What’s up ya’ll I’m Jose with Dubcnn and I’m here with Qwes. What’s up Qwes?
Qwes: What up man? What’s going on with you, how’s everything?
Risky Business: Risky Business, what’s good?
Dubcnn: Risky Business alright what’s up guys? Alright Qwes first off tell us how long you been in the music game?
Qwes: Well basically since 96 you know what I’m sayin’, then I got like my first initial single around 2003-2004. From there on it’s just kept pushing, and kept pressin’, the envelopes and have put a good series together.
Dubcnn: So you have a label situation. It’s a venture with 50/50 and Konvict right?
Qwes: Right.
Dubcnn: Tell us about your whole you’ve set up.
Qwes: Well this is gonna rewind back to what I was just talking about. Me, Akon, we all started back in Atlanta around 96, just grindin’ and struggling. So as time went on, I had this development as an artist, as a solo artist (I was in the group). Then Konnected, 50/50 Konvict came around, well 50/50 came around in 2000, he was pushing 50/50. Then after that when Akon started doing his thing, started blowin’ up, we decided to merge the brands together, basically giving 50/50 it’s own brand, and Konvict. So Melvin and Akon came together, in a nutshell.
Dubcnn: So a lot of your music has kinda reached very different parts of the world, not just in the States. Tell us about how your popularity is there, and what the vibe is over there.
JQwes: Well Basically, that came about from my man Tariq L. Tariq L. was going overseas a lot, and basically standing in the trenches. So from there he kinda introduced me to Europe. So we ended up getting a deal with TMF/MTV Moscow records. We just started, they did a reality show on us in the States. So we had the artist from Belgium come over to the States, and that’s how the whole thing started workin’. Then once we released Hold on Tight, with Akon and Tariq L, then we started getting that Europe, that whole territory.
Dubcnn: So, what are the fans and the industry of hip hop like? Just the fans in general?
Qwes: It’s like over in Europe it’s more based on like dense, Euro sound, but in France they love the Hip Hop sound as well, it’s really all about a fusion. Just bring it together and make it work. You know what I’m sayin’, just bring the whole thing together and just takin’ that rap, pop and hip hop, and making it all into one. It’s over there in certain markets, but that’s really one of the biggest tools in Europe right now. The whole transition to fusion, I call that fusion, just pop it in.
Dubcnn: What kind of people have you worked with being an artist? People you worked with and collaborated a little.
Qwes: I’ve worked with Akon of course, T-Pain, T Lopez, working with Risky Biz right now, we getting it in. It goes on, Gucci Mane, Lady Gaga. Now it’s been a blessing cause really all this started coming about like now. It’s not like it’s, you know I just been putting in the grind, and now all the songs are startin’ to come together, just not forced, it just happened.
Dubcnn: So what do you have planned for yourself in the very near future?
Qwes: Man it’s a lot of things. We got the new single We Poppin’ and My Favorite Model which is the single. Just did a deal with DNA models in New York, big up Fred what up? So we gonna push that out, base off with the intro, then we gonna follow through with the next single, not sure what that’s gonna be but we gonna get out that intro single. Then I got another record comin’ out called “Give Me A Sign”, with Zarro, she’s basically in Europe, and that’ll be comin’ out April 30th in France, Scandinavia, Germany, and Paris.
Dubcnn: Tell us where people can check you out to get a vibe of your music and find out more about you.
you.
Qwes: You can catch me at Qwes Kross, that’s the fan page, you can look up Qwes, you can look up my links qweskonvict.com, qwescross.com, all over man google it.
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Related Media & Links
Qwes Cross Official Site
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Qwes Cross // Video Interview // Dubcnn
Download The Video Interview Windows Media
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