Quncy Jones III On Future of Music

QD3, the man behind the “Beef” DVD series who also produced Tupac’s gem “Heaven Ain’t Hard to Find,” speaks to Vator.TV about the future of music and social networks.

The Bangz: Jerkin Music – Part 1 of 2

The Bangz: Jerkin Music (Part 1 of 2)

[Editor's note: According to their publicist, Bangz member Ella Ann was shot last night and has been hospitalized in critical condition. I have decided to go ahead with earlier plans to run this interview this week. It's the first of what I hope to be many original, in-depth interviews here at FreestylesWrittens.com. My prayers are with Ella Ann and her family and friends. -Slav Kandyba]

What’s jerkin, you ask? With the temperature soaring into the triple digits across Los Angeles on a weekday in August, I headed over the hill to a residence in the Van Nuys area of San Fernando Valley to find out.

I had arranged an interview with the Bangz, a new group responsible for the upbeat “We Jerkin (Boys With Tattoos)” single being played on LA’s urban radio stations. Sabi and Ella Ann are flagship artists on Van Nuys Records/Asylym/Warner Brothers. The label was founded by the Co-Stars, a veteran production team that has worked with Fantasia and Jordin Sparks, to push the Bangz career.

In the interview below, Sabi and Ella Ann discuss their background, their taste in music and much more – in the process perhaps convincing that they are real artists.

FW: What are your names?

Both: I am Sabi, and I am Ella Ann. We are the Bangz.

FW: Where are you from?

Sabi: I was born and raised in Inglewood, California, and always loved music since a child, as well as acting. I dabbled in both. I went to Westchester High and Cal State Long Beach.

Ella Ann: It’s me, Ella Ann. I was born in South Central LA and raised in Watts. I have a really big passion for fashion and music. I went to school in Harbor City Narbonne High and was going to school at the Art Institute, but it’s a little expensive. Well, you know, beating up people all day (laughs).

FW: What do you mean? I see you got tattoos all over you, a little thug in you (chuckles)?

Ella Ann: No no, it’s just a hobby and expression.

FW: I was just pulling into the Target store and heard “We Jerkin” on KDAY. Over at Power 106, I hear DJ Felli Fel has been showing it love, is that true?

Sabi: Yeah, he was the first one to jump on the record, from day one.

FW: Let’s talk about the song and the video for “We Jerkin (Boys with Tattoos).”

Ella Ann: “Boys With Tattoos” is the official name of it. We have the remix which has been getting crazy buzz, it’s like our crossover to top 40, it’s really pop-ish.

Sabi: We’re going more in that direction eventually.

FW: What’s your definition of the jerkin movement – or trend?

Sabi: It’s just the whole attitude of, “this is who I am and I don’t care,” freedom of expression for the younger generation, the youth. Loud colors, crazy haircuts.

FW: So would you say your demographic is high school students and freshmen and sophomores in college?

Ella Ann: It’s really important to have your target audience and make sure they’re happy. And then branch out.

FW: With music, it works in cycles because you stand on the shoulders of those artists that came before you. Who would you say are your influences?

Sabi: I’ve been influenced by everybody from Michael Jackson to Lauryn Hill, to current people like Santigold, to Brandy, to Katy Perry, I like her – we were just talking about how we want to go to her concert. It’s all over the place.

FW: So your influences are diverse.

Ella Ann: I love Pink, growing up I always listened to her and more rock bands, like Paramour, No Doubt, Estelle, who else … (Sabi: Coldplay?) Yeah, I like Coldplay, My Chemical Romance. I mean, I’m more like an alternative girl. Kings of Leon, they have a dope CD.

FW: A lot of hip-hop oriented people, purists, if you will, they kind of turn up their nose to jerkin. Why do you think that is?

Ella Ann: The thing that I compare the jerkin movement to is Soulja Boy. Soulja Boy came out, everybody laughed at him, but it’s just being able to take that risk and be able to do what you want to do. I don’t know if he’s the richest or whatever, but everyone knows who Souja Boy is. But because he took that chance and went out there and did him, it made him a big, big star.

Sabi: Any time something new comes in, there’s always criticism, there’s always people that hate it and people who love it. I think just because it’s new, we’re going to catch the negative the negative energy.

FW: Interscope sent me Soulja Boy’s “Crank Dat” and I ignored it, then few weeks later it became a smash. I don’t really put you guys in the same place as Soulja Boy because he’s that Southern hip-hop that a lot of purists don’t like. But your influences are Katy Perry and Coldplay, your music pulls from alternative and hip-hop..

Ella Ann: But I don’t think that with our songs we’ve dived into that yet. Those are our personal influences. With our music this is a door way in, it’s an opportunity for the west coast to come out with something that’s our own, we just jumped on it. This is a good opportunity for us to get our faces out there and get involved with the movement, and have some relationships with up and coming artists.

FW: Let me piggyback of what you just said, referring to jerkin as a movement. What’s your relationship with Audio Push, the New Boyz?

Both: It’s love. It’s like a big family.

FW: It seems like within L.A. one of the reasons that gangsta rap and underground rap haven’t been able to come up is because of the hate. Why do you think the jerkin is different in creating a bond?

Ella Ann: I don’t think it’s so much the dance, its more about going to someone and relating. Dance is a big part. Back in the day when you were crumpin, it’s like we were battling, you did your thing, I did mine.

Sabi: It’s such a positive movement. Like, there really isn’t people like in gangsta rap, talking about, like, I’m gonna kill you, this or that, whatever whatever. For the most part, people in this movement beef and battle through jerkin. It’s positive at the end of the day. And everybody has the same thing in common, we’re from the LA area, we’re all young, we’re all trying to do our our thing.

FW: At what point, because you’re here at the studio of Van Nuys Records, which I understand is linked to Warner Brothers/Asylum, did it go from a hobby to actual contract signing?

Sabi: It was always a dream, a goal.

Part 2 coming soon

[Author's note: According to their publicist, Bangz member Ella Ann (real name: Korttney Elliott) was shot last night and has been hospitalized in critical condition. Read BallerStatus.com news story for more details. I have decided to go ahead with earlier plans to run this interview this week. It's the first of what I hope to be many original, in-depth interviews here at FreestylesWrittens.com. My prayers are with Ella Ann and her family and friends. -Slav Kandyba]

What’s jerkin, you ask? With the temperature soaring into the triple digits across Los Angeles on a weekday in August, I headed over the hill to a residence in the Van Nuys area of San Fernando Valley to find out.

I had arranged an interview with the Bangz, a new group responsible for the upbeat “Boys With Tattoos (We Jerkin)” single being played on LA’s urban radio stations. Sabi and Ella Ann are flagship artists on Van Nuys Records/Asylym/Warner Brothers. The label was founded by the Co-Stars, a veteran production team that has worked with Fantasia and Jordin Sparks, to push the Bangz career.

In the interview below, Sabi and Ella Ann discuss their background, their taste in music and much more – in the process perhaps convincing that they are real artists.

FreestylesWrittens.com: What are your names?

Both: I am Sabi, and I am Ella Ann. We are the Bangz.

FW: Where are you from?

Sabi: I was born and raised in Inglewood, California, and always loved music since a child, as well as acting. I dabbled in both. I went to Westchester High and Cal State Long Beach.

Ella Ann: It’s me, Ella Ann. I was born in South Central LA and raised in Watts. I have a really big passion for fashion and music. I went to school in Harbor City Narbonne High and was going to school at the Art Institute, but it’s a little expensive. Well, you know, beating up people all day (laughs).

FW: What do you mean? I see you got tattoos all over you, a little thug in you (chuckles)?

Ella Ann: No no, it’s just a hobby and expression.

FW: I was just pulling into the Target store and heard “We Jerkin” on KDAY. Over at Power 106, I hear DJ Felli Fel has been showing it love, is that true?

Sabi: Yeah, he was the first one to jump on the record, from day one.

FW: Let’s talk about the song and the video for “Boys with Tattoos (We Jerkin).”

Ella Ann: “Boys With Tattoos” is the official name of it. We have the remix which has been getting crazy buzz, it’s like our crossover to top 40, it’s really pop-ish.

Sabi: We’re going more in that direction eventually.

FW: What’s your definition of the jerkin movement – or trend?

Sabi: It’s just the whole attitude of, “this is who I am and I don’t care,” freedom of expression for the younger generation, the youth. Loud colors, crazy haircuts.

FW: So would you say your demographic is high school students and freshmen and sophomores in college?

Ella Ann: It’s really important to have your target audience and make sure they’re happy. And then branch out.

FW: With music, it works in cycles because you stand on the shoulders of those artists that came before you. Who would you say are your influences?

Sabi: I’ve been influenced by everybody from Michael Jackson to Lauryn Hill, to current people like Santigold, to Brandy, to Katy Perry, I like her – we were just talking about how we want to go to her concert. It’s all over the place.

FW: So your influences are diverse.

Ella Ann: I love Pink, growing up I always listened to her and more rock bands, like Paramour, No Doubt, Estelle, who else … (Sabi: Coldplay?) Yeah, I like Coldplay, My Chemical Romance. I mean, I’m more like an alternative girl. Kings of Leon, they have a dope CD.

FW: A lot of hip-hop oriented people, purists, if you will, they kind of turn up their nose to jerkin. Why do you think that is?

Ella Ann: The thing that I compare the jerkin movement to is Soulja Boy. Soulja Boy came out, everybody laughed at him, but it’s just being able to take that risk and be able to do what you want to do. I don’t know if he’s the richest or whatever, but everyone knows who Souja Boy is. But because he took that chance and went out there and did him, it made him a big, big star.

Sabi: Any time something new comes in, there’s always criticism, there’s always people that hate it and people who love it. I think just because it’s new, we’re going to catch the negative the negative energy.

FW: Interscope sent me Soulja Boy’s “Crank Dat” and I ignored it, then few weeks later it became a smash. I don’t really put you guys in the same place as Soulja Boy because he’s that Southern hip-hop that a lot of purists don’t like. But your influences are Katy Perry and Coldplay, your music pulls from alternative and hip-hop..

Ella Ann: But I don’t think that with our songs we’ve dived into that yet. Those are our personal influences. With our music this is a door way in, it’s an opportunity for the west coast to come out with something that’s our own, we just jumped on it. This is a good opportunity for us to get our faces out there and get involved with the movement, and have some relationships with up and coming artists.

FW: Let me piggyback of what you just said, referring to jerkin as a movement. What’s your relationship with Audio Push, the New Boyz?

Both: It’s love. It’s like a big family.

FW: It seems like within L.A. one of the reasons that gangsta rap and underground rap haven’t been able to come up is because of the hate. Why do you think the jerkin is different in creating a bond?

Ella Ann: I don’t think it’s so much the dance, its more about going to someone and relating. Dance is a big part. Back in the day when you were crumpin, it’s like we were battling, you did your thing, I did mine.

Sabi: It’s such a positive movement. Like, there really isn’t people like in gangsta rap, talking about, like, I’m gonna kill you, this or that, whatever whatever. For the most part, people in this movement beef and battle through jerkin. It’s positive at the end of the day. And everybody has the same thing in common, we’re from the LA area, we’re all young, we’re all trying to do our our thing.

FW: At what point, because you’re here at the studio of Van Nuys Records, which I understand is linked to Warner Brothers/Asylum, did it go from a hobby to actual contract signing?

Sabi: It was always a dream, a goal.

Part 2 coming soon

On Kanye West and Lil Mama’s Shenanigans

I didn’t watch the MTV Video Music Awards last night, but I did monitor Twitter and was following the events and people’s reactions pretty much in real time. When I got home and watched video clips of Kanye West crashing Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech and Lil Mama’s jumping on stage with Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, I had a stronger reaction than what I initially thought I would have. After all, Kanye’s reputation precedes him. He is known for his outbursts at award shows and streetwear company Freshjive even created “Kanye Is a Whiny Bitch” t-shirt to memorialize his lack of tact.

This Kanye outburst reeks more of his infamous “George Bush doesn’t like black people” remark than anything else. And, in that instance, he came off as politically incorrect at best and as a simpleton and idiotic at worst. But Taylor Swift is no George W. Bush. A young woman whose music happens to do country music, which last time I checked outsells the urban genres (hip-hop, R&B, soul), was giving her acceptance speech for Best Female Video when Kanye decided to interrupt her moment and “speak his mind” by saying Beyonce deserved the award because she had a spectacular video.

Get the fuck outta here with that, Kanye. Not only did he show poor judgment, which might have been induced by Hennessy yet is inexcusable nevertheless, but he displayed a lack of class, tact or professionalism. That’s not cool at all, and he shouldn’t get a pass, no matter what caliber of artist he is. The immediate apology on his blog is the least that he could have done, but it’s a little too late to save face. It’s the Internet age, and this was a televised award show.

Although there’s speculation the whole incident was staged, I doubt it. There’s no staging Taylor and her mom’s reported tears backstage, which indicated a profound hurt.  Having recently interacted with a former drug addict, and knowing Kanye’s story (car accident, mom’s death, bad break-up with fiance, superstardom), I think that Kanye is headed down a path of self-destruction and it wouldn’t be too farfetched to say he is a candidate to be the next DJ AM or more accurately, Kurt Cobain. Ye’s got the fortune and the fame, but too much of both and an artist will overdose. I hope those in Kanye’s circle can get through to him and he can get his shit together.

In regards to Lil Mama, there’s not much to say. How the one-hit wonder finagled her way into the show and just so happened to be near the stage when Jay-Z and A. Keys did their inspiring “Empire State of Mind” is a mystery. The performance was so powerful it had me wanting to hop on the first flight out of LAX to JFK or LaGuardia, so no wonder Lil Mama was caught up in the moment and decided to hop on stage. Perhaps she thought she wouldn’t be the only one.

Video: Pac Div-Pac Div

Just saw Mibbs, Like, BeYoung and DJ Sean G at the in-store at Fat Beats on Melrose last night and they mentioned this would drop today. Carey Williams directs. “Whiplash,” also by Williams, will be next. Check out ChurchLeagueChampions.com to download their latest mixtape of the same name, a prelude to the full-length Grown Kid Syndrome, due from Universal Motown next year.

Remembering Tupac Amaru Shakur

The late great Tupac, his music and even his unfortunate fate will always be intertwined with Eric Grant, my best friend in 10th grade at Downtown Business Magnet High School. Inbetween the 15-minute commute from DBM’s campus in Echo Park to Ms. Hise’s English class, which was held in a classroom at L.A. Central Library, Eric and I developed a bond over our mutual love of hip-hop. He was a huge Pac fan, and while I appreciated Pac as well, I was more into Nas and East Coast hip-hop at the time.

The Monday after Pac was shot in Vegas, Eric came to class and whispered to me: “I know who did it. I got homies who are in the the Southside Crips and they were talking about it.” Eric lived in Gardena, close to the border with Compton. At the time, I didn’t really take what he said at full value. Years later, when L.A. Times ran Chuck Philips two-part investigative story into Pac’s fatal shooting, I realized just how precious that information was.

I transferred to Palisades in 1997 and Eric and I fell out of touch (this was before MySpace and Facebook, of course). In 1999, in my first semester at Cal State Northridge, I ran into a DBM acquaintaince who told me Eric became president of the DBM class of ‘99. And he also told me that Eric was murdered several weeks before graduation.

I was emotionally shot at that moment, devastated beyond belief at the news. To this day, whenever Tupac’s birth or death anniversaries come around, I can’t help but to think back about those that lost their lives to violence. I dedicate Pac’s poignant “Who Do You Believe In”  to their memory.

Pitbull Covers The SOURCE Mag

A picture is certainly worth a 1,000 words if it happens to be a cover of a national magazine. Discuss.

And here’s the alternative cover of the upcoming issue.

Jay-Z Concert: Glorified Karaoke?

And I mean that in the nicest way possible. Jay-Z is an icon and extremely good at what he does. His technical skills on the mic impressed the hell out of me last October when he rocked the Hollywood Paladium. As I’m watching tonight’s 9/11 benefit concert at Madison Square Garden, I can’t help but to think that Jay’s shows – and this holds true to most rap stars I’ve seen, with the exception of Lil Wayne – are nothing more than glorified karaoke.

I know it’s almost blasphemous to say that, so let me explain. Jay has so many hits in his catalogue that he can rock for 3 hours and all of the songs he performs the audience would know each lyric to. Jay’s verses and his voice are his strength, his ability to make popular hits is undeniable. But, because of that, when Jay, wearing all black everything and moving very little – he’s no b-boy, that’s for sure – steps on stage, he’s boring.

He almost never flubs his lyrics, however complex. But, with minimum energy and his cool, laidback Brooklyn style, he’s not much than a glorified karaoke singer, albeit one who is performing his own songs.

To me, the highlight of the Fuse 9/11 benefit concert was the guest stars, especially Mary J. Blige, who joined Jay to do the seminal “Can’t Knock the Hustle” anthem, which transported me back to 1996. Her sometimes awkward dancing was a welcome compliment to Jay’s lyrical acrobatics but otherwise lack of bodily movement.

With all that said, I still think Jay show was an epic event.

Interview: Moonshine

Don’t get the name fool you: Moonshine isn’t just some poor-quality spirit brewed in a bath tub. This Moonshine happens to be a Dominican Republic-reppin, Queens, NY-raised and LA-dwelling producer who is most known for providing the sounds behind the verses of LA emcee Diz Gibran (I wrote this about him for HipHopDX some time back). Earlier this year, the two released a free album called “Soon You’ll Understand,” presented by Crooks & Castles and available for streaming and download on DizNMoon.com.

My dude MERCURY, his Flip camera and I paid a visit to Moon at his day workplace, the Crooks concept store on Sunset Plaza:

If you happen to be in or around Hollywood tonight or anytime through Oct. 10, come through the Crooks concept store to check out noted photographer Chi Modu’s work.

New Music: SYD – Clande

This landed in my Gmail inbox courtesy of Dunga, a well-known music producer in East Africa with whom I have been in touch periodically. DUNGA’s Mandugu Digital studios is in Nairobi, Kenya, where he has been recording with SYD, aka Sidney Kamau, the artist who raps on “Clande” in Swahili. Even though I hardly understand a word of this song, it will stay in my iTunes rotation because of the beat and SYD’s catchy delivery.

Clande-SYD (Sharebee)

50 Cent and Robert Greene on CNBC

Their collaborative book, “The 50th Law,” is available today. I’m getting a copy asap.

more about "50 Cent and Robert Greene on CNBC", posted with vodpod