In this week’s WW, to pay homage to POH-Hop—our city’s longest-running and largest all-local hip-hop festival—Sara Moskovitz had the pleasure of speaking to two of the three founders about all things boom bap original clap. Here’s the full transcript of her interviews with Cool Nutz and David Parks. -Ed.

David Parks Q & A:

“I was just the dude stupid enough to try and pull it off.”

WW: What are some of the best memories that you have from creating the festival back in 1995?

Wow. I have to put it into one? There’s so much, you know what I mean, in terms of how, when, where and why. Probably starting with the why is the best memory I have—why it was necessary to do it. What happened was, during the North by Northwest festival, there was a group Chill T. that wasn’t going to be allowed to perform at the first North by Northwest and they stuck the hip-hop groups in this club that didn’t really want hip-hop in it. We had to protest to continue our show because they didn’t want this group to perform (at Satyricon). That was where I figured it was a necessity for Portland to have its own hip-hop scene that wasn’t necessarily connected to the rock scene. Nobody was really catering to the music of black people in Portland. That’s most fondest memory—like wow, something needs to happen, we need to do something about this. That’s the best memory that I have of POH-Hop.

WW: Do you remember how the first POH-Hop was received by the city?

The original POH-Hop wasn’t received at all. If it weren’t for a few key people and that is one, Steven Spyryt and people at Monqui who believed in me from other previous rock stuff I had done. If it weren’t for Monqui, it probably wouldn’t have happened because they’re the ones who gave us the club and knew that we were good for it at the end of the night.

WW: On the flip side, do you have any regrets thinking back about the festival?

Regrets? No, not at all. I’m happy that its continuing and I have no regrets about it at all. I’m actually quite proud about it, even though I’m not really involved in it (any more) but it warms my heart to know that it still exists and that Terrance allows it to be a vehicle that allows people to get into the scene and figure out what they’re doing.

WW: I know you moved to New York a while ago but what are your thoughts about the local hip-hop scene?

I’ve been here (NYC) for four years now and to be honest with you, I wouldn’t have a clue. Besides the people that I work with when I was there—I just saw Mic Crenshaw, he was here last night recording at my house—but outside of that I really am way out of that scene. I have no idea. I hear from different people that things are happening and stuff but I also hear that the scene is still way segregated, probably even more so than when we started.

WW: By segregated, what do you mean? Along racial lines?

Along racial lines, in the sense of what people think “hip-hop” is, what they think community is, those type of things. The naivete of not understanding what it took to establish clubs in Portland. I think that’s the main thing that people really don’t understand. Hip-hop wasn’t something that people wanted in clubs in Portland, say 10 years ago. It wasn’t common to come downtown to see a club with more than 50 black people in it. I’m a straight shooter but that’s the reality. When I moved to Portland from Nashville, it wasn’t very common to come downtown and walk into a club and see a group of black people.

WW: So when you talk to Terrance or you talk to Mic about the scene, it seems like it’s the same or worse than it was a decade ago?

Not necessarily worse but for lack of a better word, I think the feeling is that people don’t understand how far it’s come and how far it needs to go. It (hip-hop in PDX clubs) was basically non-existent. There were a few shows here and there but there wasn’t necessarily a scene for local hip-hop.

WW: That frustration, is some of that what led you to make the more to New York?

Not really, no. For me, in terms of being in Portland, it was a place where I was only making lateral moves and in Portland, there’s only so much opportunity in terms of going up the ladder. For me, I’m more of an artist, I’m more involved in creating—I wasn’t that guy that was trying to be the next Russell Simmons, per say. I was that guy that just wanted to create and leave something to facilitate a need. That was my main interest in it. I had no interest in developing it from a promotion standpoint or developing it from a label stand point. My thing was to try and create something so that hip-hop could have its own voice and basically get into clubs because like I said, when we first started out, it was a non-existent thing to see all local hip-hop on a bill, let alone get to the point where [you had] several thousand kids waiting outside of a club to see a local hip-hop show.

WW: Do you think it’s possible for Portland to get to a place like what you’re talking about?

To be honest with you, Portland is way ahead of New York in some terms, that it does have a thing like POH-Hop, which will give an amateur the same chance that it would somebody who’s more established, someone that would have a draw. Not along West Coast hip-hop lines or East Coast hip-hop lines or positive and negative hip-hop lines, it was a vehicle to stress hip-hop, period. Not to try and cater to what people think is hip-hop or is not hip-hop or “we don’t want to be around the gangster music.” We made a concerted effort to create all different forms of hip-hop and give everyone an opportunity to grace the stage and let the people make the decision about what they liked and what they didn’t like and what they wanted to represent their city and what they didn’t want to represent their city.

WW: Do you have thoughts about the headliners that they’re bringing in this year—Large Professor and Mistah F.A.B.?

No, not at all. Like I said, I’m just happy that it’s continuing. Hopefully someday, I’ll get to come (back) and see it and more importantly, with my son who lives there, when he’s old enough, that he gets to enjoy it.

WW: What are you up to in New York?

For the last couple years I’ve been working on an off-Broadway show with a friend of mine, that we’ve been putting together, which is going to premier in November. It’s called Drumatics. That’s basically my story.

Cool Nutz Q & A:

WW: Best POH-Hop moment of the past?

POH-Hop 2, the second night just in terms of the overall turnout. Having 1,000 people come out for local hip-hop and not even imaging that you could have that kind of success. That was the most memorable moment of POH-Hop because that said a lot in regards to the actual movement for hip-hop and the name of the event. The first year was pretty big, bigger than we expected and then the second year was bigger than that. To see the building just packed for all local hip-hop.

WW: Which venue was that at?

La Luna.

WW: Thoughts on the current Portland hip-hop scene?

I think it’s not what it was. Just in terms of the scene moving and growing – I think it’s moving and growing but in terms of the excitement of the people, of the fans, is not what it used to be. If there’s a Sandpeoples show or a Lifesavas show or even a Cool Nutz show, the overall excitement of people within the scene felt like they had to go out and support it. You have so many rappers nowadays that would rather be on the stage rather than supporting a local artist. I feel like there’s a lot of other things business-wise—Lifesavas and other people, even Sandpeople and some of the Old Dominion cats touring the world. A lot of us are doing things we weren’t doing back then, the doors that are open, licensing and going to Europe and stuff like that. It’s a swap in the sense that you lose some things, you gain other things. What I would like, if that original excitement was there, the scene would be a lot more exciting.

WW: What are you hoping for out of POH-Hop this year being that the festival has had a three-year hiatus?

I would like to see all the artists make sure that they get out and get the word out to people like, yo, I’m on the this show with all these other dope artists that you should come out and see. If I have 30 groups throughout the bill on the show and if everybody involved in the show gets 10 people to come out, that’s 300 people a night. I want people to understand that it’s bigger than just me or just them. It’s about, the more exciting our scene gets, the more support we get, not just one artist but the whole movement. So all the people on these shows should feel like, this is something that we need to validate for hip-hop. Not just my thing but for hip-hop as a whole. You have everything from Braille to Kenny Mack to Maniac to Mistah F.A.B. to OneBeLo to Libretto. You have all these different varieties of hip-hop that you can come out and see quality, different flavors and hopefully the artists should understand, I should be doing the most to get people to come out and not only see me but see my counterparts.

WW: What does it take for an artist to be booked for POH-Hop because, as David Parks was explaining, this festival was started as a vehicle to allow people of all talent calibers to shine on stage from the most amateur new faces in the scene to people that have been doing it for a decade plus?

A lot of it was I reached out to people and the people that got back to first and then I also had artists that I wanted to be on board and artists that needed to be on board in regards to getting people to come out. So once I get the anchor groups, like Illmaculate and Only One and Braille, those are some groups that have accomplishments that are going to warrant people to come out. Then, coming back on a Friday at Berbati’s, the cool thing is to have Mistah F.A.B. as a headliner to bring something bigger to the show and then you have Maniac on there, Liquid Assets, Hi Rollerz, MYG. So you’re trying to get the meat of the bill to make sure that I have things that will ensure people coming out and in turn, seeing the other acts on the bill. And I also want to make sure that we’re giving other people a chance like Luck-One and Rapper E. and L-Gutta, cats that are just coming onto the scene. So, trying to cover all the bases and even with that being said, you still can’t get everybody in, there’s still an abundance of groups that I would like to have involved but there’s just not enough time.

WW: Why aren’t the Lifesavas on board this year? Were they a consideration?

Yeah, they were a consideration. With them, they have so many different things going on and when they play in Portland, they kind of want to—with Jumbo being out of town, for one thing they have to get Jumbo up here, for two, they just feel like playing in Portland, they want to plan it out a lot more in terms of how much space they have between playing (shows) in Portland. And we were also trying to work on something for November that we were going to do as well. We want them on the show, that’s why we got Libretto, with him being a part of the Lifesavas and then another thing is just having enough time to give people the time that they feel is enough time to showcase what they’re doing. Like, if you’re used to doing a 45-minute or hour set and we’re like, yo, you get 20 minutes, for some people, that’s kind of hard.

WW: I want to bring up some people on the line-up. When I say the name Illmaculate, what does that mean to you?

He’s the champion of the battle rap scene and took Portland out there abroad and represented the city well, on a broader base and worldwide. Going out to Europe and out to Scribble Jam and Brainstorm battles and all that kind of stuff. I think that says a lot in terms of people getting out and doing bigger things and represent the city and carrying the city out there further.

WW: How about other people on this year’s line-up that you’re excited about?

97211 because they bring something different to the show. For one show they came out and they did the Coming To America with the Soul Glow—they all came out with the curl wigs on, spraying the curls. Todd G.—he does gospel rap but he’s an interesting guy because he has a history, he used to be a pimp. He’s a white guy who used to be a pimp, had a really hard life, turned his life around to God and he’s been doing a lot of positive stuff like when I went to Norway this year, I went with him because the producer that he works with, he hooked me up with him and we went over there and we spoke to the kids and did some gospel outreach stuff but just in terms of his overall story and the music he’s doing, it’s genuine and it has a message to it and it’s real, even his story is real. I always like Twisted Insane. It’s one guy but he raps really fast. It’s like Brotha Lynch meets Twista meets Tech N9NE but it’s really dope. Jae Lava—he has a single out that I play on my radio show and it’s hot, like on some mainstream radio material, it’s a good, good song.

WW: The two females that are representing POH-Hop this year are Jacque (J-Kronic) and Syndel. When I say those names, what does that mean to you?

Two of the very small, few female emcees that have actually been holding it down, out there repping it. There’s a lot more things I would want to do with POH-Hop but there’s so many artists. Like, for POH-Hop 8, we did a “Women In Hip-Hop” showcase where we did one night where it was all women and we brought down Piece from Seattle and we had J-Kron, we had Siren’s Echo and a few other female artists. You see all these names [points to night-by-night artist breakdown that I brought to the interview]. It was hard to even find spots for all these artists. I’m not even performing this year. It was kind of one of those things, like sitting out to make sure that other interests are represented. In terms of the dopest rappers, like lyricists that have a delivery and a swag, I would say Pricy, he used to go by “Bleek” and Vursatyl from the Lifesavas are the dopest rappers, hands down.

WW: Portland vs. The rest of the world on a hip-hop scale?

I feel like musically, we have a lot of dope people that could compete with anybody. You can take Lifesavas, you can take Sandpeoples, you can take Cool Nutz, you can take Braille, Maniac and a lot of these artists, even the groups like the Garden, Syndel, Alphabet Stew, Dubble 00, a lot of cats doing music and they’re from Portland, can go to other places and stand out. Portland is a place that gives you the room to really perfect what you’re doing and be able to get on stage on a regular basis and do shows and hone your skills. So a lot of people are at a point where—and I’ve watched talent from everywhere—we have music that can stand up against anything because we’ve had time to be isolated and it’s not tainted yet in terms of being industrialized. But to a certain degree I feel like we do need the industry to come in and help expose it on a bigger scale.

WW: Thoughts on this year’s headliners Large Professor, Mistah F.A.B. and OneBeLo?

Large Professor—I sat and met with the Fix people. They were planning on bringing him out the week after POH-Hop and then they were like, well, how about we just make that a part of POH-Hop? I grew up listening to Main Source, so having him is a great addition. Mistah F.A.B. is a good friend of mine and I think he represents a number of things from the freestyling and hip-hop element to the hyphy movement in the Bay and he’s relevant to the youngsters and OneBeLo, he’s an artist that’s been doing his thing a little under the radar but people do know him and he’s dope. A lot of the times, with us doing TV commercials and us doing the bigger promotion around the show, it helps F.A.B. and it helps OneBeLo, it even helps Large Professor because there are a lot of people who don’t know who Large Professor is.

WW: Is that a concern? Will the younger kids know to check for him or will it be the older generation of late 20-somethings and older that will only know who he is?

I think it’s going to be the older hip-hop heads. I know people that are into hip-hop that I know in the era when Main Source was out, I’m telling them like, yo, you don’t remember I’m Looking At The Front Door?! And they’re like, “Nah man.” I’m like, this is the dude that helped put Nas on.

WW: What does the name Lil Wayne mean to you?

Everybody is entitled to not like what they want and like what they want but a lot of the times I feel like people try to take—and especially with hip-hop—people try to take a disliking to a certain type of hip-hop, or certain genre and I feel like this is one of the things that has compromised some of the success of hip-hop. From an independent standpoint, if you listen to Atmosphere, you don’t listen to Snoop or if you listen to Snoop, you don’t listen to Chamillionaire—just all these weird little sub-genres. For me, I feel like Lil Wayne is a blessing. Everybody’s not going to achieve that kind of success. When he woke up in the morning, he didn’t know that that was going to happen and due to his skills and the business savvy behind him, his team, it afforded him the luxury to sell a million records the first week his album came out. People criticize a lot of things but if they were put in the same position to be Lil Wayne, the same people to hate Lil Wayne would love to wear his shoes right now, to be the hottest thing moving in hip-hop. For me, I’m more of a Jay-Z fan than I am a Lil Wayne fan but I can appreciate what Lil Wayne does. I can appreciate what Soulja Boy does and the artistry in it and what they’re doing and where it came from and young, black businessmen that are making millions of dollars and empowering themselves and being able to help some of their friends get out of the ghetto and see the world. Even for me, there’s a lot of things that hip-hop has afforded me the luxury to be able to do. I would never have gone to Denmark, Norway, New York if it wasn’t for hip-hop. Success is success, especially coming from where some of us come from so I can’t knock the next man because a lot of people that are successful like Eminem— when he came out, he didn’t have any idea he would be the Eminem he is today. It just happened and even with that just happening, he still faces a lot of adversity and I feel like people face enough struggles, to also have to deal with that as well without me feeling like, I don’t like Lil Wayne.

WW: When you have artists like Lil Wayne flooding the airwaves and then you have a festival like POH-Hop, which showcases such a wide variety of hip-hop, do you think the younger generation is able to come out with open minds and appreciate what POH-Hop represents, which is hearing hip-hop that doesn’t necessarily fit into a Lil Wayne recipe?

I think no, a lot of them aren’t going to come out with open minds because the artists on the bill don’t have an open mind.

Cool Nutz’s 5th solo album, The Miracle, is set for a late November release date.

Links:
Cool Nutz in space
pohhop.com for more info

David Parks photo credit : Jen Davison
Cool Nutz photo credit : Jus Family Entertainment