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Celebrate Juneteenth With Calvin Presents & Sam Reed

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To commemorate Juneteenth, two excellent Richmond musicians have released a special track to celebrate the fact that “we’re still here.”

It’s Juneteenth, the annual celebration of the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned that the Civil War was over, and that they were free. In light of the struggles against police violence and structural racism that have been going on for weeks here in Richmond, this Juneteenth takes on an increased significance — one that was marked yesterday by Governor Ralph Northam as he declared his intent to make Juneteenth a permanent state holiday in Virginia.

We’ve already brought you a massive collection of excellent Black American music to celebrate this holiday, courtesy of Richmond music scene leader Reggie Pace, but we wanted to shine a special spotlight on a terrific new track (also available on Reggie’s playlist) from two other Richmond musicians that was released today to commemorate the holiday. Calvin Presents and Sam Reed have been gifting Richmond with excellent soulful R&B sounds for years, both on their own and with various local ensembles. Now they’ve joined forces to bring us “Here,” a celebratory jam with an irresistibly joyful hook. Calvin Presents calls the song “an ode to Black joy. An affirmation of Black lives. A reminder to imagine as fiercely as we fight.”

In a time when racist violence against Black Americans by the police and the American system continues despite over a century of struggles for civil rights, Calvin Presents and Sam Reed offer a simple, powerful invocation: “Let’s celebrate. You’re still here. I’m still here.”

“Here” can be streamed and downloaded at Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube. To get your copy, click here.

Photo via Calvin Presents/Bandcamp. Shout out to Ant the Symbol for bringing this to our attention.

Radio B Drops New Album, ‘Jesus Never Wore A Suit’

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Tired with the glorification of mumble rap? Well if you are like me and grew up listening to godfathers like Jay Z, Nas, and more, this empowering new album may just be right up your alley.

Up-and-coming Richmond rapper Radio B released his 16-track concept album, Jesus Never Wore a Suit (JWNAS) early last month with producer JL Hodges (formerly of Richmond band Avers) in collaboration with Purple Republic, a local audio production company.  

With his latest release, Radio B, whose real name is Greg Carden II, aims to address social and political issues, as well as his viewpoints on religion and how the trust in God’s plan will create a more positive outlook on life given harsh societal conditions. Carden also speaks up for victims of oppression, and urges the community to stop the violence among one another.

“I am honest to my music almost to a fault because I am a very introspective type of artist which means whatever is going on in my life at that moment in time is what you are going to hear, as transparent as possible,” said Carden.

I find this sense of individuality incredibly inspiring especially nowadays considering the fact that aspiring rappers are almost scared to address these kinds of topics in their music because they try to appeal to everyone and not get bashed as they attempt to make a name for themselves. Because he is venting and not simply making party tracks, that same substance is exactly what builds cult followings from people who listen due to the depth of inspiration that the rapper has to offer rather than the sound of a beat.

“We are constantly taking things in and being receptive to the world around us. Everything you experience in life is either good for you or bad for you and I want people to take my music and live with it without it poisoning them. I aim to be respected by my peers and inspire other rappers to either get better or give up,” said Carden.

Carden has carved out a serious name for himself in the Richmond rap scene, pioneering the regular RVA Lyricist Lounge, around town and creating platforms for emerging emcees like Virginia’s rap battle league The Southpaw Battle Coalition to help propel local artists’ careers.

Fly Anakin, Radio B, and Nickelus F at a recent RVA Lyricist Lounge

For this release, Carden recruited a cadre of Richmond’s finest acts from rappers to singers, with features from Fly Anakin, Breeze the Poet, Angelica Baylor, DJ skip, Easalio, Henny L.O., Sam Reed, Nickelus F, and Michael Millions who appears on the song “Grace.” Millions, along with Nickelus F, grew up with Carden on Richmond’s Southside.

“{He’s] one of the best lyrical geniuses in the city with a tremendous work ethic,” Millions said of Radio B. 

Instead of some party tracks and mindless bangers, this project is designed to challenge the way listeners think about the world around them. 

“It doesn’t always appeal to everyone nor is it designed to, but sometimes we just need more music like that. Music doesn’t evoke thinking like it used to anymore, that type of artwork is now limited in a mumble rap dominated industry,” said Millions.

Image may contain: one or more people, people on stage, people playing musical instruments, people sitting, night and indoor
Photo Credit: Fisher C. Reaves

After listening to the album a couple of times, I see it more as a story, with every track resembling a different chapter rather than a compilation of individual bangers. “Cursing in Church” and “Village Proverbs” are some of the stand-out tracks given their poetic transitions, and if you ask me, “God Lives” and “Once or Twice” will be on the radio any minute.

As for the group’s creative processes, their chemistry most simply stems from similar visions, according to Hodges. “The listening sessions and sampling of songs didn’t feel like work at all which made us realize that we were doing it right,” he said.

This was the producer’s first time working solely on hip hop. Since leaving Avers, Hodges has since been running Overcoast, a company specializing in music and sound primarily for commercials and other forms of media with studios in Richmond and London.

Using Cubase as his production software, Jesus Never Wore a Suit was Hodges’ first album that he produced using samples. With this project, Hodges said he wanted to “force people to have an opinion and evoke feeling and emotion through a mix of different energies.”

“It could have easily taken just a month to churn out if we wanted, but it would not have been thought-provoking nor multilayered. We are not just rapping on a beat, we are storytelling,” he said.

It didn’t surprise me at all that Carden was a New York native after listening to him rap. His rhyme scheme reminds me of the old Pro Era cyphers that we all know and love.

Personally, I always find it refreshing to see artists who stick to their roots and deliver thought-provoking poetry which is exactly what we are seeing with Radio B.

He will be leading a lecture on his album as a keynote speaker for Virginia Union University on April 12, and you can catch him at the next RVA Lyricist Lounge event May 26 at Strange Matter. His pride for his city is incomparable and his plans to bring it into the spotlight are just getting started.

 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

 

 

Longtime RVA musician Steven Boone drops debut album SoulLow this Friday at Gypsy Tea Room

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Whenever a musician steps outside of his/her comfort zone and away from their regular gig to pursue another project it’s always exciting to hear what they come up with. For local musician Steven Boone, fans will get to hear what he’s been working hard on the last few years on Friday when he drops his debut solo album, SoulLow.

Boone has been playing in bands since he was a teenager and currently plays lead guitar in local bands Dance Candy, Sam Reed Syndicate and Stone Brook Moonshine, and he said this album, produced by RVA’s one and only DJ Harrison, will be much different from what people are used to.

“For me, it’s a different side than what people might have seen me play around town, they know me as a guitar player {rather} than a singer songwriter,” he said. “Essentially, this album is a big huge mirror and it’s been a while that I’ve been the focus of any kind of project, I’ve gotten settled into being a side man in different bands.”

The Shockoe Sessions – Steven Boone – The Love That Got Away from Artesian Entertainment Group, LL on Vimeo.

A stripped away, soulful, bares-all approach, Boone worked with DJ Harrison (Devonne Harris) and many other fellow RVA musicians to create this personal, emotional 14-track record that’s one of love, loss and personal journey.

“They’re songs that most people who have lived long enough to experience life can relate to,” he said of the album. “There’s a couple songs that address heartbreak and relationships and a couple songs that are a more upbeat, happy kind of vibe.”

The album addresses issues anyone in their 20s and up would have experienced according to Boone.

“Decisions” for example, is a song off the album that Boone wrote his senior year in high school which delves into preparing for life in the real world.

The track “Maryann” is dedicated to the mom of a good friend of Boone’s who committed suicide. The end result is a very sweet, but light-hearted message with a cheery beat.

“His mom, she was like the cool mom, she had him when she was 16 so her whole life was him so I wrote a song called Maryann which is her name,” he said. “The thing about that song that I really like is I took the negative energy from that situation and spun It into a positive uplifting song.”

“If I Could” is a pure love song and its beautiful. Very John Mayer vibe. Actually, most of the record has a very similar sound to Mayer. Well, except for “Real Love”, (Bonus track not on the album, see below!!) which has a MUCH more funky/jazzy vibe and I’m digging it!

SoulLow has been a long time coming for Boone. Harris, of Jellowstone Records fame, said the two started working on around 2012 or 2013.

“This is the project that has taken the longest to complete from start to finish,” Harris said. “Between his career and my career, and everyone going through different things in their lives it’s taken a long, long time.”

This will be the two’s first official collaboration on a project, but Harris and Boone have played music together since they were teenagers.

“We were always playing in bands together and writing songs together, but it wasn’t anything that was really official,” he said. “After a while he started coming by and recording his own songs and I was like, ‘you should be out here with your band playing your own songs.’”

And most of the time, until they wrapped up the album in 2015, it was just the two of them recording at Jellowstone.

“He would either come by with a bunch of lyrics and sing me the lyrics and show me the vibe of the song, and I would go and record it and then he would come back and finish the guitar part and the song over top, or he would come in and do the same thing with the guitar and vocals and I would just record his guitar and vocals at the same time and do the track from there,” Harris said.

Harris, who had just finished up his Sly Stone tribute project Slyish last time RVA Mag chatted with him, said like Boone, this project was a little something different from what he usually does as well.

“Everyone knows me as a hip hop/funk or soul producer, if you look at the Jellowstone catalog you can kind of see what my forte is, which is fine, but I don’t wanna be known for only doing that,” he said.

Broadening his type of work, combined with wanting to get Boone’s voice heard were the two reasons the well-known RVA producer said he wanted to take on the project.

“Those were his songs and his lyrics, but he’d never really had anybody to expand on that,” Harris said. I’ve known Steven for a long time and I know he has a bunch of talent and I know he has a lot of songs to share with the world…so it’s neat to help get him started in the business.”

Boone was grateful for Harris’s support and said the recording process was very organic and easy since they have been friends for so long.

“He knew from being in other bands that I had a lot of songs and I had never really come out with something had my name on it and recorded the way I wanted it to be recorded and represent me,” he said.

All of the songs were written by Boone, who had five songs already put together when he came to Harris to start work on SoulLow.

“I started the album after a break up, the first song was written the day that we broke up,” he said. “The rest of the songs came through being inspired by stuff I saw around Richmond or the recording process itself.”

Boone said it look a lot of urging from Harris and personal reflection to be able to release his music for all to hear, thus the drawn-out recording process.

“It was a lot of getting my mind ready,” he said. “I feel like I’m in the place now, I feel that I’m mature enough to handle what this might take on. Devonne definitely helped push me. I’ve never showed myself like this before in such a vocal way, a lot of them do have to do with my personal life…”

Besides Boone singing and playing guitar, the album features a myriad of other Richmond musicians bringing their special talents into the mix including Andrew Trongone (The Trongone Band) back-up vocals by Sam Reed, horn players Marcus Tenney (TENNISON) and Reggie Chapman (No BS!), Reggie Pace on percussion (No BS!), Mark Ingraham on trumpet (No BS!), some members of local jazz instrumental group Butcher Brown and Harris playing a few instruments on a few of the tracks as well.

Featuring these artists allowed for not only a more well-rounded and eclectic album, but a fun recording experience.

“Having the friends we have it’s really cool to call them up,” said Boone. “Those songs that they play on I wanted a different kind of feel, I don’t want to hear myself play guitar all day.”

SoulLow will come out this Friday, April 14 via Harris’ label Reeverb Entertainment. You can catch Steven Boone and DJ Harrison at their release party for SoulLow Friday night at 9 PM, in the Gypsy Tea Room below Vagabond. $10 cover. RVA musician Sid Kingsley will be opening up for Boone.

Main image by Covington Imagery