CHICAGO, IL –Chicago producer Bryan Ford and Wu Tang alum Killah Priest have teamed-up for For the Future of Hip Hop the forthcoming album on Revolutionary Music. The Chicago-based beat-maker and New York hip-hop vet bring signature east coast lyricism over future leaning production to their latest project. All the production is by Byran Ford and guests on the LP are fellow Chi-city emcees Pugs Atomz and Awdazcate.
On the title track and first single, “For the Future of Hip-Hop,” Killah Priest lays down the first verse in classic KP style when he proclaims: “For the Future of Hip Hop, Respect Due.” During the breakdown, Awdazcate repeats a Chicago mantra, “Cold in the city, hot in the blocks,” before Pugs Atomz bursts onto the second verse, referencing spacetime travel and radioactive flows.
Alternately, the Flamenco-influenced “Just Me and My Girl,” showcases Ford’s classical guitar riffs with Pugs and Awdaz on vocals. “The song pretty much wrote it self was, one of those magic studio moments where it all just came together,” explains Ford.
And while Ford might not be a household name, he isn’t new to the music scene. He’s been producing since the late 90s under the names Lake Street Project, B. Ford, and Terry Swank. A master on guitar, bass, keys, and drums, Ford plays all his own instruments. ”Typically when I sample, it’s when I sample myself,” he notes. In 2006, his Chicago house music track “Forever,” under the Lake Street Project moniker, charted on Billboard and his 2010 “Here All Along” was licensed by Universal Music. In 2011, Bryan released critically acclaimed downtempo eps “Shoe Tree,” and “Hands,” which garnered support from renowned international DJs like Mark Farina, Mr No Hands, and Daze-I-Kue of the Bugz In the Attic.
“I made electronic music, but was always drawn to hip-hop,”says Ford. In 2015, Ford heard that one of his favorite emcees, Killah Priest was in Chicago and invited Priest to the studio to check out some beats. “We originally were gonna do just one song,” Ford recalls. “And he immediately gravitated to the track that would eventually become For the Future of Hip-Hop and laid it down then and there.”
“The kid has no limits in music,” says Killah Priest, who is living in Los Angeles now, of working Ford. “The more I think, the more he can do!”
Ford says that the interaction led to more beats and Priest’s flows kept coming. “What really excited KP to collaborate was watching my band jam the same night in the studio.” Over the next few months, Ford started sending Killah Priest tracks that could be adapted well to a live band scenario.
“I always felt like my music always melded well with emcees,” explains Ford, so this project feels like the future for me.
For the Future of Hip-Hop drops May 6, 2016. |