THE WHITE KIDS
Tampa, Florida, United States | SELF
Music
Press
The Bay area has a long-established and flourishing hip-hop scene. It is self-sustaining and full of rappers, groups, DJs and collectives whose range covers just about every imaginable subgenre and style of hip-hop. But as with any local scene, regardless of the type of music, it’s a struggle for the artist to stand out to take things to the next level.
The White Kids, hailing from Tampa, may have stumbled upon the magic formula to start them down that road to bigger things.
The White Kids are Sammy Mull, 21, and Vinny Edwards, 19, who jointly handle all aspects of the group’s sound, from writing and producing the music to rapping and singing on the tracks.
As for their origins a year and half ago, “I threw a bunch of high school house parties,” said Mull, who has been performing hip-hop since sixth grade. “Vinny used to be one of those guys who would come to my parties. Then a couple of years ago, I’m at a party and one of his friends is like, 'Yo, Vinny raps now.’ And I was like 'Let’s get a cypher going.’ And he started rapping and it just clicked right then and there. By myself, I wasn’t progressing so much, but once I met Vinny, it just clicked, and it was just magic right then and there.”
The White Kids have a unique sound, which Mull calls “suburban hip-hop.” Their lyrics are a direct reflection of the life and times of two kids growing up just north of Tampa on the hard streets of Carrollwood.
“We come from a very cookie-cutter suburban neighborhood,” Mull said.. We love hip-hop, but we don’t relate to 90 percent of what’s out there. We love it, we’ll jam out to it and we respect what they’re doing. I can’t relate to a guy talking about selling drugs and pushing cocaine all over the place because that’s not who I am. I was born to be a big voice in music, and so was Vinny.”
Musically, The White Kids are very laid-back, especially on their second release, The Endless Summer, a collaboration with guitarist Sam Lagos. Lazy beats, a healthy mix of singing and rapping mixed with Lagos’ guitar work comes across without pretense. It sounds like a summer spent hanging at the pool, plain and simple.
As chill as Sammy and Vinny come across in the studio, they like to deliver the goods live.
“We started off doing shows with rock bands because we got booed off stage the first time at Da Cypher (an open mic hip-hop night at Crowbar in Tampa),” Mull said. “The first show we ever did, we went there and we got booed off. They didn’t understand our content,message,or concept.
“We started doing a bunch of shows with punk rock bands and ska bands. Our stage presence is very hand-in-hand with the rock world. We’re known to run around, jump on the bars, kick drinks across the bar, hang from rafters. We do a lot of mic spins, and there’s moshing at our shows. We’re not the normal rap group you might see.”
Both have part-time day jobs, but they’re positioning themselves to make a run at the big time. “We’re full-time musicians,” Mull said. “I probably spend eight hours a day in the studio.”
Be on the lookout for their next release, The Happy Hour, later this year. - Tampa Bay Times
The Bay area has a long-established and flourishing hip-hop scene. It is self-sustaining and full of rappers, groups, DJs and collectives whose range covers just about every imaginable subgenre and style of hip-hop. But as with any local scene, regardless of the type of music, it’s a struggle for the artist to stand out to take things to the next level.
The White Kids, hailing from Tampa, may have stumbled upon the magic formula to start them down that road to bigger things.
The White Kids are Sammy Mull, 21, and Vinny Edwards, 19, who jointly handle all aspects of the group’s sound, from writing and producing the music to rapping and singing on the tracks.
As for their origins a year and half ago, “I threw a bunch of high school house parties,” said Mull, who has been performing hip-hop since sixth grade. “Vinny used to be one of those guys who would come to my parties. Then a couple of years ago, I’m at a party and one of his friends is like, 'Yo, Vinny raps now.’ And I was like 'Let’s get a cypher going.’ And he started rapping and it just clicked right then and there. By myself, I wasn’t progressing so much, but once I met Vinny, it just clicked, and it was just magic right then and there.”
The White Kids have a unique sound, which Mull calls “suburban hip-hop.” Their lyrics are a direct reflection of the life and times of two kids growing up just north of Tampa on the hard streets of Carrollwood.
“We come from a very cookie-cutter suburban neighborhood,” Mull said.. We love hip-hop, but we don’t relate to 90 percent of what’s out there. We love it, we’ll jam out to it and we respect what they’re doing. I can’t relate to a guy talking about selling drugs and pushing cocaine all over the place because that’s not who I am. I was born to be a big voice in music, and so was Vinny.”
Musically, The White Kids are very laid-back, especially on their second release, The Endless Summer, a collaboration with guitarist Sam Lagos. Lazy beats, a healthy mix of singing and rapping mixed with Lagos’ guitar work comes across without pretense. It sounds like a summer spent hanging at the pool, plain and simple.
As chill as Sammy and Vinny come across in the studio, they like to deliver the goods live.
“We started off doing shows with rock bands because we got booed off stage the first time at Da Cypher (an open mic hip-hop night at Crowbar in Tampa),” Mull said. “The first show we ever did, we went there and we got booed off. They didn’t understand our content,message,or concept.
“We started doing a bunch of shows with punk rock bands and ska bands. Our stage presence is very hand-in-hand with the rock world. We’re known to run around, jump on the bars, kick drinks across the bar, hang from rafters. We do a lot of mic spins, and there’s moshing at our shows. We’re not the normal rap group you might see.”
Both have part-time day jobs, but they’re positioning themselves to make a run at the big time. “We’re full-time musicians,” Mull said. “I probably spend eight hours a day in the studio.”
Be on the lookout for their next release, The Happy Hour, later this year. - Tampa Bay Times
Discography
Suburban Menace-2009
Endless Summer Ft. Sam Lagos-2010
Happy Hour-Set to release in early 2011
Photos
Bio
The White Kids, hailing from Tampa, may have stumbled upon the magic formula to start them down that road to bigger things.
The White Kids are Sammy Mull, 21, and Vinny Edwards, 19, who jointly handle all aspects of the group’s sound, from writing and producing the music to rapping and singing on the tracks.
The White Kids have done and are still doing alot of big shows and makin moves in and out of the FL area and done shows and worked with some pretty major artists such as Javon Black,Roscoe Dash,Travie McCoy and just finished a mini tour with Curren$y in early Febuary 2011
As for their origins a year and half ago, “I threw a bunch of high school house parties,” said Mull, who has been performing hip-hop since sixth grade. “Vinny used to be one of those guys who would come to my parties. Then a couple of years ago, I’m at a party and one of his friends is like, 'Yo, Vinny raps now.’ And I was like 'Let’s get a cypher going.’ And he started rapping and it just clicked right then and there. By myself, I wasn’t progressing so much, but once I met Vinny, it just clicked, and it was just magic right then and there.”
The White Kids have a unique sound, which they like to call “suburban hip-hop.” Their lyrics are a direct reflection of the life and times of two kids growing up just north of Tampa on the "Green" streets of Carrollwood.
We love hip-hop, but we don’t relate to 90 percent of what’s out there. We love it, we’ll jam out to it and we respect what they’re doing. I can’t relate to a guy talking about selling drugs and pushing cocaine all over the place because that’s not who we are,says Vinny.
As chill as Sammy and Vinny come across in the studio, they like to deliver the goods live.
“We started off doing shows with rock bands because we got booed off stage the first time at Da Cypher (an open mic hip-hop night at Crowbar in Tampa),” Mull said. “The first show we ever did, we went there and we got booed off. They didn’t understand our concept,message,or content at the time.
“We started doing a bunch of shows with punk rock bands and ska bands. Our stage presence is very hand-in-hand with the rock world. We’re known to run around, jump on the bars, kick drinks across the bar, hang from rafters. We do a lot of mic spins, and there’s moshing at our shows. We’re not the normal rap group you might see perform."
Both have part-time day jobs, but they’re positioning themselves to make a run at the big time. “We’re full-time musicians,” Mull said. “I probably spend eight hours a day in the studio.”
Be on the lookout for their next release, The Happy Hour, later this year.
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