boston progress radio

Ten long years ago, I was working as a delivery driver, passing the summer before college started up again wearing a tuxedo shirt and bow tie, drinking customers’s sodas, then telling them, “Sorry, we ran out of Sprite, do you want Poland Spring instead?” In other words, they were good old damn days. I could drive around the city - and surrounding areas - with my new license, my mom’s car, and a tape deck that worked most of the time. People sometimes ask how I got to know my way around Boston so well, and I tell them they can trace it back to the summer of 1997.

Getting sick of hearing Natalie Imbruglia and Eagle-Eye Cherry every 45 minutes on the radio, I turned to my boy A+ - shockingly, not his real name - for some music I could record onto a cassette that wouldn’t get boring through the grind of 10 hour days spent mostly behind red lights, counting out tips in coins, and looping in circles trying to find where Atlantic Ave actually starts.

A was ready for me. “These some West Coast Chinese rappers man,” he said. “Like a mix between the Pharcyde and Ras Kass - but Chinese!” A isn’t Asian, so please forgive him for not knowing that Key Kool and DJ Rhettmatic (formerly of Brotherhood Creed) - collectively known by some as Kozmonautz - were actually of Japanese and Filipino descent respectively.

Those who know, know that one of the standout tracks on their independently-released debut was “Reconcentrated,” Key’s dedication to the 120,000+ Japanese Americans unjustly incarcerated during WWII. I could write an entire post about what that song has meant in my life, but I’ll save it for another time. I’m really back in 1997 right now because I want to get to Day One of the Visionaries, the supergroup that first recorded together on “Visionaries (Stop Actin’ Scary)” off the Kozmonautz joint. In fact, they recorded the song two years earlier, but it didn’t make its way into my tape deck until 97.

Five emcees (plus one DJ) with radically different flows - but all very heavily influenced by Los Angeles - and they could have starred in every Benetton ad in the last ten years: Key was Japanese, Rhett and Dannu were Filipino, Lord Zen was Black, 2Mex was Mexican, and LMNO was a white dude. While I’m a lifelong hip hop head, there’s very few artists that make music that I would describe as “beautiful.” The Visionaries is one of them.

I’ve never had a chance to see them live, only heard from others that their live show rivals The Roots and Wu-Tang in terms of energy and ability to rock the hell out of a crowd. I randomly met Zen in LA a couple years ago, and he confirmed it: I’m definitely missing out.

So what’s a Boston-based Visionaries fan to do? The closest we can get is their videos. Below I’m linking a few of my favorites:

All We Need off We Are The Ones (We’ve Been Waiting For)
This may be my favorite music video from any artist ever. Obviously pretty low budget, but just conveys a vibe of good times - reminding us the possibilities of what music - and specifically hip hop - can do. The shit mostly takes place in a van, yet somehow there’s a real feeling of community. And check Key’s reference to the ODB Grammy speech at the end of the first verse. Classic.

In The Good off We Are The Ones (We’ve Been Waiting For)
Continuation of the “All We Need” video, as the guys come back off tour, they stop off in everyone’s neighborhood, and we get to see all their spots. Since when do you get to see the artist’s actual neighborhood in their video? There’s a real back home feel to this one too, as we see them interacting with their neighbors and families. They aren’t on some superstar shit. They tour the world, and return to the places we all return to.

If You Can’t Say Love off Pangaea
This video was about to blow on MTV2 in 2004, and some mainstream knuckleheads - whether MTV employees, industry cats, or consumers - knocked them out of the number 1 slot of most requested videos. To me, it was unheard of - a truly independent hip hop artist getting more video requests than that payola bullshit. Regardless, this video - and song - is a legitimate classic. And the concept is real simple and real dope once again. They held a barbecue and invited all their families, then put it in the video. We’ve seen barbecues in music videos before, but they usually - how to say this - aren’t so family-oriented and intergenerational. This is my personal favorite Visionaries song, and one of my favorite songs period.

Last 5 posts by giles

• Haini's Here! Haini's Here! - May 9th, 2008
• Appreciation: DJ Towa Tei - May 5th, 2008
• Playoffs? - May 3rd, 2008
• Are You Ready to Rock? (Band) - April 4th, 2008
• Hard to Escape Violence - March 19th, 2008

Tags: Appreciation, Commentary, Video.