Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi

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Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi
photograph - Janine Storm van Leeuwen
photograph - Janine Storm van Leeuwen
Background information
Origin Brighton, UK Flag of United Kingdom
Genre(s) Hip-Hop, Electronica, Folk
Instrument(s) Samples, Vocals, Keyboard, Guitar
Years active 2002 - present
Label(s) Nefisa UK
Website http://www.nefisa.co.uk

Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi (Born in Brighton, UK) is a multimedia artist and founder of the arts website- Nefisa, which also doubles as an independent media label- Nefisa UK. He is known primarily through his music. Since 2004 he has released two LP's, two documentaries and one novel, as well as appearing on many songs as a guest MC or producer. Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi has been featured in national and international magazines like The WIRE, Hip-Hop Connection, Stylus, Punk Planet, EMEL and many others.

Contents

[edit] Origins

Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi was born and raised in Brighton on the South-coast of England. His father, Dr. Nabi Misdaq, is an eminent scholar and author on the social and political history of Afghanistan and was also head of the BBC World Service Pashto Section - which he founded - for a decade in the 1990's. His mother, Arian Misdaq, also an Afghan, is a pscyho-analyst specializing in multi-cultural counseling, working with CMHS. He has an elder brother who is also an artist and English language teacher in Brighton.

Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi began making beats and music around September 1996, inspired by 90's East-Coast Hip-Hop like the Wu-Tang Clan, Nas & De La Soul, as well as DJ Shadow. In this interview he talks about the intricate method whereby he would overdub samples and/or drum-loops to create his early songs.

In 2002 he began Nefisa, which means precious in Arabic. Nefisa is an arts website run by Y. Misdaq aka Yoshi, featuring frequent updates and comment on creative, spiritual and political topics by Misdaq. It also features many other lesser-known artists who are chosen by Misdaq in order to give them, "Better exposure." Misdaq also frequently uses the website to comment upon immediate issues such as the Iraq War, the 7/7 bombings of London and the Danish cartoon controversy - for which Misdaq wrote a combined short-story and article which was spread widely across the internet in the days following the initial reaction.

[edit] Music

  • From a Western Box (March 5th 2004, CD)

His music debut, 'From a Western Box' (released on Nefisa UK) is best described as socio-political hip-hop fused with electronica and was relatively well-received by the underground press.

It was described by Punk Planet as,

"An efforletless combination of electronica, hip-hop & the stylised mood of ambient...Yoshi lays down tight tracks with smart vocal infusions and political narratives." (Sep/Oct issue #63)."

UK Hip-Hop also reviewed the album, claiming it was,

"What hip-hop always was about, appropriating and re-interpreting the heritage of the old-school."

Finally, Stylus Magazine opined,

"Yoshi comes from a world where Sergio Leone, the RZA, anti-establishment politics, Middle Eastern strife, ambient Hip Hop, Akira Kurosawa and potent skunk exist in harmony...Managing to sound both ominous and chilled at the same time, this is obviously a deeply personal record about skewed perspectives, about looking at the UK from it’s marginal areas and wondering whether you’re a part of it." (Nick Southall)

  • Flowers & Trees (May 17th 2005, CD)

Sophomore release 'Flowers & Trees' (also released on Nefisa UK) was considerably more positive and also slightly more traditional in terms of the hip-hop tracks featured. Just like his debut, 'Flowers & Trees' also contained an almost equal-split between instrumental songs and vocal ones. This album was also notorious for being marketed with a free piece of nature inside the CD-case, which online customers could choose from (such choices as white-flowers, cherry-blossoms, grass and even oxygen were available).

The WIRE Magazine said that Yoshi's,

"Art, as well as his heart, is in the right place."

Whilst also praising his

"Lateral sound leaps and abrupt left-turns."

Hip-Hop Connection's Adam Anonymous, gave 'Flowers & Trees' 4 out of 5 Stars, beating off competition from the likes of Snoop Dog with the highest rating that month.

"Brighton-born Yoshi is a real one-man DIY operation, thankfully without ever comprimising quality... Marrying DJ Shadow's aural patchwork approach with Danger Mouse's disregard for sample chiefing, Yoshi is patently enjoying complete freedom of sound... Beautiful."

Yoshi played the album tracks live on many occasions, playing in Brighton at the Pav Tav, Engine Rooms, Enigma, London in Richmond, and the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton and at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham amongst others. In November 2006 he also performed three poems at a poetry sama in RADA.

[edit] Collaborations & B-Sides

First and foremost have been his collaborations with Afghan-American Producer/MC Diamondscepter, who lent a beat and lyrics to Yoshi's debut, and also produced a track on 'Flowers & Trees', co-producing the title track. Since 2001 they have had an online fan-page purportedly run by NBA basketball coach Jeff Van Gundy, who is a huge fan of their work as a duo.

Yoshi has worked on much of his more left-field music with Mikrosopht. On Mikrosopht's net-label Godxiliary, Yoshi contributed his lyrics and spoken-word vocals to the album C-WILD (which was in turn re-used and remixed on Atom™'s recent LP 'Son of a Glitch') Mikrosopht & Yoshi are due to release a duet-album in 2007, possibly on the Godxiliary imprint. Yoshi also appeared with Mikrosopht, and fellow producer/friend MichL Bridge, on a Beatles mash-up album entitled, 'Hippocamp Ruins Sgt. Peppers'

Victrola is a producer known primarily for his work in the Illinois Hip-Hop duo Mana Republic and has worked with Yoshi on various tracks, many of which are as of yet unreleased. The only releases thus far have been the Victrola produced track on, 'The Hearing' (on which Yoshi raps) and Victrola's first solo EP, 'Flores, Nubes y Parajitos' on which Yoshi raps on the track, SubwayFN. On this track, Yoshi is assuming the personality of a flower, whilst fellow MC J-Shillz is a cloud. This EP was released on Hippocamp.

In 2004 Yoshi also remixed a song by DJ Shadow, Blood on the Motorway (No More Bush-Fires - The Life Remix). According to the press-release, this remains one of the more popular download on the official Solesides website, which features the song.

Yoshi also wrote a chorus which was sung by two-members of the Pipettes (Becki & former member Julia) for his song, When U See The Future.

[edit] Film-Making

  • Soup for Thought (2005)

A short-documentary by Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi, S. Windericxx & N. Karlsson, about a soup-kitchen providing for the homeless people of Brighton. This documentary was selected for a special screening at the 2005 Brighton Film-Festival in the Duke of York's Picture House.

  • Let the clouds of America burn Calligraphy onto my Frozen Heart (2007)

A 15-minute documentary film depicting the mental struggle of an artist in the midst of a creative block. The artist in question is indeed the director and cameraman, Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi. The film is shot almost exclusively on an Amtrak train, and we follow the director across the continent of North America as he encounters both ordinary and extraordinary people, whilst listening in to the stream-of-consciousness style narration. It was first screened at Royal Holloway University of London in March 2007.

[edit] Writing

'Pieces of a paki' is the debut novel of Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi and is being published under his real name, Yusuf Misdaq, by Nefisa UK in association with the University of Sussex press. It is set in a near-future Britain and was featured briefly in the March edition of EMEL Magazine along with a photograph of the author. Misdaq began writing the novel in 2003. It is listed on Amazon as being, "A coming-of-age and Utopian/Dystopian novel rolled into one."

The Nefisa website also features various short-stories and poems of Y.Misdaq and in the March issue of EMEL Magazine, deputy-editor Remona Aly writes, "Yusuf is also soon to publish his poetry which is most bold and experimental art form."

Misdaq is also known to favor journalistic writing on occasion and has expressed an admiration for Robert Fisk and Amy Goodman amongst others. He conducted a lengthy interview with record-label owner and musician Skiz Fernando (of Wordsound recordings) in 2003, which is also featured on Nefisa.

Misdaq has named experimental writer Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite and poet Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore as personal friends in the literary-world. Moore has quoted a comment by Misdaq on the back of his most recent book 'Abdallah Jones & the Disappearing-Dust Caper'. Misdaq has also written literary reviews for Moore's numerous works, appearing in such magazines as Illume, EMEL & online with the DeenPort website.

[edit] References

  • Magazines

Punk Planet - issue 63, September/October 2004

Hip-Hop Connection - issue 191, July 2005

The Wire - issue 258, August 2005

The Brighton Source - issue 83, October 2005

New Currents Brighton - issue 21, January 2007

Illume Magazine - issue 4, January 2007

Emel Magazine - issue 30, March 2007

  • Books

Pieces of a paki - Yusuf Misdaq (2007). Nefisa UK/University of Sussex press. ISBN 978-0955502408

Abdallah Jones & the Disappearing-Dust Caper - Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore (2006). The Ecstatic Exchange/Crescent Series. ISBN 978-0615135700

[edit] External links

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