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Interview: Born I – Tomorrow Is Today

On the world’s stage, political debates come across like a badly written soap opera. Filibusters keep the most stubborn on air as inflexibility frustrates progress. Ideas cross without reconciliation, and the voice of the people is often ignored. Meanwhile, in the musical underground, change is the name of the game. Below the static of the mainstream media, a plethora of cultural influences are making themselves heard. Corporate lacks a stronghold, and starving artists are nurtured by creative freedom. Crossover artists are created as differences and quirks are appreciated and absorbed. Styles blend as musicians fuse the sonic highlights of their world to define themselves on their own terms.

Born I, a native of Washington D.C., has grown up in the musical underground of a politically charged and divided city. His voice is emerging from D.C.’s burgeoning underground hip hop scene as a fusion of “Afro-Asian-Electro-Hop”. An example of a crossover artist at its best, Born I’s music reflects cross cultural understanding as a way to self discovery in an ever changing, potentially alienating world.

Born I has a reputation for impeccable timing, wordplay and delivery. His skills are complimented by charmisma honed from years of studying his idols Frank Sinatra, John Coltrane, and Kanye West, as well as from his work as one half of Shambhala . Born I’s strong artistic partnerships date back to his first home made studio built with his college roommate. Now he will debut his solo album, “Tomorrow Is Today”, poised for release on January 11th, 2011 on Asahara Music.

Marcie chats with Born I shortly after his performance in Maryland, where he was asked to be Matisyahu’s special guest.

www.bornimusic.com

MARCIE: How long were you in production for your new album “Tomorrow is Today”?

BORN I: We spent about a year an a half on it. At first I was recording at break neck speed, like 3 or 4 songs a night. Then we slowed down to make the Conga Drum video, and after that I recorded like 30 songs for “The Born Identity Mixtape”. So production of the album slowed a bit last winter and then picked back up during the spring/sumer.

MARCIE: What’s your favorite track or lyric on the new album, and why?
Probably the line I’m most proud of is in the song Time:

“It’s so strange/Time comes to heal us/sooner or later Time comes to steal
us/back to the place of love that we came from/back to the space and dust
we were made from”.

I think this line illustrates how life is never just black or white, that which at first heals us can eventually destroy us. Life is non-dual. Dynamic. We gotta ride those waves if we want to really live.

MARCIE: What’s the story behind your track titled, “New Generation”? What do you feel is the New Generation?

BORN I: I think this is the New Generation. Every generation is the New Generation, obviously, but this particular time, with a Black president, a global economy, the harnessing of dark matter, technology beyond our wildest imaginations, the upsurge in electronic based music… I don’t know there’s like an urgency in the air, like the world is becoming self-aware. This is the beginning and ending of many, many things. If ever there was a New Generation, this is it.

MARCIE: Your press release says you walk a tightrope on your upcoming album between themes that are “deeply spiritual and recklessly materialistic”. Is this a tightrope you feel you walk in your day to day life? If so, how does the album help you balance?

BORN I: What’s most important to me is being fully human. Just being honest with all of your feelings and impulses and not pretending that they’re not there. So for me, I might spend an insane amount of money on shoes or clothes or cars, but I will also spend weeks at a time on a meditation retreat at a temple or in my own home. Material things are like spices, they enhance the flavor of the meal, but you know you couldn’t live on spices alone. The meal is what counts, and the meal in this sense is what’s inside us all. For me I can’t pretend that I don’t like nice things, but I can’t pretend like that’s all that moves me. So I express both sides of my character in my music, in hopes that I can reconcile the two, and show people how to end the civil war inside themselves and be what we all are; dynamic, changing, complex creatures, ultimately with goodness at our core.

MARCIE: You were previously one half of Shambhala, a pioneering rap group from DC that strongly emphasized concepts of Tao and enlightenment. How has your work with Shambhala influenced your solo work?

BORN I: Shambhala is forever. Some may doubt this but my solo work is just an extension of the house of Shambhala, so to speak. We recorded a second album before I went solo, and had the world heard it (it will eventually), my transition wouldn’t be so hard for some to swallow. My brother Agua and I realized that to really reach the people, you had to be one with the people, to speak the language of the people and to show people that they can be themselves without fear. That’s all my music is really about now, so Shambhala is always an influence whether its noticed it or not.

MARCIE: Your artist name, album title, and many lyrics on “Tomorrow is Today” deal with the concept of birth, renewal, and living for the moment. What main message(s) would you like people to walk away with after hearing your new album?

BORN I: You can’t go beyond yourself without completely being yourself. What I mean by that is, if you wanna go beyond your limitations, you have to acknowledge what those limitations are and work with them, before your work through them. Being your full self is hard, because our full selves include darkness and light, and gray areas too. Most of us feel more comfortable relating to the dark, the light or the gray within us, but not all of it. But if you want to be fully in your potential, fully able to create your world and your life, you gotta see every part of yourself and make yourself whole. You have to see the child, the adult, the gangster, the saint, the fear and the fearlessness within you and keep it real with yourself. I used to pretend that these things weren’t alive with me. I’m done with that.

MARCIE: “Conga Drum” is really catchy. How did you meet Deborah Bond, and how did you come up with the hook?

BORN I: Thanks. I met Deborah Bond in college, at American University. That school, during those years, there was something about it, like a perfect storm. I met a huge part of my musical family there, and Deborah was one of them. I love her to death. Well that hook is originally from an instructional album on playing drums. I was with my producer, Imani Beats (who I also met @ AU), and we were looking for drum sounds. We came upon that sample and we were about to skip it when I was like, “What would happen if we just looped that shit??” And there you have it. [laughs] We got Deborah to re-sing the hook to make it sound a little more modern. She did a great job.

MARCIE: How did your experience as a top solo MC in DC influence your lyric writing? For example,

BORN I: When I first got started, things were a little different. In DC at that time you really had to have a tremendous amount of skill to be noticed. You had to be able to do it all, battle, freestyle and write good songs. I came up in that era, and so that’s a part of who I am as an MC, you’ll hear it spread out between my mixtapes, which are more focused on lyricism, and my albums which are more focused on overall songwriting.

MARCIE: Do you record all your performances? How much of the lyrics you record stem from pure improvisation?

BORN I: I don’t record all of my performances. I should, though. I do record a good amount of them. Pure improvisation in hip hop usually means freestyle. I still freestyle, but not as much as I used to. There are people who are masters at it, I’m not one of them, not any more. But I do follow the Jay-Z formula of writing a lot these days, just stacking lines in my head until the rhyme is right, maybe that’s like inner freestyling, [laughs], I dunno.

MARCIE: Where do you do most of your writing?

BORN I: I do most of my writing in my car, driving, illegally typing away on my blackberry while controlling the steering wheel with my knees to be dead honest with you. It’s terrible, but that’s one of the few times when I’m totally alone and I can experiment, plus the car is in motion, scenes are
changing, my mind starts to move more quickly, ideas flow better.

MARCIE: Do you write every day?

BORN I: I don’t write every day. I go through spells. It drives me crazy because when I’m in a writing spell, the lyrics just keep pouring out of me, and I have to get up and write it down. It’s like I become a slave to my mind, but the results are incredible. But man, when that spell is over and I’m fall into a non-writing spell, Jesus, it scares the hell out of me. Every time feels like it’s the end for me and I’ll never write again. Of course, that never happens, I’ve been dealing with this for several years now [laughs].

MARCIE: I read that you studied Law at American University? How did your college experience influence your music?

BORN I: I got my BA in Law and Society, which is like a prelaw program, preparing you for Law School. My college experience was a lot more about music and self-discovery than it was about academics to be honest. When I got to school, my roommate just happened to be an audio-tech major. It was like the gods were trying to tell me something, [laughs]. We built a studio in the dorm room and that became the center of all sorts of insane activity, [laughs]. I wasn’t a jock, and I was really smart, but I wasn’t an academic type. The only way to stand out was through music. My fam, The Rebels, we stood out, in a big way. It was an amazing time, college.

MARCIE: You have a quote from Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” up on your homepage: “To say the things he truly feels, and not the words of one who kneels.” If you could meet Frank Sinatra, and ask him one question, what would it be?

BORN I: I would ask him how he mastered his circular breathing technique. And how did he manage to stay relevant for 50 years. And what was Sam Giancana like.

MARCIE: What do you think Sinatra would say about your music?

BORN I: I’m not sure. I think a big part of Frank Sinatra’s appeal was his persona as well as his music. I would hope Sinatra would appreciate my persona, even if he didn’t get my music.

MARCIE: What was it like to share the stage with Matisyahu? What was it like offstage? Did you guys get to chat about anything in particular?

BORN I: Matisyahu is probably the nicest, most pure soul that I’ve ever met, next to like the Dalai Lama and some of my spiritual mentors. The guy is just plain nice. I can’t describe it. He’s an incredible performer. I’ve performed with him as a guest in his sets a few times now, and each time we talk more and more. The last show I did with him, he led a prayer backstage with about 15 other Jewish men of all ages before he went on. I asked if he’d like me to leave but he invited me to stay. They prayed in Hebrew while I stood and prayed in my own way. It was powerful. We talk about music, life, basic things. I’m happy to call him a friend.

MARCIE: Do you play percussion?

BORN I: I wish.

MARCIE: How did you get interested in World rhythms?

BORN I: My family is from Ghana. I’m a first-generation American, so I grew up listening to a lot of Ghanaian Hi-Life and traditional music. That’s probably where it stems from. My father is an intense music lover, so he played everything from Otis Redding to John Coltrane, to Sinatra, to King Sunny Addae, to Fela Kuti, to Atrud Gilberto, to Japanese Koto music. That’s most likely where I get it from.

MARCIE: What do you feel are the differences between mainstream hip hop and the underground hip hop scene?

BORN I: I think the main difference is who’s singing the song. If Jay-Z does Death of Autotune, or Kanye does Power or Monster, it’s mainstream. But If Sean Price or Lupe Fiasco were to rhyme over the same beats, it would be considered underground. A lot of it comes down to the personality and presentation of the artist. You are what you think.

MARCIE: One of your lyrics from your “RE:Born (Chairman of The Board)” mixtape says, “I’m not a monk, but I’m a meditator”. What did this mean to you when you said it? Does it mean something different to you now?

BORN I: No, I meant it just as it is. That’s probably the line that best sums up where I am in my life right now. I’m not a monk. I still have sex, still live in the world, still like material things, but I am still a meditator, I still maintain my awareness. I still do my best to see things as they are, even in the midst of everything else. That’s what I meant.

MARCIE: What do you know now about music and life that you wish you knew five years ago?

BORN I: If I’d have known it 5 years ago, I wouldn’t have been mature enough to do anything with it, so I’m cool with the pace at which I’ve learned things.

MARCIE: What was the best part of touring Taiwan?

BORN I: Everything. I really miss Taiwan. I can’t wait to tour there again. We played so many dates there, so many of them just sprung up naturally. We’d play one club and then during that set, we’d get booked at another on the spot. It was insane. The people are very kind. And the island itself is so beautiful. Mountains, beaches. So amazing. There are temples everywhere and that’s also nice. You can light an incense, pray and keep it moving like its nothing. And the women.

MARCIE: You have a page devoted to Fashion & Art on your website. What trends are you most excited about right now in fashion?

BORN I: I’m most excited about the different styles of footwear that have emerged in the past few years. My two favorite brands being Supra and Kris Van Assche. I’m also very much in the Tokyo and New York streetwear phenomenon, stuff like Crooks and Castles, Sneaktip, Play Cloths, Two In The Shirt, BLVK SCVLE, Mighty Healthy, KR3W, etc. And denim. Levis, GStar Raw or simple Evisus. Japanese denim is still the most amazing to me.

MARCIE: Who designed your cover art for “Tomorrow Is Today”?

BORN I: Photo by Paola Angelino. Design by Graham Jackson of 88DC

MARCIE: What’s next for Born I?

BORN I: My album “Tomorrow Is Today” drops 1.11.11 on iTunes via Asahra Music. Everyone please go get that, I promise it’ll be unlike anything you’ve ever heard. In a good way, [laughs]. The next move is the “Tomorrow Is Today Tour”, and when that’s done, I’m gonna spend 2011 doing a lot of collaboration projects with artists that I’ve been dying to work with. I’m not recording another mixtape until I get at least 100,000 downloads! I’m really proud of my mixtape and my album so I plan on making sure they find a way into every ear possible. That’s it really. Working. Always working.