Negashi Armada unveils Blunt Fang
With Blunt Fang Negashi Armada breaks his own musical rules and even make up a few new ones
"Fang Style" mp3
Nomen Novum, Social Studies, DJ Cole Alexander (Black Lips) and Blunt Fang take over 529 on Christmas. The cover is $5 and the music starts around 9 p.m.
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The latter name on the list is the latest incarnation of Negashi Armada (formerly of Supreeme and former Crib Notes scribe). I caught up with Negashi on Christmas eve and he told me all about what he has in store.
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Chad Radford: Tell me about Blunt Fang and how it differs from what you did with Supreeme and Crossburner
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Negashi Armada: When I first started making solo records I wanted to come up with a new way to make music. It’s not like I wanted to change genres, I still wanted to make rap music. But when you make music you come up with different rules in your head. With Blunt Fang I tried to break some of those rules and even make up new ones. For example, when I write melodies I try to make sure that it doesn't sound like the ‘70s, or soulful in that way because you’ll find yourself sounding like Outkast, and one of the most soulless things you can do, especially if you’re trying to have a sense of soul or heart with your music, is sound like Outkast, here in Atlanta. It’s a band wagon that’s way overdone at this point. …As much as I appreciate Aquemini and ATLiens and all of those records. Cee-Lo is another one that I stay away from. I don’t listen to it. I respect him as an artist, and I try to steer clear from pretty much all of the Dungeon Family stuff unless it’s Witchdoctor. Part of my thing, and part of Supreeme's thing was to take these unsung rap icons and kind of borrow from them.
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What has been an influence on Blunt Fang’s songs?
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What’s been a big influence on these songs are the first Dinosaur Jr. album and Zuma by Neil Young. The kind of emotions in a lot of Neil Young’s songs affects me. I do like the super sappy stuff, like Harvest Moon, I can’t even front… But a lot of the more electric stuff, the Crazy Horse stuff, gives me the same feelings that I get from a lot of rap music. It makes me think about the same characters that I see in my life.