Interviews - Femmixx.com

Interview with DJ Red Alert: Coming Full Circle

Written by Tachelle Shamash Wilkes
Tachelle: Tell us about where you grew up? Red Alert: Where I grew up is Colonial Housing --I grew up next to the Polo grounds – the upper part of Harlem – raised under my grand parents. T: Being a legend in the game how did you get started with the art of DJing? RA: I first got inspired by watching a guy in the neighborhood -- used to listen to a guy named Otis who had a sound system that everybody heard cranking and it was crystal clear. I used to just go up to his house and was amazed by the sound system. Later on when I was in high school up in the Bronx I started hearing so much about this guy named Kool Herc – so the guys from the Bronx would invite me to go to a Kool Herc party. At the same time I was going to the Kool Herc party I was also sneaking downtown to the discos. I wasn’t supposed to be there at the time I was young. T: How old were you? RA: I was maybe a good eighteen, nineteen. You know at the time being in a disco you were supposed to be a certain age. So I was sneaking in there checking out a disco dj and then on Saturday I would go and check out Kool Herc – so that’s what inspired me back and forth. By the time I graduated high school and went to college I took communications engineering – ‘cause I went there on scholarship -- and about a year and a half later I came back and there was a new wave of people that extended from Kool Herc – You got Flash, DJ AJ, The L Brothers – the youngest Grand Wizard Theodore and the list goes on– so then I started working on my own, saving my money and bought my own equipment.
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Interview with Conscious Daughters

Written by Kirk Anthony
Kirk Anthony: What current projects are you working on? Conscious Daughters: We are working on a remix version of The Nutcracker Suite album, which dropped earlier this year. It’s a club version of the album with more underground flava. KA: The Nutcracker Suite is an unexpected name for a hip-hop album, especially from MC's with a hardcore edge such as yourselves, how did you come up with that name for this album and how would you describe this album? CD: The Nutcracker Suite represents us as female MCs breaking out of a shell that we’ve been stuck in for some many years. The Nutcracker Suite is the place where we commence to crackin’ nuts lyrically. It’s our way of cracking the shell around us!
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Interview with Psike

Written by Kirk Anthony
Kirk Anthony: Italy isn’t exactly known as a hotbed of hip-hop culture, how is the hip-hop scene in Italy? Psike: In Italy there isn’t a real hip-hop scene, I mean, this culture is not so spread because it is not so known. Well there are hip-hop dance groups, hip-hop music groups, deejays and producers, but not enough. In the last 3 years things are changing thanks to the new American hip-hop scene, but we need to know it better and to introduce the hip-hop movement in Italian music culture. KA: How did you get interested in hip-hop music and later become a hip-hop music producer? P: When I was a child my parents and my brothers introduced me to music. My brother gave me his walkman when I was seven and I began listening to every kind of music. When I was twelve I found “Italian hip-hop music” and I fell in love with it, so, after two years, I wanted to know hip-hop music roots -- then I approached hip-hop music. When I was seventeen I began to write rap lyrics, but I hadn’t got any beats, so I started making beats just for fun, so since that moment I produced beats, played every instrument and sometimes wrote lyrics.
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Interview with Pharoahe Monch

Written by Kirk Anthony
Kirk Anthony: Describe your latest album “Desire?” What direction did you seek to take with this latest project? Pharoahe Monch: Desire is a soul album. I mean it's always gonna be hip hop, but its soul in the sense of feeling and meaning. Sonically we tried to make the music, vocals and lyrics layered in a way that it would be enjoyable for years to come because you can peel back the content and find something new each time you listen. Internal Affairs was a dark album, Desire is much lighter and more uplifting. I wanted the people to feel what I was feeling and that was soul and light. KA: Why so long between this album and your last solo album? PM: Most of the delay was label issues. Rawkus changed distributors twice and then sold the label and Geffen was to release the album, but didn't agree with the direction and then there was the fight to get out. After we finally fought and won to get out with the ownership of the masters, I felt I wanted to be free before re-signing. So we went on a few worldwide tours and then did the deal with SRC to release Desire.
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Interview with Pri: Beats & Rhythm

Written by Kirk Anthony
Kirk Anthony: What new projects are you working on now? Pri: Right now I am currently working on my solo debut album via Ludovia Entertainment. It is entitled, "She's the Producer" and has been pushed back for release in February. The album is written, produced and performed by myself. I am also working on building a mentoring program for young teens interested in the arts and I am working on expanding my organization. The organization is called, The Female Producers Association and it is a networking organization for women in the entertainment industry (www.femaleproducers.org). KA: After getting your start as an MC, what got you interested in producing? Pri: Actually I became interested in producing after seeing my son's father, Afrobluu doing it. He taught me how to produce on a Tascam Porta 1 and an Ensoniq sampling keyboard ten years ago and the rest is history. KA: What led you to found the Female Producers Association? How large has the group gotten? How would a female producer interested in joining your organization get in contact with it?
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Interview with Tylibah: The Voice

Written by Tachelle Shamash Wilkes

Tachelle: Who is Tylibah?

Tylibah: Tylibah is a universal artist that speaks to female empowerment. I am a voice for people in poverty in urban areas. I'm an artist that speaks to everyone.

T: Background and how it connects to your artistry?

TY: Everything about my background has helped to develop me as an artist. I use it as a tool to help to revive the mission of empowering people, and keeping them motivated to pursue their mission and purpose in life.

T: When did you first know that you were an artist?

TY: I always knew it. I always enjoyed writing poems, short stores, lyrics, and singing songs. I grew up in the choir and around music. My mother is an accomplished singer. So this is kind of ingrained in me.