Photo by Doug Coombe

Hello My Name Is…
Mayer Hawthorne - how do you do?

I was raised in…
Ann Arbor, MI – just outside of Detroit.

The reason that you’re reading about me is…
I’m sensational and I’m also the newest signing to Stones Throw Records.

Right now I’m working on…
My debut album A Strange Arrangement – it drops 09.09.09!

But I rather be…
In bed with Megan Fox.

My most prized possessions are…
Besides my record collection…my bass guitar, and my skateboard.

But I’d give it all away for…
Maybe for Peanut Butter Wolf’s record collection.

The First Thing I do in the morning is…
Eat a balanced breakfast. Most important meal of the day!

The last thing I do at night is…
“I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death!”

My momma always said…
“Oy veh! Why do you spend all your money on records?”

I love it when people…
Invent something new.

I hate it when people…
Mixup their homonyms. (not there, or they’re)

If you ever see me walking down the street…
Don’t ask me if I want to “collab” on anything.

My most notable run in with the law…
I was recently arrested in Baltimore, on the Stones Throw US Tour, for urinating on a police station. They didn’t think it was nearly as funny as I did.

If I had to say sorry it would be because…
It Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out!

I get real “aggro” when…
I’m stuck in LA traffic…which is pretty much all the time.

The last time i swore I’d never drink was after a night of…
Jail in Baltimore.

Future projects and Plans…
I’m working on a few top secret new projects. But mainly I’ll be touring to support my new album.

And before I leave I’d like to give a shout out to…
Stones Throw, A-Side Worldwide, and Houston’s Knife and Fork Ribs. Check out my twitter – twitter.com/mayerhawthorne.

Shape Shifters

Invincible

Emergence Media

Rating: 3.5/4

The long-awaited debut solo effort from Michigan native Invincible is like a sock to the head for anyone still sleeping on this lyrically gifted emcee. As one fifth of the all-girl hip-hop group ANOMOLIES, and a major asset to PPP’s first album, Triple P, Invincible finally steps into the spotlight with Shape Shifters. To call this “conscious hip-hop” would be a grave misnomer—she’s a culturally aware, internationally minded, societal watchdog, with a library of beats so dense you almost wonder what bangers didn’t even make the cut. Invincible keeps her production in the Michigan family with fiery magma flames from production team the Labtechs, and Detroit sensations Waajeed, House Shoes and Black Milk. Black shows his range with dirty strings and a tough snare on perhaps the hardest joint on the album: “Recognize.” Featured on this track is Finale, a Detroit MC who only makes Invincible stronger and vice versa. The duo complement each other in earnest. Also appearing on Shape Shifters are ANOMOLIES, Tiombe Lockhart and Buff 1, among others. In all, this album and Invincible are perfectly suited for any head checking on Detroit or a solid boom bap to snap their neck to.

“We take our jokes seriously,” says Alex Gvojic of the Peddy Cash moped gang. We’re standing in Chicago’s Warbux Mopeds storefront, staring at his appropriately named “Peddy Kruger,” in the style of the villain from A Nightmare on Elm Street—complete with a metal-clawed leather glove resting on the headlamp and a striped army green and crimson sweater stretched over the seat and frame. The Peddy Cash crew was founded in 2002 by Warbux co-owner Patrick Turner and Flosstradamus DJ Curt Cameruci, both natives of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Kalamazoo is home of the 19-branch Moped Army, and, according to Turner, “the mecca of the modern moped movement.” But Peddy Cash is no movement, unless its members are uniting to flummox small town locals like a band of moped carnies. “To them, we’re assholes,” says Cameruci. “But it’s fun.”

What’s the first thing people need to know about mopeds? 

Pat Turner: If you want to get into vintage mopeds, you definitely need to know that your level of involvement goes up drastically. If you buy a new moped, it’s like getting a new car. You can jump on it in the rain and it will take off whenever, wherever. Vintage ones, your level of involvement goes way up because it’s 30-something years old. But that’s one of the things that attracts people to it.

Curt Cameruci: Another thing to know, too, is anywhere you go you will be asked so many questions about it—“Where’d you get that? How much does it cost? How fast does it go? How many miles per gallon? Is that an engine?” There are tons of questions that you get asked about it, but every red light you stop at, there’s always someone, like, “Whoa!” It blows their mind.

Why mopeds?

CC: Originally, because it was fun and it was so cheap. Back when Pat and I started doing this, we could buy a ’ped for $75. And you’d just have to tweak it a little bit to get around. No one really even cared about mopeds except for 40-year-old guys in the suburbs.

You two are responsible for getting moped culture off of the ground here in Chicago, and it’s a major scene right now.

PT: I would have never seen it going this way, you know? Like, we’re standing in my moped shop right now, but I would have never seen it going that way.

CC: We were doing this just for fun, and then it got bigger from all of that. Me and Nigel [Hollywood Holt] were both touring all over the place—all around the world—and started getting in magazines and everything talking about this whole moped movement. And then we got the Cool Kids on mopeds and it really started blowing up from there.

PT: We kind of pushed a lot of things within the Moped Army and people stepped their game up. More gangs saw what we were doing and started getting into it. Chicago has definitely become a hotbed for mopeds since we started.

Hello my name is…
I got so many different names that people know me by.  One Be Lo aka One Man Army, born Raland Scruggs aka Nahshid Sulaiman.  Some people who have known me for years read interviews sometimes and don’t even know that it’s me.

I was raised in…
I was born and raised in Pontiac, Michigan,  just north of Detroit.

The reason that you’re reading about me is…
I make music that not only hip-hop fans need to hear, but anybody who can appreciate good music.  I talk about a lot of things that almost anybody can relate to.

Right now I’m working on…
I’m in a zone right now, I got so many producers and projects that I’ working on right now.  I guess the goal is to have enough material so when I run out of shit to say, I can still dig into my library and put out records.  Kinda like Tupac records coming out years after his death.

But I’d rather be…
I can’t think of anything that I would rather be doing right now.  Being an artist is not something I want or even choose to do, it’s just who I am.  No matter what I’m doing, beats are playing in my head, thoughts are racing and I gotta write something down.  Sometimes I gotta tear up boxes, write on receipts, napkins, whatever I can write on to get that thought out.  And I don’t feel right until it’s recorded.  I can’t wait to get back to the States so I can get a MBox for my laptop so I can record on-the-go.

My most prized possessions are…
When I think of prized possessions, I think about the things that I own that I couldn’t do without. That would have to be my cell phone and maybe my laptop.  I gotta be able to communicate. Next would be my studio gear, and then my shoes, and then my hats.  Some people buy souvenirs—I like to buy shoes and hats in every city.

But I’d give it all away for…
If I could get unlimited studio time and unlimited access to the internet,  I could get by.  I guess I could give away all my shoes and hats for new ones, same thing with the phone.

The first thing I do in the morning is…
Wash my hands, my face, my arms up to the elbows, my head and my feet.

The last thing I do at night is…
That depends…

My momma always said…
“I don’t care if people like me or not!”

I love it when people…
Show love or at least consideration for other people and their realities.  Whether it be lifestyle, beliefs, feelings or whatever.  I think you have to allow people to be who they are.  Even if they have to change, they gotta change on their own.

I hate it when people…
I hate when I’m in the studio and somebody who has nothing to do with the creative process is there distracting everybody else.  I guess they don’t look at it like it’s work, but it is.

If you ever see me walking down the street…
I must be headed somewhere important, because I don’t walk unless I have to.

My most notable run-in with the law…
November 18th, 1994 when they ran in my friend’s house while we were watching
rap videos and arrested us for armed robbery.

If I had to say sorry it would be because…
It’s probably because somebody sincerely had a misunderstanding so maybe I needed to clear something up.

I get real aggro when…
The first thing that comes to mind is that rainbow pinwheel of death on my MacBook.  Other than that, I try not to let anything affect me in that way.

The last time I swore I’d never drink was after a night of…
It’s been so long, I can’t even remember.

Future projects and plans…
I’m working on so many things right now, most of these projects don’t even have names set in stone.  But in the near future I do plan on releasing a project called “Baby (Being a Black Youth)” and “Life (Lo is for Everybody).”  I’m collabing with a few producers as well, like Bean One—we got a project almost finished and I think we’ll call it “The Ones and Only.”  I’m also working on a project with Black Milk and another one with Jake One.  Stay tuned.

And before I leave I’d like to give a shout out too:
I wanna give a big shout out to anybody who has supported me in the past, present and future.  I would be irrelevant without these people.