Baba Israel was raised in the hip hop rich New York of the early 80s, but also spent time living in Australia, his mother’s homeland. Early on, he became enamored with beatboxing and really honed his craft in Australia, where he collaborated with seminal Aussie hip hop artist Morganics. Back in the States, he met Yako 440, a musician and budding beatboxer himself and the two formed a duo.

They have recorded two albums – most recently Beatbox Dub Poetics – and they tour and perform all over the world with live show like no other, incorporating breaking, beatboxing, emceeing, live instrumentation and audience participation, all with only the two of them. They have helped develop the concept of “hip hop theater” for the last dozen years and performed at the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival (www.trinityhiphop.org) every year.

Baba has been featured in films such as Freshest Kids, Freestyle and Breath Control. He’s performed off-broadway, been seen on BET, MTV, VH1 and toured Europe, Asia, Austrila and New Zealand.

I spoke with the two last week about beatboxing, their inspirations and the Trinity Festival.

Old School G: How were you first introduced to hip hop?

Baba Israel: I was first introduced by listening to Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack, graffiti on the trains, b-boys in my school, and just being a kid in NYC in the eighties. I grew up downtown but Hip Hop traveled through the airwaves, subways, and hitters who came to dance in the village and Soho. In 1985, I went to my first show with Run-DMC, UTFO, Force MD’s Roxanne Shante, crazy!

Yako 440: I grew up in woodsy/suburban Connecticut so a lot of my first exposure to Hip Hop was through music videos and movies like Breakin’. I remember always being amped up after watching that and trying to Break, but having no clue what I was doing! I played instruments from age 6, but wasn’t until high school in ’94 where I really started participating in Hip Hop and building with friends who showed me the basics of Graff and Beatboxing.

OSG: Who were your beatbox inspirations?

Baba: Dougie Fresh and Buff from the Fat Boys!

Yako: Rahzel. Both live performance and recorded tracks inspired me a lot.

OSG: Were you self taught on the beatbox or did you have a “beat box trainer”?

Baba: I learned from my man SBG, and this cat who said he was Dougie’s cousin taught me the clicks, this is when I was 11. Later I learned from vibing with fellow beatboxers (Morganics ,Elf Transporter, Duma Luv [Australia], and later cats like Yako, D-Cross, Kid Lucky, Masai Electro). I feel that I have picked something up from all those cats and I shared with them- its a mutual exchange of our art form.

Yako: Before I started doing shows with Baba I sounded OK acoustically, but had no mic skills. He definitely showed me the ropes on how to perform as a beatboxer. From there, like Baba said, all of us in Beatboxer Entertainment (add Semerock, Midi, and more) have really geeked out with each other and learned a lot about the art form.

mp3: “Live Beatbox”

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OSG: I remember you from the Redman and Method Man prank show because of your didgeridoo. When did you pick up that skill and how do you incorporate it into your live show?

Baba: My mother is from Australia. The didgeridoo or Yadaki or Yigi Yigi is an aboriginal instrument. I started playing after vibing with a dope musician named Duma Luv and a player named Simon 7 tuned me on to it. Duma was the first cat I saw beatbox with it, then I added the Slide element which I picked up from an Australian cat. I lived in Australia and learned more about the culture. Its an instrument that is played with dancers I always rock it on tracks for breakers!

OSG: As an MC, what type s of topics and themes do you focus your lyrics on?

Baba: My topics are often political, social justice, social critique, examining spirituality, my freestlyes tend to be more stream of conscious and react to the moment. My new work is a little more lyrically dense and exploring that flow and stream. It might still have a political edge. but it’s layered in a denser exploration of my thoughts – and in some ways more personal. You wont hear that ‘til next year.

OSG: What inspires you musically?

Baba: Life experience, travel, sorting out and maintaining my sanity, community, other artists, the youth I work with, beats, beats and more beats!

Yako: Dub and Reggae music inspire me a lot. I listen to bass lines from Family Man and Flabba holt, those are my bass gurus. Baba’s been playing gigs with NY based jazz musicians Jason Lindner, Panagiotis Andreou, Avishai Cohen and others who are on a whole other level musically. We’ve been lucky collaborate and they definitely play on a level I aspire to. For beats some of my favorites are Dilla, Premier, and Organized Noise.

OSG: Do you produce your own tracks? What other producers have you worked with?

Baba: Yako and I do most of our production. I have worked with Eric Krasno from Soulive and I am starting to invite other producers to collab such as Core Rhythm.

OSG: Describe your involvement in hip hop theater.

Baba: I have been doing Hip Hop Theater projects since 1995 when I worked on the Bridge a Hip Hop Theater piece in Sydney Australia with Hip Hop Theater artist Morganics and a talented crew of Aussie and NYC based artists. I have found that Hip Hop theater gives Hip Hop a new creative context where a diverse range of topics, emotions, and stories can be shared. I found it challenging to manifest certain stories and pieces in a straight up club show. I also like challenging and expanding the space of the theater and turning an often passive environment into one of call response and energy. I co-founded the Playback NYC Theater Company who have been presented by Hip Hop Theater Festival and New World Theater. In the world of Hip Hop Theater I have performed in Hip Hop Commedia’s What you say white boy? Full Circle’s Soular Powered at the New Victory Theater, collaborated as a musician with Rha Goddess and Renita Martin, and directed Maxwell Golden (UK) and Sharpening Swads (UK).

OSG: Are you doing more theater performances or musical performances these days?

Baba: I mix it up, I was just on tour in southeast Asia and the south pacific doing music with Dana Leong, I am touring Europe in June with Yako and Core Rhythm, and Morganics doing straight up underground Hip Hop shows! And then in the fall I will tour the theater show to the UK and Australia as well as NYC. I love both venues and they inform each other!

OSG: How did you two hook up?

Baba: Yako came and jammed at a loft party I had, and it was on!

mp3: “Runnin Outta Time”

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OSG: Why do you think the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival is important?

Baba: Its my favorite festival! The organizers are on point, the politics and culture are on point and my view of Hip Hop is international, I am tired of the insular view a lot of New Yorkers and Americans have! lets open it up! That’s what Trinity does! Quality international Hip hop!

Yako: For those of us who travel and seek out quality Hip Hop in other places, we know what amazing music is out there to be enjoyed. It’s nice to have that wider perspective brought home, but instead of collecting CDs and listening, the Trinity Festival does it live and direct.

OSG: Are you working on any new projects? Albums, music, theater?

Baba: New Baba Israel and Yako 440 album in works, along with an album we produced for dope vocalist Duv titled “Urban Artistik.”! New Theater piece Boom Bap Meditations, plus we got a track on Akrobatik’s new record!

Baba Israel and Yako 440 at Trinity Festival 2006:

To say Maya Jupiter is a busy girl would be a huge understatement. She’s an emcee, a dancer, a radio host, a TV host, an educator…and the list goes on and on. Since we’re focusing on Australia this week, I chose to highlight Maya Jupiter because of her central role in the Aussie hip hop community – and because I can’t resist a moment for a little bit of girl power.

Growing up in Australia, Maya faced ridicule and racism for her Mexican and Turkish decent. She felt so traumatized that she was completely uninterested in embracing her Mexican culture – going so far as to resist learning the Spanish language. At just fourteen years old, she began to find herself through the discovery of hip-hop. The passion and rawness of artists like Naughty By Nature and Ice Cube moved her, even though she couldn’t completely relate to the lyrics.

At 18, Maya followed her sister to breakdancing classes and became fully immersed in the hip-hop community. Being a dancer all her life she enjoyed breakdancing for a while, but knew hip-hop was her number one passion. She soon decided to focus on becoming an emcee and as a female artist, made a conscious effort not to be another “hip-hop booty shaker”. At the time, Australian hip-hop was struggling to be accepted – the public didn’t necessarily like hearing an Aussie accent in a rap song.

Cut to today – she’s wildly successful, incredibly talented and on top of it all, gorgeous. She has since taken ownership of her heritage, using it as a source for inspiration in her music. Incorporating salsa and mambo rhythms, Maya has created a unique, multicultural hip-hop sound on her solo projects and with her 11-piece salsa band Son Veneno. I’m talking really multicultural – Son Veneno mixes jazz, hip-hop, latin influences and traditional Chilean music.

Maya is also part of the Aussie trio Foreign Heights – along with MC Trey and DJ Nick Toth. Check out “Get Yours (Remix)”:

Like most of the artists here on Flight808, Maya is also very active in her community with the Soul Sistaz Project at the South Sydney Youth Services, along with MC Trey. They are both certified educators and run a music business program for disadvantaged youth – girls only (to continue with the girl power theme)! This program sounds absolutely amazing – the girls have the opportunity to express themselves through writing songs, recording music and performing. On the business end, they learn the ins and outs of the music industry, are trained to handle interviews and even design their own album artwork. Both Maya and Trey are passionate about helping people grow in the hip-hop community.

Another interesting facet in Maya’s career is her involvement with Channel [V]. She’s currently the host of a new show called “Freestyle” where she travels the world interviewing the best artists hip-hop has to offer, with some up-and-comers thrown in. It’s definitely worth checking out – here’s a YouTube teaser:

If your thirsty for more Australian hip hop, check out the Oz Hip Hop website :
http://www.ozhiphop.com/

For links within text:
Maya’s official website: http://www.mayajupiter.com/index.htm
Maya’s Channel [V] page: http://channelv.com.au/V/Article.aspx?id=916

In our global age, does it behoove MCs to study their art in different cities around the world? Well, it did in the case of Delta, the Australian born MC who spent time living abroad in London and Brooklyn.

“I think the most important lesson I learned [living abroad] is to treat people as they deserve to be treated, and that nothing is as it seems,” Delta told me. “A lot of people in life constantly want to surround themselves with people of status, or wealth. I chose to surround myself with people who love life, and have strength of character. These experiences are what make travel so rewarding.”

Delta started out his MC career the hard way: freestyling and battling. Maybe you don’t think Australia would be a tough place to battle but their scene has been bubbling up for the last decade and produced some excellent MCs, DJs and producers. Delta really stood out and forged a reputation as a tough battler.

Here he is winning the 2003 South Pacific MC Battle for Supremacy against another excellent Aussie MC, Hyjak.

His training to that point included a stint in Brooklyn in the late 90s where he hooked up with Mojo the Cinematic of underground group Dujeous.

“My homeboy Mojo from Dujeous I met during my first stay in New York in 1999 through my connections with Atoms Family, and a close friend of mine called T1 a.k.a. Shelshok – an amazing producer. Check for him.”

Here’s MOjo and Delta’s amazing collaboration “The Greater Good” from Delta’s 2006 album The Lostralian.

After that time, he moved to London and mixed it up with some heavyweights of the UK scene.

“I met Delta once when I was at DJ Vadim’s place,” UK super producer Mark B told me. Quite a global circle. Vadim is the Russian ex-pat producer with a global following. Mark B was half of Mark B & Blade whose album The Unknown was the biggest selling UK hip hop album of all time (when it came out in 2000). Mark B and Delta hit it off and started collaborating.

In 2004, they made a groundbreaking tour of Australia, a joint UK/Aussie show.

“To my knowledge, this was the first time this had happened,” Mark B said, “and I think overall it’s fair to say we received a very good response from the crowds. I really enjoyed it in Australia and met a lot of good people. It showed me that hip hop culture was very much still alive somewhere and flourishing, and not everyone was taken in and brainwashed by MTV and the major label BS radio music.”

“The Mark B/Delta tour was a bit…progressive in the fact that it comprised a UK producer and an Oz MC, which hadn’t really been done before, but traditional as far as it was just that tried and true formula: an MC and a DJ rocking the crowd. The tour was fun, and a real eye opener.”

After the tour, the two decided to work on a full album in earnest. Just about two years later, it was finished, Mark B presents Delta The Lostralian.

They led off with a single called “Mayday”, a neck snapping effort that Delta claimed sounded like a “b-boy theme from Jaws” with its unsettling horns and tympani percussion. Check this out:

The album continued to demonstrate Mark B’s versatility of sound and adaptability to the MCs he is working with.

For Delta’s part, he continues to expand his international group of collaborators. His album includes a scorching anti-gun violence track with UK star Skinnyman (“One Less Gun”), work with Aussie stalwarts Trem, Motion and Prowla, and “Rhymes Like This” with Murs of Living Legends.

“Murs and I met when he was touring Oz a number of years back and we became good friends,” said Delta. “The rest is history.”

Delta is one part of the new wave of Aussie hip hop artists who are creating a huge scene down under.

“I think Aussie hip hop is really getting some recognition these days, and there are so many young people out there hungry to make it happen as artists.”

Mark B and Delta are currently finishing up their second album together. Meanwhile, Delta and Mojo did another song together called “Doorbell” that you can peep on his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/deltarock