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Kung Fu, cars and the future of hip-hop

Gangstarr legend still touring and telling it like it is Who: Jeru The Damaja Where: Garfinkel’s When: Sunday, Nov. 23 Tickets: $25 They call him The Damaja because Jeru Davis has always been able to do serious damage to the mic.

Gangstarr legend still touring and telling it like it is

Who: Jeru The Damaja

Where: Garfinkel’s

When: Sunday, Nov. 23

Tickets: $25

They call him The Damaja because Jeru Davis has always been able to do serious damage to the mic. It’s been that way since the early days in the burgeoning Brooklyn hip-hop scene, through his years with iconic rap trio Gangstarr in the late ’80s and early ’90s and continuing with his solo projects, the latest of which, Divine Design, was released this past September.

A hip-hop legend, he continues to record and tour, making his debut performance in Whistler this Sunday night at Garfinkel’s. Lining up to rhyme/spin with The Damaja are straight outta Enfield, Nova Scotia’s Classified, indie producer D.L. Incognito, Vancouver’s Langdon Auger, and locals Mat the Alien & DJ Rosco.

Any New York rap figure has an undeniable mystique. But when Pique caught up with The Damaja before he set out on tour, the untouchable rhyme-god crumbled away. In its place was a citizen of earth who strives to keep learning and writing, to speak the truth through conscious hip-hop grooves, to watch lots of kung fu movies, and to fix his own car.

Pique:

What keeps you touring instead of just hiding out in the studio?

JERU THE DAMAJA:

I love to do shows. To me, that’s the most important part of being an MC – interacting with the crowd. That’s what keeps me inspired to create the types of records I create. It makes it fun. It makes it worthwhile.

Pique:

You’ve watched hip-hop change and you’ve been a part of the changes. Where do you think hip-hop is going?

JTD:

I think hip-hop is going wherever people take it. Hip-Hop doesn’t really have a shape. It can be or do or go wherever people take it; the audience, the performers. The possibilities are endless.

Pique:

Do you think the mainstream success of hip-hop has tried to give it a shape?

JTD:

No, not really. Mainstream success contributes to its formlessness. You have people in Poland that are into hip-hop. Slovenia, Slovakia, places you’ve never even heard of. That just adds to its formlessness because you don’t know what they’re gonna do with it. You don’t know how they’re going to interpret hip-hop.

Pique:

You’ve worked with people all over the world: Groove Armada in the U.K., Doudou Masta in France, DJ Honda in Japan , skateboard icon Chad Muska in Cali. Is this global versatility something you’ve developed or something you’ve had all along?

JTD:

I think it’s just part of my character, to interact with people from different cultures and not make it such a big thing. When some people go to Japan, they really feel American, or Canadian, or whatever. When I go to Japan, I’m Japanese, know what I mean? I’m gonna get into the culture. I’m gonna do what the people do. I think that’s what people like about me, that I’m such a normal person. And when you’re just a human being, it’s like the boundaries between cultures are erased.

Pique:

Your album Heroz 4 Hire (KnowSavage, 2000) was completely autonomous. Why did you turn over production on your latest album Divine Design (Ashenafi, 2003)?

JTD:

I’m still completely in control but the mechanical parts of it I turned over. Trying to run the label, and I’m also writing a couple of scripts and trying to direct my videos, you got to know when to delegate.

Pique:

You’re writing scripts? Kung Fu movies?

JTD:

Just regular movies: action, drama, comedy, romance.

Pique:

What directors would you like to work with?

JTD:

I’d like to direct myself. Don’t get me wrong, I would work with loads of directors. I love movies. If the whole rap thing won’t work out I’ll just be a film critic.

Pique:

Those are uncharted waters. There are lots of hip-hop artists that star in movies, but not many that direct.

JTD:

Right, so that’s where I’m trying to take it.

Pique:

On your Web site (www.thedamaja.com) it says you’re into reading. What are you reading right now?

JTD:

I’m more of an information-type person. Right now, I’m reading a bunch of manuals . I was reading a manual about cars because I was trying to work on my car, but it didn’t work out. I’m not that good of a mechanic.

Pique:

What kind of car do you drive?

JTD:

Just a regular Blazer. I get inspired to do weird things. I thought I was going to change my gas filter. My friend said, "it’s easy, you can do it." I went and got the part but I took it to a mechanic anyway.

Pique:

What’s your favourite book?

JTD:

The Chronicles of Tao. It’s about a guy who grows up in China a long time ago. His parents left him at a Taoist monastery. He was from an aristocratic family and that’s what they did so you could become cultured, so that you would grow up and get your formal education from the monks. And it just tells about his whole life.

Pique:

Is that something you’ve thought of doing? Spending time in a monastery?

JTD:

I’ve thought of it, but not as a monk, just for training.

Pique:

Anything else you want to say?

JTD:

The most important thing in life is be yourself, know who you are, try to do the things that make you feel most alive.

Catch Jeru The Damaja with Classified, D.L. Incognito, Langdon Auger, and local DJs Mat the Alien and Rosco this Sunday night at Garfinkel’s. Tickets $25, available in advance from Garfinkel’s and the Electric Daisy Internet Café.