NEW KINGDOM
The revolution is in progress and New Kingdom is here to take it over
the top. Never again will grey-haired men waste money on bombs while
ruining the present and neglecting the future. It's time for the youth,
empowered with the truth, to push aside the old and institute the new.
The kids are going to rule this motherfucker," rallies Nosaj, who, along
with fellow emcee Sebastian and DJ Starchild, make up the rambunc
tious rap radicals from New York City known as New Kingdom. The shouts
ring out on their debut Heavy Load as adrenaline rhymes, boomin' live
drums and mind-expanding mushrooms heighten the call-to-arms.
New Kingdom describes a vision where the youth of the world get
together and take charge of their own destiny. "It's a new movement to
wake everybody up to see that the young people don't need to be shit
on anymore, says Nosaj. "The time is at hand to get rid of all these old
ideas like racism and stuff and clean it up."
Or we're going to dose 'em all," says Sebastian. "Dose everybody over
sixty-five. Then we could weed them all out and take over the government
and they'll be so stoned they won't even know what's going on."
But seriously, New Kingdom believes the number of years that a per-
son has been kicking it isn't what's important. It ain't so much age as it
is a mind-state. If you open your mind to ideas, then that's when you're
really young, but when you start shutting down your mind, you get old,
Sebastian says "There's some young people that are sixty years old
because they're filled with hate. And to me, those people are old.
They're out of here," Nosaj says, "None of that nazism shit
"Don't come to New York with that shit bro," Sebastian says.
New Kingdom has learned to respect people regardless of
their gene pool and their music reflects a kaleidoscope of
sounds including punk, rap and American rock and roll. With
a positive attitude and an open mind, the band knows that
they can stay young forever.
Like Sebastian says. "My grandfather's seventy six years
old and he's still young 'cause he has an open mind."
Brian Brannon
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Interview by Ron Chatman
"Dare to be different" were the last words that left Cold 187um's mouth
at the studio where he was producing the new album by Mz Kilo, a female
rapper who had a cut on the Menace To Society soundtrack. A strong
message and a smooth sound define all of Above The Law's stuff, from
Living Like Hustlers Lp, Vocally Pimpin' Ep or the recent Black Mafia Life
Lp, with Eazy-E, MC Ren, 2Pac and Kokane (who also has a new Lp out).
How and when did Above The Law come about?
Well, all of us grew up together, we used to hustle on the street, and we
was playin' with rap on the side. We all come from a basic music background
and decided we wanted to do music on a serious level and get out off the
streets, so we formed Above The Law and took our street money and
turned it into music, tryin' to take the negative and turn it into positive.
On Black Mafia Life, you and KMG played off each other's voice a lot.
I let KMG step forward so instead of people hearin' just one forceful
mouthpiece, they hear two on the same level. We could flow by ourselves,
but we need each other. And plus, if we do a tag team rap, we write it
together. It's not like he's over here and I'm over here. Everything's like a
pick up, it's like playing a rap game. If you say something, I'll pick it up and
take it somewhere else, and then after that, you take it somewhere else.
NWA, DJ Quik and you guys seem to be describing the real deal,
where other people are speaking nonsensically, just talking crazy.
Usually when somebody tells you something from a glorified point, they
haven't been in it. If it's usually too much to believe, it's usually not true. If
somebody explains something to you in detail and know what they talking
60 TRAVER
about on the whole level, it's usually real. And sometimes that's too deep
for people to swallow. People will ban somebody telling the truth before
they'll ban somebody that's talking bullshit. They'll let bullshit fly 'cause
that's what they need to hear. You've got to shake some people up some-
times. The truth hurts, but somebody has to tell it.
I believe that you cannot confine music. You have to always express your-
self on how you feel at that point. If you feel like making something con-
troversial, make it. If you feel like making something cool and funky or heavy
and fun, make it, because it's just an expression. A lot of groups get into at
grain where they have to be too hardcore and too political. But basically,
we're all a little bit political. We're all a little bit funky, we're all a little happy.
It's kind of crazy, but like I said, we dare to be different.
Kansas City's Season to Risk explodes in fits of attitude, aggression and
power. The band's self-titled debut buzzes with megaphone vocals, weird
time signatures and searing licks that swarm around strongly-rooted
melodies. The record splinters and reconstructs in tense, fiery bravado.
As crushing as the album is, singer Steve Tulipana insists the band's
strength lies in its live performance. "The great thing about being on-
stage is you're creating right then and there, you're expending all the ener
gy that you build up over the course of the day." For Tulipana, performing
is a way to expel his demons, "I'm not a very violent person. I'm not notice-
ably pissed or angry, but all that shit gets in me, and my catharsis is to go
out live and scream my head off."
Although Season To Risk has been together for nearly four years, it has
only recently found itself in the public eye. Tulipana says it's because the
band has only recently gotten its shit together, but it's at least partially due
to the group's irrepressible urge to incite and its unwillingness to stick to
conventions. The group's first single featured cover artwork of a clown
painted by serial killer John Wayne Gacy, and the full album was sched-
uled to contain more of Gacy's work until Columbia nixed the idea.
"I didn't realize so many people would be shocked. I definitely wasn't try-
ing to glorify killers or anything," says Tulipana. "I just like to dig under-
neath things and find out what lurks there. I was a kid in Chicago when Gacy
was busted. I remember pictures of him that scared the shit out of me.
"Everyone thought he was a good guy and left him alone. If people would
have stopped to talk to him they probably would have figured out he was
fucked up and maybe somebody could have helped him. He was trying to
find something. He just went about it in the wrong way."-Jon Wiederhorn
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