Lik "Popeye's on Center"

If you’re like most of us, you’ve been OUTSIDE making this summer count! On time with the vibes to match as usual, TRP has yet another drop that can take you back to a July Summer in the early 2000s! Co-Founder and In-House Producer Lik gives that feeling with the summer anthem, “Popeyes on Center,” a shout out to one of the hundreds of directional pinpoints used by Us in the community, ha! 

This single from his latest Album, “Auteur Theory,” which has been exclusively released on his Ghetto Griot website for purchase, features his right hand, Big P. Released as a music video directed by Cream. and shot by Carter Green, the lyrical, instrumental, and especially, the visual context is so Milwaukee and gives a nostalgic ’outside from sun up to sun down’ type of feel. The vision was for the editing style to become another character of its own- the “third side to the story,” as Lik put it. The vibrancy of the colors seen and worn, the upward camera angles to fully capture the grit of what still remains of our own unique culture (the businesses AND the beautiful young Milwaukee Men coolin’ in front of them), and the contrast of what may not be anymore, but is still core to the identity of this part of the city, and therefore, is worthy to be celebrated.

The setting changes and cuts to Lik sitting by himself in a restaurant. The imagery is more fab and luxurious and his words are more future-tense with a little bravado but just like the brick and mortar of the Milwaukee Mall, his identity in Milwaukee remains. Good One Lik!

Naomi-Re’a for /CW

"Renaissance" | Milwaukee Film Screening

Beyonce’s “Renaissance” film proves to be the model for all concert films! This grand, 3-hour production masterpiece was four years in the making and as I sat in the third row from the big screen at The Oriental, I could tell that not a day was wasted.

“Flaws and All'' & “Dangerously in Love” was the opener and despite its history as a declaration to a lover, in this particular performance, Beyonce allowed herself to be in awe of the moment and sang it as a ballad to her growing audience of almost 30 years and shared some words of affirmation along with it. She was dressed in an ethereal black gown in the first scene which complimented the romanticization of the mutual admiration between herself and the fans, yet it also could be seen as a tamed contrast to the otherworldliness of her later outfits- symbolic of her growth from a pop star to world declared icon. Through her catalog, she humanizes this journey with flashbacks of behind-the-scenes development consisting of aches, pains, hands-on construction, harsh hours, and properly giving out flowers to all who had a hand on this tour. Even to those whose smaller parts have had a great impact on her, like her daughter Blue Ivy, who did not shy away from the stage nor from having a creative opinion. The standard was the method for all to adopt and this large collective crew of artists and otherwise showed true to it by their results. There was positivity depicted in wins of all magnitudes and mishaps that only highlighted the true nature of teamwork and leadership; Trust. However, with being human comes the not-so-great reality as well. A piece of that reality, which may easily be overlooked by many whom it may not concern, is that no matter how many victories your method has produced, being intelligent as a black woman creative doesn’t put one out of range from having ‘them’ (yes ‘them’) attempt to try you mentally. When approached with such bravado, Beyonce’s only response was fearlessly remembering to choose to stand in her own authority rather than giving into the regret of the so-called stigma of being assertive with high demands. Who's to say how long it has been that Beyonce has truly felt within herself the courage to see through to getting her way at all times and at all costs but mastering that commitment can make an established art form to those on the outside feel renewed to the one inside.

As narrated and depicted through and through, the Renaissance is not just an era or a stage, it's a transcendence of a culture and the individuals in it. As the most catered-to audience (haha-wink), the African Diaspora, whether they be man, woman, straight, LGBTQIA+, adult, child, African or Black American, and so forth, vicariously experienced the glamor of our multifaceted culture through time via this tour. It is a great hoorah! moment for all leaving no question that Beyonce is a voice for every creed and that the modern approach is historically unapologetic.

/Naomi-Re’a CW

Huey V - “After The Deal” [SINGLE + Press Interview w/ CopyWrite Mag]

Milwaukee continues to make its mark in pockets of creative and social niches, whether it be politics or music, our presence is becoming more known to the world. As the wave of the rising talents of Milwaukee continues to flow, more names get added to the list of young people to look out for. Post the drop of his newest single “After The Deal”, Memphis Bleek’s Warehouse Music Group's (WHMG) latest signee Huey V gave us a moment and shared with us his journey leading up to this drop. 

 /CW: What was your upbringing in Milwaukee? What was your family like, where did you go to school?

HV: I'm a North Side baby, low tres, low tres. Most of my family grew up on 32nd and Galena but we spent a whole bunch of time on 33rd too. Outside of that I kinda lowkey moved all around the north side. I lived on 41st and Congress for a good minute, I wanna say like 7 years… I didn’t really fuck with down town until I turned 16. It was just the North Side, the beach and Mayfair.

/CW: So the North Side was just your little world growing up. You didn't know anything outside of that.

HV: …That was my whole world at that time before I got a car: I'm a youngin, youngin still. If I’m not on the city bus I'm walking, if I'm not walkin I’m on the bike..so I was definitely just exploring [the North Side]. That was the biggest shit to me at the time. I was like 13-14, just discovering the world on my own… 

/CW: So anywhere you needed to go you pretty much got there.. What made you get to that point where you're like ‘okay downtown is right there why not just go? Why not see what's over there?’ Was it the music, your artistry? 

HV: ..There was a poetry tournament..if I'm correct it was at The Grand... It was my first year on a poetry team and they ended up taking us down there because we had a [competition] with Ronald Reagan High school. That was my first competition..that was my first time seeing what it looked like; white people in suits and shit like that. That wasn't really a common thing for me.  

/CW: Did you have a lot of mentorship growing up or was it not until you got older and started taking charge of your own life that you decided ‘I need more discipline with whatever I'm doing and need to seek out that mentorship?’

HV: As a youngin you're supposed to have a mentor but the people that you really see as your mentors are just your uncles and older uncles and shit… but if you feel like you can make a path outside of that, if you feel like you can make a path that might take them off of the shit that they are on then you're not gonna take that advice you just gone be raising yourself. I did pretty much raise myself for a point in time. My Pops was there when I was younger but the older I got, I wanna say around 7, he just started to disappear…Moms can only do so much. She did her part to the fullest but you gotta learn how to be a man on your own.

/CW: So do you feel that you can learn as much as you could from someone who has a profession or perspective outside of what you're doing?

HV: I feel that anybody who has a sense of decency has some type of valuable information to give to somebody. I’ll chop it up with a homeless dude on the corner because I might learn something about life. It might not be financial literacy but he sees stuff on a daily basis that I don't see so there's probably things that I can't even comprehend that he sees on a regular basis so I definitely try not to close out every voice because you might miss your blessing but I definitely dont recieve every opinion as a fact because that’s how you fuck your blessing up…you weren’t meant to accomplish what they were supposed to accomplish but they might’ve sparked the idea for you to make it happen and now you get to change the next 30 peoples’ lives..

/CW: That brings me to my next point of that ‘hustler’s phase’; you get to that point where you know what you wanna do, you're willing to be dedicated, go broke for it, all of that, but then a lot of people get to that point of mastering that hustler’s phase but there's a lack of maintenance of it…

Huey V describes the intention that he puts into his artistry and the real life ease that comes with the concept of quality over quantity, while also admitting to sleepless nights for the benefit of meeting deadlines and being thorough with his production.

/CW: You must be really involved in the other elements of making a song or an album; the production…

HV: .. If I can be. I wouldn't say that I'm a producer or anything like that but I record, I mix myself if I can, [Young] Guru masters everything, I can't do that part. That's his bag. But I mix everything, I record everything…I try to be as hands on as possible with absolutely everything..

/CW: The Midwest culture, particularly the Milwaukee culture, is to be so hands-on. Everyone wants to be independent, because most don't understand the true art of collaboration yet, we are starting to but we are not there yet. Is that why [you are hands on] or is it that you do understand that art but you still want to be educated on [the production]?

HV: Imma be honest with you, I like collaboration, I like teamwork; Working with other people and seeing them get their satisfaction out of it and seeing their dreams come true as well as mine means more to me than just seeing my own shit…but at the same time being in Milwaukee, we’re the home of the warehouses so yes of course Imma try to do everything that I can, I don't wanna be a one-trick pony, but I don't wanna be a ‘Jack of all trades and a master of none’ either so I am hyper-focused on music..

With WHMG having had rappers like Casanova on their roster, Huey V feels a sense of pride with the weight of his label. His courage is greatly accredited to the wide range of influence from Kanye West to Amy Winehouse. Growing up, his family, in parallel to living in mIlwaukee as a whole, was a melting pot of musical tastes. Along with having a background in orchestra, the young artist has been fortunate to have an open ear and appreciation for sound. He brings up Frank Ocean as an example of how introducing a new way of approaching music to someone with a more biased ear can leave them in awe.

/CW: Did you always want to be signed? Was that the height, or was it similar to going to a 2 year college, ‘I'll do this for a little while, get the resources, learn the business, and then go back to being in my own lane, independently?’ 

HV: It's a mixture of it all. When I was a kid I thought ‘cool maybe i'll get signed,’ the older that I got the more I understood the importance of independence…I swore I was gonna be independent..and then Corona hit.

/CW: You were signed during the Pandemic right?

HV: Yea, actually during that MF…I left for New York on February 7th and I came back the next day and I think Milwaukee either shut down that same month or in March…after that time passed they flew me out to Miami and that's when we made it happen. But when the Pandemic hit I was like ‘dammmmnn’ because all the jobs were shut down, it was either hustling or signing…

/CW: You speak a lot about Divine Timing using subtle words in your music like ‘divine timing, letting God work,’ even the name of your last EP, “As Above,” and your next one, “So Below.” Those are very spiritual statements…

HV: I call it the Matrix, where I've been able to pinpoint that if certain things didn't happen then other things wouldn't have happened the way that they did. In my head everything is prewritten…

/CW: How has that wisdom played a part in how you've grown as a person? In your song “After The Deal” you spoke a lot about having to leave people behind. That survivor's guilt is very real. How did you handle that ego death? Was it a super low moment or was it gradual?

HV: I am used to it. You lose a lot of people. It's easier when they are still around.. It's by your choice and not by life's timing so it's been a bit easier because I understand the value of having to let certain people go to get to where I gotta get to...

/CW: There was a line in your song where you said “I got the deal after the bill collector called..” Was that a true statement?

HV: Ha ha! Aight so what really happened was the bill collector called..Right after the bill collector called was the first time I spoke to Bleek. I didn't even get the heads up that he was finna be callin. When that  happened he told me “lil nigga you on right now, you just gotta prove to me that you can keep doing this.” That was literally the song that I made after that…it really makes you appreciate the value of your life, the highs and the lows..

Tell me how YOU feel about “ After The Deal ” Milwaukee. And check out his previous works while you're at it:  “As Above” … “So Below” coming soon.

/Naomi-Re’a for CW

Ace Parker - 3:17 [Album]

On January 20th, Ace Parker dropped a full length Album titled “3:17” and it really makes me want to tap into that extroverted energy!  By itself it is the perfect playlist for going through the highs and lows of every emotion that comes with the reality of ‘Flexin.’’ The analogy that comes to mind with this theme is the motions that we go through when preparing for a night out; The anticipation that comes with getting dressed, beating your face and pre-gaming with your crew, hair flipping away because you just know that the flex is real and you deserve it, that super litty car ride all the way to the club, and finally that emotional car ride home after you've confessed your heart to your homies and said ‘forget so-and-so’ about 50’leven times is embodied throughout this entire Album. Bangers like ”Sommer” and ”Boogie” are meant for the whip. The high energy beats combined with the charisma of Parker will keep you moving non-stop. The transparent, yet slightly comedic delivery used in “Down Bad” is the last of that ego boost for the listener to absorb before getting gut punched by the tunes that follow. “Sorry I'm late,” and “Anybody” are just a couple of the more somber bunch of songs that close out the Album. Parker shares what's real about the behind the scenes of ‘leveling up.’ It looks like fun and that you are above everyone and everything but the truth is that It's lonely, dark, and leaves room for uncertainty. It's not even clear what the purpose of leveling up really is at times, nonetheless, it's always the right path. In the words of Ace Parker himself “...There’ll be better days..Feel the pain, you're okay, check the time, roll again...” .

Tell me how YOU feel about “3:17” Milwaukee.

/Naomi-Re’a for CW

Sleepy Gary- “It's Your Funeral”

You know that pre-warning that most of us wish we could have received from, or given to, our exes prior to dating them? “It’s Your Funeral” is the ballad that says it all. Last friday,  Sleepy Gary released the sixth drop from his fast approaching 21 song Album, “21 Love Songs,” “Its Your Funeral” is a song that gives its’ audience the perspective of one who has undeniably fallen into the ‘young and dumb’ realm of romance but has the mind to know that they will not be on the receiving end of its downfall, not as harshly or ignorantly anyway. His lyrics start off with the imagery of his significant other resting her head on his shoulder and wishfully thinking about forever as Sleepy Gary has already prepared his own mind and heart to take no blame for the pain that is to follow as consequence for simply not knowing better about life’s uncertainties; Taking the blame for one’s ignorance isn't healthy. Message!! Sleepy Gary stands on that message very firmly here; “Your love don't make me worry, my hearts never beating in a hurry, ‘cause you aint ever gonna hurt me, so it's your funeral..I aint uneasy, I know that you'll never mistreat me, you don’t think you're ever gonna leave me, it's your funeral…” Sheesh…Despite Gary’s seemingly heartless delivery, the truth being shared is that not everyone is fortunate to get it right the first time or mature through life with the same person. Unfortunately for the girl in context, this truth was only present in Sleepy Gary’s mind and so he becomes a witness to his significant other’s fall into a fantasy world all the while knowing that any grand attempt to “protect” her feelings from the real world would be ultimately out of his authority, “Every time i look back I see the roller coaster riding all over the track I wanna be the architect controlling our path, but I don't think it works like that..”. Tell me how YOU feel about “It’s Your Funeral'' Milwaukee.

/Naomi-Re’a for CW

Nic Stokes Presents: “NOBody Knows”- A WorldLife Camp event [POST EVENT WRITE UP]

However, the host of the night won it all! He gave us his portrayal of Chicago's ‘Lil’ Durk’ to a T’, gold locs and all. Everyone else who wasn't with the theatrics decided to simply dress to impress, like 2021 Milwaukee Film Festival winner, independent filmmaker Marquise Mays who gave a smooth Nupe shimmy on the dance floor, or Milwaukee fashion model JuJu Kujjo who dressed up as herself- but ‘made it fashion!’ There wasn't a corner in the room that wasn’t filled with people and the vibes kept going all night; A great mixture of early 2000’s favorites and current summer hits kept us all jammin.’ After having indulged in the vibes of the night long enough, I finally pulled Nic Stokes to the side, into the semi-quietness of the stairwell for a brief interview

CW: …[Lexi] was telling me, “WordLife Camp was a part of our come up...CopyWrite would be nothing without [our] collaborations with [WorldLife Camp]...” Would you tell me what your background with CopyWrite is; what your background is, period- how you got started?

N: Yea, so back in the day, my big brothers from WorldLife Camp built a relationship with CopyWrite. CopyWrite threw a lot of events. I remember one specifically at 88.9 radio, I believe, there was a concert series and they did an event there…

 (“So icy” by Gucci Mane started playing in the background during this interview. . .  Ha, how player is that?)

N: ...I've always been supportive of CopyWrite; it's Black and woman owned, and I'm all about diversity so that was really it for me. I definitely wanted to have them as a part of this event. For my background, I've been doing parties since I was 9 years old. I've been on the radio- my dad is Earl Stokes from 98.3- people may know me as ‘Jammin Nic’, some people just know me as ‘Nic Stokes’, so that's kinda just my background. I went to Atlanta for school, Morehouse, so I got the chance to get a different perspective on partying, curating events and the possibilities that can happen. I tried to bring that back to Milwaukee. 

CW: Is partying something that you simply feel good doing or do you feel that there is a greater purpose for you in bringing people together? What is it about the lane of partying for you that means a lot?

N: Well, I think that the underlying thing about partying is the music. Music brings people together, it takes you back to different times and points in your life where you might have struggled, when you might  have had success, when you were just having a good time... I think it's just a good thing that you can do to bring people together….just partying with your friends and family, you might get a chance to network and meet somebody that may be in your same field or endeavor of work; you might get the chance to cross paths with someone that you might not have before. So that's what I try to do. I try to bring diverse crowds- and not necessarily race but it could be different lanes, it could be somebody that's an artist, somebody that's a journalist, somebody that's a construction worker, somebody that does real estate- so that's why it's important to me to create spaces in Milwaukee where people can do that. 

CW: What I've noticed about certain individuals, or even certain groups who resonate with one doing things their own way tend to be the “black sheep” of their families or of where they come from...do you feel that you are the black sheep of where you come from- socially, creatively, in your background….?

N: I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm the black sheep, I would just say that I just took my own lane, and I see other people doing that same thing… I don't wanna be self-serving and say ‘oh I'm the only person doing this and the only person doing that’, you know what I mean? 

CW: I feel that. As far as the end goal for your impact, is it being a party host, is it doing something more? What is the end goal for your influence of bringing people together and doing things that come naturally to you? Where do you see yourself? 

N: That's something that I would wanna do full time because I enjoy it. That's my passion. I wanna make sure that people are good, people are having a good time, making sure that people have a space where they can be themselves and have a great time, so whether that be parties, concerts or networking at social events, things like that are kinda my lane...not kinda, that is my lane.  

CW: I see that you have newer faces like DJ Gemini Gilly here-

N: She's awesome. 

CW: Yeah, she's great. Do you feel that you have a responsibility to the newer [faces] of creatives in Milwaukee because there are a lot of people who are a part of the older scene of Milwaukee- the influencers, the people who were the go-getters, the initiators, the parties, the bashes, the concerts, the shows. . . Do you feel that you have a responsibility to the up-and-coming [creatives], the youth? 

N: I think that you definitely- 

(Speaking of Big Gilly, “Ski” by Gunna and Young Thug cuts on and Stokes can't help but to feel it)

N: ... Awww this is my song, I'm sorry…. 

(He puts on his MC voice and speaks into the mic, still by the stairwell, unseen but still heard)

N: ... Yeah, yeah, yeah! I need yall to hit that dance! Yeah! Yeah! . . . My bad.

CW: It's all good. That was awesome!

N: I've known DJ Gemini Gilly for a long time. We went to ‘King together and when she first got on her D.J. journey I was like ‘yo, I gotta support you. You're Black. You're a woman. You’re independent. You're strong. You're trying to get out here. I have to support you because you have a passion.’ I think that anybody that has a passion for something, anybody that's really honest and really wanting to express themselves and reach their goals and go after their passions, I think the whole city- I think that everybody should support them. It was only right that I had her come here to D.J. tonight.

CW: I appreciate that..the way you just say that, Black man supporting Black woman, Black woman supporting Black men and Black people just supporting each other, genuinely.

N: As a Black man, you gotta support the queens. . . Got to. I just feel like I have that responsibility because I have a Black mom, I have Black sisters, I have a Black niece, you know what I mean? It's only right.

CW: We appreciate that, so thank you. . . It's poppin tonight. It's lit!

You should have been there, but we are sure there will be more. 

/Naomi-Re’a for CW

2Hi - White Lighter Bad Luck [ALBUM]

After a few years of loosies and EP’s, the dropping of his first full length project “2 Birds” last year, and being left with the bread crumb that was “Round and Round” back in August just for this moment here, local artist 2Hi continues the narrative of his rockstar lifestyle with the drop of his second Album, “White Lighter Bad Luck.”  Lyrically accompanied by the acclaimed NilexNile, otherwise known as Nile, Lake, and executive productions by No B, this melodic psychedelia is the melancholic voice of all who have found contentment with numbness, however, having subconscious undertones of self awareness and emotional longing; this all blends in to one truth while under great influence.. The intro track “Ghost” leads us straight to 2Hi’s inner conflict; there is an assertiveness here that may pass for aggression, or vice versa, in lyrics like “..And I'm in the back of the room high off the shrooms sitting, just think to myself, I am an artist who starvin’, no I can't bargain, I gotta double my wealth..lil bitch im cool, I don't need help, all of this work under my belt- I gotta do it all myself, I gotta do it all myself..” and the words “I gotta work on myself, I gotta work on myself..'' are heard faintly a lines afterwards, signaling the slip into 2Hi’s subconscious, his real thoughts, “..I'm an animal, I can't live with myself, only hurts if you take it out and you put my heart on the shelf, I just need your help…”

WLBL led with this tone for another 5 tracks and then about halfway into the album, we are temporarily given an energetic boost with “Switch Lanes”- how very telling of the motivation that many try to find after crash landing back on Earth into their own reality. This is made for the ‘fast and the furious’ (don't do it, drive safely), when you feel like a flexer, bump this!!….Annnnnd right back into the feels. Old habits die hard and some norms can't seem to be shaken in “Tattoos.” 2Hi comes a bit cleaner about his vices, even more so about the norms of his life experiences that trigger those vices; “ I got tattoos on my soul, I woke up lost on the road, I know that I'm on my own, mountains to me look like stones- I take these drugs to fly home...I seen it all just unfold, I seen this shit happen before…” Very easily, the methods taken on for masking continuous pain are cause for being misunderstood by those on the outside looking in because of one’s own miseducation on how to cope properly, leaving room to be branded (“tattooed”) as everything that we do not intend to really be. Tell me how YOU feel about “ White Lighter Bad Luck,” Milwaukee.

/Naomi-Re’a for CW

HymnWho -Retroactive Phenomenon [ALBUM]

HymnWho “Retroactive Phenomenon” ALBUM  

Like the beautiful dynamic of the iconic blend of Hip-Hop and R&B on a track, the marriage of the poetic, conviction filled, or otherwise, nonchalant vocal tones of a rapper and the hard hitting orchestrated chaos of rock instrumentation is a delicacy. HymnWho has dropped a sonically pleasing gem with the presentation of “Retroactive Phenomenon.” The allure of this album from songs like “Revival,” “Niggas and Nikolai,” and “Saviour,” was in the production; very 80’s with the slowness and off-kilter pounding of the beat, having a faster paced rhythym happen in some moments, still with a high capacity of instrumentation, HymnWho’s vocals were hauntingly gliding over the music with a melodic, Darkwave tone and the modern, melancholic  lyrical content that is found in today’s rap. In “Shoebox,” he gave us more of a trap flow but the production was still very consistent with the Darkwave sound. However, we do get some rap nostalgia as well. “Wishes” not only gives us more room to focus on the bars and their transparency, but the boom-bap is more so evident in this production. Tell me how YOU feel about “Retroactive Phenomenon,” Milwaukee.

/Naomi-Re’a for CW

Genesis Renji EP “E.D.E.N. -East of the Garden” Event [Write Up]

What is a more appropriate way to indulge in Autumn, the season of harvest and reaping, then to go to a garden? Being met with a pink rose pedaled trail to start (in addition to the detailed instructions left on instagram by Genesis himself incase folks got lost, heehee), I made my way up to the third floor of The Hide House Warehouse and into the lovely business studio of C&B Creative.Co.  where Genesis Renji would exclusively perform his latest EP- E.D.E.N. during his “East of the Garden” showcase. Opening the door was like stepping into a late night lounge; the lights were dimmed for the mood with just enough lighting placed all around the room. The DJ of the night, FreakishNerd’s booth was set up in the front left corner with the main mic centered in the front of the room, completely wrapped up in a vine of leaves. There were plants appropriately set in every corner. Just before the opening artist Tai Mystique’s vocals took the stage and snatched edges with (and without...I think..) our permission, I was able to get 15 min. with a seemingly nervous, yet “musical genius,” as said by a super supporter in the audience, Genesis Renji.

N: First of all, Congrats on the new drop.. I don't think I was there for the last- did you have a release party for your last album or you just dropped it?

G: For the Keefe one..?

N: ...For S.I.N.S...

G: Yea, S.I.N.S., we did at Company Brewing and that was like 2018.. 

N: That seems like it was so long ago..

G: It was..last year was long go, ha ha..some of us made the moves we needed, and some didn't..we're all still here, that's all I care about.

N: ..I thought that it was interesting that you continued that biblical connection between your life and how you chose to translate it. Why was that the choice that you made? What does the Bible mean for you in your personal life-why do you feel like that was the best way to communicate your emotions?

G: I was brought up in the church..when I was born, I was raised Muslim for a little bit; my last name by birth is Arabic, and then when we moved to Milwaukee from Maryland we were with my Grandmother and we always went to her church- a Lutheran church....Ive always been a fan of, not necessarily religion, but theology in its self and Ive always adapted that and put that into my life. I'm the first born of my name, the oldest of me and my three brothers so that's where ‘Genesis’ comes from..growing up in my church, I ended up working in my church; I've been a youth minister, I was forced to become a deacon by church vote, so I've been in there, I'm a fan of it, I love the knowledge and the wisdom that's in there as well as the stories of faith, so I try to take the thing that I like, but hate the way that it's being used against people, and try to make it something else that you can enjoy and love.  

N: Have you had any familial backlash because of it? Because you know a lot of people are quite sensitive about how people choose to translate their beliefs..

G: Im me, as terrible as that sounds or however people are gonna take it, Im me..so with it being me, if you know me or you meet me- get to learn me, you know that anything I do isn’t of ill intent and if I come across as ignorant or im using it in an illegitimate way, I'll take accountability for it and apologize but I've also been in that space long enough to know what I'm doing within that space and outside of that space and still be respectful with it.

N: I think that is a cool approach because, for myself, especially with this pandemic allowing me the time to figure out ‘okay what do I actually believe in or how do I express my belief in it,’ and I realized how much spiritual capacity I have to then not claim just one because I see [God] in everything..

G: It's major. I don't claim to be Christian, I relate to Christianity a lot because that's what I was brought up in and it's embedded in me so deeply, but I also see, like you said, the pieces that overlap. I see where Islam overlaps with Christianity and overlaps with Buddhism or overlaps with whatever other beliefs you may have or dont have. I mean, regardless of what people say, you look at Satanism itself...the Seven Tenets that they follow are pretty good tenets that you wanna follow; dont rape people, dont murder people, respect other people and what they want to do..

N: It's more of a moral thing..

G: Yea, there are overlaps to the things that we don't know, don't understand or may not like, but you're always gonna find a common piece in one of those things and I feel like when you start seeing those common pieces in it, that's really what that universal truth is, so that's what I try to lean towards more when I’m diggin through things- ‘what's the one thing that's tying everything together?’ And that's more than likely the thing that we all need to know and be a part of.

N: Right, I get that..with the album name E.D.E.N., Eventually Dreams End in Nightmares- that sounds pretty pessimistic, ha ha..

G: It does.

N: So why..?

G: So even when you look at the cover, right?- So my last three releases, this one included, have been my most personal bodies of work, so S.I.N.S. was like ‘I'm about to start telling y'all about my romantic life. Yall know Genesis ‘the rapper,’ let's learn Genesis the person. So here's all the stories I've never shared about all these different women that I may have liked or may have been involved with, whatever, whatever, then Keefe is, ‘here's the black boy who grew up in the hood but wasn't from the hood,’ and what that sounds like, what that looks like, and being the voice for all the other black boys who didn't know how to say what they felt. So E.D.E.N. is picking up from the love shit..it's like, alright, this is what happens when we were dealing with a bunch of women, E.D.E.N. is the result of being with one woman, so with that comes, ‘alright, I gave so much of what I wanted to one person and it didn't work out so maybe the dream that I was being sold isn't the dream that I want. Maybe I was better off out here in the garden, that's why when you see the covers-on the cover of S.I.N.S. I'm sharing the apple..and it's like Adam and Eve, we’re bonding over this thing but then on the cover of E.D.E.N. I'm by myself, I'm looking through these apples-if you look, I've bitten through a pile of apples- none of them have that same appeal as that first apple so it's like, ‘what are we doing here, what's the point in searching anymore..?’

N: So if you wanna say, the dream isn't necessarily the dream but the ideal of what that dream could've been or what you wanted it to be- the burst of that bubble..

G: The potential that we all get caught up in, it's like damn, alright..that wasn't what I thought, maybe it doesn't need to be a thing.

N: So in a general sense, when you talk about dreams, in this context youre talking about love, but you know, people can say that “dream” means all types of things, so if someone wanted to take that same title and apply it to anything that they have a dream about, how should they be taking it?

G: So I'm a big fan of spiritualism, of course, I take dreams as messages for me. I dont ignore my dreams, so when I meet people who say ‘I don't dream, I just sleep,’ I'm like, that's scary because you're out here just wingin’ life. That's wild to me. Dreams are how I get answers to prayers, that's where we get to break shit down and figure everything out; that's where the subconscious gets the work. For me, it's like, at the end of this dream, Imma get something. Imma get some type of response- it’s either gonna be the response that I wanted or it’s gonna be a response that I wasn’t looking for and usually we’re scared either way because if it’s not what you want then you’re like, fuck! Now you scared of the thing that you didn't want or that thing that you knew it could've been, and you just didn’t wanna deal with it, but then usually you also are scared of the things that you do want because it's like-

N: ‘..I can have it??’

G: -Yea and then its like, fuck, you get so wrapped up in, because its possible, ‘am I gone fuck it up still? Or when I get it, do I deserve it, or am I gonna be able to live up to it?’ Or on the flip side, and this is something that I've been dealing with, do I really want what I said I wanted?...so the dreams can eventually end in nightmares because you still gotta wake up, you still gotta deal with the shit and that can be scary.

N: Do you believe that because that ideal was false in the first place that it was bound to fail or do you believe that you manifested that failure in that moment of disregard for yourself? 

G: Seeee..it depends on the person, right? Adam and Eve didn’t manifest their failure. That wasn't their intention, but they eventually stumbled into it. Eden in itself was a dream but that ended because of curiosity...it was just damn, ‘here's something that we haven't done, I think we should try it..; you can apply that to life too so I'm also a firm believer of ‘what's meant to be, I'm gonna make it happen and if it doesn't happen it's because I didn't do what needed to be done to make that happen or I didn't will that to happen, so you can manifest it or you also can't manifest it. Depends on your perspective. 

N: As far as ‘The Garden’ in itself, what is the entirety of that for you?

G: That's just how I see the world, honestly. Like even with my 2016 album, I Might Be Home, I reference Milwaukee as ‘The Garden,’ the song is called “In the Garden,” and in the chorus, I found my way out of the garden, that’s me being in the city, I was forced to be here as a child and then eventually I leave, and me leaving th city that I, 1., wasnt born in, but then, 2., I also didnt know how to manuever in and grow up in, leaving it gave me that breathe and that relaease but also gave me the courage to come back and deal with things, so the garden for me is Milwaukee but the garden can be anything that youre in the middle of and you don’t see anything outside of it, because thats what Eden is-Eden was a point and a place, and for Adam and Eve, there was nothing else outside of that, but then when they found what was outside of that it was like, fuck, I kinda wanna go back there..

N: Can you go back? It's not gonna be the same when you go back, but what does that mean, going back?

G: Is it really worth going back? because you know it's not gone be the same, so you got two choices- you can either, A., turn around and look for this garden that  may or may not be there, or B., you can, as they say in the Bible, “toil the earth for the rest of your days,” and you can create whatever that next garden is for you or try your best to.

N: I’m interested to see how you emote this- this is a really intimate setting here, did you do that on purpose?

G: Yes. I didn't wanna do this at a big venue, I really want to be able to look at everybody..I'm nervous honestly, ha ha ha..

N: I can tell..

G: this is the most vulnerable music i've ever made...so yea...and it was so much shit happening leading up to this- a week of promotion-that's already an issue for me, ya’ll know how we move..but it was like, aye, lets just drop it and see what happens,- and this is the most singing I've ever done-

N: that was gonna be my last, last question because I listened to it and I noticed that you didn't do a lot of standard, nonchalant vocals on this, you had a lot of melodies, so is that tied to how you emote [musically] in general; do you feel more flexible when you're feeling out your emotions?

G: The challenge for me- so last year I was traveling after my break up that inspired the project. I just traveled; that's what I do already, cool, now I can just do it a little bit more, get some me time. During that time of traveling, my main focus was becoming a better songwriter- I'm a good rapper, cool, I make ‘alright’ music, I think, but I need to make better music and make sure the people wanna hear it over and over again, and that came with knowing [that] people want melodies. Being a good rapper is cool but at the end of the day that doesn't sell records; I’m in this shit to be one of the biggest, honestly, so i'm writing 2-5 songs a day, every day for six months straight and in the process, the vocals got stronger, the writing got better, shit got more melodic and it's like, okay cool, singing is something that we need to implement a little bit more to make this work and this is what you get.

N: Alright well, I can't wait to see it live.

G: It's gonna be fire, I appreciate yall. 

/Naomi-Re’a for CW

Bayview’s Fall Festival “Beet Street” [Write Up]

This year, Cactus Club was bold, bold and decided that not only was the Pandemic not going to stop them from bringing a crowd of people together (masks suggested of course), but they were going to be hosting the 5th annual Bayview Fall Festival “Beet Street”, along with Palomino Bar and Goodkind. The people showed up and filled the entire sidewalk onto Wentworth Ave., vendors and customers alike. I took a stroll straight into Cactus Club to see what form of festivities were happening in the back performance area, having to inch my way past the bar amidst a sea of people. I entered the backroom door and the first thing that I saw was the spectacle that is Felix Ramsey’s video for his 2020 hit “So High” playing on the big screen with an atypical front row audience..! Maneuvering my way back out onto the street, I stopped at many of the vendors’ tables; wherever there was a tent, I went; the ground was so covered in yellow and orange leaves, it was like a scene from ‘CoCo’ and for a second I was Miguel. We literally skipped Autumn last year, yall!