By Agustin A. Iglesias
Hip Hop Vibe Staff Writer
Anybody who is a fan of the mixtape scene should be very familiar with Rich Quick, who is a fixture. He is a native of New Jersey, but spends a bulk of his time in Philadelphia, where he has become a rising star. As the final phase of the summer begins, Rich Quick is preparing the release of Sad Songz.
Going through a depressive state in his life, Rick Quick suffered through it and it led to this Sad Songz story he is preparing to tell. With the project coming in less than a month, Rick Quick dropped the new single, “Walk on Bye.” He featured two legends in the Philadelphia area in Jakk Frost and Chuck Treece.
Hip Hop Vibe caught up with Rich Quick and he talked about the “Walk on Bye” single and working with Jakk Frost and Chuck Treece. Considering this his first major project, out the gate Jakk Frost and Chuck Treece jumped on with Rich Quick. During the interview, Rich Quick also talked about the overall Sad Songz release.
Read the entire interview below:
You are originally from New Jersey, but how did you end up in Philadelphia? I’m only ten/fifteen minutes away from Philadelphia. My management company moved from Jersey to Philadelphia and DJ NoPhrillz became a part of the management team. So, we all moved down there with him and I worked with him to network with the Philadelphia scene.
How do you feel about the ongoing success of Philadelphia’s hip hop scene over the past few years? I think that it’s great. I can really see more people starting to look our way. It started with the success of Asher Roth and Wiz Khalifa and they helped bring a spotlight from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, opening doors for guys like Meek Mill and it’s great.
Speaking of Philadelphia, your new single “Walk on Bye” features Jakk Frost and Chuck Treece, can you talk about how that song ended up coming together? Basically, some instrumentals that hadn’t been picked up yet from Stretch were given to me by him. One of them was “Walk on Bye,” which already had Chuck Treece singing, somewhat of a sample instead of him actually singing. What I had planned was so hardcore Philly hip hop that I wanted him on it, so I wanted to have the song being so Philadelphia with the legends and then have me on the record. I thought it was something different for Jakk Frost to get on and show his lyrical style, I love how it all turned out.
After hearing the song for the first time, did you have that feeling where you knew it was going to be a hit? Pretty much, when we were recording it, I made some calls to Frost to see if he could come to the studio and do the record. He was able to and he came into the studio and recorded his record, he doesn’t write his rhymes, he goes in off the top of his heads. I knew people would embrace this song, it has a good summertime feel to it, it came at the right time.
Why did you choose the route of a collaboration single, instead of a solo single, to introduce your Sad Songz EP? I actually really did put out two solo singles first. “Travelin Man” is one and a video is out for it, that was the first single, and the second single is “Will You Love Me” and the music video for that will be out soon. In between that, we dropped the “Travelin Man” remix, featuring Reef The Lost Cause and Rakaa Iriscience, and this new record with Jakk Frost and Chuck Treece goes hand-in-hand with that. It all fits my aims for this new project.
What song do you have planned to be the next single off this upcoming project? I’m not really sure at the moment. I am excited for people to hear a few records. “Nice Guy” is a song people are going to like, it is a fun song with Reggae tune to it and at the same time, it is very introspective and about real life struggles from an everyday perspective.
How is Sad Songz different from your other releases and why did you choose this title? Sad Songz is different from my other releases, because up until now, I am known for doing hardcore hip hop music totally true to the culture. I am very much an underground hip hop emcee, that is where my roots are and where I came up. Now, Sad Songz is a reflection of life outside of that culture, I call this project this for several reasons starting with me being depressed when I recorded this project. A lot of the records reflect me literally being sad. I was not sad when I did all of these records, but they come from a sad place. But, this project is a reminder that things get better and something can happen that can totally change your life like Sad Songz did for me.
Which part of your game do you feel you improved on the most on this project? I think, definitely, my song structure and songwriting. Anything that comes with creating a song, I got much better with it. I never understood it as well now, especially being under stress and working with guys like Chuck in the studio. Without those guys, I would not have learned as much about songwriting, such as bridges, that I learned doing Sad Songz. My pen game definitely came up.
With a month remaining, why do people need to cop your Sad Songz EP when it comes out? I think that people should support the Sad Songz project because it is good music. I think there is something for everyone on Sad Songz, it is nothing opinionated that will turn people off. It is not confrontational music, it is just real life good music and, if nothing else, it is my first professional project and I would really appreciate it if people got behind this project. I am excited about this new release.
Where can we connect with you on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? @RichMFNQuick on all social networks and my website is www.richmfnquick.com.
Follow Agustin A. Iglesias on Twitter @Rule_York.
