what’s up yall? i’m excited to finally let you guys know that mo betta soul online mag is up. it’s still a work in progress so, if you’re a writer, have suggestions or have hate mail, it’s all received and accepted.
hope you guys enjoy it and pass the word around. once again it’s mobettasoul.com. ez
B.oB: Southern Graduate interview by Preach Jacobs @soulculture.co.uk
Within the realms of Hip Hop there are tons of beat makers, rappers and flat out illiterate sounding assholes, but you rarely hear about musicianship. That’s why it was a surprising pleasure to find out about B.O.B (born Bobby Ray Simmons), an Atlanta based rapper-musician-producer that’s just been inked to Grand Hustle.
Featured on the cover of XXL’s Hip Hop Class of ‘09 (with other newcomers like Wale, Charles Hamilton and Asher Roth), B.o.B’s music gained momentum with a hand-full of guest slots as well as being featured on tons of end years list when he does release a song. But after EPs and mixtapes (with his latest mix being B.o.B aka Bobby Ray: May 25th) in preparation for his new album, he still has something to prove. People still need to know who B.o.B is, simple and plain.
In-between cities on a promotional tour, the 21 year old rapper met me at a down home blues restaurant in downtown Columbia for a southern fried lunch and sit down. When he arrived (after sitting with members of his entourage including manager and local label reps) I didn’t know what to expect.
Before I wanted to get into any questions, the kid was antsy. Looking at the stage of the restaurant called Mac’s On Main, the stage with full-working P.A. system was tempting to the young artists.
“That stage makes me want to grab my guitar and my trumpet right now and start playing.
I have my in. I ask him about his history of live instrumentation…
“My dad really was the one that influenced me to be a musician. He got me a trumpet and showed it to me and said ‘If you get straight As, you can play this,’ then he hid it away. But that’s how I learned how to play music and musical conception, vibrations, notes and things like that. It was something because no one in my family was really musical. It sort of started with me.”
Being into music, B.O.B has roots in a place where southern black folks usually get their start: The church.
“My father was a preacher but gave us a lot of religious freedom. He never imposed anything and gave us freedom to explore. We were always in church and it influenced my music. If you think about it, a preacher is like a musician, they’re performing, southern preachers when they preach is like a performance.”
Those traits seemed to have trickled down as B.O.B got an early interest from labels since age 17 and then finally settling with T.I.’s imprint Grand Hustle. The buzz has been going on for quite sometime but the album kept getting pushed back. Not to be broken, B.O.B sounds positive about the future.
Handling 80 percent of the production duties for his project and some guest slots that’ll move some units (with names that I was sworn to secrecy as to not fuck up anything that’s in the works), B.O.B has an understanding of how music industry operates.
“I know that people have been waiting for the album for a long time but the time wasn’t wasted. A lot more has developed. You have to be in touch with the people and keep the fan-base and attention. Sometimes things are overly accessible as it’s designed to keep artists feeding the machine. In the digital age, it’s even scary how quick things can happen. I remember I was doing something and was on Ustream, and in that short period of time two people found out where I was at and met me there. It was crazy.”
Following in the footsteps of southern mecca’s elite, B.O.B aims to carry the tradition of his southern counterparts. He understands the huge Adidas he has to fill.
“I was fortunate enough to be around the Atlanta movement as it started before I was born. First rap song I heard was an Outkast song.The south as a sound. There’s such a thing as a Hip Hop-Rap-Southern record. It proved that we can do it too. Southern artists now embody those Hip Hop elements and pushed things further with the production and lyrical ability. I’d like to think that I’m a part of that.”
–Preach Jacobs
2010 is going to be a busy year because i have TONS of music just waiting for you guys to hear. i just want the timing to be right with all of the projects. well, this song in particular was released on a project in japan and thought you folks in the states should get a chance to hear it as well. it’s called ‘southern boy’ and it’s produced by katrah-quey. enjoy (you may see it on our project titled ‘rebel radio’ coming soon. if you missed the other leak from that project check here).
this is exciting. especially since the video just won an ADDY award a couple of weeks ago. the video for “falling” is still making its rounds as it stops by the indie grits film festival this april 14-17 (columbia, sc). here’s what the site had to say:
Preach Jacobs & Denz – Falling (4 mins.)
Ryan Cockrell (Columbia, SC)
WEDNESDAY 8:30 PM at the Nickelodeon Theatre
Preach Jacobs & Denz Falling takes place in recognizable parts of Columbia, SC. The film visually explores the hip-hop artists feelings for his lover and his interpretation of hers for him. Externalizing Preach’s internal battle over unrequited love proves dating the disinterested and uninspired than giving in to workaholic tendencies, but ironically provides artistic inspiration.
for those who haven’t seen it, here it is. pass it on!
hey yall. it’s that time of year again where i hit the stages and make believers out of folks that had no idea i existed. we have some shows lined up and some BIG ones coming up soon (more info on that as it gets clearer). but here’s a few dates that’s been added. more coming, i promise. make sure you keep up with the tours/shows/event section.
03/19/10 The Whig The Greatest Never Listening Party (Columbia, SC)
03/25/10 New Brookland Tavern Aaron & Grant Fundraiser (Columbia, SC)
04/15/10 The White Mule Mo’ Betta Soul presents: Preach Jacobs w/ Secret B-Sides, Sons of Young (Columbia,SC)
05/21/10 Apache Cafe TBA (Atlanta, GA)
sup yall? it looks like march 19th is going to be a great day. not only will i be hosting the screening premier of the movie larga vida, pura vida, but it will be followed by a listening party for .d. of helium music’s “the greatest never” at the whig (1200 main st. columbia, sc 29201). the event will be dope as hell and is free to the fine folks that show up (and they might get lucky and walk away with something).
want to hear more about .d. of helium music? check out the sampler to the album. enjoy.
you know, it’s funny when there’s certain things you tell yourself you’re not going to do, and then you end up doing it anyway. for example, i see thousands of sites with the word “soul” in the title, and what do i end up doing for my new online mag? you guessed it. but fuck it, i believe it fits. the site isn’t officially up and running yet, but figured to give a sneak preview for it. it’s going to be called mo’ betta soul magazine and we will have a domain when it’s ready to launch next month.
my goals for the site are a few things: 1) i’m a writer and write for tons of places. but there’s some writings that i have that are too personal for mags i write for or stuff that they just don’t have the space for. so, my online spot is for that and 2) i want to really REALLY get other writers that are heavily involved in music writing, photography, editorials or just good ole fashion personal stories to have a place to express themselves. hopefully there will be so much great content from other people that i can just offer a playground for them to roam around in.
either way, i haven’t been this excited about something in a long time. i also don’t want it to take attention away from preachjacobs.com but instead act as a cross promotional thing for my work (musical and journalistic alike) and others.
so, again, it’s still in the working process so if anyone wants to contribute, add ideas, suggestions or criticisms (in fact, keep that last part to yourself) hit me up here. again i hope you enjoy it when it officially drops. get the sneak preview here.
this album is shaping up to be a wonderful addition to my collection very soon. seems like march 30th is taking too long. at any rate, check out the radio rip. hope you enjoy.
Download: Erykah Badu “Aggitation” & “Don’t B Long” (radio rip snippets from giles petterson)
…..and if you haven’t seen the video w/ lil’ weezy.
Preach Jacobs Photography @ Soul Portrait Magazine
hey guys, hope all is well. biggups to soul portrait magazine for featuring one of my favorite photos on their site today. peep the site as a whole as it features tons of dope things that cater to people of color. hopefully i’ll have some more work on there soon. also, if you want to see more of my photography check out the post i did 2009: Photo Reflection Through Travel.
Black Girl Still Rockin’: Interview with Res by Preach Jacobs
The alchemy of a song can be a tedious process. Of course you have to find ways to get all the instruments to play in unison and make something happen, not to mention songwriting that at times have to come from certain parts of your soul and brain that the average person pride themselves in ignoring.
Making music is a sexy and addictive process for the people that love what they do. Despite record deals, award ceremonies or stages, there is that need to create. Singer/songwriter Res knows about this all too well: “I will always be doing music. At times I want to quit, but I’m fucking good at it. The only times I think about not doing it is based on financial reasons and nothing else. That’s nothing, doing music is what I’m supposed to do. It feels so obvious.”
Res came into the scene with her debut album How I Do in 2001 on the now defunct MCA records and had a string of singles that featured the Soul/Rock/Hip Hop flavor hybrid that maybe commonplace now, but it’s not a far stretch to say that Res was one of the first to do it – and do it pretty fucking well.
Armed with great production, strong writing and beauty for days, Res had a successful project moving around 300,000 units. Unfortunately, the recording industry began what has become a mirroring of the current economy and her follow-up album was shelved due to a label buy-out. Geffen took over MCA and all of their artists.
“There’s no other way I can say it other than it was just a case of bad luck. I worked on my follow-up album and it was finished and mixed but MCA got bought out. From that time on there were four other or more presidents that took over and they had the projects that they wanted to put out. I was doing well. They paid for everything and I had the freedom to do what I wanted to do. I got a way to look the way that I want and had the freedom to make the music I wanted. I left because my record wasn’t being put out. I’m not bitter, it’s just how it goes.”
In the meantime Res stayed busy by forming a group called Idle Warship with Talib Kweli and doing background vocals for Gnarls Barkley. She has also been in the studio working on new material including a six song ep titled Bare; an acoustic offering designed to show a different side of Res (and to facilitate going on the road).
Res’ sophomore record Black.Girls.Rock! [click for review] was for years the best album you never heard – until she recently decided to give it to the people for free via her website, the1res.com, creating a fresh new buzz for her solo material. “After I left the label, I was trying to take my second album with me somewhere else,” she says. “But they told me I couldn’t do it until I paid them back the $1.4 million it cost to make.”
Black.Girls.Rock! was slated to be released years ago – but regardless sounds as fresh as ever as she puts it out for free in cyberspace. Sonically the album explores realms of soul and rock with an unexplainable ease coupled with intimate songwriting.
On songs like “So What I Am (Sunday Nite Res),” she confesses: “I know this girl she’s famous / She seems so lost within herself / She never says she sorry / The blame just falls on someone else / She sees the walls and their falling / She used to being by herself / She thinks she’s got it figured out / And she don’t need no one else / So what am I supposed to do?”
Honesty is at the top of the list of her traits as Res unapologetically expresses herself throughout her albums and career. When asked about whether her ex-label was clueless as to how to promote her, she has her own definitive theory:
“When it came to my music, it had nothing to do about marketing. It came down to the fact that it was a major label and I’m a black girl from Philly. I look black, act black, got a black boyfriend and people weren’t use to seeing black girls have guitars and rocking. Bottom line. They had a whole marketing team and too much money to not know what to do. It came down to the fact that I had braids and can sing rock, and they didn’t want to show that to the masses because they didn’t think it was possible.”
Res would be an asset to any label indy or major, but until she signs with someone that can meet her needs, fuck a label. She’s not going to let it get in the way of what musicians do: Get the music to the people. Someway. Somehow. Now one of the world’s best kept free agents, Res continues working on new material; she is also working on a new project with a producer by the name of Doc, who helped her craft How I Do.
When asked if she will be reuniting with her writing collaborator Santigold, who was also involved in her debut album, Res leaves it open, “You know, we haven’t thought about it. I actually called last night to speak with her but as of now, she’s not on there. But we’ll see.”
2010 suggests great things for Res – not just as a musician, but exploring other facets of artistry. Don’t try and reach her on Tuesday nights around 7pm because she’s taking a photography class at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia (and you can see the outcomes of her snaps on her blog).
She also is putting together an acoustic tour in more intimate settings than previous tours with a full band opening for the likes of Maxwell and Musiq Soulchild (insert any other dope as soul artists, as she’s more than likely shared a stage with them).
“If I wasn’t doing music being married would be in the cards,” she reveals. “If I weren’t singing I would be married with someone’s kids with a regular job. I went to college for financing so it would probably be something like that.” But it appears that the future father-husband for Res will have to wait for the time being, because she has a lot more stages and speakers to rock. Aren’t we so lucky? -PJ
