Emcee Lynx
Encyclopedia
Lynx, or Emcee Lynx is an anarchist hip hop
artist in Vallejo, California
(in the San Francisco Bay Area
) who has achieved significant popularity and name-recognition in the West Coast hip hop
and underground hip hop
scenes and among anarchists and other radicals around the world. In 2006, he was described by Donegal Press magazine as "without a doubt one of the hottest rappers in the underground hip-hop scene today" and was described as "The next KRS-1" and the successor to House of Pain
.
He holds a BA in Political Science
from San Francisco State University
and uses his music and writing to advocate for political and social change. He often performs at anti-war
and other demonstrations, along with fund raisers and benefits for radical causes and groups. He has also recorded songs for benefit albums in support of various groups, including the Anarchist Black Cross
and Iraq Veterans Against the War
.
All of his solo music is independently produced and released free of charge on his website as MP3
s under a Creative Commons
license. Fans are encouraged to donate via his website but it's entirely optional. He is an outspoken supporter of file sharing and has stated that he looks forward to the day when file sharing and other decentralized means of distribution finally bankrupt the recording industry and leave issues of payment to be decided directly between artists and fans.
In 2009 Lynx and his Partner Laura Noel, who is also the bassist in Beltaine's Fire
moved from Oakland, California
to Vallejo, California
.
, but he also refers to himself as an autonomist
, indigenist and feminist
and describes his vision of an ideal future as a blend between anarcho-syndicalism
and mutualism
. He augments the traditional anarchist emphasis on class with a heavy emphasis on culture and history. According to interviews, his major political influences include Noam Chomsky
, Ward Churchill
, Emma Goldman
, Peter Kropotkin
, Mikhail Bakunin
, Michael Collins
, Lucy Parsons
, and Mutualists like Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
. He was formerly a member of the Industrial Workers of the World
and still supports their organizing and links to their website. He is currently a member of the Workers Solidarity Alliance
(WSA), a non-sectarian grouping of class-struggle oriented anarchists from across North America that includes Syndicalists, Libertarian Socialists, Especificists, and others.
Lynx's heavy emphasis on history and culture have led him to incorporate traditional Celtic music
instruments and melodies into his music (his background is Scottish
and Irish
), and he has made an overt effort to highlight connections between the colonization of the Celtic Nations
and imperialism
elsewhere. He is an outspoken supporter of the rights of ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples
, First Nations
, and stateless nations "from Chiapas
to Chechnya
, Ireland
to Tibet
".
He is vocal in his opposition to organized religion and is straight edge
.
Lynx is also significant because he was an early advocate for File Sharing
and was one of the most successful artists in the world in using the Internet as a medium to promote and distribute his work prior to the creation of sites like Myspace and iTunes that helped mainstream online music distribution. As imesh.com http://imesh.com put it in August 2002:
, England
, DJ Phoney of Phoney Records in Cologne
, Germany
, and Kdubbs of Urban Underground in San Jose, California
. The Unamerican LP (2004) also featured three instrumentals by members of the Live Oak Collective from San Jose.
Lynx has also been a pioneer in Celtic Hip Hop, a new style of Celtic fusion
that fuses Celtic melodies with hip hop beats and vocals. His band, Beltaine's Fire
http://beltainesfire.com is one of the first to play a true fusion of Celtic music and Hip Hop. They have released two full length albums and a free live demo.
With Beltaine's Fire
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
artist in Vallejo, California
Vallejo, California
Vallejo is the largest city in Solano County, California, United States. The population was 115,942 at the 2010 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area on the northeastern shore of San Pablo Bay...
(in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
) who has achieved significant popularity and name-recognition in the West Coast hip hop
West Coast hip hop
West Coast hip hop is a hip hop music subgenre that encompasses any artists or music that originates in the westernmost region of the United States, as opposed to East Coast hip hop, based originally in New York alone...
and underground hip hop
Underground hip hop
Underground hip hop is an umbrella term for hip hop music outside the general commercial canon. It is typically associated with independent artists, signed toindependent labels or no label at all....
scenes and among anarchists and other radicals around the world. In 2006, he was described by Donegal Press magazine as "without a doubt one of the hottest rappers in the underground hip-hop scene today" and was described as "The next KRS-1" and the successor to House of Pain
House of Pain
House of Pain is an American hip hop group who released three albums in the 1990s before lead rapper Everlast left to pursue his solo career again. The group's name is a reference to the H.G. Wells novel The Island of Dr...
.
He holds a BA in Political Science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
from San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
and uses his music and writing to advocate for political and social change. He often performs at anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
and other demonstrations, along with fund raisers and benefits for radical causes and groups. He has also recorded songs for benefit albums in support of various groups, including the Anarchist Black Cross
Anarchist Black Cross
The Anarchist Black Cross is an anarchist politics support organization. The group is notable for its efforts at providing prisoners with political literature, but it also organises material and legal support for class struggle prisoners worldwide...
and Iraq Veterans Against the War
Iraq Veterans Against the War
Iraq Veterans Against the War is an advocacy group of active-duty United States military personnel, Iraq War veterans, Afghanistan War veterans, and other veterans who have served since the September 11, 2001 attacks who are opposed to the U.S. occupation of Iraq...
.
All of his solo music is independently produced and released free of charge on his website as MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
s under a Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
license. Fans are encouraged to donate via his website but it's entirely optional. He is an outspoken supporter of file sharing and has stated that he looks forward to the day when file sharing and other decentralized means of distribution finally bankrupt the recording industry and leave issues of payment to be decided directly between artists and fans.
In 2009 Lynx and his Partner Laura Noel, who is also the bassist in Beltaine's Fire
Beltaine's Fire
Beltaine's Fire is a five-member Hip Hop/Folk-Rock/Celtic Fusion collective from the San Francisco Bay Area in California fronted by Emcee Lynx. Their music has evolved considerably over the years...
moved from Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
to Vallejo, California
Vallejo, California
Vallejo is the largest city in Solano County, California, United States. The population was 115,942 at the 2010 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area on the northeastern shore of San Pablo Bay...
.
Politics
Lynx's politics can be generally described as anarchistAnarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
, but he also refers to himself as an autonomist
Autonomism
Autonomism refers to a set of left-wing political and social movements and theories close to the socialist movement. As an identifiable theoretical system it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerist communism...
, indigenist and feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
and describes his vision of an ideal future as a blend between anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
and mutualism
Mutualism (economic theory)
Mutualism is an anarchist school of thought that originates in the writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who envisioned a society where each person might possess a means of production, either individually or collectively, with trade representing equivalent amounts of labor in the free market...
. He augments the traditional anarchist emphasis on class with a heavy emphasis on culture and history. According to interviews, his major political influences include Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, Ward Churchill
Ward Churchill
Ward LeRoy Churchill is an author and political activist. He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1990 to 2007. The primary focus of his work is on the historical treatment of political dissenters and Native Americans by the United States government...
, Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
, Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...
, Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
, Michael Collins
Michael Collins (Irish leader)
Michael "Mick" Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and Teachta Dála for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the...
, Lucy Parsons
Lucy Parsons
Lucy Eldine Gonzalez Parsons was an American labor organizer and radical socialist. She is remembered as a powerful orator.-Life:...
, and Mutualists like Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a French politician, mutualist philosopher and socialist. He was a member of the French Parliament, and he was the first person to call himself an "anarchist". He is considered among the most influential theorists and organisers of anarchism...
. He was formerly a member of the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
and still supports their organizing and links to their website. He is currently a member of the Workers Solidarity Alliance
Workers Solidarity Alliance
Workers Solidarity Alliance is a United States political activist group whose politics are rooted in anarcho-syndicalism and class struggle. WSA is not a trade union or proto-union....
(WSA), a non-sectarian grouping of class-struggle oriented anarchists from across North America that includes Syndicalists, Libertarian Socialists, Especificists, and others.
Lynx's heavy emphasis on history and culture have led him to incorporate traditional Celtic music
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...
instruments and melodies into his music (his background is Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
and Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
), and he has made an overt effort to highlight connections between the colonization of the Celtic Nations
Celtic nations
The Celtic nations are territories in North-West Europe in which that area's own Celtic languages and some cultural traits have survived.The term "nation" is used in its original sense to mean a people who share a common traditional identity and culture and are identified with a traditional...
and imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
elsewhere. He is an outspoken supporter of the rights of ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
, First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
, and stateless nations "from Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
to Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
to Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
".
He is vocal in his opposition to organized religion and is straight edge
Straight edge
Straight edge is a subculture of hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs. It was a direct reaction to the sexual revolution, hedonism, and excess associated with punk rock. For some, this extends to not engaging in promiscuous sex, following a...
.
Lynx is also significant because he was an early advocate for File Sharing
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
and was one of the most successful artists in the world in using the Internet as a medium to promote and distribute his work prior to the creation of sites like Myspace and iTunes that helped mainstream online music distribution. As imesh.com http://imesh.com put it in August 2002:
Since the release of his first album (Soundtrack for Insurrection Volume I) in early 2001, Emcee Lynx has gained international recognition in Hip-Hop's Conscious underground as one of the most articulate and innovative of a rising tide of politically active artists - winning him grassroots distribution and a loyal fan base from California to the Czech Republic.
Sound and influences
In terms of sound, Lynx is hard to pigeonhole since his sound has changed so much with each album. This is intentional, in interviews he describes his musical vision as trying to "stretch the boundaries of hip hop" as widely as possible, and is thus constantly incorporating new elements. These range from the heavy 'electronic-industrial-metal-hardcore rap' fusion on his first album to smoother trip-hop and funk influenced sounds to bass-driven 'west coast' styles. He produces most of his own instrumentals, but has collaborated with a wide range of producers in several countries. Frequent collaborators include Dub Sea of Working Classic Records in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, DJ Phoney of Phoney Records in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and Kdubbs of Urban Underground in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
. The Unamerican LP (2004) also featured three instrumentals by members of the Live Oak Collective from San Jose.
Lynx has also been a pioneer in Celtic Hip Hop, a new style of Celtic fusion
Celtic Fusion
Celtic fusion is an umbrella term for modern music which incorporates influences considered "Celtic," or Celtic music which incorporates modern music. It is a syncretic musical tradition which borrows freely from the perceived "Celtic" musical traditions of all the Celtic nations, as well as from...
that fuses Celtic melodies with hip hop beats and vocals. His band, Beltaine's Fire
Beltaine's Fire
Beltaine's Fire is a five-member Hip Hop/Folk-Rock/Celtic Fusion collective from the San Francisco Bay Area in California fronted by Emcee Lynx. Their music has evolved considerably over the years...
http://beltainesfire.com is one of the first to play a true fusion of Celtic music and Hip Hop. They have released two full length albums and a free live demo.
Compilations
- Music For The Resistance - Circle-A Records, US. (2002)
- No Idea Compilation - 1312 Group, US.(2002)
- The Nonviolence or Nonexistence - Utopian Records, US.(2002)
- Warnography - Love and Rage Records, Australia. (2004)
- Hiphoplogia: CD Anticarcelario - Libertad Anarchist Press, Spain and Chile. (2004)
- States of Abuse Compilation - Entartete Kunst, US and UK.(2005)
- Def Sentence' - Books to Prisoners, US. (2005)
- We're out here for them! ABC Do it Together Compilation Anarchist Black Cross, Germany. (2006)
- Apocalypse - Urban Underground, US. (2007)
- Phoney Phaves - Phoney Tapes, Germany. (2007)
- A Line In The Sand - Wyld Stallion Records, benefit for Iraq Veterans Against the War. (2007)
- Best of KVMR Celtic Fest - With Beltaine's Fire, Benefit for KVMR. (2009)
Albums
Solo- Soundtrack for Insurrection I (2001)
- Soundtrack for Insurrection II (2002)
- The Black Dog EP (2003)
- The Unamerican LP (2004)
- Living in the Shadow (2005)
With Beltaine's Fire
Beltaine's Fire
Beltaine's Fire is a five-member Hip Hop/Folk-Rock/Celtic Fusion collective from the San Francisco Bay Area in California fronted by Emcee Lynx. Their music has evolved considerably over the years...
- The Weapon of the Future (2007)
- Liberty (2008)
- Live at Puck's (2009)
- Anarchitecture (2011)
International reprints
- Soundtrack for Insurrection (2002) Czech Version. Contains tracks from Soundtrack 1 and 2, reprinted as a benefit for the Prague Anarchist Black Cross
- The Black Dog LP and The UnAmerican LP were reprinted in Jakarta, Indonesia in (2004) as a benefit for local political prisoners.
- The UnAmerican LP was reprinted in Cologne Germany by Phoney Tapes in (2005) as a benefit for "Le Sabot," an Anarchist book store in Bonn.
- The UnAmerican LP and Living in the Shadow had three separate reprints in Portugal, Poland, and Romania as fund raisers for local anarchist groups in each area in 2006.