arts & entertainment
Serge Severe Releases Second
Album with universal dJ Sect
‘Back on My Rhymes’ features a soul, funk
soundscape with Severe’s distinct verse
By Brian Stimson
Of The Skanner News
S
erge Severe wants to break out.
With his new album, “Back on
My Rhymes” out and an album
release party set for Feb. 18 fea-
turing Manimal House— a live,
nine piece funk band – as his
back-up band, it’s not hard to see
that he means busi-
ness.
The album, pro-
duced
with
Universal DJ Sect,
is Severe’s second
solo record, a work
that features some
of Portland’s best
and most accom-
plished hip hop
artists – Destro,
Braille, Gen. Erik, Illmaculate,
Luck One, Cool Nutz and Theory
Hazit. The Animal Farm member
is pushing his music career into
overdrive, hoping to break out of
the Northwest into the music halls
across the nation.
Set against the backdrop of 60s
and 70s soul and funk – from
Universal DJ Sect’s private collec-
tion — Severe says the samples
Sect provided have helped inspire
“Back on My Rhymes” to form a
self-reflective album about life
and the current state of hip hop.
Severe’s release show will start
at 9 p.m. at the Ash Street Saloon
with additional performances from
Mic Crenshaw and Destro & L
Pro.
Severe
sat
down with The
Skanner News to
talk about his
influences, his
father’s legacy,
finding fans in
Portland and the
DJ that has
inspired his best
work yet.
the Skanner news: Tell me a lit-
tle about “Back on My Rhymes”
and the work that went into it?
Serge Severe: It mainly starts
with my DJ (Universal DJ Sect),
who is the producer, he produced
my last record, “Concrete
Techniques.” He has a really deep
collection of vinyl that dates back
and is heavily focused on funk and
soul records. He has thousands of
them. He’s providing the sound-
scapes for me. I write in a number
of different ways. I’ll have some
rhymes already there and they’ll
match up to the tempos and beats
or I write on the spot if the beat is
speaking to me. There’s a couple
of different ways we go at it.
tSn: Are there any specific
artists who influenced your work
on this album?
SS: We’re really into the ’90s
hip hop… I’m really into the
DJ/Emcee combination. One of
the first tapes I had was Pete Rock
and CL Smooth and so that was a
big influence. “Get Started” with
DJ Premier and Guru, and Guru
just passed away, actually. Dr. Dre
and Snoop. Stuff like that.
We’re just really trying to focus
on … people try to label it the
“real hip hop” and stuff, but we’re
just trying to do what we’re into,
what we think sounds good.
tSn: Do you get much say in
the beats and samples Sect gives
you?
SS: Yeah, he’ll have a rough
draft of it, then I’ll come in and
Catch Serge Severe Friday at the Ash Street Saloon.
help co-produce. He’ll have the
loop or the arrangement, I’ll say
like ‘Can we move the beats over
here, so we can actually get a
whole song out of it?’ He’s finding
all these dusty old samples and
looping them up and I’ll have
some ideas, like, can we make that
be the chorus melody, and this can
be the bass, and maybe some
scratching would sound good
here.
tSn: I thought the use of funk
and soul along with your verse
really made the album pop. It real-
ly works together. Fantastic musi-
cal choice. I dug it.
SS: Yeah, I give him (Universal
DJ Sect) all the credit. Without
him … I mean I know other beat
makers and stuff, but the material
I’ve done with him, people have
been really responsive to. He did
the last album (“Concrete
Techniques”) which is similar to
this one but with a darker edge to
it.
tSn: What do you like to talk
about in your songs?
SS: I like to talk about hip hop
and what’s going on in it today. I
figure if you always speak about
what’s going on in the culture
you’re involved in, then it won’t
ever really die. There’s a lot going
on in hip hop culture that is not
exactly true to the form it was
started in … I’m not saying it has
to always remain a certain way. I
think one of the best things about
See SeVere on page 12
N ew Fe at u r e
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Page 8 The Portland Skanner february 16, 2011