EkWhoa

Both from Ghana and New York, Kenny Duet and EkWhoa have been singing and writing poetry from a young age. They now collaborate on music. We talk about:

Where their love for music come from
Their first performances
Their writing process
Their upcoming concert at Lucky Lounge - The Feedbak.com

Interview

Isaac: I just listened to one of your songs titled, "Hard Life". What was the inspiration for making this song and your new album?


Hard Life came about when I first heard the beat, produced by The Duke. The beat made me feel a certain way and I turned those emotions into a story, one which I wanted to be both powerful and tragic but also at the same time, I wanted the story to have a chance at redemption. I drew inspiration from one of my favorite movies, Fresh, both stories deal with a young character coming of age and his journey to get there. The mixtape PolyTrix came about during the presidential election season. I’d previously never really been interested in politics, but this election made me pay attention for several reasons. PolyTrix stands for many political tricks and the trickery and strategy used by those campaigning gave me the inspiration to put together the mixtape. The mixtape is a collection of new and old tracks with a common theme. The track Hard Life was first written 4 years ago, but I updated it once I heard Obamas speech on fatherhood and knew I had to include it on the mixtape.

Isaac: Who were your influences?

I try to take the world and everything around me and put it into my music, because when it comes down to it the music is a lens to my perspective, how I perceive everything and anything. For this project PolyTrix I was influenced by political leaders past, present, and future, as well as political commentators and people in general who have to deal with them. On the mixtape, each song is preceded by a quote from a great political leader that sets the listener up for what they’re about to hear.

Isaac: What do you consider to have been the highlight(s) and lowpoint(s) of your career to date?
I’d say one of the biggest highlights of my career so far would have to be my first performance with my group members “The IntelliGents.” The night of the performance we were struck by a perfect storm and any bad thing any of us could have imagined was going on around us. We finally make it to the stage and deliver a flawless performance, when all of a sudden on the last track I start jumbling my words and lose my place and can’t recover, the whole time nobody knew anything was going wrong except me because I was the only one who knew the lyrics to the song. I start laughing and then bust into a freestyle, I’m talking about the crowd, the venue, anything I can see around me I’m taking and putting into rhyme, then I pass it to my group members and they take it to the next level. This is one thing we always practice together but said we wouldn’t do on stage. The energy was intense and the crowd loved it. I’d say my Low point was missed deadlines for my first Project. Letting people down, not knowing what went into it and just jumping in head first with no plan and making the release date first. However, from that experience I turned that around and started setting goals and realistic expectations that took me away from that.

Isaac: Brief history about your background plus the style of music you play.
I didn’t really start rapping until about 2006, before just having fun and freestyling recordings and such until one of my roommates got fruity loops and started making beats and sending them to me, that’s when I started writing actual songs, but music was always in me from a young age, we always had music playing in the house, and I always enjoyed writing poetry. The two worlds collided inside of me and joined together.

Isaac: How easy is it to gets gigs for you as an artist/band? What is the live music scene like in your area?

Austin is the live music capital of the world, so live music is everywhere, before I ever started performing Id stand next to guys walking with buckets on the street and freestyling, crowds would gather and it would be a good time. From that I started going to open mics around town and finally started booking performances.

Isaac: What do you think of the state of Hip-Hop music at the moment? Do you listen to radio much at all? Has the Internet helped music grow or hindered it in your opinion?

Hip Hop has its ups and downs like any genre of music but its always so alive, its about taking what’s around and available to you and turning it into something truly great, hip hop needs to always stay fresh new and cutting edge because its about creativity and energy. I do listen to the radio all the time, always listening for new sounds influences and inspiration and checking out the current status of what’s going on in that specific arena. I feel the Internet has definitely helped grow music. With the Internet, music is able to spread farther and faster than ever before and artists are able to reach people they’ve never had access to before. People are able to choose who they listen to as opposed to having it forced down their throats.

Isaac: If you could create a fantasy band - what would be the line-up and why?
I’d have to say my fantasy band would be The IntelliGents. I’m blessed to have a group of people where we all have a similar mindset, each enjoy a passion for making hip hop music and we’ve all known each other for a very long time. We’re a cohesive group that listens to each other and combined we’re very effective.

Isaac: What CD's do you currently have available and where can they be purchased from?

PolyTrix is my first project and it’s a 3 part mixtape. The first two parts have already been put out, and the third part will be released very soon. All are available for free download, and once I’ve put out the third part I will combine all three into one big mixtape and post the link on my site http://www.ekowlocation.com

Isaac: Where can fans access your music, videos, blogs, and anything else about you online?
The best place is my new website http://www.ekowlocation.com. I just launched it recently and I’m filling it up with all the details now.

Isaac: Message to your fans?
Thank you. Id never be this far without you and I cant go further without you so I truly thank you for sticking with me while I ironed out the kinks. I still have a long way to go, but im here now, ready for the future, so lets go and get it done together. Stick around its going to be a long ride, but I’ll make sure it’s a fun one.
- Isaac Davis Jr., MBA (Juniors Cave Magazine)

Hello;

I liked your music video for "Hard Life" and would like to invite you to submit it, preferably in HD format, to the AmericaFree.TV music video channel for broadcast. We think it will appeal to our audience and would be glad to help to promote your music by broadcasting it.

Submission can be done in one of three ways :

- Files less than 2 Gigabytes in size can be uploaded at

http://www.americafree.tv/upload_form.php

(This is generally the easiest method.)

- A DVD can be sent to

Eric Conner
AmericaFree.TV
P.O. Box 141
Clifton, Virginia 20124

We cannot return submitted DVDs, but we never resell them or let them out of our control.

- or, if a file is available online, let us know where and we will download it.

We never require an exclusive relationship and do not charge content creators for submissions. All videos are subject to evaluation before inclusion in our music video channel. All of our video services are streaming only and we do not offer video downloads.

In case you are not familiar with us, AmericaFree.TV is an advertising-supported Internet Broadcaster transmitting since 2003. Our cumulative yearly audience is roughly 5 million people and growing. This audience is truly global, with over half being located outside of the United States, and we therefore offer a means of reaching into the influential global "ex-pat" market. We are also a leading broadcaster into the Second Life community. A view of our world-wide audience distribution can be obtained at

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Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions

Regards
Eric Connor
Head of Content Acquisition / AmericaFree.TV
email : eric.connor@americafree.tv
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