“Well … that’s the best ‘Quaker rap’ I’ve ever heard,” senior Lizzy Gillespie said following Greensboro’s first performance by the Friendly Gangstaz Committee at New Garden Friend’s Meeting last Saturday night.
The rap group, co-headed by Guilford freshman Asa Fager, a.k.a. “Funk Master Friendly,,” performed to a crowd of students and Friends who gathered for a peace conference at Guilford this past weekend in response to recent global events.
Fager’s fellow musicians, co-front man Tim Shey “Quaka Flave,” beat boxer Steve Dominique “Ol’ Weighty Grandpa,” bassist Andrew Fox “MC Silentz,” guitarist Drew Phillamny “Quaka Breaka,” DJ Ben Hustis “DJ Consensus,” and back-up singer Maddy Diaz-Svalgard “Shafreaka Mott,” hail from New Hampshire all the way down to Florida.
If the Quaker thing doesn’t set this group apart from traditional rappers, the eclectic mix of elements that the individuals bring to the group does. The guitar and base player add a bit of jam to the mix, and the strong harmonic vocals of Diaz-Svalgard intertwine with the harsher spoken verse of the rappers.
“We all kind of throw in what we are good at,” Fager said. “Tim’s into free style, Steve has done more a capella, and Ben’s into techno.”
Despite diversity, the group brings it all back together with the common thread of Quakerism.
The long-time friends got their musical start at a Friends General Conference three years ago. “We were just fooling around on the steps doing some improv when someone tossed a hymn book at us,” Fager said.
“It started as a joke, and sometimes it is hard to see ourselves as anything else,” Fager said. “We are just starting to write our own music and get into more social and political stuff. This show was the first time we have really done that.”
“Some people have even referred to us as a new form of ministry,” Fager continued.
Although Fager is hesitant to accept that title himself, Quakerism is the main influence and inspiration in their music. “We try to keep our music in the context of Quakerism,” Fager said.
There is a serious edge to much of the group’s music with lyrics touching on issues of liberty, war, and American corruption. However, this is balanced with the comical and funky slants that the rappers give traditional songs like “Simple Gifts,” the group’s between-song antics, and their hooligan-like appearance.
The look of the group is a show in itself, particularly in contrast to the simple style of the traditional Quakers that comprised much of the audience. Big hair, a mohawk, sunglasses, baseball caps, rips, stains, and baggy cloths adorned the young members.
Yet regardless of their unconventional packaging of Quakerism, they still managed to get some beards bobbing. A few Friends were even enticed to throw their hands in the air as the Friendly Gangstaz Committee chanted “Quakers in the house.”
Director of Campus Ministries Max Carter is happy to see young people relating to Quakerism regardless of the form it takes. “It is energizing for the young people to use this medium to connect with Quakerism, and it is energizing for us older people to see young people being involved,” Carter said. “Hovever, the volume could have been a little lower,” he joked.
Check them out at: www.friendlygangstaz.com