Good morning & Happy St Patty’s Day to all. What a great excuse for Guinness & Jameson on a Thursday night. Now before I get too buzzed lets get to some music news and then we travel to the D to rap with A$troe The Future. Jay Z has pulled three of his biggest albums – The Blueprint Trilogy – from rival streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. The albums (2001’s The Blueprint, 2002’s The Blueprint 2: The Gift & the Curse, and 2009’s The Blueprint 3) are also no longer available on iTunes or Amazon MP3. In other news, The Sony Corporation has announced it will pay Michael Jackson’s estate $750 million for Jackson’s 50 percent share of the Sony/ATV music publishing company. Paul McCartney advised his young friend Michael Jackson that, to really make money in the music industry, you needed to own the publishing of hit songs. So now I am so excited to have A$troe The Future join us today as his timing is so relevant to right now. I caught a taste of this emcee with his single “Never Thought” and was pleased to find out there is so much more! So lets get it with A$troe The Future as we discuss the Flint water crisis, ‘The Bang Project’, the real Detroit vs a movie, and so much more!
Stoli: Where are we talking from today and how did you hold up this winter?
A$troe The Future: Good ole Detroit Michigan, it’s cold in the “D” but I hold up just fine.
New album coming soon, “The Bang Project”. Available in iTunes, Google Play and everywhere else March 2016:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/a$troe-the-future/id372158867
Stoli: Being that you are from Detroit, how do you feel about the water crisis in Flint and do you know folks effected?
A$troe The Future: Yes, I know multiple people effected. Being from the “D”, this doesn’t come to me as a shock. I think more than anything, the rest of the world is shocked how life in the black community is neglected. This wouldn’t happen in northern Michigan.
Stoli: At what age did hip hop go from a hobby to career path and have your family/friends been both supportive or negative?
A$troe The Future: Around the age of 17 or 18 I knew this is what I wanted to do with my life. As far as my family.. my family has never been supportive of what I wanted to do, now I’ve found success and they all know why I never listened to them. Now, I have built my own family with success. Believe in yourself.
Stoli: What two emcees have you been most inspired by and how did you create the alias, A$troe The Future?
A$troe The Future: The two emcees would have to be, Tupac and Biggy. The name A$troe had been givin to me by another artist. Astroe means the combining to form a star and later I added The Future as a reminder that I’m forever evolving with the industry. I didn’t want a common name.
Stoli: Would you say that in 2016 it is harder or easier for an artist to get a record deal as opposed to the 90’s?
A$troe The Future: I’d say it’s always hard to make music people want to hear but at this time it’s a lot easier to get a deal, like night and day because of the technology that we have.
Stoli: You recently released ‘The Bang Project.’ How long did you write/record that and where can we download or listen to the album?
A$troe The Future: I started working on The Bang Project in December of 2015. Pretty quickly I was able to come up with lead singles that I then released, the fans loved them and I knew I needed to release an album of similar music and it had to bang! So I worked and created The Bang Project. It only took me from December to January and I released it in February. It’s now for sale in all major online stores and available on streaming services including, iTunes, Google Play, iheartradio, Tidal, Rhapsody, basically where ever you can stream or buy music, my music is there. Also, there are a couple tracks on my Soundcloud and Reverberation page for fans to stream and listen to for free.
Stoli: How much of your real life comes out in your lyrics and how important is authenticity & realness for an emcee?
A$troe The Future: I can’t speak for everyone else but I put my life in my music 100%. I want my fans to relate and feel me so I can’t give them anything fake. I think I am as successful today because what I have to offer is so authentic and raw. Realness is extremely important as an emcee.
Stoli: I love your song “Bangn”. Offer us insight into what that song means to you & the message about your everyday situation?
A$troe The Future: “Bangn” is a subliminal message on multiple levels. The main message to the record is, you shouldn’t let someone do something to you with out doing something back. Where you come from they may say, “if you come after me I’m riding”, where I come from they say, “try me, I’m bangn”. In most cases it’s a figure of speech but in my case it’s if you run up on me I’m bangn.
Stoli: How do you consume music such as Spotify, Pandora, Amazon MP3, MTV Jams, etc and how do you feel musicians should be paid to play?
A$troe The Future: I consume through Spotify and buying music in iTunes. Networks I know artists will be paid from me consuming their music. If your an artist with registered music you should be paid if your music is streamed anywhere. It’s so easy for people to buy a cd, download it and give it away to everyone for free. I know the artists work to create and they should be paid.
Stoli: Do battle rap spots like in ‘8 Mile’ still exist in Detroit and if so what are some hot venues?
A$troe The Future: The community of hip hop is currently on a world search, the battle rapping, pushing CDs, record pools and onslaught of attractive music is just not as great as it used to be. Those could all come back in play but the artists here need to come together to bring that back so we can be as we were. This is not a movie, Detroit is not “8 mile” and nothing like “8 mile”. That movie was made from of a single perspective an experience of one person, come here and find out what it’s like. Detroit has a lot to offer. That movie was not an accurate reflection.
Stoli: Besides hip hop, do you also have work/school or other hobbies you enjoy?
A$troe The Future: Music is what I do, when I’m not doing this I’m with my family.
Stoli: What is coming up for A$troe The Future and where you @ online?
A$troe The Future: I’m working on putting tour dates together promoting The Bang Project over summer, search iTunes or Google Play to download my music but I’m available on most major networks online, YouTube, Vevo, Soundcloud, etc. I do real live posting on Facebook and check out my Instagram @therealastroethefuture. I don’t do Twitter, so catch up with me on Facebook, that’s the best network for fans to see what I’ve got going on.
https://www.facebook.com/astroethefuture
https://www.instagram.com/therealastroethefuture/
https://soundcloud.com/gotthatmusicllcrecords
https://www.reverbnation.com/astroe?profile_view_source=profile_box
https://www.youtube.com/user/AstroeTheFutureVEVO
