The man Superstar Quamallah is back with a video from the dope 7inch single from Cotter Records. "California Dreaming", is a dope track and now has a dope single. You can pick up (I think) the single from Cotter Records (Vinyl only) from the myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/cotterrecords
You can also WIN a free copy from WYDU today, as part of our three year celebration. Simply fire me off an email to be put in the drawing to WYDUBLOGL@gmail.com and that will enter you into the drawing. Please email me by 11pm MST Wed Oct 29th. And remember, this is a 7 inch VINYL release.
Good luck!!!!
Showing posts with label Superstar Quamallah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Superstar Quamallah. Show all posts
10/28/2008
Superstar Quamallah - California Dreaming Video
9/10/2008
Two New Tracks from Superstar Quamallah
Dope tracks from WYDU favorite Superstar Quamallah. They both kind be found on the new 7inch (VINYL FOOLS!!!) for all you DJs out there that say they never get no vinyl. Both tracks are DOPE!
California Dreamin'
http://www.zshare.net/audio/1850315596d83d72/
Love Has Made Us
http://www.zshare.net/audio/1850353387aed04b/
Get at Brian at Cotter Records to purchase...
http://www.myspace.com/cotterrecords
9/02/2008
This & That
I got some news for you. First I wanna give you some news about the next Superstar Quamallah album. I just got it from his blog:
"peace everybody,
for the past year now i've been working on and collecting songs toward an album titled "invisible man". i've never considered rhymin over other people's tracks until recently when i hooked up with some cool cats and great producers who feel the same about the music as i do.
the album is titled after the classic novel, "invisible man" by ralph ellison. the book is a must read and really captures the complex space black men inherit, living in a society that fears them and fantacizes about them at the same time, while within both rhelms we are "invisible" in many regards. i can recall countless times standing in line at the store and a non-black person has come and casually stepped in front of me. their reply has always been a simple "excuse me" or "oh i didn't know you were in line". funny, especially with my 6 foot 4, 200 plus pound frame standing with shit in my hands is pretty hard not to notice.
the album symbolizes this theme through my personal views about black culture in the united states and specifically hiphop music. what i know to be the foundations of hiphop music is usually overlooked or dismissed as what is "popular" often times contradicts what the music "used" to symbolize. artists sticking to the traditional sounds, formulas, and messages are often times "invisible".
my favorite time period for hiphop music was definitely between 1983 and 1994 with 1988 and 1993 being two years that standout as extremely impressive years musically and culturally. the fashion, slang, movies, t.v. shows, and vibe during those years was incredible. while totally submerged in the feelings and music of that entire time period, i went to work on "invisible man" and i am excited for people to hear the result! it is an album that i would want to hear from some of my favorite artists of the past and present today. this is not a RETRO trip for me; this is me at my best lyrically and spiritually using the accessories of the 80's and 90's to fuel me. i am a '88 soul as the song states!
thank you to all the producers who have contributed to this project: clever jeff, izznyce, dj soulclap, dj diaze, pawel g and myself. all underground cats still hungry and passionate about hiphop music. plus they gave me that classic 80's/90's sound i love to listen to!!!
the album should drop anytime between now and next summer '09. stay tuned and get ready!
one love,
superstar quamallah"
From what I've heard so far it will be bangin, perfect for what the readers of this blog like. It has a huge golden age feel to it.
Next up: I did a little EP with one of my best friends Esperado. (http://www.myspace.com/esperadomc)
"Here it is, the collection of tracks that Esperado and DJ SoulClap recorded during the last months with some top notch guests. The Snapshot EP got its name from the process of recording. We met in Esperado's studio, picked a beat, picked a beer and started writing. Afterwards we directly recorded what we've just written. Even Mr. SoulClap discovered his love for rhyming after a few beers and after being on his first ever track (Nachts im Club, Track 5) So the tracks on the EP are the first joints he ever recorded. The Instrumentals come from eMC, Jazzy Jeff, Keith Murray, Method Man & Redman und Masta Ace.
The guests on this entertaining piece of music are Tony Tigerstyle, Souleez, Albino, Funky Matt, MadCap and of course Martys, who all share the same love fro the music and culture. That's the reason why we ended up in the studio together."
Tracklist:
1. The Jump Off feat. Tony Tigerstyle, Souleez & Funky Matt
2. Was ist schön? feat. Albino & MadCap
3. Hallo!
4. Want Sum Git Some feat. Martys
5. Nachts im Club feat. Martys
6. Damals
Most if it is in German, some in English, but I think you will enjoy it anyway, if not you can delete it afterwards.
Download it here for free!
Peace,
Clap
9/30/2007
Superstar Quamallah Re-Up + New Video
I re-upped the EP "Don't call me John" from 99 for y'all, someone requested it some time ago, sorry that I was s lazy. 7 tracks with superb beats and lyrics. Feature guests are Tajai, Swahili, Clever Jeff, Cool King Asaad & Defari. The EP was out on ABB records. It was supposed to be a demo but it was so good that they released it.
Don't call me John EP
This is the new music video of Quame, called Microphone Doctor. I love that track, it's on his album Godfood-The Break-fast. I recommend everybody to cop it, cause it's good music to listen to. You can check out some more stuff on his myspace and you will find the links to the new cd or the itunes version there.
Quamallah's myspace
I wish you a good start in the new week!
Peace,
SoulClap
9/14/2007
Interview with Superstar Quamallah!!!
Superstar Quamallah recently released his first album called "Godfood The Break-Fast". Since WYDU is always watching for the good and rare stuff we needed to do an interview and ask him about the past, the present and the future...
SoulClap: Hey Quame, would you like to introduce yourself to the readers?
Quame: No doubt. They call me (DJ)Superstar Quamallah and my students call me Mr. Quame. I’m originally from Brooklyn, N.Y. but I stay on the move and I currently live in Oakland, California where I teach at U.C. Berkeley.
SoulClap: You released your first EP in 1999 on ABB records, how did that come?
Quame: It had been a dream of mine to release a record one day since I was yay high. I grew up during the Golden Era of Hiphop music so recording a record wasn’t a thought when emcees like Rakim, KRS1, Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap were around! So I waited my time and soaked up their excellence and enjoyed being a dj. In 1998, Hiphop music was not stimulating me so much as a dj so I decided to make my own music. What started as a demo for MC Swahili, turned into a short album. I sent a copy to my godbrother, Defari, and he sent one to a mutual friend, Beni B of ABB Records.
SoulClap: What did you experience after the release? What changed for you?
Quame: After DCMJ was released, I tried my best to be an emcee. I did a lot of performances, radio shows and small tours. However, the Hiphop scene had already changed drastically from even the early 90’s. New technology, popularity from t.v. and a new generation to be raised on the business ethics of Bad Boy and Death Row led to divided Hiphop audiences. Underground Hiphop, formally known as “Street”, became “Pop”. The situation was confusing and so was I – confused and frustrated by 2003. After my single, “Just Rap” on ABB, I released a record on my own label called “Thug Now?” in 2000. At the time, I was living in a Black lower/working class neighborhood and they weren’t checkin’ for the type of music I was creating. I guess you could say the “Tribe/Gods on the mic” days were over! So by 2003, just 4 years after DCMJ, I took a sabbatical from music.
SoulClap: You were in a group with Tajai from the Souls of Mischief and you
released a single, what is the story behind that?
Quame: “Sugar Hell No!” was received well from the DCMJ EP. Also at the time I was dating Tajai’s sister so I was always at their house. Tajai and I are also both tauruses and have incredible imaginations so I knew a duo album would be bananas! I approached him with the idea of us portraying these ghetto super heroes who take “thuggin out” to the James Bond level. We wanted to create an album that captured what people around us were “rappin” about and perform it as emcees. So we made the album “Hood Famous” the summer of 2000 and released the first single about robbing banks on ABB Records. We were both on the go so much that we abandoned the project and never thought of releasing it until 2007, because the album actually predicted the route Hiphop music would take. That’s some crazy shit! We were just f’in around but these cats today are mad serious about tellin’ people they sell drugs on their cd!
SoulClap: You are a DJ, Producer and MC, how did you get involved with Hip Hop and how did you start? Who were your main influences?
Quame: Born in New York during the 70’s, I was infatuated with everything about the culture. No one knew it was “Hiphop”, it was just the shit we did as kids. I started doing graffiti in 1980; I was too young to be apart of the subway bombing when it was going on during the mid-70’s. I started break-dancing in 1983 and got my first turntable in 1985. The main influences for me were all the Soul-Jazz artists around me cause my dad was a musician. Cats like Arthur Prysock, Lou Donaldon, Grant Green and Jack McDuff to name a few. But I definitely looked up Afrika Bambaataa, Zulu Nation, Cold Crush Brothers, Kurtis Blow and Run DMC.
SoulClap: You recently released your solo debut album called Godfood – The
Break-Fast, can you tell us something about it? What does the title
stand for?
Quame: During my sabbatical from “popular” music, I decided to focus on my spiritual growth. I listened to all the music that inspired me in the first place. My friends and I used to make these break-beat cassette tapes where different breaks would jump in one after the other. This is what I did best, so I decided to incorporate that style with some new ideas. Also, I had started playing the drum machine instead of programming it to simply loop and sequence. For me the process became musical food since I was fasting from the radio and at the same time my fast ended at the finish of the album. Thus I decided to give the name “Godfood”.
SoulClap: What happened in all the years between your First EP and your new Album?
Quame: I entered graduate school, went to Japan and Australia, moved to Los Angeles, worked with a group of guys in L.A. called the Headbangaz Crew, taught high school at Inglewood High, lived on the street for a few years, moved back to New York and constantly worked on my MPC 2000 trying to develop new formulas for making music without a keyboard to keep a different sound from everyone else.
SoulClap: Now we need to come to the standard question. Since Nas' last album
this seems to be the main discussion in the Hip Hop world. Is Hip Hop
dead? If not, in which state is it?
Quame: Haha! My friends and I had been saying Hiphop was dead back in 1995-96. A lot of people had been saying Hiphop was dead at a lot of different points, but Nas made it a commercialized discussion for everyone in and outside the small N.Y. Hiphop community. The slang term “Dead” just means that something ain’t happening no more or that something ain’t hot. In Hiphop, the goal has always been to stay ahead of the masses or the crowd. By the time graffiti was popularized to the rest of the country and the world, it was “dead” in New York. The same goes for break-dancing and turntablism. Once too many people start to do something, in the Hiphop community, then the originators and most of the leaders tend to move on to something new until a younger generation brings it back with a new twist. After 1994, most of the music for me and a lot of others became stale and boring. Plus, Hiphop had become SO popular that any and everybody was either an emcee, dancer or artist. The fashion and everything was soon commodified and packaged. The higher levels of creativity were soon overshadowed by the huge corporate “minstrel performers”. The art of emceeing was no longer seen as viable or valuable after the late 80’s and now in the 2000’s, simple “raps” that would have never seen the light of day are the number 1 jams/videos. So YES, essentially THE BODY of Hiphop culture died many deaths many years ago. But the spirit never dies and has moved on out of the mass public eye. The spirit of Hiphop does live in all the originators and the passionate like you and me.
SoulClap: Can we do to something to bring Hip Hop back on the right track? What
needs to change?
Quame: It will never be like how it began, just as someone at 60 years old can not go back to looking like they were at 15 years old. But at this point Hiphop is being used to broadcast such negative messages and “biting” or being generic is the new thang. Those who know better must lead and we must do our best to support the positive and creative artists.
SoulClap: What are your plans for the future? Any albums or Projects planned?
Quame: I’m currently working on Defari’s new album, “King’s Holiday” and i’ll be doing some work with Planet Asia and of course Tajai from Hieroglyphics. Also, the next release from DCMJ Records will be from Taj the Infinite, an incredible young emcee I look to really promote and advocate for. I’m also studying cinematography, so I will be shooting some videos and looking to release a Don’t Call Me John Part II, that will be very interesting! But now that Superstar is back in ya town, I will be pretty active and you may hear me over a DJ Soulclap track real soon!!!
Thank You and One Love,
superstar quamallah
Quamallah's myspace
7/14/2007
Superstar Quamallah - Love has made us
The readers from this site might know that I'm a huge Superstar Quamallah Fan! I posted thet Don't call me John EP from 98 some weeks ago, and now he is about to release his debut album. You can check him out on myspace---> Superstars Myspace
He got a video on there, which I personally love. I already watched it around 30 times today,lol, I'm really not kidding. You should definitely check it out, it's totally worth it!
He made that with his sony cam, I think he did a really good job!
Enjoy!
DJ SoulClap
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