{"id":14734,"date":"2022-08-10T12:40:02","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T17:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=14734"},"modified":"2023-01-31T13:18:39","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T19:18:39","slug":"in-a-new-biography-hip-hip-artist-klassik-emerges-transcendently-talented-but-still-rooted-a-native-son-of-milwaukee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=14734","title":{"rendered":"In a new biography, hip-hop artist Klassik emerges transcendently talented, but still rooted, a native son of Milwaukee"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Book review: The Milwaukeean: A Tale of Tragedy and Triumph<\/em> by Joey Grihalva<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joey Grihalva will present SONSET — a book reading by the author and solo improv by Klassik —<\/strong>\u00a0for The Milwaukeean<\/em>, at a new venue, forMartha, 825 E. Center Street, from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday. The event will follow the Center Street Daze street festival. Cover is $10, or $25 with book.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is a thirty-ish hip-hopper with only regional renown worthy of a biography? In his new book about Klassik (Kellen Abston), author Joey Grihalva forges, in effect, a freshly painted, still-mutating portrait of a creative man, of Milwaukee and of contemporary times, with all the urgency and potential for tragedy and agency that all implies. In that sense, Klassik emerges as a comparatively humble embodiment of a Black Milwaukeean, even as he manifests genius that might characterize the city. The painfully enlightened and haunted saga \u2013 he watched his father die of bullet wounds at age 11 \u2013 bends toward the arc of triumph, if justice remains elusive.<\/p>\n

The victory comes, in one sense, because the personal is still political. Klassik is one of many who\u2019ve grown as the art of hip hop has grown \u2013 fitfully, defiantly, and dynamically \u2013 to where Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017. If there\u2019s a connection, Klassik has much more in common with Lamar\u2019s 2015 jazzy masterwork To Pimp a Butterfly<\/em> than with Lamar\u2019s ensuing album Damn<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It might also be the cultural difference between Compton, California and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Maybe, ultra-hipness vs. a kind of ultra-hopeness? As in \u201ckeep hope alive.\u201d As this book reveals, Klassik\u2019s deep troubled history with, and vision of his hometown, sets him apart. It\u2019s partly why he\u2019s watched many Milwaukee area rap artists become bigger names than him.<\/p>\n

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Standing over his hometown’s skyline, Kellen “Klassik” Abston says he thinks of Milwaukee as a character more than a place. Photo courtesy Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

That does not mean they\u2019re better. That\u2019s why, among increasingly aware Midwesterners, Klassik is as essentially Milwaukee as contemporary hip-hop gets. Grihalva captures a nearly lost Midwestern bonhomie,<\/em> a pan-racial faith in humanity, hidden beneath the grime of post-industrialism and the crime of racism.<\/p>\n

Klassik, who studied jazz saxophone with Milwaukee master Berkeley Fudge, was an early musical prodigy. To the degree he manifests his own filtered amalgam of jazz, classic R&B, and hip-hop, I hear and feel how much he makes good on the thoughtful presumption of his name, Klassik. His previous album, American Klassiks<\/em>, demonstrated how he can reinvent classics of American vernacular musics, and make them present, alive for today and pointing a beacon forward, musically and spiritually. The artist in him won\u2019t do it any other way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the problem with Kellen\u2019s stuff \u2013 it\u2019s too smart,\u201d says his friend Jordan Lee, a DJ, and a former station director at 88\/Nine Radio Milwaukee, who\u2019s also a member of the jazz-hip-hop trio KASE, with whom Klassik as recorded and collaborated. 1 \u201cIt was never going to work at the beat battle,\u201d referring to a competitive hip-hop event Lee produced from 2005 to 2015, known as the Miltown Beatdown, which brought together produces rappers, and hip-hop heads from all over the city.<\/p>\n

Rather than always \u201con the beat,\u201d that can be as delimiting as it is compulsively attractive, Klassik\u2019s music unfolds with an almost Midwestern shapeliness, as if informed by the Kettle Moraine as much as by the staccato pulses of the urban environment. As a primal Klassik source, I\u2019ve always heard the soul-praying-to-the-moon existential angst of Marvin Gaye, whom he shouts out on \u201cBlack-Spangled Banner,\u201d on American Klassiks,<\/em> recorded live late one night in Bay View\u2019s Cactus Club.<\/p>\n

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Klassik’s expressive power dates back to, among other things, Marvin Gaye and the hauntings of his childhood. Courtesy IAMKLASSIK.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

He\u2019s also decidedly more improvisational than most hip-hop or pop. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s the jazz purist in me,\u201d he muses to Grihalva. \u201cWhen you think about live music and playing an instrument, even the most rehearsed and refined part has its own idiosyncrasies or little inflections that make it human. I\u2019m making something, I\u2019m adding layers and depth.\u201d 2<\/p>\n

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Klassik performs at Pianofest, at the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts, a few years ago. Singer Adekola Adedapo recalls, at age 10, Kellen played “Over the Rainbow,” on saxophone at a Heath Brothers jazz workshop at the Wisconsin Conservatory, one of the first discoveries of his talent. Photo courtesy JGCA<\/em><\/p>\n

The book, a prime example of \u201cnew journalism,\u201d is also the author\u2019s own story, about his relationship to his subject and their shared hometown, \u201can eternal tie that binds.\u201d Abston and Grihalva are virtual contemporaries and Grihalva teaches at Milwaukee\u2019s High School of the Arts, which is Abston’s alma mater.<\/p>\n

Part of Abston\u2019s burden is that he feels he could have done more than simply freeze up, to possibly save his father from dying, and that, 20 years past, Robin Abston\u2019s murder remains unsolved. That\u2019s plenty to drive a young man to drink and drugs \u2013 a large part of his struggle, aside from his often-exquisite peculiarity as a young, gifted, and black man, within our race-obsessed culture. And yet he won\u2019t leave Milwaukee, as partly a spiritual detective still on a homicide case grown cold for most others. His relationship with police is deep ambivalence, hardly hatred. But he\u2019s also doing close investigation of his own identity, which messes with him, with ghosts of what he\u2019s been, shouldn\u2019t be, won\u2019t be, and can be.<\/p>\n

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Klassik’s bling always includes the dog tags of his father, veteran Robin Abston, who was murdered 20 years ago, in a crime that remains unsolved. Courtesy Milwaukee Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n

Ultimately the redemption and triumph of the story is the hard-earned wisdom that arises from it, in the experiences and voices of both author and subject, as well as a choir of street-sage homies. The way that choral mosaic enlightens the story, like a vast stain glass window, is Grihalva\u2019s achievement, his crafting of a sense of authenticity by finding common cause with your roots. One of Klassik\u2019s defining ventures into communal creativity was his key role, in the summer of 2016, in Milwaukee\u2019s Strange Fruit Festival, named for the searing anti-lynching song \u201cStrange Fruit\u201d popularized by Billie Holiday. The festival was spurred in response to two police killings of unarmed black men on back-to-back days: Alton Sterling in Louisiana, and Philando Castile, killed in his car in St. Paul Minnesota.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was one of the first times where I felt pulled artistically, in terms of feeling a responsibility with my platform,\u201d Kellen explained. \u201cIt heightened this desire to wield it, almost like a weapon, for good.\u201d His profile was rising, as he was performing in New York City during the first two nights of Strange Fruit. Kellen flew back to Milwaukee for the final night of the festival.<\/p>\n

Then, that weekend\u2019s Saturday afternoon, Milwaukee police shot and killed Sylville Smith in the Sherman Park neighborhood. The incident sparked riots that culminated in the burning of a gas station, a bank, and a beauty supply store, images seen on international news the next morning.<\/p>\n

And there, defying hell-on-earth fury, Klassik and friends conjured a lifeline to redemption. \u201cEverybody was on their A-game\u2026It was such an amazing event,” he says. “You could tell everybody was there for the betterment of the community in whatever small or large way they could. And was just crazy timing that we had this festival amid the madness that ensued.\u201d The event played again the next two years, and Abston wrote a manifesto for a potential relaunch of the festival, though it never got off the ground.<\/p>\n

Much chaos and transformation has come down since then, the era of Trump and George Floyd, and Klassik has achieved a kind of personal-is-political triumph of textured passion on his last album QUIET,<\/em> with assists from Milwaukee artists who\u2019ve gone to greater renown, SistaStrings, the nationally celebrated singers-string-players, and folk-rock artist Marielle Alschwang, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been thinking a lot about protest in the form of joy, specifically Black joy,\u201d Abston says. \u201cWith the new stuff I\u2019m working on, there is this element of defiance in being happy and free. That\u2019s like the most powerful thing you can do as a minority in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The power, he understands, also derives from accepting himself as a Milwaukeean, \u201cThe Milwaukeean.\u201d He\u2019s lucky to have a biographer as attuned as this one, who can tell his story so tenderly and beautifully. Abston reflects on the notion of faith: \u201cIf I hit a good note or I\u2019m writing a good melody or these chords have a certain color or have the ability to stir up emotion from thin air, that\u2019s magic. That\u2019s God. It\u2019s all those things. It\u2019s being connected to something greater than ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost two years ago to this day, he meets with Grihalva at high, windswept Kilbourn Reservoir Park, which overlooks downtown where North Avenue curves into Riverwest. It\u2019s one of his favorite places in the city. \u201cI would go up to that hill over there when I was super-fucking depressed. I would just sit and cry, let it out and wipe them tears off. Then this warmth would come over me, especially at night. Something about the lights. It\u2019s weird because it\u2019s not a spectacular skyline. But it\u2019s mine, you know?\u201d He continues, \u201cIn all my videos, I\u2019ve always thought of Milwaukee as a character, not a location.\u201d<\/p>\n

That idea of making a city a living, breathing character \u2013 a father figure? \u2013 seems to speak volumes about Klassik\u2019s genius, as an archetypal son of a quintessential American city, in all its grit and glory, it\u2019s patriarchal sorrow and shame, its defiant brotherhood and sisterhood.<\/p>\n

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  1. Klassik\u2019s most recent appearance on a recording is his largely wordless vocalizing on KASE + Klassik:<\/em> Live at the Opera House, <\/em>on B-Side Recordings.<\/li>\n
  2. Grihalva\u2019s previous book was Milwaukee Jazz<\/em>, a photo history from Arcadia publishing\u2019s Images of America series.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Book review: The Milwaukeean: A Tale of Tragedy and Triumph by Joey Grihalva Joey Grihalva will present SONSET — a book reading by the author and solo improv by Klassik —\u00a0for The Milwaukeean, at a new venue, forMartha, 825 E. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[403,16,1522,1491,1479,415,1487,1477,155,515,1474,1481,1110,1173,1473,1475,1493,110,341,1489,1478,1480,1494,1484,1488,1492,1486,1485,1495,1483,1482,1476],"class_list":["post-14734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com","tag-milwaukee-jazz","tag-88-9-radio-milwaukee","tag-adekola-adedapo","tag-alton-sterling","tag-american-klassiks-the-live-album","tag-berkeley-fudge","tag-billie-holiday","tag-compton","tag-donald-trump","tag-george-floyd","tag-joey-grijalva","tag-jordan-lee","tag-kase","tag-kase-klassik-live-at-the-opera-house","tag-kellen-abston","tag-lamar-kendrick","tag-marielle-alschwang","tag-marvin-gaye","tag-milwaukee","tag-philando-castile","tag-pulitzer-prize","tag-quiet","tag-reservoir-park","tag-robin-abston","tag-sherman-park","tag-sistastrings","tag-strange-fruit","tag-strange-fruit-festival","tag-sylville-smith","tag-the-black-spangled-banner","tag-the-cactus-club","tag-to-pimp-a-butterfly"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-3PE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14734"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15417,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14734\/revisions\/15417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}