Strange Fruit Project Think Globally
September 19, 2006
When it comes to Texas hip-hop, the city of Houston
seems to be the only city representative. Houston
has completely dictated the sound and style of what
the masses consider to be Texas hip-hop. Chopped
and Screwed beats intertwined with rhymes about
coupe Deville’s and candy paint delivered through
diamond encrusted mouthpieces with a signature
southern drawl. That’s why one would be hard
pressed to find the progressive musical style of
Strange Fruit Project and identify their sound with
Texas. A style that defies all laws of Texas hip-hop,
with a sound like nothing coming out of Houston they
hail from one of the most unlikely places: Waco,
Texas. “We all think globally rather than thinking
regionally. That is pretty much the inspiration behind
our sound. Just trying to be original people. There is
a whole world out there so we try not to ignore
that.” says S 1 in reference to their brand of hip-hop.
Using their Waco, Texas upbringing as inspiration,
group members S 1, Myth, and Myone found the
need to be creative early on since hip-hop and
Waco, Texas pretty much mix like oil and water. “In
Waco, people tend to take something different as
something that is bad. It’s like ya’ll need to be doing
this instead of that. That is the kind of mentality
that exists in Waco. So that makes it kind of
different. On the other side of the coin is just
believing in what we did. Ultimately it ended up
making us stand out just because we stuck to our
guns. If everybody else is telling you, why are you
doing this I’m sure they’re telling everybody else the
same thing. If everybody sounds the same it makes it
a little bit easier to stand out.” explains Myone.
With the release of their new album, The Healing,
Strange Fruit Project is ready to push the envelope
even further and continue to change what has
become known as the sound of Texas hip-hop and
the fact that not every rapper hails from Houston.
According to S1, “We just being ourselves and just
representing the average everyday person. We’re
just doing us. We’re not trying to be you or do this.
We’re just doing us. If people in the industry actually
paid attention to who they were as individuals and
tuned into that sense and actually went with that
intuition there would be a lot more original music and
you wouldn’t have to try to differentiate between
one person and another.”
Strange Fruit Project is gearing up to hit the road
again overseas. The group has gone Top 10 on
iTunes’ Most Downloaded Hip-Hop/Rap Albums in 10
Countries including U.S., Spain, U.K., Portugal,
Austria, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Spain and
Australia.
Friday, Oct 20th Manchester, UK / Friends and
Family in Manchester.
Saturday, Oct 21st Birmingham, UK with K’Naan at
The Drum / 144 Potters Lane, Birmingham, B6 4UU /
the-drum.org.uk <http://the-drum.org.uk>
Sunday, October 22nd London, UK with K’Naan at
the Jazz Café / 5 Parkway Camden Town London
NW1 7PG /
www.leedsfestival.com/displayPa
.asp?PageID=387
Check out Strange Fruit Project single, “Get Live”
feat. Erykah Badu:
http://www.om-
records.com/mp3/Get_Live.mp3
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