R&B | L.A. Leakers: Justin Credible and DJ Sourmilk

Hip-Hop / R&B Overthrow Rock As Most Popular Genre In America [PEEP]

For years Rock-N-Roll music has been the most dominant genre of music in the United States. With all the recent advancements, the combination of hip-hop and R&B have dethroned rock for the first time in history, as the most popular genre in the US.

In a semi-annual report published by Nielsen Music, which calculates consumer activity, hip-hop makes up for 25.1-percent of music consumption. Rock followed with a close 23-percent. This marks the first time hip-hop and R&B have exceeded rock’s numbers since Nielsen began keeping track of America’s music consumption.

Most of hip-hop and R&B’s revenue has come from streaming this year. The study shows that 29-percent of all “on-demand” streams come from hip-hop and R&B music, while rock dominates album sales in the country with 40-percent of revenue coming from album sales.

With Apple Music continuing to align themselves with notable hip-hop and R&B acts that have worldwide stardom and TIDAL being ran by hip-hop royalty, Jay-Z, the chances of this trend continuing are quite definitive. Album sales in this day and age continue to decline, as streaming is taking over and will only get bigger in the Internet era.

Kendrick Lamar already has the biggest album of the first half with ‘DAMN.’, which killed shit with record-breaking streaming numbers. Ed Sheeran’s ‘divide’, Drake’s ‘More Life’, Bruno Mars’ ’24k Magic’ and Migos’ ‘Culture’ follow the mega-album.

@IAMBNYCE

L.A. Leakers Indie Pick Of The Week : Kendre’

Balancing careers can be a struggle for some people, but not this week’s Indie Pick of the Week, Kendre’, who aside from acting is also pursing a career in music simultaneously.

Kendre’ began his acting career at 12-years-old after moving to Los Angeles from his hometown of Flint, Michigan.

He got his start in acting on Nickelodeon’s ‘All That’ and went on to make appearances on the shows ‘Girlfriends’ as Jabari and ‘Ned’s Declassified’ as Backpack Boy.

By 14 he setup a full-fledged studio in his room with money he had saved up from acting.

“The acting allowed me to have money as a kid to the point of putting money to the side to buy equipment for my own studio,” he said. “That kinda kept me out of trouble when I wasn’t on set, I wasn’t out on the streets.”

During his later teenage years he gradually began making music out of his room, beginning with producing and making beats followed by adding raps to the sounds he developed.

“By about 17, 18 I started getting really serious with it and started making mixtapes, messing with autotune and people really liked the way my voice sounded,” he explained in detail.

At 21-years-old his sound had evolved and he put out a song with Quincy that was very successful.

The song “Stay Awhile” made it to the Top 10 countdown on BET’s 106 and Park. Watch the video below:

Creativeness has always been one of Kendre’s strongest skills. Being in the entertainment industry has only kept that creativeness flowing.

“I just like to be creative and use that to entertain people,” he exclaimed. “Whether it’s playing a role on a movie or on a show or making a song, I want to make sure that the audience is entertained at all times.”

On his most recent single “Right Here” he shows his appreciation for one of his girl’s “nana”. Listen to it below:

https://soundcloud.com/ikendre/right-here

Kendre’ is currently working on his next EP ‘Checkmate’ scheduled to drop this summer and will soon be releasing a video for “Right Here.”

Don’t forget who put you on.

@IamBNyce

L.A. Leakers Indie Pick Of The Week : Johnny Maxwell

It was on Fox’s ‘X Factor’ in front of high-profile judges: Simon Cowell, L.A. Reid, Brittany Spears and Demi Lovato where this week’s Indie Pick, Johnny Maxwell, first received high praise for his musical artistry.

A couple of words the judges used to describe the young 16-year-old Maxwell were; “passionate”, “energetic”, “driven” and “fun.” That was back in 2012 during the inception of Johnny’s musical career.

Today, a more developed Johnny Maxwell can still be described with those words, although he credits the whole experience of being on the show as a very humbling one, that served as an eye opener and set the bar for the things he could accomplish.

“That kinda showed me I had a little bit of talent, being I was blessed enough to be able to be aired on the show,” he said. “From there I was like I wonder what I can do if I just keep this going.”

His curiosity kept him focused and motivated him to continue working on perfecting his art. The ambition he carries can be heard in every note he hits as the energy he brings thunders over the 808 drum-lines.

Being from Castro Valley in the Bay Area, 808s were instilled in his head at a young age, with his father taking him to watch shows of local artists during the Hyphy-era.

The added bass on his songs stimulate his vocals on tracks that make his music enticing. That sound is what he considers to be the bridge between R&B coupled with Pop music and what he describes as “RnBass.”

“RnBass isn’t only a genre it’s like it’s own culture,” he explained. “It’s like modern day R&B, this is essentially the evolution of R&B that ties our generation together and gives us something to look forward to in the future.”

His close friend J. Maine, who he met through his manager introduced him to the “RnBass” genre of music.

Johnny credits his manager, Anthony Lovaglia with introducing him to many musical individuals as well as teaching him about the music industry and how it works.

The two met at Lovaglia’s Redwall Studio in San Jose, CA. where Johnny was working on a video for one of his songs.

“I was just a customer at first,” he jokingly said. “He liked what I was doing, he liked what he saw.”

Lovaglia took notice of the hustle and talent Johnny possessed and kept in contact with him as a mentor. Over time their bond grew so strong, that the relationship became deeper than just music.

“I just started hitting him up for a lot of advice and stuff for things I was going through that left me in a rough spot and he helped me get through it,” he said. “From there something amazing started to form and it’s been working ever since.”

Working doesn’t stop at the Redwall Studio, where Johnny has composed many of his hits, including his most recent “Got It.” Listen to the single below:

“Got It” is slated to be featured on his upcoming album dropping May 6th.

“The music will be different and it will be more of that RnBass,” he exclaimed. “Essentially it’s gonna be sending a message out to people about what you can expect in the time to come with Johnny Maxwell.”

The future for Johnny is shaping up to be very bright. I’m excited to see the direction his career will take him.

His following is already pretty potent in the Bay Area, but he won’t stop there. He also feels he can add to the current talent in his region.

The one major influencer and motivator for making music and somebody he hopes to one day work with is, Marc E. Bassy, who like Maxwell has a Bay Area background.

Follow this kid on the socials @JohnnyMaxwell and as always, don’t forget who put you on!

WRITTEN BY: BRYAN MELARA – @IamBNyce

L.A. Leakers Indie Pick Of The Week : J Romero

This week’s Indie Pick of the Week, J Romero aspired to be a professional soccer player before he ever orchestrated a hook on a track or laid down any kind of vocals.

He was born in Antioch, California before he relocated to Arizona with his mom, brother and sister. Growing up in a latino household he was into soccer “big time” and began playing when he was 7-years-old.

At 17-years-old his soccer dreams were crushed when he tore his ACL playing football. After coping with the draining emotions of having to give up on something he worked so hard on, he redirected his attention to music.

“I’m just a young Latino that never even thought about making music, all I wanted to do is play soccer but like my team and I say…”God Is The Best Chest Player,” he said. “My journey has had a lot of ups and downs”

Things seem to be more on the ups than the downs these days for J and his musical career. His most recent project ‘If These Walls Could Talk’ display his brilliant vocals and melodies that never seem to miss a beat.

Listen to the full project below:

https://soundcloud.com/officialjromero/sets/if-these-walls-could-talk

He describes his thought process as simple, all he needs is great energy and vibes the rest takes care of itself. Usually he just goes in the booth and freestyles words till he finds the right one that aligns with the production.

“It all comes to me once I vibe to the melody,” he said. “All the music I write or put out is the way I was feeling in that exact moment of my life. “

The heat of the moment is everything for J when coming up with ideas for new music.

“I do my songwriting in the moment whether it be in the shower, car, or studio. As soon as I get an idea I voice memo it if I’m not in the studio to record it ASAP,” he said.

His musical inspirations are widely ranged in different genres with the likes of: Usher, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Drake, Daddy Yankee, Marc Anthony, J. Lo, Enrique Iglesias and Chris Brown. People have even gone as far as calling him the “Mexican Chris Brown,” although he doesn’t compare himself to anyone.

“I couldn’t compare myself to anyone because everyone has a different way they make music or work in their life but I have always had ppl tell me I’m going be the Mexican Chris Brown or the next Enrique,” he said.

One thing he does take pride in is repping Arizona, and feels that it is the next city to be booming not only musically, but as a whole in the entertainment industry.

“People over look Arizona very much so and Arizona has a lot of talent whether it be music, modeling, acting, ect.,” he said. “Arizona is definitely going to be the next big state to blow up for sure. Eventually the industry will start paying more attention to the over flowing of talent here.”

He and fellow Arizona artist, Vee The Rula will soon be dropping their forthcoming single titled “Be The One,” so look out for that.

“I’m working on many other tracks, just always expect great music from me in the future,” he exclaimed.

WRITTEN BY: BRYAN MELARA – @IamBNyce