Triple Ave

During the month of March 2005, Northern California had a series of shows starring Triple Ave. If you have not heard of this crew, then you are missing out on real Northern California Hip Hop. Coming out of Oakland from three different hoods, they hooked up and have been loyally doing their thing together for 10 years, and now they're finally getting their recognition. You are not going to find a more proffesional, multi-talented, underground band like this, anywhere. Triple Ave currently contains some of the best talent in Northern California, if not the entire country. If you have not heard of this crew, you are missing out on a unique Neo-Soul experience. Gypsy Luv goes from singing to rhyming, and masters both. Rappers Hyp and Louie Da Saint are equally highly talented, and as a creative team it just doesn't get done much better than this. These cats have skills and the sound of their latest cd "Ambitions" can only be beat by watching them live in concert. I recommend you catch them now, before their album goes platinum. Then the only place you'll be seeing them is on MTV or BET.
(For this entire article see YaY magazine) - Triple Ave Concert Series Laura Beatty

“This is Hip-Hop for grown folks.”

I tend towards liking old school style in my rap and hip hop. I guess it’s because I grew up listening to those rap parties on the streets of New York in the eighties, so Triple Ave just hits me in a special place.

This CD is an absolute head nodder with sweet word flow, a jazzy wash of tracks, organic beats, and the samples are whacky.

There’s the power of N.W.A. and Public Enemy on “The Working Class Heroes” but with a tight modern production.

I just watched the Grammy’s and this belongs there with the best of them. World Class.

Stand out tracks (all of them):

Suckaz: I haven’t heard jazz tracks in a hip hop tune in a while and the twinkly piano offsets the mad flow of words.

Rap N Soul: I know that guitar line from somewhere. I just can’t place it. I love the layer of female vocals and samples. I love the interviews about dreams coming true. Perfect.

Twist: Deep beats with a cheesy Casio sounding vibrato. Ok. I had to step away to do my dance. Oh shit, there’s Aretha and who’s the female rapper?

Absorb the Light: Positively spooky!

Trust: Steel drums drive this unusual island hop groove. Need a lyric sheet. Something deep is being communicated, but my ears are enjoying the music too much.

A Moment with Hyp: Hey Swiss Chris!! Epic! I can hear this on Blade 10. Ok, another dance break needed. My dog digs this one. She’s shaking her tail.

The Professional: More epic soundtrack ready tracks. The choir must be angels. There is so much going here. It’s heard to separate things out.

Lush: Wow. What a very wobbly strange effect on Chantal’s voice. Crazy.

Let’s Go: Latin harp groove. Soulful female vocals. My pick for a Valentine’s Day track. There goes my dog again.

I have been talking a lot about the music, but the rapping on this so tight. I need to listen a few more times to take everything in.

I need to interview these guys and find out how they put this shit together. I need to know more about the players.

Ok, I am done writing. I am going to dance some more.

Buy this one!!

- Keith Kehrer

"Bill Macbeth's fabulous little club, The Ivy Room in Albany, has seen it's share of musical diversity; blues, rock, folk, and even experimental. San Pablo Ave. is no stranger to a rich musical heritage either, having seen acts like the legendary Johnny Cash to the irrepressible James Brown. Thursday nights, Macbeth has flung his doors open to the ever popular Hip-Hop scene, hosted by "LCJ" and his spin master "True Justice", and featuring some of the best and brightest stars the bay area has to offer.

One of these luminaries continues to captivate me with it's glare; the trio known as Triple Ave. Led by a veritable titan of the turntable, "Hyp", Triple Ave. rounds out it's sounds with the sulty "Gypsy Luv", the silky smooth "Louie Da Saint", and bassist Mike Shea. This is not some high class kareoke band, playing to only CDs, Triple Ave. is a live, spontaneous, performing group, whose infectous grooves and lyrics, (most notably on their hilarious KRS-One send up song, "Suckaz"), will leave you dancing groovin' and singing "Wicky-Wicky- Whack!"

I loved the Subterraneanz while they existed, however, Triple Ave. may yet prove to be one of the most prolific survivors of that heralded group." - The Trials, Tribulations and Triumphs, of Triple Ave By E.Doc Smith

Mike Pinders critique of the song "True Working Class Heroes":

Triple Ave - I grew up in the middle of WWII in a working class family. I can dig it. Nice lyrical point of view and social comment. Well crafted,
your song portrays your subject and evokes great imagery. Good dynamics, energy and groove. Keep writing!
Mike
Note: Your song could be used in a movie. Good job

This song scored 30 out of a possible 35
www.songwars.net - Mike Pinder of The Moody Blues

The Bay just keeps coming with it. Triple Ave, a trio out of Oakland aren't really up and comers but you might not of heard of them-until now. They've been in the game ten years deep, the survivors of a couple of rap crews including Exile Society and the Subterraneanz, culminating in what you see standing before you. Underground rappers staying true to the music are few and far between but Triple Ave have been doing it and doing it well. "The name Triple Ave," Hip, a light skinned brother with long cornrows running down his head explains, "breaks down like this: St. Louis, Boston, the Bay Area, three aves, three hoods, one mind." Hip is the one from Boston, Saint and Gypsy Luv rep St.Louis and the Yay respectively and are all reppin' Nor-Cal. "We've got a seven song EP that's about to drop," says Saint. It's called Ambitions and it's going to be available here in Sacramento at Dimple, and Tower and Rasputins and Amoeba in the bay. Look for Gypsy Luv's lovely vocals and her bangin' hypnotic flow. In fact the single, Wanna, has a dreamy quality that reminds you of one of those beautiful days in Oakland. The music is saturated in the Town and you can practically hear the scratching of Jack London's pen and the click of Huey P.'s shotgun loading under the smooth rolling beats. Gypsy Luv has a solo album and a website and Triple Ave has a mixed tape that's out now. Look for it on the underground circuit. The band uses actual instruments in a lot of the music and is all self produced. Through all the tumultuos times Hip Hop has been through in recent years , it's hard to to stay true to this rap game but, "We're sticking to our guns like North Korea," Hip jokes. If your looking for MC's laced with real lyrical skills instead of laced with fake diamonds, cop the Ambitions EP at your local Hip-Hop stop. - Will Majors

"What is the best live act you seen lately? That gets the crowd live or people thinking, or anything? Or rate the top performances you've seen that we can catch.
From the perspective of this female, Triple Ave's performance at the Emergenza Music Festival round 1 was it (in San Francisco)!
Music that made us move and kept the crowd live-they created a show that catered to the crowd, left us feeling good, jumping around dancing,just live! like it was back in the times where the audience was part of the show. Dude even played the harp!! It was with that East coast lyricism and a west coast chick singing soul/r+b, and spittin, and live instruments. like i said-a harp!
I felt as good as I did at my first real concert (Janet Jackson)-like I was excited to be there and the group was excited to be there too. sometimes I forget that is possible.
And everything they said about the ladies was positive, not that that makes a good show, but it is nice to be able to dance without feelin guilty because you know the words are mad terrible. They left the crowd screaming!"
- Bangles

ROUND 1:
Triple Ave is a four-piece hip-hop band, including a guitar, harp, and DJ. Harp—a real concert harp with a pick-up. Their original sound is striking, and they are polished performers. This band came in #3 for the night. C’mon, walk down the Triple Ave, and pass Go--onto the 2nd Round!!
ROUND 2:
Triple Ave, at number one for the night, is a Hip-Hop spectacle, led by an electric harpist, a DJ, guitar, bass, and three front persons, from Boston, St. Louis and the Bay Area respectively. Congratulations on taking first place for the Second Round.
SEMI FINAL:
T.A comes in 2nd place
FINALS:
T.A. wins Best Band in the Bay Area!!!! - The International Emergenza Festival

Artopia, the annual celebration of eclectic art that took place Saturday in Georgetown, is billed as “a grassroots celebration of emerging and established artists and communities.”
So let’s start with grass – a shallow blade of life. Once planted in hospitable ground, grass grows and spreads.
“We’re here to sing and make you think,” announced Hyp, a member of Triple Ave, a hip-hop crew from Oakland, shortly after 3 p.m. as he, his pixie harp, a violinist, and drummer mounted one of Artopia’s outdoor stages.
“We do political hip-hop,” he added. “The real stuff, not the commercial stuff you hear on radio. We go back to the classics, and dancing is totally acceptable.”
For 45 minutes, Triple Ave mesmerized passersby with vocals about gun violence on the streets, government neglect of victims of Hurricane Katrina, and admonishments to young adults to stay away from bling and get engaged with the political world. The backtrack included 1980s rock along with hints of the early industrialized staccatos of rock’s initial roots in the factory.
“Hey you gotta a CD?” shouted one passerby.
“Thank-you, thank-you for bringing up that question,” Hyp replied. “I was going to address it later in the show, but I didn’t want to plug it so early.”
Hip-hop and grassroots art share a common enemy – corporate capitalism, which many artists assert stifles free expression and snuffs out individual creativity. Having a space like Artopia offers artists the chance to show how the world might look different if that enemy were to vanish.....
- Seattle Post Globe Written By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

"..............Triple Ave is comprised of three survivors of cult hip-hoppers the Subterraneanz - rapper/producer Hyp, a product of Boston´s rough-and-ready Roxbury neighbourhood, rapper Louie da Saint, he´s from St Louis, Missouri but you probably guessed that, right?. and feisty NoCal native rapper/songstress GypsyLuv. On tracks 4-7 the sound´s definitely more leftfield - not dissimilar to the likes of Arrested Development, A Tribe Called Quest, and The Pharcyde. Coincidentally just some of the bands who the Subterrraneanz opened for. There´s also a touch of The Roots about these tracks which are more soul-influenced with live instrumentation. Hyp even plays harp on ´Wanna´ and ´Yesterday´. The standout number, however, goes by the name of ´Untitled´, a brooding affair which Hyp admits to writing when he "was in a dark Roxbury state of mind." Infusing the trumpet riffs from Miles´Davis´ ´Bitches Brew´ sure makes for one potent concoction. ´Untitled´ also reflects the lyrical focus of the trio. Triple Ave are far more about social realism than bling bling. Keeping it real, indeed.

Hip hop is all about the brag. Every rapper is always banging on how big they´re going to be, how they´re going to do this, how they´re going to do that. So following hip-hop protocol, Triple Ave share their ´Ambitions´ on this EP. Yet these former Subterraneanz boys and girl, unlike a host of less-talented rappers, deserve to go overground." - Ambitions The EP-Matthew Hirtes

Ima lay it all out right now, finally got some time to express my thoughts.. from hearin' tripleave at emergenza, to the cds... there are'nt many live instrumentation conscious hip hop bands out there anymore these days, but theres hope with this right here.. Track 1 - beats/bass line - HARD, chorus - harp after? pulls the track altogether, sample spittin "triple ave" Track 2 - "verse served as an in-depth look hooked in thoughts like I'm part of a good book"!!! bam. Louie kills it on the deliv/content Track 3 - V-2 Hyp on commercial mc's, gypy gives that santana/wyclef but harder feel.. Track 4 - digged the beat at emergenza more but this one growin on me.. wick wick wack - flipped to sample? feelin lyrical content since i first heard it. Track 5 - trip hop feel - 30 secs in, 180 dgree change, molds well, compilation of sample voice scratches end with tripleave- awesome Track 6 - Louie again, flow/cadence/nice!, he hits themes on point like a decimal! haha.. diff vibe - alternative - serene - hip hop type feel.. Track 7 - industry plummet yall still gon love it! Ki on this one rips it, more spaced on delivery it seems - felt like bpm slow-down oldschool break beats, stutter sample is fire. Track 8 - who's her? i wanna know more.. the literal translation feel me? jyeaahh... loved lettin' the beat go instrumental Track 9 - lets all just make babies and have grimey sex to this track, DONE. Track 10 - no more cryin' no more lies.. nuff said. Track 11 - bringin back the hard hit hip hop type.. "gladiators fight for paper n' guardians for the cause" - metaphor killed it. Im a big fan of sequential chorus sample - voice - sample - voice like this one. Track 12 - gimme this beat now!!! dark - epic - bigger than life type feel.. track 13 - beautiful.. just wish i could get her lyrics.. track 14 - harp did the background? then i think a trumpet or sax..not sure, but its smooth, diggin this. track 15 - effects in voices - clarity - this track illuminates your voices more than any other track. track 16 - 2nd fav beat on this album - ending hit to track 17 perfectly so i say... track 17 - storytelling, do more of this .. creatin a short story with a universal meaning, always hits home to people, of all walks of life. track 18 - gypsy's best song - chord she on perfect - voice shines. track 19 - instrumental wrapped this shit up.. silent interpretation of what you guys can do, what you can be, and what you aspire to do in music, honestly. If there were vocals on any of this, it would have ruined it. Thats the thing, yall killed it this album.. Overall, its not only to hear this music as a relief to hip hop culture, but a fresh start in a sense.. keep the vibe straight, there aint many out there. - B-Koo CDBaby.com review of True Working Class Heroes