Interview with Sketch Tha Cataclysm

Sketch Tha Cataclysm moved to the Twin Cities from Connecticut this past June. For a few months, I saw him at various rap shows, followed him on Twitter and maybe chatted with him once or twice. Eventually, he took the stage at an open mic I was at. Now, in all honesty, I’m biased against rappers with long names and especially biased against rappers I’ve never seen perform before. It’s just too easy to put together some mediocre bars and call yourself an MC these days; as a listener, it’s getting harder and harder to give new artists the benefit of the doubt. Everybody raps; and hardly anyone is worth a damn.

Sketch, however, can SPIT. Long multisyllable chains, varying tempos, funny punchlines, heartfelt content; seeing him perform actually brought a smile to my face. It’s fun to be surprised. Since that night, I’ve checked out more and more of his music, and as saturated as the TC hip hop scene is, I think Sketch will be able to make a name for himself here. His new project, the Sharing is Caring EP, drops November 3.

Kyle Myhre: It can be a very difficult thing to go from being an established artist in one city to a completely new face in another. How have you navigated “starting over,” in a sense?

Sketch Tha Cataclysm: It’s hard, but I look at it through the eyes of someone applying for a new job in a new state that has some pretty good past work experience on his resume. By moving halfway across the country, I set the clock back and now have to go through paying dues all over again, but now with my decent resume in hand.

I’ve really made it my mission to check out as many local shows as I possibly can and try to support local artists that I am really feeling. Anything I could do to help local acts I believe in promote their material I do, even if its something like being in the front of the dance floor at an event or re-posting a tweet or a link to an event listing. Every time I get a chance to get on a mic anywhere I do it and I am not usually without a CD (or four) on me. I’m always building with local acts and just regular attendees at events. It’s all paying dues and earning my place here.

KM: As an insider/outsider, what are your impressions of the Twin Cities hip hop scene? I think most people know by now that it’s deep, but are there other aspects of the scene that have surprised you, challenged you or made you go “hmm?”

STC: I love the Twin Cities hip-hop scene and have loved it since well before I got here. There is an incredible crop of talented emcees that are prepared to perform live. There is a varied array of producers constantly working on new and interesting material; if you attend Last of The Record Buyers you could see that within 10 minutes. The rhyme styles are an amalgam of east coast, west coast and home grown cadences and you see a lot of performers in the Twin Cities that are inspired by spoken word. It’s beautiful and I enjoy getting to be around that constantly.

It’s been really difficult starting up and attempting to get on events as an opener and book some of my own to feature others but I think that will change with more time put in.

One of the things I am missing (and maybe I am just not looking hard enough) is the lack of beatboxing presence. I’ve caught Carnage, DJ Snuggles, and Muad’Dib of Heiruspecs since I’ve been here, but haven’t seen many beatboxers on the rise. I miss that.

["Live @ Monkey Bar" by Snare via MySpace]

KM: In a fairly crowded scene, how do you think you’ll be able to stick out? If you were describing your music to someone who has never heard it, what would you say?

STC: I have a love of performing that I don’t find visible in a lot of in hip hop performances. I try to stay as present as possible at every event and provide the audience who has seen me multiple times with unique experiences every time. My performances are definitely a way I stand out.

I made up this long-winded explanation a while back to describe my music that was something like, “It’s forward thinking performance-based hip hop that clutches on to the essence of the culture as it moves and occasionally dives into introspective multi-syllabic poetry.” It’s nonsense. That’s my way of saying I get bored.

The music itself is varied. I approach each project I work on with an eye on switching up mood and using different rhyme styles and production techniques. I’ll go from doing something extra wordy to something with a lot of space and in the pocket depending on the subject matter and intention. This may be the thing that destroys me in the end but my favorite artists are those that are constantly attempting to grow.

KM: A philosophical question: You’re a great “pure” rapper, in terms of of the bar-by-bar internal rhymes, multisyllable rhymes and all that. Do you see the technical craft of rapping as an end in and of itself, or as a tool to get somewhere else in your songwriting?

STC: I really use it to try to grow as a songwriter.

One of the projects I dropped back in 2007 was an EP called Party Music For Pissed Off People. It featured seven tracks that were based on essays I had written on a variety of social and political topics. I challenged myself to put these subjects I felt very strongly about onto these beds of ’70s funk, soul, salsa, and reggae samples and not be too preachy. I put them all in heavy multi-syllabic rhyme schemes in a way to try to get attention in a live setting but that you couldn’t fully absorb until you have repeated listens. I even repeated some verses to try push a point I was making. It’s definitely a tool.

If I want to be direct, the delivery is more paced and, fairly often, the content gets more abstract or it’s used to tell a story.

KM: Talk a little bit about AntFarm, past projects and what the future holds. What’s next for you?

STC: The AntFarm Affiliates is a collective of MCs, producers, DJs, and beatboxers based in Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts that I am a part of and helped found in 2006. We all try to support, work with, and perform with each other frequently. We share bookings, yearly produce a hip-hop summit, and create together. One of the acts, D_Cyphernauts, has been running the longest monthly hip-hop event in CT that we all support and I used to help host from time to time.

Next up for me (and us) is my collaborative project with Deto 22 of Phenetiks (another AntFarm act) called The Sharing Is Caring EP. It’s a joint effort in which I produced tracks that he rhymes on and he did the same for me and then we both covered one of each other’s songs; a lot of fun. That drops November 3 in all of your fine digital retailers and physically at all of our events.

The Rising Sun Quest, Cee Reed, Expertiz, Pruven, Roc Doogie, and Workforce are all dropping projects very soon that feature production and/or vocal appearances from myself as well.

Sketch Tha Cataclysm Shoeless Flow Jackson EP [ZIP]