34 HIPHOP//RNB ALI SHAHEED


Hey how’s it going? Where are you at the moment? What up! All is well. Presently I am home in NYC.


You are going to be com- ing and playing at Plan B on 21st January. Are you looking forward to seeing the London crowd? Absolutely. London is a vibrant mu- sic city. I love it there, I can’t wait.


How do you think the crowds differ between the UK and the US? The world is ever shrinking mostly due to the internet. In my opinion the things that once showed to be greatly different appear to be slight, speaking from a social music environment of course.


You formed part of A Tribe Called Quest alongside Q Tip and Phife, you guys are considered iconic pioneers of the alternative Hip Hop scene, how do you feel about this? A Tribe Called Quest precedes that term probably by a decade. I guess there were traits in our music that stood out as unconven- tional at that time but there were identifiable elements too. Those combined parts settled deep in the hearts of Hip-Hop lovers of all walks. To be considered an iconic pioneer in any aspect of life is a good thing. I feel good about it, thank you.


A Tribe Called Quest have been a platform to inspire a new generation of artists, but who influences you and your music?


My music influences are vast and are never ending. What began with early artist influences like Brainstorm, Earth Wind & Fire, Steve Arrington, Jimmy Spicer, Marly Marl and Public Enemy has been carried forward to the pres- ent with artists like DJ Premier, Just Blaze, N.E.R.D., Phoenix and the late greats Hector Lavoe and Jay Dilla.


You also formed the super group Lucy Pearl with Dawn Robinson from En Vogue and former ‘Tony! Toni! Toné!’ member Raphael Saadiq. What was it that you feel that made the group work? Each of us have a great love of music and expression, we all have a creative voice and talent which didn’t conflict with the other group member and we wanted to have fun. I guess it made for some good studio vibrations.


How did growing up in Brook- lyn inspire you to kick off a career within music?. I heard your Mum threw house parties and your Uncle would DJ, and from a young age you got on the turntables?


I believe all places be it Brooklyn, Bangladesh or Brixton combined with “life” elements and music collide in a way that inspires people. For me my Mother’s house parties, my Uncle’s DJing and living adjacent to the nucleus of the budding art form now known as hip-hop gave me the faculties to mash, distort and fuse sounds together. Titles like the Sound Provider, DJ, Producer, Chemist and the like are applied but I like to look at it as me being in awe of the ultimate Mix Master of all things known to mankind. The word “life” by definition should be enough to inspire one to kick off a career or to at least keep kicking until there is no more life within. I have experienced poverty, I have lived in communities that offer little hope or no exposure to opportunities that will improve a young persons mind or life. However my Mother instilled ideas of greatness and en- couraged that I explore more than my surroundings. I have absorbed what the Ultimate Mix Master has provided in my path and with that I am inspired to live, learn and evolve, you feel me? My music is a mere footprint left behind.


You released your debut solo album ‘Shaheedullah and Stereotypes’ which was done independently back in 2004. How do you feel your music has evolved since then? The best way to answer that ques- tion is for people to hear the music that I am making now, the music would speak for itself. I don’t believe I can put that into words. I will say that it is fresh, relevant and ever still ‘alternative’ in breed of hip-hop.


So you recently hit the stage for Phife Dawg’s Birthday how was that?


Phife has made his battle with diabetes public, but many might not know that a couple of years ago his battle became critical. It felt like we were counting the days which was very difficult. Since then he has had a surgery which has turned things around. It was wonderful to witness and celebrate another year of Phife’s life. In 2010 I DJ’d for both Phife and Q-Tip’s birthday parties. I had never done that before. I had a lot of fun.


What’s new for you this year? God willing there will be several albums releases and a lot more visits to the UK. Please visit my website www.alishaheed.com or my twitter feed: www.twitter.com/ alishaheed to keep up with the latest developments. Peace...


You can catch Ali Shaheed play on 21st January at Plan B for tickets go to www. ticketmaster.co.uk.


THE GUESTLIST NETWORK | JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2011 Tab Taylor & Joanne Bristowe


One third of Hip Hop’s iconic group A Tribe Called Quest, Ali Shaheed is touching base in London this month. We’re looking forward to seeing him kick it at his gig at Plan B on the 21st of January.


KOOL HERC Hip Hop’s Founding Father


Kool Herc was born Clive Campbell in 1955 in Kingston Jamaica, where he saw and heard the sound systems of neighborhood parties called dancehalls. He moved to the Bronx, New York in 1967 which at that time was afflicted by a violent new street gang youth culture emerging around 1968 and had spread with increasing lawlessness across large parts of the Bronx by 1973. This was due to the creation of the Cross Bronx Expressway which had uprooted thousands in who lived there, thereby displacing communities.


Night Clubs in there were af- flicted with the menacing pres- ence of street gangs, uptown DJ’s catered to an older disco crowd and commercial radio also catered to a demographic distinct from the disenfran- chised in the Bronx, so Herc’s parties had a ready-made audience.


At these parties, DJ Kool Herc developed the style that was the blueprint for hip hop music. Herc used two copies of the same record to focus on a


short, heavily percussive, part in it: the “break”. Since this part of the record was the one the dancers liked best, Herc iso- lated and prolonged it. As one record reached the end of the break, he cued the other record back to the beginning of the break. Thereby extending a rela- tively small part of a record into a “five-minute loop of fury”. This is how “break dancing” started. Kool Herc also contributed to developing the rhyming style of Hip Hop by punctuating the break with slang phrases from the DJ’s microphone. Herc had become somewhat of a folk hero and he began to play at clubs and High Schools in the Bronx. Herc also took his sound system (The Hercu- lords), now upgraded to one of legendary volume, to the streets and parks of the Bronx. For his contributions Herc is called a “founding father of Hip Hop”, a “cultural hero” and an integral part of the beginnings of Hip Hop by Time Magazine.


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