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Sam & Tre x Nacho Picasso w/ Blue Sky Black Death – I’m a Stoner
February 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Ducko McFli Defines Hustle and the Artist Lifestyle
February 7, 2012 by Leave a Comment
It seems like I always see Ducko McFli’s name when I’m taking a look at who’s doing something in the Nashville Hip Hop scene. I felt like I could learn a lot from him to help me get my work done and to hustle. Then I realized that we could all learn something. So I asked him a few questions. I’m so glad he had some time to spare. Here’s the result.
QE: I first heard of you because of your project with Chancellor Warhol called N.O.B.O.T.S ? How has collaboration helped your career as an artist?
Ducko McFli: Collaborations have played a huge part in my career. From the project that kinda put me out in the open with Chance & The Nobots, to My project with Openmic, to doing production/songs with artist ranging from Dee Goodz, Young Buck, Ofishal, Rio, and more.. More than just a tool for promotion all the stuff I have learned from watching how these artist work has def played a greater role in the way I have been trying to structure my own project.
QE: You were heavily involved with dropping 4 albums last year. How were you able to get that much work done?
DM: I am a hermit, its really that simple. I never leave the house unless its something i really want to see or some where where i want to show support. Other than that i spend 90% of my time on my computer, mixing,writing, producing, sending emails, networking, editing video/pictures. I always tell everybody I speak to that I might not be the best but I def will be known as one of the hardest working. That and this is what I love to do. Its easy to just buckle down and get projects done when you have as much fun as I do making them.
QE: What tools are the most useful for you to stay organized?
DM: Man I live and die by my 17” Macbook Pro and Ableton Live. That’s really all I use. I have recently got a couple upgrades that im excited about but ultimately I always end up back on the OG set up.
QE: You often tell everyone that they can find you duckomcfli at everything. How important is it for you to be everywhere and why?
DM: Its not so much about being everywhere for me but being where i need to be when somebody interested in my product wants to find it. I know that there is a strong cast of artist/producers coming up in the ville right now and I have always had a great appreciation for anybody who rocks with me. I know that there is plenty other things you could be doing with your time so if you take the time to check me out I want to make it as easy as possible for you.
QE: Tell me about your latest release?
DM: KINGDUCK was my latest release, my 1st official release as a rapper. I love the project it was a great start for me as far as letting people know I rap and what I actually stand for as person. Its an E.P. I tried to keep it short and sweet its only 10 songs. Produced entirely by the homie Chris King (www.twitter.com/lifelovekicks
What a lot of people don’t know is that the entire project was wrote/recorded in 1 day. It really was crazy how it kinda happened. I sat down to write and didn’t get up till I had wrote all the songs, They all sounded good so I ran with it. Recorded it up at the big homie Matic Lee‘s spot in 2 hours and then he mixed it and we put it out. Its different, I don’t feel like there is anybody else really making music like I do, its got a different feel. I don’t do swag rap, I don’t do cool kid stuff.. The motto here is The Return of The Real and thats what I try and bring out.
QE: What are you currently working on?
DM: I am currently working on the next E.P. “The Return Of The Real” I have gotten together some new material that I am currently finishing up for the new project. We are really excited about it. I was reached out to by a couple producers after I dropped the KINGDUCK project and I have been blessed to have some crazy records and features from some super talented people. I am currently in the progress of shooting videos and about to start recording the last batch of songs for it and we are hoping for a May Release right in time for summer..
QE: Tell me about any other project you’re a part of.
DM: The other projects I am really on right now is the rest of the P.U.S.H. crew I have put together a strong cast of rappers and we are about to start putting out music really soon that is gonna get a good response we hope. Sofa Brown is in the final stages of finishing his tape “The Wonders” which is crazy, he is sending me songs as he gets them wrapped up and everyone is better than the last. We are about to start shooting his promo material here in the next week or so. There are also new projects being put together by Evan Blocker, and Karl Marx as well.
QE: If another artist wanted to collaborate with you, what would they need to do first? what do you look for when you want to work with someone?
DM: I really just wanna know that you are working. I love good music, as long as you make good music and your business is on the up and up then lets work. I am not any better than anybody. I work a regular job and pay my bills just like anybody else. I hate when people tell me that they waited to hit me up or didn’t want to at first cause they thought I wouldn’t mess with them.. I make my self so openly available because i want to work. If you got an idea, HIT ME UP. Lets make some dope shit.
QE: How do you define “hustle” or “grind”? Meaning what are some tangible things that you actually do every day to make sure you’re successful?
DM: Hustle to me is just doing everything you can to get what you want. I don’t know if what im doing is the right thing, the good thing, whatever but its all I know and all I can do. I just make sure i know going into anything that i have put my best foot forward and whatever happens from that happens. All you can do is do you and keep putting out product, If its good and you are dedicated it will work. You just cant expect it over night and stay patient and humble.
QE: 2011 was a great year for Nashville hip hop. What would you like to see happen locally in 2012?
DM: Truthfully, Nashville is moving better than I have ever seen it. There used to be a problem with clicks not supporting other clicks and causing this unnecessary blockage of nashville talent but thats not happening any more. People are reaching out and linking up and making stuff happen. I love where we are right now.
QE: What artists do you see “doing it right” in Nashville and what are they doing?
DM: There is so many artist right now im really messing with, Openmic, Petty, P.A. Lit, Stan, Kaby, Ofishal, Chancellor Warhol, and it goes on. People have their plans together and are making things happen for the city and I really have a crazy amount of respect for the people that are making noise in a city where the Hip Hop community has been silenced for so long.
Thanks so much to Ducko for a great interview! Please check out everything he’s up to on all of his various channels below.
www.soundcloud.com/thepushlife
Pics by ShotByShante Photography, Ramiah Branch Photography, & Kelly Hite Photo.
Thoughts From a Music Critic: Interview with Sean Maloney
January 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment
In Nashville, those of us in the hip hop and electronic music scene get our info on what’s good in a few different places. Eventually, we all take our cues from Sean Maloney. Writing for the Nashville Scene, he’s established himself as the voice of hip hop music and electronic music in Nashville. This gives him a unique perspective on a music scene and vast connection to all the different pockets of every genre. I appreciate that he took some time out to answer a few questions.
QE: I first knew you as Bawston Sean. Are you from Boston? How did you end up in Nashville?
SM: I grew up in Massachusetts and lived in Boston right before I moved here, though my family is actually from the city of Lawrence. (The same city as Statik Selektah for those of you keeping score at home.) In ’97 I had met the dudes from a now super obscure Nashville band The Methadone Actors and they told me that they studied the music business here. I forgot about that conversation for about five years, until I had a roommate steal all of my stuff and decided that it was time to get the hell out of Boston.
QE: My very first show in Nashville was actually filling in a slot that was left by you at Springwater. Tell me about how you got plugged in to DJ-ing in Nashville.
SM: Socially, I tend to gravitate towards record nerds wherever I end up and the nerdiest nerds even in this nerdy town tend to be DJs. About a year after I got to Murfreesboro my roommate Linwood — currently the drummer for Those Darlins — and I started a night called An Unzipped Fly at the Campus Pub. We played punk, soul and garage at a shitty dive bar. It sounds pretty by-the-numbers now, but 8 years ago nobody was doing that, so we ended up pulling a good crowd. Then I worked at Grand Palace Records for a few years, doing promotions stuff, booking shows and DJing at said shows. But mostly everything for me starts with figuring out that they had dollar drafts at the Campus Pub.
QE: How did you end up with the Nashville Scene? Had you been writing a lot before linking with them?
SM: I wrote lots and lots of bat-shit insane PR emails for Murfreesboro bands and for some reason folks at the paper paid attention. Well, the bands were pretty fucking awesome. Ghostfinger, The Bang Up, Glossary, How I became the Bomb. But ya, I had been deluging the Scene with spam and starting flame-wars on the Nashville Cream for years when I decided to move to the city. I just sent the music editor at the time, Tracy Moore, an email and said ‘Yo, I wanna write’. And she said yes.
QE: It appears that within that publication, you’re the official voice of the local hip hop and electronic scene. How did that fall into your lap? Or did you plan it that way?
SM: In that first email, I mentioned that I could cover hip hop and electronic music; even though at the time there wasn’t a lot of hip hop or electronic coverage in the paper at the time. And again, I’m a nerd, so when I commit my interest to a topic, I tend to go overboard. I’ve loved hip hop and electronic music since I was a kid and found it sort of frustrating that nobody was writing about it in the local papers. I’m lucky enough to have editors that have trusted my taste and instincts. It’s really just dub luck on my part that I started writing just as things were really gelling musically.
QE: I heard about you being a comic. How is that going?
SM: It’s…interesting. I haven’t been doing a lot of stand-up lately, because it’s really tough to turn my brain around from writing music criticism all day. I do have some new material I want to work up, but mostly I’m just making guest appearances on The Chris Crofton Show podcast. That takes care of my comedy-jones most weeks.
QE: Tell me about any other project you’re a part of.
SM: Currently teaching my cat monlogues from the work of Anton Chekov.
QE: How has being a writer helped you add value to the music scene?
SM: Fucked if I know, but it definitely keeps the lights on at my house.
QE: I wrote a blog about how to get a write up in the Scene. What’s your best advice to an artist trying to get press coverage or trying to get on your radar?
SM: Don’t be a dick. Get your shit together. Work hard on the art of music and don’t try to impress me with you tangential knowledge of marketing lingo. Nobody gives a fuck about your “brand”, just concentrate on making good records. Make sure your links work and your meta-data is complete. Don’t expect a response. Don’t let that discourage you. Go to shows, all the fucking time. Talk to people, meet people. Stop spamming Twitter if you ain’t gonna show up when it counts.
QE: You have a unique perspective in that all the different sections of the local hip hop community will contact you or try to keep you informed of who they are or what’s going on. What are some things that you wish everyone knew about the hip hop/electronic scene?
SM: That people even know it exists at all is enough for me.
QE: One day someone will tell me that Nashville’s hip hop scene is great; then someone else will say that it’s horrible. I like our scene a lot. But how do you think our scene compares to other scenes around the country?
SM: I think people forget that even awesome scenes with big national artists still have lots of shitty music. Most music, in any scene is generally going to be bullshit. I think a lot of people have these really crazy expectations for what a scene can be, and then they’re disappointed when their wildest dreams don’t come true. But if you want to eat, breathe and shit music 24/7, there’s no better scene in the world.
QE: What mistakes do you see being made in the Nashville hip hop scene?
SM: Too many people are trying to get everybody else behind their “movement”. Fuck a movement, make a record worth listening to. A lot of people put the cart before the horse, concentrating on branding and imaginary clothing lines when the need to be working on their craft.
QE: What about the electronic music scene?
SM: People need to rediscover the glory and the majesty of house music.
QE: 2011 was a great year for Nashville hip hop. What would you like to see happen locally in 2012?
SM: Some outside attention would be great, but I’d be happy with having more good music to listen to.
QE: What artists do you see “doing it right” in Nashville and what are they doing?
SM: I there’s a lot of artists that are “doing it right” but that also means different thing for different people. I think in general, it’s the people that are the most patient and willing to work, the people that have spent years doing their one thing regardless of the recognition they may or may not be getting. The folks that are concentrating on music rather than all the peripheral bullshit that are definitely doing it right.
You can follow Sean Maloney on Twitter. Also check the Nashville Cream blog for his weekly Party & BullSh*t covering hip hop.
Interview with Orig the DJ Part Two: Get Got
August 29, 2011 by 3 Comments
Get Got
This is part two of my interview with Orig the DJ. If you missed part one where Orig discusses the origins of Mashville, you can click that link to read it. In this section, he discusses Get Got.
QE: Tell me about Get Got
Orig the DJ: Get Got is my band. That’s Skyler Glover, Gary Hundley and myself. We’re a three piece. We’re like a trip hop funk rock turntablism electronic just melting together. And That’s what WE are. Skyler plays the drums. He’s got an acoustic kit as well as a pad kit. So, he can get the 808 sounds and other samples he can trigger. And Gary is just playing bass guitar with no effects. He works really hard to fill in sound where there’s no guitar or piano or any other high to mid range sound. I’m more of the soloist with the scratching the vocal samples and scratching other instruments. Also I play synthesizer but I don’t use a keyboard. I use a midi controller. The MPD 24 which is basically like an MPC drum machine but without the sounds. It just controls my computer. My computer has all the sounds. I use Ableton Live to launch all my sounds with the pads. I use Traktor to scratch my sounds.
Get Got / Photo credit: raywen.org
Orig: So anyway! This is how Get Got happened. skyler and Gary and I were working at Whole Foods Market. At the time, Whole Foods had a month where if you were an employee and you were a musician or had a band, WF gave them an opportunity to play their music live in the lobby area. We wanted to play together but we weren’t a band or anything. so we figured we’d just come up with 4 or 5 songs. That way we could play. So, we took a couple of weeks. We came up with 4 or 5 songs. We didn’t even have a name. We weren’t Get Got at the time. We just called ourselves the Three Amigos. We were just three friends you know. anyway so we performed that day. And people really liked us. We got such a great response from the whole store. The store wasn’t really crowded around us but the sound system allowed our music to be pumped through the speakers through the whole store. A lot of the employees really liked us. Some of the people who stuck around and watched us. They asked what’s our name and do we have a CD. We had to say “No, we’re not even really a band.” So we went home with that. We just said to each other “We work really well together. We should just keep jamming.” I think the thing that solidified us as a band, I think it was Spoken Nerd…
QE: Yeah, Nerd booked you guys before I ever did.
Orig: Right, so he had a monthly night at Cafe Coco called the Holla. He wanted to book us. So we had to get back together and practice our songs. That’s when we came up with the name Get Got. That name actually came from when we were taking a little break from our practice. We were still tossing around ideas for a band name. I had the idea: let’s call ourselves The Entertainment System or The Sound System. Skyler didn’t like it, he thought the word entertainment was too long to be in a name. Entertainment is a long word…
QE: HAHAHA!!
Gary Hundley / Photo Credit: Ramiah Branch
Orig: Yeah whatever. Yeah it’s long. So anyway, we were just chillin outside. And I had to refill my dog’s water bowl with my hose. Skyler was standing right next to the hose. The hose had some holes in it. So if I turned the water on; it was just squirt from all the holes and so on. So I told Skyler “Hey watch out before you get got!” And Gary said, “Hey, that’s a cool name for a band. Let’s call ourselves Get Got!” And yeah that’s exactly how it happened.
So we played that first show. Things just started happening from there. You heard us, you booked us for the next show. To this day, it’s still a side project for us. That’s been what, 3 years now?
QE: Yeah that was a long time ago.
Orig: Yeah we had no true intentions of being a band. It was by the demand of our friends and our peers that we continued the band. We did release an album. I’d love to talk about that.
QE: Go for it.
Skyler Glover / Photo Credit: Ramiah Branch
Orig: So Skyler and Gary are in another band called Cheer Up Charlie Daniels. With Neil O’Neil. That’s not his real name. but that’s what he goes by. Good friend of mine. Once again, another person that worked at Whole Foods. Anyway, he worked a part time job at Welcome to 1979 studios. He called Skyler one night because the studio was hosting the NAMM show. They had a microphone company at the studio one night. They were showcasing their microphones. But they needed a drummer, so Neil called Skyler to come set up his drums and be mic’d up. So Neil said “hey if you do me this favor I’ll help you out.” So Skyler did that, and in return they gave us some studio time. So we took that opportunity. We had about 7 or 8 songs at that time. We came in for a studio session.
Orig The DJ / Photo Credit: Ramiah Branch
Orig: The cool thing about 1979 studio is that everything is analog. Tape Machines…the only thing that was digital was my turntable setup. My laptop and the DVS. They were going to give us 10 hours. which would have probably cost $2500 or more. So it was a huge blessing for us. We really only used 5 hours. We basically just set everything up. and we performed like we were performing on stage. Bert Stone was the Engineer. it felt so good for me to be an artist in the situation. For a long time, I’d always been the guy recording and on the mixing board. This time, I was the guy on the couch. So I would have an idea and he would get his guys on it. We literally just re-did one song. We only punched in one part. They gave me the multitracks. They recorded everything to tape. But then we had them find a way to give me a DVD of the multitracks and I put that into Ableton and I mixed and mastered the album. It sounded so minimal. So we took time to add in sounds. All the while, I still had all these other projects I was working on. So it took us a while to finish this album. We released it in December of 2010. It’s only 7 tracks. We had an album release party. You were there.
QE: Yeah man.
Orig: You, Spoken Nerd, 247. It was great. Lot of love that night. With having an album release party, and having all these visions of where we want to go. We’d been realizing more and more that this is more than a project. But Cheer Up Charlie Daniels, they got real busy. They’re heavily involved with the scene. Neil is a super busy guy. He’s probably out there as we speak. He caused his band to get really busy. We had to put Get Got to the side for that. And I got really busy with Big Smo. So we had to push Get Got to the side again with that. So we decided to let’s not worry about it. It’s not like we pushed really hard. It’s not like something that’s going to fall apart. Despite pushing it to the side, Get Got is still performing. Still getting calls… We have a show coming up pretty soon.
QE: August 30th with me!
(QE note: tickets)
Get Got / Photo Credit: Ramiah Branch
Orig: Yeah It’s still happening. It’s been effortlessly happening. I’m really excited about it. It’s awesome. It’s rare that bands can just happen from nothing and continue going with hardly any effort. We want to get another album going but we have a lot of work to do…
Connect with Orig the DJ on Facebook.
This is only the Part 2 of the 3 part interview series with Orig the DJ. Be sure to sign up to receive blog updates in your email so that you don’t miss the rest of the interview!
Spoken Nerd and Bobby Exodus Release New Videos
July 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Two of my blogworthy friends have recently released new videos! I wanted to make sure I mentioned them. My very first show in Nashville was with Spoken Nerd and Bobby Exodus. I was brought in to DJ for Nerd. Bobby was heavily involved with Nerd’s set and also did a solo set during those days. I’m glad that they both have a great video to showcase what they’re doing.
Here’s the video for “Just Another Werewolf In The Night” by Spoken Nerd featuring Manchild & Gary Hundley
And here’s the video for “My Magic Goody” by Bobby Exodus
These are great! Both were done by 247 who is one-third of The Billy Goats and also has great solo music as well!
