Flipsyde
| Flipsyde | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Oakland , United States |
| Genre (s) | Alternative hip-hop , crossover , Latin |
| founding | 2003 |
| Website | www.flipsyde.com |
| Founding members | |
| Steve Knight | |
| Jinho "Piper" Fereira | |
guitar |
Dave Lopez |
| Current occupation | |
Singing, rap |
Steve Knight |
rap |
Piper |
guitar |
Dave Lopez |
| former members | |
DJ |
DJ D-Sharp (2003-2007) |
singing |
Chantelle Paige (2008-2009) |
Flipsyde is an alternative hip-hop - band from Oakland , California ( USA ). After being traded as one of the newcomer formations of the year in 2005, success declined noticeably over the next few years. It has sold over a million records so far.
history
Musical beginnings
The band Flipsyde was formed in 2003 after the three musicians Jinho "Piper" Ferreira, Steve Knight and Dave Lopez met at Oakland Rehearsal Studios. Steve Knight and Piper had already formed a kind of combo for two. Piper was MC from the start and had some stage experience in and around Oakland. In terms of subject matter, he primarily opted for political content in his texts, which made the difference to other hip-hop artists who were popular at the time. Steve Knight is responsible for the vocals, but also raps quite often. In addition, he plays the acoustic guitar on some songs. Dave Lopez is the actual guitarist of the band and responsible for the solos. He plays the main musical role in Flipsyde. Dave's roots are in Chile , where he was very much influenced by the South American sounds and rhythms in his youth. They sent their first recordings of the songs Someday and Flipsyde to producer Michael Urbano, with whom they later worked for a long time and who also became the co-producer of their debut album. While writing the song Flipsyde , the band name came up: Knight had the text “He'll see me on the flipside” from Off He Goes by his favorite band Pearl Jam in his head, built the sentence into the song and the name was then used for whole band taken over. After a short time, DJ D-Sharp was also accepted into the band.
In 2005, Interscope boss Jimmy Iovine became aware of the band through the Cherrytree Records label. He recognized the talent and musical potential of the three musicians. This is how the connection and the contract with Interscope came about.
2005-2007: We the People
In early 2005, Flipsyde went on tour with West Coast rap legend Snoop Dogg and with the Black Eyed Peas . They also played a few times in support of The Game on its international tour.
On August 1, 2005, the first single, Someday, was released from their debut album We the People , which was released on August 28 and was named Hip-Hop Album of the Year by the Washington Post . We the People entered the secure midfield of the German charts in August 2005 and at least partially succeeded in Iovine's marketing plan. In the US they were less commercially successful, as only a few radio stations decided to play Flipsyde's rather unusual mix of styles, with which no specific genre target group was addressed. Someday was the official song for the Winter Olympics , which took place in Turin from February 10-26, 2006 . For the new function of the song, a video adapted to the games was shot.
On February 3, 2006, Flipsyde reported back with the second single Happy Birthday from a new edition of their album We the People . In consultation with tATu, they not only borrowed the melody from their song Gomenasai from their album Dangerous and Moving , but also used the chorus sung by Julija and Jelena . This was then sung when Julija was recording. But then both tATu singers sang at live performances. The next single was Trumpets , which was released in a separate single version - Trumpets (Never Be the Same Again) - on July 7, 2006. In addition, Flipsyde released two bonus tracks in Japan and India.
The mixtape The Pen and the Sword was mixed together by DJ D-Sharp from various unreleased songs. Among other things, there are also solo projects of all members. However, the mixtape is no longer available in stores.
On November 24, 2006, the fourth single Angel was released.
2008–2010: New band constellation - State of Survival
On August 1, 2008, Chantelle Paige joined them as the lead singer. Since she had the same manager, she and Flipsyde had met several times and ended up recording some songs together. Only then was Paige officially accepted into the band. With When It Was Good was followed in 2009 the first single in a new band constellation. The release in Germany was on May 8th, 2009. The song was able to position itself in the first week at number 42. In Sweden it even reached the top 10. The song champion was part of the AT&T Team USA soundtrack, one of the theme songs of the US participants at the Beijing Olympic Games . Their second LP State of Survival was released on September 17th , the first songs of which they said they wrote on Akon 's tour bus .
The following year Paige left the band again. In retrospect, Flipsyde explained that the idea as a lead singer was not her own decision, but a purely business one: she was never really a part of them. In the meantime they don't even offer the second studio album on their band page.
In addition, Flipsyde had a cameo in the music video of Lady GaGa's world hit Just Dance when they were sitting on a couch together at 2:29.
2011–2012: musical comeback
The Phoenix
After the band had taken a break, they planned their comeback in 2011 with a new album. The style should be based on We The People , her first work. Singer Knight moved to Nashville in 2010 and wrote songs for other musicians there. However, as fan bases formed with the desire for new music, he returned to Oakland to work with Lopez and Piper on a new album. In May 2011 they released the pre-single Act Like a Cop Did It with the B-side Livin 'It Up , a mix of rap , metal and soulful guitar pop. They also shot videos for the two songs. For July 26th they announced their new EP The Phoenix , on which the two singles and four other songs are. However, since they had terminated their record deal with Interscope, they released it label-independent with Flipsyde Music . Without a contract and a manager, they lacked any promotion, which is why the EP was only known to the fans who remained after the style break of 2009. The name of the EP came from the fact that they hadn't worked together after the last album production and have now risen "like a phoenix from the ashes". Some of the recordings for the EP took place in Brazil, as they later announced on Twitter . The video for Laserbeam was released on August 25th . In the weeks before, Flipsyde had worked with her fans' personal bike skateboard stunt videos and then edited them with her own video. The single celebrated its radio premiere on August 7th on the US broadcaster Live 105.
On November 13th, they appeared again in public for the first time since State of Survival and played the songs of We the People live in Vallejo .
FIGHT
In October 2011 they started a mixtape series called FIGHT , which should reflect their evolution over the past few years: “ We want our fans to know where we've been and what we've been through. It's been a fight. ”(German:“ We want our fans to know where we were and what we went through: It was a fight ”), says rapper Piper. The title is made up of the first letters of the individual mixtapes. In terms of time, the songs can mainly be classified between We the People and State of Survival , but newer songs have also been used and edited. In a video message, Dave Lopez announced that Focus would be the first of five mixtapes to be released on December 20th . The rest of the mixtapes should be out by April, Ignite first , then Gift , Higher and Transform . The covers of all mixtapes represent a modified Yin and Yang with the letters F and S - the letters represent the name Flipsyde - and the respective mixtapes are assigned a color. The first mixtape is red, the second orange, the following green, the fourth blue and the last gray. On Focus there are unreleased titles like March of Death , which were created in collaboration with other artists like Akon and DJ Quik . The entire mixtape was produced by their former member D-Sharp. For the song Patricia they used the guitar part of Freedom , a track from The Phoenix that is inspired by Brazilian sounds. Also on Focus is Roll on & Ride, the first song they wrote with Akon in 2008 as part of State of Survival .
The second mixtape Ignite was released on January 24th . The day before, they presented the song It's Goin 'Down from it, which is based on the title of the same name by Yung Joc . They produced the song with Cardinal Offishall . According to the band, the songs on Ignite were recorded in Timbaland's studio and together with Akon during his tour with Gwen Stefani . Nicole Scherzinger , who was the front woman of the Pussycat Dolls at the time of the recording , also has a guest appearance on the song Dear Lord . As on Focus, there are newly edited songs - or their original version without Paige - from State of Survival on the mixtape. In the middle of February they finished the third Mixtape Gift . The green mixtape is dedicated to the brother Pipers, who committed suicide in 2008, and contains five songs - four of which were previously unreleased - whose names they announced the day before they were released. They finally released the mixtape on February 28th. Steve Knight plays a rather small role on it, Piper takes over a large part of the vocals and rap parts. On March 14th they presented Undone from the last mixtape and because they wanted to release their next EP as early as possible, they decided to combine the last two mixtapes into a longer one. On May 4th, they announced that production was finished and that Transform would be out soon. Meanwhile, they rejected the idea of giving concerts in Europe in the summer. After some delays, the gray and final mixtape was finally released on June 1st.
Since 2012: Tower of Hollywood and solo projects
Shortly after the release of the EP The Phoenix , Flipsyde started producing a new EP. At the end of October, at the same time as FIGHT announced that it was planned for spring 2012 , they expressed themselves . The video for the first single was completed in early April. A week later, they also announced that the recordings for the EP were now finished and that they only had to clarify everything with their producer Reto Peter, who had also worked on The Phoenix . In May, they announced that it will be called the Tower of Hollywood and that it is expected to be released in July. On June 16, Steve Knight posted the cover designed by Benjamin Woods on Facebook and set the release of the first single, One More Trip, for July 30. The music video, which shows excerpts from old live performances, was also released on the same day. The six-song EP, the title track of which they wrote with local musician Sam Johnson, was released on September 11th.
This was followed by a break for solo projects: Piper wrote a play called Cops and Robbers , which he played as a one-man play and premiered on September 8, 2012 in Oakland and was also performed regularly for the next two years. In 2014 it received national attention as a result of the demonstrations and riots on the occasion of the death of Michael Brown and the subsequent decision of the grand jury. In early 2013 Piper began to work on a musical implementation of his piece, which he was able to finish as a Cops and Robbers EP in August together with Dave Lopez and Arion Salazar, the former bassist of the rock band Third Eye Blind . In November, the mastering of the EP was completed and a music video for the song Believe was completed. Steve Knight worked with singer Nina Grae, which resulted in the release of an EP in 2014.
style
Most of the lyrics are politically, socially critical or personally influenced. Topics covered include the Bush era, wars, the contrast between poverty and wealth, crime and personal experiences such as Steve Knight's drug past. This makes the band one of the representatives of Conscious Rap .
On the first album We the People the MC Piper plays a much bigger role than on the successor and even raps a whole track alone, without guitar playing from Lopez or Steve Knight's vocals. There he uses, as is often the case, impure polysyllabic double rhymes. The song Happy Birthday is, as the title could possibly suggest, no ordinary birthday song . The track was written from Piper's point of view for his unborn child, who was aborted and therefore could not have an actual birthday. A bizarre, but nevertheless sad and above all very moving mood that runs through the entire song, supported by a contemplative piano melody. The track Someday is about coping with emotional unhappiness, the fourth single Angel tells of the love of a mother for her son who lives on the street and who only keeps his will to survive because he knows that she believes in him.
In the song US History , Piper takes a critical look at the history of the United States since its founding, with the focus on the countless wars in which the United States was involved: “ Built an empire quick and it might not last / But I bet I go down in history as the one that smashed / I'm America. ”(German:“ I built an empire quickly and it may not last / But I bet I will go down in history as the one who smashed it / I am America. ”) On their debut album they also criticize the US several times -President George W. Bush , for example in the song Train , in which Piper wishes for a different, more peaceful and more free government, “ I had a dream that everything wasn't the way it seemed / Martin was the President and Malcolm the VP / Bush wore a rubber and W was never born ”(German:“ I had a dream that everything was different than it seemed / Martin Luther King was the president and Malcolm X the vice president / Bush wore a condom and George W. Bush was never born ”). In later songs, too, especially on Poison , they deal with governments and the political handling of crisis situations.
With State of Survival, Flipsyde's new lead singer and the collaboration with Akon took a more poppy direction than with their debut album, which many old fans disliked. According to their own statement, on the first album you could hear more of their aggression and their will to fight, while the second is more characterized by feeling and fun. Dave Lopez himself later referred to the album as "lame and commercial" ("weak and commercial").
After both the style and the lyrics had changed on the second album, Flipsyde continued her socially critical lyrics on The Phoenix . The song Freedom tells of the political change in the Arab countries and how nice it is to finally achieve freedom. Flipsyde himself said about Laserbeam that he should encourage people to believe in their inner strengths. In My People , Piper expresses his anger at greedy society. The lyrics to the single act Like a Cop did it were written by rapper Piper, who is a police officer himself. He refers to the text, which is about becoming aware of the violence and brutality in society, especially the unrest and high crime rate in her hometown of Oakland. According to guitarist Lopez, the title should express that it is time to take things into your own hands. Many of the lyrics of the EP also refer to the time out and the return to their musical roots. Overall, Flipsyde steered towards their alternative hip-hop roots with the EP; the sound on The Phoenix is again predominantly characterized by acoustic guitars, electronic elements are rarely used.
With the mixtape series FIGHT they combined their old sounds and the pop influence. With Pocket Full of Money on Focus they moved more in the direction of reggae and R&B , but overall they stayed with the mixture of rock and hip-hop. In terms of text, they oriented themselves between social and personal content. Patricia tells of the difficult life of a prostitute in Brazil. In March of Death they criticize label politics and explain how important it is to make your own music that you are proud of:
“March of Death was us saying fuck you to the label.”
The song It's going down is about Steve Knight himself, who was able to break free from his heroin addiction. The Mixtape Gift , in particular, addresses private issues such as the death of Piper's brother and arguments in her hometown of Oakland.
At Tower of Hollywood they also go into religious values, for example in the song Oh God , whose stanzas are written from God's perspective. Here they criticize the religious image of God and the attitude of some believers and point to contradictions. In One More Trip they advocate the equality of all religions and even atheism : “ The Buddhist man told me 'go experience life' / and the Muslim said the opposite, well both of 'em right / and the Christian told me that 'I need to learn to believe' / the Atheist said the same, 'just believe in me' ”.
The soundtrack to Piper's monodrama Cops and Robbers , like the play, contains a lot of criticism of politics and society. Set in Oakland, the play explores the relationship between law enforcement, the media and the Oakland community. Piper on his solo EP Cops and Robbers with Dave Lopez and bassist collaborated Arion Salazar, is musically especially on electric guitar solos and striking bass lines in Beat recognizable.
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
|||
| 2005 | We the People |
DE56 (3 weeks) DE |
- | - | |
| 2009 | State of Survival | - | - | - |
First published: September 17, 2009
Cherrytree , Interscope, Universal |
EPs
| year | title | Label format |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | happy Birthday | Interscope, Universal CD, download |
First published: December 19, 2005 |
| 2011 | The Phoenix | Flipsyde Music Download |
First published: July 26, 2011 |
| 2012 | Tower of Hollywood | Flipsyde Music Download |
First published: September 11, 2012 |
Mix tapes
- The Pen and The Sword (2005)
- Focus (2011)
- Ignite (2012)
- Poison (2012)
- Transform (2012)
Singles
Chart placements
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
|||
| 2005 | Someday We the People |
DE49 (7 weeks) DE |
- | - |
First published: March 1, 2005
|
| Happy Birthday We the People |
DE4th  (19 weeks)DE |
AT10 (20 weeks) AT |
CH11 (24 weeks) CH |
||
| 2006 | Trumpets (Never Be the Same Again) We the People |
DE26 (9 weeks) DE |
AT54 (5 weeks) AT |
- |
First published: July 14, 2006
|
| Angel We the People |
DE69 (6 weeks) DE |
- | - |
First published: November 24, 2006
|
|
| 2009 | When It Was Good State of Survival |
DE42 (6 weeks) DE |
- | - |
First published: March 29, 2009
|
More singles
| year | Title album |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | No More We the People |
Download single; Acoustic version |
| 2008 | Champion State of Survival |
Download single; Released in the US only |
| 2011 | Act Like a Cop Did it The Phoenix |
Download single; including Livin 'It Up |
| 2012 | One More Trip Tower of Hollywood |
Download single |
| 2014 | Believe cops & robbers |
Download single |
Solo projects
| year | Interpreter | title | Label format |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Piper | Cops and Robbers - EP | Pipedreamz Ent LLC Download |
First published: May 20, 2014 |
| Knight + Grae | 8 - EP | 88 Records Download |
First published: October 8, 2014 |
Soundtrack contributions
- Spun for She's the Man - Totally my type! (2006)
- Someday for The Fighters (2008)
- Laserbeam for Fack ju Göhte 2 (2015)
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Flipsyde at laut.de
- Biography at 24OurMusic
- Essay about Flipsyde at lifestyle-mag.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Flipsyde We The People Live. ( Memento of October 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) empresstheatre.org, 2011; Retrieved September 24, 2013
- ↑ Interview: Flipsyde Blends Musical Genres Into Its Own Sound . sun-sentinel.com, April 7, 2006; Retrieved September 24, 2013
- ↑ Flipsyde - When It Was Good . swedishcharts.com; Retrieved September 24, 2013
- ↑ a b Flipsyde returns with Empress showcase. timesheraldonline.com, October 16, 2011; Retrieved September 24, 2013
- ↑ f Own post about the EP The Phoenix: The Phoenix is Rising! New EP Out Now! ( Memento of September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) lipsyde.com, July 25, 2011; Retrieved September 24, 2013
- ↑ Flipsyde - It's Goin 'Down djbooth.net, January 24, 2012; Retrieved September 24, 2013
- ↑ Sean Elder: Rapper Turned Cop Jinho 'The Piper' Ferreira Tells Story of Police Shooting From Both Sides . newsweek.com, December 8, 2014; Retrieved December 11, 2014
- ↑ a b review of the EP The Phoenix. sputnikmusic.com, November 13, 2011; Retrieved September 24, 2013
- ^ Review of the EP Tower of Hollywood: A brighter syde of life . 24ourmusic.net, July 2013; Retrieved September 23, 2013
- ^ CNS News: Cops and Robbers. youtube, May 11, 2013; Retrieved December 23, 2013
- ↑ a b Chart sources: DE AT CH
- ↑ Awards: DE