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On one of the coldest days in the G.T.A I was fortunate to get one of the hottest interviews of this year. Interviewing a man cemented in a decade of numerous hip hop albums and singles; Luke Boyd a.k.a Classified.

Classified is set to release his 12th album this winter and hopes to shed some of his life experiences with his fans. I had the pleasure to sit down with Classified to talk about his inspiration for this album and hiphop.

With a plethora of tracks;

In addition to life experiences, Classified attributes his progress and inspiration to his close circle of friends -all of whom he has known from high school- and to his ever loving father Mike Boyd Sr. With his father being a musician he contributed to producing some of the songs on the album. One of the singles “Trouble” Mike Boyd Sr rips off a bluesy riff, one that just brings chills down your spine. Classified acknowledges his father’s expertise as a guitarist, keyboardist and bassist, as such his sound is sprinkled over Classified's hot beats.

The album also features one of Detroit’s best Royce Da 5’9, with such collaborations and an album filled with head bumping beats produced primarily by Classified one can only bite their finger nails until this album hits stores.
Classified flips the coin and states that’s his message is “be proud of who you are, togetherness and community is important”. That is the importance of hip hop and he claims that is what he learnt from hip hop. In view of this he tries to make sure his music does not aspire to the misogynistic, narcissistic world view of hip hop we hear and see on radio and T.V.

As every hard working artist Classified has slated a European tour with Royce Da 5’9 and D-12 all from Detroit. After his elaborate European tour he plans to start a Canadian tour where Canadians can embrace the MC/Producer.

Anybody Listening by Classified
Trouble by Classified

Happy New Year to all of you and hope 2009 brings the best in your life.
2008 was very eventful; bailouts, election surprises and natural disasters. We held our own, but in retrospect 2009 will bring more surprises. As we keep on chugging through the calendar year hopefully we will come to realize that the fantasy world our music and movies keep feeding us will eventually run out. In terms of real and creative music with respect to hip-hop I will list some artists that are set to release new albums in 2009.

We will start with K’Naan , who is scheduled to release his sophomore album untitled “Troubadour”. The single “ABCs” was pre-released late 2008 and has been gathering some attention. It’s an album everyone should look forward to due to his African influence and spoken word format expressed in his music.

How can we talk about Canadian hip-hop without mentioning K-os, he is set to release his fourth album in March. The album is untitled “Yes” and features a single called “4, 3, 2, 1”.After a huge follow up with his previous album “Atlantis: Hymns for Disco”, we should keep biting our nails until the album hits stores.

In the crust of the city of multiculturalism there lies a rising star with music flowing through his veins. He has gathered much attention in Toronto and keeps pushing the bar up as far as hip-hop is concerned. He is Miles Jones; DJ, producer, emcee, songwriter and the owner of his own label Mojo Records & Publishing. He released an LP in 2006 called “One Chance” that kept heads bumping and limbs moving with a dash of inspiration. He has had the opportunity to open for the legendary KRS-One and Raekwon from Wu-Tang Clan, not forgetting Thunderheist . He is set to relesae “Runaway Jones” in March 2009 and with the launch of this album there is no doubt he will be turning heads in Canada.

Moving south of the border, the black star of hip-hop Mos Def seems to be gathering strength like a rolling snow ball. When it comes to movies he is classified as a top notch actor and with so much compassion for fellow human beings he continues to be active in serveral social and political problems. He is set to release his fourth solo album in February of 2009. “The Ecstatic” is the title of the album and seems to be loaded with beats from Mr Flash , Madlib , Chad Hugo , J Dilla and others.

Hailing from Ghana and residing in Brooklyn, NYC Blitz the Ambassador is set to continue his brand of rebellion and hip-hop into the dawn of uncertainty. After opening up for sharing the stage with KRS-One and Slick Rick, Blitz has captured the ears of the people and continues to build a movement that understands the virtue of music and specifically hip-hop. His album “Suicide Stereotype” is set for release sometime this year hopefully in March.

Notable mentions include Zion I “The Takeover”, Kae Sun “Lion on a Leash”, J-Dilla “Pay Jay” and Stephen Marley “Mind Control Acoustic.”

K’Naan – Soobax
K-OS – Rise like the Sun
Mos Def – Life in Marvelous Times

When it comes to pop culture all our information comes from television, MTV, Much Music, BET and as evident most of the nominations are people we have been seen repeatedly on TV and heard on the radio. I would like to start with best rap solo performance which has Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Lupe Fiasco, Nas and Snoop Dogg. As much as one would like to think that this group is filled with big guns; with the exception of Lupe and Nas we have a bunch of egotistic men who have nothing to offer the youth of today and society in general. Jay-Z is an intelligent man that has a drive to be great but only in the materialistic realm; Lil Wayne is a boy-man trying to deceive the world by saying he is the greatest rap artist alive, with songs like Lollipop, I beg to differ. And may I also add that Lollipop was nominated for Best Rap song. I refuse to even venture to talk about Snoop Dogg an old school icon that has drifted to the level of impotence. With regards to substantial issues I would rate Lupe and Nas as “Egyptian Pharaohs.” I have always commented on Nas’s depth and intellect. Mr Lupe has lyrical rhyme that has always been phenomenal. My verdict is Nas will be robbed of the chance of getting his first Grammy, and Lupe will not be able to handle the star powered irrelevance of “The Three Stooges.”

The Rhythm and Blues category is also lacking any form of depth, with the exception of the nominations of soul great Al Green and Rapheal Saddiq. The other mentions namely Neyo, Eric Benet, Keshia Cole, Jennifer Hudson, Boyz II Men, Jazmine Sullivan, Usher, Trey Songz, Chris Brown, Beyonce all represent the era of “all about flash” and no substance. Rhythm and Blues, a music genre, which was once full of spirit and substance, has been reduced to Club music. I wonder what the panel at the Grammy’s were thinking, I guess it has become more of a popularity contest than celebrating music artists who produce work that is meaningful and artistic.

On the Rock-N-Roll side, things weren’t any better, The Eagles, Bruce Springsteen and AC/DC headline the old school guys. Coldplay, Radiohead, The Raconteurs, Kid Rock and Metallica were on the young side of fifty. I must applaud Coldplay and Radiohead for trying to instill some ingenuity in most of their songs but then again I think all the names mentioned lack substance and zeal. Not to forget also that Coldplay was just sued by Joe Satriani for plagiarism.

Record of the year was quite interesting, Adele, Coldplay, Leona Lewis, M.I.A, and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss headline this category. M.I.A had a very dynamic album; the rest of the pack still didn’t do it for me. What are the prerequisites for album of the year? Can anyone answer that for me? I thought it was suppose to have a positive influence on society, say like Marvin Gaye’s “Whats Going On” or Bob Marley’s “Exodus”.

The state of music is really deplorable, I think there is plenty of blame to go around, but majority lies on us, we need to step up our intellect, we can’t settle for mediocrity. We must strive to achieve the best spiritually, mentally and physically. I think that will enable us to differentiate irrelevant music from substantial music. “I Kissed a Girl” is a song that should not gather rave attention and awards, can we please stop acting indifferent to impotence, and rise up to relevance and purpose.

Chasing Pavements by Adele
Paper Planes by M.I.A.

2008 has been a very defining year for the world in general; a week ago we just saw one of the world’s greatest empires elect a black man as president, we were also close to having the first woman president, a massive bailout plan was laid out for the rich folks on wall street and witnessed the investment industry sink just like the Titanic. I could keep going on and on, I don’t think the world has seen so much change within a span of a year.

I guess the closest we have ever seen this world in such turmoil was during the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War and the Cold War. In retrospect these times were saddled with an inspirational arts movement, you had most but not all music artists contribute to telling the world what was happening during those times.

Fast forward to today, people are losing houses, jobs, wages, loans and investments and no one is telling their stories be it musicians, politicians, journalists. How can this be? Due to the fact that I am a musician I would want to focus on music artists in general.

America has produced more role models in popular culture than any country I can remember, whether good or bad that’s another debate. In this century we can name a few, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kanye West, Akon, P. Diddy, Lil Wayne etc.

None of these so called artists have decided to shed light on the drastic measures facing everyday people. I find it really insulting when these artists come out with music that has no relevance to anything that we are facing other than the night life. The argument I hear is that such music gives people an escape from their problems, but how can you solve your problems by part taking in music that has no purpose? I am sure there are better ways to escape your problems, plus if one doesn’t face their problems head on like a matador how we can solve them?

As we stand right now I don’t have the capacity to sit down with some of our major popular artists to school them on what’s affecting the world. On the other hand I can reach out to you and tell you to ask for more from all musicians. Be it Kanye West or the new kid on the block, there are only two types of musicians, good ones and bad ones, not popular and underground. In my opinion, 95% of the artists we listen to today on the radio and watch on television are bad.

My people we should raise the standard for all musicians, don’t give them a pass just because they make groovy and catchy music with uncommon nonsense. My advice goes out to all genres of music. We need musicians who will talk about social and economic problems facing everyday people, we need musicians who talk about the beautiful and ugly shades of life, we need musicians that educate, that inspire, that transform. That’s what we need people, don’t settle for mediocrity.

Life and art are connected to each other in a way that certain artists try to depict in their music or visual art. Marvin Gaye did it with his concept album “Whats going on” in 1971, talking about injustice, hatred and suffering in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Curtis Mayfield are other musicians that followed suite in their own right.
Fast forward to 2008, I caught up with Kae Sun a Ghanaian born singer, songwriter, poet and rapper based in Hamilton/Toronto,Canada, currently working on his full length LP entitled “Lion on a Leash”. The title struck a chord with my conscience, since its is a metaphor for social issues that affect humankind in this day and age. Issues which include poverty, child soldiers, oppression, drug addictions and a plethora of social vices. I had the chance of seeing the video,”Lion On The Leash”. The words of the song were so powerful and direct I decided to share them on this post so everyone could share in his message of truth and inspiration.

Lion On A Leash Lyrics
They wait till we dead before they honor us
Guess they tried to put some fear in us
You can’t keep a king inside a cell, can’t hold a lion on a leash.
Brave, brave hearted people
Speak on all you see thats evil
Speak when some not treated equal.
Wise grow wiser, Strong grow stronger
Declaring righteousness over yonder,
Don’t let them mould your mind,
They can’t hold a lion on a leash.
Sleep walkers walk on, Day dreamers they dream on
They put the fuel to the fire, know that these times they require
Those who seek to serve mankind in everyway, loving everyday
Hear what our Fathers says, don’t take the mark of the beast , no.
Don’t take the mark of the beast , don’t.
Some will knock you down and try to trample you
Others try hard just to conquer you
They’ll try to take a sage for fool
They’ll try to steal the dreams of our youth.
But even when we fall we rise and carry on.
Through the highs and the lows wherever the wind may blow, wherever the wind may blow.

“Lion On A Leash Video”

“Kae Sun @ myspace ”

You can’t cage a human spirit, you can’t cage a human being through stereotypes, lies and greed because eventually, the lion will break through the leash…some day, some way, some how.

Lion on a Leash by Kae Sun

Living In The City by Kae Sun

Necessity is the mother of inventions they say; in the heart of the Bronx in New York City a Jamaican born DJ looped some rhythmic patterns on his turntables and hip-hop was born. The year 1971, birth place 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, Bronx, New York. This was the beginning of a cultural movement. With other DJs such as Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Flash and Jazzy Jay modifications were made such as scratching and cutting. This innovative development lead to people saying stuff lyrically when the beats were playing in the background which is now known as rapping.

That was just the tip of the iceberg, other modifications were infused in hip-hop which we now call the five elements. The elements being Rapping, Djing, Graffiti, Breakdancing and Beatboxing.
The main use of hip-hop during the 70’s and early 80’s was for reporting social issues in the community stemming from the civil rights movement. This educated both the black youth in America, the politicians and the world. This trend eventually tailed off with violence and drugs taking over in the communities especially during Ronald Reagan’s term as president. With commercialization, hip-hop was mutated into a misogynistic and narcissistic genre.

Fast forward to 2008, hip-hop has transformed into club music with no moral values and no conscience. Now its acceptable to praise vices that undermine our society. Issues such as teenage pregnancy, drugs, violence, and love of money. A couple of years ago Nasir Jones aka Nas said “Hip-hop Is Dead”. I totally agree with him, everyone that listen to hip-hop doesn’t know the history and thinks it always has to talk about negative issues.

In view of that the are a handful of artists that want to keep carrying the torch of clean and positive hip-hop. Everyone listening to hip-hop I urge you to look for these artists. They are hard to find because the radio stations and video channels on TV wont play them, but seek and you will find. As a music writer I am happy to at least give you a list of some artists that are willing to provide the public with positive, clean intellectual hip-hop:

Louwop
Kae Sun
Shad K
Sublime Temple
Heat
Leighton
Masia One
Nifty
Rasoul
Miles Jones

Some MP3s:
The Message by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five

Split Second Time by Masia One

One 2 Check by Louwop featuring Shad

“Reach for each other and say, hey neighbour love will bring us through” these are the words of Amanda Davids, a Toronto born musician, who defines herself by her unique sound. Her music reaches out to the past and present combining soul, funk, jazz and hip hop. As a pianist and a vocalist she really captures the essence of an artist.
I had the opportunity to see her live at the beginning of the year and I was amazed at her piano skills, and a voice that would be loved if she sang during the 1970’s. Her show was filled with blues riffs and classical elements. So I decided to inquire a lot more about the gifted musician. Her influences as she mentions are Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Oscar Peterson, Etta James, Beethoven and Rachmanioff, and current musicians such as The Roots, Herbie Hancock and Christina Aguilera.
Her songs are filled with emotion, as is her writing process; she claims “It’s somewhat of a release of emotions or thoughts that had been created by life experiences or even a piece of music she might have heard.” Her songs off her demo CD were meant to “convey a message of strength, thereby inspiring people to stand for what they believe in and not be afraid to do or say what they may have to.”

Canada has a market for rock bands and “rock and roll” so for artists like Amanda Davids and the like getting out there can be a huge hurdle. On the other hand she feels independent artists have a great deal of power and freedom to create the album they want and contact their fans directly. Thus downloading music is a great promotional tool, which allows independent artists to get their music out, have it heard and reach audiences that normally would have no access to their music. The internet allows a forum in which artists can reach their fan base directly, receive direct feedback and sell their work.

After touring earlier on in the year Amanda decided to take some time off and work on her debut album, since she was tired of carrying her 50 pound keyboard throughout the country. The album should be out by January 2009, an album that she is producing herself featuring her touring musicians Shai Locke on guitar and Dj Xplisit on the turntables and beatbox.
Miss Davids was friendly enough to share what she has been reading and listening to, “I love Herbie Hancock’s work new and old…I have Herbalizer, Medeski Martin and Wood, Codex and Aretha Franklin on my mp3 player right now. As for books, I love fiction and currently I am reading The Golden Compass.”

There has never been an artist that has given us consistent and controversial albums than Mr Nasir Jones a.ka Nas. As a seventeen year old Nas gained the attention of the hiphop world with his 1994 debt album Illmatic. The classic five mic album that gave birth to one of the all time greats with respect to rap music.
Fourteen years later we have his latest release titled “Untitled” this album has sparked great debate since October 2007. Politicians T.V networks musicians have all been in the debate. A debate that is bound to continue as a music critic I was intrigued by the whole concept of the album and wondered how Mr Nasir Jones would pull this off.
I decided to take a listen to the album hoping to wander in the world of lyricism and controversy.
The album starts off with “Queens Get The Money” I guess a little Electronica and some word play from Nas “…shaky hands that touch George Foreman same hand that punched down the devils that brought down the towers”. Typical wordplay from Nas that makes you wonder if all rap music was informative the art form would be respected.
Nas has a perspective on history the next song gives us a nice guitar riff with that blues feel. The hook embodies a horn section with a sample quoting the famous black author James Bladwin “…you can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a nigg*”. Rolling through, the single of the album called Hero is a blast. Its something one can listen to when they going through hard times once again Nas shows his inept respect for history mentioning the great Bob Dylan as a testiment to what music should stand for.
America an unusual title for a song yet Nas paints America with his brush and paint through his words. A truth in many ways describing what goes on in the projects of America the economic situation and some of the terrors America has left in the past. The record continues with the most controversial song on the record Sly Fox. The song talks about how the media especially FOX News is presenting Black America in a wrong way.
Halfway through the album Testify Nigg* Untitled delve into major topics that float on music productions by Mark Batson D.J Toom and Stic Man from Dead Prez.
Mark Ronson the famed music producer with Amy Winehouse appears with nice horns and guitar lines to set up a satire song called Fried Chicken. Busta Rhymes appears on this song showing us why we always loved his flow. The final third of the album features Project Roach a jazzy tune in which Nas uses tools of literature to tell a story of black people. The last two songs “We are not alone” and “Black President” are the perfect tunes to end this concept album. “We are not alone” produced by Stic Man from Dead Prez is a beauty full of soul and a catchy hooky that everyone can sing. We are definitely not alone in this world. Finally “Black President” is a song that features the voice of democratic presidential candidate Barrack Obama.
Overall all this album has knowledge and information for everyone all over the world. The album features language that might prevent some people from listening to it but music is meant to inspire people to do something good and this album does exactly that, so go get yourself a copy. I definitely give it 4.5 stars.

Black President by Nas ft. Johnny Polygon