Who's Listening? (Ghetto Chilldren Tribute)

The biggest positive and negative aspect of music are the same thing: anybody can make music. Although this enables everyone the ability to express themselves and create whatever they want to, it also means that there is a stupendous amount of music available and, thus, a lot of music gets ignored. Unfortunately, this is the case with many truly talented artists who possessed something special in their music but could not sustain their craft due to a lack of demand for it. Forgotten artists may be the focal point of countless posts to come, but this post will focus on one group active for a period of seven years that, for the most part, remain completely unknown to everyone outside of their hometown.

Two decades ago, the music industry was a much harder area to infiltrate. For the most part, the rule stood that to have a commercial impact, you needed to have a record deal. A record deal meant (or, at least, was supposed to mean) a guaranteed income and ability to release music on a regular basis, as well as the additional benefit of this music becoming successful due to the label's backing. However, it was rare for artists to secure deals with major labels, so many resulted to releasing the music themselves. Nowadays, anybody can put out their music with very little money spent (the Internet plays a huge role in this), but back then the independent route was a lot more expensive. Artists who put out their own music needed to have devotion to their art, a desire to achieve and the money to serve as their sole financial backing.

In early 1990s Seattle, the local music scene was completely dominated by alternative rock and grunge music. The only hip hop artists at the time signed to major labels were Sir Mix-A-Lot and Kid Sensation who, despite both having commercially successful careers, did not achieve a breakthrough for their fellow Seattleite rappers. For a lot of Seattle hip hop artists, this meant that independency was the only way to release their music to the world.

The Seattle-based Tribal Music Inc. was founded in 1994 out of this inability to get major label attention. Founded by producer/DJ/rapper Vitamin D while he was still in high school, the label served as the only option for several Seattle rappers and groups to put out their music. Despite being home to a slew of talented artists, one group stood above all others on the label, and that was the duo Ghetto Chilldren.

Ghetto Chilldren was formed in 1991 by high school friends Vitamin D and B-Self. Although the group was a quartet at one point, the group had been reduced to two members by the time they began recording music. In 1993, Ghetto Chilldren released the demo Monologs & Soliloquys. With the two songs from the tape that are available online ("Questions" and "20 Bucks"), it is apparent that the group displayed something unique from the beginning. In contrast to the forgotten artists referred to in the first paragraph and the Seattleites in the third, Ghetto Chilldren, based off of the strength of their demo, signed to major label Geffen Records.

Geffen had risen to prominence in the 1980s with releases by Donna Summer, John Lennon, Kylie Minogue and Elton John, and in the early 1990s had begun to tap into the alternative rock and grunge market (Aberdeen, Washington-formed and Seattle-based Nirvana being an example). Geffen did not have much experience with hip hop, with its only hip hop artists pre-1992 being The 7A3 (now best known for being the first group of DJ Muggs) and female trio Silk Tymes Leather. Interestingly enough, Geffen distributed Def American Recordings, which was the label Sir Mix-A-Lot was signed to. When Sir Mix-A-Lot struck it big with "Baby Got Back" in 1992, it was a waking call for Geffen that they were missing out on a whole market - hip hop music. In the decade following 1992, Geffen signed The Roots, GZA, Large Professor, Mos Def, Snoop Dogg, Talib Kweli and Killah Priest, who all released at least one album through the label. Ghetto Chilldren were the first rappers to be signed to Geffen following the Sir Mix-A-Lot breakthrough.

It's understandable why Geffen were interested in Ghetto Chilldren. They were similar to Sir Mix-A-Lot in the way that they were both from Seattle, and they had an occasional non-serious undertone to their music (although much more prevalent with Mix-A-Lot's music). Although I haven't heard the two other songs on the GC demo, "Questions" and "20 Bucks" are serious songs with a comical aspect as their foundation. "Questions" begins with a skit where Vitamin D is hounded by a child asking numerable questions about his music and recording equipment, before it leads into the actual song that begins with B-Self stating "Understand I'm a black man with frustrations / In a world of troubles and no explanations" with no light side intended throughout the rest of the song. "20 Bucks" also begins with a skit, but this time it consists of Vitamin D calling a girl who gave him her number. After she finds out that he doesn't even have "20 bucks" and subsequently has no reason to have an interest in him, Vitamin D tries his best to change her mind ("No, you're so hype! And dope! And slamming!"). When the song actually begins, Vitamin D and B-Self rap about their wish for money and what they would do with it if they had some.

Ghetto Chilldren had overcome the first major obstacle in an artist's career - getting signed. They had signed to a label that, despite only having a new hip hop department, had international success in the past with the genre through their distribution of Sir Mix-A-Lot. Ghetto Chilldren were guaranteed nationwide distribution, as well as a label behind them who would have been attempting to herald them as the forefront of all future Geffen hip hop artists. However, none of this ever came to fruition.

Production duo The Dust Brothers had struck it big in 1989 when they produced the entirety of the Beastie Boys' second album Paul's Boutique, which is now regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. Some time afterwards, The Dust Brothers ended up on Geffen Records, and the label heads knew that they could make another successful album if they were paired up with the right rappers. Apparently, Geffen thought Ghetto Chilldren and The Dust Brothers could produce a successful album together, as the label forced the group to work with the production duo. Ghetto Chilldren refused to do this as they wanted to utilise Vitamin D's production work instead, so they left the label without releasing any material.

For two teenagers to overcome that first obstacle in their musical careers and then later decide to return back over it was huge. It is something that many artists signed to a label and wishing to start their careers would never even think about considering, but Ghetto Chilldren decided to do it. The fact that they even continued to make music after that is astounding. It was while still suffering from this major label disappointment that Tribal was founded. Tribal was self-recorded, self-produced and self-distributed. Perhaps what is most prominent on the label's releases is that it enabled its artists complete self expression and they could do whatever they wanted to do musically - something Ghetto Chilldren were refrained from doing on Geffen.

The label's first release was in 1995 and in the form of a cassette-only compilation entitled Untranslated Prescriptions: A Tribal Compilation. Sixteen tracks long, it consists of two intros, one skit, one outro and twelve songs. The twelve songs are by Tribal artists Infinite, Sinsemilla, Phat Mob, Sho Nuff, Union of Opposites and Ghetto Chilldren. The latter has the most songs on the album with three: "I Wanna Win", "Elevation" and "I'm an MC".

GC went from the amateur yet full of potential group on their demo to their songs on Untranslated Prescription in a leap akin to the type Mobb Deep made with Juvenile Hell to The Infamous and A Tribe Called Quest with People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm to The Low End Theory. They dropped the blatant light-hearted humour and instead present their personal troubles, the most prominent of which being their frustrations with the music industry. They state their desire to achieve on "I Wanna Win", pledge their allegiance to longevity on "Elevation", and present their acceptance of themselves and their situation on "I'm an MC".

The tape, as could be expected by a self-distributed local release solely on cassette, failed to achieve any momentum outside of Seattle, but served as a warm-up to the label's magnum opus, released only one year later. Do the Math was a much grander project than its predecessor. Alongside a slew of new artists, the album is eight tracks longer, was released with a single and issued on both cassette and CD. Once again, Ghetto Chilldren turned in three songs: "Who's Listening", "N's Don't L" and "Equilibrium".

"N's Don't L" marks a return to the humourous side evident on their demo. Vitamin D raps about how his sexual bravado leads him to constantly desiring intercourse despite several offspring and an STD, while B-Self presents himself as a violent and threatening thug (lines such as "I hope the next girl don't notice the sores 'cause that kills my game" and "the silhouette of my perm alerts these haters to flee" being comedic highlights). "Who's Listening" and "Equilibrium", however, present much more serious subject matter. "Equilibrium" is about the relationship Self and Vita have with hip hop music and how this effects their real life relationships (Self: "I know she'll bug when she finds out how I spend my time / Outside of our relations, another infatuation occupies my wee hours / I want to tell her but I cower"), while "Who's Listening" is nothing short of sheer beautiful music.

Do the Math was the final release by Tribal for whatever reason it may have been, leaving its artists to either stop making music or pursue careers on their own. Ghetto Chilldren chose the latter, appearing on the compilation albums 14 Fathoms Deep and Classic Elements with the songs "Court's in Session" and "Hip Hop Was?" in 1997 and 1998 respectively. These were the last two songs the group ever released.

Vitamin D went on to become a successful producer and engineer for other artists, including Strange Fruit Project, Gift of Gab, Chali 2na and Encore. Most recently, he has released free albums as a member of the duo Sta Hi Brothers alongside Maneak B. B-Self made his last musical appearance in 1999 on Vitamin D's mixtape Table Manners 2.

Why Ghetto Chilldren did not go on to have a career as legendary as their music is something I won't ever be able to understand. Whether it was the fact that their music was only ever released on compilation albums alongside several other artists, or their distribution was limited to the Seattle area, or they refused to have a sound that was proven to have sold in favour of their own production; something led to the group never achieving commercial success and eventually calling it quits in 1998 after seven years.

Ghetto Chilldren were one of the first ever hip hop groups to have experienced what it is like to be on a major label and instead choose to release their music independently (a route that is much more common and maybe even simpler today). I remember when I first began to develop an interest in the group and was surprised to find out what had happened to the group before their mid-1990s releases. I doubt that many, if any, artists in the pre-Internet era would continue to make music if they were dropped from a label as successful as Geffen. What is most apparent about Ghetto Chilldren is that music to them was more important than success - if that was not the case, maybe they could have released a few albums with The Dust Brothers that became as successful as Paul's Boutique. The penultimate reason for their desire to create was to express themselves in a manner completely individual to themselves.

Have you ever heard about the Ghetto Chilldren? Most likely not. Their existence may have had an impact on some artists that you have heard of though: Seattle hip hop artists Jake One and Macklemore (his song "The Town" features the line "14 Fathoms Deep, Do the Math, Tribal / My greatest teachers: B-Self and Vita") have both made clear their appreciation of the group. With a discography of twelve officially released songs (although B-Self has uploaded three unreleased songs on his YouTube page over the past few years), Ghetto Chilldren's output may have been small, but their musical integrity and meaning are amongst the largest you'll ever hear.

Are you listening?

Discography
Ghetto Chilldren - Monologs & Soliloquys (1991)
1. "Psalms of the Untaimed"
2. "Questions"
3. "20 Bucks"
4. "BBQ. Sauce of the Stank Nasty"

Tribal Music Inc. - Untranslated Prescriptions (1995)*
2. "I Wanna Win" ft. Truth
7. "Elevation"
15. "I'm an MC"

Tribal Music Inc. - Do the Math (1996)*
6. "Who's Listening"
10. "N's Don't L"
24. "Equilibrium"

Various artists - 14 Fathoms Deep (1997)*
6. "Court's in Session"

Various artists - Classic Elements (1998)*
1. "Hip Hop Was?"+

Individual songs**
"Free Enterprise" ft. Narcotik (1997)
"Hood Rat" (n/d)
"Work" ft. D-Uneek (c. 1997)

* - Ghetto Chilldren group songs only
+ - Yes, the namesake of this blog
** - Songs released by B-Self on his personal YouTube page from 2010-15