My beloved hometown Nashville, Tennessee is known to many as "Music City USA," but it's known to most as "Country Music City USA." In fact, I spend a significant amount of time trying to convince people that there's a LOT more going on in "Nashvegas" than honky tonks and fried catfish. What's really going on in Nashville is a burgeoning hip-hop and soul scene headed up, in part, by CRISIS and Kwesi B of Rich Brown.
As you may imagine, Nashville's underground hip-hop/soul/dance scene consists of a relatively small, tight-knit group of musicians, vocalists, poets and DJs. Events like "The Spot," "Black Coffee," "Audity Central," and the currently running "LoveNoise" provide much needed venues for artists to hone their craft and vibe out amongst friends. This positive energy inspired CRISIS and Kwesi to come together with the Rich Brown project.
"Starting out, we were both members of a loose collective of artists, DJs and friends that local DJ I-Wah once coined the S.U.M. (Social Unrest Movement)," says Kwesi. "I hosted late night live sets at the SuiteSpot where we rotated instruments and freestyles. DJ Soul Infinite a.k.a. JP, who works with us as Rich Brown suggested that we collaborate on something. From the first session, we felt the chemistry and saw the possibilities".
CRISIS came into the Rich Brown project while he was working on a hip-hop flavoured album. During the course of his work, he started playing around with broken beats and was drawn into this innovative dance music sound. "Before I knew it, I had abandoned the hip-hop project and gotten totally consumed in the broken flavor. I was looking for a vocalist who could feel that type of flavor and JP recommended Kwesi. So, we hooked up in the studio one day to drop something I wrote just to see how it felt... and that was it," CRISIS explains. "We recognized that there was something special there and decided to go ahead and make it an official collaborative project. The "Rich Brown" name came about from a conversation we were having about colors. We were discussing what tones and hues put you in a soulful mindstate and I said I'd always been partial to a deep burgundy and a rich brown. We just kinda stopped and marinated on that for a minute... Rich Brown... and that was it. We ran with the name and the sound unfolded. Kwesi was in a similar space creatively to where I was and the sound just revealed itself."
"Rich Brown" hits the nail squarely on the head in describing their sound. "So Many," the lead track on their eponymous EP, blends a sleek house music sound with smooth vocals into a deep easy groove reminiscent of Naked Music's production style. "Sunshine" embodies the broken beat sound that drew Rich Brown together along with Latin flavours making it the perfect tune for a summer day. "If U Ready" should be a shoe-in for commercial RnB radio— good quality commercial RnB radio— again with the deep groove sound that characterizes Rich Brown.
Kwesi and CRISIS both have deep roots in music. CRISIS has been holding it down in Nashville as a vocalist with hip-hop outfit Audiofonix. Kwesi brings to the project strong influences from his time spent making music in London. "Back in the day I released a folk-soul album with a group called Sunchilde in London, and then I released a self-entitled R&B-Soul album called "Testimony," recalls Kwesi. "I've got a lot of love for the music culture in the UK. I found music lovers in London to be very progressive and forward-thinking. While I was grinding into the London scene, I was introduced to Drum and Bass, rare groove, and a dedicated club culture that I really related to. Eventually, I started experimenting and producing dance music and jazz. With the help of Lil' Louis, I released my first dance track on Afro Lounge III (Afrikan Dreamland) under the name "Sirius Be." Ron Trent also put it on his mixtape and that kinda let me know DJs would feel my style".
Clearly DJs and musicians alike are feeling Rich Brown's sound. Mark de Clive-Lowe of Antipodean Records and a powerhouse in the broken beat/jazz world remixed "So Many" for the EP. The group is having Nicolay rework another tune and is currently working to secure remixes from other well-known producers. They both credit myspace.com with helping them make contacts with producers and artists and getting their music exposed to more people. "We need to buy stock in the company!" says CRISIS.
Next up for Rich Brown is an album set for release in 2006 called, "The Beautiful Life." "Our immediate goal is to keep refining and developing our sound, the success of which should carry us across the globe doing what we love," says Kwesi. I'm sure with such a strong start, Rich Brown will continue spreading quality soul music from Nashville far beyond the brims of their cowboy hats.
The RichBrown @ the SuiteSpot" EP is available at www.dancetracksdigital.com.
