Twitter ME Friday (#wowTMF) 10.28.11

The purpose of Twitter ME Friday is to promote #goodfollows on Twitter. These are Tweeple that we defintely suggest you take a look at and #follow!

• @fuseboxradio << "They are dedicated suppporters to the Indie Community. Always telling it like it is & have some informative news tweets!" ~ W.O.W Radio @wowuradio

• @sandersfirmpc << "Great tweets on civil rights & civil service laws/cases. They will actually have a discussion with you on various topics!" ~ Caribgem @thecaribgem

• @bzelldatruth << "Follow him because he does a lot of open mics & is really about unifiying not just the dmv together but other areas. He has great beats n knows a lot about the music biz and is NOT stingy whith his knowledge" ~ Persia Red @PersiaRed

• @authordlsparks <<  "Bestselling author, motivational speaker!" ~ W.O.W Radio @wowuradio

Would you like to nominate yourself as a #goodfollow or want to nominate someone else? Email your Twitter nomination to tmf@wowuradio.net along with a BRIEF reason why.

"Audio Slangin" by Phenox Arson ft Dubble & City Swagga

Follow on Twitter:

Phenox Arson - @MrYessaah

Dubble - @dubbledaname

City Swagga - @5ityAutoBahnFtr

The I.M.O.B. Takeover Interviews

Island Café 829 Upshur St. N.W. Washington D.C. October 13, 2011

This is one of the many places, here in the Nation’s Capital, where you can surely manage to bump into any number of the DMV’s both newest and well-known local talent. It’s a small corner café located in the heart of the city that doubles as an Island cuisine restaurant by day and a spot that showcases raw talent by night. Welcome to the Island Café where I, Insight Seeker, arrived to catch up with just a few of these artist to get the inside scoop on their beginnings, their journey and their hopes upon reaching their final destination to stardom. First I caught up with three young performers by the name Writerz Block who I’m sure will surprise you. Here is why…

Insight: Whassup everybody, Yep its Insight Seeker for wowuradio. Real quick fellas tell everybody your names and “who ya wit”.

BillyBillz: Whassup yall, it’s ya boy BillyBillz, follow me on Twitter @25BillyBillz. Well basically I’m here for Writerz Block Ent, here to kill it [the show].

Jimm: Whassup whassup this is Jimm, CEO of Writerz Block, here wit’ King Damo, my protégé and BillyBillz, we’re out here yall, this is what we got for the DMV.

King Damo: Whatup its ya boy King Damo up at the Island Café about to do what we do, ‘bout to open up for my man Del Dada and the I.M.O.B. Follow me on Twitter @KingDamo25
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Insight: Aight so fellas, for those who don’t know, tell us exactly how long yall have been out reppin’ Writers Block since its beginning?

Jimm: I guess it’s been about what 14 years strong we’ve been doing this. Yeh “we out here”!!

BillyBillz: Yeh and first yall gotta realize, we been in the game for 14 years and I, myself, am only 18. Oh and I’m the self-proclaimed free-style king, so if anybody would like to challenge that hit me on twitter @25BillyBillz I will be waiting for any talent to step up.
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Insight: Ha ha that’s whassup, not too many people free-style anymore. But ok so let me ask yall this, what is your main goal when making your music? Like, what is it you try to get people to focus on mainly when they hear your songs?

King Damo: Well really, it’s about the lyrics and how we are as people. Most people don’t really know how or who you are really, so we just try to tell’em who we are and how we think. Stuff like that, yanno?
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Insight: Right I see, so it’s basically Real-REAL talk in your songs, I see. Ok so in building your company, what are some of the pitfalls you’ve faced (the up’s & downs) in 14 years?!

Jimm: Basically it’s a thing about Unity, forreal.

BillyBillz: Yeh no disrespect to anybody but we’ve been through shit. We lost a bunch of people; we still got love for everybody. The past is the past but we try to keep it in the family, stay humble and stay focused yanno.

Insight: Cool, so along the way, who are some of the artists and producers you’ve worked with?

GROUP RESPONSE: We worked with Sherlock, Landover Doppa, P.R., JB, a new artist I’m trying to bring out named “Shaun” and Johnny BadAss.
((Suddenly, BillyBillz remembers almost as if he was silently reminded to plug his upcoming 12 track mix tape titled “Sheets and Funnel” just after King Damo plugs his upcoming mix tape titled “Most Hated, Most Underrated”. Both upcoming mix tapes will feature a lot of DMV artist as well as in-house artist from the Writerz Block label.))

Insight: Ok well, a lot of features, this goes back to the whole unity thing you mentioned earlier. Aight so let me ask you guys another question. The groupies, everybody has them at some point. So how do you all react when people see you performing and hear that you’re being active in music? How does it affect you?

King Damo: Well sometimes people talk to us different when we go back home around the way, but in the end we’re all the same people you went to school with and grew up with.

BillyBillz: Yeh yeh like, you don’t have to treat me like a celebrity forreal. I’m still ya mans ya went to school wit’, grew up wit’. Some people [girls] act like b’cuz “oh you rap” they get all hype, they find out “oh you do shows” they get even more hype, then they find out you’re indie and they switch up a bit, depending on how much you tell them.

Jimm: Yeh ain’t shit changed, we just work different. We stay motivated and focused so it’s not really important.
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Insight: So what are some spots people can find yall? What are some other shows or projects we can all look forward to catching you guys?

Jimm: Raz Lounge, Howard Homecoming Jamfest, here at the Island Café, really everywhere in the city we have an audience.

Insight: Ok ok well everybody will be on the lookout and wowuradio will definitely promote you and put you on by spreading the word. You all have a good night and “kill it” like I say last week here at The Island [Café] and, yeh, have a great show.

GROUP RESPONSE: Oh yeh no doubt. Shoutout to wowuradio and everybody in the DMV, thanks for the support and keep listening ‘cause we got heat for everybody!!


Now, surely this doesn’t close out the night that is just getting underway. As more and more patrons enter the building, more artists also begin to arrive. Soon, as I mingle through the growing crowd, I myself couldn’t help but to join in on a few freestyle cyphers and chit chats with a few of the talented individuals and groups. All of them were awaiting their moment to take the stage while they and everyone else anticipated the arrival of the final act whose being showcased tonight, the I.M.O.B. However, as I said, the night is only beginning, there’s a lot more to come but to find out just what, you’ll have to be sure to check out our Indie Blog by logging onto www.wowuradio.net ; or going onto www.live365.com and clicking WOW Radio in the search engine.
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by Insight Seeker, Creative Director, W.O.W Radio
Follow on Twitter: @AgentL7

Industry Tip #2 :: Deejays

Deejays when your being booked for an event

make sure you find out all the details before you say yes.

~ DJ Earth 1 NE

There's nothing worse than being unprepared. Ask your WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, & TIME. Always ask WHO will be paying you (half before the event and the rest after) but if your like me ask for your funds upfront so you don't have hunt down the person who hired you at the end of the event. Always ask WHAT type of crowd will be in the place. This is important because this will set the tone to what type of music you play for the event. It's really a good idea to know WHEN your gig is. Get yourself a gmail account and use the google calendar so you won't double or triple book yourself. (I learned this the hard way) . Knowing WHERE your gig is half the battle. Being on TIME will get you hired again.

Also, please visit www.americanmusicalsupply for all your eqipment needs and they have pay plans if you can't buy it all at once

Jay Gregory Interview (The Cool Kids Music Video/Short Film Premier)

Martin’s Lounge – 1919 9th St. N.W. Washington D.C. September 15, 2011


Tonight was surely an event that could in fact, go down in DMV History. This is Insight Seeker and Monet “MoMo” Wright of W.O.W. Radio here at The Cool Kids Music Video and Short Film Premier in Northwest Washington D.C. at Martin’s Lounge.

We’ve managed to catch up and speak with several of tonight’s guests like “Joey Swagga”, Jay Mills, film producer Tanecia Britt and Tyrone Shelby just to name a few. Tonight MoMo and I were on a mission to speak with the night’s premier guests to get into the mindset of how The Cool Kids work.

Here, we catch up with one of their top music and video producers Jay Gregory, check out a few things he had to tell us about The Cool Kids and what they’ve been up to, along with a little bit of insight on how they came to be. Insight: What’s good people, this is Insight Seeker here with Cool Kids super producer Jay Gregory.


Jay Gregory: What’s up everybody Jay Gregory here, Creative Director, of The Cool Kids coolin’ out. We just premiered “Parachute” by DC’s own Tabi Boney, still working on a few projects lined up from The Cool Kids..yanno man, just trying to keep things movin’.

Insight: Cool, ok so real quick tell everybody just how long The Cool Kids have been active and how you all got started?

Jay Gregory: Officially we’ve been out since 2008 with our breakout video from Tabi Boney “Put Me in the Pocket” which, back then during production, we discovered we’d have to pay quite a bit of money to follow through with filming and so forth. So we then realized that, Hey! We’ve all been to college. We’re all pretty smart and know exactly what we want from this, we can create our own video. So we shot three videos, all three made it to MTV and from that point on we just “took it there”. Next thing yanno people got hip to our work and style and we’ve been on eversince.

Insight: Being a producer yourself and working with many artist, what are some of your personal inspirations to how you influence your own style?

Jay Gregory: I look at movies really. I try to get them [the artist] and try to take their music and make it into a picture. Try to make their lyrics into something the audience can visualize. We want to shoot videos that people can be entertained by and look at like as if it were a cinematic movie.

Insight: Nice, now with all the many concepts and lighting and ideas, what is one of, if not, the wildest video concept an artist has challenged you with, for shooting a video?

Jay Gregory: Definitely without a doubt that had to be a video we did for Fat Trell ft. Raheem Devaughn “Going Crazy”. We shot that video in a real deal abandoned Mental Asylum. Yes, we really got stopped by the police and the only reason we didn’t go to jail was because they didn’t have a truck big enough to carry us all. When I first heard the song, they wanted to make the video about a bunch of girls ‘going crazy’ in stripper scenes or regular ‘going crazy’ breakup scenes. I heard it and thought about real Women really going crazy, like insane crazy and the asylum just became a fixation to follow up on. ALL of us were in there scared, afraid, frightened, everybody from the biggest person to the smallest were all shook that evening into the night….yup even me.

{{{Brief interruption from another upcoming Virginia artist from Richmond by the name of Noah O. ‘Insight Seeker’ shouts out that we don’t just cover DMV in the local metropolitan area, we promote artist in the entire indie community from all over}}}

Insight: See? Whats whassup, we get people from everywhere tuning in to www.wowuradio.net to check out what’s in store. Ok, so Jay Gregory, I know you have to show face with a few more people tonight to further promote several projects. Real quick, where can people look to find you and The Cool Kids?

Jay Gregory: Well I’m on twitter, real simple to find me, no gimmicks I’m @JayGregory202, you can also check out @CoolKidsForever and Cool Kids Films Forever. Pretty much everywhere you see The Cool Kids you can find me, just check us out; we’ve got a lot coming up for y’all.


Jay Gregory, MoMo and I [Insight Seeker] then step out into DC’s night air to mingle with a few other of tonight’s event occupants. Unfortunately we unable to catch up with the speedy exit of Tabi Boney himself however, we’ll always be able to catch up with him but in the meantime, be sure to follow The Cool Kids and their many artist. Don’t forget to log onto www.wowuradio.net to hear them in the song rotation. You can also now download W.O.W. Radio to your mobile phone by simply downloading the FREE Live365 application to your cellular phone, then typing in the words WOW Radio in the search bar.

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by Insight Seeker, Creative Director, W.O.W Radio
Follow on Twitter: @AgentL7

Industry Tip #1 :: ASCAP /BMI

If you are an Indie Artist, look into  ASCAP /BMI to publish your works!

~ Enoch 7th Prophet aka @E7thP aka Enoch El-shamesh

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (commonly known as ASCAP) is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that protects its members' musical copyrights by monitoring public performances of their music, whether via abroadcast or live performance, and compensating them accordingly.
www.ascap.com/
twitter.com/ASCAP


Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed. In 2009, BMI collected over $905 million in licensing fees and distributed $788 million in royalties.
www.bmi.com/
twitter.com/#bmi

Joey Swagga Interview (The Cool Kids Music Video/Short Film Premier)

Martin’s Lounge - 1919 9th Street. N.W. Washington D.C. September 15, 2011

Recently I, “Insight Seeker” traveled to a local lounge in the northwest section of our Nation’s Capital with none other than Monet “MoMo” Wright at my side. We were lucky enough to catch up with several artist at this premier event and catch up on a few of their upcoming projects to look out for in the closing months of 2011 and in the opening of 2012.

Among the many performers, producers, developers, directors and local entrepreneurs our primary focus was on our natives to DC, The Cool Kids. Headlining their roster, with his media mainstream buzz continuing to climb, is Tabi Boney, who was in the crowd promoting his newest video release “Parachute”.

“MoMo” managed to catch the attention of one of the members of The Cool Kids music group, good friend and very talented recording artist “Joey Swagga”, and convince him to sit and chat with myself [Insight Seeker] and shed light on some of his upcoming works.


Insight: Whassup Joey what’s good?

Joey Swagga: It’s all good; you already know what it is

Insight: Right and I see y’all are doing big things. So for those who don’t really know, exactly how long have The Cool Kids been on the scene?

Joey Swagga: Well we’ve been out for several years building a foundation. I, myself, joined the company a few months ago and have been rockin’ wit’ it ever since non-stop. They’re definitely my home base.

Insight: Aight I see, as a matter of fact you just put out an album didn’t you?

Joey Swagga: Yeh I just dropped my first solo mix-tape, 2011 “Little Child Runnin’ Wild” and look out for that “Back to Business” mix-tape coming soon too. Y’all forgive me I’m in my {chill} mode right now.I won’t give you the date for that yet, I want y’all to follow me on twitter @JoeySwagga301 and stay updated on everything I’ll be sure to keep everybody informed.

Insight: Good and I got a chance to hear a few of the tracks and see you recording a few so I know the work you put into the “Little Child Runnin’ Wild” project but may I ask, what was your overall inspiration to the theme of that album?

Joey Swagga: The inspiration for the album was Supa Fly the movie, dated in the 1970’s so we wanted to do a theme that brought a Curtis Mayfield, Pam Grier vibe to it but like, with a today’s feel. Something that was real ‘slick’ ya can ride to, move to somethin’ the ladies can really groove to yanno, that swagg!? I know I honestly didn’t expect for this to be my first project and I’m extremely happy with how it turned out. So that’s a blessin’ in itself.

Insight: Mos’ def’ so do you have anything in the works as far as videos or any other production projects? Anything you’re working on where the people might get a chance to catch up to your performances or where they can get to see you?

Joey Swagga: We’re looking forward to shooting a video for the single “#Choosin” on the [Little Child Runnin’ Wild] album. All that good stuff so look out for that soon. That’ll be the next one out, we’re always doing shows, we have a Howard Homecoming performance scheduled (you can find details on my twitter page). Really we’re just trying to get this mix- tape out before the New Year.

Insight: Cool, now who are some of the artist you worked with on this upcoming mix-tape, who can we look forward to hearing you link up with in the booth?

Joey Swagga: This time around? I got 1080 Beats, I’m thinking about hookin’ up with Dirty Rebel, I linked up with Lois Black, Trell just a few I don’t want to give out all my magic. It’ll definitely be a different feel to it, a whole different sound. We come back even harder this time for y’all do be ready for that, that’s the “Back to Business” project.

Insight: Right right, always workin’ I see. Good so let me ask you this. Being an indie artist in the DMV, everybody is unique and gifted but what do you feel that you yourself bring to the indie community in music or otherwise?

Joey Swagga: As far as DMV, it’s filled with a lot of characters or rather people doing their thing. I, myself, just try to keep it 100 and do my thing. I’m always going to be honesy, never slack and just be me. That’s all joey Swagga can do is be myself, yanno? I think if we just do what we all truly do and not act it out, we can just pretty much maintain the realness of our music. It’s us, who we are and what we do. That’s pretty much all I’m trying to bring, originality.

Insight: That’s whassup ok well I won’t take up too much more of your time. I thank you for sitting for a minute to talk to the people.

Joey Swagga: Mos’ def, anytime. Aye definitely a big shout out to the whole community, the listeners and all the other artist out here grindin’. Big shout out to Wowuradio, CaribGem, Insight Seeker, MoMo and everybody else. Look out for #TheCoolKids and Tabi Boney’s new video “Parachute” coming soon to MTV. Much Love Everybody!!


Joey Swagga and all of The Cool Kids’ music producers, video production staff, engineers and music artists have been working very hard to bring you their newest film and video ventures. According to Joey Swagga , they will continue to do so and have a lot of things in store for the upcoming months into the New Year. As MoMo and I work our way through the crowd meeting several other DMV artist we bump into another very motivated man on a mission. Check out more on the Indie Newz section on www.wowuradio.net and listen to great Indie music!

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by Insight Seeker, Creative Director, W.O.W Radio
Follow on Twitter: @AgentL7

Introducing the NEW! artist KARMA (Promo Video)

NEW! RnB/POP artist KARMA

Follow Karma on Twitter

@KarMa_Sent