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Loaded Bases: Weekend Playlist by JR Da Rapper

RVA Staff | February 28, 2020

Topics: 96 Degrees, events in richmond va, events near me this weekend, events richmond va, hip hop, JR Da Rapper, Poverty Crew, rap, richmond events, richmond va, richmond va bands, RVA, rva magazine weekend playlist, things to do in richmond va, things to do richmond va, Weekend Playlist

Every Friday night, RVA Mag brings you a playlist curated by Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

This week’s comes to us from JR Da Rapper, an up-and-coming young talent from the Richmond hip hop scene, who has been making waves with attention-grabbing performances at RVA Rap Elite events, as well as his latest mixtape, 96 Degrees. You’ll be able to learn all there is to know about JR Da Rapper and his crew, the Poverty Crew, when our exclusive interview with him drops in the new issue of RVA Magazine, coming soon to a hip hotspot near you!

Until then, grab a full plate of hip hop jams this weekend with JR Da Rapper’s weekend playlist. It’s jam-packed with all-time classics, leading lights of the modern hip hop world, and plenty of local favorites, including a couple of tracks featuring JR Da Rapper himself. Get ready for a weekend full of head-nodding boom-bap brilliance.

Thank me later, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Illa Styles: The Hero Richmond Hip Hop Didn’t Know It Needed

Ethan Malamud | December 9, 2019

Topics: A Quarter Til A Mil, hip hop, Illa Styles, local music, local rappers, Michael Millions, music, rap, richmond events, richmond rap, richmond va, richmond va bands, RVA, RVA hip hop, rva music

The latest album by Richmond’s Illa Styles is a tale of love, personal growth, and navigating the ever-changing dynamics of life in America in 2019.

A Quarter Til A Mil by Richmond-based rapper Illa Styles is the latest in the River City scene. Pressing play on the album, listeners are greeted by the voice of the late Nipsey Hussle, and it becomes clear that this isn’t your average rap record.

With a gritty sound and life instruction manual-style lyrics, A Quarter Til A Mil finds Illa Styles rapping over high-energy jazz and carefully-crafted production from Michael Millions, with skits and features as versatile and well-made as the album itself.

Styles isn’t new to the game. Much like a carpenter goes to trade school to learn their craft, he graduated from the school of hard knocks in order to create this new record. It’s a refreshing guide to navigating street life while maintaining personal growth, and even when it comes to the dirty details, Styles doesn’t shy away. If anything, it is through his transparency that he finds his power.

“I am not glorifying this,” Styles said. “I am just documenting things that went down during the course of my time here.”

Styles has lived in Richmond for many years, yet it’s obvious he refers to more than just this area on the album. 

“I’ve lived through many dark fringes of society. I used to manage strippers… and some other things I’d rather not talk about. I was still a slime ball, bouncing from house to house every season depending on who I was dating at the time,” Styles said. “I wasn’t paying bills. Once I had my daughter, I fell back for a year.” 

Under pressure to provide for his newborn and her mother, Styles strove to live for her rather than continuing the life he had known before.

“She put the humanity in my music. She listens to it. I have to be a little more cautious about certain things I put in there, while still giving authentic highlights and certain pitfalls in life to avoid.”

In its sound, A Quarter Til A Mil is well-suited for the present. However, it’s clear that Styles found inspiration for his lyrical “fashion tips” from many different places and experiences unique to no decade.

“Everything in life inspires me,” Styles said. “I can ride down the street and see the clouds cascading over the sun in a certain way, and that inspires me. I try to take inspiration from everything in life. Never let it be wasted — what you consume is what should drive your inspiration.” 

Styles refuses to be limited. He notes that artists should continue to be versatile in all walks of life, acknowledging that there are many different ways to express yourself in the music industry. 

“Why limit it?” he said. “Why pigeon-hole yourself, put yourself in a box… Good music is just good music. It’s not even about a genre anymore. As long as it feels good to you, then it’s music.” 

Photo by Branden Wilson

Pulling from many different genres, Styles has found inspiration from artists over the years with various styles and sounds. He cites Snoop Dogg as the first rapper he found a real connection with. Doggystyle, released in 1993, was the first album Styles ever bought. Although he was always a fan of hip-hop, he was reluctant to dive straight into the culture.

“I didn’t always feel like I could do it, because there wasn’t a whole lot of new life being breathed into the music,” Styles said. “It just wasn’t my kind of vibe. When Snoop came in, even though he’s from California, it was something familiar — the stories he was telling, the music.” 

Across the continent in Philadelphia, Styles found a sense of familiarity in Snoop’s music. Growing up on opposite ends of the nation, the two artists lived different lives with similar battles while Styles navigated his days in West Philly. 

“Philly is a rough place,” Styles said. “I’ve seen a man get killed with a bat right in front of my house when I was just seven years old. That’s one of the reasons I got the tattoo ‘Life Is Priceless.’ You never know; you’ve got to treat your life with the utmost sincerity and respect… You’ve really got to put the time in to make sure you’re living life to the fullest.” 

Styles left Philadelphia to move to Richmond in his junior year of high school. It’s no surprise to hear that classic artists like Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, Donnie Hathaway, and Marvin Gaye were the songs playing in the background of his household growing up.

Today, Styles listens to a broad array of music, from hip hop and blues to Linkin Park and Creed. Noting John Mayer as a major inspiration of his artistic life, he is far more complicated than his laid-back exterior comes across. His blunt but confident inflection shows that Styles only raps about what he knows; and he’s waited years to finally load all of his experience and prowess into one album.

Styles worked through 60 original songs in the process of creating A Quarter Til A Mil‘s current track list of 16 hip-hop gems. Each track displays a different mood in hip-hop, but can all be tied together by jazz. Having lived in Richmond for most of his life, he felt it would be wrong not to pay homage to the city’s rich history of jazz talent.

“Richmond is all about live instrumentation,” Styles said. “A lot of stuff here has that soul, that grit… When you think of Richmond, it’s live jazz.”

But more than just jazz went into informing the live-instrument sound of A Quarter Til A Mil — and a lot of the inspiration for the album has a local basis.

“The rock scene is crazy here,” Styles said. “D’angelo — those sounds are akin to Richmond. They are married to Richmond. A lot of people try to chase that digital synth sound, but that’s not a Richmond sound.”

His reason behind wanting to use real instruments for the album was a practical one: he wants you to listen.

“For most people, just hearing [analog instruments] brings about an experience much larger than any sound waves moving around the air aimlessly,” Styles said. “Those sounds are emotional triggers that plant themselves in your head, like seeds tossed into reality; when they sprout, they combine the past and present, making what you’re listening to become attached to a specific feeling, smell, or idea.”

Photo by Branden Wilson

Although he possesses a very classic aura about him, Styles’ views of the world are modern. The more you hear his music, the more he shares his world and his perspective. One can’t help but resonate with him.

Styles is the new “classic man.” The man we need now — especially during this time of social change and battle for a mass enlightenment within America. As time goes on, the role of manhood encompasses more than its traditional roles, and brings in a new, nurturing scope of the world.

“I feel like the universe is a feminine energy,” Styles said. “The energy of creation, of motherhood. They hammer into our heads ‘The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost,’ but where’s the woman that’s present in that situation? Anything that comes to you after you start leading with love, that’s the universe bringing it to you.”

In his song “Long As The Villain Win,” Styles raps lyrics like “love leads and the universe follows.” His words are heroic coming from a man who claims to be the villain of his story, but perhaps Styles is onto something — perhaps the world is changing so much that our definition of a “hero” needs to accompany the new face of justice; one that is more representative of the people as a whole.

Styles is challenging old world perspectives with A Quarter Til A Mil, displaying the courageous message of a new generation of American men. His latest album is a jazzy self-reflection as much as it is a guide to self-actualization in the modern world. Underground voices often speak truth in a society of oppression, and Styles uses his words to express his thoughts during this era of American life. 

Top Photo by Branden Wilson

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

The Real MVP: Weekend Playlist by Big B

RVA Staff | August 30, 2019

Topics: Big B, brent butler, hip hop, local artists, local music, local playlist, local rap, Michael Millions, music, Nickelus F, Playlist, rap, shows, Weekend Playlist

Every Friday night, RVA Mag brings you an excellent and essential playlist curated by Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

This week’s playlist comes to us from up-and-coming Richmond rapper Big B, who just released his second album, My Life In Words, on all major streaming platforms earlier this month. He’ll be celebrating both the album’s release and his birthday at Gallery 5 on Saturday, August 31 (that’s tomorrow night!), in an extravaganza of hip hop music and comedy featuring performers like Ghxst, Muff-Man, $y G, Reggy Steel, and quite a few more!

In the meantime, he’s given us a playlist jam-packed with hip hop sounds perfect for blasting out of your stereo speakers this late summer weekend. From long-gone legends (2Pac, Notorious BIG) to today’s biggest stars (Kanye West, Pusha T) to a heaping helping of Richmond-based rap heavyweights (Michael Millions, Cole Hicks, Illa Styles, and more), this playlist is a great way to walk through Big B’s personal hall of fame.

Get that head-nod going, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Devil In My Veins: Weekend Playlist by BlackLiq

RVA Staff | August 23, 2019

Topics: black liq, black liquid, hip hop, local artists, metal, music, Playlist, rap, rock, rva magazine weekend playlist, Weekend Playlist

Every Friday night, RVA Mag brings you an excellent and essential playlist curated by Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

This week’s comes to us from BlackLiq, a man who has been making his mark on this city’s hip hop scene for a decade, both with his extensive back catalog of albums, mixtapes, and live freestyles, but also with his hip hop-oriented local radio shows, on which he brings the best of Richmond’s vibrant hip hop scene to a wider audience. Recent releases include a video for his latest state-of-the-city address, “RVA,” and Now Vol. 7, a new compilation of freestyles recorded live on air at WRIR as part of his Saturday night radio show, Hip Hop For The Rest Of Us.

Liq’s got plenty of hip hop for us all on this playlist of bangers, from classic artists like Ice-T, 2Pac, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard to gone-too-soon Richmond legend The Honorable Sleaze, plus his favorite guilty pleasure, Gucci Mane. Along the way you’ll get occasional dips into metal, funk, and classic rock, but this mix is mostly about the boom-bap — which is perfect for a sunny summer weekend in August.

Go hard, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

The Scheme Team: The Next Generation of Richmond Rappers

Oliver Mendoza | August 22, 2019

Topics: 3wayslim, Big Kahuna OG, Divine Council, Fly Anakin, graymatter, hillboy, hip hop, holly block, Lil Ugly Mane, local hip hop, local music, local rap, monday night, music, Nickelus F, obhliv, producers, rap, rather vindictive, richmond rap, scheme team, strainman chronicles, The Cheats Movement, wardboyz

This Saturday, a showcase of several up-and-coming Richmond rappers comes to The Dark Room at the Hof, presented by The Cheats Movement.

The Richmond rap scene is alive and buzzing, and the next generation of RVA rappers is here to stake their claim. 

Many who follow the illustrious Richmond rap scene are familiar with longtime local stars like Nickelus F, Ohbliv, and Lil Ugly Mane, who have been around and stamped their footprint across the country. 3WaySlim, Big Kahuna OG, Monday Night, and Graymatter are some newer faces in the scene, and with a familial bond and their arsenal of beats and bars, they’re going to remind everyone why the Richmond rap scene isn’t to be slept on. 

The space at Holly Block, the studio where 3WaySlim, Big Kahuna OG, and Graymatter all record, is the epicenter of collaboration for the local rappers. Hanging out with the guys, we were graced with appearances from Monday Night, Fly Anakin, and Draco the Dog (who was featured on Big Kahuna OG & Graymatter’s 2017 album, Scooby Snax). Several dutches and Backwoods later, the hazy smoke gave life and inspiration to this new generation of Richmond heavy-hitters. 

3WaySlim, via Facebook

All of these rappers and producers are part of the Scheme Team, a heavily self-perpetuated group inspired by each other’s achievements, hard work ethic, and of course, style. Each rapper came into their own at different points, through different avenues of life; now they all collaborate together to release group mixtapes as well as solo projects. 

“I started in high school… the older cats would throw me in different ciphers and shit, and you had to have your talent tested,” 3WaySlim said. “Once I grew a name for myself, the older cats from around the city started to invest in me, as far as putting me in the studio.” 

While 3WaySlim started off jumping into ciphers (a freestyle or improvisation in which rappers jump in one after another), Monday Night credits the rest of the Scheme Team for pulling him into the game. 

“My inspiration is them. They’re working hard, I’m trying to take their work ethic and mimic it,” Monday Night said. “When people know you’re nice, people wanna work with you.” 

Being “nice” isn’t just generally being a nice person — it refers to the skill, the finesse, and the charisma one has when they rap. 

Big Kahuna OG has been releasing music since around 2013, and now works a lot with producer Graymatter, who has also produced for Monday Night, 3WaySlim, and Fly Anakin on several different projects. 

“Since I was in high school, I was recording shit with my brother and my close friends; that’s all we would do after school,” Big Kahuna OG said. “I really jumped into it when I moved back from Buffalo in 2015. I met Fly Anakin, and shit was way more poppin’ than when I left.” 

If there is one thing all the guys can agree on, it’s the culture and rap scene in Richmond. Diversity between style, sound, and even geography is enough to create different sects of the scene in Richmond. Richmond is a small city though, and while some artists and sounds don’t always mesh, there does tend to be overlap. 

“There’s a lot of hidden talent in Richmond… it’s kind of like a melting pot,” Big Kahuna OG said. “We’ve been doing it for a minute. I feel like I’ve worked with tons of people in Richmond.” 

According to Monday Night, while there are differences in the culture, sometimes they overlap. Their differences are mostly based on peers and stylistic choices, as well as collaboration with each other (or lack thereof). 

“There is a whole other side to the rap scene in Richmond… there is a trap scene, and we don’t really coexist too much,” Monday Night said. But, he adds, “Everybody respects work ethic. That’s the biggest thing in Richmond.” 

Monday Night, via Bandcamp

The trap scene in Richmond features rappers like the group Divine Council, who had a viral hit with their 2016 single “P. Sherman,” as well as Hillboy, Wardboyz, and others. Those rappers are doing their own thing and have their own following — but that doesn’t mean there is any ill will. There aren’t any notable feuds or “beefs” within the community.

“The climate here is like, if you’re nice, you all pretty much know each other,” 3WaySlim said. 

While Richmond is a relatively up-and-coming rap scene compared to other staples like New York, Atlanta, or Chicago, the crew at Holly Block are a constant inspiration to each other. Working hard, proving themselves, and collaborating to create a style of music that meshes together perfectly is their focus. 

According to Graymatter, his biggest inspirations are local legends who have put Richmond on the map, and continue to push the envelope for style and creativity in the local rap scene. 

“Personally, once I was already making beats, Nickelus F and Ohbliv were huge inspirations for me,” Graymatter said. “They made it seem like it was possible to make some crazy shit people really fuck with and respect, and still be in Richmond.” 

“Other than the two [Nickelus F and Ohbliv], I’d say we inspire ourselves… and of course, we had industry artists,” 3WaySlim said. “But I remember running into Anakin a couple years ago. I thought I had the best bars, then I heard him spit some shit and I just took note of it.” 

According to Monday Night, he had a harder go at his introduction into the game. As 3WaySlim and Monday Night made it very clear, being “nice” builds bridges within the community and opens avenues. Monday Night attributes his work ethic to being the reason he’s in on the hype train. 

“When I first started, cuz [Fly Anakin] wouldn’t even get on a song with me because he didn’t think I took it seriously,” Monday Night said. 

“I had to see it physically before I made a move on it,” Fly Anakin confirmed. 

Everyone involved in the Scheme Team has been hard at work lately.

Monday Night’s album Rather Vindictive dropped earlier this summer, in July, on his Bandcamp page. Big Kahuna OG and Graymatter just dropped Strainman Chronicles this past week on the Scheme Team Bandcamp page. The album features Monday Night, 3WaySlim, Fly Anakin and other local Richmond rappers like Nickelus F and Henny L.O. 

3WaySlim has his album Golden Child set to drop later on in the summer, with various producers involved, including Graymatter. 

The Scheme Team will also be performing live in The Dark Room at The Hof on August 24 at 8pm, hosted by Nitty Blanco. The show, which is presented by The Cheats Movement, will feature 3WaySlim, Big Kahuna OG, Fly Anakin, Graymatter, Monday Night, and some special guests. The Hof holds just over 150 people, which is exactly what the Scheme Team is looking for. 

“We’re trying to have that shit sold out, like at least 120-150 tickets,” Big Kahuna OG said. 

The members of the Scheme Team each have different fan bases, so this show is going to be a great way for all the crowds to come together.

“We’re trying to have an intimate show so we can connect with our supporters, because they’re more than fans — the people that actually listen to the music and come out to the shows,” 3WaySlim said. “We’re all artists from different walks of life. We’re bringing different crowds together.” 

The Scheme Team is on the up and up in Richmond, rising and grinding every day to produce quality rap music with a retro, lo-fi, gritty Richmond style. Each and every one of them is dedicated to their passion. The bars, the hooks, the beats, and everything that comes with it defines Scheme Team and their rise in the rap game. 

Top Photo: Scheme Team All Stars, via Bandcamp

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Chance the Rapper’s The Big Day Is an Album Worth Diving Into

Richie Kamtchoum | August 5, 2019

Topics: artist collaboration, Chance The Rapper, collaboration, hip hop, kirsten corley bennett, music, rap, the big day, the social experiment

Wedded bliss has brought the Chicago prodigy a bit of backlash, but this lengthy “debut” has frequent high points that are worth digging for.

Chance the Rapper returned last week after a 3-year hiatus, with a 22-track body of work entitled The Big Day. The project is being billed as his debut album, but the phrase could be considered a useless title in today’s era, when streaming-only mixtapes can clean up at the Grammys. 

The album centers around his marriage to longtime partner Kirsten Corley Bennett, and feels as ceremonious as the title suggests. Aside from the semantics of naming this his debut album,  Chance has slowly made what wrestling fans call a “heel turn” on the internet for the last two years, following a world-conquering year for his music in 2016. As others have pointed out, some of this has to do with over-saturation — in hindsight, this pushback was always going to come. 

The dual lives of making TV appearances and popping up on several major commercials, while still firmly claiming independence, can eventually grow tiresome. There was also a period in which Chance entangled himself in Kanye West’s messy 2018; regardless of whether he was cosigning his mentor’s outspoken sentiments or not, he was tethered to it by sharing Kanye’s opinions and being named “Kanye’s best prodigy.” The backlash has undoubtedly affected the reception to his recent output, and to his overall brand. 

After a batch of singles released in the back half of 2018, including the fiery “I Might Need Security” and the weary “The Man Who Has Everything,” it became clear that Chance’s new album would be extremely personal and insular. It makes sense, then, that the album is centered on his marriage — as each of Chance’s bodies of work revolve around seminal periods in his life. 

His first mixtape, 10 Day, was the teenage angst they don’t take at banks after Chance’s suspension in high school. 2013’s Acid Rap created a bright and idiosyncratic world, focusing on a young man in the midst of a breakthrough amidst psychedelic trips. 2016’s Coloring Book saw the same young man eschew the path he was heading towards and embrace a renewed faith in God. Even Surf, a 2015 album billed to Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment but heavily featuring Chance’s vocals and production, credits inspiration to world teachings from a father, as Chance’s first child Kinsley Bennett was born shortly after. 

As the cover art suggests, The Big Day is an ode to his official arrival — a diamond-encrusted disc for the golden child of hip-hop, with his wedding ring in plain sight to serve as a double meaning for his wedding day. While the record does run long, it sustains momentum throughout its runtime by embracing a festive spirit. After all, weddings, like graduations and birthday parties, can run a little long.

Narratively, the album executes the grandeur of a black wedding, with speeches from drunk uncles, advice from family friends, and grown folk asking, “What you know about this?” 

Numerous songs lean into pop, with anthemic choruses and gleeful melodies. “Let’s Go On a Run” sounds like it could be plucked from the Hairspray soundtrack. 

While Chance has since calmed the jittery style of rapping he featured throughout his earlier projects, his lyrics remain potent, with increasing utilization of punchlines. Take the spiritual “We Go High,” in which he raps “Kids proud like Penny is/ BeBe and CeCe, I need like 20 twins/ Got her in my family like Indian/ Feel it in your gut like when you uppercut Ballchinians.” This Men In Black-referencing set of bars comes in the middle of an impressively-concise third verse that sees Chance at his lyrical best. 

Elsewhere on the album, Chance glides over modern trap production on “Handsome,” “Big Fish,” and “Slide Around,” employing the versatility required of major hip-hop acts today. He’s well-aware of the moment too, utilizing 2019 breakthrough artists DaBaby and Megan Thee Stallion to offset his whimsical musings. 

Production wise, his collaborative group, The Social Experiment, does a lot of the heavy lifting, and gives Chance his most eclectic palette of sonics to date. Peter Cottontale lays the keys for “Do You Remember,” a slippery-smooth track that allows Chance and Death Cab for Cutie to bottle the warmth of summer and the nostalgia Chance specializes in. On “I Got You,” Ari Lennox and En Vogue combine for a New Jack Swing cut that finds Chance paying homage to 90s rap legend Twista in flow and delivery. “Town on a Hill” and the title track find Chance reuniting with Francis and the Lights, to cross into electronic synth-wave and showcase songwriting that feels transcendent, but personal, in nature. 

The album closes with a literal fairy-tale in “Zanies and Fools,” where Nicki Minaj joins Chance to reminisce on their storybook endings, utilizing Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “It’s Possible,” from Cinderella. As Nicki closes the album with one of her best verses in recent memory, the ethos of the album becomes a bit more clear — and harkens back to a passage from Chance’s verse earlier in the outro. 

“For every small increment liberated, our women waited/ And all they privacy been invaded/ Almost every trait I got through the slave owner/ Dark skin, brown, nose round, but the Bennett made it/ Now I wanna give it to her…” 

The album belongs to his wife, first and foremost. A lot of the discourse regarding the album has to do with its jovial nature, but jokes aside, The Big Day is about Chance tying in the joy that is the DNA of all his projects to his newfound life with, yes, his wife. 

Detractors have noted the album feels less commanding and gratifying than his previous works, while being a little too family-friendly. But this doesn’t necessarily ring true, considering that these elements have always been tenets of Chance’s music. “Sunday Candy,” “That’s Love,” “Wanna Be Cool,” and countless other songs affirm the core of Chance and his music: he’s devoted to God and his family, and he doesn’t care to conform. 

If the hive-like nature of online discourse can diffuse for just a moment, perhaps they’d find an album worth diving into from Chance, the happily-married rapper. 

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