MALKOVICH MUSIC presents the SICKSTEENS MIXTAPE features BLX CREW ? VINYL JUNKIE CLIQUE ? OMNI ? OTHERWIZE ? SUMKID MAJERE ? BLACK SILVER of the ANALOG BROS. ? SACH of THE NONCE ? VOICE ? FAT HED and more…
CIRCULATING ON THE UNDERGROUND SCENE FOR THE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS, NOW RELEASED TO THE PRESS TO SET THE STAGE FOR THE FORTHCOMING SOPHOMORE PROJECT SLATED FOR SPRING 2009, MALKOVICH MUSIC IS PROUD TO PRESENT SICKSTEENS, A COLLAGE OF OLD SCHOOL RAP BEATS, THE FUNK AND SOUL OLDIES THAT WERE SAMPLED TO CREATE THEM, AND NON-STOP, OFF-THE-CUFF VERSES FROM SOME OF THE MOST UNDERRATED LYRICISTS OF OUR TIME.
SICKSTEENS IS LOOSELY BASED ON A WISHLIST MALKOVICH PUT TOGETHER OF BEATS BOTH CLASSIC AND FORGOTTEN THAT HE WANTED TO RAP OVER FOR A MIXTAPE. FROM THIS FOUNDATION, WEST LA-BASED DJ AND MUSIC ARCHIVIST BURNIE NOWAX WENT TO WORK, LOOPING AND EXTENDING INTERLUDES, BOOKENDING RAP TRACKS WITH THEIR DUSTY ORIGINALS AND COMPLETELY RECREATING CERTAIN BEATS FROM SCRATCH TO CREATE A SOUNDSCAPE STRONG ENOUGH TO SUPPORT LYRICS FROM END TO END. HOLDING UP HIS END OF THE BARGAIN, MALKOVICH SENT HIS ENTIRE RHYME FAMILY – THE TRIFECTA OF THE BLX, VJC AND HALIFAX ALL-STAR CREWS, AND AN ASSORTMENT OF EMCEES FROM CALIFORNIA TO NEW YORK – INTO THIE MIC BOOTH, WITH ORDERS TO COME UP WITH AS MANY VERSES AS POSSIBLE. THE RESULT UNITES THREE GENERATIONS OF FUNK ON A MIXTAPE THAT IS SO MUCH MORE: THE MUSICAL BUSINESS CARD OF A COLLECTIVE, A NON-STOP PARTY ON A DISC, AND A CELEBRATION OF THE ART OF HIP-HOP – SAMPLES, LYRICS AND MAD, MAD CREW.
JAZZ GREAT LOU DONALDSON’S “IT’S YOUR THING” IS CHOPPED AND LOOPED A LA BRAND NUBIAN’S “PUNKS JUMP UP TO GET BEAT DOWN” JUST IN TIME FOR CELEBRATED FEMALE EMCEE VOICE TO SHIMMY ALL OVER IT WITH SACH OF BELOVED WEST COAST DUO THE NONCE, WHO RETURNS WITH MAZZI OF NEW JERSEY’S S.O.U.L. PURPOSE TO BLESS “IMPROMPTU”, WHICH RE-SAMPLES THE EMOTIONS’ “BLIND ALLEY” TO ECHO BOTH LL COOL J AND BIG DADDY KANE’S INTERPRETATIONS OF THE R&B NUGGET. FAZE-O’S “RIDING HIGH”, THE SOURCE RECORD FOR EPMD’S “PLEASE LISTEN TO MY DEMO”, PLAYS HOST TO BLACK SILVER OF THE ANALOG BROTHERS AND OMNI OF BLX, WHO ALSO APPEARS WITH INFAMOUS LA BATTLE KING OTHERWIZE ON “TOP RAMEN”, A REWORKING OF “FRIED CHICKEN”, AN INTERLUDE ON FELLOW ANALOG BROTHER ICE-T’S ORIGINAL GANGSTER ALBUM. FROM JAMES BROWN, KOOL & THE GANG, ISAAC HAYES AND BILLY STEWART TO N.W.A., OUTKAST, NAS AND SLICK RICK, BURNIE BRINGS THEM ALL TOGETHER ON SICKSTEENS. AND MALKOVICH, EXERCISING HIS PEN FOR HIS OFFICIAL FOLLOW-UP TO HIS 2006 SOLO DEBUT SKELETONS, GRACES ALL 20 TRACKS.
Malkovich first gained fame in the late ‘90s as the standoffish founding member of Gershwin BLX, the Los Angeles crew known then as much for their fondness of pocket hammers, acid and petty larceny as they were for their maniac rhyme skills, impossible live shows and three albums VocabuDrab Sessions, Sunch Punch and Veganz Want Beef. An illegal immigrant barely in the U.S. five years at the time, every LAPD squad car that would roll by was another reminder of the fact that he was not on home turf. Several tours, breakups, children, jail terms and rehab stints later, ABCDEFG, MolMan, Milx, Omni and Cee Brown are the closest thing Malkovich has ever had to brothers, and the rent-controlled wilderness of the Palms section of West L.A. is the closest place he’s ever had to home. But even now, he still can’t say that he feels like he’s where he belongs. If he never does, it won’t be surprising.
Revolutions always leave some of their people floating in the wind. Malkovich is a product of two. The same year Sugar Hill Gang released “Rapper’s Delight”, he was born in Genoa, Italy – the hometown of explorer Christopher Columbus – to an English father and Iranian mother who were forced to flee Iran after the U.S.-backed Shah Pahlavi was overthrown by Ayatollah Khomeini and his supporters in a bloody February now known as the Islamic Revolution. After fourteen years of bouncing around Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, Malkovich’s family immigrated to Los Angeles in 1992, the year the Rodney King riots and Dr. Dre’s The Chronic put the smoking streets of L.A. at the center of the universe, and introduced him to hip-hop, the culture he had unknowingly grown up alongside.
Today, hip-hop is the only true allegiance for this man of no one race, no sole religion, no real homeland, able to slip into most any lifestyle – and rhyme style - with the grace and ease of a method actor, hence the Malkovich moniker. His father a linguist, his lyrics balance intelligence with soul, chock-a-block with internal wordplay and multiple layers that take repeated listenings to fully process, whether he’s laying the words hard and heavy or nimble and unpredictable. To date, Malkovich has toured all over America and the Hawaiian islands, opening for the likes of Murs of Living Legends and Fatlip of Tha Pharcyde. A student of Wu-Tang Clan, Death Row, Freestyle Fellowship and the immortal James Brown, his dusty, jarring debut solo album Skeletons, (2006, Genoa Imports), inspired Okayplayer.com to say “Had Radiohead, Portishead or any other head recorded Skeletons, it would be hailed as an ambitious attempt to push the boundaries of hip hop.” And as time goes on, the question of where home is for Malkovich becomes less and less of an issue. Because what he’s realized is that while he never quite feels at home anywhere, he never quite doesn’t either.
