Suriname In Ebony

Buku, a huge archive of books, articles, photographs, and paintings that relate to the history of Suriname has made it impossible for me to get anything done lately. The above is a 1967 issue of Ebony about the racial diversity of the country that remains even after half the population moved to the Netherlands soon after 1975.

"Why come here for a story?" queried the sixth 'Black Dutchman' I met.
"Isn't Suriname a multiracial country?" I asked. Don't all of the people live together in harmony?" "Yes."

"Wouldn't you call that unique in a world torn by racial strife?"
"Perhaps so," mused the man who takes his way of life for granted.
Forty-five of the next 50 people I interviewed agreed that they live in a peaceful coexistence under a flag made up of five stars representing the five races of mankind; that in Suriname, East meets West and the twain is an elliptical orbit on the flag joining the stars together. The dissenting five are not so sure. With the coming election, Surinam's racial paradise is threatened by a power struggle between the two dominant groups: the Creoles, mixed blood (no matter how dark) descendants of African slaves who head that bauxite-rich nation, and Hindustanis, the east Indian descendants of contract laborers who have passed the Creoles economically, are catching up with them educationally and overtaking them numerically.

Read the full article here.

(Found via Afro-Europe)

Coming 2020

My new hobby is making fake dream book covers.

Whos Down?

???????????

D.C. Not Dodge City Part 37

Lissen Band - Touch It (from Lissen Bootleg 2009)

The Beat! Go Go Music from Washington D.C. was very recently put back into print, along with a new edition of great photographs from the scene from the last 15 or so years. This summer while I was an intern at Stop Smiling magazine, we got a copy and excerpted a great piece from the book on Go Go and media/lack of media. Local zines and websites covering the scene when many of the Washington papers ignore it completely. The excerpt went up on the web today, and I suggest you read it. Stop Smiling is pretty much the only music related non-D.C. magazine I know of that has done much in terms of covering Go Go, as shown in the D.C. issue with Anwan Glover gracing the cover. Correct me if I'm wrong though, maybe the Fader has something? Xlr8r? Anybody?!

And while we're at it, Lissen band does Missy Elliot, very well.

"I'm Sad, Man"

Killer Mike's new column over at XXL A History of Violence gives a little insight to why Chicago didn't get the Olympics today. I for one am happy, as many others are here on the South Side. Mike should write a book, seriously.

As Nasty as Fi Wanna Be aka Daggering Fuss PT II

Original lyrics to Vybz Kartel and Spice's Ramping Shop

Well, yuh haffi ram it hard

Di cocky nuh fi lie

Damage it fi spite

Not becah mi pussy tight

Suppose mi put it pon di lef

Gyal yuh tek it pan di right

Censored for radio revised lyrics to Ramping Shop

Well yu ha fi rev it hard

Drive it full speed and crash it if you like

Da gear stick ya feel rough

Put di car inna di garage

Drive in front way or back it up

Til di headlight show.

Some listeners will claim that these lyrics are 'cleaner' than the original since Kartel and Spice are pretending to be talking about driving rather than sex. The lyrics are 'suggestive' rather than sexually explicit. But even without knowing the original lyrics, it is quite clear what the version is supposed to suggest. The gear stick is obviously meant to be a penis. The garage is the vagina in which the car is parked.

(From the Jamaican Gleaner March 29th 2009 "Daggerin' With Cleaner Lyrics")

I've been trying to keep up with the censorship issues in Jamaica and trying to pay less attention to the Pon De Floor video internet controversy. The Broadcasting Commissions ban states "There shall not be transmitted through radio or television or cable services, any recording, live song or music video which promotes the act of 'daggering', or which makes reference to, or is otherwise suggestive of 'daggering'." Now, throwing tables at women is not something I support, but free speech and sexual dancing between consenting adults is. Notice I said consenting, and that first part is sort of complicated when I hear Man to man, gyal to gayl dats wrong in the Ramping Shop intro, but hey I chose to listen. How these cleaner lyrics about "cars and garages" will stop people from bending over I have no idea, and I think Horace Andy said it best: “I don’t think it’s right to play those kind of lyrics on the radio, cause if you beep it out, the kids still know. My daughter is four years old, and she knows every word of Rampin Shop.”

Interestingly enough, the Gleaner article points out the Latin origin of the word vagina which means sheath or scabbard, a housing for a knife or DAGGER. What surprises me is that most vulgarity in Jamaican culture that I'm aware of is more rooted in physical repugnance (like "bloodclot") rather than Germanic words like "fuck" which are a lot closer in relationship to "dagger" for they both involve some kind of striking (or thrusting).

To be continued...

Murder Dog Goes Digital

New to me at least, there are now free digital issues of Murder Dog available on their website. While I love print magazines, MD can be kind of a pain in the ass to find, and their subscriptions sound sketchy. Only one up so far, but Quik and Kurupt have a nice article, and the photo section has a great interview with Shemp of Photo Doctor Graphics, who designed such great covers as Chingo Bling's They Can't Deport us All and Mac Mall's Thizziana Stoned and the Temple of Shrooms. Diplo and Baltimore House all stars articles too? Pretty good issue for the most part.

Lookin Ass

DJ Nate - Forgive Me Remix (from ?)

I just noticed XLR8R is the first so far magazine to post anything about DJ Nate. Unfortunately I don't think they know anything we don't already know, but it's good there is some press out there on the kid. My guess if anybody out there owns some of his mixes they aren't sharing them with anyone and listen to them alone in their room with a healthy supply of Amphetamines, which is really rude.

Cloak and Daggering

The Jamaica Star paper ran an article about the crazy diving into spread legs craze known as Daggering. An islanders point of view that takes on the opinions of those abroad viewing it as "barbaric". While it's pretty crazy, the opinions I have read from Americans have been a little more than uninformed. A few sites claims Daggering is just a violent form of sex that is breaking Jamaican men's penises, a few a week! I could definitely see how diving off a stage to hump someone could result in an injury, but it's a dance, and it's been around for a while even. "Dem fi know seh a we job a do. Is jus' our way fi mek money but some a it a stunt. Nuff a wah gwaan nuh real. We rehearse it so we know how fi land and how fi hold the woman dem so dem don't get hurt. Sometimes the move will go wrong, like when Marvin knock out the girl," to quote Garth Sample from the article. Interesting thoughts on women in Dancehall as well.

Good Press Lately

Few articles I've enjoyed in the past week...

XLR8R ran an article in the latest issue on ZZK records in which they are taken on a journey by everyones favorite Avant-Cumbia hooligans to the crews favorite haunts in Buenos Aires. Really makes me ask myself, what the fuck am I doing in this frozen shithole known as Chicago?


Said Magazine also ran an article I missed back in April on everyone's favorite Midwestern goth kids "Yes We Really Do Smoke Crack" Salem. Highlights from the article/interview:

*John: In a lot of white trash towns where we’re from kids are into that for some reason. They like to torture animals and cut themselves and bleed into cups and worship the devil. That’s everywhere. In small meth towns that’s really big. The Midwest has that on lock.

*“There is this song called ‘Haffa’ that I made when I was really, really high on OxyContin,” says 20-year-old Jack Donoghue, the main beat-maker of the triad. “I don’t think I would have been able to make it sound like that if I wasn’t.”

*Donoghue tells me straight-up that the last band fight was about member John Holland smoking crack in the bedroom (he’s supposed to hit the pipe and blow out the bathroom window), and all agree that the only drug they don’t really like is weed.

The New Fader is also full of some good stuff, Including Rupture's article on Dominican Mambo star Omega and Cheif Boima's article on "proto-Jerk" youngin's D-Lo and Sleepy D.

Grape Tapes

Big Moe, Bird, Demo, Key-C, Yungstar, Pokey, Haircut Joe, and K-Luv - Da Streets Ain't Right Freestyle (from DJ Screw - June 27th 1996)

The infamous 37 minute screw track that made the world turn slow to go along with one of the best Rap ads I've ever seen. Many thank yous go out to Kid Slizzard over at the great Twankle and Glisten for these scans for those of us who are too cheap to risk the janky subscription to Murder Dog.

Hustlin Since 91

Backyard Band - Wanksta (from Blackout Sunrise unknown year)

Finally grabbed a copy of the DC issue of Stop Smiling, one of the better magazines out there today. It came with a nice CD of Backyard Band bootlegs including a cover of a Pack song thats hilarious. Andrew Noz did a nice job on his Go Go primer, and the Anwan Glover interview is great. Photography is top notch too. Due to walking around today with headphones blaring conga funk, I was reminded of one of my favorite Backyard Band tracks. I love the way they emulate the ice cream man sound of Curtis' jumpoff single, and the drumming is sick as ever.


Eventually, I'm going to put up every Backyard Band song I have on here.

Throwedbacks

I really hate to be a blog parrot, but I can't resist throwin up this story Slizzard was kind enough to transcribe from Murderdog. I need to start buying that magazine, every article and picture I've seen has been great.

Z-Ro on hanging with DJ Screw from Murder Dog Vol. 12, Number 2:

I remember he took me to the Cappa Beach Party and it was my first time going to some shit like that. At the time Screw was a celebrity like a muthafucka and he already downplayed that shit. He would never even trip off that shit. He was like "I'm gonna pick you up and we are gonna go to the beach party!" I was trying to get to the barbershop and get a fade right quick. He came to pick me up and before we even got out of Houston we was sippin lean like a muthafucka. Before we got out the neighborhood we was leanin like a muthafucka! I'm in the back seat leanin, there was someone in the back seat with me and he was leanin asleep and Shorty Mac was in the front passenger seat and Screw was driving. About 15-20 minutes into the ride I fell asleep. I woke up in the back seat and I was looking around. I looked to my right side because I was sitting right behind Screw and I looked at Grace and he was snoring. I look in the front seat at Shorty Mac and he was snoring and then I looked at Screw and he was snoring asleep and he was driving! The shit was so fucked up because Screw had his arms folded like he was the passenger or something, but he was driving. I couldn't do nothing but scream because we were about to go to the guard rail. We were in the middle of the bridge and the guard rail was getting closer and closer real fast. We were in the far left lane, but we were headed for the far right guard rail crossing the whole muthafuckin freeway. I was scared as a muthafucka!

Screw opened his eyes and he was so calm and cool! This nigga put his pinky finger on the steering wheel and got the car under control with his pinky finger. He looked in the rearview and smiled at me real fast. That was my first time going to the ghetto beach party and that whole weekend was full of shit like that. We were coming out of the room going to the Big Pokey concert down there and we were in the elevator all leanin. Once we get to the ground the doors open and we were all asleep in the elevator standing up. The police were standing right there when the doors opened up. They were like "Man, you are all on that shit, huh?" I was tryin to close the doors like a muthafucka! It was funny like a muthatfucka!

Codeine Country

Just dug up this great article from the Houston Press during the Screwston boom of 2005 on Codeine music history in the city of syrup. The fishing for codeine story is pretty amazing. Been trying to re-find it for a while but it turns out it wasn't in the Chron.