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The dictionary definition of “articulate” is one who uses language easily and fluently. When you think of a person’s rap name, his persona if you will, the name usually matches the man (or woman if you’re one of the half-dozen successful female rappers to ever roc the mic). But in the case of DC-based, Baltimore-bred rapper Articulate, the name doesn’t simply match the man, it defines him. His confident, socially conscious flow has blossomed from the rough streets of his hometown and made him into a unique lyricist who seems to care more about the articulation of his rhymes than the height of his fame. He wears spectacles and goes to Art School; he’s insightful, and conceptualizes the state of himself and his contemporaries through his rhymes. Using African-American struggles of past, his songs tell a story of people stuck in the cycle, just trying to stay alive. He finds ironies in the fact that “we [African-Americans] had to cross the Atlantic just so we could be slaves.” He understands what many of his colleagues seem to forget: everybody, black, white, rich, indignant, young, and old, have struggled in the bullshit of the daily grind. But what’s most distinctive about Articulate is that he preaches progression and maintains that expanding your world is truly the only way to expand your mind.
The Baltimore hip-hop scene has historically avoided relevancy with artists who are undeniably talented, but seem to tip towards mediocrity rather than excellence. It spawned a “thong song”, and provided a teenage Tupac Shakur an education, but otherwise it has never been considered a hip-hop pantheon. But shit, all that is about to change. By fusing house, drum, and bass samples into the hip-hop world, the Baltimore Club scene (as it’s known) is about to explode; and Articulate is playing a major role in the city’s musical evolution. Having released his introspective, intellectual “Slave For This Dollar EP” earlier this year, Artic seems to be poised to finally put the Baltimore hip-hop scene on the map. We at Tha Carter Cartel recently had an opportunity to catch up with Articulate on everything from the Baltimore Club scene, to Barack’s historic victory, to Kanye’s lazy ass; this is what he had to say…
Peace,
-Quinn Eastwood for Tha Carter Cartel
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TCC: What’s up Articulate, thanks for taking the time to let us holla for a minute. So what have you been up to lately? We know you dropped the “Slave for This Dollar EP” earlier in’08 and the “Warmup” is coming soon. Can you tell us about the process you go through in the studio, writing rhymes, making beats, producing, etc?
ARTICULATE: I mean it’s different every time. A lot of times I just come up with ideas when I’m driving around and listening to music. Sometimes people send me beats, but my main dude is D-Tox and Rickie Jacobs, shout to out them. But um, they give me a beat and then an idea will just pop into my head and I’ll start writing. But when I make the beat it’s gonna be different because I’ll have a concept that I feel will be better if I personalize it. Or sometimes I’m playing around with different sounds and something pops out and I want to do a song to it and I’ll just do it. It’s really natural, I don’t try to force anything, you know?
TCC: We do. So when exactly is the Warmup going to drop and what specifically can we expect from it?
ARTICULATE: The week after Thanksgiving, I’m looking at droppin’ it that Friday I think. Basically The Warmup is for people to catch up on me. I have a lot of old stuff that people might not of heard but I think it’s some of my best material. Other than that it’s gonna have a couple of new joints for people who have heard things and wanna hear more. So basically it’s something to get people more familiar with me as an artist.
TCC: So I understand you grew up in the Baltimore/Washington DC area, can you talk a little bit about what it was like growing up in a place that doesn’t necessarily provide all the tools a young person needs to succeed? How did you persevere and what advice can you give to young kids who are growing up in similar environments?
ARTICULATE: Well, you know, growing up in Baltimore, the city has a real bad rap because a lot of people have only seen it the Wire and the news and stuff like that. The street I was from, my grandmother’s street, Baker Street, definitely wasn’t the best area. But I was lucky because my mom, she was really focused on education, she’s an educator herself, so she put me in one of the top private schools in the area and really focused on college and things like that. It really made me a more balanced individual in terms of seeing both sides of the spectrum. I seen some of the areas that are impoverished with some of the worst crime and drug problems and then I’ve been chillin’ with kids of some of the most affluent people in the city. So I think that makes me really well balanced. But the main thing for people who are not from the best areas is to get out and see more than just the block and the neighborhood. That’s something that can really open your mind to new possibilities. I’ve seen a lot of hopelessness with people, but seeing something other than what you’re used to, something other that your old situation, can really inspire you to do more.
TCC: In terms of the hip-hop scene in Baltimore, you’ve been quoted as saying there’s a lot of talent coming out of homegrown Baltimore sound but it hasn’t become popular around the country. What’s stopped it from blowing up?
ARTICULATE: There are a lot of different things. Baltimore is a place—I don’t know, it seems like right now the internet is really the way for new artists to get out in terms of different websites and blogs and everything. And a lot of artists don’t seem to be going really hard on the Internet thing when they should be. When I was a little bit younger, when I was coming up, there was a certain place that you performed at that was the only place you performed and that’s just what you did. It didn’t really go too much further than that. I think it’s just a matter of people just getting out and seeing more and really understanding life—different ways of taking your music further, which right now the Internet is the best way to go. Right now too, Baltimore is really close to DC, and DC has taken off and it’s kind of overshadowing the Baltimore scene a little bit. But it’s all good because this whole area in general needs to come up. I definitely would like to see more artists from my neck of the words, Baltimore, come out, and I definitely wanna come out and represent and be a voice for the city.
TCC: We’ve been hearing a lot about this B-More club sound, especially from people like Wale, can you give us a little introduction into that scene?
ARTICULATE: A lot of people describe it as techno music, but it’s more like house and dance, and on the lines of that. It’s really just music for people to dance to. What I like to do is make B-More club music and rap over it. But a lot of radio stations in Baltimore don’t play hip-hop, during the week you’re not gonna hear hip-hop, it’s gonna be straight house music. And because of that I think that’s the sound a lot of people are gonna catch on to. Some people like M.I.A and Santogold are coming out and a lot of that sound is influenced heavily by the Baltimore Club sound and a lot of people know about that.
TCC: Is it similar to the Go-Go scene in DC, a lot of people got into that and it’s overshadowed the hip-hop scene for a while?
ARTICULATE: I mean it’s kinda similar to that. A lot of times people think Baltimore only has club music and you don’t think about hip-hop too much and when you go out, a lot of times you’re not gonna hear hip-hop. In other cities, like Atlanta for instance, I hear as a local artist the way you come up is to give your music to a local DJ and they play it. But in B-More it’s kinda hard being in hip-hop unless you’re rapping over a club track. It definitely overshadows the hip-hop scene but you gotta be creative and find a way to blend it and still stay hip-hop with it. Kinda like how Wale did with Go-Go, cause he has a lot of hot records that are definitely Go-Go influenced but it’s still hot and it’s still something a lot of people can listen to. That’s kinda what I’m trying to do.
TCC: I understand you go to the art institute in DC. What kind of other artistic skills do get into there outside of rapping?
ARTICULATE: It’s actually right outside DC in Virgina. Right now I’m working in audio production. I’ve just been in the studio mixing tracks, mastering tracks and the whole recording process for all types of music. I feel like as an artist you have to do more than just rap. A true artist is gonna have knowledge of the whole music making process; from the production, to the way you record, to everything. I think that makes me a lot more balanced. When you hear my tracks, most of the time I mix them and record them myself. If somebody sends me a beat a lot of times I tweak it to make it my own sound.
TCC: Can you talk about what it’s like to be in school while simultaneously trying to spark your music career?
ARTICULATE: It’s hard sometimes but it’s still fun. You definitely have to balance school and music. But I have it so my school is my music at the same time; it’s kinda one in the same with everything going to the same goal, the same dream. But it gets hard, a lot of times people don’t understand you can’t always be hanging out cause you got shit to do. But the shit I’m doing is fun as well. I might be making a beat or writing something when people want me to come chill, and I gotta tell them I gotta focus on this. And as a college kid you’ll be in a crazy situation with people trying to get you to come to the city—but how you gonna hop on a plane or a bus, how you gonna afford it? But you know it makes life more exciting..png)
TCC: I want to talk to about the “Slave for this Dollar EP” for a minute. I heard a lot of symbolism dealing with slavery and the daily grind. Can you talk about how music in the past compared to now?
ARTICULATE: I feel like, especially with music now, if you look at the beginnings of the music scene in this country, if you were black and you wanted to perform you had to dress up and dance and basically be a caricature of yourself. Just to come out you couldn’t really be yourself; you had to do it the way the powers that be wanted it done. I feel like that parallels what’s going on right now. A lot of times I see artists and I’m like “man that’s not you.” Everything is the same now; you have to follow such a carbon-copy pattern just to come out and make an impact. But I definitely wanna do something to break out of that.
TCC: You shout out to Rakim and Saigon on a couple of tracks and I know you’re boys with Wale from DC. Who are your favorite rappers from the past and currently?
ARTICULATE: (Pause) My favorite rappers right now—I’m really feeling Saigon. I would recommend the Termanology album, the Q-Tip album is pretty crazy, and I really like T.I’s new joint. In terms of all time in general, Wu-Tang was one of my favorite groups of all time. I listen to a lot of old music though, basically a lot of the early 90s-music stays in my I-pod at all times.
TCC: I just listened to your remix of Kanye West’s Love Lockdown and Amazing and I have to say I was very impressed. What do you think about the dude Kanye these days?
ARTICULATE: (Pause) Uhhhhh, I’m not really feeling it too much. It’s not really my cup of tea. I mean I definitely respect what he’s doing and some of the beats are hot but it seems kinda lazy to me. But as an artist I feel like it’s important to push the boundaries sometimes even if it comes out whack. You never know, you might feel it later. When Common first came out with Electric Circus I hated it but now I go back and he had some hot tracks on that. So maybe it will be one of those types of things.
TCC: So before I let you get out of here I wanted to talk a little bit about the recent Presidential election. I know you did some videos about going to the polls and voting for the first time, can you express how important and revolutionary it was for us, as a country, to elect a black man into the white house?
ARTICULATE: It was definitely revolutionary. I think that’s one of the things I was talking earlier about people seeing something beyond where they’re at now, that’s similar to him being in office. It’s gonna show a lot of kids that they can do more than just what they’re surrounded with, so I think that’s great too. And beyond that, his policies and ideas are something that can really help the situation that we’re in now. Looking around, a lot of people I’m close to are in really messed up situations because of this economy thing, so hopefully he can make a change and make it better for them. I mean I’m really happy he won.
TCC: Baltimore and DC were two landslide areas for Obama; can you talk about the excitement you felt? What was the atmosphere like right before and during the election?
ARTICULATE: Oh my god it was amazing. We went to one of our friends’ house to watch the polls unfold and everything. And every time he won a state people got really excited, and then once he won Virginia people started wild ‘n’ out, and then once he won Florida and they announced that he won the whole thing, everybody ran out into the street. It was like fireworks and people poppin’ bottles in the street it was amazing. Then we went to Howard [University] and there were thousands of people outside: some people were crying, everybody was hugging each other, it was definitely an emotional experience. And then older people in my life, like my parents and my aunt were telling me about times before, and the things that we went through, and what’s happenin’ now with a black man as the president, it’s crazy.
TCC: So lastly, we noticed you have a couple of shows coming up? How have the shows gone so far?
ARTICULATE: Yeah I’m gonna be in Sputnik in Brooklyn on November 29th, the day after Thanksgiving. And I’m gonna be opening for Nappy Roots in Baltimore on January 21st. I’ve been performing since high school and every time it’s a learning experience, and more about getting in tune with a crowd. It’s crazy when people start knowing your sounds. Every time I just try to step it up and try to do something different. It makes me feel like a rapper
TCC: All right man thanks a lot for your time we greatly appreciate it. Do you have any shout-outs before you we let you go?
**For more on Articulate & to purchase his latest EP Slave For This Dollar head over to www.itsartic.com**
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