By K.B. Tindal and Agustin A. Iglesias
Hip Hop Vibe Staff Writers
With the wave of lyrical releases in the past few weeks by Wale, Kanye West, J. Cole and Mac Miller, it seems as if lyricism is now being respected by the general public a lot more. Another artist who should definitely be mentioned in that category is Phil Ade, who is taking over the game. He is definitely making his presence felt.
Phil Ade is a DMV native and an artist on Raheem DeVaughn and Andre Hopson’s 368 Music Group label. His new project R.O.S.E is set for a summer 2013 release. If the man who looks up to artists like Kanye West and Nas has anything to say about this release, it will put his name on the list a lot closer to the artists he admires.
Recently, we had the chance to speak with Phil Ade for Hip Hop Vibe. In his interview, he talked to us about a lot of the current challenges of the game. Phil Ade talked about the rise of lyricism in the game, his R.O.S.E. project, and much more, a very interesting conversation.
Read the entire interview below:
You started off doing your Phil Ade Friday campaign and I recently interviewed Crooked I and we talked about when he did his hip hop weekly campaign for 52 weeks straight. He said that it made a man out of him. As an artist did you feel the same way as you were doing your Phil Ade campaign while you were on tour with Mac Miller at same time? Definitely you got to be focused, while I was doing it I was working on another project at the same time and I was on was on tour so I definitely got my priority’s in order and you have to make sure your on top of what you do. I grew character wise as person and as a man.
What was your life like up until you signed to 368 Music Group? Music was getting so addictive for me and I was in school at the time. I went to learn graphic design but my whole heart wasn’t into what I was doing. It was kind of like I was just passing time because for kids college is hard and a lot of them don’t know what they want to do. Around that time I got really addicted to writing raps and making songs and I got the opportunity. A friend of mine who’s brother was really good friends with Raheem put it together and from there I got my opportunity to do music full time so I took it.
I know you come from a very religious background as far as your family is concerned. When you started becoming absorbed into Hip Hop and getting that underground buzz you were still trying to stay true to your roots as far as your family’s concerned, did that create friction for you? I had to move out the house. That was something I didn’t agree with at all. In order to pursue this I had to move out. My family’s very religious and Hip Hop is not something that always in my house. When I was in 6th grade is when I started really paying attention to Hip Hop music and really being able to get in to it because I was able to sneak it around my parents and listen to it.
What’s the biggest thing that Raheem and Dre have taught you since you became a part of that family and what are some the pros and cons? We building 368 at the same time and we met when I started becoming a man I hadn’t talked to my family in two years and I didn’t have that father figure. Dre and Raheem, they kind of helped me become a man by doing music and at the same time they also helped me become a business man. Cons I would say a lot times we would have different opinions. I’m a dude that likes to listen and take advice. I always feel like I never know it all. Once you know it all your done. That’s how I feel, I’ve learned where I want my career to go and I got to make those decisions at the end of the day. They have definitely been like big brothers and father figures to me.
Has the relationship with your dad got better now? I haven’t spoken to my father.
How important is lyricism to you? Coming up, lyricists are the ones I gravitated towards. Nas, Jay, Lupe, Kanye, artists in that lane are the one who grab me. I think hip hop is real diverse it’s more focused on clubs and partying and not really too much on lyricism and that’s cool. The lyrical Hip Hop with deeper messages is always there but I think mainstream pushes one aspect of Hip Hop at the moment it’s always there you just got to find it but now I feel like it’s coming to a place where it’s becoming popular again and I’m real excited to be a part of that and really having a message.
The upcoming project is titled R.O.S.E. (Result of Society’s Evil), how did you come to name it that? It was like a light bulb I just woke up one morning with an idea to come up with that acronym. It’s almost like extreme to people that I know, I want to explain how I got to where I’m at and the things I’ve done in my life and why I’ve done them and the things that influence me to be who I am, not just me but my generation as a whole. I just really want to give an explanation because I feel like a lot of people in generations before us they look down on us sometimes because our attention spans are short. It’s kind of like what Kendrick Lamar did with Section 80 but I wanted to a little deeper.
What’s the inspiration to do covers like De La Soul’s “Break of Dawn”? What type of vibe did that song give you or was it just what they said on that track? Whatever I feel you know. Some of those songs I wasn’t familiar with because I was barred from Hip Hop. A lot of those songs are like a learning process to me. They would show me these songs it hit me. One song in particular was “Get Wicked” by Ice Cube because I come from that background.
It was new to you but were you ever like, wow I gotta do something over this track? Yeah, a lot. That also was improving me as a rapper, learning how to use different flows and coming up with hooks. All of that helped me become an artist. A lot of inspiration came from songs or whatever I felt.
What are some of the best and some of the worst things now that you’re in this position of having more money and success and being on the road all the time? The places that we’ve been. A lot of these places I wouldn’t go to if I wasn’t doing what I’m doing. It’s fun. I get to see the world and work at the same time. There are people that love me that I don’t get to see because I’m moving around and in those relationships there’s a lot of time I put into them. Not seeing my mom, my family and friends is definitely a con but the road is fun.
You did the joint second “Second Chance” it had a bit of Go Go and Rock edge and I know you use to do Go Go music so was that you going back to those roots to capture the whole DMV sound or a just trying to combine the sounds? I never felt that song had Go Go vibe to it. It was that there was a rock sample that I heard and I had Mark Henry do the live instruments & I didn’t realize that it was something that sounded good too so I asked Mark to put it together and it came out good.
How’s your relationship with Wale, Black Cobain any plans to work together? We are all cool whenever we see each other but really we are all focused on our individual things. Wale shows me love every now and then and that’s all I can really ask for. We’re all trying to make it so people from back home can make it as well.
Did ever deal with battle circuit as an MC? No I don’t do much free styling
If you had to look back at your life so far and you were going to leave the planet earth tomorrow and you knew you weren’t coming back, what would be one thing you would want to leave behind so that people in the world could remember you as a person and also remember you as an artist? Definitely my music. When I started, my goal was to make music that lets people know what my background is and who I am as person, so I think that the music accomplish both of those an lets people know who I was as person and it lets them hear what I did as an artist.
This section of this interview is called Shout Outz. I’ll ask you a group of questions and you give me the first thing that comes to your mind.
What’s your favorite food? Mac and cheese.
What’s your favorite drink alcoholic or non-alcoholic? Orange juice.
Who‘s your favorite sports figure dead or alive? Allen Iverson.
What’s your favorite movie? Paid in Full.
What’s your favorite place to visit? Los Angeles.
What’s your favorite kind of car? Bentley.
What’s your favorite fashion brand? It’s between Louis Vuitton and Versace.
What is your memorable moment in music past or present? Raekwon’s verse on my “Hollywood” remix song. It’s crazy because the song “Cream” was the first song I recorded on.
Who was the person or the artist that made you want to become an artist? I will have to say Kanye.
Why Kanye? He made it look like so much fun and his music is incredible. He pays attention to the detail in his music and I want to continue that.
If you can name one person that gave you a jewel in life that you still live by to this day who would that person be and what’s the jewel that they gave you? Definitely my Mother and the jewel is the Bible
Follow K.B. Tindal on Twitter @KBTindal.
Follow Agustin A. Iglesias on Twitter @Rule_York.
