A-Alikes performing live tonight at S.O.B. w/ The Jungle Brothers #NativeToungesReunion

(Huffington Post Article): Hip Hop and the (Near) Future

by eric j henderson

On being futuristic and tangible at once: "Ness" and EYE2025*

The Scene

Some artists strain to look deeply into the future to escape the perceived orthodoxy of the present.
Others might enjoy the close-up view, one that Chesterton would love, finding nothing "so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy." In this edition of Art, The Arts, and Policy, I consider a hip hop artist who, with that spirit, falls somewhere between the present and the future. But first...

What Is The Future?

The future as we live it is unassailable for its quality of entertainment. I love it, going back to "Danger, Will Robinson!" But it's cliché in its aesthetic -- detached demeanors, supra-human aliens (who still need space ships?), everything colored silver (even our hair), and the whole world easily comprehended on a touch screen.

However, on this 2011 earth the report card on the expected future is, in large part, gray. Take our biggest current metaphor: the digital world. 70% of the people in this world are unconnected and the remaining 30%, particularly in so-called developed countries deal with service that is spotty, expensive, and slow . As the acknowledged summary definition of "the future," digital is a solid statement on our silver fantasy. It is at once real and overestimated when it comes to intrinsic progress. We spend our digital time mostly ....playing games and waiting on Christmas-timed form factors, "iPad now in white" being rendered not as marketing but as news.

Overestimating our connected selves is the modern signature of mass culture. I think this is a consequence of the 30% of connected folks setting the public agenda for conversation. So what? Well, this is the mindset that creates our real futures and, by definition, informs our art if only by forcing it to respond to mass culture.

But, I wonder what would happen if we could resist that momentum and reorient our thought on the future. What if our future weren't so digital, connected, green, local, sustainable (and five other hep words)... but still managed to be futuristic, and even human?

Here is where I find the conversation of a young hip hop artist by the name of Ness to be worth considering. He's all about the future, but not as we know it. He has a futuristic take on the near future; call it a space of 15 years.

Introducing the Futurist

Ness is a veteran of hip hop, having done global rounds as a member of dead prez and the duo A-Alikes, the latter being part of the larger RBG family of which dead prez is also a member. So you won't be surprised to find that his future is politically charged, but he's extended the urgency by bringing the future much closer.

He speaks with a voice that moves quietly in and out of the ether, but the delivery comes straight out of a monotone gravel pit flying at you like a 4oz glove from the octagon.

His idea? EYE2025*. It's a concept that turns out to be an honest postmodern response to the fake silver future. (Man, I know you hate that word, postmodern, and I do, too; so let's talk about it.) I mean postmodern in an amped up temporal sense -- i.e. postmodernity with postmodern flair, but I don't want to keep walking toward that rabbit hole ... so postmodern it is, just not in the overused art/academic sense where anything off the path can catch that label.

Case in point: Hip hop itself. I challenge Professor Gates characterization of hip hop in The Anthology of Rap as a "a postmodern version of the African-American vernacular tradition."

Can it really be postmodern? Having growing up in hip hop (before the b-boy and graffiti were united with it to form a movement, before we acknowledged a difference between rap and hip hop because both were still forming, and before we fully respected the art of a true emcee), I never saw it outside of the realm of clear and rational opinion on objective truth. Despite real forays into meaninglessness, hip hop has always preserved its core of actually being about something, and never about stairs that lead nowhere.

Even in the abandon of pure party lyrics (try "old school" cut As The Rhyme Goes On), there is a focus on moving the crowd, but also a cultural comment on blackness that never leaves peripheral vision. From here we gain a full definition of modern Americana by an art form still sometimes excluded from it. The measure of hip hop is not only "is it true?" but also how it accesses truth found in a distinctly American context. Wack emcees find that out every day. A beatdown is not postmodern.

Ness' postmodernism simply "comes after" and "responds to" our modern concept of both the future and of hip hop.

ENTER: Ness ...on a bicycle.

"I don't need paper. The rhymes stay with me as I work them out where I spend most of my time: on a bicycle."

The bike as vehicle is very "now," but his work is what dispels it as fad, since the only way to be hip hop on a bike is to just be yourself, with no apology, and bring heat while you're riding. You'd sooner see a guy without tight pants in Williamsburg, Brooklyn than a hip hop artist with a bicycle as his life's centerpiece. The Bentley is still a favored mode. But this countercultural move isn't the navel-gazing type. It comes off as conviction. I take it as that.

Occasionally, we see conviction bubble up to a movement when somebody has one strong enough that it magnetically draws enemies and friends with irresistible angst and empathy. Others -- the giant middle -- are drawn, too, but stop short at the uniform ... those pants and an nyc faux-toking on American Spirit cigarettes while riding the evergreen wave of 'what's cool right now.' We need all of that -- a real root and the mimicry that validates it -- as the essential make-up of any movement.

But, of course, we're not at movement speed with hip hop and bicycles, the mohawked kids on bmx bikes notwithstanding. However, I see a few signs that make it a worthwhile thought experiment to scan the prairie. Ness touches a particular bundle of nerves that are base ingredients: futurism, hip hop, and the "occupy" spirit long before the tents went up.

I was introduced to him by actor and dj, DJ TAbu, who showed me his first EYE2025* salvo, "Pedalin." He sharpens his political angle to deliver part I of the vision:

"...set in Ratner Heights, (the area formerly known as Fort Greene/Clinton Hill/Downtown Brooklyn, now owned entirely by construction mogul/re-gentrification king Bruce Ratner). EYE2025*Chapter1 is a dystopic vision of the future, a future that is rapidly approaching. Blurring the lines between genres, the music twists and turns through sounds [on a] mission to bring to light the world of the have-nots, and send out a call to arms to rise up, educate and build community."

That's old school hip hop -- basic political agitation -- but it's also near future for a new age, especially if you live near the Atlantic Yards he's talking about, flashpoint for the Battle of Brooklyn.

On the bike... he's not preaching green or any of the typical syncretic consciousness: He's just living.

"When I was a kid, we talked about cars. In hip hop you always hear talk of cars but you never hear people rapping about bikes ... not motorcycles but bike bikes." Ness uses the bike to think and to get around. It's incidental that the bike is also a symbol for our newfound interest in stewardship of the planet.

But hip hop, in its essence, can't fear any given dispensation, even if it's fear of being uncool. So, it's must stay true, i.e. without adjectives. It's hip hop or it's not. Theoretically, you should be able to pull it off in a button-down oxford and Dockers. [Well, no. Not in Dockers.]

Being gratuitously green or "conscious" would quickly be discovered and properly given a small shelf with the other misfit toys.

I remember the birth of conscious hip hop, but couldn't fully sign on because, even though I agreed with some of the regenerated themes, it always seemed that the beats and poignancy got left behind in the name of saying nice things. De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest and others proved that you could add dimension and still be hip hop. 50 Cent, at the other end of the spectrum gives the most telling indictment, ingeniously mocking nice music feigning hip hop with, "I know exactly what I'm saying -- so I am conscious."

Now, what is the hip hop of Ness' EYE20205* in this light? It's how he speaks to our time, as hip hop must do.

[Back to The Past]

I hold in my hands an eight-track tape of the O'Jays' "The Year 2000," recorded in 1980. The 20 years separating that title from its release date don't make just a numerically longer distance than the 15 years in which Ness sees upheaval, but also an exponentially longer cultural distance. Today, we can imagine 2025 much easier than 1980 could imagine 2000. 2000 was "far" all the way up to its eve as sound minds talked up a Y2K global crash and people stockpiled on food and water for yet another end of the world. Apart from the panic, our non-Doomsday scenario remained still not so tangible and consistently silver with Mars as a standby favorite subject. (Shoot, I'm still ticked not to be dressed in all the flashy gear Captain Kirk and Co. kept promising me.)

[Ness on The Future]

Ness pulls us closer by challenging our blind silver imagination. He calls out the 1985 film Back to the Future (which references 2012) for a grossly unfulfilled promise of flying cars and whatnot, noting that we're all still pretty much fixed to the ground.

So how about just thinking on the next 15 years, since we've been such crappy prognosticators on times farther out? Note that what differentiates Ness' 15 years from a common strategic time span is that we don't leave behind our futuristic minds. We just take the silver away.

Even Ness' daughter helps spark this intellectual curiosity. At home, he plays a game with her that channels a base element of hip hop: elementary school beats banged out on a lunchroom table. (Raise a fist if you did that!) They trade table beats and score each other after each set, starting with a number like 10,000, then 100,000, then on to some crazy large number, "a 100 million gazillion trillion." "By the fifth set she can't think of a bigger number," he says, "and, on one of these occasions she stopped to ask me, 'Daddy, do numbers ever stop?'" He then introduced her to infinity.

This is hip hop, and a view into the music that he calls "political education meets science fiction."

I'm obviously not talking as much about his music as his argument. I dig the music -- true to what for me are hip hop's signatures: beats, flow, and storytelling. But, it's the argument that calls my attention:

The future can be futuristic and tangible at once.

[Denouement]

This deliberate and canny leap to only a few days away is a funky data point. Contrast it to a couple of meaningful romps into the far future. I loved the moment Daft Punk landed hard on everybody's heads. I put Janelle Monae in this conversation, too. She has taken the far future and replaced the silver stuff with a throwback velvet flux capacitor. I see the near future as completing the proposition of the technical future, one that deals with any small or large unit of time ahead of us with purposeful imagination. Would love to hear Alvin Toffler's hip hop because, now that I think about it, Future Shock unified the futures like this, too.

With Ness, we have hip hop on a bicycle and a point of view that mines a classic theme: justice. It's just a data point, not a movement, but a point that could possibly drop us onto another plane as it forces an expanded view backward and forward by including the forsaken (and now pretty ugly) ground just in front of us. We should welcome that kind of thinking and test it. If it lasts, that's Policy as it changes the way we live, just like hip hop did when it first appeared.

P.S. No bike pic. As Lance said, It's Not About The Bike.

Photo Credits: ericjhenderson

Follow Eric J. Henderson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ericjhenderson

Press Release: Celebrating The Life and Legacy of Revolutionary Producer/DJ/Community Activist Jammall Metaphysic Gordon

Celebrating The Life and Legacy of Revolutionary Producer/DJ/Community Activist Jammall Metaphysic Gordon

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, New York – Thursday, July 7^th 2011

Today July 7th at Santos Party House in NYC we celebrate the birthday, life & legacy of Revolutionary Producer/DJ/Community Activist Jammall 'Metaphysic' Gordon who recently passed away from a car accident in early June. The show features performances from over 20 artists & DJ's who have worked and collaborated with Metaphysic over the years. The event also includes Live Painting and Interactive Art Workshop. Photos of Metaphysic will be projected of him throughout the years along with playback of recorded DJ sets from his weekly radio show on PNCradio.fm 'The Soundtrack Hour'. All proceeds from the event will go to his family and towards future endeavors to keep his musical legacy alive.

Metaphysic was a talented producer & DJ, crafting songs for a host of artists including AZ, dead prez, Jay Z, Immortal Technique, A-Alikes, and Chen Lo, just to name a few. He was highly respected and loved within the Hip Hop community as well as within many of the community & grassroots projects he supported and lead. One of his favorite sayings was “Music speaks when words fail… free the people with music”.

For more info & tickets goto:click HERE

facebook link

Santos Party House 96 Lafayette Street NY, NY 10013 Date: July 7th, 2011 DOORS OPEN AT 8PM 100% of proceeds will go to his family Tix: $20 advanced TIX/ more at the door

Police Attack the People After Smif n Wessun/Pete Rock Monumental Release Party

Last night was a great night of hip hop at Tamanny Hall for the Smif n Wessun/Pete Rock Monumental Album Release Party...& then NYPD showed up. Here's what happened...








Birds Eye View







and they wonder why we say FUCK the POLICE.... 
travel safe out here y'all.... 
lets get organized.... 
please share the link.

JULY 7th WE CELEBRATE METAPHYSIC BORNDAY @ SANTOS

click HERE for tickets

Reflecting on our Comrade DJ Metaphysic... Rest in Uhuru

I tried to go about my day and handle biz... today was hard. I came home and ran through these clips of our comrade Meta...please share this with as many people as possible. If you have any other video footage of Meta please send us a link. We're organizing a benefit concert and a bunch of other things in recognition of the comrade and his legacy. Thank You.

“FREE THE PEOPLE WITH MUSIC”

EYE2025* SIGHTING - DUMBO - ART For MONEY 4.20 SHOW

Photos by Aimee Rupp

EYE2025* SIGHTING - LOWER MANHATTAN - S.O.B.s NYC

some footage surfaced from the last show... enjoy. see u at the next one.

New Justice Single - Civilization

New Album coming soon...

check out the live version.... 
MINDdetectMIND

SHA STIMULI - WAKE UP & GO - VIDEO

Good vid, good song, good message, good beat, good raps. This my joint allday today. good job Victorious ,Sha Stimuli, R.H. Bless, & Miss Ksyn, etc... Go Brooklyn... spread love. share this one.

Eye2025 - Digital World Ft. Raye 6 (Jack Deezl Remix)

Eye2025 - Digital World Ft. Raye 6 (Jack Deezl Remix) <---(click here to go to page)

EYE2025* (a.k.a. IllumiNessence) (SoFlo Entertainment/Guerilla Art) Fresh back from touring Tokyo, Japan,illuminNessence takes us on a dark, rhythmic exploration of our modern “Digital World.” The remix, cooked up by Jack Deezl out of Philadelphia, features the other-worldly vocals of Brooklyn based sensationRaye 6. The dark minimalistic electro Deezl brings, perfectly captures illuminNessence’s ominous message of the future – a future around the corner where we are completely entrenched in the digital world we’ve created. We rapidly lose our ability to truly feel, truly love and truly live. Raye 6’s eerily beautiful hook compliments the apocalyptic feel of "Digital World". Lyrics like “Spend hours on the internet/everything is at your fingertips/’Stead of telling her you love her you textin’ it/Living in a Digital World.” Perfectly illuminates the age we’re living in and are quickly driving towards. Once again, illuminNessence shows us the bleak yet beautiful world of 2025, a future just around the corner. “Digital World” is available now on iTunes. EYE2025* - "Digital World" Ft. Raye 6 (Jack Deezl Remix) Download: Download HERE BPMs: 126 BPMs (In order to download, simply click link and you will be taken to a private page on our website with the downloads. If you prefer an MP3 attachment, please reply doing so. ) Biography Coming from the revolutionary hip-hop group A-Alikes, IllumiNessence is no stranger to the game. For years he and his partner A-Black, along with the rest of the RBG/People Army family (dead prez, Divine of the Dey, etc) have been on a mission to bring to light the world of the have-nots, and send out a call to arms to rise up, educate and build community. Illuminessence is currently in the studio working on forthcoming chapters to the EYE2025* epic, co-writing the script with Director Paul Biedrzyck to an as yet untitiled futuristic poli sci-fi film that inspired the soundtrack, and putting the finishing touches on the A-Alikes next LP Us Against Them. As well, he is breaking out into graphic/visual side of things with multi media works of ART, videos, T Shirts, and more. http://www.eye2025.com More Info:

EYE2025* Performing Live @ S.O.B.s MARCH 1st

I'll be rockin' live March 1st at S.O.B.s alongside Styles P., Martin Luther, Bazaar Royale and the rest of the Ghetto Metal line up

EYE2025* 'Digital World' (CHAPTER1Mix) Viral Video

Off his first solo project IllumiNessence gives us EYE2025*CHAPTER1. He takes us on a dark, rhythmic exploration of our modern "Digital World." The viral piece was shot in Harajuku Tokyo and edited by Rob Lee. This version of "Digital World" can be downloaded at https://www.onerpm.com/eye2025

The remix, cooked up by Jack Deezl out of Philadelphia, and also features the other-worldly vocals of Brooklyn based sensation Raye 6.

The dark minimalistic electro Deezl brings, perfectly captures illuminNessence's ominous message of the future -- a future around the corner where we are completely entrenched in the digital world we've created. We rapidly lose our ability to truly feel, truly love and truly live. Raye 6's eerily beautiful hook compliments the apocalyptic feel of "Digital World".
Lyrics like "Spend hours on the internet/everything is at your fingertips/'Stead of telling her you love her you textin' it/Living in a Digital World."

Perfectly illuminates the age we're living in and are quickly driving towards.

Once again, illuminNessence shows us the bleak yet beautiful world of 2025, a future just around the corner. "Digital World" [Jack Deezl Remix] is available now on iTunes at http://bit.ly/dHea0V

EYE2025* Performing Live in Harlem - Ghetto Metal

Rock, Rock Planet Rock!!

EYE2025* 

Rockin' Ghetto Metal 

@ the Legendary Lenox Lounge in Harlem

288 Lenox Ave.

BROOKLYN2025* @ Prospect Pond This Saturday January 29th

Saturday Night in the County of Kings

EYE2025* LIVE DJ SET

Spread the Word

See You There

Universe is Talkin' to Me...

I was ridin' my bike in the city today when out of nowhere I hear the dopest music out of some dude car. It sounded like a beat so I asked dude what it was and is he a producer. He said no it wasn't a beat but some dope classic shit from Willie Mitchell that RZA sampled for Liquid Swordz (if you know the record you know what i mean...dope). He also said he wasn't a producer but a dj and a collector of dope music. He then proceeded to give me a stack of cds (true story).... thanx homie... u have no idea... the Universe is talkin' to me.

TONITE: Brooklyn2025* - Saturday Jan 8th

Time	Today at 10:00pm til 4:00am
Location	Project Parlor 742 Myrtle Ave Brooklyn,NY

Project Parlor is excited to announce its newest DJ to our roster. EYE2025* aka illumiNessence(Ness)

NESS made his start as one half of the critically acclaimed hip hop group A-Alikes, he now brings us the next phase in his evolution EYE2025*. He's traveled around the world and worked with various artists in music industry, most recently working extensively with "up and coming" musical and performance artist Raye 6. Bring your open minds, dancing shoes and cut a rug to an eclectic mix of 80s funk, pop, indie rock, electro, and hip hop.

We're taking it to Back to the Future... Brooklyn2025*!

www.EYE2025.com

Click HERE & HERE for facebook links.

PBR TALL BOY and SHOT SPECIAL- $6 ALL NIGHT

Drinks brought to you all night by Tanner.

CLICK HERE to CHECKOUT the NEW EYE2025* SINGLE 'DIGITAL WORLD' feat. Raye 6

Beginning and End (Ruff)

a little therapy music...
MINDdetectMIND
sneak peak. still mixing, mastering, working on visuals, etc. stay tuned.... (Note:probably taking this down tomorrow.) Enjoy

Lyrics by illumiNessence
Beat by SeventyMhz

EYE2025*

Beginning and End (Ruff) by Eye2025

Kanye West: 'Monster' Video

something morbid from Kanye & company... let me know what y'all think...

EYE2025*End of The World

found this on youtube. Shout out to grandine1980 for the post up

for Free Download click HERE