Deaf in the Family Presents :: For Those About to Rock :: Deaf in the Family
as reviewed by Matt Jost
AC/DC's "For Those About to Rock We Salute You" LP was one of my earliest encounters with rock music, and if it weren't for rap, I probably would have extended my relationship with hard rock and heavy metal, if only because where I grew up the guys listening to sharp riffs and hard drums were the bad boys you would look up to as a kid. But no, it had to be hip-hop, a choice that caused me to miss out on a lot of good music. Nowadays, I lighten up everytime I see a metal fan, because they turned out to be the friendliest people on the planet, the total opposite of these hip-hop kids with their collective attitude problem.

To my defense, although it marked my initiation into hip-hop, it wasn't just the incorporation of rock elements that made Run-D.M.C.'s "Raising Hell" album so appealing to me. It was an extraordinary piece of music that sounded exactly like I wanted music to sound, at least once I realized music could sound like that. Since then my problem has always been that I lacked the means to inform myself sufficiently about music genres other than hip-hop. I've tried just about everything, but never managed to obtain more than just a superficial knowledge of jazz, blues, folk, pop or rock. So while I couldn't think of a better re-introduction to rock for an aging b-boy like me than "For Those About to Rock," there is no question that I'm not exactly qualified to make too many conclusive statements about it.

Billed to Deaf in the Family, "For Those About to Rock" is a collaboration between Brooklyn production team The Resource (consisting of producer/engineer DJ Sae One and guitarist/producer Adam Podrat), who laid down tracks for The Last Emperor and Saigon, as well as Nike, Pepsi and Apple advertising campaigns, and a pack of underground rappers lead by Scavone. In the past, rock and rap have teamed up for some of the corniest shit ever, and hearing Deaf in the Family do almost everything right is quite a revelation. Sample clearing issuses aside, many hip-hoppers probably think that rock music has nothing more to offer than the odd breakbeat and soaring guitar riffs. Most producers still rely on soul and funk when they're looking to obtain a certain mood or sound. Meanwhile, the Deaf In The Fam folks decides to fully embrace rock music, appropriating '70s and '60s songs for a thorough hip-hop makeover.

"For Those About to Rock" is off to an excellent start with "One of These Nights," originally by The Eagles. A live take announces it as "one of the funkiest songs in America," but in Deaf In The Fam's hands "One of These Nights" turns into an introspective joint where MC's Scavone, Baron of Red Clay and Ill Tarzan have to deal with inner demons and depression:

"In between the dark and the light is where I'm livin'
tryin' to juggle every drug in my life, stay out of prison
And I'm searchin' for a angel in white to come and save me
but the wicked wind whispers and moans callin' me baby
The fever is high, my demons is callin' out
I'm losin my breath, I feel like I'm fallin' out
My engine is on but it's always stallin' out
My brain is a cloud, it's smoky with thoughts of doubt
Loneliness'll blind you, it'll keep you guessin'
It's difficult to find out any worthy lesson
when you're swimmin' in a pool of alcohol aggression
and you goin' to the school of managin' depression
with a fist full of pills and a brown paper bag
Everything that you want's everything you don't have"

Incorporating original lyrics, Scavone makes sure not to just drown in self-indulgent sorrow, but to contribute to a structured song. This pattern repeats itself throughout "For Those About to Rock," the rappers favoring relevant verses over arbitrary bars. On "One of These Nights," this is further marked by the bassline distinctly differing between the verses and the hook. All the while, the pumping flow is completely kept.

A Manhattan native and Brooklyn resident, Scavone is a natural, his sarcastic tone of voice putting up resistance while his precise flow smoothens things out. It's a particularly dark day in the life of Scavone on "Mr. Blue Sky," his grumpiness constrasting beautifully with ELO's harmonizing vocals asking, "Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why you had to hide away for so long?" This mash-up is followed by the more likely pairing of an anti-police theme with The Clash's "Guns of Brixton." Maintaining Joe Strummer and company's reggae rhythm (even extending it in a Jamaican break), The Resource stick closely to the original script, sampling Paul Simonon, whose "When they kick at your front door, how you gonna come / with your hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun" lyrics echo Scavone's NYPD blues.

Scavone also hosts "Andy Warhol," the added strings and the dry, sparse drums making it sound more like a typical contemporary hip-hop track than a rap remake of a David Bowie tune. But it's clearly Jimi Hendrix playing the guitar on "Little Wing." Scavone and singer Big Brooklyn Red disregard the mother tribute Hendrix intended and create a completely new song, serenading a sweet soulmate they hope will save them from their mysery: "On your doorbell I ring, on your telephone I'm callin' / I might sound kinda strange, I might tell you I'm fallin' / So please don't be shy, just reply with a giggle / You could save me from Hades, if only for a little / I'm captured by your spirit, I can hear it when you smile / the light you radiate could penetrate a million miles."

While he could easily hold the 40 minutes down on his own, Scavone is supported by a cast of underground talent. Using The Who's "Who Are You" to introduce themselves, him, Bad Seed and Pumpkinhead ride a beat that goes through constant changes and could easily survive without rap vocals. Psychedelia rears its strange head - if only momentarily - on "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" (not the Klaatu, the Carpenters version) while the MC's engage in next level NY rap. Transcending local confines is the funky pimp strut of "Peaches," as recorded by The Stranglers and as remixed by The Resource. Substantial makes a welcome appearance, but it's Doujah Raze, admiring "the peach fuzz on the beach buns," who reigns as champion of the double entendre:

"When I get a peach I like to slice it open
I leave dry lips soaken, I leave tight lips smokin'
with these mics I'm pokin', every night I'm strokin'
Nectar keeps me breathin'
I be walkin' on the beaches lookin' for a peach that's ripe for eatin'
It's quite deceitin' when you bite and squeeze 'em
and find they rotten to the core when on the outside they look nice and pleasin'"

The project returns to a more serious tone with Houston's Bavu Blakes' rendition of Neil Young's "Southern Man." Here, the interplay between rock and rap lyrics is particularly compelling:

"And they still do lynchin'
But really that's unconventional
What it is penny-pinchin'
Paper, power, principle
System's invincible, where anything's possible
Ask your grandmama, though, this is how the gospel go:
(Southern man, better keep your head
Don't forget what your good book said
Southern change gonna come at last
Now your crosses are burnin' fast)
[...]
He got this, he watch us, cameras on every avenue
The slave never knew what's happenin', but the master do
We just passin' through in this world, or be bypassed
Just be glad you ain't known the master as long as I do
It's easy to write fast, cause it's a old story
Curse of Cain, the Babel tower, the old glory
And they wonder why the red man get drunk
and they wonder why a south nigga get crunk"

Rounding off the Resource Experience is a short finale involving Black Sabbath's "The Wizard," Led Zeppelin's John Bonham and BK's Turntable Anihilists. A download-only promotional project, "For Those About to Rock" is an infinitely more elaborate piece of work than many commercially released recordings. There's nothing nerdy about it, the producers and the rhymers always maintaining that hip-hop edge while honestly paying tribute to the originals. Each track goes far beyond the simple loop structure and tries to offer individual backdrops for the rappers. Frankly, in hip-hop, it's hard to think of anybody who is currently doing what The Resource does here, and that has nothing to do with rock music, but everything with dedicated beatmaking.

Music Vibes: 8.5 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 8.5 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 8.5 of 10

Classic Beats and Underground Verse: Deaf in the Family holds it down
Written by Jeff
Wednesday, August 30th, 2006 at 11:46 am


Category: Rappin, Music, Artists


The mash-ups craze is hopefully on the downward spiral. Dont get me wrong, some of the shit Mr. Dibbs and Z-Trip have done have straight blown my mind but if I hear Smells Like Teen Spirit and Billie Jean or Def Leppard and 50 Cent one more time I swear to god I am gonna start raisin Kane. With that said, Deaf in the Family has managed to take the mash-up trend and put a spin on it that even your neighborhoods number one playa hater could get down with.

An easy way to describe Deaf in the Family is to take one part classic rock cover band, mix in a production team with ample amounts of street cred and sprinkle in some of the finest underground MCs, blend on high for one minute and serve over ice.

Deaf in the family consists of MC Scavone (formerly of Makin Records fame) and the Resource production team that has worked with my personal favorite The Last Emperor and up-and-coming entourage star Saigon. Their record, that has never been officially released ( or has it?????,) entitled For Those About to Rock features a whose who of classic rock tracks including Jimi Hendrix, The Clash, Black Sabbath, and The Eagles.

DJ Sae One of The Resource started this project knowing that it had to be a lot more than a mash-ups album and a whose who of hip hop. The MCs needed to have passion and the beats needed to be enhanced, not simply chopped up over some drum loop. I wanted to bring all the great talent I knew together for the sake of music. I made sure that all of the emcees used the words and the ideas from the original songs in their compositions. On our end, we wanted to make sure we paid respect to the songs musically.

That quote is why I am down with this CD. You need to pay RESPECT to the songs that you use whether it is sampling, mash ups, or even rockin a party. The mash-ups world got to be so competitive that it lost any sense of passion.

Since this CD never came out (again, or did it?????) Deaf in the Family is at work on a full-length release for MC Scavone.

MaimZ

Using uncleared samples isn't anything new, but when it's done as deftly as it is here you have to sit up and listen. Working together as Deaf in the Family, production team The Resource (who've worked with The Last Emperor and Saigon) have reworked classic 70s rock tracks into the instrumentals for emcees Scavone, Bavu Blakes, Pumpkinhead and others to spit rhymes over and made the subsequent album -'For Those About To Rock' - available as a free download from their website.

What's especially impressive is that these tracks have obviously been built from the samples from the beginning and aren't merely some sloppy mashup; the MCs make references and quote from the original tracks and flow perfectly over the loops, updating the originals for the 21st Century and a new audience. There's no substandard wordplay, all the rappers here deserve more exposure.

The production is equally tight throughout. It's works better when they chop the original track up (see the RJD2-esque guitar crunch of 'Southern Man' or the bouncy piano of 'Mr Blue Sky') rather than let the sample run in it's entirety unchanged - Guns of Brixton gets away with it as it's all bassline anyway :) Looking forward to hearing some of their own stuff in the future.

The Mark Out Blog

Deaf in the Family, For Those About to Rock (Self-released). Holy lawsuit waiting to happen: If Biz Markie took sampling an inch, this Brooklyn crew has taken it to another continent. Rapping over large, chopped-up sections of reimagined classic rock tunes, the group turns Neil Young's "Southern Man" into a head-noddin' homage to the Dirty South. Download this gem before litigation makes it disappear (www.deafinthefamily.com). -- Herrera

-They gave us three and a half Afros! Thanks alot D.L. !

For Those About To Rock

There is a dangerously fine line one treads between paying homage to artists of old and heavy-handing borrowing to the point of trite imitation. The use of classic tunes to craft new landscapes is a practice deeply rooted in Hip Hop musics sampling. In recent time, the trend took new shape and perhaps exploded prematurely with the Mash-Up/Remix LPs of seemingly limitless versions of Jay-Zs last release, The Black Album. The most famous or infamous of those mash-ups was the Dangermouse-led Grey Album; the producer expertly employed many classic samples from The Beatles catalogue, most notably The White Album. Of course, what with sampling laws and such, that project quickly saw a legally mandated end. Other times the results werent so ear-pleasing, as with beat smith Madlib and his remakes of Stevie Wonders hits and additionally his raiding of Blue Notes jazz tunes which were updated to current Hip Hop standards none as dazzling as the original.

Deaf In The Family, consisting of production team The Resource and former Makin Records fixture Scavone, have successfully put a new boost in the Mash-Up game with their download-only release For Those About To Rock. Instead of deviating away from the thematic scope of the original 1970s rock recordings which make up the frame of each track, lead MC Scavone and a list of guests give the older songs a refreshing update. The CD leads off with One Of Those Nights from The Eagles and The Resource take full advantage of using as much sample as possible for the track while the emcees Scavone, Baron and Ill Tarzan make an amicable blend. Next, the Electric Light Orchestras Mr. Blue Sky gets an update and features Scavone with The El Diablo Choir again using a large part of the original, driving track. Scavones bouncy cadence and the loud but well timed chorus bring the song home. A surprising track is the update to The Whos Who Are You featuring Scavone, Bad Seed and Pumpkinhead the track has an almost southern crunk appeal, that is until the hook comes in, and all three MCs display their A-game with The Resource adding all sorts of necessarily dramatic elements throughout the track.

With sampled acts such as The Carpenters, The Clash and even David Bowie, the tracks are well done and should inspire fans new to the rock bands to seek out more of their work. The CDs standout track features Houstons Bavu Blakes, who updates Neil Youngs classic Southern Man, who should be getting a lot more shine after this. Some songs tend to drag in parts due to The Resource stretching out the samples a bit. However, this is one of the best free CD downloads youre due to encounter and Deaf In The Family totally delivers.

Right now Deaf In the Family is on the upswing...We are going to college radio HARD, the press is slowly seeping in, and people just keep making copies for their friends. We love it!! Thanks to all of our friends here on myspace.

Now here it is. Go to : Deaf In The Family Website
Sign up for the mailing list
Then you will get a link sent to you to get the whole album FREE!!
We promise no spam, we will never give anyone your email address.
We just want to keep y'all updated and make sure you get the music free
The original artists turned us down, so we have no choice
Fuck it. Their loss is your gain
Enjoy!
DJ.Sae.One

More Reviews....

Full album download! I first heard a bit of this thing on Scissorkick, so all respect due to them for the notice. Deaf in the Family appear to be a super group of producers The Resource and a whole mess of top notch underground MCs that are seriously bringing the game on this. I hope these guys all go somewhere huge. For Those About To Rock is a full promo style album in which The Resource impeccably remix classic rock favorites from The Who, The Eagles, Bowie, Stranglers, Neil Young, among others. Un-fucking-real at times, what really rams this home are the original vocals on each track. Smart, deep, and inventive, the MCs live up to the seriously insanely good classic rock remixes. Southern Man has long long been one of my favorite Neil Young songs, and this Dungeon Family style take on it is utter perfection. Plus, The Resource are terribly nice guys it seems. They hooked me up with a link to the full album within a day of my fanboyish email to them, and told me to pass it around. Check this out! Guaranteed to make people talk, parties go nuts, and your dad to tap his foot under the table.

Craziness...

wednesday, may 24, 2006

Deaf In the Family


Don't you just love those moments of "how did I not know that existed" illumination? That's how I felt the first time I listened to this brand new promo CD for Deaf in the Family titled For Those About to Rock, an unreal collaboration from Brookyn production team The Resource (DJ Sae One and Adam Podrat aka Mr. Ling) and a host of underground MCs including Scavone, Bavu Blakes, Pumpkinhead and more. Their 10-song promo CD features remixes of classic rock tracks -- from The Clash's "Guns of Brixton" to The Who's "Who Are You", flipped with total professionalism. There is no way they cleared these tracks and I imagine this is just an APB put out in advance of the proper Deaf in the Family record to be released later this year. I posted a really intelligent reworking of Neil Young's "Southern Man" that utilizes its familiar and totally remix-ready angular guitar/drums break. Like the Joe Beats Experiment the quality of the production easily distances this stuff from the crowded remix/mash-up section at your local vinyl emporium. These are gifted studio guys who are ready to bring it. Obviously eclectic and open-minded, try and get your hands on this entire disc if you can. It's that good.


Scissorkick.com

I'm gonna start posting any reviews I can find...Enjoy and spread the word!!!

DEAF IN THE FAMILY For Those About To Rock

Its hard to approach any album that steals its title from an AC/DC song (especially if its resurrected as a catch phrase in a recent Jack Black movie) very seriously. Its hard to approach a rap album that bases all of its tracks off of samples from classic 70s tunes without skepticism. And yet, somehow, Deaf In The Family has made an album that should be ridiculous, ridiculously good. The Brooklyn collective has actually integrated their samples and rhymes to expand the songs and enhance their statements. The Clashs Guns of Brixton becomes Guns of Brooklyn, Neil Youngs Southern Man turns into a reflection on the divide between cultures within the US, and The Carpenters Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft becomessomething Karen Carpenter never expected. But its okay, because it sounds really freakin cool.

Amanda Farah - CMJ online