Hey Ralph Jodaman! Welcome to BuzzMusic! It’s such a pleasure to be chatting with you. You seem to be an artist that puts a substantial amount of thought into your lyrics! Who/what has inspired you to be the artist you are today?
What inspired me was the way Hip-Hop & Funk music blended together. We think of Hip-Hop being more straightforward due to how the message is worded. To me, Hip-Hop is a universal language when you speak about things that actually happened in your life whom others like you or unlike you can relate to. With Funk, the upbeat melodies & vibes it contained throughout history were invented to help listeners find a greater perspective in life. These two genres complement each other by their rhythms, sounds, & in some cases, the message that blends in with the two types of music. To me, Hip-Hop & Funk helps you see things in a different light. I found it therapeutic to my personal well being & made me more accepting of my true identity as well as my character.
"Nevertheless" seems like a deeply personal track. Is vulnerability something your fans can always expect from your music? Can you tell us more about this particular song?
It is personal based on my transgressions & making better decisions in the process. I would say that being vulnerable only works sometimes because when you’re down & out, you’re simply down & out. Therefore you have to express those feelings in that manner. The song “Nevertheless” was more about redemption, taking a situation YOU find to be an obstacle, yet turning it around in your favor. Like for example, through the years I had a very rough time with writing music I’m comfortable with because I was still finding myself in the midst of trying to understand people around me in the world today. Now it’s safe to say I’m following my own path & leaving a trail with my level of artistry.
It's no surprise that "Nightlife" garnered so much success! It's so catchy and infused with your personal flair and funk. What was the production process like for this song?
Thank you so much for that, I find ”The Nightlife” song more & more awesome when I hear it now. I had to record that particular song twice in two different sessions when the first recording was not as great as it should be. The production process started with a beatmaker name “Eclectic” who has a catalog of beats online. I knew that it would be harder for me to pay a large amount of money in a studio session for one of these beats to be composed of the ground up. This was when I decided to shop at websites for beats, purchase them, & send them to professionals in music studios to record. Of course, I was looking for funky hip-hop beats & then I heard the beat for “Nightlife,” which instantly kicked off my journey as of today. The song was recorded in the West Side of Chicago by a local artist from that same city, who is also a professional audio & mixed engineer name SoundGuyMike. It took no time to record the song itself but writing it before the studio time was a task. I wanted to make sure this was the one.
What has been your most memorable achievement as an artist?
At this moment, it would be completing my debut project “FUNKIZM” without a doubt. As a teen, I always wanted to make albums as much as I wrote. I remember buying cassette tapes & compact discs of various Hip-Hop artists that we grew up listening to, hoping one day I would get a chance in the game. Since were in a different era to where we are own bosses, I took that to my advantage & said to myself “Let’s Work.” All of the lyrics you hear on the album “FUNKIZM” were written by no one else but me. The beat selections were a great fit for my style of rap & I proudly executed every song with total confidence. Best times by far.
Thank you so much for chatting with us. What's the next move for you artistically? Are you playing any shows in the near future?
Much appreciated. My next thing for this year is to continue promoting the album & follow up with exclusive music for the spring of next year. Far as stage performances, I’m working on booked dates in not only Chicago, IL but also in Portland, OR & Lansing, MI. We’ll see what happens.