Thursday, August 11th was Day Three of the ongoing Hip Hop Slam presents Positive Omen 2011 Japan Tour featuring DJ Quest, Mista B, DnZ, and DJ ALF who reports from Japan that it was another good day on the tour. “We played at Japonica which is located in Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan. Kyoto in general has the “traditional” Japanese culture displayed throughout the city. The Western influence isn’t as big as it is in Tokyo,” reports ALF. As for the unique cafe meets record store location ALF says that, “Japonica is a chill jazzy type of spot intertwined with a hip-hop feel which is displayed by the record record store which at the back of the cafe. Pretty much Mista-B started off the gig playing some laid back funk music, and some rNb. DnZ remixed some vibing hip-hop beats, including some Dilla, on his MPD for his set. I played two melodic tunes using the [Vestax] Controller 1 that are part of my original set which lead into a Q and A with DJ Quest who played some old breaks and doing what he does best with them in terms juggling and mixing.”

The set was well received reports ALF who said that afterwards, “We caught the last train back to Osaka. The trains in Japan shut down at midnight. A thing we all noticed on the train ride back to Osaka was that they have “Women Only” train cars on certain lines. The train we were on had that. DnZ told us all that Japan must have just started that because he remembers that while he was staying out there last year he remembers a lot of reports of women getting groped on the trains. One of the YouTube clips below shows us on the train ride back to Osaka and if you notice there was a guy in the “Women Only” car who continued to sit in the car after he was told not to sit in that car. Also take note that all the women sat at one end of the car. In the video clip, he’s the guy that was sitting in the other car on the side where Alex was sitting.”

In case you missed yesterday’s Hip Hop Slam Blog on Day Two of the tour, for which DnZ contributed his report, ALF weighs in on his impression of the busy day that included three gigs in one day. “We first played at an in-store at Manhattan Records in Chuo-ku in Osaka around 7pm. We all roughly played 10 minutes sets each,” recalled ALF of the Wednesday, August 10th dates. “Then from there we went to Slow Land Cafe located in Kita-ku in Osaka and opened up for a local Japanese hip-hop band called Insist . During that particular open set, we (Quest, Mista-B, DnZ, myself) freestyle party rocked, playing mostly old school hip-hop; layering scratches and samples over the top of the songs. The crowd was really digging the 30 minute set. Then after Insist we played our “Positive Omen” hour long set. From there we went to a spot called Do With Cafe and played for the after party from roughly 12am until about 3am then we crashed back at our hotel.”

There’s just another couple of days left on this tour including a special showcase performance by all the DJs on Saturday (August 13th) at the  DMC East Japan DJ battle finals. Check back here over the next few days for more reports. Thanks for reading and supporting turntablism and skratch music!

As you know the Hip Hop Slam Positive Omen 2011 Japan Tour with DJ Quest, Mista B, DJ ALF, and DnZ is officially underway with the first main show, Tuesday night at Dommune with Circus DJs opening, was a big success according to all involved. Over in Tokyo where it is 5am Wednesday (or Tuesday 4pm in NYC and 1pm in California) DnZ reports that the Dommune concert, was, “MADD FUN!!! Pretty crazy watching Circus DJs (DJ Top Bill (Tsuyoshi Kono) & DJ Kou) since they were on first because I’m always in awe when I see their sets. Two of the coolest homies and DJ’s I’ve met and kicked it with in Tokyo! Even when I lived here they’ve shown me madd love and showed me around Tokyo and all the dope music and record spots. It was also crazy watching the stream live as they were performing because they caught close up’s on the faders and records so it looked like the fingers dancing and not those perspectives you always get of DJs with a full setup/body shot.”

As for the touring Hip Hop Slam Positive Omen DJs’ premiere set on the Japan Tour for which an estimated 10 K viewers caught on UStream, DnZ happily reports. “Being the first on the tour it was pretty good too. A few bumps but we were able to cover for them pretty quick and make it seem like nothing happened. No one knew anyways so thats always a good sign [laughs],” said DnZ adding that, “The folks at Dommune we’re very helpful and very nice to us! Nothing but good words about them!” And it seems nothing but positivity everywhere the touring DJs go. Also in tow with DnZ, ALF, Mista B, and DJ Quest is Quest’s son Alex (aka DJ Train) who just turned 18 not that long ago. He is pictured here left along with his dad and Mista B outside Manhattan Records – not far from their hotel.

Below is pic of the Circus Djs and above is pic of those Japanese DJs and the visiting US crew at end of Tuesday nights show after the Dommune gig. Check back here on the Hip Hop Slam Blog for periodic updates on the Hip Hop Slam Positive Omen 2011 Japan Tour. And note that coming up on for Wednesday, August 10th is an in-store at Manhattan Records Shinsaibashi in Osaka, and club gig at Slow Land Cafe also in Osaka, followed by the late Wednesday evening 11pm (to 5am) Hip Hop Slam Positive Omen After Party @ dowith cafe 06-6312-1778 大阪府

It was eighteen years ago. November 7th, 1992 – the Saturday after the Democrats had won the election – and Chuck D and Public Enemy were in Oakland performing at the Coliseum opening for U2. After the show I had the opportunity to sit down with Chuck D who was rap’s most consistant social/political observer at the time. I asked him if he thought that there would be any real changes with the (then) new changes in the US power structure with George H Bush out and Bill Clinton in and many other topical subjects for 1992 including his thoughts on Ice Cube, the Malcolm X movie soundtrack, and his old (pre PE) group’s music being used in a film without his blessing. The interview was originally published in the BOMB Hip-Hop magazine. Here is the interview exactly as it was conducted.

Billy Jam: Will there be any change with Bill Clinton as president instead of Bush?

Chuck D. I think it could’t get any worse .The Bush administration has been in effect for the last twelve years Reagan, Bush whatever you want to call it. I think that right now you got a person that made a lot of promises. so I think there’ll be pressure on him to live up to his promises so that’s got to be better than somebody that just basically said, ‘well, nah we ain’t gonna do that’.

Billy Jam: With homelessness, AIDS and everything getting increasingly out of hand do you think that a nineties revolution is quite likely?

Chuck D: Well I think it’ll get a lot worse before it gets better, because you got all the momentum from all that BS in the past so right now what the Clinton administration has to do is really like roll up their sleeves and get down to the nitty gritty and tell people that ‘ There ain’t gonna be no overnight fix’. – definetely not in this system. It got too many holes in this system. If there was really a revolution, what kind kind of revolution is it gonna be ? Is it going be for the better or is it going to be for the worse?So basically everybody got to be able to get to the table and that’s what I guess maybe the Clintion administration will offer, is that more people will be at the table trying to think out the situation rather than it be a little closed circle of elite for the elite and keep the money for the elite.

Billy Jam: Do you think that racisim in America will ever go away?

Chuck D: I don’t know I’ can’t predict the future right now. Will it go away in the next ten years? No, but people have to be educated. Right now people are trained and education is the next step. We’ve got to erase the training process People are trained pretty much like dogs, you know what I’m saying? So right now education could really turn a lot of people’s beliefs around and also you have to have a situation where the money is overturned from the rich down to the poor so everybody can have something and it just can’t happen just in this country , it has to be a worldwide thing too. People of color are catching hell all over and when they revolt there is usually a lot of death and bloodshed involved in their revolution. One thing that this administration offers is hope that everybody getting to the table and everybody airing out their problems so people could begin working on the solutions.

Billy Jam: Do you think that hip-hop culture, including rap and movies such as Boyz In The Hood and the recent Malcolm X are educating middle America?

Chuck D: Entertainment and the arts has been the thing that made white America 25 and under aware of a lot of situations that we have . That’s the difference, when before the arts and entertainment of Black people was limited in our anger. Now the arts and entertainment that we express has a lot of anger in it so it’s that combination of the Malcolm X and the Panther parties of the sixties that basically took it to the pulpit into speeches and now you’re
basically hearing it in entertainment which goes around the world so that that voice has to come out and it’s coming out by whatever means necessary.

Billy Jam: Speaking of Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. You were asked to do the theme song first, before Arrested Developement, true?

Chuck D: Of course, very true but because the was a conflict between Spike and the Nation (of Islam) I didn’t want to be in the middle of it. I didn’t want to get in a conflict of interest – nothing against Spike but I have my priorities and I have my own rules So when I finally got clearence I was like – well damn , what should I do? But I didn’t have enough time so I didn’t reach the deadline. I will say this though, me and Spike are still close as we ever can be. That was just a whole creative situation and I would say that when Spike made his selection with Arrested Development that he couldn’t have made a better selection. With us it would have been like ‘ yeah,here we go again’ but with Arrested Development it shows that Spike is on the cutting edge of what’s happening now . I like whatever they do because I think that they are one step ahead of a lot of other groups out there and I think Spike couldn’t have made a better choice even if he picked us. I’m just being a man and saying that as it is.

Billy Jam: Now a movie soundtrack that you, or rather your original band Spectrum City, are on is South Central. How do you feel about that 1984 recording being out there?

Chuck D: It was stupid. It was a just a record company that went and bought the rights of something that I did before and just wanted to sell a soundtrack and try to exploit me and I don’t know if I should sue ‘em or not but I would love to get a chance to sue ‘em when I get some time. When I stop touring I’ll start suing!

Billy Jam: Do you like Ice Cube’s new single “Wicked”

Chuck D: Yeah, I like it a whole lot. I like his album a whole lot cos he’s takin a step in another direction and people have got to understand that this is a music that will be judged later. It can’t be judged right now. It’s a music that’s too big to be judged now. Too many people are judging it for it’s present and forgetting about it’s past and always trying to guess it’s future and no music should have to go through that. The present should be enjoyed. The past should be appreciated and revered and the future should always be like – okay it’s only nothing but more exciting things to happen…..Hip-hop has to always be able to last, to always be able to try different things, to go in different areas, and still it must be able to bring people up. The problem is is that if it doesn’t bring people up it’s going to push people down. And if it push peoples down, people going to push it out.

Billy Jam: What about the future for you? What’s next?

Chuck D: Well, it’s been six years. We’ve continually been travelling. We’ve been around the world four times, 36 countries, 22 tours going on another one after this one’s over and I got to stop touring!…..What I want to do personally is a talk show similar to Larry King. That’s what turns me on. Maybe that or broadcasting sports or something like that.