Interviews - Femmixx.com

Nobody Does It Like Dyme!

Lakeisha Gardner (LG): How did you come up with the acronym for your name, “Do You Matter…Exactly?”

Dyme: Well I wanted something catchy with meaning and at that time I just had a lot of people in my life saying so many different things about my music and how it should sound. So I just one day said,” Do You matter…Exactly?” And there it was, my meaning I had been searching for.

LG: What life experiences have influenced the lyrics for your songs?

Dyme: Well I would say every song I write is about something I went through, or knew of, etc. I would say “Good Ones”... I wrote this song at the beginning of having my heart broke for the very first time.

LG: What do you want listeners to draw from your music? Do you write your music to make a point?

Dyme: [Laughs] Yes, I write music to make a point and then there are times I write just to feel good. I want my listeners to know that you can do whatever you want with your life you control it. So if I am in a bad mood and want to write an " I hate you song," then the very next day feel like I want to dance and write a song that will make you move, it's fine to do so. My music reflects a lot of moods because we’re all human at the end of the day and feelings change.

DJ “Def Stef” Langford

Kirk Anthony (KA): What was it about DJ’ing that gravitated you toward it, going against the musical performing path your musically inclined family expected you to
follow and there not being many female DJ’s at the time you first took interest in DJ’ing?

Stephanie “DJ Def Stef” Langford (DS): I watched one of my neighbors spinning on his porch and the sound he was making was insane; I instantly knew that’s what I wanted to
do. The way he made the music chirp was insane.

KA: What current projects are you working on/involved with?

DS: I am working on getting a youth marching band together, and participating in more events for the youth through DJs For Peace. I am working on getting my own radio show
and also spinning in some of the local clubs. So far, I was invited to spin at Club Choices
and the Dublin House.

KA: How did you get involved in producing? Do you feel being a DJ helps you as a producer?

DS: I began producing by trial and error. My brother, who is a producer, asked me to sit in on one of his sessions for feed back and we stayed up 2 days straight working on music.
I decided to work with two of his groups as he was finding a hard time being available to
work with all of his groups. I do feel as though being a DJ, as well as my musical back
ground, contributed to me being able to produce.

KA: Is your music artist background helpful in your music production?

Andre Bowden: Heart of An Emcee

Kirk Anthony (KA): What projects are you working on presently?

Andre “Righteous119” Bowden (AB): I’m currently working on the "MC Squared" project. This album is the sequel to my first album entitled, "The True Heart of an M.C”. I’m
working on a new website, and be on the lookout for the Righteous War Journal, which is
my first book, coming soon.

KA: What made you want to sing R&B during your childhood when your dream was to be a rapper?

AB: Well, my dream was never locked into one specific genre. My dream was to be a famous, and successful musician. I didn't really care which vehicle got me there. I just
thank God, that He has blessed me, with both rapping, and singing. Everyday, He trains me
in the art of combining the two crafts, with His Word, for awesome uplifting ministry, and
music.

KA: What was it about the Atlanta music scene at the time that led you to drop out of college, after earning a vocal music scholarship, to pursue music there?

AB: At that time, the majority of the artists that were dominating music industry were coming out of Atlanta. It seemed as though Atlanta had a patent on platinum records. I
believed I had a good chance of being discovered there. Also, I met a producer who lived
in Atlanta who helped me construct a sound in my music that no other producer was able
to pull out of me. I felt like I needed to be close to the studio so we could keep banging out
the hit records.

Kalae All Day

Kirk Anthony (KA): When reading your bio, one of the things that caught my eye is when you cited Jimi Hendrix as a musical influence. How did Jimi Hendrix end up being a musical influence for one so young, such as yourself, when he is usually cited as an influence by older artists who aren’t hip-hop artists?

Kalae All Day (KAD): Well I grew up listening to my mothers music so I love a lot of oldies and my mom LOVED Jimi Hendrix in her day and I guess the trait was passed down to me. I remember happening upon one of her old VHS’s of him and watching in awe as he blazed the stage. His passion and stage presence was impeccable. Plus he plays a meeeeaaaan guitar. I’ve been in love ever since.

KA: You describe yourself as a “vandal” on your website. What do you mean by that?

KAD: Basically I wouldn’t want to insult other artists by calling my destruction of objects “art.” I mean art is subjective and, in the end, its all art but I would say that I vandalize things. Throw paint, glue things together, do drips, tag up.. Everything that would be considered vandalism in any other situation, thus me being a vandal!

KA: How would you describe your current album, “AFROMATIKNEOHIPPIEROCK*SOLEMUSIK” to today’s hip-hop audience?

Blasting It Out With Bless Roxwell

Kirk Anthony (KA): What current and future projects are you working and will be working on?

Bless Roxwell (BR): My most recent project has been “Bless Roxwell: Evolutions. It’s now available on iTunes at itunes.com/blessroxwell. On February 4th, 2010, there will be a "She's So Fresh" Showcase III / Invincible's Birthday Celebration hosted by Tasty Keisha at Sputnik in Brooklyn, New York. Also, I am - building J.A.G. Music and Media, LLC, a non-exclusive media platform that supports women in the arts and women in Hip Hop. You can check out updates on the music at www.blessroxwell.com and information on “She’s So Fresh” at www.wesofresh.com.

KA: What inspired you to become an MC, especially in this time where there aren’t many female MC’s of note in the industry?

BR: Well, when I decided to pursue Rhyming as a career path, I have to say it wasn't as it is now. Growing up with it, I had so many sistas to look to for inspiration to model myself on as an artist, from Queen Latifah to Lin Que to Bahamadia. It’s a much different place now than it was then.

KA: On your Facebook page, you describe yourself as being “private & shy.” How were you able to be a successful MC where it seems you can’t be private & shy yet still be successful?

Mixing Tea At Miko’s

Tachelle Wilkes: What is Miko Kuro’s Midnight Tea?

Natasha Marin: Miko Kuro's Midnight Tea (MKMT) is an undergound art "happening" which began as a monthly event in 2008. Participants, guests, featured artists, and MKMT staff collaborates to co-create a magical once-in-a-lifetime event involving poetry, performance, music, video and intrigue.

TW: How did this project come about?

NM: Most good things start with an idea, and MKMT was no exception, but ideas come and go all the time. This one grew into itself because it captured the interest and energy of a few key people who helped to carry the project through its fetal stage. Without their support and the help I've received from my partner, Kelly O. I might not have believed it was possible to make this thing happen the way it has!

TW: What is your vision?

NM: My hope is to co-create ritualized spaces wherein people from different backgrounds, who may not traditionally think of themselves as "artsy," can feel safe enough to experiment with their boundaries in a way that is beautiful and transformative, like a ceremony. And for those who do think of themselves as "artsy," I want their Tea Experience to be a small but significant step in their evolution involving the surrender of one's often restrictive comfort zones.

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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