imperfekt

Noggle’s been honing his craft for more than five years (both as emcee and producer), endearingly opting to build a veritable hip-hop scene around his home of Cedar Rapids (as opposed to the enticingly drivable and lucrative escapes offered up in Minnesota or over in Illinois). He set up his own label (Mic Hand Recordings) to forge a collective of equally inspired/likeminded hip-hop artists and facilitate his own releases, including a recent collaboration with fellow emcee Colorless, known as The Other Elements. With provocative lyrics sneered out in a toughened, lower-register, it recalls edgier underground-rap of the early ’00s (ala El-P or Edan). - Paste Magazine

Last but not least, The Other Elements consists of Cedar Rapids staples Imperfekt & Colorless. Together, the two keep the city’s hip-hop scene beating with both their label Mic Hand Recordings and their yearly event Super Fresh Culture Fest.

Whether it’s through their funky beats or their sometimes tongue-in-cheek rhyming, they’re one of the few groups out there that keep the old-school beating.

Recommended:
The two of them are local legends in the area. They’ve even got a song about it. http://theotherelements.bandcamp.com/track/local-legends

It’s hard to pick places to start for these two since their media presences are a bit scattered. However, their albums are available on Mic Hand’s website (www.michandrecordings.com) - Buzz Feed

Neon Creativity, coming from the mind of Imperfekt, hailing from Ceder Rapids, IA., shows the potential to build with time. A piece that may very well be ahead of its time, starts off a little slow in the beginning before making a quick turn around and starts to build momentum half way through the EP. Though I’m unaware of his past releases, this EP shows the potential to hold its own in the underground scene in the Midwest. Tracks such as “Infinite work” and “Good” hold the story line together quite well with the beats behind them; so much so, that I would be surprised to catch anyone that hears them not bobbing their heads to the rhythm. It also comes packed with a plethora of other artists that compliment the art work with their own style of creativity. In all, Imperfekt is an artists who should be on your radar and listened to as he begins to climb the ladders of both creativity and hip hop alike. - GrowYourFlow.com

If you pay any attention to hip hop music around the state of Iowa like I try to, there might be a couple of names that you seem to hear more frequently than others in the last couple of years. Names such as imperfekt. If he’s not playing a show, it seems like Cedar Rapids-repping Rick Noggle aka imperfekt is hosting one, promoting one, or attending someone else’s. Following the dude’s social media for a week puts to rest any doubts about the existence of a rap scene in Iowa. There are things going on. imperfekt is doing them.

On top of an extensive performance workload, imp manages to find time to churn out mad recordings as well, through his own label, Mic Hand Recordings. Back at the beginning of the year he released his project Beats & Raps, a free, 22 track behemoth of ill breaks and sharp bars, and on tuesday he releases his new solo EP Neon Creativity. In addition to his own projects he’s also had a Hand (pun intended) in the excellent albums Tangerine Avenue by Strangers of Neccessity, and The Joe Carter LP by Opt Rhyme. 2014 has been a busy year for imp. He’s pretty much Iowa hiphop’s Hardest Working Man in Show Business.

Neon Creativity starts off on the good foot (see what I did there?), with imp going in on some straightforward battle rap bars over wailing, epic guitar solos on the opener, and from there it gets better. The title track comes in next, setting the tone with a super smooth backdrop that sounds like a b-side off of a pharcyde record. Bloke C adds a different dynamic with his guest vocals and holds his own, as do all of the other guests. The beats are awesome for the most part. And the flows are on point as usual. Next come “Death Sentences”, and another swirling, epic beat. “Bayside in this Bitch” is as fun as the title suggests. “Good” gets romantic with an assist from Farout, and "Silver & Gold" gets bromantic with an assist from Ryan Nixon, a talented battle rapper and one half of the Des Moines duo Neon Current.

I felt that the excellent Beats & Raps was more of a “compilation” than an “album”, and I was wondering if Neon Creativity might have a similar feel to it. But really, the songs run into one another rather nicely, with the beats for the most part sharing some similar feels. There are alot of features for such a short project, but one of the things that was done really well here was matching the guest MCs with beats that really complement them well. This extends to the sung hook of “Silver & Gold”, where Rachel Stickley’s tone nearly matches that of the vocal sample. That being said, knowing what he is capable of, I’d like to hear a full-length concept album, or something kind of thematic from Imperfekt and I think many who follow him feel the same way… I’m still waiting on the Instant Classic that he will one day drop. He’s said that now that this production grind is over, he plans to just chill for awhile and “be creative”. Sounds promising to me. Until then this is definitely a dope little project to tide us over.

Favorite track: Death Sentences. Mahf raps?

Least favorite track: If I have to pick, maybe Good? Not that I have anything bad to say about the track itself (the beat is pretty dope), but I remember watching imp perform this one live recently, and he dedicated the song to his woman. I remember Boo Cakes looking over at me, and then asking me afterwards why I never dedicated any of my raps to her, half jokingly. Stop making the rest of us look bad, Rick.

On a scale of Weaksauce to Wizard, this album gets a BOO-YA! - The Crack Don

You just dropped the new album “Beats & Raps” what was some of the inspiration behind that?
The main inspiration was that I went out on the road in August of 2013 and did quite a few shows and sold quite a bit of merch but I felt bad because what I was selling wasn’t what I was performing. I was performing a lot of stuff I hadn’t recorded yet, so when I got home from that trip on the road I decided I was going to record everything that I had been performing and put it out for free since some of that stuff is several years old. It’s new to a lot of people, but it seems super old to me.

So, that was your first time touring out of the state alone, correct?
Yeah, it was just a couple dates in Missouri and a few spot dates here and there. Going down to Missouri was the first time I’d ever driven several hours by myself to do a show. Alone, no roadie or anything with me.

Also, on that tour, you played live sets on your MPC board, how was that transition into performing like that and can we expect to see more in the future?
I decided to start doing some live beats because I’ve been rapping for a long time with a dj playing behind me or sometimes playing a cd or mp3 player and I wanted to try and do something a little more involved. I’ve always had an MPC in the studio but I’ve never wanted to take it out and take the chance of a beer getting spilled on it, cause you know they’re not cheap. But I found a cheap one at a pawn shop so I got that and started doing the beat stuff and it’s been received real well; especially at places where I’ve never been and people don’t know who I am, except from the person who introduces me. When I start doing that stuff it really grabs their attention and really brings them up to the front of the stage. It’s been a lot of fun and I really enjoy it.

Something that I find really cool on “Beats & Raps” is that you decided to add a little background information for each track. I feel with so much music being released digitally these days, it’s sort of a rarity. What made you decide to do that?
That kind of spawned from being an overly honest person, some people cringe at my honesty (ha), but I put out this album and I’m promoting it and I want people to get it and I don’t want them to assume its brand new and since some of the songs are so old I just want to put the background story on them. I like the thought of paying homage or giving the credits to the albums when I can remember and I’m not in that mad scientist mode. I like giving credits to the records I might imperfekt beats & rapshave sampled drums from or whatever. I include the different types of equipment that I use, I always think that’s cool. I’m kind of a music nerd, and I enjoy reading, and the people I’m a fan of, I like to know their equipment that they use and their process in the studio. It’s just something that doesn’t come with music anymore. You used to be able to open a CD and have the whole experience; you know the new CD smell, looking at the book, the cover art, all that stuff. It’s something I’ve gotten some personal messages about thanking me for doing this. I’ve printed it out and put it on my website, giving a little more detail about each individual track.

Just a moment ago you mentioned being a music nerd and just today I saw on Facebook you posted about recently checking out a lot of different genres of music that your friends are sharing, something maybe out of your normal zone. Who are some people you’ve recently discovered outside of your genre that you think we should know about?
Well the one I played today was a group called Far Fetched and the album was called Prologue III. I don’t even know what they would be considered as a genre. I just pushed play because I get annoyed that this day in age of internet promotions that people get too lazy to click on stuff, I mean, I can be the same way, but someone took the time to make this music and post it online for us to hear so I’m just trying to play it. I just like to listen to all types of music. In my form of sampling, I’ll get all types of weird records and I’ll just sit and play them. Anything from Russian folk music to China folk music. Anything that’s got an interesting sound, I’ll play from start to finish and I get to hear a lot of really interesting things.

Shifting gears here, coming up on April 26th, you’ve got the 3rd annual Super Fresh Culture Fest in Cedar Rapids, give us a little history on SFCF and what do you have in store for us this year?
The first year we did it, we kind of threw it together, we had an interesting opportunity to get the legendary Ras Kass on the bill and we formed it around that and we started reaching out. The only place we could really do it was a good sized place so we decided to book a festival instead. We got a lot of local talent and midwest acts that we’ve been working with for a lot of years, got artists and vendors and just put it all together in literally 5 or 6 weeks. It was such an ENORMOUS success super fresh culture festhere in Cedar Rapids that people talked about it for months. It was really interesting when it was happening, to go outside and see groups of people walking to the door and parking blocks away, it was really a cool thing. After that, people were so happy that the next day they were already asking when the next one was. When it came time to start doing it again, we booked it for 1 year and 1 day after the previous year. I booked a nice lineup with some midwest heavyweights we’ve known for a while, we booked C Rayz Walz, and he unfortunately ended up not being able to make it, but there was absolutely no bad blood, everything worked out. It was still an excellent time. This year we decided to move to a new location that is much larger which is outdoors with a giant pavilion, playgrounds for kids, we’ll have a graffiti wall, working on a car show for this year, and more vendors. We really depend on our local support as far as music and businesses, we have a lot of local sponsors that we work with. Our main presenting sponsor this year is Neon Dragon Tattoo and Piercing. They are one of MicHand’s biggest sponsors and helps with all of our musical endeavors. We’ve booked acts from MN, IL, MO, NE, SD. But we’ll be releasing our official lineup shortly. All of the locals however are already posted on our website. We’ll be giving out some tickets and hopefully trying to take this to the next level.

To find out more about SFCF, check out the Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/623646757692949/

Other than SFCF, do you have any plans for other festivals or what other major shows are you looking forward to?
I really need to make it back to Soundset again this year. I missed it last year and it hurt, it hurt my heart. I actually went 3 years in a row before that. I came up when Scribble Jam was a big thing and when it died out I was really sad because we had decided we wanted to go every year, but never made it. When I went to Soundset in 2010, I decided that I never wanted to miss a Soundset ever since I never got to make it to Scribble Jam. And where else can you go and be a hip hop head like me and just feel welcome? Everybody there is essentially the same as you and just getting along. Especially being from Iowa, there really isn’t any place like that in any city that is just catered to us. Its just so cool to go there and be in it. Being a musician I go there and I get to see people I know and we kind of model some of the festivities at SFCF after what goes on at Soundset.

Keep up with all of the latest iMPERFEKT and Mic Hand happening by checking out their website at: http://www.michandrecordings.com/ - GrowYourFlow.com

Beats and Raps by the on and only Imperfeckt. Review. BY Nate Sherwood. I been debating doing reviews on my site. for one cause who AM I do judge anybody? I am a washed up pressure flipping skater who knows nothing about anything else. However music is banned in my house my lady is over me jamming tunes at full blast and I am to deaf to hear anything at the level she likes. so I have to wait for her to go to bed now and plug in my headphones to the boom box and jam cd,s like when I was a kid and my sister and folks would flip out and knock on the door pissed to tell me to turn music down. I would just hook up the headphones and try to toss up a piece in a sketchbook. or think of some new p flip combo that had not been done. or read every page of thrasher and tws and any zine i had. at times I would turn on skate vids in the back ground and turn them to mute and listen to some hip hop on the boom box and try to sink up the song with the skating. most vids around this time had lame as classic rock in them. there was this faze where hip hop was no longer in vids and metal was not at all or punk rock and well 411 and Toy and so many others ran credence and whatever other crap I hated in them. so off to head phone land I went. anyway ENOUGH ABOUT ME. lets talk about today’s headphone combat. IMPERFEKT is a highly eduskated person like dose one from anticon. or sage francis. however he not only have the political know how of the above but he can drop knowledge in many different fields like on the track “anti couch potato” and can drop science as well with tracks like “torn like you” where he speaks on the problem many have with leaving their 2 horse towns to see the world. there are party tracks on here to get anybody motiskated to go out and have a good time as well it is not just a class room cd. like “hangovers and grey goose” there is deep mind blowing tracks like “crooked politician ” ill phat beats perfect for any video part hint hint industery folks reading this. With hard samples form the creates. Anyway there is rad stuff all over this entire 22 track album yes sir. yes u read it right 22 tracks no filler no bs. just raw hip hop. when most put out albums of only 11 tracks max and half are skitz and filler crap this album is pure juice. no fake corn sweetener here. 2 thumbs up on this album. and if u want a copy hit up mic and hand on their site. or swing by eduskate and pick a copy up. only 5$ yes I know he is under bidding himself but he knows he is up against all the weak ass lame filler that has billion buck marketing behind it so he has to keep his costs down. - The Skate Junk

One of the most emphatic fans through the entire festival was Rick Noggle, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, despite the building heat and the long hours. Throughout the day, he could be found along the front rail, cheering on his friends and discovering new music. The next set, however, belonged to him as the crowd began to emerge from the shade of the tents. Performing as Imperfekt and joined by longtime friend and Cedar Rapids native, Colorless, Noggle opened the set with a new segment to his act, which he calls "making beats from a suitcase," using a vintage, hard-case suitcase filled with a variety of toys. After an instrumental track and one backing up Colorless, he joined his friend on the mic and delivered a laid-back, semi-melodic flow. The two complimented each other well and like Trak Masta Tom, they were not afraid to dial it down in the name of good music. - KDHX Community Media

Tunes For Improvement
MicHandRecordings.com

Imperfekt is a hip-hop MC that produces his own beats. Though locally there are several examples—Rahlan Kay and Coolzey come to mind—it isn’t a common thing. MCs and producers tend to specialize, but in the decidedly un-hip-hop environment of Iowa, perhaps these guys feel like they’re on their own and have to go DiY top to bottom. In the case of Imperfekt, I can’t argue with the results.

The beats are in the laid back, raw, breakbeat style pioneered by A Tribe Called Quest and DJ Premier, a style which has fallen out of favor with the mainstream beat-makers. But Imperfekt doesn’t have any trouble finding some new twists within a well-worn tradition. There isn’t much variation in rhythm from track to track, but the samples provide enough differences in mood and texture to keep things interesting. The CD includes instrumentals for every track, which, minus the vocals, feels like a second album.

Imperfekt’s vocal style shows years of practice paying off. He never stumbles out of the groove or tries to force an awkward line to fit. The album contains some gems like “food for thought authors grab your pot holders and oven mitts / smooth as butter is you must not know who you’re brunchin’ with,” from the song “Hunger.” “Home” stands out both for Afro Jesus’ memorable chorus and samples of news reports about the flood of 2008. As a former Cedar Rapidian, I can’t say I remember living there with much affection, but Imperfekt makes me feel his love for the place. He’s a blue-collar, plain-speaking MC. His rhymes aren’t flashy or fashionably deranged, but they complement and mesh with the strong, musical beats. It’s a sum-is-greater-than-the-parts thing.

And he doesn’t waste any energy on hip hop’s cliche boasts—something that stopped feeling fresh 30 years ago. Calling himself ‘Imperfekt’ is an act of humility in a world of braggarts, but this is a CD he can be proud of. - Little Village Magazine

As October takes hold of the state of Iowa the most obvious cash-crop begins to fade. Corn fields (less than you think) around the area slowly dissolve into just fields, the type of fields that just sit flat and barren waiting to be turned into something beautiful and useful next year. While one commodity erodes, something else continues taking root, slowly, but surely, hip-hop is climbing its way up from the depths of misconception and stereotypes, one clutched fist at a time, even in Iowa.

Rick Noggle is a 26-year-old MC and producer from Cedar Rapids, a city in the arguably least-hip-hop state, Release show 025with a population of 125,000, or about one and a half percent of the population if New York City’s five main boroughs. Noggle goes by the name Imperfekt.

“There’s always a part … in every song I’ve ever recorded that I pick out and nobody else even notices but I’ll be like ‘I made a squeak when I took a breath’,” he explains as the origins of the misspelled moniker. He has opened for most of the major independent names, people he considers “famous”, including Copywrite, Blueprint, Eyedea and Abilities, and Mac Lethal, who mocked his initial stage name of “MC Squared” (a recording artist equipment magazine) and prompted him to find something more original. These shows have been mostly abroad, some in Iowa City, the college town that houses the University of Iowa approximately twenty miles south of Cedar Rapids. But, nothing of that caliber finds its way north to a city with a population that’s around three times larger.
Cedar Rapids has no scene, really.

“Cedar Rapids has no scene, really,” says Imperfekt, “besides what I’m trying to put on, and I know it sounds like big-headed,” but he isn’t being big-headed, he’s being sincere. Cedar Rapids is the sort of city you might expect, mostly blue-collar, lots of factory work, churches and strip malls. It’s the small town trying to be a big city. There isn’t much hip-hop because there isn’t much culture at all. And even less true hip-hop heads. There are other hip-hop artists in the area, but most of them are only attempting to replicate the unintelligent, uninspiring commercial rap that they hear on the radio and see on BET.

So, Imperfekt and Mic Hand Recordings, his own label, along with his partners in rhyme (and scratch) Colorless, Q Hefna, CASETHEJOINT, Grav One, Smiles T and Young Els continue to work with what they have. Advancing the art of hip-hop the only way they know how—making, promoting and distributing their own music—in the area they’re from, and perhaps with a bit of scene-envy for the more open regions that have been sprouting up as hip-hop hotspots across the country (see: Minneapolis, Kansas City, Seattle, Baltimore).

Imperfekt seems torn; dealing with the reality of a very lucrative scene only four hours north of him in Minneapolis, but yet he wrestles with the desire to bring hip-hop from his true hometown. In many ways he’s a stubborn purist. “I’ve thought about [moving] a couple times,” he confesses before outlining his apprehension, “I try to [represent] myself and where I’m from, how can I say ‘come out to my show! I represent Cedar Rapids, Iowa!’ in Minneapolis, Minnesota?” So it’s not just about establishing a hip-hop scene, it’s about defining the terms of your own existence. Changing the conditions to suit your needs rather than running to a situation that’s been laid out by someone else. That sort of independent spirit and approach to music is something that is rare in a city like Cedar Rapids.
How can I say ‘come out to my show! I represent Cedar Rapids, Iowa!’ in Minneapolis, Minnesota?

What’s more rare is a group of people in Cedar Rapids, Iowa pushing an underground movement of high-quality hip-hop, and bringing in out-of-towners to help them do it. But Imperfekt and his friends are doing just that; outside of their shows around the area, Mic Hand affiliates put on a monthly hip-hop show at a family-owned bar, it’s called Super Fresh Saturday. They draw in artists such as Minneapolis-based Kanser, Kansas City’s other indie label, IndyGround, and its founder Steddy P, Carnage the Executioner of Hecatomb, and Co-Workers, a hip-hop group from Savannah, Georgia.

Their work is put forth without a clear cut goal, only to promote their own music and “good hip-hop,” according to Impefekt, “I just want to be able to live off of music, whether I’m balling [off of it] or just barely scraping by, it doesn’t matter.” The hip-hop world is seen as a dichotomy to him, a battle between people “exploiting it” and people that love music.

“Who’s kickin’ the knowledge now?” he poses the question seriously, reminiscent of his early encounters with the Wu-Tang clan and RZA’s branch-off group The GraveDiggaz. Imperfekt and his Mic Hand cohorts are building something in Cedar Rapids that’s bigger than their own music, and bigger than their own label. They’re building a scene, a respect and appreciation for independent hip-hop that dares to step off of the rap, get signed and sell out model that grips most of the industry. They’re building, but it’s not finished. It’s not complete, and it may never be. But the fact remains that they’re doing more than the average Cedar Rapidian–or Iowan for that matter–and that’s at least half of the battle.

Imperfekt is releasing an exclusive EP with aboveGround Magazine in conjunction with this interview. The EP is a 6-track journey through his musical endeavors, it includes all previously-unreleased work, a freestyle over an RJD2 beat and a short live performance. - AboveGround Magazine

THE OTHER ELEMENTS is a two-man crew in Cedar Rapids consisting of IMPERFEKT and COLORLESS. They have been getting down since 2002. They have released an album as a duo, as well as solo efforts from each of them. Imperfekt is the label head for Mic Hand Recordings - Little Village Magazine

It was very cool to play in a regular ol' bar for a change, and one called "The Blue Collar" at that. Our host, Imperfekt, is a monster of an emcee, yet another kid from a city i'd never been to who can just tear shit down. He played first, and got the crowd very hype. Though the spot looks kind of small from the outside, they really pack people in. With no stage, we're kind of just there in the middle of the crowd, rapping. It was beautiful. For our set, SeeMore took his cordless mic and walked to the far other end of the building and we surrounded the crowd with rhymes. Very fun. Krummie capped the night off. He was one of the 25 finalists for the White Rapper Show, and showed why. - Guante.info

In 2002, hip-hop artist Imperfekt founded his own label, Mic Hand Recordings, based out of Cedar Rapids. Mic Hand Recordings currently boasts nine artists collectively termed the Mic Hand Crew. Examining Imperfekt’s “Streetwalk-Somethin Outa Nothin” from the Imperfekt EP goes a long way in explaining the Mic Hand Crew’s sound and goals.

Imperfekt and company separate themselves from the current rap stars by sticking to the basics. They don’t have the arrogance of the Yeezys and Weezys out there claiming rap supremacy, nor do they attempt to prove their worth by filling 16 bars with rhymes about their money, possessions and female conquests.

Instead “Streetwalk-Somethin Outa Nothin” begins with Imperfekt and fellow MHC member Colorless trading off verses describing how Imperfekt took Colorless into his home when he was broke. Such relatable real-world issues predominate the content of these rappers’ lyrics. Their seamless transitions are reminiscent of old-school songs like “Check the Rhime” by A Tribe Called Quest.

In addition to bringing back the raw hip-hop sounds of yesteryear, the Mic Hand Crew is concerned with how they can help Cedar Rapids. The Mic Hand Crew often performs locally, including a monthly show at Pub Mitchell in Cedar Rapids.
Information on the Crew’s upcoming shows can be found at http://michandrecordings.com - See more at: http://hooplanow.com/2010/04/21/imperfekt-rhymes-perfectly/#sthash.shSjwAuc.dpuf - HooplaNow.com