Strobe and Aural Essex @ WERS
Thursday, 11:15
Hip-hop duo Strobe and Essex (or more formally as Aural Essex) dropped by WERS this Thursday for Live Music Week to chat with DJ Jazzy on 88.9 @ Night and play three of their songs, including a new track called “Who Could Be.” The first track of the night, “Walk Tall,” had already been in rotation on 88.9 for a while; “Go Get It” followed.
Strobe and Essex, who are longtime pals from Dorchester, talked about how they met through an incident involving a stolen video game when they were 12 years old and later bonded over hip-hop and graffiti. Together, they’re known as the IW Crew, which began as a group of graffiti writers. These days, though, they’re better known by their individual names. They explained that the “IW” stands for Ill Writers, but the initials can really have multiple meanings, including Intellectual Wizardry and Infinite Weaponry.
The pair were laid-back and charismatic in the studio, and they even dropped off two of their own “Dorchester Univercity” T-shirts for the WERS staff. They’re currently working on a new album titled The All Nighter, but for now the material from their sessions can be found on their Soundcloud. Among their musical influences are A Tribe Called Quest, Common, and The Roots (ESPECIALLY The Roots); Essex, who is a self-proclaimed comedian also added Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey to the list. Why not! After the on-air interview, Strobe said he thinks part of why they’re unique is because of the variety in the music they listened to back in the day.
“[I guess] The type of stuff we grew up listening to, like De La Soul, or a Tribe Called Quest and stuff like that. A lot of heads who I hung with didn’t really even listen to that stuff, or used to try to clown,” Strobe said.
Words and Photos by Sarah Ruggiero
City Slickers live on 88.9 WERS!
Tonight, Boston wordmasters City Slickers treated 88.9@Night with their exquisite flow. Their live band, unfortunately, couldn’t make it to the session as planned, but Capital J, T-Hustle, and Mr. Moses made up for it with an enthusiastic on-air rhyme session. After spitting their three scheduled songs, the crew was having so much fun they couldn’t resist throwing in a freestyle. The video above shows City Slickers’ performance of “Sit Yourself Down.”
City Slickers are offering their new mixtape, Hurry Up and Wait, for free on their record label’s website www.BrickRecords.com.
-Video and words by Andrew Doerfler
-Photography by Katii Tornick
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Showoff Records on 889@night for LIVE MUSIC WEEK
Termanology, Reks, JFK, Sonic, Ea$y Money, DJ Deadeye and more from Showoff Records stopped by live on 889@night for Live Music Week to talk about the new album by Termanology and Statik Selektah- 1982 dropping October 26th 2010. Two live freestyle ciphers over raw instrumentals- Live Music Week at it’s finest!!
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Video for the single “Still Waiting” from 1982:
Back To Its Essence…Hip Hop With A Message!!!
Real Hip Hop Fans,
I’d like to personally welcome you! My name is J.Shannon, Urban APD, a.k.a. Leader of the New…Far East, the Pee Wee Kirkland of Hip Hop. WERS is taking you “Back To The Future” of Hip Hop History, Change Has Come! Real Hip Hop will continue to be played right here on WERS 88.9 FM. Stay tuned for Old School, Gold, Recurrent, New and Unsigned Hip Hop. We are taking it back to its essence, Hip Hop with a message. The game has become overly commercial and WERS is your #1 source for the realest Hip Hop in the world! So what better way than to kick it off with a 20/20 Hip Hop piece from 1981, featuring Kurtis Blow, Muhammad Ali, Fab Five Freddy, Deborah Harry (A Blonde White Rapper!!!) and more! Let us know what you think!
Let’s Continue Hip Hop History,
J.Shannon
Jadakiss stops by
Jadakiss stops by WERS studios to hang out with Stacey Renee and the hip hop team.
Veni, Vidi, Vici, Vice Versah
Vice Versah live at WERS (Alexa McMahon/WERS)
By Kass Sundt
Vice Versah, Boston area Hip-Hop performer, stopped by the WERS studios for Local Music Week. During his performance, Vice Versah not only had me swaying to his rhymes but his one-liners had everyone cracking up.
Kass: You were talking earlier about how you really like Roald Dahl, hence your album title James and the Giant Beats, where else are you getting your inspiration from? Because it seems like it’s all over the place.
Vice Versah: Exactly, all over the place. It comes from anywhere. I’ll be watching TV, and see a commericial, a really dumb commercial for like Zoobooks. I saw a commercial one time for Kid’s Zoobooks, and that ended up in a rhyme. So you know, somehow, someway. (more…)
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