VAGABONDS
To
get the ball rolling here; E.R, What is Vagabonds Music Group?
E.R: Let me break it down for ya, man. We kinda already are off in left field with the pronunciation. We recognize that it is pronounced as it is spelled in English; our take on it though goes back to the Haitian roots, where it is pronounced Vagabon', it’s more or less a way for us to bring our culture into it a bit.
Basiqly: Just to add to that, the name for us is kind of a double standard for us. Being Haitian, I know as a culture that is used to describe someone who is up to no good, someone who is in affiliation with the gang culture. For us though, we chose that name because we see the definition as being someone who is always on the move, always travelling from one place to another with the sole intention of trying to discover themselves. It’s a weird thing to experience; because people will come up to me and be like "so, are you some kind of gangster or something?" They get the wrong Idea about the message behind the music we make. That’s why on our website and our social networking pages, we have the definition of the word readily available for our visitors to take in. We are the perfect example of a couple of modern day Vagabonds; all we do is travel, trying to find ourselves in this music industry.
E.R: Definitely that is in terms of the name. One, the business end of it, we have heard of and been witness to so many horror stories involving artists getting stuck in go-nowhere record deals, where they have no say in their final product, or are short-changed for the work that they put in. For us, we know for a fact, due to us owning our own catalogue and merchandising rights that a lot of money goes into this venture every day, and we do not want to see that go to waste when the end of the day rolls around. I, personally, went to school for music business and my mentor there Steve Roitstein, who is an industry vet who has won some Grammy awards for the work behind the scenes that he has done, really showed me the ropes and helped prepare me for what it takes to make it in this business; because he recognized the talents we possess early on in our career. With his support, we have put this company together and we are teaching him the things that we learn as we make our mark on the industry.
Basiqly, what would you say the collective message of "Vagabonds Music Group" is?
Basiqly: Most people seem to think that we are very conscious rappers; in reality we are not really trying to spread the good word or anything like that, we just tell a story with our music that depicts the world as we see it. We kind of stick to the gray area of hip hop that is most relatable to people who are faced with the changing times that are at hand. Whether it be the well off people out there who are losing their shirts to the recession, or to the people who are struggling everyday to put food on their family's plates. We do not want to tell the same stories that we hear all the time, from people in the industry. We are just ordinary people telling ordinary stories in a way that listeners find extraordinary. I'm sure E.R can add to that as well...
E.R.: Basically, I agree with everything he said. The American dream of going to college and working hard with dreams of making a very comfortable existence for yourself, is no longer the reality that many young people are faced with. I did not even finish my music degree and I was able to get a high paying job in the industry, so the times are changing, man. I like what he said when he was discussing the gray side of things, because that was something that I even brought up to him in the very beginning, when we were discussing the logo design. I liked that it was black, white and gray, because even in the year 2010, it is a very black and white world. The "V" in our design highlights that gray area that we throw out there to the masses.
What, as individuals, would you say was the driving force behind each of you deciding on hip hop as a career choice?
Basiqly: I was not born in this Country (U.S.A); growing up in Haiti, I would always be found crowding around a radio, ya know. When I came over here, hip hop was the first form of music that I experienced a love for. Throughout the years, I developed a passion for it; even in high school while the teachers were doing their lessons, I would be writing rhymes. I always had a vision of myself being involved in the music business; it all came together after high school. I met E.R. in 2003 and we just hit it off, and started planning for our futures.
E.R.: My history with music goes way back, man. I do not have the typical story of growing up in a single parent home, with no one to look up to. Both of my parents have always done whatever they needed to do to provide for their family. Their drawback, however, is the fact that both do not speak any English, which has led to a lack of success in this country for them. I grew up in Little Havanna, which is a community that is about 95 percent Hispanic, and can easily stand up there as one of the poorest neighborhoods in Florida today. My first exposure to another race came from the fact that I went to an all black elementary school; the first music I heard, after learning to grasp the English language better, was rap. My cousins who were living with me at the time were in high school, so they were exposed to the urban lifestyles already; here I am, 2 or 3 years old, listening to NWA and Luke and the 2 Live Crew. My mother always reminds me that it was that type of music that I would fall asleep to as a kid. As I started to get older, I can remember sitting in the back of the school bus with my headphones on and all of a sudden, I start writing rhymes. It just seemed to come so naturally to me; this was 1998, when I was in the sixth grade, at that time you had artists like Big Pun and Eminem who were lyrical giants and that is where I kind of got my initial influence from.
Basiqly: I think that's what kind of connects me and E.R, man. He mentioned Little Havanna, before I moved to South Miami, I was raised in an all Haitian community in North Miami. When my parents first came to this country, they did not have any real direction; it was the American dream and the hopes of carving out a better life for us all that brought them here. When it came to what I was going to do with my life, I never had anyone trying to help push me into a certain career path; I did not have someone saying ‘you should be a doctor or an astronaut’. The one constant presence throughout my whole life has been music. Even when I was in college, when I should have been studying for exams, I would actually be writing to a beat that E.R. had sent me.
What events led up to you both coming together to form Vagabonds?
Basiqly: It all really came together for us last year. Previous to Vagabonds, we were in another group that kind of fell apart. We had been in this group for about 6 or 7 years, E.R. and myself always had the same taste in music. At the time, I had started to record music that expressed how I felt about the issues the group was having and it really was taking me in a direction creatively that I did not want to go. It all came to a head and I pretty much just quit the group. Last year, out of the blue, E.R calls me up and asked if I was still making music, I told him I was and it put the wheels in motion. One day, I was listening to the radio and this Max Romeo song, and I reached out to E.R. knowing that he was producing at the time, and I asked him if he would be able to sample it for me and make a beat. He did it and as soon as I heard the track, I knew it was special, so I jumped right on recording it. That was the first song that E.R. and I worked on collectively and from there, we knew that we had something special. That song alone got us 20,000 downloads.
E.R.: This is something that we threw out to see what the response would be. Even though I went to school for this, it is still a learning process to this day. It was just a little cover that I threw together, I set up a download link and we did some marketing through Facebook and Twitter, because at the time we did not even have an email list. Well, the next thing you know, we are looking at like 1,000 plays a day, which led up to the 20,000 downloads we are at today. Good music cannot be denied and that’s the motto that I live by, no matter how left field or uncommercial it may be; if what people hear is good, they will gravitate towards it.
E.R being that you are an in-house producer, a performing artist and running a company along side of Basiqly; what is it like for you trying to make records, having the knowledge of every aspect of the creative process?
E.R: HA HA, that's a good one, man. It really is something that I struggle with every day. Up until recently, I was still attending school, I was working a full time job in the industry, running this company with Basiqly, and trying to manage a personal life; so the way that I have always created music from the beginning of this journey had changed, at a time when the grind to make this all a success was at its heaviest. I am use to having an idea come into my mind for a record and immediately knocking it out. These days when it comes to even just sitting down and making music, the whole process is very scheduled. We have deadlines that impose on ourselves, we do not personally like giving ourselves an allotted amount of time to be creative, but these days it is very necessary for us to do that, in order to keep a harmonious balance in our lives and for the business to run smoothly. As a producer these days, I do find it difficult sometimes to work with other artists outside of the camp, because in this field it is my job to give the client the sound that they feel is definitive of their style and approach to making music; the difficult part is I tend to, at times, get caught up in the Vagabond sound, so it’s definitely a gift and a curse having the ability to understand the game on so many different levels.
E.R: Let me break it down for ya, man. We kinda already are off in left field with the pronunciation. We recognize that it is pronounced as it is spelled in English; our take on it though goes back to the Haitian roots, where it is pronounced Vagabon', it’s more or less a way for us to bring our culture into it a bit.
Basiqly: Just to add to that, the name for us is kind of a double standard for us. Being Haitian, I know as a culture that is used to describe someone who is up to no good, someone who is in affiliation with the gang culture. For us though, we chose that name because we see the definition as being someone who is always on the move, always travelling from one place to another with the sole intention of trying to discover themselves. It’s a weird thing to experience; because people will come up to me and be like "so, are you some kind of gangster or something?" They get the wrong Idea about the message behind the music we make. That’s why on our website and our social networking pages, we have the definition of the word readily available for our visitors to take in. We are the perfect example of a couple of modern day Vagabonds; all we do is travel, trying to find ourselves in this music industry.
E.R: Definitely that is in terms of the name. One, the business end of it, we have heard of and been witness to so many horror stories involving artists getting stuck in go-nowhere record deals, where they have no say in their final product, or are short-changed for the work that they put in. For us, we know for a fact, due to us owning our own catalogue and merchandising rights that a lot of money goes into this venture every day, and we do not want to see that go to waste when the end of the day rolls around. I, personally, went to school for music business and my mentor there Steve Roitstein, who is an industry vet who has won some Grammy awards for the work behind the scenes that he has done, really showed me the ropes and helped prepare me for what it takes to make it in this business; because he recognized the talents we possess early on in our career. With his support, we have put this company together and we are teaching him the things that we learn as we make our mark on the industry.
Basiqly, what would you say the collective message of "Vagabonds Music Group" is?
Basiqly: Most people seem to think that we are very conscious rappers; in reality we are not really trying to spread the good word or anything like that, we just tell a story with our music that depicts the world as we see it. We kind of stick to the gray area of hip hop that is most relatable to people who are faced with the changing times that are at hand. Whether it be the well off people out there who are losing their shirts to the recession, or to the people who are struggling everyday to put food on their family's plates. We do not want to tell the same stories that we hear all the time, from people in the industry. We are just ordinary people telling ordinary stories in a way that listeners find extraordinary. I'm sure E.R can add to that as well...
E.R.: Basically, I agree with everything he said. The American dream of going to college and working hard with dreams of making a very comfortable existence for yourself, is no longer the reality that many young people are faced with. I did not even finish my music degree and I was able to get a high paying job in the industry, so the times are changing, man. I like what he said when he was discussing the gray side of things, because that was something that I even brought up to him in the very beginning, when we were discussing the logo design. I liked that it was black, white and gray, because even in the year 2010, it is a very black and white world. The "V" in our design highlights that gray area that we throw out there to the masses.
What, as individuals, would you say was the driving force behind each of you deciding on hip hop as a career choice?
Basiqly: I was not born in this Country (U.S.A); growing up in Haiti, I would always be found crowding around a radio, ya know. When I came over here, hip hop was the first form of music that I experienced a love for. Throughout the years, I developed a passion for it; even in high school while the teachers were doing their lessons, I would be writing rhymes. I always had a vision of myself being involved in the music business; it all came together after high school. I met E.R. in 2003 and we just hit it off, and started planning for our futures.
E.R.: My history with music goes way back, man. I do not have the typical story of growing up in a single parent home, with no one to look up to. Both of my parents have always done whatever they needed to do to provide for their family. Their drawback, however, is the fact that both do not speak any English, which has led to a lack of success in this country for them. I grew up in Little Havanna, which is a community that is about 95 percent Hispanic, and can easily stand up there as one of the poorest neighborhoods in Florida today. My first exposure to another race came from the fact that I went to an all black elementary school; the first music I heard, after learning to grasp the English language better, was rap. My cousins who were living with me at the time were in high school, so they were exposed to the urban lifestyles already; here I am, 2 or 3 years old, listening to NWA and Luke and the 2 Live Crew. My mother always reminds me that it was that type of music that I would fall asleep to as a kid. As I started to get older, I can remember sitting in the back of the school bus with my headphones on and all of a sudden, I start writing rhymes. It just seemed to come so naturally to me; this was 1998, when I was in the sixth grade, at that time you had artists like Big Pun and Eminem who were lyrical giants and that is where I kind of got my initial influence from.
Basiqly: I think that's what kind of connects me and E.R, man. He mentioned Little Havanna, before I moved to South Miami, I was raised in an all Haitian community in North Miami. When my parents first came to this country, they did not have any real direction; it was the American dream and the hopes of carving out a better life for us all that brought them here. When it came to what I was going to do with my life, I never had anyone trying to help push me into a certain career path; I did not have someone saying ‘you should be a doctor or an astronaut’. The one constant presence throughout my whole life has been music. Even when I was in college, when I should have been studying for exams, I would actually be writing to a beat that E.R. had sent me.
What events led up to you both coming together to form Vagabonds?
Basiqly: It all really came together for us last year. Previous to Vagabonds, we were in another group that kind of fell apart. We had been in this group for about 6 or 7 years, E.R. and myself always had the same taste in music. At the time, I had started to record music that expressed how I felt about the issues the group was having and it really was taking me in a direction creatively that I did not want to go. It all came to a head and I pretty much just quit the group. Last year, out of the blue, E.R calls me up and asked if I was still making music, I told him I was and it put the wheels in motion. One day, I was listening to the radio and this Max Romeo song, and I reached out to E.R. knowing that he was producing at the time, and I asked him if he would be able to sample it for me and make a beat. He did it and as soon as I heard the track, I knew it was special, so I jumped right on recording it. That was the first song that E.R. and I worked on collectively and from there, we knew that we had something special. That song alone got us 20,000 downloads.
E.R.: This is something that we threw out to see what the response would be. Even though I went to school for this, it is still a learning process to this day. It was just a little cover that I threw together, I set up a download link and we did some marketing through Facebook and Twitter, because at the time we did not even have an email list. Well, the next thing you know, we are looking at like 1,000 plays a day, which led up to the 20,000 downloads we are at today. Good music cannot be denied and that’s the motto that I live by, no matter how left field or uncommercial it may be; if what people hear is good, they will gravitate towards it.
E.R being that you are an in-house producer, a performing artist and running a company along side of Basiqly; what is it like for you trying to make records, having the knowledge of every aspect of the creative process?
E.R: HA HA, that's a good one, man. It really is something that I struggle with every day. Up until recently, I was still attending school, I was working a full time job in the industry, running this company with Basiqly, and trying to manage a personal life; so the way that I have always created music from the beginning of this journey had changed, at a time when the grind to make this all a success was at its heaviest. I am use to having an idea come into my mind for a record and immediately knocking it out. These days when it comes to even just sitting down and making music, the whole process is very scheduled. We have deadlines that impose on ourselves, we do not personally like giving ourselves an allotted amount of time to be creative, but these days it is very necessary for us to do that, in order to keep a harmonious balance in our lives and for the business to run smoothly. As a producer these days, I do find it difficult sometimes to work with other artists outside of the camp, because in this field it is my job to give the client the sound that they feel is definitive of their style and approach to making music; the difficult part is I tend to, at times, get caught up in the Vagabond sound, so it’s definitely a gift and a curse having the ability to understand the game on so many different levels.
