Marcey Yates

The Dilla Kids drops trio of albums at once
Omaha hip-hop group The Dilla Kids have apparently been grinding hard.

The trio of Marcey Yates, Xoboi and percussionist/producer DRMHD has dropped three separate albums, all through Yates’ Raleigh Science Project artist collective. The first single and video, “Gluttony,” led the official announcement as the first track from Crisis Actors, the seven-song EP with one named for each of the seven deadly sins. Journey to Tibet and Brake Failure In Portugal were also released.

It was apparent in recent months The Dilla Kids had been working their way towards some kind of release. The group released a handful of new tracks over the past year and played the inaugural New Generation Music Festival this past August.

Dive into all three albums here, here and here. Watch “Gluttony” — directed by Zach Wallinger and shot at Musicology — below: - HEAR NEBRASKA

Omaha’s own Marcey Yates has released his latest project, a 10-track album entitled, “Season 4.” The album is produced almost entirely by himself, with the exception of “No More Parties in Omaha” which was produced by Sin.Leary. Featuring local talent including Jus B, Xoboi, CJ Mills, and Mars Black, you need to add it to your Spotify playlist now. - Say Hey There

Two Omaha-based bands — the Dilla Kids and Bed Rest — will perform in the fifth week of the Hear Grand Island concert series in Railside Plaza downtown.
The plaza and beer garden open at 6 p.m. with music from 7 to 9 p.m.
The Dilla Kids are led by vocalists Marcey Yates and Xoboi. Musicians are Glenn White, James White and Jonathan Johnson.
Yates said the group formed earlier this year and takes its name from the “late, great producer” J Dilla.
Dilla, born James Dewitt Yancey on Feb. 7, 1974, was a record producer and rapper who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip-hop scene in Detroit as one third of the music group Slum Village. He died on Feb. 10, 2006, at age 32 but not before working with such musical acts as Busta Rhymes and the Roots.
In fact, Yates compared the Dilla Kids’ music to the sound of the Roots, who many know as Jimmy Fallon’s house band on “Late Night” and “The Tonight Show.”
Yates described the Dilla Kids’ sound as soulful and “not today’s hip-hop.”
Yates himself is a three-tie Omaha Entertainment and Arts awards nominee.
He said the group represents the Raleigh Science Project, a collective of musicians and artist, and fans can check out their music at www.raleighscience.com. - The Independent Grand Island

Marcey Yates of Raleigh Science Project does not see why hip-hop, the genre he has been working to produce and promote in Nebraska for seven years, has to be “over here” while everyone else is “over there.” For Yates, August 5th will represent the culmination of a year’s work to bring hip-hop and other genres “into the same house and under the same roof” in Omaha.

Twenty-three bands will take two stages Friday at Stinson Park in Omaha’s Aksarben Village for the first ever New Generation Music Festival. The festival is presented by Raleigh Science Project, a local hip-hop promoter and artistic collective.

The festival, which starts at 3 p.m. and runs until 11 p.m., will represent the culmination of a year’s worth of planning and hard work for Raleigh Science Project. The lineup they have assembled is as big as it is diverse, with local and regional outfits creating a jam-packed day of hip-hop, E.D.M., and hard rock among other genres.

Screaming for Silence, the local hard rock band that has amassed a national following, will headline the show.

The festival is a brand new addition to Omaha’s music scene, and the first major festival that Raleigh Science Project has cultivated. Organized by Marcey Yates (aka Op2mus), Mark Patrick and JADC Productions’ Jamison Denton-Carter, the event aims to “bridge the gap between coasts” while highlighting up-and-coming regional independent artists in all genres.

Tickets are available for $20.

HN sat down with Mark Patrick, Marcey Yates, and Jamison Denton-Carter, the minds behind the ambitious new project, to discuss the diversity of the lineup, the details of the production, and the future of New Generation. - Hear NEBRASKA

The cold isn’t keep Stdnt Body from getting a breath of fresh air, nor from representing Omaha on the road.

Raleigh Science Project released the Omaha hip-hop duo’s latest video “Outchea” earlier this week. In the clip, Marcey Yates (aka Op2mus) and Donald Profound (aka Xoboi) name-drop famous rappers and declare their presence outside the Midwest. Everything about it screams confidence, from the duo’s smooth flow to its deliberate gait through the streets of Omaha. - Hear Nebraska

Marcey Yates cruises Omaha’s 16th Street in new video
Marcey Yates’ view of Omaha is two-sided, at once giving cause for protest and encouragement. His latest music video addresses both.

The Omaha rapper and Raleigh Science Project founder shared a brand new video today to preview his forthcoming album Joule, which he projects to drop late-May. In the “Dope” video, Yates recounts his personal struggles and aspirations against the backdrop of boarded up homes and worn city blocks on north Omaha’s 16th Street.

Yates says the sampling — The Isley Brothers’ “Say It Again Girl” — echoes the “oldies” feel of some north Omaha areas, where buildings and businesses have yet been renovated or have been left to decay. To him, the video depicts a typical day.

“When you head south on 16th and cross Cummings into downtown, you think you left some run down town,” Yates says. “That’s how close poverty and drugs are to the more richer neighborhoods. The stores are different, the food is different and the businesses are different. I’m inspired by the city and its history and the future I want for it.”

The LP release is becoming an annual event for Marcey Yates. Joule will be the 16-month follow-up to last year’s The Cult, and Yates’ third album in three years. That run includes his March 2014 double album Vanilla Sky/Social Studies, which established Yates as a multi-faceted emcee able to lyrically tackle multiple perspectives.

Watch “Dope” below: - Hear Nebraska

Yesterday marked the release of The Cult, a mixtape by Omaha emcee and producer Op2mus, also known as Marcey Yates. We first heard about the project talking hip hop with him over coffee in September. Here’s what he had to say at that time:

“I shared half the production, and the other half is by an upcoming beat maker here, his name is Britton Wood. I reeled him in with the concept of this record. My intention is to create a cult-like following and do something different and use a lot of the sound that appeals to the general public, which is like trap and 808s and stuff that has more bass in it. What I try to do is take something I heard before and poke fun of the stuff that they rap about that everybody likes, and then I flip it and use different rhyme patterns, rhyme styles. What I’m showing is the mainstream side of me. It shows I can do all this, it shows my versatility.”

And with The Cult, he does create a different sound and place a larger emphasis on channeling his inner mojo to incite mass appeal than he has in the past, but the essence that is Marcey Yates is not lost in his approach, and as he will be the first to tell you that the content is still there, it’s just reformatted.

marcey yates
Photo: Say Hey There Music
SOUNDS LIKE

Both Yates and Wood bring some dope beats to the table. The overall vibe of the album is smooth, often chill, with nice drums and a deep bass. At times it’s old school Kanye West-esque. Other times it gives off a Golden Age vibe with the inclusion of throwback samples like Biggie’s “Everyday Struggle.”

HIGHLIGHTS

The first two songs on the mixtape — “The Campaign” and “Y.D.A.F.” — give us exactly what Yates told us he would give us with different rhyming patterns than you might expect from the rapper. In contrast, the verses in “The Real” give his versatility the stage by highlighting another, more familiar side of his flow.

“Science/The Millions” was leaked early to give us all a glimpse into what we could expect from the rest of the record, and it’s easily a standout single. This song will likely make it onto the set list from this point forward, because wherever it’s played, it will get people lit.

Other standout tracks include “A.D.A.S.” which has Biggie’s “Everyday Struggle” laying the foundation and is one of those magnetic songs that you can’t help but love, as well as “What’s Evident,” a tightly-produced song that, at just over two minutes, leaves you wanting more.

BREAKDOWN

Marcey Yates wants this mixtape to trigger a cult-like following of inflamed individuals who share a niche admiration for its content. Is this mixtape worthy of creating such a turnout? With Marcey Yates behind it, yes. It has just the right blend of talent, widespread appeal, and ability to keep people thirsty to make it happen.

This mixtape deserves your download and your share. And who knows, a year from now you could be one of the few who can say they picked up The Cult before it developed a devoted following. - Say Hey There

Critiquing hip-hop’s supposed penchant for materialism, short-sightedness and misogyny can be common fodder for emcees who simply seek to separate themselves from the moral shortcomings of popular culture.

But Omaha's Marcey Yates pushes himself to take a step down from any lofty soapbox, to stop simply observing — he pushes himself to evaluate situations through someone else’s eyes, to find deeper meaning. He says rappers forget to look at other perspectives when they write.

“I think they do a lot, and a lot of times they leave the woman’s perspective out,” Yates says.

This Wednesday, Yates, (aka Op2mus), will perform tracks from his March released double album, Vanilla Sky / Social Studies, at Celebrate Omaha Gives at Slowdown on a billing with Twinsmith, Laura Burhenn (of The Mynabirds) and Edem Kegey.

Where Yates’ previous release, The MisEducated Scholar L.P. reads as a personal journal, Vanilla Sky and Social Studies serve as direct social commentary on two fronts: personal relationships and the moral contradictions of hip-hop today. Yates pulls from personal experience before widening the scope to reveal the roots of larger universal issues like trust, sincerity and insecurities.



Yates says he finds that speaking honestly from personal experiences adds to his personal growth, but sets himself apart as an artist.

“This is me opening up more. I want people to get to know me, but also take a stance other emcees aren’t taking. They aren’t making songs like this. They don’t make songs like that. Simply, they don’t. And this is real genuine stuff, and not having to talk about drugs, guns, bitches and ass-shaking. I’m thinking about things that happen in my life and things people can relate to, but also getting to a story where they have to think about it.”

Throughout the two albums, Yates calls out the moral shortcomings of popular hip-hop. On “Sky Is Falling,” he takes aim at lazy emcees: “100 million records but none of them tight.” And on “Can We Take it Back,” featuring Conchance, he criticizes how the current “state of hip-hop” is “callin’ out our women.”

But Yates is still peeling back the layers to see the other side of things, understands why this often happens — it’s really about the audience, he says.

“You’re trying to make music for people to like a certain way. So you make the standard music that people make. But that’s only one side of it. When I came out with The MisEducated Scholar, I really catered to real hip-hop heads and that, but I asked ‘What am I leaving out here? I want women to enjoy this music too.’”

This is one of the reasons why Yates points to Vanilla Sky’s “Relationships” and Social Studies’ “Leave From Here” as central tracks of the double album release. They both push the perspective.

“Leave From Here” is a break-up song, a farewell to an ill-fated relationship. It feels like an apology song; it stylistically follows the form of hip-hop ballads, like Jay Z’s “Song Cry” or Murs’ “First Love.” The song’s mood follows suit to the sample, Evelyn Champagne King’s “The Show is Over”.

In the song, Yates remembers working through a relationship made sour by difficulties that come with life — despite his musical successes outside of the home, love still runs its course. Rather than get caught up in confusion and miscommunication, after realizing that his partner needed time alone to grow, he knows it's “time” for her to go.

“It’s about letting go,” Yates said. “You have to learn to let go. You have to learn how to let people go on their own. I can only tell her so much, you know, but I don’t want to get in the way of her progress or her learning her life lessons.”



“Relationships” is a different sort of break-up track. This song’s narrator is clearly stepping out of an unsatisfactory relationship. It feels like a fun, upbeat break-up song about shrugging off some person that you’re better off without, and on the surface, the hook even comes off that way: “I’m leaving / I told her ‘I’ll be back again’ / I traveled the world, I’m travelin’ round with different friends / Don’t take it personal, girl, we can still be friends.”

But as the track goes on, Yates pulls away from his perspective of wanting a more serious relationship to her point of view, a woman busy with work and school who’s not looking to settle down.

“I come from the standpoint where I can understand where they are coming from too. I can understand a situation where they don’t have time for that.”

From both perspectives, as man looking for a stable relationship, and a busy, professional woman enjoying the casual hookup, Yates then weighs the pros and cons.

“I can also see how people before me may have scarred them with emotions of lust without learning to trust. The homie can’t kick it because they don’t really know what his intentions are. That’s what I try to touch on is a girl’s perspective to the guy’s perspective on this new thing girls do, but then it ask why we act like that.”

Like The MisEducated Scholar L.P., Yate’s work is still autobiographical, but now the scope of Vanilla Sky / Social Studies is much wider, a paradigm shift of sorts.

On Vanilla Sky’s “Take it Back,” Yates challenges not only emcees, but us as well, to work on our own growth. “Lead by example / I can show the door / But they got to handle it and open to explore.”

“My thing is to work on undoing things that are set into stone, man,” Yates says. “The standard. People are thinking a certain way, and with my music I try to undo it. As I am trying to undo it, I try to describe why you’re even thinking like that.” - HEAR NEBRASKA

The Hip Hop Transformer
Marcey Yates (Op2mus) wants to turn the genre into something 
more positive.
November 18, 2013 by Bailey Hemphill
Photography by Bill Sitzmann
A man wearing a backpack walks up to the stage where a DJ sets up a turntable. He sets his backpack down, takes a swig from his water bottle, and checks the microphone once, twice, three times. When the lights dim, he is no longer “the guy with the backpack” to the audience. He is Marcey Yates (Op2mus).

Yates, 28, was born and attended school in Omaha. He studied at University of Nebraska-Omaha for four years but found himself often escaping class to make music. “I tried the music program at UNO, but it wasn’t as advanced in mixing and recording music.” So he headed to Arizona, where he attended the Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences for two years. There, Yates learned studio engineering, sound production, recording, and more. But when he finished, he realized his true passion was making music, not just producing it.

That’s why he returned to the Omaha music scene in 2011. Compared to the music on the West Coast, Yates saw progression in Omaha, and that was a huge draw. “I would rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond,” he says. “I wanted to bring something to the table and represent hip hop here.”

Yates started performing under the stage name “Op2mus” when he was in college. The name, he says, came from one of his three kids. “My son likes to play Transformers. So we’d be playing, and he’d call me Optimus [Prime].” The name just seemed to fit since Yates longed to transform hip hop music.

Over the last few years, however, he’s been trying to wean himself off the moniker. That’s when he adopted the name “Marcey Yates,” which, by the way, is not his real name. If you try to ask him what his real name is, he’ll just smile and shake his head. “I wanna brand myself as Marcey Yates. That’s how people know me.”

The backpack, on the other hand, has remained his thing. He wears it everywhere. He even wore it when he performed on KMTV’s “The Morning Blend.” In it, he carries whatever he needs—laptop, notes, music. But above all, the backpack reflects his transformative journey as a student of life, he says.

“He’s out there, he’s talking to people, he’s working. That’s what’s really special about Marcey Yates. He understands that, to get it, it takes work, not the easy decisions with the hard consequences.” —Rick Carson
It’s that journey that permeates his latest album, The MisEducated Scholar, according to Theardis Jay. “It’s about his story through school, through going to Arizona, through it all.” The graphic designer has seen a good deal of Yates’ story, helping to brand his albums since 2009. “I try to just help him any way I can. I remember I went over to his apartment for the first time, and I saw his studio in his basement that he put together himself. No one taught him that or showed him that.”

Today, Yates produces, writes, and performs hip hop. His most recent work includes writing and producing The MisEducated Scholar, and producing the hip hop album Eat, Drink & Be Merry for Blk Diamond out of California. Currently, he’s working on producing several new records for other artists and writing new songs for upcoming albums of his own.

“I don’t write songs for other [artists],” he explains. “Sometimes, I’ll ghostwrite if I’m in a studio session and an artist needs help. Otherwise, I write for myself.”

Listening to Yates’ music, you can hear various hip hop and rap influences. Kanye West is one that comes to mind. But Yates has taken those influences and breathed some fresh air into them. And “fresh” is exactly how he describes his music. “The genre’s so muddy,” he explains. “I feel like hip hop has been saturated with a certain sound. So when I write, I write against it.”

“Vinyl hip hop that’s smooth and soulful” is what Yates wants his music to sound like. The track “Soda N Cream” off of The MisEducated Scholar is the perfect example of this sound, as Yates raps over a doo-wop mix in the background.

Even more interesting is that he wants to get away from the whole “gangster” feel of the genre. “I wanna use the platform for something good. If you’re speaking in this outlet, don’t waste it with feeding listeners garbage. Feed them positive things that make them think, you know?”

“The thing about Marcey Yates is he’s one of the only people out there making real hip hop but also party music.” Rick Carson, owner of Make Believe Studios, pauses before going into detail about the artist whose records he mixes. “A lot of people get into hip hop to just talk [crap] on each other. I’ve never seen that from him.”

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Yates respects rappers who don’t need to cuss to sell records. “If you do it, it’s gotta have meaning. Don’t just do it to do it. Like I only have four songs where I cuss, and I dropped a full-length record with 19 tracks. You gotta step up your game by stepping up the substance.”

“He grinds,” Carson emphasizes. “He’s out there, he’s talking to people, he’s working. That’s what’s really special about Marcey Yates. He understands that, to get it, it takes work, not the easy decisions with the hard consequences.”

You can find Yates performing all over Omaha. Barley Street Tavern in Benson, The Slowdown in NoDo, and House of Loom in the Old Market are some of his frequent stages. He has done a few showcases and business openings as well. Lately, he’s performed with bands instead of other hip hop artists, which he says he likes because he can introduce his music to a completely different crowd. “I’m just trying to market myself a lot,” he says.

“He put together a plan, and he’s stuck with it,” Jay adds. “There’s a system to it. It’s an exciting time to see what happens when you work so hard.”

A tour in the Midwest is Yates’ five-year goal. A Grammy® is the big game for him though. “I want this. I’m not just doing music to say I’m doing it.” - OMAHA MAGAZINE

HipHopDX Premiere: Hailing from the indie rock capital of Omaha, Nebraska, Dilla Kids are aiming to put 402 Hip Hop on the map. Fronted by MC Marcy Yates, and rounded out by fellow MC Xoboi and Glenn White on the beats, Dilla Kids put their love of golden era Hip Hop at the forefront with their new video, “Angry,” which paints a portrait of a house party’s aftermath.

“The song is about choosing to fit in order to have fun or just being you to have fun,” Yates explains to HipHopDX. “The song touches on the conscious of being aware of where I’m from historically and where I’m put in reality, and how to navigate through temptation. It’s like a ‘look don’t touch kinda of deal.”

Dilla Kids represent the Raleigh Science Project, a Hip Hop collective out of Omaha, and their name was obviously inspired by the late, great J.Dilla. Produced by Yates, “Angry” comes from the trio’s latest EP, Crisis Actors, which is based on the seven deadly sins, and the notion the government uses staged events and crisis actors to fool the American people into deception. Let that one marinate, check out the video above and cop the album here. - HIpHOPDX