Sunday, May 10, 2009
Light Writing.....
From the site of Jens Heinen:
this is the first test of the new “lightprinter”. I made for Lichtfaktor.
With the “lightprinter” we are able to paint logos, words and patterns, just like they are printed in the air, this is the next step in “lightwriting”.
I created it using the Arduino Board. There are 40 LEDs which can be controlled with a software I made in Processing.
Speed and brightness of the LEDs can be controlled.
John Forte interview from OkayPlayer.com
John Forte: Outside the Lines
As he embarks upon his new career as a teacher at the City College of New York which started just weeks ago, John Forté is open. An Exeter Academy graduate and Grammy winning songwriter/producer, the Brooklyn native grew up with artistic values and limitless possibilities. Consequently, he has also dealt with his fair share of rules, regulations and rigid thought.
After a drug-related conviction in 2000 landed him in prison, John aspired to keep his train of thought as pure as possible during his incarceration. He wrote and recorded songs, but was not even allowed to hear what he recorded. He read books, but was questioned as to why he had so many. He wrote down his thoughts, but it was only with the help of friends that he could share brief quotes on blogs with fans.
After serving seven years, Forté’s sentence was commuted by President Bush, and he was home free just in time to see the new year of 2009 come to life. He immediately hit the stage and studio with longtime friend Talib Kweli, and began acclimating himself to a world that had changed immeasurably in less than a decade.
From communicating with fans online years before it was popular to mashing up Euro-pop and folk music with hip-hop, John Forté always excelled at being ahead of the curve. Now, as he plays catch-up with the world, he is preparing his third full-length album - undoubtedly with a unique spectrum of sound. Okayplayer spoke with John about his new career path, thoughts on education and music today, and why it’s most certainly bigger than hip-hop.
OKP: You’re one of the first artists that I knew of that had a website where you interacted regularly with your fans [in 1997], and Okayplayer became the next big juncture for that. As a person who has always been very progressive in technology, how do you think these new technologies play in to the music business now, as you understand it?
John Forté: I’m still garnering an understanding of it, but I think that, much to the chagrin of some and to the benefit of others, that technology has empowered the fans as well as the artist. Now artists have unprecedented access to their fan base if they want it, and fans can legitimate or delegitimize the artist because there’s so much information floating around out there. So I think that some artists are going to love the proliferation of information out there, whereas other artists are gonna be found out. And rightfully so - you reap what you sow.
I think all-in-all its good news. Like I wrote this blog when I came home, and technology was basically thrust into my lap quite literally. [I bought] a Blackberry, an iPod, a laptop… I had to catch up. A big fear of being away is that you’ll be left behind. We used to have a joke that you’ll come home and it’s like The Jetsons. Some young brothers go in and they get so much time that they think “Cars will fly by the time I touch down,” and to an extent cars are flying right now, at least metaphorically when it comes to the advancements that have been made in technology within the last 10 years alone.
When I left there was no Facebook, Myspace, or these social networking sites. It’s incredible and it can be humbling, but you can’t turn your back on it and act like it’s not somehow going to impact you or your family. Even ignoring it, you’ll somehow be affected by it. I was watching The State Of The Black Union about a year ago, and one of the guest panelists on it was saying we have a mentality where the older people in the communities of color will say, “Oh, my child knows how to use the computer more than I do,” or “They’re more internet savvy than I am” and the panelist said, “That’s not cute.”
We need to raise the babies and teach them. We can’t just relinquish all of this information and technology to them, we need to guide them. It’s no wonder you have predators abound out there actually getting through to the kids, because we’ll turn our back on our responsibilities, and there are technological responsibilities that we have. So we’ve got to suck it up. Just like we went to school and learned our ABCs and 123s, we have to learn how to utilize what’s before us.
OKP: You recently got a teaching job. I think it would be overwhelming to have so many thoughts in your head, and to speak to young people in these politically charged times. What are some priorities for you at the moment, in terms of what you would like to convey through your teaching and music?
John Forté: Teaching is really interesting. I read a really great book by Paulo FreireM called Pedagogy Of The Oppressed, and we in the Western developed world have a tendency to look at the teaching role not only with reverence, but as a one-sided vehicle. A teacher normally imparts that information with a certain amount of condescension, not negatively speaking, but normally the teacher’s role is, “I know this, listen to me, I’ll look down at you and feed you, and you’ll drink from the wellspring of my information.” Paulo Freire’s book is predicated on the notion that teaching is not like that, and that a teacher has to be as much of a student as a student has to be a teacher, so there has to be a willingness to exchange information rather than just forcing it from one and to the other.
So when I think of teaching I don’t think of it as me being the old, wise sage schooling the youth. I think I’m going into this with a willingness to learn as much as I have the willingness to impart information, rather than to just speak to someone. I’d rather just have a dialogue with young people and learn from them, and perhaps they can learn from me in turn. I feel the same way about music, it’s not just this one-way mirror, it’s all reflective. Like Kweli’s Reflection Eternal… it goes on ad infinitum, so as much joy as I might give to someone being on stage and saying something that resonates within them, it’s the same joy that I get in return.
What I do is a labor of love, so I’m extremely grateful. There’s not a day that I’ve been home that I’ve been to the studio and felt, “I’m too tired, I don’t wanna be here.” I love what I do and it’s a blessing to have this opportunity, it’s such a gift and I’m just wholly humbled by the opportunity. Whether the fans are buying albums or singles, or they’re downloading and sharing them, that’s almost irrelevant to me because that’s not what I’m doing it for. Yes, it’s a business, and I think like all things that the truth will come to the light, and I think that if people appreciate what you do enough that you’ll be compensated for it, so I’m not necessarily worried about that. I’m not from the mindset of trying to take all I can, hoard and run. I do this because I love doing it, and that’s my attitude whether I’m on stage with a guitar or in front of a classroom, there is a love for this.
OKP: You’ve been a person who has had pop culture references in your music in the past, and they say that everything reinvents itself and comes back in “new” trends. Are you seeing any particular hip-hop trends that are coming back, or hearing anything that you like about the music that’s out right now?
John Forté: I think we’re at the precipice of an awakening of sorts. When I was at the Highline Ballroom the other night, ?uest and Tariq (from The Roots) brought me up on stage and I said a couple of verses. Afterwards, a couple of young people came up to me and they had no idea who I was. They were like, “What’s your name? Is it Sean?” and it was eye opening to me, but it was also pretty cool because its almost like I kind of have a clean slate. So with any sort of misrepresentations that I may have made or others may have made of me in the past, it’s almost like I’m getting a second shot at this.
The one thing that I’m particularly inspired by is this amalgam of genres, the kids’ unwillingness to identify themselves as one thing over another. They’re listening to punk rock and dressing like hip-hop kids, but they can just as easily play speed metal guitar. The walls are coming down, and with that is a mindset that we are entitled to every square inch of this earth. We might not feel that, “This is my corner or block and I had better stay here.” I think that young people and young musicians are embracing each other, so you’re seeing these collaborations that might not have taken place 10 years ago. I think it’s cool, not to mention I think that we’re about to really start saying things again, which has always been good.
OKP: I think the fans appreciate that some people are putting a little bit of thought back into their lyrics. There always has been the fun element as well, but I think that we did lose balance for a while.
John Forté: It’s still a business after all, and some people will come in and they might not be around 10 years from now, but they’ll make a killing and do what’s known as good business. I can’t fault anybody for doing good business as long as it’s not at the expense of others, as long as other people aren’t getting hurt. If you wanna make dance records I don’t care, who am I to judge you? Who am I to say that what I’m doing is more important or somehow more valid? Some people just want to dance, let them dance. I’m not hard pressed to watch anybody’s bankroll, that’s not my job. My job is to make sure that I’m okay and that my family’s okay.
OKP: Since you are a classically trained musician, you must have an in-depth understanding of everything that goes into creating original music. How do you think the knowledge you have of the music trends right now will affect how you put your album together?
John Forté: It can go either way. I can get too over the top with my theory and end up making something heady that most people might not be interested in, or I can not give myself enough musical credit at all and rely on old paradigms, which I hope doesn’t happen. I’m approaching the new record with openness. I don’t know where it’s gonna go, but I know that it’s not going to be sample heavy.
I know that I would like to have more instrumentation than not, the problem that I have with instrumentation in so-called urban music is that sometimes it sounds too clean, and urban music for me has never been clean. I’m not even saying that I’m doing urban music, because I’m actually writing folk songs and the whole nine yards. The one artist that I’m extremely excited about trying to work with is Lisa Hannigan, and she’s an Irish folk singer, so no way on God’s green earth will they ever call that song remotely urban if it comes to pass. But the music that I gravitate towards has always been a little darker and grittier, it’s always had that undercurrent of pain, resistance and melancholy.
Not to say that the message is, but it’s almost like going back to the W.E.B. Dubois notion of striving is how we as a people of color are defined. That’s been my life, even in the good times, I’ve found myself always striving. Right now is a good time for me, but I’m striving to get back and acclimate myself to society and technology all over again, and to the industry which has changed dramatically. I’m still striving, and I think that that striving will be reflected in the music.
Again, I think you can have instrumentation, but just to have one bar of instrumentation, meaning that I can do a song with just one or two chords. I can play it live and there won’t be any changes, bridges or any particular choruses, it’ll just be a two-bar song. But I’m playing it live and still connecting it to my instrumentation and that old notion upon which hip-hop was built, where the DJ found the break in the record and the MC just went in on it. I’m still that dude to an extent.
OKP: I’m glad that you brought up going outside of the boundaries and refusing to be defined by the music you listen to and make. Hip-hop is growing up, and a lot of people who are now in their 50’s were around for the beginning of hip-hop; they were the originators and they’re becoming senior citizens. How do you think that this next generation of hip-hoppers will define themselves?
John Forté: I think it’s going to stay in line with what hip-hop has always been to an extent, and that’s the willingness and the ability to speak truth to power. Whether you’re talking about the gangsta rap days or the Native Tongue days or the commercial days, there was always a subversive element lingering just beneath the hook or verse that challenged the status quo. Even if you’re talking about wanting to get rich, if you’re saying, “I’m tired of this condition and I’m gonna do anything that I can to get out of this condition,” it’s always just a check to the status quo. I think that is going to be the constant in hip-hop. I can’t say whether it’s gonna be more conscious, more gutter or more inclusive, but I think it will always have an underlying element of checking the status quo.
OKP: With your album, are there people you’re already committed to work with or that you want to work with who you feel will add to the sound you have in your head?
John Forté: Right now, for the past few weeks when I’ve been recording hard, I’ve just been downloading songs that I’ve written over the last seven and a half years from my mind to the computer’s hard drive in really simple skeletal forms, just so I can have time to really listen back to it. For all of these years I haven’t been able to hear my songs, I’ve been able to write and perform them, but I’ve never been able to sit back and listen and get a little objective.
In terms of who I’d work with, I think the sky’s the limit. I could have 100 people come in and work with them for the sake of working, but I’m not committed to say I will or won’t work with anyone. It is what it is. This is a cathartic time for me. This is a grand opportunity for me to use my voice again, and who knows what’ll happen. I have a title, Water Light Sound [which represents birth], but I don’t know what the album’s going to sound like.
- Dove ~Sheepish Lordess of Chaos~
Watch John Forte's "Homecoming," feat. Talib Kweli, below.
Ma Dukes...Jay Dilla's Mother, Mrs.Yancey chops it up with OkayPlayer.com
Ma Dukes, A Love Supreme
Posted on 04/17/2009
In anticipation of the new J Dilla record, Jay Stay Paid, out June 2nd on Nature Sounds, Okayplayer got the chance to chop it up with none other than Mrs. Yancey, aka “Ma Dukes.” Despite her recent diagnosis with Lupus, a disease that contributed to her son’s untimely departure, and ongoing estate woes (which OKP was legally advised not to broach), Ma Dukes maintains a light so very bright and sprawling as the Aurora Borealis. She’s a rare paragon of positivity, an example of motherhood done right and proof that it isn’t necessarily who or what you lose, but what you do after. The average human could have easily buckled under her circumstances, but not Ma Dukes. To her, it’s all about the love; it’s all about the music and the message. In essence, Maureen Yancey is the Dalai Lama of rap moms. And this is what makes her proud.
OKP: When Dilla first got into hip-hop, how did it strike you as a parent? Did you ever wonder, “why is that bass so damn loud?”
MD: laughs No no, never. Before Dilla was even one year old, he would stand up in his crib when he heard James Brown. That bass would get him up off the floor of the playpen and he would prop himself up with one hand and dance. He would dance until the very last beat but we would laugh because when the song ended, he would realize he couldn’t stand and walk and he would get this panicked look on his face like, “Now what?!” But even with that he couldn’t resist it. We knew the bass was a special thing to him. We just got used to it over the years. You know, when guys like ?uestlove and Common would come into town, we all shared the same home. They would work and we knew we wouldn’t be sleeping! Our heads would be bobbing along under the pillows! Hip-Hop is just another type of music and aside from my husband not liking the Opera; we love all kinds of music.
OKP: You and your husband are both classically trained musicians, right?
MD: My husband’s a jazz musician; he played upright bass and sang around the country for 25 years or so. They did shows like halftime for The Globetrotters and put out some records on Brunswick but he never parted with his job at the Ford Motor Company; that was always a mainstay! I had an aunt who taught music in schools, so my upbringing was more opera and classical.
OKP: How old was Dilla when he started experimenting with music?
MD: At two and a half we knew that was it, he was a record collector and a little DJ. His father and I took it for granted then, but his love of music made it easier on us.
OKP: Well, from a Dilla fan, thank you for being so supportive.
MD: You’re welcome! Music just meant everything to us; it’s what we love. In fact it’s how I met my husband. I auditioned for him.
OKP: To be a vocalist in his band?
MD: No, more as a solo artist. My parents had an idea that I could record as a solo artist so I auditioned with Mr. Yancey one time when he was on a break from his band. But I was content with my day job! I wasn’t looking for any singing job! After my audition, he took me to a club downtown called “The Hideaway.” He played the piano and I sang a bunch of standards. The owner wanted me to come back the next Monday and Mr. Yancey was a fast talker back then, he was in the business, so before I knew it, they had me coming back in a week to start performing! I still wasn’t looking for a job, but I was interested in him! I had to let him down easy with the singing though; I wasn’t ready for that lifestyle.
OKP: So you made away with a husband, not a record contract?
MD: Oh yes… I had my eye on him! But music is literally the cornerstone of our family.
OKP: So I’m guessing your sons’ “Yancey Boys” collaboration was a source of great pride for you?
MD: Yes, I’m very proud and I’m glad that Illa J (Dilla’s little brother) is bringing forth his own talent. All the Yanceys are gifted but they all have their own special talents. Illa was worried because we are a very critical family, of each other and of every thing! My daughter is super bad when it comes to being critical of things. She doesn’t listen to hip-hop, she doesn’t really like it; she’s an Alanis Morissette type. She’s the one that introduced John to a lot of different music. Now his favorite group is The White Stripes. But we just embrace music from everywhere; there is no certain format. There are no lines to be drawn. John will bring forth what he has to offer and his new things will be great.
OKP: When your sons were younger, was James a mentor to John?
MD: Well John was the kid brother, so everybody slammed doors in John’s face! Dilla would let him come down for a little while if he was working, but at a certain point no one was allowed to go down with Dilla, that’s how we knew he was working on something special. But John always had a penchant for writing. He was the only kid at the time; his siblings were teenagers and young adults. He adored them, but it didn’t stop the doors from slamming in his face! So he wrote a lot and he would sing. He would take his stuffed animals on the front porch and just sing to them as the traffic on Nevada passed by. He was in the church choir by age 5 and definitely held his own even though he was the smallest one.
OKP: In keeping with the family vibe, I understand you’re executive producing the new Dilla album?
MD: Yes and I intend to do that with everything that comes forth from this point on.
OKP: Can you tell us about the record?
MD: I can’t let any secrets out but what I can tell you is that it’s so spiritually fulfilling for me because I know what Pete (Rock) meant to Dilla. And Pete is very present in everything that goes on. Our house looks like a museum to Pete with all the posters! I talk with him daily and I know how honored and special Dilla’s spirit must feel knowing Pete is doing this. He adored Pete to no end; there was no one greater than Pete. He wanted to grow up to be Pete.
OKP: What was Pete’s main contribution to the project?
MD: Pete finished the parts that Dilla left undone, which only Pete could do. And I don’t think you could get it any closer to if Dilla had done it with his own hands.
OKP: With guys like Dilla and Pete Rock representing modern music; how do you feel the culture now compares to when you were coming up?
MD: The fusion of music is what I’m interested in now. The artists that fuse things like old soul and pop and rap, and the artists that are really bringing something new to the table; this is what intrigues me. It opens new ears to music and more people can find things in the music now. If you can find things in the music that appeal to you, you’re more in tune to what’s going on. If you don’t sit down long enough, you might miss the whole message. And we don’t do enough listening, even the older adults, we don’t. There’s so much good hip-hop and there are so many good messages, you just need to take the time to listen. And you can’t expect everything to remain the same. It’s the same story all through time. I mean, whose parents didn’t think it was a bunch of hogwash when they heard what kids were listening to! It happens every generation and I’ve watched it through a couple now. You have to not resist the love of the music. Sometimes I think we’re afraid to like things. But today, with all different music being fused, people shouldn’t be so afraid to like new things. Like me, myself, I love hip-hop.
OKP: Since Dilla’s passing, have you felt an outreach from the hip-hop community?
MD: Yes I have. It’s been a rough three years and there have been times I’ve had to call on the guys. I’ve always been able to call Common; it only takes one phone call. I know it would bother him if I needed something and didn’t reach out so with him it’s usually about a half hour and he calls me back. There’s never any question from him besides, “What can I do to help?” Even when we had the event at Cal. State on 2/22 (A live performance of the Suite for Ma Dukes EP), Common hadn’t gotten the message about the show. Illa J and I went to his concert the night before. I just wanted to lay low and leave him alone but we went back stage and saw him. He asked what was going on the next day and I could tell by the look on his face that he hadn’t gotten the message from his people. I lived with him a couple years so I know. He asked me to text him the info but I knew how busy he was with The Oscars and other obligations and I didn’t want to bother him. I knew he would be there with me in spirit. So the next day I went to the performance and I hadn’t been there a half hour when someone ran up to me and said, “Rash is here.” So that’s what I’m talking about. I’ve reached out to ?uestlove and Black Thought too. With Black Thought it’s a response within 60 seconds. Everyone has been wonderful. It’s like I’ve been given a host of sons. I feel loved and on Mother’s Day I get calls from midnight all throughout the day.
OKP: I think we’re all glad you’re getting that kind of support.
MD: It makes me feel so good to feel all the love for Dilla. My family is still very much in mourning. It takes different amounts of time for different people. My husband is a quiet soft-spoken person so he deals with it in his own way. My daughter was extremely close to Dilla and she may never be ready…
OKP: How close were you to James?
MD: Extremely close. Dilla and I talked through everything together, whether it was relationships or baby-mamas or whatever. We knew there was hardly anything we couldn’t get through together. It doesn’t get any stronger than a mother and her child. You never have to worry because you know you have somebody there 100%, always.
OKP: We fans have all heard the stories of Dilla performing onstage from a wheelchair and making beats in his hospital bed until his last days. How surreal of an experience was all this for you as a parent?
MD: You know what, it enriched my life. Now that I’m suffering from some of the same things, it gives special meaning to my suffering. It’s bittersweet because it’s bringing me closer to what he dealt with and it’s bringing me closer to what we shared. Because of that I’m able to deal with my own illness better.
OKP: How is your health now?
MD: I’m here so I’m grateful. I’m on steroids so I’m feeling good all the time! I’m Ma Dukes on steroids! laughs
But there was a beauty in Dilla’s passing because I realized he didn’t have to suffer anymore. I knew all the suffering because I was like his 24-hour nurse. Most people would have been in ICU just to get the care he needed on a daily basis on his tour but I was able to make it bearable enough for him to make it through. We stayed in the room all day and we just tried to keep him strong enough for the performance. But I was so blessed to have been there, nothing in this world could ever be as important to me.
OKP: Did you have any medical training?
MD: You never know what your lot in life will be. I worked for the IRS! But luckily I had some nursing training as a young adult. I also learned from the staff at Cedars-Sinai. Dilla had about 15 doctors and they had to teach me to care for him because he wouldn’t let anyone else touch him. He was very peculiar! laughs He was a funny guy but also very serious. In fact, he was serious most of the time.
OKP: Funny, his reputation around music and his music itself are both so upbeat and soulful, I wouldn’t assume he was such a serious dude.
MD: He was! I mean to a fault. My husband and I never forced our opinions on our children; they were to think as they wanted to think. We would raise them but if they thought differently we certainly wanted them to express that. Dilla was adamant about everything. Even if I started fussing, he wouldn’t back down. He wasn’t rash but if he made a decision he stuck to it and he wasn’t afraid of making wrong decisions.
OKP: Probably one of the reasons he made such great music.
MD: Oh yes.
OKP: It’s easy to speculate on Dilla’s legacy within music but in what other ways do you hope his legend will impact people?
MD: The J-Dilla foundation is to help fund Lupus research but that’s just one area. We want to promote arts for the children seeing that music and other programs have been taken out of a lot of the schools. We don’t have rec centers and we don’t have enough people because we can’t pay them. We want to start something like Amp Fiddler did here in Detroit. He never made a dime but he got it done by being so unselfish. He’s an unsung hero and he hasn’t stopped. This is something I’m looking forward to doing.
OKP: Any final words of wisdom for our readers?
MD: I just want them to know that Jay Stay Paid is a piece of Dilla’s heart. It would be so divine and so special for Dilla to know that Pete worked on it. When I met Pete I told him how Dilla worshipped the ground he walked on and I think it threw him for a loop because in this business you hear a lot of people just rubbing their gums together! But he told me how big a fan he was of Dilla’s and how special this was. So I just want everyone to know that they’re not just getting a piece of Dilla’s music, they’re getting a piece of his heart… You know, I’m just excited about music in general right now and what we all have stored up in our soul, the things we’re afraid to release and share with other people. We’ve all got gifts to share with the world, and not just music, we just need to learn to share and to not be afraid.
OKP: In the future, please let us know what we can do to help.
MD: Well ok, you’ll be hearing from me, it’s about to get real busy! The sun is out, everything’s turning around; I’m feeling great about everything! Like I said, Ma Dukes on steroids is gonna be wild!
- Jeff Artist
**Top illustration by Donald Ely. To see more of his work, visit Donald Ely's website.
In addition to copping Dilla's Jay Stay Paid, (proceeds go to Ma Dukes and the Estate of James Yancey) which is set to drop June 2nd on Nature Sounds, you can also help out Ma Dukes by checking out Suite For Ma Dukes on Stones Throw. Stones Throw also has a t-shirt with all of the proceeds going to Ma Dukes.
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