WKCR[Offbeat] Presents: Swarvy // Josh Hey // VHVL & MORE @ Shea Stadium :: September 8 ::

WKCR, and our hip-hop program Offbeat, are proud to announce a concert of six hip-hop artists on September 8 at Shea Stadium in Brooklyn. Over the past year, WKCR has built a relationship with young artists of hip-hop’s growing ‘beat’ scene. This concert will be a great introduction to what has been colloquially called the ‘beat scene’. The concert will feature VHVL (NYC), Josh Hey (Philly), Still Weavens (NYC), Stainless Steele (Philly), and Swarvy (Philly). The sound of ‘beat’ music is not merely instrumental tracks, missing vocals; rather, the music reveals the dynamic rhythmic and narrative ability of hip-hop’s head-nodding production. This form of production experiments with traditional time structures of hip-hop, and has sustained the practice of building beats through sampling. Josh Hey, Stainless Steele (mc & producer), and Swarvy have been a strong force among Philadelphia’s beat artists, and performed with artists Knxwledge, and Mndsgn. Stainless Steele, and Swarvy visited WKCR’s hip-hop show on April 13th earlier this year for a live performance. VHVL, and Still Weavens are among the many New York based artists who are developing beat hip-hop. Compared to the traditional instrumental, which is essentially a loop serving as foundation for a rapper, music of the beat scene frequently contains a progressive structure. Drums are not programmed to lock in a straight-ahead time, creating a human-touch quality (also known as unquantized). Songs’ time-structures may be varied throughout, and vocals are sampled for their melodic use. The beat scene of New York, has truly remained underground, despite the city being the birthplace of hip-hop. The benefit of this ignorance is that artists have been able to form independent creative projects throughout the city. This form of hip-hop has been thriving in Los Angeles since 2006. The practice of unquantized beats, and instrumental hip-hop containing vocal samples dates back to legends such as The RZA, and J Dilla. New York has supported music of beat artists, but not to an amount representative of the number of creative projects happening on the East Coast. The artists of this concert are some of many young individuals involved in an international movement broadening the talent of the hip-hop DJ as musician. Shea Stadium is located at 20 Meadow St., Brooklyn. Tickets are $8, and doors at 8 p.m. WKCR’s hip-hop show Offbeat is broadcast Friday morning 1-5 a.m. http://www.facebook.com/events/428374077205294/