Topic: No Money No Problems/ lawrence.com
- May 11, 2005 12:50pm by NRG - livin the art that is life !
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by Richard Gintowt
[b:6dda7bf9e0]SoundsGood hits paydirt with ‘Biscuits and Gravy’[/b:6dda7bf9e0]
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
There's more than one way to make a buck in the world of hip-hop.
50 Cent, for example, employs an intimidation strategy on his track "Power of the Dollar."
"In the hood (people) know how I handle my problems
I walk up close, and I fo'-fo' revolve 'em
Don't make me run to you, put the gun to you
Have yo ass on Phil Donahue explaining what the fuck I done to you."
Then there's the Snoop Dogg approach.
Step 1: Locate your financial backers:
"C'mon all you party people / Let me turn ya out"
Step 2: State your vision for progress.
"...Cuz you know I'm all about / The hoes, money, and clout"
Of course, when you're a broke and relatively unknown hip-hop act from Lawrence, it's probably best to avoid the subject of finances entirely. Unless, of course, you're SoundsGood. In that case, you release a single called "Money" and tell it exactly like is:
"Learn how to stretch a grand / That's what it's all about / Work from the bottom up / To earn your proper cut"
[b:6dda7bf9e0]Upcoming shows:[/b:6dda7bf9e0]
After the Bulldog Battle
Soundsgood's Official CD release party bout midnight
Saturday, May 14, 2005, 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. at The Granada Theatre
[b:6dda7bf9e0]True to life[/b:6dda7bf9e0]
Contrary to popular belief, Miles Bonny and Joe Good are not millionaires. They financed their new album "Biscuits and Gravy" with hand-to-hand CD sales and day jobs, and they certainly don't have a label like No Limit or Aftermath saturating every street corner with glossy posters of blinged-out booties cruising borrowed Bentleys.
For a hip-hop group that's about as gangsta as Tiger Woods, such scenarios would be laughable anyway. The world that SoundsGood inhabits is firmly planted in the underground — a world where MCs still hang out with their fans, producers still use MPC samplers and fans find their new favorite artists via online zines and social networking sites instead of "Vibe" or "Source."
Considering the challenges ahead, Joe Good is feeling pretty optimistic these days.
"I'm just out here with these CDs smacking people in the face with them like, 'Look, look — this is dope, you know what I mean?" says Good, the enigmatic MC of the group who heaps the lyrical "gravy" onto Bonny's producer-primed "biscuits."
True to the group's form, Good's confidence shouldn't be mistaken for arrogance. The KC-based lyricist talks candidly about bouts with writer's block and self-confidence. He invites criticisms as much as compliments and he still admits room for improvement: "If it ain't right then I'm wrong / Do it wrong 'til it's right / Man, I'm hollering this song / You ain't gotta sing along," he drops on the chorus to "Money."
[b:6dda7bf9e0] "Biscuits & Gravy" MP3s [/b:6dda7bf9e0] http://www.lawrence.com/news/2005/may/10/soundsgood/
"Gotta Get Up"
"Money"
More on Miles Bonny
More on SoundsGood
Still, when you know your shit is hot — why front?
"We really honestly believe as music fans that this album is really good," Bonny says. "I work at a record store (Love Garden); I help people pick out music all the time. And they can slowly trust me because they know that I won't lie to them."
[b:6dda7bf9e0]Sophomore thump[/b:6dda7bf9e0]
"Biscuits and Gravy" arrives as a highly anticipated album within the Lawrence/KC hip-hop scene, three years after SoundsGood's self-titled debut set the standard for a new wave of local hip-hop (excellent releases from Approach, Deep Thinkers, Mac Lethal and Archetype would follow).
Signature tracks from that album like "Peter Pan," "Perpetual Motion" and "In the Mornin'" have since became staples on local college radio station KJHK, and the group's energetic live shows — from house parties to club shows to campus events — have further propagated the SoundsGood gospel.
"The first album was party-based; that was me going out to kick it after school," says Good, who dropped out of KU in 2002 and relocated to KC.
"We had totally different lives at the time," Bonny reflects. "We just came together, had fun and did shows — and that's all it was until about a year ago."
[b:6dda7bf9e0]click here[/b:6dda7bf9e0] http://www.lawrence.com/news/2005/may/10/soundsgood/
Audio interviews
Miles Bonny and Joe Good talk over their new track 'Basic'
Miles Bonny and Joe Good talk over their new track 'Fresh'
Miles Bonny and Joe Good talk over their new track 'Gotta Get Up'
Miles Bonny and Joe Good talk over their new track 'I Know'
Miles Bonny and Joe Good talk over their new track 'Money'
Miles Bonny and Joe Good talk over their new track 'Pacin'
Miles Bonny and Joe Good talk over their new track 'Saturday'
Miles Bonny and Joe Good talk over their new track 'Worldwide'
The interim proved fruitful for Bonny, who released two full-length collaborations — "The Find" (feat. I.D. from Archetype) and "Al Japro" (feat. Approach) — and contributed to albums by KC rapper Reach and Chicago hip-hopper Serengeti.
Joe Good, meanwhile, hopped on tours with friends like Mac Lethal and hit every open mic in the greater KC area. He picked up a day job as a bar-and-grill kitchen manager and commenced with the double life he's led ever since.
"I was doing like 40 and 40 ... 80 hours a week," Good says. "I stopped doing shows; stopped going out. Just stayed at home and wrote."
[b:6dda7bf9e0]Burnt biscuits[/b:6dda7bf9e0]
Early efforts for "Biscuits and Gravy" proved frustrating, as Good struggled with a bout of writer's block and a short-lived identity crisis.
"For awhile (Joe) would be like, 'Man, I wrote this song but I don't know if it's really SoundsGood," Bonny says. "He had this idea of what SoundsGood was, and I was like, 'SoundGood is whatever you and I make together ...' At that point we were able to let go of the past album and just be like, 'We're making whatever we're making and that's what it is.'"
Bonny's first task was to remedy what he perceived to be his biggest weakness as a producer — his bass lines (or lack thereof). The son of a professional trumpet player, he grew up with plenty of jazz and abstract classical music around the house, but little in the way of funk or rock. While those idiosyncratic sensibilities had helped distinguish SoundsGood's debut, Bonny wanted "Biscuits and Gravy" to connect with more puritanical hip-hop heads — a task made easier by Joe Good's input.
"If I wasn't nodding my head ferociously the first time I heard (a track) he'd turn it off and just forget about it," Good recalls.
Appropriately, "Money" — with its head-bobbing bass line, soulful singing and straightforward hip-hop beat — was chosen as the album's first single and the centerpiece for an EP released last September. Other tracks like "Pacin'" and "Marvin'" further confirmed what most local hip-hop fans already anticipated: SoundsGood was back and ready to take it to the next level.
"This album is very official for SoundsGood," Good says. "Actually, it feels like our very first album (as a group) — thought out; premeditated."
[b:6dda7bf9e0]They got game[/b:6dda7bf9e0]
True to Good's word, "Biscuits and Gravy" serves up 15 tracks that showcase the group's maturation. Bonny's beats — while still intricately layered and devastatingly catchy — have been skimmed down to their most essential elements (bass lines intact), while Good's vocals demonstrate razor-sharp attention to detail in the form of doubled hooks and the occasional sing-song verse.
"Vocally, I wanted to go into the mic booth and do it like a singer does," Good says. "After working with Asa (the KC-based singer who appears on "Money") on a couple songs, I was just paying attention to how he layers his vocals and what parts he leaves out so he can come back and make 'em more dynamic than the rest of the verse."
"Mad Cow" finds Good flipping the well-worn phrase into a metaphor for the "beef" between people. Inspired by Bonny's beat (which, true to its name, sounds like a mad cow), Good asks the eternally perplexing question: "Why are the cows mad?"
"The cows are so mad because there's so much beef in the world between people that we don't need cows anymore — we got enough beef of our own," Good explains.
"Really it boils down to the fact that everybody's scared of everybody ... There's people in the suburbs that are scared to go to the city, but they don't know that the people in the city are scared to go to the suburbs."
"I'm kind of in the middle," he continues. "I don't look at color too much or money or whatever. People are people — they do bad; they do good. I'm just here to comment."
One of the album's catchiest tunes is "She Got Game," a feisty number that finds Good taking aim at a two-timing ex-girlfriend.
"Basically I'm just putting my dirty laundry out there," Good admits. "This girl did me dirty and I'm peeping game. I thought I had game, like I could work these chicks over ... She got me. I was like, 'She got game.'"
"I'm not dissing any women," he adds. "It's a tribute to them girls."
[b:6dda7bf9e0]Greetings from Asbury Park[/b:6dda7bf9e0]
With "Biscuits and Gravy" all heated up and ready to dish, SoundsGood will hit the road this summer on a performance/networking promo tour.
"We'll do the shows if the shows pop up, but if they don't, we'll be in town for a couple days and we'll find where the people are at," Bonny says. "You go on a tour — most of the time no one shows up, hardly ... Why not just skip the show and just go and find the people?"
Such tactics are indicative of Bonny's grassroots approach to marketing — get the music into people's hands and let it speak for itself. To that end, Bonny is a master of internet marketing — he's built websites for all of his scattered projects and maintains a strong SoundsGood presence on websites like MySpace and CD Baby.
Last month, Bonny launched "SGoo Radio" and "SGoo TV" on the group's homepage — aptly situated in cyberspace at "yourfavoritegroup.com." Both offer downloadable programs hosted by Miles and Joe that focus on the group's everyday lives and favorite new music.
"It's really just about people getting to know us better," Bonny says. "No one's paying us to promote their records; we're just letting people know what we like, and if they like it then they'll hopefully enjoy checking it out."
SoundsGood's effort to reach out beyond the Lawrence/KC area will benefit from a jaunt to New Jersey this fall, where the duo will live in Bonny's childhood home and try to make contacts on the East Coast. When they return, the only thing "local" about SoungsGood may be the group's mailing address.
"A lot of people see us as going on a path, whereas we see it just as a day-to-day thing," Bonny says. "You really just gotta do something, and not be afraid to put it out there into the world. Because that's the only way you're ever going to develop past just having ideas and hoping it happens."
