If you love hip-hop at it’s purest form and relish in delight when you hear feel good music, then Primary Element is the hip-hop group you needed to download yesterday.
Composed of Mike and the “twins,” Stephen and Stanley, these three high school homies and now college students, juggle class, work and NCAA football scholarships, while making dope music.
Reigning from the DMV, Primary Element is practically the missing element in hip-hop today.
GlobalGrind caught up with these busy guys to chit-chat about college life, celebrity crushes and of course, their mixtape “Ambition.”
For everything Primary, click here.
Check out Primary Element’s exclusive interview below!
GlobalGrind: When did Primary Element first link up?
Mike: We first linked up in the Fall of 2008. We recorded in the basement at Stephen and Stanley’s house. Everything was fun and games until we showed a few people here and there what we were doing. Their responses were overwhelmingly positive. Our first time performing together was for a talent show at our high school Our Lady Of Good Counsel High School as the “Kickstand Band.” I originally semi-recruited Stan and Steve as musicians for a go-go band I already had called “USB” (Unique Sound Band). We found a connection musically and I eventually started making more music with them.
Stanley: Primary Element was first known as “USB (Unique Sound Band)” when Mike, Stephen and myself tried to start a go-go band at our high school in 11th grade, but that soon became boring. We wanted to challenge ourselves further musically and make this “band” thing a legit movement. So one day in my religion class, I came up with the name Primary Element. I thought deep and hard about its meaning, thought it was kind of catchy and not too cliché, asked Stephen and Mike about it, and they thought it was dope.
Stephen: Stanley and I’s freshman year and Mike’s sophomore year. We swiped some Jordan’s that were lying in our high school hallway, unclaimed. He found out we took them and told us he was coming by our crib to get them on a Saturday I think. He went down into our basement where we were making music in our little home studio with one $99 mic, a mac and a little midi keyboard.
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How has being from the DMV (D.C., Maryland, Virginia) area affected your music?
Mike: Being from the DMV definitely plays a big part in our music. I personally have been surrounded by go-go music all my life. Chuck Brown, Junk Yard Band and Rare Essence are all my father would play in the car on long road trips to Florida and back so you can imagine what kind of impression it left on me. The unique thing about go-go is that all the music is played and recorded with live instruments, which gave me a deeper appreciation for them.
Stan: Being from the DMV extremely affected my musical inspirations, especially originally being from West Virginia. It exposed me to all types of different kinds of music, especially jazz.
What are a few of your musical inspirations?
Mike: As cliché as it may sound, Wale is a huge inspiration for me musically. Typical response from someone coming out of the same area as him, but it goes beyond that. The same guy I saw rapping with UCB at the go-go down the street is the same guy on every blog, every magazine and every radio station. His ambition, work ethic and talent got him to the next level in the music world and he didn’t have to sell out to do it. I am also greatly inspired by artists like Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, and even people like Tyler, the Creator, which is ironic because all of our music is clean. Tyler, the Creator is a special case because it is music that I typically don’t listen to, but you can’t help to admire the truthfulness in his music and how he has had this much success by being himself. My biggest inspiration would have to be Kanye West.
Stephen: A few of my musical inspirations are the Beatles of course. Their musical progressions are so simple and easy to apply that it leaves room to create and imagine one’s own fantasy inside the music. I’m kind of a hippie guy, so the ’70s really inspire me along with things like jean jackets, bright clothes and simple symbols with underlying meanings. You know just “weird” things that I find cool.
Stan: A few of my musical inspirations are N.E.R.D., Outkast, Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Ornett Coleman, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, The Pharcyde and A Tribe Called Quest.
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Who is your dream collaboration?
Mike: My dream collaboration would be with the Roots. I just want to be at a huge music festival somewhere over seas and do a set with Questlove and crew. That would be dope!
Stephen: Pharrell Williams. His swag is out of this world and his musicianship is right on the money of what I’d like to produce. I just can’t do it as well as him.
If you could collaborate with any pop artist, who would you collaborate with?
Mike: If I could collab with any pop artist it’d have to be Justin Bieber. I mean, why not?
Stephen: My dream pop artist collaboration would have to be Stevie Wonder. His voice is angelic and he’s an impeccable musician.
Where do you want to be in the next 5 years, musically?
Mike: In the next 5 years, I want to be on tour traveling the world with some of the dopest musicians in the world. Having fun, doing what I love and changing lives while I do it.
Stephen: Musically, I see myself obviously on an incredibly higher level. I practice my viola twice a day and my bass guitar probably half an hour a day. Viola music performance is my major in college and I play my bass for my church and jazz gigs.
Stanley: Performing overseas with a crowd of at least 5,000 in attendance, with a couple of Grammy Awards and 7-8 more projects released.
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What upcoming musical projects are ya’ll working on?
Stan: Our next mixtape/album, however you want to label it, is called Superheroes and Zombies. We plan to release it sometime during the Fall of 2011.
Mike: We have been home for the first month of summer before I go back to summer school and start training for the upcoming season and needless to say, we have been grinding. We have been shooting a slew of music videos and have been making a lot of awesome new music for a new project that we are really excited about. For now we are pushing our last project “AMBITION” which everyone needs to get hip to ASAP.
What’s your favorite thing to do besides make music?
Mike: Well, I play football for Penn State, so between performing for thousands of fans on stage and on the field, life is pretty cool.
Stephen: Thrift store shopping, playing basketball and going to the national portrait gallery.
Stanley: Have a sit down conversation with a homegirl.
Do you have a celebrity crush, if so, who is she?
Mike: It’s not really a crush. I just want to meet Amber Rose one day. Her swag is something serious.
Stephen: Yes. Stacey Dash … although she’s way too old for me.
Stanley: Sanaa Lathan or Stacey Dash.
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What’s your favorite color?
Mike: Red
Stephen:Red
Stanley: Blue
What’s your favorite thing to eat?
Mike: Jamaican jerk boneless chicken wings with a blue cheese and a purple Fanta from Wings Over Happy Valley.
Stephen: Jamaican beef patties.
Stanley: Jamaican beef patty from 7eleven.
Who’s your favorite person?
Mike: Donald Glover, not the rapper, but the comedian. Derrick Comedy is the funniest thing known to man.
Stephen: My twin brother Stanley.
Stanley: My father.
If you were sent to a deserted island and you could only bring 3 albums, what would those 3 albums be?
Mike: Tha Carter 2 by Lil Wayne, Kanye’s College Dropout, and The Best Of Michael Jackson.
Stephen: Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life, Kanye West 808s and Heartbreaks, and Wiz Khalifa Kush and OJ
Stanley: Outkast’s Big Boi & Dre Present…Outkast, Robert Glasper’s In My Element, and Kirk Franklin’s Hero.
Tell us something that most people don’t know about you.
Mike: The reason why I got into the studio with Stan and Steve in the first place was because they stole my Jordans and I wanted them back.
Stephen: My biological mother is in prison.
Stanley: I’ve always wanted to be an architect.
What can’t Primary Element live without?
Mike: Kool-aid
Stephen & Stanley: Jesus. Without him we wouldn’t be Primary Element or have the skills to be Primary Element.
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What’s your favorite liquor to drink?
Mike: I plead the fifth. I’m underage.
Stanley: Red wine.
What’s your favorite thing to wear?
Mike: Nike and Snapbacks.
Stephen: My rare Air Jordans.
Stanley: Comfy boxer shorts.
What’s your most prized possession?
Mike: My iPhone. I am worthless without it.
Stephen: My life.
Stanley: My mac, aka “Martha.”
What’s your favorite football team?
Mike: Penn State Nittany Lions and the Washington Washington Football Team. Surprised?
Stephen: Redskins.
Stanley: I don’t have one.
