A Rainy Saturday in January with Viva Mescal, Zzay and the man once known as Johnny Greaseball

"Bankin' off this rap shit / forever with these flows and this Peyote Cactus"

             Having lived in Fontana for the decade during which I transitioned from adolescent to young adult before having lived in San Bernardino for the last decade does an interesting thing to how you understand the East Los Angeles / Inland Empire milieu...you can actually get to Boyle Heights in less than an hour from Fontana when you take the 10. A lot of people in the western parts of L.A. County think of anything east of East Los as rather “Inland” covering vast areas like San Dimas, Montclair, Pomona and others that exist in a sort of interesting limbo to those in the So Cal know. On a rainy Saturday morning in January I dipped out to Viva Mescal’s EOTR studios. When I arrived he was dragging just a bit, having had a birthday/record release celebration the night prior.

            Mescal has been my crew and I’s vision of the future of Latin L.A. hip-hop since he whupped our collective asses in a massive performance contest in West Covina in 2015 and started booking us for various shows in the year subsequent. He and his crew EOTR have kept boom-bap fresh while showcasing diverse progressive professional music in major venues with top-acts like Murs and Felipe Esparza from East Los to Europe.  One rolls up to the automated gate at their First Street studio in Boyle Heights and it feels like the Rebels on Yavin IV waving in allied freighters. After getting lost like a dweeb in their nondescript hallways Penner and other EOTR homies kindly point me in the direction of Mescal’s studio even though I’ve been here like 4 times before at least. An honest and communicative collaborator, Mescal engineers a recording of a song I’m working on produced by Yohalmo for my first solo album. Both of us familiar with these motions, we have a satisfactory set of layers within 45 minutes and have time to get some pho and visit the dispensary Zzay works at.

 "keep it to yourself / if it's negative..."

                The large pho combo is fire and Mescal dishes on how busy he is trying to achieve and represent for his city and families. He’s engineering, recording new music, making a video for every song on his new album to name just a few things on his plate. He says he’s shooting the next morning with a guy who was working an a Hopsin video while we were in the stu. His latest video, “Peyote Cactus” having garnered most of 10,000 views in the first month of it's release is a good indicator that he’s not just saying shit. “People don’t have attention spans anymore and that’s okay. You don’t gotta hype up some shit for 6 weeks before you drop it. – ‘got a project coming out’ – okay? Cool? Just give it to people. Just give it to them. No need to sit on it forever.”

              Zzay brought some sunshine into a rainy day and rolled us all a blunt while we visited her shop and caught up about video shoots and newly discovered mutual friends. She’s making visuals for her stellar new 4-song cycle producedby NugLife Solstice. As someone who’s followed Zzay from the outset of her recording endeavors I’ll always have a soft spot for the spirited growing young woman who rapped and sang her real thoughts over hip-hop soul as she found herself but the Solstice EP finds her a woman so confident in her groove that it’s a Throne now; NugLife is a wildly melodic producer but knows how to make productions that keep the performer front and center. With more upbeat ideas and spiritually conscious lyrics from EOTR's resident songstress than ever before, the EP goes down easier and more smoothly than any of her other projects, a smart snack of posi-neo-soul made with utmost craftsmanship; both artists are in their pocket.

                    Blunted back at the lab, Viva Mescal slid me a copy of his new album. Now his Weird Turn Pro LP from 2017 is a master’s class in keeping an album one coherent mood but this new album Long Live the Peyote is my favorite record from Mescal since the fevered and political Strange Rumblings in Aztlan. With swifter ease than ever Mescal bridges hip-hop posturing with grown man example setting, barring out spazzing with hook-driven songwriting, psychedelic politics with working class grounding. With beats from Rokem, Global Getdown and more, the album bangs and unfolds cinematically- Mescal’s ponderings and pontifications about drugs like lean and peyote weave organically into references to the Latin culture’s agua frescas and nopales that he grew up with. Before we parted I think we had a moment of kindred business- seeing someone in front of us who kept as busy as we did. I see it seldom and sometimes it’s nice just to be reminded that you’re not the only insane one who is trying to balance so much. He gave me valuable advice on the album he was helping me with as well as another project I have coming in the Spring and we promised to follow-up with each other about both as well as music we had mentioned to each other for listening recommendations- I’m still curious as to what he’ll think of At the Drive In, Mars Volta and No Malice albums I sent him links to.

               Greaseball from Strange People, Herbalistics, and lately Cookie World Productions has long been my favorite Inland Emcee and I don’t say that lightly. I recognize that Vision is the illest freestyler in the region, I recognize that Cam Archer’s power levels are unimpeachable, I recognize the versatility of Brandon the Wizard and the battle chops of Epyk Saga so I’m not claiming my preference is objectivity I’m just being honest about my tastes. On the way home from Boyle Heights I decided to stop in San Dimas and catch up with the man once known on the other side of the I.E. as Johnny Greaseball.

“Everybody my age learned the name of the game and I think that we all want to die”

Between the aforementioned Zzay and Greasy B, I don’t know whose journey of change surprises me more…as I type this out I think it’s Greaseball’s because Zzay’s felt gradual and step by step whereas Greaseball’s life shifts seem even more volatile. I remember hanging out with him in dusty garages and backhouses in San Bernardino and Riverside throughout 2014, 2015 and 2016. Reckless swings through downtown with his drunk troublesome exes, anxious blunts with ne’er do wells in alleys….visiting him at what many call the TrapHouse in San Dimas was different. A beautiful home sheltering a makeshift artist commune, various beanie-topped sweater-clad tall men made a veritable vegan feast in the kitchen while Greaseball and I smoked glass pipe bowls of herb in front of his computer and Xbox, showing eachother demos. Young women with their facially modified friends brought in cannabis cannisters and twelve-packs of Stella Artois. One such person said she used to hang out with my sister in my old Fontana home to my stoned surprise. Grease talked about embracing progressive philosophies that he used to seem somewhat distant from when he was just a thunder-voiced street urchin battle-ready scrappy Riverside MC. On songs like “The Pain” from his new album The Alligator King  Grease shows that his values have changed- he now walks through life with a deep almost burdensome empathy for everyone’s struggles; every stanza is not a tank filled with internal rhymes designed to melt your face but rather with melancholy limerick that often devolves into tourettes like spasms of coping mechanisms for the agony of letting things stack. Even when he does spaz on this song, it’s to show a man fraying as he grasps at his values like a sweater being ripped from him and not an MC battle like display of spittery.  He grapples with the loss of his father at a young age in new ways yet compared to the hagiographic tracks about his father in his past oeuvre. Now he complicates the picture of his fallen patriarch as he discusses the struggles his mother bore for the family growing up. On “Goodybe River” he says goodbye for now to his hometown of Riverside, singing wistfully and hopefully about his current Pomona-Claremont village frequenting San Dimas-dwelling paradigm. Given the inter-genre collaborations and production company community he’s developed with Birote the Musical and other Cookie World artists, who can blame him? Rock artists and the always welcome Hepthy sound equally natural on this indie hip-hop masterpiece of an album.On "I think I do", Grease embraces the idea of free will and gets positively philosophical. Grease was fresh off of a night at the Smell in LA rocking a packed house when we caught up; also right around his birthday, like Mescal. I told him I was truly envious of his new life-art-friends arrangement. That I had long sought such a treehouse refuge in my own 20s and that I was happy he had the chance to truly enjoy and expand on such an opportunity. He gave me some kind feedback on a song I had about just those very topics. I asked him if he'd heard Mescal's new one and he said not yet. He told me a story about how he saw that his last album Happiness to Me was on a Snapchat story shared by EOTR some months back and he laughed and thought "gotcha!" as he saw the image scroll by on his feed. "Good," I thought, "Greaseball and EOTR should be hearing eachother as they are each the most cutting edge progressive boom-bap Latinos of their respective regions..." 

His new album haunts me- for me it represents working class Latinos of my generation finally bumping against the realities of the limitations of our aspirations. Here he is existing in a situation I used to fantasize about and he drops a 45 minute long document as to the inescapable pain of life when you’ve been trained to feel inadequate by a too-often too-narrow-minded society. Here he is to say the pros and cons are just as balanced in his circumstance and perhaps even more starkly and intense. His Gator-King persona alternates between being out of fucks to give and being paralyzed with sympathy for his fellow misfits and lovers. His defensiveness slowly gives way to his seeing all of our souls behind surprisingly earnest eyes.

Mescal and Greaseball are both sensitive thoughtful Capricorn poets who have built communities they’ve nestled themselves within. I relate more to Greaseball’s claustrophobic paintings because of where I am from but visions like Mescal’s give us I.E. kids an idea of what we’re looking for when we stare towards the coast and press down on the gas. I thought of both of them and the friends I’ve been lucky enough to meet and know through and around them as I made my way home, transferring from the 605 North to the 210 East, chasing the massive distant moon.

Tristan "Tanjint Wiggy" Acker is staff writer for JooseBoxx, a youth hip-hop and poetry tutor, and member of the Inland Empire nerdcore hip-hop group the West Coast Avengers. Catch more of their work at westcoastavengers.com, follow Tristan on Twitter @Tanjint or e-mail him at tristanacker@gmail.com

Wiggy Wednesdays: RiBs with Greaseball & Cuda

Greaseball - Happiness to Me 

Given that MC Lyfe, Johnny Greaseball’s counterpart in Riverside’s Herbalistics duo, dropped his album at the beginning of 2017 I found it very appropriate that Greaseball dropped his album on the very last day of 2017. Greaseball has been teasing the world for years with lots of great Herbalistics songs, Burgundy’s songs, Strange People songs, and even his own “Bad Cat EP” some years back. Throughout the years of the wunderkind’s mic mastery, fans like me have waited for an LP to quench the need for his work. One of the most zeitgeisty rappers out there, his work reminds of the Grouch, of De La Soul, of Retch and Da$h and other grimy corner kids with humble yet booming stories of the towns they’re from.

"You were born good so you let the world win"

The skits remind me and WCA's Sham of MC Chris and the Chronic albums. Grease's philosophical perspective on hedonism and existentialism is funny and well delivered; trumpeted in a monologue in the intro and explicated in the spare but stunning title track. It's for the best that he doesn't let the album get any more tripped up in philosophical dissertation because it's plenty substantial with meaty poetry and bars for days over his indie-rock infused alt-rap beats. Outside of the skits and "Nice Day", most of the songs compile his singles and releases from the last few years but it does all coagulate beautifully into a melodic and lyrical mosaic, produced mainly by him along with some notable contributions from Asend, Kordisepz and just a couple others.

"Jaime, Let's Go Get Diana" and "Brown Skinned Martha" show that there's still no one better than Grease at depicting the 3rd generation Riverside Mexican late capitalism era stoner kid milieu so unpretentiously in hip-hop form than him. It develops the down to earth relatable rapport he nurtured with listeners on Herbalistics music. "Go On & Cry" depicts Grease at his best: being irreverent, insightful, cynical, funky, and true to himself.

"Then I'll go down to the park and smoke cigarettes by little kids when it gets dark"

Even though the album goes from the disrespectful "Cypher Effect" style stomp-your-face verses of "The Sickness" and "Corny Rappers" to the sweet hipster song tinged "Rock Fights" and "Martha", it doesn't feel disjointed. It feels true to how men are here and now and I mean that in the best way such a sobering truth could be meant.

If "Corny Rappers" is his greatest fuck-your-life barfest, "Never my Love" is his greatest deep statement-about-love-in-the-form-of-a-3-minute-song poem; produced by Asend it's a masterpiece of confessional yet concise rhyming and melody. "One for Big Lou" is Greaseball's secret origin, his penultimate ode to his father, and another of his greatest works.

"Nice Day" hints at the exisentialist zen-stoner trickster Grease may be becoming in the future. The fact that he even delivered his long-awaited LP can't help but give us hope that the Burgundys, Herbalistics and Strange People EPs and LPs will come to fruition as well but in the meantime Greaseball delivered an album with a philosophical thesis which bodes well for the promise his existence has always implied; the promise of a new southwestern Latino beatnik rapper Kerouac who could spit well about the scum and sugar right outside all of our car doors.

        

Cuda- Back to the Monkey Bars

Cuda's Monkey Bars was another holiday season delight with impeccable songwriting and thought provoking content. He deploys I.E. staples and legends like Notiz Yong, CJ Simmons, Slick C, Yung Miss, D'zyl 5k1, Curtiss King, Dirty Birdy and more to great effect and absolutely kills shit alongside them. The tape balances the solo exhibitions, concept songs and posse cuts pretty ideally in my assessment.

"I'm just Cuda. I don't need the fame to get respect on my name, now do I?"

On the opening song "Just Cuda" he slyly reintroduces himself, his wary outlook on the modern world, his playful openness and soulful musicality and poetry. On "L's Matter" he goes into mind-bending yet undeniably insightful commentary on race today and not at all in the same predictable ways. He shows how complex our political discourse can get even in rap(!!) by infusing his Californian multi-cultural love with his spirituality into our society's internecine conflicts.

"Queen Me" is a Lion's roar calling for his mate and the bars and clearly communicated contractual suggestions had me bobbin' my head and nodding along in no time!

"I do it well but when it comes down to it my soul ain't for sale"

On "Soul not 4 Sale" he bars out on a banger while explaining how he balances his walk with his pursuit of artistic greatness. He is consistently impressive with the kind of discussion he can write in your mind in the confines of 16 bars. His voice is unique and his pen thoughtful. Like anyone on Uproar, he is an artist determined to not waste the opportunity to keep your attention-peep the tape from one of the calmest yet deepest Jedi I've heard on the mic.

Tristan "Tanjint Wiggy" Acker is a staff writer for JooseBoxx, youth hip-hop writing instructor with CHORDS Enrichment Youth program (chordseyp.org) and member of the Inland Empire nerdcore hip-hop group the West Coast Avengers. Catch more of their work at westcoastavengers.com, follow Tristan on Twitter @Tanjint or e-mail him at tristanacker@gmail.com

HIP-HOP @CLAREMONT COMIC BOOK EXPO

On August 2nd this last Sunday, Chris of Comic Bookie and the Claremont Comic Book & Collectibles Expo allowed the West Coast Avengers and a cadre of local and nerdy hip-hop artists to set up shop for a day in front of the comic book show in the Packing House in the Village and get down. As a member of WCA, I have to say we’ve been pleasantly surprised at the enthusiasm the local hip-hop scene has for our promotion of “nerdcore” music and culture and to curate an event like this was an unmissable opportunity for us.

So on Sunday while doing my best to get the event going, I gained a new appreciation for what Big Rob, MC Lyfe, Epyk and all the other promoters that I work with all the time do. I was heavily involved in running the West Coast Avengers' Inland Empire Strikes Back record release show in May and some others we’ve done but this was simultaneously the most difficult and one of the most rewarding because it actually turned out as good as I envisioned over-all. It almost cost me my sanity and I melted on concrete a few times but this was a dream come true to gather local artists for a nerd-themed show at a comic book expo.

Caterpillar Flight turned their opening set into primetime on Sunday with tons of 80s and 90s cartoon samples, call & response hip-hop, positive energy and humor. Their vibe is undeniable and they had the whole spot rocking with them! We’ll need them for the next one!

Nsmokiee’s distinct delivery and aggressively philosophical lyrics drew comic nerds and village onlookers alike as he poured himself onto the stage in the mid-day sun! Was great to be in Claremont with the Raw God again

King Dice & Cam Archer brought along one of my favorite nerdcore songs ever, “Eddie Brock” and absolutely destroyed it and the rest of their tracks. You can never go wrong with the thunder of Dice and the impeccable delivery of Cam.

The Herbalistics were funny and fun as always. Replacing their rascally references with the word “comic books” in the spirit of the event, making fun of each other and doing family friendly versions of some of their jauntiest songs, they never fail to entertain!

My crew West Coast Avengers had a blast during a couple live jams with RasJoshBeats padsmashing live electronic drums on the Maschine and Calmfixup playing live electric guitar and Maschine. Mr.Sham Raiden’d out to beats by Calmfixup while Tanjint Wiggy did his Han Solo song to RasJosh Beats. Much thanks to Tan of Copy Cats in Whitter for the new banner we got to debut at the expo.

Strange People bring a psychedelic nerd consciousness to their funny stream of consciousness style poetry music. It was a pleasure to see Hephty rock it and Greaseball flourish in yet another context!

Cldmkrs keep it crackin’ with dope beats, rhymes, energy and interplay. Tree, Erf and Thesis were kind enough to form like Voltron for the last sets of the event with recent favorites like Lawst, Win or Lose, Mind in Another World and more!

I learned that you have to be ready to roll with the punches while sort of curating an artistic experience for your audience. I like to think a great time was had by many and we hope to do it again asap! We could not have done it without all of the artists and crews that came out in the hot sun to link hip-hop with nerd culture for a beautiful Sunday so big shout out to everyone who came out! The packing house has this event every two months and we certainly hope to be a part of it again!

Shout out to Dean from SoCaliSounds for zoom recording the whole event! Videos with good audio coming soon!

Cameraman Javier Romero doing his thing.

Photography by Ipyani Lockert of MotivationalRealizations.com, Javier Romero, Samuel Oxymoron of Caterpillar Flight & Tristan Acker for JooseBoxx.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tristan “Tanjint Wiggy” Acker is a staff writer for JooseBoxx and member of the Inland Empire’s West Coast Avengers. Catch more of their work at westcoastavengers.com, follow Tristan on twitter @Wiggism or e-mail him at tristanacker@gmail.com.

Funny Fundamentals: a Review of Johnny Greaseball (of the Herbalistics)’s Bad Cat EP

Cover to The Bad Cat EP, designed by Joey “Johnny Greaseball” Palmerin

“You could say that Johnny GreaseBall has some character flaws.” 

Johnny Greaseball reminds me of Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk. He’s actually a really nice and rather young mild-mannered fellow but is a huge even intimidating presence when he does what he was born to do. His talking persona is unsure, humble, and human whereas his rapping persona is a beast with steel-toe boots and metal on his knuckles. This dichotomy is illustrated beautifully as the album’s opening song “Back” begins and while talking Joey Palmerin (Grease’s real name) says tentatively, “I love everything…” before Johnny Greaseball comes in and starts stompin’ shit with “I hate everybody and I hate everything…” His music is full of contradictions.

To call the Bad Cat project an EP is almost inaccurate; the album is only about 5 minutes shorter than classic hip-hop albums like “Illmatic” and Warren G’s “Regulate…G-Funk Era”. Grease’s rapping persona generally keeps topics light even as he employs incisive observations, impressive vocabulary and intelligent phrasing. His voice is low and and sonorous even as he uses a lightning quick flow that creates entertaining syncopated rhythms that remind one of a boulder rolling down a mountain. Greaseball produced most of the album’s beats himself. I am pretty smitten with the warm sounds of the drum breaks on the album. The rhythms are often simple and old school hip-hop that Greaseball makes the best of. People often say of Joey Badass that it sounds like his music was recording in the mid 90’s and I feel similarly about Greaseball.

The giveaway that it’s not is the I.E. stories he tells. He talks of Riverside or “the swamp” and his ne’er do well adventures: getting kicked out of the house by moms, being scandalous to the local girls and taking stupid risks to help friends get high. What he’s describing is a relatable Inland Empire young person’s existence. His wordy self-deprecating humor makes him an ideal representative of our lifestyle. Songs like “Hide Away”, “Back” and “On My Mind” show him spitting hard on unassuming mid-tempo tracks. “On My Mind” and “Hide Away” feature him singing over old 70s songs for the choruses.” Take a Second”, “Change Gon Come” and “Mary Jane” show he can rap fast and with concepts. “Dedicated” is a moving and honest track about young love gone wrong. “Hollow” is a Ppaacce produced banger in which Greaseball crushes almost as if to say, “look ma, my first album!”

One can’t overstate how effortless Greaseball makes his powerful poetry sound. His production is creative but for the sake of highlighting the vocals they are innovating more with rhythm than with melody. The simple melodies are part of the humor of the album. Greaseball’s MC persona insists “I’m just your everyday schlub and I happen to like rappin’.” He is a 40’s newsboy trapped in a mid-aughts Latino. He is an east coast goombah trapped in the California desert. He is a rapping hulk inside a gentle giant of a man. Be on the lookout for young Johnny Greaseball and his standout Riverside group with MC Lyfe, The Herbalistics. He’s probably the future if you little scallywags will sit down and frickin’ listen for two seconds.

The Herbalistics and the Sunny Days and Vibes comes back to Back 2 Tha Grind in Riverside on January 10th. Get Johnny Greaseball's Bad Cat EP HERE

--Tristan Acker

Tristan “Tanjint the Wiggy Woo” Acker is a San Bernardino based writer, performer and musician; he holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from California State University at San Bernardino. 

You can read his poetry at Squalorly, Inlandia, El Portal, Dead Flowers and other print and online magazines. 

Listen to his work and his work with his band the West Coast Avengers at westcoastavengers.com. 

Follow him on twitter @Wiggism or e-mail him at tristanacker@gmail.com.

The Herbalistics - I Hate Hip Hop (Music Video)

I Hate Hip Hop by The Herbalistics.... What y'all think?!