Hip-hop in the house in Napa
Home-grown band dreams big
Wednesday, July 9, 2003
By MIKE ALDAX
Register Staff Writer
No one ever talks about the neighborhood just south of downtown Napa, surrounding Riverside Drive.
Not with its rusted old cars, graffiti-clad park benches and low-income housing.
Out-of-towners don't even think such a place exists among the wine and wealth in Napa County.
Riverside Drive might not sprout vines to the heavens or give birth to lavish vineyards. But to Jalone Shanti-Montoy, the witty, sultry-voiced MC of Napa-based hip-hop group Family For Life, it might put Napa on the map of the increasingly diverse hip-hop world.
"There's more to Napa than just (wine and riches)," said Jalone, 24, who along with Family For Life will perform Friday night at the American Legion Hall at 7 p.m. "That's the Upvalley, this is Napa City. We got problems, like domestic abuse and drugs. It's easy to ignore (Riverside) because it helps hide Napa's problems. But me, I don't sugar-coat anything. I just tell it like it is."
Jalone, the hardened yet humble leader of the Mexican American hip-hop group, didn't hold back when he first picked up the microphone at 13, and he certainly leaves nothing behind in his first, self-titled solo album, which since its release three weeks ago has sold 2,000 copies, according to the group.
The album was released under Family For Life's self-run independent label, One 2 Feva Colla Poppin Music. Its second album, "Live N' Learn, As the World Turns," will be released next month.
Although the album has yet to be picked up by a major distribution company, which Jalone touts as his label's primary goal, Family For Life has opened for a number of noted hip-hop acts, including Richie Rich, Two Live Crew, B-Legit and Mac-Dre.
Two songs from "Jalone" have been picked up by the radio station, 102.7 "Da Bomb" in Hawaii, where Jalone lived for a short time and promoted his music heavily.
Songs from the album have also played on Bay Area Latino station, KYLD 94.9.
Family For Life: The crew
Jalone has been the heart and sweat of Family For Life, using his soothing, technically masterful vocals to spit out hard-nosed, real-life rhymes about his childhood growing up in the less glamorous neighborhoods of Napa City.
Jalone's ups and downs as a youth have made him a subtle, meaningful lyricist reminiscent of Tupac Shakur before his "Death Row Records" days.
The local MC, who attended Napa High School for two years before being sent to a boy's ranch for what he calls "getting into mischief," grew up without his biological father, who lived nearby but had no desire to see him. The absence of his father led to a strained relationship with his mother.
"I never really had that (traditional mom) in my life," Jalone said. "Mom always had to play the part of both the mom and the dad. She had to bring me up with tough love."
And then tragedy hit home when Jalone's best friend, Michael Yokoi, was murdered for being "in the wrong place at the wrong time" in a shooting in Vallejo.
"Music has been like an outlet, something to get away from it all and find peace of mind," Jalone said. "I was never good at books and school, but when it comes to music and writing, that's me. It's all I know."
Twelve carefully placed tracks on "Jalone" tell the life stories of the MC and others in his Napa-based crew, which consists of equally entrancing lyricists Rudy "Sal" Rodriguez and Eric "Too Much" Baggett, business guru and Vintage High graduate "Briefcase Brady" Wilkens and producer Ablaze Keys, whose classical-derived piano samples are a sometimes inspiring, sometimes chilling complement to the raw, swanky and depth-defying beats layered on each track.
All Family For Life MCs live in Napa, home to a number of other hip-hop figures who either grew up or hung out on Riverside Drive.
"When I saw Ablaze for the first time, I was like, we're going to do something special," Jalone said. "He was learning when I first started working with him but I heard something in his music. Right then I knew what he would become."
What Ablaze Keys, 21, has become is original; a pioneer in the modernization of a brand of hip hop beats made popular by groups like Bay Area legend The Click, led by nationally known Vallejo native E-40.
Ablaze fuses these primarily West Coast-influenced tracks with classical piano samples he composed during 16 years of music study. The result is an impassioned version of the high tone, low bass beats made famous in California in the early 1990s. His tracks have a raw edge, yet they're fused with a tinge of deliberate emotion, a key proponent in Family For Life's potential for success.
The producer's music has an uncanny similarity to Jalone's life's lessons-style of hip-hop, and is further amplified on "Jalone" with the help of Sal, a soul-centered lyricist whose vocal accents dance on every beat, and Too Much, who provides a deep, Barry White-style sound the group says is "especially for the ladies."
Sweat for success
Jalone knew from the start that talent alone wouldn't be enough to make it in a highly competitive hip-hop market, and he was never a stranger to hard work.
Not long before his album's release, Jalone left his job at a local vineyard and went to live on Oahu, Hawaii, hoping to seek a new outlet for his group's music. There he juggled two shifts at a pizzeria with his music career.
He would wake up early to write and record, work at the pizzeria throughout the day, and then hit the streets with a boom box and some bootlegs, hoping to gain street credibility for his group.
"I was able to sell 600 bootlegs at one point," Jalone said. "It was hard work, but you just have to get out there and do it."
Jalone also hit up the local clubs and disc jockeys, hoping they would mix some of his tracks in their nightly sets. The Family For Life sound grew on many Hawaii DJs and in a short period of time, the word was spreading.
Hawaii hip-hop radio station 102.7 "Da Bomb" expressed interest in two of Jalone's tracks: "Anger" and "One of a Kind." The station held live interviews with Jalone and Family For Life members, who were still living in Napa at the time, and calls quickly started coming into the station asking where the group's album could be purchased.
Next thing Jalone can remember, Family For Life was invited to play in clubs and shows around Oahu, including a gig at the Convention Center in front of 10,000 people.
Jalone and Family For Life will return to Hawaii in due time to help promote their next album, "Live And Learn, As the World Turns," which will feature Sal and Too Much more prevalently.
Following their show Friday at the American Legion Hall, which will include appearances from Napa MCs KP, E-Low and Mouthpiece, Family For Life will travel south to Southern California, Arizona and New Mexico in a tour it hopes will reach the Latino population.
"We want to get out there as much as possible and hit the Latino areas," Jalone said.
"We are our own entrepreneurs, this label is our business. We need to get out there and do our thing, let ourselves be known."
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The show: Family For Life, featuring Jalone, Too Much and Sal
Where: American Legion Hall, Napa
Tickets: $10, at the door
Also on the bill: KP, E-Low and Mouthpiece
Featured album: "Jalone"
Where albums are sold in Napa: A-1 Liquor Stores, Lawler's Liquors, Moe's Liquors, Doc of Rock.
Albums also sold on group's Web site, www.collapoppinmusic.com
