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

KITTY CASH

I got the chance to shoot one of my favorite DJ's, Kitty Cash, for a brand new hip-hop magazine that has just released! "Brick is a bi-annual music and lifestyle publication representing the new age of Hip-Hop culture," says founder Hayley Louisa Brown, and editor Grant Brydon, explaining the story behind the launch of their new hefty 264-page tome. "We want to provide an elegant and aspirational platform that examines Hip-Hop, not hirsute as a style of music, but as a cultural and sociological movement that pays respect to pioneers, forgotten heroes and the most cutting-edge contemporaries."

'Edition One' is available here.

you can check out Kitty Cash's music here, and follow her on instagram.

photos: 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

MELLISSA MILLER

My name is Mellissa Miller, I’m 21. My birthplace was Brooklyn but now I live in Long Island. Five years ago I was in high school, doing nothing (laughs). I was a good student but I hated high school because no one got me. I wanted to do other things, people didn’t gravitate towards me and I just didn’t speak to people. I used to walk around with shades on, sit down in my locker, eat a bagel and not talk to anyone. I had a teacher once… I was talking to another teacher that I’m still close to, we were talking about me taking AP classes in 11th grade and she came up to me and said ‘I didn’t know you were smart’. But I loved dance school… it was my senior year in high school and I didn’t do anything but dance, I went to school and danced for like four hours. And learned stage lighting and stage management and how to record… we got to record our own music for our pieces. So I felt I knew all of it and didn’t want to go to school for four years for something I just learned so I convinced myself at some point in time that I didn’t need to go to college for dance.

Right now, I’m in school for professional communications so I’m trying to finish this degree! One more year left. I own a spa on Long Island and we’re opening one in the city. And I’m trying to model. I never wanted to model because I don’t like make up. I think that was a game changer for me (laughs). I know so many people who are in the modeling business and they tell them when to eat and when to cut their hair. I’ve been there with dance. With dance I had a teacher who owned the studio I used to go to, he had a special interest in me since I was seven. And he was just molding me into this perfect ballerina. I remember cutting my hair and it was blonde and I went to class and he wanted to kick me out,

so I know what it’s like from a really young age to just be molded by every body else but yourself. And I can’t do that anymore.

With modeling I just started working with my friends… just shoots at F.I.T. just something for his portfolio. And some people saw and wanted to work with me and then I just started working with other people. I’ve only been modeling for less than a year but I do see me taking it somewhere.

FF – How did the spa happen? What’s that about?

MM – OK so my girlfriend’s mom had a spa for years. It started out mobile so we hired people and went place to place doing bridal parties, facials and massages and all that stuff. They have two houses so one of the houses we rented out to get money to pay for the spa. And we found this amazing spa in Garden City, which in Long Island is a pretty good town. So we opened the spa six months ago! We’re booked every weekend until June. So we’re doing pretty good.

FF – Would you consider yourself a freshman, sophomore or senior in your fields?

MM – I am definitely a freshman to business, because I’m learning. I’m not learning how to work for a business.

I’m learning to be a boss.

I’m the one that gets the heat when shit goes down. I’ve had employees about to fight and sometimes you want to take sides but you can’t. I’m definitely learning a lot about being a boss and being a black woman as a boss. It’s not easy. I’ve had someone call the spa the other day and ask if I was black!!! I told her very nicely “you can return your Groupon whenever you’re ready”. Any body of any other race who owns a business doesn’t sit there and say ‘Asian Business Owners!’ We don’t want to be the company that’s like ‘Black People Own This!’ It’s not about that, though we do put business first and are proud to be black women. But just to have someone call and ask… for what? Why exactly do you need to know!?

I didn’t know the world was like this. I really didn’t know that I was black. I had teachers that had to tell me I had to be better and be better but you don’t know it until you actually really do have to be better.

It is definitely not fair but it is what it is, you take it and you move on and continue to live your life because at the end of the day I’m going to be black forever and I’m going to be a woman forever.

We dwell on our 40 acres and mule. it’s not coming… you have to get it.

Also our issue as black people is we aren’t trying to help each other. And that’s big in the black art world too, like No! I’m going to get to the top and I made it so you make it, I had to go through the struggle so you go through the struggle. Instead of saying I went through the struggle so you don’t have to go through the struggle, let me help you out. And there’s not enough hands out there that are trying to help people. And if their hands are out they’re expecting you to put something in it first.

I don’t want to hold on to anything here. When I do… because it’s promised… when I do leave here I want to leave it where it is.

you can follow Mellissa on her instagram.

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