Phenetiks Interview w MusiqPromo UK

Protégé from Phenetiks Interview
I know you guys reading my interviews are going to start thinking I'm developing a bias towards Connecticut, but no it's purely coincidence that my next artist to interview is also from CT. With A new album out and getting a lot of good responses I catch up with Protégé from Phenetiks to talk about the Musical Journey.

Musiqpromo: How's it going? Why don't you introduce yourself to the people?Protégé: Hello there, I go by the name of The Protégé of Phenetiks. We are an experimental hip-hop group from Waterbury CT. Besides me there is the producer Deto22, the Dj Dj SirCumference, and the two other incredible MC' JK1 the Supernova and Roc one. Happy to be here.
Musiqpromo: How long have you been together? Protégé: Well we all kind of met through mutual friends and became friends before we actually started to do music together. Phenetiks has been around since 1994. Deto22 is the originator. We have officially been a five member group since my induction in late '05'.
Musiqpromo: How would you describe your sound? Protégé: Our sound is untainted, pure, original, lyrics, raw beats, raw scratching, concept driven, life motivated, dramatic nonsense, hip hop. Lol I can just say that each MC' brings his own persona to the table when it comes to making songs.Deto22 lays the beat and the concept and Dj Sircumference adds the special sauce. I dont even know what else to call it. It's just some good ol hip hop!
Musiqpromo: You have released your first album, can you tell the people about that?Protégé: Yes this is our first release wit Rawkus, but we put out our first album independently in 2006, "The Sandbox set" which is available on cdbaby.com and ITunes.com. Our second LP is called "Revolutionary Non-Pollutionary Mechanical Wonder". You can download it now at the Rawkus website, my.rawkus.com and the link is as follows http://my.rawkus.com/profile/PHENETIKS. We have merchandise links posted as well.
Musiqpromo: I saw that you have made it to the Rawkus 50, how did that come about?Protégé: We caught word of it on the net pretty early. JK1's girlfriend Erin spotted it and was like "you guys should enter that shit" so we did. I sent in the necessary materials and Slopfunkdust got back to us with a quick response. Hate to sound cliché but the rest is history. We got in.
Musiqpromo: Your from CT I've just interviewed MD-E, are you guys ever gonna collaborate? And what do you think of Redhead Kingpin & Apathy, who are CT's most famous exports. Protégé: Yeah M D.E is our people. We both from CT representin! We are gonna be doing a show with him next week @ Blaggards in Manhattan. (Peep the page for info)I'm sure we can get together on a track in the future. I personally have not listened to Redhead Kingpin ever. I'm sure he can hold it down because I have heard of him. Apathy is my people too. I used to be a Dj for WHUS the University of Connecticut radio station. He was always around with OneTwo of the Demigodz. He spit crazy then and he's only gotten better with time. I've seen him roast mics wit a freestyle. I'm glad he's doing his thing, I'm gonna check him out in concert in Hartford this summer.
Musiqpromo: Are you working with any other people?Protégé: Mos def! CT becoming really strong right now and we (Phenetiks) are all about the unity. We have aligned ourselves with some good talent from around the state, M D.E being one. We are apart of the AFA (Ant Farm Affiliates) which features Spaz,Cee Reed, Workforce-Dir E Dutch and Hawl Digg,D_Cyphernauts, Sketch Tha Cataclysm, The Rising Sun Quest, and Expertiz. We are planning to drop a mixtape soon. And shout out to my peoples The Basement Bastards, Subrosa, Smoke, Cousin Larry's, Maddsonn, Defynshn, Silent Touch, Wos, Dj Eros, and the Official IC.
Musiqpromo: Sounds very promising I'm from the UK, have you heard anything from over here that has caught your ear? Protégé: I personally can't say that I know as much about UK hip hop than I do about US hip hop. But I have caught freestyles from things like jump-off TV and mix tapes; Youtube also keeps me tuned in. I haven't listened to enough to pick favorites. I did however link up with a producer named Raze Brooks and we did a couple of tracks together. There are other UK artist's that I like outside of hip hop like Cluadia Jesse and Holly Ottignon. Great talents. Wait I like Slick Rick, he's from the UK right?
Musiqpromo: Yeah Slick Rick & Monie Love are our biggest exports, I've heard a few of Razes Tunes, his Hip Hop Years Mixes and the Stuff he did with Lava Flo, you got any plans to come out to perform in the U.K? Protégé: We would love to come out there and perform for the people! But we all have separate lives right now and it would take a big effort on our part. The only way I see that becoming a reality is if we can do a tour and make enough money to support our music. You know we still got jobs and kids support so all of that would have to be taken into consideration. If given the right opportunity though, we will be in the streets of London chillin wit the people.
Musiqpromo: It would be good to see you perform out here, now's the part of the interview for you to plug yourself and send a shout out to anybody you feel that has helped you along the way?Protégé: There's so many name and I said some of them already but we gotta thank anybody and everybody who gave a chance and listened. Major shout out to Maria Miiz, Divine, Lavoerevolt.com, John Vargas, The Aries Family...Brooklyn Stand Up! AFA, Slopfunkdust, and anybody who knows us and respects the fact that we do hip hop how we think it should be done. To everyone who bought The Sandbox Set and came to a show.
Musiqpromo: Thanks Protégé for taking part, it's been a great interview, I wish you and guys all the success in the world with your music, you deserve it.
Protégé: The pleasure was all ours. Thank you for this interview; it's been a while since I had the chance to have fun on a computer screen...Damn college exams! Peace to you and yours. Phenetiks for life...Now Eat Up!
Check out Phenetiks's music at http://www.myspace.com/phenetiks