Once Upon a Time in America

Heads up! Tonight, local renaissance man Sam Mickens is back with his weekly gig at Waid's after a holiday break. It's:

"An ill joints dance party hosted by Selector Angel Eyes 9:30-close, every Monday at Waid's Haitian Cuisine & Lounge (1212 E.
Jefferson, just off 12th & Jefferson)
No cover, drink specials all night, crank that Batman"

I'm not sure what he'll play, but the man loves Wu-Tang. I didn't throw this up at the appropriate time, but here's an extended, unedited, very insightful interview between Mickens and Travis Ritter, who wrote up Mickens' Wu-Tang-themed party in December.

TR: I'm curious as to how you decided upon throwing a Wu-Tang-based dance party?

SM: The very first Wu-Tang dance party I threw was a sort of housewarming
party in spring 2006 for the lamentably now deceased living and performance space Villville, which I shared with Ryan Mitchell, Mandie O'Connell, Lars Bergquist, and Tom Chapel, all rad and amazing performance/visual artists. This was due to a sort of growingly fanatical resurgence of all of the residents' lifelong love for Wu-Tang, largely spurred by obsessive viewings of their video collection and most especially, by the totally bananas video for "I
Can't Go to Sleep." Then, this past summer my band The Dead Science and our extremely close performance art friends/collaborators Implied Violence(featuring the above-mentioned Mitchell and O'Connell) went on a joint tour across the US. We wanted the nights to be seamless and totally self-contained experiences, so we included on each of these nights, immediately following The Dead Science's set, a Wu-Tang Dance Party. Naturally some cities took to it more passionately than others; the most amazing night by far was in Detroit at a rad loft space called Scrummage University, at which some dude checked his pair of rusty scissors at the door. Now, given my total excitement surrounding 8 Diagrams and my new relationship with Waid's,(where I normally DJ every Monday night and which has quickly become my favorite bar in Seattle) it seemed only right and natural to again mount the Wu-Tang Dance Party, though I am trying to be progressive and make it better than ever before.

TR: What are some of your favorite Wu-related joints that really slam it down on the dance floor?

SM: The whole notion of a Wu-Tang dance party is a little difficult as not a lot of their jams are really traditionally geared for dancing. RZA talks briefly in the Wu-Tang Manual about how their music in the early days was basically only good for deep listening or fighting to. However, I feel like for myself and many of my peers, one can adopt the energy no doubt present in those early riotous Wu-Tang audiences and transfer it into ecstatically joyful dancing. All of that said, some of the songs I find most personally slamming include "Triumph," Ghostface's "Apollo Kids" and Meth's "Release Yo Delf."

TR: I was at Bumbershoot for Wu Tang, and I couldn't believe how many people I saw that day in Wu Wear, and spitting Wu verses (shit, even I know Enter the Wu Tang and Wu Tang Forever word-for-word) ...do you want to bring emphasis onto the fact that Wu is more than music - that it's a symbol, a lifestyle, a brand?

SM: I believe that the artistic achievement of the Wu-Tang Clan is one of the most important and monumental of the present age. I feel that they are not only the greatest rap group of all time, but one of the greatest general artmaking groups of all time. I think that they should serve as operational inspiration to any group of disadvantaged artists trying to make work together, and trying to create pieces that are far greater than the sum of their parts. I do also feel that the Wu-Tang Clan are mythological in stature, that they have achieved cultural identities that go way beyond being famous rappers, that they are an unlikely alliance of remarkable individuals and were truly visionary in their presentation. If one views likens their lyrical artistry, as they do, to martial skills and superpowers, than they are truly the closest thing to a superhero team that we will ever have in the real world.

TR: How do you think people like you and I relate to Wu Tang - do you think that people connect to them because they're able to bring all the ghetto rawness into their music and lyricism, allowing us to fancy the idea of living it throughout the recordings? (I, for one, will attest that one of the first things that drew me into Wu Tang 10 years ago was the fact that this was some crazy, scary, dark, dark shit, and their music allowed me a sneak peak on their hard lives and struggles, like N.W.A., but with real emotion and empathy.)

SM: I feel like in some ways the things that were initially most absorbing to me about Wu-Tang were basic common interests between my childhood self and them; Marvel comics, samurai idolatry, cool movies, etc. I also grew up in a personal environment of general poverty and violence in Los Angeles and so perhaps felt some affiliation in that way to rap music in general. Ultimately though I think Wu-Tang's work in perpetually absorbing due to its extreme stylistic beauty(I think that many of the members are among the absolute best and most exciting MCs and that RZA makes probably the most beautiful beats of all time ) and the intense depth of their lyrical content. The scope of the areas of knowledge they regularly deal with and the way in which they encode and layer all of this information is staggering and lends itself to obsessive ingestion.

TR: And finally, how would you torture someone?

SM: I would probably lay your nuts on a dresser, just your nuts, and hit
them with a spiked bat, like BLAOW!