Stepping up to the mic

by Marcella Ortega

Daily Lobo

Skull Control Records is not a typical record label.

"My brother and I started it," MC Illson Serif said. "It's ours as a whole with everyone else (on the label), because we aren't anything without them. It's definitely not a one-sided thing. Everyone is not signing some major contract and that type of stuff."

The independent hip-hop label started three weeks ago with a meeting at the Frontier Restaurant. Serif, of Albuquerque, returned from Indiana last month to organize the meeting. He said the label includes nine underground hip-hop groups from Albuquerque such as Habeas Corpses and Saint Sinner Suns, as well as groups from Indiana and Oregon.

"Everybody has been doing this for so long and have known each other so long that we need to try to move it forward," he said. "Everybody is beyond the point they need to be as far as skill level. We're making music that people don't think is local when they hear it. They get surprised. It just goes to show that we've been doing it long enough to get us out of

Albuquerque."

Serif said the label's goal is to remain independent.

"There is one (record label) that a lot of people know about in other states, but they are commercial hip-hop," he said. "They are a record label based out of Albuquerque that's all commercial. They're like, 'We make it hot' - that type of shit. It's not thought provoking at all. It's exactly what you hear on the radio, but now these local guys are doing it. I'm like, 'Oh, thanks a lot. I can already hear that shit.'"

Dynamek, of the group Habeas Corpses, said the artists on the label make music that provokes feeling.

"Pop music is created to make you want to dance and believe you're a star in the middle of the club," he said. "But the music we make relates to people more than pop or radio music, because we're real people just like everybody else, and our music reflects on that - whether it's the beat somebody made that day or the cuts that (turntablist) Kiddo put that day. He might have been feeling down, so he put some low cuts. We create moods, and we create music and melodies that affect the human soul."

Serif said he and the group Habeas Corpses were the first to join the label.

"They've been around for a long time," he said. "Nato Rock (of Habeas Corpses) used to win a bunch of MC battles here in town. They have very intelligent and well-put-together words. I'd say wordplay is a big thing of theirs. They like to experiment and make it their own."

Wake, of Definition Rare, said he thinks of the record label like a family.

"We're all real good friends," he said. "We all enjoy each other's company. If someone else on the label is putting out a record, it's just as important as putting out my record. The promotion they get should be equal to mine, and we push their record as much as we push mine. We all care about each other a lot, and we want to see each other's music

go far."

Dynamek said Habeas Corpses will release an album at the end of the year.

"It's cool for me, because I can see us doing something as a collective because we're all a bunch of strong artists separately, but if we come together, we can build a strong structure in New Mexico for hip-hop music," he said.

Serif is also in the group.

He said being a part of multiple groups expands the groups' creativity.

"We do it that way because the styles of production for the people who make beats are always different," he said. "We all have our own rhyme styles and different content in our rhymes. So, it's kind of cool to get in a room and write with other people, because different things come out. It could turn into something completely different than what you thought it would be. It just gives you a broader spectrum, and it

challenges you."

The label's first album, Skull Control Records Presents: Earth Control Pills, is a mix-tape of all the artists. It will be released this summer, followed by releases from the individual groups and solo artists throughout the year.

"I think the basis will always be good hip-hop," Serif said. "Whichever direction all these artists want to go in, I'm all in favor for it. Expand. Do whatever you want. Get crazy with it. Whatever you want to do with your music, do it. Just make sure it's exactly what you want to do, and the label will

support it."

For more information, visit

Myspace.com/skullcontrolinc