Juba Kalamka (pointfivefag) barely subsisting and living in a youth hostel following a December 1998 move to San Francisco from Chicago, takes the last $30 of his Starbucks paycheck and buys two tickets for the 10th Anniversary screening of Marlon Riggs' Tongue Untied at the Castro Theatre (June,1999). Says pointfivefag:"I'd paid my rent for the next two weeks, and the two tickets left me with $3 till we got tips the next Friday. I'm thinking, I'm in San Francisco, and it's my first pride event. Do I miss this show, or go, be really broke and have something to remember for life? I'm so glad I did."
An erotic poetry reading followed the screening, in which Tim'm T. West (25 percenter) was a presenter alongside Jewelle Gomez, G Winston James and Marvin K. White. Struck by the first open description of queer desire in hip hop culture he'd ever heard, Juba approached West following the reading and exchanged phone numbers. After a week or so of phone tag, the two began hanging out. On one occasion Juba was introduced to Louie Butler, who hosted a series of popular spoken word events in downtown Oakland.
Juba was in the beginning stages of recording what would become his first solo spoken word/hip hop experiment - Pre/tensions, and now had the opportunity to write and perform on a regular basis in a queer-friendly context. Meanwhile, on Stanford's campus, Tim'm made his first connection with Phillip Atiba Goff (lightskindid) a Philadelphia born, Harvard grad/first-year psychology student. Says 25percenter: "In a typical sort of Stanfordish fashion someone asked me, "do you know Phill? He has dreadlocks too, but he's lightskinded" The two began commisserating around Stanford's Campus, the three finally meeting at a Stanford COHO Spoken Word/Hip Hop show. It was at this point that the three realized the intersection of their artistic and cultural sensibilities, and decided to hang out to work together.
Adjourning to a music room on Stanford's campus to jam in a piano room, Tim'm and Juba rapped, sang and scatted while Phil spoke and wailed and played. They came up with the basis for 15-20 songs (a number of which have became BourgieBohoPostPomoAfroHomo), as well as the name Deep Dickollective - a tongue in cheek fun-poke at the proliferation of womanist "punani poet" enclaves in '90s spoken word circles.
Returning from a radio simulcast of counter-hegemonic-to-the-military/industrial-cultural-production poetry and song, it was over a double cheeseburger and chili fries that Ralowe Trinitroluene Ampu (G-Minus) brought his brand of scathing anarchy into 25percenter's operation. 25percenter was unsure with whether the young and apparently mentally unstable individual (who was dressed as the devil) was just another irrational radical or in fact, a fag. Their first encounter was not the most harmonious, but it was G-Minus' sincere passion for their art of rhyming which proved irresistible and resulting in the near immediate installment in the collective.
Further encounters and performances with G Minus led the group to connect with their pivotal recording opportunity with Dub scientist Russell "ArchieSmooth" Gaddis, a friend of bassist Mitsu Overstreet, who G Minus met in a San Francisco bookstore. Thus began the process of recording the initial D/DC release, at which time the group began re-connecting with several of members their individual communities, including Douglas (Doug E) Eglin, a co-founder of seminal Oakland crew Conflama (who featured on two tracks "Straighttrippin'" and "The Ah-Ah" before his amicable departure to concentrate on solo ventures) and Oakland poet Dazie' R. Grego (Ms. Edge).
In the period leading up to and immediately following the completion of "BourgieBoho" in November 2001, D/DC began securing spot tour dates in a number of local venues, as well as college and university functions around the United States. It was function that The group met Marcus Rene' Van (Mr. ManMan,The Herb With Nerve) a renowned performance poet and filmmaker,and later Jeree Brown (JBRapItUp) a poet/mc drum and bass producer from East Palo Alto.
Both Brown and Van brought important individual performance histories that have been succesfully intergrated into the continually developing and evolving Deep Dickollective universe of artists,and are featured heavily on "The Famous Outlaw League of Proto-Negroes" (2004) which was named to Out Magazine's Top Ten Gay Albums of The Year list.
After heavy individual performance schedules following the international festival run of Alex Hinton's homohop documentary "Pick Up The Mic" in 2005, D/DC'got to work its' fifth full length "On Some Other", which will was released in June 2007 and features performances from new members including vocalist Solas B. Lalgee, NYC slam badass Leslie "Buttaflysoul" Taylor (late of HBO Def Poetry Jam) producer baron., and emcee Baraka Noel.
Given the impress hip-hop has had on culture internationally, the interventions lyrically and politically of a bunch of queer Negroes is bound to have ripple effects. The point is that D/DC represents a "coming out" in hip-hop about what some of us have known for a long time: that any black cultural Renaissance needs fags. There is no cypher without the sissy - whether they appear as the abject reference of the insecure closet fagrapper or whether the fervor with which they approach lyricism, beatmaking, graffiti art, or breakin has inspirations that have been cloaked in compulsory silence.
The fag has entered and the cypher is stalled. The anti-gangster aesthetic of quasi-Nationalist "conscious" hip-hoppers and bohemian MC thrift shoppers pave a space for D/DC to articulate its word play.
They represent a political lyricism that does not take itself too seriously. they are the brave mavericks of a movement that some affectionately refer to as homo-hop. They are Oxymoronic "out" black queer Emcees the world says do not exist. They are the rumblings of a revolution that have for too long been silenced. Overstand? It's not that deep.
i wish to you much joy in 2008 and the creation of many wonderful memories. add to that a healthy dose of success and i think everything will be most lovely.
Looks like may never come. I'm losing my interest in making music compared to everyone else, the more I feel like listening or the more that I feel the music will be a little terrible. Fear always gets in the way. I'll push and see what's up.
Meanwhile, how is your stuff doing? Juba's album is coming next month, I hear.
Sup? hope ur havin a great day! Just stoppin by to show some love! Come by n check out ur boy The Initiate. I got a new track up called Bounce Part 2. So come peep it n leave me a comment! One The Initiate
