Post by Filip on Nov 22, 2005 23:57:19 GMT 1
To some, the term is an oxymoron; for others, it's the truth of their existence. The Ghetto Supastar is the man, woman or child who pushes against society's constraints like Samson toppling the central pillars in Gaza. (The trick, of course, is to escape the temple before the wreckage, leaving the Philistines to their own damnation). There are variations on the theme --the single parent, the student juggling scholastics and a necessary part-time income, the clerical worker banging his head against a glass ceiling, to name a few. But, regardless of the scenario, one thing remains the same -- the Ghetto Supastar works towards a better self and a better tomorrow, the odds be damned.
"I'm concentrating on my artistry," says Prakazrel "Pras" Michel. "I feel like it's something I gotta prove to myself, nobody else. I need to represent, for real, as an artist. Because that's what I was first, before I got into the business."
Yes, you can tell by the way he walks that he's a business man, a ladies man; the one who pays the tax while Clef does the tracks. But seasoned listeners can also tell that the enigmatic third of the ultra-successful Fugees is a lyrical panther, the heraldic passant to Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill's lion and lioness, primed to pounce on the mic like a big cat of the Serengeti. Munitionally speaking, Pras' blasts on the mic come like a shotgun with automatic capacity. Musically speaking, he's the basso profundo in an orchestra of three, previously limited to solos in the Fugees' symphonies.
"The thing about the Fugees is, it's eclectic when the three of us get together," says Pras. "Clef is like more to the left, to the Caribbean -- a Roots type of cat and Lauryn is all the way to the right with that soulful Donny Hathaway vibe. So I wanted to keep my stuff more in the middle, more basic. I'm more like the drama side -- the party, flamboyant type of cat. My album is more geared towards the standard hip-hop: the party shit, not really getting too deep and way out there; just some flavor and simple shit that everyday heads can get into."
Significantly self-produced, Ghetto Supastar, marks the adventures of Dirty Cash, Pras' nom de rap which, like any good alias, obscures as much as it defames. And, as we have come to expect the unexpected with anything Fugee-related, the album flaunts a supporting cast which includes pop icons Natalie Cole, Elton John, Eartha Kitts, Puff Daddy, Robin Leach, Jennifer Lopez, Sting, Donald Trump, and Lynn Whitfield. None of which rap or sing.
"I think people were expecting me to go and make a bunch of pop collaborations," says Pras. "So I went the other way." "For The Love Of This" is an unrelenting freestyle assault where Pras envisions himself "walking through the desert, naked with a canteen/Smacking rappers in the face that be like 'nawhahlmean."'. "What? What?" is a minimal concoction, gilded with hypnotic effects which allude to sounds unheard. "Lowrider" is a bouncy, bountified jam, which subconsciously tips its hat to hip-hop's Southern influence. According to Pras: "It wasn't like I said, 'I'm going to make a Down South record,' but when I did that beat, there was no other way to rhyme on it."
Ghetto Supastar features dancefloor-packing joints like "Get Your Groove On" and "Watchu Wanna Do," elegant mixtures like "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" and the straight ecstasy of "Blue Angel." "Blue Angel" is about having a woman who's there for a man", says Pras. "She doesn't necessarily have to be your wife -- she could be your mother, your sister, or a good friend. I felt like I had to do a record for those type of women, who are good, solid women."
Ghetto Supastar is in essence, music to move derrieres. After international stardom with The Fugees, it would have been easy for Pras to make his entry into the current richer-than-thou tendencies that mark late 90's rap. But the album escapes hip-hop's redundant run-around of cars, clothes, and jewels.
"I didn't want to talk about my Ferrari, or my Benz, or my Range or my $200,000 ring, or my $300,000 watch, 'cause the average person can't relate to that," he says. "It's cool if I got it, 'cause it makes me happy, but why would I talk about that? It's almost like mocking somebody. It shows that you have no sympathy or no charity when you say, 'Look, I got a Benz I haven't even driven yet.' Then give it to someone who needs it. It's cool if you wanna talk about that once in a while, but it has to be in context.
"I'm not condemning what anyone else is doing, don't get me wrong," Pras comments quickly. "I'm the first one to sit down and get into that type of music, but I can decipher the difference. The average consumer, the little kids, they can't decipher that, so they take it at face value. When cats go around and talk about money and stuff, they're instilling different values in the kids, which means a kid feels he has to rob someone to get a Rolex if he ain't got the paper to get it."
Prakazrel Michel was born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to Haitian parents. Members of his family were born in Panama, so he grew up speaking Spanish and French which led him to failing kindergarten. Getting his trilingual skills straight, Pras later skipped from 5th grade, graduated from high school with a 3.8 average and nearly saw 1300 on his SAT's. "Things just came easy in school," he says nonchalantly. Math and physics were his favorite subjects. He went up to Calculus 2 in his studies at Rutger's University before running up against a brick wall with Cal 3's word problems. "They ask you, 'how many degrees is the sun if the sun is 2x million miles away," he says "It was busting I disagree."
When he saw his roommates stressed out 'til sunrise over the equations, he delved deeper into his double major of Psychology and Philosophy. Scientific Method, the logic of philosophy, built on the tenets of mathematics appealed to him. "I was fascinated by it," he remembers. "It put your way of thinking on a whole different level. Like, you don't look at this lamp as a lamp. You look at who made the lamp. You have to read and when you make your argument, you have to back it up. You can't be like 'God exists cause I grew up in church.' That don't cut it".
"I had this professor who believed that he don't exist," he laughs hysterically. "And he proved it! So can you imagine the type of shit you gotta be on in that class? I was like, 'Listen man, I just need to pass this course, man. I'm not trying to prove that you exist.' I was just trying to do the work. At the same time, I was trying to understand where he was coming from."
Where Pras is coming from, headed to and remains is Ghetto Supastardom. It's about having your cake and eating it, too. It's a blend of sensibilities that melds street credibility with pop access. It's about having a platinum Amex while keeping your ghetto pass intact.
So who exactly is a Ghetto Supastar? A cursory glance at the single's video clip gives answers: like the Wallflowers' Jacob Dylan, actress Halle Berry, the incomparable Warren Beatty, thought-provoking wordsmith Canibus, Fugee maestro Wyclef, teen songstress Mya and Wu-Tang Clan's OI'Dirty Bastard/Osirus/Big Baby Jesus. "It's like everybody is a star in their own right," Pras observes.
Pras is the CEO of Refugee Camp Entertainment and the mastermind behind the seminal video for "Ready Or Not," the harbinger of today's current big-budget video bonanza. That makes him a star. But what makes him a Ghetto Supastar?
"I feel like I can sell hundreds of millions of records and still walk down the street," he says. "I don't feel like I have to take a private elevator."
Ghetto Supastar. An anthem. An album. A way of life. Experience the dichotomy. Live the reality. Fulfill the dream.
"I'm concentrating on my artistry," says Prakazrel "Pras" Michel. "I feel like it's something I gotta prove to myself, nobody else. I need to represent, for real, as an artist. Because that's what I was first, before I got into the business."
Yes, you can tell by the way he walks that he's a business man, a ladies man; the one who pays the tax while Clef does the tracks. But seasoned listeners can also tell that the enigmatic third of the ultra-successful Fugees is a lyrical panther, the heraldic passant to Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill's lion and lioness, primed to pounce on the mic like a big cat of the Serengeti. Munitionally speaking, Pras' blasts on the mic come like a shotgun with automatic capacity. Musically speaking, he's the basso profundo in an orchestra of three, previously limited to solos in the Fugees' symphonies.
"The thing about the Fugees is, it's eclectic when the three of us get together," says Pras. "Clef is like more to the left, to the Caribbean -- a Roots type of cat and Lauryn is all the way to the right with that soulful Donny Hathaway vibe. So I wanted to keep my stuff more in the middle, more basic. I'm more like the drama side -- the party, flamboyant type of cat. My album is more geared towards the standard hip-hop: the party shit, not really getting too deep and way out there; just some flavor and simple shit that everyday heads can get into."
Significantly self-produced, Ghetto Supastar, marks the adventures of Dirty Cash, Pras' nom de rap which, like any good alias, obscures as much as it defames. And, as we have come to expect the unexpected with anything Fugee-related, the album flaunts a supporting cast which includes pop icons Natalie Cole, Elton John, Eartha Kitts, Puff Daddy, Robin Leach, Jennifer Lopez, Sting, Donald Trump, and Lynn Whitfield. None of which rap or sing.
"I think people were expecting me to go and make a bunch of pop collaborations," says Pras. "So I went the other way." "For The Love Of This" is an unrelenting freestyle assault where Pras envisions himself "walking through the desert, naked with a canteen/Smacking rappers in the face that be like 'nawhahlmean."'. "What? What?" is a minimal concoction, gilded with hypnotic effects which allude to sounds unheard. "Lowrider" is a bouncy, bountified jam, which subconsciously tips its hat to hip-hop's Southern influence. According to Pras: "It wasn't like I said, 'I'm going to make a Down South record,' but when I did that beat, there was no other way to rhyme on it."
Ghetto Supastar features dancefloor-packing joints like "Get Your Groove On" and "Watchu Wanna Do," elegant mixtures like "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" and the straight ecstasy of "Blue Angel." "Blue Angel" is about having a woman who's there for a man", says Pras. "She doesn't necessarily have to be your wife -- she could be your mother, your sister, or a good friend. I felt like I had to do a record for those type of women, who are good, solid women."
Ghetto Supastar is in essence, music to move derrieres. After international stardom with The Fugees, it would have been easy for Pras to make his entry into the current richer-than-thou tendencies that mark late 90's rap. But the album escapes hip-hop's redundant run-around of cars, clothes, and jewels.
"I didn't want to talk about my Ferrari, or my Benz, or my Range or my $200,000 ring, or my $300,000 watch, 'cause the average person can't relate to that," he says. "It's cool if I got it, 'cause it makes me happy, but why would I talk about that? It's almost like mocking somebody. It shows that you have no sympathy or no charity when you say, 'Look, I got a Benz I haven't even driven yet.' Then give it to someone who needs it. It's cool if you wanna talk about that once in a while, but it has to be in context.
"I'm not condemning what anyone else is doing, don't get me wrong," Pras comments quickly. "I'm the first one to sit down and get into that type of music, but I can decipher the difference. The average consumer, the little kids, they can't decipher that, so they take it at face value. When cats go around and talk about money and stuff, they're instilling different values in the kids, which means a kid feels he has to rob someone to get a Rolex if he ain't got the paper to get it."
Prakazrel Michel was born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to Haitian parents. Members of his family were born in Panama, so he grew up speaking Spanish and French which led him to failing kindergarten. Getting his trilingual skills straight, Pras later skipped from 5th grade, graduated from high school with a 3.8 average and nearly saw 1300 on his SAT's. "Things just came easy in school," he says nonchalantly. Math and physics were his favorite subjects. He went up to Calculus 2 in his studies at Rutger's University before running up against a brick wall with Cal 3's word problems. "They ask you, 'how many degrees is the sun if the sun is 2x million miles away," he says "It was busting I disagree."
When he saw his roommates stressed out 'til sunrise over the equations, he delved deeper into his double major of Psychology and Philosophy. Scientific Method, the logic of philosophy, built on the tenets of mathematics appealed to him. "I was fascinated by it," he remembers. "It put your way of thinking on a whole different level. Like, you don't look at this lamp as a lamp. You look at who made the lamp. You have to read and when you make your argument, you have to back it up. You can't be like 'God exists cause I grew up in church.' That don't cut it".
"I had this professor who believed that he don't exist," he laughs hysterically. "And he proved it! So can you imagine the type of shit you gotta be on in that class? I was like, 'Listen man, I just need to pass this course, man. I'm not trying to prove that you exist.' I was just trying to do the work. At the same time, I was trying to understand where he was coming from."
Where Pras is coming from, headed to and remains is Ghetto Supastardom. It's about having your cake and eating it, too. It's a blend of sensibilities that melds street credibility with pop access. It's about having a platinum Amex while keeping your ghetto pass intact.
So who exactly is a Ghetto Supastar? A cursory glance at the single's video clip gives answers: like the Wallflowers' Jacob Dylan, actress Halle Berry, the incomparable Warren Beatty, thought-provoking wordsmith Canibus, Fugee maestro Wyclef, teen songstress Mya and Wu-Tang Clan's OI'Dirty Bastard/Osirus/Big Baby Jesus. "It's like everybody is a star in their own right," Pras observes.
Pras is the CEO of Refugee Camp Entertainment and the mastermind behind the seminal video for "Ready Or Not," the harbinger of today's current big-budget video bonanza. That makes him a star. But what makes him a Ghetto Supastar?
"I feel like I can sell hundreds of millions of records and still walk down the street," he says. "I don't feel like I have to take a private elevator."
Ghetto Supastar. An anthem. An album. A way of life. Experience the dichotomy. Live the reality. Fulfill the dream.
