J57 Featured In "The Produce"

Keep a look out for J57, the kid is super talented producer.  Here's mini feature clip on him from a Cluster magazine and 2dopeboyz.

Excerpt from his full length interview below:

"“I’m lucky to learn from the people I know,” J57 tells me as he cues up a sample and pats his dog, Suri (co-producer). “A true student doesn’t emulate what they hear, they take what they are taught and apply it with their own flair,” J explains as he lists specific tricks he’s learned from masters. He cites Marco Polo as the “illest with bass lines,” an affinity that Marco personally passed down to him. DJ Premier is another mentor. Premier is the king of chopping samples, taking source material and re-deploying it in altered forms to unleash its hidden potential, an expertise J has not taken for granted. But J, too, has a fair share to offer his teachers and peers alike. He recently worked alongside Premier arranging Nas’ new single,“Regeneration,” which he recorded alongside the Berklee Symphony Orchestra. In this network of crews, hip-hop gods, and students, J57 cites the constant exchange between other artists as what keeps him advancing."

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Timbaland "True Hollywood Story"

In 1997, we put out Timbaland's first album, "Welcome To Our World".  This was after he made his mark with Aaliyah on her One In A Million album.

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New Artist: Vita Chambers

I recently ran into Vita during CMJ.  She hails from Barbados and was discovered by the legendary Sturken & Rogers.  These guys own the Bajan pipeline to the music talent on that island.  So far they're responsible for bringing us Rihanna and Shontelle.  Vita and Hal are next on their agenda.

As you can see she's got the look and has an impressive set of pipes.  I had the pleasure of booking her 1st national performance on Centric's reboot of the Soul Train Awards back in 2009.  She was a ball of nerves but NAILED the performance and choreography.  Keep on the look out for her...

Follow her:  @vitachambers

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New Video: Soul Khan "Alec Baldwin"

Second video from the Acknowledgement EP

Little known fact:  The video was shot on the same property where they filmed the last scene from Will Smith's "I Am Legend"

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Down With Webster

My first trip to Toronto was to see them perform.  They were signed to our label at the time and there was a big push to get the rest of Universal and radio programmers behind them.  They put on a great show, the music isn't necessarily for me but I found myself singing some of the songs later that night.  This video gives you a little taste of what I experienced that night...

Another Canadian group that's big in their country but can't get sh*t in the US.

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Kid Rock

I remember when he was assigned to me in the late 90s.  My first thought was "What the hell?"  His first video, "Welcome 2 The Party" didn't make any sense to me and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what to do with this project.  Then a little while later I saw the video for "I Am The Bullgod" and 50,000 light bulbs went off in my head.  I got it, strangely but amazingly I realized that this dude was serious.  We worked his major label debut, Devil Without A Cause for a while until things caught fire with a string of smashes "Bawitdaba", "Only God Knows Why", and "Cowboy."  MTV embraced Rock and the rest was history.

He's one of the sharpest businessmen (and artist) I know.  We worked together a lot for almost nine years.  Bob partied hard and worked even harder, he delivered what was needed of him every time.  That's a lot more than I can say for the majority of artists I've worked with.  The dude deserves all the success he's acheived.  If you ever get a chance to see him live he's worth the price, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Pictured above:  Me, Kid Rock, former manager Steve Hutton after taping Colin's Sleazy Friends show in LA (circa 1998)

R.I.P. Joe C

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New Artist Buzz: Frank Ocean

Every once in a while, I'll post about upcoming artists who I feel will be a success.  There's no formula, just my own opinion.  Frank Ocean is this post's feature.  

His free album, nostalgia, Ultra is good from beginning to end.  Download and check for yourself:

Oh yeah, he's part of the group Odd Future and currently writing with Beyonce.

Check him out on twitter and his website.

 

 

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