@sukantchandan7255

2 weeks ago

MC Conrad RIP Pioneering Jungle DnB emcee MC Conrad has passed onto the ancestors at the age of 52. I wish his family and crew the very best and love and solidarity at this time. I thank Conrad for all his contributions to our Junglist culture which will live-on forever. He was still very active in the Junglist Movement and apparently had plans for performing in June onwards this year. Another great leader in Junglist has passed. When it comes to the MC culture in Junglist, Conrad was highly influential and important. Arguably, with the loss of many leaders on the mic, and the ageing and relatively tiring sound of some veterans on the mic, and despite the leadership still from people like Det, Navigator, Gen Levy, Ragga Twins and a few others, the MC culture in Jungle DnB has always kinda been disrespected and has internalised some of that disrespect in terms of the acceptance of how poor and in a way disrespectful to the culture that some are on the mic. As a young teenager getting into Jungle DnB and then by 1996 picking up the mic directly with friends which would then turn into Jungle DnB and also Garage 'crew', MC Conrad was very present and influential to us. Conrad often played with his DJ LTK Bukem, the latter developing the 'Intelligence' sound in Jungle DnB, a more ambient sound, moving away generally from the more 'Ragga Junglist' sound into a more cleaner and often more 'liquid' sound which itself would produce another category in Jungle DnB called 'Liquid', often liquid and intelligence are confused for each other and often the two sounds overlap today. There is of course the great controversy of how Intelligence and Liquid were a positive diversification in Jungle DnB but also and at the same time dynamics of white supremacy racism in catering for a more middle class white crowd and the sound aesthetics designed in that direction. All things can be true at the sametime. Being a young wannabe MC into Jungle DnB you had two basic styles that you heard: the Reggae/Ragga chat-down style which comes straight out of the Reggae sound system's of the 1980s, with many emcess coming directly out of that into Jungle like Navigator and Ragga Twins. And then you basically had a totally different MC style in Jungle of the emcees like Conrad, Dynamite and Cleveland Watkiss. The latter three didnt MC in double-time like the Reggae/Ragga style, but more half beat, more space between lyrics, sometimes even four bars between one line and the other, a more chilled and often singing style in the case of Conrad and Cleveland Watkiss. It's perhaps no coincidence that the first volumes of the Promised Land sets feature Conrad and Cleveland Watkiss. The mid 1990s saw us being massively influenced by the USA-based Hip-Hop scene that was seeing its own golden era, which itself fed into the Junglist golden era of circa 1991-2003. The MC Conrad and Dynamite's style was relatively more in that Hip-Hop direction, especially with the slower half beat riddims of the lyrics, but also with the tinge of a USA accent especially the case with Dynamite, but the collective MC culture of both styles - Ragga and half beat - created itself a new community of sound that is Junglist MCing. Me myself, my first lyrics were a mixture of both: half beat lyrics reminiscent of the Conrad style, but I would often buss into full on fast-paced riddim chat with the more Ragga-style chat. For me the two combined was the 'sweet spot', whereby you had the smoothness and clear articulation of words in the half-beat, and the hype-inducing aggressive high-paced ragga chat-down style whereby the riddims themselves in the lyrical style compliment the beautiful urban rattling-clatter-beats of the Junglist sound resulting in what I consider the greatest breakbeat and MC sound system sound when it's done in it's best form for eg the Brockie - Det - Skibba in The Fever set, or Navigator, Shabba, Det, Skibs, Flirt and Yankee on the 1996 Telepathy Step Beyond. Endless nights and days spent listening on my headphones on a tape cassette walkman or a portable cd-player (remember them?! the skips lol) to Conrad and LTJ sets in my teens into my early 20s, the spaced-out sounds of LTJ's selection with the complimentary spaced-out style of Conrad usually with heavy reverb and delay on his mic. Conrad would sing and chat in half beat, and sometimes would get a bit more hyped and chat a bit faster. It was inspiring stuff, at the same time listening to Guru and KRS, Lauryn Hill and B-Real and Sen Dog (Cypress Hill), P-Dog and Chuck D: and then putting it all together in my own way to create lyrics and skills that I am super-proud of and so much so I got back on the mic a year ago after a 20 yr(!) break. Should never have put the mic down! Thank you Conrad for being a leader on the mic. I hope those on the mic redouble their research and re-commit themselves to the best, most-informed attempts at chatting on the mic. Chatting on the mic is a great thing, something of great honour and a weighty thing that speaks to a very beautiful cultural movement of the masses: Junglist. It is something not to be violated by ignorant and anti-people chat, it's a means to love and respect, unite and uplift 'da people dem'. Study every set of Conrad from the 1990s, study EVERY SINGLE KRS, Rakim, Chuck D, Lauryn Hill/Fugees tune and album. Research, reflect, self-critique and research and reflect again all the time as you write and practice your lyrics. Keep smashing the set like Conrad did which gave us leadership in doing so. #JunglistMovement #MicrophoneFiend #SoundSystemMovement The Real MC Conrad

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