Coast Contra - Freestyles
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Published 2022-07-09
2. Give Up The Goods 6:41
3. Fu- Gee La 11:50
4. The Enemy 18:13
5. The Realest 22:59
6. Rare 29:01
7. Dead Homies 32:56
8. Diet Coke 37:36
9. Speechless 41:48
10. The Come Up Show 46:26
RioLoz, Eric Jamal, Taj Austin and Ras Austin make up the brotherhood that is Coast Contra. The four artists and rappers met in Los Angeles when they moved in together at The 505 Apartments. They found their rhythm and work ethic while serving together at soul food restaurant My 2 Cents. Their latest single “Intentional” has been featured on Spotify’s Rap Caviar Twitter and their album, Apartment 505, comes out next year. KXSC’s Elle Davidson sat down with the rap group to find out more about how they incorporate their brotherhood and sense for hospitality into their art and community.
Elle Davidson: How did you guys get together, and when did you start making music?
Taj Austin: We've all been doing it for a while. We all started doing music together six years ago. That was when everything really happened. We all got together living at a spot called Apartment 505. Our brotherhood was formed there, and the music came shortly after.
Eric Jamal: That's the name of our album coming up next year: "Apartment 505." It's just letting everybody know how everything went down. We work together, and we live together. That real brotherhood formed just by being around each other 24/7. They say you never really get to know somebody until you live with them. And when I say I know these guys, I know these guys.
Elle: Did you always want to do music, or what did you think you’d end up doing?
Eric Jamal: I never wanted to do music at all. My parents kept me away from hip hop growing up. There was a lot of gospel in my house, but when my older brother would take me out, he would introduce me to artists like Nelly, Jay-Z, Nas and all of them. I grew a liking to it. When I started, I always would freestyle, and my brother was like, "Yo, you should write." And I was like, "You know, it's not nothing I want to do, I want to be a realtor." But I got the chance to start writing in college at Temple University. Then after, I realized that it was something I was actually good at. That's when I realized I could make money from this, and then I came to L.A, met these gentlemen, and now you got Coast Contra sitting in front of you.
RioLoz: I have always gravitated toward music. I mean, like, my pops loved music, and when I was younger, I used to play the trumpet. Then I fell in love with hip hop. And that's what really motivated me to start rhyming.
Taj Austin: Our stories are similar. I have been in this from a very young age, so I always aspired to do it eventually. But it was a blessing to do it with my brothers. That just made it even more fun.
Ras Austin: Same here. For me and my brother, our parents do music as well, so we grew up around it and were submerged in music our whole life. It was almost the same as taking up the family trade for us.
Elle: So how does that background in freestyling and hip hop come together to make your sound today?
Eric Jamal: From living together and working together, we know whose strong point is what and whose weak point is what. We have a strong foundation of communication. We all worked at a restaurant, so we take the same kind of things that we learned at a restaurant and take it over to the studio. There's no ego, and we know whose role needs to be what. We all allow each other to share our thoughts and ideas. Now, one idea might be wild, corny and bizarre, but we encourage ourselves to share those ideas, because we never know what they might turn into. And that's how I always start. Now I know with these guys, these three guys, I know they like a singular sound when it comes to instruments. These guys taught me to listen to instruments and pay attention to the sounds in the background. It's not just only about your voice rapping about what's hot and cars and stuff, but also understanding that your voice is an instrument as well. This bond that we built is from creative confidence and artistic integrity.
Elle: What restaurant did you guys all work at?
Taj Austin: My 2 Cents. It’s on Pico and Curson. Shout out to Chef Alisa Reynolds.
Elle: I know you guys used to do Cypher Sundays there. What’s up with that post-pandemic?
Taj Austin: We just had one in August. It was amazing. I believe we'll be bringing it back in November.
#coastcontra #freestyle #hiphop