giovanni marks

Hip Hop / No Wave / Other

Hollywood, CA

Billboard

He lived in Compton from 2 to 12 then he moved to nearby Lynwood to live for two years before relocating to the 805 area code. As a rule, he hasn't spoke about his past history or his family's history (to be more precise) on songs or in his work because he doesn't want to send the wrong image out to people who may have heard his music by chance. "Anyone in Compton or Lynwood has experienced gang violence and street drama either directly or indirectly if they lived there within the last 20 years. I don't need to keep the street journalist point of view prevalent for a place that's nicknamed Gunsmoke City."

Living in Camarillo (famous for it's outlet mall, mental institution and DJ Babu) while attending school in local Oxnard helped out his newfound thirst for writing lyrics (he couldn't skateboard anymore because he skipped 56 days of school pretty much in a row.) He bought tapes, vinyl whenever he could, discs of a compact sort and VHS tapes for Yo! MTV raps. He stayed up nights and weekends writing about whatever all the while succeeding in being a bad athlete and mediocre student. He got into battling and flourished at freestyling, due to him talking all of the time. His winning battles led to him doing "little gym lunch shows and whatever else there was to do" in a school where names like The Tribe, Higher Klass and Lyrical Lunatics were the sound of the day.

A relationship was forged with Mums The Word in 94-95 after calling his radio show and requesting really obscure hip-hop that would be hard to obtain anywhere, let alone Camarillo or Oxnard. He and a young Dramatic (now known as Ezraw) took friday night trips out to UC Santa Barbara which required them sneaking out of their houses and driving 45 minutes to go rhyme on Mums' radio show, which was a beacon for all aspiring 805 emcees. You could hear Madlib, Wild Child, Declaime, Kankick, MED, OhNo, The FunkFarm/assist, Pyloe, Jephury, Ambrose and a host of others on Zack Twist's show, which preceded (and later colluded with) Mums The Word's Saturday morning show. This and an earlier, better 92.3 The Beat were responsible for his further education on the murky depths of the true hip-hop underground. He heard Abstract Rude's "Strength of A.T.U." and "Heavyweights Round 2" on the same night and he was sold. He was already aware of Freestyle Fellowship, Hieroglyphics and Pharcyde, so this was a done deal.

His first official crew was formed in 96 and called The Library. A few friends from high school (Dramatic, Premonition, Shogun/Recon and Close Death) along with some new friends (Lexicon, DJ Memorex and Scribble) rounded out the group and did a few shows in Santa Barbara, Goleta and Isla Vista (which is all in the same area) before Giovanni, Nick and Gideon (of Lexicon) all moved to Los Angeles in that order. Gino's brother's took him to Blowed first, following previous meetings and phone conversations with Aceyalone, NgaFsh and J-Smoov. The Library's introductory show at the Project Blowed One Year Anniversary was thwarted (along with everyone elses) by a full scale gang fight, so they didn't do a show there until Summer 1997 when the Underground Superfest went down. They played with everyone from Living Legends to Source of Labor (the dudes who brought you Vitamin D and Lifesavas). The only dudes who weren't there were The Lootpack, The Liks and Company Flow. They were named because in the time between moving out there and playing this show, relations were formed with these parties, as well as rekindled with the Visionaries, who were actually met and harassed 1.5 years before this time.

To make a really long story somewhat shorter, Sub met up with Radioinactive and clicked. Radio introduced him to AntiMC (then known as Anonymous) and Xololanxinxo of Of Mexican Descent (a group consisting of him and 2mex) and they did a song with Oak from lexicon called Happy Weed. They (everyone named except for Oak, with the addition of Premonition and Memorex) made a crew called West Coast Workforce, which Sub eventually left Library to pursue full time. He released How To Beat The Beat01 and a beat tape. He linked back up with Mums to make Weekend Science Experiment, then got drugged out and made How To Beat The Beat02 shortly thereafter. Still drugged out, he made Weekend Science Experiment 1B and Analog Gut along with Delete The Elite. During this period (2001-2003) he left Workforce (the group now had Young/Old Joseph, Omid, Megabusive, AC 75, Life Rexall and DJ Marz) kind of joined The Shape Shifters but didn't, lived in a 10-by-8 foot rehersal room in Hollywood, got acquainted with Sonny Kay from GSL by a meeting set up thru Chris Hathwell of Rapture/Festival Of Dead Deer/Moving Units fame, worked at 2.5 record stores, went crazy, moved 3 times and left on tour to Europe with The Mars Volta (with Adlib/Thavius Beck having his back) WHILE his first proper CD came out. It was entitled I'm Always Recovering From Tomorrow and was the result of "a year of recording a gang of songs, only to have the hard drive crash while mixing down everything for release!" 45 songs were lost, which included the OG versions of Lost Love Stays Lost and I'm Always Recovering From Tomorrow along with the first versions of what would eventually become Young Dangerous Heart which was his first full length release, both on GSL.

More happened, but that will be saved for the book or the film. GSL said in Fader Magazine that LabWaste (Sub and Thavius Beck's side group) would be working on a record for release in 2k3-2k4, so the dudes went to work a few months after they got home from europe. Internal Science was the first song from those sessions and told of things to come. Many shows transpired, along with a week in France with The Shape Shifters that resulted in linking up with the parisian elite, meaning TTC, Tacteel, dDamage, Para One and Feadz. Since mutual respect was shared, two songs in one day followed (both of which are on Existereo's Institubes album -- one of them was supposed to be for Young Dangerous Heart) and now Sub was a ex-pat like that. Later that year, a New York visit to CMJ (which had never been done before by Mr. Marks) resulted in lots of odd combinations and a meeting with "two notorious dudes, Dan Seligman and Nick Robinson from POPMontreal. They introduced me to The Unicorns, which resulted in me playing with them and Beans in L.A. a few months later. I also met Chloe from Seripop and found a friend for life in the girl from Aids Wolf."

Speeding up time, he played more thru 2K4, re-recorded Young Dangerous Heart (linking up with a lot of unlikely combinations in the process) recorded the LabWaste album (entitled Black Background in dutch or Zwarte Achtegrond, the title was inspired by a photo shoot with URB magazine that eventually awarded them the cover of said mag) and got Busdriver to release it out of desperation. "I wanted to see it come out. GSL wasn't interested at the time and I was afraid that if it (the project) waited around, Thavius would lose interest. If I would have waited a month or so, I could have got some larger label to release the album." He also did remixes for a few groups and bands of various genres. Everyone from Kill Me Tomorrow to Daedelus to 2Mex popped up for a random treatment at the lab. Two back to back tours in europe made him quit his job at the record store reluctantly, and after Young Dangerous Heart was released, he turned those two to seven in 11 months, going wherever they let him. Don't forget his under the table exploits with Th' Corn Gangg (members from The Unicorns and every cool band in the last 25 years) and guest appearances on all sorts of things both common and uncommon.

things to know about giovanni marks
1.subtitle wasn't his first or last rap name. some names of merit were:context, hexane A.S.H.3 and Rhymetype.

2.his grand-cousin (grandfather's cousin) was Duke Ellington

3.his last memorable studio session was with dub innovator Scientist, while working on speculative production on Anne Montone's e.p.

4.he likes clothes and accessories like shoes and backpacks. he fancies himself a clotheshorse.