About Cherryl Aldave

Brief Bio

I’m Cherryl Aldave and I’m a freelance multi-media hip hop, pop culture, race and social justice journalist. I’m also a soundtrack consultant, researcher, filmmaker and budding author.

Heavy Mentalist is my personal blog, but in my professional life I’ve written for Wax Poetics, the Source, Scratch, Elemental, Rime, Insomniac, FEDS, HipHopDX, PopandPolitics, Allhiphop.com, Yes! Weekly and more.

My words also appear in the books Wax Poetics Anthology Volume 1, Bandana Republic, How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office and The Quotable Rebel.

If you’re an editor and would like to see some of my clips, you can download some pdfs here.

Background

Born in the Philippines to an African-American Marine mom and Filipino musician dad, I was raised in North Carolina where in the early nineties I attended the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and UNC Chapel Hill.

In the Philippines, I lived under president Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law.

While Marcos and wife Imelda siphoned untold millions from foreign aid meant to help the Filipino people into their private bank accounts so Imelda could hoard over a 1000 pairs of shoes, we lived lives of crushing poverty. Desperate and starving, many were reduced to eating cats, rats and dogs to survive.

Witnessing such wealth disparity made me acutely aware early in life of the devastating effects of tyrannical power over the powerless, and is the catalyst for my devotion to spotlighting the issues of poor and oppressed peoples everywhere.

Hip Hop Journalism

This devotion to the global struggle of oppressed peoples is what drew me to hip hop – a culture started by poor people filled with innovation, boundless energy and often, though not always, unbridled middle-finger-in-your-face rebellion at unjust authority.

As part of the hip hop generation, I’ve engrossed myself in various styles of hip hop music, dress, dance, thought and vernacular for over three decades.

In 1992, I transformed my childhood passion for making pause tapes into DJing at UNC-Chapel Hill’s radio station, WXYC, where I held down a morning show and was part of a weekend mix show, The New Science Experience.

In 1996, I published North Carolina’s first Hip Hop zine, Headz, growing the publication from a circulation of 1000 quarterly issues to 25,000 within two years. This was also the year I started promoting a successful freestyle battle series in North Carolina’s Triangle area called Verbal Kombat.

In 2001, I began my freelance writing career by sending pitches to various hip hop publications using clips from Headz, which I also wrote for in addition to publishing. I continue to write for hip hop publications and have branched into writing for general interest publications as well.

Film Production

In 2006, I was an accidental producer for This Side of the River, a documentary chronicling the history of the oldest town in America charted by African-Americans, Princeville NC, its destruction by flood and the subsequent battle to rebuild the historic city.

Initially hired as a researcher, and fully expecting to be credited as such, I was surprised to see at the premier of the film that I was not credited for my research work.

As the credits rolled, my jaw dropped as I saw what I was credited with. Instead of seeing “researcher” by my name, I saw “associate producer”.

The production credit was a gift to me for my hard work from the filmmakers, Drew Grimes and Ryan Rowe.

The film is dear to me as I have familial roots in Princeville, and many of my family’s mementos, photos and artifacts handed down for generations — some from the time my ancestors were slaves — were destroyed in the flood.

Research/Respect the Architects

My ability to conduct in depth research is not only a valuable part of my skill set, but a source of pride which has been recognized by hip hop historians like Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip hop Generation.

In this blog entry discussing the writing of Can’t Stop, Jeff mentions me alongside hip hop luminaries Jay Smooth, Reggie Dennis and the Rock Steady Crew’s PopMaster Fabel for my work in a column I started in Elemental Magazine in 2002 called Respect the Architects, a series of Q&As with hip hop pioneers:

Hip hop pioneers interviewed for RTA include T La Rock, the Crash Crew, Pete “DJ” Jones, Don “Cambellock” Campbell, Frosty Freeze (RIP), Lady Pink, CAP, Jazzy Jay (written with JayQuan Hartsfield), Rock Steady Crew founder JoJo and more.

Other legends I’ve interviewed outside of hip hop include James Brown’s “funky drummers”, Clyde Stubblefield and Jab’O Starks, for Wax Poetics in 2005. In 2007 the interviews, “Funky Drummers Pt 1 & 2″, were included in Wax Poetics Anthology Volume 1.

Respect the Architects will be continued here on Heavy Mentalist.

Activism

I am an anti-sexism, anti-racism and anti-rape advocate. My hands-on ativism began in college, where I was Minister of Information for UNC’s Black Student Movement.

As MOI for the BSM, I helped coordinate protests, rallies and media coverage for our efforts to secure better rights and wages for the campus’ Marriot-employed food and sanitation workers, who worked long hours under sometimes oppressive conditions for less than a living wage.

I also volunteered with a program held in UNC’s Black Student Union, Communiversity Saturday School.

Communiversity bussed low income African-American students to UNC every Saturday, where the students received free tutoring on variety of subjects with an emphasis on lessons in African and African-American history.

In 2002, I was North Carolina street team leader for Rock the Vote, and with teams I coordinated across the state helped register the highest number of new voters in any year in North Carolina’s history.

Since 2006 I’ve been on the steering committee of the National Hip Hop Political Convention, a group that utilizes hip hop as a teaching and outreach tool to socially and politically empower youth worldwide. The NHHPC is currently in a restructuring stage.

Hobbies

In the little spare time I have, I enjoy dance (hula, bellydance), weightlifting, yoga, gardening, sewing and crocheting.

Current Projects

I’m currently working on a book that’s part comedy, part tragedy, part history and part story of my life. I’m also working on securing a reputable literary agent and hope to see my book published in the first half of 2011.

Connect

Love hip hop? Love music? Love activism? Lets link! Connect with me on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and Linked In.

About Heavy Mentalist

Heavy Mentalist is the combined version of my formerly separate music and current events blogs, Heavy Mentalist and the Last Nerve.

Heavy Mentalist is named after a song released in 1998, “Heavy Mental“, from one my favorite emcees, Killah Priest.

The former Heavy Mentalist was housed at heavymentalist.blogspot.com, and focused on hip hop, pop, reggae, punk rock, tech news and reviews.

The former Last Nerve blog was housed at thelastnerve.blogspot.com, and focused on current events, race matters and opinion.

I decided to combine my blogs so in 2010 I could focus on completing a book I’ve been working on for several years and hopefully (gasp! — fingers-crossed) get it published.

This blog will focus on everything my former blogs focused on, now all conveniently in one place.

Thanks for visiting!