I am fascinated by The Troma Project: 50 Years of Reel Fan-Toxic Hip-Hop, an interesting mash up of hip hop music built with beats or sound snippets from 50 years of scary movies from Troma Studio. It was fun to learn more about it from creator, Chaz Kangas.
Please tell us about yourself and your work.
Hey, so my name is Chaz Kangas and I’ve been an MC in the hip-hop culture for many years. I was born in Minnesota, moved to New York to attend NYU in 2004 and while out there became entrenched in the heart of hip-hop as well as a very successful run in the east coast freestyle rap battle scene. During those years I also collaborated with Childish Gambino (Donald Glover was my NYU freshman year dorm-mate), Princess Superstar, Homeboy Sandman and many other hip-hop luminaries while releasing my own music and covering hip-hop across the country for publications like LA Weekly, Village Voice and Complex. I moved back to Minneapolis in 2016 to work on-air in radio, which I still do today, and stayed active in the hip-hop realm. I’ve had a love of rap music from all corners of the hip-hop map and love continuing to put my own spin on it.
What are Troma Studios? And what can you tell us about the ‘Toxic Avenger’ reboot?
Troma Studios are the world’s oldest wholly independent movie studio. Based in New York City, they’ve existed outside the mainstream entertainment mega-conglomerates for 50 years and have given the world classics like ‘The Toxic Avenger’ and ‘The Class of Nuke ‘Em High,’ as well as launched the careers of Kevin Costner, Samuel L Jackson, Trey Parker and James Gunn. Their approach has always been a home for those wanting to fearlessly follow one’s own artistic vision to a worldwide platform, and I’d always admired that passionate movement. That same level of bold filmmaking can be seen in the ‘Toxic Avenger’ reboot featuring Peter Dinklage, Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon that was just released combining horror and comedy with a strong environmental message and critiques of corruption in the health care system. In true Troma fashion, the final part of the film’s promotional budget was used to relieve Americans’ medical debt, with a promise of continued contributions that have already wiped out $15 Million of Medical Debt – https://www.avclub.com/toxic-avenger-clears-15-million-medical-debt
Please tell us about your upcoming project celebrating Troma Studios and Hip Hop?
So, I’ve had a love for Troma for a quarter-century and Troma President Lloyd Kaufman has always been an accessible mentor to me. A few years back after releasing a tribute single with Denver rapper Extra Kool named “Lloyd-K,” Lloyd pitched me the idea of Troma pressing a vinyl of that song and my other music. I then pitched him the idea of making a Troma themed album whose production solely used samples from the scores, songs and sounds of Troma movies and he gave his blessing. So for three years myself and producers J57 and Bald Halfwit went through fifty years of movies and channeling Troma’s themes, vibes and overall spirit to make an album that’s a tribute to Troma and to hip-hop as – being they both shared a 50th anniversary – each track in done in a different era and region’s style of rap. Troma’s had a history with hip-hop – their 1982 movie ‘Stuck On You’ was the first scripted movie after the dawn of hip-hop to feature a character rapping, their 1987 movie ‘Story of a Junkie’ was the first to license the Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel classic “The Message” and their 1990 film ‘Def By Temptation’ was the first horror film with an all hip-hop soundtrack. I’m proud to contribute to that legacy.
It’s a super creative playground to have access to Troma material, great artists and a focused goal. How do the collaborations work? Are you in a room together? Do you listen to the original music for inspiration? Pick a movie and forge ahead? So many roads to take.
Indeed, many roads and I’m happy we were able to cover the map. It’s been a long but rewarding process organically making something that felt like a wide open canvas with a finite level of source materials, and over the course of three years it’s been a lot of trusting the process and when the stars align and lightning strikes emerging with something that feels really special. Some of the beats have three or four different samples from different movies happening concurrently so I’d maybe check in on a quote from one of those movies as a jumping off point to build the rest of the song around and from there as a style or theme emerged I’d reach out to an artist I knew who could fit the beat or the style or the concept and sound great on it. Given Troma’s worldwide reach and diverse assortment of films, I reached out to artists from all over, and most were done over email. And they all have such distinct signature approaches that we tried to keep their sound as authentic as possible when added to the songs, leaning in to the regional and stylistic differences to give something truly different with each subsequent track – that same unpredictable in the best of ways energy that’s been Troma’s hallmark for 50 years.
What can you tell us about the featured Minnesota artists?
There’s a strong amount on Minnesota on the project before even hearing the first note. The cover painting was done by incredible local artist Michael Gaughan who, prior to Nike, American Apparel, Andrew WK, Diplo and the cover of the final Eyedea and Abilities album, got his start making movie posters and DVD covers for Troma. It was so great working with him, both the fun of being around him as well as having done such great work in the worlds of Troma and hip-hop that he felt like the perfect person to set the visual tone for the project. The album was also mixed and mastered (and my vocals recorded) at the Fairplay Entertainment Studio in Saint Paul ( https://fairplayentertainment.org/ ) where DJ Hayes immediately recognized and matched the vibe I was going for, having Troma films running on the screens during all the recording. NUR-D, who is also a major part of Fairplay and a big advocate for what an accessible and outstanding service for Minnesota musicians they provide, is someone I’ve known since his first time rapping at a Go 95.3 event back in 2018. In-between his major successes of last year’s Minnesota Orchestra show and this year’s ‘Chunkadelic’ album, last year he and I released an EP under the name Party City Machine Guns, so it’s always great to have him in my soundscape. Christopher Michael Jensen has been one of the Twin Cities’ most consistent hip-hop artists on a variety of styles while still maintaining his own distinct voice for a number of years now, so I knew (especially with his coordinating of booking beloved local showcase ‘Local Dope ****’ at Can Can Wonderland) he’d be perfect to fit in the soundscape. Desdamona is a living legend in Twin Cities hip-hop and having her lead a posse cut that can be on Troma’s platform feels like a great gift to further share her incredible musicianship with the world.
Bonus question – do you have an event (IRL or online) that folks can attend?
I do! Saturday November 8 at 3:00 PM I’ll be performing at Twin Cities Con for the album’s official release party with DJ Halo, DJ Hayes and Desdamona in the house!
Mostly Minnesota 