The adventures of: Imadodattaz
”The A.Z. is E.R.”
Saturday, 25-11-2000, Eindhoven. In the city's deep underground you find the darkest light shining
on some en-lighting talented artists. I get on my bike, put my
MD on and my camera on my back. In my ears Mama's Gun: "Bring me water/water for my mind." It's dark and raining. It's night and I'm getting wet. A bike
with no lights with a driver with no interest in the traffic lights:
it's AQ on a suicycle crossing down town traffic. Down town Eindhoven,
the city is building and rebuilding. The new rich are back in
town: exclusive apartments raise sky high above all, even above
Jesus. A lot of floors lower is the place where it's happening, in
search of a white villa.
Melo D, INT. amd Y Skid
Eindhoven is becoming a new city on old foundations. The city's
history goes back for at least 750 years. The famous old Phillips plant De Witte Dame (The White Lady) transformed from a hardworking men's factory
plant into a classy office building with an exclusive Jazz lounge, a library and a couple of design foundations. In WWII it was bombed by the allies and served as platform for the German ACK-ACK. Under Nazi-regime the plant was forced to produce parts for the infamous U-Boots and other lethal instruments for destruction.
Next door, there is a small abandoned building, a white villa.
Couldn't find out which number, though. In the beginning, it was
a home, later it became an office and now it's re-occupied by
squatters who use it as a birthplace for music to uplift the spirits
with lethal ammo and to drop musical bombs. Soon they will be
kicked out to make room for developers who will transform the
old into new for new purposes. Eindhoven is not afraid to renew
itself. One of squatters is INT., guilty for being an Imadodattaz.
The heat is on…
His roots go way back into the era of 24K, DAMN and AK 47 fame. His fame is from the Deadly Maniacs, a group that is no more. These days he's pushing the Imadodattaz
project hard. Where Deadly Maniacs only had local fame, you see
this new project popping up everywhere. INT: "Deadly Maniacs was not really my thing. It was a collaboration
of three styles. (Shine, Silence But Deadly and INT., ed.) That is also why we broke up. This project is really
my thing, that's why I'm pushing it a lot harder."
My mobile is the doorbell and I'm getting into the villa. On the
first floor there is a room. On a table two SL1200s. "I finally got them since three months!" Says INT. who started out DJ-ing when we both were school mates
in the second class Mavo. MDs and CDRs lay across everything. A computer and DAT recorder
on another desk. One cupboard filled with records carries a micro
wave oven, nice combination. While spinning you can cook something
up. One and a half sofa is giving comfort to Brass and three Imadodattaz: Y Skid, of course INT. and lucky we can welcome a young new female talent in the Dutch HipHop scene: Melo D. A mattress on the floor and the heat is on. On in the center
of the room, one small electronic heater.
AQ: "Already stayed here during winter time?"
INT.: "No, just moved in here in past May."
AQ: "So never experienced winter temperatures in here, good luck."
From the vault
These are three artists that just met each other and started to
work with each others talent. Freshly 18 years old Y Skid: "You are busy and you start to meet people. I'm from Boxtel, a small town 25 km northern of Eindhoven. Oh, you gonna put
that in the interview? Don't mention itÖ I love HipHop but there
is none at home, so I traveled a lot to Eindhoven. If there is
HipHop, I'm there!"
INT.: "We were working together, Y Skid and me, on a track called Pick-Up Lines. The verses where done, only thing left was the bridge."
Y Skid: "We couldn't agree on the how to do the bridge. That was the perfect
opportunity for Melo D to fill in. It worked out fine."
INT: "When we just started out we already had dates for performances.
But we only had three songs ready. That made it easy for Melo
D to become a part of the crew. From that point on we just started
to make songs and recordings.”
INT.: "We had a lot of stuff. Just came up with the idea to put it
all on one tape. We made a selection of songs that fit together.
Made it a whole with interludes."
Y Skid: "So, yes. We made the tape in a certain concept."
Next to the Imadodattaz songs are songs featuring other artists
like Bras and Phat Pockets. Beats made that fit the Dodattaz are made into a Dattaz song.
Other fat songs are used for Dust Buster Production. Finished
with other artists into complete songs.
"All the way live!", says Melo D. The tape with the many interludes is a soundtrack of their daily
lives. D, the 19 year old student living in Utrecht, founds HipHop a way to express yourself. D: "Sounds boring, but it is. I like to think about what you say
and to let it flow. That it also rhymes, is there a way to describe
the feeling? It's a rush, it's adrenaline."
What is in a rhyme of an Imadodattaz? Is it: I'm do that ass?
Or…
Melo D: "The A.Z. is E.R.. In my lyrics I use issues out of my daily live.
It's not all about the appearance, it's about the feeling."
Of course it's beautiful if everything works out and succeed into
good art. But the process of creating it is just as massive.
Melo D: "What keeps me busy are subjects that I'm not able to put into
words the right way. Personal things that are a bit to personal.
Or other things that keep you busy. Ideas that don't seem to work
out the way you want to."
Bring peeps together…
INT.: "One of the purposes of this tape was to bring people together
that are doing something."
Melo D: "To reinvent yourself."
A good example of reinventing yourself is how Y Skid started out
to rhyme.
Y Skid: "I was making beats but rappers couldn't understand them. I had
to explain my beats. Often there is a producer with a beat and
a rapper with some lyrics. They just put it together and that's
that. But, for me, the lyrics have to fit in with the beat. Special
made to be one with the beat. Rappers where writting to it and
often got stuck. When I helped them out, I would say put it like
this and that. Say it in these words. At a bright moment I jumped
to the conclusion: ‘Hey this is already the sixth punch line I'm
giving away today.’”
On tape the Dodattaz are refreshing with a dirty and unclean sound.
Still, I still did not have a chance to check them out, how they
rock live. How is your Az on stage?
Melo D: " Spontaneous shit, we really broadcast our energy on stage."
Y Skid: "At least that is what here from others."
Melo D: "We really have contact with the audience. We have catchy songs."
Y Skid: "We are not looking down to our shoes when we are on stage performing."
Brass: "They have an eye for details. The show is a show, it's entertainment.
There are no moments of silence."
Every corner in the building caries it's own story. In the attic
an old Atari Computer and two airguns are laying around. And there is something that
looks like a kitchen. On the ground floor you find a video recorder
lay around in the hall way. INT: "That one is broken. Still need to be fixed." In the big room you can find some waste, monitors and a Gemini Mixer. It's a place, abandoned by old people and reoccupied by new
people. An old process of bringing forth the new out of the old.
I drive off into the night. Still raining, on my MD player Erykah Badu sings: "Bring me water for the flowers growing out of my mind." An I, I done that Jazz.
Boombox AQ
www.imadodattaz.com
imadodattaz@hotmail.com
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permission of the Publisher. ©2000 by ART12/VanderHoek Publishing. All rights reserved.
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