Photo courtesy of Mary Sue
Mary Sue is an emcee from Singapore that is known for his abstract lyrics. With the assistance of a live band he created a new album titled “Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword.” The band, also from Singapore, goes by the Clementi Sound Appreciation Club. The 5-piece jazz band includes Kenzo Nagari (guitar), Farizi Noorfauzi (drums), Russell Seow (bass), Daniel Alex Chia (keyboards), and Bryan De Rozario (saxophone).
Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword is a concept album about a time traveling oracle that struggles to find meaning in the modern world. The release is a joint venture between Rucksack Records and La Munai Records. The 16-track album features appearances by Agung Mango and Nakama.
Mary Sue spoke to The Real Hip-Hop about why truth is swept under the rug, the Hip-Hop scene in Singapore, working with Clementi Sound Appreciation Club, and their new album, Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword.
TRHH: Explain the title of the new album, Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword.
Mary Sue: This album we really wanted to dive into roots of where we’re from. Also reflecting it in the modern day and all these things that’s happening. Coming from a country like Singapore in this world conflict I wouldn’t say we decided to stay neutral, but in a way it’s kind of a forced thing being from an island country. Seeing this as I age, as well as just through history, you see these forces come and go and then you really think the threats of both nullifies the other. I don’t know if that makes sense. I guess when thinking about porcelain shield, paper sword they’re both so fragile, yet they’re both aggressive. When hit one crumbles or one shatters, or it doesn’t shatter and it just remains the same. That’s the main concept of it. I guess just that undying conflict internally and externally.
TRHH: What is the view of the people in Singapore now of the United States?
Mary Sue: I think that varies. I can’t speak for all Singaporeans because I know it wages from one to the other. I mean for the government side we’re saying we need them, so why is this happening? Why is there this aggression when there was no aggression shown on our part? For me personally I do believe that there’s a balance that is required in the world in some sorts. If there is no America in a supportive state it’s not best to let one side run the whole thing.
It’s always good to have a balance of sides, but obviously with the Trump organization it’s a little more jarring I guess in a way. I think Singaporeans historically tend to be more aligned with the United States in a lot of things, but recently there’s been a shift obviously to seeing China’s side of things. I mean, I can’t speak for all. Even within our own band we have different opinions of such.
TRHH: Singapore is a predominantly Muslim country?
Mary Sue: Nah, we have four main races. Majority is Chinese. Religiously we’re pretty split — I think Buddhism is the main, but by a slight edge, then it’s Christianity and Islam. It changes through time and such. We’re in a region of the world where it’s majority Muslim nations. In our country we like to call it religious tolerance, in that way. It’s a fine balance and that’s how our society works.
TRHH: So, what are the other races besides Chinese?
Mary Sue: We got Malays, which are probably the native population in that region, and then Indians who came from migration just like Chinese do. And then there’s who we call Eurasians, because we have a long colonial history, so there’s been a lot of mixing between the Caucasians and Asians as well. They have their own specific culture, cuisines, and stuff. That’s the four main races We’re made up of a lot of immigrants in that way. In that way I think we find that similarity with America.
TRHH: Tell me about the new single “Oracle Bone Script.”
Mary Sue: Oracle Bone Script is really like the intro song, the theme song if you will if it’s a TV series to the album. It’s this thing back in old Chinese history that they would get a turtle shell, and then they would dry it and they would use it to tell prophecies or carve certain messages. Sometimes they would heat it up or something like that and then if it cracks it means that something bad is going to happen. I think in this album I took a different approach than my usual style in kind of having this loose, linear, storyline character driven, kind of thing. It’s kind of like introducing this character of this Oracle and at the end of the song the refrain goes, “Great bear, Big Dipper, seven stars from the Ursa Major.”
It’s about this folk tale about this Taoist God who stopped this great flood. He stood there doing this ritual for years until his knees wavered and stopped, and eventually it stopped. I just felt like that was a great analogy with whatever’s happening now, with even climate change, or even just this great flood of we feel like something’s coming, but we don’t really know what. My friend brought up a really interesting point recently, we wrote this a few months ago before this whole intense conflict started, and he’s going on Twitter and he’s reading right wing people talking about bombing the dam in China. That would cause a great flood, so that’s an interesting parallel that came up. Weirdly, things that are coming more in connection every day. It’s an interesting thing.
TRHH: As a producer yourself, how was it working alongside the Clementi Sound Appreciation Club?
Mary Sue: It was super interesting. The original motivation to do it was really on them. they really wanted to play Hip-Hop music, because they’re all jazz trained musicians. They play jazz gigs every week. They be playing art gigs and stuff, but they really wanted to play music that they love. They love Glasper, Kamasi, those types. They asked me because I guess they fucked with the raps, I’m not sure. At first, I was just going to let them run it and then just rap on the beats. But then after a while I felt like I had to be the funnel for all the creative juices. Because they’re all super talented, all music theory wizards, they’re going to make something crazy for sure. I feel like at this time and then as a Hip-Hop artist especially, being who I am from here, I feel like everything I do has to be more impactful or more thought of instead of adding to it. I feel like it has to be a separate funnel, because there’s already great rappers in America from where it started. We probably can never do it as good or as authentically as rappers in America or Hip-Hop bands.
I feel like we had to find our own sound and add to the story rather than just add a footnote. They weren’t very enthusiastic about that idea of introducing these kind of sounds and flavors to the album because like I said, Singapore was a colonial country for very long. In some ways we never really changed past that, even though we were independent. We’re still an English-speaking country. All our laws are still the same laws that the British have put, so we had that cultural cringe in a way. Even I did before, maybe a year or two ago. When we listened to those sounds we thought it was corny or it was not cool. So, we had that learning process. My role as producer is more like giving them this feeling and giving them this funnel to work through. It’s probably the easiest thing I ever did in a way, because they’re so talented. They can really do anything. I just needed to arrange the pieces.
TRHH: What’s the Hip-Hop scene like in Singapore?
Mary Sue: It’s still pretty new. Most of the Hip-Hop scene I would say is still geared towards the mainstream in a way. I’m probably the only person in the whole Singapore doing this sound or even anything remotely not mainstream trap and stuff like that. I don’t put it on them because that’s what they have access to, and that’s in their sound palate. I was lucky to somehow come across what I came across and found an attachment to it. They listen to Drake and stuff. There is some cool stuff coming up, obviously.
I feel like we’re in a good spot. Some dudes are doing cool hyper pop rap stuff. Some J. Cole stuff, I guess. It’s growing slowly, but it’s young and we just gotta wait for the influence to grow. And maybe that’s a small reason why I wanted to do this album to let people know it’s okay to reach into your own well. There’s something special in your own well, as well. We can mix both because it’s in our blood, it’s in our history that we’re a pretty westernized Asian country. We can’t avoid it, but there’s a way can share them both, I think.
TRHH: So, who did you discover? How did you get into Hip-Hop if it wasn’t mainstream Hip-Hop?
Mary Sue: I mean, I definitely started with mainstream because you hear what they play on the radio. So, it started with Eminem and stuff like that. Somehow, I dived deeper, obviously DOOM, then went to billy woods, Ka, and then obviously the classics like Nas. It’s just a lot ’cause I really started out not as a musician. I feel that’s one of my biggest blessings in a way. I had no knowledge and no intention to make music. I just wanted to listen to music, and so I just listened to a whole bunch. I think that’s just really how — that YouTube deep dive and just keep falling in.
TRHH: How’d you get the name Mary Sue?
Mary Sue: I don’t know if you know this, but we have mandatory military service. Back in the army they always called me Sue. I don’t know we always had this just kind of joke. Mary Sue as a character trope it means -a character that is perfect to a flaw. It’s considered a bad script writing technique to have a Mary Sue type of character. It was just kind of a funny and kind of ironic thing.
TRHH: On the song “Crabs” you say “Mountain in the rug for the truth that we sweeping in.” Why do you think that truth is swept under the rug?
Mary Sue: I think it’s a more convenient truth in a way. I won’t speak on other countries, but even Singapore itself being such a small island nation we have some truths that we sweep under the rug as well. It’s a small country, it’s tiny, right, but we have been slowly building our land by reclaiming sand from countries which are less financially stable as ours. That causes-border degradation on their side while we build long island type things to expand our country slightly. Stuff like the crackdown on what they call the communist movements in here.
If I’m not wrong the longest political prisoner held without trial was not Nelson Mandela, it was actually a person from Singapore. I feel like every country has got that. Leaders and sometimes people might say it’s that necessary evil to steer a country to progression. It’s just something that we should wrestle with. We should know that there is a mountain in the rug of where we’re standing and why it’s so comfortable, for sure.
TRHH: What do you hope to achieve with Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword?
Mary Sue: I hope people listen to it and feel like it’s something that they never really heard before. And it’s something that will make them think about what I write about. And then for people in my region of the world I would say don’t run away from that well that’s so close to you. Sometimes walking that far to get something else, even though it seems more attractive, I feel like we’re losing a lot of water that way. I don’t know, for people on both sides that’s too big of an aspect to think a little deeper on everything that is said, everything that is done. I think that’s the overarching intention.
Purchase: Mary Sue and Clementi Sound Appreciation Club – Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword