Rock and roll has been awaiting the coming
of Game Rebellion for a long time: An all
Black all outta
Brooklyn band whose metal, punk and rudeboy skanking
licks sound as credible and crunchy as their
hiphop lyrics and headnodding bounce. Game
makes the difficult sound effortless and the
miraculous seem second nature: A hard rock
band with a B-boy MC who can actually spit?
No problem. A street worthy mixtape of
hiphop anthems created by a band that
actually rocks and flows? No problem.
Game Rebellion has been making big waves on
the New York Afro-punk/Black Rock scene for
about three years. In that short time
they've ventured out even further out to
slam heads rock houses and muddy the
lilywhite waters of alt-rock from NYC and
Cali
to Puerto Rico and the UK. They just may be
the best-kept secret in music right now
(their vaunted endorsement sealed with a
kiss from Sade notwithstanding).
A band of rowdy brothers with higher
education pedigrees--Yohimbe and Netic have
college paper, Chief Med is a qualified
acupuncturist-- they've got nice skills on
the mic and book learned brains and aren't
afraid if today's dumbered-down hiphop knows
it. They're no strangers to the classroom,
the rehearsal room, the protest line or one
suspects, give their brand of gangsta-militancy,
the police.
Up until now there hasn't been a full-length
Game Rebellion recording that adequately
captured their dual mastery of hiphop's
beats and rhymes driven swagger and assault-sonics
and rock and roll's action-figure machismo.
Up until now you haven't heard anybody dare
attempt a project like Game Rebellion's
Searching for Rick Rubin--a
balls-out-balls-to-the-wall remix/reimagining/re-playing
of tunes that bear the stamp of Rubin's
studio-magic wand.Because Game got gusto and
gumtption they got up up for the challenge
of instrumentally replaying and rewriting
songs that made hiphop matter in the 80s and
90s.
For Game Rebellion's MC Netic the choice of
Rubin as a guiding light was a no-brainer.
"He was the first guy to get it right as far
as mixing the sounds of hiphop and rock. I
also did my thesis on him in college."
Reading is fundamental with Game--especially with
respect to the history of culture, politics
and hiphop. Game's keyboard, trumpet and
hypeman Emi recalls a night spent on Google
scavenging for all things Rubin and finding
not just Run DMCs "My Adidas", PEs "Public
Enemy No.1", The Geto Boys "My Minds Playing
Tricks on Me", Jay Z''s "99 Problems" and
LL's 'Going Back To Cali'-- reinventions of
which did make Searching''s cut (as 'did Red
Hot Chili Pepper's "Under The Bridge" and
The Dixie Chick's) but Sir Mix A Lot's 'Baby
Got Back' which, strangely, did not.
Though hiphop and rock share common
ancestors, like Mama Africa and Fats Domino,
and though both idioms now share common
audiences, bridging the two always requires
mad skills and realness to convince true
fans that you're not a joke, a wankster, a
limp bizkit. For the record, Game Rebellion
is that band, yeah, we're talking those
kinda Negroes, New Africans, the kind intent
on who bringing us a walloping slice of The
Other Real Black Experience-- that louder,
darker and prouder strain mainstream media
loves to ignore, the one responsible for
Jimi Hendrix, Public Enemy, Fishbone, Dead
prez, among others.
After hearing Searchin' you suspect these
Game Rebellion cats would fearlessly
paratroop into a stadium full of Wu Tang
Clan or Slayer fans, not flinch (or worse
beg for peace, love and understanding), do
their stompdown thang, and leave waving
hardcore Wu or Slayer heads on a stick.
You'll likely want to see them wreck the
house for yourself before you'll trust that
assessment on faith. Until then check out
Searching and just know that everything
Game's doing here they can do from the stage
even more boom-bip-astically, MC-nastily,
hardcore-actively--no little thanks due to
Game's bass and drummer combo Black Steel
and Mr Pink who never heard a jazz,rock,soul
or hiphop groove they couldnt mosh to the
floor, poplock into obedience, and harness
like a tornado.
If you dug '99 Problems' before you're about
dig it some more, (and if you're a radical
maybe even more than before) when you hear
Netic twist the hook's provocative
declaration into "99 Problems and a Bush
aint one of them" (and then compare the lame
suckaduck in the white house to daddysboy AJ
Soprano.) And if you live for the evil
chromatics of a punk-prog band like Tool
than you'll likely get more live when you
hear how guitarists Yohimbe and Chief Med
piledrive the riff from hell into this
ravenous track. What Game does with "My
Adidas" is pure bebop theory in
action--lacing one of the biggest and most
beloved hooks in hiphop history with their
own black-market sneaker-pimp scenario.
Netic and Yohimbe both speak of the
trepidation that came with this project, the
mandate for it "not be corny" looming like a
vulture above all else. Corny they've
avoided for sure (whew!) but fortunately not
at the expense of rampaging angst,
militancy, wit and youthful exuberance.
For mixtape info, hit up J Period online at:
www.jperiod.com
for more info:
www.MySpace.com/SearchingForRickRubin
You can hit me up with your latest mixtape
news and/or events at:
nastynes1@aol.com or at:
nastynes1@tmail.com...
I'm in like MMA
Fighter
Kimbo Slice
& I'm out like
Tank
Abott! Tank's still da man cause he is the Original
Brawler champ from 1995!...
