Usually folks label me as a hiphop journalist or all about hiphop culture. While I don't take it as an insult, I'd like for you all to know that I do have just as much interest in other music cultures besides hiphop. Bluegrass in certainly one of them.
For Examiner.com, I covered Atlanta's annual Bubbapalooza in Little Five Points at Star Bar. Other than the subconscious racial tension - mainly along the lines of "whoa, what's this Black girl doing here?!?" - I had a great time getting to know on a fond level what bluegrass, hillbilly folk-type music is all about. Here's an excerpt of what went down:
Bringing the folk back to night one was Bareknuckle Betties. Toting a guitar, banjo, washboard and an upright bass, these four ladies put on a swell rockabilly performance. They brought an authentic and forgotten super vintage girl punk feel – because the REAL original girl punk bands were ladies of blues and rockabilly!
Emotions rose as Anna Kramer and The Lost Cause began their set, specifically from “Mama,” (Gregory) Smalley’s mother, as she was hugging one of the many attendees wanting to pay their respect to the Bubbapalooza family. At only night one this annual music festival showed the values behind this kind of music, and the cause of keeping this festival alive, despite the death of their founder 15 years ago.
Check out the entire recap of the two-night festival on Examiner by clicking here!
All month this month and last month, there has been all kinds of artists getting their ish together for SXSW. One band who has tons going for them next week - including a new EP, tons of firepower and spunk - is the White House Band. Who are they and what in God's name is a "New Vogue" sound? David E. Beats explains below.
How did you come together and form the White House Band?
I was doing my thing solo, and decided that if I wanted to take things to the next level a band would be needed. I found the guys, and the rest is history!
Why name yourself after the home of the Oval Office anyway? How often do you guys get the label “political group” because of your name?
Never. I'm from DC, and I always wanted a band called The White House Band. I try to keep the content non political!
Can you further explain “New Vogue,” aside from it being a fusion of hard rock, hiphop and blues?
It’s just a new style of music period, where things don’t fit in the standard urban/pop categories.
We literally love everyone. From Kanye to Led Zepp to Thin Lizzy etc. It would take too long to name.
Tell me about your creative process because I see on your site that all of you except Elder write lyrics. Take me through a studio session with you guys from getting a concept to writing out the song to executing it. Do you guys sit and come up with content think-tank style or is it just a matter of the song being based on how you guys feel that day?
Songs come about usually when I come thru with a riff or idea. Then we just build off that. Literally. It’s that simple.
What’s the deal with your new project The Stimulus Package, content-wise? What should I be looking out for when I bump this? Should I be ready to party? Chill? Spaz? Think politically? Call my mom or my kids to tell them I love them? What kind of record is The Stimulus Package?
Just be ready to enjoy a good record. We're all about entertaining, and we just want people to feel entertained!
What will be the next project from WHB? What material should we be expecting from you now that Stimulus is out?
Expect more groundbreaking shit. Basically
How do you plan on further developing as musicians?
Easy, doing more live shows, seeing what the crowd likes and dislikes and keep hitting them with what they like!
What do you look forward to the most at SXSW?
Playing some of the most bangingest showcases out there!
Ok, besides performing, what’s another thing you look forward to the most at SXSW?
That about it. Maybe the warm weather!
Is this your first time at SXSW? What should folks expect from your show at SXSW?
This is not the first time but it is the first time we will be making an impact down there. Just expect to be entertained. And to have fun!
What’s your ultimate purpose as musicians and as a band?
To entertain. Music first above all else. I just want to have fun and I'm sure you all do too!
Where can people find you and keep up with you guys ?
Grammy award-winning artist Adele made a good decision taking some time to create her next album. Folks needed to fully digest 19, let alone her powerful hit "Chasing Pavements," before hearing something from her again. Yes, that album was that good! But people are all to familiar with the sophomore curse (where the artist either has the album shelved or it blows). Does Adele fall victim to that curse with 21?
Adele fires off 21 with "Rolling In The Deep," which highlights her throwback, Motown sound. While it's evident early that she's proving she's back like she never left, this is a sound that is beginning to go through the "let's play this out" phase. Fortunately, she later displays new perspectives in her songwriting, singing abilities and trying new sounds. The bad news is each and every songs is plagued by her out-the-booth affairs.
Can't knock her retro vibe though! The most surprising tracks on this album are "Rumour Has It" and "If It Hadn't Been For Love" because Adele steps out of the box folks have put her in while sticking to her retro roots.
Throughout 21 Adele's sound extends from just sounding retro, thanks to different variations in her singing, the production and her attitude. "Take It All" is a great example of this, as there are hints of almost every ballad-driven/uplifting genre (Gospel, Country, even Classical) plus her overall attitude towards her heartbreak. Instead of chasing her guy, she's telling him she doesn't want anything to do with him. "I'll Be Waiting" successfully shows her overall growth, as she gives listeners a new side to her vocal style. It's a refreshing song - it has that happy AT&T commercial feel to it.
21 has the most unique production clan with this year's music, which in turn makes Adele a more diverse artist than her previous work. Whereas 19 seemed one-dimensional in production, sound, lyrics, etc, this album is on some hi-def, 3D-type stuff. With the help of Rick Rubin and countless others, Adele improves dramatically as far as her sound goes.
In all of this "you can't tear me down" type of songwriting, the bad news (if you wanna call it that) is that each and every song is plagued by her out-the-booth affair with her former boyfriend. It's safe to say that the entire second half of 21's tracks reeks of heartbreak, revenge and empowerment (in that order). Luckily, these three raging emotions, as delivered by Adele, terrificly complement one another. Not to mention the artistry laced in every song.
Overall, there is no bad track on 21. One would think after winning a Grammy and having the greatest ballads of this generation that Adele would fall back. Instead she uses it get stronger, even through her breakup. Hopefully, this trend of making heartbreak songs will end soon with her because the world already has Jazmine Sullivan. Sorry, but it's true!
I have been meaning to post this Q&A session I had with Bilal for a long time (since we did it back in August), and being that I saw this marvelous video of him spazzing out on the B3 hammond to his rendition of "Tainted Love," it only felt right. The highlights from this interview can be seen at Xposure magazine, so feel free to check out that site because the print edition should be coming out really soon! So enjoy the video, then scroll down to see the entire interview unfold before your eyes!
I’m gonna give you the floor and let you explain your sound and craft to me. Well, I do genre-bending music. I’ve approached jazz, which is what I have come out of, and soul is in me because I started singing in the church at about 3 years old. But it’s just whatever I feel like doing – a mash-up of a lot of things, a mash-up of different sounds and a lot of different genres of music.
You’ve worked with almost every artist, underground and mainstream, from Common and Erykah Badu to Robert Glasper and even Zap Mama. What other artists do you want to collaborate with before you’re done? I want to do some stuff with Thom Yorke from Radiohead actually though. I like their stuff. They’re dope! Their style seems really organic. A lot of the collaborations I’ve done are with people that just kind of happen that way. Cats would just hit me up, and we would work something out. I’m really in a space right now where I’m developing my own type of sound and creation.
Is that what happened with your last label that made you wanna work with Plug Research? Well, what made you want to leave the label you were with and go work with Plug? Plug is an independent label and it really just kind of happened. I wouldn’t know if I could really be able to do an album on a large scale until I know I can recreate this whole business aspect in a different way. I think the best way to do things now, if you want to be original, not to be too general, but you get a lot more leverage these days when you’re independent first. That’s the meal ticket, not to mention that I like Plug Research. The people that they choose to bring out like Flying Lotus, Exile, and they give people the freedom to create however it is that they want to create.
So how did you meet them? I had met them not too long ago. The way I had met them was they were doing a record with Shafiq Husayn, the dude who’s a part of Sa-Ra. I was doing a thing on his album, and then one of the guys from Plug Research came to the studio and heard what I was doing. Me and Shifiq was trading off, like if I did a song for him then he’d do a song for me. The guy from Plug got to hear the song that I was doing for Shafiq, and he was like “oh my God, what the hell are you doing this for?” And I’m like “I’m doing this because I love it. I’m doing music man!” He just kept calling me up afterwards wanting to do an album with them like “come on, you gotta do an album! You wanna do an album right?” And I really didn’t know what I was going to do because I been in a lot of contractual things and hang-ups. After I had got everything right and together, I don’t know, things just started to go in the way that they should do. Being divine and organic, just flowing correctly.
So, your new album Airtight’s Revenge, for starters, why that title? Revenge is a way of turning that word on your side of what I have encountered in this business. I haven’t officially put an album out in 9 years. I had an album 6 years ago that I was doing, but that got bootlegged… It really had me down, and I almost, I really wasn’t thinking about music at that point, but then in being bootlegged a lot of cats started loving my sound even more. Then I started doing gigs, and getting calls from Jay-Z wanting to do music, and going on tour like I had an album out. What all that did was make me want to do it even more from the soul and from the heart, and not let myself be dumbed-down, and just do music! And that’s what Airtight’s Revenge is. Airtight is my own frame of mind, and Revenge is the fact that I have more love and more drive and more energy and more inspiration now more than ever to do music.
The cover of the album, similar to Malcolm X holding the piece and KRS-One and BDP’s album cover as well, so can you explain the significance of the album cover and their similarities? Malcolm X was willing to do things by any means necessary, and that photo really represented that. In that photo he was doing his thing, and he was willing to break down and fight what it is in his calling. With BDP, they took it and did the same thing because they came in with that reckless sound that was all their own. Both KRS-One and Malcolm X were throwing it down, they were on the frontlines, and the photos really represent that. So when I’m doing Airtight’s Revenge I took the rifle out and put in the mic because that’s my sound. I’m representing my sound and I’m in a place right now where I’m doing it regardless. I’m doing it for the love, and in all my way and my style. That’s what I’m about – being new, fresh and different, by any means necessary, of course!
What is the story within this album? What content should the audience expect to hear? There’s a lot of short stories on the album. Got some blues songs. Some were made to really spark conversation afterwards. It’s not all A and B type of songs about love or crooning about it. A lot of it is just things that I deal with in my mind and questions that I talk to myself. A lot of these songs really help me understand a lot of these things going on. That goes along with my children, who I talk about. I talk about the economy. I talk about religion and spirituality. I talk about a lot of different things. I look at what I do as a standpoint to really do those type of things, like how Bob Marley did or Curtis Mayfield.
I wanna ask this out of shear curiosity because I’ve seen a shift from you as an artist in what you want to sing. What is your ultimate goal as a musician, beyond just developing your own sound? Or do you just see that being enough? My ultimate goal, well, that’s a good place to start. But definitely to doing it to where the whole world understands and knows about it, and loves it. I want to make music that’s gonna last like all the greats have done. >>>> I want to get to the point where my son can put this on for his children and be like “this is Granddad,” and they’ll be like “oh my God! Granddad was good, he was on some shit Dad!” Then he’ll be like “yeah, I know. And now you know why you play like that son.” <<<< MY FAVORITE QUOTE!!!
Would you care to share some advice to the young folks trying to get their feet wet in the music business at all? Yeah man, come up with a sound yourself, and really, really, really work that thing and work it out. Don’t be afraid to do things people don’t normally do and have your own sound first. Do it that way, and you know, come from the heart for the art. Don’t do it for the money, do something that’s new.
, let alone her powerful hit "
," before hearing something from her again. Yes, that album was that good! But people are all to familiar with the sophomore curse (where the artist either has the album shelved or it blows). Does Adele fall victim to that curse with 21?
," which highlights her throwback, Motown sound. While it's evident early that she's proving she's back like she never left, this is a sound that is beginning to go through the "let's play this out" phase. Fortunately, she later displays new perspectives in her songwriting, singing abilities and trying new sounds. The bad news is each and every songs is plagued by her out-the-booth affairs.
. Sorry, but it's true!
," it only felt right. The highlights from this interview can be seen at 