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Lyrical PMS

Redhead from PG County

Redhead is an MC hailing from PG County Maryland. Originally not taking rap seriously, a chance encounter with an A&R from MCA Records (now defunct) got the wheels churning in his head. Maybe he could actually do this. But first things first —college. The recent Howard University grad chatted with me on AIM and talked about his style, his name, The Washington DC Metro Area in relation to hip-hop, and how he made history.


Starr: You didn’t take Hip-Hop seriously until an occurrence with and A&R at the now-defunct MCA records. What happened that was so influential to you trying to rap for real?
 
Redhead: The situation with MCA was that I was performing at an open mic spot in DC and they approached me about it. They asked the typical stuff like "Did you really write that?" and all that mess. I was 17 just starting college at the time. I turned them down because I refused to be one of those heads that are doing records and don't have a decent education. Plus my mother would kick my ass. Now I'm wiser, more cautious, with a Bachelors degree from a top college in the nation. I have nothing to lose.
 
S: You went to Howard right?

R: Definitely

S: a lot of good people graduate from there but speaking of your mom (kicking your ass and all)...Your background is caribbean but you live in the DC area. Did all of those cultures influence you musically? How so?

R: It wasn't that much of a difference. My mother is from Jamaica and my father is from Grenada, so they would definitely speak in their heavy accents and play reggae and soca. In DC, they have Go-Go music, which stylistically is similar due to the drums and constant bouncing rhythm. It definitely shed new perspective on how to approach things musically.

S: It's funny u mentioned that. I was going to ask you about Go-Go. Are you a fan?
 
R: More or less [laughs]...there's some that I mess with, and others not so much. "Overnight Scenario" by Rare Essence is a classic. I'm so glad that it's getting recognition outside of the city nowadays.

S: Being that different types of musical sub-cultures like say Reggaeton, Dancehall, Hip-Hop, etc eventually seem to get exploited and played out, do you think there’s a possibility that this could happen with Go-Go and the “beating your feet” dance that goes along with it?

R: Absolutely. When people like something and consider it a trend, it's going to get played out. As soon as you see a bunch of suburban kids beating their feet in a Gap commercial, it's a wrap. But knowing how DC is, I wouldn't be surprised if something brand new was to get created the following week. After all, half the dances coming out now look like beating your feet. Have you seen "walk it out?”
S: Lol, yea!  One thing about hip-hop that we can't escape is that it's regionalized. Where does the DC-Metro area fit in considering that although it's east coast, it's not exactly north, but not exactly south either?
 
R: That's the problem with the city. Because of those facts, I think there's people in the city that don't know what they are yet. At one point, I remember when people there swore that they were from New York. They were wearing fitteds with The North Face jackets and such, and today they're talking about they living in "the trap.” I feel that in order to even think about putting the city on the map, it has to have a style that represents itself effectively and distinctively. We already have Go-Go, but that's another genre. Hip-Hop is something else that needs to be taken into consideration for the city, as well as the corresponding areas like PG County, Montgomery County, and places in Virginia. It's all about distinction for good representation.

S: Who are some of your musical influences (across any genre)?

R: My favorite group has to be A Tribe Called Quest. Those dudes are legends and deserve a lot more recognition then they get. I’m also a fan of Nas and stuff from Big L. Artistically I really like Raphael Saadiq and alternative bands like Soundgarden and The Verve (especially "Bittersweet Sympony"). I listen to a lot of things, especially 80's pop from Prince and Modern English. It keeps me on my toes.

S: Has anyone ever compared you to Slick Rick? Not that you have a British accent (of coarse), but there’s something about the way you rhyme and tell a story that is sort of reminiscent to his style.
 
R: Actually, I have. Slick Rick has lots of style to him, and sometimes the accent of my parents and my DC-Metro accent kind of mesh together, so it gives a certain sound like I'm "British.” I definitely take that comparison well.

S: Cool. About your name…is your hair really red? It didn’t look like it in the pics I saw.

R: [Laughs]. Truth be told, "Redhead" has nothing to do with hair. My government name is Stephen Redhead. I decided to go by my last name because I thought that would have people pay more attention being that I'm the opposite of what one might expect. My hair is black as well as my race, [laughs].

S: Ah…makes sense. Your bio said you got blessings from Oprah Winfrey. Did she speak at your graduation from Howard or did you really meet her one-on-one?
 
R: She spoke at my graduation. I tried to talk to her personally but security was definitely on their job. One thing that I remember that she said during her speech is that all that we (the students) have to know is who we are, and that failure doesn't exist because there are several routes to success. I thought it was so fly that I sampled it in a song.

S: There was a track from your first independent EP that ended up on a mixetape called “The Next Big Thing” and was distributed throughout out the general areas of Atlanta and Texas, and you got props from Magnificent of Swisha House. How did that happen?

R: Basically when I was joking around, I had a track called "4 Da Broke & Sexy.” It was a joking type of party song. I wasn't really used to doing party records yet, but I had the track and I sent it to a friend of mine from Texas and he pressed it himself and shipped it around. Magnificent is a person that I knew for a long time. I even battled him twice. He's very talented. He's like the Big L of the South. We even did a mixtape style track before he got with Swisha House over an Alicia Keys track. I think he put it on his demo.
 
S: You made history. Please elaborate on what happened.

R: One day, my friend Opiyo Okeyo and myself decided to do a video for me. It was for a track called "I Like.” The video came out very well and it was getting a lot of attention on the Howard campus as well as the Internet and across the world. Over time, I contacted my friend in Australia. He loved the record and hustled his way into getting the song on the radio over there, which is a difficult thing to get an unsigned American to try. It turns out that he got it played on Australia Day, their biggest holiday. Now I'm the first unsigned American to get played in Australia, and on their "Independence Day" no less.
 
S: Do you see any gigs coming up in Australia soon? What about touring?
 
R: I'd love to go out there soon. They definitely have a good grasp on what hip-hop is like. They're not up on “Ay Bay Bay” yet. They're still interesting in the mid-90's era style of it. I want to tour soon, but right now I'm working on a project with my dude Versityle from Songbook Ent (Trey Songz's production company). We plan to make it with a really unique sound to attract new & old fans.
 
S: Is it going to be an LP?
 
R: I'm not particularly sure. Either an EP or LP. I definitely want it to be a full project. The majority would be done by Versityle. So far, the sound is very eclectic, yet it’s catchy. There's a lot of musical influence to it. I just hope that people would enjoy it as much as we do creating it.

S: Why should people fuck with Redhead?
R: Because Redhead is just like you. Redhead is like every guy on the block. He's not a thug but he knows about street things. He looks out for his people as well as himself. He's doing it because he loves what he does and is all about individuality. You won't see coonery coming out of that guy — none of that Pretty Ricky stuff. He's a fan first before anything else — a guy for the people.
 
S: Any last words?

R: Big shout out to Versityle, HipHopDX.com, HU, and R.I.P. to Kwasi "Misfit" Jones.
 
myspace.com/redheadpg

 

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