[Interview] ProbCause: Turning Points
"Some artists can just pick up the mic and make amazing, confident songs and blow up quickly! I needed more time to develop and improve, but I think that will just make me even better in the end. Everyone can't be like Derrick Rose and have an immediate impact on the game - Some of us have to be more scrappy like Joakim Noah and show steady improvement over the course of our careers."
[Interview] Vic Mensa Is The Internet
Any way you look at it, Vic Mensa is a staple in Chicago's innovative musical landscape. The college-aged musician has been swerving through all the correct lanes since 2009 and has countless solo material under his belt, along with his role as a lead member of one of the nation's most exciting young bands in Kids These Days. What's next you may ask? I spoke to Mensa last night at SoundScape where he was working on his a new solo project, which is tentatively titled The Internet.
"I had this beat machine for a little while and just bullshitted with it for mad long," Vic says about the early stages of the project, one that will feature mostly his own production. "When I was on tour I was just sitting around, fucking with the beat machine because I was on the bus for so long. When I got off tour, I got into a groove of making simple ideas enough to write a song to."
With Traphouse Rock released, and some time off before their next tour, Vic has time to focus on his own solo project, one that was born out of a mushroom trip in which he convinced himself he was the Internet. He stuck with the concept after the shrooms wore off and saw real world parallels to his crazy trip. "The climate of the world we live in, the fabric of the society we live in, is so amorphous right now, something that’s constantly changing," he said during a break in recording. "I think the Internet is a representation of continuous change on its own, and I am that mothafucka."
Vic is in the earliest stages of the project and has no expectations or reasons to rush out the music, but we could see something this spring or summer. Before then, he is still playing shows with Kids These Days and continuing to build with is SAVEMONEY camp. We'll keep you posted on the new project as time goes on. For now, keep bumping that Traphouse Rock.
[Interview] RiFF RaFF: Just Go With It
"If you see somebody hating, point'em out, point'em out."
It's 9PM on Friday night, and I'm drunk. I've been at Reggie's for almost two hours, drinking free PBR's, followed by more age appropriate imports, waiting for the same thing that everyone is waiting for, RiFF RaFF. The thought of me ever waiting to see an artist like RiFF RaFF is surprising to me, and to many of my friends who were also at Reggie's that night, also waiting to see RiFF RaFF.
It's been that way for me, and many others, increasingly over the last few years. As me and my peers grow up and out of our Hip Hop snob stages, music fans and critics throughout the country are holding artists to fewer and fewer standards, and being less rigid as to who can do what, and how it should be done. I don't think it's as much that the old rules don't apply, it's more so that their application has changed. It's like we've collectively decided to "stop hating," and let artists live. They don't need to be placed in the same category as Nas, but they have a category, and it's cool.
"There's more and more people who are different and they're accepted," RiFF RaFF tells me backstage about his own growing acceptance, shortly before his performance. "So it's like, 'damn, OK. Riff Raff's been doing this for a minute, why haven't we accepted him?'" While it's not a complex explanation, it's almost spot on, as RiFF RaFF has been able to go from being considered a joke in many circles, to kind of a joke, to kind of serious.
A big part of this transformation was RiFF RaFF's recent signing to Diplo and Mad Decent, as well as records with Action Bronson and Alchemist, two artists beloved by Hip Hop Heads. Even the ones that are still "hating." This change is interesting, especially given that RiFF RaFF hasn't really changed anything at all. He's hasn't conformed to any Hip Hop standards, in fact he only goes further into his own direction.
"I'm not going to do what someone else wants me to do to make them like me. I couldn't care less," RiFF RaFF says. "I've started fully at the bottom, I've had people hate me since day one. It's nothing going to change now, if anything, I'm going to keep continuing to do what I do and hopefully I'll gain fans and succeed at everything. I can't change based on somebody so-called liking me or not."
In this new interview, I talk to RiFF RaFF about why he embraced Chief Keef early on, signing to Mad Decent, why people like him, and more. Hit the next page to read the full interview with RiFF RaFF.
[Video] Action Bronson Interview with Tim Westwood
I missed this one a couple days ago... Action Bronson hit up Tim Westwood's show while he was on his European tour. The interview is pretty funny, as Bronson gives it up for big girls, and of course, discusses food. Peep the video below, and remember Action Bronson is back in Chicago 1/27.
http://youtu.be/h6FOoRlzMjI
[Interview] Roman Flowrs Speaks on Yung $eed$ EP
Roman Flowrs hit our radar in the fall of 2012, and finished the year strong with his #FlowrsFriday weekly series. Flowrs seized the momentum created in 2012 to start 2013 by unleashing a quality EP titled YUNG $eed$. The latest release serves as a warm up for his forthcoming full length, #OneHellOfAPromo Mixtape, and today Roman gives the listeners an update on what's to come and the inside on the recently released YUNG $eed$.
Read the interview on the next page.
[Interview] Big Boi: Player By Choice
With great risk comes great reward. It's a cliche saying, but it's definitely true. With great risk can also come great failure, but that side of things didn't make it into the popular saying, and after all, that's where the fun lies. One person having fun right now is Big Boi, 1/2 of the Mighty Outkast and 100% himself. On December 11th, Big Boi will release his new solo album (number 3 with an asterisk as he says), Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors.
Last week, Big Boi hit Chicago to play the album for select fans and tastemakers. Before hitting play on the new LP, Big Boi talked with us about keeping it player over playing it safe, having fun with music and where he's at right now, and the artwork behind the new LP. In a day when risks are being overly calculate, Big Boi continues to throw creative caution to the wind. And with great results. Peep the video piece below. Shot and edited by Andrew Zeiter.
[Interview] DJ Muggs: Like Water
When DJ Muggs released his EP, Sound Clash Business, in mid October, I sent him a text saying how much I enjoyed it. I never really expect a response from any artist that I text, and definitely not someone of Muggs' legendary status. It also happened to be 10 AM Chicago time when I sent this text, making it 8 AM for DJ Muggs. Those aren't exactly office hours, and definitely not in the entertainment business, when some are punching out in the wee hours of the morning. "Thank you, brother," read Muggs' response, sent just a few minutes later.
After thinking about it, I shouldn't have been surprised at all. For one, Muggs is one of the most genuine and good dudes I've been able to meet over the years. Second, while I think of Muggs as Hip Hop royalty, and may have my own expectations for how he should act, those are my expectations only and not shared by the man immortalized in House of Pain's "Jump Around" as the person to "let the funk flow."
"When I look at myself, I'm still a beginner, I'm still learning, and I got a long ways to go," Muggs would tell me about a week later in our candid interview, done at a similar early hour. "I don't sit back and smile with a fucking pompous attitude and my feet up. I sold 40 million records, I've made millions of dollars, I traveled the world. So what? That was cool. That's what you did. What are you going to do?"
Muggs is going to release a new album soon, one that expands on his Sound Clash Business EP. It is will be released on January 15th via Ultra Records under the title Bass For Face and presents new dub-step with a Hip Hop aesthetic. After that, he'll be dropping a number of Hip Hop albums and other projects that he says are absolutely on some other shit. "The last two years I've really made 200 songs and created all these projects. Now everything's almost done, so you're going to see a lot coming out from me next year, you're going to be like, 'what the fuck?'
Truth is, Muggs, a man that's sold over 40 million records, is still putting in work like he hasn't done shit. Read this interview to see how that's fueled his success, exactly what he has planned for 2013, and why he's a huge fan of Chief Keef.
[Interview] AEMMP Hip Hop Artist of The Week: thekidDirty
Another week, another new artist to be profiled in our continuing collaboration with Columbia College's AEMMP Records. The student run record label has been scouring campus, looking for students putting in a double-shift as aspiring artists. Today we get to know thekidDirty, an advertising major who found Hip Hop as a teenager after playing in rock bands since he got a drum set at the age of 6. Check out his story, as well as some music in the latest feature.