Features : 3rd Party

3rd World

These days a lot of the times when you hear the story of hip hop music it’s told in the past tense. However, after having a conversation with the three men who comprise the rap crew 3rd Party; Farbeon, Hired Gun, and Rabbi Darkside I think we can all be much more optimistic. Some purists see the genre as something that was born in the Bronx in the seventies, and drew it’s last breath down South about halfway through this past decade. These stories of the sound’s demise start to seem pretty credible if you take a quick trip through the club scene, pick up a magazine, or tune in to your TV screen. Many successful mainstream rap acts are saying the same things, while others clearly say nothing at all.

Once upon a time there was a vibrant, thriving underground scene that broke through all the bling, booty, crime, and crunk being marketed by the major labels. This independent brand of hip hop has always been critically acclaimed as innovative and ground breaking stuff. The praise is still pouring in, but often it seems strange since many modern underground albums are plagued by epidemics of formulaic, whiny wordplay and bland beats. Considering the state of things it might be easy to get misty eyed thinking back on the good old days at the end of the twentieth century when the five boroughs of New York City were ruled by king’s and princes who rocked mics from Lyricist’s Lounges, project towers, and Shaolin temples. 3rd Party is solid evidence that in the city that invented the art form there is once again a community of artists breathing new life into hip hop.

When I got in touch with 3rd Party to talk about their new album Separation of Powers they were seated around a table at the Bowery Poetry Club on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The club serves as headquarters for the band, so it was no surprise that when I reached them on the phone they were in what Rabbi Darkside called “our executive boardroom, A.K.A. the basement, surrounded by untapped beer kegs and surplus t-shirts.” Despite this decidedly unglamorous and underground setting Darkside’s joke actually made a lot of sense, since from their home base in the Bowery 3rd Party and their associates have started a company; Say Word Entertainment, which has hosted three years worth of rap battles, DJ contests, and concerts. These events have regularly boasted raucous crowds and top shelf talent, as Farbeon puts it: “What we do and how we do it is something different, and whenever someone sees Say Word they’re gonna know that this is going to be a dope event. It’s a collection of producers, promoters, and emcees who are about making great music.” This collaborative spirit has been evident at their events which constantly feature guest appearances including some by bonafide legends like DJ Rob Swift of the X-ecutioners, Wordsworth, and The Last Poets.

Like their live performances their album is also packed with special guests. 3rd Party’s Separation of Powers contains contributions from a diverse group of musicians such as the emcee and beatboxer Baba Israel, DJ Center whose mix ensures that each track on the album flows smoothly into the next, and folk singer Ann Enzminger among others. The result of these eclectic pairings is a fresh sound that reflects the rich musical melting pot that 3rd Party has helped to stir up in the Bowery. The spirit of this community, which Farbeon defines as: “a burgeoning independent music scene” filled with “hip hop and all types of genres. Just artists who are making really progressive, creative music, who are making fans a person at a time” is captured perfectly on this album. 3rd Party, like many other artists in the neighborhood get up on stage and in stereos as often as they can. They are hungry to be heard, viewing each performance and potential press of a play button as a chance to make listeners nod their heads, throw their hands in the air, and become fans. Hired Gun explains that this approach is so important for 3rd Party because, “The reality of this is, we’re working artists, and we don’t have the big apparatus to push what we do. We really have to go direct with the people.” A diverse collection of producers provides 3rd Party with a selection of infectious beats for Separation of Powers that easily accomplishes this goal of earning an audience by bringing them a sound bound to propel parties into high gear. The presence of DJ Center who spins with skill throughout the record, provides the final element to truly turns Separation of Powers into a chance to experience the essence of a late night on the Lower East Side distilled onto compact disc. For Hired Gun, “Hip hop’s always been about the show, and I always used to buy the stuff that when I would see the show made me want to go out and purchase the record.” In the case of Separation of Powers buying the album makes you want to hop on board a bus down to the Bowery to see one of their famous “Fourth Friday” shows at the poetry club and catch the full force effect of 3rd Party in concert.

Their focus on making crowd pleasing music makes 3rd Party reminiscent of the early days of hip hop when emcees and DJ’s first defined their crafts creating songs so b-boys and b-girls could breakdance on basketball courts and at block parties. The celebratory style of these musical pioneers obviously was a major influence on the guys in 3rd Party, but the tracks on Separation of Powers have new school substance to go along with all of this old school swagger. Generally, the songs that make you want to dance aren’t the same ones that make you think. This rule can be applied to older rap acts such as the Sugarhill Gang as well as newer groups like the Black Eyed Peas. For 3rd Party content is considered equally as important as catchiness and all their compositions are laced with strong doses of skilled lyricism. Despite the sometimes hefty subject matter these emcees are all skilled practitioners of verbal medicine and Separation of Powers still goes down as smoothly as if each listen came with a sonic spoonful of sugar. There’s even some singing on Separation of Powers coming courtesy of Farbeon who says: “What drew me to both Rabbi and to Hired Gun is that our voices work so well together, I don’t think it could have worked any other way.” 3rd Party has astonishing vocal chemistry and unlike many underground hip hop artists they’re not afraid to put hooks and rousing choruses in their music.

The members of 3rd Party all describe having resentment towards the tendency of rap critics and fans to lump different artists into broad categories. When I first used the phrase “underground scene” while talking to 3rd Party Hired Gun quickly cautioned me against making overly broad generalizations saying: “You can’t just say; ‘O.K., there’s an underground hip hop scene and that means everyone that’s an independent hip hop artist doing live music all falls under that one category. You know, there’s a lot, a lot of real estate that people are carving out as far as what they’re trying to do, as far as their own movement. I mean we’re part of a community of artists coming out of the Bowery and individuals that we’re working with like Open Thought Productions, Core Rhythm, Spokinn Movement, but that’s something almost completely different than what’s going on literally right next door.” It makes sense that 3rd Party resists traditional classifications since the most commonly held perception of underground artists is that they make music that would crap out in a club, a characterization that is the antithesis of the 3rd Party sound.

The underground stereotype also connotes a certain type of political and cultural criticism that has been overused to the point of commodification and irrelevance. Due to their independent status and the political significance of their name and album’s title one might assume that 3rd Party are a bunch of by the numbers Bush bashers, but as Farbeon points out: “Our politics aren’t as overt as one might think with our name. Honestly, I mean when I thought of 3rd Party I thought; there’s three of us, and what we do is throw parties.” Rabbi Darkside adds that: “There’s some irony in being called 3rd Party, because we’re not all wearing Che Guevara T-shirts and screaming ‘fuck Bush’ at the top of our lungs 24/7.” Still, in spite of the fact that 3rd Party doesn’t want to get associated with any stereotype the meaning behind their name is clearly more than mere coincidence. According to Rabbi Darkside: “We’re all politically active, and politically informed, and opinionated. I think the thing that brought out the name 3rd Party was the concept of being a viable alternative, not just politically, but musically. You know, an alternative to the commercial pop culture that’s spoonfed to America at large.” The subtle nuances in the statement they are making isn’t the only thing that separates them from the standard perception of socially conscious underground artists, because unlike so many other outspoken rap stars 3rd Party hasn’t limited their activism to the studio or stage. Through various activist organizations as well as Say Word Entertainment, they each regularly participate in positive projects for the community. In addition to these extracurricular activities Farbeon and Rabbi Darkside have also made their commitment to social change a part of their daily routine by working as New York City Public School teachers. Though this choice to educate may have initially been motivated by altruistic sentiments their work in the classroom has also benefited 3rd Party artistically. Darkside says that his experience in the trenches of the school system has greatly improved his stage presence telling me: “If you can walk into a middle school classroom in Brooklyn without a lesson plan and rock with kids for 45 minutes to an hour and a half you can pretty much command any crowd.” Activism is a major component of the lives of 3rd Party and it is also consistently a theme in their music, but that doesn’t mean that politics completely dominates the lyrics of their songs.

On Separation of Powers 3rd Party covers a wide ranging variety of topics from the political, to the cultural, and sometimes the simply autobiographical. Hired Gun describes the lyrical content of Separation of Powers as true to life, saying: “Everything that we have put down in our music is something that we at one period of time have experienced or gone through. We’re touching on all types of stuff. There’s political songs on there, there’s songs about love, there’s songs about love lost, there’s straight party songs on there. It’s really hard to just say: ‘buy this album ‘cause of one thing.’ I mean, the album isn’t just one thing and I think it’s part of the idea of playing off the whole idea of it being separation of powers as well. You know, you have different elements moving through the whole thing.” These thematic elements trade places just as well as the beats and rhymes on Separation of Powers do. With this record 3rd Party has created something where all the pieces just fall into place.

3rd Party has solid concepts, beats, lyrics, and a strong overall sound. If you want to check out this potent mix on Separation of Powers or even live and in the flesh than I suggest you hit up 3rd Party at Say Word Entertainment or on MySpace. Their album may be called Separation of Powers, but as far as I’m concerned 3rd Party represents the consolidation of three emcees who are each a force to be reckoned with.