Ohio natives Ryan “Emcee Schwartz” Schwartzhoff and Hil Hackworth are meshing the work of several hip-hop artists for the release of their third album, The DysFunktional Family Reunion.
“Our second album, The DysFunktional Family Feud, a large part of it was about the state of hip-hop and what we didn’t like about it,” Hackworth said. “This third album is a lot more personal.”
One can stream or digitally download the album for $5 on their website beginning Saturday or purchase a $10 hard copy at their next show Sept. 27 at The Union, 18 W. Union St.
Hackworth and Schwartz have collaborated with a number of guest artists such as nationally known underground hip-hop and rap artists Soul Khan, Copywrite and Sadat X. For their upcoming album, Hackworth and Schwartz will once again collaborate with artists who were featured on past albums.
“Those are artists we loved that we wanted to work with not because we thought that everyone knows them but because we wanted to work with them,” Schwartz said.
Hackworth, who noted that many college students might not have heard of the artists featured on the new album, said he has owned all of Copywrite’s albums since he was 20 years old.
Only three songs off the 21-track album will feature the two founding members, focusing it mostly on the reunion of hip-hop artists.
The tracks are riddled with old-school samples Schwartz said he finds from the ’60s and ’70s. The duo’s knowledge of hip-hop history is extensive and shows through in its music.
One track from the album samples the song “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, in which the native Ohioans rap about their love for the state and represents hip-hop in Ohio, where rap tends to be overlooked, Hackworth said.
“I did a lot of reading on Neil Young and he was all about sharing, so I think he would like it,” Hackworth said.
Schwartz and Hackworth are not expecting fame from this new album, but instead do it for themselves as a way to deal with stress.
“I do music because it’s therapeutic to me,” Schwartz said. “It helps me throughout my life, and if other people want to listen that’s fine, but I don’t do it to sell records. I do it for the love of hip-hop.”
wh092010@ohiou.edu
