Milky Wayv

There’s a hint of boldness when it comes to the outer Houston music scene. They’re the singers, the vocalists who don’t hang on to a certain genre and instead plant seeds in damn near everything. You may call them greedy, I only call them multi-talented individuals who cannot help themselves when it comes to creating. They have to touch everything, and consider themselves über-important when they do so.


The Milky Wayv is an 11-person collective of singers, producers and keyboardists. The main production group within The Milky Wayv is the Ozone, made up of Michael Vallikappil, synth/vocals; Jalen Baker, vibes/percussion; Adam DeWalt, trumpet; Paolo Castagnoli, drums; Brandon Willis, vocals/keys; and Bobby Earth, vocals/drum machine. The main name you could even come close to recognizing out of that swath of musicians is Bobby Earth, who constantly showed up as the youngest and most supremely serious competitor in the bimonthly Space City Beat Battle producer series.

The Milky Wayv don’t think you’re about to hear a project. They think you’re about to hear the best project ever. These kids, who for all intents and purposes could be called Children of Kanye have determined that their tape, The Best Mixtape You’ve Ever Heard, is quite literally the best mixtape you’ve ever heard. I mean, they’ve got vocal contortionists such as Bee Honey and Mufasa Enzor leading some of these tracks and other nodes where The Ozone completely just takes over. I’ve even caught small glimpses of them working within the group structure, such as when Enzor performed at an Indie Exclusive show this past April. They are dead serious about their craft, almost too serious who you realize their artwork looks like a class yearbook photo.

What The Best Mixtape You’ve Ever Heard immediately tries to run from is comparisons to Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment’s Surf tape that arrived earlier in the summer. Most of the Milky Wayv are accomplished musicians who utilize enough downtempo space to create sweeping, fun records. “Take You There” is an enchanting Bee Honey effort and when backdoored by Peyton’s “Verbs,” it's clear that no matter how young and sort of naïve the group is, they know how to create warm summer music. “Verbs,” for example, takes all the action of a first date and spools it out behind dusty snares and Steve Lacy's harmonizing background vocals. You know immediately that a collective of musicians are going to fight to the end to avoid any comparisons to anyone else, yet the Milky Wayv find their way to create inside the same headspace that make albums like The Internet’s Ego Death worthwhile. - Houston Press

Milky Wayv. The Best Mixtape You’ve Ever Heard. don’t know about the best. but. it’s really really really good. Available. at. soundcloud.com. enjoy. - www.rappamelo.com

t’s something like chill-wave, surf and low end theory type stuff. Milky Wayv is a cool kid collective, Houston-based outfit with every group member offering something different – vocals, sounds, beats, rhythms and more. Sounds hip-hop driven, with smooth R&B sensibilities and thanks to the internet and social media, it somehow landed on my Soundcloud feed. Seems like the group name is fitting for them, milky for their smoothness from vocals to groovy bass lines and wavy because they are. They know a thing or two about production and effortless transitions, melding interludes and rich sounds and chords.

Perhaps not the BEST mixtape, but it’s close as it proves to be a very enjoyable listen. Milky Wayv left me with good vibes and it’s refreshing such collectives can make music like this. Follow them on Twitter and Soundcloud for performances, drops and new updates.

Fav tracks: “Mufasa Enzor – Spare Time”, “Bobby Earth – It Feels [prod. Mufasa Enzor]”, “Bobby Earth – IJWY [prod. Christopher Smith & Kintaro]” - illumie.com

Several months ago, while looking for rock samples utilized to make rap beats for no real reason at all because that's the type of shit you do when you've really won at life, we happened across a video by Bobby Earth, a tiny Asian kid auspicious enough to rap over an "Iron Man" redub. He was good and confident and almost glowing. We were immediately impressed, if not altogether dumbfounded.

This past weekend, Earth was a contestant in the latest edition of the highly acclaimed Space City Beat Battle. We did not know he was from Houston, so there was lots of OMGOMGOMGIT'SBOBBYEARTHOMG-guffaw. We spoke with him for a few minutes after he was eliminated. Turns out in addition to rapping, he also sings, produces, works on a hip-hop TV show and is just generally a better human than you or us. Oh, and he'll be a junior this year at HSPVA*.

So we secured an interview with him. In it, there is talk of "the human condition," mammoth facial hair and swagging out at SCBB. Keep it moving.

Rocks Off: Opener: Tell everyone everything they need to about Bobby Earth in exactly six words?

Bobby Earth: Youthfulness is a force in art.



2:40

Bobby Earth, "Take My Jacket (The Date Song)"
RO: Why Bobby Earth? Why not Bobby Jupiter (way bigger) or Bobby Saturn (it already has jewelry) or Bobby Mercury (mercilessly hot)? Also, are you in any way related to Bruno Mars?

advertisement

BE: Well, my real name is Robert Claveria. Robert. Bobby. Nickname. That's where "Bobby" comes from. I coined the name "Bobby Earth" two years ago because of what I stand for ultimately as an artist. I know it's a clichéd idea and all, but the era of music we live in today is just so entirely commercial. Don't get me wrong; I like a lot of the stuff that's going on today, but most of it is manufactured conformism for record sales.

True art is a reflection of life and the human condition. I wanna show people it's okay again as a music artist to be an actual human being and not a stereotypical puppet of Hollywood. Everything I say in my music is genuinely a glimpse into who I am as a person, from my youthfulness to my swag-full-ness.

Folks don't really just wanna make music for the love of making good "down to earth" music anymore, and that's what I'm here for. And I'm not on any "real hip-hop stuff" either, dawg; I'm on some genuine self-expression stuff, you feel me? That's what "Bobby Earth" is. I didn't just pick a cool planet out of the solar system to make a catchy name [laughs].

And no, I am not related to Bruno Mars. He has cool hats though.




RO: The first tell we saw you, you were rapping over an "Iron Man" beat in that mysterious YouTube video. Can you provide some context for that, please?

BE: "Iron Man" is a Bobby Earth X STEEZiLLa** (the producer/DJ formerly known as DJ Steez) X Asa Davis collaboration. I directed and edited the whole video with a Flip cam and Sony Vegas video editing software. I was initially looking through my brother Steez's beats one day, and I came across a joint called "FOR IRON MEN ONLY," which had a swagged-out Black Sabbath sample. Immediately, I hit him up asking how I could hop on the banger; he had emailed me the track and told me, "Kill this. Peace."

So then I just got to writing and eventually brainstormed a hook about comparing myself to "Iron Man" in terms of how I "go hard" and "shine without trying." It's really just a stunting track about things like gear, lyrical ability, music's current state, and pop-culture references. The last thing I did was reach out to one of my peers in the game, Asa Davis, to bless the third verse with some more lyrical stunt-i-cism [laughs]. It's really just a fun track for people to swag out to. Nothing too serious. Definitely one of my favorite tracks I've done though.

Introducing The Spacey Bobby Earth

RO: You participated in the Space City Beat Battle recently. You're only 16. What was that like? Were you overwhelmed? Terrified of Tony Dark's beard? Intimidated by the statuesque Y Phoenix?

BE: It was definitely a dope experience. I wasn't really overwhelmed by the age group over there. I was just psyched to showcase my production amongst a large group of people whether they were adults or kids my age.

A crowd is a crowd, and I came there to move the crowd and make 'em clap like Rakim! I was super-hyped and in my zone. The event was full of energy; I loved it. And I am very jealous of Tony Dark's beard. And Y Phoenix went hard in the paint! Me and him gotta collab sometime. Where you at, Y?

RO: Also, were you drunk? Because you kind of looked that way. It's okay. You can tell us (and the hundreds of thousands of people that will eventually read it).

BE: No, I wasn't drunk [laughs], just swagged-out. You saw me cooking? I don't drink or smoke. I have no personal biases or criticism towards people who do those things. A lot of my favorite rappers smoke and drink.

However, personally, I prefer to have a clear state of mind when I sit down and write music, because I would never want the thoughts and messages I put forth in my songs to be misconstrued by an altered state of mind due to foreign substances.

RO: Talk a bit about the other music ventures you have going on; you're a fairly busy kid.

BE: Aside from my recording artist/producer stuff, I host and co-produce a local Houston TV show called The Hip-Hop Shop. The show airs every Friday late nights at 1 a.m. on Houston's Channel 55 (KTBU). It's a show for the youth and hip-hop culture enthusiasts. The main focuses of the show are music, fashion, art, and dance.


Segments include interviews, live performances, rap cyphers, b-boy and popping dance battles, and other dope stuff like that. The slogan of the show is, "Express to be fresh". I'm also currently working on a really dope side project with The True Value's*** Hayden Hamilton. It's gonna be some dope indie hip-hop jazz experimental swag-type stuff.

*This is the second time we've tapped HSPVA for an Artist of the Week.

**DJ Steez placed second in the last Space City Beat Battle.

***The True Value is also a former Artist of the Week. - Houston Press