In militant defiance of stereotypes and the forces assaulting all life, the vegan straightedge hip hop movement rejects the degenerative culture and practice of intoxication while striking at the root of injustice with a militant vegan ethic. Conscious hip hop on an elevated level, the artists on the comp adhere to a drug-free vegan lifestyle and use this foundation to establish themselves as true threats against all devils active in this time of strife.
Proceeds from this compilation will go to benefit those facing charges for actions to defend animals and the earth. For information about supporting our prisoners, please visit www.ecoprisoners.org
Like most vegan straight edge hip hop releases over the past 15+ years, Volume One has taken on a mythical status. Originally released in the mid-1990s, the comp was subject to lightening-quick assembly, layout, and pressing. As seperate from legend, the true story is as follows…
Last-minute credit was extended by a vinyl pressing plant after a flawed pressing of 300 copies of a nameless vegan straight edge band’s first 7″. When it was learned the drummer had spoken to police regarding a 1995 A.L.F. action, and after the fence-walking response to this apostasy on the part of the band’s other members, the financial backer / one-shot label-head opted to not repress the flawed 300 copies, finding himself disillusioned with the weakness and hollow-posturing of the “militant vegan sXe”, and vowing to never again work with, by his words, “the lowest common denominator of vegans: hardcore band musicians”.
Instead, over a 14 days period of overnighted packages and several long drives in this pre-internet era, 8 cassette tape hip hop demos were collected. Behind them, various ex-Hardcore scene individuals adhering to the vegan straight edge ethic, while having infiltrated other facets of our culture, from the public defender’s office to a secret grey-market arbitrage operation of MIT math prodigies. Among the tracks were years-old improv raps taped in the studio between takes for Hardcore bands, and one recorded on a Fisher Price tape deck.
That 8 vegan straight edge hip hop artists existed independently and without the knowledge of each other came as no small surprise to the man behind the comp, and the artists themselves. At that time, vsxe hip hop had escaped notice of both the zine medium and word-of-mouth stream, residing solely in bedrooms as the private secret of the individual artists in a scene whose feelings on hip hop remained ambivalent. After rushed mastering and crude layout work, the comp went to press.
Using the full pressing plant credit remaining, exactly 100 copies were pressed. None were sold, with 80 of the 100 copies going to the individual artists, and the rest given in person to others in the N.E. Hardcore scene. It is said that as of 2008, fewer than 10 copies can be accounted for.
Of the 8 artists featured, in recent years only two have been successfully tracked down. Of those, both have asked their names not be disclosed, citing “credibility” issues which may arise from the combined factors of the incendiary lyrical content and the artist’s current status in medium-to-high-profile positions in music and activism.
The person behind the comp, who has remained vegan and straight edge while most of those in Hardcore bands have not, has given us his blessing in carrying forward the namesake of this important document. While Volume One lives on largely in myth, Volume Two carries the torch forward through the dark paths of ignorance and apathy, lighting the path through to a glorious new dawn. The war continues…
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