NewHotFire – I Had A Dream

Check out the new song from NewHotFire – I Had A Dream

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Exclusive Interview

Tell us about where you are from and how you got to this position today.
We are NewHotFire, better known as NHF, and we are one of the premier hip-hop groups to emerge from the California Bay Area. NHF originated in Richmond, CA back in 2005 determined to obtain respect and honor within the hip-hop community. Our quest began with our pursuit of higher education, along with our unwavering commitment to be involved with hip-hop. The core members of the group, General 3Stax and T.B., from the start, devised an ingenious plan that would take years of hard work and dedication to implement. We understood the importance of pursuing higher education and ensuring that all core members of the group obtain their four-year degree. We accomplished this.

The next phase of our plan required us to invest our collective efforts in helping the most talented member of the group, T.B., develop himself artistically. We all understood that obtaining a college education, while perfecting our lyrics, would in itself serve as a testament to our overall dedication and commitment to achieving success. Because T.B. is the youngest, most promising, and talented member of the group, he took the initiative to lead us on our journey by focusing on the artistic aspect of the business. Our main goal was to market and produce him.

By 2006, we taught ourselves how to develop song concepts, write our own hooks and lyrics, manufacture, and sell our product. We learned how to create our own music (using computers, musical instruments and drum machines), write our own songs, record, mix, and master our own material without any professional assistance. These in-house skills we acquired opened up several doors and, shortly thereafter, allowed for us to link up with a video producer from Los Angeles to make our first music video entitled “Can’t Hate.” This video was entertaining and clever because the catchy hook was often referred to as “sticky” and kids all over the neighborhood were often singing it. When we uploaded the song and video to our Myspace page, we received several inquiries from fans, DJs and other artists all around the world. The love we received was a clear indication to us that it was time get serious and return the love.

In 2007, we released our sophomore album, “The Next Chapter.” This album was our way of introducing ourselves to the world. The album cover was somewhat of a family portrait because, as a group, we realized that our uniqueness was the fact that we were all family; it was as if we took a page from The Jackson 5. In the process of perfecting our art, from 2007 – 2010, we wrote and recorded over 400 songs. After developing a library of vast material, we decided to begin focusing on the business aspect of our music. It was quite clear to us that structure and management was needed. In staying true to our core values of working with family, we hired our uncle, one who has experience managing fortune 500 companies, to be the group manager. Since then, we’ve been doing shows non-stop, while expanding our presence and fan base in the Bay area.

What are you currently working on and what can we expect to see?
The most recent projects undertaken by us include: our website, mixtape, T.B.’s sophomore solo album, some music videos and live performances. The creation and launching of our self-made website was an amazing accomplishment for us because it was all done in-house. The concept behind our website http://www.newhotfire.com was to simply provide our fans with relevant hip hop and world news, in conjunction with promoting ourselves as artists. The current website design is crucial because it was designed with the idea of being a home page for the typical hip-hop fan and provides links to common websites such as WorldStarHipHop, TMZ, CNN, BBC, Money News, etc, in addition to direct links to our Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Reverbnation and Myspace accounts. Again, our idea was simply to promote ourselves while centralizing a majority or relevant hip-hop and news-related websites for our fans. The website is awesome and everyone should check it out.

In addition to our website, we successfully released a mix-tape on July 4th, 2011 entitled “Righteousness is as Filthy Rags.” During the first few weeks, there were several hundred downloads in the United States and as far away as Europe and Japan. This was yet another significant accomplishment for us. The greatest thing about this mixtape is that it shows the dichotomy and diversity that exists in our group and our styles, while highlighting our maturity as artists. For the most part, our material prior to the release of this mixtape was “ok” at best. Our music was labeled “refreshingly unique” with an excellent blend of mainstream, underground, as well as politically conscious flavor. We have also been credited for our groundbreaking and explosive international fusion (we have several songs in which we’ve recorded with international singers). The transition made on this mixtape went against that grain and focused on the generating commercial appeal. By networking with producers across the U.S. (primarily from the South) we began making our version of “Trap” music, which we’ve allowed our fans to downloaded for free through our NewHotFire.com website. The mixtape is also an amazing demonstration of our collective creative genius because it is cynical about what is going on in the world and places an emphasis on the importance of knowing about God in the midst of all this, while being conscious of the fact that being real with yourself and others is critically important. Singles on the mixtape are Hailmary, I Had a Dream, Hoes On My Dingaling, and Like Me. Anybody that’s into trap music (i.e. Rick Ross, Yung Jeezy, Lil Wayne, etc) will definitely appreciate the direction the group went with the mixtape. T.B.’s solo album will be a nice treat to all. It was recorded professionally in San Francisco at Different Fur Studio and includes live musicians and singers. The album taps into the MTV aspect of hip-hop, with little to no influence from old material or the material released or the material released on their recent mixtape. Fans would agree that after listening to a few cuts from this album we are definitely the most conceptually diverse artists in the hip-hop scene.

T.B.’s album will be followed by the release of a few music videos, which we plan to release soon. We are currently in the process of perfecting our performance, so be on the lookout for something new every time we hit the stage. Thus far, we have performed at various venues all over the Bay area (Maxwells, Brick and Mortar, Coyote Club, Dorsey’s Locker, Island Paradise, Starry Plough, Aqua Lounge etc) and we recently began performing as the opening act for more established artists such as Chip Tha Ripper and Bad Boy Record’s new artist, Machine Gun Kelly.

Tell us about one of the hardest challenges you had to face in the industry?
We believe that trying to make it large out of the Bay Area via the music industry is a challenge in and of itself. There is clearly a limit on the number Bay area artists getting industry recognition. Therefore, one of our goals is help other artist in the Bay get the notoriety they deserve so that we all can enjoy the music business in the Bay. Because NEWHOTFIRE represents something positive and different, we don’t foresee this goal as being unachievable.

What’s great about NewHotFire is that most of the time, people expect us to be in the streets doing show after show and they assume that if they don’t see us doing that then we are not serious. The reality of it is that we are always working on our music/business and that we are always doing something for Newhotfire despite the fact that we all have regular 9-5′s, some of us have children, and some are enrolled full-time in college. We are regular people who understand what hard work and dedication will yield.

What was one of the biggest set backs in your career and how did you bounce back?
Nothing really major, but we got banned from an open-mic club because we performed our song “Hoes on my Dingaling.” We were attending a comedy/poetry spot and all the poets and comedians topics seemed to be centered around sex, sex, and more sex. This being the case, it’s no mystery why we came up with the song, which is comical and includes a dance routine.

Long story short, one night we went to perform the song for the second time. The club owner told the host to not let us perform that song anymore or we wouldn’t be able to perform at all. We were all in shock because we felt as though we were just “keepin it real” and that our music was in line with the setting (LOL). Nevertheless, we ended doing a poem instead and left the club in complete disbelief. It was a learning experience we talk about still.

On a serious note, the biggest set back for us has been ensuring we take care of our business, while maintaining our creativity. We work hard to be creative and it’s very important for us to protect ourselves in this industry.

What are some things artists need to be careful of?
Working with people that don’t have similar goals is dangerous. Being desperate and stupid is dangerous. Being ill-prepared is dangerous. That’s about all we can really say at this point in time.

What suggestions do you have for other artists like yourself?
It’s important to stay focused and work together to accomplish the end goal. You can’t do this all by yourself, so don’t mislead yourself and think you can. Do all you can to be unique. This is an ongoing process.

What is the best way to sell your products as an artist?
The best way to sell your products is to learn the art of appreciating your fans. You should let them know that you’re doing all you can to make their lives better and more enjoyable. They want to know that when they spend money to see, hear or support you, that you’re giving 110%. You can’t come off as though you’re entitled. I think a lot of artists do this, especially well-established artists, and at the end of the day it sets a bad precedence. You really have to let your fans know you appreciate them. We love our fans. Without them there is no NHF.

What is one of your favorite ways to promote yourself and your music?
We utilize social networking sites to maximize promotion of our music. It’s great when we can get instant feedback about our material. We also enjoy performing and handing out promotional materials at shows.

Where can people visit you?
You can also visit us online visit us at following websites:
www.newhotfire.com
www.reverbnation.com/newhotfire
www.facebook.com/pages/Newhotfire/137840236289101
www.myspace.com/newhotfire
www.youtube.com/thenewhotfire
Twitter:@Newhotfire, @General3stax @Tbspecial.

We are on these sites, so if you want to know what we’re going to do next make sure to stay tuned.