Paranoia, Politics & Staying Positive

Ishues Ups The Ante On His New Album Civil Unrest

originally published October 3, 2007

For local rapper Ishues, spending years in the game hasn't dulled his passion or enthusiasm - if anything, he believes more strongly in the power of hip-hop than ever before.

"Hip-hop is for social change. Hip-hop is the most powerful and influential force for change among many people on this planet," he says. "A lot of people get [hip-hop culture] confused with the music, which is understandable since all most people see about hip-hop is the rapping that's on the radio or on the TV… [That's] what's being sold to them. But it's a collective culture birthed out of the ghettos and inner cities of New York. It was expressed through graffiti, deejaying, breakdancing. We get too wrapped up in the rappers - that's an expression of hip-hop, but not the only thing going on."

Ishues has been performing and recording in Athens for years, and is one of the few rappers who's been able to achieve name recognition outside of the insular local hip-hop crowd. He spent considerable time earlier this decade honing his skills at battle rap tournaments (and frequently winning) as well as performing with the now-defunct Herb and Skills collective. A debut studio album called Reality Flow was released in 2004, establishing Ishues as one of the more progressive, politically-minded performers in town.

After testing the waters with a mixtape last year called Urban Warfare, Ishues has just released his second studio album, Civil Unrest. It's a more focused release than Reality Flow: more pointedly political, more paranoid about the government's black helicopters, more personal, but it also sports less oppressive production, and the album's more comfortable and confident than his first release.

"Everything on Civil Unrest is 100-percent Ishues," he says. "I believe it all. How could I do anything otherwise? It's all me."

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Ishues says he believes that the hip-hop community needs to confront its qualities that he finds troubling. "People just want to shy away from the negative and give up responsibility, though, when the negative comes up," he says. "How you gonna sell cars but not sell the idea of being a gangsta?" If the hip-hop culture is used to sell clothes, shoes and drinks, then the image and content of the music must be influential; therefore, he says, if hip-hop is able to influence consumers positively, the hip-hop community must also acknowledge the responsibity it has with its ability to influence listeners negatively.

"At this point, everything is being sold by hip-hop," he says. "Just look at any commercial on TV, [people are] dressing a certain way."

And though suburban white kids are the by-the-numbers largest consumers of hip-hop music and culture, that's immaterial to the question of influence on the black community, says Ishues. "Yes, they're the major purchasers of hip-hop, but it's the black kids who are looking for the role models. The African-American has always been a more dependent community - white kids can escape into that fantasy world of gangsters, but can come back out to a stable foundation - not all, of course, but the higher majority. You got rappers in the hood telling people, hey, I was like you, look where I am now. I got where I am now by selling drugs."

According to Ishues, it's the rise of the coke-rap over the past several years that's to blame. "That's not what I want to promote," he says. "You have to be aware of what you're pushing, especially a false fantasy that'll lead you straight to prison. 'I got to where I was by pushing drugs, and you can, too.' Even if all that's true," and Ishues says he believes that most of these coke-rappers are elaborating or just flat-out fabricating their past, "then for every one rapper who made it that far, there are a ton of dudes who are in prison. But you know, I sold dope in the past. I know what that is, what it's like… they're convincing people that's the way out of the poverty."

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It's easy to take a stance as the shrill moralizer, sending out corny but-what-about-the-children platitudes. It's a lot harder to do something about it. That's one of Ishues' goals, though, and his music is only one aspect of that struggle. He also, along with other local artists like the spoken-word poet Life, dedicates time to mentoring local at-risk youth through social-work-styled programs and workshops. "These things are telling to young black kids, especially males, who are listening to what's sold as an easy solution," says Ishues. "People look to the rapper because hip-hop represents bucking the system and hoping for artists to put their energy into the statements."

And to Ishues, he sees first-hand the-children-are-the-future clichés and believes deeply that when presented with positive influences, kids in bad situations can turn things around. "There's nothing nobody can tell me," he says, "because me and Life and other cats work in the projects, mentoring, so we know how these kids are… a lot of these kids who want to rap think that to be succesful they have to rap about selling drugs when they ain't never even done that. They need to know that they can rap about themselves as they really are."

Ishues credits some of his desire to have a positive impact on his four children. "As I've gotten older and as my children have gotten older," he says, "I've seen how deeply affected we all are by even the small problems we brush under the rug. Whether I get famous or not, whether I get thousands of dollars or not, I have to spit what I think and feel. I have a responsibility to give them the truth as I see it."

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Citing favorites like Immortal Technique and Common, Ishues says he thinks the progressive rap movement will gain steam as listeners grow tired of the clichés and feel even more distance between themselves and the performers.

"This awakening's going to come. Everything has cycles," he says. "For the sake of argument, take a look at this Kanye West/ 50 Cent thing. Of the two, Kanye's a conscious artist more so than 50 Cent. It was definitely a marketing ploy and there was little legitimacy, but you can still see which way people swung. The people are the ones that bought the records, and they prefer the conscious artist to the gangsta artist… Everybody is really getting tired of the same old thing. The guys talking about their chains, their partying, etc. The industry is lining up. It's a real good time."

At this week's performance at Farm 255, Ishues will have copies of the new album available, and he debuts his new live backing band called The Movement (not to be confused with the beatboxing South Carolina band of the same name). "It's gonna be tight," says Ishues, "the band's really rockin'." Brennen Bennett (bass), Ryan Vogel (keyboard), Tony Delgado (drums), Lane Miller (guitar) and Harmon Hanson (guitar) provide the sounds with DJ Bulldog Purp handling the turntables.

Chris Hassiotis

WHO: Ishues N The Movement, Molasses Skye
WHERE: Farm 255
WHEN: Thursday, October 4
HOW MUCH: $5