Freshly defected from the acclaimed Inglewood hip-hop duo U-N-I, Thurz bombs the system with a bucket of wheat paste and pages from Ice Cube’s 1991 manifesto.

 

It must be a surreal experience to be an eyewitness to one of the most tumultuous uprisings in American history at the tender age of seven. No Bruce Willis/ Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster action film or 8-bit Nintendo game cartridge could have prepared you for the onslaught of violence and devastation dealt out at the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. “I witnessed the riots when I was a kid,” says Thurz. “My grandmother stayed in South Central and when the riots broke out, I was passing by Slauson and Normandie. I saw all the police and angry folks from the community upset about the trial.” Over a decade later, Thurz has chosen to transform that experience into an artistic metaphor for his rebirth as a solo artist on his upcoming debut album LA Riot.
“To continue with my career, I pretty much have to start a riot. I have to burn down my own imagery of being one half of this group I was in. I have to relaunch myself by destroying and rebuilding.”

By now, you’ve had the opportunity to let the disintegration of U-N-I marinate in your psyche. Yes, folks. It’s officially over. “We weren’t on the same page artistically,” he says. “Our personal lives didn’t fit. We both weren’t feeling it anymore.” Luckily, the split has not tainted his love for hip-hop. Weaned on the sounds transmitted during the zenith of LA’s hip-hop gangsta’s paradise, Thurz’s history in the game goes back to his teen years growing up in the Inglewood section of Los Angeles. After years of making the rounds at local talent shows and taping Rap City episodes, Thurz signed up with a four-man hip-hop group during high school calling themselves Rapture Camp. Along with his future partner in rhyme YO, the group spent their formative years as hip-hop hopefuls in training at a local recording studio. In 2006, the quartet trimmed down to a duo when YO and Thurz decided to embark on their own journey as U-N-I. Over the next 12 months, the pair collaborated with a host of underground producers, sketching out the makings of their new sound. “It was a growing process. It was a lot different from how we recorded with Rapture Camp. We were going out on our own and trying to make a name for ourselves.”

In the summer of 2007, U-N-I dropped their debut album Fried Chicken & Watermelon. The group scored a major coup with the music video for the album’s second single “Beautiful Day” being premiered on MTV in early 2008. “I remember it like it was yesterday,” beams Thurz. “It was like six in the morning right after a Lupe Fiasco performance.” In February of the following year, they released their mixtape Before There Was Love to whet the appetite of the public for their second album A Love Supreme released a month later. They soon inked a deal with Mountain Dew’s record label venture Green Label Sound to issue the single “Land Of The Kings.” The video for the track was their second to premier on MTV, garnering more fans for the group. Fast on the heels of this success, U-N-I released a retooled version of their sophomore album entitled A Love Supreme 2.0 under the aegis of Traffic Entertainment. Billed as the poster boys of Los Angeles’ hip-hop renaissance, the future appeared bright for U-N-I. However, the radiance of their sunny success would soon fade to black.

“The work ethic between YO and I was different,” he says. “There was a lot of compromising and I wasn’t feeling it. I felt like the music was losing its integrity. We had a lot of creative differences, so I just started to record a lot on my own.” His first recording, featured on LA Riot, is a track called “Los Angeles.” Set over a booming TR-808 bass and a wailing horn sample from Thomas Bell Orchestra’s “A Theme for L.A.’s Team” (popularized by early 90s hip-hop group Lords Of The Underground’s hit single “Funky Child”), the song paints a bleak portrait of the city in direct contrast with the widely promulgated glitz and gleam. But Thurz wasn’t content with listeners simply buying into his view of the city lock, stock, and barrel. “With that song, I had fans call in and leave one sentence voicemails of what Los Angeles meant to them. I used all their comments to paint an honest picture of the city, the good and the bad.”

During this period, a former college classmate was doing research on the Los Angeles riots. When Thurz caught wind of his fieldwork, it sparked the stick of dynamite that would detonate the concept for his album. “It’s not a historical project, but it fits with a lot of the things that I was trying to do metaphorically. Everything just fell into place.”

Rife with archival news bulletins, strategically placed sound effects and sound bytes, the album is an incendiary battle cry that harks back to Ice Cube’s controversial 5-mic masterpiece Death Certificate. Preceding the actual LA riots by a year, the album made a lasting impression on young Thurz. “I bump Death Certificate religiously,” he admits. “A lot of the subject matter he attacked on that album is still relevant today. It opened my eyes to the fact that some things will not change unless someone starts a riot.” From the chant down Babylon rock-infused “Molotov Cocktail” to the vivid, first person recount of “Rodney King,” LA Riot is a shining exhibition chronicling an artist coming of age. “With my approach to LA Riot, I wanted to address things that I’ve seen and lived through with a sound I haven’t been hearing. Lyrically, instrumentally, conceptually, it’s a great album.”

The creative peripheral concepts for the album are nothing short of amazing. “Rodney King” was given a time lapse video treatment, incorporating prosthetic make up, fashioning Thurz as the striking image of King himself in the mugshot following his infamous beating at the hands of the LAPD. “I wanted to show the transformation of Rodney King throughout the duration of that night, from watching a game and celebrating the acquisition of a new job with his friends, to the high speed chase and beating caught by George Holliday.” In addition, Thurz has yet another unconventional tactic to engage the public with the release of his upcoming album. In a black & white viral video for LA Riot, Thruz is seen firing up stovetop burners and measuring a white powdery substance. But don’t be fooled. This isn’t his homage to Biggie’s “Ten Crack Commandments.” “It might look like I’m cooking up some coke, getting ready to go serve,” he laughs. “I am serving, but not illegal drugs. I’m serving good music.”

The video captures Thruz in the kitchen preparing a homemade wheat paste concoction and subsequently hitting the streets with poster-sized images of himself as Rodney King’s doppelganger. But this wasn’t simply the product of blind ambition. It was more akin to a premeditated sniper attack. “We set out around 2 am and executed. We had two cars near each site to keep a lookout for the cops coming in any direction. I felt a crazy rush doing this! It was some of the most fun I’ve had in a long time!” What drew Thurz to wheat pasting was the immediacy of the medium that he likens to indie hip-hop of the 21st century. “You don’t have to be this established artist in order to make art,” he says. “With hip-hop, you don’t have to have a major label behind you just to make music. You can just record on your laptop and put it out. Just like with street art, you can just design it, print it out, and go wheat pasting.”

While some may experience a knee jerk reaction of discrediting Thurz as a novice hobbyist riding street art’s current wave of popularity, he has definitely done his homework on the varied phases of the movement. Thurz counts Shephard Fairey, the legendary Jean-Michel Basquiat and Parisian mosaic tile street artist Invader amongst his favorites. But he’s quick to point out the profound impact the Banksy-directed 2010 documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop had on him. “Obviously it opened a lot of people’s minds to street art, but I already had the idea to wheat paste. I sat down with my team and watched it and afterwards, we were hyped! We wanted to just wild out and wheat paste everywhere! That movie was very inspirational.” Thurz’s concept has recently gained a likely supporter in Australian spray paint manufacturer Ironlak, filling his immediate future not only with wheat paste wishes but aerosol dreams as well.

“Ironlak was feeling my vision for the album and had a great idea for an art piece. I wanted the mural to stand for my project, the historical event, and LA in general. We just have to find the right wall.” To conceive the piece, Thurz sat down with two artists to discuss the concept and came up with a sketch. And while he’s enthralled with the premise of street art, he’s well aware that he’s not exempt from the law of the land. “We found the perfect wall downtown, but we didn’t want to vandalize the business. We want to make sure that it’s able to stay up for a while, because it’s going to be a great piece. There’s a lot of paint involved. We’re going to document it on video.” Yet no matter the level of precaution exercised, the artist always stands to incur risks no matter his weapon of choice. Suffice it to say that to Thurz, a rebel without a pause, the outcome far outweighs all the risks. “The next wheat pasting is Operation Bus Massacre,” he says with a mischievous grin. “Hopefully no one gets arrested.”

LA Riot is set to be released August 9th.

Related Posts: