wordplay by Scott Mastro
images courtesy Hieroglyphics

‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ was suckled on a Black teat as a euphemism for sexual intercourse, attested to in the 1920’s My Man Rocks Me (with One Steady Roll).  By the 60’s, White America added TV dinner, had taken out ‘the roll’ and were affectionately claiming it as their own, calling it simply ‘Rock’. In 1979, Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight hit the mic, lifting the bass line from Good Time by Chic and within the same several years that punk became fashion, Rap replaced mime as the new past-time and profession where you don’t need a damn thing to kick it, and like the street-corner Doo-Wop groups of the '50s, Rap groups were out in the avenues, in basements, and in clubs burgeoning into their own full-blown genre.

After the music industry’s initially artisticly-constipated consensus that Rap was ‘just a phase’ (just as many melody moguls thought Elvis was a short-term fad), acts like Run-DMC, NWA, Public Enemy, Koe Moe Dee, and Orange Julius breast-fed it through infancy; the Beastie Boys, Digable Planets, Lauryn Hill, Tupac, and Dr. Dre truanted it through its teen years; and nowadays, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, Ludacris, Nelly, and DMX are making millions and winning Grammys, and some, like Ice-T and Will Smith, parlaying hit songs into big-budget acting and television careers.

Isn’t this what America does best? Take edgy, outraged, cultural rage and make entertainment of it?  Building its reputation on what it knew, the ghetto experience, epitomizing sex and drugs like its fore-bearing brother, Rock ’n’ Roll, Rap added its disenfranchised gold chains and baggy pants, white people turning political and economic frustration into mainstream fashion. But Rap’s distinguishing characteristic was its depiction of graphic violence, a lot of it posing, but the press escalating it to the deaths of Biggie and Tupac.

Along comes a new breed of street poet, a kinder and gentler generation of librettists, led by Oakland-born-and-bred Del tha Funkee Homosapien.  Seeking to go deeper, stepping away from the trigger, with lyrics reflecting his interests, offering themes that veer from ‘pop’ hip-hop: bad hygiene, intergalactic battles, and to a financially sound note, video games. Del’s songs have found an audience in the Nintendo world. In 2000, "Jaw Gymnastics" was featured in the game Knockout Kings, and "Positive Contact" in Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX. 2001 found "If You Must" in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.  2003 had "Positive Contact" in Tony Hawk's Underground, 2005’s "Burnt" in Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, and this year, the song "Catch A Bad One" was used in Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.

“A good introduction to ma’ lyrics is ma’ first album, before a lot of drama entered ma’ life,” songs like “What is a Booty?” where Old Mother Hubbard goes to the cupboard and Rover gives her a bone, “The Wacky World of Rapid Transit” detailing the trials and tribulations of public transportation, “Pissin' On Your Steps’” ‘Take me to the river’ feel, a preference for black princesses in “Dark Skin Girls”, the reality of “Money for Sex” and a commitment to not support its degradation of the individual, the muse of “Ahonetwo, Ahonetwo,” “Dr. Bombay,” Rap’s equivalent to Rock’s “Dr. Feelgood,” the pastoral philosophication of “Sunny Meadowz,” and tryn’a get rid of that brutha’ “Sleepin’ on My Couch.”  “Malcolm X, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, and James Brown’s JBs have been the most inspirational,” Del’s first album, 1991’s I Wish My Brother George Was Here, an homage to the master of good-times, whacked-out, astral funk-master supreme, George Clinton.

Onstage, it’s the holy trinity of Del, Bukue One, and Zac Hendrix, sometimes with drum machines and occasional musicians, but this line-up keeps it, “Street, on the ground.  I like to ask people ‘how are we handling things’”? The essence of rap is rhythmic, not melodic, and I don’t want to change that.”

With fans in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, Del has been on the road since early September, and he can also be found rhyming with Hieroglyphics, a rap amalgamation of performers such as Souls of Love, Extra Prolific, A-Plus, Tajai, Opio, Phesto, Pep Love, Casual and the producers Domino Jay Biz, and Toure, ringtones for songs such as “Fantasy Island,” “Classic,” “At the Helm,” “Jingle Jangle,” “Let it Roll,” “Make Your Move,” “Oakland Blackouts,” “Powers that Be,” “Soweto,” “the Who (plus A+ mix),” and “You Never Knew” available for download.

Having studied music these past seven years of terror and down-spiraling economic malady, Del is stretching into production, looking forward to working with Ladybug Mecca, formerly of Digable Planets, and others.

Eleventh Hour, his new release, is slated to drop in January or February of 2007.
If you crave the funk, take the junk in your trunk, and get to one of Del’s upcoming Colorado shows: Wednesday, November 1st -  Fox Theatre, Boulder, Thursday, November 2nd - Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, Denver, and Friday, November 3rd – Aggie Theatre, Fort Collins, the only question being, as Del inquires, “Are ya’ feelin’ me?”

November 1st @ The Fox
November 2nd @ Cervantes
November 3rd @ The Aggie

hieroglyphics.com/artists/Del