The Urban Fu$e Collective releases a new project, “Runaway”
The members of Urban Fu$e hail from all over the world and are truly a reflection of diverse cultures and different approaches to music fused into one single sound. A strong dance beat is the hallmark of UF no matter the genre: Hip Hop / Rap, Dance Hall, V-Pop, Afro, Latin, UF does it all!
Why do they call themselves Urban Fu$e?
They chose the name because of the multicultural fusion of their music, but also because they consider themselves to be fuses: they will spark the musical revolution that is to come. The members of Urban Fu$e come from Yaounde, Cameroon, Lagos, Nigeria; Freeport, Bahamas; Nashville, Tennessee; San Francisco Bay Area, California; London, England, and Vietnam. Their new single “Runaway,” is a breath of musical fresh air, as their intriguing sound is like no other on the scene.
Quote from Suzanna Lam, founder of Urban Fu$e:
“I was inspired by a true story I saw on Youtube that happened back in the ’60s or ’70s in which a beautiful actress was caught cheating on her husband and caused quite a scandal, especially for the guy who was a well-known songwriter in the entertainment industry. In the true story the guy (the husband) was broken-hearted, cried, pleaded to her in public to come back to him with the kids and he would forgive her but she never did probably too embarrassed. There are well-known documented youth suicides as a result of social media bullies. The cause of suicide is due to the embarrassment caused by these online bullies. We intentionally have a male vocalist on the track because we feel crying is a very natural process when someone is hurt physically and emotionally so it doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl, you have the ability to cry and that’s OK, not a taboo as in “boys don’t cry” kind of attitude that most people believe. Hopefully, through this song boys are more accepted to cry because it’s not healthy to hold things back inside and boys pretend to be strong.
Crying is just a way for the body to re-balance the chemicals in the body when it goes through an emotional shock so there is nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about it. That’s why we had female rapper coming on the track in verse three to tell him just that message.
Ace Drucci is an artist/producer from Washington, DC. He has a long history and roots that began as a musician in various bands throughout the DC Metro area at age 15. He has worked as a producer on songs with 2 Chainz, Snoop Dogg, Ne-Yo, and Yo Gotti; to name a few. Ace Drucci’s music has over 8 million streams on Spotify, Deezer, Tidal & Apple Music.
As a verified artist on Spotify, Apple Music Shazam, Ace Drucci is currently performing in various venues in the south-east region. His music gains over 2000 BDS Radio Spins and over 600 Mediabase Spins in the US.
In 2017, his single “Frankie Lymon” made the Top 40 Independent Charts and his single “Put That Thang On Me” went number 38 on the mediabase charts.
Atlanta Recording Artist, Tien releases his latest single “Darty.” “Darty” is a nicely produced track by ThatDudeDobbs. Connect with Tien on all social media outlets
A.O. emerges with a new album Episode 3: A Force to Be Reckoned With
After picking up from Episode 1 and 2, A.O. unveils a new album Episode 3: A Force to Be Reckoned With to be released on December 31st. Throughout his career, the Agency Operative has gone through a series of transformation to reach this point as a hip-hop artist. From writing in a journal to writing rhymes. Quickly, he went from playing trumpet to being a vocalist.
Shortly thereafter, there was a setback in which AO had to take a hiatus. The first album didn’t meet the financial success expected. So, the Agency Operative held back on releasing more projects. The first one could’ve been the last. The reason for creating another project would be – AO does not give up so quickly. Even though “Episode 1” did not reach financial success, the album did give him a better perception of how the music industry works.
Another reason for putting out another project is that the graduate of TCNJ in 2009 has not seen much change in the economy. The job market continues to be limited to job opportunities. Not much has changed from the first album in 2011 to the current album in 2015. After graduation, A.O. continues to work temporary jobs with no offers for a permanent position. He decided to take his life in a new direction.
From the beginning, AO went by the stage name, King Kong. The reason for the name change was due to getting legal rights to the name. With that being said, the new name is “The A.G.E.N.C.Y Operative.” Agency is an acronym (Agent Geared for Emissary to Navigate through Critical Conditions without yielding). Operative means secret agent. The Agency Operative is the secret agent of The Agency Headquarters and the name of the label. In 2010, the label launched, and the first single was “So Hot.”
What’s next?
With seven years into the game, the current status of A.O. is to continue with the mission. The third installment of his discography “Episode 3: A Force to be Reckoned With” will be released. “Episode 3: A Force to be Reckoned With” and will be available on Itunesand Google Playon December 31, 2017. Also, you can pre-order his album before its official launch.
As an agent on a mission, the journey will continue to fulfill the mission statement. Connect with A.O. to be one of the first to download his latest project.
Detroit Rapper, OG Blizz is Making a “Profit” on his latest single
For almost 5 years now, Rapper OG Blizz has been putting the “R” in Rap with the rhythm and beats complementing his lyrical flow. You will soon notice this on his latest single, “Profit”(Bandz In My Pocket). The track is produced by Decicco and will keep any vibe lit.
The Detroit hip-hop artist, OG discovered his musical talent at a very young age. While playing around in the studio with his fellow P.B.F Members (Pusha Boy Fam) – the young tenacious Blizz was born With practice, OG continued to develop his hip-hop flow. Thereafter, he started to deliver an authentic, polished modern day sound for the hip-hop world to hear. OG Blizz will take you inside the ‘Streets of Detroit’ as he raps about the struggle.
In 2009, a life-altering car accident completely damaged his dominant hand. But, it made him more hungry for the money. OG Blizz tells it all -mostly on two mixtapes. He is looking to release a third titled “Vision” on all digital music platforms very soon. Please be sure to follow him on all social media outlets.
It’s been eight years and six months since Smoke D brought that undeniable underground sound made possible in part by himself as well as two trailblazing Southern rappers Bun-B and Pimp C, collectively known as UGK. And since touching down on free ground August 27, it’s evident that his homecoming has been a long-awaited welcome.
Within a month of being released from prison, he has received rave reviews online for his comeback single “When the Feds Pull Up” featuring Bukwild. Over a silky smooth interpolation of R. Kelly’s classic “When A Woman’s Fed Up” accented by piercing piano chords and acoustic guitar strums, Smoke honestly and unapologetically breaks down the possible consequences of living on the other side of the law.
And with a highly anticipated mixtape and full-length album distributed via Trill Life Entertainment on the way, diehard fans across the nation celebrate the return of the trill.
“Judging from the internet response of my first leaked single, I definitely have an audience already in place,” I’m bringing them back that underground sound that was there before and bringing in a better way and pick up where Pimp left off…I learned a lot from Pimp as far as coming up with that UGK sound,” I learned how to rap from him and how to produce.”
Born in Denver, Colorado and raised in Mississippi since he was six weeks old, Smoke D came up in the sleepy town of Crystal Springs, right outside the state’s capitol city Jackson. When he was 15, his mother packed up the young man and his six siblings and relocated to the faster-paced Capitol City.
“Jackson was a lot different than Crystal Springs. There were a lot of gangs in Jackson so I got acclimated to the streets through gang activity,” he recalls. “It’s just another state with another ghetto. It’s a lot of poverty. It’s just a rat race. Even if you win the race, you’re still just a rat.”
Despite all of his dirty dealings in the streets, Smoke managed to make it college. He had a friend from Crystal Springs who also attended Hinds Community College but pursued a rap career on the side. The friend invited Smoke to travel with him to Lansing, Mich. for his studio session. There, he rubbed elbows with such celebrated Flint rappers the Dayton Family.
It just so happened that the studio owner’s son wanted to record a song of his own but no one would help him. After getting the nod from his father, Smoke wrote a song with the kid called “The Pimp Mack Hustle.” Smoke only intended it to be a joke record and was mainly concerned with helping his friend’s career.
When Smoke and his friend brought their music back to Mississippi, they circulated the tapes amongst their friends. One of those friends was a local club owner named Stokes who passed both tapes along to Bun and Pimp, who were performing at the club that night.
“Out of the blue, I get a call from Stokes telling me to come to the club,” Smoke recalls. “I didn’t know what he wanted.”
When Smoke arrived at the club, the owner told him to go out to the back door of the club. “When I got out back, it was a limo back there. So I got in the limo and it was three girls in the limo with Pimp and Bun,” Smoke remembers. “We were listening to the music and listened to the song I did with the little boy, and Pimp invited me to come to his house for two weeks. I ended up staying for two years.”
At the time, UGK had recently signed a major label deal with Jive Records and were recording their 1994 seminal Southern classic album Super Tight in New Orleans. They were working on a record entitled “Front Back Side to Side” and asked Smoke to get on the song. With menial promotions and virtually no airplay, Super Tight went gold and “Front, Back, & Side to Side” became a hit single for the Texas-based group.
That one verse featuring Smoke’s gritty lyrics established him as one of the up-and-coming voices in Southern hip-hop. Among true fans of Southern rap music, he was a legend in the making and hadn’t even released his first record yet.
The success of “Front, Back, & Side to Side” caused things to really take off for Smoke. He toured with UGK, and he and Pimp C worked on tracks that would be on Smoke’s highly anticipated solo album, but before he could finish recording the album, his life took a tragic turn. Smoke had a run-in with the law that resulted in his serving a 10-year bid for manslaughter.
“My life changed after that. I wanted to keep it real and still hang in the ghetto,” he admits. “I didn’t have guidance. I was doing whatever I felt like, going wherever the wind blew me… People who are from the same place where you are from resent you for trying to do better. Back then, I was too naive to understand that.”
While locked up, Smoke recorded an audio message to let Pimp, Bun and the rest of the crew know that he was ok. Pimp chopped it up and put the audio as song intros on the next gold-selling album Ridin’ Dirty.
“While I was in the penitentiary, it put a lot more hype on me,” says Smoke. “That got me respect in the prison because I was trying to do something. God blessed me all the way.”
As luck would have it, though, 10 days after Smoke got out of prison, Pimp was on his way to prison. “I got out expecting an easy road but it didn’t turn out that way,” he says. “I was really out there on my own, trying to avoid trouble. I waiting on Pimp…I was rap hustling and street hustling.”
That street hustling gained him another round trip ticket to prison as Pimp was being released. “Before Pimp got out, I was back in trouble so when he was getting out, I was headed back in,” says Smoke. “By the time we got to reconnect again, he was found dead in California. I don’t know if it was God’s will for us not to coexist in the same space or something. I don’t know.”
On his last sentence, Smoke faced a 20-year bid but got out on “good time” for participating in rehabilitation classes. Last year, prior to his release, several previously unreleased tracks from Smoke, Pimp C, Bun-B and Lil Boosie, among others, were released on Smoke D’s mixtape The Lost Files, hosted and mixed by DJ Big House.
“A whole lot of people know who I am but they don’t see my face,” says Smoke. “I’m not a person who’s always out. I stick to myself but now it’s time to use my talents to further my family and people I know and love.” And that’s exactly what he is set to do with his forthcoming mixtape and full-length album fueled by runaway single “When the Feds Pull Up.”
“Before, I had this big house built as far as the music. But since I’ve been gone, the house done got old. So I’m in the process of rebuilding, reestablishing and bringing everything back up to date.”
