Cracka Don
NEWS   HOODMILK!
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play lo-fi play hi-fi  Lonely Customers
play lo-fi play hi-fi  Memories
Cracka*Don is the uberlyrical leader of the ChromeChomsky movement making great strides to overthrow corrupt media conglomerations and monopolies. The first step in the path to free media is to create compelling content to replace bland, empty, mind controlling sheep-herding music. In that tradition Grand.Scheme.Media is an enlightened community creating compelling content disconnected from and uncooperative with corporations or incorporation. Growing up Cracka*Don had to fend for himself coming from a broken home with only older sisters to watch his back and his mother constantly working and striving for self and career improvement he took his mother's words, "You've gotta hustle!" to heart. If only she knew what the word hustle represented to the young hip hop fiend she may have chose her words more carefully. On his grizzle from the age of 14 when he first could work he started washing dishes at a local college on weekends and winning freestyle battles on their radio station in the evenings. With his dishwashing money he bought endless 12" for the instrumentals to freestyle and write to. He also scraped up $600 to buy his first drum machine and sampler, the Boss DR-202(still in use!) and SP-202 models. By this time his under-the-table hustles had begun as well giving him a unique business sense. By 16 he had a crew, 5th Productions, working as a street team and party-rocking squad they took their area by storm. Their first event was an emcee battle held in the back of a local Chinese restaurant, The Peking Garden. The event was a major success packing the 250-capacity venue with Cracka*Don laying down some of the areas toughest competition eventually placing 3rd in the battle. That first leap of faith by the young teen led to his pursuing a street team leader position at the local club for hip hop dates. He promoted for Akrobatik, C-Rayz Walz, Afu-Ra, Non Phixion, Boot Camp Clik, and many other underground hip hop heroes. Around his 17th birthday he parlayed this position into the opening slot for GURU of his favorite group GANGSTARR. Rocking the crowd with his homie DJ Henry C of 5th Pro they tore the house down for upwards of an hour, improvising routines and pulling rappers out of the crowd to battle. A couple shows later he was rocking over world-renown beatboxer Kenny Muhammed and his right hand man Henry C strongarmed his way onto the stage to cut it up with the X-Ecutioners. Their work ethic created into a beast that hasn't died to this day. Currently working as a multimedia educator with urban youth, a diverse music producer in the Pull Up!!!!! production squad and full time hustler he is determined to bring his unique style to the music business to revolutionize and expand the vision of hip hop. Lately he has been creating a lot of rhythms with bassist Felix Fantasia as Pull Up!!!!!, using the "make something out of nothing" aesthetic to create unique sound collages utilizing a hybrid mix of sampled records, found sounds, live guitars and keyboards and an ever expanding collection of percussion instruments. His record collection is growing daily and his inspiration sprouts from his continued struggle to survive in the city while working with some of the cities most troubled youth to create positive outlets for the frustration and angst of growing up poor, outcast and brimming with untapped intelligence. Cracka*Don recently was awarded with dual-citizenship to Ireland which he plans to use for his upcoming European takeover... This multi-talented artist is at a point where he is leaving all distractions aside and using music as his main tool for fighting Babylon with pure SOUL!
Why this name?
I wake up at the crack of don and I am also the Don of all Crackers in this music industry. Can't be touched whether it's on the mic, in the boardroom, producing in the studio, or whatever it is I got the msot soul of any of these whiteboys out here, my nilla!!?$%*#?!! HOODMILK!
Do you play live?
Throughout the northeast, Boston, Providence, NYC, Brooklyn, Amherst, Connecticut and any open mic I might just pop up at any moment so watch oyur back, ya dig-it-all?
How, do you think, does the internet (or mp3) change the music industry?
It levels the playing field in terms of access and creates an immediate stream of information that is available for fans and artists alike. The internet is ubiquitous in the music industry from downloaded software and samples on the production side to downloaded MP3's on the commerce side to advertising and fan clubs and pretty much every level of the game from music production, to marketing, to promotion, distribution and general movement-building and phenomenology.
Would you sign a record contract with a major label?
Major Labels have established reputations for breaking new artists and having established outlets in the areas of marketing and distribution. However, labels have histories of messing up the lives of musicians and leaving artists bankrupt or in debt. With that said I would love to sign to a major label after establishing a relationship with a lawyer I could trust to handle my business with regards to my future and creating greater opportunities to build my brand to the point of independent power so that the playing field would be leveled from a business standpoint. Autonomy and Ownership are key.
Band History:
Cracka*Don is the uberlyrical leader of the ChromeChomsky movement making great strides to overthrow corrupt media conglomerations and monopolies. The first step in the path to free media is to create compelling content to replace bland, empty, mind controlling sheep-herding music. In that tradition Grand.Scheme.Media is an enlightened community creating compelling content disconnected from and uncooperative with corporations or incorporation. Growing up Cracka*Don had to fend for himself coming from a broken home with only older sisters to watch his back and his mother constantly working and striving for self and career improvement he took his mother's words, "You've gotta hustle!" to heart. If only she knew what the word hustle represented to the young hip hop fiend she may have chose her words more carefully. On his grizzle from the age of 14 when he first could work he started washing dishes at a local college on weekends and winning freestyle battles on their radio station in the evenings. With his dishwashing money he bought endless 12" for the instrumentals to freestyle and write to. He also scraped up $600 to buy his first drum machine and sampler, the Boss DR-202(still in use!) and SP-202 models. By this time his under-the-table hustles had begun as well giving him a unique business sense. By 16 he had a crew, 5th Productions, working as a street team and party-rocking squad they took their area by storm. Their first event was an emcee battle held in the back of a local Chinese restaurant, The Peking Garden. The event was a major success packing the 250-capacity venue with Cracka*Don laying down some of the areas toughest competition eventually placing 3rd in the battle. That first leap of faith by the young teen led to his pursuing a street team leader position at the local club for hip hop dates. He promoted for Akrobatik, C-Rayz Walz, Afu-Ra, Non Phixion, Boot Camp Clik, and many other underground hip hop heroes. Around his 17th birthday he parlayed this position into the opening slot for GURU of his favorite group GANGSTARR. Rocking the crowd with his homie DJ Henry C of 5th Pro they tore the house down for upwards of an hour, improvising routines and pulling rappers out of the crowd to battle. A couple shows later he was rocking over world-renown beatboxer Kenny Muhammed and his right hand man Henry C strongarmed his way onto the stage to cut it up with the X-Ecutioners. Their work ethic created into a beast that hasn't died to this day. Currently working as a multimedia educator with urban youth, a diverse music producer in the Pull Up!!!!! production squad and full time hustler he is determined to bring his unique style to the music business to revolutionize and expand the vision of hip hop. Lately he has been creating a lot of rhythms with bassist Felix Fantasia as Pull Up!!!!!, using the "make something out of nothing" aesthetic to create unique sound collages utilizing a hybrid mix of sampled records, found sounds, live guitars and keyboards and an ever expanding collection of percussion instruments. His record collection is growing daily and his inspiration sprouts from his continued struggle to survive in the city while working with some of the cities most troubled youth to create positive outlets for the frustration and angst of growing up poor, outcast and brimming with untapped intelligence. Cracka*Don recently was awarded with dual-citizenship to Ireland which he plans to use for his upcoming European takeover... This multi-talented artist is at a point where he is leaving all distractions aside and using music as his main tool for fighting Babylon with pure SOUL!
Your influences?
Autophysiopsychic music - Yusef Lateef. RAW Energy harnessed with deep political thought and the thumping pulse of the underground permeating through a Breakbeat Soundclash with roots in the fossils of the Ancient Ethiopian Homosapien... Drum Machines bought with dishwashing dimebag money, creating something out of nothing, poor kid percussion, electroacoustic digalog hybrid sounds... Gritty East Coast Intellectual Gutter Bangers! Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaata, Joe Higgs, Bob Marley, Blowfly, Rick Rubin, Schooly D, Big Daddy Kane, Marley Marl, Dr.Dre, Marvin Gaye, David Axelrod, David Matthews, James Brown, Peter Tosh, King Jammy, Dennis Brown, Hot Chip, Gap Band, Commodores, Ravi Shankar, BT Express, Kraftwerk, Gil-Scott Herren, Last Poets, Juice Crew, Gamble & Huff, The Roots, TV on the Radio, J Dilla, The Ummah, Native Tongues, P-Funk, Rage Against the Machine...
Favorite spot?
Dubspot NYC
Equipment used:
MPC-2000xl MCD, Pro Tools MBox, Korg x5 (80's synth), Numark PT-100 Turntable, Boss DR-202 Drum Machine (Since 14), Roland Digital Piano, Live Guitars, Live Bass, Tons of Old Records, Anything I can get my hands on, Toy Keyboards, Congas, Glockenspiel...
Anything else...?
Photobucket
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