Georgiavania Hard Heads
DX is running a long conversation I recently had with Khujo Goodie and Jneiro Jarel of Willie Isz. We talk old school Atlanta, The Maxx, shoegaze rap, Street Military and Bjork. Oh yes, eclecticism. Georgiavania drops June 16th and is going to be crazy.
Here is some bonus audio of Khujo spitting rhymes from the Hard Boys’ “A-Town Hard Heads“:
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Related: A-Town Rap & Bass 1985-1992
Tumblin' Erb
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I first heard about this project in Wax Poetics a few months ago. It sounds like it’ll be dope.
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I could be reading into it but is your word choice of “snarl” like a pun-subliminal shot at Gnarls Barkley?
May 22nd, 2009 at 3:47 pm
You are reading into it.
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Great interview…also interesting for showing how being into “cool” music like MBV and Cocteau Twins (alt-rock, though? Really?) and even stuff like Bjork and Santigold doesn’t mean you have to abandon rap or make terrible music.
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I don’t think Bjork or Cocteau Twins are considered cool by today’s standards.
Bjork is like intro-to-cool cool, no?
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:23 pm
I don’t know if the Cocteau Twins were ever “cool” in that sense. painfully uncool, if anything. tho, lord, what a voice! & they certainly influenced a lot of “cool” stuff – Jesus & Mary Chain as well as MBV & the other shoegazers, also Mazzy Star & probably Belle & Sebastian & all that.
Bjork, I dunno. she’s kind of like Madonna’s avant-garde alter ego – pop culture vampires who feed on hot trends, just Bjork does it from underground music. I reckon she’s still too weird to be entry level cool. that’s more like Neko Case or something.
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:32 pm
also, that’s a great interview noz. an Apollo Heights reference! makes perfect sense that dude used to hang out w/them & TVOTR. Jarel has singlehandedly restored my faith in taste of hip hop producers in post-70s (cos everyone was/is up on Zep & that) guitar bands.
lol @ “…and what’s that other girl? d-york? d-jork?”
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:43 pm
went and copped khujo goodies mercury, goodie mob discog and numerous other dungeon fam releases in anticipation of georgiavania… atl always dirty…
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:25 pm
nah bjork has some cool shit… I don’t think she’s 100% cool but 66.666% fo sho.
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Neko Case is only entry level cool? Sonovabitch, there goes my self-perception.
May 23rd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Can you really call me out for mistaking cool or entry-level cool when you called the Cocteau Twins an “alt rock” group?
Neko Case plays in like Barnes and Noble and shit, so yeah, THAT’S entry-level. Nevertheless Noz, I did say “cool”–mind the quotes. Either way, the point is, sounds like Jarel and Khujo via Jarel are listening to the stuff that Kanye or whoever else walks around with a boner for and managed to make music that’s not awful or derivative or separate from hip-hop altogether.
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:28 pm
“Can you really call me out for mistaking cool or entry-level cool when you called the Cocteau Twins an “alt rock” group? ”
They strike me as a shitty band. I maybe oversimplified for my audience? I’m not losing any sleep over it.
May 24th, 2009 at 6:43 am
I should clarify real quick –
@Bjork – that’s like, she’s too avant cool to ever be embraced in that semi-mainstream sense. she kinda functions as a conduit btwn pop & the avant (including the street-avant) – translating the latter into the former, so to speak. her fans are fans, not casual listeners. actually I can’t stand her solo work but she gets big points in my book for 3 things;
-KUKL, the anarchopunk band she was in back in the 80s – they put out an LP on Crass Records for those who know what that means
-”Birthday” by The Sugarcubes
-fucking w/jungle back in the mid-90s when that shit was at the peak of its enormous powers – serious producers too, Goldie, Dillinja, Photek
@Neko Case – entry-level cool isn’t such a terrible thing. & her music isn’t my thing but it doesn’t necessarily mean “sucks”. like The Fugees ca. The Score, that was entry level for tons of ppl but it was also good (except for that idiotic Chinese restaurant skit).
@Noz & the Cocteau Twins – they’re no Young Marble Giants, that’s for sure. but then again, who is?
May 24th, 2009 at 6:53 am
also I like the idea of shoegaze rap very much. but then it happens and it’s Dalek. which is OK I guess. I guess also you could touch on El-P, int that his production, all that thick wall of noise (not the Philip K. Dick dystopia side) has always kinda sounded like MBV meets the Bomb Squad to me.
blah blah blah Antipop Consortium blah blah blah.
May 26th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Great job Noz. Liked their TVOTR remix, for whatever it’s worth.
May 27th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
I heard “Sugar Hiccup”, the Cocteau Twins’ best song, on the radio driving home today. someone really needs to sample that & flip Liz Fraser’s voice into a hook.
May 30th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Thanks for shedding some light on this project. Im going to buy this album when it comes out. Kujo has always had one of the best voices/flows in hip-hop. I’m glad to see him doing it again. and the production is Solid.