Rapper turnt school teacher Cassandra Jackson talks about being the only female in a group that sometimes spit misogynist lyrics, the state of hip hop and why Half Pint is for the children.
Do you ever think of picking up the mic again?
I thought of getting back in the game several times but I'm not sure people want to hear what I have to say. I'm not about capitalism, I'm about revolution. I think my stage is my classroom now. I can educate and nurture the souls and minds of young brothas and sistas with relevant information. We are reflections of each other they get what I saying, even if they don't at that moment, they know my heart and soul goes into my teaching like a performance. When they see me in the streets I can hear and see the spark I helped ignite that started in the classroom.
We are now corrupted with corporate hip hop and the essence of what it was all about got lost when the infiltrators started flashing cash for the young brothas and sistas to sell their souls. Again, I ain't tryin' to knock nobody's hustle but hip hop is supposed to be about diversity, unity, community and commentary, not capitalism, oversaturation of one form or destruction of oneself.
As consumers, we have the power to say this is what we want to hear this is hip hop. Unfortunately, its like "The Matrix," or something when someone else tells you what's hot and what's not. (say it enough people will believe) and we become the pawn in a game we once controlled because it was once pure now it's tainted. Hip hop was about braggin' and boastin' (on what we wanted not had) with ideas of improvement and upward mobility because of the conditions in which we lived in were not fit for humans and we needed to let others know we do exist we are humans.
Now that hip hop has given the opportunity to keep up with the Joneses it has become an individualistic culture. We are tryin' to take the top man down instead of standing beside them, growing and helping the community grow. The old schoolers know and understand that concept the youngsters don't. They have been brainwashed into believing that thuggin' makes you man and that sexin' makes you a woman and that money makes you better than the next person. (Let me get off my soap box.)
Have there been any attempts to reunite the group?
We never really talked about a reunion but I think that would be real fun to do after all this time. Daddy Raw does a lot of demo work with people from the area tryin' to break into business he is also working on his own project. I still have some of the outfits from those days (can't really fit them, not yet anyway) but I can't let them go, I love them.
Talk about what it was like in the studio, and the meaning of the song title "N-41."
The studio vibe was crazy. It was some long hours but is fun. I remember recording N-41 which was our last song to record and the concept as I said before was about steppin' into a different dimension ridin', rhymin' and doin' all the stuff you use to do back in the day. I thought it would be ill if when I started I did it like the twilight zone, then end up rowdy like I wanted to get things movin'. During the makin' of the album I wanted to rhyme on the mic but most of the stuff had been done before hand so I didn't have a chance to display my skills, so I thought it would be funny If I kept tryin' on this song the last song to rhyme( with hopes of more rhyming on the next album) When it was finally my turn I started out rhymin' but Bazerk threw me off because he was like, "Yo let's go this our stop (or something like that) and they were actin like they were leaving the booth while I was rhyming so that's when I said YOU DON'T KNOW ME, SO DON'T SWEAT IT ... and by the time I finished so was the reel. It was so hot it was the first and only take done, even though I had completely skipped almost an entire verse I thought that what I did fit the entire mood, craziness and fun we use to have in the studio. Keith Shocklee said "Yo, that's hot leave it just like that," and we did. We did a lot of snapping and playing jokes but it was not all fun and games. Work was first and foremost.
Anyway, N-41 was the name of the bus line that went through Freeport. If you had to ride the bus you usually took that one. We were trying to create a mental picture of gettin' on the bus entering another dimension, riding on the back of the bus rhyming like they use to do back in the days.
At the end of Honesty, there is an interlude where a club owner informs his customers, that" if they ain't buyin' nothin', don't hang around ..." I think it's the same voice at the end of "Trapped inside the Rage of Jahwell." Was this a sample? Where is it from?
The talking is actual events taking place at a bar called Fleetwood's. The
voice is the bar owner on the mic at the club one night. The guys frequented the place, I was too young to go into there.
Do you ever see any of your labelmates, the YBT?
I saw Kam about two years ago I think he still lives out here, I don't know. I believe Skribble is the only one still out there. I see everybody from time to time (not at the same time) I don't really go out, my students take up all my time and when not at work, I'm at home trying to relax. I think being on the road and touring and the fun stuff I did wore me out. I don't think I'm old, it's just going out can be hazardous to ones' health, ya know. It ain't hip hop like it use to be. I still LOVE hip hop 4 life it's just has become more of a reflection of society with no release of tension in sight.
Remember when label wouldn't even sign someone with a [criminal] record now it's a prerequisite. I am glad brothas and sistas are getting paid to do what they love but sometimes I think the cost may be too high when some are not keeping it real. And impressionable people think that's what Hip Hop is.
How did you find out that the second album wasn't going to be released?
Once we finished about 7 songs we found out SOUL was folding. We heard Rick Rubin was interested but I don't know what happened with that.
Did it bother you when Bazerk talked about pimps, ho's and bitches?
At first I had a problem with it because I thought it was disrespectful to me and other women. Unfortunately, I realized the targeted audience (men) used these terms to describe a certain kind of female I did not become familiar with until I went on the road. I still did not condone the language but I began to understand it. As usual my job was to keep the guys in check and educate the females about the issue but the females didn't buy it. The type of female they were referring to liked that they were being noticed no matter how disrespectful the message was.
Some seem to think that if your were offended then they are talking to you, but the reality is that the ones who should be offended are so lost they don't even know they are being disrespected. That is why I was a proud member of the hip hop community, where I could be apart of a group that at times could have been disrespectful to females but I was that strong minded independent woman who says straighten up and I took no sh*t.
Being the only women in the group gave me the edge to put sistas on to a brothas game but I can only lead 'em to the water I can't make 'em drink it. That's why the cut I did for the 2nd album was entitled "No Fair Ones" I was tryin to let 'em know, I ain't the average chick.
Just for reading the end of this interview, here's an unreleased Son of Bazerk track. Half Pint is all over this one. Here's Can't You See?
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing...I agree with most of what half-pint had to say. It's almost like true hip-hop was a secret exposed...okay, here comes a CRAZY analogy but... You know how there's a pot luck at work or a buffet. And you are really hungry. As luck would have it you're at the front of the line. You are one of the first to choose from all the diverse choices of "food". Everything has its own flavor, but it's all good stuff that you pile your plate with. Pretty soon the others come and start picking over the food and contaminating it with their germs (touching it, breathing on it, changing it...) By this time you've had the best of the pickings because you were one of the first to get it in at its best. You ate, but when you go back for more - it's not the same. You want what you had before but now...It's all...GROSS. It's just a shadow of what it was before. Before it was all made from scratch and since they ran out of that they brought out the canned stuff. That's how I think half-pint was describing hip hop. Hmmm that made me hungry. I going to get something to eat now.
great read (part 1 & 2).
it would be great if you could re-up on the Baserk unreleased track.
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