Volcom Escramble World Premier. Valient Thorr Gets Political; Dance Tent Gets Freaky

It was off to Volcom Headquarters in Costa Mesa Saturday Night in celebration of Escramble. Volcom parties are a 15-year-olds wet dream. So easy to booze. Lots of "over 21" wrist bands getting passed from skinny wrist to skinny wrist. Escramble was a snowboarding project two years in the making. The movie documents snowboarding with a tripped-out, revivalist feel. Goes little on rails and heavy on big mountain and comes as a breath of fresh air in a sport presently overrun by street style. BJORN Leines has a standout part, and a reunion with snowboard legends Terje, Guch, and Jamie Lynn are highlights. Props to Volcom Snow Team Manager Billy Anderson for the vision on this.



Before the movie.

During the movie.

After the movie.

Ask Valient if he gives a fuck.





Way, way after the movie. Sweatin' it in the dance tent.








Pro Shred Keir Dillion is plunging into TV land. Interviewing lead cinematographers of Escramble, Garry Pendygrasse, front, Nathan Yant, back.



Jamie Lynn.

Future of Style Store Gets Down With Art Party at New Hillcrest Location

It was poppin' Friday night at the Future of Style Art Party in San Diego's Hillcrest neighborhood.


Future of Style carries labels like Temple Effectives, Soul Rebel, Upper Playground, Doe, and Spoon Fed. Urban style shit. Hard to find tees, tops, Kangols.

The cute dirty blond on the right was like, "What's this for and why do you want to take my picture." I was like cause you're hot and I want to post on craigslist with it. "As long as I look cute," she said. Check out the hot girl with the Meticalla shirt in the background. I bet she's in a bike gang. Grrr.


This is Dimas De La Cruz. He owns the store and this night he kept it trill on the ones and twos. Check out his handcuff necklace. And the haircut. This girl Christina from Jet Rhys down the street "sometimes" cuts his hair, but she's all big time and you've got to have cash for her cuts -- even if you're Dimas and you can do some store bartering.


I don't think I have to point out who has the best Fuck Me eyes.

Although Autumn Rose was visiting from San Francisco and had just met Abel, a DJ from North Park, only minutes before I snapped the photo, they actually look like they could be a couple. In fact, I could totally picture them dah dah dah doing it.


Black hesher hair. Check. Vintage Def Leppard shirt. Check. Brown bag full of booze. Check, motherfucker, check. Well done, my man.



She'll shotgun a sixpack faster than you, hold it better than you, and woo your parents when you take her home.

Love the loafers. And the speckles of paint on your hands and ankles? Hell yes. Even though you weren't a featured artist at the party, if some girl was checking you out, she'd probably assume you were and that's all you need player, assumptions.

Is that a Giant Robot bag or are you just happy to see me?



Sean Carney, one of the featured artists of the evening. I was digging his WESC glasses. Big points for that label.

How shopping should always be.





You want to know the secret to being cool? Not giving a fuck. Not only does this dude have the balls to rock the mutton chops, he also brought his own beer cozy.


This is Dimas' right-hand man. This night he was the bartender -- but supply was in short and it wasn't long before he was relieved of his duties. Fortunately, people kept arriving with alcohol reinforcements.


Is this chick flipping me off or is she beckoning me with her finger, "C'mere camera boy, I'll give you something to take a photo of..."

The World as Jurassic 5 Knows It

MCs Charli 2na and Zaakir discuss growing up, the state of hip-hop, and action sports.



Somewhere after the era of Boogie Down Productions but before the rise of Tupac Shakur, rap culture caught the ever-spectacle seeking eye of mass media. Rap was taken and packaged as a story of disenfranchised urban kids telling lyrical stories about the grim realities of ghetto life. So-called “hard-core” rappers were bringing the news no one else could deliver. It was a gun-clapping, murderous, sexist, drug-laden documentary marketed to suburban middle class kids. The gangsta rap scene had exploded, and their lyrics and claimed “ways of life” challenged everything from American values to the First Amendment.

But there was another side to hip-hop. Behind the commercial wall of gangsta rap a new breed of hip-hop was slowly gaining force against the popularized version of inner-city criminality. In the late 1980s, MC groups like the Roots, the Jungle Brothers, De La Soul and its Daisy Age, began to offer a positive alternative to the thug-riddled vision of gangsta rap.

In this tradition was born Jurassic 5. Formed in 1993, the sextet (yes, six members, not five) have been fighting the ‘ghettoized’ image of rap ever since. "What we do is try and give you something you ain't used to," raps Jurassic 5. In the current bevy of bling, Jurassic 5—MCs Chali 2na, Zaakir (Soup), Akil and Marc 7 and DJs Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark—keep to rapping within reality. From taking care of kids to needing a tune-up for a Toyota Corolla hatchback (try and get 50-Cent to get in a car like that), the mundane is their subject. “We’re not trying to fool anybody,” says Chali 2na. “Those guys are just renting those mansions for those videos.”

For years, Jurassic 5 has been playing in the decks of snowboarders and freestyle skiers, skater and surfers. That’s why when Gravity Games booked the Los Angeles based group, they were more than happy to make the trip out to Colorado. Before their show, I sat down with MCs Chali 2na and Zaakir (also known as “Soup”) to talk about their lives growing up, how the group got started, the current state of hip-hop, and why those of us in action sports like them so damn much.

Ed Note: This interview took place back in 2005. J5 has since released their new album, "Feedback." To read a review--they haven't been pretty and this one is no exception--click

here

Before there was Jurassic 5, there were two groups. Zaakir, you were from Rebels of Rhythm, along with Akil. You met Charli 2na’s group, Unity Committee, at the now-defunct Good Life Café in Los Angeles. You want to shed some light on this coming together?

Zaakir (Soup): The year was 1993. We were up at the Good Life Café, which was like the LA Mecca for MC’s to go out and show exactly what they had. To get on and get deals there was a whole lot of stuff you could do at the Good Life. You could eat healthy; you could try and get females—everything. Anyway, we had seen Unity Committee perform, and at that time it was real competitive, but Unity—they were like one of the only groups that seemed to speak to us.

Charli 2na: That’s right. It was a positive energy. Something that felt right.

Zaakir: When that happened, we just bonded. But it took a minute. It didn’t just happen overnight. One day Cut Chemist finally a beat that we all took to, and we eventually went up to the Good Life to perform it. We called ourselves Jurassic 5. I would have never imagined in a million years that this collaboration would have led to us going around the world. This type of success was not at all on our minds. We just wanted to go perform at the Good Life! [Laughing] That was it. To perform at the little Café and have people say ‘oh! That was dope!’ -- That was our gold platinum record. Leave it at that. Then it was just like a light came on, and decided, ‘hey, let’s put this track out ourselves.’ At that time I was working for a record company so I could get the 12-inch to people that I knew would play it. As opposed to saying, ‘oh, I got it’ – and then throw it away. And then it just snowballed, all the way to this -- all the way to Gravity Games.

Charli 2na: Snowballed [Mimicking a big snowman with his body].

Zaakir: Big ol’ snowman snowballs! [Throwing his arms out]. Yeah! The original.



Let’s talk about the Gravity Games. A huge number of Snowboarders and skiers embrace hip-hop, yet the stories you tell in your music have no direct connection to winter or action sports in general. Why do you think our sports are so passionate about hip-hop music?

Charli 2na: Music is…universal. It is a language unto itself. The music that we have done has taken us around the planet. We’ve chilled and bonded with people who can’t even speak our language because they like our music. For us to even know that extreme sports cats like our music—man, that’s great. We’re from the urban area. We aren’t up in this ‘snowman’ skiing and stuff. We never had that. But we’re glad to connect.

Zaakir: It goes like this. Last black man I knew that skied was…nobody!

[Everyone laughing at Zaakir’s comment.]

Charli 2na: No, really, though [Silencing Zaakir]. We don’t know anything about the snow. It’s both a shock and pleasant surprise to know that snowboarders be loving our style. I put it together as a ‘pleasant shock.’ It’s one of those things you don’t expect. It’s great because it shows our music is able to touch people above and beyond the situation that we came from.

Zaakir: Yeah, that’s right.

So would you guys rather snowboard or ski?

Charli 2na: Ah, man. Get me on a board. Watch me kill myself trying those crazy flips.

Charli 2na










That’s cool. Maybe you guys can compete in the halfpipe next year.

Charli 2na: Now you’re talking crazy.

[Everyone laughing.]

Zaakir: Nah, it’s great. I love the fact that snowboarders embrace us. As long as they embrace us is as long as we’re going to keep doing stuff like this, coming out to the Gravity Games and hanging out with you cats.

What about family? Do you think your upbringing has influenced the type of music you guys are producing these days?

Charli 2na: Yeah, in a lot of ways. I think so.

Zaakir: I think however you turn out in life has a lot to do with your family. Family is where you originate. But it’s not to say that it is the fault of parents, you know, if you turn out to be a crook.

What were you guys like as kids, growing up?

Zaakir: I was actually a good kid. I never got in trouble. You couldn’t go to a precinct in the United States and find a picture of me boy!

[Big laugh from Charli]

Zaakir: Or fingerprints! Nothing! No, for real -- I had a father who was not having it. All the little stuff I used to try to get away with, my father would step in and tell me, ‘nah, boy, that’s not the route to go. Let me show you the route to go.’ And I appreciate how my father treated me so much. Now I have two kids of my own and I do everything I can to make sure they have the same guidance my father gave to me. I owe a lot to my mother too. But I think it’s important about my father because in the black community there is this stereotype that the father is never there for their children. But I’m an exception to that story. And now, my son, when he grows up, can know that he is an exception to the story. And hopefully my son will carry these values on.

So you were a good kid, never did anything wrong?

Zaakir: Yeah, overall, I was a good kid. I wasn’t an overachiever. I did just enough to get by. And look where it got me—to the Gravity Games and other world-wide events.

What about you Charli? Where you the angel Zaakir was?

Charli 2na: Nope. My mom and pops—they were criminals. That’s the only way I can put it. I learned about the negative aspects of life because it was right there, staring me in the face. For me, I never wanted to emulate the things that I saw bring a terrible result. I had all kinds of crazy people living around my life. I saw people die. I saw people get strung out on drugs. I saw cats selling drugs get shot over stupid disputes. For me, I never wanted that—as a life, as a person, or for my family. My father wasn’t there. He skirted when I was eight. It took years for me to go back and find him and then forgive him. At any rate, they say you are doomed to repeat your parents past if you don’t recognize the mistakes. I’m a living example of this. I recognize the mistakes of my father, my mother, my uncles, cousins, whatever—I try to recognize those mistakes. I told myself I’m not going to go that route. And look where it got me...the Gravity Games.

Zaakir: With the snow! [Laughs.]



Fast forward to when you guys joined up to form J5. How did you guys develop the ‘alternative’ sound—[Charli breaks in.]

Charli 2na: Now hold up. That’s a trip that you say that. We are ‘alternative’ – to what? For us, we feel like we are regurgitating the stuff that we fell in love with.

Right—like a revivalist style. I mean alternative to the commercial sound that currently dominates.

Charli 2na: Right—we’re doing the ‘original’ hip-hop. We’re bringing back the old school styles. What I’m trippin’ on is how you label us ‘alternative’ hip-hop. You’re thinking we are alternative to the crap that’s out there right now. But in actuality, it’s that commercial junk that is alternative to us, real hip-hop for real people with brains and a genuine love for music. We attribute our stuff to the old school cats—our shows, our music, and our vibe—to the cats like the Furious Five. Brother, I didn’t mean to cut you off, but just the word ‘alternative.’ I had to address that [laughing].

No. That’s cool. Alternative is just what came off my tongue. I guess what I’m trying to get at is what you mentioned about the ‘other stuff,’ the crap—or what you think should be labeled as the ‘alternative’ sound, the opposite of what, to you, hip-hop truly represents. Let me just throw the big question: What is the state of hip-hop today?

Zaakir: The state of hip-hop, right now, for me is … I’ve seen better [Making a sour face]. I don’t want to totally shit on it, but at the same time I wish people would try to do exactly what they feel as opposed to what other people are dictating to them. I know deep down inside that these are a lot of creative people. Everybody has something they want to do that the masses are not going to agree with, whatever it may be. I would like to see more of that, people expressing themselves without the fear that their records won’t sell because they aren’t doing exactly what everyone else is. At the same time, I would have never thought in a million years that hip-hop would turn into this big, global, world-changing type of music. I remember when people were saying hip-hop wouldn’t last! Crazy cats! Hip-hop has come a long way, and with that I cannot totally dismiss what some folks are doing, even if I myself don’t agree with it. I do wish people would be more creative, and with that, more creative control. Nobody above dictating, because the consumer is going to buy it—we are living proof. No more corporate control. That’s what’s bringing hip-hop down. The corporate world doesn’t give a crap about music or our culture. They care about money.



OK. Let’s talk about creativity. Put me in the mind of Jurassic 5, when you are all trying to come up with new material.

Zaakir: [To Charli] Hey man, what’s your verse sound like?

Charli: [To Zaakir] It sounds like this. What’s your verse sound like?

[Both laughing at each other.]

Charli 2na: Oh, man. Every possible way of doing it we’ve probably done it. We don’t have a set way of creating music, no ritual or anything. We get hyped on a beat or somebody will have a chorus or somebody will have a verse or idea, and that just sparks a song. We have taken months to write one song and we have taken ten days to write ten songs.

Zaakir: When you have six people, it’s really hard to get a formula. The formula is not to have a formula. Therefore with six people you can still be an individual. It’s a balance so that you don’t feel things are being pushed upon you. For us, it’s all about building off everyone’s ideas and respecting those ideas. It’s tough though with six people. It takes a lot of work to get things working cohesively as a group. We have made it so that within that uniformity, I don’t sound like Charli and Charli don’t sound like me. Cut [Chemist] doesn’t sound like Numark. We are individuals that work together as a group.

And that is the beauty of J5. It looks like your manager is telling me my time is up, so I guess I’ve got to split. Any last words you like to say to our readers?

Zaakir: Thank you all, God bless. Long live the ‘snowman’!

Charli: Keep the positive message, ya’ll.

Zaakir: Also, Charli has a record coming out. [Turning to Charli.] What’s the name of your record?

Charli: ‘Fish Outta Water.’ It’ll be out hopefully in June.

Zaakir: Otherwise, J5 is putting the finishing touches on our third record. We haven’t come up with a name for it yet. But that’s what’s happening. God bless.