Artist Spotlight: Do (Art of Fresh)

As one half of Art of Fresh (website) (along side Slakah The Beatchild (myspace), the emcee, D.O. aka Duane Gibson (myspace), has accomplished quite a bit.   After putting out a few solo EP’s, the Sarnia and Toronto bred MC was declared XXL’s “True Freestyle King” after he freestyled for 8 hours and 45 minutes consecutively, thus, setting a new Guinness World Record in the category.  Defy the Odds claims the microphone with a strong presence alongside his Juno award winning, BBE Art of Fresh Producer (Slakah), but is truly no slouch when set aside to do his absolute own thing.  His most recent project Stay Driven is already causing whispers among the international scene, and as the buzz of Slakah rises, so will the buzz of D.O- deservedly and vice versa.  KevinNottingham.com’s eA had a chance to chat with D about the state of Canadian hip hop, Art of Fresh, real freestyling, and what is truly “fresh.”  Check after the jump for the dope interview.

eA: Jumping right into things, it’s evident Canada’s hip-hop scene has gone under a massive evolution from the days of Maestro Fresh Wes to today with K’Naan, Classified and yourself, respectively. Where do you see it going within the next decade? Do you believe Canada will finally be able to strongly place itself on the hip-hop map? Has it already?

D: Canada’s at a great position right now…we’ve got artists breaking internationally, but nationally the scene is strong right now.  The thing about Canada is it’s not just the big cities… We’re on the road right now in a small town called Fernie.  It’s in British Columbia.  Fans go wild here!  But at the same time we’re looking into doing things in South Africa, Taiwan and we just licensed our record in Japan, so people are definitely responding to Canadian Hip-Hop worldwide.

eA: Fittingly, with such a universal sound, you guys (Art of Fresh) promote yourselves as a hip-hop group with a strong connection to neo-soul. How do you translate that sound and emotion to the hard edges of hip-hop? What’s the reception generally like from either crowd? Is there ever a request to lean more towards one side?

D: The dope thing about our show is that we run Art of Fresh tracks but then we also do our solo material.  We’ll go from doing a record that’s like 120 bpm and really fast to a smoothed out soul joint from Slakah’s record.  Then my newest single is hardcore Hip Hop with a down south feel.  But the thing is that the crowd always just vibes with everything.  Sometimes we do have fans that prefer either Art of Fresh or our solo stuff, but for the most part it works.

eA: In addition to adopting a neo-soul hip-hop style, you’ve also worked with the notion of house-hop; a mix of house and hip-hop music. A number of artists have received backlash for creating music of this style, (Kanye, Common, BEP, for example) failing to realize this style originated way-back-when with Bambaataa and co. How do you “justify” tracks like “Get Free” as being hip-hop?

D: Hip-Hop has always been about pushing boundaries and creating new styles, like KRS said “You’ve got to have style and learn to be original, AND everyone is going wanna diss you” He didn’t just say ‘or’ everyone’s going to diss you… he was talking about when you have something new some people aren’t going to understand it at first… or they’ll be jealous!  Especially in this age where you have millions of rappers… but it always surprised us when people say “Get Free” isn’t hip-hop… To me the essentials are there – that buttafat boombap!

eA: The track “The Thrill is Gone” denounces the flashy commodification of hip-hop culture, not just the music itself. However, seeing as hip-hop culture is constantly evolving and regenerating itself, do you believe we’ll ever regain the head of the Golden Era?

D: I think we’re there right now… The last couple of years we had a chance to open for artists like Classified, Sweatshop Union and DL Incognito.  They all do that real Hip-Hop and haven’t compromised their sound.  We saw the way crowds reacted and came out in big numbers and just showed us we were going in the right direction.  On the flip side, there are artists that try to promote that Big Willie lifestyle but really they don’t have anything poppin’ – its just a front – so I think people just start to see thru that… especially in the times were in now with a worldwide recession… you’ve got to be real.

eA: Part of being real is being original. With your case, it could be considered being “Fresh!” Being a part of a group entitled ‘The Art of Fresh,’ what is fresh to you? In addition, who is fresh to you? Lastly, couldn’t the “Art” of “Freshness” simply be hip hop?

D: I’d say the Jordans that I’m rockin right now are pretty fresh!   Who is fresh? Anyone that rocks their style to the fullest.

eA: [laughs]. Well, it was certainly “to the fullest” when you did something quite extraordinary. You’ve gained the title of ‘The True Freestyle King’ by XXL magazine after spitting for nearly 9 hours?! How??  People can barely go through a work day without yawning or needing some sort of break, but you…9 hours of freestyling? Outstanding. Explain that whole process, the build up and the conclusion.

D: I grew up in small towns so I’d be the only rapper.  So it wasn’t so much as ciphers as me just flowing for long periods of time.  My people would just throw out topics and I’d run with it.  So they joked around and said I could set a record.  When we got it officiated by Guinness it was dope cause at the end of the day that’s something I can show my grandkids.  As far as the actual day, the hardest part was the beginning cause that’s when you are thinking about the rhymes… after the first half an hour you get in the zone.  I couldn’t tell you much about the rhymes I said because I just blacked out.  When it was all done I still had a lot of energy though, I got down and banged out 50 pushups.  I was hype!  But about fifteen minutes later I passed out hard [laughs].

eA: [laughs]. Okay, with that being said, do you believe freestyling is slipping through the hands of many hip-hop artists? I mean, it’s hardly freestyling these days and more about the pre-writtens. How essential is freestyling to maintaining authenticity as an MC?

D: Nothing beats a spontaneous freestyle.  It could be your boy who don’t even rap but strings along a couple of bars and makes everyone say WHOA!  Pre-writtens are cool; it is part of the game, but what is fresh is that freestyle that is topical.  Like sometimes when I’m on the road, people stop me and tell me about a freestyle I did for them like 5 years ago… they’re quoting me lines and they aren’t huge punchlines, its just topical things that made them realize I was just coming up with the rhyme on the spot.  As a rapper, as an MC, I think you should always been able to kick a rhyme at the drop of a dime.

eA: Great answer and more than on point. Nevertheless, with that note, we’ll conclude the interview. Any last words? Give all the promo shouts and what not!

D: Be sure to check out the album Stay Driven! and look out for the new video “Bully,” it’s the next single from my album produced by Marco Polo…

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