot. If it ain't hot then they'll move to the next thing that's hot. And from that comes a lack of perspective and knowledge of what laid the foundation of what's hot. We take a different approach. We really respect our pioneers. We draw inspiration. We're not trying to be their career or anything like that, just take that inspiration and build on that. We pride ourselves on being style-junkies. We pride ourselves on being musicians. With all of that, in terms of the live show, we pride ourselves on being entertainers. We're still fans of the music. We go to shows all the time, and watching someone walk around and grab their genitals and bark and throw the mic at the crowd because the soundman don't got the sound right or whatever--The people who come to see you don't understand that. They just want you to entertain them. They think that you are it. If you get up there and you don't show that, they might not get your record and they might not come see you next time. So we know that and every time we come out we want to bring passion and energy, and show that this is just straight-up hip-hop and there's a reason why we fell in love with this thing. We see it as our vehicle of communication. Right now, it seems to me that this music is the most powerful thing, as far as communication, across the globe. We've learned that from touring. So, in order for us to not only entertain around the city of Portland, but be able to go across the country and then take it further and push it into other countries, I think you have to have an entertaining show. If he's up on the mic (pointing to Vurse) and we're in Barcelona, Spain, or Pocatello, Idaho and he says, "Ok, let's try something new. I'm just gonna fart on the mic and ya'll will clap," the promoters aren't going to book you, the people aren't going to come out and they're not going to want to hear that on the cd. Now if he comes out and says, "Alright, I know we usually do this other thing, but I want to try to be creative. Can I do something new for ya'll?" It invites people in, and makes it so they're a part of the music. We try to do that. We don't just stand out front and try to run through the songs and go through the motions. We try to go ahead and put on a production. So you can say, "I went. I saw. I went home. I'm on fire. I'm inspired." Rev : "And I want to see the show again tomorrow night." J: And I want to see it tomorrow night, like that good movie or that good book. That good sermon, whatever it is. I want to get that again. Then when you see us on the street, we're more than just artists. It's kind of like I know you now. That's how Lifesavas base their show. MLP: Back to the album, on Hellohihey you’ve made a statement about facing and overcoming your own ego, but then on It’s Over you ridicule pretentious rappers. How do you pick apart another artist or speak highly of yourself without becoming arrogant? J: What’s wrong with being arrogant? (laughs) On the mic that is. V: Hip-hop is multi-faceted. Basically, we is just people. You might make a statement, but at some point you gotta
J: Also, MCing was built on the art of the battle. Who could demonstrate their description of their bravado the best on the mic? So when you’re listening to the music you’ve got to know that’s going to be a part of it. The early origins of hip-hop comes from the MC that could toast the party the best. “I’m the host with the most. I’m the man with the plan.” Those are things that this thing is based upon. So if everybody stopped doing it, it kind of be like, “Hey what happened?” MLP: The song Skeleton, says a lot in two pretty short verses. I want to ask you about one specific line, which is, “Who stole the soul became the phrase when there’s only 8 niggas at the show and 6 of ‘em is on stage.” That says something I’ve never heard in a song before, but it’s something that we’re all thinking about. I know how it is here at shows. What’s it like in other cities? J: Oh it’s like that everywhere. We’ll walk in and the only ethnicity that you see in terms of what we relate to are the musicians on stage. And sometimes that can be discouraging. V: Hip-hop is the new jazz music, you know. Wherever we go now, there’s just no black people at the show. If there is you can count them on one hand. And it’s just crazy for hip-hop to be born out of the inner city and now, unless you’re performing it there’s no support for it. People are not buying records. We’ve taken it for granted. DJ Chill, who you mentioned in the Mic Crenshaw story, [MLP v1:i4, Hungry Mobsters] he’s like the last of the black DJs out of this community. Period. If you go to the Mt. Hood Jazz Festival or the Montreal Jazz Festival, there’s no black people there to see jazz. They only perform it. It’s just like, why? Ask yourself why. Again, with hip-hop, we’re not putting our money on it. We’re not supporting it. We don’t consider it urban music anymore. MLP: Is it because white kids got into it, or is it just that it’s not new anymore? V: There’s this soul-food place on MLK and close to Dekum called Yam Yam’s. I’ve never eaten at Yam Yam’s. You know why? ‘Cause my mom makes ribs. My mom makes yams. She makes greens. She makes it better, I’m sure, than anything I can get at Yam Yam’s. Why am I gonna go buy some food at Yam Yam’s when mama makes it? And mama lays that door down. My wife makes it. She makes it good. She makes good catfish. You feel what I’m saying? She makes good cornbread. She might even be insulted if I went to Yam Yam’s when she can make it. And a lot of cats around here are like, “Why should I buy a Lifesavas record? I rap, too. My cousin Pookie raps. My cousin Tay Tay is putting out a cd.” It’s becoming old hat to us. Why buy it if you can make it? I’m just as good as this guy doing it, so we’re just going to disassociate ourselves from it. Rev : I remember, years ago, when black friends and white friends of mine, we were all listening to the same music. And there was a time when I first started going to shows where there would be a lot of black people there. There was really no division, it was just hip-hop music. Then there was the whole east coast/west coast thing, (then the) mainstream thing, and now every kid you meet raps. You either have a cd out, or even if you’re totally clueless, don’t have a cd out, have never even written down a verse, they’re going to come up and say, “Yeah, man, I rap. So you going to sign me? What’s up?” People just have this perception that this is something that anyone can do. Pick up a pen and a microphone and a throw-back jersey and they’re an automatic rap star. That’s where the thing comes in about, “My cousin raps.” It’s a lot easier to listen to and think about getting high and rolling the car that you’re never going to drive. J: That’s a lopsided division. That’s the beauty of a Thuggity as opposed to a Livin’ Time. Any question that anyone asks us you’re going to hear the word balance, again. The division, or the separation, or the “I don’t want to hear anything new” is basically because this Thuggity thing is so far away from this Livin’ Time. Because this is death, this is life. And that’s what they relate to. They don’t care if they can relate to this Livin’ Time. They dub it white, college kid, backpack music. And this is their “I’m a gangsta, I’m a thug, I shoot em up, I’m sexier than the car, I live at home with my mother and I got $100,000 rims on my car.” There’s nothing in the middle. So it’s off balance. V: It’s got a lot to do with marketing, too. Artists like Common and The Roots, and increasingly Outkast, those shows are marketed toward a certain part of every city. I don’t care where we’re at, when we get off the bus and look around, it’s almost like we’re up on NW 23rd. And that’s where the posters are. We ride to the hood and there’s no posters. There not putting posters up at the barbershops and soul food restaurants that are common in this part of town. When we’re coming to town they’re just marketing it to a certain demographic. But the gangsta rap is at liquor stores, cigarette and cigar shops. They’re on every corner. They’re pumping that major like, “Come check this out. This is the hot new guy.” And the barometer for success begins to equate that he’s tight because of everything else besides his music. Everything else besides his music is why I should want to be like that. J: That is a bone that our people don’t want to hear about. “I don’t want to hear it. I like it. It’s what’s happening. I don’t want to hear that.” Ok. So we got a bone to pick with you now. V: It’s easy to set people against each other. It’s balance. We love that hip-hop has grown. You can see the growth. That’s dope. But now there’s no balance there. A lot of what was there is missing. You asked about our live show, or putting together the record, we’re just students who love hip-hop music. So we watched like wide-eyed kids when A Tribe Called Quest would come to town or put out a new record. You would just listen for hours, over and over and over again. The way he was saying stuff. You just loved Q-Tip’s voice. The beats. The way they put the samples together. It was art. But now, the way that they market the music, there’s a certain tier of fan and artist that sits apart from this movement of music, and vice versa. So the underground/independent artist begins to look at that artist or that type of music like, “Man, ya’ll don’t know nothing about music. We are the true purist.” And when you set apart, like the supposed east coast/west coast thing, it starts setting you almost at war with each other. It’s this psychological game where I’m going to try as hard as I can not to be commercial. I want to be as dirty as I possibly can. I want my record to sound like it was recorded in my Grandmother’s toilet with combat boots stepping on it. Then on the other hand, the cats who are making the “commercial” music have got to be as pristine, generic and overproduced as it can possibly can be. They just regurgitate the same subject matter. It never takes a gamble, never takes a risk. And I think that if we could break that down and say, “Make good music.” No matter what you’re trying, just make good music. MLP: There’s the fact that independent music is making money. The independent records are selling because we decided the way to defeat mainstream music was to go out and give a bunch of money to underground artists. So now that market is coming up. It’s getting bigger and selling records, but I think that the musicians and the music fans are still kind of feeling less than the mainstream. J: That’s an excellent point. That’s why MCA, which is now defunct, went after Shadow and Blackalicious. They didn’t come and say, “You guys have to do this and this and this.” They realized these guys are moving 100,000
MLP: And they don’t even know what the music sounds like. J: No. They don’t. But the fans see that move and they get worried like they’re leaving us. But that’s not the case. We’re just getting the message across so that gap gets filled. And that’s something that will get those people on the outside of the bubble back in. That starts the process, but it doesn’t finish it. MLP: About the religious references in the music. Are you religious, or do you use the references to make a point? V: We’re not religious at all. The references are definitely there to make a point. Religion, I’m not cool with that term. Because it puts you in this box. We just live life. We have an appreciation for life and everything we have on the album is just food for thought. This is our experience. This is the way we see things, and these are the resources that have given us that information. But, religious? Nah. J: There have been groups before us, teachers that had their spiritual gifts in terms of finding peace within themselves and appreciation for their creator. Now, in terms of that, we have a foundation on which we were raised, and we have morals. So you’re going to hear that because the album is an honest album. It’s an honest depiction of us, it’s not a definition. That’s why we don’t use that word. But it is a description. It’s a description of us. We are at peace with what our foundation is. As he said, that’s food for thought. That’s an option or whatever. MLP: You guys do make it clear that you’re against abortion. That seems pretty brave in today’s political climate, especially since the underground generally has a box that everyone is supposed to be in as far as being vegetarian, active, pro-choice and so on. But you’ve also got a song like Resist, sort of an anthem to standing up to authority. Can you speak a little bit about your political beliefs, and in addition to that, your opinions on current policy? V: First and foremost, we are definitely pro-life on every tier, just because we come from a situation where seeing death is scary in how much we’ve had to witness it. So that spurs us to say, “Let’s live.” As far as the government, we see that in politics, it just seems to be behind so much death, especially here in America. Our hands are so bloody. We’ve played the secret bearer of bad news for years, but when it comes back around to bite us, we’re innocent. Where is this coming from? I’m not really into what America needs to do globally. But I know if we start with what’s going on here in our own community, when cats is literally getting shot every day. Just the other day this cat was shot in his arm like 500 feet from where I live. I got home like 20 minutes after it happened. Gunplay is that rampant, and it’s right by where my babies are growing up. And there’s a police station right here and it takes the police like 45 minutes to get there. I live 8 or 9 blocks from here. There’s a problem with what we see going on here in our own community. And until we can effect that we can’t really effect what people believe can happen on a larger scale. That’s why people don’t vote. And I do believe that we should vote. I believe that we should get out there and have an opinion about what’s going on. Ultimately we’re discouraged when it doesn’t seem attention is being given to problems here at hand. From where I live, people think really basically, man. Why are we going over there, involving ourselves in affairs that have nothing to do with us? There’s no threat to us. And you can’t even deal with what’s happening with me here in my one block radius? It’s difficult to be encouraged about what the president’s doing in Iraq. If anything we’re just skeptical. You may not even be able to read, but if you can, your point of interest may not be to go pick up a book and educate yourself on foreign affairs. But you can still be an activist. You can still be active in your own, immediate circle. You can get involved and make a difference. You can complain until the police do something about what’s going on right next door to me. I’ve got babies I’m trying to raise. I’m going to complain, write letters. I’m going to participate in the rallies. For more information, go to www.lifesavas.com |
point the finger back at you. At the end of the day, if you’re always giving your opinion and never check yourself, that’s when things are unbalanced and that’s when you start to lose focus on what’s important. So, ultimately, through the course of the whole record, any statement that we say, we try to balance it out, whether it’s through another song or another verse. So at the same time we’re putting ourselves under that microscope as well. Balance. For everything you’ve got to have balance. I think that if we can accomplish that then as people we can feel confident about our art. And as a person you can say you’re always changing and you’re always evolving. Even though I have strong opinions, I’m checking myself along the way. So we try to do that.
units plus on their own. No video. Solesides didn’t have any videos. They were out of a dorm room. MCA is saying, “What if we distribute that? We could triple it.” And now look at them.