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Bay Area Rapper Shamako Noble Blows Up the Spot
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At the hub of hip-hop
THE WIZARD BEHIND MANY LOCAL HIP-HOP VENTURES PRESENTS OWN ALBUM AT LAST
By Marian Liu
Mercury News
Shamako Noble is the Kevin Bacon of San Jose hip-hop.
The MC is six degrees of separation -- or fewer -- from the brightest lights in the local underground scene.
``I cannot tell you my story without telling a lot of people's stories,'' Noble says. ``I feel like their product.''
Noble is the wizard behind many local hip-hop productions -- coordinating, promoting and judging. And now, for the first time, he's at the forefront with his own album, ``The Return of the Coming of the Aftermath.''
The 23-year-old's first album boasts seven producers and, perhaps because of that, stretches from eclectic beats to organic rhythms over Noble's political and social commentaries. The album was scheduled to come out today but is still in post-production and probably will come out in two weeks.
``Shamako is one of the most universally appealing MCs in the Bay Area,'' says Chris Hill, one of Shamako's producers. Hill headed a popular hip-hop spot in downtown San Jose, the now-defunct Gallery.
``He's a lethal battle MC, and anyone that's excited about that aspect of rapping will definitely be satiated by those skills,'' Hill says.
With his hands spinning a lot of what goes on in the local hip-hop scene, many in the community feel that Noble's album is long overdue. ``He knows hip-hop,'' says Alex Torres, aka Sinoweed, of the San Jose samba-hip-hop band The Survivalists. ``So I'm kind of excited about him finally putting out his own album.''
Noble's hip-hop résumé is impressive. He helped create a national hip-hop networking organization called Hip Hop Congress; coordinates a local hip-hop coalition called South Bay Collective; puts on shows with local promoters such as San Jose's FunkLab Productions; DJs on KSCU, Santa Clara University's radio station; and markets the hip-hop indie label 75 ARK, now Studio 1691. He is also planning a Hip Hop Academy to teach aspects of hip-hop in downtown San Jose.
``Shamako is a community builder, networker and a good-hearted guy,'' says Jaeson Ma, a promoter who coordinates local television, cafe and San Jose State hip-hop events. ``I know his passion for hip-hop and the community has affected many young people in a positive way.''
It all started in a Fremont home that was filled with music -- from Noble's mother's taste in political poet Gil Scott-Heron, his brother's love of East Coast rappers Eric B. and Rakim, and his sister's allegiance to boy band New Kids on the Block.
While attending Lincoln High School, he and other students started rhyming circles, or ciphers, and created a hip-hop club, the beginnings of his group, Hip Hop Congress.
Then, in 1997 after performing at an import car show in San Diego, he started talking to a videographer who was taping the show.
The Congress was born out of their idea to return the art to the artists. The non-profit group holds meetings every year and has 14 chapters across the nation and even some members in Europe.
``He is like Outkast, where he does his own thing in his own way,'' says Steve Reali Robinson, the videographer who founded Hip Hop Congress and who is starting his own CD-rom magazine, ``Fourth Element.''
It was at a Hip Hop Congress meeting last year in San Jose where he met hip-hop writer Adisa Banjoko over a raucous discussion about the cultural ownership of hip-hop. The radio DJ now acts as a mentor to Noble.
``If you're going to be a leader in hip-hop, you have to be influenced by more than hip-hop, and Shamako is one of those people, a mover and shaker,'' says Banjoko, co-author of ``Chicken Soup for the Hip Hop Soul.'' ``He brings integrity to the local hip-hop scene.''
THE RETURN OF THE COMING OF THE AFTERMATH
What: Album by Shamako Noble
Where to get it: www.studio1691.com
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