Notes from Underground
“I heard “Sucker MC’s” for the first time. It was a wrap. I had to rhyme.” But for RepLife, a.k.a. Daniel Gray-Kontar, it has never just been about rhyming. He’s even tried to put down the mic and start new projects several times since his first engagement with rhyming on Cleveland’s streets at the age of 12.
An MC, poet, publisher, award-winning journalist for The Village Voice and The Source, youth mentor, and advocate for public education, RepLife belongs to the generation of musicians who actually walk the walk by being actively involved with improving the lives of underserved youth and fighting for social justice.
Lucky for us, RepLife’s childhood passion kept calling him back to the world of rhymes and music production. Since 2004, he has been busy recording his solo album — to which Belgian producer Cris Prolific has contributed a track –and working on other collaborative projects, appearing on a couple of songs on Montreal-based, nu-jazz producer Don-Ray’s forthcoming album, and is planning to release a joint EP with Mark de Clive-Lowe this year.
The hip hop, future soul, broken beat and nu-jazz culmination of RepLife’s solo efforts, The Unclosed Mind, released this week and is one of the most innovative musical projects of this year.
Who Are You, Skullphone?
No one actually knows who Skullphone is. Sometimes he is known as Spazmat, another graffiti artist; sometimes he is rumored to have been Spazmat, but is now someone else. It doesn’t matter who he is though, as much as what he’s doing.
Skullphone has placed himself as a solid part of graffiti’s 21st century revolution by more than sheer force of his ubiquity (and he is everywhere). The Los Angeles-based graffiti artist doesn’t tag so much as infiltrate Southern California’s landscape.
From stickers to dumpsters to rooftops and abandoned gas stations, Skullphone has spawned his own cottage graffiti industry with his trademark stamp…a skull on a phone.
Earlier this week, the usually surreptitious Skullphone hijacked Clear Channel’s digital billboards in Southern California, leaving passerbys — and no doubt the techies at Clear Channel — wondering who, what, and how. Skullphone’s not just bombing the system, he’s literally infiltrating it. And he’s coming to New York.
Get a free taste of Skullphone’s subversive spree tonight at a special event hosted by Fuse Gallery at Lit Lounge. Skullphone and his work will be in town for the night and DJ’s Zen Zane and Hit & Mrs will be joined by a special guest DJ on the turntables.
Subversive tasting at Lit here and at Skullphone’s home here