Going underground

ADeeM and the hip-hop collective

by Sam Pfeifle

ADeeM performs with the Non-Prophets at the Better End, Thursday, September 28, at 9 p.m.

ADEEM: his rants cover all bases.

The last time Keene, New Hampshire, rapper ADeeM came to town he was on stage supporting local hip-hop hero Sole, with the pair calling themselves Anticon, after Sole's San Francisco-based hip-hop label.

When ADeeM (pronounced A-D-M) returns to the Better End on Thursday, he and his DJ, Shalem, will team up with Sage of the Providence-based hip-hop duo Non-Prophets. Shalem will handle all the beats for the evening -- replacing Non-Prophets DJ Joey Beats -- and ADeeM and Sage will share the stage, performing for about an hour each. ADeeM is also making an appearance on a 43-minute, 18-beat-change track called "Inter-pretations," to be featured on an upcoming album by the Sebutones, to be released by Anticon in the near future. He even enlisted MCs Alias and Adverse to lend their rhymes to his debut self-produced album, The First Few Inches.

ADeeM's popularity speaks to his talents making up rhymes on the fly, and crafting intricate lyrics, but more is at play here. Underground hip-hop has fashioned itself into freeform collectives mixing and matching performers like they mix and match their beats. The world of underground hip-hop is a mire of musical tag-teams, crews, clans, and collectives. Rarely do underground MCs and DJs stick solely to themselves as your standard rock band would, or even as the Beastie Boys and De La Soul would. Rather, they team up for their own musical purposes, adopting whichever name feels appropriate for the project, much like the commercially successful Wu-Tang Clan.

When Sole and ADeeM found themselves together, it made sense to use Anticon to describe what they were doing. "Anticon is a collective of people who are in California," says ADeeM, "people releasing music off that label [also called Anticon]." They include MCs like Doseone, Why&Odd Nosdam, and Sole; DJ Mayonnaise and the Sebutones; the Pedestrian and Alias. That's what Anticon is, both the performers and the label used to promote their performances.

"Anticon stands for a standard of music," explains ADeeM. "Anticon is like the spirit of things, and that's what Sole pushes, and we're pretty tight, so I'm all for it. I never chose to put anything out on their label, but, if I'm with them, I'll call myself Anticon." And that's that.

The same sort of logic governs Thursday's show at the Better End. Sage is the frontman for Non-Prophets, and Shalem will act much like a sit-in drummer. The work will remain the Non-Prophets', regardless of personnel changes.

ADeeM and Shalem started building these alliances when they began driving the two hours from Keene to the University of New Hampshire's college station for Wednesday night free-form hip-hop shows. Taking advantage of the same opportunity were many of Portland's Live Poets, a tight-knit group of hip-hop artists who would go on to make up much of San Francisco's Anticon: Alias, DJ Mayonnaise, the Pedestrian, and the producer Moodswing 9. "It was just a coincidence that we were there together," says ADeeM, "and we ended up forming a relationship."

That relationship, and others ADeeM and Shalem have formed, has taken them across the country and back again, including stops in Cincinnati for the Scribble Jam, an annual and legendary DJ, MC, and break-dance competition. ADeeM took home the top MC prize in '98, firmly establishing himself in the underground ranks. This year he lost in the semis, but he finds himself in good company. His current partner Sage, rapping under the name Xaul Zan, won outright.

It was during the '98 competition that Mr. Dibbs, the head of the hip-hop collective known as 1200 Hobos, took notice of ADeeM's considerable freestyle skills, and asked him to join their ranks. This collective is altogether different again from the label Anticon, or the performing group Non-Prophets, as they neither release records nor perform as a group.

"1200 Hobos were a DJ crew," says ADeeM. "They originally just wanted it to be people in Cincinnati, but it expanded. Mr. Dibbs met Doseone, he became the first Hobo that rapped. Then [the '98] Scribble Jam came around. The Sebutones gave their first performance, and they were just incredible. Dibbs made them 1200 Hobos, and then I won the battle, and he made me a Hobo, and made Adverse [a Salt Lake City rapper who shares the mic with ADeeM on his first self-release "The First Few Inches" ('99)] a Hobo. So it was just us at first who were the Hobo MCs. They made Sole a 1200 Hobo, then Alias, the last MC was actually Eyedea. It's grown to be this pretty big collective, not the tightest crew in the world."

But what are the 1200 Hobos? "I don't know of a comparable crew to what we're doing," says ADeeM. "Maybe the United Way, something like that. It's like Amway or something, connected through involvement. To be quite honest with you, I don't know anything that's similar, we're a unique bunch of weirdoes." Basically they interconnect, record with each other, help each other out. It's a sort of fraternity for the hip-hop set.

Regardless of his affiliation, ADeeM is something to behold on stage. There's no denying that he is what he is: sort of preppy, with wire-rimmed glasses, a good-boy sort of hair cut, a collared T-shirt if it's warm, maybe a turtleneck if it's cold. "I had a white T-shirt on under the collared shirt that I wore," he says of a recent Lupo's show in Providence. "I wrote `glasses are attractive,' but I left out the `v'; there's me, the intellectual rapper."

But when Shalem's beats start, appearances take a back seat to performance. Holding the mic in an inverted sort of death grip, ADeeM spins rhymes that are delivered in a powerfully quick staccato, taking on a sing-song quality when he really loses himself in a freestyle. His rants cover all bases; America's oppressive class system, his desire for a record deal, rambling remarks about the crowd and the venue, and even a little conspiracy theory. On "Humane Nation" he spins the telling line, "What you don't know walks circles around your thoughts."

"There's so much that we don't know," ADeeM says. "We're all in our little physical locations, the atmosphere is so phony, commercials and TV are so fake." As for his opinion on the upcoming election: "No matter what we do we're going to get a crook."

Of course, he's not afraid of a little self-aggrandizement in his rhymes either. On a recording from Providence's Met Café that's all over the Internet, he raves, "I can get you higher than any joint can ever do."

His energy is intense, and his set always consists of numerous call-and-response pieces and on-demand crowd participation. His written tunes are interspersed with his freestyle to create original shows every night. "We don't do the same set twice in one place," says ADeeM. "You're hearing something that you'll never hear anyplace else." This Thursday you can expect a set that includes four original songs as a part of a linked medley they've been working on. ADeeM notes that they actually have the instrumentals, all sampled exclusively from live instruments on rock 'n' roll records, mostly from the '70s, burned on CD for the performance. "We used to cart a 4-track tape around with us," he says, "but this is much better." Shalem even has a collection of all new beats.

Included will be "Out of Office Experience," a discursive jaunt about ADeeM quitting his job and traveling the world as an MC for hire. "Inspiration" will follow, then move into "Journeys and Leaps," what ADeeM calls his staple song "about being addicted to noise." They'll wind up with a new tune, about which ADeeM can only say, "You can just call it `Rhythm.' "

All four will be on their upcoming album, which will be 17 songs deep and self-produced in their home studio, with an expected early 2001 release.

For a hip-hop fan disillusioned by the Puffy Daddys of the world, ADeeM and his underground brethren are invigorating in their honesty. "I don't lead two lives," says ADeeM. "It's me who leaves from work and drives three hours for a show, and it's me who drives three hours back for work the next day. It's all my life. I'm Adam and I'm ADeeM, and for a lot of people I'm the famous rapper "Ah-deem." I think it's hilarious that people type my name into the Internet and they get some guy's home page in Egypt. It's so awesome.

Sam Pfeifle can be reached at spfeifle@phx.com..