Author: URBANindustry
Published: December 31, 1969
Tool: [ email ]
You've heard the words "Harlem World" blasted through hundreds of rhymes with the force of a 9mm slug. And before all that, no matter where you from, you grew up hearing of the horrors of Harlem, U.S.A. Yeah, the place where all those black people live. A place of murderers, musicians, drug czars, pimps, poets, prostitutes and real time players. Right?
Well Dame Grease is hear to ask you if you ever really been to Harlem. Once home to America's most gifted young talent, from Duke Ellington to Malcolm X, the streets of Harlem, New York produced a Black cultural revolution. And now the streets is calling for a new era and a new legion of artists to lead the next Harlem Renaissance. Cam'ron, Mase, Big L, Harlem World, DJ S&S, McGruff, have shouted Harlem. Now Grease and his Vacant Lot record label/production company are ready to make you feel Harlem.
Starting with the underground gem Niggaz Wanna Act from Mase and moving on to crafting the majority of gritty jewels off DMX's "It's Dark And Hell Is Hot," including the burner Get At Me Dog, Grease has also laid down hits for The Lox (We'll Always Love Big Poppa), Noreaga, Nas, Slick Rick, Wu-Tang and Foxy Brown. And that's just the beginning. With proceeds from his Vacant Lot production unit, Grease is showing what Uptown is all about with a new documentary about his hood as well as the accompanying soundtrack "Live On Lenox."
Catching up with Grease at his Harlem brownstone studio immediately get the feeling of what the man is all about. Crowded with his state of the art equipment, and tons of gold and platinum plaques, the apartment forgoes floss for straight grity. Ask Grease why he doesn't need the posher recording space and it's all obvious. "Here is everybody else from the neighborhood. It's nice," he explains. "It's hard to understand but you can see it. With the record company we started independent because I never wanted to accept a whole lot of money from some record company, some ill shit like that." A little tired from the endless work, the tall, laid-back brother continues, "This is a center right here. This is a place where we can all come and think about shit. Now that we got money generating we can acknowledge shit."
Part of that acknowledgement for Grease is how responsible his environment is for his hit-making production style. "We used to have a group called NIB, " Grease begins. "A partner of mine had some equipment up at his crib and shit. I was rhyming first, and one of my boys used to make the tracks. The tracks we used to rhyme on was in that real hip-hop era, that real "boom bop" shit. And I didn't like that. We was rhyming about the shit we was into on the streets and shit, so I always used to know how I wanted things to sound, to sound much harder, so I went in and did it to match the themes. I brought the griminess to it." Its that street-bred dirtiness that charges his beats with an urgency, a dark, back-alley energy you can feel in your chest. Sample free and blessed with thundering horns, crunchy basslines and rugged drum claps, Grease tracks have a Harlem flavor that is hard to put into words. But it's that distinctiveness that has also spurned a cast of Grease wannabes.
" I want you to print this real loud," Grease explains. "Producers know who producers are. And since I put out a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff is Grease-y right now. You hear." And Greasy means distinctively sample-free. "I don't even need to sample," Grease starts in, "If it's hot I'll sample it. No doubt. But the time it takes for me to sit there chopping the sample up, looking through the record, I could make like seven joints." And chances are those seven joints are going to be hits. And when he's not making hip-hop classics, chances are youll find Dame getting down with some drum-n-bass styles. "Well with Tricky it was funny. He wanted to get with me and I wanted to get with him. Like I said I like to keep it moving. That was beautiful for me. It was like go out of your limit. In some categories of rap I break a lot of barriers but still people be like you cant do that. The Tricky shit was like do what you do. A nigga got to throw the whole fucking kitchen in the pot. The shit is hot. All should check it out."
But before he can worry too long about imitators Dame has already moved onto a new sound. Try and describe the Grease style and you will get stumped. True, he always delivers the street energy, but never the same way. "I love to keep it moving, to pop open with some new and other shit."
And his new compilation Live on Lenox is proof. Introducing the world to hot new talents like the fiery, young trio Hot Ones, the femme fatale Imani Montane, and blazing spitter Meeno, the set also pairs Grease with old partners Nas, DMX, Drag-On, Scarface and Memphis Bleek. "Vacant Lot records is like the old formula from all the groups we had back then. Actually the group that has been here since day one is Mad.Is.On. They been here since like '90. We got Hot Ones, Baby Madison, Imani Montana, Bigga Threat. Live On Lenox is crazy, we got all types of shit on here," Dame explains. "This shit is like oh shit, with the roots all hardcore but then we got some music for nice times. To make you feel good. I did grime, but I dont like to get anywhere and shout 'We hard, we grime.' Fuck all that. We like to have fun. We not going to be like, we killers and rah rah. We have fun. We got party, hard, all that. Good times, bad times, the truth." And that is how you break down Harlem. Good sides, bad sides, happy days and dark-ass crime days.
Grease beams a huge smile. "It's Live on Lenox man," he laughs. "Vacant Lot is Harlem. Its not the pretend Harlem or fantasy Harlem. A lot of people talkin' Harlem, but this is the real shit." But like the artists who came before him, Grease knows his tale is a universal one. "If you think about it, there is a vacant lot in every town, every city, everywhere." Leaning forward on his drum machine and lacing a chill-out, cinematic head nodder, Grease finishes. "In Baghdad, India, London, and beyond there are houses and then there is a lot right there where a house has been broke down. Thats a vacant lot. Thats my sound."
