A QUICK CONVERSATION WITH NOAHH OF TLG

Noahh is one of six members of The Lo$t Generation, pop-hip hop blended collective currently taking the music world by storm. The group, though still underground, has one of the most passionate fanbases on the Internet, and the talent to keep them coming back. I had a quick chat with Noahh to understand how the group was put together, what inspired him to start creating music and what we can look forward to on ‘Lo$t Tape 2’.

What sparked your interest in music?

NOAHH: When I was younger, my dad would always take me to live concerts. His homie was a drummer and handed me his drumsticks after a performance. Since that day, I always told myself I wanted to be a performer and touch people with music the same way their music had touched me.

Who was your first musical inspiration?

NOAHH: Weird Al Yankovich was my first music inspiration. I bumped every single remix he ever made and that was my sh*t in middle school. As I started making music in high school and taking it serious, though I’d definitely have to say cloudy Nueve, Emilio Zapata, all my brothers in TLG, as well as Post Malone, Kanye west & Justin Bieber.

Has where you live influenced your sound?

NOAHH: Where I live has definitely influenced the sound. Before I moved to NC, I was surrounded by country music in Kentucky, not ideal for the music I would want to make. When I came here, I was blessed enough to link up with my brothers and create a sound the city hasn’t had before.

Is The Lo$t Gen your first musical group? How did you guys become a group?

NOAHH: The Lo$t Generation is my first and only group. We started in 2014 in my junior year of high school... It was just me Jaheal, and Brody at first. Overtime I became close with the twins (Koke and juGGa John), and convinced them if they took their freestyles and popularity serious, they could make something big out of themselves. We made our first song & the rest is history. Soon after we discovered Emilio and were able to recruit him in as the final puzzle piece. We’ve been going hard ever since. I’m so proud of all of them, for real.

What do you think sets the six of you apart from other hip hop groups?

NOAHH: What sets us apart from other groups is many things. First we’re really supported in our hometown, most artists gain love outside there hometown, then the hometown stops sleeping on them and supports after. We do the opposite. Raleigh loves us and we love them, which is gonna help carry us to the top. Another thing is the family aspect and diversity. Before any music we’re a family first. Those are my brothers for life beyond music. I’d die for any of them no questions asked. Each of us make different sounding music individually and even different sounding music when we get together. Always keeping our listeners on their toes and never knowing what to expect next. I think our boy band image and how we brand ourselves helps too, haven’t seen anything like us since One Direction. LOL.

What moment made you realize TLG was really taking off?

NOAHH: The moment I realized TLG was taking off is when I went to Rolling Loud and got noticed in the middle of a crowd of people... I was 12 hours away from my hometown & got noticed amongst 60,000 people that was shocking to me . Above that, being able to do a show in your hometown and have over 250 people you’ve never seen before show up singing, word-for-word, to songs you wrote in your room really makes you take a step back and go, “Damn” you know.

Will there be any solo content from you in the near future?

NOAHH: There will be solo content real soon! We’re each working on solo projects to put out and show the world what we each have as solo acts. We’ve just been pushing the group stuff and branding it so when we drop our solo tapes it’ll get the same praise and love as a group album or song would. Wanna make sure the timing is right when it drops so it doesn’t land on deaf ears.

Will there be a tour for ‘2’?

NOAHH: We’d definitely love to do a tour for the album. We’ve got connections to lots of venues, lots of artists and people in different cities. If we’re able to fund it ourselves or get somebody to book us, or bring us along, then you’ll see ‘2’ coming to a city near you! You can definitely expect a Raleigh show, though. Shoutout our engineer Rob (@thatshitsoundslikerob) for always making us sound amazing. Shouts out to everybody who supports me individually as well as The Lo$t Generation.

THE LO$T TAPE 2 drops this Saturday. Follow The Lo$t Generation on Instagram @los.gen & Twitter @tlgmg

DRUG SICK BY TOMMYICE

Fans of Atlanta’s breakthrough artist tommyice have been not-so-patiently awaiting ‘drug sick’, the first of, hopefully, many collaborations between the artist and Internet Money. The track, co-produced by multi-platinum producer Nick Mira and PrettyBoyRon from Ontario, is a melancholy confession by tommyice, opening up about his life and thoughts lately, “lost in my head no coming back... lost in the cash and lost in the weed...”. The young artist is surely taking in his all of his success, deservedly. He hasn’t lost his morals though, stating he’ll never take Xanax or lose a friend, especially to the drug- hence the name of the song. The song is catchy and the producers did an excellent job of getting you to bounce along to the beat. I’m sure we’ll hear more from him soon.

Click here to listen.

Have You Seen This Lost Boy?

YBN Cordae has taken fan engagement to the next level with the release of his debut album. Cordae and his team created a missing persons style poster in support of his “The Lost Boy” project. The flyer dawns the typical age, weight and height information along with a picture of the young lyricist and a number for the “reward” if found. Some fans have actually text the number and found that there is much more to this promotional campaign.

Once you text the number, it send you a link to YBN Cordae’s website which holds a maze game named after his album. The game times your attempt to escape the maze and once completed, it sends you a congratulations. Not just for finishing, but because you’ve earned your reward from the missing persons poster. The prize: two plane tickets to see YBN Cordae perform in New York on November 8th. Way more than anyone was expecting!

If you’re interested in entering, the number is 424-379-5678.
Credit to @YBNCordaeFanpag on twitter for discovering the contest!

Photo credit: Adam Woodard

WORRIED SICK BY CONVOLK

                       

For long time fans of artist Convolk, this is the moment they’ve been waiting for. “Worried Sick”  has been long anticipated and a milestone, symbolic of growth and progress in his career and sound. “Anxiety”, the fourth song on the seven track LP has already soared to the heights of two hundred thousand plays within the week of release. The melancholy beat mends his somber storytelling and connects with listeners. His style bridges the gap between Indy-punk and rap. It’s the perfect mix for that sluggish, not-really-feeling-it mood. Convolk is right there with you. 

Click here to listen. 

Come Again by Bernard Jabs ft. Iann Dior

The dynamic duo Bernard Jabs and Iann Dior are back on a track together after their widely successful collaboration “Molly”. This time around, it’s Bernard taking the reigns and Iann adding his magic touch to the track. There’s no doubt this one will be another fan favorite. “Come Again” is an upbeat, carefree track. The young rappers express their inability to be tied down and all the women that come around. Bernard Jabs’ distinct vocals open up about his love life that he simply can’t get together with his career taking off, but he’s trying.

Click here to listen. 

The Unprecedented Rise of Iann Dior

Iann Dior is a 20-year-old rapper from Corpus Christi, Texas. He began his musical career using part of his name, his stage name eliminated Michael from Michael Olmo. It wasn’t until approximately the beginning of 2019 that he began using the alias Iann Dior. His music first gained traction amongst gamers and streamers on Twitch, connecting him with big name streamers and producers such as FaZe Banks, owner of gaming group FaZe Clan and Nick Mira, one of the hottest producers with a futuristic, emotional influence to his beats. This proved to be a killer combination as Iann’s first official releases on SoundCloud skyrocketed by millions. Iann Dior’s developing success is like no other.

His music seemed to resonate with younger audiences immediately. His first track, Cutthroat, produced by Nick Mira, broke into the New & Hot list on SoundCloud only a month after being posted. His music exploded without traditional advertising or marketing. Instead, video game streaming led the way. Nick Mira often creates loops and tracks live on stream for other producers and fans to follow along with. From collaborating and creating in this way, and creating a Discord for his fans, Iann’s music was being pushed to their audiences in real time. Fans could get sneak peeks and incredible VIP access to the process. From there, the Internet did its thing and FaZe Banks and other members of the streaming community caught on, playing his new, somewhat unreleased tracks on their streams. This was the rapper’s first big break.

The Texas rapper made one of the best decision he probably could early in his career: working with one of the most influential executive producers and A&Rs of the new age- Taz Taylor. Taz Taylor, owner of Internet Money, has proven to have one of the best ears for finding new talent. It appears this trio cannot be stopped. Since the success of Cutthroat, Iann has released two visuals and a handful of collaborations with other Internet Money artists such as PradaBaby and Bernard Jabs. Obviously, there was something special to him as an artist as he quickly picked up a feature from PNB Rock on his song ‘romance361’ and later, possibly controversial, King of Emo Rap: Trippie Redd for ‘gone girl’.

At this point in his journey, Iann Dior’s path appears to be the future for underground artists. Promoting music directly to your audience provides an artist a bond that labels can’t create. His supporters could see each of his moves as they occurred. They know about all the hard work and engineering that went into each of his tracks, videos, and photoshoots. This relationship, between an artist and fans, gave pop star Justin Bieber his start over ten years ago via YouTube and manager  Scooter Braun. If Iann can keep up this momentum, there’s no telling where he’ll be a year from now.

A QUICK CONVERSATION WITH FADEDBLACKID

Enjoy a quick conversation with multi-platinum producer and NeilaWorld member fadedblackid. I picked his brain on growing up in the south, the current state of music, his biggest collaboration ever and what he has locked in the vault. Take a few minutes to learn a bit more about one of the best from the underground.

How has growing up in the South shaped your sound?

FADED: Growing up in the south shaped my sound in a good way. I feel because the south is the home of trap music and the best rap shit comes from down south. I feel like in the south it’s really a different environment you gotta grow up in, so that shit definitely shows in the music.

How would you describe the sound or tone you’re trying to make with your producing?

FADED: I would say my sound is futuristic, some Neilaworld shit- basically some shit you would hear in a portal or like if you were an alien. That’s how my shit sounds- alien like. A little bit of speaker knockerz, 808 mafia metro boomin and wod influence dashed in it.

You recently coproduced LLÀRI GAGA by POLLARI with Lukrative and 6houl, how was was it working with two other producers on a song? Have you produced with a larger group on a single song before?

FADED: That song came about in a cool way. We were in LA, in the studio for pollari lukrative session and lukrative had got some 6houl melodies to work on. He started the beat in headphones while they were making a song and he just was like, “Yo, hop on this”. The rest is really history. I ain’t like what I did at first on the beat so I deleted it and started over then I passed the laptop back to Lukrative. He added that sauce and that Lukrative perc and game over. Pollari made a love song- yeah I have done a collab with four people on it and one time we got a bunch of producers to drop a 20 man beat collab.

How has NeilaWorld affected your career and view on the music industry?

FADED: Bro Neilaworld is probably the greatest idea known to man right now. Like, career wise, it’s effected me so positively to be around like minded and hardworking people. That shit really crazy and it’s humbling for real. I deadass be coolin in a chat and linking up with legends and future legends... all these guys will be great and I can’t wait for the world to see what we see. It changed my view on the industry in one particular way, but this all imma say I don’t wanna say too much, but if you’re smart, you will catch on “2 brains always gonna work better then one”.

What was your first major placement? How far into your career was it?

FADED: Pump, but honestly, fuck that placement for the fact that I didn’t get the chance to build like I wanted to, but respect to him. It was 2017, that’s basically when i took shit serious. My favorite placement is Uzi even though I don’t know when it will drop. Just the fact that he even heard my tag and Neila tag is cool as hell. Imma work with Uzi again soon. Watch, just watch.

Do you have any advice for producers, something you wish you knew when you started?

FADED: Yeah, fuck what everybody talking about. I used to try to impress my friends, but fuck that- impress yourself.

What gets you out of a creative funk?

FADED: I just watch cookup videos to get inspired now or i just realize that everyday i don’t work it’s someone outworkimg me

The best sample you’ve ever found/used?

FADED: Honestly don’t really sample a lot but probably All I Wanted by Paramour.

Any collaborations or placements we should look out for?

FADED: Just keep your eyes peeled i got sum shit with slot of upcoming artist in this soundcloud shit but watch out for the other shit i’m aiming for. Just need shit to drop.



Click here to listen to his newest EP Life Upside Down!