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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
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