Artist Of The Week – SumKid Majere


SumKid Majere is a self-described scientist and “black nerd.” He’s also been obsessed with writing ever since he first learned how to. “I just feel like writing the way I talk,” he explains, “stories, little novellas, poems and rhyming.” The rhyming aspect of his work is what’s on the verge of taking him to new heights. His first official release was in 2002 with his crew, The VJC (Vinyl Junkies Crew), and since then SumKid has appeared on numerous compilations and mixtapes. At the start of 2006 The VJC released their first LP, Strange Arrangement, and last month SumKid dropped The Lil Folk, which is already getting rave reviews. Today he sits down with me to talk about his work and what aspects of music drew him to the craft.

Adam Bernard: Everyone has their reasons for wanting to express themselves through music, what were your reasons when you started and has anything altered those original thoughts and feelings?
SumKid Majere: My favorite songs are time capsules. I can listen to them and remember everything surrounding the time when I first listened to them; smells, what I was wearing, the weather, the colors. I want to make time capsules for myself and other people like my heroes did for me. I try to capture my experience in a song and share it. Then when you bump it you have your own experience to my music. Then we got a human connection. The only thing that’s altered that mission is my obsessive need to perfect that science and injecting a spiritual aspect into everything I do.

Adam Bernard: What makes a song a time capsule for you? What are some of its qualities and what are you doing to make sure your music has some of those same qualities in it?
SumKid Majere: Sincerity, funk and color. I wanna know a fool is comin from the heart and they got something real, tortured, funny, original or human to say. I don’t really do anything to make sure I keep those qualities. I ain’t really got a choice in the matter. What’s the point in making something that ain’t real, tortured, funny, original or human? Keepin it funky is important, too.

Adam Bernard: So how do you feel your music is different from what people are hearing already?
SumKid Majere: I’m trying to perfect the craft of writing songs. I used to drive myself mad with making something different from what everybody else is doing, but that’s a trap. Nothing is new under or around the sun. I try to just channel whatever creative energy I have into doing and seeing the things I would want to hear as a fan. I just finished an epic fantasy story set to Hip-Hop called The Nobody Hole. In a few years, everyone will know it. It’s different from anything else I’ve ever seen, but I wasn’t trying to make something different, I just decided to deal with the human experience in a new way with VJC producer BadTouch. That’s when real magic happens... finding new ways to deal with old shit. It’s like keeping a relationship healthy. You gotta reinvent the way you deal with each other. My producer buddy Belief and I just wrapped our collab album that’s a series of bluesy stories and personal folk tales. It’s something different, but I wasn’t trying to make something different. I was just pensive and a little depressed and I caught him at a bluesy time in his musical evolution. Wish I could take credit for that kinda stuff, but it’s all blessings from God, The Universe.

Adam Bernard: Hip-Hop is sometimes all about the connections. How do you decide who you want to work with?
SumKid Majere: Even though I’d love to collab with many people I’ve mostly been concentrating on bringing my fam, The VJC and BLX up. I feel like Morris Day surrounded by 12 undiscovered Prince-guys that I talk to on the daily. It’s hard to collab with folk surrounded by so much talent that everybody’s sleeping on. But our time is coming. One day I’d like to collab with Tom Waits, Nas and Organized Noize. Nigel Godrich, too… I want to be the first Hip-Hop artist he works with.

Adam Bernard: Finally, who would you say your audience is and what else do you think they’re into?
SumKid Majere: Man, that’s the million dollar question. I’ll let you know when I figure that shit out. It’s lookin like they’ll find me before I figure out exactly who these people are. I’d like to think they’re real music lovers, though.

You can find SumKid Majere online at vjcrecordings.com and hit him on MySpace at myspace.com/sum.

Comments

Admin said…
Yall just don't know!
Jas said…
Oh, I know.

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