09.25.06 - Volume 2, Episode #10 - Length 25:42
Beats that flow. Lyrics that inspire. Rebelz is creating a new rap groove. So trade in those old and tired rap songs about drugs and violence for fresh mixes with a message about doing the right thing. Choose the red pill and discover the new game in town.
AAC 24.2 MB
MP3 23.5 MB
[music: The Rebelz: Dark City]
Professor Icee: Deep down, we all kind of know what it is that we’re here for. We all have a purpose. It’s just kind of breaking away from what other people might try to impose on us and running with it, you know.
[music: The Rebelz: Dark City]
It started back in, what, 2000? Him and I met through a mutual friend who’s now in Japan. His name’s Chris, he goes by Supreme. He changed that to Chishiki, which is Japanese for knowledge. But, we met through a mutual friend, who asked me to do a track with the Rebelz on a song called “Shame Train.” After we recorded that track, we liked the way it sounded, so I started doing shows with them. It didn’t make sense to just be doing one song like that with them, so I started writing two more songs and getting into it like that. At the time, there were four of us. There was DJ Modul8or, Supreme, myself (Professor Icee), and Justice Be Certain. Basically, that’s how it got rolling. I mean, we were doing it, but we really didn’t have that vision yet. We just started making music and feeling things out.
[music: The Rebelz: Dark City]
Justice Be Certain: It’s kind of like it started out like any other hobby where people get together and they have a kind of a vision. A couple of people might be a little bit more dedicated than the others, and then it just starts to pick up and people get in and fill in roles where they need to be. As it is now, it’s really just Professor and I. We still work with Modul8or and Supreme. Everything’s like we need a band and we have people we can call up and get a band. We need belly dancers for a gig, we can get belly dancers for that gig.
Professor Icee: Yeah.
Justice Be Certain: And it almost like we’re like personnel management, we’re producing, we’re writing lyrics and…
Professor Icee: Laying beats, dancing. And it’s like there’s two factors involved there. One is, who wants to do this for a living and take that plunge and give it everything that they’ve got, and who just wants to do a show here and there and work here and there? So, who wants to do it for life? And then the other thing is, is just finding that team. Because right now we’re working with a videographer named Motzo of Digital Marionette, and he’s been a very integral part of it. He’s more behind the scenes with the videos and stuff, but he’s almost been a bigger piece of the pie than maybe another artist we’re working with or a DJ that we’re working with. So, it’s really like finding that whole, big team. Because if you want to take it to that level, you’ve got to have the sound quality, the video quality, the clothing, the album design, the layout, the website. It all comes together, but it’s really finding that team and realizing it’s more than just the artist there, and kind of just stepping outside your ego and realizing that the artist is just kind of like the face, but you’ve got, like, the brain, you’ve got the arms and the legs, the head. It’s how it all comes together, and then the artist is just like the part of that organism and that entity that people see at the end of the day. And hear, of course, because it’s music.
[music: The Rebelz: Metasin]
Justice Be Certain: We started being more goal-oriented and through those goals we kind of made like a mission statement, where we warn against ignorance and apathy. We’re trying to take, like, the foul ignorance out of what today’s pop culture and today’s pop hip hop, and turn it into something that was more profound and substantial for people to understand.
Professor Icee: Turn the “stank” into “bank.”
Justice Be Certain: Yeah. So, we just started and we just kind of built onto that. We’ve actually taken the mission to a whole new level. We actually have a book. It’s out, but it’s not out.
Professor Icee: “The Rebelz Chapters.”
Justice Be Certain: And it’s published through Street Style Publications. It’s full-bound. It’s a paperback. It’s got a lot of our beliefs in it, but at the same time, it’s got everyday knowledge that people should have. I kind of think that’s like our mission, to teach and entertain.
Professor Icee: We defined that back in the first track that I did, called “Shame Train,” which: “It’s a shame train, the slaves in your brain. We all just pawns in the game. I just want to teach and entertain.”
Justice Be Certain: “And do your thing, just don’t give in to the pleasures and the pain.”
Professor Icee: So, even from that point is was “teach and entertain,” so that while we’re out there doing this, we’re also going to schools and teaching the kids about the elements of hip hop. I’ve been a breakdance instructor, just kind of on my own, too. An English teacher over in Japan, teaching hip hop spoken word and then - when we take it on the road - teaching the kids all the elements, all together: DJing, MCing, B-boying, and graffiti writing. Sometimes the schools aren’t really feeing that last element. But it’s all part of it. It’s all part of hip hop, and realizing that it’s forms of expression beyond just what you might see on MTV and in music videos. You know, the video booty-shakin’ hoes and the overpriced, expensive cars and the jewelry and the chains and all that stuff. There’s an art form there, a form of expression, and then there’s also other things that can be expressed through that vehicle. It’s been there at the beginning, we just didn’t know what it was going to look like. But we’ve had that vision, and just kind of keep coming back to that. Are we teaching and are we entertaining? There’s a lot of artists that will get on a mic and they might just read out of the dictionary, almost. They want to say all these political things and have this political agenda. Maybe they don’t like Bush, so, “I hate Bush” and make a song and “F-Bush” and all this stuff. But are they really doing it in an entertaining way? Or are they just kind of crying about it, you know? Are they just complaining? It’s got to be entertaining, not complaining. You’ve got to bring it in some way that people can dance at your shows, not just have an hour of your socio-political commentary. If that’s what you want to do, that’s cool, but we’re also trying to cross over to other people that might not be aware of those issues. If you’re already aware of the issues, you can listen to all that stuff, but if all people listen to is the local hip hop radio station that’s owned by Clear Channel - dictating to them what they’re going to listen to - they’re only going to get a taste of that, maybe what somebody sneaks into lyrics beyond all the booty-shaking and all that stuff, and the drug sales, of course. We’re kind of going in that way. People call it “mainstream.” But getting out there is just about being seen and heard and being able to get your message across in a way that’s not putting people to sleep and it’s not…Glamorizing violence and drug sales and that type of thing.
[music: The Rebelz: Blood, Sweat, Tears]
Justice Be Certain: I want to talk about DBAR Productions where we record. Stephen Sharrard has been very, very elemental to everything that we’ve been doing. I took an absence for a year from music, and when I came back, Stephen was really in tune with finding a niche market and simplifying everything as far as music is and just making sure that there’s a demand for whatever product that you’re doing. A lot of musicians get caught up in the fact that they’re not looking to make a product that fit any sort of demand. They just want to make something that sounds popular. I think that once you find your niche, then you can build off that and do whatever. He was really important. He showed me a lot of different way to license my music and stuff. He was pretty much the engineering brains behind everything on “Dark City.” He totally took our concept, ran with it, saw our vision. He just killed it; he mastered it. We had some guest appearances and stuff by Cappadonna from Wu Tang, and they laid it down at 36 Chambers, they threw it up on FTP. Stephen grabbed it off there and had everything mixed, cut the song, and just wrapped it all up within a couple days. We had it out to Tastemakers, testing it to make sure it was going to sound good within five days after it was recorded. It was unbelievable, how professional he is and how he made everything possible.
[music: The Rebelz: Six Shooter]
Professor Icee: Really, where we’re coming from kind of goes back to a book that was written in the 16th Century by Miyamoto Musashi, who’s considered the sword-sei of Japan. This guy had fought more than forty sword duels and then he wrote a book on it called “The Book Of Five Rings,” or “Go Rin No Sho.” The basic principle was he referred to his school as the “two-sword” school. Everybody has a long sword and short sword. All the Samurai would have a long sword and a short sword. You have that thing that you’re really good at and then you have that thing that maybe you’re not as good at, but it’s in the wings. So, instead of thinking of yourself in terms of, “I just do this one thing,” you think in terms of what you do really well and keep and keep doing that and wok with the strength. But then you also look at something else that you’re capable of, as maybe your weakness. With Stephen, like he was mentioning, not only is he just a producer and an engineer - that’s the long sword - but he’s also an entrepreneur. And so we learn from each other. Justin, he’s an MC, but he’s also a genius and networking and business and that type of thing. With myself, I’m an MC as well, but then I deal with a lot of the graphics and that type of stuff. It’s finding that balance and finding that meeting point. But then making sure that your surrounded by soldiers and other people that also know their strength and have that sharp edge on that sword, and then they’re also playing other roles as well. So that everybody can fill it out and there’s never anything lacking. That’s what it is, that two-sword school. We embellish on that in “The Rebelz Chapters,” which you can order right now, actually, on our home page that you can get to through myspace.com. It explains some of the philosophy and tactics and that type of thing.
[music: The Rebelz: Six Shooter]
Justice Be Certain: You know, everybody can be a rebel. And that’s another thing, too. When we go out there, it’s like we can relate to a lot of people by brining that out. We’re all rebels. If you jaywalk, you’re a rebel.
Professor Icee: If you start your own business. People might think you’re crazy for it. People might think, “Oh, that’s never going to amount to anything. That’s never going to happen.” But those are the people that are just locked into the fold of the sheep, so to speak. You’re just making them aware of it and that’s why they’re uncomfortable with it. Really, you’re kind of forging your own path, and once you go through, there’s going to be other people that see that path and then everybody’s going to run towards that. Then you might get lost in the shuffle again, but I think everybody has something in them like that, whether it’s doing what you know it right or trying to do something different for yourself because you just don’t accept what’s being fed to you.
Justice Be Certain: We like to identify with everybody and we like to try to make everybody feel a part of what we’re doing, because that’s the main thing. If we’re going out there and we’re trying to tell somebody something, or we’re trying to show them how to do something, and they can’t find that feeling or that expression, then it’s just going to be lost on them. So, that’s kind of where Rebelz came from.
Professor Icee: It’s a solution. It’s something that we’re trying on ourselves first as a guinea pig. If I have a problem with the education system, I’m not just going to complain about it. I’m going to the schools. We’re going to the schools, teaching kids things, and giving them that broader perspective. We’re doing it ourselves. If we don’t like poverty, we’re going to give a chunk to this or that organization to handle those problems. Or we might do a fundraising event or something. I think everybody has the power to do that, it just that sometimes we get locked into, “Well, Red Cross is out there doing it, so I don’t got to do it.” A lot of times it’s that scapegoat, whether good or bad. Taking responsibility is like finding within yourself what you can do and doing it.
[music: The Rebelz: Six Shooter]
Our main residence right now is myspace.com/rebelz/. We’ve got all our videos up there, a good chunk of our music and links to our home page. You can email us from there.
Justice Be Certain: It’s like a hub. You can get to redpillrecords.biz from there. You can just go to Google actually, and just Google Rebelz. We’re the number one hit. We’re distributed by 101 Distribution, 101d.com. They’re out of Phoenix, Arizona. They’re actually in all the Trans World Stores and stuff. “Dark City” is probably going to have a limited release until we figure out what markets we’re going to settle into. It’s available now. If you go and purchase it, you’ll have it in a week or two. And, again, that’s 101d.com. We’ll actually have therebelz.com and that’ll be up and running really soon and that’ll have a store on there. We’re going to be on iTunes. Snocap’s going to be pushing our stuff digitally. There’ll be so many places to actually buy it: amazon.com, CDBaby. You know, the usual outlets.
Professor Icee: MySpace will definitely be like the hub.
Justice Be Certain: Yeah.
Professor Icee: Because everybody knows that.
Justice Be Certain: We can update it.
Professor Icee: We’re naming our kids “MySpace” nowadays.
Justice Be Certain: Yeah, I know.
Professor Icee: Therebelz.com will be up and running pretty soon. So, if anything happens to MySpace, therebelz.com will be the place to go.
[music: The Rebelz: Six Shooter]
"Deep down, we all kind of know what it is that we're here for. We all have a purpose. It's just kind of breaking away from what other people might try to impose on us and running with it, you know." - The Professor
Official Website
http://www.myspace.com/rebelz/
http://www.redpillrecords.biz/rebelz/
Offsite Purchase
Get The HipHop Handbook Soundtrack
Get The Ear Protection EP
