Goldie came up in New Orleans, feeding on bounce and standard jazz. For five years in the early nineties, he ran a show called Bumrush on local TV. He released a solo EP. As if sensing that the wack tanks of the NO Limit army were about to roll in, Goldie jetted to NY in '96. Since then, he's been a unifying force in the underground.
I'd seen Myself around for weeks. Every joint I rolled up in there was this dread, smiling, always smiling, giving pounds to everyone. You tend to notice smiling cats in NYC, where everyone else tries to ice-grille it with a scowl. Especially hip-hop heads. Always mad at something. Mad at the club, the dj, the emcee, something. But this cat was always rockin' a smile.
> After a few weeks of trying to hook up here and there we finally decided to get up in Times Square. Where better to talk roots rock hip-hop than the epicenter of the corporate world. It's like we infiltrating I said as we parlayed, yeah, we like the germ that's gonna kill this giant. He replied smiling...
> What are you doing right now?
I have my own company New Millennium Music. We're the founders of the Black Roots Festival.
> What's that all about?
It's about a mission I'm on to elevate people. To bring culture back into hip-hop. I'm setting a foundation for real expression. It's a place for people to come and make a positive contribution, whatever that may be.
> Who's down?
Black Roots Festival I at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe featured Dead Prez and Last Poets. Festival II at the Rebar was a celebration of Women and had Jessica Care Moore and Rha Goddess doing they thing. Series III featured ill conscious underground cats like Faceless Rebelz, Mizery, and Gundei (an African mc), and the fourth one is going to be the Poor Righteous Teachers rippin' it at CBGB Gallery.
> What makes it a festival?
We get all types of artists and activists involved. It's meant to be an extrasensory experience. I don't want people to misunderstand me though, and label me as alternative or trip hop or experimental. On a base level everything I do is pure hip-hop. It's in all the ways I express myself.> These days, it seems like everyone wants to dip into hip-hop, how do you feel about this new multi-cultural attention?
Hip-hop is global. It's great to see the evolution from the streets of New York to overseas. People have mad love in Europe. It's about whose hands it falls in to. Racial makeup doesn't necessarily matter. In black hands it can be mishandled. It's all about people caring enough to know where it came from. It's traced straight back to the oral cultures of Africa. First and foremost it's education. Entertainment should be second.
> True, how do you rep that in the way you present yourself as an artist?
When I started I used to be so abstract, so different that I wasn't reaching people. It was like I was on Mars and they was on Earth. I realized that it's not all about being the dopest emcee, it's about crying and shedding tears. I used to rhyme as Goldielox but I changed my name because I was away from me and taking this name got me back to Myself.
> The future?
The future gets bigger everyday. As the Blacks Roots Festival progresses more individuals and organizations are getting involved. Right now, they're all being broadcast on the web at 88hiphop.com in the Wordlife spotlight. I'm also filming a documentary tentatively titled In A World By Myself. I've got a live CD out with my band Missing Pieces and a studio CD due out this summer. I'm also developing a curriculum based on musical discovery that I hope ends up in the public schools. I'm trying to do everything I do in a socially responsible perspective. I'm a baby in this right now, I feel the best years are yet to come.
-Facet
