Author Archives: jakecrates

Fat Meech – “DAMN.”(Prod by TreezymadeIt)

Today West Coast rapper, singer, and songwriter Fat Meech released his new single titled, “DAMN.” Paying homage to Kendrick Lamar’s hit album DAMN., Fat Meech highlights a real life situation when his cousin was shot two times in front of his house when Fat Meech was only 13 years old. 

“What I’ve survived might kill you and so I choose to put it into the music” Fat Meech said. “I wanna drop singles that tell people who I am and just push the single to their max potential.”

While the song has not yet made it’s way to an official album, Fat Meech has full intentions of promoting this song heavily to his fan base as he continues the rollout of content over the next few weeks and months. 

“One of the verses you’ll notice, I talk about someone pulling up in a Caddy and shooting shots and someone getting shot – so it’s a story about when I was like 12 or 13 and my cousin got shot two times, once in the back of his head and once in his shoulder and we saw the whole thing me and my sister. It’s just a crazy story and its just traumatic. It’s a real story. When it first started happening I thought it was firecrackers, like consistently going off. I think it was like 20-30 shells they found in the street but they only hit him twice,” Fat Meech recalled.

Tapping deep into the listeners psyche in a similar fashion to his song “Brothers 2” that went viral after receiving support from Blueface on social media, Fat Meech pulls the listener in with catchy melodies that tell a tragic story. 

“So I first started out with Brothers originally and I wanted to keep the same vibe but a different song. People love it, because the whole song is a question and it’s about people not being real and it’s so direct that people can tap into it and it’s still going up. There’s so much shenanigans and bullshit going on in the world,” Fat Meech said. “When I’m telling a story I want it to sound as easy to the ear as it can sound. I don’t want a rough story to sound rough. The story could be traumatic, but I pay more attention to the rhythm. I want something that’s going to be attractive to the ear and something that people can play over and over.”

One of the ways that Fat Meech built his fan base was through promoting his music at high schools locally, giving away cash and merchandise. 

“For the high school tour we literally didn’t know anything. I just posted it on IG and then I gathered my team together.  There were other artists involved and I knew that coming to the school would be marketable and great for the brand so I threw t-shirts and money and it helped grow my fan base drastically. I left the school and got 500 followers a day. I’m definitely doing it again – I’m going to the desert to hit a few schools because I know who is listening.  Outside of LA there’s a lot more of that and they tap in.”

Knowing the path to success isn’t easy, Fat Meech is just focused on consistency and making sure he grabs people with each release.

“NO album yet, just pushing the single at this point, but I’m about to start recording and working on the album. I did Los Skanlees and Los Angeles Times but I’m in the works of figuring that out. I like to get people’s attention with a cold single as opposed to a whole album,” Fat Meech said. “The come up is lonely and you trying to be an entrepreneur is lonely. People see the glitz and glamour of it and they only see the nice stuff, but they don’t see the work that it took to get there. I’m putting in that work now and you gonna see it because I share that with my fans and they appreciate the realness of it all.”

Shepherd – Gametime (Latin Remix) [ft. Tommy Royale & Niko Eme]

Today, Miami based rapper Shepherd debuts a Spanish remix to his motivational crowd-rocking anthem “Gametime”, featuring Puerto Rico’s Tommy Royale & Niko Eme. The hard-hitting inspirational hit song had major success with its original and official remix, earning over 6 Million Plays on Spotify and a special guest verse on the remix by NBA legend and cultural icon Shaquille O’Neal. “Gametime” is playing across the country at NFL, NBA and NHL games and on playlists curated by Golds Gym, LA Fitness and Planet Fitness.

“It’s been an amazing experience having so much support from the fans, about to land over 7 million plays and leaving marks in the NFL, NBA and national gym franchises is a dream. Being a child of an immigrant and being raised to represent my Hispanic heritage proudly, I have been paying attention to all the countless messages, emails, mentions and I realize I had to do something unique. This Latin remix is a thank you to the fans, a step closer to my roots and an expression of my truest self. I love being able to talk about my people and our love for Latin trap,” explains Shepherd.

“This remix means so much more than a song…it’s the continuance of what’s already been part of my life. At age 14, I made my first song, inspired by my Spanish rapping cousin and the whole record was Spanish. This was a great opportunity to circle back to those early years and represent for my people.”

Tanner Molique – Tunnel Vision ft. Casey Veggies

Expanding on an already blossoming roster, California record label VerySpecial presents rapper Tanner Molique and his new single “Tunnel Vision”. Debuted on Elevator-Mag, the song combines elements of trap, dance and a supreme level of confidence. This young upstart has a rapidly expanding fan base across the West Coast that’s getting attention across the music industry from label execs, fans and everyone in between.

“This a flex song – sing this to ya ex. Turn up to it, it don’t matter. This one shows my versatility,” Tanner Molique said. “I like to rap but I also like to sing. I think it’s cause of how I was raised with different background of music, so I’m always trying to use all the weapons I have. Casey is blessing the world with this feature. He killed his verse and I’m excited to perform this shit one day with the bro bro.”

Supporting Tanner Molique from the start of his career, helping him develop music and videos surrounding his songs, VerySpecial took interest in Tanner after realizing how unique of a person he has always been.

“I always liked to be creative growing up. During classes at school I’d either be writing songs or free styling with the homies at the lunch tables just fooling around,” Tanner Molique explained. “Then I just got more and more serious about this shit and then got myself into the studio. Around the right people, now it’s something I do cause I’m addicted to it. Creating something from nothing. The process.”

The belief in the vision has been mutual as Tanner Molique has grown not only as an artist but as a person while under the VerySpecial roof.

“I’ve grown on my own ways and I’ve seen myself turning into the person I’ve always dreamt of being, but they’re the dream team for real for real. We didn’t wait and hope for some sh*t to happen we made this sh*t happen. We manifested this sh*t.”

With the “Tunnel Vision” release taking off this Fall Tanner is looking toward the video release and his new project called, Jagboy.

“Tunnel Vision has a video in the works and then we dropping a music video for the first song on the new tape I got dropping called Jagboy.”

 

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Kembe X – Scoreboard (Video)

by .

DIRECTOR: Psycho Films

Today Kembe X released his new video for “Scoreboard.” The song comes on the heels of the release of Kembe’s critically acclaimed project, I Was Depressed Until I Made This. Previously Kembe released “Voices,”and “LFTFF,” from this album, but this energetic video gives fans a chance to dive back into the TDE affiliate’s first release in nearly two years, as Kembe X released his Talk Back effort in 2016.

Surf – BADDER HUMAN (Mixtape)

Recently ever-evolving Atlanta rapper Surf delivered his full-length mixtape titled, BADDER HUMAN. The project is led by the widely popular hit single, “Better Days” and is the sequel and follow up to his 2018 project BAD HUMAN. 

Having battled episodes of depression after several of his friends died and dealing with the everyday struggles of being a 20 year-old Black male in America, “Better Days” captures Surf in his natural element, determined to pursue a new path in life.  Fortunately Surf has found solace in his music, as it has provided a guiding light for many of his fans who also go through some of the same obstacles mentally, physically and emotionally.  

“Better Days was inspired by current events in my life. This year was a tough year for me with everything all around. I had to deal with a lot of displacement and a lot of death. But I linked with my new management team and they really inspired me to look towards, Better Days.” Surf explained. “This year I was going to just stop making music but they inspired me to keep pushing and making music, so I wrote this song about how things will get better and I let out a lot of feelings. The message is just to keep pushing because Better Days will come.”

With a grandfather that did work with Reggae legend Peter Tosh and other small bands in Jamaica, Surf grew up in a musical family and picked up the piano and the guitar in his early teens. From there he learned how to record himself and eventually began to develop a fanbase on Soundcloud, where he would upload his recordings and interact with fellow artists and fans. 

“I was just putting stuff out on Soundcloud and I didn’t have a plan, I didn’t really have any idea what I was doing, I was just making music because I loved to create. I was getting feedback from classmates and people online, but I had a very chill start up and gradual growth to this point.”

Incorporating trap sounds like 808’s and a punk influenced attitude that you can hear his lyrics, Surf has embodied the eclectic nature of punk and trap music for a mashup that breaks genre barriers. Highlighted by his fan favorite songs “Fight” and “Itsok2cry,” the Atlanta millennial has generated over 5 million steams on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and other DSPs while he continues to grow his fanbase daily. 

“My music is a new generational twist on Hip-Hop and Punk influenced music,” Surf explained. “Heavy 808, really cool synths – it’s just really different and it all still keeps that Hip-Hop trap element to it, so I think that my music will really set itself apart from other music out today.” 

In August of 2019, Surf performed at Atlanta’s GridLife Festival that also featured the likes of Flosstradamus, Soulja Boy, Twista and Xavier Wulf. With the release of BADDER HUMAN, Surf is quickly building the momentum as he gears up for a host of local spot dates this Fall. 

Charlie Heat – Fireworks (Album)

6x-time GRAMMY Award-nominated producer Charlie Heat releases his new compilation album Fireworks via his label, House of 99 under exclusive license to Vydia. The album includes the previously released singles “Have A Good Time” featuring Syd from The Internet, “Aloha” featuring Denzel Curry and “WWYA” featuring Lil Baby & G Herbo.

Fireworks serves as Charlie Heat’s first official full-length studio album. Fans of the producer will get to experience Charlie Heat’s signature blend of live instrumentation and trap-inspired beats as well as pockets of smoother R&B moments. Additional features on the LP include DRAM, 24hrs, Tommy Genesis and a special collab between Freeway & CyHi The Prynce among others.

Like his name, Charlie Heat has cooked up some heat over the years for the likes of Kanye West, Madonna, Kehlani, Ty Dolla $ign, DRAM and Lil Uzi Vert including the most recent Pusha T single with Ms. Lauryn Hill. Subsequently catching the ears of the press, Charlie Heat has been profiled by outlets such as Genius, Mass Appeal, Complex, and The FADER. “Have A Good Time” & Fireworks follows the release of Charlie Heat’s viral smash, “Sunshine” featuring Ant Beale, which has garnered a lot of attention this summer receiving over 800K personal TikTok videos as well as received over 50 million streams.