The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 26, 2001, Page 7, Image 7
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Renegades
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BY JUSTIN BAJAN
THE GAMECOCK
“My man FN is gonna give you a few
ziggy-ziggies...” To the uninitiated, this
might be confusing, but to a hip-hop fan,
it makes perfect sense. Translation —
DJ FN is going to perform some
turntable tricks for the audience to
enjoy.
Non-Stop Hip-Hop Live at the Elbow
Room features many facets of hip-hop
culture. At this weekly showcase people
can enjoy live spinning, a freestyle
contest and the occasional performance
by both local and well-known artists.
Although the doors open at SK30 p.m„
the venue doesn’t live up to it’s name
until around 11:00 p.m. when the room
fills with people from a wide cross
section of society. Some wear
dreadlocks and Rasta caps, some gold
chains and baggy clothes, but all share
a respect and adoration for hip-hop.
WUSC DJ Shekeese, who has been
with the station almost five years and
handles the booking of the more notable
artists, plays a big role in the program’s
success. “Non-Stop Hip-Hop has been
part of WUSC for years,” he
its accompanying live show has been
held at the Elbow Room since it started.
The show is designed to include all
aspects of hip-hop culture, which is
based on four crucial elements:
emceeing, dee-jaying, breakdancing
and graffiti art. According to Shekeese,
the Elbow Room “brings the essence of
hip-hop culture.” On any given Wednes
day night, the diversity of hip-hop fans
is evident. The audience varies from 17
year-olds to 40-year-olds, Shekeese said,
proving the “wide impact that hip-hop
has had on society.”
Hip-hop’s influence is widespread.
The genre has its own section in any
respectable music store. Its culture has
its own communication patterns and
has spawned its own slang, which has
creeped into mainstream culture;
writer Joel Stein used the word “diss”
in Time magazine, and President
Clinton used it during a speech. Hip
hop can define the way people
gesticulate; most emcees use their
hands to punctuate their stage
performances.
Hip-hop can even influence its
listeners’ mannerisms. One popular
example is the “B-Boy Stance,” a
position achieved by folding your arms
across your chest and leaning slightly
to the side, t
Hip-hop culture also encompasses a
wide variety of fashions, but has no one
standard. One person might be
comfortable wearing Adidas Shelltoes
accompanied by Cazal glasses and a
furry kangol. Others might prefer to
wear baggy denim with a platinum or
gold chain.
Like most music forms, hip-hop is a
business — one that has expanded its
influence into TV shows, movies and
magazines, and that is intertwined with
the history of the genre.
The first known step toward
hip-hop’.s emergence as a
mish-mash of disco
music was D J
Kool Here’s experimentation with a
turntable and some old records in the
parks of the Bronx in 1974.
This led to the first successful
musical venture by The SugarHill
Gang, “Rapper’s Delight” in 1979,
which established a precendent for the
first popular rap group, Run-DMC, in
1983. As the ‘80s progressed, hip-hop
got its first TV show, Yo! MTV Raps,
and a magazine that exists today, The
Source. In 1989, the Grammys
recognized it as a legitimate form of
music, giving the genre its own
category.
Also involved with Non-Stop Hip
Hop Live at the Elbow Room is Tony
Nu, WUSC hip-hop director. DJ Nu
spins both at the live show and on the
radio program.
“Non-Stop Hip-Hop is just an
extension of what we do on WUSC,” Nu
said about the radio show that includes
all the elements of the live show,
including a freestyle contest and live
spinning. Nu and Shekeese, with the
help of Kingpin and DJ FN, share
duties as the hosts of both the live
show and the radio program. Nu
calls the work a “team effort.”
mm? The live show isn’t held every
Wednesday of the year, but follows
the Elbow Room’s booking schedule. It’s
usually held every month. Last week’s
show attracted the biggest turnout in
recent history. “In and out all night, we
had about 160 people,” Skekeese said.
Some big-name artists helped attract
such a big crowd: Saigon, a formidable
emcee from New York; the duo Rise &
Shine, both perennials in the New York
underground scene; and veterans El
Fudge and Mr. Complex, who both have
ties to Rawkus records, which sponsors
the show.
♦ HIP-HOP, SEE PAGE 8
■m • aa - - mgrzz 'ant ■ - m
Above left: Singer from the band Rise and Shine performs.
Above: Rough (left), the winner of the freestyle contest, and
Saigon. PHOTOS BY MICHELLE WILLIAMS
PROFESSOR PICKS
CHARLES
KOVACIK
Professor of
Geography of
1 s.c.
4 FAVORITE BOOKS
Caste and Class in a Southern Town
John Dollard
A Field Guide to American Houses
Lee and Virginia McAlester
Exploration of the Colorado
River and its Canyons
John Wesley Powell
Killer Angels
Michael Shaara
4 BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ
Tuesdays with Morrie
Mitch Albom
South Carolina: A History
Walter B. Edgar
Blue Highways: A Journey
through America
William Least Heat-Moon
Goode's World Atlas
Rand McNally
Merry Wives comes to Drayton Hall
Shakespearean
comedy verges
on ‘hilarious
extravagance’
BY JENNIFER BIRD
THE GAMECOCK
t
“The world is a stage and we
are all its actors.” William Shake
speare, the father of theatrical
drama, precisely compares the
legacy of live theater to the daily
trials of living. The Department
of Theatre and Speech is offering a
score of diverse theater perfor
mances in their 2001-2002 season.
The Merry Wives of Windsor,
the first show of the season, opens
at Drayton Hall Thursday.
Legend says that Queen Eliza
beth was so taken with the Fal
staff character, young Prince
Henry’s drinking buddy in Henry
IV, Part I, that Shakespeare
reprised his role in the comedy
The Merry Wives of Windsor.
The down-on-his-luck Falstaff
schemes to seduce two mistress
es in hopes of gaining access to
their husbands’ money.
The women see through Fal
staff s plan and decide to teach
him a lesson. Intending to make a
fool of him, they encourage his ad
vances, and as a result, battle the
jealousy of their husbands.
The typical Shakespearean
comedy ensues, full of mistaken
identities, pranks, and love stories.
Directed by Jim O’Connor, the
cast is extremely excited about
working with a traveling costume
designer who brings Shake
speare’s classic tale to life with
modern costumes verging on hi
larious extravagance
Student performers had the op
portunity to work with Shake
spearean community actors from
four regional theaters.
Also, guest set and sound de
signers who have worked on the
professional sets of Arthur Miller’s
tragic Death of a Salesman, and
many more well known works,
will aid in bringing this play to
life. ‘
The Merry Wives of Windsor by
William Shakespeare, premieres
Sept. 28, and runs through Oct. 7.
Also coming this season is
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are
Dead by Tom Stoppard. The two
faced duo from Shakespeare’s
Hamlet create a stage full of antics
as this classic tragedy transforms
into comedic hysteria.
As an author, Stoppard has
composed many other successful
plays including Shakespeare in
Love. This comedic remake of
Shakespeare’s classic story is not
to be missed.
Bee-Luther-Hatchee by Thomas
Gibbons is coming Feb. 8-17,2002.
Gibbons’ play, which is a South
Carolina premiere, attempts to de
fine the age-old question of truth.
Shelita Burns walks the thin line
of life in this fictional African
American tale of truth in an arti
ficial world.
Antigone by Sophocles is show
ing March 1-9, 2002. How many
women could live through life
knowing the twisted facts that
her father married his mother
and killed his father, which
doesn’t even make him her fa
ther.
As the daughter of the doomed
Greek mythological character of
Oedipus, Antigone battles her un
cle’s authority, the king, for the
proper burial of her war-stricken
brother.
Hay Fever by Noel Coward will
be guest directed by Artist Paul
Mullins. A weekend of romance
goes awry, but what is to be ex
pected on a mission to define
love?
The abnormal Bliss family be
comes a visitor in their own sum
mer home. Coward’s flirtatious
play will keep the crowd laugh
ing and waiting for the surpris
ing finale.
“Theater brings a community
together as one,” said Ann
Dreher, a 29-year veteran of USC’s
theater program.
As the guest directors and set
designers accompany the upcom
ing theatrical schedule, Dreher
hopes the theater will continue to
grow and expand outward to in
volve further commun ity support
in the future.
CD REVIEW
Billy Bol
Thornton
releases
solo CD
BY WILLIAM MILLS
THE GAMECOCK
“At times, this CD can actually
make you feel an Arkansas
wind.” That’s how Tom Petty
describes Billy Bob Thornton’s
solo debut album, Private Radio,
released yesterday by Lost
Highway Records, home of Ryan
Adams, Lucinda Williams and
other country greats.
Private Radio is a prime
example of classic country
music. Thornton’s vocal style
takes the dark storytelling
. style of Johnny Cash and adds
a dash of perversion. Songs
like “Forever” are perfect ex
amples of these naughty tales
— told in the key of blues —
that flow through most of the
album.
Rollingstone.com described
Thornton’s voice as a cross
between Leonard Cohen and
Tom Petty.
Although the album focuses
mainly on vocals, studio
musicians fill in the guitar,
mandolin, fiddle and drums
nicely. Thornton himself picked
up his drumsticks and played or
two tracks, “Starlight Lounge”
and “Your Blue Shadow.”
Thorton has been in and out
of bands since grade school as a
drummer and vocalist. His love
of music developed before he
started his film career:
A few years out of school, he
was a roadie for country music
bands such as The Nitty Gritty
Dirt Band.
Thornton then beat his
drums in Tres Hombres, a well
known band that opened up for
Hank Williams Jr., Ted Nugent
and Earl Scruggs.
It was only after years in the
country music scene that he
turned his stride toward acting
and directing.
Even in the roles he plays,
however, his country attitude
and style shine through, and his
deep Southern accent evidences
his rural Arkansas boyhood.
Thornton has achieved many
♦ THORNTON, SEE PAGE 8
UPCOMING PLAYS
ROSENCRANTZAND
GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD
By Tom Stoppard
Nov. 9-18,2001
Drayton Hall Theatre
Directed by Karl Rutherford
BEE-LUTHER-HATCHEE
By Thomas Gibbons
March 1-9,2002
Longstreet Theatre
ANTIGONE
By Sophocles
February 8-17,2002
Longstreet Theatre
Guest Directed by Jay Berkow
HAY FEVER
By Noel Coward_
April 19-28,2002
Drayton Hall Theatre
Guest Directed by Artist Paul
Mullins