A$AP Ferg Interview

Originally written for Nahright

Always Strive And Prosper. Before Ferg joined the A$AP Mob, he already lived by their motto thanks to his father Darold Ferguson. While residing in Harlem’s notorious Hamilton Heights neighborhood, Ferg senior established a reputation as a renowned hustler. He printed shirts and designed logos for luminaries including Bad Boy Records, Teddy Riley, Heavy D and Bell Biv DeVoe.

Inspired to carry his father’s legacy after his death, A$AP Ferg pursued fashion and attended art school. He was later convinced to focus on music by friends and was featured on A$AP Rocky’s first mixtape Deep Purple. With his creative background as the foundation, Ferg’s vocal experimentation and unique visual direction ensured he was the second major label signee from the A$AP mob.

Ferg’s debut Trap Lord was released last year, and included bangers such as “Work” (remix,) “Shabba” and “Hood Pope.” Before his June show at the NXNE Festival in Toronto, he told me about working with Bone Thugs on “Lord,” Diddy calling him after his record deal, speaking regularly to Fab Five Freddy and wanting to collaborate with Phil Collins.

Do you have a favorite Harlem record?

Yeah, I do. I actually do, one of my favorite Harlem records is “Been Around the World (Remix)” by Puff Daddy, Ma$e and Carl Thomas.

When you were young did you ever see rappers like Ma$e, Cam’ron, etc. in Harlem? Juelz Santana is actually from your neighbourhood Hamilton Heights too.

Yeah, I think he is. 151st or somewhere over there. But yeah I used to see Juelz all the time. I used to see Jim Jones all the time, Cam knows my family. I’m real cool with Cam. Every rapper from Harlem I’m cool with. I’m cool with Puffy, Ma$e. But I met Ma$e once I got on, everybody else I knew them before.

Was that through your father D. Ferg?

Nah not through my father, just through like knowing them and seeing them around and saying what’s up, being a kid from the block. But then when they found out who my pops was, they would be like “oh shit.”

The A$AP Mob started a few years before you and Rocky joined, as a collective of people who shared similar taste in music, art and fashion. We all know about A$AP Yams being one of the leaders, but can you tell us a bit about A$AP Bari who was also a core founder?

Bari is just one of those live spirits. He’s one of those guys that everyone loves. He connects the dots and he’s always on a voyage. He kind of reminds me of Basquiat, just the way his spirit is so free. The way Basquiat used to live with his girlfriend and give all of his money away. Bari doesn’t care about money at all, he’s totally about the people and he keeps the A$AP spirit alive. He always gives you the home feeling, he’s always on the latest trends, the latest fashion and he kind of brings that to the group. He’s definitely very interesting.

Is he similar to Slim, Birdman’s brother, from Ca$h Money? A silent partner behind the scenes?

He’s not like Slim at all. See Slim is more like a boss with his hands in the business. Bari is really not about the business. He’s about fun, fun and more fun. Bari acts like an artist. He gets more girls than me.

I heard you know Fab Five Freddy, and speak to him quite regularly?

Yeah, you know I ran into Fab in Harlem. I bumped into him in the street. I saw him going into like the 99-cent store, a convenience store. I just ran into him and he’s a legend so I wanted to talk to him and introduce myself. I grew up watching Beat Street and all of these things that he was a part of. I knew he was good friends with Jean Michel Basquiat, who is one of my favourite artists. Fab Five Freddy opened doors for a lot of artists, painters and actors as well as musicians so I just wanted to meet this great person who did all of these things.

You’re quite similar in terms of your interests as you’re both creatively driven, especially with your backgrounds in art.

Exactly. He’s a jack-of-all-trades. He told me that once he had a song that blew up, a hit song, I forget the name of it, but it kind of blew up in London first then it came back to the U.S and around that time he was doing music, and now he paints, and before that he was doing film. He did New Jack City and a bunch of other famous movies that a lot of people didn’t know he was involved in. So he’s definitely one of those Renaissance men who had his hands in everything.

Before you blew up and were taking music seriously, you went through a period where you weren’t really into hip-hop because you felt you couldn’t relate to the music?

Right, it wasn’t that I couldn’t relate to the music, it was that I wasn’t getting anything out of hip-hop. There wasn’t anything penetrating the mental, you know what I mean? I wasn’t learning anything from it. I was listening to a lot of old hip-hop, a lot of 2pac, a lot of Biggie, just learning life lessons from rappers. But then hip-hop had this phase where it was all about fist pumping and turn up music, you know that’s fun, but it was like let’s get back to the matters at hand. What about the problems that are going on in our society? We didn’t really have a bunch of artists talking about these things. But now you have a Chance The Rapper, you even have songs like the “Hood Pope” and the “Cocaine Castle” off my album. You have more conscious songs. Before it was not cool to be conscious or even step in those grounds, but now artists don’t give a fuck any more.

I’ve heard you call yourself an “old soul” because of the music you grew up on. I was pretty surprised to hear Phil Collins was one of the artists you’d like to collaborate with?

Yeah, Phil Collins just has a nice voice. I kind of grew up hearing his music like “In the air tonight” and all of that iconic music. I was just thinking about about the biggest artists to work with. Of course now I know of more artists, but those were the artists that were singing the ballads when I was growing up, but yeah Phil Collins, Seal and all of these people.

Trap Lord has been out since August last year, are you happy with how the record turned out overall?

Yes I am. I’m very pleased. People have been very receptive to it. A lot of people loved the album. There was a lot of people that carried me as an artist just because my style is so different from a lot of the A$AP members. A lot of people were saying it was different in a good way – it was fun and different. I guess they were ready for it.

You worked with Bone Thugs on the track “Lord.” I know you were in the studio in person with Bizzy and Flesh, but what about the others?

I worked in person with Flesh and Bizzy, but I was on tour with the group. All of those guys are my uncles. Bizzy calls me the most though, and Flesh gives me the most knowledge.

I feel like Bone Thugs in general are underrated. They should be like way bigger than they are, but that’s just me. They are icons in my eyes. They are like the Michael Jacksons of hip-hop. It’s like a group of Michael Jacksons, or like The Jackson 5 to me.

Bizzy seems like an interesting dude.

Yeah, he’s funny too. One night he calls me at three in the morning asking for Wale’s number. That’s how random he is.

You wanted to have DMX on Trap Lord too?

Oh yeah, I wanted DMX to say a prayer on the album. But it’s hard to catch up to that man. He’s busy.

I always appreciated the artistic direction of your videos, is this something you work hard on?

I write my treatments and direct. I don’t really try hard. It comes natural to me because it’s fun. A lot of my friends that I went to school with, because I went to art school, they are into film and videography and things like that so it’s not hard for me to reach out to them and get things done. It’s all fun for me to allow the imagination to work and for me to write the treatments down and get the production prepared. That’s all fun for me because it’s seeing my creation come to life.

 
Is creating art still a big part of your life or do you not have a lot of time?

My life is art. I still find time for art because I have to provide for my family. That’s why this is living the dream because I’m living through my art.

Where do you want to take your sound on the next record?

I want it to be more innovative. A bigger sound. When I say bigger, I mean it’s going to be more worldly. It’s going to appeal to everybody versus just myself and those like me. I’m going to stay grounded to those who support me and my base, but I’m definitely trying to expand my sound entirely.

You’ve said previously that when the A$AB Mob started, you were doing things like riding BMX bikes and wearing your own styles of clothing, but people didn’t understand you guys. Did you feel like outcasts?

We definitely were outcasts, but that’s where I’m comfortable now because I can’t stand to be like anyone else. I can’t stand to have the same fashion as someone else. If everybody is wearing black, I’ll wear white. If everybody is wearing white, I’ll wear black. I guess that’s a Harlem thing, because I think that’s when Cam got tired of everyone’s clothing, that’s when he started wearing pink. So I think it’s just Harlem, they breed a lot of people that do their own thing like innovators and creators. That’s kind of how I am to a certain extent. I want to express myself and be different from everybody else.

This is a bit of a random question, but how did you start using the word “Jiggy”? Is that a Harlem thing? I have not heard that word in years.

Jiggy is a definitely a Harlem thing, but we’re making it a worldwide thing. I’m bringing the jiggy back. Jiggy is a feeling. Jiggy is a style. You have high fashion, which also can be jiggy, but it’s more of a feeling than anything. You can wear anything and feel jiggy, if it’s dope. It’s really how you wake up in the morning and feel. It can be the music you listen to. I’m going to give you the perfect definition of jiggy.

Go for it.

A lot of old Puffy and Ma$e videos used to be jiggy shit. A lot of Missy Elliot videos. They used to wear outfits instead of t-shirts and jeans. That was jiggy. Platinum was jiggy. Waves in the hair was jiggy. Keeping your sneakers clean is jiggy.

I love those Missy Elliot videos, those are classic.

Yeah, I love Missy Elliot. I can’t even begin to explain.

I’ve read that Puffy was aware of your sound and the A$AP mob, but wasn’t sure how to market you and didn’t quite understand the movement because it was so different. Did he ring and congratulate you once you blew up and was he surprised by it?

Yeah, he told me. When I first got signed he called and congratulated me, and we spoke on the phone for an hour. He was just telling me how proud my pops would have been of me and he was telling me what he thought when he had first seen the movement. He loved it, but he just didn’t know how to approach it or where to take it. I guess that was a good thing because we kinda cracked the pavement. We came with the unorthodox. People needed that. People were getting tired of the same generic shit, that you see on World Star or on TV. People were just seeing the same rappers with the stupid ass jewellery, looking dumb in interviews. So we just came to bring that jiggy shit.

Summer mixtape

Here's a playlist I originally created for Passionweiss 

“Welcome to the land where it just don’t stop. Trunks pop, tops drop, and the front-end hop.” I like to imagine summer is a lot like the world Houston rapper Fat Pat [RIP] describes on “Tops Pop,” where the music is funky, the cars have impractical modifications and the barbeques are forever blazing.

London’s non-existent beach culture and grimy urban backdrop can put a damper on any sun loving spirit, but listening to the tracks assembled below helps ease the chill. The loose criterion for these tunes is good vibes, the odd cheesy synth and choruses that inspire singing when friends are out of hearing range.

I’ve recently begun digging through classic Southern rap and while most pioneers from the East/West Coast have reached international acclaim, there’s a plethora of talent below the Dixie that hasn’t reached foreign ears. For this reason I’ve included Big Mike, Z-Ro and Dead End Alliance as well as B. Bravo for being one of my new favourite funk producers, The Dream for releasing his best material in a long time and Pimp C for being Pimp C. So lean back, sip your favourite brown liquor, push play and lend a thought to those of us not surrounded by summer dresses.

Tracklist:

1) B.T. Express- Give up the Funk (Let’s Dance)

2) Juicy – Sugar Free

3) B. Bravo – Energy

4) Fat Pat – Tops Drop

5) Big Mike ft Pimp C– Havin’ Thangs

6) Slim Thug ft Z-RO– Summertime

7) Big Krit ft Devin The Dude – Moon and Stars

8) Undergravity – Goin’ Live

9) Ghostface Killah ft John Legend – Let’s Stop Playing

10) Chuck Inglish ft Vic Mensa and Killa Kyleon – James Harden

11) Slick Rick ft Outkast – Street Talkin’

12) Dead End Alliance ft Lil Keke – Sun hit the fade

13) The Dream – Outkast

14) Don Brown – Don’t Lose Your Love

15) Kool & The Gang – Heaven at once

Click here to listen. 

Azealia Banks - Heavy Metal and Reflective

By Jimmy Ness

Azealia Banks just won't go away. From dissing an A-Z of artists to alienating herself from a formerly supportive LGBT audience, she's running a master class in self-sabotage. However, despite claiming page one of the industry blacklist, Banks packs the talent that most hipster quasi-musicians lack. "Heavy metal and reflective" is her first track since leaving/being kicked off Universal and a decent reminder of why we liked her the first place. 

Though it’s tempting to deny, Azealia Banks a compelling rapper. The twenty three year old can rhyme fast, aggressive and raunchy. In less than three minutes she delivers slick talk reminiscent of Missy Elliot’s purple-lipped banter on “She’s a Bitch.” “I be in Osaka with that papa, took that best trip, buy me Tamagotchi, sipping Saki and Moets’s.”[sic] Azealia rattles off entertaining first person bravado in near broken English without incorporating the mediocre pop elements or cliché sexual tropes that plague her contemporaries. The closest she comes to pandering is mentioning bisexuality, but she avoids re-treading tired lesbian references with some fun wordplay and delivery. “It’s some sex shit, I be with that Betty with that bubble and them breasts's. I be lookin very jiggle jello in them dresses"

The pounding beat also can’t go ignored. A mechanical high-tempo thump with occasional spoken vocals assists Azealia, while Yeezus nods his head approvingly from a pleather throne. Banks might be hanging on the edge of irrelevance by her turquoise painted fingernails but if she can use arrogance to fuel musical proficiency like ‘Ye before her, she might just be ok.

Don Trip - "Wake Up"

Originally published at Passionweiss

Don Trip’s latest single “Wake Up” was released the other week with minimal fanfare. Along with Starlito and Kevin Gates, he’s one of several young artists that dispels the conservative rap coalition’s claim that rap isn’t lyrical anymore. Like the aforementioned MCs, Don Trip also hasn’t fully made an impact with the kids. Despite appearing on the 2012 XXL Freshman cover and working with Dr “iRich” Dre, mainstream success eludes him for now. Luckily, this means we get to enjoy unfiltered street rhymes while bubble-gum rap fans are busy debating if Iggy Azalea writes her own music. This is an obvious blessing and the Memphis rapper has delivered a hustler’s dedication with bars upon bars.

“Wake Up” serves as both a motivational anthem and a forewarning for those who were sleeping on Mr Don Trip. The 26 year old spits over frantic production and sticks with his grimy drawl rather than jacking the Migos flow as per almost everyone else in the past year. The track’s hook sounds elementary on paper “wake up, wake up, it’s time to get me some money, got to get off my ass, you can’t get rich for me,” but it’s catchiness combined with the adrenaline pumping beat makes for wall-punching music. There’s not much here beyond moneymaking metaphors, but sometimes we all need a song you can frown and nod to. Now how about releasing that Step Brothers 3?

100s Interview

Originally published at Passionweiss

100s (pronounced “hunnids”) was born in the wrong era. The 20 year old has been fascinated by the ‘70s since being exposed to American Pimp, Iceberg Slim’s autobiography and nuclear levels of hair spray. His parents moved him to the Ivory Coast due to failing grades and his last two years of high school were spent in a three-bedroom house with 15 others. During this time, 100s heard Mac Dre’s “Gumbo” and decided to make music for pimps, pushers and paper-chasers.

Three years after returning home to Berkeley in 2010, debut album Ice Cold Perm was released. With the same stony-eyed stare and a cover inspired by Snoop Dogg’s Tha Doggfather, 100s embraced his influences with rhymes about running game, retro cell phones, Cali beaches and floor length jackets.

He quickly gained a fan-base and Fools Gold records picked him up after noticing the music industry was missing immaculate hair. Earlier this year, 100s followed his debut with the purple-tinted IVRY. The eight track EP focuses on retro R&B crooning and synth-heavy production, but still packs the essential freaky raps.

I spoke to the half Black/half Jewish rapper about whether he prefers The Mack or Superfly, his musical heroes and why he’s open about never actually being a pimp. Despite being quite reserved during our conversation, 100s mentioned his time in the Ivory Coast was one of his favourite things to discuss so we also covered topics including culture shock, catching Malaria, and realizing how lucky Americans were with their living conditions.

What made you decide to go a little more melodic with IVRY?

I guess, it’s just growth. I’ve always liked more melodic music than traditional rap so I guess it was just a matter of time. The more you do something, the better you get at it. There’s just different kind of songs that you learn how to do as you get better at what you do. I aimed to kind of do that [make more melodic music.] I have this whole concept behind IVRY. It was actually a concept album. I never really explained the concept.

Can you tell us a little about the concept now?

It’s kind of abstract of course, but it chronicles this person in this other dimension in the future or in a different time or whatever. It was meant to be almost like a story. If you really listen to it all the way through and you change the tracklist around it would have been a different story with different events in life. It just takes you to a place, to a time.

You were talking about a project named Sex Symbol, before IVRY dropped. Are they the same thing?

Nah, Sex Symbol, I need to chase down everybody I said that to. That’s no more, that’s not happening. That was just a phase. I was kind of hot off some shit, but that’s not happening. I guess, what it would have been is now IVRY.

You often collaborate with Joe Wax. Can you tell us about him?

He’s been producing for maybe five or six years. We went to the same middle school and we both got sent away at the same time. He got sent to some boarding school in the middle of nowhere and I got sent to Africa, so we bonded over that. Then we came back and started making music.

Even if he’s not necessarily producing the song or whatever, he helps me create. He’s my guide and my homie. He’s always involved in what I’m doing. He has really good taste.

You like to be heavily involved in the creative process?

Yeah, IVRY was the first time I’ve co-produced.

We’ve talked about some of your rap influences, but what about other artists that had an impact on IVRY? Prince?

Yeah, I love Prince. Hell yeah. Prince, Rick James, all of these people.

Rick James had quite a flamboyant style as well.

Exactly, he was a genius you know. If you really listen to his catalogue, the stuff that not everybody knows. If you really dig, he’s a genius. He probably played bass and fucking electric guitar and whatever, super talented dude.

What do you love so much about the 70s-80s? What exactly drew you to that era?

I don’t know, I don’t really think it was a conscious decision. Ever since I was younger, I was fascinated with that era and identified with it.

Do you prefer The Mack or Superfly?

Honestly, I would pick another one. I would choose Willie Dynamite. I really like Willie Dynamite. I guess after that film, I like The Mack better than Superfly. I’m a movie guy.

You’re influenced by people like Too $hort, Mac Dre, Snoop Dogg etc. But can you also tell us about Dre Dog?

I’m big fans of them. Dre Dog, who is now known as Andre Nickatina, he’s a Bay Area legend you know. I mean he’s a legend period. It’s hard to describe what he is and what he sounds like, you’ve just got to listen. He’s super different.

Have you met any of your musical heroes?

I met Andre Nickatina. I brought him out in San Francisco. That was some dream come true shit, know what I’m saying? [laughs.] I’ve been a fan of his since I was about 13 year’s old. I opened for Snoop one time but I’ve never met him, this was like a while ago.

You’re a comedy fan as well, who’s your favourite comedian?

Eddie Murphy. Well Eddie Murphy now, ahh you know… but Raw or Delirious Eddie Murphy, that Eddie Murphy.

Do you think your interest in comedy also effects the music? A lot of people said the video for “1999” was pretty tongue in cheek.

I guess since the music is a reflection of me. I enjoy comedy and that’s part of me, so maybe it does bleed into it, but I wouldn’t say I purposely do that. I take what do seriously, you know. It’s about perception, some people get the music and some people don’t.

As a 16 year old, were you scared when you landed in the Ivory Coast? That’s quite the culture shock.

Yeah, now that I think about it, it’s kind of surreal. It’s like, did everything happen? But it did. It was hard to adjust because it’s like night and day. When you’re over there and you think there’s this whole other world, it’s like another planet exists.

You had Malaria five times? What’s that like?

I probably had it more. When you’re from America or whatever, you’re fragile. You’re not conditioned for those types of diseases. Back there people are conditioned, but when you didn’t grow up with it, your body doesn’t know what to do. How I would describe is like you’re cold and you’re hot, your body aches, you have nausea, no appetite. It’s just like… shit. [Laughs] It feels like “this is the end.” It’s horrible. I feel like as you get it more you get over it faster though.

Did the Ivory Coast change your perception of the world? I bet you came back with an idea of how lucky you are with the living conditions in America.

Yep, one hundred percent. One hundred percent. I tell my friends that all the time and I always try to get that across. The same way that Jewish people have a birth-right to go back to Israel. I think African people should have that too. It gives you a wider understanding of what’s going on and makes you realise that all the petty shit that you worry about or deem important really isn’t.

I’ve heard there’s a lot of internalized racism over there and white people get special treatment over their own culture.

Definitely, of course. That’s just part of it. I don’t really know what it stems from, but you always see that. It’s maybe because they were colonized by white people or whatever. Some African people think that white people are better. It’s really insane.

How long did it take you start making music after you returned from the Ivory Coast?

When I came back, I wasn’t really fucking around you know. I had so much time to think and visualise what I wanted to do when I was there, that when I came back I didn’t waste my time.

Have you been back?

Nah, I want to go back. I want to go back soon. Hopefully I go back soon. I think there’s a festival over there next year so I’m going to try go to that.

You’re proud of your African heritage, are you equally proud of your Jewish side?

Yeah. I would say that I’m not as in touch with my Jewish heritage as my African, but I am proud of it.

Ice Cold Perm was a reasonably polished project. Were you working with labels behind the scenes at the time?

Hell no! [laughs] It was me, my friend Joe and our friend Oliver, who is Joe’s big cousin. He has a website called dreamcollabo.com, which initially put it out. Me and Joe just recorded it in his bedroom. We would all talk about what would make it and what wouldn’t ya know, and then we just dropped it.

What made you decide to sign specifically to Fools Gold? I’m sure there were also other labels that approached you.

I just liked what they had going on. I knew that I was moving towards that kind of melodic sound, at least at that time. It felt like a good fit.

Were you nervous about performing on some of your earlier tours? You gained an audience quite quickly.

Not really. I recall I was nervous the first show I ever did. After that, once you kind of realise that this is your passion, everything comes out on stage. As soon as you touch the stage and you realise that this is your time, you forget about everything.

I know you’ve toured Australia before, how was that?

It was amazing. It was weird for me to just see that I had reached people out there and they embraced me. It was super cool, I loved it and would love to go back.

Where do you see your sound going next? Maybe into Funk?

Ah… no. I guess that will all be revealed in time, but I am working on new things. I’m working on a lot of stuff. I’m not going to talk about specifics, but it is coming and you’ll see.

Have you collaborated with Danny Brown?

No, it hasn’t happened yet.

You’re in an iPhone 5C commercial. How did you get involved with that?

My friend the same guy who put out my mixtape, Oliver, he was doing the casting. I wasn’t going to do the ad. I was trying to help him find people to do it. I think it was last minute and he was like: “Dude, I can’t find anybody. Just send me a picture of you or some shit. “ So I sent him a picture and they liked me, so I did it. It was fun.

When did you start growing your hair?

Shit, I would have been 10 years old or something. It was Fifth grade.

Why did you do it?

I don’t really know. A lot of the people I was fans of had long hair. Whether it was from rock music or whatever. I used to really like wrestling when I was younger and all these old wrestlers had long hair, so that’s what I wanted to do.

How would you rate your hair in comparison to DJ Quik’s on Rhythmalism?

Ah, I don’t know if I’ve seen it on that particular album cover. He’s got a hell of a perm or whatever it is [laughs.] I mean it’s nice or whatever, but I like mine more.

I watched some of the Hollywood Shuffle film you sample on “My Activator.” What’s your favourite type of Activator?

[Laughs] I don’t even know any different types. I don’t know shit about them. I just love that movie.

You obviously like the 70s look and you’ve got the hair, did people ever call you gay?

Of course [laughs]. Of course. Yeah. I’m not an insecure man. I’m chilled. I don’t get caught up in that shit. If you want to call me gay or whatever you think, that’s your opinion. I can just be me. I keep it moving. I don’t think anybody necessarily is meant to be understood.

I heard a rumour that some classmates of yours claimed you were pimping girls at 16 years old at Berkeley High?

Ohhh no. No, what the fuck! [laughs] See I didn’t even go to Berkeley High.

Sorry I’m asking some tougher questions.

No, it’s all good. I like these questions. I get tired of the weak-ass ones.

You’ve also said previously when you’re talking about “hoes,” or whatever, that doesn’t necessarily translate to real life and real people. Can you tell us about that?

To me it’s clear, but I’ll explain it. Not every record is necessarily about a pimp and a hoe or whatever people think it is. It could be anything. It could be a metaphor, it could be taken however. That’s why I said it’s not meant to be taken literally. If I’m talking about that, it could be something else. It could be what’s going on in my life or whatever. It’s just abstract as it comes. When I’m writing I’m not always thinking about that type of shit.

You’re pretty open about admitting you have never been a pimp and you’ve never claimed to be one. What do you think about people who criticise your authenticity?

It’s only an issue of authenticity, if you view it as one. If you view it as expression and it’s not meant to be taken literally, there’s no issue of authenticity. When it comes down to people judging it as if it’s meant to be taken literally, then yeah the issue comes into play. If it’s pretty much any genre other than rap, then people know not to take it literally. It’s just an expression, you don’t know what the fuck they [the performer] are talking about. On some level, I would compare it to that. Of course I’m open about it [not being an actual pimp], because I don’t want you to take it literally.

You see yourself as a performer and musician first?

Yeah, one hundred percent. Honestly, I have two projects out and I’m always growing and doing stuff, so people will see what everything turns into.

Jeezy ft Jay Z - Seen It All

Originally published at Passionweiss

Presidential parties, museum tours and marriage ensure we won’t be getting ‘98 Jigga bars anytime soon, but in 2014 “Seen It All” is as close as it gets. Jay-Z shunned Kanye’s wedding to the Kardashian dynasty last month, so there’s a chance Jeezy may become his new best friend. They’ve worn matching pleather jackets, they knew Pimp C but probably locked their car door when talking to him and they’ve been collaborating since Jeezy’s 2006 single “Go Crazy.” While this evidence may be circumstantial, the duo has a solid track record and the rap Proleteriat needs a break from Jay’s rhymes for the 1%.

The Snowman will never be a lyrical scientist. He’s found his rap formula, which is strictly limited to raspy boasts and A-grade adlibs. No matter how many water features Jeezy adds to the mansion, he’ll never stop rhyming about selling drugs. “Seen it all,” delivers accordingly and Jeezy’s biggest decision is whether to blow the cash at Atlanta strip-club institution Magic or at the mall. His verse is nothing special, but most of us clicked play to hear his guest feature verse anyway.

Then it happens, Jay swoops in during the 1.30 mark and it’s tough to believe these bars came from the Magna Carter Holy Fail sessions. There’s no blatant flow jacking or overdone Basquiat references, just tales of his dope-boy past life over a melancholic instrumental. Jay-Z excels on this track because unlike Jeezy, he refers to specific experiences as a felon. There’s drug connects in Saint Thomas, expanding his fledging empire to Maryland, his uncle’s stabbing and more memories that make you thankful you weren’t Shawn Corey Carter before the fame. Despite snubbing DJ Khaled’s crew for the “They Don’t Love You No More” shoot, he might even attend the video for this one. While no one is proclaiming this as Mr Beyonce’s comeback, Jay can still deliver.

Interview with Kyle "KP" Reilly of DatPiff

By Jimmy Ness and written for Passionweiss

Since Datpiff was founded in 2005, mixtapes have evolved from compilations traded on street corners to a career necessity for any rapper without Jay-Z’s Rolodex. Datpiff were among the first to pioneer digital mixtapes and took some of the distribution power from labels. This helped artists to freely share music online, whilst gaining new fans and satisfying old ones.

Datpiff has worked with superstars, helped thousands of careers, hosted over half a million projects, and permanently altered the music industry. But if you’re a rap fan who likes free music, you knew all of that already.  

As a prelude to his June speaking engagement at NXNE Festival in Toronto, I quizzed Vice President Kyle "KP" Reilly on how Datpiff got started, which careers he helped launch, and if they let labels buy views. We also covered Lyor Cohen making him remove thousands of Gucci Mane tapes, his relationship with DJ Drama and his part in helping Meek Mill sign to MMG.

How did you and CEO Marcus Frasier start Datpiff?

Marcus is a coder and programmer, and he had the idea of putting together a site like Datpiff to share mixtapes with his friends online at a time when that was kind of impossible unless you physically burned them a copy of a mixtape that we would buy on Canal Street. He was looking for someone that would operate it and fill it with content so I came in right in the beginning. I started running the marketing and content side of things and getting artists on board by getting them familiar with what Datpiff is.

Google wasn’t really prominent at that point, it was more Yahoo. People were “Yahooing,” for lack of a better word, the terms “mixtapes” “free mixtapes” “buy mixtapes” etc and they just kind of stumbled across us. So we started seeing 50, 100 people on the site each day and to us it was crazy because we never really thought about that. We just wanted a site that we could show to our friends, promote on Myspace, and yeah so we started progressively seeing the growth and the potential for what it could be.

You guys didn’t think the mixtape industry would change to where it’s an essential element of almost every rap artist’s career?

I didn't. I hoped for it, especially as our platform grew. I had hoped that at one point we would grow to become a platform that could help artists that really didn't have the resources of those that were signed to major labels. I had always hoped it would get to a point where it would be what it is today where it's the standard. If you have a mixtape, it's got to be on Datpiff.

How did you convince people to give you their music? I'm sure you've heard how DJs used to have to do a lot of favours to get new songs and some of them nearly got killed in the process.

It was a lot of begging and persuading more than anything cut-throat. In the beginning, people didn't know what Datpiff was. Back then we had to sell people on what we were doing and why it was important to give away your mixtape online for free at a time when that wasn't what people were doing. People weren't giving away music for free, that was stupid. Why would they give away something they had worked on? People didn't realize the power that the internet could have, like it could open up doors for world tours. Wiz Khalifa was really the first major artist that blew up from Datpiff, where people realized you can profit very handsomely off giving away free music.

What are your main sources of revenue? Is it advertising?

Yep, it’s absolutely advertising. We have a company that we have worked exclusively with for about six years. I would say close to 60-65%.

When Meek Mill’s Dreamchasers 2 came out people accused Datpiff of allowing MMG to buy views and downloads as it was a surprisingly big launch. Is that something that you guys do?

We really pride ourselves on keeping everything 100% authentic and we’d be contradicting ourselves if we allowed that to happen because we ban users on a daily basis for manipulating their stats or paying third parties to do it. Our system actually scans and audits these mixtapes daily to flag fraudulent IPs or ones that hit our server 100 times in a couple minutes.

As far as the Meek Mill thing, I know exactly why it was such a big project. We’re a Philadelphia based website that has established our reputation here. I’ve worked with Meek for years before the MMG deal, before he had any mixtape. So the reason he did so well - it was a combination of Datpiff being more relevant and hotter than it ever had been, Meek Mill having a couple of songs on the radio at that time that were huge. So it was a combination of the push we gave it, our number one demographic, Meek Mill being the top MC in our area. A bunch of things working together to make a really really successful mixtape that was yeah, to an extent unbelievable.

Are your server and bandwidth prices crazy?

Absolutely, we’re talking north of about $70,000 a month. We have a library of about 450,00 mixtapes so you do the math.

How many takedown notices do you receive?

I would say maybe 1-2 a month tops, sometimes none. One thing we do now is work very closely with the label, which is funny because around ‘07-‘08 labels were at war with mixtapes because they hadn’t yet embraced what they could do for artists. Now a lot of our takedown notices have slowed down because with our relationships with the labels they are able to say “hey we really don’t want this out yet, would you mind pulling it and I’ll let you know when you can put it back up.” That’s really how the takedowns work now. We don’t get a lot of official ones.

A lot of artists will sign production deals with a random manager. When they start getting bigger and bigger, a few years later they sign a major label deal and forget about that production deal and that manager they had. So what happens is the guy sees the artist has a free mixtape on Datpiff and they sold it on iTunes. So they’re going to go and sue all of them because they were profiting off material that they own. That gives you an example of what the takedown notices usually are about now days. It’s somebody that’s bitter and claims to own the rights to somebody else’s music. It’s never really the label anymore. We take a lot of steps to make sure we’re good in that regard.

Do you think Datpiff is becoming more influential to the point where they have launched whole careers? I've read you had a lot to do with the success of Wiz Khalifa, Chance The Rapper, Mac Miller and more.

Yeah, I never used to say that myself until I saw others publish it. Until Wiz came to me and said "I owe you guys so much for everything." I would never have said, "we helped break them" because they're the artist and they make the music. We're just kind of a host of music, but yeah definitely those guys and others we helped catapult and propel their career to a new level. Meek Mill is another one, like I told you. He was really big in Philadelphia, but he had no presence on the internet. He didn't have a Myspace page. He didn't have anything. His manager was Will Smith's old manager who was very old school minded where if you have songs on the radio locally where you’re able to sell 100,000 mixtapes in the street, why do you need anything else? That was basically a win, that's all you need in life to be successful. So I went in and kind of had to tell them and beg them to listen. Forget about Philadelphia. What about winning fans in the UK? What about Meek winning fans in California, Texas, Detroit and Hawaii? You could do those kind of numbers. It's about getting your music out there and letting people hear it. You can continue being successful in Philadelphia for as long as you want, but why don't you think bigger? That's when I got him to do a project called Mr Philadelphia. I basically put that whole project together. I got the DJs on board and we did a big internet release for it and from there that’s where he signed to MMG and became what he is today.

Who do you think were some of the first artists to embrace the digital mixtapes?

Wayne and Drama, with the Gangsta Grillz they were doing. I would say Jeezy as well. Mixtapes have been around for a while, but at one point they were just compilations of what was hot on the radio. They basically were just a DJ remixing or scratching or having their drops and that was a mixtape back then. As far as rappers noticing that mixtapes are a body of work like a single project, I think definitely Wayne, DJ Drama, Jeezy. DJ Whoo Kid for sure, doing the projects he was doing with G Unit in the early 2000s. Projects like G-Unit Radio, those were projects that had exclusives from 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, Game. Those guys were the ones that made it something more than just a mixtape on Canal Street that had radio singles on it.

When you think about the relentless release schedule of artists like Gucci Mane who puts out a tape every other week, do you think the South was ahead of the curve in embracing the mixtape culture?

I would say they totally were. New York was really the first to embrace the mixtape in general just because of the amount of DJs they had there as the origin of Hip-hop. So they were the ones who put mixtapes on the map. As far as having the bigger projects and artists putting out a free solo album, the South were really the ones that embraced that through DJ Drama, T.I, Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne. Even then, they were selling them. It was still a retail project, but it was still a mixtape of original music that evolved into what it is today.  

What do you think of artists like Jay-Z or the TDE roster, who don’t really focus on mixtapes?

I think with Jay-Z it’s a little bit different. He comes from a time where artists didn’t really do mixtapes as albums.  They weren’t going to the studio and putting together a body of work and saying “this is going to be my mixtape.” That was never a thing at that time. So it’s hard for someone like him, because he doesn’t know any better. Eminem doesn’t know any better. To them, they still look at it like “why would I give free music away? That doesn’t make sense.” They’ve never had to experience that learning curve of what a mixtape can do and how beneficial it is. But I can guarantee you, if Jay-Z wasn’t in the position he was in today, he would be putting out mixtapes. I can assure you they would be a lot more open and adaptive to putting out a mixtape.

You can fault them [TDE], because when an artist is at their peak it’s hard to say “ok, let’s give away free music and grow a little bit more.”  Because you know on the flip side, you can put out an album and the same amount of people will buy it and you make $8 a pop. A different example I can give is someone like Wiz Khalifa, who we are doing a brand new mixtape with in about 20 days. Wiz knows that his fanbase loves and expects mixtapes from him every couple of years. He doesn’t necessarily want to put out a mixtape or think it’s the best idea, but he cares about his fans. Let’s give them what they want, they buy my t-shirt, they spend $60-70 to come see my concert. Let’s give them something for free.

You work a lot with Don Cannon and Dj Drama? Drama is from Philadelphia too.

Yeah, Don Cannon is as well. In 2011, we were thinking why don't we just sign the DJs who are hosting these projects so we can be involved in the process from the beginning instead of artists saying "hey I have a mixtape coming out, what can I do?” By having the DJs on our side we're involved from the beginning. When an artist says “hey Drama I have a mixtape coming and I want it to drop next month,” he comes to me and says “hey KP, so and so hit me up he has a project coming. I want you guys to get on the phone and hash out the details and the plan for it.” We have Don Cannon, DJ Holiday, DJ Drama all signed to us so basically all of their projects have to be distributed through us exclusively. That's the deal we have.

So what they get through that is they have a lot of independent hosting where an artist will pay them $5000-10000 to host a project and what we do in turn is host that project. We give a little bit of social media push, we in turn help them with the smaller projects which makes them hotter because kids know “ok if I work with DJ Drama he'll host my tape and also get me a good placement on Datpiff.“ We work very closely with almost any and every project they’re involved with.

Does Datpiff have a lot of security so you don’t get hacked and have mixtapes stolen?

Yeah, now it does. In the beginning we were just using Gmail. What would happen is we would have competitors that were very computer savvy and they would just get in and there was really nothing that I could do about it. There are people overseas you can pay to get just about anything. If I wanted to get every spreadsheet off your computer right now, I could get your IP address, contact a guy from Sweden and have all of the files off your computer within 6 hours.

So this stuff has happened to you?

That has happened hundreds of times, not just a couple. People are able to download music from the back end of Datpiff before it’s even released to the public. We take many precautions and we fix something whenever we get penetrated, but the kids always one-up us. There’s always a kid that’s always smarter than us. Now we have a process where if I have a file with a mixtape it’s password protected, the password is texted to me so you have to go through three or four clues to find the actual link.

Wow. 

We had to do a lot of that with how popular we've grown and how popular some of these releases have grown. We had one point where we were releasing Lil Wayne's Dedication 5, and all of my personal emails were inaccessible in a way because people were changing my passwords, people were logging in and that was my personal email not even my @datpiff email address. My wife was receiving spam messages just from being associated with me and there's definitely kind of a community of hackers every time we have a major release that are doing everything and anything they can to try get the file. 

What have been your most hyped mixtape to date?

I'd say Dedication 5 and Dreamchasers 3.

I see Future's Astronaut Status currently holds the record for most downloads with almost 500,000?

Yeah, that one has been more of a stretched out build up.  When I say Dedication 5 and Dreamchasers 3 were the most impactful, that's because of the immediate buzz or attention on the day of release and the day after. Future's mixtape is really popular, but that came as he started getting bigger and people came to the website searching for that. That has grown as Future’s grown.

The amount of rookie rappers spamming you on social media must be crazy.

It's funny because I always joke with the guys who work in my office or people in the industry. It's an internal joke at my office. The best Tweets we get are "Follow back, so I can DM you." It's the artist asking you so they can get the follow and then DM you about something THEY want. That's usually always the case and that's funny cause I get those the most and laugh at those now.  “Follow me so I can DM you about biz.” It’s funny cause my email is in the open, we have contact forms on the website. You can tell me what you want, but you’re tweeting telling me to follow you. Yeah I absolutely get spammed a lot, on Datpiff it’s borderline impossible to keep up with the mentions feed. That’s part of the nature of it. With anything that people can promote you’ll get spam. I think I have close to 600 people blocked on Twitter just for that. We actually got sued by the New York City Sanitation Department.

What!!!?

I’ll tell you why. This kid was going around with stickers that had the Datpiff URL for people to download his mixtape. The sanitation department found all these stickers and pulled them down. They went after him and they went after us because we were the URL on all these stickers across New York City. Now obviously we had nothing to do with the spamming of those stickers, but we got involved because this kid was spamming all over New York.  

What do you think about artists becoming creatively burnt out? They’ll have a great run of mixtapes, but their debut album will be mediocre because they’ve ran out of ideas.

You know what it is, artists really prefer making mixtapes to an album. I would say 70% of them would tell you that and it’s true because of the creative freedom they have.  For example Schoolboy Q, when he put out Oxymoron he wanted that to be a mixtape and the label kept saying “no, we need an album from you.”  Then when it came time for him to turn the album in they said “this sounds like a mixtape, we need at least two or three radio records and Schoolboy got so furious that he was saying “this is what I hate about labels making me do this stuff, I don’t do this for radio singles I do it for my fans.” I think that sort of mentality is common, obviously they respect the label that’s why they signed a deal with them in the first place, but they don’t like to have their creative freedom stripped.

When artists do mixtapes, the label has a lot less control?

Yeah. In a lot of cases they have no control. For example when we do a Chief Keef mixtape, the label never wants a Chief Keef mixtape out and I go in knowing that. Interscope is one of the labels I don’t have a relationship with so I don’t care what they think. Chief Keef will say “I’m putting out a mixtape, the label doesn’t care and they won’t support it, but I don’t give a shit.” So labels really don’t have any say unless there’s some of deal the artist signs where they have control over every aspect of their career. They do have a say to a point, but the artist can do a mixtape whenever they want.

Is Interscope slightly old fashioned in the way they perceive mixtapes?

They are, and they have a lot of pop artists. Atlantic, Warner, Def Jam they get it so much because of the urban roster they have. They have a bunch of artists that this can be of use for. Interscope they have a few, but a lot of their roster is superstars so they don’t really have a need to put out mixtapes or do anything like that. They don’t agree or think they need it. When Lyor Cohen was running Warner that’s when we had the biggest fight because he did not like that when you would Google Gucci Mane one of the top 5 search results was his free mixtape on Datpiff. So Lyor Cohen in 2008/2009 went on a rampage. We had to remove every single mixtape that had Gucci Mane’s name or song of his from the site. We are talking about probably 30-40,000 mixtapes.

Wow, that’s insane. Mixtapes shaped his career.

Exactly, and there’s a reason he’s not on Warner anymore. They eventually adapted and now we work closely with them. It’s funny because Lyor is now running his own label called 300 Ent. and we just released a project today for one of his artists. Lyor, who was our biggest enemy in 2008, is now asking us to help break these new artists on his label and it’s funny how that stuff goes full circle.

How do you stay competitive with all the other options available? Why do people still come to you?

I think people that know about this stuff, know us as the innovator and the originator of digital mixtapes. Obviously, there were mixtape websites before us that would sell mixtapes as physical copies, which we found out was very very illegal. There was stuff like that, but I think people recognize us as the first to really do what we do. We’re very hands on with the projects, almost every big release that we do I spend hours and hours on. I work with that artist and their management team throughout that time period. So I'm very hands-on with the project.

So you're involved in the campaign behind the mixtape as well?

Exactly, yeah. Think about YouTube. We kind of operate like that, where we allow the users to upload their own videos and share but we also do a lot of premiers. That's kind of how we operate. YouTube has tons of competitors. I could create a website tomorrow that does the same function as YouTube, but there's a reason that YouTube is YouTube. They’re the original. They’re the standard and they have great content from regular Average Joe users to artists. No matter how many websites come along throughout this time period, Datpiff will be thought of as the originator and as the key source.

It’s really all about staying ahead of the curve. We paved the path for this, we know what we can do to grow things even more and take things to a new level. We’re launching Datpiff 5.0, the new version of the site in probably the next three months or so and we’re incorporating all of the things we’ve learned in the last four or five years.

T.I ft Young Thug - About The Money

Written by me, originally for Passionweiss. 

Septum piercing and distinctive squawk intact, Young Thug assists T.I on a track that may end up on the latter’s ninth album Paperwork. While “About The Money” is technically T.I’s song, he allows the 21 year old’s lean-addled antics to dominate. The duo works surprisingly well, despite one being a staunch family man and the other flamboyant enough to make Andre3000 blush.

Thug employs his signature frantic ad-libs, sing-song raps and whimsical rhymes over stunted church keys. He drops lazy bars like “smoke way more weed than a guy in LA” whilst his unintelligible yelp swirls in the background. A thousand upset backpackers rush to the Okayplayer forum every time he rhymes, but his charisma is difficult to deny. If you came here for a solstice from the typical rap tropes you’re in the wrong place.

While Gucci Mane was innovative enough to tap into the popularity of young rappers like Migos or Young Thug, it’s surprising more veteran Southern rappers haven’t caught on. T.I has struggled with mediocre album singles, so it’s good to see he’s finally used his guest’s magnetism to benefit the music.

T.I often operates best in a supporting role. He’s not a boring rapper per-se, but his understated presence and delivery stands out when he rhymes a snappy guest verse. See his verses on “Rack City,” “Big Beast” and the “Plain Jane” remix for further proof. On this track, the Trouble Man mainly sticks to hook duty. He still finds time between a few quick bars to shout out UGK’s classic “Pocket Full Of Stones” and that’s all we need.

Thug’s the rap oddity of the year, you either love or hate him. Either way, it’s tough to deny his persona on tracks like this. Scuuurt!

New Album 'Paperwork' OUT NOW. Get it here: iTunes: http://smarturl.it/PaperworkDLX Google Play: http://smarturl.it/PaperworkGPDLX Amazon: http://smarturl.it/PaperworkAmazonDLX "About The Money" Featuring Young Thug available Now! Get it here: iTunes: http://smarturl.it/ATMSingle Google Play: http://smarturl.it/ATMGooglePlay Amazon: http://smarturl.it/ATMama Stream on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/ATMspot

Kevin Gates - By Any Means review

By me and originally written for Passionweiss

Heavily inked, emotionally scarred and fresh out of the slammer, Kevin Gates returns with 16 bi-polar bangers. By Any Means is less personal than last year’s Stranger Than Fiction and The Luca Brasi Story, but the Louisiana’s rappers remains one of the best young gangsta rappers this side of the Mississippi. Gates has the hooks, the singing, the story and the passion. Of course, it helps that he’s been blessed with the rare combination of versatile vocal chords and awareness of how to use them. From his threatening croak on standout “Homicide” to the palpable sincerity on “Movie,” KG is as far removed from one-dimensional MCs as it gets.

The 28 year old also defies the tradition that rappers need to be invincible. His willingness to showcase flaws is a large part of what makes his music compelling. Gates covers depression, anxiety, self-doubt and a slew of other pitfalls rarely touched on in rap. Add in his penchant for including vivid real life details from his turbulent past and you’ve got a killer combo. Whether it’s because he’s attempting to make a mainstream friendly project or because he’s saving material so that the relentless mixtape circuit doesn’t end in creative burn out, these details aren’t quite as apparent on this record as they were on his 2013 output. There are no epic tales of attempted murder by best friends like “4.30am” or cinematic true-life tales of crime ala “iHop” on here. You’ve got to listen a little closer, but it’s worth the effort.

 Gates adds humanity to what could have been a generic hustling theme on “Wish I Had.” Instead of lazily attributing his motivation to the American Dream aka wanting to get rich, he phrases the chorus in a more relatable way and it takes on a redemptive quality. “Out my window, I see everything I dream about and wish I had.” During the song, he also acknowledges his self-consciousness at being a two-time felon, desperately wanting to write a hit and being a good person that can transform in the wrong circumstances.

Later on “Sposed to Love” there’s more mention of this duality of character and the imperfection he’s willing to display on record. Gates is passionately in love and deeply offended when his partner doesn’t answer the phone, but he’s also bordering on the obsessive and admits to hitting her in the heat of the moment. The realistic portrayal of domestic violence undoubtedly makes it the most divisive track on the album. Some listeners may feel he’s condoning this behavior as he comes across as cocky rather than apologetic, but references to Chris Brown, stalking and jail make it clear he’s aware of his moral wrongdoing.

Musical psychoanalysis aside, this tape is also trunk rattling. Get Em Gates understands the quandaries presented by turning down for no good reason. As one of the chosen few who isn’t overshadowed by Juicy J and 2 Chainz on his own jams, he can rap with the best from planet Versace. Despite his currently unproven mainstream appeal, “Don’t Know” and “Arm And Hammer” have the type of hypotonic hooks you’ll find yourself accidently reciting during work meetings or on the subway. Along with his chameleon vocals and a healthy dose of neuroticism, part of what makes Gates listenable is his varied delivery style. He’ll switch flow several times, moving within seconds from Migos inspired double-time to shouting threats down your ear canal.

With a hulking audio presence, Gates doesn’t need to rely on features and thankfully he hasn’t succumbed to this cheap tactic. For the most part, the guests are used sparingly and fit in nicely. The late Doe B in particular shines with his effortless flow during “Paranoid,” making it all the more obvious the world was robbed of the 22 year old’s potential. Then of course, there’s Plies. He doesn’t quite ruin “Keep Fucking With Me” by spitting a marble mouthed verse, but he definitely comes close.

 Being locked up on a three-year gun charge partially derailed Gates’ career during the mid-2000s. But he also claims long periods in jail gave him the opportunity to form his unique rhyming style. In an interview with HipHop Dx, he said prison changed his attitude toward music too “I want the Rap game when I come home. You never know how much something means to you until you can’t do it. “Personal issues have made him both great and imperfect. Few have a darker past than Kevin Gates, but few have a brighter future.