WATCH: 50 CENT FT. EMINEM “PATIENTLY WAITING” MAGNUM OPUS

The Jay Five EPK (video)

Here is an EPK from 2x nominated lyricist of the year, Jay Five. Type of things that I am looking for over here at the OHHA from artists. The EPK makes it very easy to connect with the artist and understand who they are and what they do.

Allhiphop.com Interviews Manager Steve Lobel

Recorded at the 2012 Ohio Hip Hop Music Conference.

Interview with Maddi Madd (Who stole his songs?)

I was able to catch up with rapper, Maddi Madd who not only has some pretty awesome features on his album, “Success” [Bizzy Bone, Flo-Rida, Jodeci, Ginuwine, and a secret special guest], but he had songs stolen from some of the industry’s biggest names.

Oh, and he’s from Akron.

Essince: Tell me a little about yourself. Where are you from?

Maddi Madd: The westside of akron ohio.

Essince: How long have you been making music?

Maddi Madd: I’ve been making music since elementary school, i use to hold the keyboard up to the mic on a karaoke machine and record whole albums. the quality was crap but people still wanted to hear them lol. professionally, since i was 17…thats when i got my 1st record deal…so 10years professionally.

Essince: Did you ever do any music things besides rhyming? Did you ever Dj or produce?

Maddi Madd: Yes i co-produced alot of my songs as far as musical input not actual playing of instruments or beat equipment.

Essince: Talk to me a little about the situation with Kanye.

Maddi Madd: Jay-z’s engineer (young guru) mixed about a album worth of songs for me at baseline studios in newyork and one of those songs were gold digger. guru was excited about the idea of the song and asked me if it was going to be my 1st single i replied ” no but it will be one of my singles & i plan to do a more upbeat remix of it to make it more club”. i leave newyork & end up performing at jamie foxx’s charity event and my friend charlucci knows jamie so we was kickin it back at his house/studio snoop was there & a few other people. jamie had talked about his upcoming song with kanye. when i finally heard the song i knew immediately that guru had given my idea to kanye so i called guru and he never returned my call and when i tried to call him again a few days later i noticed that he changed his number. i havnt heard from him since.

Essince: Do you feel like it’s difficult to talk about a situation like that? Are you afraid it would cause negative opinions of you or close doors for you or is it important to tell your story?

Maddi Madd: I feel like people should never be afraid of the truth. i also feel like this is a better avenue to express my frustrations with the negative aspect of the industry. i want upcoming artist to learn that when you are working with different engineers and producers to have them sign a confidentiality agreement and not to expect for these people to be real or honest. i would rather do things this way then hurt somebody and it is a possibility that this could been seen in the wrong light. if my idea’s are taken and used as fuel to get a person or song to the top i would be a fool not to feel like i deserve something for it.

Essince: Has that ever happened before? Having a song stolen?

Maddi Madd: Yes it has the rapper redman stole a song called muthfuckas from me and put it on his malpractice album.(i think thats the album he put it on”

Essince: What is the next step?

Maddi Madd: [The next step] is to show the people why artist steal from me. my album entitled “success” will be everything they want from an artist. RELEASE DATE MAY22 OR SUMMER 2012

Essince: Any final shout outs? Where can we check our Maddi Madd?

Maddi Madd: You can find MADDI MADD AT www.maddimadd.com and follow me on twitter at @MADDIMADD.

S/o [to] Lebron James’ right hand man, Maverick Carter. S/o blimpcity records, bungalo, universal distribution. bgyrl, and the true fans of artist who actually have something to say and offer to the world of music.

Black Lifestyle in Japan.

This is an interesting video I saw today on facebook talking about the influence of black culture on the youth of Japan. Just as Anime and video games have influenced the west, Hip Hop is now an ever growing culture in the east.  In this interview however, its not just Hip Hop, but black lifestyles that are emulated.

 

 

Laugh if you want but I think its dope to see people in a country on the other side of the world embrace the culture whole heatedly.

Thisis50 Interview With Machine Gun Kelly (Video)

My Conversation with Phenom…

Phenom

I felt a sense of enthusiasm as I walked down the basement stairs. I was anxious to enter the walls where so much talent had been captured. Phenom, a producer from Cleveland who has worked with everyone from Poetic Republic and Izzrael to Brooklyn Zu and H Flo, was allowing me to visit The West 41 Side Studio and sit down and talk with him about his love of music. Through Twitter I saw pictures of the studio but I had no idea that the graffiti on the walls would be so captivating.  Phenom explains to me who has tagged each wall and then walks me over to a chair. We sit down, and our conversation begins.

The first thing I wanted to know from Phenom was why music? Phenom explained that he remembered in the fourth grade a “cute” girl was singing Wrex-N-Effect-Rump Shaker. He said, after he heard her he listened to 92.3 (remember when that was the “Urban Station”) trying to figure out the song. Since then he has been coupled with music. Each time our conversation lead to the beginning of his career, Phenom referred back to his school projects. He talked with so much pride when he spoke of the talent shows and his first beats. Phenom also said that music wasn’t his only vice. He also once aspired to be a professional sports player. He played baseball at Marietta College where he majored in Chemistry and minored in Math. Phenom also has a vast interest in cars. I could hear the passion in his voice when he talked about cars.  He said, “I like them fast.”

Next  I wanted to know if Phenom remembered the first beat he ever constructed. He laughed and said, “Yeah. It was called Nature.” He said he made it when he was about 12 or 13 on a keyboard.  He could not remember much about the beat so we moved on.

I was curious about who influenced Phenom in Hip Hop, R&B, and production since he has his hands in all three. It seems like you can tell a lot about a person if you know who they look up to. In Hip Hop Phenom was influenced by Mobb Deep. He was quick to clear up that he wasn’t saying they lived the same type of lifestyle, it was more of the way Mobb Deep’s music  made him feel. Dream influenced Phenom in the R&B genre. He describes Dream as “Ridculous”. While moving his hand in a wavy motion Phenom explained to me how he sees the album as seamless. Next we talked about production. I was interested in what producers influenced Phenom because I am a fan of his beats.  He said Timbaland first because,”  Timbaland has his own lane that nobody has stepped in it”. Next was Havoc, and Swizz Beats.

We then moved on to discuss Phenom’s live performance.  I explained to him how I noticed his awesome energy on stage. Believe me Phenom on stage is always a treat. I asked him his pre stage thoughts, and he said he thinks two things, don’t F up and EXPLODE! If you have ever witnessed Phenom on stage you know all about the explosion. During that conversation Phenom told me that he loves performing R&B because of the connection he feels with the audience.

What’s next for Phenom? Phenom is doing shows throughout the area promoting his current project “Elevator Music”. You can catch him on The Dust Attic Tour with DJ Jack Da Rippa or somewhere in the city performing. He also is working with Twizz from KEYEL on a project called “Shit Storm”. I heard a little from this project and I can’t wait for that to land in my inbox!  Also be on the lookout for a Hip Hop mixtape from Phenom.  Follow Phenom on Twitter: @pheens

Peace!

Sweet Thoughts

Twitter:@sweetthoughts18

Check Out the two BONUS TRACKS below from Phenom’s current project “Elevator Music”.

RUNNING BACK

MAKE U A STAR

LolaMack.com Exclusive Interview With GLC

Big Heff’s Ohio industry Promo Tour 2011 Hit Cleveland and I got a chance to get an interview with GLC! We discussed his inspiration to not only become an artist but a business man, future projects with Dame Dash, collab’s that we should be expecting to see this year. As well as a possible video for Kid Cudi’s “The End” (ft. GLC Nicole Wray and Chip Tha Ripper)

JR the Star – “Schedule 1ne” 09 Producer of the Year.

Name: Jr_The_Star
Location: Orlando/Dayton/Atlanta
Contact/Booking Info:Jrexclusivebeatz@gmail.com / J.LeeManagement@gmail.com / 937-604-2464

What made you want to become a producer?
JR: Before I was a producer, I was a rapper, a really bad rapper that nobody wanted to give beats to so I figured I could make my own beats and rap to them but somewhere in the process I started to focus more on production.

Who was your first major placement?
JR: My first major artist placement was a song Stack Bundles( r.i.p) did called “Mr.Bakerman” , but my most known placement that people can directly identify my sound by is Lil Wayne-Beat Without Bass, and it was when Lil Wayne was the biggest artist in the game so over night I went from your average producer in my mom’s basement, already having small placements, to not doing tracks for under 5k.

How does it feel to win producer of the year?JR: Anytime you get recognition for your art it feels great, but this one in particular felt even better because it [was] from home, it was from my people, and it was very unexpected. When they announced I won I was at Louis Vuitton shopping so I never got to give my acceptance speech but I plan on giving the same one when we I win my first Grammy.

Which local artists do you work with, and which ones would you want to work with. JR: Right now my inbox is full of artist management requesting music from MGK, Chip, GTC, Corey Bapes, there is a long list of people I’m working with right now.

Got any projects your working on now?JR: I’m working with Travis Porter, I have 2 records on Jeezy’s TM103 project, and even more crazy this year I got a placement/song writing credit with Jagged Edge which is legendary , at least to me.

Top 3 artists who you think will make it out of OhioJR: It’s hard to say, too many good artists, anyone could go at any time so it’s hard to just name three.

Equipment usedJR: I won’t disclose that info, its top secret military-grade info……..But really I use two pencils, a pot and a few garden tools.

Who is your favorite producer?JR: Ènnio Morricone …… Google him

Which major artists have you produced for?JR: Lil Wayne, Stack Bundles, Travis Porter, Juelz Santana, Yung Berg, Lil Boosie, Jha Jha, Cam’ron, Jagged Edge & Many More.

I see that you are rapping in your new music video, are you more of a producer or a rapper?JR: I’m just an over-all artist, I rap to get a feeling across that won’t come with just beats, I sing, arrange spoken word, just everything with the arts, I’m apart of it, but I guess I’ll always consider myself a producer.

What do you think the Ohio Hip Hop Scene lacks?JR: Most people think it’s something tangible like venues, media outlets, to me it’s not any of those things. I think the music scene lacks enough people who have passion to be better artist and to be taken more seriously for their craft. Not enough people come out to the award show events, not enough people support other artist at there shows, not enough want to put their money back into their careers, so I think it lacks enough passionate artist who want to be better.

How did you get your first major placement?JR: By always having my music with me and by speaking to people about it and one day I spoke to the right person.

Any tips for upcoming producers?JR: To just stay focused and be original, so that when your time comes you’re ready……. There’s no such thing as luck, only preparation meeting opportunity.

Download JR The Star – “Schedule 1ne”

Ski Beatz interview by Winner’s Circle

My homegirl, Lex Effects of the Winners Circle caught up with the one and only, Ski Beatz.