Music: Turntable Cannibal
When he's not crisscrossing the country as Brother Ali's turntablist, Brendan Kelly still feels like he needs to keep moving.
"I leave my wife stuck at home for months on end," said Kelly, better known to underground hip-hop fans as BK-One. "So when I'm not working, I feel like I owe it to her to go off and have adventures of our own."
BK has let those adventures feed back into his work. The Milwaukee-reared, Minneapolis-based mixmaster -- back home for Ali's concerts tonight and Saturday -- just issued a fascinating, rap-star-studded disc of his own on Rhymesayers called "Radio do Canibal." The 19-track collection is built on the treasure trove of records he has dug up while traveling South and Central America with his wife.
If you think there's nothing new to be done in hip-hop, you haven't heard this album. With local beatmaker Benzilla as his co-pilot, BK piled on scads of samples from hundreds of LPs, primarily Brazilian records. He then enlisted a crew of friends (Ali, Slug, I Self Devine, Murs) and heroes (Black Thought, Scarface, Raekwon) to rap over a jungle-thick array of tracks ranging in style from bossa-nova to James Brown-ian funk to hotly blown Latin jazz.
Talking before Ali's tour kickoff in Duluth two months ago, BK smirked when asked about the legality and ethics of sampling from obscure, foreign records.
"Officially, it's 'inspired' by Brazilian music," he said, pointing to Brazilians' own knack for "cultural cannibalism" (hence the CD's title). "The things that impressed me most about records from Brazil was how open and innovative they are about incorporating all different kinds of music, everything from reggae and African music to Portuguese to psychedelic rock. They're really good at cutting all that up and making it their own thing -- which is what I've done, too."
Highlights from "Canibal" include the slyly funky and slightly acidic jams "Face It" and "Blue Balls," featuring Toki Wright and Blueprint, respectively; the dark and steamy, Ali- and Scarface-led attack song "American Nightmare," plus the rapper-less "Tema do Canibal," with its intoxicating blast of bongo drums, horns and cowbell-clanking. Local folkie Aby Wolf also shines like a seductive Bebel Gilberto in the soft gem "Love Like That."
Trained in piano and music theory since childhood, Kelly, 32, moved to the Twin Cities for college and wound up helming Radio K's first all-hip-hop show. He met Ali while DJ-ing there, and the two have been performing together for a decade now.
Two years ago, Kelly's life hit a standstill when his then-fiancee, Julie Graves, was aboard the school bus that miraculously survived the I-35W bridge crash. She suffered a fractured spine and other broken bones and has endured physical rehab ever since.
"She's doing great considering," Kelly said.
Their travels on hold for the time being, Kelly and Graves had already amassed an impressive set of passport stamps from Panama, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico. While she's fluent in Spanish, Kelly joked that one of the only phrases he needs to know in Spanish and Portuguese is, "More like this one," which he tells shopkeepers whenever he finds a record he likes.
Right back at you, BK: Mais como este.
