Nice-Styles

I really had the great chance to be with them physically while they were in the studio making the album. So, being an artist and an illustrator I absorbed his lyrics and made it more visual.

—Kid Styles

As part of my research into the music of Masta Ace, I tracked down the artist who had worked on the the Sittin’ on Chrome artwork. So, I spoke to the man in question, Kid Styles, about the iconic cover and the multitudes of ideas and themes that are in it, as well as the time of its creation. A collision of street happenings, characters, and NYC vs. LA…

It started with ‘Born To Roll’, we took a cameraman to the Los Angeles Super Show, the car show, and we basically just had him film everything that was going on. My direction was: ‘just catch everything, capture us checking out cars, and capture the girls, the cars, the sights and sounds of being in LA’.

—Masta Ace

‘Brooklyn Bass Music, That’s All I’m Sayin”

I’m presenting a paper on the music of Masta Ace at a Popular Music & Automobile Culture conference this summer. So, when I was out in New York last month I met up with Ace himself to chop it up about hip hop, cars, LA vs NYC, his musical career, politics and everything in between.

Here’s the interview from one gloriously sunny and stimulating afternoon in Hoboken…

The diversity of thought that exists in the Bay Area is staggering; it’s all different walks of life and cultures. Even though we hadn’t had the chance to travel yet, the world kind of came to us as kids. We tasted a lot of different elements and used that to create our style and what we were trying to talk about.

—Opio

Bay Area hip hop heroes Souls of Mischief were in London earlier this year, representing Oakland and the Hieroglyphics Crew at the Jazz Cafe in Camden. After a dope show I caught up with the band and chatted about touring, music, fans, and group dynamics…