As always, a pretty dope interview from Ms. Special especially because I actually learned a lot about Gibbs, which I didn’t know.  Make sure to check her out every Sunday on Special Sundays from 2-4 PST.  Also, make sure that you check out previous shows/interviews here.

Kendrick Lamar has been hailed by hip hop legends like Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre as the future of West Coast hip hop. AllDayPlay.fm’s DJ K_Heem caught up with the Compton native after his sold out performance in Oakland, CA. Backstage he speaks on staying relevant, afro centricity and tells us that his debut album will be ready next year.

Over the years, my appreciation of Van Hunt’s music has continued throughout his whole discography: Van Hunt, On The Jungle Floor, and independent releases: Use In Case of Emergency, and Popular Machine.  Hunt, was scheduled to release a follow up to On The Jungle Floor, however, the album was shelved by record labels which in a way, gave birth to this stellar project that is his latest release, What Were You Hoping For? 

I got the chance to speak with Van Hunt before his show in San Francisco about the release of the new project, the writing on the project and the inspiration behind the album title and a few songs in particular.  I also spoke with him about his metaphorical approach to love songs like “Cross Dresser” on the new album.  Lastly, I spoke with him about the state of males in soul music today, if he had the opportunity to meet any musician who would it be and why and etc.  (Check my in depth review of the album here)

Years later, Aiko returned to the scene with her first full length project, Sailing Soul(s), a project featuring just a handful of features, great writing from Aiko herself, and great production.  The project gained Aiko an immense level of buzz and notoriety, and she is set to release the follow up to the project soon in the form of Souled Out. 

I got the chance to speak with Aiko during the sound check at her first San Francisco headlining tour at 330 Ritch (you can read my concert review via The Examiner here).  I spoke with Aiko about the concept behind the Sailing Soul(s) album title, specific tracks from the album in the form of: “Hoe” and “Do Better Blues.”  I also spoke with her about her upcoming release, Souled Out, a possible collaborative project with H.O.P.E and if it’s easier or harder for her to establish herself amongst the hip-hop boys club that is The New West Movement. Download Sailing Souls, here, and check out the videos and pictures I took at the show as well here.

Who is Jhene as an artist?

I was signed to Epic when I was 12 years old and it was during the whole B2K thing—I went on tour with them and I got a lot of experience with that.  I write my own songs.

I heard that your latest project title, Sailing Soul(s) was inspired around the idea of record labels saying that you had to essentially “sell yourself” but you rather “sail” yourself.  In your words, what exactly is “Sailing?”

“Sailing” yourself is the same thing as freeing your spirit type of thing and not being bound to anything and just being a free sprit.  A lot of times in society,  we have to conform to different things and you have to compromise a lot of yourself and your beliefs. “Sailing” means just be yourself especially with the record label thing, a lot of people say that a lot of artists sell their selves in a sense and give up so much of their creativity and stuff like that.  To me, you’re not an artist if you have to give up yourself.  “Selling” your soul is the complete opposite of “Sailing” your soul.

And did you know when you released the project that it was going to have such a huge buzz surrounding the release?

No.  I really just put it out because there were a lot of fans from B2K days that wanted to hear a full project from me so it was a feeling type thing.  I didn’t really have any plans or expectations.

Okay, so two of my favorite songs on the project are “Hoe” featuring Miguel and “Do Better Blues” featuring H.O.P.E.  I wanted to know what was the creative process like for those tracks.

Miguel and I were working with the same producer Fisticuffs who did “Quickie”  for Miguel and a few other songs on his album. When I was working with him he was like me and Miguel have a song and you should get on it.  Miguel already had that hook idea.   I just wanted to do it from a female perspective because you don’t really hear females talk about that kind of thing and so, that’s how that one came about and I actually wrote around his concept that he got from an Outkast interlude.

“Do Better Blues” that song pretty much—I don’t even remember writing it, it just came about so naturally at a session.  We like canceled the session and we all went to the beach all three of us and forgot about work and we came back in and did that song.

Speaking of H.O.P.E, I heard that you guys were doing a collaborative project together—is there any truth to that?

We’re trying to work on that, something like another mixtape type thing like The Best of Both Worlds.

I heard that you were also going to release “Souled Out” which is the follow-up to Sailing Souls soon, what can people expect from that and when is it coming out?

We’re trying for like sometime now but right now with everything going on and touring we aren’t sure.  I’ve been recording and having meetings and stuff like that so hopefully soon.

Okay so one of my last questions is, you’re coming out during the New West Movement, and essentially there’s really a lack of female representation and R&B females at that.  With that being said, has it been easier or harder for you coming out of the region?

I think it’s the same for everybody really but because I am friends with a lot of the underground LA rappers I’ve known them aside from music so it’s been easy for me to be like “oh, I want you on this song,” or I’ll be on their song.  For me, I think it’s been a little bit easier just because I have a history in the music industry so that’s the only thing that makes it easier.  I think that people since hip-hop has been so popular over the last few years that people want to hear someone sing and they want more melody.

And do you have any favorites?

I do like Big Sean’s album.  I love Frank Ocean.  Kendrick Lamar.

Chicago-based emcee Feso, just released his fourth project, The Working Title, a few weeks ago.  This project was designed whether intentionally or subconsciously to separate him from the current fads with mixtape these days.  The tracks from the project were all performed over an original production canvas, and the songs are rather short but include a level of lyricism not seen in a lot of projects today.

We got the chance to speak with Feso about the project, the “Outta My Head” features, the creative process behind select songs, and what’s the RAWest line he can think of off the top of his head.  Please, scroll down if you want to listen to the audio instead of reading, also, make sure to download the project here.

So, for those who aren’t too familiar with you, can you give them a little background about you, and when you started rapping, and your influences and stuff like that?

First off, my name is Feso.  I was born in Jackson, Mississippi and moved to Chicago at a young age and been here ever since.  I started rapping when I was in the 8th grade just as a hobby then because I was on the track team.  I was rapping with dudes on the track team and I didn’t get serious with it [rapping] until my junior year of high school.  That’s when I started doing talent shows and performing at friend’s house parties and other stuff.

As far as influences go, influences are definitely Kanye and Jay.  There are some underground cats; MF Doom is definitely up there.  J.Dilla, Madlib.  I could list my influences forever tell me when to stop.

You’re cool.

Let me see whom else: Elzhi, A Tribe Called Quest, Gangstarr—just a wide array.  Radiohead—Radiohead is dope.  I just pull influences from a lot of different genres of music it keeps my mind open and not focused on one viewpoint.

I could kind of tell that with your music.  It’s eclectic in a way.

I haven’t heard that before.  It makes it sound really fancy and shit.   Can I use that?

Yes, you can use that.  This is just a random question but since your influences are Jay and Kanye, what do you think about Watch The Throne?

I liked it.  I feel like it’s really good.  Was it as good as I hoped it would be? No, but that’s not saying that it’s bad because I feel like when they announced that they were putting out an album together it set the bar so high for themselves.  People set the bar so high for that album, that I don’t feel like they would like what they came out with.  Some people weren’t going to like it; you know what I’m saying?  Say they would’ve put out some Blueprint, or College Dropout¸ kind of stuff, people would’ve been like, “Why does this sound like old Kanye?”  Somebody or some group of people would’ve found a way to complain about it in some form or fashion.

But me, personally, I like the album.  I think it’s good. The “Niggas in Paris” joint is crazy—that track is ridiculous.  Hit-boy killed that track.  I also read stuff on Twitter with people saying… I hate to use the word swag, but they say this is a swag rap album and that all they are talking about is their money.  I think that the people who are saying that are only saying that just because they are taking their music for the surface.  If I could use a Jay line to explain, “Do ya’ll really listen to music or do you skim through it?”   They got that song “Murder To Excellence” which has more content to it, it’s kind of a political message in their about black on black crime and it addresses a lot of issues like that.  There’s a lot of songs in other verses too like Jay’s verse on “No Church In The Wild”–it’s ridiculous and he’s not talking about how much money he has or how much richer he is than everyone.  I’m not mad at Jay or Kanye for doing that because they worked their way up to where they are so if they want to talk about it, they can.  That was a really long-winded answer.

So we’re going to talk about you now.  You just released your project The Working Title, what was the background and creative process like for that project? Was that your first project?

No, this is my fourth.  I have two previous EPs, which are Don’t Sleep and Don’t Sleep 2. I have my album that I put out two years ago called Manifesto and with that one, it’s kind of a play on words. It’s a collection of people’s thoughts but since it’s Feso I made it Manifesto so it’s a collection of my thoughts. The Working Title is the latest one and the creative process actually came from some Tweets. I saw a lot of people putting out mixtapes and I went on Twitter and asked people if I should make a mixtape.  People were like “yeah do that,” and I asked should I go over industry beats or should I go original.  I didn’t want put out music over industry beats that’s just one thing that never appealed to me– so people were like make it original.  My buddy from The Corner Club hit me up and was like “Yo, let’s put this tape out.  I got some tracks and I’ll send them over to you and let’s get this mixtape out.”

At that time, I was listening to Curresny’s and Alchemist Covert Coupe project that they put out– that’s still one of my favorite projects to this day.  I liked the whole kind of concept for the project.  I liked how Curresny went with short verses–not short verses, but short songs.  A song might be an extended verse but it was still dope.

I’m still an up-and-coming dude so a lot of people may not have heard my music so the attention span for an artist who is just coming out may not be that long.  I didn’t want to put out a 25-track mixtape and expect people to listen to all 25-tracks, so I was like let me just put out the seven tracks.  A couple of them are complete songs, and some of them are just showing off my lyrical ability. You know, just give people something that they can pop in and listen to real quick to get accustomed to my music and then they can go back and listen to previous projects and it prepares them for future projects they put out.

One of my favorite songs was “The One” and I don’t know how to say it—not “Kung Fu” but “Knug Fu”

*laughs* It is “Kung Fu” I actually found a typo, my bad, it’s actually called “Kung Fu.”  For “Kung Fu” I actually had the two bars in the opening in my head for the longest time but didn’t really have a song to pair with it.  I didn’t know if I was going to use it in terms of I like real hip-hop or how I did it on the song in terms of a girl.  There’s a part of Jay-Z’s “Fade To Black” movie when he’s in the studio and he hears a beat and he tries to figure out what the beat is saying– that’s the creative process for any of my songs.  I will listen to the track first and try to illustrate what I think that track is saying.  For “Kung Fu” it seemed like it would be the situation for a guy to be speaking to a girl in the club and they leave and whatever, and at the point of the song there’s a balance of the girl. The guy is into this girl but he doesn’t know if he should put himself out there so he’s just trying to keep it cool and not do what most people would criticize most men for doing and having a one night stand.  He’s going through that whole this girl is really cool, she’s into everything that I like, she knows Pete Rock references, she’s intelligent and pays attention to the news and everything.  That wasn’t a personal experience.  I just wanted to illustrate that scenario.

With “The One” I’m a sucker for lyricism and this project has a lot of tracks like that.  I loved being able to get on a track and just rap with no hook, and I think I even address that in that song.  That’s one of my favorite things about hip-hop songs and about hip-hop in general; when emcees just get on a song and rap.  So, I’d say that was the creative process.  I just wanted to rap.

Okay, so with “Outta My Head” featuring Naledge and Add-2, I was just wondering how that collaboration came together– was it because you guys are both from Chicago or what?

My buddy Chris from The Corner Club is also a designer for this clothing line called Dope Couture, I don’t know if you’ve heard of them but they are in Los Angeles but they are from where I went to school in Indiana.  Anyway, they had did some collaboration with Kidz In The Hall.  They did one for Naledge’s Chicago Picasso album that he put out and they also did one for Kidz in The Hall’s Land of Make Believe album.  They did two shirts with them so they had a relationship with them.  Chris sent me over a track and I was like “Yo, that’s a dope track,” and I wanted to get features on this.  I reached out to Add-2 first– I saw him at a show and I was like I’m going to get you and Naledge on it.  I had Chris get in touch with Naledge and we got into the studio and that was that.

What’s the RAWest line you can think of off the top of your head?

There’s a line from an Elzhi verse on a Common song– Common has some stuff out there, Lupe has some stuff out there.  Honestly, I think it would be off of Lupe’s Enemy of The State Mixtape from the “Say Something” verse he does.  What does he say?  I can’t even remember the bar.  Let me change that.  Well, this is not the dopest bar ever– I guess it is to me now because it’s gained some context to me.  It’s a line where Phife says, “Bust off on your couch, now you got Semen’s furniture.” (Electric Relaxation)  When I went to go see the A Tribe Called Quest Documentary there was actually a furniture store in the 90’s that was called Semen’s I never knew that line because I was living in Chicago at the time and I wasn’t buying furniture.  So when I heard that, I was like what– this dude.  Phife Dawg is one of my favorite emcees by the way.  But yeah, that was a pretty dope line.

Michigan has become a state synonymous for hip-hop producing some of the most iconic artists in our hip-hop generation: J.Dilla, Slum Village, Eminem, Black Milk, Phat Kat and producer Apollo Brown.

Brown entered the scene as the winner of Red Bull’s Big Tune Championship in 2009, and later signing a deal with Mello Music Group in December of 2009.  After signing with Mello Music Group, Brown has gone to release several projects notably: The Reset, Gas Mask as part of the trio The Left, Clouds, and his latest release Daily Bread, along with emcee Hassaan Mackey.

Not only does the Daily Bread album have deep subject contents, but once again, Brown has created an impressive production palette combining soulful and gritty samples.  I got the chance to speak with Brown about his influences, his five favorite albums ever, the 72-hour creative process for Daily Bread and etc.  

Bella: So, tell people about yourself.

Apollo Brown: Well, the people call me Apollo Brown.  I am from Detroit—representing Detroit.  I’m a producer, been making music since 1996. But, I hadn’t really established a name for myself until four years ago so I would say 2007 is when I really came onto the scene.  I graduated from Michigan State University back in 2003.  I’ve done a few things with my degree, but I’ve really been into music—always been into making beats and making music.  I’m 31 years old, so, yes that means that I did buy Illmatic, the tape off of the shelf originally so yeah, I’m an older head.  I had a chance to live through the best era in hip-hop which to me was 1991 through 1996, which was the greatest five year span in hip-hop history as far as I’m concerned.  You can’t really begin to name how many classics came out in that five year span.  I represent Detroit to the fullest and I love good hip-hop.  I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel.  I’m not trying to come up with a new sound or create a new genre or something like that.  I’m just trying to preserve the music that I’ve grown to love and my music is basically just a form of preservation of good hip-hop.

Bella:  This is a random question, but what are your  favorite albums of all time that are hip-hop related?

Apollo: Oh wow! Five favorite albums of all time.  I would have to say off the top of my head, my favorite album of all time is Black Moon’s Enta Da Stage.  Then, in no particular order I would say: Nas Illmatic.  I would have to say Soul’s of Mischief 93 Til Infinity—that’s Bay Area right there.  I might have to say, I’m thinking… probably Smif-N-Wessum, Dah Shinin’. 

Bella: A little bit about Daily Bread, you guys just released the album– but is Daily Bread a group or just an album– I thought it was just the name of the album but I’m not too sure.

Apollo: You know it’s both—me and Hassaan together is Daily Bread.  We decided to keep it self titled. You don’t really see Haasan Mackey or Apollo Brown written anywhere on there.  I think it’s on the spine, and it’s definitely on the inside but on the outside we wanted to keep the cover as simple as possible and we just wrote in cursive there Daily Bread.  But yes, me and him together are Daily Bread and its self-titled Daily Bread. 

Bella: With the name I don’t know if I was going too far, but I thought it meant like the prayer how our food is essentially our daily bread?

Apollo: Daily Bread is basically anything that sustains your life, you know what I’m saying.  It can be food or any kind of nourishment that you put in your body or your mind. It doesn’t necessarily have to be food, it can be a book, it can be music—anything that sustains or helps sustain your life is Daily Bread.  That’s your daily bread, something that you can’t live without. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a religious connotation but a lot of people will take it that way.  They’ll think of the Lord’s prayer and the words Daily Bread but, it doesn’t necessarily mean that at all. In the beginning of the album, in the intro, I used a Muslim version of the Lord’s prayer, but, people can take it however they want to—but it’s definitely sustenance.

Bella:  As far as the project, I really, really, really like the production and I think the mesh of you two together is really dope—so what was the creative process like for this project?

Apollo: You know what’s funny; we made this project in 72 hours.  A lot of people don’t know that.  We made this project in a weekend.  We discussed the project for a while and we went over the album for a while over the phone. We’d talk about it and I was finally like, “yo, let’s get together—come down to Detroit.”  He came down to Detroit.  I picked him up from the bus Station Friday morning it was like 7AM.  We got to my loft, started working, and he started writing to new joints.  He had some of the joints already but like half of the album is new joints that he never heard until he got here.  We started writing and literally got into the studio at 4o’clock that afternoon so we were in the studio from 4’o clock to 2 o’clock in the morning—10 hours Friday night.  Then, we went home, woke up in the morning, wrote some more, woke up early in the morning wrote some more.  Got in the studio at 11o’clock in the morning Saturday, and we were in the studio from 11 morning to 11 at night.  Then we did it again on Sunday same thing and we got in the studio from like 9’o clock in the morning to 9’o clock at night and literally, when we got out the studio, his train was leaving at 9:55, we got out the studio at 9:25 and we rushed home, got his stuff so I could take him to the train station.  Like, it was literally not a leisure trip it was literally, all work.  It was three 10-hour sessions, in the studio so about 30 hours in the studio.  It was about 72 hours total making that album.  It was kind of like how Skyzoo and 9^th Wonder did for the 3 Day High—we also made this project in three days, but a lot of people don’t know that.   They think it’s the cumulation of a bunch of time, because it sounds like it.  It came together very well and it doesn’t sound like it was rushed.  When you can make a good album, a nice classic album in three days, then you know you’ve got a little something going for you.

Bella:  I forgot to ask, how you guys even formed.  I know you are both on Mello Music Group, but how did the merger come?

Apollo:  One of my really good friends is a friend of his—an emcee by the name of Finale out of Detroit.  Finale’s a really good friend of mine, and Finale is also a really good friend of Hassaan.  We met through Finale a while back a couple of years back when Haasaan was in town for a show and we just hit it off, we were real cool right away and now he’s like a brother to me.  He’s just a good dude, a good overall good dude and a friend of mine. It took us a while to decide, yo, let’s do an album together it wasn’t something that happened right off the bat—we were just kicking it as cool people.  But there’s also mutual respect there for what we do.  I love Haasaan as an emcee, he’s a dope emcee—he has one of the best voices in the game and he’s just a really emotional writer a really emotional emcee and that’s dope and he admires my work and he respects my work so we just got together and formed a marriage and made Daily Bread. 

Bella: Some of the songs have heavy undertones that a lot of music doesn’t talk about, like “Dollar Bill Hill.” Its like the narrative that arises in a lot of neighborhoods around the bad financial state that we’re in hear in America. Also, the wealth gap between Blacks and Whites. What are you feelings on that and why did you guys choose to put a song with such a powerful message on the project?

Apollo: Well, Hassan has a very interesting story period. His life is like that of a movie–so he has a lot to say. A lot of those songs on the album are describing not only himself and his situations or his past situations, but his mom, his sister, his family, close friends. Everything on that is real and is real emotional. Its really emotional watching him spit and watching him write too, because he’s a real emotional writer. Him coming up with those concepts and what he wrote for some of those songs like “Dollar Bill Hill” or “Higher”, they’re emotional songs. There was a lot put into those songs as far his life–me speaking from a producer standpoint that makes for great music. When you can put your life on paper and have a story, that is so unfortunate, but you can spit it to the people and kind of use it as therapy. That’s what I think about that.

Bella: When I ras reading your bio, it states that every project you make you want it to be your favorite project of all time. So where does this project stand for you, is it your favorite project of all time?

Apollo: Every project I make I try to outdo the last one. Nobody wants to be stagnant, you don’t want to stay the same, and you don’t want to go down hill. You don’t want to make a really dope project and then you next one is real mediocre so every project I make I try to top the one before it. My whole mindset going into it is like, “Yo, the beats gotta be better, they rhymes gotta be better, the concept, the whole sound overall, has to be better.” My whole mindset is to put out the best album I’ve ever heard in my life. Is that the end result? I don’t know. I like all my albums. I think they’re all dope. I like every one of them. The mood changes, sometimes I like this one better than others. Sometimes I’m just in the mood where all I want to listen to is Clouds. It just all depends on my mood, but that at least is my mindset when I’m going into an album. When I’m making an album with a group or an emcee I want to outdo what I did before.

Bella: What’s The Left (Brown’s Group along with Journalist 103 and DJ Soko) up to and are you guys going to have another project soon?

Apollo: Right now we’re just touring. We’re just trying to see the fruits of our labor. I’m doing a lot of producer showcases as well while we tour. We just got back from Canada doing a Canadian tour now we’re going to do a few spot dates, in the United States: like Minneapolis, DC, hopefully we can get out west to Cali somewhere. In September and most of October we will be in Europe for our first European tour for about ten countries in three weeks or so. That’s as far along as I can go right now. Whatever happens after that happens, hopefully more tours and then by that time Hassaan and I will start touring for Daily Bread, I’m sure we’ll start going on the road for that.  Then, also by that time, my next album will be done.

Bella: Give me the rawest line you can think of from any song off the top of your head.

Apollo: I gotta think about that, they’re a lot of great lines. “It ain’t hard to tell, I excel, then prevail. The mic is contacted, I attract clientele.”  Nas, good stuff right there.

Bella: If people want to get in contact with you how can they?

Apollo: Twitter, @ApolloBrown. Look up Apollo Brown on FaceBook 24kbrown@gmail.com is my e-mail.

Make sure you get all music from Apollo Brown here. 

With the West Coast hip-hop experiencing the growing” New West Movement” the key areas associated to the movement are Los Angeles and The Bay Area, however there’s more– Las Vegas.  When people think of Las Vegas the furthest thing from their thoughts would be a burgeoning hip-hop scene.  Typically, thoughts run to Sin City, Casinos, Bunny Ranches and the infamous Las Vegas Strip, but emcee Radio Ramone wants people to beware of the hip-hop scene the city has to offer.

With three different projects under his belt, notably his latest release A Blind Man’s Dream, Ramone has been able to show people that there is true and authentic hip-hop in Las Vegas.  I got a chance to speak with Radio Ramone about his name, the hip-hop scene in Las Vegas, his music, and what’s the RAWEst song he could think of off the top of his head.  Download links and more information about Radio Ramone can be found at the bottom.

Bella: I know your name is a reference point to Spike Lee’s classic Do The Right Thing with Radio Raheem’s character– what about that movie inspired that name?

Radio Ramone: As far as Radio Ramone, I think, Do The Right Thing was probably my first favorite movie.  I have an older brother who’s old enough to be my dad–he’s like 40, so when I was growing up he was already about to graduate high school and I just remember that movie.  Radio Raheem is a hip-hop head but at the same time he’s like revolutionary and the way he carried himself in that movie and with the speech that he gave “The Love Hate” speech, that always captivated me even as a youngster.  I probably didn’t even understand the message when I watched it back then but like I don’t know, I was always intrigued by Radio Raheem he was always this cool ass dude, but at the same time, he spoke up for what he believed in when he needed to and the other time, he’s just real lowkey.  As far as the person I am, I’m really just quiet for the most part. I don’t talk to a lot of people unless it’s business for the most part so, I really admired him as a character just for the fact that anytime he spoke it was something important or otherwise he wasn’t speaking at all.

Bella: Also, who are your influences?

Radio Ramone: As far as hip-hop goes, first, I wouldn’t necessarily say an influence but my first favorite hip-hop song–the song that got me into hip-hop was Ahmad “Back In The Day.”  (sings) That song was my first favorite hip-hop song.  But as far as influences, I’d have to run with Kanye because he’s one of the few artists right now in hip-hop that kind of steps out of the average hip-hop sound.

When you listen to Kanye West, he has bridges, in his songs.  He has solos and things like that in the music, whereas 90% of hip-hop artists don’t really do that. I think he’s probably the only person right now that inspires me.  I’m not saying it as in nobody else inspires me but I get jealous of his music.  I get jealous that I didn’t make the music he makes, and that doesn’t really happen with a lot of artists out there so Kanye West is probably one of my main artists that I really look up to.

Bella: So I take it you’re a fan of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy?

Radio Ramone: Yeah, definitely.  It’s probably the closest he’s come to his first album College Dropout.  I consider all his albums classics but his latest one is probably the closest he’s come to the first time around with the first Kanye I was introduced to so I definitely love that album.

Bella: Okay, I have some questions about you.  First you’re from Las Vegas, so for me when I think of Las Vegas, I think of the gambling, the Sin City, has it been hard to get your music out, or expose people to the music culture of Las Vegas?

Radio Ramone: Definitely.  I meet a lot of people and a lot of tourist who come to Las Vegas and asks me where I’m from and when I say Vegas, one of the most common responses is “Oh, there’s houses in Vegas?”  A lot of people don’t realize there’s houses in Vegas.  I’m born and raised in Vegas and people also get it misconstrued, like everybody in Vegas is balling because of the bright lights, they show on TV.  I’d be the first to admit I was broke as shit when I grew up.  But as far as the city, it’s a whole different culture every thing’s different.  When I leave it’s like a culture shock because when I go to different places, things close.  I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Vegas but nothing closes, not even McDonalds– you can go to McDonalds at four in the morning and get a Hamburger and that’s everything.  Everything in the city just runs.

The kids out here grow up fast.  Our culture is kind of what’s depicted on the TV–sex and money, everybody out here wants to be ballers and just the shit you see on TV.  But as of lately, we’ve been getting a lot more conscious in terms of the hip-hop culture and just paving our own lane because the casinos out here, and the casino’s that you see on TV, contrary to popular belief, they don’t like fucking hip-hop out here.  Hip-hop is almost banned on the strip because there’s always some type of drama that goes on down so its actually hard coming from Vegas and being a hip-hop artist because you have to fight through the barriers to make music and have people hear your music.

Bella: Also, being that Nevada is still on the West Coast, how do you feeling coming out now during the New West Movement, where there’s so many dope artists coming out when there’s so much attention on the New West now?

Radio Ramone: I actually see that the future is real bright, for the West Coast.  Some people might chew my head off for this statement, but over the last couple of years the West Coast has seemed a little cliché because with the West Coast, people naturally assume like the typical sound of like Dr. Dre, which is definitely apart of the culture.  But, as of lately, I’ve heard so many artists out of LA, out of Vegas and out of the Bay now, just really paving their own lane and not necessarily sticking to that cliché West Coast sound.  I’m not dissing that sound but I’m just saying that people automatically assume that’s what you’re going to sound like when you say West Coast.  But when I say it looks bright because there are artists coming out that aren’t sticking to any clichés, and sticking into a box and saying “Oh, I’m making West Coast music.”  There are a lot more artists that are on the West Coast and just making music—not West Coast music.

Bella: Makes sense.  So you’ve had your EP’s– this year, Prelude to a Dream, and The Blind Man’s Dream, and even Therapy Sessions last year, how do you feel they’ve solidified you as an artist and how do you feel you’ve grown between each project?

Radio Ramone: As far as Therapy Sessions and comparing it to A Blind’s Man Dream, I tell all my friends this, I don’t think I should say this as an artist, I don’t even like Therapy Sessions any more just seeing the growth that I’ve made.  I don’t even like listening to Therapy Sessions.  But I feel like just me as an artist what I did with Therapy Sessions a lot of people don’t know– I never planned on releasing it or thought of pursuing a career as a rapper.  But anybody who’s heard of Marion Write–he’s somewhat of my manager and just a business partner with me and I run stuff by him, he doesn’t necessarily make final decisions but, the recording of the project was just like Therapy so I could get a lot of stuff off of my chest.

Once Marion started hearing it, he said he wanted to help push it.  When I initially started recording it, I had no interest in pushing it out to any body it was just going to be my therapy when I was riding in my car.  That’s how I go about making music.  I make music that I want to hear that other people aren’t and I just want to make some shit that I want to listen to.

Bella:  The thing I realize a lot about your music is that it’s really, really diverse–and for the most part it takes its queue from soulful driven music, so what’s the creative process like for you?

Radio Ramone: I usually start at the end like Marion, when I made Therapy Sessions, and when I made a Blind Man’s Dream, I made the track listing before I recorded any songs.  I wrote down like how I wanted the album to sound before I even picked the beats out.   So really what I do is I finish the project in my head and then I go on a hunt for the sounds that I want.

Marion had asked me, what kind of artist would I consider myself, and when people ask me what kind of artist I consider myself, it’s always like the hardest question for me to answer because I mean sometimes I want to get deep–sometimes I want to spit something that’s going to enlighten somebody, and shit, sometimes I want to be a nigga and just say whatever the fuck I want to say and not worry about someone trying to judge me, or somebody trying to put me in a box.  So I don’t really put myself in a box, I just make whatever comes to mind, and like whatever I want to hear for the moment.  I might be in a horrible mood and that will probably be a song like “The Resurrection” off of A Blind Man’s Dream that was more of a Therapy Session type song– a song I made to get something off my chest.  But then you have like the exact opposite with “I’m Already Gone,” a song you’d play in the club and you don’t even really need to listen to the rest of the lyrics you just want to vibe out.  So I just make music for whatever mood I am in for that moment.

Bella: What’s RAWEst song you can think of off the top of your head?

Radio Ramone: Let’s see here, because I want to pick the perfect one so you might have to bear with me for a couple of seconds.  Damn! That’s a really hard question.  Alright, I’m going to go out on a limb for this one. I’m not plugging him because I work with him often, but Marion Write has  a song called “Field of The Dollar,”– this song, when Marion played me this song when he made it, the first thing I told him was “Man, I’m so fucking mad I didn’t make that song.”  It’s so hard for me to explain this song that Marion made but again it’s called “Field of The Dollar.” Please Google this song, and listen to it, I swear, there’s no song in hip-hop history that sounds like this. There’s no loop in the beat.  There’s nothing like that.  The whole beat.  The whole song, is live instrumentation, it’s just on going.  There are no loops, you’ll never hear the same sound more than once in this beat and I was so amazed when I got a chance to hear this song.  I’m not just plugging him because that’s my boy but that’s just one song that I’m jealous that I didn’t make and I’m not afraid to admit when I’m jealous of somebody else’s song.

Stay in Contact with Radio Ramone here, and here.

Formal Interview Article with J*DaVeY

Concert Review with J*DaVeY

Last year around this time Supreme was releasing his album Supreme, a project that covered a variety of topics ranging from himself, his faith—growing up as a Jehovah Witness, and the relationship between him and his mother all with melodic and dark undertones.

This February, Supreme released the follow up to Supreme, in the form of Just Cause. A 12-track project which features production from Supreme himself, Jansport J, Ben Bauer, Salute The Gawd and Kaleem Wasif.

“With Supreme, what I was trying to do with that project was to prove to the independent industry around this area, that I was a top emcee,” says Supreme.  “When it came to Just Cause, what I wanted to sow was pretty much how I was a full around artist.  The difference between the two, I would say is Just Cause, is more complete and it flows a lot better.  It has one specific sound pretty much.”

The project has a variety of topics, however, there is a familiar element on this project that was on Supreme, and that’s a song dedicated to his family.  On this project, Supreme has a song dedicated to his grandmother in hopes that she’ll remember the person he is today.

“My grandmother pretty much helped me out in a lot of situations with anything that I needed so I wrote a song dedicated to her.  I feel like this album is going to take me to a lot of different places, and I don’t think I am going to be around as much anymore,” says Supreme.  “I wrote this album pretty much dedicated to all my friends and family for them to have something to remember me by because I know that money and fame and then women is going to kind of change me a little bit.”

“I wanted them have something so when I am gone they can remember how I used to be.  It’s kind of impossible for all of that stuff not to change a person, but I think it’s going to change me—but not going to change me too much is what I am trying to say.”

Download Keon Supreme: Just Cause here.

To say hip-hop would be nothing without a producer is an understatement.   The producer is the key component to creating the sound that becomes connected with the artist—they are the glue working to create that masterpiece single for an artist.

From Kanye West’s phenomenal work on Common’s 2005 release Be, that granted Common, already a veteran, loads of success, critical acclaim and Grammy wins..  Or J.Dilla with his classic Donuts, and the signature sound he created for Slum Village, and Busta Rhymes just to name a few to 9^th Wonder, who created a style for Little Brother with The Listening, or The Minstrel Show, along with countless other artists, notably Murs.  The producer is and always will be the main component to the success of any artist.  Hoping to be added to the list of greats is Virginia bred by way of Los Angeles based producer Kelvin Montgomery, simply known as Klash.

A name he created because we are all a bit of everything, “I am, and we are all just a clash up of different ideas, cultures and influences,” explains Klash.  “Whether we know it or not, we are inspired everyday by a huge amount of different things that directly influence who we are, what we wear, what we eat and the type of people we surround ourselves  with.  I took that idea and integrated it with my first name—took off the “elvin” and said Klash.”

Now 24, Klash spent the ages of 12-16 studying the production patterns of: Hitmen, Dilla, The Neptunes, Timbaland, Stereolab, Brian McKnight and Missy Elliot to finally establish his sound that pays homage to hip-hop with a lot of different elements—experimental and a little out of this world.  “Those producers really inspired me during my teen years, to the point of making me want to pursue production,” says Klash.  “In more recent years, I’ve been getting into a lot of Flying Lotus and Madlib—they are serious.”

Klash took his production passion all the way to working alongside Dan Beatencourt at Mastersounds and Hovercraft Studios in Virginia Beach.  Beatencourt, is one of Chad Hugo of Neptune and N.E.R.D fames engineers.  Despite not working for The Neptunes—Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams directly as people believe, Klash did get the chance to work in the studio with the duo and if they do remember he wants them to know a random but interesting tidbit aside from just thanking them for the experience.  “… I would like to say thanks for the inspiration, all the way from “Rumpshaker” to Nothing (N.E.R.D’s release).”

Upon relocating to Los Angeles, “The City Of Dreams,” Klash completed a stint in the United States Marines, finally retuning back to his passion of producing.  He founded a production company called Protostar in 2008, which is a collective of artists and producers that he works with collectively.  The name of the production company pays homage to the idea of a “protostar” which loosely is defined in Astronomy as an early stage in the evolution of a star.

“Basically, a Protostar is a star you can’t see,” says Klash. “It is so cold that it burns you as the sun would.  When a Protostar explodes, they become glorious balls of light, an example would be the sun.  So I decided to call the company Protostar.”

At current times, the company hosts Canadian bred big-haired beauty Rochelle Jordan, who Klash discovered via her YouTube page, where she was singing her won versions of iconic songs like Floetry’s “Say Yes.”  The company also encompasses London based producer by the name of Andre January.   “I have a whole roster of other artists that I intend to get contracts on in the future.  We are currently in talks with Universal Media Group for a distribution deal with Universal Music group, so we’ll see where that takes us.”

Protostar Production Company just released a follow-up to their 2010 collaborative project, Talentine, in the form of Talentine 2, a project that Klash produced 90 percent of.  The project features some of the hottest up and coming emcees and vocalist from Los Angeles to Portland—Mat Randol, Wingate, El Prez, Chris Focus, Voice, Quinten and obvious choice Rochelle Jordan.  Also, Protostar just released a new single from Rochelle Jordan entitled, “Here2Me,” featuring production from Deadmau5.

As for Klash now, he is making huge moves with placement on an upcoming Fabolous album, Cody Simpson album and an official Jennifer Lopez remix.  He also just signed a licensing deal to work on Paris Hilton’s new show and gearing up to work on a follow up to Jordan’s 2010 release Alien Phase.