A.G.: “IT’S NOT ABOUT HOW OLD YOU ARE, IT’S HOW YOU LOOK WHEN YOU’RE DOING IT” Fri May 02 Words By Cyclone Forget that recent visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, with Kate trying out scratching in Adelaide. When KRS-One finally reached Australia in 2012, travelling by boat due to his pteromerhanophobia (fearing of flying), he encountered near-hysteria from local hip hoppers. Thats hot! laughs his South Bronx homie A.G. (AKA André Barnes) of Showbiz & AG fame. I just hope I get a fraction of the love that they gave him and Ill be happy with that! Indeed, Barnes, touring here for the first time, with The X-Ecutioners Total Eclipse as his DJ, is excited about performing to those who love vintage boom-bap – be they young or old hip hop heads. Mentored by Lord Finesse, the then André The Giant formed a partnership with beatmaker Showbiz (Rodney Lemay) – and theyd premiere with 1992s LP Runaway Slave. The three formed the Diggin In The Crates Crew (DITC) with Diamond D, Buckwild, OC, Fat Joe and the late Big L. Barnes. J Dilla contributed beats to his next LP, 2006s Get Dirty Radio. Yet Showbiz & AG have remained active, putting out Mugshot Music two years ago. Today Barnes is developing the label Red Apples 45 with Ray West, a DJ/producer. My main thing for the whole process, my whole career, my whole life, is to promote the music that I make. Its really not to make money – Ill make money in the process, but my main goal is to get as many people familiar with what I do before I leave this planet. You have this incredible legacy stretching back to at least 1990. But when you meet young hip hop fans, do you get the sense that theyre aware of the musics history? Its a mixture – and it depends on what crowd or what demographic Im in. There are certain places that I go and the young people are very familiar with what we do, then theres certain places where you can tell the young guys are not familiar with what we have done, but still appreciate what they hear from us right now. Our job is to give the people more access, cause I think the music we make is real universal as far as our message and content, the type of music we make [and] the type of sampling we do. So its for everybody – it just hasnt been exposed to everybody. For a while there seemed to be a decline in MCing skills – and lyricism – as hip hop became about flashy EDM beats. But that has turned around with Kendrick Lamar… Yeah, that [good kid, m.A.A.d city] was a dope album. Who else do you like? I definitely like Kendrick Lamar and I also like Drake – I like what he brings to the table and how hes made his buzz. I like Joey Bada$$, for sure… A lotta the music that I like now is really independent and low-key. I listen to everything but, what gets repeated, its very rare in my catalogue. Kendrick Lamar I listened to front-to-back and thought it was a classic album. So theres good music out there, theres just a lotta music that is not good thats out there as well, in my opinion. The generation gap doesnt seem to exist in hip hop anymore, with MCs enjoying sustained careers. Would you agree? I think Nas and Jay-Z changed that – they changed the view of people and what you do. Its not about how old you are; its how you look when youre doing it. These two guys, theyre looking kinda good in a young mans game! But what I have learned about nowadays is the younger guys have the talent, but the information and the knowledge of self, the consciousness, is really not there. The talent is probably better than what we had – but theyre doing the wrong thing with the talent. The older guys are showing em [that] you cant really be a solo artist with a complete classic album without some type of experience or knowledge or something. You cant just talk about anything for a whole album and really last. So I think thats what the older guys are showing and bringing to the table – that if you listen to a Nas album, if you listen to a Jay-Z album, theyre not talking about normal issues, and theyre not bringing it across in a normal way, so therefore you have to respect them in a different type of light. Word is youll be releasing a new solo album, Ambrosia, soon. Its something that Ive been working on for a while. It means a lot to me because the concept of Ambrosia – ambrosias food for the gods. I think this album will be so refreshing. Its concepts and things that I talk about that older guys are afraid to talk about because they think the youth wont catch on. This album is not directed at the youth – and thats different from any album that I ever made. I always wanted younger people and newer audiences to feel what I was doing, but this album is more about the people who have helped me have a 24-year career. [But] if the young people catch along with that, thats great.
Posted on: Tue, 06 May 2014 03:05:28 +0000