The Very Good Agency

Omar Musa – Australian Slam Poet

I stumbled across this article the other day and thought it’s worth noting that the Australian scene is opening up more to the art and culture of hip hop. Omar Musa took out the title and $5,000 as the prize money for the Australian Slam Poetry championships.

Good to see poets coming up locally…

you can check out more if Omar Musa at:

His myspace

…bs

Tags: Australian Artists, hip hop, Poetry

Raashan Ahmad Interview

Pataphysics caught up up with California based MC, Raashan Ahmad, this week on life, music, Australian customs and other stuff… here is a basic copy of the transcript (as best as I could type it while playing it back to be precise).

You’ve had an interesting career so far, tell us a little about your journey.
Yeah man, I’ve been MC’ing for like 10 years now for real, ‘rappin since I was a little boy, walking up the street talkin to the beat, but I started to take it seriously with a group called Crown City Rockers putting out an album “Natural Phenomenon” in 2001(and ‘Earthtones’ in 2004).  Along the way I’ve just been touring consistently around the states and made it to Japan a couple of times also. I just released my first solo record called “The Push”, and now i’m just trying to make it bigger and better.

How did you get into Hip Hop, and who were your early influences?
I grew up in mid city L.A. going to a public school, and hip hop is and was the voice of the young generation. I was listening to the more conscious hip hop like NWA, Public Enenmy, KRS ONE, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Souls of Michief, Pharcyde, all of the Native Toungues, I’m a big fan of hip hop in all of its forms.

What do you know about Australia & New Zealand and our music?
Hardly anything man to be honest, i’m not really up on game at all. Thanks to border security and our tour manager not organising entertainment visa’s for our Crown City Rockers tour there a few years ago I’m not really up on it at all.

Raashan Ahmad – Peace

You’ve worked with some great artists in your career so far collaborating and touring, who are some of the most memorable for you?
Have to say maybe when I was on tour with Digable Planets, which was an amazig experience as it was, but working with their keyboardist, Bryan Jackson,  you know I got to do a song with him playing flute on the track, that’s probably gotta be one of my favourite memories, being in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere with an Mbox rapping with one of those cats who made some of my dad’s favourite songs.

You have come out with your debut solo album “The Push” after such a long time on the scene. How do you feel about the album and what can we expect?
I absolutely love it, this album was kinda like my selfish album, when I was making it the conscious album hype was going on, I think you can have conscious lyrics and dance at the same time, you can love the girls and do it all. I have a  song about mum passing on, my kid being born, thanks when the rain lifted, a track called “Fight” about George Bush, a track for my love for hip hop. I tried to make an album that showed more then just one side of me as an artist, but me as a human being.

Who’s playing in your headphones at the moment?
Right now i’m listening to this Wale Mixtape, i’m still listening to the Blue and Exile record,  Q-Tip ‘The Renaissance’, I’m really listening to ‘The shape of broad minds’ by ‘Jarrell’

If you could rock a jam with any cat from history who would it be?
Oh Man, Damn – that’s rough dude… dead or alive doesn’t matter??? probably Billie Holiday – i’d just like to sit in a room with her and just get the vibe she’s like so sad, and beautiful, I could just like stare at her.

So what’s coming up next for Raashan Ahmad?
I’m Touring Australia and NZ dude – I pretty much covered USA last year, so i’m just trying to get out there further and make some more music, put out another mixtape, and the Crown City Rockers new record is coming out, so play some more international shows, make some more music, open up some new minds and get turned onto new things.

You can check out more from Raashan at:

www.myspace.com/raashanahmad

…Pataphysics

Tags: hip hop, Interviews

What About Me – 1 Giant Leap

The first post I am making for 2009, (oh yeah, Happy New Year people!) is a documentary series comprising of a TV series, film and album, created by two visionary filmmakers. Duncan Bridgeman and Jamie Catto travel the world with the goal of creating the biggest global music jam in history in ‘What About Me’.

The movie(s) tells of their journey travelling through 50 locations to create a universal piece of music, while interviewing some of the world’s leading actors, musicians, and activists. Departing from the typical Hollywood model, the two filmakers also take the time to interview some of the world’s unsung heroes they met along the way, “weaving original musical collaborations with soul-searching conversations and stunning imagery.”

‘Collective insanity’ is one commonality these film-makers have touched upon as they interact with people from all walks of life. That although we as communities have different music, lifestyle, opinions, and cultures, we are all instinctively drawn towards the same emotional, practical, and spiritual needs, in order to survive and co-operate as societies.

‘What About Me’ – Series Trailer

The DVD is an album of 11 short films each featuring a piece of music and a theme and a twelfth feature-length film that plays the films continuously. The double DVD will also contain the seven TV episodes as a companion to the short film. With artists such as Michael Stipe, Will Young, Brother Speech of Arrested Developement, Carlos Santana, Maxi Jazz, Alanis Morissette and K D Lang among many others, this art work is sure to be worth a watch for appreciators of music and humanity, if that’s not too broad.

You can check the series out for yourself at:

www.whataboutme.tv

and for those of you in Australia at the moment, ‘What About Me’ will be airing on ABC during January and February.

Special thanks to www.ilikemusic.com for the interesting review they posted on this series.

…bs

Tags: Documentary, Political, World Music