Deep Dickollective

Deep Dickollective played its' final show in June 2008 at Albuquerque Pride (New Mexico) in June, 2008. Thanks much to everyone for your support of us colored boys for eight wonderful years. We Out. :-) "With The Key Sissies : The Very Best of Deep Dickollective (D/DC)" (Sugartruck Recordings , 2012) is available for download at http://jubakalamka.bandcamp/com ---------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- Given the impress hip-hop has had on culture internationally, the interventions lyrically and politically of a bunch of queer Negroes is bound to have ripple effects. The point is that D/DC represents a "coming out" in hip-hop about what some of us have known for a long time: that any black cultural Renaissance needs fags. There is no cypher without the sissy - whether they appear as the abject reference of the insecure closet fagrapper or whether the fervor with which they approach lyricism, beatmaking, graffiti art, or breakin has inspirations that have been cloaked in compulsory silence. The fag has entered and the cypher is stalled. The anti-gangster aesthetic of quasi-Nationalist "conscious" hip-hoppers and bohemian MC thrift shoppers pave a space for D/DC to articulate its word play. They represent a political lyricism that does not take itself too seriously. they are the brave mavericks of a movement that some affectionately refer to as homo-hop. They are Oxymoronic "out" black queer Emcees the world says do not exist. They are the rumblings of a revolution that have for too long been silenced. Overstand? It's not that deep.

Juba Kalamka (pointfivefag) barely subsisting and living in a youth hostel following a December 1998 move to San Francisco from Chicago, takes the last $30 of his Starbucks paycheck and buys two tickets for the 10th Anniversary screening of Marlon Riggs' Tongue Untied at the Castro Theatre. Says pointfivefag: "I'd paid my rent for the next two weeks, and the two tickets left me with $3 till we got tips the next Friday. I'm thinking, I'm in San Francisco, and it's my first pride event. Do I miss this show, or go, be really broke and have something to remember for life? I'm so glad I did." An erotic poetry reading followed the screening, in which Tim'm T. West (25 percenter) was a presenter alongside strongJewel Gomez, G Winston James and Marvin K. White. Struck by the first open description of queer desire in hip hop culture he'd ever heard, Juba approached West following the reading and exchanged phone numbers. After a week or so of phone tag, the two began hanging out. On one occasion Juba was introduced to Louie Butler, who hosted a series of popular spoken word events in downtown Oakland. Juba was in the beginning stages of recording what would become his first solo spoken word/hip hop experiment "Pre/tensions", and now had the opportunity to write and perform on a regular basis in a queer-friendly context. Meanwhile, on Stanford's campus, Tim'm made his first connection with Phillip Atiba Goff (lightskindid) a Philadelphia born, Harvard grad/first-year psychology student. Says 25percenter: "In a typical sort of Stanfordish fashion someone asked me, "do you know Phill? He has dreadlocks too, but he's lightskinded" The two began commisserating around Stanford's Campus, the three finally meeting at a Stanford COHO Spoken Word/Hip Hop show. It was at this point that the three realized the intersection of their artistic and cultural sensibilities, and decided to hang out to work together. Adjourning to a music room on Stanford's campus to jam in a piano room, Tim'm and Juba rapped, sang and scatted while Phil spoke and wailed and played. They came up with the basis for 15-20 songs (a number of which have become BourgieBohoPostPomoAfroHomo), as well as the name Deep Dickollective - a tongue in cheek fun-poke at the proliferation of womanist "punani poet" enclaves in '90s spoken word circles. Encouraging responses from the public following their firts public performance during the Black Gay Letters and Arts Movement's(B/GLAM) 2000 showing Out Festival. Returning from a radio simulcast of counter-hegemonic-to-the-military/industrial-cultural-production poetry and song, it was over a double cheeseburger and chili fries that Ralowe Trinitroluene Ampu (G-Minus) brought his brand of scathing anarchy into 25percenter's operation. 25percenter was unsure with whether the young and apparently mentally unstable individual (who was dressed as the devil) was just another irrational radical or in fact, a fag. Their first encounter was not the most harmonious, but it was G-Minus' sincere passion for their art of rhyming which proved irresistible and resulting in the near immediate installment in the collective. Further encounters and performances with G Minus led the group to connect with their pivotal recording opportunity with Dub scientist Russell "ArchieSmooth" Gaddis, a friend of bassist Mitsu Overstreet, who G Minus met in a San Francisco bookstore. Thus began the process of recording the initial D/DC release, at which time the group began re-connecting with several of members their individual communities, including Douglas (Doug E) Eglin, a co-founder of seminal Oakland crew Conflama (who featured on two tracks "Straighttrippin'" and "The Ah-Ah" before his amicable departure to concentrate on solo ventures) and Oakland poet Dazie' R. Grego (Ms. Edge). In the period leading up to and immediately following the completion of "BourgieBoho" in November 2001, D/DC began securing spot tour dates in a number of local venues, as well as college and university functions around the United States. It was function that The group met Marcus Rene' Van (Mr. ManMan,The Herb With Nerve) a renowned performance poet and filmmaker,and later Jeree Brown (JBRapItUp) a poet/mc drum and bass producer from East Palo Alto. Shortly thereafter,G Minus left the group due to what could only be termed as "political and artistic differences" and continues to create music and relaed projects in the SF Bay Area. Both Brown and Van brought important individual performance histories that have been succesfully intergrated into the continually developing and evolving Deep Dickollective universe of artists,and are featured heavily on tracks from the upcoming D/DC set tentatively titled "The Famous Outlaw League of Proto-Negroes, which was released in January 2004.

All of the SF/Oakland area, colleges and conferences around the U.S. and Canada so far.Hoping to do some of Europe on the basis of the new CD's publicity. special moments? -September, 2000 our third show ever, East Bay Pride, downtown Oakland...performing "Straighttrippin'" from what would become our first CD "BourgieBohoPostPomoAfroHomo" and seeing these two 50-ish mullet dykes headnodding like backpackers. I knew we were on to something if we could move them.:) -April 2002 @ the dyke bar Meow Mix,NYC: Singing "Change" (from group memeber 25Percenter's solo CD "Songs From Red Dirt" a capella, and watching tour mate Lynnee Breedlove (of punk legends Tribe 8) crying while videotaping us from the audience. August 28,2002 Deep Dickollective is the cover story of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and internationally respected newsweekly. August 2003 Winning "Best Hip Hop Group" in the San Francisco Bay Guardian's 29th Annual "Best Of The Bay" Readers Poll. Not "best gay hip hop group". That's "best hip hop group". period.

some bands: Blackalicious,Ani DiFranco,Omar,Outside Ron Trent,Moloko,Carleen Anderson,,Mystic Journeymen, 00Agents writers: Samuel Delaney Essex Hemphill Pat parker Audrey Lorde Assotto Saint Robert Reid Pharr

SM-58 mikes on stage. SP-1200 Technics turntables, Pro Tools, ACID, the MPC60, Cakewalk.

For more info, music and merch, visit our label site, Sugartruck Recordings at http://sugartruck.tripod.com you can also buy our CD's "BourgieBohoPostPomoAfroHomo" (2001) "Them Niggas Done Went And Said" (2003) and "The Famous Outlaw League Of Proto Negroes" (2004) at http://store.mixonic.com/sugartruck http://www.agitproprecords.com http://www.cdbaby.com http://www.towerrecords.com our 7" single,"MOVIN'" is available at http://www.agitproprecords.com