Published: Monday - July 2, 2007
Words by Bear Frazer, with additional reporting by Vanessa Hamblin
Dirty Elegance (Photo: DirtyEleganceNYC.com)
Dirty Elegance is somewhat of an international man of mystery: he doesn't reveal too much about himself, but makes just enough commotion to leave people yearning for more. For example, Dirty Elegance can willingly (and gladly) speak for hours about issues plaguing society, but he's more mum (and sarcastic) when disposing smaller details pertaining to his hometown and age. "Born in the west, reside in the east, old enough to vote, young enough to know better," he says. "With much training within the walls of the hard knocks, I will never divulge my deep bag of secrets."
Fortunately, Dirty Elegance shows more feeling in his debut, Finding Beauty In The Wretched (released April 2007). The album mostly consists of emotional instrumentals that seem like diverse hip-hop beats with an electronica edge. Some choose to label it "Trip-Hop," as a result. Nevertheless, every track truly has its own identity, something which isn't too common nowadays.
But Dirty Elegance is more than just an artist making fresh music. This international man of mystery has strong beliefs. Aside from talking about his music in this dirty Ballerstatus.com exclusive, he sounds off on censorship in hip-hop, Don Imus and the War in Iraq.
Ballerstatus.com: You've been tagged as "Trip-Hop," but what would you classify your music?
Dirty Elegance: This is kind of funny. I wrote this album [Finding Beauty In The Wretched], as I write most my music, with genre awareness being almost obsolete. It's been labeled Trip-Hop, IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), Down Tempo Electronica, etc. I guess I've incoherently incorporated these genres, along with elements of live instrumentation and the occasional hip-hop styled verse. It's a very eclectic sound. I'm really into vocal production and am going to have more lyrically styled tracks on my next album. I'm planning on doing a collaboration with Tre Hardson and possibly a couple other emcees.
Ballerstatus.com: You seem to be a pretty motivated individual. What inspires you to make music?
Dirty Elegance: Life encourages me. Death influences me. We have such a short amount of time to touch others, to create and to inspire ... to try and understand, and to learn.
Ballerstatus.com: So how exactly did you get involved into music?
Dirty Elegance: I've always been a big fan of music. Little can stir such extreme, immediate emotional response. As a child, I played piano and picked up the sax in the 6th grade. After intensely studying jazz for about 12 years, I realized that wasn't the road I wanted to travel anymore. I packed a couple bags, moved to NYC; without a job, hardly any money, no place to live, and not knowing a soul. Circumstance lead to my first internship at a music studio where I started composing and producing, what would later become Dirty Elegance, long story short.
Ballerstatus.com:Finding Beauty In The Wretched seemed mostly instrumental. Was that a conscious decision?
Dirty Elegance: This was a conscious decision. I wanted to reach people all over the world, without any boundaries. Language was not something I wanted associated with Dirty Elegance in the beginning. I'll be browsing the net and find reviews from Slovakia, Peru, France, etc. It's reaching my intended fan base, worldwide. Also, a lot can be said for purely instrumental music -- Davis, Mingus, Coltrane, Bird, Getz, Gillespie. They never had to mutter a word to be heard, and placed into society's collection of brilliant and timeless music.
Ballerstatus.com: Can God help one find Beauty in the Wretched?
Dirty Elegance: God has helped me to find Beauty In The Wretched. I have been blessed with such opportunity and creative energy. Now, when I speak of God, I do not speak of the church. I speak from a spiritual standpoint. The church is a very controlling, confining, and manipulative institute in our society. Taking advantage of our fears, and creating such illusions. If you don't go to church, you will burn in hell for all of eternity. Now, please give as much as you can, pray for your evil, filthy sins, and be on your way. See you next Sunday. Hey, wait a minute. Weren't we supposed to make Saturday our holy day? This box stunts our spiritual growth.
Ballerstatus.com: What is your opinion on Russell Simmon's call to action (censorship)? How does capitalism play into this issue?
Dirty Elegance: I think Russell Simmons is on to something. We should censor "nigger," "bitch" and "hoe!" But, we should continue throwing millions of dollars to our crème de le crème: Where would we be without: "I pop shots hot glocks shoot through vans too / Oh boo bop blew ban boo move / And I'm fo really with this milly yo / Leave many hoes like the cereal cheerios / You into funny money / I'm raking the silly dough." - (Lyrics to "Back Again" by Juelz Santana)
Take the "hoes" out and we have some quality thought, with inspiring insight. Censorship's not the issue. It's who we place into the spotlight. If we continue glorifying sh--, then sh-- will continue. We don't need to ban anything. We need to think twice about who truly deserves, and has the right, to speak to our masses. We don't hire crack dealers to teach in our schools. Why do we allow them to teach our children through their music, and label it art? I have a very close friend who's addicted to heroin and he worships the ground Santana walks on, even going as far as to venture in "the danger zone," willingly, with hopes of not only scoring his next dosage of dope, but paying homage to his "favorite" MC's images created from bullsh-- lyrics. Plus, if we start allowing censorship now, where will it end? Whitey, wapanese, roundeye, honky, coon, crow, darkie, golliwog, flapdragon, fritz, dago, ginzo, szwab, ruskie, wop? What about slut, chicken head, skank, dime, jizz bag and promiscuous cunt? Once the censorship nutsack begins a rollin', who's to say it will ever stop. There are too many chins in the way for that to ever happen.
Ballerstatus.com: What is your take on hip-hop's accountability in the recent Don Imus debacle?
Dirty Elegance: As for Imus, he f---ed up. You can't say that sh-- in our society. Too many people with too many chips, everywhere you look. Black, white, brown, yellow, tan ...
Ballerstatus.com: What are your political views on the War in Iraq and our Administration?
Dirty Elegance: I'm a conspiracy theorist. The war in Iraq is ultimately over oil control + money = ultimate power. Our world is rolling downhill and our current administration is doing little to prevent anything negative, and everything to aid in our downward spiral. The world's climate is off kilter, icebergs floating, ice sheets breaking, more ice melting, floating away, there's over 1,065,070,607 people in India alone and that's from a July 2004 census -- it's probably closer to 10 billion by now. Species are dying, ecosystems are changing, 400,000 deaths in Darfur, 32 dead at Virginia Tech, ozone deteriorating and nuclear concerns in Korea. How many minutes do we have until doomsday? Two? It's such a shame because the world is a really beautiful place, if you just stop to gaze at it. All the life, all it's glory. It boggles my mind to try and contemplate how every living entity of this planet is essential for all life, as we know it. And when we start chopping certain pieces out of our perfectly balanced pyramid, everything else will fall. F--- Chevron, f--- Exxon, f--- Texaco, f--- Shell, f--- Nicholas Cugnot for inventing the car and f--- Henry Ford for exploiting his invention. What's the difference between a car and a nuclear weapon? I guess it's the same as a cigarette to a needle full of stupid (heroin). One will kill you faster than the other, but they will both get the job done, sooner or later.
Ballerstatus.com: You desire to inspire art and passion, and your poetry encourages awareness and self-definition. In what context or space would one normally be introduced to your music?
Dirty Elegance: I think my music can be, and is being introduced through today's standard mediums; radio, TV, and a ton of digital distribution all over the world. I'm in the process of developing my stage performance now. I would like to begin my European tour in a couple months. I'm not sure if there is one ideal setting for the listener to be introduced to my music. Life goggles uniquely very from person to person, and everybody's sense of reality is different.
Ballerstatus.com: What else will you be looking to do different this time around?
Dirty Elegance: Right now, I'm planning on releasing a double disc. One half being strictly instrumental, they other being strictly vocal. Ever evolving and weaving between genres. I'm planning on releasing this next spring, in coordination with our debut Dirty Elegance spring clothing line.
Ballerstatus.com: Is it hard being Dirty Elegance?
Dirty Elegance: It's hard to live, period. It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, life is challenging. But it's also beautiful, if you allow it to be so.
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