Her latest offering ‘The Light of The Sun’ (2011) highlights Jill’s ability to produce hard hitting and powerful songs yet with undertones to the darker side of life and relationships. It is this personal insight into the reality of life, transcribed in tracks such as ‘Quick’, that draw the audience in and allows for a personalised appreciation. Overall, it is Jill’s soulful lyrics, proven vocal ability, paired with her distinctive Neo-Soul style that always ensure her tracks make it on to XVII’s sunday afternoon playlist.

missjillscott.com

-RR

It is often said that golden era of Hip Hop began with the 1986 release of Run-D.M.C’s Raising Hell, largely because of its huge commercial success. While the album was undoubtedly influential in introducing Hip Hop to a mainstream audience, to define an entire stylistic movement on record sales is to miss the point entirely. Raising Hell wasn’t particuarly different from Run-D.M.C’s earlier work – and LL Cool J had pushed the same sound further six months before that with his debut album Radio.

The stylistic shift that most people associate with golden era Hip Hop can be defined by two things. Firstly, lyrics with more rhythmic and philosophical complexity became the norm, as the civil rights movements of the 60s and 70s stalled and the growing social and economic disenfranchisement of african-american people became increasingly apparent. Secondly, the production style of Hip Hop beats moved away from drum machines and towards sampling breaks from old funk records.

Marley Marl may have been the first to realise the full potential of this approach in 1985 with his production on MC Shan’s “The Bridge”, using a cut up version of the break from The Honeydrippers’ Impeach the President. Marl initially hacked together his own sampler/sequencer using three Korg SDD-2000 digital delay units and a Roland TR-808, but the technology to slice and rearrange breaks only really became accessible after E-mu Systems released the iconic SP-12 sampler in 1985. The machine was quickly adopted by virtually every producer in New York and began to give Hip Hop a more natural, dynamic flavour.

Other than Raising Hell, several key records were released in 1986 such as Boogie Down Productions’ “South Bronx” and Eric B & Rakim’s “Eric B is President”. Breakbeat Lou’s first “Ultimate Breaks and Beats” compilation also appeared in this year, which would become directly responsible for establishing many of Hip Hop’s canonical breaks. 1987 saw groundbreaking albums by Public Enemy and the aforementioned BDP and Eric B & Rakim, but it wasn’t until 1988 that the movement kicked off proper and record companies
began to accept that Hip Hop was going through a renaissance.

Two 1988 albums that deserve special mention, and not just because of their similar titles, are The Jungle Brothers’ “Straight out the jungle”, and NWA’s “Straight outta Compton”. The differences between these two albums symbolise the split that was about to define Hip Hop for over a decade – on one hand, we have a loose jazzy record with uplifting positive lyrics, and on the other we have the impeccably produced and relentlessly articulated Compton. It also rather undermines the argument that Gangsta rap killed the golden age, since one of the most influential albums of the time was in this very style.

Next, 1989 and 1990 saw the continuation of the Jungle Brothers’ style with debut releases by De la Soul, Gang Starr, and A Tribe Called Quest. Using samples from Jazz and Soul records instead of Funk and Rock, this so called “alternative Hip Hop” – while initially commercially successful – was quickly displaced in record sales in favour of the growing Gangsta Rap genre. Releases by several west-coast artists, many of them former NWA members, began to define Hip Hop’s image on radio and TV. The artists at the forefront of this movement did not however change the production style significantly, with many west-coast artists such as Ice Cube choosing to work with classic east-coast producers such as the Bomb Squad.

Dr. Dre had experimented with the style that was to become G-funk with NWA’s 1991 single Alwayz Into Somethin, which contains many of the G-funk archetypes – slower tempo, a funky bassline, and an ever-present high-pitched synthesizer whine. Dre later expanded these ideas when he released Deep Cover, his first solo single after NWA’s breakup in 1992. This new sound would come to define mainstream hiphop for a decade, and signalled the real beginning of the end for the golden era. While alternative hiphop was evolving in leaps and bounds with follow-up albums by various Native Tongues members as well as similar acts like Pharcyde, the lack of commercial success compared to their west-coast counterparts hinted that something was about to change.

The often-cited end of the golden era is the release of Dr. Dre’s The Chronic later in 1992, but many golden era groups continued to release albums to much critical acclaim for much of the 90s. Newer artists such as Nas and Biggie began to work with long established beatmakers like DJ Premier, keeping many aspects of the golden era sound while updating the production values and rhyming style.

[an ethic many artists still continue evolving today - Ed]

-Rasteri

Rasteri is a producer and turntablist, blending classic Jazz-inspired beats with modern scratch techniques. Heavily influenced by golden era groups but with no unnecessary nostalgia to hold him back, he is sure to engage the discerning heads. His solo debut release ‘Soul before Style’ is due to drop summer 2012.

Whilst the label itself is still growing with one principle artist on the roster, J-Zen, the booking and events aspect is clearly flourishing. Having established the Dooinit Festival this trio have already booked the likes of Georgia Anne Muldrow, Ali Shaheed from Tribe Called Quest, Oddisee, Lords of the Underground, Eric Lau and many others.

With an ethic that resonates very well here at 17th Letter HQ, with great presentation, marketing and track record, this independent
collective are surely bound to continue onwards and upwards, exporting the kind of music and lifestyle we always like to see more of around the world.

-MQ

dooinitmusic.com
vimeo.com/dooinitmusic
twitter.com/dooinitmusic
twitter.com/dooinitfestival

…So it was June 2009 the first time I did an article on you guys, then almost exactly a year later when I did a follow up. What has been happening with the band since then?

We’ve just been doing our thing really… Certainly the last year we’ve spent really trying to nail down the EP and get it recorded the way we wanted it, so it reflects what we do in the best possible way – and we feel that we’ve managed to do that now. That may seem like a long time to do it, but life can get in the way occasionally, there’s no doubt about that. Of course we’ve still been playing a bunch of live shows too, which, apart from being fun on its own, also helps refine the sound.

How has the sound changed during this time, if at all?

I think the overall feel is really the same, but maybe it’s a little clearer. We’ve also done a couple of tunes with Dan Gillan, the singer on No Diggity and No Good which might give us another dimension too… Back at the beginning we were talking to a guy that had pretty much done it all in the music industry and he said of our first demo ‘although you can hear everything you want to on the record, as the writer you can fill in some gaps which a new listener might not hear’ – that resonated with us, and we’ve worked hard to make it unambiguous, what we do.

Why an EP at this stage? Did you consider putting out an album?

Do you know what, I don’t think we did even consider it. I think it’s hard for a less well known band to put out an album as it’s easy for songs to get ‘lost’ in it. There’s of course the argument that the industry is making it harder for albums as well, as our attention spans get shorter, and people buy/listen to single songs – so there’s an element of that too
I guess. The EP format makes it easier to get the message across.

Have you album plans for this year?

I think we’ll be putting out at least one more EP before we do a full album. That should give us the chance to show off some different stuff that’s not in this one, again without diluting that with too many tracks. It’s potentially easier to make noise about 2 EPs as well, it’s all about the news cycle (apparently)! Who thought the music industry was just about music?

What’s next for the band after the EP launch?

First and foremost, I guess it’s really a question of trying to get everyone to listen to it! But we’ll be playing a bunch of shows, hopefully getting out and about more geographically apart from anything else. Then
simultaneously we’ll be getting right back on it and putting the next one together – we like to take our time on these things so we get them right! (Of course I’ll need to persuade Dylan to do another cover for us too – what he did on this one is spectacular!)

-SK

theordinaryallstars.com
soundcloud.com/theordinaryallstars

He is best known for his Scotsman.com articles and has previously been based in the UK’s musical hotspots of Manchester and Edinburgh.

We sent him back to Scotland’s capital to drop in on a gig at the Electric Circus, where he caught up with two emerging bands with a lot in common – The Ordinary Allstars and Taco & The Sharpies.

Taco & The Sharpies seems to have emerged from nowhere as a fully formed band. However, you’ve obviously all been involved in music projects before, so how did it all come together?

With so many musicians in the band going through a full history would take a while! Though its fair to say, The Sharpies is the band that we have all dreamed of getting off the ground.

Having each come from a background of Jazz, Hip Hop, Funk and Soul it was natural to combine all of those musical loves and as many instruments as possible.

We began the process last year after we met to write a couple of tracks together, purely as a recording project. What started out as set of simple tracks quickly required session expertise in the form of bass players, strings, backing vocalists and input from our resident brass group the BrassCat Juniors.

It was only natural to take the band live and continue to experiment and to evolve our desired sound. As we continue to do this year.

What do you have planned for the next six months – more live outings, more recording, or a combination of both?

We are planning on touring more of the UK before headlining our first festival in France at the end of June. Being a bi-lingual band, we are all looking forward to this! We’ll also be recording with the full collective and getting the new tracks we have been working on into the live show too. Keep up with our music & travels on Soundcloud, Facebook and of course at 17th Letter.

-SK

www.soundcloud.com/tacoandthesharpies
www.soundcloud.com/17thletter

Stevie’s two part special continues with The Ordinary Allstars…

After surpassing the milestone of a decade in the industry in 2009, Rob Luis has made an enviable list of contributions to the UK music scene and wider industry. The Tru-Thoughts moniker has bought countless future-classics to the masses and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. We chat shop and ask about the secrets that lie behind label success in our regular feature – Inside View.

What is the greatest challenge you continue to face as a record label and how do you combat it?

A culture of “free” music is still hard for us to deal with. The Quantic & Alice Russell album was not free to record. We paid for some great musicians to work on this album (real strings and string players do not come cheap). So educating people to understand that buying music (if you can afford to) really does support the artists you like.

I also find the BBC national radio stations frustrating that they tend to only support major labels on their daytime playlist. There is plenty of music out there that mainstream listeners would enjoy if they got to hear it 40 times a week on the radio.

Overall though I think it is a good time for independent music. Creative artists are really separating from the mainstream and music is much better for that.

-RL

Originaly from Philladelphia and now based in Germany, Akua Naru grants us an exclusive UK interview talking about
music, inspirations, new projects and peppermint tea ………………………………….

For those that haven’t yet heard your music, please briefly define your style..

I would say that my style is definitely Hip Hop. Its Hip Hop that pays respect to the great musical tradition that gave birth to Hip Hop. Therefore, you might hear something soulful, something jazzy, spoken word…

An extensive lexicon dominates your style, do you feel yourself more as a poet or a lyricist?

I see myself as a poet. Rap is a form of poetry for me. A Lyricist and Poet are one in the same. I think this translates into my music because I am a poet and so their is a lot of poetic devices being employed. Metaphors, Similes, I try to write a lot of layers into each song. I hope my listeners can feel that.

How have your travels influenced you as an artist? Is Germany home for you now?

Every experience touches me and changes me in some way. Having the opportunity to travel has definitely impacted and changed who I am in many ways and the music is always going to be a reflection of that. Germany is where I live now, so it is home. I still have the feeling of going home when I go to visit my family, though. That will never change.

So, what initially inspired your career in music?

Everything inspired me to make music. Every person I have ever come into contact with. Every song that I have ever heard, every hour that I spent with another Hip Hop head debating albums and lyricism. Every place that I have been to. All of these things have propelled me forward as an artist, as writer, and emcee.

Tell us then about your forthcoming studio and live projects…

Well, I am working on the new studio album. I can’t say too much about it, but its coming along rather nicely and I am very excited about it. Also, I am working on a live ep project with my band DIGFLO, which should be out soon. I’m looking forward to that as well.

When your in the studio is there anything that you cant live without?

Well, I am a serious peppermint tea drinker and I need to have a lot of space to write and think along with a box of Nag Champa incense.

What music are you listening to just now?

Im still listening to Blitz The Ambassador’s Native Sun Album, The Roots & John Legend Wake Up, Stic. Man’s The Work Out, The Roots Undun.

Shout outs…

Watch out for the Akua Naru Live & Aflame EP. It will be dropping pretty soon and we appreciate the support.

Shout out to Matt, 17th Letter, and my true hip hop and soulful heads in Scotland and the UK. Peace.

-XVII

Thanks to Akua Naru and Urban Era

Website: www.akuanaru.com
Facebook: facebook.com/akuanaru
Bandcamp: akuanaru.bandcamp.com