partyboobytrap

For a musician, what could be better than making a career out of creating music? How about doing it with your best friends? That’s exactly what goes on in the Fameless Family. They are a tight-knit music collective from Boston, composed of 6 artists whose do-it-yourself business tactics represent the future of the music industry. This music collective is truly a family business, as these artists manage, produce, record, promote, write, illustrate, and perform all of their own original work. From a business standpoint, the do-it-yourself technique is economical and allows for artists in the Fameless Fam to enjoy complete self-sufficiency without sacrificing the creative control of each individual.

It is due to the Internet, as well as to the dissemination of new media, that music collectives such as the Fameless Fam are able to raise awareness and gain popularity via homepages, social networks, blogs, and streaming content. The Fameless Fam’s ability to embrace the impact of new media in the music industry puts them at an advantage and provides an opportunity to compete on the same level as record label powerhouses. It allows them to maintain a solid backbone in an industry that has about as much stability as a sober Courtney Love. The Fameless Fam, along with each individual artist, has a Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter page that are frequently updated with new content. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they develop a Smartphone application too.

Since October, the Fameless Family has consistently released one new track per week on FamelessFam.com for a total of 13 fresh cut tracks so far. Each new track release is more inventive than the previous one. At this rate, there’s no telling what the following month will bring! The multidisciplinary strategy of the Fam focuses heavily on the combination of a wide spectrum of genres, ranging from the nostalgic instrumentals of older-school producers such as J Dilla to more contemporary, unique, and emotionally raw underground hip-hop like Atmosphere, for instance. So what’s next for this family of Renaissance artists? In this exclusive interview with LOSTinSOUND, the reader will gain insight into what makes the roots of their super-heady family tree so strong.

1. Who are all the artists and projects that make up the Fameless Fam?
FF: Artists:
EJ3 Robot- Earl Jones
Virtue- Will Kowall
Exquisite Corpse- Danny Joseph
Papa Bakes- Eric Baker
DJ Emoh Betta
JaeKay- Jenny Koh

Projects:
partyboobytrap – Virtue and Exquisite Corpse
Ambivillians- Papa Bakes and Virtue
Robocorpse- EJ3 Robot and Exquisite Corpse

2. Who came up with the idea for the name Fameless Fam? Would you change your name if you become famous?
FF: Fameless was the name of Will’s family’s Canadian local clothing store. That name ?began to encompass so much more as time went on. It became an ideology once the Fam came together in college. Now, it holds what we are in ?it… famelessness, making music without the ‘fame’ of our name attached ?to it. Faces and people blow up, sound is invisible, so sound is? always fameless, really. So, if you take away the things that take ?away from that, all you are left with is what is, the nothingness of ?everything… and that is Fameless.

3. What makes the Fameless Fam so unique or different from other music ?groups- labels- records?
FF: Our label can’t be labeled. It is a collective focused on getting ?music to people, when a label is focused on monopolizing income from ?an artist. We aren’t trying to sell or push anything in a business? sense, it is just a hub for ears to gather and celebrate/relate to ?music. Though making money and turning our music into a business to ?live off of would be the greatest thing in the world, it is still not ?the foundation of what Fameless is. If it becomes that, then we will ?call us a label and see where that goes… but for now, we prefer the ?term “music collective”.

4. What are the age ranges for the different artists?
FF: 19 – 26, but we are all old souls.

5. How often do you all collaborate with each other?
FF: When the atoms of inspiration are in our lungs, we might all start? making noise in a circle. Some of us might start rhyming, some will? beat box, or clap, and then switch. Basically, we are usually making ?lots of noise when we are together… Our constant co-existing is ?collaboration.?? We discuss ideas for songs all the time, the songs happen and actually get written and performed as times goes on. And of course our main collaboration projects are partyboobytrap, Ambivillains, and Robocorpse.

6. How different are all your styles of music?

FF: Different in product, similar in roots. For example, all of our ?individual styles of solo songs sound completely different. Papa Bakes may sing something that could have you in tears of laughter, or rap? something to make your girl dance. Virtue tries to make people feel or think.? EJ3 can twist your mind and play music for hours, it’ - Lost in Sound (lostinsound.org)

Will Kowall (a.k.a. Virtue) and Danny Joseph (a.k.a. Exquisite Corpse) are not your typical rap visionaries. In today’s hip-hop landscape, where the Lil Waynes and Soulja Boys tower over countless, equally inane imitators, Partyboobytrap are trying to make some noise and bring the established order down from the bottom up.

Where other artists emphasize the money, the power and the fame, Partyboobytrap runs with a collective of Boston artists known as Fameless Fam, a motley crew of hip-hop and electro kids who spread the gospel of fun and original music for free. It seems as though modesty is the new black. To this end, Partyboobytrap’s debut digital full-length is an impressive way to kick things off.

The record begins with a upright bass groove that would make A Tribe Called Quest proud. Virtue bursts in and immediately defines his own personality, with a distinctive voice and understated lyrical prowess to be explored throughout the rest of the album. My initial comparison to Aesop Rock still seems justified, but he sets himself apart more often than not. The guest verse from Invisible Inc. mouthpiece George Watsky gets me every time, just because…well, shit, the kid’s good.

Instrumental flourishes and the occasional verse from co-collaborator Exquisite Corpse provide a raw, organic feel to some already-outstanding samples. The underlying intention is to make fun, upbeat hip-hop and party jams, but they’re not afraid to experiment and have a little fun with it. “#184? is probably my favorite cut from a production standpoint, as it features a punchy live drum track against a sample from one of my favorite songs – Bright Eyes’ “Lover I Don’t Have To Love.” “Aquafina Silhowet” is comparatively simple, but also impressive for marrying a UK grime tempo with an old-school feel (or at least trying to). But nobody’s perfect. “Boylston Anthem” is less than anthemic; it plays like a hyperextended inside joke set over a generic contemporary hip-pop beat. Virtue lyrically captures the feel of downtown Boston, but the guest verse from one “Papa Bakes” sends the imagery way off course. The acoustic remix of “I Don’t Know” is noticeably the misfit on the album, but if nothing else, I’m interested in hearing the original.

Partyboobytrap’s strongest point is their message. Behind all the wordplay, the duo have something to say, and that’s commendable in and of itself. “Wassail” laments the commercialized state of hip-hop: uninspired MCs who dumb their music down for bigger audiences at the expense of artistic integrity. On the humorous side of things, “You and Me; the Bitch” echoes Common’s 1994 single, “I Used To Love H.E.R.” Updated for 2008, it’s what any young, white Emerson College sophomores would sing about: a “sad song about weed” under the clever disguise of a relationship, without even dropping the name Mary Jane! I suppose the refrain, “You leave me breathless,” should have given it away.

Virtue puts it best: “Every human can relate to movement: it don’t matter where you’re from, we all clap to music.”

Overall: 7.5/10 - Mike Mosh Reviews Records

I’ve posted about my boys partyboobytrap before, but now I come to you with the culmination of months of hard work, their second LP: Entrapment.

I’m really digging this album. Sometimes as a friend you feel obligated to love your friends’ music. But I’m genuinely enjoying this Entrapment. The production is very much in my wheelhouse, very dense, melodic stuff. Reminiscent of Aesop Rock’s production on Felt 3, but a little lighter on the industrial/El-P noises. Haunting and diverse. Easily the most mature and polished rapping from the boys as well. This really takes me back to stuff I listened to circa 2003, when the indie scene had crested and Def Jux was riding high as the vanguard of forward thinking Hip Hop (this is, of course, a topic that I really wish would be explored in a documentary–the indie scene between 1995-2004, Project Blowed, Rawkus, Def Jux, the rise and fall, the major players, it’s a fascinating and fragmented story but one that could likely be assembled by the blogging community).

Times have changed, my tastes have changed, but music like this still hits a certain spot in both my brain and heart. I highly recommend it if any of the above sounds intriguing. - You Must Learn (youmustlearn.us)