THEOVUN:
You’re from North Carolina, tell us a little bit about what it’s like
RAIN:
It’s cool, I’m from Fayetteville, we got an army base, we got 30strip clubs on 1 block and church on the corner, it’s home.
THEOVUN:
North Carolina seems to be a very special place on the music scene– you got rap acts like Petey Pablo and then you have crews like the Justus League.
RAIN:
Yeah, when it comes to music everybody does different music, it’s weird–We’re in the middle, of the state and kind of in the middle on the coast, so you have 1/2 who are influenced by that Southern rap and 1/2 that are influenced by that New York music. We don’t have really have an identity – really though, it depends on who you ask – my answer is: it’s diverse
THEOVUN:
So tell us about the transition between NC and NYC?
RAIN:
[I] Moved up here [New York] when i was 15, I dropped out of school – I already knew what I wanted to do. I threw all my clothes in a garbage bag and came up on a Greyhound. My father is from the Bronx, and my mother is from Brooklyn, so I already been familiar with the city. I pressed up some CDs and wrote my number on em and just started handing em out.
THEOVUN:
Wooow determination, so speaking of CDs about how many mixtapes have your released?
RAIN:
A lot! you Got obviously American Dreamin’ Part I, Only In America, Another Day Another Dollar, Highly Anticipated and a lot of others.
THEOVUN:
So talkin about this current mixtape – American Dreaming Part II, the stand outs on this tape would have to be “Lady in the Red Dress” and “Buried With a Secret”. It takes a certain caliber of skill to be able to tell a story and it takes even more skill to deliver them as fluid as you did, tell us a little about these tracks.
RAIN:
For, “Buried With a Secret”, I recorded that track for the tape first. Imma be honest I don’t know where that came from. *Laughs* Someone sent me the beat and the name of the beat was “buried with a secret”. I saw that and just ran with it. So it started with a young kid whose father was beating on his mother- it shows how the father winds up killing his mother and then he [the son] winds up getting killed before he can tell anyone the story. As I was writing it, I had to pull myself out from that. It was really hard for me to make it, I started with the tv going and the radio and it fucked it up and so I remember just going back and listening to all of my favorite albums, and everything like Life After Death, It Was Written, and got to I Am and I heard that joint – “Undying Love” [by Nas] with the story – I was thinking – I need to do something like that!!
A while back we got a chance to talk with very talented, Jet Audio about the Stand Alone Complex, here’s what he had to say:
THEOVUN:
What’s up man, so we all know you from the Mickey Factz’ joint from 6 Letter Words – do you have any other production credits floating around?
JET AUDIO:
Mickey Factz was like my coming out joint, so everyone knows me by that track. So with the Stand Alone Complex, I got all these artists like Mickey Factz, Naledge from Kidz in the Hall, Tanya Morgan and pretty much, I set out to make a sound for the next generation
THEOVUN:
You definitely have made your own distinctive sound, how long have you been producing?
JET AUDIO:
4 years
THEOVUN:
How did you get into producing?
JET AUDIO:
Real talk? I woke up one morning and said I could do this better than anybody – that’s real talk, that’s where I’m at now..
THEOVUN:
Alot of it is ambient, airy, flowy – same feel?
JET AUDIO:
the sounds that i collected to the its real melodic and electro type of samples and everything. its just a lane im trying to push out – everybody trying to do the boom boom bap, like ron browz – no disrespect but this is the type of lane that im trying to approach so thats what I’m doing now
THEOVUN:
What equipment do you use to produce?
JET AUDIO:
I hate this questio — because some people are really bias when it comes to this, but straight up- I use Fruity Loops and a little MPC, and of course I do all the editing on Pro Tools
THEOVUN:
So you you play any instruments?
JET AUDIO:
Yeah actually - I play guitar and little bit of the keyboard.
DARQ: Pretty much – the name obviously contradicts me being that I’m Caucasian
THEOVUN: Just a lil bit-
DARQ: It started off as a joke – I had a homie when I was younger – he didn’t speak English very well, so we used to make fun of him a lot. He’d just be like ‘I’m gonna “dark your eye”‘, meaning he was gonna give me a black eye. Until one day he actually did and it just stuck. When I started to rap, I just kept the name. Initially I was gonna be the ‘Dark Knight’ on some medieval shit *laughs*, but we dropped the K, put the Q on it and kept it moving…
THEOVUN: *laughs* That’s cool man, good choice.
DARQ: [and to elaborate]…the whole definition of darkness is the absence of light, and I embrace that as a lifestyle and mind state, because that’s how we’re living. We came up, thats the whole concept, you know-the struggle.
THEOVUN: That’s real talk. You’re from the Bronx- what neighborhood you reppin?
DARQ: I don’t wanna split it up you know , we trying to bring it together…
THEOVUN: I like that, solidarity. How long have you been rhyming?
DARQ: I been rapping since I was 11, but I started doing it seriously in 2000. I was going hard when I found out I was having my daughter. Then i grinded for the first 5 years in Philly and in 2005, I got picked up by Too Much Entertainment and then from there we started building a name and getting me groomed as real artist. [that brings you] to now, we working on developing and building me as an artist.
THEOVUN: Artist development, I feel you. Where have people seen you perform or where can they see you?
DARQ: Oh man, I’ve done just about every showcase in New York: Bowery, Lehman College, Get Your Buzz Up, Overtime, Indy 500, Ace of Spades, Protégé Magazine Showcase, all of them… and a lot more coming up so check my pages and everything