Lee Mazin. Photo Credit: Lee Mazin/Instagram

I like Lee Mazin. After reading a recent feature in Philadelphia Weekly, I gathered even more respect for the South Philadelphia native.

Why?

Well, she represents a lot of millenials and generation xers who went to college and/or graduated college during the recession and had to created a career in something other than their major.

According to Philadelphia weekly, Mazin, a Delaware State University gradute was looking for a job in psychology, her major throughout college. Instead, she quickly wound up a much-looked-to and inspiring rapper and public figure, cutting danceable tracks such as “Back It Up,” which wound up as part of Power 99’s summer rotation, as well as deeply personal songs such as “Walk In.”

As per A.D. Amorosi of Philadelphia Weekly:

All that, and still, 2017 is Lee’s busiest year yet. Starting with the release of a new EP last week (Tens and Fives), a full album project due out in May (The Level UP) and a tour of area high schools this week that finds the rapper-singer-producer bouncing between two afternoon concerts per day in the name of female empowerment and fresh Mazin music, time is money for Mazin.

Disassociating herself from Mill didn’t happen on unfriendly terms. It was simply time for a change for Mazin. “I thought it was better to go on my own because I was an independent artist even when I was affiliated with Dreamchasers,” she says. “I was moving the very same way before I signed to them, so, I just decided to cut the ties. I still consider Meek to be good people, and still cut music with him, but I really just wanted to be independent.”

Ah, the independent grind! I respect it. 

Doing music independently and appearing on Oxygen Network’s Sisterhood of Hip Hop was genuinely a great look for Lee Mazin.

On a recent episode of Scoop B Radio Overtime, Lee Mazin told me just how beneficial that show was. “It’s just raw and real like that’s the simplest way that I can put it,” Lee Mazin told me on Scoop B Radio. “You really get to tap into our lives like not just the personal, but you get to see the studio sessions you see the struggles in the studio you see what we going through building a team, moving independently feeling like you’re not getting a certain amount of support from certain people.”

Check out Lee Mazin and Audra The Rapper’s Chat with Scoop B Radio’s Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson:

Lee Mazin added:

“You also get to see the things that we are accomplishing the support from one another like the things we’re going through you know five different female artists you put us in one room and it may be something but at the end of the day we still have the support from each other and you get to see all of that. We’re giving you the real insight on our journeys.” 

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The post Lee Mazin tells Scoop B Radio on Sisterhood of Hip Hop: “We still have the support from each other” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Virginia’s own, Audra The Rapper. Photo Courtesy of Instagram

Audra The Rapper is pretty dope. Her style is dope because of its variational influences. To steal Shirley Ceasar’s line: YOU NAME IT!

Although hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Audra was big on Jim Jones, Cam’ron, Juelz Santana, Hell Rell and Freekey Zekey of Harlem’s Own; the Diplomats. Additionally, she was a fan of the producer/lyricist product that is Kanye West and of Floetry.

Audra is also big on Lauryn Hill and in many interviews indicated that she was one of her biggest inspirations. 

That would make perfect sense! Back in 2010, she dropped Miseducation of Audra, an ode to Ms. Fugees, herself, Lauryn Hill.

She also tributed her on Instagram the other day:

Hey guys. I have this healthy obsession with this damn-near deity by the name of Ms. Lauryn Hill. So much so that my second project i released in my teens was an homage to her debut album. Well guys, She is going on tour with Nas and I havent had normal thoughts since hearing this. My first time seeing LBoogie was with Nas in college and I dropped $400 to get VIP tickets for them to try to cancel her set. @romarley came to my rescue that time tho. Well all of that to sayyy. I just got overly excited about being a fan and all those feelings that made me want to become a performer just made them self known full force. Hype for this. Good day

A post shared by Farrah Saucett (@audratherapper) on Jun 3, 2017 at 12:01pm PDT

Audra The Rapper’s wikipedia page says it best: unlike a lot of rappers, whose rap style have easily been categorized as Trap, Hardcore or Conscious, Audra The Rapper has partnered her lyrics with a variety of sounds, reflecting various styles and has described her style is “Ratchet Soul.” That said, she is literally an Escalade with Lamborghini doors; that’s balance!  delivery embraces a myriad of styles.

In a recent interview via Scoop B Radio Audra let it be know how much a student of the game she is and was. “I came up watching Behind The Music; you know what I’m saying,” she said on Scoop B Radio.

Check Out Audra The Rapper and Lee Mazin Chatting With Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson On Scoop B Radio:

She added:

“Like really getting an in-depth lifestyle look of the artists that I admired and sometimes it gave me a new appreciation for the artist and then it had me going back and listening to their music like I get that a little better. I’d see stuff differently, I’d hear stuff differently and I’d like it and I think what this show is doing is really giving you an in-depth look at five females in truthfully a male dominated industry but not even minding any of that. We not looking at ourselves as female rappers I personally hate that this is rap this is what we do this is all we know and we’re giving that to people so people are getting that real lifestyle look at this and how we handle our business.”

But Lauryn Hill wasn’t the only influence of Audra The Rapper’s. When I asked Audra how the Oxygen network television show, Sisterhood of Hip Hop, benefitted her career, she couldn’t help but credit the likes of Missy Elliott.“We’re supporting each other,” she said. “That’s reminiscent of the era of hip hop that I love; you know Missy and all of them.”

Then she took it back to it being Friday Night!

“Missy would have every female on her album,” Audra The Rapper said with a grin. “You know what I’m saying?”

If you’re not a child of 90s, it was a Missy track that also featured Angie Martinez during her rapping days, along with Lil Kim, the late Left Eye from TLC and So So Def’s Da Brat.

“Just that support that era of competition because it’s what we do. We’re in the same field we love it all the same, but we don’t have to knock each other. We don’t have to step on each other, because we all individually bring something different to the same game so why do I gotta hate on my sister? You know what I’m saying?”

Audra The Rapper has a voice to be the female leader of the new school! Stay tuned! 

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The post Audra The Rapper Tells Scoop B Radio About Missy Elliott’s Ladies Night: “Missy would have every female on her album” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

A3C is quickly becoming one of rap’s most invigorating and important music festivals. We have never covered A3c, but we have been told of its importance by industry insiders as well as rappers themselves. This year we still were unable to send someone to cover it in its entirety – events, conversations, complications, consequences – but we were able to get a photographer to capture some of the majest of the event.

There are no crowd shots in these photos, but the ubiquitous sweat on the artists’ brows is telling. All photos are by Robin Johnson. You can see more of her photography here. Enjoy.

Ghostface Killah

WILL

Too Short

DJ Paul

Charli Baltimore

Crunchy Black

Crxcxdile

Da Mafia Six

Big Sant

Audra the Rapper

ANTHM

Talib Kweli

Too Short

Skyzoo

Siwel Neicul

Schoolboy Q

Ryan Collins

Ro Akin

Pharoahe Monch

Pharoahe Monch

REi The Imperial

The post Photo Recap: A3C appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.