o5
CONTACT US ' THEY SAID IT
Story ideas? Questions? Comments? BENJAMIN FRANKLIN “Three may keep
E-mail us at gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com a secret, if two of them are dead.”
swingin’
foronelast
semester
‘Big Daddy Clark’
educates USC
tudents about the art
of big-band music
Adam Clark, who has been
with WUSC-FM for eight
semesters, plays classic
tunes every Tuesday
night.
PHOTO BY ERIC SUTTON/THE
GAMECOCK
E BEN ANGSTAOT
TIUAMBOOCK
Chances are, if you ask the av
eige college student to name a
cksic big-band swing song, you’ll
bmet with a blank stare and no
rqponse. But Adam Clark is doing
eirything he can to change that.
Svery Tuesday from 10 p.m. to
ninight, Clark, known to his lis
ters as “Big Daddy Clark,” is the
hit of “Big Daddy Clark’s Big
Bid Show” on WUSC-FM.
‘I like the fact that I’m educat
ir people about a music that’s al
nst forgotten,” Clark said.
Hark, a fifth-year broadcast
jcrnalism student from
Sipsonville, S.C., has loved big
bid music since his high school
drs. “I got into big-band music in
tl high school jazz band, and
tit’s what originally got me into
thbig-band swing,” he said. His
loe of the saxophone and “the
send of heralding trumpets” also
div him into the distinct big-band
sound. “From then on, I started col
lecting music,” he said.
His trove has grown over the
years, mainly from Christmas and
birthday presents. While his mu
sical library includes rarities such
as vinyl records dating back to the
1940s, the bulk of the Big Daddy’s
collection is
composed of
CDs.
“I always
buy big-band
CDs,” he said. “I
don’t buy any
pop CDs be
cause I’m al
ways trvine to
expand my collection and give it to
my listeners.”
“Glenn Miller was the first guy I
started with, and from then on I
just went with the big band
names,” Clark said. Though his
now-diverse collection also con
tains many swing artists, such as
Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald and
Louis Prima, Clark keeps in touch
with his big-band roots. “Glenn
Miller is always my favorite,” he
said. “He always will be; he’s the
one that got me into the music.”
Clark is highly experienced as
a D J at WUSC. “I started my sopho
more year with this show,” he said.
“This will be my eighth semester,
counting last sum
mer.”
He still fondly
remembers his
first experience as
a radio host, before
he fronted the big
band show: “I was
on at 4 a.m. on
Tuesday momines
)ack in the day, doing free format.”
Over the years, alongside co
lost Gavin “Tu Pac” Tapoc, also a
ifth-year broadcast journalism stu
lent, Clark has added his person
d touch to his two hours of swing.
3etween songs, the DJs play the
)ig-band show’s promos, which fea
:ure endorsements by Clark’s
riend WIS meteorologist Ben
Tanner. And at 10:30 p.xn. during
every broadcast, he plays the now
famous quote from “The
Simpsons” that refers to the
Gamecocks.
Even with all these years as a DJ
at USC, though, Big Daddy has dif
ferent plans for his future. Clark,
who works at WIS with Tanner,
said he’s interested in meteorolo
gy
His goal is to attend graduate
school and get a master’s in meteo
rology at Mississippi State, but he’s
taking his love of swing with him;
“They have a station down there,
so I plan to take it (the show) down
there to Starkville, Mississippi.”
Though his time at USC is al
most over, Clark has enjoyed his
stint as the musical oddball of
WUSC radio. “You know of oldies,
but you don’t know of the old
oldies, the stuff your grandparents
listened to,” he said. “Which is
kind of weird for me, because I’m
♦ CLARK, SEE PAGE 6
“I like the fact that
I’m educating people
about music that’s
almost forgotten.”
ADAM CLARK
WUSC DJ
Emcees battle for
hip-hop supremacy
BY TITAN BARKSDALE
THE GAMECOCK
Dan Johns strutted across the
stage and moved within inches
of K’Cire’s face, mocking him
with rhyming words only to turn
to the audience in an appeal for
approval. The fans couldn’t get
finished applauding before
K’Cire, Johns’ opponent tonight,
was nose-to-nose with him
yelling rhymes with the ferocity
of a tiger whose turf had been
threatened.
K’Cire, an emcee who won
during week one of Nonstop Hip
Hop’s freestyle battle, said he
would rather show he’s the best
wordsmith than attack his oppo
nent. But as he showed in his bat
tle with Johns, he doesn’t rule out
any form of verbal combat.
“I’m an old-school battler who
- likes to win people over by show
ing them how I can manipulate
the language, so I only go into at
tack mode if it’s needed,” K’Cire
said.
Using a microphone and a
quick tongue, five selected em
cees — including K’Cire and
Johns — will engage in a war of
words this Saturday at 9 p.m. in
New Brookland Tavern to find
out who is the best freestyle-battle
emcee in South Carolina.
Every Wednesday, Nonstop
Hip-Hop, a live presentation of
the hip-hop art form, devotes a
portion of its show to the freestyle
battle. Recently, the stakes in
these battles have been especially
high. For the past five weeks
about 50 emcees from around the
state have traveled to Columbia
to vie for the title of the state’s
best freestyle battle rapper.
Johns, who returned in week
two to win, said freestyle battling
shows how well-rounded an em
cee is.
“This way of rapping is strictly
off of impulse and it separates the
quick thinkers from the pen and
pad emcees,” said Johns.
Each emcee who enters the
battle must first rap alone on
stage over a beat for two minutes.
With each second that passes, the
rappers spontaneously rhyme
words to present the most im
pressive image of themselves.
Many use clever wordplay to get
the crowd’s response, because in
these battles, too many unani
mous boos from the crowd can
eliminate a person.
The two emcees who continu
ously receive the loudest ap
plause then make it to the finals
to square-off face-to-face. Each
emcee now gets 60 seconds to rap
and many choose to shift the fo
cus of their rhyme from them
selves to their opponent, which
sometimes can be condescending
in nature because it elicits hoops
and hollers from the crowd.
Sherard Duvall, co-organizer
of the event said the bravado is
all in good fun.
‘It’s just a friendly battle of the
minds to see who can be the most
creative in order to top the next
person, said Duvall. “For many
it’s a healthy release of aggres
sion that stimulates the mind.”
In addition to K’Cire and
Johns, who are from Bamburg
and Florence respectively, there
are three other emcees who hope
to win: Amen, from Hartsville;
FatRat, from Hopkins; and Misfit,
from Hopkins.
Aside from respect, the emcees
are competing for a cash prize,
•studio time and concert appear
ances. But the road to suprema
cy will be a little more difficult
for some of the final emcees who
are used to rapping over recorded
beats.
Captain Easy, the Free Times
rock band of year, will play live
as a backdrop for the finalists.
“We wanted to bring a differ
ent element to the show and ex
pose the emcees to a different
genre,” said Duvall. “Since the
rock and rap scenes in Columbia
are surging we thought it would
be fitting, plus it ups the ante for
the emcees a bit.”
Armed with a microphone and
a quick tongue, only one emcee
will be the victor Saturday night.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecockmixeditor@hotmaiLcom
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK
Dan Johns, left, battles K'Cire in the Nonstop Hip-Hop
freestyle battle at the New Brookland Tavern.
CD REVIEWS
' Two new compilations highlight quirky and eclectic genres
THE ONLY BLIP HOP RECORD
YOU WILL EVER NEED, VOL. 1
^â– k HakL
“THE ONLY BLIP HOP RECORD
YOU WILL EVER NEED, VOL. 1"
Various Artists
out of ☆☆☆☆☆
1 BY CHARLES TOMLINSON
TIIEUAMKOOCK
Blip hop’s name implies a lot
about the music: It represents the
bleeps and drones of machines
mixed with programmed, some
times sampled, beats. And Luaka
Bop has assembled “The Only
Blip Hop Record You Will Ever
Need, Vol. 1,” a comprehensive
collection of 13 blip-hop songs for
listeners’ musical edification.
|_i_
The album’s liner notes con
:ain a pseudoscientific disserta
:ion on the sonic qualities and
Northern European origins of
his quirky music, as well as a
‘Blip Hop Tree” showing the re
ationships among the many
bands and record labels associ
ited with the scene.
The record begins with
Vlouse on Mars, which com
bines real horns with the sounds
bf computerized randomness,
rheir label, Thrill Jockey, also
-eleases the albums of blip hop
nfluenced bands such as
rortoise and Trans Am, which
put their own spin on this genre
by combining electronics with
real instruments; Trans Am
;ven uses heavy, distorted elec
:ric guitars.
Rococo Rot and I-Sound cre
ite a well-orchestrated blip-hop
nasterpiece, “Pantone,” which
rontains a curious sampled
sound somewhere between a
rar engine igniting and a com
puter trying to read a floppy
iisk. Tarwater’s “To Moauf ’
rontains a sound something like
the muffled firing of a laser
beam. And Vibulator’s “Pocket
Monster” is what it would sound
like if R2-D2 ever decided to
record an album.
Perhaps the most striking
song on the album is Marie and
Scratch’s “Gnit,” which features
complex, multilayered vocal
beats supplemented by ghostly
droning feminine harmonies.
The song was also produced by
David Byrne, of Talking Heads
fame.
Mental Overdrive’s “Gravity
Sucks, Man” is catchy and
danceable, and Safety Scissors
lulls the listener with a lazy feel
and jazzy organ, while still in
jecting the “bleeps” and “blips”
the genre mandates in its songs.
After a listen to this compila
tion, listeners will not think this
is the only blip-hop album they
will ever need; they will be com
pelled to go out and further in
vestigate this bizarre, unpre
dictable genre.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gameoockmixeditor@hotmailcom
i ICVISINL
0N-STOM
aaoiuaawV
“CUISINE NON-STOP"
Various Artists
★★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆
BY CHARLES TOMLINSON
THE GAMECOCK
A new generation of musi
cians puts a modern twist on
France’s popular music of the
1930s and ’40s on “Cuisine Non
Stop.”
The French pop music of old,
referred to as “realist,” cele
brated the lives of working
and lower- class people, and of
ten featured accordion as the
only accompaniment.
Contemporary artists have
revived the style, but with
multiplied instrumentation
and elements of other genres.
“Cuisine Non-Stop,” which
was compiled by David Byrne,
features 13 songs by 11 French
neorealist artists.
As Byrne explains in the al
bum’s thorough liner notes,
the French are making a polit
ical statement with their res
urrection of the classic realist
style because they “don’t want
to be merely another set of
consumers of global corporate
pop.”
Neorealists such as Lo’Jo are
heavy on the accordion, and the
vocals are completely in
French. Still, American listen
ers will be singing along in a
matter of time, even though
they might not know what the
lyrics mean.
Arthur H’s whispers on
“Naive Derviche” almost
erupt into tortured roars.
With his gruff voice, H is
France’s answer to Tom
Waits. Dupain’s “Fem Ren”
features deft hurdy-gurdy
playing and lyrics sung in the
almost-extinct Occitan, the
former language of southern
France.
Several of the bands combine
the realist style with other
styles without skipping a beat.
Java features rapper Erwann
spitting out verses over the ac
cordion and classical guitar. La
Tordue’s “Les Lolos" is a
French reggae song with a tuba
supplying the bassline. CQMB
uses traditional instrumenta
tion, such as trumpet and ban
jo, while a tuba supplies a
funky bass line that rivals the
low-end grooves of Bootsy
Collins and Larry Graham.
It’s a good thing these
French musicians have been so
passive to American pop
trends; now they have some
thing totally their own that the
rest of the world needs to expe
rience.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com