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by tim molloy The Meanest Man Contest is one of the most dynamic hip-hop groups around, but don't take our word for it. We're appallingly biased. Instead, heed the words of www.Pitchforkmedia.com, which says MMC vocalist Eriksolo and producer Quarterbar are "well-respected among heads who know what's up." Or consult allmusic.com, which gives the MMC's new release, "Merit," a very respectable four stars. That's one less than they gave "Straight Outta Compton" and one more than they gave "Niggaz4life." Lunchboxing's Tim Molloy, an old friend of the Oakland-based group, spoke recently to Noah "Quarterbar" Blumberg about Merit, which is in stores today. TM: Describe the Meanest Man Contest. QB: Well, it's definitely hip-hop music. I think it sort of tickles some other genres like experimental, electronic kind of genres. I think Eric is not a straightforward vocalist. He tends to be a little more abstract than moon-June-spoon style rhymes. He actually has something to say. TM: Your beats are also quite different from the typical moon-June-spoon. How are they unlike the typical stuff on the radio? 
QB: My influences come from stuff I like from when I
first started getting into hip-hop in junior high
school through the present day. And it ranges from not
only my hip-hop stuff that I like but also all the
rock bands that I like. I try to make the songs into
actual songs, not just beats. So that would be stuff
like NWA, anything that Prince Paul did, The Smiths --
a big influence -- and even more contemporary stuff
like Wu-Tang, DJ Shadow, Boards of Canada, stuff like
that.
TM: The latest issue of Rolling Stone has a 10-point plan to "save" hip-hop. The Source says hip-hop is in a state of emergency. Do you feel like you're taking a side in this supposed crisis or that one even exists? QB: I think we're decidedly not taking a side. I think the underground hip-hop scene is where we came from and I think Eric and I both found it really stale and uninteresting and sort of self-referential and pointless after a while. And I think what we're interested in is innovation and you'll see some of that in the underground and some of that in the stuff that's on MTV. If it's good, we like it. We don't care whether it's on the radio, we don't care whether it's on a tape recorder on a boom box. We're gonna like what's good. And we're part of trying to push stuff forward and being innovative. I don't think that that has anything to do with choosing a side in some non-existent but media created crisis. TM: On the MMC's Web site, www.weapon-shaped.com/mmc, there used to be a short story about a man asked to eliminate a few jobs at his place of employment. He cuts twice as many as he needs to and is handsomely rewarded. 
QB: Eric was responsible for that story and I think
that's really what the group was born out of.
Bitterness at the promise of something really
wonderful and creative in the San Francisco and Bay
Area job market in the late 90s, and the
disenfranchisement and same-old same-old that it ended
up being, which was a bunch of privileged white folks
taking a lot of money from other people. And taking a
lot of work and blood, sweat and tears from other
people. And I think Eric and I both felt a lot of
angst from that environment, and I think that was
really the idea behind the group. Eric was going to
write from that frame of mind.
TM: You're also the guitarist in a group called The Jim Yoshi Pile-Up that performs loud, sad, devastating rock songs. How is songwriting different for you with Jim Yoshi and the sample-based sounds of the Meanest Man Contest? One seems active, coming up with the music in your own mind, and the other is reactive, I would think, with your saying, 'What can I do with this break or this sample?' 
QB: I feel like it's kind of the same thing. I'll buy
like 10, 15 records at a time and hear the bits and
pieces on them. I won't hear something and think, 'Oh,
what can I do with it,' I'll just listen to the record
and say, 'Oh, I can do this.' Which is sort of the
same to me as playing guitar, hearing a riff that I've
made, that I've played, and thinking, 'Oh, how can I
use that? Oh, I tie it together with this other part
that I play.' It's sort of just all about discovering
parts and putting them together, and sort of, a kind
of collage kind of mode. So I really feel like it's
very similar oddly enough. Different paths to the same
thing.
TM: Years before Meanest Man Contest, you and Eric started making beats in your room when you were roommates at the University of California, Santa Barbara. QB: It was mostly me making the beats and Eric freestyling and doing written stuff and we worked on the four-track together and we had been roommates for a year or so before we started doing anything that was really solid, any serious stuff. We had a group called mic.edu that released a few songs and a four-song tape on Eric's record label, Rocketship Records. That was from probably '96 to '98. TM: Then you both moved to Oakland. QB: Around '98 I moved up north. Eric was still in Santa Barbara and we tried to continue working as mic-edu but it didn't work out, partly because Lafura (A-Twice), one of the MCs, got sick and ended up dying, and partly because the distance was too great to actually be productive. TM: When Eric eventually moved up from Santa Barbara you became roommates again and started Meanest Man Contest. How important has being roommates at various times in your lives been on your music? If someone leaves a dirty dish out, does it carry over into the music? Because Eric seems very dirty. QB: Eric's a filthy man and an irresponsible man and he's inconsiderate, on the whole. No, Eric was relatively one of the better roommates I've had. I think overall it ended up helping, having him living with me because it was more convenient to work. He didn't have to set up a time to come over and he could just even when I wasn't there just fire up the computer, set up a microphone and put some vocals down. TM: At some point Eric stopped doing Rocketship Records and started a new label, Weapon-Shaped. QB: Yeah. That pretty much coincided with his move up to Oakland. He had run the label with Jamie and had a lot of connections with this guy DJ Cheapshot in Los Angeles and I think he kind of wanted to get a new direction going, start something new. TM: He started Rocketship with Jamie Flam? QB: Yeah, Jamie Flam. He's a Southern California entrepreneur who actually... TM: He's CEO of lunchboxing.com, this publication. QB: Yeah, that's odd. Not a coincidence, but one and the same. TM: I had no idea. QB: Yeah, it's like your journalistic motives are kind of in question now. TM: Well, in the interest of full disclosure I should probably add that I was your and Eric's housemate for three months at the University of Santa Barbara in the spring of '97. QB: That's true. We were also co-workers at UC Santa Barbara's student newspaper, the Daily Nexus, for a year and a half almost... Starting in February of 1995 I came on as assistant Artsweek editor. We became friends when we realized that we were the only two people who were not complete idiots in the entire office. TM: That's true. And then another non-idiot started working there named Eric "Eriksolo" Steuer. QB: Thats's correct. He's the vocalist in the band I'm working with right now, the Meanest Man Contest. TM: It all comes together. So Weapon-Shaped has released music by Meanest Man Contest and a lot of other very powerful groups, including Substance Abuse and Forest Fires Collective. But you've now released the latest record through Plug Research. How did that happen? QB: Well, Eric is always doing wheeling and dealing and he decided that he would try to get a Meanest Man Contest song on various compilations. ... One of the compilations was through a label called Simballrec and that was a concept compilation in which each of the contributors would submit a song that was only 45 seconds long. ... Some of the other people on the compilation were from Plug Research in Los Angeles and the owner ended up hearing the compilation and liking our contribution and ended up contacting us. We felt that it was a really good opportunity for us. TM: For as long as I've known you one of your chief goals has been to be very, very rich. QB: Absolutely. TM: Do you see Meanest Man and specifically this latest development with Plug Research bringing you closer to that goal? QB: I will definitely be closer to being rich because I've already secured some money from the record, which is better than what I had before -- which is zero. As far as meeting the more specific goals of having golden Mercedes and golden golf carts to drive me from the main house to the front yard, gold necklaces and stuff like that, that's my goal that I'll have to continue to work for. But one day, I'll have diamonds. I'm going to pee diamonds. To buy and hear music by Meanest Man Contest, go here. You can see them live alongside The Jim Yoshi Pile-Up on April 11th at Edinburgh Castle in San Francisco. Check back here every single day, several times, for updates and details on the show!  |
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