stu trip 001: Wazo Daveed

+++ stu trips is a series highlighting artists in their studios or creative spaces. the idea is to stop by and have a meaningful conversation with the artist on their terms in their world. if you are an interested artist or know of someone who may be, email hotelscallops@gmail.com to schedule a visit. ****

wazo daveed is a 20 year old artist based out of portland,me. he's an upstart with tremendous vision and unshakeable faith in himself, his crew and their work. i was blessed to rock a set at wazofest a multi-day, multi-stage, multi-venue interdisciplinary art/music/fashion festival daveed and his crew, kesho wazo, hosted. what struck me most about the event was their guiding ambition to be the first to put on for diasporic Black youth culture from maine.

kesho wazo means tomorrows ideas

in the course of this studio visit i learned daveed is eager to leave maine, though we both are in agreement this state and others like it represent a last frontier in many senses. especially from a Black POV, there's a tremendous abundance of resources natural and other here. however the lack of a cohesive Black community, Black representation and understanding of Black people can be difficult to live with on the day to day.

and while that is changing, the rate seems wild slow. one may be tempted to ask "well why stay there?" however our history here is immense. the 3rd oldest freestanding structure built by free Black americans is in portland and to echo across time from that place, to walk streets that were in many instances the last stop on the underground railroad for people, learning of historical Black seafarers who chose to stay in maine and make permanent homes to reading of malaga island and the established history of Black alternate communities in maine dating back centuries makes one itch for the possibility today. i want a stake of what is natural and beautiful and clean and untouched by the modern western ultracapitalist. maine still contains pieces like that. for now.

but anyway, this state is incredibly small, a million and a little change for a populace spread out over massive area and of that small populace is an even tinier Black diaspora which is itself incredibly rich and diverse. for years maine has been a destination point for African immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers of many countries. what impresses me about daveed and his work is the fluid synthesis he achieves. born in Kinshasa, Congo, growing and becoming in portland, daveed told me stories of high school infamy and ambitions unmatched. from his studio in portland we talked for two hours, below are the bits we at soulfolks thinktank found acceptable to share. thankyou and big love to wazo daveed, kesho wazo, portland maine, the Abyssinian meetinghouse, SPACE, biddeford maine, and you the reader on the toilet. shaloom and bless you. wash ya hands ya filthy animal.

                                                           

SF: How did Kesho Wazo come to be the go-to for young Black artists in Portland?

WD: I started before young niggas could do this.

SF: What age was that, would you say?

WD: It was like 17.... I was 17 and Lil Uzi just popped, Lil Yachty just popped and Playboi Carti just popped... and they had this movement with the merchandising and stuff...

SF: So this was 3 years ago?

WD: Yea

SF: Would you say they inspired you a lot?

WD: Na— they didn’t even inspire me, just their movement from the merch to whatever, not a lot of young niggas was hip that we can *do this*. Everywhere else people do this, but not in Maine...

SF: I didn’t realize you were so young. You have a 2 room art studio in downtown Portland at 20 years old. You know you sort of on some Black Ferris Bueller shit.

WD: I feel crazy bro. It’s so much. I’ve learned so much, I’ve made a lot of mistakes man. I used to have a crew of 20 people... now it’s small. I’ve made so many mistakes... being an artist is lonely...
I thought my lease was up end of May but it’s end of April. I’m going back to school. These white people, yo, I want to build a university. They will kill you out here! You got to be smart. I went to MECA, I was a hothead there, thought I was the illest there.... I was geekin’ and I couldn’t go back this semester. The money got fucked up. And they racist over there— well not racist but

SF: They don’t know how to be around Black folk.

WD: Yea! They don’t know how to be around Black kids.

SF: That’s a problem I get a lot out here.

WD: That’s why I be doing this. You know how many opportunities art has opened up for me? So many doors. White people respect this, some of em want to work for me.

SF: Art is the equalizer.

WD: You have to figure your finesse and go. Like why I called my album Identity, things were crazy. I really had to dig deep within myself and figure out what everything means and why I’m doing this. That’s why I want to go back to school. How do you help everyone, on a global scale, without that [degree]?

SF: I don’t have a degree.

WD: You dropped out?

SF: Yeah. I’m very proud of that.

WD: What year?

SF: I dropped out in... 2013? 6 years ago.

WD: Na but what year in school were you?

SF: I had just finished my junior year.

WD: For real?

SF: As you said, we young business owners. I own a few LLCs, multiple streams of income. My kid got a savings account. It’s all good. I want to attack the institutions that honor that shit. When you hear me rap, you swear to God I went to college, you assume I have that degree. But na, I’m not. I’m just like you. I’m a quitter. Someone who got overwhelmed and never went back. And that’s cool. That’s part of being an artist— this indoctrination while important, I don’t know... I got to retain my mind! My soul!

WD: So many times... that battle of giving into their system. We could create our own system but how many niggas will believe that?

SF: How many homies I got see this happen but won’t make the leap? That day job security.. some folk cannot fathom living without it. But by 20 I had nothing like this, your studio space, your collective, your catalog, you should really be proud of yourself. This is terrific. And not this space simply but what it represents. Y’all did a festival? shows? gallery exhibits? thrift store takeovers? Be very proud.

WD: It seems unreal bro.

SF: You ever sit in here and meditate?

WD: Na I be stressed.

SF: But in here is your world! The autonomy that comes with these walls relative to even MECA walls.

WD: I feel way more free. Sometimes I take a painting down and move it. I hate how museums don’t let you touch the art. In here I might jus touch it. Those rules stop the creativity. In here there are none.

SF: Autonomy is everything.

WD: It’s also scary! A lot of pressure, rent will wake you up.

SF: Yea there’s rent but there’s also life.

WD: There’s life too! That’s what I’m remembering... like when someone records in here for the first time and makes a lit ass song. I’m like, “DAMN!” I feel it then. When they about to put it out, this shit is way bigger than me, this is a gateway. More so than not, when losing the fun, you get caught up doing this and that.

SF: My studio is a fucked up mess... I can’t be judged... as you said, no rules. This is very tidy comparatively speaking.

WD: You got to come to Portland more! You be far widdit!

SF: I want to live in a town. I don’t want to live in a city... for now.

WD: You know what’s crazy? I got caught smoking weed and I was sent to Biddeford for a whole summer. My aunt used to live over there in the cut... in the fake projects with the low income housing. Biddeford is like...

SF: The white hood.

WD: It’s the white hood!

SF: But it’s a small ass town too and there are Black people out there and we are making it happen. And I love the feeling of the town. Portland is refined... too elitist.

WD: I’m bout to dip.

SF: Where you going?

WD: I applied to mad places. Emerson, RISD, Georgia State, University of Houston, CalArts

SF: That’s a lot of work! So Maine ain’t it, huh?

WD: It’s a dub bro. I’m not around people like me here. Niggas make me lazy, spiteful, chill. That’s why I be around old people, why I be at SPACE. There’s another level to this, another echelon that cats here have not seen. If you gathered 100 youth from every culture the only thing they’d have in common is they all fuck with hip hop. Niggas need a new platform to say “I’m an owner”.

SF: Yea I’m bout to dip out of here too... but would you say we’re in exile?

WD: Yes. We are in exile.

SF: And there’s something to that, right? Something that has affected the vision... but it is time to leave.

WD: It’s time to leave.

WD: How did you transition from the college dorm to what you have now?

SF: I went from dorm to campus house to drop out. I was working on rap. My boy I lived with was a hustler, shout out Nedarb Nagrom. We booked a 30 day tour and did it in my other homie, shout out Riley Lake, they momma’s Prius. When we got back I had a thousand dollars to my name. That was enough for me, I could live off that. So I made the call. And continued to jus rap my ass off. I really pop up at shows like we gon cipher? Cats ask what year it is, I do not care. That’s how I earned my name, my stripes. Jus rapping my ass off.

WD: You play ball?

SF: na

WD: You don’t play ball?

SF: Maybe for fun but na I never did

WD: You feel you’re making more catchy shit?

SF: Na.

SF: How we gon get free?

WD: Iight. First of all, next year will be the craziest ever. They playing with our minds now... but niggas know there’s a way out. Have you seen what happened with XXX? and Black people? We think this is a game. But the next President is going to be like Kim Kardashian. How we going to get free? There’s not going to be hospitals or schools. We going to go back to the ghetto. Free in a sense... away from the system. The whole thing won’t crumble but ... melanin is going to unite. Real spirits will arise. I feel like that’s what is going to happen. Everything is downloaded, the world is spinning, this shit vibrates. Right now. Black culture is unlearning everything. We’re becoming innocent again, our baby selves, our true selves. Niggas going back to natural birth and not working for white folk, we going to have our own currency. The average white person is stuck on Trump. Niggas like us— know how to get money. My cousins? They will be billionaires. In 10 years it will break down cos niggas have broke the code.

SF: Value is inherent

WD: Exactly. We gon get free like that. Kids in 2nd grade know everything, they up to speed, technology has accelerated their development.

biomythosphere

as an artist i'm interested in moving passed the limits of my identity in this society. i engage with art as a practice to find new ways of moving, being, accessing data, conversion techniques, i look for muscle memory developing practice that involves throwing my mind outside of itself. to me creating art is wrestling with the noumenal self as much as possible. i think my output as a rapper could be viewed this way. even in the years i was not capable of expressing these terms explicitly, i was wrist deep in chunky apple sauce clutching for big bits.

rap is an exciting medium for metaphysics because it openly invites myth as well as public editing. i am free to take, break, join pieces as i please from all source materials in every time through all mediums. hip hop ensures this.

in an effort to start widening my biomythosphere i created the scallops hotel to inject a topological absurdity to my rapping position. that was 6 years ago. the balance and interplay between milo and scallops hotel began to dictate the rhythms of my life, eagerly found myself bopping from city to city codedly etching all i see through these 2 filters. what was not for one was surely for the other.

i want to take it further. it does feel like the milo arc is well established now and one that won't need much maintenance anymore. but what other points illumine the biomythosphere?

the ruby yacht is an ancestral ark of bones that navigates through the miasma and misery for a plotted route back home. it is a blessed vessel and can guarantee your safety.

the scallops hotel is a renegade who can never be spoken of in a predictive sense.

nostrum grocers is a co-op of Black families committed to expanding the borders of health,mind,land,myth&future.

REDWALL is a lifelong collaboration between alexander kollman and rory ferreira containing but not limited to anything the duo create together in the same room.

Black Orpheus is the reckless bellower of the Great Fire.

LORD SKIPIO is the derelict scoundrel looking to box anyone.

but who is R.A.P. FERREIRA, ignoble peon poet?

that question remains to be answered.

yours in leisure,
rf

THINKTANK

Been home from tour a cool couple weeks, if i remember correctly it was Chicago had the best biscuits in the middle west. The Milo moniker is properly retired with regards to US of A and barring one last jaunt to the UK we can put the whole thing to rest*.






:






The amount of love and attention the project has received over the course of 8 years is nothing short of awe inducing... when folks began sending in tattoos (documented on @roryfarted ig) it overwhelmed my emotions! Poetry is our last chance at freedom!!! I see that so clearly now thanks to this audience and so I thank you for helping me to this point and place. Thank you for receiving my art! Big ups and eternal blessings to my family in the ruby yacht who toured wimme, Randal bravery, signor Benedick the moor and pink navel. Shout out my dawg dee hutch at black hand tattoo for doing my favorite tattoo yet. Peace to my uncle who rocked a freestyle on stage too. And shout out that one homie in Pittsburgh who sat on stage the whole set and rocked wit my law office shtick. You a champion for that.













Soulfolks is closing its public store front operations and seeking more clandestine enterprise as a think tank. We felt this was a correct realignment as we have always advocated maintaining a constant study as part of being a working artist. I’ll define working artist as: one who eats off what they make. If this is you, i think you’re an artist. I know i am.




Part of what that means to me is being as inspired as i can be all of the time. A lot of modern artists agree with me but maybe not as an explicit thesis however i hear in their music the call signs of mundane enlightenment (which i dig too). Channeling to a deeper level of transcendent enlightenment would require more energy and a higher level of focus, it would require deep research, silence, time and space.




SOULFOLKS THINKTANK !




The temple in the Green will now be a roving mind weapon in the wilds of babylon. We will pop up and out, we will engage the world through art on our own terms only, we will vanish without trace.




As part of our public operations this blog is going to take a more exploratory bent, I’ll be interviewing artists in their studios about their process, habits and life.




Recorded a 7 song effort upon returning home... i feel very good about it.

I have not by any means quit rap.

: )




See you soon




-rapferreira






PS:

filler

long gaps are my thing. we've been touring the last month pretty relentlessly. while in motion i find it impossible to write anything meaningful, or document much at all beyond my memory. as i get older i want to discipline myself out of this.

my boy turned 2. here's a picture from when he wasn't even 1. time is not stopping for me or for you, in fact it is speeding up to accommodate them who be next.

but yes, home again. brilliant yellow and orange was dashed abruptly with a wicked blizzard in maine. and the snow is still crunchy-- this early in the year.

what made these shows interesting was the idea they are the last for milo for quite awhile. something occurred in the last two years that jus... makes the project ring hollow for me on stage. it isn't right. something is missing. i've outgrown the work perhaps or the original motivations, i'm not sure. but i struggle with feeling insincere on stage as milo and at that point i knew i had to devise an exit strategy. the relationship of performer to audience at this time is antagonistic to me. i am changing and have to take this into consideration with the practice and execution of my "craft".

upcoming is the last region of the united states to dig into: the middle west and north, where i am from. and where the project "milo" originates. i'm eager to properly bury this part of my artistic career. the name is feckless at the time i was enamored that it was terse and relatively meaningless. now i see it as a bizarre european placeholder and that it is meaningless bothers me when it used to provide a comfort.

i feel without name. but even that lane is occupied, heh.

now the job is to stay open and use my training for good. maybe take my practice to a new medium. perhaps run the shop for awhile and let my potbelly get wider. i'm getting bored of vinyl tho too. a cafe interests me most, a place that has breakfast and lunch, with a lovely big gleaming espresso machine and board games. i don't know. maybe i'll drop a mixtape next month.

fickle as ever
jus like the wind

yours,
rf

arrumptumpting

soulfolks records & tapes is fully operational again. we sourced some staff from the middle north and randal bravery has joined us to slang tapes and make beats on premises.

 i'm excited about this. the shop has received a lot of love in person and online and we want to take a beat to reciprocate it. thanks for extending your antenna to the temple in the Green, we're reaching back. we've got a lot of exciting ish lined up for the upcoming season change. 

september 16th we've got ehiorobo's alternate tsar of gamble coming through to spread the dour dapper phonk that only the fleetzerozero commandante can. in addition, the tour is supported by ruby yacht's own artie.do.good and pink navel. we've also got ruby yacht's s.al jumping on the bill. so, essentially, 9/16 is a family reunion of sorts. bring warm hugs and an air of genuine empathy, we'll be settin it off around 7pm. all ages.

i'm trying my hand at weekly orchestrated drops on our webstore here. doin' about 20 shirts a week, and keeping it stocked with hard to find tapes and vinyl from the ruby yacht catalog. we're establishing a tiny ruby yacht studio to begin work on a label comp album. it's overdue and something we've studied at great length, i think we're finally ready.

after 7 years of rapping full time it's been helpful to take a step back and survey the landscape. so much has changed since the beginning of this journey w/r/t what is and is not hip in the genre. i feel it is more fragmented than ever before and the isolationism evident in art is only reflective of our larger populace. i find myself often thinking i make my best work alone and i am curious where that instinct comes from. the ruby yacht compilation will be an exciting opportunity to jam a bit more pointedly and i look forward to it.

see you soon friends

rf

jubilee

peace world

it's been a long hiatus. as one's creative life demands. the shop has been closed more or less for two months to the general public. it has become a full time creative studio for the ruby yacht roster and we're in here every day making. i've taken up pedal building and hope to have more to report on that front in a few months time.

while i work on sourcing a long-term shopkeep, it seemed important to include this hallowed space in our next foray.

this autumn i am taking my jubilee concept on tour. i'll be rocking with a band comprised of

signor benedick the moor on drums
randal bravery on sampler
artie do good on keys

these shows begin in october at the following:

after that we'll take a couple of weeks to regroup before hitting the road again. more on those dates at a later point.

but yes, the oct4 show will be extremely special as it is in the temple of the Green.
highly limited space (70) and every guest will need a ticket. these can be purchased at store.soulfolks.org
tickets for all upcoming milo shows can be found at miloraps.com as well as oliverbooking.com

looking forward to seeing u

rf

1st beat invitational july6

it's june and what i thought would be a semi regular blog is in fact a sporadic musing puddle.

that feels more appropriate to my style anyway.
the only cataloging that occurs naturally to me is rapping

the shop is open for the summer, we're rocking the same hours we did through spring tho we might change em up.

we're throwing a late nite...
soulfolks' 1st beat invitational
hosted by ????
july6
8pm - 11pm
@ 53 main st
biddeford maine

beatmakers are invited to pull up early. (730pm)
the first 30 minutes we will mingle, sip, smoke, whatever and catch a vibe.
all willing beatmakers will enter their alias to a cap where these will be drawn
1
at
a
time
as to who will perform next.
we will split the ~2 1/2 hrs equally among all names placed into the hat

we have 2 15s and an 18" sub. we have a mixer that can accomodate most set ups involving RCAs, quarter inches, auxiliaries, XLRs or any combination therein however we ask you bring whatever cables you need to plug into the mothership.
the event is BYOB / snack.
the event is free.

see you there

man is 5

shopkeeping is some ill shit. becoming an independent rapper means adopting the cloak of chaotic whim as lifeblood and the shopkeep is really not about that life. the shopkeep dusts and catalogs, the shopkeep has keen eyes and clean hands, the shopkeep approaches with a tidying hand and a barter's tongue. the shopkeep has weapons. the independent rapper postures, the shopkeep has impeccable posture. to own a small business in america is to have a standing in local politics, this record store had to pass a small town's council approval, pass code enforcement officer inspection and be registered by many different offices onto many small pieces of paper.

anyway i have accounts at record distributors. we're reupping this week in preparation of record store day. not that we are in cahoots with any of that... because we are not. however we are the only rap record shop in a 3 state radius so we will be stocked and open and ready, regardless of day.

as an artist i own the rights to my entire catalog. after i split from hellfyre club to start ruby yacht, i hired an attorney (whaddap jenn) and got ownership back to things that happen at day, things that happen at night as well as a toothpaste suburb.

a week after we opened soulfolks records, we received a shipment from ruby yacht's manufacturers
containing the following:

until around may i believe soulfolks records will have the exclusive on this vinyl. first time "things that happen at day // things that happen at night" double EPs have been pressed to wax, and i'm proud of this 1. shout out riley lake for producing day, analog(ue) tape dispenser for producing night. shout out nicky donalds for recording and mixing for me, colin shekem as well. i wrote these works while attending st. norbert college, my 3rd and final year there. oddly enough jus got the bill from them clowns the other day, i owe 10k for trauma and jailtime i spose.

in college i rowed boats:



as you can see consternation comes naturally to the kid. honestly feel snc owes me a check but i digress....

the good homie peter agoston visited the shop with his podcast, the house list. we got to chop it up in the temple in the Green, came out fly: https://soundcloud.com/thehouselistpodcast/ep-79-podcast-update-milo-pt-2

i got a twitch account to stream skyrim and psychonauts when i'm bored at the shop.
https://www.twitch.tv/lawrysseasonedsalt

also soulfolks has an instagram
@soulfolks

we on twitter
@soulfolksrecs

but you already know this blog is the best place to make contact.

our hours this week and the next and the next and so on are
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT

NOON
TO
SEVEN PM

thanks for rockin wit me

rf

day 2 is the real day 1

first day at the temple in the Green was a family function more than anything. it was an honor and a pleasure to open the nexus worldwide with a 7 hour livestreaming of the performances in the living room. the day was raucous tryna juggle being a papa, a shopkeep, and a mc so my foto evidence is lackin. we took the livestream down at the conclusion to maintain a whiff of sanctitude. it's our hope you come in for a visit.

big ups our neighbors next door at que huong for blessing us with lunch!

catch the vibe below. today we got sb the moor, artie do good, s.al, offsite, ehiorobo and pink navel in the living room tinkering. i'm at the front desk sketching on flesh my perceptions of fresh.
-------------------------------

today we open for regular business, noon to 7.
closed this weekend cos i got shows out of town and i need reuppance.

soulfolks!
rf

grand opening

soulfolks records (53 main st. biddeford, maine)

will be open to the general public for the first time wednesday april 4th, 2018 at noon pm.

ribbon cutting at 1155.

party rocking conducted by artists local to the shop as well as homies from afar. please join us in celebrating with justplainjones, offsite, pink navel, artie do good, kenny segal, r.bravery, signor benedick the moor, achene, scallops hotel, s.al, elucid, billy woods & samuel james.

we look forward to seeing you there.

our regular hours are

WED

THURS

FRI

SAT

12-7

however this week we will be closed FRI, SAT.

---

soulfolks records is an artist owned independent tape & record shop with love for all independent musicians and an intention to trace rap historically, meaning an exploration beyond what is catalogued, bought&sold as rap but what is mana and bone of rap.

soulfolks records is halved by a performance space called the living room. here, we invite mcs, djs, beatmakers as well as other musicians to get open & free through lineups presented in conjunction with the almighty ruby yacht

on a personal note this shop is the portal my rap life has opened, i'm writing in this space often. digging thru my own shelves to make beats, testing songs on the shop system... i can't say i feel unlike a blacksmith. shout out al for building all the furniture in the shop and driving 500 scallops hotel records wimme from milwaukee, big up the shop's custodian miles for keeping the temple immaculate. my momma ran an after school program 2blocks down the street from where this shop is, so lowkey she scouted the location-- well done thank you momma. 3cheers my old man who had a computer store when i was in 5th grade so i knew this shit wasn't impossible, 4cheers jboogie for housing us while we worked on the shop eeryday, 5cheers to icey ice for makin s.x.giggleso loud, 7cheers cj for guarding the emperor and thanks to yall whom bought my music since i was in a dorm room to this moment, where im opening a fucking recordstore.

THANK YOU

rf