Urban Umpires
| Urban Umpires | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Umpires |
| Origin |
Bay Area, California, USA Brooklyn, New York, USA |
| Genres |
Real Hip Hop Trip Hop Downtempo Latin Hip Hop World Hip Hop House Glitch I.D.M. Dancehall Bhangra |
| Years active | 2004-Present |
| Labels | Urban Umpires Hall of Fame Studios/Hall of Flames Studios |
| Associated acts | DAE Recordings, The Solution, Various Blends, Hieroglyphics, Santero, Souls of Mischief, Brisk 1, DJ Premier, Rasco, Planet Asia, Bored Stiff, Bash Bros, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Dilated Peoples, Defari, Superstar Quamallah, Lunar Heights, Freddie Foxxx, King Solomon, [The Greens Crew, Tha Fruitbat, Chocolate Sound & G Wizski |
| Website | UrbanUmpires.com |
| Members |
Just Jay (Founder C.E.O.) MC/Producer DJ CrushDelight aka 2am (V.P.) RasCue (V.P. of Operations) Prince Poetry (Organized Confusion) Frizz B (Bola) Producer/MC Marc Stretch (Foreign Legion) Cold Showda (Chosen Few) Grand da Visitor (Homliss Derilex) Amad Jamal aka Tom Bradley DJ Coope D’ville Brisk-1 (Producer) Turbin (MC) Mo Jo Swagger |
Urban Umpires is a domestic stock corporation working mainly in the realm of multimedia and a private Organization.
It was founded in 2004 by Just Jay who initiated Urban Umpires as a collection of entrepreneurs, DJ’s, Producers, MC’s, Graffiti Artists, Videographers, Instrumental Artists, Graphic Designers, and the like several years before the companies incorporation.
Urban Umpires is most widely known for its private hip hop organization whose members (as known to date) are listed below:
Umpires
Amad Jamal Aka Tom Bradley
Marc Stretch of Foreign Legion
Cold Showda (MC)
B-Smoove (MC)
MoJo Swagger (MC)
Brisk-1 (Producer)
Concise Kilgore
Senior Umpires
DJ Coop D’ville
Various Blends
Ras Cue Aka Black Burgandy/EBF (V.P. of Operations)
Friz B (Bola)
CrushDelight (V.P.)
Just Jay (C.E.O. Founder)
The Junior Umpires membership list is currently private. The only publicly known members are:
Beatmaker B (from Russia) Producer/DJ
Flip (from Austria) Producer/Dj & Promoter
Intro Beats (from Iceland)
Structure
Urban Umpires Incorporated was established in 2006 however the Urban Umpires Organization itself dates back several years earlier as Urban Umpires structure is twofold.
There are members of the organization (Umpires) currently acting as C.E.O. and V.P., as well as some whom sit on the Board of Directors of the corporation itself. However the Umpires themselves are not all involved in the corporate aspect of Urban Umpires. The subsect – or original defining body – of Urban Umpires is the Umpires Organization.
The Umpires Organization consists of select Umpires who represent Urban Umpires interests in Urban Umpires Inc.. Unofficially Urban Umpires also includes select group of Urban Umpires affiliates including Hieroglyphics, DAE Recordings, Marcus Aurelius, Chocolate Sound, The Solution, Santero, Tha Fruitbat, Cali Agents (Rasco and Planet Asia), Adisa Banjoko, Dilated Peoples, & Freddie Foxxx to name a few.
Radio
Urban Umpires established itself in radio with small independent online radio broadcaster btr in 2006. Urban Umpires hip hop mix show The Third Rail’s debut made it the 7th show in total airing on the stations 7 day rotation at the time.
In an 2006 (June 22) interview Umpire Just Jay stated "Anyone who knows and loves hip hop music is tired of how image is everything in the genre," said DJ Just Jay. "
Our (Urban Umpires)show is dedicated to preserving the true foundation of urban culture where the only thing that matters is the skill of the artists. Listeners will be treated to artists who remember the fundamentals of the old school while providing innovative audio stimulation for the new school.
By early 2007 Urban Umpires was the largest single content provider to the broadcaster with a total of 8 original multi-genre shows, as well as artist interviews and video content. Mid 2007 Urban Umpires provided 10% of the stations total music programming content and Umpire Just Jay was officially titled the stations Urban Platform Programming Director.
'Urban Platform:'
The Third Rail - Hip Hop
Bhangra Beats
Dancehall Riddims
Latin Hip Hop
World Hip Hop - Hip Hop in World tongue
Glitch IDM – Intelligent Dance Music
Electric Avenue – Deep House
Downtime Sessions – Downtempo/Trip-hop
At its peak the eight show platforms audience reached over 40 million listeners weekly.
The original show - The Third Rail - aired 120 episodes and the proceeding shows nearly 100 apiece. Afrika Bambatta, RZA from Wu Tang, Money B of Digital Underground, even the Notorious Vic Black form The Gang Starr Foundation (who after 20+ years in the game made his DJ'ing Debut on Urban Umpires The Third Rail) and countless others guest hosted, were interviewed for, and supported the platform of shows.
In early 2008 Just Jay collaborated with MC Opio (Souls of Mischief/Hieroglyphics)on the artists Vultures wisdom Vol.1 DVD via video content fabrication and production. The album was hailed as the years hip hop standard for indie progressive urban videography and lyrical content.
Urban Umpires and MySpace both released authorized sneak peeks of the album.
Myspace then released the cut version. Urban Umpires took it a couple of steps further releasing the Uncut vocal and unreleased inst. tracks along with a personal artist interview with Opio via Urban Umpires The Third Rail online radio mixshow in which the artist interacted throughout the album (see Urban Umpires and Radio).
The Umpires, all the represented artists played on the platform of shows, affiliates invested in the platform etc. parted with the station in late 2008. Possession of the music library, rights to play content of the platforms library, the entirety of the urban platforms content and related audio, visual and written remain property of Urban Umpires Inc.
Urban Umpires has moved the platform to MadMixRadio.com, which is set to launch Summer 2010.
Interesting Urban Umpires Facts
Urban Umpire Just Jay did the cuts on former NFL football player turned rapper FMZ's song Bad Name off the album Ghetto passport. The song uses a fully authorized Bon Jovi song remixed as its music base. David Lyndon Huff Executive Officer of World Jam oversaw the project.
Concise Kilgore was a protégé of Bahamadia taking his first ever tour to Europe with her..
Urban Umpires regularly involves itself in charity and has organized events with sponsorship from The National Kidney Foundation, Hip Hop Chess Federation, Mixer Friendly and countless of generous others as well as supported the individual endeavors of hand delivered sustenance providers.
Urban Umpire Brisk One is a widely respected graffiti artist and has been featured for his art in many national and international publications.
In June 2009 Urban Umpires organized ResCue, one of the world's largest independent hip hop and house events for charity ever executed until that time. The event (held a Temple in San Francisco California) featured over 35 lyrical artists and over 10 DJ's all of whom provided their services for free to the Urban Umpires charitable event.
Urban Umpires Music
Please help finish this section.
Urban Umpires is widely known for its cutting edge indie video, film, music, and written art.
References
- Urban Umpires Official Website
- August 2006 article hails Urban Umpires The Third Rail as groundbreaking and innovative.
- Article - 2006 The Third Rail Hailed.
- September 2007 Gangstarr Foundations Vic Black DJ'ing Debut on Urban Umpires The Third Rail (article)
- Article - Urban Umpires Urban Programming expanded.
- July 2006 Review Urban Umpires original shows bulk of total quoted programming
- BTR Blog with temporary links to Urban Umpires radio shows
- Bash Bros appears on The Third Rail
- Article - The Third Rail
- Article - Urban Umpires Music Platform