| Subject: Interview ith Baby Blak |
Author:
hero1
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Date Posted: 18:45:05 04/19/02 Fri
Searching for the Middle Ground with Baby Blak
“You wear the blood of your people on your neck and your wrist/I said the blood of your people/Ain’t no love for your people/South African government put slugs in my people so ya platinum chain can have a stud you can see through.”
--“Die Man (Diamonds)”
After releasing a flood of classic singles as one half of the group Ill Advised (with cohort Mr. Lish) during indie hip-hop's heyday in the mid-to-late '90s, Baby Blak is putting the finishing touches on his debut solo album, Once You Go Blak. He's also featured on several cuts from DJ Jazzy Jeff's funkier-than-thou BBE Beat Generation series album The Magnificent.
Rep'n West Philly, Baby Blak treads in a gray area, speaking a hip-hop language that's almost extinct. "My music is based on humanity," he explains of his creative duality. "I'm middle ground. Middle ground is below jiggy, icy-crystal poppin', platinum chain-wearing, shiny suit-having, go-go girl ass-shaking and above the water-bottle granola kids, backpacks, incense-burning wannabe earthy type."
With highly complex rhyme patterns, Blak doesn't hesitate to flip hip-hop haikus at random. Spittin' with overflowing confidence on the 20-plus-track album advance, Blak tackles everything from street sagas to poverty, fatherhood, women and betrayal with prime production, cuts and scratching by DJ Revolution, Evidence, Joey Chavez and a host of local beat-men.
On "Die Man (Diamonds)," Baby Blak takes listeners on a trip to the violent diamond mines of South Africa and attacks the way ice is prized in the hip-hop world. "You killing your people, walking around in America like you're the shit," he says, addressing his materialist peers, "and people are losing legs and arms, and mothers and fathers -- over some diamonds." Possessing the vivid storytelling ability of Nas circa Illmatic with clever, witty wordplay and Jay-Z-like ability to flip his moniker 50 different ways with ease, Blak proves his worth as a soloist on Once You Go Blak.
Already being hailed as an "indie classic" by hiphopsite.com, his debut waits anxiously in the wings by choice. "I love being categorized as independent: I control my creativity; I see more money; I don't have a 50-year-old dude from the suburbs in a suit telling me how to make street music." Instead he has an enviable mentor in Jazzy Jeff, lyrics that drop jaws worldwide, a decade-old career and a future that's his to make.
Check for Baby Blak’s debut this summer, featured appearances on Prince Paul’s, DJ Sat-One’s and Pete Rock’s new LPs and The Jazzy Jeff World Tour coming to a hood near you. Cop the single “Blak Iz Back” in stores now.
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