Ukhh.com has a feature this month on Peter Agoston and his Culturama project. Mr. Agoston is known for putting out compilation dvds and vhs of rare and underexposed hip hop videos and live footage that you only find in bad streaming quality online or you might accidentally catch in the middle of the night on public access (and when you do see something on TV like Rifleman on that Freestyle documentary airing on VH1 or Necro ads on MTV2 or DJ Shadow tracks as background music on PBS you know you get all happy). He just hit a few cities in Europe for the travelling Culturama Rap Music Video Festival.
“I created Culturama to preserve the contemporary version of hiphop through a visual and print based documentation – whether it be through my writing or music videos. I feel this is vital to the sustainment of a culture that is dying as quickly as it’s multiplying.”
Good read – but you can’t write a lengthy article on hip hop videos without mentioning Ralph Mcdaniels or Video Music Box (remember Crazy Sam?). Speaking of Uncle Ralph, I wouldn’t mind seeing a best of Video Music Box DVD – they must have a nice archive of footage. Mr. Agoston is a cool cat who also writes for several magazines, djs, and runs Female Fun records (MF Doom, Dooley-O, Chris Lowe, J Rawls…).
“My old friend Tim Holland (bka Sole) had established a distribution company of his own, for his own group Anticon, after several distribution problems here in the States. Soon after, he asked if I’d like to start a record label to be housed within it. With no hesitation I agreed. I contacted my friend DJ Fisher (Day By Day Ent) and asked him if MF Doom would be interested in doing an instrumental release of his album Operation Doomsday…A few calls later, it was in the works and the first of the Special Herbs… records dropped in December of 2001…it wasn’t easy to establish and it’s not gotten any easier whatsoever as the time progresses. It’s an incredibly consuming undertaking, it’s costly, both emotionally and monetarily. I do it alone, I don’t have partners or associates. A few friends and family lend advice, but I’m my own publicist, promotion director, street team, marketing strategist, all of that and more. I love it and I appreciate every ounce of help any one has provided along the way…My only agenda is to be interesting to the ears of people that have an open mind.”