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From dailyillini.com, 4/30/2007 Riding in fast cars with a Cowboy Monkey Category: Music By Phil Collins The Chicago hip-hop group Animate Objects returns home for a show this Thursday at Cowboy Monkey, 6 E. Taylor St. Their debut album, ?Riding in Fast Cars With Your Momma?, features 11 songs built to rev your engine. Bassist Prashant Vallury took some time to field On The Town?s questions Monday night. OTT: Animate Objects won the right to play the Rock ?n? Vote show last Thursday at the Double Door. Did the show itself rock as hard as your poll results? PV: Correction, we won the thing. Kinda like Juice to Rejus in the 2008 BCS Championship game. Book it. OTT: You?ve played many of Chicago?s hotspots, do you have a favorite place to jam? PV: Have f?d? We?ll play. OTT: Does your music change much in the live setting? PV: Yes, mainly because we often have no clue what we?re playing to begin with. OTT: Do you have a favorite song to play live? PV: ?Der Ring des Nibelungen? OTT: Do you miss playing frequently in Champaign since making the move to Chicago? PV: Absolutely, Champaign is home for us and will always be. Plus, if I said no, Nate Jones from Brother Embassy would have my head on a stick. OTT: What should fans expect for Thursday?s show at Cowboy Monkey? PV: We have a powerpoint presentation on the effects of glacier moulins on the ever-changing global climate. And ?Der Ring des Nibelungen.? OTT: Does Animate Objects have anything in the works for the future? PV: We plan to open a lint recyclery/Turkish bath in Mahomet after our days of playing are over. But for the near future, we have a tour of Singapore in the works, a showcase at the MTV VMA?s, and a second album to record. Catch Animate Objects at Cowboy Monkey this Thursday starting at 10 p.m. Cover is $5 and Treologic will also play.
The Lyrical Lounge gets an exclusive peek into the minds and personalities that represent Animate Objects, a crew that sets out to call attention to questioning accepted social norms of work (music), love and life. Their name and music is an active social commentary, and Angelica LeMinh gets to the sum of their hearts: ALM: What is your take on hip hop love songs? While ?Beautiful? channels The Roots? ?Silent Treatment,? ?Slow? reminds me of BEP (before Fergie) ?Feel.? Wondur: If you look at all music, there is probably no other topic covered more than love. Nowadays, cats are so caught up with being thugs they forget about love. Artur: Love is timeless, universal. No matter what the genre of music, love will always be floating around. I need to look into death metal love songs, shit should be interesting (smiles) Prashant: I personally liken ?Beautiful? to the remix of ?the Hypnotic? by the Roots feat. D?Angelo (Men in Black Soundtrack). And it?s ironic that you bring up ?Feel? by golden-era BEP. That song was one of the main inspirations for writing ?Slow.? You?re extremely good at this! DJ Mabbo: ?The Light? is one of my top 10 of all time. A great hip hop song is a great hip hop regardless of the subject. ALM (sidebars with CZAR): I just had to say that I love the part when you say, ?what a beautiful scene, (she) walked in with such a beautiful weave.? But can you speak on what beauty is to you? CZAR Absolute: (chuckling) Just a heads up, that?s ?beautiful lean? not ?beautiful weave.? ALM: Shucks, you caught me joking, but seriously though, how do you walk in with a lean? Is that some pimp limp shit? CZAR Absolute: (laughs) With a swagger, not necessarily limping, but with a little swing in the hips, a little sway, you dig? I guess it?s possible to lean a little bit if your weave is heavy. )Beauty is the ability to make a positive transformation from our innate beauty to that which surrounds us. We all have the potential to better ourselves, and we become that beauty when we become that change. Wondur: Beauty to me is a rolled blunt on a summer night, or when you are in a moment so hard that you feel it everywhere, anything that makes your senses feel good. Brian: Beauty is an amorphous concept in our society today because so many people are trying to rebrand it or turn it into the latest hot button issue. Since so many things in our society ?must? be dumbed down to black-or-white issues, there are rare occasions for grey area, interpretation, or personal taste. It?s like the state of radio today, but don?t even get me started on that. Artur: Beauty is unconditional acceptance, non judgmental and always forgiving. Prashant: Anyone who has soul and passion is beautiful to me. Freedom is beautiful. Yams are beautiful. Black licorice? Not so beautiful. Aesthetic beauty is only a fraction of the package and depends completely on the product. ALM: What do you think of the Barbershop movies? Content-wise, Ice Cube as the protagonist, were they an accurate portrayal of South Side Chicago? Prashant: I?ll defer to CZAR. My barbershop was John?s Barbershop in Oak Park, IL. Wood paneling on walls adorned by baseball cards featuring the Chicago Cubs of the 1980?s and 1990?s. Man, I miss Domingo Ramos and Doug Dascenzo. CZAR Absolute: I?ve only seen the first one and it was cool, but I?m from the West Side anyway, (laughs). Wondur: I love them movies. The characters needed to be exaggerated a bit for a good story, but cats is really like that. Obviously they weren?t sayin? the whole South Side is like that block, but there are plenty of similarities with a lot of streets and people you might see. Ice Cube?s character was an honest man trying to make something of himself, and I think they got how hard that really is. DJ Mabbo: I liked them and I didn?t really think much deeper than that. Ice Cube?s cool but his recent movie roles have been pretty weak. Brian: I grew up in the Southwest SUBURBS, so I couldn?t say. It wasn?t a soul-shaking film like Hotel Rwanda, but I enjoyed it. Artur: Common GAP, why not? Wondur: It was disturbing, but honestly he has laid so many bricks in this hip hop game as the definition of a real MC that I feel like he has amnesty from callouts of sellin? out, I just hope he got paid as much as the other artist they?ve featured. Can I borrow a dollar is my favorite and I hate to hate, but I didn?t like any of the stuff he was doing when him and Badu were clickin?, but I still got nuthin? but respect for the man. CZAR Absolute: Like Water for Chocolate Brian: Disappointed? Not really, who am I to judge his career decisions? Anyone who can put his name on Like Water For Chocolate could model zebra thongs if he wants. DJ Mabbo: Can?t really hate on Common for getting that money ?cuz we all gotta eat! And at least it wasn?t Old Navy cargo shorts (laughs). It?s a tough choice for favorite album between Like Water For Chocolate and Be. Prashant: I was a little surprised, but if he is making money that he puts towards making that music, it?s all good. I?d much rather see him hawking clothing as opposed to some wannabe thug. He has made dope albums before and after the Badu-izm, but Resurrection is his best. I hope this new joint makes me reconsider that choice. Brian: There are a bunch of live hip hop groups working hard to carve out their own niche in Chicago, which is heavily rock, blues, jazz and classical. The city has historically not been very friendly to music, but with The Police performing in Wrigley Field, Lollapalooza going on it?s third consecutive year, and the tide changing in support of good music, we are finding a lot of local support and love for our unique sound. Wondur: As far as Animate goes, we?re the new hot sauce, we represent the cats that want hip hop to be more then the shit they spoon feed us on the radio. As far as heart and spirit goes, there isn?t even a close second for a city with that. The underground scene is were the city truly shines, as I still feel like without help from LA and NY Twista, Common and Kanye wouldn?t have been able to be where they are now. DJ Mabbo: I have no idea where we fit in, ask Czar. CZAR Absolute: Chicago is the birthplace of gospel, the city where Sam Cooke invented soul music, the place where house music originates. Chicago has been a center for the blues, for jazz, and most recently a crossroads of hip hop where elements of east/west coast and dirty south can be found. Chicago is a natural breeding ground for music experimentalism, growth, and evolution. I believe that Animate Objects represents this ?Center City,? which embodies change in musical sound and culture. Prashant: In the Chi, there is a commotion in the underground. We are just waiting for the first artist to break out and set us all free. If anything, hanging on to past Chi legends is like placing extra rocks on Sisyphus? collar. We cannot be compared to any past artists outside of Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., although, I would certainly welcome any comparisons to Gil Scott Heron. ALM: (sidebars about Chitown?s Peed Piper) I dare you to talk about R.Kelly. Prashant: I dare anyone to talk about R.Kelly Wondur: R. Kelly, that mafuka?s voice is so good he can tap lil? girls, pee on em, film that shit and I still be in the car singing? along to his shit, what can I say? He lucky he?s a musical genius. Prashant: I dunno. Need a ride? Brian: YOURS Artur: Yo momma for sure J DJ Mabbo: I wouldn?t know, they put me in the trunk with the gear. Steve: I am not at liberty to say due to pending litigation. Wondur: Prolly some 3 year old kid who calls his Gramma ?mom? and his mamma ?Stacy? DJ Mabbo: We had ?Battle of Now? written way before we heard Luda?s track. I want Oprah to adopt me. Art: I do not know about Oprah?s stance on anything. Prashant: ?Runaway Love? came out maybe two years after we recorded ?the Battle of Now.? I wrote the music 5 years ago when I was in a period of heartbreak. I can?t speak to CZAR?s lyrics, and I have not heard the Luda track from beginning to end. However, we are certainly aware of the similarities between the two joints. Luda was born in Champaign, IL. The original AO lineup was formed in Champaign. Maybe he heard us at a practice? Haha, you can tell him I said that (laughs). Oprah needs to cool out. Has she ever listened to ATCQ? De La? Common? She has a freakish crush on John Legend, shouldn?t that link her to some dope artists? I think she will be giving away hip hop cds as studio gifts in no time. Wondur: Man when I heard that song on the radio, I was floored. Dat shit is dopski 100% on all levels; musically, lyrically, and storywise. I was just plain proud of hip hop, which is sadly a hard thing to do with half the bullshit they put out now. Brian: I think Oprah would love our music, and we could walk over to her show anytime, the studio is practically in our back alley. I?ve never been in the live studio audience (missed out on my chance for that G6). Artur: AO is the only player and the individual merit doesn?t come first. Brian: We each bring different things to the group and the interplay of different concepts keeps us growing. DJ Mabbo: It?s real ?cuz it?s what we feel and enjoy. Wondur: To me, the real hip hop cats do it to actually express something and not just look cool, I?m pretty against cats out there simply so they can tell mafuckas ?I?ma rapper.? CZAR Absolute: I got my start performing through grassroots organizing and being part of a movement that embraced hip hop as not only an art form and a culture, but a vehicle of social change. I?m talking about a culture of visual arts (graf writing), audio arts (dj-ing), literary arts (Emceeing), and kinetic arts (breaking). Hip hop is the child of ALL people. However, I?m aware that all children must grow and as hip hop does so, those of us who represent it must embrace not only its beauty but its faults as well. Steve: To me, real hip hop comes from individuals trying to make art with what they are doing, and that means drawing on the full range of experience, lyrically and musically. That means going beyond the old, rehashed subject matter that pop lyrics have fallen into to actually say something different that expresses who you are. Brian: I feel that the media should stop using Rap and Hip Hop interchangeably or recognize Live Hip Hop as different from Hip-Hop/Rap; Hip Hop and distinguish that Live Hip Hop (like ours) is more instrumental, soul, jazz influenced music from Rap the clubby, cash/money/cars/clothes/hos radio fare. Prashant: There was a time when poets were emcees. That was when hip-hop was real. Poignant social commentary sparked by real-life experiences. There are not too many ?real? emcees out there. We happen to have two in our group. ALM: Go on and plug anything you think is important. CZAR Absolute: Unity, Peace, Love Prashant:Life. Brian: Vote for us in the iGo Audio Emissions contest: http://www.igocars.org/igoaudioemissions/vote. No more Bush. Art: GO POLAND 2012!!! Wondur: I?m Wondur the bastard son of Animate Objects, which started as a side project to me ?cuz I?m full-time with my other hip hop group Dynamic Vibrations, (album coming soon) but we?re all family, so if you see Animate goin? somewhere, DV will most likely be a part of it. I like to think that DV?s my wife and Animate is my mistress and in my house, that?s cool with both of ?em, so that?s about it? If you?re lookin? for plugs for Chicago peeps doin? it right: Treologic, Pacifics, Garden Music, Phillip Morris, Idris Goodwin, Maker, DJ Intel, DJ Pickel, Qadraphonics, Chi Sky, Network, Trump Tight, Ben Official, Verbal Kent, etc. So, that?s that! Straight from the mouths of humans. The guys are in almost complete consensus in choosing Lisa Bonet over Janet Jackson (in both categories of child actresses on The Cosby Show and Diffr?nt Strokes respectively and inspiration of Lenny Kravitz and O-town songs, though one-I?ll let you guess who-said ?fuck O-town and fuck Lenny?) and range from doing all to none of their grocery shopping from Trader Joe?s. Soul music most certainly has its place in hip hop, bitches. But don?t just take my word for it, check for yourself at: www.myspace.com/animateobjects Posted 4/25/07 at www.shotgunreviews.com, The Lyrical Lounge (Hip-Hop) by Angelica LeMinhback to top : get the album! - - - - - - - Who rocks? Meet our Rock ?n? Vote finalists, then tell us who you want to see live at our free show By Matt Pais (Metromix.com) Rock 'n' Vote When: 8 p.m. April 26 Where: Double Door Tickets: Free, 773-489-3160 The poll has closed. Opportunity knocked, and local musicians answered. About 150 bands submitted demos in our fourth annual Rock 'n' Vote contest, and we whittled the pile of rock, pop and hip-hop submissions down to these 10 finalists. Now it's your turn to decide who makes the cut. Read about the acts, listen to their mp3s and vote for your faves. (Voting ends midnight Sunday.) The top four finishers will rock a free show April 26 at Double Door. What are you waiting for? The polls are open! Animate Objects Sound: Laid-back hip-hop with live instruments. What's great: MySpace friends have skyrocketed from 800 to 26,000 since September. Claim to fame: Opened for jazz-rap innovators Digable Planets. Wise words: Bassist and John Marshall Law School student Prashant Vallury on talking about Rock 'n' Vote while walking to lecture: "This takes priority over class." Listen: "El Dorado" Photo: Animate Objects ... article - http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/music/ - - - - - - - Eugene Foley of Foley Entertainment: Date: 04.06.07 ARTIST: Animate Objects RATING SCALE "1" Indicates the Lowest Score "5" Indicates The Highest Score Recording Quality/Production: 4.5 Lead Vocals: 5 Musicianship: 4 Lyric Writing: 4.5 Music Composing: 4.5 Melodies: 5 Song Arrangement: 3.5 to 4 Thanks for submitting the material for the evaluation. I enjoyed listening to the songs. To give you insight to the scoring scale above, the majority of artists score in the 2.5 to 3.5 range in the various categories. Whenever an artist sees a 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 or 3.5 as a score in a certain category (or categories) it means that's an area I feel they need to improve and develop. When someone sees 4, 4.5 or 5 as their score in a category, that tells them, to me, they are in the professional league and have strong potential. It's a validation from a pro, letting you know you are doing a fine job. Every artist should work hard to earn 4.5 to 5 in every category. It's a very competitive business and people averaging in the 3's (or less) will probably not get too far without a great deal of improvement and development. I don't give out 4's and 5's easily, so any of those you see, you have earned. Well done! - - - - - - - "Patricia Brower Entertainment Review. February 2007. Name: Animate Objects Genre: Hip Hop/RnB Sounds like: Common, Tribe Called Quest, Bilal, etc. Scores (1 - 10 ascending) Technical Grade: 10+ Commercial Value: 10+ Overall Talent Level: 10 Songwriting Skills: 8 Best Songs: Phoenix Other Comments: On all your songs your beats (live music) is slammin (wonderful). Beautiful has a nice flow to it with it's combination of Neo Soul, Jazz and Hip Hop. Midnight Blue has beautiful sound. It's definitely head bobbin music with room for slipin dance moves in it. Phoenix is my favorite. Love the beats. Like the flow. Love the lyrics. Love the story. It just flows.? Patricia Brower Entertainment Review. February 2007. - - - - - - - Animate Objects - Evolving with Emergence By Mark F. Armstrong 28.11.2005 | 18:34:59 GMT Animate Objects isn?t the first Heinz 57 hip-hop band to evolve from Greater Chicagoland, Heinz 57 being a reference to the U.S. catsup, as in every flavor under the sun. A decade ago, the hottest bump was free-wheeling, ever searching Boogie Shoes composed of a bunch of white guys primarily from west suburban Naperville, one with New England roots, and a black guy from the North Shore suburb and Northwestern University seat of Evanston; and too-ahead-of-their-time Living Colouresque Dope, characterized by an Eastern European and a checkerboard of dreads that included chalky-complexioned strawberry blond Redlox. Today, the remnants of that pioneering exists in a copy of Boogie Shoes? limited edition silver 12-inch single displayed on the Far Southwest Side at Mr. Peabody Records, Redlox?s fame as a dancehall-reggae selector on the rarefied club scene, and former Boogie Shoes headguy as a member of a watered-down version of the group that would kick off Greater Chicagoland?s hip-hop band sound in earnest Liquid Soul. In the case of Animate Objects, as a living legacy to that pioneering, it?s one black guys with dreads, mic-controller Czar Absolute (Antar Jackson); one Eastern European, keyboardist A-Dub (Artur Wnorowski); and a principal with roots in the Indian subcontinent, Prashant Vallury. So it should now read, "Other members are DJ Mabbo (Michael Mabborang), guitarist Steve Dobias, and drummer and percussionist Brian Derstine.Their more immediate Greater Chicagoland roots are west and slightly south and most recently north (with a vague exception of Chicago?s Southeast Side, an East Side is virtually uninhabitable, unless you want to crib with the fish). Unlike Boogie Shoes and Dope, Animate Objects is smoothly, more savvy in its smokiness. Perhaps it?s because, in their relatively youthfulness, they aren?t working so hard to find themselves in their music because the group solidly knows what they?re about. Animate Objects evolved by first conquering caf?-and-club circuit about the University of Illinois campus at Champaign-Urbana in Central Illinois, the equivalent of killing the people on Austin, Texas?s, urban scene without playing at South By Southwest, considering that students are that U of I campus are more starved for an iridescent live hip-hop band sound than their counterparts at the U of I campus on the fringes of Chicago?s West Loop. Back in Greater Chicagoland, Animate Objects has converted even the most persnickety commercialized hip-hop tastes at such rarefied-friendly venues as HotHouse in the South Loop, within blocks of college-yuppie Printers Row; Subterranean, in Chicago?s relative equivalent of Haight-Ashbury during the ?67 Summer of Love behind an MTV Real World invasion, Wicker Park-Bucktown on the Northwest Side; The Beat Kitchen, on the fringes on West Town; and Elbo Room, the birthplace of an acid jazz and live band scene in Greater Chicagoland, where DJ Jesse de la Pe?a presided over the musical experiments that begot the acid jazz band Liquid Soul. Like its live performances, the demo single Animate Objects liberally makes available at its gigs ?Get Back!/Phoenix? is breezy, stroking, seductive, and percolating, as in it gets your mind bubbling like a brewing pot of Columbian coffee. Those sunglasses-at-night beats and rhymes make you want to let your hair down and break out into whirling like a dervish. For those with a little history as spectators and innovators of Greater Chicagland, it hasn?t felt that good since Boogie Shoes, Dope, and infant Liquid Soul when Dirty MF was on the mic, Jesse was on the turntables, and Omega was the chirp kicking extra smoky vocals. To hep fools to what it?s all about from Animate Objects? end, Absolute Czar and Prashant represent the group via speakerphone from Prashant?s apartment in the Lakeview East neighborhood on Chicago?s North Side (we are advised that Antar prefers to be referred to by his nom de mic, although he?s referred to extensively and answers extensively to during the interview by his nom de birth). Both are tenuously patient behind weeks of scheduling tag; a Chicago Transit Authority bus driver taking his apparently operable bus bound for Chicago?s Far Southwest Side out of service, causing riders commuting from work to wait for another bus; their interviewer having to switch at one point from a battery-drained cordless to the land base of a two-in-one phone; and Antar being on a straight-up mission to handle business elsewhere. How did the name for the group come about? Antar was waxing poetic and kicking names about, and that?s the one that tickled his fancy. The name is open to interpretation. But hopefully when you see us perform live, you?ll understand that the goal is to get you to move and animate. What part of Greater Chicagoland and Illinois do you all hail from? Antar, West Side of Chicago,[near west suburban] Oak Park, Maywood; Prashant, [west suburban] Lombard, Burr Ridge, and Oak Park; Steve and Brian, [southwest suburban] Darien; Mike, was born in the Philippines; Art, from Poland. Steve, Brian, Mike, and Prashant went to high school together in [southwest suburban] Darien. So they?ve all known each other for a while. What was your demo in hip-hop music before you got it together? We started the international chapter of the [hip-hop improvement organization] Hip-Hop Congress there. We helped found it there. We brought in panelists and national acts, like the Rhymesayers. We also brought in avenues for people to perfect their craft in the Five Elements of Hip-Hop, whether it was b-boying practice, graffiti workshops. Art was producing beats for other people, Brian, Steve, Prashant, and Mike were in a band together. Brian is a jazz bass drummer, and he learned to play while in high school. But he?s been playing since he was 10 years old. Steve is a classically trained trumpet player. Mike is classically trained with a tuba. Art is classically trained on the piano. Prashant is trained on the violin and [classical] Indian carnatic vocals. Where are you all cribbing in Chicago? Antar is in Logan Square on the Northwest Side], Art is in Ukrainian Village [on the Northwest Side], Mike?s in the UIC-Pilsen area [in the Lower West Side], Steve, Brian, and Prashant in Lakeview, Lakeview East on top of the new Gramophone [record store] at Clark {Street] and Diversey [Avenue, on the Northeast Side]. How did you end up linking? Did all of you all play down in Champaign-Urbana? Basically at that point in time, there was a local organization that was holding a battle of the bands contest. And I believe they were raising funds for a battered woman shelter. And that point in time, Antar was a proponent of the hip-hop scene. The people [of the organization] that were organizing this battle of the bands asked me to come in and do a 30-minute set. However, Antar thanked them for their invitation and said since this was a battle of the bands, that it would be only appropriate if he brought a band with him. So he summoned the help of the players that he knew, and I asked Art to play keys and he asked Zirafa to play drums and someone who had worked with Antar in hip-hop activism named DJ Spinnerty. And Antar met Prashant and Steve through someone who was pretty active in the local music scene, and that person?s name is Lorenzo Goetz. Lorenzo introduced Antar to Steve and Prashant, who had played in another hip-hop band. Zirafa and DJ Spinnerty are original members of Animate Objects. Mike went to school at the University of Illinois in Chicago, and Brian went to the University of Chicago. So they were not involved in our beginning in Champaign. Mike and Brian had nothing to do with our beginnings in Champaign. After [core Central Illinois members of the band] graduating [from U of I Champaign-Urbana in 2004], Zirafa and Spinnerty moved to San Fancisco to work on a separate music project and to do their own thing with employment, their own jobs. Mike and Brian joined the band in 2004. They were in a band with Steve and Prashant, and they filled the void when Zirafa and Spinnerty left. At that point you were students at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana? Yeah. What exactly was the Triangle Battle of the Bands, and in what way did it launch you to the top of the music scene? It was sponsored by a fraternity, Triangle, out of the Champaign side of the [University of Illinois] campus. There were a dozen other bands there. And there were either signed or established in the Champaign community. It was a rock or power pop lineup, we were among two hip-hop bands on the bill. Some of these guys were known to play to packed crowds at the Canopy Club, in Urbana, which holds 600-1,200 people. We won. We had only been together two weeks, we only practiced three times. So you won outright, there was only one prize? Yeah, a $500 prize. As far as launching you to that top of the music scene, are we talking about Champaign-Urbana? Yes, the local press anointed us the next big thing. The next big thing in what and to what? They put us on par with The Roots. At the point in time we were there, we were a lone catalyst in ushering in a new age. You established an acid jazz scene down there? At that time, no one was doing live instrumentation in hip-hop. And with our liberty to be able to do that, people started consulting us about how they could be able to do the same. In the Chicago scene we stumbled across a family of pre-existing groups that were coming together to sort of build this collaboration to put live hip-hop Chicago music on a larger scale and on a larger map. You mentioned that the band?s critical acclaim has included comparisons with Common. Have there been any comparisons with other acid jazz band pioneers from Greater Chicagoland who preceded Common?s experimentation with the genre, such as Jesse de la Pe?a, Boogie Shoes or Liquid Soul? We?ve never gotten compared with them, no. Were you aware of them before you got into it? We?re familiar with them, but we wouldn?t cite them as an influence on us. What?s your take on Greater Chicagoland?s acid jazz scene? Too transient, or just experiencing a new wave of growing pains in t he new decade, new century, and new millennium? We not championing the acid jazz scene, we?re championing the burgeoning hip-hop scene in Chicago. We are championing hip-hop music and hip-hop culture. I hate to say it, but we aren?t trying to get lost in the neo-soul label. We represent the hip-hop struggle. When I talk about acid jazz, I?ve not talking about neo-soul I?ve talking about the original essence of live band hip-hop I learned from an Urb and musicians as live instruments mixing with vinyl, where perhaps you?d add an MC and a vocalist. It?s basically the blend of the DJ with instruments that could be recorded to vinyl. So what do you see as the hip-hop struggle vs. neo-soul? It sounds like it?s developing into the new hip-hop vs. rap argument, pure live band hip-hop vs. commodified live band hip-hop. As far as hip-hop music and hip-hop culture, I see it as a struggle to represent our own culture, as far as who our music should represent and who should profit from it, and I don?t mean monetarily. Are we benefiting from the music intellectually and moving forward to do better things. There?s been that delineation of hip-hop is the culture vs. rap. In Chicago, we feel there?s Native Tongues Part 2. There are a whole bunch of artists trying to get the message across that you can make socially conscious music, and that hip-hop?s not about gangsters, or what you see on MTV or hear on B96 [a Chicago pop Top 40 FM radio station] or on your favorite radio stations or at the trendy clubs. We?re just waiting for that Tribe Called Quest and Jungle Brothers to emerge You don?t need a radio edit for Animate Objects. We aren?t misogynistic. We don?t have any materialistic message. We don?t have materialist messages. We?re just trying to make poignant social commentary, that say you?re trying to learn something, that it?s uplifting or that there are people out there. We?re not trying to say, ?Hey, we?re your teacher.? We?re just trying to cover what popular music ignores. I noticed at your September performance for the Urban Dialectic fundraiser that you all have a chirp blowing smoky jazz vocals to alternate with Antar?s rhymes. What's her future with the band [Urban Dialectic is an annual urban arts conference emphasizing hip-hop]? Her name is Margaret Vagle. She?ll continue to perform with us. We?ll continue to collaborate with us. She?s studying vocal jazz performance at Columbia [College-Chicago]. And she will be featured on our upcoming album and our future live performances. Does Animate Objects have plans to permanently add a songbird or crooner to the group? No, we do like to utilize the power of singing. But at the core, we are a hip-hop group. But we?ll always collaborate with singers. When you say hip-hop group, you?re talking about purely beats and rhymes? Yes, beats and rhymes. Beats and rhymes is the meat of the sandwich, and everything else we put on top of it. Give us the background on how you ended up as founding champion contributors to Green Street Records, which caught the eye of Billboard magazine ways in 2004? That?s the first student-run record label in the history of the Big Ten. At that point in time, we were unrivaled as far as our uniqueness and as far as our ability to embody hip-hop culture in Champaign. So when they were looking for a hip-hop band to collaborate on their album, we were the only choice to be made. The album came out in 2004, we were approached about it 2003. It [the label] was affiliated with the university, but it was completely run by students. It was autonomous [of the curriculum]. And the name of the album? Emergence. How many other groups and what types? Some ten to 12 groups, representing every style in Champaign, from eclectic alt country to instrumental hip-hop. They ran the gamut You?ve opened for quite few acts, including Digable Planets. Anybody ever open for you? Nobody famous. Our third show, we opened for [former Rubberoom producers] Opus. [mic-controller] Illogic, and [DJ] Przm, and [Rhymesayers Entertainment-signed hip-hop DJ and MC duo] Soul Position. After we walked offstage, one of the members of Opus approached us and said that we should have been opening the show. When we played for Heiruspecs, the live band from Minneapolis[-St. Paul]. They gave us praise, and we were just hanging out. We talked about doing shows together in the Midwest when our album comes out. We talked with Muad?Dib, who?s like their Rahzel. Which one of Opus approached you? I don?t remember which one. I was in such shock that I was on Cloud Nine and just walked off. It?s one of those moments when you know you?re doing something right. Tell us about your forthcoming album, Riding In Fast Cars With Your Momma. What you?ll see in the album is what you?ll see when we perform, a mural of what hip-hop is out there. Hip-hip music in itself draws its strength from its ability to fuse all sort of music into itself and still maintain its own identify. You?ll hear hip-hop, soul, funk, rock n roll, jazz, all fused into one seamless entity to that which is Animate Objects, just as the diverse background of the group would suggest itself. We?re going to be poetry for the modern dancer. When is it due out? That?s the $1 million question. It?s being wrapped up now and should be out the beginning of 2006. It?ll be a belated Christmas present for hip-hopheads. It?s going to be an independent release [with] publishing, that?s it. We?re unsigned right now, and we?re trying to generate interest with the release of our own album. So is this like a glorified demo? We?re going to market it aggressively like any other album to radio. We?re hoping that a label sees our product and wants to make that investment in us. There are going to be a bunch of Black Eyed Peas wannabes coming out. We want to stay committed to something totally conscious. But we?re not going to be one of those bands that do one thing and then do another when they see dollar signs. We?re going to let everybody know upfront that we?re going to stay grounded. Just as an aside, Zirafa is signed to Risk the Rook Recordings, and Spinnerty is an acclaimed mix DJ who had his mixtape featured in Urb?s mixtape Top Ten for 2004, and he did that with DJ D-Lo. We just wanted to give that shoutout to our former colleagues. For more information about Animate Objects, visit www.animate-objects.com or www.redroomchicago.com. www.hiphop-magazine.com - Next 2 Blow - - - - - - - - WPGU/Buzz Local Music Awards Nominees Joe Martin Issue date: 3/16/05 Section: Listen, Hear Best Hip-Hop Band Animate Objects Animate Objects swiped the spotlight in Urbana-Champaign's live hip-hop scene with their funk-rock-rap mix, much like the Dream Team did in Olympic basketball back in the day. The original members, Czar Absolute, DJ Spinnerty, Zirafa, A-dub, Pras and Steve, were already acclaimed artists around town when they formed to compete in Triangle Fraternity's annual Battle of the Bands. It's arguable that they took the whole live band scene by storm when they won first place after only three practices together. The band continues to rock shows in Champaign-Urbana and Chicago with new members, DJ Naboo (sp), Brian and Wunder (sp). media.www.readbuzz.com |
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