While most rappers hide behind facades of wealth and power, Koba has been steadily growing his fanbase by simply sharing his innermost thoughts.
His music takes listeners back to a time when hip hop was about creating poetry and art, and at the same time ushers them forward with modern beats and skillful rhymes. His raw and energetic live shows with the legendary DJ Boo are not to be missed.
CS: What makes you hip hop?
K: I try to shoot at least 1.7 people per day, in between moving a few kilos of white and droppin’ dimes back at the club for asking me to take my doo rag off. No? Okay. I think hip-hop is a billion things; a genre with myriad subgenres often in conflict. But I do think there are certain underlying characteristics that tie us together: a youthful spirit of irreverence; defiance; an assertion of confidence in an uncertain world; and just a yearning to have some plain-ass fun. Above all, though, is the notion of authenticity: being truthful first to yourself and then to your audience – whether you’re a gay Jewish rapper or a hardcore rapper documenting life on the block – and being you and doing you regardless of any naysayers. I love the planet; exploring its mountains and rivers. I uphold sisters as equals and not video ho’s. Gay folk are my folk. I got beef with aggressive imperial policies even if they’re pushed by our new President. I’m not impressed by your chain when youngins gotta eat breakfast for dinner. I don’t care if any of that rubs someone the wrong way; pretending is for people insecure with themselves. Oh, and I like to get twisted and have some damn fun too.
What topics do you like to discuss in your music?
The whole gamut, whatever a gamut is. I like to unearth themes dialectically, like Radio Raheem’s fists. I explore dimensions of love and hate, vulnerability and strength, the misery of the present moment and rapture of an alternative possibility, and then I attempt to synthesize that musically. I like to dignify the slighted, to expound on the beauty of calloused hands, to make party music for immigrants to move their tired backs to. Reify the daring of young love. Talk about what it means to be a nerd in the ‘hood, a rebel in the suburbs. Fly over the world high-fiving Himalayan Sherpas and kids playing football with tin cans in shantytowns. The more direct stuff too: New Orleans, Mideast wars, gentrification. I don’t think we should respond to the exaggerated portrayal of urban life with the trivial, everyday, mundane; but instead with the most extraordinary: life distilled and enriched, life freebasing dreams. Oh and pirates; yes, I’ve talked about pirates.
Where is your favorite spot to perform when you’re on tour?
In New York that would definitely be the Bowery Poetry Club, a beacon of counterculture and experimentation. I don’t know if I have a particular favorite outside the city. I love those odd joints you never thought you’d hit up, though. Ace’s Basement in Greensboro. A noodle factory in the middle of nowhere, Oakland. Rockin’ a Masonic Temple with the Last Emperor. Especially love performing for youth. No other crowd will tell you it like it is. People need music everywhere – you realize that the more random places you visit. I swear, go rock a hockey rink in Minnesota or a barn upstate.
Koba and DJ Boo
If hip hop is dead today, how can we revive it?
Forget the paddles and Dr. House. We need Mary Shelley. Reanimate this creature as something different entirely that might be misunderstood and feared initially but will be taught in 6th grade classes years from now. Hip-hop overthrew the deadening decadence of disco: now hip-hop is disco. I don’t know what form it’ll take, that will only come to light by doing. That’s why it’s called the lab, experiment. PULL THE SWITCH NOW IGOR, YES, MUAHAHA.
You’ve been in the game for a minute now. What’s your technique for exercising your brain so that your lyrical skills will stay top-notch?
When you have a concept for a song, right away, throw out the most predictable things that come to mind. The most potent art isn’t so direct or pedantic, it’s suggestive and residual. For example: I don’t know exactly what the hell Lupe Fiasco’s “Streets on Fire” is directly about. The zombie apocalypse or something? But his subtle way of exploring different peoples’ responses to it make it a poignant statement about our condition. Always ask yourself: has this been said before? Above all: listen, listen, listen. Deliberately seek out the music of successful artists that you yourself dislike, and try to pull out the positive qualities from that style. That’s how you progress, B.
So what’s next?
I’m working hard on finishing my debut album, Culture War, and getting it out there sometime this year. You can check out my music and videos at kobasounds.com or myspace.com/modelminority. I would love to come rock your school, club, fundraiser, coffeeshop, barn, hockey rink or bar mitzvah. Hit me up at koba@kobasounds.com. If not, let’s climb a mountain sometime.
(Photos by Derek Srisaranard.)
Andrew Singer performs all over the NYC as comedic rapper “soce, the elemental wizard.” He has toured Europe and the U.S., and been featured on numerous media outlets, including MTV, VH1, Here TV, Logo, The Source, Out, Howard Stern and Sirius Shade 45. His new album, “Master of Fine Arts” comes out in August 2009.
Last 5 posts by Andrew Singer
- Vodka Shoes - March 4th, 2010
- Yisrael Campbell: Circumsize Him (Part One) - February 12th, 2010
- A Weekend of Arts and Leisure - January 4th, 2010
- Evan Morgenstern: A Really Nice Guy - August 27th, 2009
- Tonedeff: QN5's Mastermind - August 5th, 2009
