Art by Evan Solano
When things like a novelist telling him that the FKA twigs chapter of his book ended up being a huge inspiration for their second novel happen, Liam Inscoe-Jones‘s day is made.
One of the most fascinating moments in rap has been watching an entire micro-universe blossom around Backwoodz Studioz. The all-time New York City all-time underground label started in 2002, but only began to gain a foothold in the mid-2010s with the success of its namesake, billy woods. From there, the grassroots nexus of rappers and beat-makers has expanded to lend its imprimatur to an enthralling new crop of artists. One of the most creatively gifted inductees has been DJ Haram, a noise artist, producer, DJ, and improviser from New Jersey, by way of Philadelphia.
After linking up with Armand Hammer through ELUCID–a frequent presence at experimental shows in the city–Haram’s name began popping up on production credits for woods and Armand Hammer’s albums. Haram’s credentials as a razor-sharp producer shine best on “Stenography,” which beats the Armand-Hammer-“dusty” allegations by setting woods and ELUCID against knocking drill drums, their vocals chopped Three Six-style into the bed of the beat with an original vocal from singer Dania woven like a sample around them. It’s an intense, masterful piece of production, pairing dense lyricism with a brilliant pop sensibility, but rap-productions are only the latest addition to the DJ Haram portfolio.
DJ Haram actually started out as a punk kid and activist, skipping college in favour of street-level organizing for movements like Occupy Wall Street and Students for a Democratic Society. Those kids, she found, listened to dance, not rap. She began to DJ at house parties and anarchist community spaces, throwing herself on the bill until she was picked up by the Discwoman roster and began touring internationally. On Besides Myself, Haram’s new album for the legendary UK electronic label, Hyperdub, she slips into modes of eeriness, paranoia, and fury. The album’s track-list unspools as an integration of all her numerous music lives: the New York rap scene, the dance clubs, the noise-rock shows, and the Middle Eastern music which scored her childhood from family functions to her dad’s cassette collection.
Unashamedly political–a self-proclaimed propogandist–she is unapologetically unfiltered but, speaking from Berlin in the middle of her first solo European tour, she was also friendly and soft-spoken, flitting between a deep passion for music and indignation about the continued state of everything.
(This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.)