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el the Funky Homosapien does every
thing big. Whether it's the conceptual
futurism of his Deltron releases, the
shimmery pop goulash of Gorillaz, or
his own outsize personality beaming through
his grin-and-spit-it solo work, there is no MC
on either coast who hams it up and belts it
into the cheap seats quite like Del. Thus, it
comes as no surprise that this legend of the
L.A. indie hip-hop scene's newest venture is a
mammoth, triple-album collection of all of his
solo output entitled Golden Era. Having just
finished up a beat tutorial with yet another
project, he is kind enough to elaborate.
“We're in Los Angeles," he explains
with a laid-back, yet guarded nonchalance.
"Somewhere in the Hills. Somewhere where
rich people live."
As for his super-sized new record, he says
that it's all about value. "Value and a chrono
logical account of what I've been up to, ya
know what I mean? Oust to keep everything in
perspective, two of these albums were previ
ously released. [Golden Era is new, but] Funk
Man was free and Automatik Statik was made
as a 'pay what you will' download. But I did
all these albums around the same time, so you
can see how everything progressed."
Lest one worry that Del's upcoming stop
over at New Earth Music Hall will be entirely
dedicated to new and unfamiliar material, he
puts those concerns to rest. "You can expect
everything that I do," he swears. "There will
probably be very little from the new project. I
got a band, the Serendipity Project, which I've
worked with for years. We're very energetic
onstage. It's somethin' to see. Everybody's
synchronized. We freestyle. We play around."
Once the subject of freestyling comes up,
all signs of that initial wariness disappear,
allowing the increasingly chatty rapper's love
for his craft to shine through. "There was
a time in my rap development where I just
thought that was what you did. There was no
writing raps down," he explains. "But when
I started writin' with [Ice] Cube, I adjusted,
started writin' my raps down so maybe I
could use 'em for somethin'. That had never
occurred to me before. It's like a jazz musi
cian improvising. It's not just, like, completely
out of nowhere. I have certain rhymes that
I've already memorized from freestylin' for
years that I can pull from, and then I just use
whatever^ around me or whatever I'm thinkin'
about to add to that. Like a jazz musician has
a chord progression that he's learned over
time, and he just knows, and he can use that
as some sort of framework, and from that
structure, he starts to improvise."
Regarding his status as a kinder, gentler
representative of West Coast hip-hop, Del
pulls no punches. "Ya know what? Hip-hop
wasn't always so serious," he laments. "Ya
know what I mean? I don't think I was settin'
out to be any different from the other rap
pers I listened to at the time, which all had
some kinda humor to 'em. Even Too Short had
some humor to him. He couldn't get away with
half the stuff he was sayin' if he didn't do it
in a humorous fashion. But the seriousness,
I think, is a fairly new development. People
gotta be super-hard, like Til kill your mama,
I'm so hard,' like they're really tryin' to con
vince you. But the real hard dudes don't be
doin' all that in their records. They're funny.
They don't wanna talk about all that [hard]
stuff, because they really been livin' that life.
But, I mean, that's just me. I just choose not
to do it like that. I got a dark side. I would
say a lot of the music I make has a dark tint
to it, but I do use humor in my music because
it's fun for me."
Never one to slack, Del has, unsurprisingly,
big plans for the future. "Deltron is the next
thing I gotta top off, and I'm also thinkin'
about a couple of other major Del albums. So,
keep listenin'. I don't know how many artists
there are out there now who still hold some
kinda love—some kinda standards for what
they do, but I definitely have high standards
for what I do, so, if you want somethin' that's
real, somethin' that ain't average, cookie-
cutter music, listen to my music."
Having warmed up from lackadaisical
detachment to full-on boasting in the course
of a 10-minute interview, Del offers a "peace
to everybody" before heading back to work.
God knows he's got plenty to do. But whether
he's freestylin' solo in an Athens club or hav
ing his cartoon Gorillaz alter-ego 3D-projected
onstage at Coachella, with Del, one thing is
always certain: it's gonna be big.
David Fitzgerald
r
WHO: Del the Funky Homosapien
WHERE: New Earth Music Hall
WHEN: Monday, May 9,9 p.m.
HOW MUCH: FREE! (21+), $5(18+)
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SINGING
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