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| Educated Figures |
|  | | Country: | United States |
| Website: | http://www.educatedfigures.com |
| email: | jericho@educatedfigures.com |
| Info: | Educated Figures are Courtland Urbano as Xperiment and Josh
Williams as Jericho Son of None, this Colorado group is
poised to position themselves in the inner pantheon of hip
hop's ially conscious history makers.
Speak
Not content to simply speak what's on their minds, Jericho
and Xperiment, seek to speak what's in their hearts, running
the gamut from the current state of hip hop to more complex
issues such as family, personal strife, love, and
spirituality.
Unified
Xperiment and Jericho originally met earlier this year and a
bond was solidified within days. Although their ages might
tell you otherwise, Jericho's insightful lyrics and
commanding stage presence fit perfectly within Xperiment's
jazz-centric and melodic beats.
Upbringing
Both Jericho and Xperiment's upbringing have played a
pivotal role in both the tone and shape of Educated Figures
music as a whole. "Growing up was rough," says Jericho.
"When you're in between homes all the time and you're
surrounded by drugs with a feeling of being somewhat alone?
Things can get dark.
Close Family
Xperiment on the other hand was blessed with a really close
family." Although their formative years spent at home
couldn't have been more diametrically opposed, both members
of Educated Figures had parents who in one shape or another
passed on their creative gifts to their children.
Blues
Jericho's father was an accomplished blues musician who went
by the stage name of Joe Phoenix while Xperiment's father
spent large amounts of time drawing and directing
commercials. Music in one way or another was also an
integral part of both Jericho and Xperiment's home life.
"Some of the first things I heard were early classic rock
and blues because my dad was quite the musician and I fell
into his likes and dislikes. It shaped my early view of
music," says Jericho.
Seventies rock
Xperiment's father was also heavily influenced by the rock
bands of the seventies. "My dad was huge into Led Zeppelin
and they became one of my favorites as they always seemed to
be on around the house. My childhood was very artistically
influenced both musically and in everything we did as a
family.
Creativity
It kind of revolved around a modern view. I just remember
having fun with my family; going on trips and looking at
paintings and modern furniture. My dad was always drawing
and for me that was the first conduit into creativity. I
would go to my dad's commercial shoots and for a long time I
thought that I was going to be an actor and eventually a
director."
Express
For both Jericho and Xperiment, hip hop provided a medium to
express themselves in a way that some of their other
creative outlets did not. Xperiment first discovered hip hop
through skating. "LMNO was the first artist that really made
me sit down and say...I want to do this. I was living in a
small town in Colorado by the name of Ouray and I'd watch
snowboard videos.
This one happened to be a Forum video, and a song came on
called "Grin and Bear It." [Editor: From LMNO, 1999] I think
that's what inspired me to start making beats."
Older
Josh on the other hand, being nearly ten years older,
experienced a similar metamorphosis with acts such as The
Pharcyde. "I started MC-ing at about the age of 15. I
thought the song "Runnin" was just a sick track lyrically
and it was a huge inspiration," says Jericho. "That was
about the same time I started listening to Craig Mack and
Biggie. They in turn led me into early Jurassic 5 who were a
big influence on me.
Stimulating
I think it was the fact that I was witnessing someone doing
something a lot more intellectually stimulating than the
rest. From there it was all about Mars Ill, Sage Francis,
Aesop Rock, Madlib, LMNO, Dilated Peoples, and Swollen
Members."
Meeting
Josh and Courtland's first meeting was in their hearts
divinely inspired. "The day after I met him, I invited Josh
over to my provisional studio at the house and I started
playing my beats and Josh was tripping. It was actually Josh
that first proposed the idea of joining Educated Figures,
which at the time was this little project of mine."
Beats
Josh was similarly impressed by the young 17 year-olds
talent. "You always see people who say they have talent but
Courtland's beats floored me. At 25, I'm asking if I could
join his group. It was very humbling, but the music spoke
for itself. Age and background meant very little. We saw our
vision fulfilled when we met each other
Trademark
Educated Figures are committed to not only establishing
their trademark sound for a wider audience but also living
up to their name in a live environment.
State of Hip Hop
According to Xperiment, "the current state of hip hop is
great, but there are a lot of things pretending to be
hip-hop."Hip hop has been made to be a commercial entity.
People don't know what real hip hop is. It almost needs to
be called something else because so many things are
pretending to be something they're not.
Top 40 Kids
A lot of the Top 40 kids do not know the four elements of
hip hop and they're fed these images of what they believe
hip hop to be. We'd almost like to have Top 40 kids at our
shows if only to provide them the tools to discern what hip
hop isn't."
Albums
the crew released their debut album on May 13th, 2006. A new
album is coming entitled "IntelligentInvention LP" in 2008. |
|
| Release: | Educated Figures |
|  | | MyHHHdb | |
| Media: | [Audio CD] | | Released: | 2006 |
| Recordlabel: | Educated Records |
| Info: | The album is released May 13th, 2006.
1. Intro
2. We are
3. Get It - featuring PAAS
4. No Strings Attached
5. Fight Music
6. Comin' Through - featuring Playdough
7. Interlude
8. Transformer
9. Tomorrow Might Find Me
10. Religious Clones
11. I Tried To Save You
12. Testimony
13. Industry Sins
14. Outro |
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