EURweb |
RHODES SCHOLAR RAPPER'S CHOICE IS SANITY: AD the Voice believes rap scales are tipping his way.
*Upon meeting Antonio Delgado and talking to him one would think that he's just your run of the mill Oxford and Harvard Law School graduate.
But when he gets into his alter ego mode we come to witness the phenomenon that is AD the Voice.
We had no idea who this guy was at first, but after interviewing this young man with a vision, our Lee Bailey was glad he took the time out to speak with AD.
First things first though, a Harvard educated, Rhodes Scholar rapper? We don't know how they'll go about marketing that.
"I graduated from Colgate with a degree in Philosophy and Political Science," Delgado said. "Colgate isn't technically an Ivy League school, but it is a school held in very high regard on the East Coast. I ended up going to Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship. After that I returned to the states and studied law at Harvard."
We appreciate him explaining the ins and outs of his involvement with those great institutions, but the question remains ... a rapper? AD didn't blink when he said his educational background actually prepared him for his career as a rapper rather than vice versa.
"I would say it has prepared me. I didn't go to these institutions with the idea that I was going to become a rapper. I found myself in this position after I had acquired enough information about the world we live in, and of Hip-Hop, to say 'You know what? I can offer a different narrative.' With the passion that I have for this music and this culture, why can't I just take the two worlds and meld them together. For me, who and what I am is very much Hip-Hop."
A different narrative indeed. As they say, variety is the spice of life. But a quick survey of recent rap releases and one would think the music industry didn't get that particular memo. Be that as it may, AD the Voice feels it's his time. His background and education should have nothing to do with his message.
"I am me," he continued. "I'm a brother that's passionate about what I believe in. Passion and true commitment to who you are really transcends where you're from and what you've experienced and class and so forth. I know a lot of cats in the hood that I could look at and see they're fake. There's also cats that grew up with a silver spoon in their mouths, but are the realest of the real. It's just a matter of how you're coming at me. If I look at you as a man, no matter what you say, if I see you're not about something that's purposeful I'm going to move on. So, what I'm hoping is that when cats hear me they could look past my credentials. Or past the fact that I've never been shot or haven't been to jail. Whatever you think, just hear me. Feel that passion that I'm coming with and you can't tell me that you won't feel something on some fundamentally human level."
His goals are high-minded to say the least. The demographic that needs to hear his message of positivity the most may be the demographic that's least likely to pick up his album. But Delgado tells EURweb he is not worried. The majority of Hip-Hop's history has been positive and he has that positive, revolutionary history on his side.
"The demo that I'm going for is not about age, not about race. It's anybody who wants to feel empowered. Who wants to hear music that speaks to their soul with a message that hasn't been heard for some time. I know it's hard to associate that with Hip-Hop given what is heard on the radio today. But, you see, you can't look at Hip-Hop as it is today. You have to extend that lens back through the past to Hip-Hop's origins. Where it came from and what it came out of. You can't come out of that place, the South Bronx, and be where you are today if you don't have a warrior's spirit. You can't come up out of that if you're not spitting something other than what you're wearing, what you're riding on. You had to have really stood for something.
"Hip-Hop came from complete rejection and marginalization," Delgado reasoned. "We were told to sit down, shut up and just disappear. Reaganomics? That whole era? That's what Hip-Hop grew out of. Now look where it is? So, if you know of that type of history and the power we have inside of us then you're going feel that history and power when I rhyme."
A man with a plan for positive change is what AD the Voice is, but what good is a plan if no one is following the blueprint?
"This is something that I struggle with everyday. I'm not going to sit and lie to myself given the current climate today. I just feel it's a matter of faith and a matter of struggle and perseverance. We're in a period of time where people are starving (for this). You can only go so low. There's has to be a point where you hit rock bottom and you've gotta start coming back up."
People can only go so low. A rather depressing sentence when one takes into consideration the fact that no one knows where the bottom of Hip-Hop's gangster-cultural barrel lies. But AD has faith in the positive that lies in the hearts of the people rather than fear for the rap's current lowest common denominator mentality.
"They've been kind of force fed music by the label heads. The label heads don't want to take chances with (positive) music and they know that what sells is the stereotype. It's a proven commodity so they just keep feeding it to us. But I think, after a while, people are going to stop buying this. And, given where we are politically, with the elections coming up, I've just got a feeling that the tone of the culture in this country is going to shift. There's going to be a little bit more of a serious tone to what we're talking about whether it's on the radio stations or on the Internet. I think there's going to be a slow shift, and it might not last that long, but I believe it'll be long enough for someone like me to get in there."
For the a lot of people's sake and the moral sanity of our children we hope he's right. Meanwhile, while we wait for Hip-Hop's long awaited political and social reawakening, there are alternatives. Like AD the Voice's new release "Painfully Free," released on his co-owned imprint: Statik Records.
Need more information? Well, you know the brother's got a myspace page, right? Hit him up at www.myspace.com/adthevoice. He's definitely worth a listen, for rap sanity's sake.
Share and Bookmark |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
.jpg)
