Herald Dispatch 5/2009

May 2009 Herald Dispatch 03/16/2010
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V Club hosts 'Bring Your 'A' Game' tour featuring hip hop artistsMay 14, 2009 @ 12:00 AM

DAVE LAVENDER

The Herald-Dispatch

HUNTINGTON -- If you need any more evidence that it truly is a hip hop musical planet, Akil The MC (ATM) of Jurassic 5 just rolled his solo tour into Cambodia in January, then rolled through those, uh, hip hop havens of Eastern Europe -- Croatia, Bulgaria and Macedonia.

Now out on "The Bring Your 'A' Game Tour, titled Bennington Bound," Akil and tour leader Quanstar have been rolling through Ben and Jerry's strongholds of Montpelier, Bennington and Burlington, Vt., on this cross-country tour bringing the best of indie hip hop to hip hop fans from Brooklyn and Philadelphia to Huntington.

Now in its sixth year, "The Bring Your 'A' Game Tour Series" rolls into the V Club, 741 6th Ave., Huntington at 10 p.m. Saturday, May 16, with an array of underground hip hop artists from around the country.

Headliners are Akil, who is promoting his new solo release of "Collection of Expressions," and Quanstar, pushing the hip hop movie and soundtrack "Do It!: A Documentary."

Also on the tour are Evaready RAW, promoting his album "Appliable Adaptability;" Ghani Gautama with his new release "Few Against Many;" Oakland emcee and activist DLabrie The EOG; Vermont "Hip Pop" band, Strength In Numbers; and "indie" super producer and DJ Metrognome.

Opening the Huntington show is Charleston's two-man rhyme-spitting team Rabbles Rousers (B-Rude and Meuwl), who are also opening for Freekbass in Charleston on Friday night.

Cover for Saturday night's V Club show is $8 advance or $10 day of the show.

Akil, who spent 1997 to 2007 with Jurassic 5, one of the mainstays of the 1990s alternative hip hop scene and a group that played Lollapalooza, and did projects with Dave Matthews, Nelly Furtado, SouLive and others, said it's been beautiful to see the way people around the planet have taken hip hop and made it something of their own.

"I think it's cool that hip hop is everywhere and that you can't just put it in one place in New York or L.A.," Akil said by phone, after a gig in Philly. "We are going to off-the-wall places. I'm not dissing on Vermont, but it's not the first place people would say to perform hip hop. But it's been cool and I think that says a lot about the acceptance of hip hop. I have been around from the beginning of it first being on radio and commercial and to see if grow from that to where it is relevant in Vermont and Cambodia is a testament to hip hop itself."

Akil, an L.A. native whose real name is D. Givens, said this is the seventh year for Quanstar (Janale Harris) to tour his "The Bring Your 'A' Game Tour," a yearly celebration of underground hip hop connecting audiences with some of the most talented acts they will not see through mainstream media channels.

Akil, who's on the tour for the second year, said that face-to-face networking and sharing the music is what he is all about.

"I have found some of the dopest artists from all over which made me create a movement called the Unified Skills District," Akil said. "It's a movement of artists from all over the world who want to link and network together. We are trying to unify them where they are at. I started a movement in my own backyard in L.A. with Los Angeles Unified and we've taken that around the world. I run into a lot of talented people in some of the most remote places. They are looking for a way out and they see me maybe as the closest thing to them being able to make it out. I try to give them as much advice as I can and try to boost them up."

Akil said his new CD, "Collection of Expressions," showcases his writing which he honed fighting for a line and rhyme in Jurassic 5.

"I like to describe the CD as I am going down the same street but stopping at a different house with different stuff in that house," Akil said. "It's still the same street, me a solo artist, but encompasses more who I am and where I come from. I get to state more things than I did in a group setting. I couldn't do that. With four bars here or there I had to really say what I had to say. That built my style. I had to write with more meaning on every line. That's worked to my benefit and enables me to write faster in many different styles. I grew up listening to hip hop when it had a variety to it."

Akil, who grew up listening to everything from Public Enemy and KRS-1 to Masters of Ceremony, The Fat Boys and DJ Jazz Jeff, said that is one of the strengths of "Bring Your A Game," in that it showcases the diversity of hip hop, something not readily available on commercial radio.

"I think that is the natural progression of hip hop and of music in general," Akil said of so many different musical styles mashing up. "It picks up everything that comes close to it. The music has brought everything together. R&B is hip hop and rock is hip hop and hip hop is rock. It has brought all these vibes, and it has brought everybody into it and everybody tries to add their own distinct tastes."

August 2009 Charleston City Paper 03/16/2010
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Things should groove hard this evening (Aug. 27) evening at the Pour House as rapper Akil — known best for his work with L.A. group of Jurassic 5 — and Quanstar headline a late-night set and N.C. roots/groove act Laura Reed & Deep Pocket do double-time on the deck and as the opener in the main room. Jurassic 5 released their first disc back in 1997 before signing to Interscope Records and issuing their major debut, Quality Control. They effectively broke up last year. Akil, a.k.a. Akil the MC, currently works as a freestylin’ emcee, DJ, studio producer, and community activist.

“I’m just a down-to-earth brother from South Los Angeles, born and raised,” he says. Akil’s debut solo album is in the works. Expect a hectic and lively mix of old-school funk, turntable scratchin’, and conscious rhymes. Admission is $12, $10 (adv.).