How did you get first exposed to hip hop?

I grew up in a pretty white trash working class neighborhood in Rhode Island; a small, broke-ass town whose economy went to shit when the big mills closed. Not the hood hood, but definitely a lot of section 8-government assisted housing and a bunch of tough kids. When I was young the toughest kids in my neighborhood were metal heads, and I feel like a lot of kids today can’t relate to that, but I can assure you, the toughest craziest youth at that time were the long haired, spike wearing, straight street fighting metal heads. Metal was their love, but they liked Hip Hop because it was tough. They could relate with the sentiments expressed in the songs and were down for anything that was bad ass.

They got me into RUN DMC, Slick Rick, LL Cool J, and 2 Live Crew. It didn’t really speak to me, but I liked it because they liked it and it made me feel tough. Then, at the bus stop one day early in 7th grade Joey Felicio came up to me wilding out to whatever was in his head-phones and said, “Yo! Did you get that new Public Enemy yet?!?!” I said, “Who’s Public Enemy?”

His face dropped in disbelief and disgust. Like the great life long friend he was to become, he took off his walkman and made me listen to “Apocolypse 91″ the whole way to school.

The moment I heard it, I knew. I knew that it was the truth. Can’t Trust It was the first track I heard and I never looked back after that. From that point on, I was constantly on the look out for new Hip Hop, recording the 88.9FM Emerson college radio show, and planning my schedule so I didn’t miss Yo Mtv Raps! the one or two times a week they aired it (which was just about the only place you could see rap videos then).

When did you first begin as a hip hop artist?

I really don’t know. I always thought that it was all beyond me. It look a long time before I realized that P.E., KRS, Jeru, Tribe, De La, Gangstarr, and all the other emcees (punk, hard core, and folk musicians as well) l listened to existed in the same world as me… that I had the ability to act on the things they were talking about, that I had the power to effect change on my own.

That switch flipping in my mind was a big part of the beginning.

Another was wanting to take part and express a conscious rap perspective at cyphers on the street, after Hip Hop shows, and at open mics.

Equally as important, was meeting up with Sage Francis at University of Rhode Island. I saw the ability he had to change people’s minds and make them reconsider things.

He took an interest in my writing and pushed me to get better.

The tiny quotes, fledgling poems, and drawings I had in my scrapbook soon turned into verses that I wanted to read out loud. My writing was utterly terrible in the beginning. Absolute trash, but Open Mic’s, cyphers, and poetry slams were there as a venue where I could present my work and engage in the dialog on social issues that I desperately craved, and before I knew it, emceeing and performance art were an inseparable part of my life.

There was little thought involved, it just happened.

Have you received negative feedback from apolitical hip hop artists? Other serious backlash?

Yes, but not for me being political. It was mostly because I constantly fell of beat rapping at battles and kicked verses at open mics to raps that were all in 4-4 time when my verses were not written in any consistent rhyme pattern; I didn’t even know what bars were and I had no natural sense of where the 1 count was.

So I looked angry and political, while being sloppy and off beat. It was pretty bad. Naturally kids who put in a lot of work to make their shit dope were offended by it and I don’t blame them.

The only real backlash I got was a result of my own aggressiveness in cyphers and battles, or the few times people came to try and heckle/fuck up a Sage show and instead found me in the middle of the crowd.

I did, however, receive tons of criticism and negative feedback from the local and national performance poetry scene (initially anyway). I was young and obnoxious, and over the top, and they were not into having issues like factory farming, social work, and direct action rubbed so fiercely in their faces. They were also terribly afraid of the raging asteroid of political, Hip Hop poetry in general headed to permanently fuck up the black beret, D & D coffee shop poetry open mic scene for ever.

What inspired you to become vegan? Was there a single moment you can point to, or was it a process?

Sage Francis took me to my first poetry reading ever at the University of Rhode Island coffee house, “193 Degrees”, and in between the halves of the open mic they had an animals rights demo specifically focused on factory farming.

I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing; the cruelty of the agri-corp Construct, the suffering, the waste, the destruction, the sheer unbridled evil of it. I just couldn’t. It felt like everything I had ever learned was a lie. I felt cheated, like I had been robbed.

The animals I saw were suffering unnecessary, unspeakable violence only to bring us unhealthy food through a process that wasted huge amounts of water and destroyed the environment. I was literally dumbfounded.

I gave myself two weeks to do some independent research and establish that the information presented at the workshop was factual, which it was, and then cut animal products from my diet/set of purchasable items permanently.

I can remember my last day in the shitty URI dining hall. I had my last lunch-meat grinder, as a sort of last supper. It tasted like cardboard and I didn’t really even want it. I guess it was more of a goodbye-ritual than anything.

Do you do live shows? How are they received?

I’ve done several hundred spoken word performances, but very few straight rap shows. My performance art set is professional and hard-hitting; I’ve received incredible feedback from audiences, performance art critics, contemporaries, and long time heroes. It’s quite humbling.

If I hadn’t received such overwhelming support over the years I probably wouldn’t still be doing this. I would still be writing for myself and making art, but if I truly believed that my writing and performance were not inspiring people to consider or research foster care, factory farming, the prison/military industrial complex, etc., and catalyzing them into getting involved, then I would take that to mean that I wasn’t having an affect and would have moved on to strictly other areas of direct action by now.

I am happy to report that after 3 year long years of experimentation and auditioning, my band Prayers for Atheists, is putting the finishing touches on a full length album and is now doing live shows. The songs range in style from 1980’s hardcore punk and hard Indy-progressive, to aggressive, guitar driven rap songs. It’s the hardest I’ve ever worked on a piece art, period.

Our first 4 shows have been well attended and thankfully, we’ve been able to execute with precision and recreate the intensity of our recorded material live. We’ve played with a local RI noise and punk bands, as well as established SFR Hip Hop acts like Sage, B. Dolan, and Prolyphic. We’ve got a bunch of SFR shows coming up this spring and a couple of 2-3 week DIY tours this summer. All dates will be posted at: www.MySpace.com/PrayersForAtheists

Straight edge revenge stories – everyone has one. Give us your best.

My best sXe revenge story is that my whole life is one big Fuck You to the Construct; the Military Industrial Complex, the Industrial Prison Complex, the armies of advertising demons who’ve made making us feel ugly a billion dollar industry, the corporations, the international bankers, and the ruling elite in general.

Working class, semi-white trash kids who grew up below the “poverty line,” from families where alcoholism runs deep, are supposed to grow up to be good earners for this System. We’re supposed to plug in, buy and use harmful products, have addictions, feel powerless, give up on education, and resign to apathy.

Instead, I’m as happy as one can be while existing in a world where such atrocity is so common-place. I dance, bike, and share meals with my community, family, and friends, have worked hard to be an expert at my craft, all while remaining committed to being a responsible consumer and voting with my dollar, organizing direct action against the war and the prison system, and participating in the movement to educate the working class- while making money in a field I truly believe in. I win. I couldn’t have done it if I wasn’t sober and that’s my revenge. Fuck them. I WIN.

Run down your releases to date:

*2004: “Jesus in a Bowl of Germs” – track featured on Sage Francis’ original edition of “Sickly Business.”

*2005: “Fight the Tide!” – Self released tour cd, featuring Hip Hop songs and live poems.

*2007: “ABC’s For Roger” – live poem featured on Achtung Records Peter Young benefit disc.

*2008: “The Less I Know” – collaboration track with Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace, released on Raine Maida album: “The Hunter’s Lullabye.”

*2009: “Prayers for Atheists” – upcoming 8 song EP with my band “Prayers for Atheists” (self titled) to be released on Strange Famous Records (www.StrangeFamousRecords.com)

What lyrical subjects do you plan to explore in the future?

Direct action, organizing as a community endeavor and not as a chore or sacrifice, human desire to dance and be physical, identifying Patriarchy, linguistics, demystifying wall street/investment bank thievery, EVERY THING.

Give a sampling of some of your lyrics that haven’t yet (or will
never) make it into a recording.

“…in the anvil heart callused carpenter’s sun;
watchin’ for August rooftops at noon
sure of dad’s balance but scared of the view
ladders and drill bits hands full of tools;
hammer to chisel- shingle the roof..”

You have one bullet and one gun. Who do you take out?

I’ve never fired a gun and I don’t ever plan to. I do often fantasize about doing extreme or even maximum physical damage to the amateur porn demons in RI who lure group home girls and other lost teenagers into selling their bodies, risking disease, damaging their psychological well being, poisoning their sense of self worth, and exposing themselves to the physical violence inherent in that saprophytic snake ass culture. I don’t believe in murder, but I wouldn’t mind at all if every pimp and amateur porn vulture got cancer and died.

Tell us the best feedback you’ve received as an artist:

The most moving responses I get from people are those from folks who tell me that they have been searching for the right area or simply for the motivation to get involved in human/animal/civil/labor/environmental rights or anti-war movements and decided to take the plunge one way or the other after seeing my set/being exposed to my work- or when veteran organizers/movement members tell me that they were on the verge of burning out, feeling apathetic, or throwing in the towel but were re-energized or made the decision to get back in the game after our paths crossed.

I identify as a social worker, as a journalist, and an organizer, but at the end of the day, I’ve come to accept that I am one of the voices that the American counter-culture has chosen to represent it. It’s my job to amplify our endeavors, record our victories, express our grief, and rally our troops in difficult times. If I didn’t feel I was being effective in that role, then I would move on, strictly, to other areas of the struggle- that feedback from front line organizers and direct action advocates is the most valuable endorsement, payment, or acknowledgment that I can ever receive.

Outside of music, what keeps you driven in this age of insanity?

I have the luxury of belief. I really believe that we are going to win. It may not happen in my life time, but it’s our place in history to push the struggle that much further down the road- so future generations will be in position to spike the ball in the end zone and facilitate a vastly more responsible and naturally symbiotic human/enviro existence. I didn’t realize earlier on in my ,ovement endeavors that so few believed we could win, and how lucky I have been to have avoided personal atrocity for the most part in my life, and to really, honestly believe that our a culminating counter-culture victory is not only possible, but utterly inevitable.

Any vegan and/or straight edge artists not on the comp you would like
the world to be aware of?

Well, I know of sober people who don’t identify as sXe who I think people should be aware of. Sage Francis is the best Hip Hop writer I know of. Period. He is sober as fuck, and his music is utterly life changing. Jackson from Grand Buffet is also sober as fuck, and his shit is some of the most innovative I know of. Verse was a bad ass sXe hard-core punk band from Providence who recently broke up, but they’re songs/ethic are real as fuck, and I’d recommend them to any one.

Interview with Kevin Tillman, found of the Vegan Hip Hop Movement

Who do you represent and promote? What is the purpose of your website? What kind of response have you been getting?<

The purpose of the website is to show that vegans are represented in so-called non-traditional or non-mainstream circles and to further promote veganism w/an emphasis in sustainability and equality (i.e. sweatshop free, locally grown, organic, fair trade, etc.). The feedback to the website has been nothing but positive to say the very least!

What is hip-hop doing for veganism?

Hip Hop like any other form of artistic expression is reaching more audiences that may not have had the access to certain information. Whether that be about the exploitation of chickens (S.K.I.P.’s “Chicken Little) or the exploitation of consumers and producers of fast food (Promoe’s “Fast Food World”).

What can hip-hop do for the vegan and AR movement that is not already being done?

Hip Hop can and does broaden people’s perspectives. Hip Hop has historically served as the mouthpiece for oppressed groups in society (i.e. the poor and people of color). Veganism applied to this level of activism only expands the circle for other oppressed beings, other animals. We are all animals and the sooner folks make the connection the better off we all are.
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INTERVIEW WITH SHANE DURGEE
(Framework, Path of Resistance, Oversight, Gatekeeper, Farthest Man, and more…)
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008
By: xYosefx

Yosef: How and when did you first get involved in hardcore/punk music and the straight edge scene? Can you remember the first record or tape you bought? What was your first hardcore/punk show?

S: It was around 85 or 86. I was listening to stuff like Iron Maiden and The Beastie Boys, bouncing between hip hop and metal. My brother was getting into skateboarding and he bought a Skate Rock tape from Thrasher Magazine. Besides the Ramones, I’d say that was the first punk stuff I ever heard. My brother hated it, I loved it.

A few years later some local skaters (one being Pete Speilman who eventually played bass in Gatekeeper and Beta Minus Mechanic) told us about a “punk” show going on at some rented out lounge. This was around 1989 and the bands were Underdog, Die Hard (with Dwid not Stork) and No Outlet. Chuck Treece was playing with Underdog at the time and someone told me it was McRad (also McShred from that very same tape my brother got from Thrasher magazine). I didn’t know these bands at all, but that was my entrance into the scene. It was DJ Rose’s show incidentally, I think the first show he put on. He was in a band called Earth Crisis back then that just did SSD covers and maybe like two original songs, but I never got a chance to see them before they disbanded around 1990. Karl played bass in that version of EC.

Sorry to be long winded about this, but it’s one of the best times of my life. Of course there were flyers for upcoming shows and people selling records and shirts. It was really exciting. I embraced it wholly, especially the NYC bands. I still listen to “Age of Quarrel” pretty regularly. It’s currently the only hardcore album in my mp3 player (though there’s a lot of post-hardcore on that: Quicksand, Hot Snakes…).

I hadn’t done drugs or drank alcohol up to that point. So when I discovered straight edge through Youth of Today, it was pretty natural for me to take up the X. That led to my investigation into animal rights through PETA literature people had at shows.

Keep in mind that I didn’t know anyone that was straight edge or vegan back then, though I knew of them. I was the only vegetarian I knew because I hadn’t really met DJ or Karl, just seen them around. I knew they wore Xs at shows. Eventually I started talking to them and moved in with DJ and Guav. That was the summer of 1991 and I was vegan and singing for a band called Oversight.
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Raid Interview (2007)
By: xYosefx

xYosefx: How and when did you first get into hardcore and straight edge?

Steve: I first got I first got into hardcore sometime back in ‘83 or ‘84. Before hardcore I was into to metal like Sabbath, AC/DC and Judas Priest. I was really into music and read all the metal magazines, but metal was starting to get mainstream. The big hair glam metal style was starting right around the time I heard hardcore. Their was such a difference between the two forms of music. I remember getting into arguments with other metal heads about which form of music was better. Hardcore dropped all the b.s. and played fast, hard music with meaningful lyrics. The first record I bought was Black Flag, Everything Went Black. I was hooked. I devoured all forms of hardcore/punk music and eventually started distributing Maximum Rocknroll to kids at schools, shows and even had a consignment at some record stores.

In regards to straight edge, there wasn’t really a straight edge scene back then, unless you were in DC or Boston. Even though I wasn’t straight edge at that time, I was really into 7 Seconds and of course Minor Threat. The cool thing about the punk/hardcore scene in those days, at least where I lived, was that there was incredible diversity in the music and style. I mean, it didn’t matter if you had a mohawk, skinhead, longhair, whatever. I guess around ‘87 I decided to go straight edge. One of the Raid guitar players turned me on to Violent Children, Unity (later Uniform Choice) and the first Youth of Today 7”. I loved the spirit and the PMA. Of course there are deeper psychological reasons why people are interested in one thing or another.
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From Respect Life