Quannum: Glad To Be Bay, Jockey Slut June 1999
Quannum is the name for the Bay Area hip-hop supergroup comprising DJ Shadow, Blackalicious and Latryx. Steve Yates notes that they are attracting more chicks. Ben Blackall takes them to church.
Much has been written recently about independent hip-hop, with labels like Rawkus, Fondle ‘Em and J5’s Pickininny credited with promoting hip-hop’s creative rebirth. But years before any of these reached 001 on their catalogues, there was a Bay Area label called SoleSides. The label was born at a time when independent hip-hop itself was being swallowed up by the majors (who, in turn, were finding out that it didn’t automatically spell success). As DJ Shadow recalls, "In ’92 when we started, nobody was really doing it on the westside. The original independent era kind of tailed off cos everyone got signed. When Too Short and Digital Underground blew up, all the A & R men moved to the Bay Area and signed any group going. We didn’t do it to wave an independent flag, we did it because we wanted to make a record."
Debuting with Shadow’s now legendary ‘Entropy,’ SoleSides created a new sound in hip-hop, one which celebrated the past while looking to the future, and valued self-respect and innovation above the riches mainstream success had to offer. Having changed the name (to Quannum) they’ve now closed the door on that particular era. "We felt like we’d outgrown what SoleSides represented," says Shadow. "Not that we were this massive worldwide force, but we didn’t want to become a slave to this thing we’d created." The emphasis is now Quannum as a crew as much as a label, to which end they’re releasing an album, Spectrum, through Mo’ Wax. But the ethos remains the same. Says Chief Excel (of Blackalicious), "All of us are outside the mainstream, by which I mean people who are buying our records do so on the strength of the music, not because we’ve got ten thousand videos getting played, or because our image is being shoved down people’s throats." At the same time Latryx’s Lyrix Born recognises the limitations of an often self-serving underground: "A lot of people use independence as an excuse to put out music which sucks." "Every true artist would like to become mainstream at some point," counters Gift of Gab (the vocal half of Blackalicious). "Everyone talks about the underground, waving their independent flags. But when you’re a kid you dream of becoming a star. A lot of people get underground and mainstream mixed up. It’s all about good music, and if you make good music the more people that hear it the better."
So Quannum are now touring up and down the States (as well as the UK). "Touring has really been a major part of building recognition and the label," insists Lyrix Born. "If we hadn’t followed up the main tour with another tour we could have lost momentum. Now we’re in a situation where we employ staff, we’ve got a studio and so on, so we can just keep moving." Partner Lateef adds: "We have an independent and an underground following there’s sort of an artiness element that’s indicative of our approach. There was a time when our shows were predominantly scrubby guys, now more than half are chicks."
Their audience may be broadening, but in Britain at least, it’s clear that DJ Shadow is still the selling-point. At the end of the Manchester gig, parts of the crowd chant "Sha-dow, Sha-dow." Lateef takes it up mockingly, then switches to "Sha-dup, Sha-dup." It’s an embarassing end to a rapturous show (of which most agreed Latryx were the stars) but it underlines the extent to which Shadow’s celebrity looms over Quannum. When asked to move forward at the photo shoot, he makes very, very sure he’s not standing in front of everyone else. The low-key nature (minimal publicity, small venues) of this mini-tour also implies that he’s trying to distance himself from the overkill of UNKLE. "No, it’s a deliberate attempt to represent who I am. We’ve been together longer than Mo’ Wax has been in existence. The first thing I did after UNKLE came out was go on tour with Quannum. It felt right. It’s always been there and I don’t see any reason to change that now."
Quannum is unquestionably a joint project, and with the label’s first release being Blackalicious’ superlative A2G EP it seems only right Gift of Gab has the last word. "All of us have built the foundations which have got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and we’re just gonna take over the world, jack."
(Spectrum is out in July on Quannum/Mo’ Wax)
DJ SHADOW
"At the moment I’m doing the music for this documentary [about the infamous tunnel people who lived in New York’s subway system]. We’ll be doing a big tour in October, then after that I’ll disappear to record the real follow-up to Endtroducing. I was never in a rush to do it, but for the first time I really wanna do it now."
BLACKALICIOUS
Chief Excel: "The last few years have shown a lot of growth, personal and artistic. For the first time in my life I feel like we’re really in a pole position to make a lot of things happen."
Gab: "I had a problem with booze, I overcame it, I moved on, I rapped about it. Now the whole world knows and everybody keeps asking me."
(A2G EP out now, NIA LP to follow in autumn)
LATRYX
"We’re both working on individual projects at the moment [Lateef with Chief Excel as Maroons, Lyrix Born as solo artist]. We’re probably gonna get together ‘round the end of the year and make another record. We have a great chemistry, we’re good at giving each other space to create."
Quannum is the name for the Bay Area hip-hop supergroup comprising DJ Shadow, Blackalicious and Latryx. Steve Yates notes that they are attracting more chicks. Ben Blackall takes them to church.
Much has been written recently about independent hip-hop, with labels like Rawkus, Fondle ‘Em and J5’s Pickininny credited with promoting hip-hop’s creative rebirth. But years before any of these reached 001 on their catalogues, there was a Bay Area label called SoleSides. The label was born at a time when independent hip-hop itself was being swallowed up by the majors (who, in turn, were finding out that it didn’t automatically spell success). As DJ Shadow recalls, "In ’92 when we started, nobody was really doing it on the westside. The original independent era kind of tailed off cos everyone got signed. When Too Short and Digital Underground blew up, all the A & R men moved to the Bay Area and signed any group going. We didn’t do it to wave an independent flag, we did it because we wanted to make a record."
Debuting with Shadow’s now legendary ‘Entropy,’ SoleSides created a new sound in hip-hop, one which celebrated the past while looking to the future, and valued self-respect and innovation above the riches mainstream success had to offer. Having changed the name (to Quannum) they’ve now closed the door on that particular era. "We felt like we’d outgrown what SoleSides represented," says Shadow. "Not that we were this massive worldwide force, but we didn’t want to become a slave to this thing we’d created." The emphasis is now Quannum as a crew as much as a label, to which end they’re releasing an album, Spectrum, through Mo’ Wax. But the ethos remains the same. Says Chief Excel (of Blackalicious), "All of us are outside the mainstream, by which I mean people who are buying our records do so on the strength of the music, not because we’ve got ten thousand videos getting played, or because our image is being shoved down people’s throats." At the same time Latryx’s Lyrix Born recognises the limitations of an often self-serving underground: "A lot of people use independence as an excuse to put out music which sucks." "Every true artist would like to become mainstream at some point," counters Gift of Gab (the vocal half of Blackalicious). "Everyone talks about the underground, waving their independent flags. But when you’re a kid you dream of becoming a star. A lot of people get underground and mainstream mixed up. It’s all about good music, and if you make good music the more people that hear it the better."
So Quannum are now touring up and down the States (as well as the UK). "Touring has really been a major part of building recognition and the label," insists Lyrix Born. "If we hadn’t followed up the main tour with another tour we could have lost momentum. Now we’re in a situation where we employ staff, we’ve got a studio and so on, so we can just keep moving." Partner Lateef adds: "We have an independent and an underground following there’s sort of an artiness element that’s indicative of our approach. There was a time when our shows were predominantly scrubby guys, now more than half are chicks."
Their audience may be broadening, but in Britain at least, it’s clear that DJ Shadow is still the selling-point. At the end of the Manchester gig, parts of the crowd chant "Sha-dow, Sha-dow." Lateef takes it up mockingly, then switches to "Sha-dup, Sha-dup." It’s an embarassing end to a rapturous show (of which most agreed Latryx were the stars) but it underlines the extent to which Shadow’s celebrity looms over Quannum. When asked to move forward at the photo shoot, he makes very, very sure he’s not standing in front of everyone else. The low-key nature (minimal publicity, small venues) of this mini-tour also implies that he’s trying to distance himself from the overkill of UNKLE. "No, it’s a deliberate attempt to represent who I am. We’ve been together longer than Mo’ Wax has been in existence. The first thing I did after UNKLE came out was go on tour with Quannum. It felt right. It’s always been there and I don’t see any reason to change that now."
Quannum is unquestionably a joint project, and with the label’s first release being Blackalicious’ superlative A2G EP it seems only right Gift of Gab has the last word. "All of us have built the foundations which have got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and we’re just gonna take over the world, jack."
(Spectrum is out in July on Quannum/Mo’ Wax)
DJ SHADOW
"At the moment I’m doing the music for this documentary [about the infamous tunnel people who lived in New York’s subway system]. We’ll be doing a big tour in October, then after that I’ll disappear to record the real follow-up to Endtroducing. I was never in a rush to do it, but for the first time I really wanna do it now."
BLACKALICIOUS
Chief Excel: "The last few years have shown a lot of growth, personal and artistic. For the first time in my life I feel like we’re really in a pole position to make a lot of things happen."
Gab: "I had a problem with booze, I overcame it, I moved on, I rapped about it. Now the whole world knows and everybody keeps asking me."
(A2G EP out now, NIA LP to follow in autumn)
LATRYX
"We’re both working on individual projects at the moment [Lateef with Chief Excel as Maroons, Lyrix Born as solo artist]. We’re probably gonna get together ‘round the end of the year and make another record. We have a great chemistry, we’re good at giving each other space to create."