The Malcognitas

If you have not heard of the Malcognitas yet you’re your in for a treat. I have been on the island for quite sometime and heard of them early on, but with all the shows I wanted to see and different weekend get always I always seemed to miss them. One night by mistake rather than by design I finally got to see what all this hype was about. It was a sweet relief to the ears. I was surprisingly awestruck by the entire atmosphere of the band and the music. It seemed to draw me in, in ways no band has done in years. Every breath the lead singer took and note belted out sent chills up my spine. Her voice is so sexy and sultry I found it hard to even believe so much sound is coming out of this beautiful small structured person. The bass, the drums and the guitar seemed to melt into each other and then started carrying me away with it. They can not be compared to any music on this island; they are in a class of their own. It turned out to be the best show I have seen on Oahu thus far and I am really looking forward to their shows and the bragging rights of saying I got to see them way back when… I am now officially a Malcognitas groupie.

How long have you been playing music for (individually and as a group)?

YVONNE: Individually: cello-15 years here and there. Guitar- almost 1.5 years, Ara taught me chords when we met and started 7/10. As a band I believe one year (ask Lorenzo exactly).

JACK: I've been playing drums since I was 10.

ARA: I've been trying to play guitar since I was 17, I had really strict parents so they decided to give me a guitar and I eventually figured out how to play some chords. As a child, I always loved to sing and dreamed of having a deep sultry voice. My first real band was Teradactyl (2000-2003) and they kicked me out of the band shortly after I dumped one of the members. After that I met Yvonne and we started writing sappy love songs and started 7/10. I met Jack and Lorenzo through Yvonne and they invited me to join the Malcognitas.

LORENZO: I've been playing music for 8 years. The Malcognitas have been together as a whole since April 2005.

What song do you enjoy playing live the most? YVONNE: Eyes Closed JACK: Well, each song has its own mood. There is a range of emotion and intensity when we play through our material. My enjoyment comes when my band mates, the audience and I all melt together. ARA: I really like playing Disabled, because Yvonne gets to use her Line 6 pedal. LORENZO: Currently ‘Hott Stuff’.

If you compare yourself to other artists or genres where do you think you fit? YVONNE: It’s just another form of rock and roll. JACK: The music is dark. I like Christian Death (the band), the Cure, Gary Numan...in some ways I think our vibe is similar. ARA: I agree with both Jack and Yvonne, I think it would be easier to just call us a Rock band. I think when we write our songs, we're more focused on story telling and conveying emotion rather than worrying about what genre we fit in. I know in the beginning, Lorenzo wanted the band to have a Gothic like appeal but at this point, we're just writing whatever is naturally coming out, gothic or not. We do like dressing in black though. LORENZO: Realistically I'd say whatever category the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and similar bands are in. Besides music do any of you have other creative outlets? YVONNE: Sometimes making instruments with friends. JACK: no. ARA: Well, I do dabble with the graphic arts. LORENZO: Art, particularly illustration/graphic novels. Where are all of you from? Local? If not where have you transplanted from? YVONNE: From Hawaii. JACK: Born here. I wandered around a bit and planted myself back in Hawaii. ARA: I was born in the Philippines, but my family lived everywhere but. I've lived in Hawaii for about 9 years now. I would say that I am local. LORENO: I was born and raised here in Honolulu, though lived in San Francisco for four years. Who are your greatest influences both in music and in art? YVONNE: Oddly much different from the music that is the Malcognitas. Klezmer such as new Klezmer trio, Masada, Bar Koksbah sextet. Agro noise like the Ruins, Boredoms, Melt Banana, Sun City Girls, God Speed, Brad Crutchffield, Arco Santi and the Space Invaders. JACK: My parents were a great influence on me musically. They were into all kinds of stuff like classical, jazz, ABBA...as far as drumming, Buddy Rich would be the guy that made me get some drums and start playing. He was such an exciting and compelling performer. The energy and power has stuck with me till today. ARA: My musical background actually has more RnB, dancehall and hip hop. I used to live in Prince George County in MD and I went to a predominantly black high school. A lot of my influences back in the day were Aretha Franklin, Sade, Anita, Shabba Ranks... When I turned 17, I think my taste started changing because of the people I was hanging out with and I started listening to Everything but the Girl and Massive Attack ... that kind of thing. Now my taste is probably on the same level as any "indie" artfag my age. LORENZO: For music: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Alice in Chains, Scheer, Luna Sea, Christian Death, Bauhaus, Swans. For art: European artists like the kind in Heavy Metal magazine. What can we look forward to seeing in the future from the Malcognitas? YVONNE: Fretless and paisley. JACK: I am pleased to report we have an album on the way... ARA: More new songs. We'd also love to tour in the future!! LORENZO: A whole lot more new music, with musical diversity. Who is your favorite local band? YVONNE: Explore. JACK: Yvonne Elliman. ARA: I'm a big supporter of At Sea and Explore. LORENZO: I'm honest, and I have to say it's the one I'm playing in. If you were stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean…..and you could have only one band from the mainland with you, who would it be? JACK: The Velvet Underground, as long as I could jam with them… YVONNE: umm Deerhoof. ARA: hmmm.. Broken Social Scene? Because there's about 12 of them. So chances are one of them would know how to start a fire. LORENZO: Any band as long as they're signed and very popular. Cos the chances of rescue are greater if they vanish during the tour. Get more of the Malcognitas here: www.malcognitas.net www.myspace.com/themalcognitas

iCON the Mic King

By now iCON the Mic King is surely a name that is either on the tip of your tongue or the bottom of your fingers. Brewerytown North Philadelphia native Michael King is the last of a dying breed. iCON’s music combines the principles of yesteryear with the cutting edge of progressive lyricism while maintaining its soul. That statement in and of itself may be hard to swallow but with the context of his influences (Pharoahe Monch, WuTang Clan, and the Lyricist Lounge-era) it becomes clear that this torchbearer for upper-echelon emceeing is everything he says he is. Whether solo or with ex-DMC/ITF champion and veteran party-rocker DJ Cue Two the work ethic and the need to impress translates to the stage. iCON’s stage show has allowed him to make headway in this saturated market keeping fans talking from Philly to Australia and most locales in-between. No stranger to the grind, iCON has hit the road on Greyhound buses with $5 in his pocket just to prove his name belongs in your mouth and has rocked stages with: Jay-Z, Ludacris, Ghostface, GZA, Raekwon, KRS ONE, Nice & Smooth, RJD2, SoulPosition, Jedi Mind Tricks, El P, Immortal Technique, Aesop Rock, C-Rayz Walz, OneBeLo, Hangar18, QN5, Illogic, Jean Grae, Roosevelt Franklin, J-Zone, Louis Logic, Apathy, Mr. Lif, and continues to leave crowds in awe in any locale that allows it. DeathCabFan's interview gets only but a glimpse into the world of Icon the Mic king. Interview by DeathCabFan of Machine Material.

DeathCabFan: So tell me Icon, what is your real name? And how did you get your emcee name? Icon the Mic King: My government/slave name is Michael King. I got the name iCON from a comic book when I was looking for a new graff tag. Dude was the black Superman. I was either gonna be Statik or iCON...I went with the illest four letter word. When I started rhyming I was just one of those dudes who free styled forever so it become the acronym "I Come Off Nonstop". DeathCabFan: What crews are you in/were in? Icon The Mic King: Shit. I've been in a lot of crews....Anonymous INC fo' life though bitches! That...Fallen Angelz and Gully Bears is what I'm reppin these days. I used to be in Soundmindes, Level X, Ladder Day Saints....uhh I think that's about it. DeathCabFan: How'd you start rapping? Icon The Mic King: I started rhyming in '95. I had purchased "Tical" by Method Man and I started thinking "hey I can probably do that!" and they had me living in Connecticut to go to high school so it was a way to still feel connected to the urban feeling of being from Philadelphia. Really though my boy DJ Trends (who I also went to high school with) was just like "yo I freestyle" and in high school you lie and tell people you do certain things to be down with them. So I was like "yeah I do that too - I'm ill!" and then I just kept practicing to myself until I could really do it.

So it is safe to say that the rumor of Ceschi teaching you how to rap is false? If anything it's the other way around. I convinced Ceschi he should rap. Ceschi got me recording. I had been rhyming for like 8 months by the time Ceschi convinced me to do some shit. Funny thing is when I first met Ceschi...other mutual friend Ryan and I had gotten in trouble for doing some ill shit on the library computers at school and we blamed it on him. It's wild that we ended up being such good friends and that he had such an impact on my life as far as introducing me to recording...but yeah he had wanted me to do some reggae shit with him and David back at the end of our Freshman year. Instead we ended up doing a cover of Redman's "Can't Wait" with my boy Kofi aka Impakt... What is your relationship with Ceschi Ramos? how in the hell did you guys hook up? My relationship with Ceschi....Ceschi and I went to high school together. He is the first person to take me to a studio or get me recording period. Initially he was trying to get me to do reggae over the music he and David were making. I told him I didn't do that...I just rap. In fact I had just started rapping that year. I used to freestyle whole songs over their music. I sucked. He was always a musical prodigy. I was the first person to convince him to rap and show him how. We have been friends for over 10 years. We've had various groups over there this time...made a lot of songs. Him more so than me because he is a very prolific Leo and I'm a very calculating Virgo. Other than that we have done a lot of mischievous things together like graff, pillaging, loitering. Ceschi is my buddy and my pal. I would shoot somebody in the face for Ceschi. Friends til the end dude!!!! Who's your insperation in music? You really need to invest in a spell checker son. No one inspires me now. I got inspired more by beats or by situations. I get inspired by being challenged or by being an underdog. I got inspiration from books and movies. Other rappers really don't have the ability to do it anymore. At this point there's nothing anyone else can do with rap that I can't.

'Independent', or 'mainstream' label-which of these would you choose to be on? Every rapper wants to be on a major label. Every rapper wants to be heard by as many people as people. Every rapper wants to have a video with girls like Esther Baxter. Every rapper wants to live off their passion. The ones that say they don't are just salty because they realize they'll never achieve that dream. They'll never be a "real" rapper. They'll always have to explain they work at Pizza Hut" and why you have to ask the record store to special order their album. I'd love to be famous and mainstream, but I'd have to do it my way and make the music I like. So I want the best of both worlds. If you get me on a big indie with a 50K budget and a video that gets at least MTV2 rotation that's peace or we could do the mainstream thing but I want absolute creative control. Has there been any offers from any big labels yet? I was once offered a deal by Ruff Ryders back in my "independent as fuck!" phase. Needless to say I didn't return their calls. Epic tried to sign four members of the Fallen Angelz.... A couple heads didn't want to do it because MANiFEST's manager was a freemason. Who have you work with so far? C-Rayz Walz, Immortal Technique, Killah Priest, Poison Pen, Blockhead, Blue Raspberry, Illogic....I'm on this new MF Doom record....uhhhh......Ceschi and David of course....I'm on U God from WuTang's new album.....PackFM, Tonedeff, Cunninlynguists, NOBS, Dos-Noun, Jus Allah (formerly of Jedi Mind Tricks). Who was the best to record with? Ummm... Blue Raspberry. It was ill she just came in vibed to the track for like 5 minutes. Didn't write anything down...she just went in and killed it. She does a lot of tracks when she lays vocals and she did like 40 tracks she only threw out 3 takes. I like working with Ceschi and David a lot too because I don't ever feel like I'm pressured to do anything we're just creating art. I also liked working with Jus Allah. We vibe real well.

Okay, I know you won battles but I am not totally sure how much or what/where etc. enlighten me please. Ummm...most of the battles I won aren't really relevant to dudes anymore...uh.....like Scribble Jam Legend and NYC Braggin Rites Legend or something. 2000 Hookt Cyberclash Favorites battle (NYC), 2000 HU Verbal Armageddon Champ (DC), 2000 Ericos Mic Fight 2peat Champ (DC), 2000 Uh-Oh Entertainment Round Series 2peat Champ (DC), 2001 BETs MC World Cup Finalist (NY), 2002 Seattles Brainstorm2 Finalist (WA), 2002 BET/Burger King College Tour Battle Finalist (DC), EndoftheWeak Philly vs NYC Emcee Challenge (PA) as well as a classic rivalry with Jin. Scribble Jam Prelim battle host 2 years running. Scribble Jam emcee battle finals judge 2004. The word 'early', you sure say it a lot. What can I say? Philly run shit! EARLY!!! Philly do you love it? You no....living there? English class is definitely one you skipped. Philadelphia is the best city on the planet. EARLY! Where's the best place in Philly to eat? My favorite Cheese steak spot is Ishkabibbles on 4th & South. Do you know Will Smith? Nope but I watched and listened to know enough Fresh Prince that I feel like I do.

I was fuckin' with you kid. But anyways, that would be cool if you did a song with him, huh? Yo heads sleep on Fresh Prince. First of all he and Jazzy Jeff are some of the best performers ever. They're albums was tight and one time some cat was dissin him on Power 99 (the radio station) and he called up like "oh word? I'll be there in 30 minutes" he showed up and served this cat. Do not sleep. I was stilling fuckin' with you, but cool. I did not know that. And I am sure Hawaii needed to know all of that. No really! We did. I here you used to dabble in 'graffiti'? Tell us about it. Are you still in the world famous INC crew? Yeah that's another thing I got heads into. I had been writing since 7th grade....93? I think. This cat VIEW had gotten me into it. In turn I got most of the cats we rolled with in high school down. Wasn't nothing to do in CT so we'd go racking mad paint at Sears Hardware or tag scandalize some shit from Wal-Mart or Caldor’s and go bombing. Ceschi and STAR were the illest out of us. I was never that good....no real can control...I was kinda nice on paper though. I mean I could bomb and what not but my pieces were weak. INC I still rep it if I was to go bombing. I quit writing right before I went to college in DC cuz I figured it'd be a federal crime there and that was the height of the 3D shit - I felt like heads were getting to good and I just couldn't keep up at all. A lot of muhfuckas that's rapping need to adopt that philosophy. So you came to Hawaii some time last year with Xololanxinxo of Project Blowed/ Of Mexican Descent. How did you feel about the islands and its people? And rocking shows with one of L.A. finest emcee....Xololanxinxo? I had a lot of fun. The people for the most part were cool. Especially Nabahe's Mom and his immediate friends. I felt like I was in another country...it was a working vacation. Y'all had great weather. We got crunk. Learned about the different cultures. It was an all around good time. I'm looking forward to coming back and topping it. I liked being out of my element. I hadn't had a vacation in years and it just felt good to go to someone else's world and chill, just see new stuff. Oh it was tight runnin up in Fisherman's Wharf...the bol Ion Myke made me feel like a celebrity. I also enjoyed performing on top of the bar at the Wave (no homo). [Xololanxinxo] Was cool. Put on a good show. I had heard a lot about him from Ceschi, David, and Tommy V. It was nice to finally put a face with the name. What up wit the Booze Cruise son?!

Booze Cruise is the shit! Early!...Did I use it right? Nah. Not really. I mean yeah but not really. So you must really be looking forward to the up coming shows with NoCanDo and DJ Handprints? Absolutely. I know NoCanDo from battles like Scribble Jam and shit. Son is mad nice. He improved so much since I first saw him...I don't want to say improved...he is showing a more effective facet of his style since I first saw him. I haven't heard any of his music and I know Handprints from a show I did in LA. So I'm real interested to see what they are gonna come with. Other than that I'm looking forward to coming out to Hawaii again having fun. Hopefully more people will come out and have fun with us. Any last words, shout outs, etc. Icon? Shout out to Nabahe's mom, Nabahe, his whole crew, LightSleepers, Cissy, Josh and Black Sqaure. Unity Crayons, Ceschi, David, everybody. Hawai'i I love y'all muhfuckas. I'm bout to come back and we're gonna have fun. Beautiful women you can hit me up on myspace (myspace.com/iconthemicking) and we can act like we care to know more about each other until I get there ;)..........Police the new records. Call 911 with a loud shootout scene in a movie blaring in the background then tell the cops I told you to do it when they show up. Yeah I know it's not right but it'll be great publicity for the shows. EARLY!!!! For more info check out his websites: www.iconthemicking.com www.myspace.com/iconthemicking See iCON the Mic King Friday, May 26th at Detox and again Saturday, May 27th at Detox in an Emcee Battle.

NOCANDO

DEATHCABFAN: Where did you grow up?
NOCANDO: I grew up in the infamous south central Los Angeles, can't you tell.

DEATHCABFAN: So how long have you been an emcee?
NOCANDO: I have been rapping for about 8 years but only 5 years seriously.

DEATHCABFAN: Who/what was your inspiration?
NOCANDO: Personal stress has always been my main inspiration-the runner up is not being able to express myself being a weirdo-third place is my angelinoness(<-made up word).

DEATHCABFAN: What crew are you in right now? NOCANDO: Customer Service is the crew I am in and have been in for hella long. DEATHCABFAN: How'd you get involved with Project Blowed? NOCANDO: I got involved with Project Blowed the open mic by just going there. I got involved with the establishment through rhyming Ridd' of C.V.E.. DEATHCABFAN: Project Blowed...you ever got kicked off stage? NOCANDO: At the Blowed they chant please pass the mic when they want you to quit rapping and I've had that treatment so many times I thought I'd never get any love but that made me work harder.

DEATHCABFAN: Coming out of Project Blowed and its long line of hip-hop demi gods-have you ever felt pressure about following in the foot steps, being the new kid and all? NOCANDO: I don’t feel any pressure about letting the legacy go down hill. I think that I would bring more glory and fame to it if I just do my job. DEATHCABFAN: What’s your out look on battling? NOCANDO: I battle. I win some I lose some I get drunk and celebrate after them all. DEATHCABFAN: So do you know Icon? Have you met him before? NOCANDO: The first time I met Icon I thought he was a dick. The second time I saw him he was still a dick. The third time he was cool as hell but he knocked some one out that night. The fourth he was real cool, guess the guy grew on me.

DEATHCABFAN: Who have you worked with so far? NOCANDO: I have worked with a lot of people, too many to name check my bio. DEATHCABFAN: What’s with your upcoming solo project? NOCANDO: My next solo project is top secret just know it’s gonna be life changing for me and the listeners. DEATHCABFAN: Best place to eat in L.A.? NOCANDO: My house.

DEATHCABFAN: Best show you ever had? NOCANDO: This show in Bourge France with subtitle, those franks went crazy we had to give them an encore. DEATHCABFAN: Best place to play at? NOCANDO: Project Blowed. DEATHCABFAN: Hawaii, looking forward to it? NOCANDO: Hell yeah you know it. I heard that the moths are as big as hell, that the locals are crazy, and that might be Ice related....I just wanna perform and drink beer. DEATHCABFAN: Any last words, shout outs, etc? NOCANDO: Customer Service is unbeatable.