Sumo Gang

How did you get started in music?

My earliest memory of music was shortly after my parents separated during a homeschool field trip.  I was about 12 and we were living in a homeless shelter and my mom took us to a music store.   She bought me a guitar.  We didn’t have much money back then so we put it on lay-away and it took us over a year to pay for it.  Soon afterwards I taught myself to play and my younger sister.  Through our homeschool support group we also took West African Drum and Dance from Baba S’ankh and upon graduation from the class my mom bought us a jembi.  And soon afterwards my grandmother bought us a keyboard and suddenly my siblings and I had a group.  We called ourselves, “Supreme Unity,” after a comic book series we wrote as an assignment for one of our classes.  Our first song was, “Go Black Man.” We were blessed to perform, “Go Black Man,” Have Faith, and Drugs, at a Black History Program at the Martin Luther King Center in Fort Worth.  And later we were invited to open for a Fashion show at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. 

Game Over 

Supreme Unity continued to perform at church’s, community centers, and family gatherings.  At this point I began to want to do more with music and after talking with my cousin Kengere he managed to get me a copy of Fruity Loops.  I learned Fruity Loops with very little one on one instruction. I read things on the internet and studied YouTube Videos.   Fruity Loops seemed to usher in a new phase in my music where we became the, “Crescent Kids.”  The “Crescent Kids,” were, Alim, Malik, Jorge, Ricardo, McEllory and Cole and our sole occupation was “Jerking.”  Jerking was the latest craze and we even managed to collaborate with a fellow ‘jerker,” we met over the internet named, Isaiah from California.  Between dance videos we spent hours creating animated car videos.  One of our videos had 16,000 views.  The most popular song I produced during this phase was, “Game Over, “which became an instant classic among my family and friends. Around this time I got my first job at a grocery store and my focus was less on music and more on earning.

Sleeping while Awake

“Sleeping While Awake.” was my first try at going solo.  The songs featured some of my siblings and we performed one of the hits, ‘My Brothers,” several places but soon afterward my computer crashed and I lost fruity loops.

Righteous Flow Entertainment

By this time a generous benefactor, my Dad, had replaced Fruity Loops. I had moved into my first apartment and my horizons had begun to broaden.  During this phase I began to add more people to the group,  the first was Charlie.  Unbeknownst to me Charlie was visiting his brother who lived next door.  One night while I was producing I heard a knock. It was Charlie, he introduced himself and said, “We can hear you making music through the walls and I rap, maybe we could do something together?”  He proceeded to free style right on the spot and just like that it was an instant friendship.  That summer we became, “Righteous Flow Entertainment.”  The most popular songs were, “Gone Beef It Up,” Everyday,”  “LaDaDa,” “Yellow,” and “What’s Real.” 

Righteous Flow Entertainment opened for Comedian Reggie Reg, performed at Fort Worth’s, “Art on the Cob Festival,” and the Harambee Festival.  While working with Dallas Promoter Too Real we opened for JR Patton and shared the stage with Young Nation.  

Generation X & Black Magic 

Righteous Flow Entertainment gave way to Generation X and it’s album entitled, “Black Magic.” Ife became extremely busy. We dropped music videos every week for the songs on the album.  I lost my fiancée and the new girl I was dating was telling me I wasn’t going to make it.  As a result I started to lose faith in music and feel like I couldn’t actually make it.  I found myself going through a series of relationships that caused me to see and experience the pain and hurt on girls many women feel from being disappointed by relationships.  I saw a lot of tears and many of those women told me about myself. 

ANthem

ANthem came about at a time when I had lost faith in music.  When I first started working on ANthem I couldn’t believe I was creating it.  ANthem is the culmination of my  life experience.  The album is mostly about heart break and the treatment of women from a man’s perspective.  ANthem has restored my creativity.  I feel completely confident that I can make it.