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BP Interview of EL YEYO of the D.E.Y.
[BrownPride.com] - First off, go ahead and introduce
yourself for those who don’t know who Yeyo is, tell us a little about your
backround?
[YEYO] - My name is YEYO, the son of YEYO, the
grandson of YEYO. I'm a real person, not a character. I was born in Cupey,
Puerto Rico from a Cuban father and a Puerto Rican mother. I come from a
revolutionary bloodline, my father is a direct descendent of the great Cuban
poet, freedom fighter and liberator José Martí. This is where the responsibility
for my work and my people comes from. You will hear it in my music and see it in
everything I do. Everything must have a purpose. I grew up in a musical
household, my father plays percussion, drums, guitar and an ill piano and my
mother would sing to everything my pops did, she used to sing in a choir. I
started writing poetry at the age of 9 and soon after discovered hip-hop and
married the two together. I started DJing at 13 when I bought my first
turntables. I put out countless mix tapes, started my own rap group the Shanghai
Assassinz and dropped our EP "Viequez" in 1999. The EP was dedicated to the
struggle between the people of Puerto Rico and the US Navy over military
controlled land that was getting used to train soldiers and destroying the whole
eco system of the island at the same time. The movement worked and the Navy had
to return the land to the people. That EP gave me the opportunity to travel and
meet a lot of people that would become super influential in my life. In 2003 I
moved to Miami, Florida where I dropped a mix tape, started working on new music
and a new project called "La Conekta" where I wanted to compile music from the
very best Latin hip-hop artists from the whole Latino spectrum. The idea was to
create a united Latin Hip-Hop market where we can share the music of all our
Latin countries as well as the Latinos in the United States and Europe creating
a huge market for the Latin Hip-Hop movement. In 2005 along with my partner
Divine we started working on a bilingual hip-hop project, it quickly got the
attention of several A&R's in the industry and one of those A&R's came
to us with the idea to add a girl to the formula, we agreed and decided to get
together for one weekend in my house so we could vibe and record in my studio to
see if it could work. In that weekend we recorded 4 songs. Two months later we
were performing those songs for the heads of all the SONY labels, after the
second song they stopped the show and said "welcome to Sony!!!" We got the
chance to do a song with Paula De Anda called "Walk Away" which became a top 10
Hit World Wide. We dropped 1 single in the U.S., "Give You the World" which got
us MTV's Discover and Download and Descubre and Download on MTV Tr3s at the same
time, first time ever that had ever happened! With The DEY I got the chance to
work with Timberland, JR Rotem, Stargate, Swizz Beats, Trackmasters, Red One,
Scram Jones and other great producers. Our album dropped in Japan and the Asian
Markets and it took us on tour through places I never thought I would go and be
successful in. It opened my mind to how big the world is and how many markets
there are. People in the Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Singapore where singing my verses back to me IN SPANISH!!! It changed my life.
Now that I'm back in the States, I have a plan to drop two albums at the same
time one in English and one in Spanish. First I'm dropping an EP called "Life of
a Warrior" to set up the albums. The EP dropped worldwide December 22, 2009 and
is available in all digital media stores.
[BrownPride.com] - Why
a solo project?
[YEYO] - It was always in the plans, we were
always thinking of the Wu-Tang effect how different members dropped their albums
and expanded the Clan's fan base even more. Then, when we drop our next album as
The DEY we will have an even bigger fan base.
[BrownPride.com] -
Now I kind of met you via some mutual friends of ours from out of Argentina, the
Rap group Apolo 11. At the time you were working on a project called La Conekta,
this was before The D.E.Y. came to be and I see that your still deep into the
concept of that project, what can you tell us about La Conekta and what it means
to you and Latinos in general?
[YEYO] - La Conekta has become a
life mission for me. Now it has become way bigger than just music. I want La
Conekta to become the movement that will erase the lines between all Latinos,
where we celebrate our culture and celebrate a united Latino community. I'm
putting together La Conekta compilation series where we will release and
distribute original music from artist of all types of backgrounds with one thing
in common, our language!!! The first edition is dropping 2010 with the next
installments dropping shortly after. It needs to be clear that the Latin Urban
movement is a serious movement with quality artists and great music. It needs to
get exposed to the masses and I'm working on putting together a coalition of key
Latino players in order to ensure that this happens. Check out www.laconekta.com
and myspace.com/laconekta for details. Big shout out to Buyer, Gera, Topo and
the whole Raptores records Argentina family, Apolo 11 - No Para!!!!
[BrownPride.com] - What would you say is the biggest difference
between YEYO the solo artist and Yeyo the Y of The D.E.Y. is there a different
message?
[YEYO] - There’s a huge difference! There are no limits
to what I can do. When you are in a group you have to come up with the concept
of the songs together and if you bring a concept to the table you have to wait
for your partners to agree to do it or not. You can't force them to do a song
they don't want to do. By myself I can say things and talk about subjects that I
wasn't able to in the group. The direction of The DEY under EPIC Records was
almost exclusively for the Pop market, they didn't let us release Spanish songs
or hard hip-hop songs, and that's the magic of the group because we are able to
walk across these borders and do the pop songs and the hard hip-hop songs and
the Spanish songs! The message of my music is always the same, Love. It could be
an angry rebellious song but it’s coming from a perspective of love. There can't
be love without war. I believe that with love comes peace, happiness, equality,
understanding, compassion, etc. You can bet I will be dropping some knowledge on
the verses; I'm from the school of lyricism! If you understand Spanish, check
out "Babilonia" featuring Locos por Juana on my EP "Life of a Warrior" out
December 22, 2009.
[BrownPride.com] - What are your thoughts
about today’s online business and how can an artist take advantage of the
Internet?
[YEYO] - WOW, the Internet is essential and vital for
any artist. If you want to be successful, you need an online presence. With so
many people wanting to be artists and having their artist’s pages as well online
you really have to concentrate on your material and making sure your music
stands out by being original, otherwise you will be lost in the endless ocean of
dreams. You need to be on myspace, facebook, youtube, twitter, wordpress, etc.
and have a good design for your backgrounds, and people want to know where
you’re from, what you like, what you do, how you do it. It’s crazy…
[BrownPride.com] - Now your parents are Cuban and Puerto Rican,
which are two Islands that have a history of politically oppression each in
their own way? How has being the child of these two cultures influenced your
music?
[YEYO] - It has influenced me greatly! They taught me to
work hard for what I want and to be responsible in my music with what I say and
how I say it. My father branded in me how hard it was for him to leave his
country to start over in a new one from scratch. From little they showed me to
think outside the box and be independent. A strong independent person can
survive anywhere.
[BrownPride.com] - What would you say is the
biggest missing link between a Latino making commercially good urban music and
the media outlets to expose it are today?
[YEYO] - Plain and
simple we need hits, lots of them. We need quality artists out there making
noise letting the corporate side of things know that Latin Urban music is a
force to be dealt with. We need to understand the business side of it and those
companies need to make money and portray an image that our music has to fit. It
has to be a collective effort, artists have to bring quality product and the
media has to open a lane for this genre to flourish. It can live in the same
outlets that play American urban artists as well as the Latin Reggaeton and pop
artists. Urban music is now considered Pop music world wide!
[BrownPride.com] - Anything you would like to add for the people
reading this interview?
[YEYO] - I want to thank them for taking
their time to read this and invite them to check out my website www.elyeyo.com. I want them to be
proud of their culture and heritage and let that identify them as a special
component of a united Latino community all over the world. Together we are
powerful, live like a warrior!!!
Interview by Danny B.
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