California's so large it could be its own country, and if it was, it'd be one of the dopest countries on the planet, thanks in no small part to groups like
The Freshmen. Comprised of producer
THX and emcees
A. Wolf and
Kristo, The Freshmen have deep Cali roots, so it was only right we invited them to join our
My City series. In this edition, A. Wolf talks about the perfect California track, the Bay Area's creativity famine and, of course, beautiful weather.
RefinedHype: As we can tell from tracks like "Dreamin' California" and "Hello There" your music is rooted on the west coast. For you, what does the perfect Cali record sound like?
A. Wolf: It'd be hard to describe the "perfect" Cali record because there's so many different ingredients that make our state what it is. You've got the fun, sunny beach side. The gritty underbelly. The tough cities. The dreamers that come here from all over trying to find their destiny and so on. That was pretty much the inspiration with "Dreamin' California", to bring to life the different layers and vibes of California as a whole and not from just one demographic or perspective. But to answer your question, there can't be a perfect California record because California itself isn't perfect. But it's those elements, perfect and imperfect, that make for a great state and great music.
RefinedHype: You currently reside in the Bay Area, a place know for it's creative culture. How much do you think your boundary-pushing sound is the result of the musical environment you grew up in?
A. Wolf: The birth of our sound actually came from the lack of creativity surrounding us. As creative as art in general in the Bay is, hip-hop lost a little of its creative and artistic edge. Truth be told we just got really bored. Fortunately we all share a similar musical taste and were all ready to push the envelope and just go with our guts. It is a huge blessing to be in such a diverse and generally accepting environment. It gives us the space to do what we want with our music. We all truly feel that musically, we were born in the wrong era. Today's music is missing something. It doesn't hit you in the soul anymore. It's just enough to get your feet moving but not enough to be remembered. We hope to change that.
RefinedHype: What about your city inspires you?
A. Wolf: The group's members are split between The Bay and LA so we tend to use the whole state of California as our inspiration. There's so much to be inspired by here. The cultures, the different speeds and tempos people move at, the art, the history, the slang, the fact that you can go from the city to the beach in a matter of minutes! We might be in The Bay and cut a particular sounding record. Or go see THX in Inglewood and that inspires a different vibe. It's a beautiful state!
RefinedHype: If I'm rolling through the Bay where can I find you?
A. Wolf: East Bay, South Bay, Frisco. Shout out to Inglewood and Hawthorne as well!
RefinedHype: Last words? Shout outs? Confessions?
A. Wolf: Shout out to DJBooth and RefinedHype for always supporting our shit! Shout out to Paul the World Cup Octopus for predicting we'd win this interview. And Shout out to the readers and subscribers. We just dropped a video for "Hello There" so make sure you go and check that out..
Go Freshmen!
