Obviously many people know you from your days with U-N-I and then you went solo a few years ago. I w

It may be cliché, but listeners should expect the unexpected when it comes to Thurz . The Los Angeles, Calif., rapper has made flipping perceptions and taking risks his mission as an artist. His past moves and forthcoming ones are proof that this is a plan in action, not just in thought.
Thurz got his first break as part of the duo U-N-I, comprised of himself and Y-O. The two gained significant travel nursing agencies exposure following the release of their 2007 street album, Fried Chicken Watermelon, as outlets such as MTV, Billboard, XXL and The Source all pinned the two as a new act to watch. U-N-I would drop a few more projects over the next few years before shocking travel nursing agencies everyone and announcing their split in 2011.
While U-N-I s split caught many off guard, the picture became clear when Thurz released his solo debut, L.A. Riot. The critically-acclaimed album showed a new side of Thurz, a more socially conscious and politically-driven one. The project s concept centered around the 1992 Los Angeles riots, spurred by the videotaped police beating of Rodney King. The intense tone of the LP was in stark contrast travel nursing agencies to the relaxing, cheerful music that U-N-I had produced.
travel nursing agencies Thurz was now seen in a new light and he hopes to make this happen once again with the release of his Designer EP. While he has delivered stray songs and a mixtape called 517 W Queen Tape since L.A. Riot arrived, this new EP represents his first official project since his breakthrough album arrived.
With the Designer EP set to drop on Nov. 4, The Boombox spoke with Thurz about the upcoming project and his career. He talks about the concept of designer music, the creative process travel nursing agencies behind the Designer EP, what inspired L.A. Riot, his involvement in the Red Bull Sound Select program and much more.
At Rhino, I worked under a product manager named Komeka Freeman, and then another guy, can’t remember his name at the moment. I learned a lot about marketing at that internship. I actually became a fan of Fleetwood Mac because Rhino dealt with a lot of older catalogs, reissuing older music and finding different ways to market travel nursing agencies and capture an audience for that older music.
At Capitol Records, I learned a lot. I learned how to put press kits together. I was working on Faith Evans and they had a rap group called Czar-Nok. So, I was calling up all these strip clubs throughout the U.S., and all these different barbershops; any place that seemed would be receptive to a hip-hop single, I was calling them up and sending out free samplers of their music. travel nursing agencies So, I learned a lot on how to attack from a marketing angle. travel nursing agencies It was pretty informative and helped me out a lot.
Yeah, for sure. I’d say it definitely gave me a better perspective on how to market music and how to find new listeners. I’d have to say the major difference from when I was interning was the pop of the Internet. It really increased and you were able to reach a lot more people just through online marketing, travel nursing agencies and that wasn’t really a big tool when I was interning.
Obviously many people know you from your days with U-N-I and then you went solo a few years ago. I want to talk a little about that and specifically travel nursing agencies your album ‘L.A. Riot.’ It was really an eye-opening album and a dramatic change in tone for you. With songs like ‘Rodney King’ and the whole concept of the album, it showed a whole new side to you as a rapper. Was that part of why the split happened? Did you need to get out on your own and express these issues travel nursing agencies that were pressing in your mind?
Definitely. There’s a lot of different factors that led up to me making ‘L.A. Riot.’ Obviously leaving the group wasn’t something I openly wanted to do because there was a lot of work that went into building that group up. So, I had a lot of emotion at that time. I was researching about the riots and through that research, I was able to draw a line through a lot of feelings and emotions I had to a lot of the feelings that people had during the riots. Just using this historical event to express myself to burn down and rebuild a new artist and continue to get better.
With that project, travel nursing agencies I definitely wanted to reestablish myself as an artist that could talk about anything. I just want to be an artist that’s limitless and no parameters travel nursing agencies as far as music and content. I make “designer music” so anything that I experience is creating a fabric and I’m the only one that’s going to be able to cut it, tailor it, design it and present it to the world. travel nursing agencies It was a project that I wanted to give to the world and let people know I’m a real artist and I’ve got a lot more to say.
It’s crazy when you look all that’s happened in Ferguson and it seems like now there’s constant stories of police brutality. The album’s just as, if not more, relevant now than it was in 2011, when it dropped.
travel nursing agencies Yeah, it’s crazy. I just touched on things that have been occurring for a very long time and it’s going to be issues that still come up to this day. But I just wanted to discuss all that stuff, pulling experiences from Los Angeles and people in the community or people I spoke to. It was definitely a creative project, concept-driven and a lot of work when into it. I’m proud of it.
Oh yeah, for sure. It still is. The ‘Designer’ EP is part of the ‘Blood on the Canvas.’ It s going to be ‘Blood on the Canvas: Designer LP.’ The EP is just getting a sample of where I ve grown musically. I m having a lot of fun on these records and just… the music is very dense. I just wanted to test it out with the EP first. I m definitely proud of my growth and the music that s going to be coming from this project and the album. It’s just the best way to really introduce them, which is putting out the EP first.
I noticed that the singles you’ve put out so far, the production and the vibe seems a little more upbeat and vibrant, especially travel nursing agencies when I look at ‘21’ or even ‘Right Now. Was that a conscious decision to take a dramatic turn from what we saw on ‘L.A. Riot’ with a different vibe?
Yeah man. I just want to be unexpected. I want people to never know what to expect. Obviously I want to have a standard of quality with the music, but I want people to be surprised whenever they hear a new solo record travel nursing agencies from me. I m not scared to put some new shit out. I m about having fun right now. I m taking the risk. It s not even really a risk to me because it represents me at the end of the day.
With these new records, travel nursing agencies they re all from scratch. I had a lot of different travel nursing agencies musicians coming through like Andrew Gouche. He plays bass for Prince. He played travel nursing agencies on this record. I got Clyde Carson, Kent of Overdoz, BJ the Chicago Kid and my homie Preston Harris of HS87. Everything was built from scratch with this project. We just wanted to make sure it sounds like nothing else out and that s really big. Like when I dropped ‘L.A. Riot,’ I made sure it sounded like nothing else that was out. So I m always trying push the envelope with the sound and with the message.
I really enjoyed the ‘Right Now’ single. It s an upbeat production and you’re incredibly honest about your past experiences and how you see your role as an artist today. I think the line that hit me was Stuck between Worldstar and NPR / Where street money don’t stretch that far. I wanted to get your thoughts on that song and the concept behind it.
That s actually the intro to the project. I just wanted to lay out my cards: who Thurz is, where I came from, what I ve experienced, where I m at right now and where I plan to go. That s the best way to really put that song into a short explanation.
On ’21,’ I thought the production was really interesting. You had the old school electro-funk style. It kind of reminded me of Zapp and Roger Troutman with the vocoder. I was wondering if that was an influence for that and if you had an intention to go back to the old school G-funk, L.A. music with that track.
Yeah man. It was intentional. That was like one of the prime records that shaped the soundscape for the project. When we did that, we were at Spaced Out and we had all the homies over, drinking, partying and having a good time. Me and the producer Marlon [Barrow] just went from scratch again and I told him what tempo I wanna be at. I want people dancing to the song. I want to party like I m 21 in Vegas! When we were in Vegas, we were going crazy. I want to put a song together that represents that, where people can relate and you want to have fun too. That s what ‘21’ is. I m proud of that record. That s the single. It s unexpected, people don t expect it, so it has that quality factor that I strive for.
Man, Red Bull Sound Select is a great program. Their approach to marketing is very unique and they strive to do things out of the box. So for them to really want to invest in independent artists and actually break music is a testament to their vast marketing strategy. I applaud it.
I first got on board with Sound Select just helping out on the production end with the shows in L.A. A lot of the higher ups caught wind of my music and wanted to enter me in the program. I am definitely on board for that. Our first show was with Run the Jewels at the Troubadour last year. So now we are doing #30DaysinLA, which is Red Bull Sound Select s music series they re doing in Los Angeles next month, I ll be playing with Run the Jewels and Mystery Skulls at the Echo, so I am excited travel nursing agencies for that. It’s just a great program. I’m just happy to be involved. I’m happy about my music and helping me reach more listeners.
Cool. Obviously, a running theme of the almost last decade or so has been this “New West” concept travel nursing agencies and even you were kind of a part of it when U-N-I was first getting going. Now you see TDE, obviously travel nursing agencies Kendrick, YG and guys like this getting popular. What s your thoughts on the West Coast scene right now, and especially Los Angeles, and where you think it s at and what more we can expect to see in the future?
It’s definitely travel nursing agencies a great time right now. What’s crazy is none of these artists are new. Everybody has been striving as long as anybody. Mos