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At this point if you’re plugged into relevant underground rap music you understand how sure we all are going into a single from Nolan the Ninja, Quelle Chris and Denmark Vessey. Nolan, in a short amount of time, gained our trust. Chris and Vessey a while ago. It feels right to note their fearlessness and experimentation, so them three coming together is cool. And exciting for listeners. It’s safe to say that Nolan sticks to what he’s good at – lyrical, timely machine gun like bars and tipping the scale on the rather lo-fi, 90’s side. But collaborations like these show glimpses of an early passionate emcee who is barely just getting started. He’s young. Watching him mature via music should be eye opening (young artists take note).

“Modesty”, the second leak from Nolan’s forthcoming YEN lp, encourages being more like the three of them – modest. Having worked with Nolan on a few occasions we can comfortably say that his aura is indeed modest for a rather larger guy with large talent. He does carry himself humbly and is respectful. The confidence in his artistry, however, isn’t hard to find – both here and the first leak “14K“. Denmark Vessey held the production down. A humble head nodder. I’m not sure how much Vessey production you’ll find out here recently – his last Mello Music Group effort entirely prodcued by Gensu Dean (do the Whole Food lp now if you haven’t and thank us later).

Quelle Chris is his usual self – pretty care-free but actually always very in tune no matter how far in space tripping he may seem. That dude is a damn genius. And cares about the damn art – all facets. It’s beyond welcomed and cool to hear next to Nolan’s straight forward, direct darts. Score, gentlemen.

Play the single 200 times below and tell your aunts, uncles, moms and neighborhoods to do the same. Maybe you’re a notch more excited for the YEN lp now. Good. You honestly should be. The pre-order links are at the bottom of this feature if you’re into pre-ordering stuff. Peace and love.

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YEN (LP)

9 | 22 | 17 (Left Of Center / Fat Beats)

Pre-order DIGITAL

Pre-order VINYL

Pre-order CASSETTE

The post Nolan the Ninja Invites Quelle Chris & Denmark Vessey for A Lesson in Modesty appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Original Artwork: Oliver Barrett

For those unfamiliar with Detroit’s Red Pill, just know it’s not too late. He’s a force to be reckoned with, offering nothing short of brutal honesty and sincerity on records for years now. A lot of heads jumped on board and took notice after Ugly Heroes (Apollo Brown, Verbal Kent & Red Pill) formed and released their acclaimed, self-titled Lp in 2013. After a line up of successful works alongside Brown and Kent, he proved that he is more than equipped to deliver quality solo projects as well. With that being said, Red Pill is set to release his solo debut via Mello Music Group on April 7th titled Look What This World Did To Us. Below you can check out his latest visual for “Rap Game Cranky,” and see what he has to say about it.

One thing fans generally note is your content on records and your brutally honest lyrics. You really dig into the blue collar background and touch on a lot of struggles everyday folks can relate to. Can you elaborate on that a little bit for us?

Yeah man, I mean that’s how I grew up in Michigan. That’s the way we live here. We work and we go through stuff, and deal with things. People all over the place go through this type of stuff. Most of us don’t come from money and stuff like that. So, for me to write about anything different would be crazy. I’m glad the content resonates.

Ugly Heroes is quite the group. You three really put out some quality material these past couple years that the masses responded beyond well to. How did you three come about and join forces exactly?

I initially met Apollo Brown around 2010 at a local beat battle event in Michigan that I was asked to be a judge at. I knew of his work prior to meeting him and was definitely looking forward to it. I gave him a copy of a project I had out that I pressed up at the time. He didn’t pay me much attention really, which is totally cool and understandable (laughs). Probably about a year later we met again at a going away party for a mutual friend of ours, where we chopped it up some more. Not too long after we fully connected and he asked me to do the “This Is Life” record. He was impressed, and shortly after this led into doing the whole Ugly Heroes project. It’s funny because I was not too familiar with Verbal Kent prior to this project forming, so we got to know each other on the spot more or less. It was all a part of Apollo Brown’s plan that worked out beautifully, and I’m grateful for it.

You’ve been running alongside Mello Music Group now for a little while, which is arguably one of the best, most authentic labels on the scene currently. Fans have built serious trust around them and for you to be apart of this is a blessing. Can you talk a little bit about your experience working alongside them?

Mello Music group is all about the art, which I respect the hell out of. It’s not about the dollar with them. The creativity and quality of the product is what matters here. That’s not to say the artists aren’t taken care of, because we are. But yeah man, it has been an amazing ride so far. I hope that my career starts and ends with Mello Music Group.

What should we be expecting with your new solo debut dropping April 7th? The few records you have released are all stellar and it gives fans a good idea of what to expect, but we want to hear more. Are you looking forward to the release?

It’s jazzy, man – kind of different. It’s still a general boom-bap sound and straight forward delivery. I had a lot of goals with this record, and the fact that it’s my first solo release under Mello is an important career accomplishment. I did my thing with Ugly Heroes, and I love all of that. But this is moving forward and allowing me to really put my own stamp on something which is important to me. It’s the most complete project I have ever worked on. I want this to be something that fans sit down with and run front to back, and there is an experience that happens with it. This is my best work to date for sure.

Since we are featuring the newer “Rap Game Cranky” video do you mind talking a little bit about this record? It’s almost depressing, in a beautiful sense of course. I think a lot of people can relate to this track, and setting, on so many levels.

The record is a little depressing, and like you said I hope in a good way (laughs). It was a time in my life when I was going through some stuff; a mild depression I was experiencing that hadn’t came along in a while. Some of the stuff I wrote while going through it, and some of it was written after the fact. I touch on alcoholism on the record, as well as on previous records, and I hope it helps in some fashion for people going through it. It was less about glorifying it, and more just reality from my perspective.

Don’t forget to get your pre-order by the time you close out this article. Also, Red Pill has a few live performances coming up: Majestic Café in Detriot, MI (3/27) and The Loving Touch in Ferndale, MI (4/3). If you are in the area you probably shouldn’t miss him bless the stage. Hard copies of the new Lp will be available at The Loving Touch show. For more information on the locations and general concerns, hit up Red Pill’s Facebook page here. Lastly, Mello Music Group just released their latest compilation project ‘Persona’, with features from Red Pill, Apollo Brown, Oddisee, Ras Kass, Masta Ace, Quelle Chris, yU and more. It’s beyond loaded, so definitely check that out below right now. Peace and love, world.

The post Red Pill Discusses Upcoming Album, Working With Mello Music Group & Inspirations appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

The post New Video: Quelle Chris – “Ghost at the Finish Line” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

With the year coming to an end, many magazines and blogs are compiling their End of The Year lists, seeking to document both the best and the worst albums of the year.  On many of the “best of” lists you should definitely find Ghost at The Finish Line, the latest album from Detroit rapper Quelle Chris.  The album, which was released at the end of October, showed Quelle brewing together outlandish topics and thought-provoking lines into a potent, moving mix. To say the least, “Ghost” proves that there’s a reason why Black Milk said it’s his favorite Detroit album of the year.  Luckily, we recently had the opportunity to speak with Quelle about Detroit’s approval, success, his latest LP , why he should write a book and more. Read it below.

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RESPECT: When I read different things about you on the Internet, or even just have conversations with different people, I always read things that say that you are one of the artists who are helping to keep Detroit on people’s radars, kind of like you are a Golden Child of some sort.  How does that make you feel?

It makes me feel proud.  It feels crazy because the show for the ‘No Poison, No Paradise’ Tour (Black Milk’s Tour) both my mom and dad were at the show.  First of all, I haven’t seen these two together in the same room for more than one second — in a lifetime – so that was crazy in itself, but just to see that pride it’s a good thing. I’m extremely proud of it.  It also means a lot to me too because Detroit is one of those cities where the residents of Detroit – the 24/7 residents of Detroit – can have this mentality if you ever left Detroit, we don’t fuck with you.   It also means a lot to me that even though I’ve been jumping around and I don’t come home enough that they still hold me near and dear to their heart.  It means a shitload to me because the reality of it is what if the place you consider your home and your family don’t accept you, who really gives a shit if everyone else likes you? So I’m happy about that.  I don’t feel like it’s a burden or a heavy weight to carry.  I’ve been doing me for so long that nothing can stop me, really. But it really feels good to get that respect. Not that I haven’t been getting it from Detroit personally, but to see it in writing definitely means a lot

That definitely makes sense.  How was touring with Black Milk?

Every city that we are go to, only the craziest people come up and talk to me.  I always have the craziest stories because I end up attracting interesting people.  Like one time, it was really cool actually because this guy I met early on in the tour in Albuquerque was the shit.  I was backstage, doing my thing, smoking weed, blah, blah, blah and I ended up talking to this older guy with grey hair with the big Cowboy hat and Sammy Sam shirt with the big boots – coolest muthafucker I’ve ever met in the world.  After the show, I ended up going to his ranch with him and talked about a lot.  I always end up finding myself in those types of situations and sometimes it works in my favor and sometimes it’s weird.

It would be cool if you tried to write a book with more  stories like that.

Oh yeah It would be.  I’ve kind of always looked back wishing I kept a journal every day of my life.  The reality of it is I definitely drugged away a lot of my memory.  One of these days – I’m still not there yet – I think I’m one-quarter through my book if I decided to write one – I still have a lot to do.  I haven’t even been to Europe yet.  I’ve still got a lot to do.  After 13 albums, people are finally starting to listen to me somewhat.  With 13 more albums, I may finally be somewhere near ready.

How do you make so many albums ? 

I mean I make a lot of music. I live a lot so in order to not explode you kind of have to let it out somehow.  Maybe a lot of people don’t make so much music because they don’t have a lot to talk about.  I just make music, and I’m always  around musicians so there’s always opportunities, and it’s like my journal I think maybe.  That’s my way of being like, “I was here. During that time period I made this song.” And so forth.

You’ve been making music for a long time and moving around a lot as well.  How do you think moving around has helped your music?

I’ve been apart of a billion different movements.  I’ve seen so many people blow up, some fall off and some become superstars.  I’ve kind of have just been that guy in the background.  I’ve always unfortunately, but fortunately at the same time, I’ve always been your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper.  People are like “Oh, so and so is the dopest,” but they’re like “Man, dawg, that last shit you sent me was the dopest,” so it’s interesting.  That’s kind of my history.  I’m an everywhere guy – St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, out West, East Coast, Brooklyn, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles. I started making music a long time ago and probably will never stop.

But how does that feel to know that you’re everyone’s favorite rapper’s favorite rapper? You said you have seen a lot of people blow up.  I think you have a really big following, but is that discouraging for you to not necessarily got the same respect and notoriety that they do?

I’m extremely humble and I am definitely more of a slow roaster.  I like the fact that it is taking a little bit of time to gain a following. I don’t get discouraged with any assumed lack of success on my part.  Discouragement comes, but if you really want something nothing will stop you from getting it.  Being in the music industry is a pretty strong test of character and perseverance and everything.  It’s a test of everything – morals, you kind of just have to fight through it.

You have people whose goal is to blow up, but mines is just to make great music. Whether I blow up or not, when I look back through my catalogue and everything that I’ve released, I want to be proud that I’ve never faltered or sold out.  My thing was just to make sure that the music came first.

Yeah I would imagine because I remember when I was trying to do music… I wasn’t really trying to do music, but I would think sometimes that there are so many different avenues you could go down as musician that it’d be easy to get jaded.  It’s a battle.

Yeah man it’s tough.  I never want to say it in a way that fans feel disrespected by it, but it’s really tough because you always get requests in different ways, you hear certain things from music fans like, “I want something that doesn’t sound like anything else.” But when you give something that sounds like nothing else people are like, “Man that sounds a little different. I don’t know how I feel about it.”  It’s confusing at times.  But I think the best thing is stay true to yourself and I’ve noticed with so many other partners of crime of mine like Danny Brown I tried to let people hear his music and they would be like, “Man I don’t know how I feel about his music…” and then like a year later they were like, “Have you heard about that guy Danny Brown?!” Sometimes you just stick to your guns and hope that at some point the tides turn in your favor.  It’s always interesting. Sometimes it can be frustrating but at the same time, it’s way more gratifying.

Your new album Ghost at The Finish Line, is out now.  From talking to you, I think I think I kind of get the concept behind the album title but I’m not going to interpret it for you.  So for you, what was the concept behind the album title?

It’s a lot of layers because when I started making the album, it didn’t have a title.  At that point, it’s kind of like two years old from start to finish. Over the course of making the album, it just became a general idea of pursuing something that like I said is the result of a lot of loss and a lot of gain.  The title is kind of saying that by the time that you get to your goal at the end, who will still be there?  Who’s going to be gone, who’s still around in spirit from the things in the past?  And the name was super fitting because you know, you sacrifice a lot to be a musician. If you’re not one of the lucky people who becomes a millionaire off of your first single, you’re very likely to lose relationships, lose love, gain a lot of friendships, gain a lot of love. It’s a hard race and there’s no telling what’s going to be there at the end.

So The Ghost at The Finish Line, is kind of just talking about that — it’s sad.  Now I’m getting sad talking about shit.  It’s just so many people involved in your life and to do this you have to stay so true to it that you end up losing things, but by the time you get to where you’re supposed to be…even at a smaller scale, by the time I got to the end of making this album my life was a totally different life.  The Ghost, cheers to the Ghost.  But in the end, I’m always happy.  I’m great right now.

Stream Ghost At The Finish Line below and/or buy it here or here.

The post Interview: 13 Albums Deep Into the Game, Quelle Chris Gives Cheers to The Ghost appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

The post Album Stream: Quelle Chris – Ghost At The Finish Line appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

On June 25th, UK based producer Metabeats will be releasing his upcoming album Caviar Crackle. The album, produced by Metabeats himself and co-produced by Ed Boogie, features appearances by a spectacular range of artists: Oddisee, Action Bronson, Von Pea of Tanya Morgan, Chuuwee, Che Grand and Bay Area-based MC Quelle Chris who graces this track.  “SLSBS” (Sounds Like Some Bullshit) is the first leak from the upcoming project, and it’s a banger. Listen to the stream below, and make sure to cop the project when it drops.

The post New Music: Metabeats ft. Quelle Chris – “SLSBS” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Nothing like a little slow burning library music funk as the foundation for some sick rhymes from two of rap’s current finest, Brown and Marciano. Brown delivers (though after his recent XXX, it’s kind of a let down to hear him on production that’s not as explosive as he is) and Marciano nicely hits the pocket he’s been occupying the last few years and kills it (this beat is right in his wheelhouse and it shows). I’d never heard of Chris before this, but off the strength of his verse here I’ve downloaded The Son EP. Not much to say about this one other than that it’s something purists, blog heads, and Pitchfork readers can get behind. Hurray for musical unity!

The post “Shotgun” – Quelle Chris ft. Danny Brown & Roc Marciano appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.