Flowing with the musical current
BY CRYSTAL K. WIEBE
Times Correspondent
The college students may have gone to South Padre Island, but the music industry spent its spring break in another part of Texas.
Approximately 1,300 acts descended on Austin between March 16 and 20 for South by Southwest, an annual festival and media conference held in the city known as the Live Music Capital of the World. The highly sought-after festival showcases were spread among some 60 downtown clubs, bars and restaurants, where crowds full of journalists, music industry types and fans listened to some of the hottest new sounds around.
Among this year's international crop of talent was Ovadose, a 25-year-old rapper from East Chicago.
The solo artist was the only non-Texan act on the bill of a hip-hop showcase March 18 behind the Fox and Hound sports grill in Austin. He took the microphone at 10 p.m. flanked by Quad and Keiwan, two other East Chicago rappers there to provide onstage vocal support.
Clad in jeans and long, black T-shirts, the three rappers formed a triangle on the stage, and spewed rhymes about the pain of life to a strange, sparse audience under a green-and-white tent for 20 minutes.
Although they had driven for 18 hours the day before to get there, that's all the time Ovadose and crew (and hundreds of other performers) got at SXSW, which is as much about networking as it is about showing off.
From his home studio a week later, Ovadose said his time in Texas was well spent.
"I thought it was cool. For me I think anything is cool that's not here," he said.
Before the festival, Ovadose, also known as Adrien Lewis, barely had performed outside of the region, where he has been rapping for about eight years and has opened for such nationally successful acts as Twista and Ja Rule.
Ovadose first came to the attention of Matt Sonzala, a promoter who helped organize the SXSW showcase, while a member of The Grind Family.
After splitting from that group, Ovadose released his first solo album on LIL-Sum Records last summer.
Sonzala said he always has been drawn to Ovadose's style because it reflects a hard intensity characteristic of Midwest rap.
The tracks on "The New Beginning," many of which he performed in Texas, allude to the struggles Ovadose has faced in East Chicago "not having half the things that people rap about."
"You ain't gonna hear nothing about bling on that album. I can't rap about that," said Ovadose, who has a pair of tear drops tattooed at the corner of one eye.
So far, he said "The New Beginning" has sold between 4,000 and 5,000 copies in this area. He expects to put out a new album within a few months.
"I've got a nice fan base here, so whatever I put out they get giddy," Ovadose said
BY CRYSTAL K. WIEBE
Times Correspondent
The college students may have gone to South Padre Island, but the music industry spent its spring break in another part of Texas.
Approximately 1,300 acts descended on Austin between March 16 and 20 for South by Southwest, an annual festival and media conference held in the city known as the Live Music Capital of the World. The highly sought-after festival showcases were spread among some 60 downtown clubs, bars and restaurants, where crowds full of journalists, music industry types and fans listened to some of the hottest new sounds around.
Among this year's international crop of talent was Ovadose, a 25-year-old rapper from East Chicago.
The solo artist was the only non-Texan act on the bill of a hip-hop showcase March 18 behind the Fox and Hound sports grill in Austin. He took the microphone at 10 p.m. flanked by Quad and Keiwan, two other East Chicago rappers there to provide onstage vocal support.
Clad in jeans and long, black T-shirts, the three rappers formed a triangle on the stage, and spewed rhymes about the pain of life to a strange, sparse audience under a green-and-white tent for 20 minutes.
Although they had driven for 18 hours the day before to get there, that's all the time Ovadose and crew (and hundreds of other performers) got at SXSW, which is as much about networking as it is about showing off.
From his home studio a week later, Ovadose said his time in Texas was well spent.
"I thought it was cool. For me I think anything is cool that's not here," he said.
Before the festival, Ovadose, also known as Adrien Lewis, barely had performed outside of the region, where he has been rapping for about eight years and has opened for such nationally successful acts as Twista and Ja Rule.
Ovadose first came to the attention of Matt Sonzala, a promoter who helped organize the SXSW showcase, while a member of The Grind Family.
After splitting from that group, Ovadose released his first solo album on LIL-Sum Records last summer.
Sonzala said he always has been drawn to Ovadose's style because it reflects a hard intensity characteristic of Midwest rap.
The tracks on "The New Beginning," many of which he performed in Texas, allude to the struggles Ovadose has faced in East Chicago "not having half the things that people rap about."
"You ain't gonna hear nothing about bling on that album. I can't rap about that," said Ovadose, who has a pair of tear drops tattooed at the corner of one eye.
So far, he said "The New Beginning" has sold between 4,000 and 5,000 copies in this area. He expects to put out a new album within a few months.
"I've got a nice fan base here, so whatever I put out they get giddy," Ovadose said
