Monday, March 28, 2011

A Yo: Ayomari Interview


























Briefly describe yourself as a person and as a rapper.

I love great songs, movies, food, and women.

I heard somewhere that your father was a musician. What type of music did he do and how did that influence you to do what you do?

My father IS a musician that does a variety of styles ranging anywhere from blues to rock to country. Unfortunately, I wasn't raised around him for most of my life, so he never had the opportunity to pass down his knowledge of music until I was much older. Although he tried. My mother always promoted music as important and supported its role in my life. Of course over the years I've received a lot from both including other family members.

For me the West's hip-hop scene right now is producing the best overall sound hands down. How do you think this resurgence came about?

I don't know exactly, the talent had already been here, it was just a matter of hard work and getting the music out. Eventually if enough people are talking about it, it becomes undeniable. But this has been going on for years.

Who are you currently listening to?

Currently this very moment, I'm listening to "Kaili" by Caribou, I like that new K.R.I.T. song "Time Machine", this guy Alexander Ebert, Deerhunter, and some of this new stuff The Cafeteria Line has been working on.

Do you have a favorite song or beat of all-time?


Charlie Brown's "Christmas Time Is Here"

Out of the LA MC's such as Dom Kennedy, Kendrick Lamar, Pac Div, Diz Gibran etc. What are your personal favorite tracks from them?


Local's Only is my favorite Dom joint, Michael Jordan is my favorite Kendrick joint, Taste is my favorite Pac joint, Run Around is my favorite Diz Gibran joint, Might As Well is my favorite J Davey song, Figg Get Da Money is my favorite Schoolboy Q joint, Muddy Jane is my favorite U-N-I joint, there's a lot.

How do you feel about social-networking sites such as twitter?


Great tool for networking. I never really read the twitter timeline, I mostly only read about anything pertaining to The Cafeteria Line, or whatever may catch my eye. Twitter can be like high school sometimes, but it's very useful.

What's right with hip-hop? What's wrong with hip-hop?


What's right with hip hop is that it's completely unique. It's still the voice of the youth, and right now is the best time to be yourself.

Whats wrong with hip hop is that people, hip hop included, don't respect the art forms enough, which in turn results in a lowered respect towards it. There are obvious exceptions, but for example, being a virtuoso in rap isn't held in the same regard as being a virtuoso in piano. I'm sure there are those, probably most, who would say you can't compare the two in technical difficulty, but you can. The learning curve may be different, but the voice is the most diverse instrument in the world. It may be easy for a person to rap, but how many rappers have you heard do what Eminem used to do? Eminem took rap so far, he had to come back and dumb it down because people weren't keeping up.

The issue with hip hop is that there isn't a balance between the artform and the industry. The industry has such a foothold on the culture that natural progression of it has been stifled. Hip Hop has almost become a recycled parody of itself. It's exploited in every facet of media for financial gain which is the nature of the industry and that's fine. The problem is that all of this happened before the culture had enough time to establish a solid foundation with respect to the world's understanding and acceptance of it. The culture was basically taken out of the hands of the people who created it before they were able to sell the world their vision for it. So now, what the world gets is an abridged version of hip hop in a controlled setting from capitalist. That's why you have so many run of the mill rappers; bitches, money, cars, drugs is all they talk about. The industry has people truly believing that in order to make it, you must be like what you see on tv. I could go on and on.

If you weren't making music what would you be doing?


Making music

Favorite sports memory?


I never was into sports. I did play tee ball when I was a kid lol, my team was The Giants. I was never bad at sports but my heart was in art.

Do you have a fascination with food and why?


It's food! lol if you were going to be fascinated with anything, wouldn't it be food? It's amazing how many people don't explore all of these different types of foods in the world, it's crazy. And great food puts you in a great mood.

Describe your writing process.


It varies, sometimes I record random patterns to a beat to find out how I want the flow to be, take bits and pieces and put words to them. I'm one of those people that still uses paper and pencil to write, I feel as if my energy is actually traveling from my hand, through the pencil and into the paper lol. Sometimes my paper has lines scratched out all over, other times every line is written perfectly from beginning to end with no misstep. Freestyling is a big part of the writing process also, it's important to go from feeling and not force the song. I always know when I have it because the feeling is unmistakable. That excited, surprised and "yeahhh" moment.

What are you looking forward to?


I am looking forward to one day actually being paid for my talents. I'm looking forward to that Doom & Thom Yorke project. To finishing A Sucker For Pumps. I'm looking forward to seeing where I'm at by the end of 2011.

Describe Ayomari's perfect day.


A bomb meal, in bed with the perfect movie.

Any words of encouragement for young up and coming rappers out there?


Study study study, don't believe the hype, get the skill down and everything else will fall in place. Don't try to skip classes you need just because the opportunity is there. It'll come back to bite ya ass!

Also, be sure to check out http://thecafeterialine.bandcamp.com for all of our music. Follow me on twitter @ayomari. And stay up to date at http://ayomari.tumblr.com

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