Brain's Blog
10 Years After School Was My Hustle: No Longer Kidz In The Hall, Men In The World
by Ryan Glover - December 16, 2016 It’s been ten years since Kidz in the Hall dropped their classic debut album School Was My Hustle. The duo met as students at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania and ended up releasing their first album on legendary Rawkus records. After disagreements with the label they parted ways and released three more studio albums on Duck Down Records. I caught up with Naledge and Double-O and spoke about their experience coming into hip hop via an Ivy League institution, the backstory behind School Was My Hustle and The In Crowd and when we can expect the next Kidz in the Hall album. A really great opportunity for me because I’ve been a long time fan of Kidz in the Hall since they dropped their first LP. This is an underrated group which doesn’t really get the credit they deserve. They are pioneers in the rap game and instead of relying on cliches this was a group that wasn’t afraid to experiment and be different. They make fun records but are also capable of making introspective ones as well. The production is always top-notch courtesy of Double-O and the rhymes are always on par thanks to Naledge which makes them one of hip hops best current duos. In addition Naledge is running a successful non-profit in his hometown of Chicago while pursuing a PHD at Northwestern while Double-O is finishing up on tour with Lupe Fiasco and working as an Executive Producer on the next Nikki Jean project. The amazing thing is with all this going on they found time to finish the next Kidz in the Hall album which the world is waiting to hear next spring or summer!! Slickster: Do you feel you guys going to an Ivy League school gave you guys an advantage or disadvantage in coming into hip hop? Double-O: I would say that at least for me it was the only way that it could have happened. Cause I’m a couple years older than Naledge. When I first started school, a career in music wasn’t even thought about. I thought I was going to be an engineer. I’d been deejaying for years but I never thought about it as a career. So going to Penn specifically your talking about a time when John Legend was there and a lot of other musical acts. That’s kind of when the idea was presented. So without Penn I don’t think we would have met and I don’t know if music would have been a viable option. Naledge: That’s an interesting question I think it did both. It gave us a very distinct identity, it gave us something the label was able to market. The way the music industry has changed the last three to four years you couldn’t even fathom having a music career without a label. Back then it gave us an advantage because it made us unique. The reality of it though while some marketing angles are just that, we are really Ivy League Graduates. We had friends making six figures going into finance, so it’s a fear initially that you are pursuing something that isn’t stable. So we had those internal struggles which we had to overcome but you have to remember nobody gives a flying fuck about the fact you were really smart in high school. Slickster: Do you have a favorite track from School was my Hustle? Double-O: “Hypocrite” for me was my favorite record on the original record. The rerelease has some more of my favorite songs. I really like the idea for me it was the crux of everything I wanted to have Naledge talk about. It was definitely one of my favorite tracks at the time. Naledge: “Go Ill State of Mind” I think it told a story, putting into context it was the first record I ever had on our local radio station here in Chicago and as a artist I think that’s one of the things you always look forward to hearing your song on your local radio station with your friends in the car and that moment happened for me. The thing about that record it wasn’t a single or something I created for radio. It was a record that represented me, my upbringing, and what a day in the life was like for a person on the south side of Chicago. The beat was different and I thought it represented a style of hip hop which was a great introduction of who we are as artists. It wasn’t too underground. I loved the hook. I wanted to do something that was similar to what Nas did on “NY State of Mind.” I wanted to do something for Chicago, create a new dynamic give us some identity. I feel like now we call it Chiraq, I felt like “Go Ill” had a more positive bend on what we were trying to portray. Slickster: On School Was My Hustle you use several samples which on later albums like Land of Make Believe was sample free? Was that a conscious decision or a reason behind that? Double-O: It was absolutely a conscious decision. Basically School Was My Hustle was not a premeditated album. Once we got to see how stuff worked in live space we wanted to change the tempo the way we wanted to act on stage. It didn’t give us the hype rara stuff we wanted to make. So we were like lets figure it out that way. It was a smooth transition. The In Crowd is probably 50/50 with sample based stuff but by the time we got to Land of Make Believe we had success with licensing placements and we realized that half of an album was useless other than being great songs we couldn’t use it for much of anything. So Land of Make Believe was this shift to start experimenting with innovating sound so we wouldn’t have to clear any samples or owe anybody anything. Slickster: When you were making records how conscious were you of making records for radio, was that ever a discussion you had at Rawkus or Duckdown? Naledge: I’ve never made records with radio in my mind. I think thats always been Double-O’s frame of mind as a producer. Through our first and second album it was a lot of trial and error. We don’t live live in the same city so often times they were these situations where he would send me beats and then I would pick these beats and rap on them and send the ideas back and then we would go back and forth. Then we would meet up in the same city and I would find out what he really wanted that beat to be, like I thought you were going to make something a little more radio friendly for this record. Thats how “Driving Down the Block” was formatted for radio, but I know he made that with that intent in mind. Producers tend to think about that more. When I rap I don’t think about that. Double-O: School Was my Hustle exists because everything we were making at the time wasn’t radio enough. So School Was My Hustle was supposed to be the mixtape before the Naledge album. The conversation at Rawkus was like you guys don’t have the radio record yet. We need to push back the release of the album until. So then when it comes to the In Crowd we wanted to make more fun records but the In Crowd starts off in the same weird way School Was My Hustle did because we were working on an EP which was called Class Participation which was supposed to be a six, seven song EP with guest features on every single song with new industry friends and connections we had made. The only reason we even sat down with Duck Down is because we wanted to get Sean Price on the record and when they heard what we had they were like we should make this an album and we want to put it out. So both those albums never came from sitting down trying to make a proper album, just experimenting and starting with a small idea. Land of Make Believe was the first time we made a proper Kidz album. Slickster: I feel I could list a number of contributions you guys have made to hip hop, do you feel that you have gotten the credit you deserve? Naledge: (laughs) Hell naw we haven’t gotten the credit we deserve. It’s some people who really get it and really respect what we’ve done. It’s an interesting thing, we get our respect amongst industry heads. I can’t even think about the number of artist that told us “I used to really fuck with y’all shit back in the day.” That’s the type of the stuff that lets me know the type of stuff we was doing was good. When I met Kid Cudi he gave respect, when I met Drake he gave respect, when I met J. Cole he gave respect. All these people I was surprised they knew about the music, more than I even knew, like Pete Rock, a lot of people, Redman, like when I met them they were like “what y’all did was dope, I can’t wait to hear more, why didn’t Rawkus do more with y’all?” We helped a lot of younger acts by putting them on the road with us. I think it was a group of us who were all making music at the same time and I think we get lumped in with a bunch of other groups and when they are listing these groups they forget to say us. I think people will go Cool Kids, Pac Division, they’ll lump us in they’ll mention Asher Roth and these are all great artists who came out around the time of our second album, a lot of people kind of forget that first album we made or that we weren’t new artists when those guys were new artists. Did you feel School Was my Hustle was properly promoted by Rawkus? What do you feel that they didn’t do that they could have to done to push the album further? Naledge: No (laughs). Thats not even a diss to Rawkus, School Was My Hustle wasn’t even supposed to be an album it was supposed to be a mixtape. It wasn’t even meant to do what it did as Double-O said earlier. We were just anxious to put out music. Really Rawkus signed me as a solo artist they were really trying to push me as a solo artist, they weren’t even messing with the group, they were like wheres your solo album? So I was making solo records and they weren’t feeling them. So I had made a ton of records and me and Double-O had a ton of records together that we were like we have a project. So we wanted to find a way to put some music out and get on the road. So we started exploring other options. Keep in mind this was 2005, in 2016 you would’ve just took that music and put it on DatPiff or whatever and shot a video. But we were waiting for the label to do something. In hindsight I wish we were more renegade about what we were doing. So we were shopping that project to other labels and Rawkus was like we’ll put it out but this is the music you said you didn’t like. Thats when I realized the music industry is a guessing game, they figured if other labels liked it than it must be pretty good and I don’t even think they thought it would do much. It did well though for what we spent on it, especially in Europe. So we spent a whole year in Europe. The European market loves hip hop. When can we expect the next Kidz in the Hall album? What are you guys doing now? Double-O: Right now I’m on tour with Lupe Fiasco wrapping this up, working a bunch with Nikki Jean on her new project, put out two records with Tabi Bonney the first with Wiz Khalifa. The new Kidz in the Hall album is done just gotta tighten it up. Naledge: First and foremost I have to mention the fact I’m in Chicago and I run a non-profit organization called the Braniac Project which has a mission and goal of promoting the recording arts as a way of helping young black men into the workforce, teaching them computer software and engineering. Pretty much just making the music industry a viable option for Chicago youth, so thats what thats the last four, five years of my life has been. As far as the new Kidz in the Hall project if you were to ask me in January I would have thought it would be out by this year but I’m leaning to say by the Spring or Summertime Ryan Glover is a contributing writer for www.slickstermagazinecom. 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Last night I was at the Metro in order to attend the 2nd Annual "Timbuck2 Forever" Celebration. Although the untimely death of Tim was a real "kick to the gut" to the Chicago hip-hop ecosystem, it was so great to be in an environment where that allowed so many good people to congregate peacefully in the name of dope hip-hop, turntablism and positive vibes. I collaborated with Tim on several occasions and even provided the first theme song for his radio show on WGCI. It is still crazy to think he is not going to be in the booth at any party that I go to or that I will never hear his mixes on the radio ever again. However, I know that if Tim saw the event that took place last night....he is in heaven smiling down on the scene he helped create here in Chicago. I would like to extend a sincere thank you for the show of support The Brainiac Project received during its 'Brainiac Bash' annual fundraising event on September 8th. 2016. The event was great fun, with fabulous music, delicious food, a wonderful collection of young professionals from Chicago, and plenty of chocolate-covered pretzels to go around (lol). The event raised more than $2,500, which will go to supporting The Brainiac Project's "Open Sessions" mentoring initiative and sustaining our community recording studio.
A special thanks goes out to all of our generous Sponsors and Vendors: Mario Gage, Ariel Investments, Ten Photos, Magnolia Atelier, Dope Creations LLC, DJ PATXL, Dream Chef Caterers LLC, Ashley Smith & Suuri Designs, Tiana Washington, Space 1858, Drs. Robert and Helen Evans. I also would like to acknowledge Ed Vogel and Jon C. Johnson for volunteering their time with our raffle and check-in station. For more information go to brainiacproject.org and to see pictures from the event check out the gallery below: Emerging originally out of Brooklyn, New York, Sebastian Francis has graced the hearts and minds of artists and music enthusiasts alike. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Quincy Jones, Kanye West, and Jdilla, Sebastian has an understanding how his music can change the lives of people. His sole purpose for pursuing a career in music is to “create opportunities for those who want to create opportunities for others”. His dedication to his craft is less about achieving super-stardom (although) and more about living his life as a testament that success is attainable no matter the circumstances you are given. I met Sebastian as he attended Columbia College Chicago majoring in Music Business Management and eventually dropped out. Even still, it was at Columbia where he gained a plethora of experience by working with various local artists in Chicago and learning the ins and outs of the business thanks to his instructors. Potent, persistent, and ambitious, Sebastian Francis has conquered many fears which could have crippled him and some which could have ended his life. He lost his mother at the tender age of 11 which forced him to be self-sufficient very early on. He is the epitome of a nomad. He has lived in 6 different states in the past ten years. Some people don’t leave their county, let alone their street. Although it has benefited him and his sound, the path has been everything but easy. Before rooming with his fellow Newminati Nieman, Sebastian was homeless and sleeping on the streets and trains while still maintaining a fulltime job. His desire to be successful and his faith in God has kept him alive and focused on becoming one of the greatest musicians of all time. We are happy to have Sebastian as an Artist in Residence for The Brainiac Project and look forward to helping his music to have a platform to shine. https://thisisrhymesandreasons.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/naledge-evans/ Rhymes and Reasons is a series of interviews with hip-hop heads who talk about their lives in the context of songs that matter to them. Click the link above to listen to my interview with Ed Vogel on Chicago's Southside. We talk about everything from my childhood in Chicago, my transition to social entrepreneurship, admiration for Common, how I started rhyming and my many failed attempts to rap Twista lyrics with friends. Check it out! NALEDGE IS POWER! DATE(S):Tuesday, October 6 from 6 - 10 pm By housing a top-flight recording studio in the Grand Crossing area of Chicago, GBK Recording Studio helps the revitalization of a disadvantaged neighborhood through combining urban planning and art practices. The studio, my recording home for The Brainiac Project, helps combat violence in Chicago by engaging previous perpetrators & potential victims. Ultimately, this studio aims to have a global impact by serving as a beacon of hope and network of influence for youth who would otherwise not have access to a professional work resources. The open studio will showcase the newest collaboration album from me and our artist in residence, Lenell "Good Boy" Davis. Additionally, popular Chicago rap blogger Andrew Barber (FakeShoreDrive) will serve as host for the event and will lead a conversation about the making of the album. Light food and refreshments will be served. This event is a featured program as a part of the City of Chicago's Annual Artist Month. This year's series is entitled "The City as a Studio." For more information visit chicagoartistsmonth.org.
September 10, 2015 was not only my birthday celebration but also the official launch of my nonprofit organization, The Brainiac Project. The Event was hosted by my friend and former Chicago Bear Jerry Azumah. Photos were taken by 10photos. Click Link To Full Gallery Below
The Brainiac Project may be looking for you! We are seeking an intern for the fall and the description of the position is below:
Marketing and Communications Intern Duties & Responsibilities: Reports directly to the Executive Director Assist with all marketing and communications activities including: personal interviews and professional writing projects; press release development, distribution and follow-up; and basic photography/video editing. Manage daily/weekly posts across social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn). Hootsuite experience is a plus. Copywriting/proofing for print and online marketing collateral (e.g., brochures, e-blasts, etc.). Create, edit and routinely update website content for internal and external distribution. Assist to draft quarterly e‐newsletter, Annual Report and create web articles as needed. Assist in the management of online advertising campaigns (i.e., Google AdWords). Offer occasional support for external public relations/media events and opportunities. Track and catalog all media placements. Participate in team meetings. Exercise good judgment and confidentiality in dealing with students, staff, media contacts, and agency donors. * Great potential to develop into a paid position for a new 501(c)3 organization Qualifications and Requirements: Must show a strong passion for Hip-Hop culture and the music industry Student currently majoring in marketing, communication, public relations, or a related field. Superior writing and editing skills. Strong attention to detail and an ability to bring energy and creativity to the organization. Strong computer skills and knowledge of communications software (Microsoft Office, Excel; WordPress; The Raiser’s Edge, etc.) Proficiency in photography, video and/or graphic design is highly desired (Publisher; Adobe Photoshop, InDesign; Windows Movie Maker; etc.) Must be self-motivated with an ability to prioritize, multi-task and meet tight deadlines. Must be able to function well in team settings and also work independently. Must be personable with an ability to communicate in a professional manner. Must be able to demonstrate cultural sensitivity and respect for diversity. Fake Shore Drive wrote a wonderful piece on my contribution to Chicago rap history and asks when we will come back. Ironically the Kidz are working on new music! To read the article,
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