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JR Da Rapper’s Highway To Hell Is a POV Thrill Ride

Zoe Hall | July 8, 2020

Topics: Esco, Highway To Hell, JR Da Rapper, namebrand, police brutality, Poverty Crew, Poverty Movement, The New Jim Crow, Vonton Soup

JR Da Rapper completed his first album, “Highway to Hell,” just as the pandemic hit. A portrait of Richmond at its darkest hour, the album tackles subjects that are eerily appropriate today. Here’s how he made it, and what inspired him to do so in the first place.

In an interview with RVA Mag’s Hip Hop Henry earlier this year, JR Da Rapper said that he wanted his first album to tell a story. Well, Highway to Hell definitely has an arc, at least in tempo.

The first track on JR Da Rapper’s debut sets the scene: after a deafening 20th Century Fox intro, the curtains pull back and we find ourselves on a busy highway. Sirens overlap the sound of crashing cars, screeching to a halt. JR starts singing, as if he just got out of one the cars and can barely speak, “Hands up don’t shoot, shoot, mama I made the news.”

Watery and strong at the same time, JR’s voice weaves in and out of familiar scenes: an arrest, a party, a reflective moment on the couch. OK, I made up the couch part, but “Way2” has a luxurious, sedentary energy that’s very couch-like. The album ends with “Home,” which is about trying to make it home safe and feels, appropriately, like a lullaby. 

To make the eight-track album, JR collaborated with iconic Richmond-based producer NameBrand, along with members of the Poverty Crew, composed of JR, his cousin Vonton Soup, and Esco, who works behind the scenes. Other featured artists on the album include Richmond hip hop leading lights Michael Millions, Young Flexico, and Nickelus F. The album took two months to make, and the last track was recorded just as the pandemic hit.

Highway To Hell explores subjects like police brutality, homicide and the ups and downs of living in this taxing environment. The songs — which vary in style, sometimes including spaceship sounds or a distant gramophone — stay true to the theme. The result is an electrifying, cathartic 26-minute experience.

“I didn’t really know what an album was until I went to work on Highway to Hell,” JR said. “When you have a full range of production and studio time and everything like that.”

Before the album, he was pushing his homemade mixtape, 96 Degrees, in venues across Richmond. He’d put 96 Degrees together using beats he sourced entirely from YouTube, and had no intention of surpassing mixtape territory anytime soon. That is, until he met NameBrand, who agreed to work with the Poverty Crew after seeing JR perform at an RVA Lyricists Lounge event last January.

Musically, the two get along. “I have a real specific love for west coast music. That’s probably why I stand out in this city, too,” said JR. “And it just happened that Brand shared that same love, so it’s like the connection was easier.”

When asked to describe what it is about west coast music that influences him, JR said, “It’s so chill, it’s so sunny. It’s like a different flavor. There’s more bounce to it. There’s more calm.” This calmness can be felt in the song “Sometimes,” a slower, melodic track that JR claims is his favorite.

“That’s a record that I didn’t even know I could make,” he said. It turns out that adding a fresh female vocal hook was the magic touch. “The song was good, but after she got on it I was like, dang! It just brings the song to another level.”

The Poverty Crew welcomes collaboration. On Highway to Hell, JR writes the lyrics and sings while NameBrand does the sound. “He basically got full control of the beat,” he said. “With the ‘snitches get stitches, real niggas get paid’ [chorus on “Sunday”], I came to him with that hook. I basically kept saying it over and over again and he built the beat just around that hook.”

Poverty Crew. Photo via JR Da Rapper/Twitter

For JR, inspiration comes from a combination of everyday life and historical context. “What really encouraged me to make the album is a book called The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” he said. “Of course I already knew about police brutality, I had been through police brutality in my life, being a young Black male. But the book just highlighted a lot of facts and laws that I didn’t know that really opened my eyes. Like dang, I didn’t know it was set up like this.”

The book, written by Michelle Alexander, explores how racism ingrained in the 1970s-era War on Drugs still exists today and contributes to the mass incarceration of people of color. JR’s lyrics depict the day-to-day experience of victims of this system.

“People of my color have been put in a place where we have to do a lot of bad things to get to the right place,” JR said. “That’s why I said it’s like we’re on a highway to hell. It’s the direction that they put us in. This is how we gotta go forward.”

The album art, created by The Visual Plug, features a pig in a cop car, shaking its fist and tailing the Poverty Crew on I-95. They’re heading towards a fiery, hellish-looking Richmond skyline. By the looks of it, there’s no way out.

To celebrate Highway to Hell’s completion, JR plans on getting t-shirts made featuring a similar theme. The profits will go towards the Poverty Movement, a project of JR and the Poverty Crew that uses creative mediums to further Black radical liberation.

In past Poverty Movement projects, JR and his colleagues have worked with counselors for young men’s support groups and taught local kids about music. “I would definitely love to do more with the youth, and not only rapping,” he said. “Producing, or learning how to mix, learning how to read music…”

It’s unusual for a record label to do this kind of outreach, right? Maybe, but for JR, it’s the logical conclusion to how his life has proceeded so far. Before his rap career, he said, “I was just coasting through life until I really found my passion, until I really found out what I wanted to do.”

JR started rapping back in elementary school, but never pursued it until much later, when he reunited with Vonton Soup and got the chance to test out Von’s at-home studio.

As Esco explained in the interview with Hip Hop Henry, any studio is a hot commodity for aspiring rappers. “Everybody wanted to come in and rap — half of the hood would come,” he said. “People would come from Fulton to Northside just to rap.”

Photo via JR Da Rapper/Twitter

Perhaps JR and his colleagues are so invested in their community because they understand the importance of self-expression, and recognize a need for it in their community. After all, JR’s intentions have never been capitalistic. “A lot of people will give you bullshit excuses that they rap for the fans, the money, all that,” he told Hip Hop Henry. “When I first started rapping, it was a way for me to vent; to talk about shit I can’t talk about.”

JR, who grew up in Richmond, has seen some tough times, but he is reluctant to complain. “I grew up with a single mother. I ain’t had no dad in my life, but I didn’t struggle too hard,” he said. “My momma made sure I was safe as well as she could, so I would never say that I grew up too hard, because I wouldn’t ever wanna put nothin’ on my mom, you know what I’m saying? She did the best she could do. I know people who had it way worse.”

As for the recent protests surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement, JR is in full support. “I watch from afar, you know what I’m saying? But I definitely feel people’s pain,” he said. “However you feel you can make a difference or however you feel you can get that pain out, I agree with it a hundred percent. That’s why I rap. That’s my way of letting my pain out.”

Top Photo via JR Da Rapper/Twitter

One in a Million: It’s Hard to be Mike

VCU CNS | May 20, 2019

Topics: Hard To Be King, Michael Millions, namebrand, Purple Republic

Michael Millions is an up-and-coming hip-hop artist and music engineer whose roots are planted and thriving in Richmond. It’s the city he refers to in “Sirens,” on his 2018 album Hard to be King, as “once one of those capitals where those murders be.”

It’s a calm Wednesday evening in the city’s East End, and at the beginning of a dead-end street lies Michael Millions’ townhouse. The blinds are closed, the grass sits uncut and a faint beat emanates from the house.

Past the front door, the beat becomes less muffled. A haze is in the air and the smell of incense hits the nose. At the end of a hallway is a living room, or what appears to be.

“Could you turn my headphones up a little bit?” Millions, 35, calls out from the back-left corner of the room behind his makeshift recording booth.

Depending on the day, Millions’ house — or as most people say, “Mike’s house” — could be a typical suburban living space, or a hub for Richmond’s growing hip-hop scene, hosting such artists and friends as Nickelus F, Fly Anakin, and Young Flexico.

Mike stands at the back door of his house while answering a text and getting some fresh air on April 7, 2019 in Richmond, Virginia.

Millions is an up-and-coming hip-hop artist and music engineer whose roots are planted and thriving in Richmond. It’s the city he refers to in “Sirens,” on his 2018 full-length album Hard to be King, as “once one of those capitals where those murders be.”

The artist was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and raised in the River City. His mom was a dentist, and his dad was in the Navy. Millions received a bachelor’s degree in mass communications with a focus in photo/film from Norfolk State University, but he always knew he just wanted to make music.

“My parents never told me what to be. I always told my parents I was going to be a rapper, and they would just be like, ‘Did you turn them college applications in?’”

After a short run in the communications field, Millions ventured into IT. He made music and worked in the IT department at the Bank of America in downtown Richmond until his job was dissolved.

The same day he got the call, he got a check in the mail for a music project he was a part of. That’s when Millions made the choice to leap headfirst into music.

A flyer for Mike’s 4th Studio album, Ghost of a $20 Bill, released in 2014, sits on his desk on April 24, 2019 in Richmond, Virginia. He didn’t do any promo for this album till after it’s release. “I just finished the record and released it,” Mike said, “I didn’t hear anything for a little bit, it made me not want to get out of bed for couple of days.” A few weeks later, the album was featured on The Source and was recognized for its “brash and introspective sound.”
Mike thumbs through an old notebook on April 24, 2019 in Richmond, Virginia. He is the co-founder, alongside his brother Brandon Bass, of Purple Republic Music Group, a record label the two started after Mike’s first music deal fell through. This page is the rollout plan for his most recent project, Hard to be King.
Mike works on a record he’s been crafting for a few months on April 24, 2019 in Richmond Virginia. He hasn’t been fully focused on his own music because of other obligations. “I have a few engineering projects I have to knock out before I can fully get back into it,” Mike said.
Mike and Richmond Producer Fan Ran listen for any production issues on the final cut of an unreleased album on March 30, 2019 in Richmond, Virginia. Most of Mike’s time is spent mixing and mastering projects for both local and high profile artists; it’s his breadwinner.
Mike sits at a light on the intersection of Q and 25th St. next to the police precinct in the East End of Richmond, Virginia on April 8, 2019. Mike never thought this area of Richmond would be as redeveloped as it is now. “None of this stuff [apartment complexes, grocery stores] used to be here,” Mike said.
Mike stands waiting for his tacos at El Taccorey on April 8, 2019 in Richmond, Virginia. He calls this area of Richmond “the multicultural zone.”
Mike, his brother Brandon “Namebrand” Bass, and radio host Blair Durham talk about the business of music on a radio show, April 17, 2019 in Hampton, Virginia.
Mike lays vocals on a record in his home studio on April 24, 2019 in Richmond, Virginia. “I only record when I know what I have to say is going to mean something,” the artist said.
Mike working late night after a 3-day-long Game of Thrones binge on April 24, 2019 in Richmond, Virginia. Mike is waiting on his tour dates for the summer and is getting things ready for his next project. The artist said he doesn’t know what comes next, but he couldn’t be any happier. “Life, it should scare you a little bit, right? Or something about what you are doing, you know what I mean?” Mike said.

By Gessler Santos-Lopez, Capital News Service. Top Photo: Michael Millions performs live at Wonderland RVA in downtown Richmond on Feb. 28. This was Mike’s last stop on his Silkys and Switchblades Tour with fellow Richmond artist Nickelus F. The two artists performed at venues throughout the Southeast for a month.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Grace Under Pressure: The Rise of NameBrand

Jayla McNeill | February 14, 2019

Topics: higher education, hip hop, hip hop production, Michael Millions, namebrand, Nickelus F

Richmond hip hop producer NameBrand has worked with many of the city’s top rap talents, including Nickelus F and Michael Millions. But his story is about a lot more than just beats and rhymes.

NameBrand is a staple figure within the hip-hop culture of Richmond. Known for his versatility and dynamism as a sample-based producer, he has worked with some of Richmond’s top talent, including Michael Millions, Nickelus F, and Radio B. Now, with his latest release, Grace, NameBrand is continuing to develop his sound and career while simultaneously paying tribute to his past and his city.

“Richmond has an amazing crop of artists that any producer should appreciate being able to work with,” NameBrand said. “And when I say ‘any’ producer, I’m not just talking about local producers, I’m talking about producers throughout the world.”

Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, NameBrand moved with his family to Germany shortly afterwards, where he spent the first five years of his life.

While living in Germany, NameBrand’s mother would often take him to the local bakeries and open markets. Even today, certain scents still remind him of Germany and trigger a sense of nostalgia.

“Certain things that I remember, like certain smell of breads and cigars… It definitely takes me all the way back,” he said.  “That’s kind of [what] my experience with Germany is. I was so young, there’s only bits and pieces that I remember.”

NameBrand’s family relocated back to the United States and he briefly lived in Petersburg before moving to Chesterfield County in the third grade. It was after moving to Chesterfield that he was introduced to music production, and began to lay the foundation for the rest of his career.

“[I] was introduced to a host of artists and a host of different people who just had a passion for the music,” NameBrand said. “It was a really cool point for me, just being around so many artists and being so young.”

His older brother, Michael Millions, was the person who first sparked NameBrand’s interest in music production. As a kid, Millions figured out how to make a microphone out of a headset and a vacuum tube. He used this device to sample instrumentals from the radio to create a beat with. After the beat was created, Millions would rap over the music.

However, the cord on his homemade recording device was a bit too short, so he would have to lay on his stomach to record his raps. Watching Millions’s innovation and dedication to his craft motivated NameBrand to get involved. Fascinated with computers, software and beats, NameBrand naturally gravitated towards the production side of music.

“I’ve always loved beats,” he said. “When I listen to music, I listen to the beat first. If I like the beat, then I’ll go back and listen to the lyrics. In order for me to really appreciate [a song], I really had to love the beat.”

The first production software he bought was Hip Hop DJ, when he was 13. Even though he described the software as “trash,” he is still grateful that it allowed him “to get his feet wet.”

Soon after he acquired the program, Millions noticed his him working with it and invited him to come along to his recording session with local artist Illa Styles. Illa, who was working with a more advanced production program, noticed NameBrand looking over his shoulder at the software and gave it to him.

“That’s when it was like ‘Okay, now I have a tool that I can use,’” said NameBrand. “Now all I need to do is really, really study this particular tool.”

As a child, NameBrand’s passion for music was furthered by a fascination with various “real producers,” such as Dr. Dre, Puff Daddy, and Quincy Jones. In fact, the first album he ever bought for himself was Puff Daddy & The Family’s No Way Out, when he was about 12 years old. This album beget a lifelong fascination with talented producers, which started even before he began making music himself.

“I remember when I bought that album, all I could think about was how dope it was that . . . although he didn’t produce every record on there, he worked with the production team who helped to produce that particular record.”

In addition to Puff Daddy (aka P. Diddy), NameBrand also greatly appreciates Quincy Jones’ musical originality and his holistic approach to projects.

“I was introduced to [Jones] via Michael Jackson,” NameBrand said. “The way that [Jones] put those albums together with him . . . that’s how you put together an album sonically. All [those] other producers that I was fond of kinda had that same approach — they paid attention to the bigger picture.”

One of NameBrand’s favorite of his own projects is The Color Purple, an album he  released in 2011 alongside his brother, Michael Millions.

This was the second project that the pair had released together, and the first project NameBrand produced completely. For the brothers, there was a sense energy and excitement that surrounded the creation of The Color Purple that felt new and meaningful.

“It was just the mindset at that particular time,” said NameBrand. “We were new to it, but we knew that we were capable of doing it. There was this fun element there…. It felt like the beginning of something”

Another career highlight was his collaboration on Stretch Marks with Nickelus F. They first met to work at Nick’s house and wrote six or seven songs together. However, the songs were never released. Years later, NameBrand revisited the project and felt the songs had timeless sound — so he contacted Nick to discuss releasing them. Nick’s response was, according to NameBrand: “Let’s take these songs and turn them into a full-fledged project.”

Today, Nick and NameBrand are close, but when they were working on Stretch Marks, they did not have a ton of experience working together. However, they did have mutual respect for each other’s work.

“When I was first introduced to Nick, I was definitely a fan of who he was and his talent,” NameBrand said. “Being able to work with Nick was like a milestone.”

For his latest project Grace, NameBrand drew inspiration from Grace Street — more specifically from the time he spent at Donland Entertainment studio, which used to stand on Grace Street.

“That was where [my] foundation was solidified, and I started really honing in on some of the skills,” Namebrand said.

It was also at Donland Entertainment that NameBrand met his mentor, Architect.

“He was the older guy, like the vet,” NameBrand said. “He was the work horse, he made all the beats.”

During this time, NameBrand was able to focus on developing his technique by observing and learning from the different artists, engineers and producers that he was surrounded by. It was through this experience that he acquired the skills to further his own musical style.

“Production wise, I don’t really have a sound or style of music, per se,” NameBrand said. “I just enjoy making music that I like. If it sounds good to me, if it feels good to me, that’s the type of music that I make. I can make anything.”

To NameBrand, creating a beat is about creating a vibe and sparking a “constant transfer of positive energy” from creator to listener.

“I literally start from nothing, and it’s my energy being transferred into whatever,” he said. “Then that energy ultimately inspires another person to write this amazing song to it. And then that energy gets transferred out into the world, and people ultimately have whatever feeling that they receive from it.”

The biggest challenge in NameBrand’s career is figuring out how to pave his own path in the music industry.

“There is no real guideline on how to become what you ultimately want to be,” he said. “You’re making decisions every day that you hope puts you in a space that’s going to be closer to that goal.”

That ultimate goal for NameBrand is not only to succeed as a producer, but to reach out to inner-city youth and encourage them to pursue their passion, as well as higher education.

A software engineer during the day, NameBrand has a bachelor’s degree from Norfolk State University and a Master’s Degree in Tech from the Florida Institute of Technology. He hopes that he can be representative and show kids that the pursuit of education and a music career does not have to be an either-or situation.

“I feel like often times kids get posed with this idea that you have to pick one or the other,” he said. “I want ultimately [for] them to know that you can do both. You can do your passion and excel at your passion as well as achieve academically… You don’t have to just stop at high school.”

His career has grown exponentially over the past several years, and NameBrand is not slowing down. A pillar of Richmond’s vibrant hip-hop culture, NameBrand continues to flex his influence. Not only does he always have a new project in mind, but he strives to keep sight of the larger goal: to be a Grammy award-winning artist with a Master’s degree.

Photos courtesy NameBrand

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

The Faces Of Richmond Hip Hop

RVA Staff | January 17, 2019

Topics: hip hop, namebrand, nils westergard, Noah-O, RVA 35

*This article originally appeared in RVA Mag #35, on the streets now at all your favorite spots.

On a chilly late-fall day in early December, a crowd gathered on West Grace Street to document a banner year for Richmond’s hip hop community. Including lyricists, producers, DJs, battle rappers, and muralists, as well as assorted friends and family, the results show an artistic community in full flower, and a group of movers and shakers who won’t stop until they make their mark on the city — and the world.

Photographer Branden Wilson plans things out.

NameBrand of Association of Great Minds

Thoughtz surveys the scene

Monday Night checks the exits

Visual artist Nils Westergard

What a muralist’s footwear looks like

Charged Up Enterprises CEO Noah-O

The result of the session was the photo that ultimately graced the cover of RVA Mag #35. It features over 30 of the leading figures in Richmond hip hop circa 2018.

Photos by Branden Wilson and Matt McDaniels. Words by Marilyn Drew Necci

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Rage and Rhythm: Richmond’s Hardcore Scene Meets Hip-Hop

Michael Millions | November 2, 2018

Topics: Bobby Egger, hardcore, Lil Ugly Mane, Michael Millions, namebrand, Nickelus F, southside, Vinyl Conflict

As a hip-hop artist growing up on Richmond’s Southside listening to hip-hop, R&B, reggae, and jazz, I was not a fan of hardcore music. I would get exposed to alternative rock, punk, and hardcore mostly from my white friends and MTV. I couldn’t understand the ear-splitting instrumentation and random screaming for three to four minutes per song.  

Which is ironic, since that’s the same thing my grandmother would say about rap music. I didn’t understand the headbanging and fisty mosh pits — or the black eyes, cuts and bruises, broken bones, the sweat and bloody t-shirts. What I did understand was that there were millions of people who loved this music, and it meant a whole lot to them, just as hip-hop meant for us.

Earlier this year, I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to learn more about hardcore music. So I started listening to a few bands like Show Me The Body, The Acacia Strain, and Division of Mind, and attending shows at Strange Matter. I needed to get a feel for what I was missing out on in Richmond’s legendary hardcore scene.

Months later after finishing my brother Nickelus F’s album Stuck, I was invited with Nick and NameBrand to meet Bobby Egger at Vinyl Conflict, a record store well-known in the hardcore community.

To our surprise, Egger and a few of his friends felt the same way about hip-hop and wanted to explore the idea of working together. When this eventually happened, we found ourselves touring alongside hardcore and noise acts. Headed to Baltimore on the first leg of the tour with Nickelus F and Lil Ugly Mane, we didn’t know what to expect or how things with a mixed crowd would go in a city we’ve never played.

PHOTO: Michael Millions

Sitting in the green room before the show started, energy filled the room. And when the moshing started and the crowd got pumped, I got nervous. How would they react when Nick and I hit the stage? Would they give us the same energy? Does this crowd love hip-hop?

When we took the stage, the crowd went stupid, and it was obvious that they loved the rap sets just as much as the hardcore sets. Hitting me all at once, I realized the crowd wasn’t there for one genre over the other, they were there because they were feeding both sides of their souls; the intersection of rage and rhythm. Seeing this from the stage put me at the edge of this new world, which we were literally jumping into.

Unwinding from the performance, I realized that mixing hardcore and hip-hop was absolutely perfect. I started to see this at shows in Philly, VA Beach, and Raleigh — all sold-out shows. But as I watched opening bands from Richmond, like Division of Mind and other legends like Tarpit, Dry Spell, and Victim, I paid more attention to the lyrics; their content was parked on the same lane as hip-hop’s. They spoke about similar environments, social issues, government, peace, equality, and of course a little death. What’s a hardcore show or hip-hop show without that? 

As both genres represent versions of the same thing, the next question then became: Why hasn’t this fusion already happened in Richmond? Historically we’ve seen this before with RUN DMC, Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Linkin Park, and even Aerosmith. Even now, we can all run a few Rage Against The Machine albums back.

With everything going on in Richmond — monuments, evictions, and gentrification splitting the fabric of our city — this thread of hip-hop and hardcore is one thing actually bringing us closer together. Vinyl Conflict’s annual show in August proved this. The union of hip-hop and hardcore was on full display with acts like Nickelus F, Nosebleed, Slump, Deviant, and Sinister Purpose playing for a fully engaged crowd. “Holy shit,” I thought to myself, never imagining that this would actually work in a city divided like Richmond. There was a time when hip-hop artists fought to find any stage in the city to perform.  

Thankfully, those days are over as we multiply these experiences with more shows, tours, and cross-promotionals. Yet we still have our divides.  

Anyone who grew up in this city knows things are slow to change. Even now as “Richmond” tries to rebrand itself “RVA,” we still have to fight to continue the conversation over things like removing racist monuments from our field of dreams. We still have to fight eviction rates that are at a national high, displacing and dividing families. We still have to fight for police reform, so a black man like Marcus Peters can receive help for his mental illness instead of a few fatal bullets. With all of these challenges and divisions in the city, at least Richmond’s hip-hop and hardcore scenes are intersecting and bringing people and cultures together in new and powerful ways. 

*Cover photo by Landon Shroder

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