Dälek heeds hip-hop’s resurrection

“Back in the day, there were more Public Enemies than there were MC Hammers,” recalls Dalek, the skilled MC and producer who leads the rap trio of the same name. “The day those roles switched, that was the day that hip-hop died.”

Of course, this is only a half-truth. “There’s obviously still an underground, where there are still people doing good things,” he says. “And to me, that’s where hip-hop exists now.”

And Dalek should know. The last five years have shown him much of what the underground has to offer. When the group’s debut EP, Negro Necro Nekros, was released in 1998, it threw a monkey wrench into the common perception of what hip-hop could be, even within indie circles. The innovation has continued this year with the release of From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots on Ipecac Records. Owing as much to My Bloody Valentine, Black Flag and the Velvet Underground as to EPMD, KRS-One and Public Enemy, Dalek’s sound baffles most concert-goers. Tours with rock acts like Dillinger Escape Plan, Tomahawk and Dismemberment Plan placed the trio — Dalek, co-producer Oktopus and DJ Still — at odds with many crowds, who were surprised to see a rap group at all, let alone one that strips away hip-hop’s typical bass-heavy beats and replaces them with colorful layers of noise that wouldn’t be out of place at a Melvins show.

On top of that, audiences are frequently confronted with walls of smoke and an assault of anarchic strobes, part of a live experience that deviates from the boring standards of live hip-hop. “The whole ‘throw your hands in the air’ — the crowd participation thing — I mean, that was cool during the old block parties when [Afrika] Bambaataa and Kool Herc were DJing,” says Dalek. “But I feel like that’s been done, and I don’t feel the need to get up there and play to every hip-hop cliche.”


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Dalek performs at MJQ Concourse Tues., Oct. 22.??