Former Oakland resident and current New Mexico transplant Raashan Ahmad is always working on something. As an emcee in hip-hop collective Crown City Rockers (formerly known as Mission), Raashan showed the world his penchant for intricate rhyme schemes and emotionally evocative lyrics. Although Crown City Rockers haven't put out an album since 2009's The Day After Forever, they never really broke up. In fact, Raashan, percussionist Woodstock, bassist/producer Headnodic, drummer Max MacVeety and keyboardist Kat Ouano reunited for a performance at the annual Hiero Day in Oakland on September 7 of this year. When Raashan isn't touring the world with his solo material, he's making music and loving life. Most recently, he teamed up with fellow Crown City Rocker Headnodic for the second volume of Low Fidelity, High Quality. Please visit http://raashan.net/ to check it out. Raashan was generous enough with his time to talk about the new project, Macklemore's new video for "Downtown" and his vision for the future.
RAPstation (Kyle Eustice): You just released a new EP, Low Fidelity, High Quality Vol. 2. How did that happen?
Raashan Ahmad: I don't know if you caught the first one. I did it with Ta-Ku. We did beats, one verses and songs that run into each other so it's not like a three-minute song. It's not in album format. It's like Donuts [J Dilla] if there were vocals on it. It's like 20 minutes of a bunch of songs and things kind of mashed up. And it's with one beat maker, which I never get to do anymore. I usually work with a band or a slew of different people.
How long did it take to do Vol. 2?
I missed my flight in Oakland and I had to stay an extra two days for some reason. So we did it in like a day and a half. It's Headnodic, me and him, he's like the Pete Rock to my CL Smooth. He's the Premier to my Guru. He's my dude and we've never gotten to do something like that. It was super fun and it was super easy.
You guys just gel, huh?
Yeah. It was so great. We did it super quick.
I've been listening to it all morning and one thing I really like about your music is that it's usually so uplifting. I can't imagine you're happy all the time so how do you channel that?
No, no I'm not. One of my favorite things is when artists put sad over happy or happy over sad. In my writing, usually the production I pick have these very uplifting chords, but if you really listen to what I'm saying, it's honestly depressing [laughs]. If I spit what I was saying acapella in front of you, when I perform these songs, a lot them make me want to cry.
Like "Pain On Black."
Yes or "Beautiful Ugly" or even the second verse of "Sunshine."
Somehow you make the music "happy." I still feel good when I listen to it.
One of the things I always try to do is like when Chuck D says 'fight the power,' I didn't know I was saying fight the power, I was just dancing along and feeling good. Then like the sixth or seventh time, it was like, 'Wait, fight the power. Oh shit.' That's always what I want to do. Like people are just feeling good, moving around and maybe they'll catch a line like, 'Oh wow. Damn that really touches me like for real, for real.'
You do a good job with that. One of my favorite tracks on the new EP is "Celebrate Yourself" because it's such a good message to put out into the world. Does it frustrate you that there are so many negative messages going out to the world, especially in mainstream radio?
I think everybody can do the conscious stuff. The thing is there's also a lot of other people putting out great messages, they just aren't necessarily being heard. I don't get mad at like Juicy J, I get mad at people who are programming radio and television that aren't playing that J. Cole song or that other Juicy J song, for that matter. You listen to their albums, they have conscious stuff on there, those just aren't the songs anyone hears.
That's a good point. Even with old Macklemore stuff, he had a lot of good messages in his older music, but he got famous for a song like "Thrift Shop," which is essentially about nothing.
Exactly. Even Lil' Wayne, after Hurricane Katrina, put out a powerful song that really didn't get any traction. I don't get mad at the rappers because there are Kendricks and J. Coles and Macklemores who are doing positive messaging.
It's weird that those are the things that get so popular though.
Have you seen that Slim Jesus shit?
No, what is that?
It was trending on Twitter so I looked into it. It's like this really, really young white dude who's like the white Chief Keef. It's just crazy. He's trending on Twitter and has millions of hits on YouTube.
I just looked a video of his up and it has over 1.5 million hits.
Exactly. I don't get it. It will make you laugh and mad at the same time like, 'What the hell?' Maybe artists just need to be a little more flagrant in their approach.
Speaking of things that make you laugh and maybe make you mad, what do you think of the new Macklemore video that features Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee and Grandmaster Caz?
I like it.
You do?
Here's the thing about it, I don't know that dude, but I know a lot of people that do and he's hustled and grinded forever. I can't get mad at him. He's a real emcee. And he's brought out the pioneers? How you gonna get mad at that? I mean, Melle Mel got a paycheck. Big ups to that.
Plus a lot of kids will be exposed to those pioneers that laid the foundation for the music they love. There's a lot of positives.
Yeah.
It's good Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz and Kool Moe Dee are in the news though. I applaud him for that. So how was Hiero Day?
Hiero Day was so dope! So tight. It was funny, at first it was like, 'Ok, Crown City Rockers reuniting, we haven't played a show in so long, here we go,' but then we got there, I mean we saw everybody. Zion I, Pep Love, A-Plus, all the guys from Souls of Mischief and Hiero, of course. Everybody out there was with their moms and kids. Foreign Legion reunited, Cali Agents reunited and The Luniz. It was all Bay love. It was just so much love. To see all of that happening at an independent festival with thousands of people with Hiero shirts, it was amazing. When I hear about artists like Sean Price passing away, I wish they knew how important he was to so many people. But for Hiero, it's like they're getting their flowers while they're still here. To get all that love when they're still here, they can see people love what they've done. We're winning. I'm winning because they're winning. They are the coolest people, too. Casual was driving a golf cart telling people where to find the port-a-potties.
That's funny. It's interesting to me that people like Chuck or other pioneers of the culture are so down-to-earth, but younger kats have these out of control egos.
It's all unwarranted, too. You're like locally big, kinda. I mean, even if you're big, you shouldn't be like that, but you have no legs to stand on to act like that.
What's next for you?
My next project is called Small World. I've been traveling all over so it's like a collaboration with different artists from different countries. It's kind of like Jazzmatazz meets Miles Davis sessions. That's the whole point. Live instrumentation from different people in different countries. That will be the jump off to non-profit Hip-Hop Without Borders, where I'll be going to Brazil next year, Cuba and Senegal. I'm taking a core of musicians and collaborating with musicians in other countries. The thought and idea is to connect people, even without me. Connect brass band in Switzerland to my friends in Oakland and cross-pollinate. Bring artists and dancers from New Mexico to the graffiti festival in Cuba to have them do workshops, etc. Small World is a jump off to hopefully a bigger thing.
Raashan Ahmad: The RAPstation Interview
Former Oakland resident and current New Mexico transplant Raashan Ahmad is always working on something. As an emcee in hip-hop collective Crown City Rockers (formerly known as Mission), Raashan showed the world his penchant for intricate rhyme schemes and emotionally evocative lyrics. Although Crown City Rockers haven't put out an album since 2009's The Day After Forever, they never really broke up. In fact, Raashan, percussionist Woodstock, bassist/producer Headnodic, drummer Max MacVeety and keyboardist Kat Ouano reunited for a performance at the annual Hiero Day in Oakland on September 7 of this year. When Raashan isn't touring the world with his solo material, he's making music and loving life. Most recently, he teamed up with fellow Crown City Rocker Headnodic for the second volume of Low Fidelity, High Quality. Please visit http://raashan.net/ to check it out. Raashan was generous enough with his time to talk about the new project, Macklemore's new video for "Downtown" and his vision for the future.
RAPstation (Kyle Eustice): You just released a new EP, Low Fidelity, High Quality Vol. 2. How did that happen?
Raashan Ahmad: I don't know if you caught the first one. I did it with Ta-Ku. We did beats, one verses and songs that run into each other so it's not like a three-minute song. It's not in album format. It's like Donuts [J Dilla] if there were vocals on it. It's like 20 minutes of a bunch of songs and things kind of mashed up. And it's with one beat maker, which I never get to do anymore. I usually work with a band or a slew of different people.
How long did it take to do Vol. 2?
I missed my flight in Oakland and I had to stay an extra two days for some reason. So we did it in like a day and a half. It's Headnodic, me and him, he's like the Pete Rock to my CL Smooth. He's the Premier to my Guru. He's my dude and we've never gotten to do something like that. It was super fun and it was super easy.
You guys just gel, huh?
Yeah. It was so great. We did it super quick.
I've been listening to it all morning and one thing I really like about your music is that it's usually so uplifting. I can't imagine you're happy all the time so how do you channel that?
No, no I'm not. One of my favorite things is when artists put sad over happy or happy over sad. In my writing, usually the production I pick have these very uplifting chords, but if you really listen to what I'm saying, it's honestly depressing [laughs]. If I spit what I was saying acapella in front of you, when I perform these songs, a lot them make me want to cry.
Like "Pain On Black."
Yes or "Beautiful Ugly" or even the second verse of "Sunshine."
Somehow you make the music "happy." I still feel good when I listen to it.
One of the things I always try to do is like when Chuck D says 'fight the power,' I didn't know I was saying fight the power, I was just dancing along and feeling good. Then like the sixth or seventh time, it was like, 'Wait, fight the power. Oh shit.' That's always what I want to do. Like people are just feeling good, moving around and maybe they'll catch a line like, 'Oh wow. Damn that really touches me like for real, for real.'
You do a good job with that. One of my favorite tracks on the new EP is "Celebrate Yourself" because it's such a good message to put out into the world. Does it frustrate you that there are so many negative messages going out to the world, especially in mainstream radio?
I think everybody can do the conscious stuff. The thing is there's also a lot of other people putting out great messages, they just aren't necessarily being heard. I don't get mad at like Juicy J, I get mad at people who are programming radio and television that aren't playing that J. Cole song or that other Juicy J song, for that matter. You listen to their albums, they have conscious stuff on there, those just aren't the songs anyone hears.
That's a good point. Even with old Macklemore stuff, he had a lot of good messages in his older music, but he got famous for a song like "Thrift Shop," which is essentially about nothing.
Exactly. Even Lil' Wayne, after Hurricane Katrina, put out a powerful song that really didn't get any traction. I don't get mad at the rappers because there are Kendricks and J. Coles and Macklemores who are doing positive messaging.
It's weird that those are the things that get so popular though.
Have you seen that Slim Jesus shit?
No, what is that?
It was trending on Twitter so I looked into it. It's like this really, really young white dude who's like the white Chief Keef. It's just crazy. He's trending on Twitter and has millions of hits on YouTube.
I just looked a video of his up and it has over 1.5 million hits.
Exactly. I don't get it. It will make you laugh and mad at the same time like, 'What the hell?' Maybe artists just need to be a little more flagrant in their approach.
Speaking of things that make you laugh and maybe make you mad, what do you think of the new Macklemore video that features Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee and Grandmaster Caz?
I like it.
You do?
Here's the thing about it, I don't know that dude, but I know a lot of people that do and he's hustled and grinded forever. I can't get mad at him. He's a real emcee. And he's brought out the pioneers? How you gonna get mad at that? I mean, Melle Mel got a paycheck. Big ups to that.
Plus a lot of kids will be exposed to those pioneers that laid the foundation for the music they love. There's a lot of positives.
Yeah.
It's good Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz and Kool Moe Dee are in the news though. I applaud him for that. So how was Hiero Day?
Hiero Day was so dope! So tight. It was funny, at first it was like, 'Ok, Crown City Rockers reuniting, we haven't played a show in so long, here we go,' but then we got there, I mean we saw everybody. Zion I, Pep Love, A-Plus, all the guys from Souls of Mischief and Hiero, of course. Everybody out there was with their moms and kids. Foreign Legion reunited, Cali Agents reunited and The Luniz. It was all Bay love. It was just so much love. To see all of that happening at an independent festival with thousands of people with Hiero shirts, it was amazing. When I hear about artists like Sean Price passing away, I wish they knew how important he was to so many people. But for Hiero, it's like they're getting their flowers while they're still here. To get all that love when they're still here, they can see people love what they've done. We're winning. I'm winning because they're winning. They are the coolest people, too. Casual was driving a golf cart telling people where to find the port-a-potties.
That's funny. It's interesting to me that people like Chuck or other pioneers of the culture are so down-to-earth, but younger kats have these out of control egos.
It's all unwarranted, too. You're like locally big, kinda. I mean, even if you're big, you shouldn't be like that, but you have no legs to stand on to act like that.
What's next for you?
My next project is called Small World. I've been traveling all over so it's like a collaboration with different artists from different countries. It's kind of like Jazzmatazz meets Miles Davis sessions. That's the whole point. Live instrumentation from different people in different countries. That will be the jump off to non-profit Hip-Hop Without Borders, where I'll be going to Brazil next year, Cuba and Senegal. I'm taking a core of musicians and collaborating with musicians in other countries. The thought and idea is to connect people, even without me. Connect brass band in Switzerland to my friends in Oakland and cross-pollinate. Bring artists and dancers from New Mexico to the graffiti festival in Cuba to have them do workshops, etc. Small World is a jump off to hopefully a bigger thing.
