LOOK: RIP Meuwl

Over the past six years, I have taken a lot of photos of Samuel "Meuwl" Harshbarger. This is how I got to know Sam. With my camera, I would head out on the streets of Morgantown or Charleston with Meuwl and also L-No and B. Rude and take hundreds of portraits.We tried to be serious, but often failed. Those times gave me the opportunity to work with Sam, and understand his charisma and sense of humor. He always made me laugh, and he always made a great subject for photographs. I feel blessed to have gotten the chance to get to known him and to have captured his powerful personality in a number of images. He will always be one of my favorite people to shoot, and I like everyone whose life he has touched, will miss him.

So to close out this week-long tribute to Meuwl, here are some of my favorites of those images over the years.

RIP Meuwl.

DOWNLOAD: Rabble Rousers - Tastes Like Crazy.

Rabble Rousers was the current project of Meuwl and B. Rude at the time of Sam's death. The quality of this record is only one of the many reasons why Sam's death was such a tragedy. I have nothing more to say about it than that.

Artist: Rabble Rousers.

Album: Tastes Like Crazy.

Year: 2009.

For Fans Of: Meuwl, Aesop Rock, Deltron 3030, Diplo.

DOWNLOAD: Rabble Rousers - Tastes Like Crazy.

WATCH: The Videos of Meuwl

If you search for "Meuwl" on YouTube, you'll find plenty of videos of Sam and collaborators on stage or acting a fool. Meuwl's true talents were best presented live on the mic, and his all-too-disheveled-but-personal aesthetic balanced well with his energetic stage charisma and effortless rhymes. Here are some of those videos to give you an idea of what will be missed.

DOWNLOAD: Meuwl - Soooooo Hot Right Now

This is the mix tape that started it all. In 2005, Meuwl produced this 25-track album with DJ Charlie Blac. It represents the genius that would come to be over the next four years.

Artist: Meuwl.

Album: Soooooo Hot Right Now.

Year: 2005.

For Fans Of: Blueprint, Aesop Rock, Blackalicious.

DOWNLOAD: Meuwl - Soooooo Hot Right Now.

LOOK: The Art of Samuel Harshbarger

Photo by Tom Crozier

As Justin Leonard wrote in his introductory piece in a post below, Samuel Harshbarger was also a talented visual artist. and graffiti writer by the moniker PSST. Here are some samples of his work, and also work inspired by him.

Tribute piece by HK:

"Rabble Rousers" by C. Fore

DOWNLOAD: Killer Affiliates - The Chelsea Grin

Dayone Media was founded in 2003 by Samuel Harshbarger and Justin Leonard, better known as Meuwel and L-No, respectively. Based out of Morgantown, Meuwl and L-No's intention was to bring original hip-hop music, production, live shows and media to an area with not yet recognized for its talent and style in the genre.

In 2007, Dayone presented the album The Chelsea Grin from Killer Affiliates, the collaboration of producer-rappers Meuwl and L-No. The record also featured local emcees Ace Beanz, B Rude, Paycheck Game, along with Morgantown's most successful hip-hop big hitter 6'6" 240. With production and flow styles hinting at Blackalicious, Brother Ali or Rob Sonic, Harshbarger's and Leonard's indie/punk rock influences also show up at times.

Too many "white rappers" struggle to have a personal style that doesn't sound like a mimic of an emcee of the same race before them - Beastie Boys, MC Search, Cage, Aesop, or the lesser interesting Atmosphere, Sage Francis or Eminem. The rap style is often too snotty, too silly, or too trying-to-sound-not-white. For Meuwl, his word flow came with an ease that any emcee wishes to have, and only the best do. His style also had variety, and unlike too many rappers, didn't sound the same from track to track - his rhymes were some times swift and punchy, and on the next song slow and smooth. He had the ability to be funny both with his lyrics and his delivery, and he had the ability to make you think. Meuwl was not only a good emcee, a clever lyricist, but an all-around intelligent and aware individual - the valedictorian of his high school graduating class.

Long before his untimely death this past November, Meuwl was putting himself into a class of hip-hop artists that had yet to ever develop in the West Virginia. By late 2009, he was proving his talents needed to be exposed to a greater hip-hop community. Sam's death was not only a loss for his family, friends and the state's music scene but also all the fans he would have acquired over the years to come.

Along with this record, we will be posting two more - along with videos, photos, art, and more. Whether you are a fan of hip-hop or not, take this opportunity to hear and get to know one of West Virginia's most talented and beloved sons.

Artist: Killer Affiliates.

Album: The Chelsea Grin.

Year: 2007.

For Fans Of: Blackalicious, Rob Sonic, Brother Ali.

DOWNLOAD: Killer Affiliates - The Chelsea Grin.

* If you like this album, please support West Virginia hip-hop by purchasing it for $5.99 from wvrapscene.com.

Killer Affiliates: L-No, Meuwl, B Rude.

READ: The Life and Rhymes of Meuwl: A Tribute to Samuel Harshbarger

EDITOR'S NOTE: This week on the blog we will be doing a tribute to the life and music of our dear friend Samuel Harshbarger, aka Meuwl. We will be posting downloads, videos, photos and more as a retrospective of his all-too-short musical career as one of West Virginia's finest hip-hop and graffiti artists and most genuine people. To begin, we asked our good friend and one of Sam's best friends and producer Justin Leonard, aka Leno/L-No, to write some words about Meuwl. Here is that with a lot more to come, so we invite you to please check out the work of this incredible artist. RIP Meuwl.

The Life and Rhymes of Meuwl

By JUSTIN LEONARD

On November 5, 2009, the West Virginia music scene and world at large lost a true legend. Samuel Bridges Harshbarger, known better as Meuwl or PSST passed away on that day - at only 29 years old, it was too soon. While most know Sam as an amazing artist, musically as Meuwl and half of the Rabble Rousers, or as graf writer PSST, I knew him as a friend. A best friend at that. I grew up skateboarding with Sam and have known him since the 8th grade. He was a special guy. One that excelled at anything he tried, first skateboarding and soccer, then music and art - he was always the best.

I first heard him rhyme at an open mic at the Empty Glass in late 2002. I bumped into a friend at the mall, who asked me if I was going to see him. At the time I didn’t even know he rapped. He had just come back to Charleston from Pittsburgh and we hadn’t hung out in a while. After that night, nothing musically for me would be the same again. I had been in several punk/hardcore bands but had always wanted to make hip-hop. I decided on that day that I would learn to make beats, and since I had musical experience and some stage presence, I would be his hype man. We went on to form Dayone Global Media together, and recorded two albums - 2004’s “Sooooo Hot Right Now” mixtape and 2006’s “The Chelsea Grin” as the duo Killer Affiliates. Sam went on with our friend/frequent collaborator B. Rude to form the Rabble Rousers and recorded “Tastes Like Crazy” in 2008. They played more shows than anyone I can think of between 2008-2009 and had an East Coast tour in the works, with dates in NYC, New Jersey, Philly, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and D.C., but unfortunately that won’t happen now.

As a graf writer, Sam got up more than your average writer. The now-infamous 120 counts of graffiti/vandalism he was served around 2002 is the highest ever in Charleston that I know. He was known for his signature PSST tag (which you could not avoid ANYWHERE on I-79 between Charleston and Pittsburgh for about two years), and the funk-bot character now immortalized in a number of tattoos. He was also a skilled glassworker and produced high quality glass pipes and jewelry (I’m still sporting a scar on my thigh from one of his pipes, a pair of cargo shorts and skateboarding with Seizeone about 20 beers deep.) He was an artist in the truest sense, and the musical side could not have existed without the visual.

As I said before, for most people, this was all they knew of Sam. I feel very fortunate to have thousands of memories of him that only a few people share. This was the guy who used to camp out at whoever’s parents were out of town’s house until they got back. The guy who I woke up hungover from one of said parties to find him finishing cleaning the house and chatting with my grandmother in the kitchen like it was his own grandmother. The guy who in 75% of the existing photos of him is wearing at least one article of my clothing. The guy whose last Newport was mine and vice versa.

Luckily, there are those of us who will help to keep him alive. Whether it’s B. Rude taking the torch and performing and recording new classics, or Ozker burning legal walls with the rest of the notorious RA graffiti crew, or me still acting as the glue to keep everyone together, we’ll never stop. We can’t stop, because if we do, then we’ve truly lost Sam for good and I can’t let that happen.

We love you man… Dayone/RA all day! LEGENDS NEVER DIE.

For more music and videos, check out youtube.com and search for “Meuwl”, or go to myspace.com/dayonemedia, myspace.com/wvrabblerousers or myspace.com/beerude.

Meuwl and L-No in the studio.