Emcee Lynx
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Emcee Lynx is an anarchist hip hop artist from the San Francisco Bay Area in California who has achieved significant popularity and name-recognition in the West Coast hip hop and underground hip hop scenes and among anarchists and other radicals around the world.
He uses music to advocate for political and social change, and he often performs at anti-war and other demonstrations, along with fundraisers and benefits for radical causes and groups. He has also recorded songs for benefit albums in support of various groups, including the Anarchist Black Cross. All of his music is independently produced and released free of charge on his website since, according to the release notes from his most recent album, he prefers to give his music away and encourage file sharing rather than use it as a way to make money.
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[edit] Politics
Emcee Lynx's politics can be generally described as anarchist, but he also refers to himself as an autonomist, indiginist, syndicalist, and feminist; and augments the traditional Anarchist emphasis on class with a heavy emphasis on culture and history. According to interviews, his major political influences include Noam Chomsky, Ward Churchill, Emma Goldman, Peter Kropotkin, Mikhail Bakunin, Michael Collins, Lucy Parsons, and the late Malcolm X. He is a Wobbly.
Emcee Lynx's heavy emphasis on history and culture have led him to incorporate traditional Celtic instruments and melodies into his music (his background is Scottish and Irish), and he has made an overt effort to draw parallels between the colonization of the Celtic Nations (see Pan-Celticism and Modern Celts) and the colonization of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. In one of the many position papers posted on his website, he compares the ongoing oppression of Catholics in the North Irish Settler State, Palestinians under Israeli rule, Native Americans under US rule, and Black South Africans under Apartheid; and concludes that they are all manifestations of the same process.
He is also vocal in his opposition to organized religion, and Christianity in particular.
Emcee Lynx is also significant because he has been one of the most successful hip hop artists in the world in using the internet as a medium to promote and distribute his work. While other artists, notably Chuck D. (of 'Public Enemy' fame) have embraced the internet, none have been as successful as Emcee Lynx in using it to create a truly grassroots global fan base without reliance upon or access to traditional forms of mass media. In doing so he completely re-wrote the book on internet-based distribution of music and proved it to be a viable medium years before services like iTunes came online. Today a google search for "Emcee Lynx" renders literally thousands of results.
[edit] Sound and Influences
In terms of sound, Emcee Lynx is hard to pigeonhole since his sound has changed so much with each album. This is intentional, in interviews he describes his musical vision as trying to "stretch the boundaries of hip hop" as widely as possible, and is thus constantly incorporating new elements. These range from the heavy 'electronic-industrial-metal-hardcore rap' fusion on his first album to smoother trip-hop and funk influenced sounds to bass-driven 'west coast' styles. He produces most of his own instrumentals, but has collaborated with a wide range of producers in several countries. Frequent collaborators include Dub Cee, of Working Classic Records in London, England, DJ Phoney of Phoney Records in Cologne, Germany, and Kdubbs of Urban Underground in San Jose, California. The Unamerican LP (2004) also featured three instrumentals by members of the Live Oak Collective from San Jose. Regular guest vocalists include Shamako Noble, Scott Dred, and DLabrie.
[edit] Current Projects
Emcee Lynx released his fifth latest album, Living in the Shadow, on New Years Eve 2005/2006. He has also begun working with a new band, Beltaine's Fire ([1]) and continues to perform both solo and with the band.
Plans are currently in the works for a European Tour ([2]) in Summer of 2006.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Compilations which include Emcee Lynx's music
- Music For The Resistance - Circle-A Records, USA. (2002)
- No Idea Compilation - 1312 Group, USA.(2002)
- The Nonviolence or Nonexistence - Utopian Records, USA.(2002)
- Warnography - Love and Rage Records, Australia. (2004)
- Hiphoplogia: CD Anticarcelario - Libertad Anarchist Press, Spain and Chile. (2004)
- States of Abuse Compilation - Entartete Kunst, USA and UK.(2005)
- Def Sentence' - Books to Prisoners, USA. (2005)
- Apocalypse - Urban Underground, USA.(2006)
- We´re out here for them! ABC Do it Together Compilation Anarchist Black Cross, Germany. (2006)
[edit] Emcee Lynx's albums
- Soundtrack for Insurrection I (2001)
- Soundtrack for Insurrection II (2002)
- The Black Dog EP (2003)
- The Unamerican LP (2004)
- Living in the Shadow (2005)
[edit] International Reprints of Emcee Lynx's Albums
- Soundtrack for Insurrection (2002) Czech Version. Contains tracks from Soundtrack 1 and 2, reprinted as a benefit for the Prague Anarchist Black Cross
- The Black Dog LP and *The UnAmerican LP were reprinted in Jakarta, Indonesia in (2004) as a benefit for local political prisoners.
- The UnAmerican LP was reprinted in Cologne Germany by Phoney Tapes in (2005) as a benefit for "Le Sabot," an Anarchist book store in Bonn.
- The UnAmerican LP and Living in the Shadow had three separate reprints in Portugal, Poland, and Romania as fundraisers for local anarchist groups in each area in 2006.
[edit] See also
[edit] Other Anarchist Hip Hop artists
- Anarchist Academy
- Entartete Kunst
- Uncle Scams
