By The Hip Hop Writer
Hip Hop Vibe Staff Writer
Despite being young, Flown has lived the life of a much older person. Not only has Flown visited a good portion of the United States, he has also lived there. Living all over the world helped Flown build a diverse background.
Typically, those with diverse backgrounds wind up involved in music. After living all over, Flown was influenced by everything. Once he did begin making music, it included something for everyone. This is the case, as he works on Project Flown.
With Project Flown due sometime early next year, Flown is pushing his new single with Waka Flocka Flame, “Pop It.” Flown also boasts collaborations with French Montana on his new tape. Hip Hop Vibe recently had the opportunity to speak with Flown about his upcoming project.
Read the entire interview below:
You have lived all over the United States, how has this impacted your music? Well first and foremost, as a fan I got exposed to so many different styles and sub-genres of music and that couldn’t help but have an impact. I’ve seen the Texas scene first hand, the Bay scene, the Carolinas, DC, just having been around so many different hot influences I think has impacted me in the sense that I have a little bit of a deeper library mentally that I am drawing from than I would, had I not been blessed with the opportunity to have such a breadth of background musically.
Where was your favorite place to live at? That’s a tough call. There’s so much to love about each different spot. But I’m mostly in Cali nowadays, so I guess Cali won.
How did the Project Flown mixtape come together? Project Flown basically came together as a result of me saying it’s time. I’d been casually interested in hip-hop and dealt with it peripherally because of other business interests I had but Project Flown, I mean the name kind of says it, this IS the Flown official project. From the decision to do it, it was just a matter of organizing my resources and really putting in the work in the studios so that everything could actually come to fruition.
What was the inspiration behind “Pop It,” with Waka Flocka Flame? That song was basically inspired by the club life. It’s a song about one of those nights you feel me? It’s one of those nights where you walk past the line, step in the VIP, got the bottles on deck, the women where they need to be, and you’re just enjoying life. I know Waka could relate to that lifestyle too, so he fit the song well.
How did you and Waka Flocka Flame end up working together? That comes back to organizing my resources. I have a lot of people around me who make their own noise and have their own credentials and experience. One of those people is a producer of mine Roger Beat (@rogerbeat) who has worked with both myself and Waka on various projects. We happened to both be in Atlanta in the same spot at the same time just working. We met and hit it off or whatever and then like a week or so later he happened to be in DC on tour and I was in DC on travel so we got up and recorded “Pop It” together. Grindstine (@GRINDSTINE) also went in on the track with Roger. It was a real good look. We also shot a “trailer” for the song that was all over the internet and did over 100,000 views online. We’re looking at shooting the official video for “Pop It” soon as I wrap up all the work I’m doing now for the Project Flown release date.
Will you be doing more work with Brick Squad artists? I’d love to. It’s nothing we’ve explicitly got planned at the moment, but I’ve got a relationship with a couple of guys over there all good people. I was hoping to get up with Frenchie a couple of weeks ago in Ohio but I ended up having to go out to Hawaii. But, I would absolutely be up for working with more artists over there.
Can you tell us more about your in-house production team? My production team falls under Roger Beat Music. Roger Beat obviously is the drive behind a lot of that. He’s basically DC’s hottest producer right now. I think he’s hotter than many outside DC. He’s worked with a lot of big names, including Waka, French, and 2 Chainz; and is definitely poised to go big places. I could see him having a mainstream breakout year in 2013. He’s got a “beat tape” coming out with all original hooks and production Spring 2013, entitled RBIII so look out for that in advance. Roger also always has beats for sale at all times so hit him up 202-304-2461. Then, there’s also Grindstine who I’ve mentioned. That’s my right hand man. If you check my Instagram (@mrflown) you will see a lot of Grindstine. He’s just someone who knows my sound. He’s got a niche sound himself too. He comes with a lot of melodic pop production that not every hip-hop beat maker can give you. You’re going to hear a lot from him on Project Flown and any other Flown project that comes about in the future. The same goes for Lo Key (@lokey_producer) who has also been instrumental in helping Project Flown come about. He contributed to a lot of the tracks on the tape and is someone who I feel can continue to be a big part of what I do. Lastly, I also recently hooked up with Roger’s man Gho 2 (@Gho2Guy) who is a part of the production team “The Directors.” He has a lot of industry credits and experience and is just one of those people who’s been around a couple of years with not just talent to give musically but a lot of the game as well.
French Montana will also be featured on Project Flown, how did you two connect? As I mentioned I do a lot of business in the hip-hop industry beyond what I’m doing now as an artist. That’s my background throwing events and shit. With French, my manager Ben (@BennyT14) and I were putting together a show for Howard Homecoming back in 2011. We had French lined up as a part of that and so I met him then. I knew when I decided to do Project Flown that I wanted him to be a part of it. He was down with that, so I’m fortunate to have him appear on the tape.
Who are some of the other big names you will be working with? In addition to Waka and French, I’ve got Compton Menace also on Project Flown. We’ve known each other awhile now. I was actually out in L.A. for the video shoot of “Ain’t No Change” when he did that with Wiz. Those are pretty much the announced finalized names for Project Flown. However, as we announced on Twitter, there are other special guests that will be on the tape. We are holding back some names just to keep it fresh for the fans. As far as next year I expect you’ll naturally see more collabs from me as my Rolodex grows and those relationships develop. I’m an easy guy to get along with so it’s really never a problem to put something together with another artist.
After Project Flown is released, will you be touring? I feel like I’m constantly on tour. I’ve touched two or three different oceans in the past week so yeah, I stay on the go, man. As far as a laid out set number of city Project Flown tour, I don’t have anything like that lined up. But I’m a have mic, will-travel kind of guy. East, west, mid-west, south, I definitely plan on getting out there performing this material and touching the people. Right now we do have some American cities locked in for sure that I’m going to hit. We’re also in discussions with several people overseas. I don’t want to say where yet because again, I’d like some things to be new and interesting to the audience when the news hits. But I will be all over the world in 2013.
How will you be spending Christmas and New Year’s this year? This year is going to be a little different because of Project Flown obviously. I am going to be working right up until it comes out just after New Years. I’m actually in Quad Studios right now in NYC working on the tape. We had some good meetings today up here and going to be on to the next city in the morning. I’m also looking at getting in on a couple of DVD’s and mixtapes coming up shortly. But to the greatest extent possible, it will be the same old, plenty of friends and family and good times I will just have to work that in around the efforts to launch Project Flown. It’s definitely coming early January 2013.
How can fans connect with you online? You can reach me directly on both Twitter and Instagram at @mrflown. I also have my official website http://www.mrflown.com that we try to keep updated with news and information for my fans. If you need tracks you can connect with @rogerbeat, @GRINDSTINE, and @Lokey_Producer @Gho2Guy on Twitter. Everybody got heat ready to go. If you need the best engineering services in Atlanta or mixing world-wide you need to get with @8trixMusic. For those in the DC area, let me not forget Dave from House DC as well. He’s got the dope mixes too. Other than that, for booking and inquiries contact Benny T (@BennyT14) at [email protected] And please, keep an eye out for Project Flown in the new year!
