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  Fresh Daily Interview
interview 0487 added
28.11.06 words: Sloppy
Jallopy
technical:
QED
During a recent trip to NYC taking in numerous Hip Hop shows,
I got to see and later meet a very talented MC called Fresh Daily. I really enjoyed his music and style and having not heard anything about him in the UK I thought an interview for ukhh.com readers was definitely in order to enlighten others who may not be aware of this talented artist already. This is what he had to say:
Fresh Daily, please introduce yourself to the ukhh.com readers.
 Peace to the UK, the place that gave us Slick Rick! Word! I’m Fresh Daily, a Brooklyn NYC emcee, sneaker head, writer and graffiti writer/illustrator…
Can we get some background (where you grew up? Life as a youngster? Where you’re at now? Etc.)?
Well, I live in Ft.Greene, Brooklyn NYC and I grew up in Canarsie Brooklyn NYC, here in the States, at 5 yrs old, my mother and I moved to Philly, PA where we lived a rather transient life where we eventually moved back to the Bronx, NY when I was 7, at which time Crack cocaine was really prevalent in urban black communities and took hold of many of people. Coming up in that environment, was kind of rough, but my mother was really overprotective of me and fortunately I was never really exposed to that element, but living the transient life of moving from place kind of robbed me of a regular childhood. My mother is a devout Pentecostal Christian and refused to let me watch television, which is where I think I got creative, (laughing) I began reading furiously and found I have voracious appetite for books, which in turn, built up my vocabulary really crazy. At about 11 years old, I’d say I was better spoken and well read than my peers. Art was my primary focus though and I continued to excel in school in art and even win prizes for it. My mother and I eventually settled into Brooklyn’s Ft. Greene Housing Projects in ’91 where I lived for the most of my adolescent and young adult years.
How / when did you get into Hip Hop?
Growing up in a Pentecostal household and being basically homeless from the age of 5-11 years old didn’t allow me the chance to hear much hip-hop, but the very first song I remember hearing was Run-DMC’s “You be Illin” when I was a kid living in Philly. Of course in my later years moving back to Brooklyn some hearing Pete Rock and C.L Smooth’s “T.R.O.Y” ubiquitous anthem all over Brooklyn sparked my interest. Somehow a copy of Arrested Developments “3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of...” got in my hands and made me want to rap so badly. I know most emcees would never admit to Arrested Development being their main inspiration to rap, but it’s true. I loved the ambient but melodic, soulful boom-bap, the positive messages, everything man! The next things that would make me go bonkers to do this that I heard was, The Fugee’s “Nappy Heads” or “Mona Lisa” as me and my best friend at the time called it. I’ll never forget my best friend Tomel running to my house after school to play that song on cassette for me (behind my mothers back of course!) Busta Rhyme’s ‘Wooh-Hah! (Got you all in check!)” is another song that just inspired me. After I found Slick Rick and Big Daddy Kane, it was over for me, man. Don’t even mention Common, Mos Def, Jay-Z later down the line! Those guys got me even more amped up! Any rapper who had swagger and was braggadocious, I was sold on. Then after that anything boom-bap driven, or jazz/soul sampled, I was diggin’. I was definitely a Native tongues fan. I knew there was nothing else for me to do in this world aside from hip-hop except maybe art.
"...it was
almost offensive to be an intelligent regular emcee..."
How long have you been rapping for?
Well I wasn’t confident enough to start spitting any of my rhymes in public for a crowd, my friend Tomel was a natural ham for the mic, but we would practise at home for hours, whether on the phone or at each others houses. We did a few church talent shows in our teen years (1993-’96) but nothing serious until Tomel linked up with another emcee in our church named J-Quest. J-Quest was about 4-5 years older than us and a “real” hip-hop head to us. He took us out to open mics around Brooklyn. That’s how I built up my rhyme chops and reputation. In 1997-99 The Brooklyn Moon had a really dope open mic for spoken-word poetry and hip-hop. Erykah Badu started out there and so did Mos Def. D’Angelo has performed there; Andre 3000 has come through even UK Trip-hop emcee Tricky has been through. The best open mic where I learned how to hone my showmanship and really become an emcee was this open mic called “End of the Weak” on Sun. nights in the Lower East Side of NYC. I started going there in late ’99 and rocked many a sun. night there. That’s where I met Pack FM, Substantial, Immortal Technique, C Rayz Walz, Pumpkinhead, Jean Grae, Breez Evahflowin’ and mad other emcees. End of the Weak is the longest running hip-hop open mic in NYC and I still pass by to show support and see some of the new school emcees that come through.
If possible, please describe your style of hip-hop. What do you feel you bring to the table?
 Yo, primarily I feel as though the borough of Brooklyn brings the freshest emcees overall, which of course I feel an obligation to follow suit. Man, I’ll rap about anything, comics, video games, girls, clothing, toys, art and kicks, because that’s my world. I do real, average guy hip-hop, which now in the waking popularity of such emcees as Rhymefest, Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco may seem cliché, but I’ve been rapping about reality from the average guy perspective for as long as I can think! I feel as though I can’t rap about being a thug, or shooting anyone, or sexing a million chicks if I’ve never done any of the aforementioned things. Before this resurgence of “average guy who likes to stay fly” music scene it was almost offensive to be an intelligent regular emcee. I feel what separates me is the social commentary I leave out. A lot of emcees are social commentarians, you know, like politically conscious and socially conscious emcees. I’m a socially conscious person, I just don’t feel the need to preach and teach in my brand of hip-hop. I never felt a calling or mandate to be a Talib Kweli, KRS-One, or Immortal Technique. My music is “feel-good-because I can relate to you-and-I see how you dealt with it-and-overcame” music. Fresh Daily is the guy you can relate to while being entertained. Like we’ve been mates for a long time. You genuinely like my music and me. The rhyme schemes are well thought out without being nerdy and there’s no reliance on an overabundance of punchlines to drive my music to make it dope. I ride the beat like a brand-new horse and look good as hell doing it! You believe the swagger with no effort on my behalf. Being a sneakerhead and into street fashion as long as I have lends authenticity to my rhymes. It’s cool because I tap into a huge subculture that’s burgeoning right now too, and I’m not capitalizing off that, but anyone who knows Fresh for a while can tell you the minute I started working all my money went on trainers, man! A lot of kids are into that stuff now because of popular rappers promoting it but it’s just my life. I’m not a skater or anything, though. You’re not going to see me picking up a skateboard and rapping about that. I skateboarded when I was a kid and a teen and it kind of faded out. I’ve got no natural balance, I’m flat-footed!
You rhyme with a slightly funky twang, which doesn’t sound like the typical NYC spit. Can you explain why/how this is?
It’s funny you say that, ‘cause it took me a long time to rhyme in my natural tone. My voice is just naturally mid-ranged with high accents. I used to make my voice sound deeper ‘cause that’s a NYC thing, but as soon as I embraced my voice my popularity jumped out the roof. It gave me signature, which is what was the missing ingredient to success for me I think. My second favourite emcee is Common, I think I accidentally picked up a lil’ Chi-town twang from him.
Are you signed with anyone?
I’m with Uvink/Ope entertainment which is an indie label, but more of a collective. The co-founder is an emcee by the name of Substantial. You can check out the website at
http://www.uvinkonline.com/
Uvink/Ope entertainment is my temporary home for now til’ we either get distribution or I get picked or shopped to a label with decent distribution and promotion. Which I feel at the pace in which I’m working is inevitable.
"...I’ve been
rapping about reality from the average guy perspective for as long as I can
think..."
Although I’ve heard a fair bit of your music from performances, I’ve not been able to find anything available to purchase. Do you, or have you, had any singles/albums out available for purchase?
I have some music out right now, a really dope mixtape called “Mad Flavas” which you can purchase on the well renowned US underground hip-hop site
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=UV02CD, with the purchase of the mixtape you actually get 2 cd’s, another compilation from a production team who did a hip-hop
cd with nothing but rock samples. I’m featured on a track on that cd (as “ill Tarzan”) The mixtape was actually reviewd by Datwon Thomas who is the editor of the popular men’s magazine “King” here in the U.S on the King Magazine website in his blog called “Crown Jewels” you can see the review of the mixtape here:
http://king-mag.com/online/?p=1609
Are you working on any songs/albums at the moment? If so can we get some details?
 Sure, I’ve 4/5ths finished with my new album entitled “Fresh Daily is: The Gorgeous Killa in: Crimes of Passion” I’ve decided on that title because of the blaxploitation connotation it carries and also because it sometimes feels like a crime to be passionate about what you love. If you buck the trends, you always tend to be the outside, but all the successful emcees all became successful by going against the grain and being groundbreaking. Nobody became popular be being a conformist. The album has guest features: Substantial, Pumpkinhead, Raks One, Cool Calm Pete and some surprise guests, theres production by ILLMIND (G-unit, Sean Price, Little Brother), 2 Hungry Brothers (L.I.F.Elong, C Rayz Walz), Prism (ESPN, Soul Mafia), O*Asiatic,Donnan Linkz (Loer Velocity, Breez Evahflowin) and a few other producers. A lot of producers have expressed interest, but right now I’m trying to wrap this project up. Analogic, Oddisee, and DJ Kno all are down for the project but ther’ve been some conflicts in schedules. Hopefully we can work on it for this project but if not, I’ve got 3 other projects in the works. One I’m particularly excited about is a Sneaker Mixtape. Raks One, PumpkinHead and I have formed a group “Limited Edition” and are about 7 songs deep into a mixtape with production, by Keelay of the Sole Vibe, ILLMIND, DJ Exhile, amn, I’m really amped over this project, it’s gonna be real tight, man.
Can you tell us about any collaborations on other records?
I’ve got songs with L.I.F.E Long, Raks One, PumpkinHead, Scavone, Access Immortal, Cool Calm Pete, man, I feel as though I’ve done joint with a lot of NYC underground cats, to be honest…upcoming joints w/ Chaundon (Justice League/Little Brother) Tanya Morgan and more to come.
What songs would you regard as your biggest to date? Which ones get the most requests from fans?
“Life Music” and “Hold it down” were really popular 3 years ago in Brooklyn from my first album, but right now my song “SupaSpectacular!” from my current mixtape and also the single from my upcoming album have been getting crazy college radio requests and fans are at a fever pitch with it. It’s gotta be my biggest song to date. I also leaked a track from the Sneaker Mixtape with me and Raks One called “How Good’s ya (Kick) Game?” that’s been getting a lot of love. You can hear both on my myspace page at:
http://www.myspace.com/freshdotdaily
Who / what have been influences in your music (past and present influences)?
Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, The Fugees, Tribe Called Quest was a huge influence, so was Jay-Z. Also Common, Kanye, Mos Def and of late MF Doom. Dooms rhyme patterns are sick and mad unconventional. Doom’s a wordplay guy like myself. Not too hung up on punchlines. I think I have more of a palatable flow though. Doom’s figured out how to visually brand himself, whether intentionally or not, it’s pure genius, since people are primarily visual learners.
What are your 3 favourite songs/albums/artists of all time?
Albums:
1) Mos def and Talib Kweli are BlackStar
2) Fugees “The Score”
3) Jay-Z’s “The BluePrint”
Artists: Jay-Z, Common, Outkast
Songs:
Sade’s “Kiss of Life”
Slick Ricks “Street Talkin’”
Blackstar feat/ Common “Respiration”
"... it
sometimes feels like a crime to be passionate about what you love..."
What are you listening to right now in your car stereo/mp3 player etc.?
Quasimoto - “The Unseen”, The Best of the Pharcyde, A Tribe Called Quests “Low End Theory”, Lupe Fiasco’s “Food and Liquor”.
Have you performed anywhere else in the world outside of America? If so, where? And how were you received?
Not yet… what's good U.K.?
Have you been to the UK before? Where did you go and what did you think of it all?
I’m really working on getting out there I’ve always been a bit of fan of things that come for the UK. You guys gave us Sascha Baron Cohen, John Cleese / Monty Python, (LOL) Roots Manuva, Monie Love, Slick Rick! It seems as though musically hip-hop from the UK has been very wild card, but full of MAD vigor! Dudes over there aren’t fully jaded about music as we are over here. I’m working on getting out there because I’ve got some great stuff for the UK, yo. Word.
Have you heard any UK Hip Hop (rappers/records)?
Us Yanks can be awfully dense when it comes to stepping outside our known areas of hip-hop sometimes, there are the few emcees from the UK I know about but mainly that’s due to their stateside success I’m afraid to say. Roots Manuva, The Streets (Mike Skinner), Lady Sovereign, Ms. Dynamite…
How would you rate what you have heard?
I liked about 2/3rds of what I heard, but the UK has a really different sound. Ya’ll’s hip-hop is influenced by Dub and Reggae and yall got garage and trip-hop it’s a different sound for sure.
Who / what would you say was your favourite UK hip hop rapper/record from what you have heard so far?
I’ve got Roots Manuva’s “Run Come Save me” and I like The Streets first singles.. holy shit, I’m clueless. I’ll be on Ukhh.com a lot more often to educate myself, yo. LOL.
What is your impression of the UKHH scene from whatever knowledge / experience you may have of it (however limited that may be)?
It feels like ‘93-’97 was in the US in terms of the scene and the fever for the music.
Can you describe the state of the hip hop
scene / industry in NYC at the moment?
I see a curve. The music industry is a huge rapist for sure, yo, but I think that the big companies are beginning to see that “reality rap” is what hip-hop wants. Established artists are beginning to notice that you can go independent and make a boatload of money and keep
artistic control of your own music.
I heard that you had to change your name from Ill Tarzan to Fresh Daily due to issues the guys who own copyrights to Tarzan had with you using the name? Personally, I think Fresh Daily is such a dope name and perfect for an mc with such a fresh style of rap (content and delivery) and dress code (you have to see the garms and footwear this dude rocks readers). Can you explain why you had to change your name and the effect this had on you?
The main reason you’ve had a hard time find music from me is because Fresh Daily is not my original rhyme name. This year I was slapped with a cease and desist over my old rap name, “ill Tarzan” The family of Edgar Rice Burroughs, who is the original author of the Tarzan books, send the legal hounds on me since they own the trademark. If you were to Google “ill Tarzan” a whole bunch of music would come up. My rap name for the as long as I’ve been rhyming professionally has been “ill Tarzan” I released an album called “Life Music” in 2003 that sold over a thousand copies locally hand to hand and digitally. With the cease and desist however, I was forced to pull my music from shelves, from online distributors and even shut down my old website,
www.illtarzan.com. I had music on itunes, and almost every online music distributor you can think of. In retrospect, I think it was one to the best things to happen to me, everyone loves the new name better seeing on how it fits me The press I’ve gotten on being contacted by a well know authors family to change my name, marked the beginning of the spike in my popularity chart. I believe you can read some press about it on
http://www.ballerstatus.net/features/read/id/76864935/
Since I touched upon fashion briefly in my last question – you’re pretty well known for being a bit of a sneaker head and having a slightly off the wall fashion sense. Tell us a little about this please.
I think people are primarily visual learners, my fashion sense has always been fresh so that gives fans something to latch onto visually as well. A complete package (obviously I’ve thought about this WAY too much!) A little nerdy / preppy NYC Polo Ralph Lauren, Some NYC Streetwear, A little bit of Brooklyn backpacker gear (think Boot Camp Clik) a little retro eighties shit (People will never understand how dope heads like Flavor Flav and Grand Puba were style-wise), some vintage pieces and always dope kicks. Strictly Nike trainers with the rare exception here and there for some really dope kicks. It’s important for me to be around people with at least an appreciation for fashion and kicks in my crew and music scene, because I often find other emcees dreadfully boring. LOL Almost everyone in crew is on some sneaker / gear shit, even my DJ, DJ Vinyl Richie, who’s on tour w/ Rhymefest right now.
"...I often
find other emcees dreadfully boring..."
I also understand that you’re a graphics designer. Is this your day job?
Nah I have a corny 9-5 job. You gotta have a job to fund your career sometimes, ya dig? It’s far from glamorous and not what I’d like to do, but I never graduated college for graphic design.
Plans for the future?
To make the world a “fresher” place. I want to be have the three fundamental things one could hope to obtain from hip-hop. Money, Power and Respect. Hip-hop’s forgotten how to have fun in the pursuit of said objectives. The goal, I think, is to have fun, and think of how your fans would enjoy and relate to your music. Music is fun to listen to. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be a multi-billion dollar industry. If your fans find you fun to listen to and you’re focused on your business end. You’re golden. If you’re talented, brand yourself, make your sound signature and be everywhere. And at the risk of giving it all away, I’m going to dead the advice right there. I don’t want you niggas to be my competition!
Thank you Fresh Daily for your time and info. Do you have any other information you would like to share with the ukhh.com readers? Any shout outs etc. also?
Shout out SoopaStarr, Raks One, Substantial, King Magazine, Vinyl Richie and
EOW.
-
Sloppy
Jallopy
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