crib notes TV catches up with Atlanta recording artist Spree Wilson to learn more about his recent move to New York City and what’s he’s discovered on his journey. We talk about his upcoming projects and his debut solo music video for “Word!” (produced by No I.D.) which premieres this month on MTV.
Click here for the full, uncut audio interview.
They’ve been called the black Eurythmics. They even ate pancakes with Prince.
And all of that before dropping their first official release, last year’s double EP The Beauty in Distortion/Land of the Lost.
Yep, the genre-mashing, L.A.-based duo J*Davey is kind of a big deal. Which is why we lept at the chance to e-mail Jack Davey (the female singer with the dude’s name) and Brook D’Leau (the male producer with the chick’s name) some questions in advance of their Sat., March 14 Atlanta concert at Sugarhill (see show info below).
The first couple of electro-pop/future-soul/fill-in-the-blank-fusion explains how the right mixture of testosterone and vomit can create a beautiful love child.
Jack, on top of rocking a dude’s name, your lyrics and stage show drip with feminine sexuality, yet you convey a strength that’s almost masculine. Ever feel like you’re walking a tightrope between the two?
Jack: Not really. The music forces certain things out of me that I wasn’t previously aware of, so I just go with it without really thinking about it. I’m simply a vessel at the whim of the genius. I feel as though I embody a little bit of everything a lover wants his/her girl to be: strong, confident, sexy, yet vulnerable. The boy’s name is really just a moniker for the adventurous spirit, the little gypsy pirate who comes along to shake things up a bit. It’s funny … my nutritionist recently told me that I have high levels of testosterone, which explains why the music and the stage show are so sexually charged. I have the hormones of a 16-year-old boy. Lucky me!
(more…)
God bless the child that’s got his own.
From the outset of SMKA Productions‘ newly released compilation, The 808 Experiment Vol. 1, it’s clear that Atlanta has finally arrived.
Surely, you say, the hip-hop capital of the world is no newbie to rap’s all-encompassing map. And you’re right. But among Atlanta’s emerging rap underworld — filled with hipster-leaning hoppers, 2nd generation ATLiens, and otherwise unidentifiable but objectively fly MCs — that original, Dirty South sound had been all but bleached out and forsaken. Until now.
With The 808 Experiment, SMKA accomplishes the seemingly impossible: It bridges Atlanta’s slick, hipster-hop derivative with the indigenous, red clay swagger for which the A has always been known.
Beats simultaneously swim in bass-drunk, 808 kicks while dancing between melodic, pastel-colored keys. Even when SMKA dares to sample esoteric pop songs like Sting’s “Englishman in New York,” the resulting track ["Alien (When in Rome) feat. Jay West, Savage and Gilles] is certifiably stamped “ATL.”
Their secret weapon? SMKA producers Blake “808 Blake” German and Kyle “7King” King, along with in-house “hustler” Mike Walberg, are all Atlanta natives. Damn near unheard of in this day and age, right? Meanwhile, the compilation features plenty among the city’s rising crop of natives and transplants alike, including Gripplyaz, A. Leon Craft, and Young Trimm (”Caddy”), trio Supreeme (”I’m On Fire”), Wil May (”Sweet Confusion”), and o8o of T!Katz (”Fire in the Hole”). But some of the biggest surprises come from lesser known cats who turn in equally stellar performances, including Double R of Miami, Nuff Sed, J Beans, Dee Rail, Fat Tony, Niko Villamor, Jay West, Rome Fortune, J Young, Radcliff Hyphen, Crysis, Brandon Michael, Toussaint, Alexandria Lushington and Tom P of Decatur. El da Sensei of New Jersey-based Artifacts is also featured.
With only 48 hours since it’s release it’s impossible to say just yet, but here’s hoping The 808 Experiment represents a truly formative moment in what’s already proven to be a watershed year for Atlanta’s slightly off-the-radar hip-hop movement.
Needless to say, I had to talk to the guys behind SMKA to find out where the heck they’ve been hiding. Oh, and you’ll never guess what SMKA stands for?
DOWNLOAD: The 808 Experiment Vol. 1
Y’all seem to have come from out of nowhere?
Mike: I’d say that’s pretty much right. 7King has been an engineer for awhile, he’s worked out of a couple of studios around town. 808 Blake has been producing for about five years since his freshman year in college. And I went to a business school out in L.A. So it’s kind of a motley crew. But we went to high school together at Paideia, but since graduation we all started doing our own thing and then Blake kinda got us all together and wanted to get serious about it. So it started about four months ago, man, at Chik-Fil-A during lunch, and we just kinda said let’s start a company and get serious about it.
What Chik-Fil-A were y’all at?
Chealsea Handler gets the typically stone-faced T.I. to crack jokes and open up about his various “situations” — i.e. impending prison sentence, baby mamas, etc. Classic footage:
… And he got his vote on in Georgia yesterday. Click here for pics.
