CONCRETE Magazine Nashville #36 by CONCRETE Magazine

6-8 ......................... Rick Ross 10 ...................... Travis Porter 12 .................... Bezzeled Gang 14 ................................Semi 16 ............................ Albert J 18 .................. 39th Street Boyz 20 ........................ DJ Wheezy 22 ........................Whip Game 26 ..................... DVD Reviews 28 ................... Music Reviews 30 ............. Producer: Matic Lee 32 ....... Barber: Sonny Cummings 34-39 ............ The Nashville 10s 41 ....... Seis Uno Cinco Movement 43-45 .................. Chingo Bling Published by: CONCRETE Marketing Ad Executives: Bryan Deese, Capo Art Director: Rex2 Graphic Design: Gullee Originals, Audie Adams Nash10 Photography: Tavell Brown Rick Ross, Travis Porter Interviews: Amariah Tyler Editorial Support: Capo Intern: Kinard Agim Cover Illustration: Audie Adams

CONCRETE Magazine PO Box 239, Madison, TN 37116

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concretebryan@gmail.com ÂŠ CONCRETE Magazine 2010

CONCRETE: You have three, soon to be four platinum #1 albums, numerous hit singles and a killer mixtape out now. This has definitely been your year. How does it feel? RICK ROSS: You know it’s humbling. It feels good to know that the streets is connecting with the music first and foremost. As an artist, it’s humbling. CONCRETE: With each album, you bring us something fresh and new. What was your inspiration behind this one? RICK ROSS: Really just knowing the possibilities. Coming up on my fourth album, I never thought I would have made it this far. So just by me making it to this point, I know so much more shit is possible. So that’s what really inspires me to always come better than the last time. I want my outfit to be flyer than the shit I wore last week. CONCRETE: When Albert Anastasia dropped, did you expect it to be as well received as it has been? RICK ROSS: I mean, you know, that was the first mixtape that I really went in and did new material just for the actual project. I know me doing that was gone be much better than any tape I’ve ever done. The response has really been crazy, know what I’m saying. CONCRETE: Since you’re national debut, you’ve consistently put out hit after hit. How would you describe your hustle? RICK ROSS: You know, by me being a hustler and coming in and seeing that success or whatever that comes with it, it ain’t affect me as much as the average artist. So, I think me being able to stay focused is the reason I’m still here and more relevant than ever. CONCRETE: Now Diddy has hailed you as the second coming of Biggie. How did you feel after receiving such praise? RICK ROSS: You know, first and foremost, I want to clarify that. Biggie is one of one. There will never be another Biggie. I’m most definitely doing my own thing. I think Puff just draws those similarities. You know, we two big, black, fly dudes smoking good green and rocking the crowd. But there will never be another Big. CONCRETE: What’s your whole vision and movement for Maybach Music? RICK ROSS: We’re really set out to build an empire. I’m fortunate to have relationships with people like Birdman, Puffy, Tony Draper who created Suave House Records and J. Prince over there at RapA-Lot. I’m a boss but to really boss up, I have to accomplish those things, know what I’m saying. Really building brands, breaking artists and really being the outlet and the source for the South because that’s what them dudes did. Them dudes really pushed those doors open for niggas like me. CONCRETE: What’s going on with the Triple C’s and what can we expect to hear from them? RICK ROSS: We in the studio right now. They’re recording overtime. New album – Color, Cut, Clarity Clarity. You know the last album Custom Cars & Cycles debuted #2 on Billboard behind Jay-Z’s album. So it was a great building process. continued on pg 8

CONCRETE: So when can we expect the album to come out? RICK ROSS: You can expect that at the end of this year. I want to give y’all a stocking stuffer. CONCRETE: At the lowest point in your life, did you ever see yourself on top or as successful as you are today? RICK ROSS: To be honest, the low points in life...you have to salute the homies that are locked up. Niggas that’s dying, know what I’m saying? Other than that, I feel that if you’re free ain’t no low points. Even if you ain’t got shit, you’re just starting at ground zero which we all did. Starting from ground zero and building it up. My mom’s from Clarksdale, Mississippi – fifty minutes from here, less than an hour and twenty minutes past Tunica right down Highway 61. She didn’t have shit, so I saw her hustling. I saw her grinding so that’s all I know. CONCRETE: Are you in the process of working on your highly anticipated movie? RICK ROSS: It’s Teflon Don: The Movie. But we’re going to release the trailer to that hopefully within the next couple of weeks. We got appearances by all the dudes that I affiliate with. So, it’s most definitely going to be like a hood Menace II Society. Just some niggas, us, spending our own money and shooting it ourselves. So, y’all know what to expect. We gone keep it 1000. CONCRETE: Ok, so your album drops on the July 20th. What more can we expect from you in the future? RICK ROSS: Look for Masspike Miles – Maybach Music’s R&B sensation. Y’all can follow him on Twitter, @MasspikemikeMiles. So, you know he’s most definitely doing his thing. Of course, Triple C’s so just Google the whole thing. CONCRETE: After listening to Teflon Don, one the lines that caught my attention was you saying that you’d like to be remembered like [Beatles icon] John Lennon. When it’s all said and done, what do you want people to remember you as or to say about you? RICK ROSS: You know, like my grandfather told me a long time ago, as long as you accomplish what you came to accomplish. Maybach Music being on top of the game. I want to be the young Berry Gordy – the kush-smoking Berry Gordy. The purple-smoking Quincy Jones making people strong. CONCRETE: Do you feel as if you’ve somewhat arrived at that point, or that you’re in the process of getting there? RICK ROSS: Oh, there’s always a lot to accomplish. That’s something that I pride myself on. Always be willing to learn. Michael Jordan was the greatest nigga to ever play basketball, but even he had a coach. So, that means you should never be too good to take advice. I just want to take it from muthafuckas who make beautiful music – long lasting music. Music that really stands the test of time. That’s why you hear me with Cee-Lo on records and Ne-Yo. I want the music to really have a life, know what I’m saying? Because I could just give you that... CONCRETE: Right now music. RICK ROSS: Right now. Quick shows. Have the clubs packed. But I really want to give you something so that five years from now you can say, Damn, remember Super High? And it comes on and puts you back in that zone. CONCRETE: Is there anything else that you would like to say? Thanks for the doing this interview. RICK ROSS: Most definitely. Thank you for having me. Shout out to Tennessee. Welcome your boy on Twitter @rickyrozay. Interview by Amariah Tyler - CONCRETE Memphis

CONCRETE: The group is Travis Porter. (all three scream Traviiieeeee!!!) What are your names and ages? Travis Porter: I am Quezzy and I’m 19. I am Strap and I’m 19. I am Ali but I’m 20! CONCRETE: Why do you want to record and release music? Do you have any influences? Quezzy: Mainly because we have a lot of influences through music. Our granddad played the trumpet, and I play a lot of instruments. What about you Strap? Strap: I look up to T.I., The Hot Boyz, and I always loved music. Why not put my passion to use? I started making songs for the girls, and I’m still doing it. Ali: Well my influence was my old neighborhood. There were guys who did music and they had all the girls. I was like “AYE” that’s cool! That’s when the thing started jumping off. I look up to T.I., Lil Wayne, Andre 3000. Just pioneers who were doing it while we grew up. CONCRETE: What image does your music convey? Strap: That we love to have fun, differential music! We don’t rap about fighting, drugs, or anything like that because we don’t do that. We rap about life and that you can do anything you put your mind to. Our music gives confidence. And it’s for the ladies! CONCRETE: What are your immediate career goals? Quezzy: Right now we want to focus on getting on BET. Man, BET doesn’t keep it G like MTV. MTV really

gives independent artists a chance to shine. Like a platform to step on. BET only wants you if you’re on. We want awards. We’re nominated for MTV Jams for “Best New Group” and we’re excited about that. Strap: I just want to record music and please our fans. CONCRETE: What are your long-term career goals? Ali: We want Travis Porter to be a household name. We want national and hopefully global recognition for our music. (All three scream Traviiiieeeee!) CONCRETE: You all are independent artists. Do you have any aspirations to be signed to a major label? Why or Why not? Quezzy: We want to be signed, but you can’t rush anything. Being independent is not a bad thing. It’s actually more comfortable. We call our shots. No one controls what we do right now but us. When you’re signed you can sometimes lose that. I want to be signed but I’m not rushing it. CONCRETE: How do you all stay motivated? Ali: We motivate our team everyday, and they motivate us. We gotta stay focused. Our fans motivate us also. When you receive love like that, you can’t help but to want to be better and keep on pushing. CONCRETE: What’s the biggest misconception about your group? Quezzy: We don’t have any. We’re pretty transparent for our fans. Anything they want to know we tell them. CONCRETE: How do you respond to questions involving Roscoe Dash? How do you deal with people thinking that you guys are the same person? Ali: We don’t really have to deal with that. We don’t address it. We just ignore it. CONCRETE: Is there anyone that you would like to acknowledge for their support? Strap: Our fans ﬁrst! Without them there would be no (screams) Travvviiiieeee! Our whole team! Too many to name but we are grateful for them all. Our Dj, DJ Technik. Drake. Weezy. Lil Boosie. Just everyone we’ve shaken hands with! Thanks! CONCRETE: Any last words? All Three: Travvvviiiieeeee!!!! Interview by Amariah Tyler CONCRETE Memphis

CONCRETE: Can you tell us about the single “Nerd” and working with Rio? Killa Cali: “Nerd,” well I met Rio (producer, sings the hook) through a mutual friend, and I was really digging his music. He was telling me he made beats and we just set up a date and made it happen. We didn’t even have intentions on it being the single. We didn’t know it was going to turn out the way it did. It just kinda fell in place. Lil Vac: That is on the Bang Bang Bezzled Gang Mixtape. We just dropped in April. We’re just trying to get back out there and we working on another one. Killa Cali: We working on the album now its called Music City Miracle. CONCRETE: Who’s going to be on the album? Killa Cali: We just did a track with Project Pat, we got Star Murphy, Paper, Rio. CONCRETE: What producers yal working with? Killa Cali: Broadway, Rio, we got Fate. The song with Project Pat was produced by Wee Wee and Sixth Sense. CONCRETE: When is that due? Killa Cali: We’re trying to schedule to drop next month, but it looks like it might be September or October. CONCRETE: Is there already a single out or coming to the front that your gona push? Killa Cali: We actually already have the single which is “Music City Miracle.” That the one we’re going to push. “Nerd” is on the album too, so it’s already one of the singles for the album. Lil Vac: “Nerd” is what it is right now. So keep working on this next one. Music City Miracle that’s the next album. The other two were mixtapes, but this is going to be a album. We got a lot of features and we’re really going to make it what it is this time. Killa Cali: We got some big names too, but we aint going to say no names yet. CONCRETE: Got any last words? Lil Vac: Shout out to everybody Shout to the fans who supporting us. PSG: Shout to the South. Lil Vac: Shout out to Cashville Killa Cali: Free KV. Free Big Fridge. Free L.A.

CONCRETE: What’s up with your new mixtape? Semi: The new mixtape is Don’t Sleep On Me Vol. 2. I took a lot of time off, had to get stuff straight. It’s excellent quality. It’s not the same old you normally hear, it’s real. CONCRETE: What producers did you work with on this project? Semi: I worked with Recipe. He’s a hot up-and-coming artist as well as producer. Matic Lee, Fate (Fate Eastwood) is on there, Broadway, you know and shot out to all the producers as well. CONCRETE: Whats some of the best tracks off the mixtape? Semi: The songs I’m pushing off there is “Shake It” because that was one of the songs I played and everybody said they loved. That’s featuring B. Howard. Another single I’m pushing is “Never Find Another” with my sister Robin Raynelle. A lot of people loving that. I got another single “First Pick.” It’s just what people picking. Give them what they want. “Shake It” and “First Pick” Recipe produced and “Never Find Another” was produced by Broadway. CONCRETE: What are some of topics you touch on Don’t Sleep On Me Vol. 22? Semi: Don’t Sleep on Me some of the topics revolve around my whole situation what happened with the label I was with. How it fell through due to legal situations. It talks about the times I was in the street. Talks about trying to work everyday, having a 9-5 trying to make it happen. It talks about liking to party. Then of course you got some songs I just had to show my lyrical talent. CONCRETE: So where did you go to school? Semi: I went to Goodpasture for high school. I was a big sports star and actually had a scholarship to play basketball in college. I played for Missouri, but I got in a real bad accident and that ended all that. CONCRETE: When did the car accident happen? Semi: My freshman year, two weeks before the season started. I had to have plastic surgery and rehab for months. It was pretty ugly. It was a life changing experience. CONCRETE: Any Last words or shout out? Semi: Of course, ﬁrst and foremost I want to thank God, cause with him everything is possible. Shout out to Capo my brother from another, IUM. Shout out to Robin Raynelle. Shout out to my whole Born Hustla Cartel Team.

CONCRETE: You won the last UMC (2.2), and you’ve been in it two other times. What was the difference that put you over the top this time? Albert J: I definitely had an advantage in there with the experience. Going in I knew to hit them with my hardest (song) in the first round. The first round to me is the most special, because it’s the one that everyone’s involved, all eight contestants. For some reason I’ve drawn eighth every time, so I’ll be the last to go. So you get to watch every one else’s performance, then preform last. Second round I didn’t come so hard. It was two songs I made just for the UMC that I will never release or preform again. One of them hit really hard at the beginning and the second one it didn’t resinate, the chant was off and stuff. But this is the beauty of the UMC, you can kill it the first round and the judges may be a little leanent on you the second round because they want to see what else you have. TY was the other artist in the finals. I did my song “Part Of Me” and it was enough to win. It was a good vibe. I don’t think anyone thought I stole it. People have seen me put my work in and people know what I do and I’m looking forward to winning the finals. CONCRETE: Last time we talked you were talking about a five song EP, has that been completed? Albert J: We continue to make music for it. We’re not releasing it traditionally. Right now we got five songs done we’re doing two more. Once we’re sure on one we made some others. To even get one mastered by hollywood producers it’s like five grand. So if someone’s putting up that kind of money for one of your songs to get mixed, they want to make sure that they’ve done their market research and the timing is right. So right now it’s just a timing thing with getting on a major scale. Independently I got a record coming out with me and members of Black Catfish. It’s called Life Behind Bars, that’ll be out early fall. There’s lots and lots of singles on that. I really want it to be hit based like, ‘This song is a hit song.’ When you hear it everyone knows it. The more that the labels or whoever wants to invest in you see that your able to deliver consistent hits, and you got ten hits that marketable then it’s a go. My time I feel like it’s coming soon. We’re just making sure the first single that we push is gonna be the right one.

CONCRETE: How many projects have you recorded? J Rock: Numerous. Sho Daddy: Probably over a thousand songs. We probably got five underground CDs out there floating around since we’ve been hooking up just dropping our own stuff. J Rock: Then we’ve always done features on other peoples stuff. Then there’s always the typical you work at a studio and that studio shuts down and your song’s lost. You kiss those bye and charge those to the game or redo them. CONCRETE: We’re in a digital age, viral video era and you guys jumped on that real hard. How are working your singles now and what’s the plan? Sho Daddy: The game plan we’re running with now is, the songs we’re trying to do now, we’re gonna make sure we use them. Not just put them on a CD to just put alot of music out there. J Rock: So we’ve been taking songs that we’ve done lately, this year, and putting visuals to them. Underground alot of people know us, but they really haven’t gotten any visuals from us. So this year we’ve decided to pump up the visuals and pump the magazine ads and send people to our You-Tube, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and all that good stuff. That’s our main focus is just shoving the visuals with our music down your throats, “force feeding” you. (laughs) CONCRETE: What’s some new stuff we can expect from you end of the summer and into the fall? J Rock: We just finished a video to a movie that actually Show Daddy was featured in, Still Broke. We just finished the video not long ago. We got another video “39th Street Boyz Are Back” which is on the CONCRETE 2010 Summer Mixtape: We Eatin’ Eatin’. Sho Daddy: It’s coming up real soon. On August 14th we’re going to put that visual out there. It’s gona be on Hip Hop in The Ville. We got another song “Toe Tags and Body Bags.” It’s a song that’s going to be on the soundtrack to Kings of The Ville shot by Wes. Its a real grimy song. It goes with the movie. J Rock: Pretty much any angle anybody wants us to touch on we can touch it.

CONCRETE: Club wise, where are you at on a regular basis? DJ Wheezy: Right now on regular basis on Sundays at LAX and Sundays at Sensations. LAX on Sundays is the teen night, and Sensations is the 18 and up night. Mostly I just free-lance and we throw events for A-List Entertainment. CONCRETE: What’s going on with your mixtape series? DJ Wheezy: What I’ve done now is moved over to a different division with my mixtapes. First it was Trill Skillz Skillz. Now I moved over to Hurry Up and Buy Music. People like my music so much, they just want to buy it even though I give my mixtapes away. I’m on the second addition of that. The next one coming out will be with me and hosted by Wacka Flocka. It will feature exclusive tracks from mainstream artists and a few local artists from Nashville. CONCRETE: What are some other things your brand has coming end of the Summer into the Fall? DJ Wheezy: Right now I’m basically Branding A-List Entertainment. Branding and building our street team, more attacking college parties and classics for the fall for the Southern Heritage, TSU Homecoming, Atlanta Football Classic and more. Also trying to work on my birthday bash and bringing somebody big down here mid-December. CONCRETE: So with A-List we know you’re working with Star Murphy, what’s going on with her. DJ Wheezy: With Star (Murphy) we just released the “O’ Lets Do It” music video featured on WorldStarHipHop. It’s doing pretty good. It got 11,000 views in one day. Also we’re attacking the radio now with “Swagg On”. It’s on 13 different radio stations including Huntsville, Nashville, the Carolinas, Florida, Augusta, and more. Right now we’re just trying to build a regional buzz before we move forward with the paper work. CONCRETE: Besides Star Murphy is there anyone A-List is going to be working with and pushing here soon? DJ Wheezy: Deﬁnitely, we work with Paper tough. He has a video shoot coming up August 14th. We work with Nino Blac. Those two artists deﬁnitely been working with us for a long time.

MR. BEDROCK on 22s

2006 Pontiac Grand Prix, 7 TV Montiors, Neon Light Kit, 4-12” Subs, 22” Rockstarr 557 Wheels, Custom Paint Dash and Interior

Milton “Butch” Jones - Leader of Y.B.I. Mil

In the 1970s and 80s Milton “Butch” Jones was the head of America’s largest organized drug syndicate based in Detroit, Michigan. His gang, Young Boys Incorporated (Y.B.I.) sold over twenty percent of the cocaine and heroin in Detroit. Butch was about his money and not to be played with. After a stint in jail for manslaughter, he hit the streets and set up a network of young teenage dealers managed by older members. The most interesting part of the DVD is a recycled news program about Butch and his autobiography. It has an interview with him that takes place after he served time for running Y.B.I. In the interview he completely opens up about his life of crime. There is plenty of other old new clips that really give the viewer a sense of the scope of their dealings. One former member states that he had saved up $250,000 as a ﬁfteen year old. They explain how Y.B.I. would roll onto a block and take over. There are stories of their enforcers the ATeam. Y.B.I. was started in the late 70s in tenth precinct on Dexter Ave, and by the mid 1980s they ran Detroit and made upwards of $250,000 a day. Ultimately Butch and the rest of the leaders were arrested and did long bids in prison. And the members they interviewed on the street now have not aged well. They have become the addicts. The 80s was wild, and this is one the eras biggest stories.

Exposed DVD - The Illuminati Takeover

Exposed attempts to shed light on the Illuminati’s takeover of today’s hip-hop culture. It looks into the conspiracy theory of a secret society whose goal is to rule the world and subjugate the masses. The evidence provided is shaky at best. They breakdown lyrics used by suspected rappers and the symbols in their videos, but most choices are a reach. Old Christian videos are used to push the ideas of Devil worship and hidden messages in recordings. The DVD starts off with President John F. Kennedy giving a speech on secrecy. The ﬁlm insinuates the Illuminati assassinated him because of this. Then it goes on to Prodigy as he openly speaks on the Illuminati, and shows jail letters of his ﬁrst revelation of their plans. They’re are a few times where it seems this DVD twists the lyrics of artists to push the producer’s opinions on the audience. There’s also moments when they stray away from the point of this documentary, like interviews where Xzibit hints that P Diddy is homosexual, or some random guy rapping about Young Jeezy being a snitch. The Exposed series of DVDs are getting a lot of play lately, and secret societies may exist. They may even rule the world, but none of this would hold up in court.

Semi - Don Don’t ’t Sleep On Me, Vol. 2

Semi is back with another project teaming up with Atlanta’s DJ Bobby Hustle for his mixtape series Don’t Sleep On Me. Semi starts off the mixtape with the story of his current situation. He explains the crumble of his label and how as soon as he started gaining moment it was all taken away by the FEDS. Nightmare is a direct shot at all of the rappers hating on him. Semi does not hold back on this letting them know he is their worst nightmare. Shake It is a for sure club banger featuring B Howard. Both these guys get the party going in this song. Semi didn’t forget about the ladies with Never Find Another featuring Robin Raynelle. This song is single material. We Could go on on. Semi out did his self on this mixtape with strong punch lines, great delivery, song concepts and features.

Gemini Twinz - Street Collab, Vol. 1

The Gemini Twinz provide us with 16 bangers in their new Street Collab mixtape. With the help of Axtion these two young Latinos invite listeners into their life of money, swag and women. They come straight out the gate with “Back to Back” taking shots at any haters talking down on the Twinz. On “Cashville Representer” they team up with Capo to show the city they are here. “Twilight Zone” is a purple drank, purple dro tribute with a catchy hook and will make you crack open a shell. We don’t know the details but Gemini Twinz and Counts go super hard on a local DJ on one track. This is a great mixtape to add to the ipod or throw in the whip.

Ice Cold Jay - Certiﬁed For a Reason

Uh Oh, the dope boy’s in the building. Ice Cold Jay’s swag is like no other, and he proves that on his newest project Certiﬁed For A Reason. “Stunt Hard” talks about showing the city how big he does it. From foreign cars to foreign women he “Stunts Hard.” “Heavy” an anthem that makes you bob your head weather you want to or not will have the streets and trap houses going crazy. “Blowin’ Money” is another clever track that you could hear at the strip club. The song features Squints and Finess The Boss. Ice Cold Jay’s smooth delivery and clever punch lines keep you listening. Over all its a quality mixtape.

I.V. - It’s Time

I.V delivers a new sound. His mixtape Times Up is a breath of fresh air. I.V puts his life in every line. With songs like “My Introduction” where he introduces his self to the world through his raw delivery and sound. The song “Mexican American” explains how hard it is to represent both cultures and some of the obstacles young Mexican-Americans face these days. “In My Heart” another true story song is a tale about his life growing up without much, a sick mother and deceased family members. The songs “Fuck the World” and “Stand Up” are up tempo tracks that shows I.V. is here to stay. This is a good project and worth the listen.

N.O.C. - Northside Of Cashville

These guys from Bordeaux ain’t playing! This new Nashville based label brings you their brand of raw, uncut Southern street rap. The self titled EP is six tracks to wet the city’s appetite. Every song, including the party track “Two Shots” has violent undertones, hypnotic melodies and boom-tick beats. “So Fly” is their get fresh and clean, swag anthem. The group consists of rap vet E-Shottie, J Woods on production, G Wit It, Dell and T Burna. Their all about their hustle, so get out the way or get run down. The Northside goin’ in!

CONCRETE: Where are you from? Matic Lee: I’m originally from Marietta, GA its like 10-15 minutes outside Atlanta. I was raised up there until I was sixteen. Then I moved up here and been living here ever since. I’m 21 now. CONCRETE: Who are some artists you’ve worked with? Matic Lee: I’ve worked with Tech Nine, E-40, Krizz Kaliko an artist on Tech Nine’s label, Three-Six-Maﬁa has been on one of my tracks with Tech Nine. Young Buck, I had one called “Get High” on the Freeway Ricky Ross Mixtape. Locally, I’ve worked with Blaze 314. I did the majority of his album thats coming out. Ice Cold Jay and anyone that’s looking to make good music I’m here. CONCRETE: What upcoming projects that your on? Matic Lee: Tech Nine’s new project, The Ollie Gates Mixed Plate, that’s coming up soon. Krizz Kaliko’s new album. Me personally I’m working on a project showcasing my rapping, because I’m orginally a rapper. I played both ends until one got me payed and I’m like, ‘OK lets keep with this, we cool.’ I’ve been doing that. Now that I’m getting my money up, and royalty checks are coming in, and my cliental is building up. Now I’m in a place where I can set apart some time, and go sit down and write songs and construct some good music. CONCRETE: What do you work with to make tracks? Matic Lee: Early on it was strictly fruity loops, but through change of events I ended up learning Reason, Logic, and Protools. Where I’m at now, I can pretty much make a beat with a microphone and a table. Whatever I can get my hands on I normally just go to work on that. CONCRETE: What’s your creative process like? Matic Lee: It really varies. Sometimes I go in with an Idea of what I want and from there it’s just orchestrating the melody and all the elements of the song after that. Then sometimes it’s just sitting down wanting to do music and kinda hit stuff, see a sound you like and then go from there and build everything else around it. It’s pretty much which ever way you want to attack. That’s the way I normally go.

CONCRETE: How long have you been a barber? Sonny: Sixteen years. CONCRETE: Where are you from originally? Sonny: I’m from Louisville, Kentucky. CONCRETE: What brought you to Nashville? Sonny: I came down here because I was a youth pastor. I came here to hold church services. That was my introduction to Nashville. CONCRETE: What made you want to be a barber? Sonny: At the time I was living in Los Angeles, California. I was just fed up with the corporate world. So my father was a barber. I’m one of seven kids, and he had put us through college. My grandfather was a barber. I told my wife, ‘I think I’m going to start barbering.’ CONCRETE: So you grew up around the profession? Sonny: Oh yeah. CONCRETE: What is it about barbering that keeps you in it? Sonny: I’m very involved in my kid’s school. It has the flexibility that a 9 to 5 does not have. I don’t have to make allowances to leave early if I need to leave early. I don’t have to put in extra time just to get off for a one hour field trip. I just take off, come back to the shop, and pick up where I left off. The flexibility is just incredible as a barber. As long as you have your client’s number you can call them and tell them ‘Hey I won’t be at the barbershop until about 3 or 4.’ And that’s it, you can go take care of your business. CONCRETE: What services do you offer? Sonny: The whole range, from eye brow arch, haircuts, beard trims, facials, everything I was trained to do at barber college, we do. Some things more than others but it’s all there. CONCRETE: Any last words for our readers? Sonny: Thanks to the barbers in Nashville. They’ve been exceptionally welcoming in opening up there shops to me and I appreciate that. I’d like to thank the owners of those shops for giving me a chance to do what I do and work on my trade.

On our last Barber Proﬁle, we messed up and put the wrong name with Mark Madison from The Shop. We regret the error.

34 Photo by: Tavell Brown, Brown Photography

36 Photo by: Xclusive Xposure

The Seis Uno Cinco Movement started out as just an idea to unite local Latino artist but, grew into something much more. Capo a local Latino artist, promoter and creator of the movement saw that there was a large number of local, Latino acts with little opportunity to be seen or heard. The plan was to organize events to help build awareness for these artists. After teaming up with other Latino artists, the plan was in motion and the word was out about Seis Uno Cinco. Capo still felt something else needed to be done to put Nashville Latinos on the map. So the song “Seis Uno Cinco” or “Cashville Latino Anthem” was recorded and features Enigma, Gemini Twinz, IV, Likwid, Latino Saint, Rico Marquina, Stone and Capo. They enlisted the videographer Charles Robinson from Northern Lights Production to ﬁlm a music video for the anthem. The video quickly shot to 10,000 views in a month and got tons of feedback from all over the U.S. The Seis Uno Cinco Movement ﬁnally received the recognition it deserved.

Capo

Enigma

I.V.

Latino Saint

Semi

Young Chris NOT PICTURED: Rico Marquina, Stone

Likwid You can download the Seis Uno Cinco compilation at www.datpiff.com

CONCRETO: You’ve got a modern day vaquero look, but your lyrics have street content and a comical side. How did you develop and how you balance these as an artist? Chingo Bling: It might be from A.D.D./boarder line bipolar (laughs). A lot of people like to say that’s good marketing, but I always approached it like art. I had some bad ass art teachers, and I was exposed to stuff like installation art. Which is where you have a space like a room, it could be under a stair well, it could be out on a sidewalk, but its basically art where you use that space. I was exposed to performance art type stuff. So I look at everything like, ‘OK I’m an artist.’ My overall brand, my overall presentation, every interaction with a fan, every print material, every flyer, every part of your website is an opportunity to engage or entertain or present an idea. It’s an opportunity to be creative. Every little detail, it’s your look, your image, what you put on when you go on stage. Be creative with your name with everything you say everything you do, every skit, every intro. Even if you’re going to do a drop for a DJ, stop and think of the dude’s name and how can I make this special by stopping for two seconds, or free-styling something. But that’s basically the look that shows an extension of your art. It’s part of the whole thing. Whether you want the whole schtick, the whole presentation, the whole entertainment, the whole package part of the brand, it goes with the flow. It goes with the delivery. It goes with the references, and it works. Early on when I was barely starting, no one really knew me, just a few people in the area where I was at that had heard of me, who either got a hold of the CD or heard something from somebody or borrowed a CD, burned a CD or whatever, when they see me at a crowd it can be 10,000 people at this car show or state fair and I can wear a cheap little jersey or something from a second hand store stitch my name on it with hat and boots and they will kind of put two and two together. They’ll be like, “Hey man I think I’ve heard of you. Do you rap or something?” Even if it was vague like that “You’re that dude. You got that one song.” It helped. It payed off. So I was like a walking, talking logo. They’re might have been fifty other artist in the crowd, but it was easier to pin point me. “I’m pretty sure that’s him, cause nobody else would put that on.” And that was an opportunity to sell a CD or gain a fan. continued on pg44

CONCRETO: Who helps you with your viral videos? Is that all just from the mind of Chingo Bling? Chingo Bling: Nah, my boy META, he’s an artist as well. I met him in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Austin, Texas. I’m walking into the store cause I’m working with Assylum at the time on on that Can’t Deport Us All album, and this dude was out there hustling DVDs, and I’m on the DVD. It’s like some show footage from one of my shows, so I’m like “What the F---,” but I appreciated his hustle.

We stayed in contact, and we’ve been going ever since. He shoots all my videos. He did the Chyna Flu video. A lot of these other skits we do, that are edited, he helps come up with a lot of the concepts. Pretty soon I’m going to finish this comedy script, and we got alot of projects like street DVDs as well. CONCRETO: Your last mixtape “Chicken Flippa,” can you give us an overview on that? Chingo Bling: Production we got older tracks I did with Salih Williams from Carnival Beats. He’s like our Dr. Dre of Texas. He did the “Still Tipping” and all those big hits. We got Zaetovyen from Atlanta. He’s mostly known for Gucci Mane production and some new stuff for Usher and OJ da Juiceman. I have Esse Partner, a mexican cat and young kid from Texas. I produced some of the tracks as well like the “Chyne Flu” song and a couple others. Other than that it’s got some little freestyles and stuff. I got to give alot of credit to DJ Flex, we put it together. He’s definitely a marketing genius. He came up with the name and the concept of the artwork and everything to get it on alot of websites. CONCRETO: What’s next? What’s in the works for Chingo? Chingo Bling: I think I’m going to hold off on mixtapes, cause I’ve made commitments to a few distributors for drop dates. So once I fulfill these commitments, and meet these obligations, I’m going to get back and focus on singles. Really try to find a single that we can go hard with, and just focus and push it. Cause at the end of the day it’s a lot harder to push a single in my opinion. That’s just a part of playing chess. It’s a little more strategic, and you gotta finesse the whole situation. That’s one of the main things. But like you said, I’m juggling so many things and in between you got to go through the motions just to stay in peoples face, like the viral stuff. Speaking of, I want to have “Pimpin’ Porky” (character) he like goes through the drive through and tries to order a bunch of stuff. And he is like “Awww baby, you hatin’ on the bacon?” He pops his collar and he’s like, “I want extra bacon.” (laughs) CONCRETO: Any last words for our readers? Chingo Bling: Yeah be on the look out for me coming to a city near you. I love Nashville. Shot out to Capo. He holds me down out there. Besides that find me on the web and just stay tuned to my antics and all the crazy stuff I got coming up.