Medium

Great interviews with J. Cole and Rhymefest from Crew54’s Reality Bytes series, an offshoot of their Crew54 Reality Show.

Photo by Luxury Mindz

Matt Sonzala, one of Texas/Southern hip hop’s biggest advocate and the man in charge of hip hop at SXSW, sat down with with Austin’s Josh Shepard of the The Backline Show to chop it up about the state of hip hop, the people he’s worked with and even some talk about merchandising. Definitely a great interview, make sure you hit up The Backline Show and let them know that they’re doing a great job. 

The Backline Show - Interview with Matt Sonzala Part 1

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The Backline Show - Interview with Matt Sonzala Part 1

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Links
Austinsurreal.com
The Backline Show

Hero & Rad ft. Mike & Ike - Smoothness, Coolness

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I know my homies Mike and Ike both have worked with these two in the past and have nothing but good things to say about both of them and Mic Skills stays crazy busy supporting and promoting independent hip hop through his Mission Control events. Go over to RapperIknow.com to read more and check out some tracks from the Mic Skills and Rad.

Links
Mic Skills
Rad

A Sampling of Pete Neonakis’s Work

Along with the wealth of musicians in Austin there is just as many graphic artists that are working to build a look and feel of Austin graphic design. With so many musicians it seems that just about every graphic artist has musician friends or is a musician himself giving many artists the opportunity to not only build up a band but build up brands that can bring in a new audience. For me it is much easier to take a new group that much more serious if their merchandise or promotional items are designed nicely, after all, sharpied CD-Rs can only take you so far. One of Austin based graphic artist whose work caught my eye recently is Pete Neonakis of Sidian Agency. Pete has worked with one of Austin’s biggest groups, Grupo Fantasma, on many of their projects, giving Grupo Fantasma a look and feel that grabs you before you even hear that first note. Pete talked  with me a bit about his music and his art, including his work with DC based Eighteenth Street Lounge.
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OG has worked with many southern rap acts, including: Chamillionaire (top), Gerald G (middle) and David Banner (Bottom). 

For many their opinion of Southern rap music probably depends on where they stand on the map but no matter who you are there is definitely something to be said for a group of artists that work hard and know their audience well enough to make a good living as independent artists. So while many people in the hip-hop world like to view southern hip-hop as a cheap knock off of what the “art form” was meant to be, many in the South are too worried about steadily producing more of it, regardless of what others may think. This can be said for many hip-hop artists that have gotten to the point they are now by posting up and hustling mixtapes out the back of their trunk, but it’s important to point out that not all product that is hustled out the back of a trunk is created equal.

In terms of  design and photography all you need to do is jump on MySpace to witness firsthand that Pen & Pixel and their influence on cover artwork and photography is alive and well in the South. Whether that’s good or bad, I’ll let you be the judge, but many times when you’re looking for that platinum level of art you really are left with a gumball machine equivalent. It seems that just like everyone wants to be rapper, everyone wants to be a designer or photographer, without ever paying attention to quality. In Southern rap, there’s few artists and studios that really stand out and one artist who has not only embraced the culture and influences of southern rap but helped take to a more sophisticated level of artistry is Austin based OG of Luxury Mindz. OG took some time out of his busy schedule to rap with me a bit about his artwork, the artists he’s worked with, his platinum plaque, Austin hip-hop and the future of music related art.

Photo slideshow and interview after the jump ↓
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Wale is probably one of the artists with the most buzz around him in the past year. Wale’s done tracks with everyone from Bun-B and Lil’ Wayne to Lilly Allen and Justice. And though he’s got strong cosigns from Jay-Z and Mark Ronson, and now a major deal on Interscope, Wale is still on that indie grind. DC’s Wale gives a good in depth interview about the industry touching on some very interesting things including getting no hometown radio love, hipster rap, internet buzz and getting a deal. Peep it.

Links:
Raphsody Blog
Wale’s Blog
Wale on MySpace