the Cornel West Theory: Part I - The Music

Traditional society loves to give labels and always call an individual or group of people the next something. LeBron James is considered the next Michael Jordan, Erykah Badu was considered the next Billie Holiday, Ciara is referred to as filling the shoes of the late Aliyah. All of which try to downplay those compliments and usually respond by saying, I’m trying to be the best LeBron, Badu or Ciara I can be. With that said, have you ever heard of a group of individuals who use someone elses name mind you of great recognition, character, and moral standing without the comparisons being thrown their way? Well Tim Hicks(Brain/Lead Vocal/Composer), Rashad Dobbins(Side Man), (John Moon Vocalist/Electronic Component), Waverlyn Bell, Yvonne Gilmore(Vocal Poet) and Sam Lavine(Drummer) all from the ever changing Washington, DC decided to name themselves the Cornel West Theory and before you judge them, they did recieve permission from Dr. Cornel West himself. I assume you are all wondering why…I’ll leave that explanation to them but before you assume you already know what they sound like Ibased off the name, don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Cornel West Theory Part I, the music.

Scheme: Why did you decide to go with the name, the Cornel West Theory?

Tim: We were always doing music that had a…I won’t necessarily say a message, but some form of political outcry. Even the construction of the actual melody is to try and preserve all of the music that is sacred while most people are not doing that right now. At any rate my sister-in-law and a brother named Fred Junior said you should try and get in touch with him and see if you can use the name because I was just going to go gung-ho with it because I was hoping he would hear the music and like it and maybe contact us. So I ran into him (Cornel West) at a book signing in 2004 while he was on tour promoting his book Democracy Matters. After the book signing my daughter’s mom was there with me and we didn’t have a copy of the book to get it signed, she went and told one of the people that works at the store my book was sitting here and somebody took it, so the guy said here take this one. So I walk up to the front and give him the book and I just started talking to him and was like, “Nice to meet you sir I’m not really here for the book signing, I want to talk to you about the concept I have about this band and I would like to name it after you.”

My music at this time I wanted it to be centered around the political and spiritual first and present that to people in a way that they can understand it and some people probably won’t understand it. I feel like he’s one of the people that embodies that for one he’s a professor, activist and public speaker and he’s always at the forefront of something.

Scheme: How important to all of you is religion versus spirituality and not to pent them up against each other but a lot of people would say today their more spiritual than they are religious. Common said, “I have God without religion”, so my question is are you all more spiritual or is it a balance between both?

John Moon: I think the beautiful thing is for me that between all of us we might be coming from different spiritual directions because we are all raised in different religions but I think that first and foremost we all share the spirituality of being concerned about our own existence, the existence of those we love, and the existence of peace around us, and that’s what we try to do with our music. I think because we all share that, that’s our bonding thing. For me personally I’m a spiritual person that wishes to have more religion in my life and I think spirituality is your belief but I think the religion is the machine that allows you to have a consistency for the spirituality to have practice of your belief. That can come in a lot of different ways for some people it’s the church, some people do something every single day but I’m a spiritual person who just wishes to have more religion.

“How can you box something in that you think is supreme?”

Tim: The way I feel about it is that religion to me is binding and it has proven itself to be so in the sense that someone to be so dedicated to a religious tradition that they would actually kill someone for something other than self defense. I’ve been taught and I believe that the place I’m in, in my life where I can think for myself and for the sake of conversation I profess myself to be a Christian. I don’t follow Christianity just in the sense that that’s what they begin to be called and someone said these are the guys that follow Christ or the guy that they believe is Christ. As far as Christianity with religion so much ill has been done I mean the bible says because of these folks, so the religious side of it I can’t even begin to deal with it’s like when you put tradition over your actual relationship with God then there is something wrong with that and your boxing the creator in. How can you box something in that you think is supreme? I have tried my best to study all different forms of religion at least the ones that I have come across in my life so I don’t have this tunnel vision, but I do have tunnel vision in the sense that I’m grounded in my faith. There are certain times that I clash with the same quote un quote people of the same faith but that’s just human nature.

Rashad: I don’t feel that religion is a problem and I feel that anything is pretty much spiritual every moment of what we call existence is spiritual. Religion is the discipline to develop your spirituality. Whether you pray to the east( Muslim) or meditate as a Buddhist anything in that sort of vain I feel like religion is the exercise discipline to form that spirit. It’s a pretty cool (laughs).

Yvonne Gilmore: For me it’s both and, my vocation is I’m actually ordained so I’m a reverend in other circles and so I value religion very highly. At the same time spirituality is huge, in which for me just means living out the way you live out and practice. I don’t disagree with any of what they’ve said, for me this community that we’ve connected is both and act of spirituality in the sense that we live out our faith through each other and the faith in our voice in the power that we can move and transform things, bring out peace and we consecrate the clubs that we play in and bring out positive vibes and even proclaim death where it is. All of that is an outpouring and an outcry of spirit and for me it evolves and changes and exercises whatever religiousity I have outside of being a preacher, praying with people or whatever, it’s just another form it takes.

“…with the electronics and the vocals I’m always trying to add an extra edge and angle so that people aren’t completely comfortable and introducing something new to get used to and a new element to catch people by surprise in whatever I do so people don’t pigeon hole our music.”

Scheme: How would you describe you’re sound and as individuals what sound so you bring to the group?

Waverlyn Bell: There is a lot of influence of Go-Go, a lot of dirty but funky drum patterns in terms of something that makes you want to move, a lot of influence of hip hop, jazz, electronic sounds and wavelengths and together it’s a blend of type-1, I’ll someone else explain what that is. For me what I bring is a softness, a kind of calm, because we have a lot of fire in the group and I’m kind of like the snow not the rain but the snow. I bring a feminine energy that can be passive aggressive and strong willed but on a level of subtlety and I bring a lot of black magic and space girl talk who sounds like they are not from DC but sounds like they are from South East DC.

“A lot of stuff I just play by ear, I don’t write or read music and I don’t really want to, because I appreciate freedom and just creating stuff on the spot.”

John Moon: We do a lot of stuff with chicken (laughs) thanksgiving kind of funk. (laughs) Defnitely type-1 which is a way of saying all genres which almost equals anti-genre combined with everything together and not always necessarily in a recognizable form like rock hip hop. It may be like distant elements where we just put stuff on top of stuff, and we do it so much it comes out consciously and sub-consciously. So I would say that everything Ms. Bell has said in addition to uh…actually there is no addition (laughs). What I bring to the group is the laptop electronic guy by incorporating samples. I think sometimes people think I’m the guy that’s like if you thought it was going to be something normal I’m the one that’s going to be like nah (laughs). Sometimes it sounds good, it may not be great but I like to add a lot of ambiance to the sounds, use a lot of experimentation with the electronics and me and Rashad do a lot of double free-styling. So with the electronics and the vocals I’m always trying to add an extra edge and angle so that people aren’t completely comfortable and introducing something new to get used to and a new element to catch people by surprise in whatever I do so people don’t pigeon hole our music. I think there is an attempt for us to try and fill a void in a way maybe if its only within ourselves. It’s like why don’t some more music sound like this.

Tim: Sh*t me, I started this whole sh*t son (laughs)! I bring the original concept, the idea, the sketch. For this particular band I create all the music. I’m a drummer but I don’t do much drumming in the band. At times I may add that to a live show, but all the pieces to the song that’s what I add to the band. I’m not really huge on sampling in a way that certain people do it. One of the big influences on my sound is reggae if that’s what you want to call it from 70’s-80’s. The 80’s really ruined a lot of music but in reggae you have dub and dub is a form of sampling. If anyone knows their history they know that a Jamaican cat is credited with hip hop music, Kool Herc. So when I do sample, I try to do it in the sense of cats that I grew up listening to like Pete Rock, Premier and Diamond D but at the same time when you get older and get exposed to more music. The stuff on this newer album is more sample heavy and I came to a place where I wanted to experiment and see what I sound like sampling. A lot of stuff I just play by ear, I don’t write or read music and I don’t really want to, because I appreciate freedom and just creating stuff on the spot. So improve is something that I bring to the band and I like a lot of improve in a live show and I’m like the Allen Iverson of rehearsal and that’s something that has to get better and it will over time but whatever happens, that was it that was the moment. I definitely try to be part of the spiritual imprint.

Rashad: I’m here to bring a progressive social, political type of sound with a Christ conscious poetry to shake the Christian institution to its very foundation. I feel like the institution needs to get geared more towards the Christ conscious, I feel like it became too much of a big business and so I definitely want to stress that. I feel that the doctrine that people are putting down is off and if Christ were alive he would feel very upset to see this political ferver stretching the consciousness and this new way of thinking to see it commodified and I definitely want to speak about that. So the institution can really not be so binding. Religion from the latin word means to bind from so much where a binding thing where they receive tax breaks so I definitely want to talk about that a lot because it’s not that the whole institution is a bind to me or a drag to me but I feel that it’s not being used in the way that Christ in his reflection was meant to be.

Sam Levine: In terms of the sound, I’ve grown really frustrated with trying to describe to people and at this point the more syllables and the words I use to try to I lose peoples attention so at this point I feel like the one syllable I use that I say with a certain expression and in tone is I just say rap because I feel like in terms of its components that’s most easily tied to. I imagine what comes to other people’s minds when I say that is really not close to what I’m talking about. So to go along with that I’ve been trying to have a little cd or something at all times and I can ask them to tell me what they think. Like one of my professors at AU is teaching a class in the evolution of Jazz and Blues and he says its poetry and said he didn’t like it very much because he said it needed more instrumentation. Once he said that I felt like he was listening to it like a Jazz musician. The music that Tim does I’m part of the post production of that and on stage I play a more simple version of the beats that are on the records but I react very quickly and very strongly to this music and talking with people I really realize that people get different things from it. If someone doesn’t like I don’t at all lose any kind of faith or sight of anything because I’m so strongly into it that I know I’ll be seeing the same kind of expressions on people faces that I have when I listen to it. I play drums and I guess I already answered that question so…(laughs).

Yvonne Gilmore: I guess I bring feminine fire, poetry and analysis to it. In terms of the sound to me it’s the wedding of intellect and instinct from people from DC we’re it.