The post #RESPECT: President Obama Makes Historic Decision to Fight Gun Control appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Cyrcle, a group of artists,  use the contrast between weapons and colorful prints to convey powerful messages about violence. The oxymorone “Beautiful Disaster,” sets the tone of the groups political beliefs. This series is a continuation of their “Cut It Out” Campaign, with a concept so simple, yet so powerful. With the rights to gun ownership constantly in the center of political debates, these boys found a peaceful way to convey their ideologies.

“Beautiful Disaster” CYRCLE. @ The Roxy from theonepointeight on Vimeo.

See more videos and works by Cyrcle on their blog.

You can get a poster of their work: here.

The post Street Art: Cyrcle Beautiful Disaster Cut Outs appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

interview by @petermarrack

The guileful folk at MMG must advise their artists to handle their own press, as I was clearly as expendable as Amber Rose on the Master of the Mix panel during my interview with MMG crooner Masspike Miles. The R&B ‘hooksmith’ is poised to drop his Say Hello To Forever project on January 10th, and has been in the studio every day leading up to the Holidays mixing the album. “It’s bound to sell 200,000 copies in the first week,” quoted Miles, or something along those lines. Quite frankly, the dude presented so many signs (hypomania, acute delusions, elevated vocal pitch, smoker’s cough) of existing within Ricky Rozay’s self-made creative vacuum, that I couldn’t say for sure, and surely not under oath, what he did or did not say. All I know is that Miles and the MMG crew are making their rounds of Toronto later this week, and I’m going to do my absolute best to reach out and show my support. Hell, any company, organization, or label which can arouse that much spirit in one of their employees is clearly doing more than a couple things right.

Read the complete interview after the jump.

Happy Holidays, man. Been doing any Christmas shopping?

I’ve just been in the studio mixing. My son gets in town on Thursday, so I’ll be doing some shopping when I get to Toronto. We’re supposed to get to Toronto on Thursday.

Toronto? I didn’t know you were coming.

Yeah, we’ll be out in Toronto on Thursday.

Does your son usually spend Christmas with you?

Yeah, he usually spends the Holidays with me. Since I moved to Atlanta that time is even more valuable now, more than ever. He’s not down the street anymore.

You getting him anything special for Christmas, not to ruin the surprise or anything? [laughs]

Naw, I’m going to keep it real. I ain’t the surprise type of dad. I pretty much get him what he asks for. He puts a list together. I say, “Alright, put a list together, little man, let me know what’s new.” I have no clue what’s new and what’s not, as far as the kids go.

How old is he?

He’s 11.

What’s hot for the 11 year olds this year?

Man, he asked me for a bunch of DS toys and crazy-sounding boardgames. He’s pretty simple. He could easily ask for an iPad or something crazy, but he doesn’t. He just wants little DS games and different things of that nature.

You said you were mixing a project…

I’m mixing my project Say Hello To Forever, dropping January 10th. I’m putting the final touches on that before I send it to mastering, before the end of the year’s up.

How’s it looking? Happy with everything?

Oh, yeah, it’s looking awesome. I’m actually taking a different route on this one. I’m gearing my music toward the females on this one. That’s why I’m calling it Say Hello To Forever, more of a sentimental kind of vibe on there, lovemaking, storytelling, and having conceptual fuck records, so to speak. [laughs]

[laughs] Those never go out of style.

Naw, you already know. That’s why I’m calling it Say Hello To Forever. I’m introducing to the table something that’s been instilled in me since I was a young boy. A lot of people really aren’t in tune with what Masspike has to offer. With the release of The Road Less Travelled, I see that people don’t have a problem with the project and the songs that I decided to run with. I played with different genres of music, and they were really receptive of everything, so I figured let me get everything on point and start talking to these females.

Who was helping you out with the project?

As far as production, or…

Ah, production, or obviously some of the MMG guys came through, right?

I got Ricky Rozay back into it, Gucci Pucci of course. As far as production goes, I’m dealing with a slew of young new artists, young new producers like DJ Pain, Cardiak.

I know Cardiak.

Yeah, Cardiak’s a problem. I’m dealing with producers like that, and really making my project a well-rounded project. I’m not sticking to one style of music, I’m pretty much dibbling and dabbling into different sounds. Nothing sounds similar, but it still has a great vibe and meshes well.

Will you play any of the new records in Toronto?

I don’t think so. I think I’ll fall back and make sure Elliott Wilson gets it first, you know, before I let anything else float through I’ll be sending it to Rap Radar. And once I start floating it through Rap Radar and different internet blogs, I’m going to start moving forward and performing shit like that. But I’m going to the do the whole live dance situation too, so it’s going to be different.

Maybe Rap Radar will ping this interview too.

Yeah, Elliott’s a great friend to MMG. That’s my brother. Believe that. I’ve been a fan of his for a while.

What about that dude from Spiff TV? I met him in Toronto. He with you guys?

Yeah, Spiff TV, he’s an A&R and a videographer over at Maybach Music. He does a lot of Ricky Rozay videos. He did a video for me called “Nasty” which was on MTV. He does a lot of stuff. He’s a great asset to the MMG camp. He really stays on his grind. He’s a real hustler.

Yeah, he was up here with French Montana.

He’s a part of the whole French Montana deal going down. He’s really on his grind.

Were you recently in Africa? I may have seen some photos…

Yeah, I just got back a couple days ago. I was in South Africa for a couple days, in Johannesburg. We had a couple of shows with Lil Wayne. I did that, and then he split off to Kenya and we split off to Durban, and did some shit in Central West Africa. That was pretty crazy.

That must’ve been a weird experience.

I wouldn’t say weird. More life-changing. Being from the United States, you have this perception of poverty, this perception of ghetto-ness, broken down buildings and people in huts and mud houses and villages with titties hanging out. That’s the perception that you have, you have this National Geographic perception of Africa. It’s just what you see, but when you go there and see young cats my age, 25, 30, owning oil mines and diamond mines, actually living a wealthy lifestyle and coming from a line of kings, princes, and diplomats, you start realizing that the world is a little bigger, but at the same time a lot smaller than you think. It was great to see my black people.

They’re liking the music obviously.

Oh, they love the music. Anything MMG is a movie, Meek Mill, Wale, Masspike, Gunplay, the whole Triple C’s, Ricky Rozay, they kill it. They weren’t doing anything but playing that. When you were riding by stores people in the market were bumping Rozay, they were bumping Meek Mill. It’s a blessing in disguise for us, for our music to reach people in such a positive manner, so far away from where you call home, it’s amazing. I never thought that would happen. I was actually one of the first artists to believe in Ricky Rozay as a CEO. I was the first person to give him the opportunity to take my career and run with it. I believed in him. To actually see something come from its infancy stages to flourish into a mature adult, paying its bills, going to college, you know, that’s how I’m looking at the MMG situation. We just graduated college. We got offered a job at a law firm with an early start, even though we put in a lot of work over the years and dedicated ourselves to blogging and video-blogging and doing videos, we’ve changed the game. And for me to be a part of that and to actually give my input on certain things that pertain to how we were perceived by the public audience is dope.

It’s crazy because Rozay came out during a period where there were so many throwaway artists, when the “Hustlin” video came out.

Right, he didn’t need to sell a million records every time he came out, all he had to do was be consistent with his music and be entertaining to the people. That’s something that he accomplished, and not only that, he overachieved. I looked at it like we were the Lakers without a championship. You add a couple of players, Kobe and Shaq, which is Wale and Meek, you add them to the team and now you got a championship. I looked at it like, “Wow, man, this is the best thing possible.” Because I was already a fan of Meek for years, I was watching him on Youtube. It was dope to see that. I was a fan of Wale already, with “Nike Boots”. I was feeling him on MTV Jams and on different blogs, and to have him be a part of our circle I felt was a blessing in disguise. Most people in my position would have looked at it like, “Damn, these niggas gonna take my spot.” I looked at it like, “Word, we got some niggas on the team that can actually win us the championship.” I don’t give a fuck about selling a record at this point in time. Get me to the point one day that I can sell a record. When it comes to Masspike Miles people have this perception, “Oh, he’s a rapper. We never knew he could sing.” Where our team’s at now, it kind of takes the pressure and the stress off me, and in due time they’ll figure out exactly what Masspike Miles is as an artist. That’s how I look at it. Everybody has their time and I feel like my time is soon. It’s patience, not only that, it’s dedication to your squad, and loyalty, and honor, and trust.

Ambition, as Wale reminds us.

Right, absolutely.

The MMG business model is very unique, because on one hand it’s like you guys are independent, but then it’s becoming so big that it’s almost like a major label. The impression of the indie artist slaving for his art and attracting a small audience, you’ve kind of shattered that, because you guys pour your hearts into the music, you gain the following, and you also get money. What’s made that whole transition possible?

I’m going to tell you what it is, it’s just being consistent, bro. There wasn’t any formula put to it. Everything you see is happening organically. This wasn’t set up and planned. This wasn’t no frivolous bullshit, fake fabricated shit. It was more like, “Let’s be consistent. Let’s make great music. Let’s put out great visuals.” Because I was the first person shooting videos for Rick Ross. I was the first person to take the camera and say, “Bro, do this, take these freestyles and get in front of the camera and let’s play around.”

Did you do “Mafia Music”?

Naw, that was Spiff who did that. There was a point where I was like, “I either need to be an artist or a videographer,” and I chose artistry. Because that’s what I came into this game for, to make music. I hollered at Fat Boy, which is Rick Ross, I call him Fat Boy, that’s my dawg. I was like, “Yo, you might want to holler at Spiff TV, he seems really ambitious, he seems driven, why don’t you give him a shot. He’s walking around with that camera all day. He’s got a cooler camera than me. You might want to fuck around with him.” Rozay took my advice and made that happen. And now Spiff is a hitmaker, with records like “MC Hammer”, “B.M.F.”, “Hustle Hard”, all these records from Lex Luger. He’s actually earning revenue for our company, so his position is a little different. Like you said, you saw him in Toronto. He’s making executive moves, he’s an A&R. It’s bigger than just being a videographer. He’s a boss. My whole point with this long story is that it’s all based on consistency, picking and developing the right team, kind of like an NFL and NBA team. We put all the players in place and made it happen. I’m on the road with Ross all the time. I did tours with him. That’s my homie. It’s deeper than just music. I fuck with the homie. We’re together all the time.

Who’s the most inspiring of the lot? Rozay?

Honestly, when I look at MMG, I look at it as one. Anyone who plays their position fills a void, as far as I’m concerned. It’s inspiring to be around different individuals with different mindsets, mindsets that are geared towards winning in a positive fashion. Shout out to Ricky Rozay, Gucci Pucci, Dre Films, MMG Mafia, there’s a lot of people around that actually inspire me. I can’t say one individual because there’s a lot of people I fuck with. Everybody inspires me.

What about religion? Are you religious as well?

I believe in God, man. I believe there’s a high power and I believe in doing right.

Do you feel that empowers you in your musical endeavors?

Yeah, of course. Because I constantly think positive thoughts. There’s a lot of negativity when it comes to being in such a prestigious, dying industry. You’re in the public eye so you’ve got to believe and make the right decisions and the right choices, and be able to bob and weave around the negative people who try to hold you down. I think I’m a pretty good judge of character. The eyes tell a story. They’re deeper than a muthafucker opening his mouth. Sometimes what people say don’t make sense. You can’t gather their true inner thoughts from what they say, so I tend to look in a man’s eyes. A man’s eyes will tell you, “Oh, he’s been through a lot,” or, “He ain’t right upstairs.” I listen to my intuition and my third eye. God’s only going to guide you. He ain’t going to walk you through it.

On your Twitter I saw a photo of your passport, the MMG chain, some blunts, and you also had a gun. Is that gun for production, because it’s crazy how many rappers are getting robbed these days?

Well, I live in the South. The thing about living in the South is that everybody’s got a pistol. You can legally go to the court, get a permit, a license to carry a firearm, and actually conceal it under your waist. I’m part of the biggest, prestigious company in hip-hop right now. That goes back to me saying, bobbing and weaving around these devils. Sometimes you got to protect yourself. It’s no different from having a German Shepherd in your house. I can’t have a pitbull or nothing in my crib, so I got to have something to protect my family and I. I’m not the type who carries guns, that type of dude, but I got to protect myself. My girl is strapped up all day, my wife, because we live a different lifestyle. I don’t live the same lifestyle I used to live. I’ve got bills that exceed thousands a month.

With that new lifestyle do you ever feel like you’re getting caught up, concerned about losing touch with your old self, or how do you look at it?

Of course, I’ve always been a person who’s been able to socially adapt to his environment without conforming. What I mean by that is I have no problem adapting anywhere I go, I’m going to socially adapt to my environment, but I’m still going to be Miles. I don’t give a fuck about none of this car shit. I could be in a Ferrari right now. I could be in a Bentley right now. I could be in a Phantom, whatever the fuck I wanted I have the ends to that right now, I can get one. But naw, I still have the car I had from three or four years ago. Why? Because now I own something. I’m happy I own my car. This is my first time owning a vehicle that I actually paid for. It’s a Mercedes Benz and I’m chilling, I don’t got no problems, I get it fixed once a year, the maintenance bullshit. Later, down the line, after I’ve found my mother a crib or something, then maybe I’ll be in a Ferrari. But what the fuck I look like being in that type of car with my momma still living in the same place she was living 20 years ago.

Congrats on the car, man.

Oh, man, thank you, bro. I appreciate that. I’m trying to get my credit right, you know how it should be? [laughs]

Speaking of the Toronto show, have you been to Canada before?

Fuck yeah, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Edmonton, you fucking name it, that cold ass muthafucker. Boy, I was there in February, man, I ain’t never been so cold in my life as I was in Winnipeg, I swear the skin on my balls was frozen.

It’s getting cold now, just in time for you to come through.

I already know. I’m properly prepared now. I’m going to come with the sweats on, the jeans, hoodies, the thermos, cover my face, I’m ready for that bullshit. But I love the country, awesome people, awesome people. I couldn’t believe the girls were in open-toed shoes, open-toed shoes going to the club. [laughs] We were there in that 20 below shit and the girls had open-toed shoes, miniskirts, coming on in that club.

Oh yeah.

They don’t fuck around.

– By @petermarrack

The post Exclusive Interview: Masspike Miles Talks ‘Say Hello To Forever’, MMG, Christmas, Spiff TV, Guns & more appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.