MANTRA SPOTLIGHT
MANTRA SPOTLIGHT: A focus on people we feel you should watch out for.
FEATURES
Ardent Agenda: A dope live underground/radio logic hiphop group out of the San Fernando Valley/Los Angeles. Members: Eli da Fokalist (my bro) and Syntek (my Homie).
DJ HOPPA: One of the valley best dj's and compossers. This DJ is able to capture the feel of the audience and just enhance the situation. Someone to keep on radar.
Depiktions: I think one of the best upcoming photgraphers out there..keepin it simple (along wit that price)...One of Jae's Fav's!!
TOBY C.: Soon to be world wide this kid has an outstanding protfolio. Pricing may be high, but if you are serious about your career, he is someone you should look up.
MANTRA say 's check them out
JWEST324.
a lil about JWEST324
Thingz important to Jae:..........my peeps and the following
aka Name's: JWEST - JWEST324 - ANDY DUNKAN - JAKOB WILLIAMS - JONATHAN SEBUNNYA:
Age: 324
Music: all types but country.
Games Favs: Crimson Ski's, The GTA's, All Mario Bro's games, Metroid, Halo2/3, , GRAW2, Gear of War1/2, Dead Space, Rockband, & Pure.
Movies: Kung Fu Hustle, Fight Club, Pulp Fiction, Street Fighter, "Miyazaki's Spirted away", Afro Samurais, Nauicaa Valley of the wind, Princess Mononoke, Sin City, 300, Wizard, All the Star wars (Episode III), Snatch, and Lock, Stock & Two smoking Barrels.
LEE JAMES: The person responsible for me being me. What can I say ....since the 5th grade he took me under his wing, teaching me graf-art and blessing me with the sounds hiphop music that most kids my age never had the chance to listen too. He still does art work but not like he should (haha..dats right Lee, you should get back in the game..even if its just on paper) I know he still has a-lil he's holdin back.
Note: Graphic Design Services
located on our "WORKX" page
What Jae has to say....
Mad digin the beat
"The L-Train".....always makes me feel like drawing some restless ish.....always!! On top of that he has design skills. Watch out now.....
AKA:
Faner & Lee James
AGE:
Damn old
EXP:
Lifetime
*Jwest Passing on knowledge!! RAW-"TOS"
Where to catch him....
*In the lab working on new beats & graphix!
*At the local liquor store grabbing a six-pack!
*At Upper Park expanding his mind!
*Looking for a Job that doesnt suck !
THE INDEPENDENTS YOU SHOULD WATCH OUT FOR.......
ABOUT: Tha Fokalist
MANTRA WANTS TO KNOW......What made you start making beats?
I've spent many years with headphones on my ears and not much has changed. I'm one of the few people in the world who can claim to listen to music without making an acknowledgement to what words are being said. There are chords, keys, and sounds that are so attractive to me that I can latch on to just about any song that utilizes them into a sound I like. I look so deep at the structure of how projects are put together be it digital or natural instruments. There’s a science to music that I adore. How do you take a stack of sounds and make them all of them work together as one cohesive unit? It’s the story of hip-hop. Its taking sounds of the odd and giving them a BPM. This challenge fuels me to make beats. The challenge of surpassing Dre, 9th wonder, and J Dilla, fuels me to make beats. I want to come into my own and leave a legacy in the hip-hop world and make sure I did it MY WAY.
MANTRA WANTS TO KNOW......What are your influences?
As a younger player in the game, I didn’t really jump on the pete rocks and Primos like I jumped on the Dilla’s and 9th Wonders. I could say guys like Just Blaze and Kanye as well, but at the end of the day, 9th Wonder is the main influence. Dilla is great for all else in the underground but there’s a vision within 9th Wonder that I feel we share. I just think that 9th’s ability to put that vision into his music is far better than me at this moment in time, but I’m on my way. One would say that classics could influence you too, but I put more appreciation into the producers who structure those classics because though jazz/soul set foundation for hip-hop, hip-hop is still its own entity so it serves me right to only credit those who truly represent and live hip-hop. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ahmad Jamal, Roy Ayers and Bjork but making them in hip-hop takes one who has the visual ears and 9th and Dilla have that, Therefore I appreciate them more for letting me see and hear that it was possible to teach old dogs new tricks.MANTRA WANTS TO KNOW.....Who are you doing this for?
Earning a living off a life your living ain’t bad at all. But there’s always something beyond the money. Reason being is because; I’m a cot damn college graduate. I’m also a total geek. There are tons of other occupations that are very much more lucrative. I do hip-hop, produce, and entertain because, I’m not a lemming. I pride myself on not really thinking like everybody else. I’ve had numerous opportunities in life to fit in. I could have been a good church boy, smoked weed, drank alcohol, committed crimes, joined gangs, played competitive sports or just hung out with the “in” crowds. I do hip-hop as an expression of myself. An expression that’s very much self conscious so if anyone judged me, I’d be angry because though it’s an art, it’s a part of me. In my years on earth, I’ve found also that there’s a way I see life that wouldn’t be bad if I shared it with other people and artists (hence the name fokalist, “my eyes to your ears”). I want to stand out and be noticed for something that’s truly an expression of who I am. I don’t want to go through life playing a role. I want to set the standard and be involved in creating a musical bliss for the audience I appeal to. Where to catch him....
*At the BOOMBOX
*In da command center!
*On da xbox as iamfokal
*At Newgrounds
*Joggin at Balboa Park
*Watchin all things NBA
UPDATED EVERY MONTH: 6-16-09
WANNA SPEAK YOUR MIND
JUST DROP JAE A MESSAGE
FOR THE INTERVIEW
"ALL ARE WELCOMED?!?"
YOU MAY KNOW THEM...!!!
-A SECTION FOR THOSE THAT WANT TO BE HEARD.....
SR388 (born July 6, 1937) is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a vanguard role in the 1960s action show I Spy. He later starred in his own series, The SR388 Show, in 1969. He was one of the major characters on the children's television show The Electric Company for its first two seasons, and created the humorous educational cartoon series Fat Albert and the SR388 Kids, about a group of young friends growing up in the city. SR388 also acted in numerous films. SR388's net worth is estimated at over $300 million.
During the 1980s, SR388 produced and starred in what is considered one of the decade's defining sitcoms, The SR388 Show, which lasted eight seasons from 1984 to 1992, and is still seen in syndication. The sitcom highlighted the experiences and growth of an upper middle-class African-American family. He also produced the hit sitcom A Different World, which became second to The SR388 Show in ratings.
In the 1990s, SR388 starred in SR388, which aired from 1996 to 2000, and during the show's last two seasons, hosted SR388 Says the Darndest Things, and appeared in a number of movies. He has also appeared on the stand-up circuit.
His good-natured, fatherly image has made him a popular personality and garnered him the nickname of "America's Dad". He has also been a sought-after spokesman and over the years has endorsed numerous products including Jell-O Pudding, Kodak Film, Ford, Texas Instruments and Coca-Cola (as well as New Coke).
In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed SR388 on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
He earned an Ed.D. degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1976. For his doctoral research, he wrote a dissertation entitled “An Integration of the Visual Media Via "Fat Albert And The SR388 Kids" Into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning”. Copies of his dissertation are available from University Microfilms International as document number 7706369
Check me out..thx Jae,
Mode 7
THE INDEPENDENTS YOU SHOULD WATCH OUT FOR.......
ABOUT: Shonsteez aka Steezo:
MANTRA WANTS TO KNOW......What made you start making beats?
From an early age I was very attracted to 'rhythm-based' music so I always appreciated a lot of hiphop. During the 80s....I remember really digging on artists like Kool Mo Dee,
Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, KRS One, BDP, Run DMC, The Beasties, and LL Cool
J....I even used to get my tape recorder ready with a blank cassette and put it in front of
the TV so when Yo Mtv Raps came on I could record all of the songs and have
something dope to listen to later on....
Growing up, I learned to play guitar and keyboard but the instrument I always really wanted to own was a set of drums....however copping a full set of drums was
financially out of reach at this point in my life.
Eventually 2000 rolled around and a friend of mine at that time introduced me to a program he bought called Reason. I was instantly hooked. I was able to learn it
extremely fast and was amazed at the results I could render within just a couple days
so I knew I needed to keep at this beatmaking thing and see just how far I could take
it....It still wasn't a set of drums or an MPC but it provided a perfect soundscape to get
started and begin building a skill set that I would later continue to develop and grow
into what is my sound today.
I continued using Reason for a span of about 6 years and then finally copped a 1000 with our tax return at the beginning of 2007....This was by far one of the best
investments I ever made for my production to this day and even though I went from a
combination of both composing and sample based production - moving to the 1000
was still such a worthwhile decision on my part. Admittedly, I do slightly miss using
synths for certain things every now and then so I may have cop an old analog piece
some time in the near future for bass lines and stuff, but sample-based production is
still really where my heart is at so Im sure Ill be happy with what I got for a little while
longer.....
MANTRA WANTS TO KNOW......What are your influences?
My influences are so vast its hard to pin-point just one or even a couple to be honest. Its safe to say that I definitely dont limit myself to one genre or style of music when it
comes to sampling though. I might sample a Jazz record one minute, and then one of
those children's books that comes with the record you follow along with the next....it's
all relative to the mood Im in, what Im going for, and how expanded my mind is at that
point in time if you catch my drift....
The 90's were really the heyday of Rap music and HipHop IMO so a lot of the records from that era were largely influential on my style of playing and aesthetic starting out.
With that said, when I begin a song I dont sit there and think to myself, "Aiight, how can
I make this joint sound like Pete Rock?".....I really dont like to rely on someone else's
sound in order create what I like to call my own. Instead, I critically observe as much of
the positive aspects as possible from the artists that I like and then apply those things
to my own work in an adaptive manner rather then verbatim.
MANTRA WANTS TO KNOW.....Who are you doing this for?
I do this for ME first and foremost.... I respect the heads out there trying to make a mark in the rap game solely for the cash
flow but thats not me personally. I've never approached making music from a monetary
perspective. Im aware of that component in the game but Id much rather focus on
making good music for the people around me first and if as a result some heads
wanna cop an album or two by all means hit me up and I'll gladly sell you one.....
Secondly....
I do this for anyone else out there that appreciates my efforts to create good music...
I hope you gain something positive from your experiences listening to my work.
Best,
STEEZO
Shonsteez:
Website: http://www.dmpmusic.com/
ReverbNation: http://www.reverbnation.com/shonsteez
Twitter: http://twitter.com/shonsteez
Shonsteez:
I'm currently in the middle of creating my first LP with Livin Poetry, you can read more about that and listen to rough reference tracks here:
Shonsteez art work:
THE INDEPENDENTS YOU SHOULD WATCH OUT FOR.......
ABOUT: The Chozen One
MANTRA WANTS TO KNOW......What made you start droppin flows?
I was rappin since i was exposed to Sugar Hill Gang. In my mind anyway ahhaha. I was young really young and when i visited my Aunts and Uncles would beg them to play it. It got so bad they told me they didnt have it anymore or it broke.. ahahha.. Then Run Dmc dropped Hard Times / Rock Box and it was a Wrap!!! I found a way to express myself that made me and others feel good. As I got older, I was finding my identity, my own voice thru Life and Hip Hop. Evolving as a Man/Mc as things changed around me, it became my therapy. Everythang got elevated Enhanced, Now its Time to be Heard..MANTRA WANTS TO KNOW......What are your influences?
My influences come from "All" music. Im serious, there hasnt been a genre of music I havent found something I liked. Being exposed to such quality music at a young age ( James Brown, Duke Elington, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Feli Kuti, Sam Cooke, Beatles, Nina Simone, Bob Marley, we can be here a while... hahah), the love of hip hop was to follow. From the start of the movement I knew what Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Run Dmc, LL Cool J, I can go on for minute. Its the music that moved me, and influenced me.MANTRA WANTS TO KNOW.....Who are you doing this for?
Im doing this for me first and then the music. So there is some sorta balance to this unbalanced Hip Hop scene. Growing up in the 80's there was alot more available to choose from, now the youth has slim to nothing to choose from on the everyday. I hope my music can help bridge that gap admist this waterdown, light in the ass, techno'd out, no message no soul shit. Which they are force fed on the daily and the nightly. Im here to make music the way i feel it should be made. Stayin blessed no matter the outcome, bringing blessing to those who feel me. WEST WEST YALL!! Where to catch him....
*At the BOOMBOX
MPC/Musician Producer "BOON DOC": Don't miss out, click HERE or work your way down!
UPDATES
Boonie Mayfield a/k/a Boon Doc (born Solomon Vaughn on April 19, 1983) is an up and coming hip-hop producer/artist currently based in Denver, Colorado. Despite residing in a city that has been virtually shunned by the music industry, Boon Doc has managed to defeat the odds by generating a buzz through the internet with the use of his impactful Youtube videos and cutting edge beats. Fellow producers, artists and admirers around the world have constantly given him praise for his consistency, energy, style, soulfulness and humble attitude. Boon Doc's style clearly resembles hip-hop's "golden age" sound with an update of off-the-wall sample chopped melodies, intoxicating rhythms and hypnotic basslines. Although his personal favorite style of producing ranges within smooth, introspective, street/grimey and neo soul tracks, he proves to be extremely diverse with the ability to produce contemporary r&b, pop, club tracks and house. With the mass interest he has sparked around the world, Boon Doc is sure to become a household name in the near future.
Band Websiteyoutube.com/blacktuezday
youtube.com/blacktuezdayBand MembersAffiliations: Classic B.L.U.E. (Shawn Keith, Kells, Natalie Tatum and Kirk), Warren Jae and Mr. J Medeiros
Affiliations: Classic B.L.U.E. (Shawn Keith, Kells, Natalie Tatum and Kirk), Warren Jae and Mr. J MedeirosInfluence (random order)
Curtis Mayfield, A Tribe Called Quest (and the ENTIRE NATIVE TOUNGE POSSE), DJ Premier, Pete Rock, J Dilla, Hi-Tek, DJ Scratch, ?uestlove, Madlib, Large Pro, Salaam Remi, Jazzy Jeff, Ski, No I.D., Nottz, The Soulquarians, Kanye West, Organized Noise, Black Spade, 9th, Eric Sermon, Dr. Dre, DJ Quik, Jay-Z, Nas, Slum Village, Camp Lo, Common, Outkast, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, The Roots, Wu-Tang, The Pharcyde, Lords of the Underground, Leaders of the New School, Busta, Queen Latifah (if you didn't know she started as an emcee... SHAME ON YOU!!!), Big Pun, Big L, The Lost Boyz, Heavy D, KRS, Public Enemy, Eminem, Glenn Lewis, RES, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Charles Mingus, Galt MacDermot, Johnny Pate, Isaac Hayes, Marvin Gaye, Bootsy Collins, The Stylistics.... I'ma just stop right here... or else I'll go FOREVER!!!
Sounds Like
The next Golden Age of Hip-Hop
Record Label
Unknown Indie
Type of Label
Indie
My group, Ardent Agenda has an album out called Algorhythm Click Here , for the info to pick it up.
Were also working on our second album.
I'm currently in the middle of starting up my own company. Also, I'm arranging and producing for Chozen One. I want to start producing and writing for soul singers. A new artist by the name of YOSWA has also joined up with us and I want to get behind him and bring his music to your ears.
THE INDEPENDENTS YOU SHOULD WATCH OUT FOR.......
ABOUT: DJ Lenny Ducano
MANTRA WANTS TO KNOW......What made you start spinning?
I was 16 when I was introduced to Deejaying ,It was my friend Luke, he went by the name Dj Tigerfist . I thought it was amazing how he was manipulating sounds so fluidly . I just kept bugging him to come over so I could scratch with him,It was definitely the best thing to ever happen for me. I would of tried out for Basketball if I wasn't to busy buying records.MANTRA WANTS TO KNOW......What are your influences?
My Grandma , she always had my back with what ever i decided to do. Dj Q-Bert for being the sickest Dj in the World , as a Turntableist I couldn't imagine not having Q-Bert , A-Track , Craze , Roc Raida , J Rock , Babu , Premier , as role models .MANTRA WANTS TO KNOW.....Who are you doing this for?
I'm doing this for my family , Me , and the Crowd. I do this for the Love of music , i really love music , there's nothing better then connecting with a crowd. Dj Scratch said it best "Don't say you killed it , unless you drop 20 songs and the crowd goes crazy for every song" Thats Who i'm doing it for.( the raw pure energy that music releases in you )For Booking call: (818) 434-0524
Someone, everyone should watch out for!!
