Fokis Interview

[D-Nice]

http://illuminati2g.com/site/2012/02/11/fokis-interview/

I2G chilled with Fokis for a exclusive interview. We discuss his upcoming mixtape, Vintage State Of Mind, his album Vintage, his work with a legendary east coast MC and much more so check it out.

Illuminati 2G is here with Fokis how’s it going man?

Everything is wonderful man, how are things with you?

Good. You just recently released your single entitled Just Sayin, featuring Sadat X. Tell me a little bit about the single and the mixtape that you are putting together.

The mixtape is called A Vintage State Of Mind and I basically put that together from a album that I have coming out in April called Vintage. It is basically a sound and feel that dates back to the early 80′s, mid 90′s, and I collaborated with alot of legendary artists.

Kurtis Blow, Nore, DMC, Grandmaster Caz, and this project is one of the biggest and most important that I have ever done. It means alot to me and these are all artists that I grew up listening to, admiring, idolizing. I think that it is important that the message gets out there and heard, so I decided to put together a mixtape to try and get people in that mindstate, hence the title Vintage State Of Mind.

Oh how could I forget, I have Lord Jamar and Sadat X on the project as well. I was able to establish a really good relationship with Sadat. I am a engineer as well and he records out of my studio, and I asked him to host the mixtape and he was with it. I played him the beat…, all of the beats for the most part are classic beats and I recorded new songs over them. Just paying homage to those that did it before me. Sadat did his verse and the rest is history.

The mixtape is dropping February 21st, do you have a release date for the Vintage album?

It is going to be around the end of April. The second single…, well the first single is Show Em How To MC, and that is available right now on Itunes. That features Grandmaster Caz and The Mighty Cold Cut Brothers and I have a video coming out for that. The next single is entitled Pass That and it features K-Sun and it is a really dope record that is going to take people back. I did the album with one of my homeboys named RP and I met him about a year and a half ago. I brought the idea of the album to him and us splitting the cost and the making of it and he was with it.

Outside of the mixtape and the album, it seems like you are dropping new projects every month. Do you have any future plans of working with Focus? That 20/20 album was crazy.

Yeah I am all over the place, organized confusion. I just seen Focus about 2 weeks ago, he came out to New York City and we hung out and we spoke about our collabo project. It will be entitled 50/50, because on the 20/20 EP it was me rhyming on it and him doing the beats, I mean he did rhyme on the intro and the rest of it was pretty much me. 50/50 is gonig to be him doing half of the beats and me doing the other half, same with us rhyming as well. We are really looking forward to that and I am probably going to take a trip down to Atlanta and we are really trying to craft a masterpiece for that.

I told him I am really not trying to just make hot records, I really want to push the envelope with this album. I am working on alot of other projects as well, and I have my company Loyalty Visual and I am focusing on working with other artists. I have some dope artists that people will be hearing from real soon. One cat his name is Strife out of Detroit, another dude named The 17th, he is crazy. I have another solo album has well coming soon, so yeah there is alot of things coming but right now I am focused on this mixtape and working on Strife’s project, and the Vintage album.

Wow I almost forgot one of the biggest things, I am currently working on a Sadat X album.

OH WOW!

Yeah we have recorded one song so far and I am not rapping on it at all. I am basically executive producing it, A&Ring it and putting it out. I have not seen anybody work like the way that man works, he WORKS and that is why he is going to be rewarded. I salute that and respect that.

Wow that is major right there. What are your thoughts right now on the music industry and hip hop in general?

I love it. I love all of the new energy and the new artists. There are alot of artists that I see that are coming up and really doing some things and some I have interacted and worked with and they are really growing as artists. They are even bigger stars now then when they started and I am happy to see that. Just the independence of everything, how you can make good music, put it out there, hit the road and build your audience, I love that. I don’t have to listen to this person if I don’t want to, I listen to what I want to listen to.

Do you have any upcoming shows or tour dates?

I am going to start everything right now, everything starts with this mixtape. I am going to do a event here at this place called Sutra, a release party coming up. I am definitely going to hit the road after that, my usual run is on I-95, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida. I am constantly out in Denver so I will be out there as well. No specific dates as of yet, but definitely before March I will have some available.

What is your website information?

www.fokeezy.com
www.twitter.com/fokeezy
www.facebook.com/fokeezy

Alright well that is all the questions I have for you, appreciate you getting down for the interview. Is there any last words or shoutouts you want to get out there to the people?

Shout out to everybody out there that is living life, staying positive, and staying focused. Shout out to Illuminati 2G as well.