dDamage
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ASSAULT ON HIP HOP
by Jeremy Abbott
(extract from Fake-Real #1)
Never not working, properly hardcore, they’re the ruffest and tuffest brothers on the block, dDamage’s Fred and JB are back like cooked crack. Always centuries ahead of the game, and with their fourth long playa, Shimmy Shimmy Blade, they're diving into the ring as established heavyweights on the scene. Two years since their Radio Ape , yet again they’re bringing forth the ultimate carnage. Heavily pumped like they’re about to run a trolley dash in a Texan gun emporium. Playful like an amped up Haribo-fuelled shoplifting spree in Toys R Us. Starkly angry like an oppressive Tarkovsky landscape, yet as uplifting as a monitor full of mega-driven 8-bit raving rainbows. They're EPIC.
And there's been some massive clashes in our times; Crips vs. Bloods, Tyson vs. Holyfield, Cassius Clay vs. Sonny Liston, Biggie vs. 2Pac, T.I vs. Luda, Ryu vs. Chun Li, Johnny Cage vs. Sonia Blade, Fred vs. JB. But nothing quite like the clash that is, dDamage vs. hip-hop.
Bounding up a darkened alleyway, with nothing but the solitary glint of a six inch gold blade to herald their arrival, they were ready to slice and dice the hip-hop movement and build they’re own monster out of the remains. And that they did. It's a seriously off-the-charts exploration in giving the hip-hop beast a dynamic methamphetamine shot in the arm. Taking a crew of their associates in the rap game, and giving them a roughing up dDamage style. They're no newcomers either, Fred discovered hip-hop when he was just 8 years of age and began throwing up jnr gang signs listening to as much of the Bronx block party ish as he could throw on his tapedeck. Not meaning to brag, but why the heck not, just check Fred's street tuff credentials:
1) "I originally started to do graffiti, artworks in the streets and the underground subway stations of Paris. Always locked to the streets. I’ve been in a big crew named VEP (Vandales En Puissance), a famous mobb that was known, amongst others, for the painting of the Parisian Louvres underground subway station in 1989. My tag name is Rude. Now I’ve changed it RudDe. That shit from The Louvres made the opening of the French public TV news info journal called France 2. We bombed the whole station!”
2) "I went to the first Public Enemy gig in Le Globo, also went to all underground places where they played good & ruff hip-hop stuff, did some dancing and fighting, from Le Bobino to Le Timis. They played stuff I like, like Tuff Crew, Ultramagnetic Mc's, Organized Konfuzion, K-Solo and shit. It was perhaps also Radio Nova and the Deenastyle who also got me really into some rap music and hip-hop. This guy Dee Nasty was connected with Bambaata, and I was always goin' to some shows, live in direct, hangin around in Radio Nova with my homeboys. At that time, around 1988 to 1992, it was hot out there. Freestyle and fighting. Real hip-hop."
3) “I hooked up with Lil' Kim just before she was known, really. You can ask people in Brooklyn and in Queensbridge.”
4) “Also I went with female rapper MC Lyte, when I was 23. I always liked MC Lyte, I had the opportunity to interview her for a French magazine and we went to her apartment after the interview, she said she liked the French stick up kids and graffiti shit. I had some artworks on me, we had some good times and we made love all night, listening to her album with that special song called Stop, Look, Listen. It's been a long time!"
Yeah man, it's serious shit, and with Fred as his brother, it's no surprise JB was going to have to surrender to the hip-hop virus. Both then drowning themselves in a vicious acid bath of electronic music, snarling punk rock, and the legend that is Prince. If anyone was primed to throw up a probing scud missile of an electronic hip-hop album, it’s dDamage. Twisted, fierce, urgent, and punishing. Twitching restless rhythms spasm across your brain. Hoover stabs shift and penetrate the synapses, jittering filthy arpeggios grind and rattle the frontal lobes, it's the battering you've come to expect from this duo. Yet, as ever they're as quick to hug you, as they are to cheekily give you a dead arm. Pinning down the tracks, amongst the mayhem are always epically sweet emotional harmonies, which wrap a hand around your heart and give it a gentle squeeze.
Don't for a minute think they're geeky electronica kids who thought they'd cautiously approach a few of their backpack rap favourites via email either. They've reached out for everyone from the thugs to the thinkers, as JB explains, they wanted to do this the proper way: "That's the main reason why it took us so long to make this album. More than 2 years. It was really important for us to meet all the artists, talk a lot together, drink beers and smoke pot, and then go to the studio all together. That way, it was much more easy to drive them, talk about the lyrics of the songs and act like friends working all together." Fred continues: "It s been a project that we've always wanted to do. But we did not want to make it like a half-assed, a geeky rap project, without energy. We did not want to make a simple hip-hop album with some quick collabs. We really wanted to do dDamage "with and versus the MCs."
Driven as Fred elucidates, by the “the fury of the underdog. A core that has always present in out heart and work.” Better pull back the curtain and unveil the warriors that rose to the occasion and went into battle with the Hanak bros.
Existereo
Fred: "The track with Existereo, called Shimmy Shimmy Blade, is one of the hottest track I have ever heard, it s not hip-hop, not electro, not punk rock. It s a melting pot of all this, post rock, post hip-hop post punk, post electro, post everything.”
JB: "Our French Tour with Existereo and Subtitle, which was totally crazy. Kind of a maddening daydream, having fun all the time and always talking about stupid things. I miss those guys, and hope to go to L.A. and tour with them next year."
Tes
JB: "We also had a lot of good times with our fella Tes, incredible mc from New-York. Tes is probably the rapper we worked with the most, he's really talented and never stop making music. And he also has this really stupid sense of humour."
Crunc Tesla
JB: "For that track 'Adrenalyn Bisc', Crunc Tesla went with Tes in the studio. At the time I thought he only was a dj and a producer. Finally, he went to the microphone with Tes and made that killer song you can hear on the album."
DoseOne
JB: “I clearly remember that we became real close friends with Doseone, in just one night. Talking bullshit and drinking a lot. Talking sincerely and smoking a lot. And then, we all went to the studio the day after. It was a real magic moment.”
Stacs of Stamina
JB: "I remember the recording sessions with Stacs of Stamina which were really rock'n'roll. We were in our sound engineer Leeroy's studio during 4 days of total non-stop hip-hop with litres and litres of beer and bars of blunts. We just used one song on the album and we're keeping the rest for a future record with the Stacs. Those 4 days of recording were full of fun, alcohol, pot, hip-hop, esoteric moments, bullshit and intense voodoo. I remember that my brother went so crazy that at the end, he was pounding the leg of one of the Stac's guys until he drew blood!"
That’s just a selection too, don’t forget Company Flow’s Bigg Jus, Orko Elohiem, Mike Ladd, Dipset’s S.I.N, and Parisian brothers, TTC. But, at the top of the pile is the iron masked soldier, MF DOOM, and JB’s quick to mention his disappointment that this was the only one they couldn’t get together with in the studio, down to not being able to travel to Europe for personal reasons. Altogether it’s violently accomplished, which each of the rappers forced to whip it real hard, it lyrically throws out some mean curveballs that crack you dead centre in the forehead. Fred sums it all up perfectly with: “All the emcees were possessed with our music. It’s a good feeling to finally hear all of those rappers on our productions.”
Then it’s all tagged under the aberrant monicker Shimmy Shimmy Blade, so what’s that all about? First up Fred enunciates that it’s “In memory of Old Dirty Bastard, and also because I’ve always got a blade on my side.” Second up JB goes on to reveal: “dDamage will always be there, behind you, on the dancefloor, to stab your back or cut your throat.” Totally badass, they have the world ready to surrender as the light threateningly flickers from their sonic switchblade. They’re feisty, they’re fierce, and they’re ready. “We re stuck to the street.” Hollers Fred. “And we love it, we were born in the suburbs, in the dirt. The street is always watchin’! We take and rape, until they're is no more cake.” Believe it blud!
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
Reverbreak This Beat Down (digital reissue 2008, 2000, TEAMS)
Radio Ape (CD, 2004, Planet Mu, UK)
Ink 808 (2006, Tigerbeat6, USA)
Shimmy Shimmy Blade (CD, MP3, 2006, T-A, France)
100% HATE (EP, Tigerbass Records, USA)
My Favourite Ladies Part 2
Photo: Richard Ross
TSUNAMI-ADDICTION
