Interview: XV & SEVEN (8/12/09)

In light of Everybody’s Nobody’s recent success in the mixtape world, XV and his producer Seven flew to NYC to celebrate at the mixtape’s official NYC release party.

HipHopAtLunch.com met up with this Kansas duo who is causing a stir in the hip hop world, and asked them some interesting questions to give you a better understanding of both their careers and personalities!

Here is a video of our interview with XV, where he touches on coming up in Kansas as a hip hop artist, his favorite video games, how he uses twitter, and of course his feelings on Everybody’s Nobody.

Now I know all the real XV fans will appreciate the following interview with Seven, who is responsible for 90% of the production on Everybody’s Nobody.  Seven touches on what he uses to produce beats, the response Everybody’s Nobody has received within the hip hop community, and gives advice to up and coming producers.

Since we were already introduced to XV’s career with our previous post, I am now going to dive further into his DJ Benzi and DJ Enuff hosted mixtape, Everybody’s Nobody. (touching on the mixtape’s tracks which I didn’t speak about in the last article.)

One of the best things about this mixtape is its wide range of sounds and styles which XV uses to show his versatility.  By the end of Everybody’s Nobody, we realize that this kid from Witchita is about to put his city on the map!

Lets start with XV’s up tempo tracks “Awesome” and “A.D.D.,” which show the artist having fun on the mic while creating great party music. Where as  “Awesome” is more of what you would expect to hear on a hip hop mixtape, “A.D.D.” has a real electro funk feel to it and sounds like it belongs in dance halls.

Now if your looking for more lyrically promising tracks, then “Bad News” and “The Rabbit Hole” should meet your needs. On “Bad News” which samples Kanye West’s song of the same name, XV spits:

“I’m dying to see the day that I finally get on,
Sometimes I think I wanna make it just to prove people wrong,
I did this all on my own and never asked for handouts…
How can a blog say I’m not nice, the only dude from Wichita to spit on NahRight!”

With “The Rabbit Hole” XV talks about the negative aspects of being successful over the track’s eerily creepy beat:

One of the song’s strongest verses is:

“Everyone got an opinion and you sit there and listen,
They looking in your eyes, but they do not see your vision,
They say they got your interest, but who are you fucking kidding?”

He also uses this song to touch on losing friends, drug addictions, people who used to give you cold shoulders wanting hugs, girls who used to ignore you wanting to hang out, etc.

XV puts together a great commercially marketable track with “Mirror’s Edge.”

This track’s clean sound makes it great for use on the radio, in commercials, or in video games. (Hopefully the video game fanatic gets “Mirror’s Edge” featured in the commercial for some upcoming game.) Even the lyrics give you the feel that XV is a video game super hero! “Till I’m in the place where reapers go, Im running on walls and leaping poles.”

A fan favorite from Everybody’s Nobody is the track “Come Back Down.”

With this song, XV brings his story full circle…a story that has been told over a handful of mixtapes on which we saw XV leave Earth for planet Squaria. Having been on Squaria for awhile now, XV hears the screams for him to “Come Back Down to Earth!”

Finally, we come upon “Undeniable” the motivational track that will leave you wanting more from XV.

XV’s flow over the cold piano keys coupled with his witty lyrics, puts this track in contention for his best record yet. The beat to”Undeniable” builds as XV’s momentum gains speed, and we hear XV spit some of Everybody’s Nobody’s most memorable lines:

“I’m just asking for cats with passion in this, is there any left….
Niggas try to improvise while I try to improve it,
Take a look inside just so I can out do it,
Nights on the mic, but I’m making the meanest music,
If they call it garbage, I swear I’m making the cleanest sewage…
Tired of trying to make these labels understand…
Stay sunnin’ rappers hope u fagots need a tan,
Call me Adam cause you know that I’m the man.”

And

“I try to see what they see,
I get it, you hear music everyday,
but you can’t hear my tape and say that my shit is not crazy,
20 mixtapes later,I am still not lazy,
and red lights still don’t break me!”

If you are impressed by what XV can do on the mic with no features, check out the Everybody’s Nobody tracks below where he teams up with artists such as Colin Munroe, Ne-Yo, Big Sean, Wiz Khalifa, and Harlems Cash.