Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

My Past Life As A Hip Hopper

As per usual, a bit of nostalgic daydreaming has redirected my obsessions, and for the past week I have put away my metal CD's and instead have been pulling out my hip hop ones.

I probably haven't mentioned this here, but I love hip hop. Back in the mid to late 90's I was in a hip hop 'crew', and I was an 'MC' (I put those terms in adverted commas to avoid ridicule, though I suspect it will still come). They were good days, and I was right into the whole scene. We were called The Keepers, and we, along with two other crews called Fathom and Levelhedz were part of a bigger group called The Future Eaters.

Anyways, I was reminiscing the other day, and was sad that all the music The Keepers made only ended up on crappy old cassettes, that are rotting away in some box in the shed. But then I had the brainwave to Google the old groups' name, and I stumbled across an mp3 online of a 'posse cut' that we made with the Future Eaters. I was very excited to find it, and promptly downloaded it and have been playing it non stop.

I am proud of the stuff the Keepers made, I reckon it was pretty unusual. We were right into underground groups like Company Flow and Jedi Mind Tricks, and I reckon the stuff we sampled was pretty different to what most Aussie hip hop was doing at the time. Most hip hop had that 'funky' sort of vibe, which I don't like, and the samples came from funk and jazz and stuff like that, and Aussie hip hop these days is still like that, only even more mainstream.

But we were right into early 80's goth and new wave stuff, so lots of our beats and samples came from stuff like Joy Division, New Order, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and things like that. I really with we had of finished the recordings we were working on. We had this big double album planned, called Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers In This Quiet Earth (which is the last line in Wuthering Heights). It would have been awesome!

Oh well, at least I have one mp3 now.

9 comments:

RodeoClown said...

You have one mp3. But we don't.

How can we possibly praise your amazing lyrical efforts without a frame of reference?

---
On a more serious note - did you stutter affect your MC-ing?

Ben McLaughlin said...

Yeah, I thought you mind wonder about that. No, I could rhyme pretty fast, with no problems. It's a curiosity. It was the same when I was singing in bands too.

It is a common thing with stutterers. It's just a different way of using the vocal cords, or something I guess.

Okay, well since you asked, here's a link to the track:

www.mp3.com.au/Track.asp?id=17794

The song is called 'Aliens'. There are a bunch of guys rapping, and I rap twice.. but I won't tell you which one's me!

Pedro said...

Whez da link yo?

ahhhhh, dats sum dope linx brethra!!!

Ben McLaughlin said...

did the link work??

I get blocked when I try it from work, so I can't tell.

Ben McLaughlin said...

yeah, I'm the lame white boy one, good guess! And also at the start, I rap 2nd, the bit that starts 'it's what happens when the future trickles down into the night..' Whatever that means! Remember, these were my angsty early 20's, so be leniant.

RodeoClown said...

Have I been un-lenient so far?

Speaking of angst - Angsty Teen by McIverCork is quite good.

You can hear it here.

I'm not sure if it's straight off the album or not - but it's pretty funny.

RodeoClown said...

Whoa - just got Angsty Teen on random at work.

That's 1 song out of a possible 1559 that could have come up.

Hmmm...

Megan Frost said...

If you want to reminisce further -there is actually a Hip Hop Church called Crosswerds that runs on a Sat night once a month in Belmore PCYC... just a suggestion.

Ben McLaughlin said...

Heya Megan, thanks-- wow, hip hop church.. intriguing.