CONCRETE Magazine - Key Glock by CONCRETE Magazine

concrete615.com 6-10 ........................ Key Glock 12 ................... Fredo Ruthless 14 ......................... Action Pak 18 ..........Nashville 10: Naomi Foxx 20 ................... Music Reviews 22 .............. Morning After Crew 24-25 .................. Steert Pound 28 ............................ DJ Coop Publisher: Capo Ad Executive: Capo Art Director: Rex2-tm Editorial & Nash 10 Photography: Tavell Brown Staff Support: Deandre Haynes, Chris CMR Rhone, Nikila.A Ad Photography: Visual Flavor Ad Graphics: C3GRAFX, Kyro Ink Publishing Consultant: Bryan Deese

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CONCRETE: How has Memphis influenced your sound? Key Glock: Memphis plays a big role in my sound. That is my sound! Really the whole industry bites off our style in a way. CONCRETE: How do you feel about that, is it them paying homage or them really biting the style? Key Glock: Nah. They ain’t paying homage, I really don’t think they even know they biting. It ain’t nothing new but it’s all good. CONCRETE: How long were you pushing as an artist before connecting with PRE? Key Glock: Really like a year in a half maybe two. CONCRETE: What was one of your first major purchases after you got some real money? Key Glock: I been doing the major purchases no cap. I would have to say my rose chain was my first major purchase. CONCRETE: You stated you and producer Tay Keith went to high school together, do you remember the first song you guys ever worked on? Key Glock: I don’t remember the first song we worked on together. I do remember I use to record myself at that time and I wasn’t even naming sh*t. I didn’t care what the beat sounded like I was just recording. CONCRETE: What is it about Tay Keith’s production that you like? Key Glock: He has his own sound but then again it’s Memphis and it’s that head banger. continued on next page

CONCRETE: You said growing up in south Memphis there wasn’t a lot of outlets for kids and no one taught you special skills towards a career. Is there anything you are doing or would like to do to ﬁx that? Key Glock: Only thing I can do is give great advice. You can’t force anything on someone and make them do something they don’t want to do. There were programs when I was coming up but I was hard headed and wasn’t paying attention. Kids are going to do what they want to do anyways. I would tell kids to get in those programs but then again they aren’t going to listen so they are going to have to learn on their own. I was one of those kids that found out everything on my own. CONCRETE: Young Dolph is your cousin, did you guys grow up together or meet later in life? Key Glock: Really both. Dolph is a whole ten years older than me so the only time we would hangout with each other is at family functions. CONCRETE: With Young Dolph being extremely successful in the industry, has there been any advice pertaining to the music business that sticks out to you? Key Glock: Hell yeah! We have talks every day and it’s nothing but good advice like stay in my lane, do what I want to do, don’t let anyone take me out of my character and stay away from fakes. CONCRETE: There is a lot of artist that pop on social media and the followers don’t transition to shows. What do you feel is more important, the social media presence or the grassroots person to person relationship? Key Glock: I mean the internet runs everything now. Of course you need that social media presence and people can be whoever they want to be on social media but that doesn’t mean they are that person off the internet. continued on next page

CONCRETE: What do you feel is the key to longevity in the music business? Key Glock: It all depends on the artist, you can’t blame anybody else for your downfall or your come up. This sh*t comes all from your work ethic bad or good it’s what you put into it. CONCRETE: If you could go back in time and give a younger you some advice what would it be? Key Glock: I ain’t even going to lie I wouldn’t give any advice because everything happens for a reason.

CONCRETE: Can you tell us about your first time smoking weed? Key Glock: I wasn’t even ten and I had already knew the smell. Coming up I knew what cigarettes, weed, and crack smelled like. There was half a joint left in the ashtray so I fired it up and hit it a couple of times. I walked around the house lit and ended up falling right to sleep. I was always an energetic kid that you would have to tell to take a nap so hell yeah I was high. CONCRETE: How much weed do you smoke daily? Key Glock: If I’m active I have to have some weed so I would say at least a zip and on my off days at least a half. So fourteen to twenty eight. CONCRETE: Do you have any specific munchies when you smoke? Key Glock: Man I’m f*cking everything up! I don’t care if it’s Lays, Doritos, Cheetos that sh*t is getting smashed.

CONCRETE: Where are you originally from? Fredo Ruthless: Jackson,Tennessee. CONCRETE: How did you end up in Nashville? Fredo Ruthless: I got in some trouble and was banned from Jackson. They labeled me a menace to society so I had to leave from there. CONCRETE: How long have you been pushing as an artist? Fredo Ruthless: Like a year. Ever since I was little I rapped but my big brother said lets start taking it serious. So I did and it took off fast. CONCRETE: You haven’t been pushing very long and have already made a strong impact what do you credit that to? Fredo Ruthless: I shot the video for a hundred shots and it started taking off. I was like sh*t we going to just see how it goes. After that I shot “Drug Addict” and it went through the roof. We was like this is it right here this is what’s going to take us out of here. CONCRETE: Do you have a certain approach when it comes to writing a song? Fredo Ruthless: Life. What I’ve been through, what’s going on in the streets, the struggle, the club, whatever I’m feeling. CONCRETE: You recently signed to MoneyBaggs label Ndless Records how did that come about? Fredo Ruthless: They seen me working. Larry Live hit me up and was like we are going to fly you out. They put a contract on the table, I had a lawyer look over it and it wasn’t fugazi. CONCRETE: You have accomplished a lot in a year where do you see yourself next year at this time? Fredo Ruthless: On fire! I’m going to be progressing. At first we were on YouTube and weren’t thinking about nothing else. Then it started taking off so fast that now we have to start putting it on all streaming platforms to get it out farther than just YouTube. CONCRETE: You have been working close with DJ Chill, how did you guys connect? Fredo Ruthless: My big brother would be like I’m going to the club to get your song played and everytime he would go it was DJ Chill in there. So one day he just sent me a beat and it was a banger and my brother was like you need to get on that beat so I did and it was a hit. I told Chill we need some more of them and ever since then he just feeding me the beats and I’m eating them. CONCRETE: So what’s next for Fredo? Fredo Ruthless: Me and Chill got real life sh*t, we got struggle music, rockstar music, we got club bangers and they all on the way. We are going to feed the streets first and give them a mixtape then the album. The album is going to be structured and we’re going to put real effort into that but the mixtape dropping first titled Fredo This Fredo That and that’s coming real soon.

CONCRETE: Where are you from? Action Pack: Straight from Memphis Tenn! CONCRETE: How old are you? Action Pack: I’m seventeen and still in high school. I graduate in May. (I’m) planning on going to college, but I can’t even go to school in Memphis right now because I’m heating the city up. People want to take pictures and stuff. CONCRETE: You’ve been in Nashville moving around what you got going on here? Action Pack: Just working. Out here messing with my man DJ Svnny D and Concrete. Met with the coalition DJ’s for new music Sunday’s and hit SOHO lounge, they know how to party. CONCRETE: How has Memphis inﬂuenced your music? Action Pack: Memphis music made me. I grew up listening to Yo Gotti. He is a big mentor in my career and music is a huge thing for us in our culture. CONCRETE: How did you end up linking with CMG? Action Pack: I was dropping my music and my uncle bumped into B Mimms and let him hear some of my music. They said they was f*cking with me and we been rocking ever since. They some real ones for sure. CONCRETE: A lot of artists want to stay independent these day. Did you sign a deal with CMG? Action Pack: I’m still doing my own thing. They are pretty much telling me the right moves to make. As far as a contract it’s just me and my Pops. We are doing are own thing right now. CONCRETE: How is it working with Gotti, Blac Youngsta and Money Bagg? Action Pack: It’s like a dream! December last year I was dreaming this sh*t. I have never been around them. I was just looking up to them as a fan. Now I’m working with them and being around them still feels unreal to me. CONCRETE: You have a single called “Drip Set” that is going crazy featuring Gunna how did that come about? Action Pack: I was in ATL at Lenox and I was getting the drip together to go shoot a video. The concept was just in my head and I kept saying, “Drip Set” and I was like that would be a hard line to put in a song. My man D Mac sent me the beat and I went to the studio. I came up with the line “the Rari be Matt Black because I was in LA and I was with my big bro Yo and they had the matt black Rari.” I just used that line and ended up coming up with the rest of the hook. I kept hearing Gunna on it so I linked with him and made it happen.

Photo by: Tavell Brown - Brown-Photography.net

Hometown: Detroit Mi CONCRETE: Turn ons? Naomi: A man that can take charge. CONCRETE: Turn off? Naomi: When he talk about material possessions.

CONCRETE Magazine - Ear 2 The Streets VOL.2

Once again we continue our Ear 2 The Streets series spotlighting some of the dopest up and coming talent out. DJ Svnny D provided us with the mix and ScottyATL jumped on board to host. Artist like Fredo Ruthless, Hollyluyah, Project Pat, Lil Wyte, Gunna, Fooly, Saváge, Action Pack, Pretty Shy and WILX all make appearances on this project. This is a great blend of new emerging artist and some already established. So many different styles and sounds there is bound to be something for everyone. Roll up, click play and enjoy!

Jelly Roll - Good Night Nashville

Ask and you shall receive. The people wanted the old Jelly Roll ﬂow back and he delivered. Giving the listeners raw raps over raw beats is where Jelly seems to be most comfortable. He is still singing soulfully on the majority of the hooks while never shying away from spitting cold facts that some may be offended by. Jelly recruits some obvious and expected features from Struggle, Yelawolf and Alexander King but one feature that wasn’t expected was the two records Starlito is featured on. Both records are far from what you would ever expect to hear Lito on but he delivers effortlessly to help give Nashville two songs to remember. “Bring It Back”, “Bad Times Roll”, “Believe”, “Southern Hospitality” and “Get Out and Get It”, are just a few that stuck out to us, but overall this is a solid twelve song project that we are proud to have as a representation of Nashville hip-hop!

The Morning After Crew - For My Friends

The Morning After Crew delivered us a timeless piece of art in 2018. The production is full of soul with the perfect blend of boom bap trap. At ﬁrst that may not make sense but after you listen you will get it. “All I Need” sets the tone of this project, it starts with a jazzy horn demanding your full attention as The Crew follows along with a smooth hook singing for my friends. Great way to let their listeners know if you’re listening you’re considered a friend. Overall the project is full of crazy beats, tons of dope word play and lyrics that will have you quoting their bars. Some of our favs were “All White”, “YoYo”, “Guacamole”, “Summertime” and “Coolin”. Please do yourself a favor and go push play you won’t regret it.

L Roy Da Boy - Break The Cycle Reloaded

L Roy finished last year with his Break The Cycle Reloaded project. It’s seven songs filled with motivational lines over quality heavy hitting production. It feels almost like listening to a motivational speaker giving you stories and insight on how to get it out the mud. Even the production seems to spark a inspirational cord and makes you want to step up whatever your hustle is. “Boss’d Up” is a get up off your ass and go get it record and probably one of our favorites off this project. “Spin The Block” features BeHoward on the hook while L Roy spits flames over a dark piano loop. “Comma’s” features Hollyluyah, Villian and Lil Vac, the song “Rebuttal”also caught our attention. Overall solid project and worth a listen.

CONCRETE: How did the three of you guys form The Morning After Crew? Morning After Crew: (London) High school days we played football and kind of connected on music from there. The initial drive sparked with Charlie producing. He would be like, ‘hey I made this beat listen to it’ and would hand off his IPOD. We would meet up like fourth period and I would be like that sh*t was hard. (Tony) At first London and Charlie were rapping together in high school and then me and charlie went off to college in Johnson City. We originally were going by 2 Much and we were like nah that sounds horrible. One morning I woke up and was like, ‘Hey we’re The Morning After Crew.’ (Charlie) Also we are all morning people and we get up early because the early bird gets the worm. CONCRETE: Your sound is unique, what are some of your influences? Morning After Crew: (London) Scarface, Pac, Biggie , Spice 1. (Tony) Essentially when you talk about hip hop Tennessee does not come to mind and for some TN boys we feel that’s not fair. Most of the influence is coming from outside. (Tony) I feel like it’s a melting pot. This is music city and everyone passes through here and from that everybody has developed this type of energy. I feel like there really isn’t a Tennessee sound there is more of a Tennessee energy. When you come here you will leave with something. CONCRETE: Your most recent project For My Friends has a very southern hip hop feel. How would you describe it for those who aren’t familiar? Morning After Crew: (Tony) We are from the south so you are going to feel that energy and hear that dialect for sure.(London) I think our sound has grown since the first album. A lot of life happened between those two albums so when you listen to For My Friends you are hearing all those experiences. You can hear that we want to be better, make better music, and create better vibes. In a nut shell the project is For My Friends but all our friends are family and we really mean that! CONCRETE: What’s each of your favorite songs off the album? Morning After Crew: (Tony) For me it is “All I Need” because it says, ‘I should of finished college, they told me I would regret it, Sally May keep calling my phone it’s disconnected.’ I got my little sister on there so that’s my sh*t. (Charlie) For me it’s “Coolin”. I can be in the worst mood but when I put that track on I vibe out and everything is Cool. (London) I would say “Triple R” the last song on the project it just hits you in the face. That’s what we like to do with our live shows we want to be in your face and you will pay attention. CONCRETE: What’s next for you guys? Morning After Crew: (London) We are looking into some tours and doing some of our own live shows and bringing in some other local talent to help get exposure as well. (Tony) We feel with Nashville and surrounding areas is known for country but there is a lot of other dope music happening in these places. We want to open the doors for others. (London) We want to almost invent the new sound that TN kids look up to if you do hip hop. We really want to be the leaders of the Nashville sound.

CONCRETE: How did Street Pound get started? Street Pound: (Badazz LUCK) We been in this music thing for a minute just behind the scenes. So I’ll start when we came up with the Street Pound formation. We use to promote records and traveled all over the country doing it. So one time we were at a strip club in Alabama and me and Lo$ta was sitting there watching these dudes make this girl work for some crumbled up ones, and one of the guys tore a dollar in half and threw it. She said,” ya’ll got to go your tipping to slow”, and we said that would be a hit record. That was the birth of Street Pound right there with the “Tipping to Slow” single. CONCRETE: Your name is Street Pound Productions which sounds like you are a production team but you guys are also artist as well? Street Pound: (Badazz LUCK) Absolutely. We function in the same way as a DJ Khaled or DJ Drama. Street Pound Production is the machine. The artist will switch

sometimes and sometimes the producers will change. Primarily this thing is structured around Stan TRONIC Washington, he is the chief producer around our sound. CONCRETE: You guys have a strong online presence and physical supporters as well, how did you build that following? Street Pound: (Badazz LUCK) When we started this with the Tippin to Slow campaign we were really out in the community touching the people. We started with a t-shirt campaign and we gave away a lot of shirts. Everybody wanted that Tippin to Slow shirt even to this day. I think it started from getting out and touching the people and then it just grew from there organically. (K-Slicc) To add to that I think we are doing a pretty good job of not making local music. We make music for everybody, somebody over there might not like it but some people over here like it and some people over there like it so when we get that kind of love it’s real.

CONCRETE: Speaking of local music do you feel Nashville has it’s own sound? Street Pound: (Stan TRONIK Washington) There is a sound, it’s developed pretty well and there is a lot of young cats out here bumping. (Badazz LUCK) I feel on the local scene a lot of artist follow the trend and I think we are willing to buck that trend and do our own thing. (Lo$ta) Nashville, and I love my city let’s put that out there but Nashville will respect you more if you leave the city and come back big. As far as our sound we don’t want to be pigeon hold to a speciﬁc sound. You’re going to hear a variety of sounds come from us not only party music. CONCRETE: Your record “So Xclusive” is everywhere, how did that come about? Street Pound: (K-Slicc) That’s one that I produced. It’s a song to let people know how Street Pound functions.

(Badazz LUCK) When we pull up that’s the way it is. Everything that’s in that song is how it is. We pull up to our own parking spots, our own sections, the owner meeting us at the door, the females ﬂocking, and the bottles popping. CONCRETE: What can we expect from Street Pound in 2019? Street Pound: (K-Slicc) Straight ﬁre! (Badazz LUCK) We are stepping up our marketing campaign for the New Year and we have some new singles coming. One is called “Sick” it’s a strip club banger and then we have another one called “Boss Flu” and a really hot one called “Smash That”. All this is working towards the release of our mixtape titled Vendeta. (Lo$ta) We are also a part of a hood movie called Jack Boyz 2 and we all have a part in it so be looking out. Also we still have our radio show so go Download the Street Pound Radio app.

CONCRETE: You recently opened up the Man Cave, what is it and what is the reasoning behind it? DJ Coop: The Man Cave is like my office but I didn’t want it to be a traditional office with a desk. I wanted it to be laid out like a man cave. Studio, T.V, gaming system, fire place, DJ Booth and you can do whatever there. I needed a space to create. CONCRETE: You have recently started a online radio station 615 Radio what was the thought process behind that? DJ Coop: Yeah S/O to Dj Tab out of STL he actually built his own station from the ground up. He was working for the station in STL and quit that job to start his own station. He is the reason I went full throttle on it because he showed me a check for like five grand and said this is my first check for advertising. I think people get caught up in the facade of a radio station or how much equipment you are suppose to have but the game has changed. You don’t need any of that anymore everything is built in to the computer now. You really only need a location and if you go FM then you need the tower. No one is really into sitting in the car listening to radio anymore everything is on your phone now. So you have to be where the people are and that’s on the phone. People check their phones before they brush their teeth. I look at it like local radio isn’t that big of a factor anymore because we can do the same thing they can do but we have full control. CONCRETE: You made the hashtag #Millionaireby30 do you feel you will accomplish that goal? DJ Coop: It’s a mind state a way of thinking. I had someone tell me I need to chill out on saying that. Why would I want to stop? I’m speaking it in to existence. CONCRETE: What’s next for 2019? DJ Coop: My main thing in 2019 is to prove people wrong and to be the first millionaire DJ up out of Nashville.

CONCRETE: You started pushing Slept On Music Group, is that a label? DJ Coop: It’s actually artist development, management, consulting, and social media development. I feel artist should have the basics before they even think about a label. CONCRETE: What is that deciding factor that makes you say I want to push this artist? DJ Coop: Work! A lot of artist are lazy. You have to be moving around showing people you are recording, dropping music and promoting yourself. Artist put out music and it feels old to them but if the music didn’t have legs then no one has heard it and it’s new to those people. CONCRETE: You’ve been traveling a lot with Lil Duval the comedian as his DJ how did that come about? DJ Coop: There is two ways I got picked. One Clay Evans who is the manager for Duval, T.I, DJ MLK and Travis Scott made a call to see who the hottest Dj’s in the city are and my name came up a few times. Larry Live called me and said I have Clay from Grand Hustle about to call you and I really don’t know what was going on. Duval told me the way he picked me out of four DJ’s. It was me, DJ Crisis, DJ Cash and DJ Chill and he went on all our pages and seen who was following him. I’ve been watching him since thirteen. CONCRETE: You recently had the chance to be on the BET awards can you tell us about that moment? DJ Coop: I skated my way on that show. Duval was using DJ Fat Boy who is out of Miami since it was like a Florida thing. I didn’t knock it but in my mind I was like hell nah I have to be there. We were in Ohio and he was talking about the BET awards and he said something about Shiggy wanted to charge some crazy price to come out and perform and I was like sh*t I know how to do all his moves and I can skate. He was like, “Oh you do know how to skate?” He had someone skating in the best life video so it made sense. I had already did a routine to it and everything. I was ready. continued on next page