I went to a Talib Kweli concert and a fight broke out.
Standing at the front of a packed out club during a live performance is treacherous territory for the vertically challenged, over protective boyfriends defending their date, and anyone unprepared to hold ground. Videographers and photo journalists vying for position, avid fans running on the energy, drunken patrons oblivious of themselves mixes into a beautiful Molotov cocktail of art, love, and liquor. And on the rarest of occasions, ignorance. Those in constant need of a refill are better off standing near the middle, or better yet, the back. The easily offended need not apply.
To keep it one hundred, technically it wasn’t a Talib Kweli concert. It was an Idle Warship show -- Talib Kweli’s newish labor of love with long time collaborator and soul moving vocalist Res (pronounced Reece) and Toronto lyricist/songstress Graph Nobel. The trio has recorded and performed select spot dates together for roughly three years but stepped up their exposure in 2009 with a European tour and the release of their full length offering, Party Robot (a free mixtape download). Following their amplified Southpaw performance, Graph Nobel broke down the meaning of their name for The-Quotable:
“Idle Warship is a play on words, like you have this warship that is capable of doing so much but its just sitting in space and time and can’t use its abilities. It reflects on what record labels do to artists. A lot of powerful talent just sits there. For us, we took a break from our own careers, you know, maybe sometimes we kind of felt like that. Coming together made us feel powerful and excited us all on our own, as a group together and in our own careers separately. It rejuvenated something for us.”
For core fans of Talib Kweli, Idle Warship is a complete detour from whats expected from the Brooklyn lyricist. This is dance music. This is party music. Complete with electric keys, funky bass lines, and axe riffs emphatic enough to force you to pull out your air guitar. Kweli’s sublimely garrulous flow is still on full display, but this project also finds him toying with his own style of crooning. “We just put [in] all collective music influences and we don’t limit what we’re trying to do. We just let it flow” Talib stated following their set.
According to www.yearoftheblacksmith.com (the website for Kweli’s record label, BlackSmith), Idle Warship does not “believe in labels for music” because “labels may stop you from hearing something before you listen to it.” When asked about the irony of this statement considering the fact that he is the head of his own record label, Kweli stated “Its not on BlackSmith yet. Its free. We’re just having a good time. Just enjoying the music.”
It most definitely shows on stage. Idle Warship commanded Southpaw’s near capacity crowd for all forty-seven minutes -- coercing them into their web of dance music while still making room for each member to perform their own solo jams. They moved like they were having fun. As if they were thoroughly enjoying themselves. As if the pressure of performing was divided by three. Each member shined, although at times it felt like the Res and Kweli show.
The audience loved the set. Heads knocking all around. People were packed in like a Tokyo subway commute. Asking for anything more is straight Bernie Madoff (greedy). And thats when the curly brown haired girl in the plaid shirt drunkenly strutting with her boyfriend in front of me set it off.
After continually bogarting those of us up front (stage right) for position for the majority of the show, homegirl elbowed the wrong chick. While Donovan Ka5p, Niles and I and everyone else in the venue were engulfed in un-idle worship of Idle Warship, a manicured hand shot around my right shoulder, grabbing a chunk of curly brown hair, snapping back the neck of Ms. Too Toasted!
Chick Fight!
I backed up. Niles backed up. Ka5p backed up. Every guy in the section backed up. Both chicks were with their boyfriends and both of guys backed up! The two women brawled for a solid thirty-nine seconds -- grabbing hair, mashing faces, dropping all kinds of “bitches and hoes” -- before promoter Jah C and an unnamed bouncer stepped in and stopped the violence.
Dance music. Party music. Fight music. Yep, Idle Warship has something for everyone.
Niles has this line that everyone will hear When the Clock Strikes...:
“I be the cinematic, Illmatic addict, aristocratic /
leaving rappers bluer than picture-graphics of Democratics /
based on Election Night. / Protect ya neck. I might /
swing a Gza Liquid Sword and Etch-a-Sketch ya life.”
Clearly my prose does little to accurately convey the gravity of his cadence and top-tier delivery, but if you know anything about Niles, you know it sounds official. Regardless, these four bars allude to one of the dopest aspects of Chadwick Phillips the Emcee - his innate ability to show you exactly who he is without taking too much time to explain. He’s concise and conscious and quick to lyrically get in that ass. Even stylistically, Niles is a little to the left of the rest. You won’t catch him rocking kicks on stage, opting for jeans and brown dress boots instead. Last night, while performing at a packed out Southpaw he touched down in an ill charcoal and black, velvet-like blazer complete with black tie and overcoat draped over his shoulders, Slick Rick style - Kangol tilted brim-low. “Aristocratic” indeed.
And his live show hits like Obama’s Website.
With that being said, The-Quotable is amped about his, what seems like forever-in-the-making, mixtape When The Clock Strikes XII... Honestly, mixtape isn’t the correct category for this project. The theme behind it is much deeper and much more conceptual than the average “mixtape.” I’ll stop there for now. You’ll have to wait until its release next month. Thats right, just in time for the Holidays.
Until then, make sure you check out his new website, NILESDAVIS.NET. He’s got pics. He’s got videos. He’s got chat messages. He’s “doin‘ it big”.
Also, NILES is taking it to the stage with his broadway show "WHEN THE CLOCK STRIKES XII" in conjunction with his upcoming release. Details below:
Event: The JN Group Presents: Niles on Broadway "When The Clock Strikes XII" Start Time: Thursday, December 17 at 11:00pm End Time: Friday, December 18 at 1:00am Where: Producer's Club
Check out The-Quotable's exclusive Niles interview HERE.
1. Intro 2. National Anthem 3. All The Way Turnt Up (Freestyle) 4. Yoga (Flame) 5. LASERS MANIFESTO 6. Angels Remix 7. So Ghetto 8. Say Something (Freestyle) 9. Thank You 10. The One 11. Popular Demand
Visually vintage. Vocally appealing. To say, ‘there’s something about Kalae All Day’ is more astute than this cliche conveys. From her retro afro, to her customary 1970s style shades she rocks on the reg, to her bewitching smile and enthralling laughter which seems to ease into the atmosphere like incense; the appeal of this Harlem songstress is equally subtle and obvious. On stage she’s confident and commanding, bum-rushing raps and ballads like Pam Grier. And although she sounds much more compelling singing than she does rapping at this point in her young solo career, the fact that the art of emceeing only entered her repertoire a little over a year ago is encouraging to say the least. Already Kalae has shared the stage with the legendary MC Lyte, Jean Grae, and recently won Brooklyn Bodega’s October Show & Prove. She’s also performing alongside Talib Kweli, Niles, and others as part of the Idle Warship showcase at Southpaw on November 28th and has an album on the way entitled Afromatikneohippierock*solemuzik. “[The title] came about from people asking me whether I sing or rap. And I be like “I do everythang!”
Recently we got a chance to kick it with Kalae following her captivating performance at Sputnik Bar in Brooklyn. Read on as we get down to the facts on performing at the Playboy Mansion, dealing with ego, and how rocking in a choir ain’t for everybody.Microphone check, check, check, check.....
TCM: The-Quotable.com here with KalaeAllDay. How are you doing?
Kalae: This is so dope! Yo, I’m feeling great. Feeling good, feeling great!
TCM: So you’re an accomplished musician in your own right. Performing in the HarlemChoir, attending the Performing Arts School....
Kalae: [Laughs] If you want to call that accomplished, sure. Why not?
TCM: I think it is because you know, to continue at each level and move forward in chasing a dream at a passionate level and at the same time at an architectural level-because you’re learning how music is built and put together and where it comes from. So, how has you’re music experience affected your sound?
Kalae: To be honest, I went to Harlem School of the Arts when I was very very young. I was in there choir maybe from 4 to 7, I want to say. And I recall one time, being at like-I swear to you-The Playboy Mansion performing for them when I was that young. Right?The Playboy Mansion. Kinda crazy. But thats the only recollection I have of being in the Harlem School of the Arts Choir. Now, being in Professional Performing Arts School-I’m going to tell you something-that school is amazing, did not work out for me! [Laughs] Now, I learned a lot of basics from being in that school. And so, I appreciate going to that school, but it was not the right learning environment for me.
TCM: Why wasn’t it the right learning environment?
Kalae: I had a lot of internal issues and I have a problem with authority. And so for somebody to tell me how I have to sing, what I have to sing, and all this other shit-thats to me was nonsense-every single day was driving me insane! And the fact that like, I had this kind of relationship with our choir director where she saw something in me and was trying to pull it out in a way that I couldn’t deal with. Different people learn different ways, she wasn’t the correct teacher for me. So, her vision for me I respect and I understand and I’m honored she felt the way that she felt about me. I just didn’t understand it when I was that age. When I was going through high school, I was a crazy little teenager. And I’m only 20 now! But still, that was three years ago, and more. And so it was complicated. But you know, I learned a lot from doing that. And I had never actually been on stage doing my stuff. I enjoyed being with the choir, but maybe I was a little egotistical. Maybe I just wanted to do my own shit and fuck everybody else, like maybe. You know what I mean? Thinking back on it, in retrospect maybe that was my problem. Maybe I just didn’t enjoy having everybody sharing the spotlight with me! [Laughs]
TCM: Thats the problem with a choir. Theres a lot of people in them. They are a choir.
Kalae: Yeah! I was like “Shit! I should be in the front of this motherfucker!” [Laughs] But it was terrific experience. Whether thats good or bad, it was a terrific experience. If that makes sense. Now [after finishing high school], I started working. I went to college for a little while at Brooklyn College. BROOKLYN! [Laughs] I’m from Harlem. I started, lets see, the first show I ever did my music by myself was June 29th, 2008.
TCM: Where was the show?
Kalae: That was at a bar around the way on my block in Harlem. It was like a half hour to 45 minute set I did acoustic and it was amazing to do my first gig by myself. It took me 7 months to book that gig, mind you. And I did it to a track that [where] I recorded my vocals as the instrumentals. Then I recorded by verse on top of it. So like, I had absolutely nothing but like the free version of Pro Tools or Adobe Audition. Thats what it was called. The Free Trial, I did that shit on. I booked that gig and from that gig came a slew of other gigs. And so I feel very honored that, in one year, I’ve accomplished enough to be on stage with MC Lyte, Jean Grae! What the fuck??? I’m nobody! I feel like I’m not worthy!
TCM: So this is moving kind of fast for you. You’re career as a solo artist has been fairly short.
Kalae: Its been a year and a month. And a month and a couple days. [Laughs]
TCM: Is that scary? Is success intimidating at all?
Kalae: Its intimidating for other people. [Laughs] I feel like this is how its supposed to be, a natural progression. And when I say this is how its supposed to be, I’m still completely humbled by the experience. Without a doubt, I can’t believe it. At the same time its like I know this is my destiny so I’m accepting it and letting it be.
TCM: Speaking of that, thats what I took from [The Pedestal Song]. Where did that song come from?
Kalae: The Pedestal Song comes from dealing with ego. I was very introspective in high school, like during the couple of last years. And I was trying to learn about myself and try to figure out why I was fuckin’ up. You know what I mean? And I figured out one of those reasons was because of my ego. And so, from learning how the ego works and how dangerous that shit is. And it helped me notice it in other people, and study it in other people, it really made me wanna....I write about it a lot. I talk about it a lot. But thats only because of personal experience. I mean the song is just...I put it in a way where I’m talking about a man, but really I’m using the man as a representation cause we all have ego. And thats why we “gotta humble ourselves, it wasn’t just you, you got some help.”
TCM: Yo, it comes across. It comes across in the song. Plus, its a banger. It gets the heads knocking. It feels good.
Kalae: Yeah, thats everybody’s favorite. I love that song.
TCM: But now, you’ll switch it up, though. You’ll kick rhymes then you’ll sing ballads. Which is more natural for you?
Kalae: Which is more natural? Singing, because I’ve only been rhyming for a year! [Laughing hysterically]
TCM: Really? Wait, how’d that even work its way into your sound?
Kalae: [Still laughing hysterically] Alright, so let me tell you how this went. Speaking of Lupe Fiasco. The first time I heard a Lupe Fiasco record, I was in high school. I remember thinking like, ‘shit yo! He can rhyme!’ Everything he said painted pictures for me. It was beautiful. First and foremost, I would have to say that I’m probably a writer. I love to write. I love to write anything. Anything you want me to write. I love writing, okay. So for me it was a natural progression of me writing my songs and my ballads and stuff like that to me writing in a more dynamic way. And it was like, I need to keep my voice up with the words that I am writing. And so, I was very influenced by my nephew. And he goes by the name KlaeFace, which is K-L-A-E. Isn’t that hilarious?!
TCM: Word? Okay, how old is he?
Kalae: He’s 25. And yes, I’m 20. He’s my nephew. So what? Now, he had these beats on, right? They were on a tape, okay. This is back when, I think I was 15.
TCM: Whats that 2004? He had a tape in 2004?
Kalae: I know, it wasn’t that long ago. But he was recording onto a tape. And he’s doing a mixtape that he dropped in Honolulu or some nonsense, right? And I was like “yo, let me get on it.” Just being silly, and he let me rhyme. Like, I was rhyming some of the lyrics I had written for another song. And, I mean I was terrible!I don’t know where that tape is but I’d never show it. I was terrible! Now, he’s laughing at me, of course. And so, I was like, okay, obviously I’m not a rapper.
Fast forward a couple of years later-I met this other dude-Pete Hype. He’s an amazing rapper. He became a really close friend of mine and I asked him “how do you rap?” And he was like “you just do it.” And a light bulb just popped up on the outside of my head. Now of course I didn’t just all of a sudden become a great rapper. What would happen is that I would just sing my lyrics real fast and then eventually I learned how to take the harmony away-cause I could always sing fast. I could always do that kind of stuff. So I was like “take the harmony away, take the melody away, take the melody away.” And then I took the melody away and then I was rapping. And I was like “Yes! I can rap now!” And I still struggle with it, I gotta be honest. When I write a rhyme, I have to practice that shit. I practice that mutherfucker, okay. And then I say it smooth, and I put the swagger on it and everybody thinks I’m a rapper and I’m like, “yeah baby, I’m a rapper!”
TCM: Lots of time in the mirror with the hairbrush?
Kalae: Not really.
TCM: No?
Kalae: No, I’ve never been a brush-as-a-mic person. Did you even notice that I don’t hold the mic that often? I like it in the mic stand.
TCM: I did notice that.
Kalae: I’m a mic-stand-kind of girl.
TCM: Thats gotta affect your swag a little bit, though. Since you’re rhyming now, you gotta get that B-girl into it.
Kalae: I’ma try. I’m going to work on it some more just for you.
A couple weeks off a cleverly arranged West Coast tour, the six-foot-five-inch Queens lyricist swags across the Fifth Avenue veranda of the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building exactly on time for this interview. Its a blazing ninety-one degrees outside. Midtown banker’s and lawyer’s and other corporate citizen’s decked in business suit pants and rolled up button-downs or those fancy T-shirts women get away with wearing to the workplace; sit sporadically around the two of us, escaping the office for a too brief bite to eat.
Trademarked Fu-Manchu reaching from his chin, unshaven head revealing a young man’s George Jefferson-style bald spot, walking like a ball player. Visually, Homeboy Sandman is the picture of earnest confidence. He smiles when he talks to people. He speaks with a calm yet shifting cadence, complete with detailed sidebars and supportive tangents, always managing to bring the conversation full circle.
After a quick exchange of ‘what ups’, we migrate down 40th Street towards the library’s backyard - Bryant Park - this conversation’s location.
Armed with a perpetual positive attitude, hater-proof humility, and an inherent charisma designed for the bright lights; one would expect the artist born Angel Del Villar (Jr) to be successful in any field of human endeavor. His boarding school education at New Hampshire’s Holderness School (part of New York City’s Prep For Prep 9 program) taught him the value and breadth of perspective. His Ivy League experience at the University of Pennsylvania reinforced the fact that, in life, “things are the way you see them.” His father, prize fighter-turned-lawyer, Angel Del Villar Sr., instilled the virtues of relentless determination. With that type of pedigree, supplanting a legal career for a life rocking the mic wasn’t a risk for Homeboy Sandman. It was a necessity.
“I withdrew from law school to be an Emcee. And I can’t even fathom...I say to people do you think it would’ve been more crazy to stay in law school and become a lawyer when I wanna become an Emcee? I mean, I WANNA BE AN EMCEE! How can I stay in law school? But people are very nervous and stuff.”
Such a loaded decision came rather matter-of-factly for Boy Sand. His combination of seemingly limitless confidence, self actualization, and an envious work ethic has yielded an impressive amount of success in a rather short time frame. In the two and a half years since The Pterodactyl first took flight he’s already graced The Source’s Unsigned Hype section, the Chairman’s Choice column in XXL, Loud.com’s $100,000 Rapper Challenge finalist, and received critical praise for his two full length LPs (Nourishment Second Helpings and Actual Factual Pterodactyl). “I love [my career trajectory], man. Everything’s going according to plan. Everything that I’ve expected to happen is happening. All I’ve expected from the beginning is to make Hip Hop music that I would love to listen to. I know that people who love Hip Hop are going to love this.”
Stylistically, Homeboy waits for the beat to dictate the delivery. Where a rugged, tongue twister flow, on the rumbling “Comrade Punski” for example, screams of Big Pun, a melodic, beat embedded delivery such as the one mastered on the jollily genius “I-tunes Song” or “Kain News” embodies Eminem. Even his slow flow has Internet commentators kicking JadaKiss comparisons. The irony is that none of those legends truly rhyme like each other. So when Sandy states that he’s “a poet with no flow in particular. / Lines of parables parallel, / perpendicular,” that's exactly what he means.
But whats most refreshing is the conscious blend of style and substance. Neither is sacrificed for the other. Every panache laced lyric is loaded with contextual relevance. Hilarious tales of impromptu Mambo dance offs; or “Extreme Measures’” detailed depiction of a radio station hijacking; or “City Darker’s” vivid image of the New York City under belly; or scathing, braggadocio cypher rhymes like “Us and Them” or “Lightning Bolt. Lightning Rod” all connect directly with the listener. All flow like a cascading fountain full of words. This marriage between rhymes and style is intentional. Homeboy describes it as “lyrics so dope you don’t need the flow; flows so dope you don’t need the lyrics.” And as he sees it, as long as his records remain fresh, then nothing else matters.
“The only way you can lose what I’m building up is by putting out wack records. I don’t have to worry about anything else. I don’t have to worry about how I dress. I love wearing comfortable clothes everywhere. I don’t have to worry about what I say...The first song of mine that Peter Rosenberg ever spun was “Airwave Air Raid.” And he spun that on HOT97. The first line of that song is “First you got your HOT97 arsenic.” I don’t even have to change that! The first time I did the S.O.Bs. “Whose Next” I did that song. I don’t have to change anything. I could go straight up to people and say ‘Yo, I’d love to do your showcase but I’ma diss your thing’ cause my music is what I fall back on. People want to be strategic. I’m not for all that. [Fear of] ruffling feathers is for the birds.”
Now stepping into the next career phase; shifting from necessarily seeking out opportunities to show case his talents to his talents bringing opportunities directly to his inbox; Homeboy Sandman has reached the point where his raps clock revenue. Word of mouth and a live live show has generated constant growth in online and in-venue CD sales. The name Homeboy Sandman is now large enough to ensure audience turnout, allowing him to include a performance price. And his rhymes calculate enough buzz and Internet hits that he now charges for verses. “Its not untrue that featuring me on a song is gonna get people excellent exposure because people that love real Hip Hop are gonna wanna listen to it to see what I did on it. That's a valuable thing. And I’ve always said that I won’t charge for verses, I’ll charge for time.” But the biggest contributor to his finances is the influx of private investors.
“This is where a lot of my income has come from, this is why I was able to go to SXSW, this is why I was able to get my trademarking done. And this works for stuff that costs money. This is why I was able to get a computer. When you believe in yourself and you’ve proven yourself to be an uncompromising person, that inspires people so much that people want to fund some of the stuff you’re doing, man. I’ve not had to worry about so much of the money that's involved in this because I have people that literally contact me from hearing me on Squeez [Radio]...being impressed enough to do more research, being impressed enough by the research they did to say, ‘this guy is different from everybody else, anybody else. If I can help this kid, I’m going to, man.’ I have a couple of people that help me on a regular basis.”
Two and a half years in, write ups in the two major Hip Hop magazines, two critically praised LPs, four rap related sources of income, one uncompromising positive outlook; it is all going according to Sandman’s plan. “He doesn’t feel avarice.” He’s certainly not average. Everything seems to work out for The Mayor. Even potentially devastating situations are intersected by the forces of favor and opportunity.
Unbeknownst to most in attendance at this year’s Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, Homeboy Sandman was abnormally unprepared for his solo set. “I had to do these Shawn J. Period records...I got the beats a week before and...didn’t get to finish the verses up until 1AM the night before the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival. I’m never nervous before a show, but before this show I was nervous because I was like ‘dag, I don’t know if I know this stuff.’” After spending the hour and a half between Second Stage hosting duties and Main Stage show time attempting to learn the lyrics to his songs, he persuaded himself to attempt an extremely risky strategy. “Maybe I’ll just read out the book, yo...I said to myself ‘would Black Thought do this?’ And I was able to visualize him doing it. I was able to visualize him doing it! When I told myself yes he would do it, I answered the question for myself, I was 100% gonna do it.”
As celestial intervention would have it, on his way back to the festival grounds while practicing how he planned to open the rhyme book without dropping the mic, Sandy improbably crossed paths with his mic idol, Black Thought himself talking to DJ J. Period. “When I saw him, I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t expect to see him. Fifteen-seconds ago I made a decision based on thinking, ‘what would Black Thought do?’ Here’s Black Thought standing right here on this corner!” He quickly interrupted the conversation and posed the question to The Roots’ legendary Emcee.
“He’s like ‘aight, whats the situation?’ and I broke it down to him. He said, ‘I don’t think I’d do it. And I don’t think I’d do it given the type of show it is and given the grand stage of it. I wouldn’t do it. Don’t let me tell you what to do.’ I said, ‘Yo, you ain’t telling me what to do. I just asked for you to be here and there you were. I’m not going to spit in the face of destiny.’ The only thing in the whole world that could’ve stopped me from doing that was Black Thought telling me not to do it.”
Then theres the time he was nearly evicted from his Queens apartment. “The first time I was supposed to be evicted...I owed over $4000 and I was about to give up in court.” Taking advice from the court clerk, he decided to fight a little bit more. “I got until the next month [to pay the back rent]. I got home that day, saw the email for the Tag Records competition in Harlem that I did and won a $5000 prize. That same day! I kind of knew...that I was going to win $5000 that day.” Not only did he pay off his debt, but once he returned from his west coast tour, a friend offered a great rent on a house in The Bronx. “I’m getting a crazy deal on two floors. I’m living larger than I was before! Granted I need to take the train to the bus and its a little ways, but that don’t bother me. I’m writing rhymes the whole time anyway. Everything always falls into place, man.”
Success seems to be in the cards for Homeboy Sandman. From his upbringing to his education to his innate confidence to his sonic originality to rocking as a cornerstone of one of the hottest online rap teams (the AOK Collective); luck intervening before disaster strikes is a product of preparation uniting with opportunity. His laser aimed focus on growth supersedes the burden of besting himself. “Doing new things is whats very important. I’m not trying to best what I did yesterday. I’m trying to grow.” He’s even rocking mics and interviews without hiding his bald spot these days, a visual testament to his maturation. Whether its his unique rhyme technique, or his crowd drawing live show, or his critically praised albums, The Mayor has “Mixed and Mastered and mastered all the disciplines”; bringing rhymes to life while making it seem routine. In the world of TheGood Sun, there truly is no spoon.
As we bid our ‘Peace Outs’, simultaneously exiting this interview and Bryant Park, Homeboy noticed that his wallet (containing his cash, ID, and Metrocard) was missing from his mesh camouflaged shorts. The two of us urgently searched the park grounds, retracing our steps for seven minutes or so, all to no avail.
Scratch that. Most things work out for Homeboy Sandman.
Founded within the walls of a Wall Street cubicle as an escape from the pimp-hand of Corporate America, The-Quotable.com documents Hip Hop culture from a journalistic perspective.
We don't cover what’s hot. We cover what’s RELEVANT.
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Add that to a growing network of artists, event managers, producers, photographers, fashion stylists, and writers - and well, it’s only a matter of time before The-Quotable's #1 on everybody's list.
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