Music

BEHIND the STICK – vol. 1

Categories: Events & Exhibitions, Music, News, OYASABA Music Videos, Portfolio, THE SH*T SHOW
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BEHIND The STICK – vol. 1














BEHIND The STICK – vol. 1, by multimedia artist Rhasaan Oyasaba Manning, is an ongoing photographic project, ten years in the making. The name “BEHIND the STICK” connotes the point of departure, which is the perspective of the bartender and DJ. 
The collection of fleeting nightlife moments was produced using an assortment of point-and-shoot and disposable black-and-white 35mm film cameras. 
BTS – vol. 1 is Manning’s photographic dedication to the burgeoning era of the social microcosm he calls “Childrensburg.” It is also a reflection on the citywide gentrification that has physically, economically, and spiritually displaced several of the subjects themselves.
“The intent of the photos is to reflect the postures nightlife people assume as a matter of reflex, and also, sometimes, out of actual joy, as well as exposing uncanny and candid shapes and glances. Another primary element for me has been capturing the cultural diversity of the people I encounter every time I show up to work.” – R.O.M.

Instagram: @rhasmann & @behindthestik

YouTube: rhasmann)

 

FOR SALE:

The first limited edition set of large prints from the collection consists of thirteen
signed (13) 24” x 36” prints (featured above), Epson Legacy Baryta Paper, framed by ROOQ, NY, NY.

The first printed volume is a 120 page 8” x 10” mini-tab zine,
on 30 lb. newsprint, printed exclusively by Linco Printing Co., L.I.C., NY.

Contact: oyasaba@hotmail.com

VIDEO:

Ol’ Fren by OYASABA

Categories: Events & Exhibitions, Film & TV, Music, News, OYASABA Music Videos
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BRAND NEW VIDEO by KENJI HAYASAKI TO BE RELEASED SOON…!

CHECK OUT A PREVIEW…!:

 

 

LYRICS:

Ol’ Fren     03.12.03      4:44am 222

By OYASABA:

am I the monk who runs in place

counting the raindrops that hit my face

am I the drunk who wants a taste

am I the punk whose life’s a waste

am I the monk who’s lost his way

caught in a funk and out of place

am I the one who needs to pray

am I the one who I create

am I the gun that’s wrapped in lace

you think it’s fun to kill w/grace

am I the one undone by fate

you are the smile that I embrace

 

I am them all & so are you

We rise & fall like sun & moon

The cries we call are hope in bloom

We try response we mass consume

I am them all & so are you

We rise & fall like sun & moon

The cries we call are hope in bloom

We try response we mass consume

 

(repeat all above)

 

sometimes I feel so very whole

while others I am coming apart

in conversations w/fragile folk

fragile like me

& I say the last thing I meant to say & I see

the shiver of disappointed surprise

shoot up their spine & out of their eyes expression

their defense’s reflex reflect transgressions as do mine

against my own mindlessness

in these interactions where nothing that ought to be said can possibly be stated

the best ending time passes as though we were dead I stand captivated

by their beauty and transfixed by their attitude of solitude

people quiver unsteadily in those good thick gaps in mood

(like slices of dry turkey that choke horses)

we communicate more than in the fleeting words which came before,

yet perhaps to be outdone by what is to come.

 

I am them all & so are you

We rise & fall like sun & moon

The cries we call are hope in bloom

We try response we mass consume

I am them all & so are you

We rise & fall like sun & moon

The cries we call are hope in bloom

We try response we mass consume.

 

olfren6

 

 

OYASABA: Best of Downbeats

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This playlist features some of our downtempo psychadelique dance music selections, aka, slow-motion…!

OYASABA: ARCHIVES #2 on SoundCloud

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cover#2

ARCHIVES #2 is our fourth self-released album.
This group of songs marks our return to songs about the travails of love in the shadows of a world in jeopardy…
Recorded at My Flatbush Studio.
Artwork by Lara Vallance. Full layout is featured in PORTFOLIO.
Copyright 2014 by Rhasaan Oyasaba Manning.
All Rights Reserved.

OYASABA: ARCHIVES #1 on SoundCloud

https://soundcloud.com/oyasaba/sets/oyasaba-archives-1

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archive1.cover

ARCHIVES #1 is our third self-released album. The first song on this album (NAMA) is dedicated to my mother and her struggles as a single mother, raising an only child in the 70’s and 80’s in Brooklyn.
From there the album moves from the personal to wider social concerns including war, politics, scandal, revolution, roots, and so on….
Artwork by Lara Vallance. Full layout is featured in PORTFOLIO.
Copyright 2014 by Rhasaan Oyasaba Manning.

OYASABA, The Flatbush Sound: 13 on SoundCloud

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13cd

13 is the first album by OYASABA.
The songs on this album are about love and loss in the big city.
Recorded in my Flatbush Studio.
Music videos for the songs Gravity (on the Q), Possessed, and Avail are featured further down this page.
Artwork by Rhasaan Oyasaba Manning.
Full layout is featured in PORTFOLIO.
Copyright 2008 by Rhasaan Oyasaba Manning.
All Rights Reserved.

AfroCentaur by OYASABA on SoundCloud

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This is the second album from OYASABA.
AfroCentaur is the soundtrack for the upcoming film THE RETURN OF BLACK SHAMUS, a MANNING-OSBORNE production.
Photos by Tyrone Brown-Osborne.
Full layout is featured in PORTFOLIO.
COPYRIGHT 2013 by Rhasaan Oyasaba Manning.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

CD’s (with 8 page full-color booklet) are available here on OYASABA.com at:

http://www.oyasaba.com/afrocentaur-cd/

THE RETURN OF BLACK SHAMUS is inspired at once by the archetypes of Film Noir and Blaxploitation. Black Shamus is a man imprisoned for crimes he did not commit. It is an old tale in many ways, which is also a recurring nightmare of mine. This negative fantasy has pushed me to take great care in choosing my friends and lovers, and in deciding which members of my family I associate with. The resulting fiction addresses many of my primal fears: the fear of surveillance in general which connects to fear of the Panopticon as described by Foucault in DISCIPLINE & PUNISH, The Birth of the Prison; the fear of being followed in particular; the fear of the police state, the FBI, CIA in general, and the NYPD in particular; the fear of an unknown evil double, or doppelganger, who may want to be the only version of me, thereby needing to negate me; the fear of finding a life partner and starting a family only to lose them in a violent fatal tragedy; the fear of guns and gunplay; the fear of being driven to seek revenge; the fear of taking a life; the fear of losing it all (whatever the “all” is), and starting all over – again.

Black Shamus goes through a series of tragic events as a means to address my obsession with duality, inversion, nihilism, self-destruction, and the struggle for freedom from all these things, which is the only choice. Shamus must contend with his own sense of self, as well as the villain, aforementioned evil other, the diabolical double. Yet, the villain is the same man. This story is meant to serve as an allegory, a metaphor. A man must destroy a part or parts of himself, if not himself entirely in order to transgress the present reality, in order to move forward. Black Shamus is a hero/anti-hero. In reality, the battle (inner) to learn, grow, change, love, understand, appreciate, and express anger, in short, to be a man, is a lonely voyage. Another goal of presenting the fiction of Black Shamus is to construct a man who fits in the world Raymond Chandler described in his essay “The Simple Act of Murder”:

The story is this man’s adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in….

In the last scene Black Shamus sits on the pier after having murdered his double in retaliation for the deaths of his wife and child, contemplating his next move. His war has just begun. This is but the first chapter of his quest, his saga.

Best of Upbeats by OYASABA

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photo-21 - Version 2

This “mixtape” consists of songs from our first 3 albums.
In similar fashion, our live shows tend to incorporate material both old and new…