Tagged with coldplay

Interview: Phil The Thrill

My favorite thing about talking to artists is just hearing how humble they really are and how much work they’re putting in to achieve their dreams. Hard work definitely does pay off. So last week, I was extremely fortunate to speak to an up-and-coming rapper from Virginia named Phil The Thrill, who has been releasing an EP a month for the past five months, garnering attention from XXL Magazine and SmokingSection.com. On October 25th, Phil will be concluding the series with a full-length mixtape entitled Barely Awake, which you can preview here.

Check out my full interview with Phil below.

Hey Phil, what’s up? How’s it going?

Phil The Thrill: Good, good, good.

I’ve just been reading about Steve Jobs. Man, that’s terrible.

Phil The Thrill: Crazy, crazy. I mean, they knew it was gonna happen eventually, but it was just all of a sudden it seems like.

Yeah… ah, the man’s a genius. So I hear you’re 22 years old and from Newport News, Virginia, is that correct?

Phil The Thrill: Yessir.

Actually, where have I heard of that place from? Is that…Michael Vick’s hometown?

Phil The Thrill: Yeah, yeah. Michael Vick, Allen Iverson.

Oh, okay. How’s the music scene there?

Phil The Thrill: It’s… pretty scattered. This area is known as Hampton Roads, the 757. I’m not sure how familiar you are with this part of Virginia but Missy‘s from here, Timbaland‘s from here, Pharrell‘s from here,The Clipse are from here. So yeah, we have a pretty crazy rich tradition as far as music goes. It just seems like they’ll move away and you know, it’s hard to really get them back to reach out to artists that are coming up now. But as far as tradition goes, we’re definitely on the map when it comes to music, period. And then 45 minutes up the road is where Trey Songz and Chris Brown are from.

Man, that’s nice.

Phil The Thrill: Yeah, man, it’s crazy.

So where did your rapper name, Phil The Thrill, originate?

Phil The Thrill: It’s actually been a name that’s stuck with me. It’s actually been my nickname since I was around twelve years old. I was an athlete playing basketball and football and you know, when little nicknames happen to you when you’re a kid… they’d just be like “Oh, Phil The Thrill!” It sticks and through high school, when everyone would have AIM screennames, I was like lemme use my nickname. It stuck with me then and when I went on to play college basketball, it stuck with me there. So it became my Twitter name and once it sticks, I’m not going to try to change that just because I’m doing music. It’s my nickname and what people know me as. Continue reading →

Odd Future (OFWGKTA) Perform on Fallon and More

joomplu:154This week has been huge for the OFWGKTA crew; if you aren’t yet familar with this exciting young rap collective, make some time to check them out. Just a few days ago, leader Tyler, The Creator and Hodgy Beats made their television debuts on Jimmy Fallon, enthralling and scaring Fallon and his audience with their performance of “Sandwitches” backed by The Roots. Swag? Mos Def certainly agrees: “SWAAAAG!” Watch Tyler and Hodgy tear it up, as well as more Odd Future news below.

On Monday, Tyler announced his signing with XL Recordings, where he will be releasing his upcoming albumGoblin. The eerie, black-and-white music video for first single “Yonkers” was also released this week.

Mellowhype, the collaborative group of Hodgy Beats and Left Brain, have announced that their next album will be titled Numbers.

That’s not all though. Odd Future’s resident R&B man Frank Ocean has released his new album Nostalgia for free download here. The album highlights the incredible diversity of Odd Future. The album is unbelievably smooth and even features a Coldplay sample.