Hard Future
In the post-World War II United States, the sensitive citizen can observe and feel particular cyclical waves of domestic horror and global anxiety. Again and again across the decades, the same pale riders rear their heads: violent and virulent racism, the ebb and flow of a brutal police state, abstract enmity with the demonized faces of communism, and the ever–ready threat of global nuclear war and destruction seem never more than half a generation away from fullblown resurgences. Given this uniquely American brand of dystopian eternal recurrence, it’s understandable that the youth would grow ever more and more apathetic, disenfranchised and weary of engaging with the world. Cite, then, as glowing and heroic mutations the young men of Nine 11 Thesaurus, teenagers from East Bushwick bound together in a hip-hop crusade of classical fervor and blazing sincerity.
The group (comprised of core members Shasty, God’sun, P-Dot, Riddic.C and Hollywood, along with a Shaolin-esque coterie of fringe members and guests) releases a debut album, Ground Zero Generals, this month on local experimental rock stalwart The Social Registry, an auspicious event for both artists and label. Shepherding this unusual pairing is Sam Hillmer, local saxophonist and composer of group Zs and the artistic director of Representing NYC, a community outreach group that Hillmer feels "has succeeded at interlacing some social-services programming with parts of New York’s underground music scene." That may seem like a refined and subtle social movement, but as a socially entrepreneurial feat, the work is actually quite deep—and hard to pull off at times.
In Nine 11′s case, these parts of the underground music scene consist of producers Matt Mehlan (of Skeletons) and Tim Dewitt (of Gang Gang Dance) who, along with the band members and Hillmer, were involved in an immersive collaboration to create Ground Zero Generals’ vivid and aggressively politically charged content. Mehlan and Dewitt’s music provide fitting frames to the MCs’ polemics—Mehlan leaning more toward frantic and sometimes Congotronicsinfused beats while Dewitt tends towards more spacious synth heaviness.
Nine 11 delves thoroughly and relentlessly into the kind of hard-edged
sociopolitical lyricism extolled by Public Enemy, vintage Ice Cube and
Dead Prez.
Unlike the outlying, thematically fungal works of present youth brigade Odd Future or the meta-pap of yesterday’s teens The Pack, Nine 11 delves thoroughly and relentlessly into the kind of hardedged socio-political lyricism extolled by Public Enemy, vintage Ice Cube and Dead Prez. The first proper track, "End of the World," sets the themes in motion quite directly, as the round-toned Riddic.C both evokes the still-pertinent L.A. riots slogan "No justice, no peace" and laments, "The U.S. is ’bout to have another cold war with Russia." The vibe of eternal recurrence is echoed throughout, and underscored by the frequently appearing samples of speech from the Civil Rights era. "We define ourselves [by the idea that] the hiphop tree was supposed to sprout from its harvest without the suicide seeds," says group member Shasty, a telling statement of Nine 11′s desire to rebuild and improve the group’s own hip-hop from the DNA upward. As above, so below, however, and the teenage MCs are wise enough for their years to understand utopia is built on a thorough engagement with the evils of the past. Closing track "Free" tethers the spirituals-old sentiment "set my people free" to everything from genetic modification of humans to prostitutes doggedly pursued by HIV infection, while on "Bondages" they deal with the physical accessories of American slavery as specifically and viscerally as anyone since Isaac Hayes. The latter song’s brief harried refrain of "I must stay focused!" feels like a rallying cry for Nine 11′s personal discipline in the face of tidal waves of distraction and social dissolution.
Those working with them observe this focus. As Hillmer states, "Nine 11 are part of a small group of people their age who are willing to work on something for a long period of time that does not have immediate gratification." Adds Mehlan, "The coolest part of the whole thing has been to watch them take control and get ambitious on a sort of realistic DIY level. To see them now, doing shows at the Silent Barn, Death By Audio [and] Shea Stadium, and being open to all the different kinds of music going on in those scenes… I mean, they took the bus to Todd P’s Acoustic BBQ last summer and walked like a mile in the rain with plastic bags over their sneakers to do a 15-minute set for 20 soaking wet people—the music is important!" Perhaps the record’s most powerful and clearest mission statement comes on the musically dense "Nation to Nation," on which the chorus spits in the face of the ever-returning evil energies: "Nine 11 is the last final destination/ You kill us we come back as a sun as a new reincarnation." Of the merits and challenges facing Nine 11, Shasty says, "There aren’t really other groups out doing the same thing we’re doing now and the future is kinda looking shaky if what’s being seen as important today is what’s going to bring an evolution for tomorrow."