Also this issue:

Playing the Joker
Deirdre Flint talks shop and loses her religion.
-M.J. Fine

The Sound and The Fury
Matt Pond is naughty by nature (not 'cause he hates ya).
-Patrick Rapa

The BellRays
-Sam Adams

Uri Caine's Goldberg Variations
-Kyle Parker

20 Miles
-Paul Burress

Alô Brasil
-Mary Armstrong

Rainer Maria/ Mates of State
-Patrick Rapa

Beat Box
-Ainé Ardron-Doley

March 13-19, 2003

music

The Beatmaster

Isn't it about time King Britt made a hip-hop album?

by A.D. Amorosi

King Britt is as familiar to Philly as water ice, his face as recognizable as any mayor or restaurateur. As a DJ, Britt's created important scenes from Silk City to Fluid and toured worldwide with Digable Planets. He ran the Ovum label with Josh Wink, releasing funky soul, house, trance, techno and avant-ambient jams like his Sylk 130's When the Funk Hits the Fan. He's recorded with Ursula Rucker, 4Hero and Satoshi Tomiie, had songs tackled by Grover Washington Jr. and ABC's Martin Fry and remixed more electronic stuff -- from Yoko Ono to Gus Gus -- in one week than Pete Tong has in his life.

So where's the hip-hop? The pure shit?

"My previous works certainly were derived from hip-hop," says Britt from the offices of his FiveSixMedia, reflecting on how future-forward past efforts have been. "But I've always tried to make timeless music and stay ahead of the game. Sometimes too ahead. If When the Funk was to come out now, it'd be huge. It was the blueprint of Philly's neo-soul craziness, pre-Jill Scott and everything. This CD, the new one, well, this is hip-hop in its purest form."

Britt is talking about Adventures in Lo-fi, the BBE-label CD he's filled with his rugged beats, fluid funk and great guests like locals Bahamadia, Alma Horton, Grand Agent and Rich Medina, plus international playboys De La Soul, Digable pal Cherrywine and Canadian chanteuse (and Britt's girlfriend) Ivana Santilli.

Always busy, Britt (who starts recording both the final spaciest chapter in the Sylk 130 trilogy and the full-length Scuba collaboration with Vikter Duplaix in April) just hasn't had time to make a hip-hop CD.

At 34, the "producer/CEO/father/DJ/model" has been hard at work starting his FiveSixMedia Corp. and his new label, Footprintz. Started in 1994 solely as a production company meant to oversee his remix industry (most recently for Larry Gold, John Digweed and Uzoamaka), FiveSix has blossomed into a minor multimedia company with full-time division heads doing music consulting for Gyro and Stephen Starr as well as international clients like LA Eyeworks (for whom Britt has modeled and done sound-installation projects) and EMagic. "We deal with lifestyle marketing companies on the new hot tips," says Britt enthusiastically. "We dive into video and graphics, event planning and tours and a startup management division with clients like Capitol A and Philip Charles. We are just getting our feet wet." Starting in markets outside the U.S., his Footprintz label will distribute an artist roster that includes Obafunke, the Autechresque Travel Geeks and the old-school diva Jody Watley, with whom Britt collaborated on new material. "We're starting small like Matador did, from soul to electronic. But in its time."

"In its time" is the best way to say how Adventures in Lo-fi came together. While preparing a four-piece live band to record and tour his Scuba project with Duplaix, he got to talkinaprilg with pals at BBE, the eccentric, Philly-centric Brit label that provided Jazzy Jeff with a first solo opportunity for The Magnificent.

"We are all very good friends, having worked together in some capacity with everyone connected to the label," says Britt of BBE's Spinna, Pete Rock and such. "It's like a family." Lo-fi became a natural progression for the label and for Britt, who had been dying to do a straight hop-hop thing. "Now I want to do more, tons of beats, real laptop culture stuff. I would love to solely produce a Schoolly D CD, instead of him doing a guest spot."

Rather than do the MC du jour routine prevalent in hip-hop, Britt picked friends and comrades for his "dream LP." Like Bahamadia, "the ultimate MC" whose impeccable cadence and timing mark "Transcend." Or Rob Life's contribution, "Depth," wherein Ursula Rucker's main collaborator popped up with a righteous rap. ("Rob's got vision as an MC," says Britt.) Grand Agent's free-flowing "Stay Free" is surprisingly rough, a rugged rap atop Britt's dirtiest beats. ("It's distorted -- kinda Wu-Tangish.")

For the sunshiny soul-strewn "Love's Theme" Britt happened onto Lady Alma, Philly's secret weapon of song, by accident. "She stepped into the wrong studio one day while I was making the track. She heard it and was like, 'Who is this for?' When I said you she almost cried. When she wrote the lyrics and sang it -- then I almost cried, it was so beautiful. Alma is my sister," says Britt happily. "No vocalist in Philly can touch her."

Though Cherrywine's "The Sound" may be Lo-fi's most freaky-fun track, it is poet/writer/spinner Rich Medina who makes the most prosaic appearances on "Planetary Analysis" and "A Foreigner No Longer." Here Medina makes himself into a funky griot, important and strong, like Zora Neale Hurston meets Sly Stone.

"Even though he is younger, Rich is like my big brother. We have the same views on a lot of political issues and everyday shit, stuff I wanted to make sure made their way onto these tracks. We, as a musical nation, need to touch on more of these subjects because our world is really fucked up."

If Lo-fi gives you a sense that Britt loves giving hip-hop's old formulas a new twist with future-soul vision and laptop-mixing technology (which describes all but two tunes on Lo-fi) you're right on.

"I want the listener to know what you can do with technology." But by the time you hit the finale, those collaborations with Alma and Big Rich, you'll find his underlying message touches on something far more human. "Sometimes one can feel alienated in his or her own environment. Ultimately love -- of self, of others -- sees you through." That's Lo-fi's hard core.

King Britt performs Fri., March 14, 10 p.m., $5, with Rob Life, DJ Statik, Dice Raw, Miss Saigon and surprise others, The Five Spot, 5 S. Bank St., 215-574-0070.