Happy Wednesday all.
Check out some new music for your listening pleasure.
Check out some new music for your listening pleasure.
It's a 3 course meal for your ears plus dessert.
Phonte Ft. Evidence Big K.R.I.T. - The Life of Kings off his upcoming album Charity Starts at Home dropping September 27th.
Phonte: For me, it was a learning process - or shall I say re-learning process. The best way I can describe it is, you look at a married couple that's been together for 20 years or whatever. They spend all their time raising the kids, taking care of the house, just going through everyday life of marriage. Then the kids [grow up and] leave, and they're stuck with an empty house, and they're just like, "What the fuck do we do?" Their friends are tellin' 'em, "Yo, it's the time for y'all to do y'all. This is y'all's time." They're looking at it like, "Who are we? Outside of the house. Outside of the kids. Outside of walkin' the dog." It becomes that very awkward time where [they realize] that their marriage has just been based on doing things, and not doing stuff for each other.
Check out part of the Q & A Phonte did with Jake Daine of HipHop DX below.
For the full Q & A click HERE
Phonte Explains Crafting His Solo Debut, Charity Starts At Home
HipHopDX: When you and I last spoke, with 9th Wonder and Peter Rosenberg on the phone, it was great talking to you. But I had no idea you were working on a solo project --
Phonte: I didn't either. [Laughs] I had plans to do one, but up until the time when we spoke, I hadn't even really started my solo record [Charity Starts At Home]. The way things came together was very quick; me and 9th [Wonder] just started knockin' out records. At that time, when we did the interview...shit, I didn't know what the hell I was gonna do, or what the album was gonna sound like.
DX: You've done your fair share of projects over the
years, between Little Brother, Foreign Exchange, the '80s joints with
Zo!, and so on. For you, what is it like having full creative control
for the first time? So many artists these days jump right into a solo,
and you've waited 10 years...
Phonte: For me, it was a learning process - or shall I say re-learning process. The best way I can describe it is, you look at a married couple that's been together for 20 years or whatever. They spend all their time raising the kids, taking care of the house, just going through everyday life of marriage. Then the kids [grow up and] leave, and they're stuck with an empty house, and they're just like, "What the fuck do we do?" Their friends are tellin' 'em, "Yo, it's the time for y'all to do y'all. This is y'all's time." They're looking at it like, "Who are we? Outside of the house. Outside of the kids. Outside of walkin' the dog." It becomes that very awkward time where [they realize] that their marriage has just been based on doing things, and not doing stuff for each other.
So for me as a solo artist, it was very much the same. Because I'd
been doing stuff for so long - 10 years, everything I have done has been
in service of another brand or another group, whether it be a Little Brother or Foreign Exchange.
Everything had been done in service of that. I'd been giving my
creative energy to that. When you sit down and strip all that away -
Little Brother's no more, me and [Nicolay]
have pretty much moved away from Hip Hop altogether, and then you just
sit down by yourself, you're like, "Okay, now it's time to do me."
You've got to find yourself first. I'm so used to giving myself to
other people that I never took time to give time me, nahmean? So that's
the significance of the title, Charity Starts At Home. This is the first thing in my career that I've ever done completely for myself.
DX: You recently congratulated Khrysis on turning 30
years old, saying "welcome to the club." A&R's often say, "This is
your album; what do you have to say to the world?" I'm curious, for
you, do you think you could have taken on this type of project in your
twenties?
Phonte: Not a moment sooner. I think too much of my
twenties and the early part of my career was spent on me looking
outward. Now I'm just at a point with my life where I'm really just
looking inward. Cats ask me, "Phonte, what you think about the Rap
game?" Nigga, I don't give a fuck! [Chuckles] "Tell us what you think
about the industry..." I'm not thinkin' 'bout that shit, dude. I'm
tryin' to take care of my kids; my mind is on other things. Lyrically,
in a lot of ways, I think [the album] can be taken as about coming to
grips with yourself and all of your limitations as a person. I just
don't think I could have written this record in my twenties. I was too
narcissistic, and always ready to point fingers, thinkin' the world was
against me. [Laughs] Once you get older, at least in my case, you
really have to start workin' on yourself. A lot of lyrical content on
the record is based on my internal struggles, just as a man. [Sighs] I
will be the first to tell you, Paine, it's not gon' be a record that's
for everybody. People that was expectin' rappity-rap-rap-attack-72 bars
of God damn lyrical, miracle, hypothetical... nah. Fuck all that shit.
[Laughs] We'll see.
DX: Concept albums are super popular lately. Since The Listening,
all of your albums --- I won't call them "concept albums," but I think
you're a proven master of albums that execute a theme bigger than a
string of singles. You said the title is reflective of what's going on
in your personal life, looking inward. I love the cover art and the real
estate aspect. I'm curious as to what element that plays, in adding
humor to the seriousness?
Phonte: Definitely, with the cover art, there is a
story there. I don't really want to give it all away, but nothing is on
there by accident. Everything is by design. Everything there is part
of the story - I will say that. It was a moment of serendipity. The guy
who shot my cover art [Dipesh Prasad] is in Australia. His company is
called Peche Designs. We were just kicking around ideas, going with the
whole real estate angle. He said, "Okay, I'ma shoot some houses around
my way." When he showed me, I was like, "This is it. This is dope." So
I was like, "Did you do some Photoshop [work] with the number of the
house? The house number is 32." He was like, "Okay..." I'm like, "I'm 32
years old. This is it! Dude." That house didn't have any branches or
trees blocking it [so that is why he shot that one]. This is Australia,
dude - other side of the world. How crazy is that?
DX: You said this isn't a rappity-rap album. You
rap, you sing, you've got jokes. For you, it must have been a balance
to approach that first solo, as far as your talents and approaches go.
What was that like?
Phonte: It's definitely just me being myself. When recording, you
don't want to force things. You don't want to try to put things there
that aren't there. At the same time, I knew it wasn't about making a Rap
album or a singing album, it's about making a Phonte album. Going back
to the marriage/empty nest analogy, now I've got to find me. I have to
make a record that embodies all that I feel is in me. My goal for
making this record was to make a one-stop-shop for people who had my
name. "Okay, Phonte, he's got this group Little Brother. Then he's got
this group he sings with, Foreign Exchange. He does this, he's done a
hook here..." I knew consciously that I had to make a record that
brought it all home - no play on words. I just had to make that record,
where if you were tryin' to get someone into Phonte's music, rather
than [explaining the history], just giving them a copy of Charity Starts At Home and saying, "Okay, start here. Depending on what you like from this album, I can tell you which road to go down."
-The Ivorys
