Here the “Stay Tuned” blog is once again, diving into the world of music to bring you more of what you want. Today, CqE focuses on a rising trend in the Hip Hop and universal music world: Auto-Tune.
I first must clear up a common misconception I stumbled upon myself. There is a difference in the vocoder and Auto-Tune. The vocoder was first used in music in 1969, and was used heavily by artists like Roger Troutman (Zapp & Roger), George Clinton, and Teddy Riley. The Auto-Tune software, developed by Antares Audio Technologies, wasn’t released until 1997. And received prominence in 1998 with Cher’s “Believe”. Since that time, many artists including Faith Hill and Tim McGraw have confessed to using the pitch correction software in their performances.
Hip Hop artist T-Pain, who has inspired many other artists to use the technology in their songs, brought the software to light more recently in 2000. These artists include, but are not limited to: Jamie Foxx, Snoop Dogg, Avril Lavigne, Natasha Bedingfield, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Sean Kingston.
But of course, many of you know this. The point of this post is to show you how far Auto-Tune has gone. Let’s take a regular news story, like this one…
And now let’s make a song of it. Like so…
The credit goes to “schmoyoho” and his YouTube channel “Auto-Tune the News”. This song is actually one of the most popular in recent months. There is an iTunes version and a T-shirt out. Antoine Dodson has given interviews on the fame of this song, which has close to 25 million views on YouTube. I actually think the video is pretty funny. In order to really appreciate the song, I think you must be exposed to the original video.
Has Auto-Tune oversaturated our lives? You be the judge.
My sources include my own knowledge, and Wikipedia.
CqE’s “Stay Tuned” blog had the exclusive opportunity to interview Korus of the “experimental” trio Tha Boogie. Signed to Raphael Saadiq’s independent imprint, Velma Records, these Southern California natives are making a name for themselves by keeping true to themselves and not conforming to the mainstream music scene. Influenced by other “abnormal” artists such as Andre 3000/OutKast, Static Major, GorillaZ, N.E.R.D, Timbaland, and Gwen Stefani/No Doubt, NuSchool, Lejin, and Korus take pride in being the epitome of original. Korus gives an insight on how Tha Boogie came to be, where the group is going, and even touches on the future of the industry…
CqE:Hey Korus!First off, how did you all get together?
Korus: Well, NuSchool is my cousin. And then, Lejin is my cousin’s godbrother. They were going to school together. NuSchool was friends with Lejin’s sister, who kept telling him about her brother, like “He’s gonna be the next Timbaland.”. So NuSchool was like “I gotta hear him”. And he told Lejin to make him some tracks, and NuSchool could see his potential. So it started like that. And I was always around; people knew I could kind of sing.
So we formed “Tha Boogie Down Movement”. It wasn’t yet a group, but it was just all of us who did music together. Like my other cousin, a rapper named Lady G, she was a part of it. We were all solo artists working on different projects. But then a few years down the line, we were thinking “This would be a lot easier if we just formed a group.” And we ended up being the three last standing members of Tha Boogie Down Movement, and we already meshed well together. It just felt right. So we just came together and shortened it to “Tha Boogie”.
CqE:Speaking of “Tha Boogie Down Movement” (a collective of solo artists, producers, and songwriters who support each other on MySpace & Twitter), how does it feel to have it on a more national scale than just amongst your family and friends like when you first started it?
Korus: It’s really crazy! At times, it’s overwhelming because it’s more people appreciating what we do. We have all these fans. And the things people say to us or how they react to us, it’s always shocking. It will never be normal, like “Oh, they like us”…it’s always crazy! It’s really a blessing.
CqE:I can understand that. How did Tha Boogie go through the process of being found by Raphael Saadiq? How did you get signed?
Korus: Well, my cousin, NuSchool, he was on MySpace. And he just hit Raphael up. Like, “Hey we really like your music, we pretty much grew up off it. And one day it would be great to work with you.” And [Raphael] hit us back saying, “I really like you guys’ music. Here’s my number, call me.”
CqE:Wow!
Korus: Yeah! So, of course, we didn’t believe it to be true. So we were all in one room, and we called him, and he told us to come to the studio. We still didn’t believe, we were thinking, “this is probably some crazy person pretending to be him”. So we went to North Hollywood, and went to his studio. We had already had like three albums done. So we went in the studio and let him listen to the first album, and he listened to it all the way through. Like every song, all the way through. He was feeling it, like he was bobbing his head and turning it up really loud. [laughing] When we got there and we met him, that’s when we were like “this is real. This is real right now”. That’s how we got with Raphael Saadiq.
CqE:Wow. That’s an exciting story.
Korus: Yeah, that was crazy. [laughing]
CqE:That brings me to my next question, in this industry, in our generation, you know, MySpace is popular and Twitter and Facebook. How do you all put yourselves out there? How do you self promote?
Korus: The internet….and you know, I think the biggest thing right now, like how we get recognized is our shows. We do around 4-5 shows a month. We do a lot of shows in Hollywood and that’s how we get recognized, it’s word of mouth. People see us perform and they’ll tell other people, “Wow, they’re really good”, or whatever they thought about us. Maybe we sucked [laughing], I don’t know. But then there are other “promoters”, like we get shows off of doing shows. And they’ll like us, so it’s growing organically. It’s jus word of mouth.
CqE:How does “Love Tha Boogie (Steal This Sh*t) Vol. 1” (currently on iTunes) help?
Korus: Because that’s our first piece of material that people can actually buy. Everything else is pretty much on MySpace. Like that’s how people can hear our music. It’s a tangible way for people to hear what we sound like [if they can’t attend our shows].
CqE:Nice. How do your individual styles come together? You said; the three of you really cliqued. Is that natural? How does that work?
Korus: Yeah, it’s really natural. For some reason, we just all compliment each other. Even how we are as people [outside the music], it’s our style. Like you can just put three people together and they might look like they’re supposed to be together, but we’re actually all really close. We don’t fight. We’re a family, and we’ve been through a lot with each other. So that makes us even tighter. And this is something that we wanted to do, like no one forced us together, or said “it would be cool to put a girl in the group”. It wasn’t even thought it. It was just like, “this makes sense.” We love this and we’re family. It just felt right.
CqE:With that being said, how does it feel to be the “first lady” in the group? Or is there a first lady feeling at all?
Korus: A first lady feeling?
CqE:Like, you know how Eve was the “first lady” of Ruff Ryders and Faith Evans, the “first lady” of Bad Boy. Do you have that feeling?
Korus: No [laughing]. I feel like one of the guys. I never think about it like that. I’m just like, “I’m in a group”. Maybe if I were with two other guys I really didn’t know that well, then it would be like “two guys and a girl”. But we know each other so well that it just feels like I’m another person in the group. More so than just “the girl in the group”.
CqE:[laughing] Right.
Korus: [laughing]
CqE:What makes Tha Boogie different?
Korus: I guess because we always do what we want to do [musically]. Not to say other people don’t. But our sound, when we create albums and songs, it’s never like we’re trying to sound like anything or anyone. It’s just whatever comes out. Like sometimes, you might hear a song that’s very alternative. Or you might hear something that sounds a little more soulful. Or you might hear something that sounds like R&B or Hip Hop. It’s because that’s how we feel. And yeah, we’re all over the place, but we don’t want people to [put us in a box and] say “oh, that’s a Boogie song”, or “They just sound like one thing”. So it’s just being able to do any kind of music we want to. And also, our style of dress, like, the way we dress is kind of crazy people would think. But, that’s just how we feel. It was never planned. It was “Just put on whatever you feel comfortable in and let’s get out there”.
And our energy on stage, a lot of people are like “Wow, you guys are so energetic”. And, you know, that was never planned either. I remember the first show we ever did, we just went out there. Like, we didn’t even rehearse what we were going to do. We rehearsed it totally different, but when we got on stage, we were just hyped. And it just came across as a lot of energy, I guess. So from then on, that’s just how we performed.
CqE:So where do some of the concepts for your songs and videos come from? Like how did a song like “I Am Peter Parker” come about?
Korus: NuSchool, he mostly does the writing. So with that song, “I’m Peter Parker/I’m Clark Kent”, you know, you can kind of be who you want to be in a sense. And as far as our videos, it started with Mike Quain. He’s our director. He has the idea. Then he relays it to us and then we just kind of go off whatever he says. It’s not even scripted, like he doesn’t send us over a treatment. It’s like, we get there and put all of our ideals together, and it comes out like what you see. So it’s not completely planned out, there are ideals, then after that, it’s just kind of spontaneous. [laughing]
CqE:[laughing] How much input does Raphael Saadiq have in Tha Boogie’s music and in the videos, if any?
Korus: He’s more of like a mentor. He oversees the things that we do, and he just really lets us be ourselves. So, he just listens to what we do, and he’s like “Ok…you guys are keeping it ‘Boogie’, you guys are keeping it yourselves.” That’s really it. But as far as our shows, he helps us out with that. Like making the shows sound better. We just got a full band for our shows, like his shows. And his shows are crazy! But, he’ll help us out like, “Ok right here, this is where you make it big”, you know. He helps out with the structure of our shows. He does give us a lot of advice, about this crazy industry.
CqE:Speaking of the industry, where do you see the future of the industry going?
Korus: Right now, it seems like the industry is more open. And a lot of people are trying to do different things. Not the stuff that you hear on the radio, but more so the people that are underground. There are a lot of really good underground artists that are coming out now. But the industry is in a crazy transition right now, like where you don’t really need record labels. But, the hard work is we’re learning. We’re learning because there is so much change now. And we are trying to adapt to that change and where everything is going within the music industry. But I think music will be in a really good place pretty soon.
CqE:I agree. I totally agree. Let me ask you this, we’re going to focus on you. What are two things you love about the industry?
Korus: Ummm….i don’t know. [laughing] That’s a hard question.
CqE:[laughing] Ok, let me ask it like this. What do you love about being an artist?
Korus: [laughing] That’s a little better. [laughing] It’s the way of being able to express ourselves on a wide scale. Like, I could be an artist, and not make this my career, and keep all my music to myself. But being on a national scale, everybody gets to hear what we have to say. You get to touch a lot of people. Music is emotion. You get to express how you feel and you get to touch people. That’s a really big thing, you know. If you listen to a song, and you’re sad, that song might effect how you feel. Or you can listen to something that makes you happy. So us being able to make music that is able to do stuff like that is awesome. I don’t know, it’s just awesome.
CqE:If anything, what do you hate about the industry or being an artist?
Korus: I think the thing I dislike about the industry is everybody has to change now. I mean, you know how they just make carbon copies of [other artists]. I can say I don’t really agree with that. Like, “Ok, let’s get a new Rihanna”, or how about you guys get somebody else new?
CqE:I think that’s really hard to find. Like Willow Smith, Will and Jada’s daughter. The critics are packaging her as the new Rihanna, and I think from a label’s standpoint, it’s kind of hard to not try to capitalize on your powerhouse.
Korus: Yeah
CqE:Like trying to find a new Jay-Z or someone else. Like the thing about Drake is, Drake is Drake. He’s not Jay-Z; he’s not like Nas. He’s just Drake.
Korus: Yeah, that’s what I like about him. When you create new lanes in the industry, that’s when you pretty much blow up. And that’s when people really like you for you. Just like Kanye [West], when he first came out. He created a new lane. He wasn’t like anyone else.
CqE:Right. And I think that’s a big risk you take in being different. Like you can either fall flat on your face, or you can be a genius.
Korus: Yeah definitely. And I’d rather take that risk than to try to make a new Rihanna song or something like that. I’d rather us do us, that to try to do someone else.
CqE:I can feel that. So what advice would you give the up-and-coming or starving artist?
Korus: You have to take your career in your own hands. No one wants it as bad as you do.
CqE:I like that.
Korus: Yeah. We really, really had to learn that. Like years ago when artists like Brandy or Monica were coming out, not saying they had everything handed to them, but back then labels used to do almost everything for their artists. Now, it’s like you have to do everything yourself. A label, yeah, they’ll put you out, but that’s about it. Some give you a little promo, but that’s about it. And you have to take your money and put it into your project and make sure you get the polishing that you need. And make sure you’re doing the shows and everything that you need to be doing in order to be successful. Like, you have to take your money and invest in yourself. That’s what you have to do. You have to push and push and grind and grind…no one wants it as bad as yourself.
CqE:I definitely agree.
Korus: Yeah.
CqE:When will we get some new music from Tha Boogie?
Korus: Coming soon. Hopefully the beginning of the year. Top of the year, we should be dropping the album “Long Time Know See”. We’ll be dropping some new songs within that time period before we drop the album. Like we have this new song with Raphael [Saadiq], that’s not going to be on the album but we’ll drop it as a little teaser. So be on that. It will be on our website and all over the Internet.
CqE:Wonderful! And for new fans, people who want to know about Tha Boogie, where can they find you?
CqE:[laughing] So they pretty much have to get “Boogie’d” out?
Korus: [laughing] Yeah.
CqE:Any last words? Anything else you want to say?
Korus: Just that we want to be the biggest group in the world.
(From Left: Lejin, Korus, and NuSchool)
If you are in the California area September 22, you can catch Tha Boogie live in concert at Little Temple (4519 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA). For booking info, email luxcityent@gmail.com. Experience Tha Boogie on Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and their own site.
