PROPH

New to the dopehouse; the Milwaukee native Proph drops his first single “Steady Chasin” off his upcoming project. Stream and download below. - 2DopeBoyz

Here's a laid-back offering from Milwaukee's Proph...dedicated to the tried and true art of cruising in vintage rides. - HipHopDX

It's hard to get a good read on Milwaukee recording artist Proph - a.k.a. Prophetic - but that's part of his intrigue. Don't let his modest, cordial demeanor fool you. The soft-spoken rapper is a business-savvy workaholic with an instinct for networking and building his digital Rolodex.

Right now, he's focused on the "real work" that comes after his album drops, and that means getting his latest project, "Wool Over My Eyes," to the right people in the right places.

"Once the music is done, I put on my other hat," said the rapper, who played to an overflow crowd opening for Wiz Khalifa at Summerfest last year. "I hired a couple people to help me accomplish some things that we couldn't do outside of our network. . . . The main thing is increasing my Web presence, and then other things will fall in place, like touring."

"Wool Over My Eyes," a 10-track, digital-only album, is more succinct than Proph's past projects, and websites including rubyhornet.com and donutsandmilk.com have played a key role in promoting his latest release.

"It's been getting us a lot of blog love," he said. "I think the sound is perfect for us to get a lot of attention. I'm really proud of it. I'm really confident right now."

Latest album: A very creative and hypnotic sound. It's a journey of what I was going through at the time. It was recorded in a two-month span. I had a general outlook, but I didn't plan it all out. It was just real organic.

Album title back story: All of the work we do, all of the things we do to be out here to get a name, I was wondering if it was all worth it, if what I want is really what I want, the fame. If I'm walking blind, if I really know where I'm going. It's something I was thinking throughout the whole process.

Biggest accomplishment: Having genuine fans; actually having people who are genuine fans of music that listen to my project like they listen to what they see on TV. When people actually see you and stay with you, I think that's pretty impressive. All of the cosigns (from major artists) and big shows are cool, but people actually receiving the music is the biggest.

Playing Summerfest: The artists I opened for, it made me feel like it was the biggest moment of my career; but to them it was just another stop. Wiz (Khalifa) came, got paid and went on to the next city. It made me realize that is just the graduate level. Now since I did it, I got to get bigger.

Favorite song: The title track, "Wool Over My Eyes" featuring Aliesa Nicole. That was the last song I recorded, and it came out exactly how I heard it in my head.

Song to get the crowd crazy: "100 Karats." Look for the music video for that this month.

Song you wish you'd made: Tupac's "Temptations." I can listen to that song forever.

The emcee scene: I feel like I can do anything, but can't nobody do what I do. I know that I been around all types of people, I feel like I can relate to anybody. At the end of the day, my opinion doesn't matter. The people dictate your success. Once they hear it, there's no contest. You can't deny what's the hottest.

Misconceptions: I think people look at me like a Common or Talib Kweli, someone who is too conscious and can't bring the other type of (sounds). I'm more of a universal artist.

Why do you do this?: I do this because I have to. I don't think I'd feel content doing anything else. - Journal Sentinel

I remember when my friends and I used to run to the local record store every Tuesday morning to cop the latest albums. It took us a while to finally figure out Tuesday's were the day new music dropped, but we figured it out none the less. We never had the pleasure of having dope Hip Hop blogs that delivered all the new hotness back then, but we managed. Those were days indeed. I actually remember tearing the wrapper off of brand new CD's like Tupac's "Me Against The World", Nas' "illmatic", and even Snoop's "Doggystyle" the day they came out! Sounds crazy... I know... It was almost like the scene in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory when Charlie finds the last golden ticket. (laughs) Instead of winning a trip to the chocolate factory we got to listen to instant classics that would shape the world of Hip-Hop forever. Kind of the same I guess... but different. (laughs) When I say listen, I mean we would listen to the albums all the way through like five time straight. Did we know they were instant classics at the time? Not really... we just knew that we were listening to something that was unbelievably dope and that's all that mattered. This brings me to the first time I heard Proph's album Wool Over My Eyes. Proph did a great job creating a timeless project that reflects Hip-Hop in the perfect light. This project is flat out good music from top to bottom. Once I hit play it brought me back to the days of running to the record store for new music and listening to it for hours. The first and second tracks played through then the beat to So Cold hit... wow. Now this project had 110% of my attention. Once it got to self reflecting story telling of Underdogs, "instant classic" came to mind. The production on the project is so pristine it's ridiculous. The bass heavy beat on the track Muscle will knock the windows out of your car if you aren't careful. Proph delivers on each and every track with the precision of a brain surgeon. If you are a Hip-Hop nerd, like myself, this album won't disappoint you one bit. S/O to Rubyhornet on the co-sign. - Donuts & Milk

I remember when my friends and I used to run to the local record store every Tuesday morning to cop the latest albums. It took us a while to finally figure out Tuesday's were the day new music dropped, but we figured it out none the less. We never had the pleasure of having dope Hip Hop blogs that delivered all the new hotness back then, but we managed. Those were days indeed. I actually remember tearing the wrapper off of brand new CD's like Tupac's "Me Against The World", Nas' "illmatic", and even Snoop's "Doggystyle" the day they came out! Sounds crazy... I know... It was almost like the scene in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory when Charlie finds the last golden ticket. (laughs) Instead of winning a trip to the chocolate factory we got to listen to instant classics that would shape the world of Hip-Hop forever. Kind of the same I guess... but different. (laughs) When I say listen, I mean we would listen to the albums all the way through like five time straight. Did we know they were instant classics at the time? Not really... we just knew that we were listening to something that was unbelievably dope and that's all that mattered. This brings me to the first time I heard Proph's album Wool Over My Eyes. Proph did a great job creating a timeless project that reflects Hip-Hop in the perfect light. This project is flat out good music from top to bottom. Once I hit play it brought me back to the days of running to the record store for new music and listening to it for hours. The first and second tracks played through then the beat to So Cold hit... wow. Now this project had 110% of my attention. Once it got to self reflecting story telling of Underdogs, "instant classic" came to mind. The production on the project is so pristine it's ridiculous. The bass heavy beat on the track Muscle will knock the windows out of your car if you aren't careful. Proph delivers on each and every track with the precision of a brain surgeon. If you are a Hip-Hop nerd, like myself, this album won't disappoint you one bit. S/O to Rubyhornet on the co-sign. - Donuts & Milk

For his latest number, Milwuakee upstart Proph delivers a dose of both materialism and morals on "100 Karats." The video is a compilation Proph in his natural element spliced with carrots vs. karats-themed imagery and Bugs Bunny Cartoon clips. The video is shot by Stan Perry and edited by HDDesignz. Check out Proph's Wool Over My Eyes mixtape for more solid rhyming.

- Nate Santos (@MidtownNate) - The Source

Like just about everything in the city, Milwaukee’s hip-hop scenes are divided by racial and geographical boundaries. Populated largely by college students and graduates, the East Side’s hip-hop scene favors conscious and alternative rap, lionizes Talib Kweli and heralds the ’90s as rap’s golden age. Milwaukee’s grittier North Side scene, on the other hand, is more in the moment, drawn toward contemporary club rap, much of it fashioned after hits from the South. Separated by just a few miles, these two scenes exist with little overlap.
One of the rare rappers with a foot in both scenes is Prophetic, a North Sider who also gigs on the East Side. Without pandering to either demographic, his upcoming album, Mo Profit, Mo Progress, holds appeal to East Side backpackers and North Side trappers alike. The disc is mostly low-key, dominated by skittering jazz and lush, blunted soul samples—many of them from Milwaukee producers like Haz Solo, who lends his Madlib-like touch—but it’s broken up by a handful of drum-clapping, Moët-popping club cuts.

“My strength is in being comfortable with myself,” Prophetic explains. “I’m a laid-back guy, and I’m really influenced by jazz rhythms, but that’s not all I do. I also like to do up-tempo club beats, too, because that’s also part of who I am.

“I feel like a lot of people in Milwaukee cut themselves off, when they need to broaden their style,” he continues. “I understand that it’s cool to make music just for yourself, but if you’re trying to make music your profession, and not just a hobby, then you need to listen to the radio, no matter how much you might hate it. That’s your competition. Right now the South is a musical hotbed, and you can’t just ignore that.”

Lyrically, Prophetic stakes out a middle ground, succumbing neither to conscious-rap finger waving nor thug-rap exploitation. He plays neutral observer, nonchalantly noting the tenor of the streets but never editorializing—often, he’s too lost in his own thoughts to get too worked up about the action around him.

“I don’t want to come off like I’m promoting violence, but that’s just the environment I live in,” Prophetic explains. “My stories and my point of view stems from my life on the North Side. I have one song, ‘Driftin,’ where I’m talking about a situation where one of my close friends got into it with somebody in the neighborhood, and it led to a shooting and cops visiting the house. Really, that’s pretty normal on the North Side.”

Along with rappers Kash and Yo-Dot, Prophetic is one of the core artists on Royal Fam Records, a collective that’s slowly been making a name for itself over the past year through regular live shows and mixtape releases.

“People compare Royal Fam to—and I’m too modest to ever say this myself—to Roc-A-Fella Records, because we make conscious music with a little more of an urban, street vibe to it,” Prophetic says. “I’ve heard somebody compare us to Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel, but I think we remind them of Roc-A-Fella because of the camaraderie. The people that I play with are my friends; we’re hanging out together outside of making music. I think people will feel that bond listening to us.”

With Mo Profit, Mo Progress’ upcoming July release, Royal Fam has kept a full live schedule. In addition to appearances in Chicago—where they’re increasing their efforts—the Royal Fam artists will perform a July 5 show at Stonefly Brewery, and host a June 26 Stonefly show spotlighting Royal Fam affiliate artists, including Pacino, Ecko, Ill B and Jon F. James.

- Shepherd Express

I had Prophetic meet me at H2O Headquarters and asked him to bring some music we could vibe to lead us into our discussion on his forthcoming album, MO' PROFIT, MO' PROGRESS. We listened to a couple of choice cuts ending with "Entrepreneur", one of two opening singles from the new project.

H2O: [Song ends.] So that was Entrepreneur by my man Prophetic. Sittin here chillin. What’s up Got Kash chillin with us. , Royal Fam Records, Umbrella Music Group is in the building. How you doin Proph?

P:I’m good.Working a lot, doin a lot of running around. You know tryin to get this album done.

H2O:Alright so the album is Mo Profit, Mo Progress. we just got done listening to “Entrepreneur.” Is this going to be the lead single off the album?

P:Actually this is will be the lead street single. I got another song called “Get Dough” and I feel that’ll be more radio friendly for the time being. i think that “Entrepreneur” best defines me as a person and the feel of my music.

H2O:Who produced Entrepreneur?

P:That track was produced by my man Dylan Thomas.

H2O:The music has a real classy, classic kinda feel to it. I know that there’s different tracks on the album. Who else contributed to it?

P:DJ Tyme also worked on the album. I thought it, needed something from him. He got in there with this one song I gave him. He did some other cuts, picked out some other stuff and just did his thing,you know?

H2O: Yeah. it [music] was like painting a picture and there was some storytelling there.[P:Like a movie.] Real cinematic. Some of the things that came to me to as I listened to your music, your flow, were street smarts and intelligence. I’m listening to how you flow and it’s like you’ve got a sensibility about you that your about making smart, calculated moves. What would you say is your philosophy on being an entrepreneur?

P:I just feel like a lot of times I speak for the music first I always hear this saying that its[music] ninety percent business and ten percent talent. I knew I was good at rapping a long time ago, at a very young age. As I got older and started really getting into the hip-hop circuit around the city, I realized that its a lot of things that come along with it. So I take a lot of advice from my guys; They’ ve been helping me strategize my moves. I try to stay up on the talent in Milwaukee cause its a of talent here but I know there’s a lot of people who’ll never get heard because they don’t know how to go about promoting themselves. Its also a lot of politics and bulls**t, pardon my French , especially in this city. You know you have to fit a certain type of brand of music in order to get radio play. I just try to stay conscious of it and make decisions that not only appeal to hip-hop heads but to people who listen to music period.

H2O:What do you feel has been the thing that set this project in motion? I mean were there some real life things that were going on in your life and/or in the entertainment scene that brought this thing into being?

P:My music is real personal. most of the songs, not all, are just my feelings, my thoughts and just I put them to beats. A lot of people who listen to my music say it sounds like I’m just talking. They can really focus on the track, hear the words coming out of my mouth and I play off of that cause that’s my strength, real music. I try to be me 24/7 regardless if I’m sitting here with you, in the booth or chillin' with my guys doing nothing. I hope that as the whole scene goes, real recognizes real.

H2O:Let’s talk about some of the other tracks on the album that we listened to. There's one titled “Big Dreamer” produced by Jay J. Tell me more about the idea behind this song.

P: “Big Dreamer” is basically saying how... an example would be people in the neighborhood. They don't really know what’s going on; they think that their neighborhood is the world and they’ve never really been outside of that too much. So they don’t know that there's so much more going on. It’s just me expressing myself and the things i hope to get accomplished, music being one of them. there’s so much more going on outside of not only in the neighborhood but the city, this region. That’s what I’m shooting for. I don’t want to be a local rapper. You know, no disrespect to anybody who’s doin their thing like that, but I don’t want to be a local rapper...I want it all, you know what I’m saying?

H2O:[Mmhm] That kinda ties in with this other track titled “So High”, produced by Haz Solo. One line that caught my attention was, “I seen the bottom , now I’m tryin to see the top”.[P: Right.]That kind of a testament to, like, where you’re going and how far you have come in the game. Let me ask you this: how do you choose the beats that you rhyme to?

P: When I go to a certain producer its not like I have a specific type of feel I’m trying to get. If it speaks to me then I’ll roll with it. “Entrepreneur” , for instance, has a laid back feel to it. I - h2o magazine online

One of the few Milwaukee rappers with ties to both the alt-rap hip-hop scene of the city’s East Side and the grittier, club-rap scene of the North Side, Prophetic stakes out an agreeable middle ground, embracing both sounds without succumbing to conscious-rap moralizing or thug-rap cliches. The slick production of his new album, Mo Profit, Mo Progress, finds a sonic middle ground between laid-back alt-rap and bombastic Southern rap, leaning on lush, skittering jazz and blunted soul samples—many of them by Milwaukee producers like Haz Solo, who lends his Madlib-like touch—but breaking things up with a handful of drum-clapping, Mot-popping club cuts.
- Shepherd Express