Ace Beanz and I have been making music for over 2 decades. Johnny Harmonic and I have been making music for over a decade.
The first collaboration I had with Ace Beanz was in the late 90’s when he was in high school with my brother Lionel, aka 6’6 240 aka Jumbo Green. The three of us, joined by their friend Jon Evans, recorded a mixtape in my other brother’s apartment up on the mileground in Morgantown, WV. Prior to this, I had already released demo tapes in Washington DC and Atlanta, but this was their first time recording anything. We had a great time, and from a mentor’s perspective, it was inspiring to watch these young men tap into their creativity.
Years later, after our group released music independently and performed to build a regional following, a local musician and friend, Aaron Cruthers, told me about a young, talented artist interested in joining our crew. Trusting Aaron’s taste, I was open to the idea. When I learned this artist, Johnny Harmonic, was from Summersville, WV—just half an hour from our hometown of Ansted, WV—I became even more excited to meet him. He lived up to the hype.
Over the years, Ace, I, and Johnny have been writing and performing more together, which usually comes out of a “catch-up” session, which consists of talking about kids, sports, music, and movies, and listening to beats. As the in-house music producer for Soundvizion Media, I have produced the majority of both Ace and Johnny’s music; a common studio term I always used was REPS; we been saying that for pre-production work since the early 2000’s. After making this beat after a show at Mundy’s, I thought both Ace and Johnny’s flow and delivery would sound good on the beat, so I texted the homies and requested them to get on the song. I said lets get some REPS in and drop this new dope.
