By Fara One
Staff Writer

If The Source still had an "Unsigned Hype" column with any clout – then The Boogie Down’s Oktober Zero would have been sworn in last millennium.

Now that hip-hop’s foundation has been shaken like a saltshaker, true heads have had to search beyond Benzino’s leasable pages for the music they crave. With pre-paid distribution and label prostitution, the realest MC’s on the market have traveled alternative routes to Best Buy variety and online notoriety. These days independent labels have even more pull than gay rappers at Bad Boy release parties, and they’re coming through in droves in case you haven’t noticed.

Oktober is a pull off a Dutchie in a time when Philly smoke and bus emissions fill the air. He comes with a voice as poignant as his rhymes, and a message to make rival rappers and headphone jockeys nod in syncopation. A once subterranean and always extraterrestrial Talib Kweli noted that, “The talented cats are underground.” And while those of us who were tuned in already agreed, only now is there a widespread migration toward good hip-hop. If you believe that the nonsense on MTV confirms the passing of artists who have drowned in the mainstream, then chances are you’ve been waiting in suspense for the likes of an Ok Zero to resuscitate the culture.

With a moderate build and the occasional Hawaiian shirt, Oktober doesn’t showboat like a lot of his contemporaries. Reserved in wardrobe and attitude, he doesn’t fire off his personality like he does his raps. Ok is quiet and thoughtful, which may explain why he unloads on the mics that get in his way. Sitting down with him at a yuppie Upper East Side spot was a good way to get him to check the industry from the outside, and to gripe about the fans who bow down to Hot 97 sharecroppers. As far as that’s concerned, Oktober feels, “There’s a place for it (commercial hip-hop), and instead of it being in its place – it’s taken over everything else.” Hopefully his new delivery will get a piece of the pie that’s been horded by the gluttons.

With his first major album on the horizon, there’s a lot of scoop that the world needs to get served. Ok came ready to talk, but not before he delivered the goods. His freshman piece is titled Project: Building, and it shines like a ‘98 Cash Money album cover. In the past, Ok has worked with purists like Black Panther and Fakts One, but this Project was left to his Fresh Chest allies including KNO from Cunninlinguists. Thanks to his schmorgasboard of well-endowed producers, Oktober enjoyed the type of canvas that most artists don’t get on their “Best Of” albums.

Zero credits the Fresh Chest Prose with keeping his ears busy and his pen moving at all times. On the creative process, Oktober says, “I bring the beats home and they tell me what to say. Back in the day I used to be crammed up in the crib writin’ rhymes – and I had a stack of rhymes. But then I had to find a way to make the rhymes fit. But now that I’m overwhelmed with all these beats I’m taking my time with each one. Really I like writing fresh rhymes to a fresh beat.” Lucky for him he’s got truckloads.

The days of throwing darts at marble notebooks with Biggie instrumentals on the brain may be over for this prodigy, but they remain in the rear view. He remembers when he was discovered by the Sondoo crew on Bobbito’s show and when he dropped “Heavy Jewels,” his first demonstration of excellence to hit the shelves. He wrote his first rhyme at thirteen, which puts him ten years deep in the game. Chances are his old rhyme diaries couldn’t spark the type of flame that Ok ignites these days, but it’s been the drive that’s kept him burning. Now that his nationwide release is available at your local chain store, it’s a good opportunity to see how this one beat the odds. Just look at what elevates any particular MC over the hungry pack, which in Ok’s case is stage presence.

Oktober’s live show is tight, as he’s proved at the many honorable gigs he’s touched down on in New York. He’s opened for hip-hop’s finest, including Immortal Technique, Cunninlinguists, and Cormega in recent months. Being an aggressive host is a difficult task, but it’s paid off for this Bronx descendent. If artists are to be judged by the company they keep, regardless of how shallow that may be, then Ok is in fine company. He’s sold out shows with Ace Lover and blown out speakers with Tonedeff. He’s touched down at the legendary CBGB’s and won the hearts of hippie chicks at Nuyorican.

He says, “A lot of people ask, “Why do you settle for doing underground music? Why do you perform at the Bowery Poetry Club?”” It’s too bad that a lot of kids around his way don’t understand this poet’s agenda, because while they’re hollering with Lil’ Jon, Oktober’s backpacking it up to rock with producers across the boroughs. The cats on his block may not know him well now, but they’d best prepare for the underground revolution, which might very well be televised this time around.

The mainstream is a sour note for any real musician. As far as his personal preferences, Oktober didn’t even know that I was referring to the entire rap community when asked about what’s sour in hip-hop. When it was clarified that bling-blingers and shit slingers were fair game, he had a lot more to say. “Even Bonecrusher’s kinda cool - It’s all those scrappy cats like Chopper – like what the fuck are you doin’?” He doesn’t really hate though, in fact he barely even pays attention. “To tell you the truth I mostly listen to instrumentals. It sounds kind of selfish – but as an artist that’s how I work. When I’m creating – I can’t listen to other cats’ albums.”

When he’s not creating, Ok takes time to look back. He’s a rapper who sounds like Canibus, sports the God’s Son grin, and flows with a hint of Kweli on the larynx; so it’s clear that he’s been tuned in for a while. When asked if he was a prisoner in Iraq and one of the guards found it in their heart to throw two records on the Technics, Ok said he would have it no other way but to bang out to Canibus’ Freshman joint and Redman’s “Dare is a Darkside” before he faded to his own.

In the future he’d like to paint pictures with Madlib and Necro, but not before writing over tracks by Rhettmatic and The Alchemist. When the heavy hitters hear his album they just might be the ones picking up the phone.

Historians have argued that hip-hop runs through the uptown water main like lead and fluoride. That would be an easy point to prove with Oktober Zero as the subject. He’s prolific and prepared to pontificate at all times, which are the qualities that landed him at Fresh Chest in the first place.

As far as the rap scene goes, Ok truly believes, “It’s really just a lack of thinking and a lack of creativity within the hip-hop community. That’s what the people are conditioned to now – that’s what they want to hear. You gotta have some hoes in ya videos.”

If he didn’t believe that he could tilt the game to the real, then he wouldn’t be breathing his whole life in this culture. He believes in the purity and soul of this music, regardless of how many corporate artists are out to pollute it. To roll it as bluntly as possible, fake-ass rappers had better stay on their pedicured toes, because come this Oktober all the industry monsters are getting sent to the graveyard where their hollow bones belong.