Holdin’ it down for LA in NY

Ey ey ey ey!  I know that I was outta pocket absent last week but that’s only because I was busy cookin’ this up right here.  Last Tuesday I had the immense pleasure of interviewing the homie Bambu, whose words and wisdom are drawn from an intense love and the firm desire to see communities of color reclaim what is ours – control of our own destiny.  A personal hero of mine, I think the homie Colin E’ Hara of COLINRESPONSE says it best:

Bambu seems to have a 2Pac-like knack for dissecting the sh*t out of his internalized pain/oppression, and relaying it to the listener in a way that is incredibly easy to understand and digest. Where I see him differing from many other artists who are able to communicate their feelings/grief as men, is that Bambu never tends to wallow in self-pity or feel sorry for himself.

PLUS, the man just dropped a new project with producer Fat Gums (which you can cop HERE) and just got his latest music video, Crooks and Rooks, into rotation at MTVU.  Aight, enough from me – Let’s do this.

D. Scott:  So man, off-top, even though I’m certainly a little late, I wanna congratulate you on your recent induction into fatherhood!  How is it man?

Bambu:  Man I love it, man.  I’m sitting with him right now and I love it.  Its good.  Its given me a lot more perspective on my work, whether it be community organizing or the music, its definitely made me streamline all my work.  Its wonderful.

D. Scott:  That’s beautiful.  As a fan of yours for a little bit now, something that really struck me about you is the way that your articulate your perspective.  You get your point across well, but you don’t harangue people or beat your audience over the head wit it – even though you have a lot of  things to say, you fit them in well instead of arranging your albums like a series of lectures.  Do you think you could maybe talk about what’s informed your style, like, what’s responsible for your dope?

Bambu:  Ah-ha.  Thanks man.  I just like to be very matter of fact, ya know what i mean? I come from an era of the west-coast-hip-hop, the Project Blowed heads and the Rass Kass heads who just went hard and just SPIT and multisyllabic, complex like…And i started off that way, but my message was getting lost and I didn’t want that.  And I’m listenin to Prodigy from Mobb Deep and I noticed that he’s real straight forward with his, but still dope, ya know?

I decided I just wanna be like that, kinda the way i’m talkin to you right now is my approach to rap.  ‘Cuz i really do feel right now that this is my journal, and i wanna be honest with it.  I don’t wanna spend it bullshitin’ people..stylistically I try not to speak over people’s heads, try to remember who my audience is.

I think now i don’t think about it too much.  I teach a writing workshop at local high school.  I’m with the youth all the time, I’m with the masses, and if you’re around young people all the time and can’t come up with anything to say – you’re done. So I never get writer’s block, let’s just say that.  The way I like to look at it is that here’s so much beauty in the world and so much bullshit in the world, so pick one.  Which would you rather pick?  If you pick the bullshit you’re gonna run out of subject matter real quick.

Like, my son was playing on turntables today…I could write a whole rap on that.  Things like that, I could never run out of material.

D. Scott:  Word, word.  Since you just brought it up, do you think we could talk some about the writing workshop you run?  How it came about and the kind of things that you focus on?

Bambu:  Yeah.  It started in Echo Park, at a community center in a historic Filipino town.  And i’ve taken it to different places, to south central, and now I’m in Watts.  And its really not about being a rapper, its about thinking critically so we really not bustin’ raps until 4-5 days into the workshop, we really just sit around talkin’ about the community and what’s going on…And its really like i was just saying to you, some of ‘em come in talkin’ about “I shot this nigga” or “I killed this bitch” and they run outta material real quick.  And so then we get into it – we start asking them:  “Why do you feel the need to use the n-word?”  “Why do you feel the need to call this woman a bitch?” Its really about exploring the community around them, and then i start talking about the music.

It started accidentally, somebody had approached me and said we have an open slot and we want you to come down to this community and talk to the kids.  Its just something I developed; They know me, I’ve been a fan of hip-hop for a while and I been a hip-hop nerd and new hella trivia and the type of person who would listen to songs and try to figure out ad-libs and why such-and-such person did that so they figured I’d be a real good person to talk to the young people

D. Scott:  This makes me think:  Do you see a day coming where Bambu The Emcee/Organizer segues into Bambu The Full-Time Community Organizer?

Bambu:  Ah-yeah-yeah, its already in the plans.  I’ma drop one more full-length alubm and then I’m done recording albums.  But that’s not ’till like 2011 or 2012 and in the meantime I’m dropping a bunch of EP’s and mini-projects.  I just wanna open a community space and teach the martial arts and have a space where people can come in and teach.  I really just wanna nurture new talent; there’s really a million up and comers who could get down in a heartbeat but couldn’t get opportunities because they can’t get looks from anybody.

D. Scott:  That’s HELLA true (since, y’know, I hail from a city of relentlessly talented artists who work triple time to get the looks they deserve).  Ey, but – Martial Arts?  I think this is the first time I’ve heard you mention that.  What’s your relationship with the martial arts?

Bambu:  I’ve been studying martial arts since I was a child and Filipino sticks just kinda been around in my family and its been passed on to me, and I’ve been a real big fan -  I’ m the type of person who goes to a seminar who take pictures with martial artists.  I’m a real big fan of martial arts in general…from Silat to Traditional Okinawan Karate to BJJ to Vale Tudo,  y’know I’ve run the gamut of martial arts.  I really appreciate even just the science of  it, and I really wanna teach it. I’ve learned a lot about my own culture through martial arts -  not the history books, not nothing else  I’ve learned a lot about other people’s culture too ‘cuz people’s history is usually tied in through their martial  arts.

D. Scott:  I hella feel that.  What’s a struggle to me about MMA – ‘cuz I hella like watching fights – is how the cultural and philosophical elements of these amazing disciplines are kinda gutted out, and all you’re left with are tools used only to damage another dude.

Bambu:  I watch the UFC and other MMA groups and I”m in that community too, and I agree with you on that – when you take away the art aspect and the spiritual aspect (for lack of a better term) and it really truly takes away and becomes a sport. But I think the sport is young and the new guys coming in with a background in traditional martial arts are going to change things and I think really we’ll be right back.  I think that MMA won’t survive without traditional martial arts.   HOPEFULLY it’ll come back around..I’m hopeful.  Its always better to be hopeful than not.

D. Scott:  Agreed.  Ah, man actually I wanted to mention this earlier, but another round of congrats is in order with your video getting on MTVU, the new project that just dropped with you and Fat Gums, and you rippin’ up shows pretty steadily.  In light of that, I wanted to ask:  How is Bambu feelin’ about Bambu’s career?

Bambu:  I’m happy, I’m really happy.  I think in the bigger scheme of things I’m appreciative of the message gettin’ out there – I’m tryna make a soundtrack to the movement.  Ultimately the music is there to present the youth with the ability to ask questions; to question authority, question what you’ve been told.  That’s really what the music is about.  My music is not to be preachy: I don’t care if you don’t believe what I believe.  I just want you to question – If you go out and start questioning and end up a young Republican, that’s cool.  I just want you to go out and study…though I’m pretty sure if you go and really study up you ain’t endin up a Republican.

D. Scott:  Haha.  Real talk…

Bambu:  But yeah, I’m happy…I’m doin’ gigs, its bittersweet at the same time ‘cuz i been grindin’ now for a minute at the same time..And its been a long time comin’ to even get that door open because of the kinda emcee that I am.  I’ve had sit downs with record companies who wanted me to change my image and that shit don’t fly with me; I’m on secret service lists and FBI lists and so I’m a big liability to any label and unfortunately that’s a big thing to most tastemakers.  But now I’m gettin’ MTVU love and in regard to that I’m hoping the young up and coming artists who tread that political line, hopefully I’ve set the example that they don’t need to push a hard line all the time, that they (no disrespect) don’t need to necessarily be an Immortal Technique.  You can be yourself, you can still be an organizer and still be human…I think a lot of times we deify political rappers and we want them to be a certain way and forget they’re human too.

D. Scott:  That’s hella well said.  At the top of “Exact Change”,  you talk about working to become a better Bambu.  What are the types of things you struggle with in that endeavor?

Bambu:  A lot of it is being a good dad and treadin’ that line, you know, I still live in the hood, I still live in the community and there’s that line where I might be wanting to hang out with someone from community but understanding they might be involved in stuff that I can’t be involved in, you know.

I just wanna be a good a dad like I said before its put a lot of things into perspective.  I know there’s a higher self, a better me, and I know that better me is a better dad and can discern when there’s bullshit in the street I don’t need to be dealin’ with.  And its only recently I’ve been on this – I’ve been the dude in the club whose sneaker gets stepped on and then its a problem, but I’ve gotten outta that.  And really its just me accepting the fact I have a lotta things to overcome and its okay, so the hope is for a listener to hear that Bam’s still struggling and to realize its still okay for them to struggle.

D. Scott:  What are the challenges of organizing in LA?  At the bottom of “…I Scream Bars…” you mention there are some unique obstacles to organizing out there, and I was wondering if you wanted to speak on those at all.

Bambu: Absolutely.  We live in a city that’s gang infested, man…that’s the best word I can think of.  when you organize the youth you have to realize you’re bound to run into the gang problem.  Me, I’ve been involved in that, I grew up in that – I’m from this community.  The challenges are letting the youth know that you’re not opposed to letting youth join gangs and I think the older generation doesn’t understand that.  Gangs are a form of organization among black and brown youth who are destined not to succeed:   We are put in disenfranchised school systems that train us not to succeed and here we are organizing in mass numbers, with a hierarchy and a level of succession – something they don’t think we can do because they think we’re animals.  So we need to embrace that, tell the youth that “Man, its a wonderful thing you have created”, this thing they operate very wisely, they adhere to codes which is better than what I can say for most people; most adults who are professional members of society, they have no code.  People who are corporate members of society, they have no code.  Now unfortunately our gangs are geared toward survival and its been distorted, so if we can take that energy – that organization – and gear it toward real community work, real neighborhood community shit we’d be unstoppable.  Straight up and down we’d be unstoppable.

Those are the biggest challenges.  The other would be making sure that our people don’t stay complacent.  Y’know, Obama’s in the White House which is wonderful but at the same time I think we’re getting a little too complacent, like we can kick up our feet and chill and that’s not the case.  Change happens from the bottom up:  I think change can only happen where the change needs to happen, so if there’s a change needed in Compton, the change needs to start from Compton.

D. Scott:  Again, really well put man.  What’s interesting to me right now up here in northern Cali is the dynamic emerging between black, Latino and Filipino folks.  And so I’m wondering what that’s like down south in LA, and what its looked like in the past.

Bambu:  I’m fairly new to it.  I grew up in the Watts district and there was only one (Filipino) family and it was my family.  I grew up, I don’t wanna say ashamed, but I was the only one.  I wasn’t really reppin’ my flag and people thought I was Chinese.  It wasn’t until I started to venture out and make music and felt Filipino folks embracing me that I really got acquainted with the situation.  The Bay Area is a lot different, like in LA its very segregated – like, you’ve got Latinos here, Black folks here, Filipino folks here.  But in the Bay, Filipinos kick it with black folk, you know you could have a crew 20 deep where everybody’s rollin’ with everybody.  I hear a lot about Filipino folks appropriating black culture…I really don’t like when a Filipino brotha is like he’s making Filipino hip-hop, API hip-hop.  That’s spittin’ in the face of every black man who’s picked up a microphone man.  I’m honored to be a part of this subculture, and I embrace it.

As far as community wise, the commonality, we realize we’ve all been in the shit:  We’re all working class, lower class, so you know we’re finding commonalities.  But because of that we find that self-hatred and we take it out on each other.  You know, folks out here be beefin’:  Y’know when I came up our big war was with the Cambodians and we’re damn near the same people.

D. Scott:  Got-dang.  Awright man, we finna wrap this uuuup real quick ‘cuz I know I’ve taken up a lot of your time.  Real quick, is there anything you wanna say about the project you’re dropping with Fat Gums?

Bambu:  Yeah, I mean like I said I’m dropping a bunch of projects.  I’m picking a producer and a company and we’re doing a cross-promotional one-producer-doing-a lot- kinda deal  I’m really not that involved with it to be honest with you.  Its one of those things where I wrote music, I recorded it and I stepped away.  How do I feel about it? I enjoy it, its good music.  Its good headphone music – I appreciate his [Fat Gums] presence. Its good music; you can listen to up in the house.

D. Scott:  Definitely, man – Everybody who’s had anything to say about the project says it goes too hard.  Any last thoughts for us?

Bambu:  Check out propeopleyouth.com.  Check for me, check out all the websites and things like that and just ask questions…I think I said everything I wanted to already, really.  Shout out to all my folks in Sacramento, my man Dahlak and all them cats out there man.