We are updating the website this weekend, so please understand if things are a bit harder to navigate than usual. Monday it will be running smoothly!
R
Saturday, November 28, 2009
WE ARE UPDATING THE GETBLOG!
We are updating the website this weekend, so please understand if things are a bit harder to navigate than usual. Monday it will be running smoothly!
R
Friday, November 27, 2009
THE GETBACK MIXTAPE VOL. 1
The Getback Mixtape was recorded over the course of one week, in Getback Studios, West Oakland. Ok, I'm making it sound way more official than it was. We lived in a busted ass HUGE flat on 22nd in the West, and Chinaka, myself, ADA'Clock, N.I.C. and Daveed Diggs decided that our new crew THE GETBACK needed a mixtape to launch our efforts. So many jokes and stories surround us making this mixtape, but you can hear both the fun and the dedication in it (I think, personally, me myself)
RAFAEL CASAL - AS GOOD AS YOUR WORD LP
AS GOOD AS YOUR WORD - RAFAEL CASAL'S DEBUT LP
If Rafael Casal could turn on his heels right now, and prizefight his first 23 years, jostling shoulders with his triumphs, demons and paradoxes, it'd probably sound a lot like this album. Casal's debut work, As Good As Your Word, is a collection of personal epiphany. But like anything worth a listen, his personal realizations are complex. They are bruised but victorious, dark and joyous. As Good As Your Word is a study in Casal's contradictions, for the Johnny Cash listener in the cipher, for the pacifists bearing arms, for the lovers who cheat.
Hip-hop artist, rapper, spoken word artist, slam champion poet, and founding member of the Getback Crew, Rafael "A.D." Casal is one of those artists that command attention almost immediately. In an era where ring tone music, lyrical deficiency, and dirty words dominantly pollute the airwaves, he offers a clean break by offering a new voice crisp and rich with swagger, style, and craft. Rafael's lyrical ability maintains a perfect balance between literary integrity and indisputable wit, offering a beguiling new force in both the spoken word and hip-hop worlds.
To capture that range of emotion, Rafael's Hip Hop had to expand to include Bluegrass, Jazz, Metal and Soul. He rhymes with wit, and sings with urgency. When hype will suffice for most emcees, Rafael has to go deeper. Casal is first and always a poet, and while this album isn't spoken word pieces over beats, implicit in the lyricism is his spotless writing. The kid's a literary beast, and you can hear it in every bar. He's murderous on tracks like Bang Ya Head With It, Donchawannabeastar, and Like Your Style, where rhyme meets beat and his flow works overtime. There's more there, though, and songs like Jealousy, July 17th and Temptation are where Rafael bleeds himself for the listener, showcasing his spare but captivating lilt. Not just vocal talent, but responsible for the majority of the studio production, Rafael Casal's work is mature beyond his years.
As Good As Your Word is the back story on that maturity, his autobiography in progress, the soundtrack of this Bay Area native, fighting himself in a sound booth.
"The point... is to make music that gives the harmonies we all grew up on and loved, paired with lyrics that don't expire, that move you with the song. There are points in the record meant to make you happy and.. free, some to let go, some to focus in and dissect something that has provoked me, to get mad with me, to feel all my emotional extremes because... we all have emotional extremes but don't always have the words to let them out. It's about creating music that gives us a vessel for all of our releases, and the variety of the record reflects the variations of my personality. I am both happy and miserable, excited and frustrated, brilliant and ignorant. My record is the process, and it's recorded for folks to hear because sometimes all anyone needs is confirmation that we are ALL in this state of processing ourselves and the world around us. Our humanity is valid, I think we often forget that. The record is my attempt to connect with people on as many different levels as I possess. take a listen, discover the connection. "
ABOUT CHINAKA HODGE
ABOUT CHINAKA HODGE
Chinaka Hodge graduated from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study in May of 2006, and was honored to be the student speaker at the University’s 174th Commencement exercise. Her manuscript, For Girls With Hips, released in May 2006, is in its third publication. Hodge received co-writing credit for Scourge, the third full-length theater work featuring Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Chinaka was also a member of the U.S. Artist Delegation to the World Social Forum in Narobi, Kenya in early 2007.
RAFAEL'S "WOW, WHERE AM I" MOMENTS IN MADISON
Periodically I hear/see things in my temporary home of Madison, WI that have me saying "Wow....Where the fuck am I???"
Small town Midwest life is so very...very different. And to think, every other day someone compares Madison to my hometown of Berkeley, CA! .....No, sorry Madison, but you f•cking WISH.
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