CommuniTEES

We have a fresh new batch of CommuniTEES ready to be grabbed off the rack over at the Community League store!

This time around we have stepped up our game and teamed with world renowned tattoo artist BJ Betts who designed our logo and the shirts themselves have been produced by Fresh Melt Water.

This is a very limited run of 50 so to make sure that you get yours order today! We are doing a special package deal – CommuniTEE, Community Spirit and Community League poster for $15.

Check out Special Opps showcasing the goods…as worn by your favourite Community League MCs…

Promoting Exceptionaly Artistic Clothing Everywhere

Hip-Hop Chess Federation

My involvement with the Words, Beats & Life chess tournament Bum Rush The Boards has already been documented over at Blunted Presents but I want to bring another organisation to your attention.

My song War & Piece: Wise’s Gambit was made espeically for Words, Beats & Life but it has caught attention far and wide and inspired various remixes organised by Adisa Banjoko of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation.

HHCF is an organisation which promotes strategic thinking through hip-hop and chess and works alongside legends like Josh Waitzkin and RZA to deliver their message. It has been a while but Adisa recently got in touch with me to share some videos so you can watch them and check the links to find out more about this great organisation and how you can get involved:

CNN: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-230363

HHCF Student Profile:

HHCF Panel Discussion:

HHCF Martial Arts Exhibition:

Two great vids on Berkeley tv:
http://missionlocal.org/2009/03/teaching-kids-to-be-kings-th
rough-chess/

Practice Elevates All Chess Exercises

The Wize Live From The Mountain Top

[AKA The "Sir-Man" On The Mount...Shire Knights...We ride the White Horse...]

When I penned Shire Knights I was looking down on my home from the top of White Horse Hill with the fields and winding lanes of The Shire spread out below me and little did I know how far it would travel.

On Thursday 12th of March 2009 I was stood on a mountainside overlooking San Luis Potosi, soaking up the atmosphere before I took to the stage. I was there for a concert put on by the Academia Yamaha to showcase the talent of the school. Except for me every act was a rock ensemble and they were awesome from first to last, it really blows me away how talented these guys are.

 I was asked to perform a couple of songs and promote the Community Spirit album and it was my pleasure. I feel very indebted to the family who runs the school as they have welcomed me here in San Luis from the start and I have passed many hours in the school both studying and passing lunch times with my friend. In the last few weeks I have been recording there too and they found me all the equipment I need…on top of all that you can buy a copy of Community Spirit at the front desk if you happen to be passing.

It was a wonderful feeling to look down on my new home from the mountainside, microphone in hand, reflecting on how far I’ve come, and how far I might go. This was my vista:

 

 

And here is the performance:

It is good to share this with you on this day because it is exactly 1 year since I left The Shire for the Shores of the West.

Performance Everyday All Community Enjoys

War Poets of Now – Corespondents In Conflict

Rappers have often met media criticism of the violence in their rhymes with the idea that they are reflections of their environment, they hold a mirror to their surroundings and show what the mainstream media won’t – the “real CNN” if you will.

Tupac said he talked about where he lived to try and make a change, he described the ghetto because he thought that if he made enough noise then some one would have to do something about it. Whether that still holds true today is not an argument I want to get “blogged down in” in this particular post however.

I want to draw your attention to an Exhibition in London next month called War Poets of Now - Corespondents In Conflict. Artist Caroline Jaine is showcasing a collection of oil paintings highlighting reporters from conflict areas around the world:

“I was moved by the journalists I met in Iraq who presented me with decorative business cards describing themselves first and foremost as writers and poets” - Caroline Jaine

War Poets of Now – Correspondents in Conflict will be exhibited at The Frontline Club in Paddington, London, UK from 2 April  2009 until June 2009.

For more information and to see some of the artworks to be exhibited please visit Caroline Jaine.

Proper Education Always Corrects Errors

The Mexico Sessions

I have been in the New World for nigh on a full year now, which means that it has been well over a year since I recorded a new song. In fact, I am pretty sure that one solitary offering made up the full yield for all of 2008 (see an earlier post for the song in question ‘Inconvinient Truths’).

When I arrived here I produced a flurry of new songs but they have yet to leave the pages on which they were written and all my noise about “sorting out” some recording came to nothing as I busied myself with learning Spanish, falling in love, learning my new profession, making friends, learning the Guitar, playing football, exploring ancient cities and discovering all that Mexican culture has to offer.

The thing is that, as the universe moves in cycles, everything has it’s season and as of the last month or so the music has once again come to the fore at full force. I have rededicated myself to my guitar practice and subsequently played in my first ever recital. I have performed at my friends party (complete with live improvised instrumentation) and just last week I began a Harmony and Composition class with my guitar maestro.

But most importantly I have been back in the booth. So to speak. Actually I have spent several lunch times secluded away in the Saxophone room upstairs at the Yamaha music school once again immersed in the art of creating songs.  I have pestered and badgered my friends who have been wonderful in helping me to source a first class microphone, headphones, recording interface and all else that I might need to aid me in my quest. Well, the first results are in and I have to say I am well pleased with what I have so far and I’d like to share the first song with you.

A few Moons ago both my friend Victor and I were mourning the end of relationships with the ladies in our lives, our therapy on this night was driving up and down the main street in town listening to songs and singing along at full blast. One of them spoke volumes to me about my situation, not only that but I realised that it was in fact a perfect bed on which to lay a verse I had written some months before. Not to mention a potential aid in the quest for local ears.

The song in question is No Soy Perfecto by La Tropa F, and here is my version:

No Soy Perfecto (t.wize remix)

It feels great to be back doing what I love so much and to further that by sharing with the world so I’d love to hear any comments you might have.

More from The Mexico Sessions coming soon.

Until next time…

- The Wize

Purposefully Evolving And Creating Everyday

Oxford Mail Feature

Group rapping about rural life

5:45pm Sunday 8th March 2009

By Amanda Williams »

 

Three hip hop singers who like to rap about hunting and life in the shires have released their debut record.

Community League take their inspiration for the music, which is more commonly associated with songs about gangs and gun crime, from growing up in the Oxfordshire countryside.

MC Tom ‘the Wize’ Wiseman, from Bampton, and Tim Burley, from Wantage, also known as DJ Thundercat, both 25, have known each other since they attended Bampton Primary School together.

During his time working at Oxford’s Pizza Hut restaurant, in the High Street, Mr Wiseman became friends with co-worker and part-time producer, Joe ‘Jokes’ Froud, 22.

The group then formed a collaboration, with Mr Wiseman providing the lyrics, and Mr Burley and Mr Froud providing the ‘beats’.

Mr Wiseman, who is currently teaching English in Mexico, said: “Hip hop started with people making what they could out of what they had, often not a lot, and the rap told the stories of their lives and their surroundings.

“Likewise, I gain my inspiration from my surroundings, my interests, my studies and my experiences.

“For example I have a song called War & Piece, Wise’s Gambit, which is the official song of a chess tournament. I have a song about fox hunting and I even have a song about Alan Partridge.”

Mr Burley agreed: “Obviously our music is going to be different to what you normally associate with hip hop, as we’re from the Oxfordshire countryside.

“We don’t talk about guns and crime. Tom just writes what he knows about.”

The three friends initially produced and sold home-recorded cassettes of their work to their friends, before they hit upon the idea of using the Internet as a way to work with an American producer and MC.

After five years of bouncing ideas, music samples and lyrics, from their bedrooms, back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, the group have completed their debut EP.

The seven-track offering, called Community Spirit, which features tracks such as Shire Knights and Hunting Country is on sale online at communityleague.ecrater.com for £4.99.

Mr Wiseman said that he hoped the subjects in his lyrics would not be lost on hip hop fans.

He said: “The golden rule of hip hop used to be ‘keep it real’, but as time has passed, and hip hop has become big business entertainment, the truth is there’s far more fantasy than reality in the mainstream.

“Sadly, the majority of the lyrics are about selling drugs, killing people and being rich.”

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This feature was published in the Oxford Mail on Monday 9th of March 2009

Visit the original page here (and check out the photo!)

(“the greatest rapper of all time died on March 9th”) 

PEACE