RESPECT. Interview: BreezePark talks Kanye, Hip-Hop Culture, & 2017 Project

Earlier this year, BreezePark caught our attention with their single “Paradise” after landing on the radar of some of the hottest names in music such as Pharrell and Pusha T, which also happen to be from their hometown of Virginia. Things are just getting started for the group – consisting of Rye, Cameron Parker, PLAY, and Ty Safari, who was busy grinding elsewhere during the interview. They’re shaking up the new generation of hip-hop culture with their unique sound that is vibey and combines poetic rhymes with a mix of rapping and singing. BP is determined to speak the truth in their music, because with influences from Kanye (who they think is a “God”), they’re bound to do so. With their growing follower base on Soundcloud in addition to their new project that’s expected to drop sometime in 2017, they’re definitely a group to familiarize yourself with, if you haven’t already.

RESPECT.: What’s the backstory behind your name “Breezepark?”

PLAY: The neighborhood that I was living in was called Breeze Port Way. Me and Cam [Cameron Parker] were just thinking of group names. We didn’t really know what we wanted to name it and just wanted to incorporate Breeze because that’s where the name came from whenever we all started rapping together in that neighborhood. Breezepark just kind of stuck with us. It had a ring to it.

RESPECT.: Are you guys currently working on anything right now?

Rye: Right now we’re kind of working on a project, you know, in the beginning stages and its something we plan on putting out in 2017.

RESPECT.: Who would you guys wanna work with in the future?

Rye: I couldn’t even hear anybody with us for real. At this point it’s kind of hard to think of because we’re still trying to build ourselves. Cameron: Based on the people we like though Chance would be cool. Timbaland or Pharrell would be fire too. There’s a lot of Virginia influence that we’d like to work with. Kehlani would be awesome too; We’re a group of men and we’re gonna buy her album.

RESPECT.: What kind of music are you guys currently listening to?

Cameron: We listen to everything for real. It just depends on the mood I guess, or if we’re in the studio what kind of records we’re tying to make or whatever vibe everyone is feeling. We was literally just listening to Kehlani and before that we were listening to Blackbear. He’s one of the best writers out there.

RESPECT.:What do you guys think of the whole political situation that we have going on right now?

**entire group starts hysterically laughing** Cameron: We gon’ be alright. We’re gonna have to get through it. At the end of the day, just based on how our group is set up, the people outside of us just don’t understand what everything is really about. This is also just another thing that is gonna keep us behind the music because its one of the last platforms we have to keep people together, so our group is a prime example of the unity. We’re just gonna keep pressing it and contributing everywhere we possibly can.

RESPECT.: What are your guys’ thoughts on the current state of the game right now?

Cameron: It’s one of those things where it’s almost like we’re caught in the middle as artists because we can understand why the older artists have their concerns and issues with certain things but also us being young and doing the music ourselves and creating we can understand the place in which the younger artists are coming from above. Rye: We grew up on all of the old stuff and kind of different than all of the artists that are coming up now. Like we grew up on all of the older stuff and everything but we also grew up in this generation so we have the best of both worlds. So we can still try to be super lyrical at certain times but we also have the ability to do stuff that you’ve never heard before. Cameron: With us, we just feel like there’s a lot more light to be shed on people that are really speaking on real things and real topics because at the end of the day, we see where everything is going in terms of all of the main light focusing on the on a lot of the negativity the violence, you know, just the super chaotic rap. I like where it is because it’s more on the younger generation to make up what it is and to change it. It’s all about us at this point, it’s not about them.

RESPECT.: What do you guys think of Kanye West? Is he like a musical mastermind or Dennis the Menace of the industry?

Rye: Low-key both… He is a Dennis the Menace but he’s cool because he is a God. We’re praying for the man though and we hope he makes it through recovery because he is a huge idol of ours.

RESPECT.: Do you guys have any future projects in the works?

Cameron: We have one in 2017 and definitely will release a lot more in due time leading up to our project. PLAY: Also, I mean, as in future projects, we speak to a lot of producers around here [Virginia] and I wouldn’t say its definitely gonna happen, but there are some possible small collaborations and maybe small EP’s with other producers. When we went to LA awhile back, we recorded a lot of tracks out there, so we plan on releasing those before our 2017 project.

Stream their most recent single, “Paradise”