Robin Samples speaks out on FTA

Four elements. Who embodies all of them? Really no crew that I know of that isn't completely wack. If you know a homeboy that's good at emceeing, one that's good at graf, one that's good at scratching, and one that's good at breaking, congrats. How many of them are dope? I remember a crew from the mid to late 1990's by the name of FTA from San Jose, CA. The only surviving emcee is Megabusive, and in the graf department, Pilot Rase has pursued a career in graphic design. Too bad he didn't keep rapping, he was my favorite emcee in the crew, if not my favorite emcee period. Mega's great, don't get me wrong. But as a crew, FTA embodied hip hop as it speaks to me. No, they didn't have a deejay, and no, their lyrics didn't mention any b-boys that tore up the local dance floor. But damn, they were about the art of hip hop. Sonically, FTA was the single most ghetto crew I have heard, besides maybe SFSM (also dope and directly related to FTA), with any talent whatsoever. They knew what the hell they were doing, as far as the elements of graf and emceeing are concerned. They did not know what they were doing, as far as sound quality is concerned. Since when has sound quality been an element of hip hop? The crews that have continued to produce music beyond the heyday of the underground cassette tape, have followed the trend of upping their studio equipment. I haven't followed that trend. I still record. Fuck the industry, I'm an artist. Check my songs out, and if you get a chance, I highly recommend that you cop a dub of an FTA album. Google "Full Time Artists". Maybe you can find a zip file. Probably not. Nerd. You're stuck with me and Suiside Cynicate.

Peas and carrots.
Robin Samples

5AM GRAFFITI MOVIE 2007

robin samples drunk, talking, and recordin dat new new

In my hometown of Boulder, Colorado, Radio 1190 provides AM college radio to the local community. One of its most highly acclaimed programs is Basementalism, a three hour show that features hip hop spun by local DJ's. Not your typical radio DJ's but hip hop DJ's, the kind with vinyl records. The kind who scratch and mix those vinyl records and call DJ-ing Turntablism. The show started years ago with a dedication to playing rap artists who created their music in their basements. Sometime during the Summer of 2002, the Basementalism elected a Robin Samples song their Local Track of the Week title. The song was about the wildfires going on in Colorado at the time, and its lighthearted nature was not well received by the DJ's. Nevertheless, they played it. The underground music culture has changed in the years since the show began, and nowadays the term Basementalism could be used to describe the art of how professional of a recording one can produce by spending the dough to pimp out a basement studio. If you check the website http://basementalism.mypodcast.com/ you will see that 75% of the artists played on Basementalism these days have been well established in the indy and even mainstream rap scene for many years. New jacks are lucky to receive a spot on the show, and the more professionally sounding the recording, the better chance they have to be played. My disappointment with this system is not in Basementalism, but in the culture. It's easy to make a listenable recording. Creativity is not the main factor in what sells or gets played on radio shows.

Posted here are several songs that were recorded between November 2nd and 4th, 2009 in my basement. The sound quality on the vocals is sub-par, the p's pop and the a's crack. These are home recordings on a shoestring budget. When I run into a sound quality problem, I don't ignore it, but I don't go out and buy all the latest toys to build a superstar studio. I get writing right away to up my level of creativity, and just try to do better on the next song.

-Robin Samples 11-7-2009