Who is Monev360?

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Monev360 is more than just a rapper or a beatmaker; he loves making music. Monev360 is from a small town called Princeville, NC and has loved hip-hop since he used to go in his Uncle’s room to listen to his vinyl records as a kid. At the age of 11, he got the inspiration to put pen to paper and its been on ever since! This continued on through high school, college and the Air Force. He's performed on stage numerous times and has recorded lots of music. Monev360's dream is to make a living making music that comes from the heart, not just fly by night, here today gone tomorrow commercial music that doesn’t stick to your ribs. The code that he follows is punchlines and metaphors, flows, and choppin’ up samples to make beats with bangin’ drums. He's real without being a gangsta or a thug and Black with or without African medallions and a Christian without his songs being corny. He can’t and does not want to be all things to all people, but knows that there is a market for authentic hip-hop. Monev360 can always be counted on to deliver classic material to his audience of listeners.

Connect with Monev360: Facebook   Soundcloud

Scene & Heard: Support Your Local Record Shop (Schoolkids Records)

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Based in Raleigh-Durham, NC, Schoolkids Records is the Triangle’s first home of the legendary mom & pop indie store chain. Founded in 1973, Schoolkids Records is one of the longest running record stores in the entire country. There are two locations of Schoolkids:

RALEIGH (Mission Valley Shp Ctr):
2237 Avent Ferry Rd., Suite 101
Raleigh, NC 27606
Ph: 919-821-7766

DURHAM (Bright Leaf Square):
905 W Main St
Durham, NC 27701
Ph: 919-688-7022

In April 2014, the Raleigh location opened a full bar and now serve over a dozen local and craft beers, with six taps, bar stools and stage for instores. In March 2015, a second location was opened at Bright Leaf Square in Durham, NC and both locations participate in Record Store Day.  

Schoolkids is a founding member of the CIMS Coalition, the first national Coalition of Independent Music Stores and has also been named by both Time Magazine and The Grammy's as one of the "top ten" record stores in the United States. 

DOPECAUSEWESAID currently places the music of our featured artists on a table in Schoolkids for patrons to pick up and take for their listening pleasure for free as well as sell on consignment. If you are interested in your music being available at Schoolkids, email us at dopecausewesaid@gmail.com.  

Connect with Schoolkids Records:   Website   Facebook   Twitter   

Who is Romolo?

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Romolo is a 23 year old music producer a part of the collective, Castello Roundtable, based out of Vancouver, Canada. The young producer, who recently graduated out of Nimbus School of Recording and Media's Beats and Urban Music Production program, has quickly started to build his catalog producing beats varying from Hip-Hop to Soul. Romolo also takes pride in his ability as an engineer, songwriter and co-founder of CRT. Some of Romolo’s prime influences revolve around collectives founded on artistic integrity and abstract creation, such as Outkast or TDE, though Romolo has always been heavily inspired by multiple generations of music. Lux, part 1 of Castello Roundtable’s ‘Iridescence’ was produced in full by Romolo, as well as part 2, Nox, expected this upcoming Fall. Romolo & Castello Roundtable are just getting started with 3 releases so far in 2015.

Click the Lux (Iridescence pt. 1) cover below to stream/download

Who is Bambino?

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Bambino is an up-and-coming, refreshing, soul and hip hop artist. At 20 years old, he is the youngest member, and a co-founder, of Castello Round Table, a creative music collective based out of Vancouver, BC. His passion for music has been evident since he was just a young boy, songwriting with his older cousin, FC (founder of Castello Round Table) and performing leads in his school’s choir and musicals. With a soulful delivery that is rare in today’s ‘scene’, Bambino’s strong point is his poetic lyricism. In that sense, he is a student to some of his biggest influences; Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, André 3000 and Chance the Rapper. As high school president and valedictorian in 2013, Bambino promoted creativity, collaboration, and the idea of ‘being yourself’ to hundreds of students. In June 2015, he released his debut EP, Conception, a project that he crafted for two years to positive reception. Although music is his main outlet, it is not the only thing in Bambino’s artistic pallet. He is also an aspiring filmmaker and graduate of Capilano University’s Cinematography Program. The versatility, originality and passion of Bambino are what set him aside from other artists in his genre. Hence the name ‘Bambino’ (meaning “young boy” or “baby” in Italian), he uses his creativity and culture to preserve his ‘inner child’. In the words of Picasso, “Every child is an artist.”

Dreams is the first video and second single off of Bambino’s debut project, ‘Conception’. With it’s smooth vocals, catchy beat, thought-provoking lyrics, and high quality visuals, the video for Dreams is not only refreshing, but symbolically powerful. The hook features vocals from FC, who co-wrote the song with him. The concept of the video is based entirely on both Bambino and FC’s childhood ‘dreams’, and uses real friends, family members and locations. 

The video begins when a young Bambino receives a note from a young girl and runs to his nonna and nonno’s (grandparents) house. There, he is served a plate of pasta as he watches his favourite team in penalty kicks. As the camera pans in on the old fashioned TV, an older Bambino is revealed playing in a soccer game. From then on, the video interweaves through three disparate scenes. Each alternate reality is a different representation of the word ‘dreams’ (aspirational, surrealistic, and nightmarish). 

In the first dream, Bambino is a shown as a soccer player, determined to make a mark on the pitch. In the second, he sips an espresso outside a local deli as he is approached and drawn in by what he thinks is the girl of his dreams. Bambino runs through a forest in the third dream, unsure of where he is and why. At the end of this dream, the message is fully revealed when the older Bambino realizes he’s been running from his younger self the whole time. In other words, ‘you are the only person in control of your dreams, don’t run from them’. 

Connect with Bambino and the Castello Round Table: Facebook   Twitter   Instagram   Youtube

It's a Beef Thing: Drake & Meek Mill

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So there’s a new beef going on in the rap community that started last week. No surprise there! This one is between Meek Mill and Drake. Meek suddenly lashed out on Twitter claiming that the Toronto rapper doesn’t write his own lyrics and has a ghost writer! I must admit that this isn’t the first time I heard rumors about Drake having a ghost writer; the first was actually last summer. As we know, the music industry is very tricky to navigate if you don’t have any connections and only the persistent, smart and lucky people make it to the top. There are countless artists, writers and producers out there trying to get that big break but nothing is guaranteed. Most people get their start helping out someone else. In the previous situation with Drake it was alleged that female Toronto artist Shi Wisdom wrote many of his songs and was not being credited. Most of the kafuffle with that was just media sensationalizing as Shi Wisdom has written with Drake before and has been paid her due diligence. I’m not surprised that Drake and basically every major artist has a team that helps them put everything together. Take a second and think about the rate that Drake puts out his music; there is no way he’s the only one behind the machine and there’s nothing wrong with that. Between TV appearances, shooting music videos, tours, a daily schedule and actually having a life, who would actually have the time to be constantly writing music? Anyone at the mega star level like Drake is too busy to write all of their music 24-7. Meek Mill isn’t at that point yet so I strongly believe that he’s just jealous of the seemingly effortless success that Drake has been having. If Meek actually writes all of his material as he says, that’s because he’s still in the early stages of his career and has the spare time on his hands. Let’s think about the reasons why Meek Mill would want to lash out at the boy, huh?

1. Drake and Nicki Minaj are real close: I think we’ve all heard of the suspected secret relationship that Nicki and Drake supposedly had at some point. We’ve heard Drake say he’d marry her in his song lyrics and let’s not forget about that nice lap dance he got in the infamous “Anaconda” video. Now that Mr. Mill is dating Ms. Minaj, he’s been taking shots as her ex, Safaree Samuel and now Drake.

2. Drake didn’t promote Meek’s Album on Twitter: This is probably where the initial shock for Meek came from. He has admitted to being angry that Drake didn’t promote the album which spawned this tweet: "Stop comparing drake to me too.... He don't write his own raps! That's why he ain't tweet my album because we found out," Yes Drake is on a verse, but he’s not a marketing team… Is it really his job to promote for another artist for free?

3.Who the chuck is Meek Mill anyway? Meek Mill is new to the game in my opinion and I can’t really think of that one big track he has. Personally I had to listen to a few of his tracks before I actually recognized one as something I heard before. The one I finally recognized was “Amen”. Drake is more relatable as an artist and has really earned what he has. I’m not saying that Meek can’t get up there one day, but I really think this beef situation is purely for publicity. 

So what if Drake doesn’t write all of his music? Does Beyonce? Does Lady Gaga? Does Rick Ross? Who cares? What matters is that Drake and his team produce great music that a lot people can understand. It’s not about who writes the music; it’s about how it makes the fans feel. Meek Mill has some catchy stuff, but it doesn’t appeal to the masses like Team Drake does. And no, I’m not on Team Drake just because I’m from Toronto. I actually wasn’t really impressed with Drake’s diss track “Charged Up”. There was no reason for that song to be almost 6 minutes long. I found it a little repetitive and it was probably rushed out in the heat of the moment. One day Meek Mill will get to that mega star level too and I seriously doubt that he’ll be writing all of his own music like he supposedly does now. Personally if someone came up to me and said, “Hey babygirl, I wrote you this bomb ass song!” I’d be thrilled and I would share that information with everyone to show that I was thankful. I only wonder when this starts to happen for Meek Mill if he’s still going to play that “sole songwriter” card or will he be honest to his fans, because apparently he doesn’t like to lie to them.  - Asha Mullings