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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 3, 2004)
M (iddlefihlD GOI.I COUHSK __ 942-8730 4841927 STUDENT SPECIAL . GOLF 9 HOLES *10 Students Only. Must show ID. (Monday - Friday) a LUNA open Tuesday through Saturday at 4 prr 30th East Broadway (541) 434-LUNA Event info and more at www.lunajazz.corr KING QHIII -TFT l\ll*y VmJ iwr Lh I Lm I pfjjp FREE POOL m m 99 WEST BROADWAY BBd MM 683-3154 Hip-hop artists triumph in Akword Experience' The Portland-based artists give the genre a good name By Aaron Shakra Pulse Editor Every genre has its believers and non believers; those who will praise, and those who will deride, those who will criticize and those who will deny its sta tus. And while hip-hop's birth cannot be traced to any significant event, the best releases now represented by the genre have grown past mere showofif flows, diss-fests and pointless rants about booze, cheese and women. At its best, hip-hop is a tool of empower ment, to inform and promote peace. "The Ak word Experi ence," a re cent release from a group - of Portland based hip-hop artists, serves as a prime example. On the track "Real Thingz (featur ing: MyG)," one flow goes, "1 give re spect and learn to live with my defects / build strength out of my weakness es to build up this power in humility inherent in my weakness." And then the chorus, "Real things / relevant to our struggle / real things / can't let the cycle crumble / real things." REVIEW ZERZAN continued from page 9 redemptive and a really big deal, because it expressed such deep values. Now, (and I think it's pretty sad), but who believes that? Maybe it's kind of the end of the symbolic thing when | people realize it doesn't really deliver as much as we thought. It doesn't stand up to what's going on in society Emerald: Is the creation of art nec essarily rooted in desire? Or is it possi ble for art to come from our relation ship with nature, or something else? JZ: Sure, it's possible. I just have this feeling there wasn't a need to represent things, or objectify Apparently, people were satisfied with just digging nature, just being in nature, and having a real, full communion with nature, if you Courtesy “The Akword Experience," released by a group of Portland hip-hop artists, uses music to educate audiences. TTie track "Mind CNTRL (Featuring Mic. Crenshaw and Gen.Erik)" tackles the issues of a media-oriented culture that keeps the masses distracted. It opens with a sample of a man saying, "The American people are conditioned by network TV,-by local news, to believe their communities are more dangerous than they actually are," before "The most powerful weapons keeping our minds controlled / distracted from the essence so we can't find the soul." And later, "We procure weapons to ensure protection, when the only thing that's guaranteed is death." "Manifest D.estiny (Featuring will. And I think when you start losing it, then you have to paint it, rather than live it. And, of course, that's a big gener alization, but you can kind of chart that progression and see that some thing is slipping away, and problems are emerging, and then the symbolic is emerging at the same time. One seems to be there in lieu of the other. Emerald: Do you think there would be fewer artists today if, on the whole, we had a healthier relationship with our environment and surroundings? JZ: I think so, in a basic way. For ex ample, writing — I look at it the same way. I'm a writer. I've written various books, and I'm not stopping being a writer. I could say "The Case Against Writing" just as easily, and I have, actu ally. I'm doing it in the same kind of situation. I am cut off from nature; we're cut off from these natural Habibullah)" is one of the album's most empowering tracks, with lyrics such as, "We're all equal / not a person who's less than me, let's go ahead and manifest our destinies. We'll fulfill the maxi mums of our potential / We want to be free but that's all in the mental." One downside of this release is per haps the instrumental accompani ment, which seems entirely com posed of computerized beats, loops and sampling. More creative use of these techniques would have helped, or perhaps even the integration of live instrumentation. Still, there are no table efforts. "Dreamz (Featuring Beau Bryan w/SNAUFU) uses a nice Latin loop, but beyond the introduc tion, the music fails to match the stel lar flows. Other interesting tracks are "Maximize" and the all-instrumental "Sacrifice," the album's closer. Essence is a theme that runs through out the 16 tracks of "The Akword Expe rience." More than anything, it is the in tention behind the words which must be recognized. This is the hope for any piece of artwork that attempts to move the listener to action. More information and free tracks from the release are available at the Web site http://www.Sparkl200.com. Contact the Pulse editor at aaronshakra@dailyemerald.com. connections, and that's why we perse vere, in terms of art or writing, or what ever it is. That's why I'm not saying it's bad. But if there was a disalienated world, would we need to do that stuff? That's really the question I'm asking. Emerald: So you are writing to find a way to reconnect yourself with your surroundings, nature, and the environment? JZ: Yeah, as part of a movement to challenge the society and replace the society to where that would be possi ble again. To stop the destruction of the natural world and be able to re connect with it, instead of all the pil ing up the mediation and standardi zation and all of the rest of the awful stuff that's going on. It's got to be stopped. And that's why I write. Contact the Pulse editor at aaronshakra@dailyemerald.com. J bREGON DAILY EMERALD your irvtlependertt student n ewspaper of your Humanities or language requirements this summer at Mt. Hood Community College! 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