Art
Three 11-year-old metal heads from East Flatbush, Brooklyn form a band and all hell breaks loose
Rock and roll sprang directly from the blues and gospel roots of African-Americans. Ike Turner. Chuck Berry. Little Richard. Metalcore, as far as anyone knows, did not. And yet this raucous admixture of hardcore punk and heavy metal inspired the East Flatbush, Brooklyn power trio Unlocking the Truth to take up their instruments and make their own mark on the subgenre. Yes, members Malcolm Brickhouse (guitar), Jarad Dawkins (drums) and Alec Atkins (bass) are black.
Depending on your views on post-racial America, this may not be so surprising in 2013. So try this on: Brickhouse, Dawkins and Atkins are all entering the seventh grade, and are the thrashingest 11-year-old metalcore band you’ll ever meet.
Just being kids.
“I started playing when I was about 5 or 6, because my mom’s friend told her to get me a guitar,” Malcolm says from the rehearsal space of a parent’s basement. (Sporting an Afro the size of The Boondocks’ Huey Freeman, he’s currently wearing a cast on his arm, dislocated doing monkey-bar backflips at day camp.) “At the time, she was trying to see what my different talents were. She tried me out for piano but it didn’t work, and then she tried me out for guitar. So that’s what I’m playing now.”
“I’m waiting to get drum lessons from Steve Jordan,” says Jarad Dawkins. The John Mayer Trio drummer has recently taken Jarad under his wing. “Other than that, I’m just working from home with my electric drum kit to make songs better.” Unlocking the Truth is almost done with their second full-length collection of original songs, inspired per usual by the likes of Slipknot and Metallica, and written by the tweeners themselves.
"I like the old rappers because today in modern times, they just talk about drugs, money, weed…it’s a lot of arrogance. And there’s no message to it. To me, they’re just doing it to get paid and that’s it.-Jarad"
Ten years ago, director James Spooner’s Afro-Punk documentary explored the hitherto unknown world of black punk rockers. The film laid bare cultural prohibitions within the African-American community about appreciating rock music. In my own 1980s wonder years, rocking out to Billy Idol, Van Halen or Joan Jett as a black kid was immediate cause for ostracizing. Today, a head-banging black band of junior high schoolers is still cause for plenty of intrigued press. And we wouldn’t be having this conversation if Unlocking the Truth was a hip-hip group more influenced by Run-DMC than Nirvana.
Malcolm on lead guitar.
Unlocking the Truth in the basement rehearsal space where it all happens.
What’s a metal musician without a pair of black Converse high tops?
Song and set lists.
Malcolm and Alec take a break to play on their iPhones.
Question the boys about their left-of-(black)-center musical tastes, and it’s clear they’re above it. “I think it’s racist,” Malcolm offers. “Because if white people like rap, it’s OK. Eminem, he does whatever he wants and nobody says anything about it. But if a black person likes heavy metal, it’s a problem.” Jarad agrees. “It’s a lot of stereotypes.”
“People think heavy metal is satanic and it’s not,” Malcolm says.
“Well, some of it is,” Alec interjects.
Jarad laughs. “In fourth grade, me and my friend was listening to this song from Disturbed called Indestructible,” he recalls. “And my other friend Shakira said, ‘Why do you listen to this type of music?’ I said, ‘Well, what’s so good about the music that you listen to?’ Then she just shut up and went away.” The boys laugh again.
Over the weekend, Malcolm, Jarad and Alec took in A Band Called Death, all about the Detroit-born black proto-punk pioneers, Death. (In August, Unlocking the Truth shares the same stage with Death at the Afropunk Fest.) Earlier in the year, Searching for Sugar Man won an Oscar for documenting the story of Sixto Rodriguez, the Mexican-American singer-songwriter who was unsung in the United States but in South Africa was as revered as Bob Dylan and the Beatles. As the world at large learns more about rock’s connections to people of color, these pre-teens take for granted that they’re allowed to simply love what they love. Hardcore bands like Chelsea Grin, Escape the Fate and Motionless in White populate their iPhones.
So do Big Sean, Drake and 2Pac.
“I like rappers from the old days [better] than now,” says Jarad. “Not to get offensive to any rappers out now.” Malcolm interjects: “People, we’re not breaking hip-hop. We’re not turning it down or whatever.” (Three Stooges-style interruptions come natural for a seventh grade band.) “I’m sorry, but I like the old rappers,” Jarad continues, “because today in modern times, they just talk about drugs, money, weed…it’s a lot of arrogance. And there’s no message to it. To me, they’re just doing it to get paid and that’s it.”
The boys’ mom-manager Annette Jackson has exposed her brood to the live concerts of Lenny Kravitz and Prince. But if a post-racial America should ever come to pass, it’ll be created in the adulthood future of 11-year-olds like Unlocking the Truth.
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