It’s impossible to listen to the new Northern State record and not hear the influences. Before this most recent outing, the women sounded like an updated, all-female version of the Beastie Boys, but there’s a lot more going on between the covers of “Can I Keep This Pen?”
You can hear the jubilant pop spirit of the B-52s in “Cold War,” the minimalist funk-pop of Luscious Jackson in “Better Already,” the eclectic melodic hip-hop of Branvan 3000 in “Away Away,” the sublime trip-hop of Portishead in “Fall Apart,” and the electro-via- punk edge of Le Tigre is all over the record, especially in “Better Already” and “ILUVITWHENYA.”
Northern State may be the women’s answer to the Beastie Boys, especially with the new “The Three Amigas” acting as an homage to “Paul Revere.” But Hesta Prynn, Spero and Sprout won’t likely be known as such 10 years from now.
The Denver Post caught up with Sprout, a.k.a. Robyn Goodmark, during a San Diego tour stop earlier this week to talk about the connections to the Beastie Boys, the modern role of women in hip-hop and her group’s upcoming date at the Boulder Theater on Saturday night.
Q: You put out your second record, “All City,” on Columbia. But what happened to that record deal?
A: It was great for us to have a major label and their bank to finance that record. That enabled us to work with ?uestlove and all of these other people, traveling all over to make “All City.” It came out, and there were months and months of us pushing it and trying to make it go somewhere as we watched them drop the ball left and right, and it was frustrating.
Q: So that changed your plans for this record obviously.
A: We wanted to do it on our own, and we didn’t know who was going to put it out. We worked with an awesome producer, Chuck Brode, and we’d met him through the “All City” process. We also got to work with (the Beastie Boys’) Adrock, which was pretty amazing.
Q: So the relationship with the Beastie Boys continues. How did you first hook with Adrock?
A: We’d met him a couple years back when we had opened for Le Tigre, and he’d been at the show. We talked. And he was super-supportive and really excited. A year after that, we played the Voodoo Festival on some side stage, and the Beastie Boys were headlining the main stage. He jumped in his golf cart to come and see our set, and he said, “You guys are great, and I feel what you’re doing.” He remixed a single we did with Pete Rock, “Time to Rhyme,” and we thought, “We have a remix, let’s put out a 12-inch,” but Columbia said, “No, we’re not putting money into that.” We knew the relationship was done then.
A couple years later, we sent Adrock a note and said we’re recording and would love to work together, and he said, “Where’s the studio?” He showed up, brought some beats, and he helped us get super-silly on the record.
Q: How does it feel to be a woman making hip-hop music?
A: We always knew hip-hop music would be a great platform for college-educated women, especially if we made it relevant and interesting for people to hear. … We felt prepared to be the three white- girl rappers from New York, because that’s who we were. We listened to Run-D.M.C. and the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J. And now that hip-hop has grown up so much and become a representation of our culture – and the fact that white women are so underrepresented in the music, as are woman in general – it felt great to stake our claim.
Q: What do you think about the portrayal of women in hip-hop?
A: It’s always been a man’s world. The music I listened to when I was 8 or 9 years, the formative part of my sexual identity and my gender identity, the music was so misogynist. But I didn’t even know that at the time. I liked the beats. It’s been an uphill battle, but we’re happy to represent ourselves, as have other women who came before us including Queen Latifah and Missy Elliot.
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com
Northern State Hip-hop. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. 8 p.m. Saturday with Tegan & Sara. Sold out. or 303-786-7030
