BODEGA BAMZ

This week we chat with Spanish-Harlem rapper BODEGA BAMZ and OH LA of TAN BOYS in anticipation of their upcoming album release Sidewalk Exec. on April 14th 2015. Bamz and his brother / manager Oh La reminisce on their struggles, dish their unexpected musical inspirations and speak on late legend and close friend A$AP YAMS' influence to them and why people should always show gratitude.

BB - My name is Bodega Bamz, I'm from Spanish Harlem, USA. March 17th 1985 is my birthday.
OH - My name is Oh La, I'm from Spanish Harlem, USA. I was born February 27th 1986, that's the Dominican Independence day.
FF - What were you guys doing five years ago?
BB - Selling drugs.
OH - Yeah, I had a 50 thousand dollar car with 24 inch rims, I had three TV's inside.
BB - And we were rapping too. Yeah five years ago was actually hard because our parents got divorced and then my pops kicked us out of his crib, so we had no where to go. From there we went to my Grandma's to stay, we were there for about a good six to twelve months…
OH - That's actually how I lost my car! He took me off his insurance so I was driving the streets with no insurance. I actually sold my rims, everything and that's how we got the studio. That's when we started taking music seriously right?
BB - We were just trying to put our pain in the writing. We found a spot in Washington Heights, and when we went there everything kind of changed because we went through so much turmoil in the months leading up to that, that

our backs were really against the wall, we really had nothing. We put all our cards on the table

and even that was a struggle because things weren't working out with the people we were meeting but by the end of 2010, the beginning of 2011 was when we really put our foot down… My son was about to be born then too so we took it really seriously and little by little shit started picking up.

Then we met Yams in the end of 2011 and after that it was a wrap. When Yams got in my corner, I didn't give a fuck about a co-sign.

I didn't care if a DJ or a legend said Bodega Bamz is next… I would be honored they do and appreciate it but I didn't give a fuck if they did or didn't. Because I had someone like Yams who impact me in a way, not only musically but personally. He'd tell me I was going to make it. When you go through all this shit and you get this one dude, he aint got millions of dollars, he's just a regular guy with influence and intelligence and a heart full of gold, when you meet someone like that and your whole life starts changing so fast… what bigger impact am I going to have? I'm going up, everything is a ladder now, I'll meet bigger people, I'll meet more important people but I'm never going to meet someone that has an impact on my life than that man, ever. He was just a humble spirit, the light. It was about him, the person he was. That man was put on this earth to help people and put people in positions, that man is one of the reasons why I'm able to support and provide for my family.

Before he came in the picture I was a struggling artist. We had the drive, the work ethic, we have the talent that God gave us, we just had no vision.

We were just shooting, we weren't aiming anywhere. Yams showed us how to aim and once we got that down packed it was over, now we had a vision, now we know how to move it, now we know where to go with it. Now he aint here no more, so now it's up to us to make it even bigger.

Our whole come up is just proving people wrong.

I love music, we came from music… we came from gospel, came from worship, we came from preaching in front of a congregation. I'm still preaching, just the delivery is different.
OH - I used to produce, I don't produce any more. But I learned how to engineer by watching the engineer and asking questions. I never got taught how to do things hands on I just watched. When I eventually sold my car and we bought studio equipment, I learned everything on my own. Music is a feeling. It's not just bopping your head, you should feel that through your whole body. And we kind of got that in church…

BB - So music is always in us. But we really got a fire under our ass because a lot of people really didn't think we're going to be where we're at.

The message is overcoming all the negativity and overcoming all the people that said you weren't going to do it

and overcoming every body that had negative things to say and didn't believe in you, just to overcome that and really make a success out of nothing. Another message is the empowerment of our culture and our people, because during those times we were also consumers and we were seeing that we weren't being represented correctly.

So we told ourselves that once we have the light on us we were going to really push our culture forward and really show that pride and that powerfulness.

FF - What do you have left to do until you feel like you've made it?
BB - Just to be on a mainstream level, just to get that same light as people who are signed. To be where we come from I think…
OH - It's an achievement! The thing is we live in an era where people shit on having a deal because of what others have been through but at the end of the day who doesn't want a record deal?! Who doesn't want to walk in the building and your picture is on the wall and ten-fifteen people are working for you…
FF - And it's also about the fact that if you have this message that you actually believe in, why not make it reach its maximum audience?
OH - Exactly. A lot of people have done it without a record deal. Like Tech Nine, that guy is one of the richest rappers right now and he's straight independent. But what might work for him won't work for us. But I'm pretty sure in his road to perdition he wanted a record deal but he just found what worked for him. It's like making the NBA though…
BB - Yeah! Right now we're in college, under ground is college ball. The NBA is record label, that's the bottom line. We put in so much ground work independently and underground that when we do get a record deal it's going to be on our terms, we know what we want. A lot of people get deals and they don't know what they want they just want to sign. We can go in there and be like this is what I need from y'all…
OH - We ask them what they can do for us, because this is what we can do on our own, this is what we've been doing.
BB - That's the conversation we have when we go into record labels. Our talent, our look, our message… underground puts a ceiling on it. It needs to be every where.
FF - What are a few things you wish you knew earlier?
BB - I'm not giving any one advice anymore because most people if you tell them how you feel they'll brush it off. There's certain people who will appreciate it and you'll get that connection by talking to people.

When you're a person that always wants to hold things inside, it definitely puts you in your own box and then you could be missing a good person that might change your life.

And God forbid, people get lost and people pass on and you'd be like damn, I wish I had a conversation with my man to see how he really felt. It's sad because sometimes people should have the courage and the faith to open up in order to get better, but a lot of people don't really see that. People don't realize that you should make people feel like that… just express gratitude!
FF - If your life was a movie what would be on its soundtrack?
OH - There's this song by Moby, it's called When it's Cold I Would Like to Die… that song! It's so unexplainable, it can be a sad song, it can be a happy song, it can be a redemption song. It all matters to what scene you're putting it in.
BB - I'd have Secret Garden by Bruce Springstein, Phil Collins Another Day in Paradise. Definitely the Eagles Hotel California. Nirvana's Something's in the Way… Just real emo shit man. First of all, let's make this clear… I'm not influenced by rap, only my friends that make music and a few selective artists that are undeniable. But as a whole this shit is whack. I might sound like I'm contradicting myself because I am a rapper too but I just take my influence from years like '98 to 2002.

We're more focused on being relatable than likable.

We know it's easy being likable but some body else can come along and look better than me, talk better than me and you're going to like that person… that's human nature. But if I relate to you and have a connection with you, you'll always look at me as number one.
OH - …You're ours forever. From what we listen to, the shit he raps about, we want people to have a connection. The last guy to really have a connection with his fans was probably Tupac. You could connect with Tupac when you put him on. I'm not a fan of his whole discography but the songs that I can name they really touched me. And that's what it has to be about, it has to be relatable, it has to speak to people and that's how we treat the music.

you can listen to TanBoys' music here, and follow their instagram.
as told to: Olivia Seally // video: Olivia Seally

DAI BURGER

Hi! My name's Dai Burger, I'm from Queens, New York... but I run New York City!

FF - What do you do?

DB - I am a hip-hop, rapping, singing, trapping, lovable, performing artist. I just do it all... I hit stages and shut shit down. And make cool music along the way! I started as a back up dancer for Lil' Mama. Some people know that, some don't, but I always say that because it's how I started. And from there I started just doing more shows in the Lower East Side and Brooklyn and hosting parties. And I haven't really gotten a break since then (laughs). I love dancing! In high school every one knew it was either dancing or fashion, like if I wasn't going to be in fashion, I was going to be a dancer. You know... going to school, getting new Jordans, showing up... I customized my belts to match the latest Jordans. I kinda paint too so I would paint some stuff on my shirt or on jeans and people would always come to me in high school! I was kinda the jeans girl... I would put their name down one side and some splatter paint on the other, like do the back pockets, like what Jordan's you got? Ok I have pink paint! Oh you got the New Balances?! I got yellow! (laughs). It was fly! It was lucrative for me too, like a little side cash out.

FF - How did Patricia Fields happen?

DB - My homeboy brought me into the old store, it was my first time. And the manager at the front asked if we were Lil' Mama dancers, we were like yes... how did you know?! She saw us at the Heatherette show we just performed and she was like you're so cute, your style is so cool, do you want to work here? And I was kind of hesitant like I was still dancing and stuff but I kept coming back and they're like girl, just come on! I was like alright! You got me! And we've been married since. It's been a while, almost as long as the music... they kind of go hand in hand.

FF - Are you signed for your music?

DB - I'm not! I have management now. I don't even have a project out right now and I'm super booked up so once I put a project out, who knows what could happen! I feel like I've been on the underground for so long, and you know how sometimes you hear a name like it's hot, it's hot... then a couple months later you don't hear that name anymore.

I just feel like I've been consistent for so long that someone has to recognize here, it's not a roller coaster, I've just been smooth sailing for all these years. So I'm just ready to, like you said, have a platform so I can share it on a bigger plateau.

FF - Are you working on a project?

DB - I am! It's almost done! So it should be ready soon, and it's going to be released overseas as well!

FF - What's the goal / What do you want to add to the world?

DB - I'm just tired of people taking themselves so seriously, I'm so free spirited.. I don't know, people should just let loose sometimes.

I feel like everyone should just loosen up, be themselves and experiment, you know? Try new things! Everything doesn't have to be a race, or so serious like if you're doing you, that's enough!

I do me and I'm not competing with anybody and I feel fine! And just being smart, using the brains we have to do anything positive. All that negativity is just tired... negativity is tired, it's last year! Stank attitudes are a thing of the past! So 2013 (laughs).

you can follow Dai here and check out her music here.

As told to: Olivia Seally / Photos + Video by: Olivia Seally

ELIJAH RAWK

I’m Elijah Rawk from Phony Ppl, I’m 23 freshly and I was born in Brooklyn, New York. Aja from Phony Ppl, the keyboardist, I met him the first day of high school that was like my first friend ever. He was in a couple bands, this other band called Lunar Station and Phony Ppl. Originally Phony Ppl was Elbee and Aja and they were a band to play Dyme-A-Duzin’s music. From then Ian got added, the other guitar player, and then PJ came and then Matt. And Bari never played bass before, he was the only one out of all of us that didn’t go to school for music. He had to play bass because there was no other bass player so Aja was like my brother will do it. We were horrible as seniors, we cut class every day. Bari’s older than us so he had his own apartment by then and we’d go to his house and smoke and not go to class. We figured it out perfectly… fourth period was when they took attendance for the day so we’d go in for fourth period and leave.

I was in School of Rock as well for all of high school. I joined freshman year and then we were doing All Stars so we did all these tours and went to Germany and stuff, so I didn’t really care about high school as much. All my friends at School of Rock, what was cool to them, was reading and movies and music and in high school we weren’t learning that. So in senior year the dude that made School of Rock built a house out in Long Island, called Studio House and his idea was to build a music college. As the first students we would be the professors. And it was obviously a risky thing but it sounded cool and I was seventeen. So I left after a long argument with my parents and it was a bunch of craziness. At first there were no chaperones at all so it was a bunch of 16-20 year olds in this house, in and out, it wasn’t even a consistent bunch of people and nobody supervising. All of my friends were older than me and they’re all like punked out white kids that are really good at their instruments. And it was weird, it was a bunch of mushrooms and acid and drugs… like three of them would be on mad heroine and I had to watch that. I was like 15 and they’d do heroine all the time and it just sucked, they’d be vomiting all the time. Eventually me and one of their girlfriends had to go super hard to stop that shit, it was crazy. The chaperones didn’t come for a little while.

We would learn how to record and do all that kind of stuff. it was cool we had nobody else, We got to write our own rules

and we started figuring out our own formulas for stuff and the people that were originally there just to smoke and jam they had to leave and we really started to get work done. Real artists would start to come in the house and we would record them and do all this interesting stuff. Studio House eventually got shut down… one day it was up and the next day we got a call and all the electricity was off and they were like it’s over.

At that point I was in Phony Ppl so I just went right over. And we played some shows, we were chilling harder. We were all out of high school and Ian and Tammy went off to college but we were still doing it. We played this show at Colgate University, it was our first show outside the city, Matthew Trammell got it for us – that was his first booking as our manager, and we were opening for Theophilus London and that’s how we met Theo. We played our show and him and Dev Hynes just watched the whole show from the sound check and then we went home and Theo’s manager at the time, Knox, was like we have this Brooklyn Museum show if you want to play it. That was a really fun time and I learned a lot from that whole period and a lot of access and opportunities that I’m still benefiting from right now, but at the same time it was kind of difficult because we really felt compelled... like we grew up with Phony Ppl, those were our boys and we were never giving 100% because we were so distracted and every other week we had to go somewhere else with Theo.

It got to this point where I had to make a decision and Bari had to make a decision and it was either go on tour with Theophilus London or go on tour with Phony Ppl.

And I eventually chose the Phony’s and Bari chose Theo.  Then we kind of kicked the other three members out, it was six of us now. And we had to write stuff but didn’t feel like we could write music anymore because Dymez was on like every song we wrote. So we just started all over.

That was 2013 that we started to write a new album and we were like if this album and this year doesn’t work out for us we all have to reconsider what we’re doing. We started writing it and we got this call from Matt’s friend Adrien and he invited us to play at his friend’s birthday. So we went up to Montauk, had a fun time and we told Adrien where we were at, like we just kicked these guys out. He was like what are you trying to do? Are you trying to get signed? And we said no, we didn’t want to deal with anyone so we told him that and he loved it for some reason so he was like Why don’t you guys just make it here? And he has everything! So we did. Our management, Plain Pat and Kas, had nothing to do because we had nothing out; we needed it mixed, we didn’t have it mastered and we had no budget for the entire album and we just surprised them. Ben from Rubber Tracks loved what the album was so far and he would let us come to the Converse studio after it was closed and run stuff through the board. And this other dude, Zac from our publishing company, was like I’ll mix it for you guys.

All of a sudden we had all these resources from people that really helped us, just off the strength of believing in it. And then we put it out in January and it was awesome.

When the band went from nine to six it felt empty and now it feels super right, the spacing is right and traveling and just communicating. I think ‘I Wish I Was a Chair’ was one of the biggest moments for Phony Ppl. That song, for some reason still to this day, hits girls real hard, maybe guys too. But every show we play the entire crowd sings it so it’s got to be the biggest song, our managers literally told us we can’t not play it.

FF – Do you consider yourself a freshman, sophomore or senior in your field?

ER – I consider myself a sophomore. I’m a little bit past the freshman stage of being a musician and performer because a lot of experience in the last couple of years. But I have a lot of growing to do and I want to get way better as a guitarist, musician, performer and expressionist. I need to practice more and I need to be more disciplined with creating routinely. I like Kanye’s story where he made five beats every day for a summer and I just need to be on that kind of grind. I grew up a lot on rock music, and being in the School of Rock, I just loved 80’s punk rock shit like Misfits and Minor Threat and Dead Kennedy’s and Bad Brains and that kind of stuff so

I’ve been making a secret punk album in my bedroom.

When I was a kid and I first started wanting to play music and performing live, it was always way more about traveling than it was about money. I want my band to be one of the few artists/bands that have longevity. I want a career like Prince’s or Earth, Wind and Fire’s, where you can’t even hate on it, it’s just a legacy and like an art exhibit that you either get or you don’t get. I don’t think even right now that Phony Ppl is in a place where people can say they hate it… you either get it or you don’t get it. And

I just want it to continue like that and I want to continue to affect people in these different places,

with these different people rather than hella money in my account… I’d die way happier I feel. Even to get that kind of money or to just be in that wealth percentage you have to do some pretty heavy shit to get there, some shit that’s probably going to leave you on the other side not the same. I definitely want to be the same as I am right now, smiling and playing PS4.

you can follow Elijah on instagram and can listen to Phony Ppl on their soundcloud.

as told to: Olivia Seally // video: Olivia Seally

KEVIN HUSSEIN

This week marks the beginning of a new addition to the content we're bringing you at Freshmen Friday. From the very beginning I recorded all the interviews, originally only as audio back up. Going through that footage made it obvious that the voices we hope to turn up the volume on are better understood when visualized. This week we spoke with talented rapper, song writer, modern muse and fellow freshman, KEVIN HUSSEIN, to kick start the first of many video interviews...

Some people know me as SB, my artist name is Kevin Hussein. I’m 30 years old, from Bed Stuy / Bushwick, Brooklyn. Five years ago I was making music with this guy named Jonny on the Rocks we were in a good band called Rocky Business, that was a good five years ago. We were doing all different types of shit. I would say, what I was fucking with was more so art and street at the same time, it was it’s own thing. I was rapping, I was rapping these niggas down. I wasn’t even rapping I was making magic and spell casting. Now I work… well, I’m a published/signed songwriter to Sony. So I’m a pen for hire, I’m the man you come see when your shit don’t sound right.

FF – You’re just a muse?

SB – I am the million dollar muse (laughs). I think it’s innate, coming from Brooklyn. Especially the ones that grew up here or spent a substantial amount of time here, it’s just so in the air. If you’re from BK you’re either going to hustle, do art or do business, that’s it… those are the three you got.

FF – How did you learn how to do this?

I learned how to write music in jail. I went to jail for like three years for a crime I didn’t commit so I started going crazy, really crazy, like literally crazy.

So I kept fighting police, I was very angry. So I guess when you fight police they put you in a box, boom, locked in. Solitary confinement. I had to be there for over twenty-three hours a day, by myself. I had a cellmate and he would rap and shit, he’d be like your shit is hot, you can do this. So in the box the only person you can talk to is the person in your vent, so he was in my vent. That’s the only person you communicate with for like months. He showed me… he was already a rapper, so he kind of showed me how to do it, how to count the bars. It was really like music school. Over time and with training I got nice. So in jail when you get nice you can talk on the tier. So now every body can hear you, there’s like 50 tiers. The police really can’t stop that, they just start banging, so you go up there and sometimes niggas know your name but they mostly know your cell number. So I’m cell number 9, lets go! I’m about to get it! Then you spit it and niggas is fucking with it, like you’re shit is hot. Next thing you know you start getting requested in jail, like SB! Wake up! Get in the gate! Number 9! Get it in…

I was so angry that when I got out I chose music because I was like I got a plan for yall! Since I couldn’t go no where when I get the fuck out of here, I’m going everywhere! So I felt like music was the only thing that I could do that would get me everywhere, really quickly. And that’s exactly what it did.

To be honest the first person that ever helped me was Mark Ronson, he was the first. We was in some club, my man was like this nigga’s hot, there goes Mark Ronson, meet this nigga, like rap right now. I rapped, dead ass, in his ear. And then he just took my number down, he was really the first person to be like you’re a good song writer. I was like oh shit, I might be on to something…

 FF – What’s one opportunity that you can say whole heartedly, without it you wouldn’t be here today?

SB - I think meeting Om’Mas Keith was like the best thing I ever did in my musical life. It was like, we had just came to LA, he was mad inviting, he was just like yo the shit you’re doing, the math of it is really, really complex like the rhymes and shit. So I have a hard drive of a grammy award winning producer, with a whole bunch of beats. And it was cool just for him to say that. And it just gave me the energy to keep going.

FF – Now do you consider yourself a freshman, sophomore or senior in your field?

SB – I’m definitely a freshman, I’m not a senior until I live in the jungle. I just email people lyrics like I don’t even have to do anything they’ll just be like this is the best! And I won’t have to hustle anymore so I’m definitely a freshman forever in art, period. Because I’m always going to try and do some fresh fucking shit, you know? That’s what keeps me going too, all these ideas got to stay fresh.

That’s how you survive, the individuality, the creation… that’s how you survive as a creative.

FF – How do you keep reinventing yourself and finding that inspiration?

SB – Never liking yourself (laughs). Because if you never like yourself you always try to do a better version of yourself.

And that way you don’t have to compete against anybody but yourself.

Like that is dead trash, I have something better than that. Then you’ll never stop. I wish I knew to harvest my magic more. When you’re a freshman you give out a lot of energy because you want people to receive what you’re doing, not being careful of who you’re letting into your creative space, the ideas you’re sharing. Because you just want a response, not knowing that these people have ulterior motives with your ideas. And then you see that back and it can crush you. I’ve seen a lot of creative’s just drop off of that, like oh they stole me idea and so on. So I would tell all freshmen; no one can steal your idea if you’re holding on to it hard enough. It’s just like hustling drugs, niggas can’t rob you for your pack if you hold your shit down. You aint gotta tell them where your stash at, you aint gotta tell them where you get it from, you offering that information and you’re wondering why you got got. For the men it’s instinct. And for the female artists it’s intuition. That’s the sixth sense that we’re tapping into anyways. Some niggas don’t even have to say anything I’ll just know I’m not fucking with you. And for the women, when you feel like he might be a clown, then he’s probably a clown, that’s it, cut it off and keep it moving. And for the ones that feel right it will be right, trust me it works. Most niggas who snaked you, you knew that they were a snake.

FF – Name three people you can recommend me to talk to that inspire you and you know them personally?

SB – Johnny Nelson, that’s my favorite nigga on earth. And Scrilla Chinchilla, Scrilla’s like a genius without even knowing it and he has one of the most purest hearts. Ntu Fara, I like her sophistication. To me, that’s why I love working with them, the black female voice is the strongest voice in the whole entire verse, it’s like the mother of the earth. Whatever a black woman is saying, whatever perspective she comes from, people pay attention. She’s (Ntu) bringing this sophistication and it’s very new, or it’s like a part two of… what is already being said about women who understand what’s going on from in the streets level and from a higher perspective, she has such a worldly view of everything that’s going on. It’s almost like a female Nas, where you’re just creating this creative. Illmatic wasn’t about drug dealing, it was about what he sees. And that’s what it is… this is what she sees, this is how Brooklyn is changing, this is how things are developing, this is what it was. She has a message. There are so many stories on the block, but the story that y’all get from the block has been so… that’s not it.

There are so many million stories there that haven’t been touched on and I’m going to hit those, we do so much more that hasn’t really gotten to the surface yet. And that’s where I’m pushing it.

FF – Yeah, now that I think of it all the successful black men were successful because they showed a different side to that one story that keeps getting repeated.

SB – Biggie Smalls, that double diss! That’s the one! He could do mad flows. Biggie was like you need to get this money! Sky is the limit, it was all a dream… he was telling kids they could do whatever, they could get it popping. And then ‘Pac was coming in telling niggas how to move, like oh they’re out here doing this, coming at the actual structure of things and how society is and how to move as a young black person. And you gotta respect Jay though, Jay kept it moving. Jay-Z is a great rapper, he has a great rap story because he told them from the beginning I’m getting this money and that’s all he did was kept getting this money. Jay-Z never compromised Jay-Z, he makes fucking money, he goes and gets that money, he raps about how he’s going to get that money and that’s it. But that’s a different kind of revolution. That’s why I have respect for Puffy, just seeing him bring out all the people he worked with. That’s a blessing, that’s what the arts are supposed to do. These people are in better places then before they met Puffy. The stuff that you’ve done with them, no one can take that away. When you make these creative things they’re there forever, and now you exist forever.

you can follow Kevin on his twitter and his instagram.

as told to: Olivia Seally // video: Olivia Seally