Today I interview Oliver Davis, the founder of Illzed Cuture. His label includes various artists who are skilled in different genres of music. He breaks down the menaing of his record label and gives us details on his artists and upcoming projects. Well let me stop talking, read the interview below.
YI: When and how did the record label first get started?ย
OD: It started around April time earlier this year, I’m a musician myself so at first I intended to just use ILLZED as a platform to release my music on but then people started emailing their work and it stood out to what I was used to saying so I thought fuck it let’s get a label started, we’ll get further with our talents merged together under one brand so that’s what it is.
YI:ย Who are some of your artists under your label, and what have they been doing so far?ย
OD:ย We’ve got Rashaun Hampton who will be dropping ‘The American Tour’ soon, Orrin’s coming with ‘baby ep,’ Zippo Hebs has a new project ‘Wyzteria’ in the works, Lonny X with ‘Tombstone LP’ is also being worked on too, TMLOE are touring at the moment but will be releasing their next project in 2015, then myself, PRJCT94 with ‘MANSION, dreams’ also next year. Those are all our artists so look out for them as they’re all talented. As for our producers, we’ve got Zeraj Retalso who recently released ‘Phantasm’ and WUUDS who will be dropping ’14:41′ this Saturday. Our roster is extremely versatile with each signee having a completely different style to eachother.
YI:ย What is the process that someone has to go through to become and artist for your label?ย
OD:ย On our website there’s a contact section which has our emails, any creative whether it’s an artist, producer, designer etc can all use these emails to send in their work. It’s sounds clichรฉ but we do listen to all the work that is sent in, some stuff may not be replied to for whatever reason but I make sure I take notice of those who’ve taken time out of their day to show support and send in their work. As an artist apart from your craft and support, what have you got? It’s all about keeping consistent creativity and a strong core support.
YI:ย What made you want to have different types of music on your record label?
OD:ย I don’t want to limit ourselves in the wider realm of things, I want to fuse genres together, there’s very few artistic masterpieces, but I’m trying to piece together many of them with the talent on the ILLZED roster.
YI:ย Could you see yourself expanding the roster anytime soon?
OD:ย I’m always ready to strengthen the ILLZED brand, whether that’s by expanding the roster then of course if it makes sense and if the person or people are original because nowadays everyone’s a clone.
YI:ย Very true, that’s very true *laughs* . There’s no originality nowadays. Where do you see the label being in the next 10yrs?
OD:ย The top.
YI:ย Just to overview, do you feel like you guys work well as a team?
OD:ย Yes, this is more than a team. It’s a culture.
YI:ย So who’s next up to release a project?
OD:ย Check out WUUDS newย EPย 14:41ย ย , It was actually released Saturday.