Recently Killahbeez.com had the opportunity to interview Reggie Youngblood of Black Kids. We took this opportunity to talk about their influences and styles as well as discussisng their current tour throughout North America and Europe and the upcoming album Partie Traumatic, which is coming out on July 7th in the UK and July 22nd in North America.
Let me start off this interview by saying that I recently saw you guys in Vancouver on April 29 and it was a crazy show. Vancouver crowds are generally known to be a bit mild, but you guys really got the whole crowd into the show. How was the whole North American tour? Were there any standout cities in particular?
Reggie Youngblood: Aw, thanks! The North American tour was criminally fun. We had just left the winter behind in the U.K. and everything was sunshine and flowers in the States. D.C. was quite good and so was San Francisco and Seattle. Oh, and Portland. Really, it was all wonderful.
You guys were part of another band called Cubby previously. What made you guys decide to move away from that and start Black Kids?
RY: The problem with groups previous to Black Kids was that the vibe tended to be way too severe. A bunch of guys posing on stage real hard. It got stale.
Here’s the new video for Ryan Leslie’s single “Diamond Girl” off of his upcoming self titled album Ryan Leslie. For those that think he’s new to the game, ya betta check his resume SON! His production history spans several music genres and has worked with artists such as Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Cassie, JoJo, Nina Sky, Danity Kane, Diddy, Snoop Dogg, Donell Jones, Katharine McPhee, New Edition, Cheri Dennis and many more. He helped produced Cassies hit “Me & U”, currently he’s working on his album set to release in June as well as writing songs for Usher.
Sitting in my hotel room re-hydrating with Gatorade from the previous night’s over-consumption of alcohol (Sorry, no Vitamin Water CUURTIS, as much as I prefer it, your music stinks and you’re already rich off that). Looking out at the faux ocean view (Lake Ontario) from the 25th floor hotel room bumpin Ralph Tresvant’s R&B gem, “Sensitivity” - this song never gets old to me. I guess its kind of transparent that the next song on my playlist is BBD’s “Do Me”. It’ll work one day ladies..one day.
As much as I bump this stuff on a relatively regular basis, its not usually early morning steez to be honest. However, today is a special case. In about 5 hours, I’ll be witness to New Edition back on stage (sans crooked-jaw Bobby..still tragic to me) at the Ice Cream Summer Fest outdoor concert in Toronto. Thats right, NEW EDITION, which also effectively means Johhny, Ralph, and BBD. Maybe I’m old and overly nostalgic, but I can’t wait to hear these boys rip out all the classics. The lineup also includes SWV. I still bump the “Right Here” - Human Nature Remix and “Anything” remix with Wu-Tang on the regular. For real, whoever put this show together deserves a pat on the back and a can of Crystal Pepsi.
