Jamo Gang is the trio of LA legend Ras Kass, NYC vet El Gant, and emcee/producer J57, and today they’re sharing the politically charged new video for “Francis Scott Key.” 

The track stems from their well received recently released full length LP, Walking With Lions, which shares its name with the American lawyer best known for writing the US national anthem—“The Star-Spangled Banner”—who composed the lyrics while watching as British forces bombarded Fort McHenry in 1814 (as part of the War Of 1812).

And with “Francis Scott Key,” Jamo Gang pulls from the fact that America’s anthem was forged from violence and oppression—and they put it on blast with major lyrical middle fingers. The track is an anthem in its own right, but more about protesting for what’s right and just, and Brian Sachsen embodies that spirit.

In addition to fired-up visuals of Ras, Gant, and J57 with the American flag as the backdrop, the video centers on America’s past and present issues with inequality and oppression. It’s a powerful reminder of where this nation came from, and what needs to be addressed if anything’s going to change.

Check out the visuals right here courtesy of RESPECT. and head over to your preferred digital retailer or streaming platform to support Walking With Lions, which is available now via Fat Beats Records. The 12 track LP, which includes guest appearances from DJ Premier, Slug (of Atmosphere), Sick Jacken, Slaine and more is also available on CD and Vinyl, and can be streamed below.

Smart URL: https://smarturl.it/WalkingWithLions

Twitter:
• Ras Kass: https://twitter.com/RasKass
• El Gant: https://twitter.com/ElGant
• J57: https://twitter.com/j57

Instagram:
• Ras Kass: https://www.instagram.com/ras_kass
• El Gant: https://www.instagram.com/elgant
• J57: https://www.instagram.com/j57music

Facebook:
• Ras Kass: https://www.facebook.com/RasKassCentral
• El Gant: https://www.facebook.com/elgantmusic
• J57: https://www.facebook.com/j57music

The post Jamo Gang (Ras Kass, El Gant, J57) Unveil Politically Charged Visuals for “Francis Scott Key” + Album Stream appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Here to shed light on a up and coming clothing line known as Ethik, is Matt Garrett  who is better known to be the “Overseer” for the brand. Ethik is ascending and for those who aren’t hip need to start paying attention; this is the type of brand that is slept on but ends up coming on top. RESPECT. linked with Matt and was able to break down the brand and the ins and outs of the industry. Check out the interview below.

RESPECT.: Where did the idea of Ethik originate from? How did you come up with the name for the brand come about?

The name “Ethik” was originated by a couple of kids who attended PACE university I actually was not on board at the company at the time, essentially the name represents strong work Ethik, persevering , never taking no for an answer, which he haven’t.

RESPECT.: With the rise of Ethik, have you guys been able to collaborate with any other brands?

We have been able to collaborate with other brands, as our name gets a bit more established we are able to tackle these collaborations, one in specific we have worked on recently was “ANIMAL BIKES” definitely the largest BMX company out to date, was super fun to work with them, we hold a strong presence in the BMX scene as well.

RESPECT.: How about artists and athletes to represent the brand?

That’s where I come into play, I handle all artist relations and PR. Most likely if you fit our style and are super supportive of the brand we tend to work with you, ultimately you reflect the brand. Our SXSW presence every year solidifies these connections.

RESPECT.: As a brand what is your goal?

Our goal is to prosper and grow however stay focused and do not step away from the vision never step away from the vision, ultimately to have longevity as a brand, you know your Stussy, Supreme, LRG. Within street wear most tend to see brands watered down towards the end of their run we are trying to stay clear of this.

RESPECT.: With all the different types of brands and clothing being released, what separates you guys from the rest and makes this product a must to cop?

I feel our style is different than most, we have a few core pieces that really stand out from the others, the culture and vibe of our brand as well makes a difference, our store events, heavy hip-hop influence really makes a difference.

RESPECT.: As for marketing strategies, which method works the best to spread the word of the Ethik brand?

Guerilla Marketing, usually events like SXSW as well as in-store events really work well, I hold a ton of in-store album releases, video releases, art galleries etc.

RESPECT.: What role do you play exactly for Ethik that makes your job such an importance to the brand?

I handle all Artist Relations and Public Relations for the brand as well as oversee events and marketing, it is a crucial position here because I essentially oversee how the brand “looks” to the public eye, picking and choosing how we should release information/visuals are extremely important.

RESPECT.: What made you guys set up shop in Toronto, Philly, Boston and New York? Are those locations the most profitable?

We decided to go the brick and mortar route, open up shop… make a name for yourself, make an imprint, which we have. We have a lot of love in Philadelphia I would say we have definitely started a nice little ripple in the pond out in the city of brotherly love. After Philly comes Toronto, great staff and an on-site recording studio from our friends over at KarmaXWave. After Toronto came Boston.

RESPECT.: What are some thoughts of change for the brand and what do you see for the future of Ethik?

Change for Ethik in my opinion is great, constant switch is needed, change is needed for a street wear brand, pushing the same garments, same material, same events gets a bit old.

RESPECT.: Talk to us about your input in the music industry?

On a side-note I am heavily involved in the industry as I run my own booking/consulting agency on the side @mgbooking, I incorporate my Ethik events with my agency and kind of piggy back off each, it’s a nice system and I have gained great relationships over the past years.

RESPECT.: Which artists are you working with?

Currently I am working with “Frank Castle” out of Staten Island, “History” from MogulClub from out in Brooklyn, “BuddhaGxD” from the East Side of Harlem , and Produce/MC “Eprosounds” from Rockland County just to name a few. I have curated meet and greets for artists such as PnB Rock, Private Club Records, Tsu Surf, Jimi Tents, The Doppelgangaz, J57 and Koncept from the Brownbag Allstars and more…

RESPECT.: How would you like to combine fashion with music?

Fashion with music go hand and hand in my opinion, we associate ourselves mostly with the hip-hop community, fashion is extremely crucial in that world, and I feel they are closely related.

RESPECT.: What does respect mean to you?

To “Respect” means to show and receive love mutually in my opinion, if you know me you know I am here for the culture, not for the bread that comes later.

The post RESPECT. Interview: Matt Garrett Represents Ethik & Breaks Down How the Business Works appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

The post Premiere: J57 ft. DeeJay Element, Tenacity, Sean Boog & Mean Joe Scheme – “Burn The Empires” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Artwork by Dread Solo

“This is grown man rap”

Refreshing would be an understatement. Not just the music itself, but Shabaam Sahdeeq himself in 2016. In the midst of over-saturation, female clothing, and delusional trap lords, SS is a pure testament to remaining thorough as a recording artist. Remaining  humble. Remaining raw. You don’t need to sell your soul or ride the “in” wave to be respected.

The New York City native has a list of commendable stripes. You can read more about that below in our interview with him if you didn’t know. If not, do your research.

Today we present the video premiere for Shabaam Sahdeeq and J57‘s latest “GMR” single (directed by Rhugid Lee for Rhugid Productions – cuts by Dj Eclipse). It’s pointless to break down the video in writing form if you can just click and watch it about four inches below. But do know it’s the perfect creative overload – finding himself doing live painting on the busy streets of NYC. On that note, rest in peace Sean Price. Forever.

‘Timeless: of the Collection‘, a new full length LP from SS and company, is coming very soon. You can read more about that below also. Peace and love:

RESPECT: Before we get into it we want to thank you for your time. If you were to just gain a new fan of your music today, what would you want them to know about Shabaam Sahdeeq?

Shabaam Sahdeeq: I want them to know that I’m a forever-growing and learning embodiment of the hip-hop culture. I’m a father, husband, artist and black man. A very humble and cool individual, but don’t ever take my kindness for weakness. I was told in Africa that “paintings are frozen music“. So, I feel that I’m right in my lane. I’m an emcee, painter and a barber.

R:You’re ranked as a veteran emcee with multiple stripes. What is one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned over the years as a recording artist?

SS: The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is to never lose your love or passion for your music or whatever you do. Some people get so caught up in chasing money that they lose site of what made them love to create and express themselves with the arts in the first place.

R: Aside from recording music, you are a talented visual artist. Can you tell us a little bit about your artwork and how the two crafts echo one another?

SS: Well to start with – emcee’ing and graffiti are two of the four hip-hop elements. So me being a hip-hop head, it’s only right that I fell in love with those two. My visual art sometimes says things my words can’t articulate or vice versa. I think they go hand in hand well. My art work is urban, abstract, and experimental mixed media. I think a lot of music artists have the gift of being artistic in more ways than one. It’s up to them to embrace it and run with all of them.

You have a new record coming real soon titled Timeless: of the Collection and mentioned you were very proud of this body of work. Do you mind telling us a little bit about the project?

SS: Timeless: of the Collection is a four-part series of albums. Each will have a different beginning title but all of them are from the collection. And every single will have a piece of art that goes with it that I hand painted. The cover of each album will be from an artist that I respect or collaborate with like yourself (Dread Solo).

R: Its apparent that family is very important to you. You’re open about it on social media and in your records. What has it been like trying to balance the family man and the recording artist positions over the years?

SS: My family is very important to me. The balance is not hard because my family knows what my passion is. The music is therapy for whatever I’m going through. I work a day job that’s flexible for me to travel and do tours. I spend time with my kids. I go out with my wife. If your hear me talking about streets it’s from my time running them in the past. I spend most of my time these days in my man cave with my music equipment and art supplies – when I’m not at work or at shows. My family is my first priority over everything.

R: Can you give us a little background on the new “GMR” visual? It looks like it was a fun time.

SS: It’s a special video. I shot it right after Sean Price died, and right before I moved out of New York City to Atlanta with my family. It was a bitter sweet time. It was shot by my boy Rhugid Lee that I ran into in Manhattan years after being in prison together. We always said when we get out that we are going to pursue our dreams in different areas – his being film and mine being music and art. We combined the two and did something real special. I told him about the concept my manager Big P came up with to be painting as I moved through the city – even in the middle of traffic and Lee helped me pull it off. I was doing a Sean Price memorial painting that I finished by the end of the video – which was later gifted to Sean Price’s wife Bernadette. It’s probably not the illest one she received, but it came from the heart.

Thank you for the interview. One love!

Official Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Artwork

The post Video Premiere: Shabaam Sahdeeq – “GMR” + Interview appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

If you’re just now tuning into the Koncept & J57 extravaganza, welcome. Take a seat. Fresh off of their The Fuel release, the two hardworking gentlemen decide to celebrate on film for us. The visual demonstration includes a day of drinking together – which we know can lead to just about anything in the rotten apple as you will see in a moment.

The duo’s full length offering will be available in 2016 as The Fuel is just a sample of its magnitude.

“The Fuel is the pre-cursor/set up for Flight, which drops summer of next year. The vibes are similar, but Flight is like a big brother to The Fuel. That statement will make a lot of sense a year from today — you’ll see. But, in the time being, enjoy The Fuel and please listen to the entire thing knowing that something way bigger and way better is coming in a short 6-8 months.” -J57

Just incase you missed the EP this year, we’ve attached the full stream below. Do it if you have not – it’s a cinematic, expressive experience. Aside from the duo taking flight on a full length album this coming year, you may want to keep an eye on J57’s latest Five Seven Music imprint. It’s a hell of a label and is still very young (setting it off with 2015’s You Gotta Watch LP by Mean Joe Scheme).

The post New Video: Koncept & J57 – “Excitement” Feat. Andrew Thomas Reid appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Maturity seems to be the necessary word to open this up with. The Fuel EP is a bit more than your standard EP release. It’s rather a fully developed, potent body of work from Koncept and J57. You may just create a bucket list, make amends to those you’ve harmed, dance, snap your neck, and hug your parents after all eight tracks.

J57‘s soundscapes are carefully fearless. Koncept‘s content is transparent. Together you get a magical, explorative dish of honesty. Aesthetically, we give credit to Red Bull Studios for the fine tuning and beautiful finalization of the record. What fuels the two to keep going in this bitter sweet thing we call music? After your first spin you should have the response.

Guest artists include Dice Raw (The Roots), frequent family Akie Bermiss, Hollis, 11-year old Nevaeh and more – not making the record what it is, but adding to its foundation as it should be. They’re meaningful slots.

The amount of work that went into EP is incredible. If you were following their moves, you get it. If not, it’s okay. Welcome to the world of Koncept and J57. These two do not sleep, and as you will read in the interview segment below, they have much more in stores heading into the new year. Grab The Fuel EP now via iTunes after streaming it.

What is the most memorable moment during the recording of The Fuel EP?

J57:  There were a ton of memorable moments; at least one per song, but I think the biggest stand out moment for me was while we were working on the song “Excitement”.  We were at Room17 Studio and we had the song finalized and Joe Rogers was giving it a rough mix when he was like, “Wait a minute… let me try something.”  He disappeared for a few minutes and comes back in holding a ton of analog equipment.  He spent a solid 5 to 8 minutes setting everything up / plugging everything in.  He then started to revamp the main melody that I played and distorted the living shit out of it — even more than I did already, to begin with.  Koncept and I jump up from our seats and walk over in amazement.   I’ll put it this way — that full day/night studio session we just spent on ”Excitement” didn’t end till approx 4 or 5am!  We left knowing that we just brought the song and the direction of the EP to a new level.

Koncept: Well, J nailed that one, so I can’t really beat that.

But, one thing that people don’t know is that “Live Forever” was originally meant to be on the full length LP, “Flight” that’s dropping in 2016. I recorded my vocals in Brooklyn sometime in the Spring still having no idea when we were going to be in LA recording the album. In the song I say the date, “May 7th”. It just so happened with absolutely no intention or know how whatsoever that we were mixing that record in Red Bull Studio on May 7th. Our engineer, James Musshorn turns to me and says, “how did you know that we were going to be working on this record today!?” That was crazy. haha

The record is executed and pushed as if it were a full length studio album, but I know it’s just a taste at what’s to come. What are listeners in store for moving forward?

J57:  “The Fuel” is the pre-cursor / set up for “Flight”, which drops summer of next year.  The vibes are similar but “Flight” is like a big brother to “The Fuel”.  That statement will make a lot of sense a year from today — you’ll see.  But, in the time being, enjoy “The Fuel” and please listen to the entire thing knowing that something way bigger and way better is coming in a short 6-8 months.

Koncept: I just finished a full album with Madonna.

Any funny moments, or the funniest moment, during the recording of the EP?

J57:  There were a ton of funny moments but my favorite one was:

“Crazy Is Beautiful” feat. Nevaeh: 

We featured Nevaeh, an 11 year old singer from Portland, Oregon, that is the daughter of our good friend and incredible photographer, Jessica Keaveny (http://jessicakeaveny.com/).  The chorus for this song was written by my new artist Mike Two, who’s background was writing for Atlantic Records till he left recently to pursue his own solo music under the Five Seven Music umbrella.  Mike recorded the chorus for “Crazy Is Beautiful” at our brother Optiks’ studio in Brooklyn, with hopes that we would get a female singer on that track.  A week later, we went to Portland to shoot the “Porcelain” video and decided to record Nevaeh’s chorus – in which we did.  We recorded her on my laptop and had Mike Two on Koncept’s laptop on Skype, coaching her how to deliver it, since he wrote it and envisioned a certain delivery — which she nailed.

The funny part about this is, Mike Two wanted Nevaeh to sound sad and somber, and being that she’s 11 years old, he had to give her specific motivation to really bring her there.  So, before we started, Mike said, “Ok, pretend your mom promised to get you ice cream and you’re really happy about it, you get to the ice cream parlor, then changes her mind and says you can’t have it.  How would you feel?”   Nevaeh quickly looks and sounds sad and says, “…sad.”  Mike says, “Ok, great, let’s record that last take again with that feeling.”  She ended up absolutely NAILING it.  It was honestly hilarious and dope at the same time.  I bet you didn’t expect to hear that story from the one and only sober session we had during the making of the entire EP haha! This was my favorite funny moment.

Koncept: We were recording vocals at Room17 Studio in Brooklyn with Joe Rogers one day while it was snowing outside. I think we were working on “Plane Ticket” that day. We were in the zone and didn’t even leave the room for almost 12 hours having no idea what it looked like outside. We actually forgot it was even snowing. We decided to take a step outside to get some fresh air before the next stretch, and when we opened the door there was over 2 feet of snow, AND a state of emergency through the city. haha

We all bundled up and went outside and were jumping off of things into piles of snow. I filmed it all on my GOPro. I think we’ll have to release the footage at some point.

The post Koncept & J57 “The Fuel EP” + Interview appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

www.stillproudclothing.com

J57 dropped off his latest record “Soarin’ Like Jordan” featuring Audible Doctor and Archie Bang. For those who’ve been residing under a rock, J57 hails from the acclaimed underground collective Brown Bag Allstars as well as Audible Doctor. Both are predominately known for their production over the years, but they never half step or come up short on the mic. Revisit J57’s “Wax Aesthetic“ for your reassurance, and Audible Doctor’s “Can’t Keep The People Waiting.“

The two Brown Bag veterans brought along Brooklyn’s promising Archie Bang to blow off some steam, opening up the record with some heavy content. Don’t let the playful title fool you here; the three guns mean business and deliver brutal honesty over J57’s stern, sample-free soundscape. Yeah, we said sample-free. This is only a taste of what’s to come as an EP was just announced and is expected soon titled “I’m The J57.” That’s enough out of us. Enjoy the record below and be sure to keep up with J57. He does not sleep, all for your listening pleasure and the preservation of this culture we call hip-hop. Peace and love.

The post Premiere: J57 Returns With “Soarin’ Like Jordan” Ft. Audible Doctor & Archie Bang appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.