photo by Aoife de Burca www.itsaplane.com
Spooks
Gold records, worldwide success and Billboard awards were what Philadelphia progressive hip-hop act Spooks were faced with a few years ago. But since then, record company grief, culminating in a change of labels, and the death of one-time member Water Water have scarred the group. Now, they’re back with a new album, ‘Faster Than You Know’ and are hoping to reproduce the success tracks like ‘Things I’ve Seen’ and ‘Karma Hotel’ brought them back in 2000.
The Event Guide caught up with MC Mr. Booka-T and vocalist Ming-Xia in Philadelphia before they hit The Village in Dublin on January 25th.
When Spooks exploded in 2000 with their debut album ‘S.I.O.S.O.S.’, instant comparisons with The Fugees were drawn, probably because of ‘the message’ in most of their songs.
Spooks certainly do differ from a lot of today’s by-numbers rap artists. They place more emphasis on their content and don’t view their music as a flippant medium, “We delve into different topics, and we still have our party songs, but life is just not one big party. I don’t think one of us could just talk about partying and shaking your ass all day. There’s more to life than that. And sometimes even the depressing moments inspire you to create”, according to Ming. “We probably think too damn much!” adds Book, “I mean, I know when we sit down and write, we don’t plan to have a message all the time, but when you put pen to paper, you can’t help it. We always feel like ‘damn! We did it again! Another song with a message’, but it’s difficult for me to write and not get some idea across that someone needs to hear”.
But this isn’t public health announcement stuff, “I don’t think we come across preachy”, says Ming, “we’re on the same level, we’re just talking about different things”.
Back in Spooks’ early days, Ming referred to the group’s sound as conceptual Hip Hop or ethereal rap, “and then some”, and she still stands by that description, four years after their first release.
The sound may still be similar, but the message has changed somewhat, according to Book, “In ‘S.I.O.S.O.S.’ we talk about a lot of bad feelings that we have with the industry when we were getting our foot in the door. With this album, it’s more about personal things that happen in our everyday lives. We speak about fathers who weren’t doing their jobs as men on ‘Dead Beat’. And on one song ‘Pain’, it’s like I’m writing a letter to my daughter.”
That’s certainly a little different from ‘P.I.M.P.’ or ‘Move, Bitch (get out the way)’, mainstream tunes that don’t cut it with Mr. Booka-T, “a lot of it is what the powers that be demand. ?uest Love from The Roots once said to one of us that the industry is more concerned about selling a lifestyle as opposed to selling music. And a lifestyle is easier to sell. You can be a horrible rapper, a horrible singer, but if the people feel as though you’re living a certain life and they want to live that life, you can sell that lifestyle”.
The current trend in mainstream hip-hop offers little room for Spooks’ take on things, in the US at least. A worrying aspect, in Ming-Xia’s opinion is the fact that record labels are getting smaller and smaller in number, “when you just have a massive monopoly and massive companies that have a lot of power and a lot of say in what goes on, it’s hard to get real substance through”.
Regarding emulating their previous success, Book is thinking realistically, “I would like to have the same type of success, but things have changed in the industry. Right now, everyone might want to hear flossy shit, or party music, or jiggy music. I mean, we can hit that zone, but it’s not primarily what we do.”
Book puts their success in Europe down to ‘people taking us at face value and then showing us love’. They cite European bands as many of their influences (Bjork, The Police, U2, Radiohead and The Clash) and claim to have played their best show right here in Dublin, “it was one where this guy jumped on stage and tried to grab Ming” explains Book, “he said he just wanted to dance with her, but security grabbed him. After we finished the show, we went looking for him. We found him and we just took him back to our tour bus to hang out”. “Anytime a fan jumps onstage and gets caught by security – that’s always a good show”, adds Ming, approvingly.
Spooks are supporting progressive hip-hop pioneers, Arrested Development, at the Village and Lifesavas complete the bill. Spooks are keen on returning to Dublin. They don’t find the appetite for hip-hop here strange because as Ming puts it, “hip-hop is worldwide”.
Talking about Spooks as a career, Ming and Book seem happy with what they’ve already achieved, “I’m so lucky to have seen places I would have never had the opportunity to see”, says Ming. On a more sober note, Book pays tribute to Water Water who left the group shortly before his death in a car accident, “I’m just lucky I got to do this with him”.
And their future goals? “Conquer the world!” yells Ming. Book is a bit more sedate, “I want to leave an incredible legacy like De La Soul. And it would be nice to send my kids to college, too”.
