SOUNDSGOOD: "Money & Pacin" Maxi Single CD

SoundsGood

"Money & Pacin" Maxi Single CD

© 2004 Innatesounds

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Kansas City soulful Hip Hop in the spirit of OutKast, Kanye West, Gangstarr, The Roots, Jay-Z, Pete Rock, all combined with a strong Jazz influence. Give it a try. You'll be glad you did. :)

notes

Location: Kansas City,Mo and Lawrence, Ks

Genre: Excellent Hip Hop music.

CD Credits:
Joe Good - MCs on all
Miles Bonny - Beats on all
Asa - Sings on Money and Pacin
Andy - Plays guitar on Listen
Jaz - Recorded and mixed all tracks at 64111 Studio

Money and Pacin taken from the forthcoming album
SoundsGood "Biscuits and Gravy"

Miles Bonny's apartment looks virtually unlived in apart from a ransacked back room scattered with CDs, computer equipment, production gear, and milk crates filled with vinyl. Scotch-taped to the otherwise bare white wall above Bonny's Dell computer is a magazine photo of a disheveled third-world girl wearing large headphones.
"I'm really not a messy person," Bonny insists, surveying the mess. "I'm just not organized."

Actually, he is one of the most organized people you'll ever meet. In 2002, Bonny -- half of the hip-hop tandem SoundsGood -- became the primary organizing force behind Lawrencehiphop.com, a communal online entity that has since become a local epicenter for its 750-plus members to discuss and celebrate hip-hop.

"I don't really consider it my Web site, otherwise I would have named it Milesbonny.com," Bonny says. "I just wanted to get people more involved in what was going on."

Half the time, Bonny is what's going on. His résumé includes contributions to a hefty number of local releases, including his own projects, such as SoundsGood and DinoJack Crispy.

"I don't like to call myself a DJ. I'd like to think I'm more a producer or composer," Bonny says. "I just find things like a cool guitar sound or whatever and make a beat out of it. Basically, I make a bunch of beats, and Joe picks through and decides which ones he wants to use."

Joe Good (real name: Jamal Gamby) is the voice coursing over those beats. The Kansas City native is one of the area's top MCs and also handles recording, mixing and Web-design duties (with his brother Jaz) for the 64111 Clinic studio. But it is Good's keen sense of tempo and conversational vocal style that provide a perfect complement to Bonny's unorthodox backdrops.

"I knew as soon as I met Miles that we were going to be good friends," Good says. "I didn't know we'd be doing all of this, but we clicked right off the bat."

Good and Bonny started SoundsGood after meeting five years ago in the Hashinger Residence Hall while both were attending the University of Kansas. The duo quickly gained local acclaim with their polished sets and party-style performances.

"We just started doing house parties," Bonny says. "We knew a bunch of people who had houses in Lawrence that liked to throw parties. At that time, there weren't a lot of people doing actual hip-hop shows."

In 2002, the pair released Joe Good and Miles Bonny Present on Bonny's independent InnateSounds label, which would later be used to launch side projects, including the Find, DinoJack Crispy and Al Japro. Last month, SoundsGood arrived at the Bottleneck wearing "Joe Is Good" and "Miles Is Bonny" T-shirts to celebrate the release of the new Money/Pacin EP and to provide an energetic preview of Biscuits and Gravy, the pair's sophomore full-length, which will be released early next year.

The album couldn't come at a better time. The past few years have seen an insurgence of Midwest hip-hop collectives from cities such as Minneapolis; Madison, Wisconsin; and Columbus, Ohio, making tidal waves in an industry that has historically been planted on the coasts. The one-two punch of Kansas City and Lawrence artists such as Mac Lethal, Approach, Deep Thinkers, C.E.S. Cru and SoundsGood has led some to speculate that the region could be one of the next to emerge nationally. But there is the Kansas problem.

"I think people around here just can't seem to get over that word, Kansas," Bonny says. "It's funny to hear artists say they're from Kansas City, Missouri, like they're afraid that people will think they're from Kansas. You get tired of the jokes about The Wizard of Oz."

Good agrees that the local scene is thriving, albeit in the underground. He credits independent record stores -- 7th Heaven, Recycled Sounds and Love Garden -- as well as radio stations such as KU's KJHK 90.7 for stoking the embers. But even in the face of marginal success, Good sees humility and restraint as keys to capitalizing on momentum.

"It's funny, you see a lot of guys make one record and then go out and buy nice cars or a bunch of clothes and don't know what to do from there," Good says. "But take a cat like Slug [of Atmosphere]. He's been keeping at it for years. He's constantly touring, sleeping on floors and in vans to get the word out. You've got to respect that. And he's running the game over there now."

Bonny and Good are sitting in Bonny's cluttered back room deciding which interludes will be kept on the nearly finished Biscuits and Gravy. The pair champion the album as a substantive progression in beats, lyrics and mood from the feel-good vibe of their first release.

"Our first album was tailor-made for Lawrence, whereas this new album isn't really intended for anybody specific," Bonny says. "It's really a product of where we are at musically. I'm the Biscuits, and Joe is the Gravy. We complement each other's styles and form a hearty meal. Yum -- can't you taste it already?"

pitch.com | originally published: November 4, 2004

Group- www.YourFavoriteGroup.com
Label - www.Innatesounds.com
Asa - www.AsaMusic.net

reviews

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  • ko
    author: bb

    I have always listened to commercial rap because I am more of a R&b person. I like it keep doing your thing Mr Gamby.

  • yo!
    author: Allistar Cookie

    tracks ta make honies melt butta on dem bisquits! midwest swurves like jlo's booty hole

  • Two Thumbs Up!
    author: Mas Appeal

    Everything I expected. Nothing short of brilliant, that has come to be the Norm from SoundsGood. And this was just the single, now I am reay for the Album! Keep it up~Mas

  • Hot! Keep it poopin'
    author: evidence
  • flawless
    author: PITCH

    It was obvious that Miles Bonny and Joe Good -- together Sounds Good -- were eager to take their music to another level when the pair kicked off a new batch of material at the Money/Pacin release party. The new EP's two title cuts, "Pacin" and "Money" (along with four tracks of equal or lesser value), serve as an appetizer for Sounds Good's upcoming full-length release, Biscuits and Gravy. Bubbly, ice-cream truck samples and happy-go-lucky lyrics take a backseat to urban-focused beats and rhymes that are virtually flawless in tempo. Asa lends R&B finesse to the inner-city anthem "Marvin," which is reminiscent of the soulful patchwork on Dr. Dre's Chronic. B-sides "Like We Make Love" and "Ms. Brown" return to the party-style atmosphere of Sounds Good's debut. "We just strive to make the best music that we can," Bonny says. With Biscuits and Gravy still in the works, the Money/Pacin EP should be just enough to hold you over without spoiling your appetite.

  • These four tracks won't be on that album. So don't miss out
    author: Kansas City Star

    “Money-Pacin” isn't exactly an album; it's more of a single with a handful of bonus tracks designed to give listeners a taste of Sounds Good's next album, “Biscuits and Gravy.” These four tracks won't be on that album. So don't miss out on mouthwatering tracks like “Marvin” (as in Marvin Gaye) and “Ms. Brown,” with instrumentals any music lover would enjoy. When you pair a rapper's rapper like Joe Good on the mike with beatmaker Miles Bonny, it's hard to go wrong. — J.O.

  • It's Innncredible...
    author: Curtis

    how they went next level on this one w/ out compromise... its just pure inspiration... listen to this and escape after a day of hell on a 9-5 that you tryin to leave and still survive (yeah its like that)

  • Good rap, beats, choruses
    author: Si

    Good Beats and nice lyrics. Good Commercial value. Keep it Hott. Overall 5/5* . Visit me at www.cdbaby.com/si2 Peace...SI.

  • Sounds good sounds GREAT!!
    author: Doug

    Once again Miles and Joe put together some fresh, original and plain old fantastic music!! I am looking forward to their full length album!!

  • author: steez

    Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh!!! GANGSTER!!!!!

  • booty drop

    this album make my bootie drop like nothin i have ever heard. quality and function all rolled into one! get it, and you will know what i am talking about.

  • author: Tamara Turner, CD Baby

    One of the first things that SoundsGood brings to mind is a concept taught in contemporary classical composition courses: that which is outside the expected sound world or "tonal palette" is the most beautiful- that which your ear does not anticipate is what dives underneath your expectations and awakens a part of your nervous system that lies underneath the 'day-in-day-out' regime. SoundsGood beautifully brings this concept into the hip hop realm. Building their own sound from a stylistic background of Outkast, Slum Village, Gangstarr, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Common, and others, SoundsGood lays down a kinetic, propulsive beat, chased down by cool, breezy, sizzling instrumentals and intent lyrics. Their smooth thread of soul and slight R&B groove gives them an accessibility that fans of more crossover styles (something along the lines of Spearhead) can get into as well. This is slow-burning alternative hip hop that doesn't limit itself to what's been done before and doesn't hesitate to reach into opposing genres to give their grooves more vivid color.

  • Back for more...
    author: Reach.

    They do it again! This maxi single is a thrilling prelude to the forthcoming sophomore album "Biscuits And Gravy". "Listen" and "Ms. Brown", the more introspective moments on the disc, when thrown in with the infectious neck-snappers "Money" and "Pacin" make this album one hell of a buy. Go get it!!!

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