Rappers in the Holy Land

12th century monastery we
explored in Jericho

Paul and I recently travelled to Israel for a friends wedding in Tel Aviv. An Israeli wedding is an experience in and of itself, but we were also excited to travel around Israel afterwards. Our trip was truly an adventure: we took a cable car up to a 12th century cliffside monastery in Jericho, explored King Herod’s mountaintop palace in Masada, floated in the Dead Sea, climbed Roman ruins in Beit She’an, walked the Ba’hai gardens of Haifa, got lost in the walled cities of Jerusalem and Akko.

As two lapsed Catholics, it was particularly fascinating to visit so many religious sites remembered

Jesus's body was anointed here,
ergo a VERY holy rock

from our Sunday school days. It seemed like just about every other rock was holy. Jesus was tempted by the Devil while sitting on this rock, he fell on that rock while carrying the cross, his body was anointed on this rock after he was crucified, he was standing on that rock when he ascended to heaven. People were fully supplicated, foreheads pressed to these holy rocks in prayer, and Paul and I would awkwardly put a hand down to seep in a little Jesus power. Cause well, you never do know.

Besides an abundance of holy rocks, the other constant throughout the trip was a heightened awareness of Paul’s “otherness”. Mostly it came in unwelcoming stares, but there were also comments and, on one occasion, a group of jeering teenagers that surrounded Paul. Although we saw plenty of friendly faces too, those moments kept us on edge.

Everywhere we went, people would yell “Baba Israel”. We finally looked it up and discovered that Baba Israel is an Israeli rapper currently residing in Brooklyn. In fact, he’s involved with many people that Paul knows and works with. We even found an old flier for a Baba Israel show when cleaning our apartment after we came home. Amazing coincidence, yes. But still not OK to shout rap names at the black guy.

It didn’t help that while there, we were also watching news from home unfold about the shooting in Charleston. Ironically, the blatant prejudice we felt in Israel gave me a greater appreciation of the Zionist zeal. What oppressed group of people wouldn’t want a place to call their own.

Paul with Tamar after she
played Woods' album at
Uganda Bar

It was in the midst of all this that we found refuge at Uganda Bar. Our AirBnb host recommended it to us as a place that captured the heart of the artistic community of Jerusalem. Not only a bar, it also serves as a record and comic book store, a performance venue and an independent music label. They offer the controversial beer of Palestine and it seemed to be the hub of all tattooed people in Jerusalem. It felt like Brooklyn.

While there, we struck up conversation with the bartender and a couple from New Zealand. Answering the “what do you do” question, Paul replied that he was a record producer and engineer, which led to the “anyone we would have heard of” question. Turns out the bartender is a big fan of Billy Woods, and she opens iTunes to show us her copy of History Will Absolve Me. She insists on playing the album, and suddenly the bar is flooded with voices literally from our kitchen. It was surreal and comforting to hear our friends, and even my sister, when we were an ocean away from home and feeling like outsiders.

Our experience in Israel is likely to be repeated most places we travel, even within the United States. There are certainly no regrets, and we won't be deterred. We saw so many amazing places and had such incredible experiences, and we will forever be enriched. But, it sure was nice to find a sanctuary for rappers in the Holy Land.

Overlooking the ancient city of Jerusalem from the Mt. of Olives

A Suite For Souled People

You really can change the world if you care enough -Marian Wright Edelman

Following the murders of Sean Bell, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Victor White, etc. etc. etc., the murder of Michael Brown by the police in Ferguson has been weighing heavily on us. Feeling more than a little helpless about the state of racial inequality, Paul created a beautiful and heartbreaking response: a three movement suite, entitled A Suite For Souled People featuring Elucid, Curly Castro and Billy Woods.

"Souled People" is both a reference to African Americans as soul brothers and sisters and as the descendants of slaves - “sold people.” Paul’s family has traced their family lineage from their arrival on some of the earliest slave ships to when they purchased their freedom in the 19th century. My family has also traced our lineage. Back to when mine were slave owners. In some respects, it’s heartening to see how far things have come in the past 150 years. But just because we don’t enslave people anymore doesn’t mean that we all have the same freedoms.

Paul and I know we want to have children one day. As each of these tragedies has repeatedly lacked the judicial response deserved, the reality of having a black child in America has begun to sink in. My children will be faced with so many difficult situations that I was never exposed to during my own childhood.

When I was still dating Paul, I heard the following claim more than a few times: this world is hard enough so why make it more difficult for myself and my children. Basically, I should choose to “stay white” and not deal with those injustices; the implication being that this is just the way the world is and there is nothing you can do to change it, so let it stay “their” problem.

If society really is as horrible as they seem to think, then thank goodness I found such a strong and caring person to help me navigate it. It seems more critical to find someone you can trust than accommodate a bunch of people you don’t. At the end of the day, the world is scary and hard for everyone.

I recently read an article from the website, Black and Married with Kids. Curious about a family website intended only for black people, I started browsing. And then I found an article that made me realize this website was for me too. Entitled How I’m Preparing My African American Son to Live in Today’s Society, it’s a mother’s guide to instilling confidence in her black son, as well as her advice on how to be safe, including a section about interacting with the police. I recommend reading it. It reminded me of Woods’ verse in the third section of the suite:

“but it's on you Boy to keep those hands in plain sight
Don't touch your belt
reach for your wallet
or happen to be holding your cell
normal speech is a yell yelling is a reach for the gun
silence an admission of guilt
Don't try to walk away
if you're running then run!
if you're smart play dumb
Don't get caught in the slums or a nice neighborhood you ain't from
if you need help Don't call 911”

The first time I heard those lyrics, I cried. Because we’ve been shown time and time again that this is a reality for young black men.

When we decide that some people are less worthy of basic human rights, whether based on race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, etc., we lose a little bit of our own humanity and we pass along that inequality to the next generation. Not to mention, fostering a corrupt police force can’t be good for anyone in the long run. We need to be able to hold people accountable, as much as we need to listen to alternative perspectives.

Corporate by Day, Rap Show by Night

Dressing is always tricky when I know I’m going straight from work to a rap show. Occasionally, I’ll bring my evening outfit to work and change before leaving. Obviously I prefer not changing in a bathroom stall, so I've reached back to my Cosmo magazine days to try and choose clothes that “transition from day to night”. Mostly I just throw a blazer over evening outfits and that’s a pretty quick fix. Or sometimes I wear work skirts over mini dresses and then lose the skirt before I head out.

It didn't use to be as difficult. Working in the arts generally means a more relaxed office attire, so I could get away with wearing trendier outfits on rap show nights. But now that I work in an auction house, it’s pretty corporate. Blazers, suits, business attire. But on rap nights, sacrifices must be made and I might not look as professional as usual.

Corina Corina’s release party for her album, The Free Way, was last Wednesday night. Paul produced the album and was involved from start to finish, so it was almost as important a night for him as it was for her. Which meant I had to look fresh. After tearing through my closet, I found a black and white patterned dress and paired it with a clunky gold-tone necklace. Inappropriately tight for work, so I threw on a long sweater that came off as soon as I walked into the venue. Done.

This is the second album they've done together, and it’s clear there is a lot of mutual trust. She gave Paul freedom to experiment and get creative with the production on this one. Paul and I have been really into heavily produced albums lately. After Paul made his album, We Live In The Future, we started noticing how many major label artists were also experimenting with beat changes and more elaborate arrangements. Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience, both of Lana Del Rey’s albums, and most recently Pharrell’s GIRL. We listened to those albums a lot, and they were a source of inspiration for the production on Corina’s album. And allow me to have a brag moment, but Village Voice just called Paul one of East Coast's indie rap "it"-producers.

Paul also acted as musical director for the show. It was Corina’s release, so he wanted her on stage all night. She was joined by her four guest artists (rapper Henry Canyons even flew in from LA!), who also performed their own material. Paul arranged their solo sets to follow the joint songs they had with Corina. Which meant that she got to keep getting back on stage to perform instead of having a designated set time. I don’t think Corina’s smile could have been any bigger.

I know how much work goes into this, and I am so proud of how it sounds. The album's been on repeat on my iPod since it dropped, which is impressive, considering I've heard it a million times over the past year. But I've come to love listening to the transformations as an album evolves and gets fleshed out. When an album is finished, it's always something worth celebrating. And getting dressed up for.

Pictures from Corina Corina's release show. All photography © 2014 c. bay milin:

Corina Corina performing The Free Way

Melissa Czarnick on America, America

Willie Green, Corina Corina, and Johnny October

Dan Dillinger

billy woods

Angi3

Henry Canyons

Corina Corina and the perpetually mysterious billy woods

Indie Raps in Paradise

I’ve taken a little summer hiatus from my blog. Summer is always too chaotic and busy to have focused on blogging. Plus I started an exciting new job in July at an auction house, so it’s been even crazier. Even though Fall has hit and life’s starting to normalize, we managed to squeeze in one last adventure.

My sister works for a destination club and won ‘hostess of the year’ with her company. The reward was five free nights in any of their properties around the world. So we spent five luxurious days in a ten person villa in Turks and Caicos with our own private pool and beach. I expect her to keep up the good work and win next year as well.

We pretty much spent the entire trip by the pool. With pool floaties and an outdoor grill, fridge, and speaker system, there really was no need to stray too far. The only time we left the villa was to check out da Conch Shack. Apparently white people giggle at anything with "da" in front of it. Paul just shook his head at us. But more importantly, on Sunday afternoons da Conch Shack hosts the Hump and Bump. The Hump and Bump is supposedly a dance party on the beach, but we were disappointed to find no DJ and no humping or bumping. Maybe we were too late in the season for it, but at least we still got to feast on conch and rum punch.

da Conch Shack

Maria gets a little overzealous about planning though (she may or may not have sent us a grocery/booze list for our approval two months before the trip), so she had a playlist ready to go for our poolside listening pleasure. My sister has gotten to know a lot of the rappers Paul works with and has become a fan of their music too, so scattered throughout her playlist were quite a few indie rap joints.

Obviously, she included a number of songs off the Willie Green album, We Live In The Future, but there were also some of her faves from billy woods, Open Mike Eagle, PremRock, Angi3 and Toussaint Morrison. Turns out Prem and Green’s song, Jogger, is perfect to listen to while drinking margaritas in a pool. Who wants to jog when you can float? Our friend Ali was laying in one of the second floor balcony hammocks (yes, we had those too) and yelled down to ask who the artist was cause she liked it so much. Paul was flattered obvs. Another converted indie rap fan!

It's a funny thing to be thousands of miles from home in a tropical island paradise and suddenly have a song bring me right back to my kitchen in Brooklyn.

Rappers At My Wedding

One of my favorite things about the wedding photos was seeing our worlds come together and how perfectly everyone got along. Captured in the pictures was so much joy and legitimate happiness for us. While this makes sense for a wedding, you have to keep in mind that I have a conservative, Italian family who is not always so open minded. Paul and I were more than a little nervous about our families colliding catastrophically at the wedding. But instead, everyone got along seamlessly. Even racist grandma was caught beaming while holding onto the arm of Paul's cousin as she watched us cut our wedding cake. Paul and I joke that our love helped the world get a little less racist that day.

Obviously, with Paul's line of work, many of his closest friends are rappers. Considering that the older generations are not always a fan of 'that rap music', I also loved seeing pictures and hearing the stories of rappers interacting with our families. Apparently, PremRock dubbed himself "the Merrill whisperer" that night after dancing with both my mom AND my grandma. 

Going through the wedding photos, I found some of those captured moments, as well as a few other gems:

Rappers That Break It Down With Your Mom (rap name: S.Breeze)

Rappers That Wanna Know If They Can Cut In (dj name: Mo Niklz)

Rappers That Are The Merrill Whisperer (rap name: PremRock)

Rappers That Take Their Beers Seriously (rap name: Uncommon Nasa)

Rappers That Are Also Your Wedding DJ (rap name: Tah Phrum Duh Bush)

Rappers That Are Also Vikings (rap name: Pastense)

Rappers That Keep Their Identity Hidden Even In Wedding Pictures (rap name: Billy Woods)

Rappers That Schmooze With The Rents (rap name: PremRock)

Rappers That Your Mama Is Gonna Love (rap name: Pastense)

Oh It's Happening: A Rappers In My Kitchen EP

So Paul is totally indulging me, and he’s helping me executive produce my very own “Rappers In My Kitchen” EP! He jokingly suggested that we make one, and I jumped on it. I’m pretty excited to work on something creative together. We bounce ideas off each other all the time, but this will be the first time we actually collaborate on a project. And I can already tell it’s going to be really fun.

The plan is to make a four song EP, featuring four different rappers over Willie Green beats. I'm asking rappers that have already recorded in my kitchen. So when they also record the songs for this EP there, it will be the ultimate rappers in my kitchen moment. Kitchens will implode. The only directive is that they have to include food or kitchens somewhere in their lyrics. Literally or metaphorically, I don’t care. But they will be kitchen raps!

Woods was over last night to pick up a mix that Paul did for the upcoming Billy Woods - Blockhead album. And he stuck around to eat dinner with us and watch the basketball game. Not gonna lie, I was more than delighted when he told me he was into the food/kitchen theme for my EP. Woods is a foodie and goes all out when he cooks. After Paul first met him five years ago, Woods came to my birthday bbq with curry cornish hens to grill. Amazing. I think we knew then that he would be a lifelong friend. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to hearing what he comes up with.

Living with Paul and listening to him work on songs for the past six years has finally started to make me pay attention to music more. I’ve never really been musically inclined. I enjoy music, but mainly in the capacity that it makes me want to dance. But lately we’ve been listening to albums together and discussing them, and it’s making me really appreciate music on a new level. I always try and introduce him to visual artists I think he will like, and he’s been doing a great job of selecting musicians I will enjoy. It’s way more fun when we can share our passions with each other, which is why I am super excited about this EP. More details to follow, but expect a late summer release!

Rap Cats

I’m going home to Brooklyn tonight. I really wish I had a few more days here in Texas, cause I’m not looking forward to going back to snow and cold (why isn’t it spring yet??). But one thing I am excited about is seeing my cat. I miss that little fuzzy bundle of trouble. We have a very wilful, but totally adorable kitty named Lenore.

We got her a few summers ago, but before the cushy life she now leads, she lived on the hard streets of Brooklyn. The SPCA nipped the top of her left ear to identify that she was one of those trapped, neutered, and released cats. It’s her little battle scar from a previous life.

Lenore with my ducky pillow

When we first got her, she was obviously really wary of us, but now she’s just super sassy. She likes to knock stuff off tables, hop into the shower when its on and then freak out when she gets wet, and reach out and hit you with her paw when you walk by. She is such a weirdo.

I think it must be a universal rule that rappers like cats though. All the rappers that come to our apartment love her. Billy Woods is an especially big fan. I know quite a few rappers that own not just one, but several cats. And I’m not even joking when I tell you that I saw several of them post facebook comments towards the end of SXSW about how they couldn’t wait to get home to their cats. And some of them have wives...

This is how she sleeps

Paul’s pretty obsessed with our cat too. When he’s on tour, he talks about missing his girls... meaning me and Lenore. He also claims that Lenore can tell when he’s working on good music, cause she comes into his studio and listens. And if he plays something bad, she leaves. It’s not just me and Maria that are sounding boards.

And yes, a big reason for this post was so I could show cute pictures of my cat.

Futuristic T-Shirt Designs

My husband is on tour right now, promoting his new album “We Live in the Future”. Since he makes beats, he generally doesn't do any lyric writing. But I told him when we first started dating that he should NEVER write a song for me. I don’t know why I can’t handle that stuff, but it’s corny to me. I hate poetry too. So what.

We just got married this past year, and I do, however, secretly feel like he made this album for me. A lot of the albums he works on are darker, more serious (Billy Woods, I’m looking at you), but this one is dance-y, upbeat, and fun. While I completely appreciate the genius behind Billy Woods’ albums, I LOVE a good dance party in the kitchen. Most things go down in our kitchen it turns out.

Paul’s talented friends helped out with the artwork for the album- Matt Carter drew the album cover and Justin Keller did the graphic design. I love it. It looks so awesome. Between the album art and how much I dig this album, I got inspired myself and decided to screen print t-shirts for Paul to sell while on tour.

I wanted the designs to tie in with the cover art, so I decided to stick with the futuristic city theme. I decided on three designs representing NYC, LA, and Austin. They are cities he was planning on performing in, but they are also some of the most well-known music cities. I chose iconic buildings from each city- the Chrysler building for NYC, the Capitol Records building for LA, and the Capitol for Austin. I have a thing for patterns, so I filled each building with a pattern I thought was representative of each city. A Deco pattern for NYC, an Eames mid-century modern pattern for LA, and a southwestern pattern for Austin. And then I chose colors that I felt could be associated with each city- green for NYC (Paul’s music name is Willie Green), pink for LA, and orange for Austin. We decided to top each building with the futuristic orb from the cover art to make sure the t-shirts made sense with the album. I think they turned out pretty cool. A big thank you to Chris Nguyen for helping me digitize everything and Garrett Klein for lending me the screens!!