F. Stokes

Kuts: “That record was cool. It’s kind of deep. You would leave that for [an] album cut. It’s not one of those Billboard top 10 singles. If he just wanted to throw it out there to let people know he’s about to start dropping something, that would be cool. But it’s not a big hit, in my opinion.” - DJ Diamond Kuts

“If you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em.”

Rapper F.Stokes (pronounced F-dot-stokes) said he spent years on the outside of the Madison hip-hop community, struggling to find a way in. Then he gave up, and decided to just do what he did -- smart, funny, and absolutely honest rhymes about -- and let people come to him.

And they have. Stokes has been steadily building a following in Madison, whether he’s opening for fellow thoughtful hip-hop acts like P.O.S. at the High Noon Saloon or doing his own packed shows at the Annex. It all culminates this Friday, April 23 with a headlining show at the Majestic Theatre, with two nationally-known hip-hop acts, Psalm One and Toki Wright of the Minneapolis-based Rhymesayers collective opening for him.

Stokes, whose real name is Rodney Lucas, is currently based in Brooklyn, but he’s moving around some. He plans to go to Paris for a little while, then Madison for a couple of weeks in May, and then head out on the road this summer opening for Mac Lethal. He talked with 77 Square about the Majestic show, why Elvis Presley is such an inspiration, and what it’s like to play a hip-hop show in Iceland:

How are you feeling about this Majestic show?

I’m excitement. It’s big from a fashionable standpoint, that I’ve generated enough interest in that market that the promoters have booked me as a headliner, with two Rhymesayer artists opening for me. In the sense of being able to add this as another notch on my belt, it’s awesome. Lot of pressure though. I’m probably the most nervous about this show that I’ve been about a show in my life.

I work really hard at what I do and Madison is really receptive to my music. They always show me so much love for me and my music. But if you fail, you fail by yourself.

Who do you look to as an inspiration as a performer?

I was just watching YouTube clips last night of Elvis. He’s one of the greatest peformers ever, just the way he takes over the stage. And I mean beyond music. His charisma and his charm and his intimacy with the crowd is just unparalleled. I tend to be a bit more attracted to performers who deal with the crowd on a personal level. Anybody can just get up there with a microphone and look nice and rap.

It’s an F.Stokes show, but if you come to the show, your energy is reflective of my energy and vice versa. We’re in this thing together.

One thing that people have really noticed is how appreciative you seem to be of your fans?

Extremely. I know what it’s like to live in homeless shelters, so the idea of people embracing my music and allowing me to make a living doing this, I have to preserve and embrace those moments. Those people make me.

Was there a moment when you realized that things were catching fire for you?

Madison P.O.S. show, about a year and a half ago. I opened the show, and there were people in the crowd singing my songs. They knew the words to my song, and it just gave me motivation beyond belief, man. I don’t know half of these people and they know my songs. I can get used to this thing.

And also when I went overseas. The reception went I when overseas probably exceeded my expectations, to have a foreign crowd embrace your music really gives you fuel.

Did the people overseas know your lyrics as well?

A few people. What happens overseas is that once a show is promoted, the hip-hop demographic becomes as familiar with the artist as possible. So they come to my shows knowing my songs because they YouTube’d me all week. There’s a sense of excitement. It’s not every day there’s an aboriginal black man walking the streets in Iceland, so they preserve that moment like you wouldn’t believe. They learn you inside out.

Where else have you performed overseas? You went to Australia, right?

Australia was interesting because I was by myself for that tour, with the exception of the promoters who were expecting me to come. It was just me and my loptop at that point, and I was pretty much on the streets of Australia selling my CDs for $5 a disc. That’s how I made a living in Australia. What was supposed to be a two-week tour ended up ballooning into a three-month stay. I just enjoyed it so much.

Travelling abroad for me is probably one of the most underrated things in the black community. African-American males, we don’t travel enough. We don’t see outside of our isolated community enough to know that there’s a big world out there. Nobody in my community could every afford to travel, so there were no passports.

But my favorite shows are in Madison. Those people make me. For so long, when I was young, it was very hard for me to crack the Madison musical infrastructure. It’s very tribal, and it’s very frat-boy, to some degree. You have to be able to fit in, and I’d never been a good one to fit in.

About three years ago, me and my DJ Vinnie Toma were like ‘Let’s create our own system.’ So we created this system based on the system not accepting us. The F. Stokes success story in Madison is the story of the guy that was knocking at the door and knocking at the window and never allowed in. If you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em, that’s my motto.

And it’s the support of the fans that give me the motivation to keep doing that. I’m a very powerful man in Madison, and my strength is measured within the people’s belief. Me and my fans have an understanding; we both promise to never give up on each other.”


- 77 Square

F.I.L.M. is a remix of F. Stokes & Lazerbeak(Doomtree)’s album Death Of A Handsome Bride and is entirely produced by the Dirty Disco Kidz. Don’t be confused y’all, this project is real serious. Peace to Mr Physix DDK for sending this one in. Check the download link & tracklisting below. - Flawless Hustle

Death Of A Handsome Bride is a collaborative EP by F.Stokes and Lazerbeak. You can hear the immediate and urgent attraction these two share as Stokes pours his life story over Beak's well crafted backdrops. With subject matters that range from domestic violence to dealing with the injustices of Black American , Death Of A Handsome Bride is a sure shot for any junkie of good music. In the words of a well known label executive, "this is a very smart cd."

1.Too
2.Jeremiah
3.Blessings
4.Hang On
5.Main Attraction
6.Soul Clap
7.Pretty Shit
8.So Into You
9.Tickle Me Mars
- Doomtree

On this year's Death Of A Handsome Bride, rapper F. Stokes--collaborating with producer Lazerbeak of Minneapolis' Doomtree crew--carries on the refreshing blend of street reporting and raw intellect that propelled artists like Gang Starr and Nas to stardom in the early '90s. The short album's nine tracks bounce from cautionary memoirs of coke abuse and poverty in Chicago to criticisms of hip-hop culture and destructive relationships. However, it's also tinged with the perspective that comes with overcoming a rough past and putting together a better life. That's a timely vibe for Stokes, who recently put out both Death and its remix companion F.I.L.M. (or Forever I Love Madison, featuring production from Madison DJ crew Dirty Disco Kidz), and returns yet again to his onetime hometown to open for Ghostface Killah at the Barrymore Theatre on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

"Jeremiah" by F. Stokes and Lazerbeak

On Death’s closing cut, “Too,” Stokes hits the listener a cappella with a sharp blast of poetic imagery, gathering momentum with lyrics like, “Run through plush hotels and leave with the condiments / You know, soaps and shampoos / Trapped inside these raggedy-ass tattoos / Too skinny, too fat, too black, but ain’t black enough for the black dudes.” He clicks best with Lazerbeak on the album's finest jam, "Jeremiah," spitting out couplets about the hopelessness of impoverished street life over wobbling synthesizer, warped piano, and vintage soul samples. “Fresh out the womb we got penitentiary memberships / But we just shy babies trapped in our mama’s belly / Watchin’ the world through the windows of they navels,” Stokes pleads as Lazerbeak’s witty production thumps underneath.

Over the brilliant horn-driven sampling of “Hang On,” Stokes channels Jay-Z in his prime: “Who’d ever thunk it? The kid who sold crack for dope kicks would get his opportunity and punch it through the ceiling.” But he's not keeping too tight a chokehold on the King Of Hip-Hop, considering how intensely "Sparse Parts" vents his annoyance with the hip-hop world’s obsession with superficial street cred. “If I listen to Rick Ross and Murs, can I still speak on how my dawg was left on the curb? / Or would the underground write me off as a typecast?” Stokes asks, before fuming out an answer: “Fuck y’all, I don’t gotta sell my soul for one listen.”

Stokes also knows how to hit from left field, for good and for ill. Some of the lyrics can be brutally discomforting in their realism--"So Into You" reflects on “Babies born preemies out of rotten cunts/ Spoiled milk in they bottles/ as uncles finger-fuck they nieces while they drunk.” On the other hand, Stokes launches into the first verse of "Soul Clap" with the line “I be fresh as breast milk from Oprah," which is either embarrassing and absurd or just really fucking funny. Though the tracks on Death and F.I.LM. jump all over the place in a pretty short time, Stokes’ sincere and self-conscious lyrical flow keeps him high in the ranks of Wisconsin-connected rappers. Here’s hoping he can charm a potentially tough crowd of Ghostface Killah fans at the Barrymore next Tuesday. - The Onion AV Club

"The people who did turn out Tuesday were clearly excited to pay their respects to the man, and chanted and jumped through much of the hour-long show. They enthusiastically greeted his solo songs, like "We Celebrate" off 2007's "The Big Doe Rehab," but any invocation of Wu-Tang received a mass raising of the "W" hands (which, from the back of the theater, made them all look like cultists saluting their leader).

Ghostface soaked it up. He had a constant gleam in his eyes and seemed happy to be onstage. At one point, he treated the audience to an impassioned dissertation on "hip-hop nowadays" and the good ol' days of Tupac and Ice Cube. To whistles and cheers, Old Man Ghostface told the crowd, "I can't take what's being made for hip-hop nowadays."

In general it was tough to understand most of what he said or rapped, partly the fault of the awful sound mix, which kept on getting louder and louder until it reached an uncomfortable nostril-vibrating volume at the end. But the bloated crew on stage was also to blame. Besides his two sidemen and a DJ, a bunch of randoms bounced around the stage, giving the show a chaotic feel. It was often hard to pick out Ghostface's voice amid all the shouts and doubled-up raps, which ultimately castrated any power from the songs.

The low point came when women from the audience got invited onstage to dance. About eight scrambled up. They looked desperate, not sexy. By this point, the show had mainly devolved into song medleys and off-key sing-a-longs.

The audience seemed increasingly less interested, and as the show ended, most people headed immediately for the exits.

A couple of openers -- including New York emcee Skyzoo - didn't fare much better than Ghostface, and seemed more preoccupied with name-dropping and announcing repeatedly that their albums were "in stores now" than actually putting on a damn show.

The only performer who walked away from the entire show absolutely shining was the first opener, F. Stokes, a Madison- and Chicago-bred rapper now based out of New York. He and his DJ Vinnie Toma owned the stage for a full 45 minutes -- no flab, no hangers-on. Stokes' style is sincere but impish, and intensely personal without closing in on itself. If more rappers took his lead with their live shows, maybe more people would come out to hip-hop shows." - Katjusa Cisar of The Capital Times

"Nonetheless, Death of a Handsome Bride is a testament to the determined, “do it yourself” mentality in underground hip-hop. F. Stokes deserves praise for his introspective and forthright, yet still evocative lyricism, and Lazerbeak once again validated himself as the one of the best producers in hip-hop that no one knows about. Death of a Handsome Bride shows that listenable, thought-provoking hip-hop is out there, it just might take a little extra work to discover."

-Micheal Herriges of Midwest Broadcast

www.midwestbroadcast.blogspot.com - Midwest Broadcasting

"Remarkable delivery. A cool refreshing drink on a sunny afternoon. With a bow-tie around the neck, a gentlemen, who on stage, captivates the hearts of the people, and leaves within them a new sense of hope for our community."

-Ruby Hornet

www.rubyhornet.com - www.rubyhornet.com

"F.Stokes has truly captivated and rejuvenated the local hip hop scene. As a club promoter it's a rarity you see an artist build a fan base massively over a years time. Always a joyous and thought provoking performer, it is a blessing to do business with F.Stokes. A man of great character, great showmanship, and punctuality."

- Matt Heren of The Majestic

" F. Stokes "Pretty Shit": Here's another cut from the homey F. Stokes; this is one of those tracks that I can't do anything else but listen to when its on. It's one of those gritty, real life situation type tracks - topic is domestic violence, but in the sense that we're hearing both snippets of the ensuing argument as well as fragments of what's going on, mentally, during said argument. Thought provoking shit."

Khal at Rock the Dub

www.rockthedub.com - Khal