thirteen ways

Hybrid Groove Project (aka Brian Sacawa and DJ Dubble8) has created a self-proclaimed

number one summer jam, HGP Anthem. In the grand tradition of the great hip-hop conflicts like Tupac v. Biggie Smalls, Dr. Dre v. Eazy-E, and 50 Cent v. Kanye West, “HGP Anthem” brings some much needed antagonism to a new music genre more accustomed to passive aggressive behind-the-back cattiness than drive-bys and street corner stompings.

(Yeah, not a lot of drive by shootings in the polite, liberal, middle-class world of American new music ensembles. I gather Europe has its own “new music mafia,” and I love to imagine them all equipped with black suits and semi automatics. The Ensemble Modern folks would cruise the streets of Paris waiting for Pierre Boulez to show his face…)

In HGP Anthem (posted with the skit “we need more beef”), the Baltimore-based Hybrid Groove folks parody the ICE ensemble (”Berio… Sound original? Nope!”), So Percussion (”So Perussion! So what?!”), Bang on a Can (”We ain’t a flash in the pan, like Bang On A Can”), Alarm Will Sound (”Call Aphex Twin he’d know what’s down in that town. Nah, he wouldn’t hang with people like that…”), Kronos (”West coast! Kronos! Pimpin’ all kinds of cheap tricks”) and many others.

The 8bb verse:

eighth blackbird we can play your music backward
Then chop it up and serve it to you 13 Ways!
Y’all stuck on Kronos carbon copy new music cliches
Straight pimpin’ Fred Rzewski for that Grammy mo-NAY.

I was rolling around on the floor laughing, but damn if they didn’t sink the knife in!

8bb used to be majority vegetarian. Clearly our current position as 5-1 carnivores hasn’t yet equipped us with enough “beef” for these folks…