Bulletin Board Archive

Topic: SoundsGood answers the call of the road

1. Sep 4, 2005 12:23am by NRG - livin the art that is life ! www.64111clinic.com fam www.nrginmotion.com massage www.myspace.com/nrginmotion world community Location: havenhouse KCK/ 64111 Clinic 4 Life
   Local hip-hop act jazzes up schedule with fall tour By JENEÉ OSTERHELDT The Kansas City Star [img:8dc3273379]http://www.kansascity.com/images/kansascity/kansascitystar/news/SOUNDSGOOD_PRV_082605_NG_FINAL1_09-01-2005_CMG6FJG.jpg[/img:8dc3273379] SoundsGood’s Miles Bonny (left) and Joe Good bring a new sound to the hip-hop/rap scene; this month they’re heading to the East Coast with their latest album, “Biscuits & Gravy,” to spread their sound. Unlike most hip-hop groups, SoundsGood isn’t faithful to one style. SoundsGood is committed to just that — whatever sounds good to them. “At the day’s end, we just want to make good music,” says Jamal Gamby, 24, known on wax as Joe Good. “I think most of these cats have a confining idea of what hip-hop is. It doesn’t allow expansion and growth. “Rap music is a novelty, and it’s not looked at as a serious thing. For us to be taken seriously we have to think outside the box. We have to consider ourselves musicians.” Gamby met Miles Bonny at the University of Kansas in 1999. Their love of jazz connected them, and their mutual appreciation of music sealed the deal. That next summer Bonny went home to Teaneck, N.J., got an MPC player and used his dad’s jazz collection to make beats. He put it on a CD, sent it to Gamby and he spent a summer in Kansas City writing to Bonny’s music. In 2002, they put out the first SoundsGood album. Their hip-hop delivery is marinated in jazz and reminiscent of A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and the Roots. But don’t think they won’t rock to a Mike Jones album. SoundsGood likes hip-hop in all its forms and it is tired of people referring to it as an anti-bling, anti-50 Cent crew. “Hip-hop is like religion,” says Gamby, who has been rhyming since he was 13. “There are all these different religions, but they all believe in God and that God betters them in some way. And hip-hop music comes from the streets, no matter how hard people try to segregate the sounds it all comes from the same place. I don’t dis a man for what he’s talking about because I (don’t) go through that, I just listen to the music. If the music (stinks) then I don’t listen.” When it came to making their latest album, “Biscuits & Gravy,” they just wanted to be on the same page at the same time, and they wanted the process to be like that of an artist creating a masterpiece. So they took their time to do it right. “In some ways I think our music can be viewed as a painting, I start with a sound and build around it and having the lyrics over my beats completes the work,” says Bonny, 24. “Hip-hop has always been a traditional culture but not accepted by the mass music community as music. I am hoping we are creating music that shows hip-hop is just as substantial as any other genre.” They took three years to make “Biscuits & Gravy,” but the time wasn’t spent lazily. Between Gamby’s bouts of writers block and full-time job at Fric & Frac, and Bonny’s hours at school and masterminding lawrencehiphop.com, they did live shows and managed to give fans an appetizer, last year’s “Money/Pacin.” That maxi-single had local hip-hop heads waving their hands in the air in anticipation of “Biscuits & Gravy,” released earlier this year. It has sold 5,000 copies in five months. This month the two are taking an extended business trip to share their hearty meal with East Coast hip-hoppers and make connections with industry executives in New York. Along the way they’ll perform at clubs and try to add to their fan base through live shows. “SoundsGood isn’t really about putting up a front or convincing the public of this or that; it’s about experiencing life with them,” Bonny says. “We love making music…but after it’s made there is nothing left but to present it to the people around us and enjoy it with them. It’s not fun unless other people experience it.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ‘SoundsGood’ live SoundsGood has two local shows before it hits the road. It will perform Friday at Lucky Brewgrille in Mission. And it opens for Little Brother Wednesday at the Bottleneck in Lawrence. For further information, visit www.innatesounds.com .