here's a certain satisfaetion Ahlrir "?uestlove,, T'hompson can take in sharingtheArea:One stage *.ith a slew ofartists and DJs that are drau'n b1'and large from the global elecrronica scene. crantid, acts like New Order, IUobli the Orb and Carl Cox are separated by sel'eral large degrees from the commercial success enjol-ed b1- most of this country"s reigning hip-hop ardr,s. But ?uest- lor,r, the wild-Afroed co-lbu-,ider, dr-umrner, and principal spokesrnan for hip-hop coilec- tive the Roots, has 2 berter memorv than statesid e hip hoP farrs, and he se ES a bit differentlr-. "Basically, I thint ciaece mu5ic and the of electronica anC all that smflis the I offspring of bass musi: anc rausic rhat the BombSquad u-as doing- Thompson opines fiom the Roots' home bese in philadeiphia. 'It's just more dense ani fuc..er. Not ro men- B-hop on a dance- tion the subculture ofdsrce mr.sic in Detroit A lot ofpeople faii ro recognize that the bill? The Boots' birthplace of dairce m'.rsic. eleckonic music. is actuallvDeroir -{ ieq'brodre.s are rufflei sees nothing orcr there hecause the,t're not getting their p!:ops, but basicaill,, I sdd about it. see them as one an<i the same.rThsy're both BY JUSTIN HAMPTOIi black subcultures that started in and had underground begin- nings. Hip-hop in Nerv York, dance in the ghet- i ros of Detroit and parts tr of Chicago." } Such is the point of }f Area:One, the 17-date TJ urban music package tour concocted by elec- ,! tronica guru Richard "Moby" Hall and his management compan'. MCT. Eschewing the I narrow genre-casting I of rnost Summer tours. \ Area:0ne casts a g'ide I net through the music a subcultures J ofdance music, hip-hop and >-. * alternative rock in an l t attempt to stress rhe T common bonds all of them share in ttre mo.l- ern age. "Ifs much like rvhat Loiiepalooza did when Perry Farrell first pro- duced it," says Marci trVeber, Moby's man- ager and co-producer of Area:One. "It really shook up formats in NEW TIMES LOS AilcELES AUGUST 2-8,2oot newtimesla.com ) eontlnued from gags sg we,re dohg is radio. It shook lot of things tlp. It macle a purelybusiness as usual I thinl alor lot ofpeople more open to different kinds of hip-hop purists think [we,re just] music. And I think *e're at that point again. an acid.-jazz group or a bunch ) ol I think that it's kind of a reaction to the musicians that don,t have any hip- shor.,rs [Moby] had been put on, hop groundings.,, the radio Asked shows. It \yas Moby 1n the middle ifhe sees any diffe;ence n ) of al this pissed-off drone rock And between playrng for a dance crorrd much as he might like some of the bands and playing for a hip-hop crou-ci. .,One they're all talented artists it,s so genre- Thompson jokes, just prefers - just I specific and almost exclusionaryinhow spe- ecstasy a little bit morel" Bur EGF cific it is. The whole point in doingthis fii to after laughing it off. he once as.r:: E#,= expose someone td somebody they may not ruefu lly ponders the limire,l pers;{- have seenbefore." tive he sees nog-ada1s in h:-nc:iuj- ) "It While electronica generally garners a rure: dep'eods oa rira vou.l. ciefi- level of esteem in A.merican rnuiic some- nirioi: 'i h:p-L-; is 5+.1:use rhe where below the much more popuiar hip- po\r,-e.s 'it b,c dmi re=*;" ;e:.t hip- ) hop, the two hip-hop representatives on the Igp t :-,a:r:i:rrm- ffu-ncp l. Ee:rc.i Area:One tour have alreadv done much in [it' J jj--:E E!_=r€. e q-u_r€I :r.:r c,:: "-,-"r their careers to prove thai we can all get €&n g51- .o s a rd-- ii<t= : tr: along. Atlanta fusionists no err,ph:sis p,:ce: c.: ::::..-::::. I OutKast ..os."d over to influence a wide varietv of British beginaing:s. If you"re e l0-;;--:;: dance artists with l99g,s A qulnteni, and nowi t}ten F.rlcs Krcss Frrnira|i,r -=:- har.,e in turn funnelled a lot of electronica duced hip-hop to yuu. or llamr:ner c: ) influences back into their sound with their Vanilla Ice. And that was when rou latest release, Stankonia. Arrd the Roots have r,v'ere eight, nine, ten years oli. I been down with the sounds coming out of respect hip-hop as an art form. I . : ) the clubs since British dance music impre- srudy the whole history of it. A jazz sario Gilles Peterson released their first guy won't ignore Louis Armstrong or ! album, Organix,in the U.K. ,,Gilles definitely King Oliver. To think that, ,OK, it Moby put me hip to a lot started witir of the movement that was ] Miles Davis and that,s it, ) brewing that's why underground in London," ruvr l we're in the state we,re in righr L - 'oh, why can they make anothe 1 record Thompson. 'But I was now, of disaray." fortunate to be living iike Three Feet High and .Rrsing?' Or Public in London Of at the time when Dego from course, daace music culture itself is it would be if I [drum'n'bass luminaries] 4Hero was, for ,n, lack ofla better word, living thc drum 6ass its own demons as 11re espec iail1 [ife]. Early'92,'99,u,'e befuiended him and regarding the twin batties being d he shor.ved us a lot ', between the C..1 ) DEA and club and rave pro Since then, the Roots have kepttheir feet moters 1n N,ew Or'leans and Palem a Cin-. planted in both communities, both in I florida. And while Weber is quick ro nore I Philadelphia and nationally. Thompson and that Area:One is not a .arl". she aiso oo I occasional Roots keyboardist James poyser acknowledges the added responsitriiin- I also guest on fellow Illadelphian KingBiitt,s promoters need to tal<e no$.adar-s. hoth in .l Sylk f30 project when they have the time, protecting their patrons and defending and lasty'ear, group themselves ) the threw down at Carl against drug rr-ar r\-rannv. UJ.J Craig:5 Detroit Electronic Music Festival "I've spent enough time at raves rvith copy, thein no alongside such momentarily unruffled Moby and going to fir'e, six, ser-en rears of choice but to abandon what they invented, *-l t,rothers as Kevin doing Saundeison, Jay Denham the underground parries .b kror,, only for it to fall apart,, and Derrick May. And Thompson even that it's a really, reall1'hard thing to put on stepped out from behind the drum kit to D"I in this-country And as much a_rl support this year at the dance music community,s everythinglike that, it,s reallr- hard to find -a annual Winter Music Convention in &{iuni the people that put these evenrs on that Beach. are really trying to look atrer the audience "That was easily one of the best times I as lvell." ever had DJing,,, he says. ..I think every record I put on prompted some sort of nos- talgia or some frenzied [response]. First of all, it was more or less the shock ofit. thatt '3: basically the whole peo- story of the Roots. ] ple just underestimate what we,re all about I ) and what able ikl '.vc're to do. So easilv. nine I times out of ten, people,s reactions are like, a) 'Oh, man, I love the Roots, man, they dope!; I know that what continued o, p.g. OO tt L,I F-.. t't ilr t) z(.J ,N.