[SXSW Interview] The Tontons, Well on Their Way
Photography by Andrew Zeiter
Back in November I was in Austin for a different festival, Fun Fun Fun Fest, where I first met Asli Omar and the guys from The Tontons. At the time, the four piece blues-y rock group from Houston was riding a wave of publicity en route to their breakthrough project, Make Out King and Other Love Stories, a harrowing 11-song project that puts forward the young band's strengths both vocally and in building complex, attention-grabbing tracks that have launched them from their native Houston and brought them back to the annual business card emporium that is South By Southwest. Back in November the squad of Omar, Tom Nguyen and Justin and Adam Martinez were hungry, eagerly anticipating the release of their project, Make Out King which dropped soon afterwards on February 18 of this year. Anticipating a big jump in notoriety, the world offered up some obstacles after their drummer, Justin, fell ill with a bad appendix that landed him in the hospital for two weeks, arriving in Austin straight from his stay there, a literal hole still in his side. Rock N' Roll. Anyway, it's obvious the music world has taken The Tontons in directions they would have never expected, and a bit of the frustration was evident in talking to them this time around. Through it all though, The Tontons have an innately upbeat spirit that makes even them jokingly talking about being jaded seem like being on the outside of an inside joke. They play great and make music that transcends radio trends or falsified public relations campaigns. The Tontons are the band you come to SXSW to see, and I was lucky enough to get a few minutes of their time before they played the Big Picture Media Showcase at The Thirsty Nickel to see how everyone was doing and where the ship is headed in 2014.
[Video] Pharrell Talks New Album, 'Girls' with Zane Lowe
Pharrell has a knack for finding his way into the news cycle for all the right reasons. The baby-faced 40-year-old super-producer announced earlier this week that he had a new album expected, unveiling the title that was as simple as his epic day-long video for "Happy". It's no great revelation that Pharrell likely lives one of the most satisfying lives in America, and he stopped by BBC Radio 1 to chop it up with Zane Lowe and give the public a little glimpse into how his mind works, what the deal with the hat has been and what the plans are for Pharrell's first solo project. Check out the full video, streaming below.
[youtube id="5hOMMbe8RFc"]
[Video] Scoolboy Q, Vic Mensa & Vado on 'RapFix Live'
Wednesday might as well have been "Come Up Day" over at the MTV RapFix studios in New York City. I say that because Sway, wearing a SaveMoney sweatshirt nonetheless, found himself flanked by two of the most aggressively progressive artists in hip-hop today in Vic Mensa and Schoolboy Q who were also joined by Cam'ron protege, Vado. The four men chopped it up between the couches with Sway, touching on what's come, what's gone and what's on the horizon. Schoolboy Q, whose album, Oxymoron is about ready to explode from anticipation leading up to the February 25 release date, showed up looking like he stole a page out of Pharrell's style book with a full brimmed hat capping off an ensemble that included a full-length grey trench coat and pink 'TDE' sweatshirt. Anything goes I guess when you're the 'Hood Pope'. Vic joined Schoolboy on the couch, rocking a matching sweatshirt to Sway's and giving the pink 'TDE' piece a run for its...money? Anyway, check out the full episode, streaming below courtesy of MTV.
[iframe id="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:1005091/cp~id%3D1722516%26vid%3D1005091%26instance%3Dmtv%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A1005091" height="350" width="100%" frameborder="0"]
[Video] RH First Look: ZMoney
The temperature continued to drop, hitting seven degrees as my photographer, Bryan Lamb and myself pulled up to Emma's, a restaurant on the west side of Chicago. As we drove west from the heart of the loop of Chicago down Route 64, the landscape began to change. Amongst a neighborhood with more storefronts closed or shuttered than not, Emma's is a bright light, with it's freshly-painted windows and well-kept exterior, a hand-written sign braving the bitter cold to announce the day's special of catfish. Walking in we were warmly greeted, with unexpected laughter erupting when we announced who we were there to see. "They here to talk to Z Money!" his aunt shouted in somewhat disbelief from behind the counter. It's hard to blame her, too.
The first thing I remember about Z Money is how frustrating it was to find a photo of him this summer when trying to post his music. Employing a homegrown marketing scheme, the west side artist, who only started rapping something like a year and a half ago and his team decided to drop two mixtapes, Heroin Musik & Rich B4 Rap side by side on the same day. The release and the songs it contained made Complex Magazine's David Drake take notice, quickly branding Z Money as an artist to know by including him on their list of "25 Artists to Watch Out For". No on had heard of him before that, he hadn't done an interview, few had seen his face; Z Money was largely a mystery.
To solve some of that mystery, Lamb and myself now found ourselves in front of two steaming plates of shrimp n' grits, the special at Emma's. The restaurant is owned and operated by Z Money and from what we could tell, staffed as well by family members. Named after his Grandma, the cozy spot serves soul food with a smile and some home made Kool-aid. You don't hear about a lot of 20-year-old aspiring rap artists who own their own company, let alone a restaurant. But, contrary to much of his lyrical content, Z Money is out to better those around him as his name continues to grow. Thanks to the folks at Vice, much of the country now in one way or another refers to Chicago as "Chiraq", a 'clever' marketing scheme to sell individual's realities as a product. Talking to Z, one can feel his passion for showing a different route, his penchant for being a role model and his hunger to continue to climb. There is talk of upping the game and releasing a trio of mixtapes later this year. For now, though, this young Chicagoan is reveling in life and preparing himself to be the next big thing from a city that has steadily produced some of the top up and coming artists in hip-hop over the past couple of years. Check out the full conversation I had with Z Money, below.
Stream Kitty Cash's Latest Mix for SSENSE
Last month, when I had a chance to catch up with up and coming New York City DJ Kitty Cash on the heels of her well-received Love The Free mixtape she expressed her eagerness to get right back to work after having finished one project. "As soon as I was done, I was like, 'Damn, I can’t wait to work on part two'." Well, we got the latest from Kitty Cash last night as she continues to craft interesting and ear-catching mixes, this time for the likes of SSENSE. The piece of work brings together elements of airy 808s and features the likes of Kanye, Tinashe, Tamia, Sade and Beyonce to help you chill out while hiding indoors from the polar vortex. Check out the full stream of Kitty Cash's latest mix streaming below.
[RH Interview] Conspirator
Conspirator is a band of chance, really. The project came together when The Disco Biscuits' Marc Brownstein and keyboardist Aron Magner as a way to explore the burgeoning and seemingly endless world that was electronic music, back in 2005 after Sam Altman left DB at that time. Allowing for a more free electronic experience, the pair established the side gig as a way to add and remove musicians at a whim to create a range of sounds. The duo has been playing regularly with Chris Michetti of RAQ, and KJ Sawka of Pendulum and last year released the head-thumping EP Unleashed before heading out on a slew of national headlining dates under the banner of "The Dynasty Tour." The crew rolls through Chicago's Concord Music Hall as they continue to roll through the polar vortex as the musical journey they started years ago takes them from coast to coast throughout this year. I recently got to catch up with Brownstein while the band was just getting out on tour, check out or conversation on the later pages.
[Video] Donnie Trumpet & Peter CottonTale Talk Tour Life
Video by FragDfilms
Donnie Trumpet & Peter CottonTale have been very busy lately. The pair of Chicago-raised musicians each saw a transformation in their careers last year as Chance The Rapper's Acid Rap, aided by horn play from Donnie and plenty of production from CottonTale, vaulted their close friend to the forefront of not only the national hip-hop scene, but the larger music world in general.
At the time, Donnie was playing trumpet for Kids These Days, who broke up weeks after the Acid Rap release and spent the summer touring with Frank Ocean while CottonTale continued to work with Vic Mensa on Innanetape and joined Chance and Mac Miller on the road for a national tour. Everything came together in mid October as both appropriately were chosen by Chance to join him on his first national headlining tour, dubbed the "Social Experiment Tour." The tour, which ran from October through December 19 and sold out in almost every city, was a fitting end to a wild year for both Donnie and CottonTale, who served as Music Director for the tour. We caught up with the pair last week at Force One Seven Studios to get a little insight into what life on the road is like and what the whole experience meant to each.
Check out the full video below and be sure to catch Donnie Trumpet performing tomorrow night at The Riff in Chicago's South Loop for his "Farewell Donnie" show, details listed below the video.
[youtube id="7pdrx0GHTRI"]
[First Look] Kitty Cash
Photography By Julian Schratter
Over the past year and a half or so there has been a hip-hop resurgence in New York City that has had many, including Hot97's Peter Rosenberg, calling it a "Renaissance of Hip-hop". Then sentiment isn't just because of the music, which has spilled from the city's streets for generation, but rather the re-incarnation of hip-hop culture in society on a real level. Perhaps no one else in the scene embodies that realness as much as Brooklyn native, Kitty Cash, who firmly established herself with an eclectic, thought-out 19-track mixtape, Love The Free, which dropped just before the new year. The project featured a smattering of original tracks from an assortment of artists from across the country, including the like of Vic Mensa, Kilo Kish, Phony PPL, Jesse Boykins, The GTW, Jean Deaux, Justin Rose and more. It's a fun project that calls to mind different aspects of growing up through the 90s and early 2000s, as the newly-minted 25-year-old can attest to. The official DJ for Kilo Kish, who provides the introduction to Love The Free, Kitty Cash has been able to observe things from behind the scenes a bit, and used those experiences to put together the debut release. I had the chance to catch up with Kitty Cash just after the new year as she was preparing for her birthday and thinking about what's next, read it all here.