Princeton – You’re The One

Here is a hot exclusive for you guys from up and coming artist Princeton with his smooth R&B single “You’re The One“. This guy has a great voice and he knows how to put it down in the studio. He can write, sing, dance, he does it all. Ladies! you need to get your eyes locked on this R&B sensation because he is not away anytime soon. He is going to become a household name by the end of 2010 everyone will know the name Princeton.

The Interview

CK: Hey Princeton, whats good?

Nothin’ man, just got back from a Radio interview.

CK: Alright, that’s whats up. So I’m just going to jump right into this and ask you were are you from?

Well, I’m originally from Oregon, the Portland area. But I’m in Detroit, Michigan right now.

CK: Ok so you are from the far West (laughs)

Yea man (laughs)

CK: So what inspires your artistry and how you gather your lyrics together?

I mean alot of stuff, like…I’m very observant, I like to peep out my surroundings. I get alot of concepts and ideas from watching my friends and watching people around me, seeing what type of situations they go through. I get up in peoples business and they don’t know it, it’s pretty funny. Before they know it, I already wrote a song about it. So yea, I get alot of ideas by being observant.

CK: Alright I feel you, how long have you been in the game right now?

Well I’ve been singing and I always wanted to be a singer since I was like 3 or 4. But I just started taking it seriously when I was in middle school or high school. I actually started recording when I was in middle school but I started doing shows and things that were big when I was in high school.

CK: Ok, so you have been doing this for a long time.

Yea man (laughs) I have, I been singing ever since I was little.

CK: That’s whats up. So what type of genre would you associate yourself with?

Well I would call what I do, urban pop or R&B Urban Pop or something like that. It’s like R&B but you have a little Hip Hop and you have a little bit of Pop influence as well. So…I think–like my project I’m working on now; Growing Pains. It’s gonna be done in March and it like touches a little bit of each one of those genre’s. I got upbeat joints, I got Pop joints but they feel more like Hip Hop joints the way the beat cuts through and then I got my slower songs that really carries over the whole R&B aspect of it. Then I have a couple of mid temps that sound real–you know; street and bang hard, so it sounds more Hip Hop. So I try to intermix a little bit of everything to make everybody happy.

CK: So what are some of the names of artists that you have collaborated over the course of time that you have been in the music industry?

Well, I worked with and done shows with Drake, Rick Ross, Souljah Boy, Trey Songz, Pleasure P (whistling), Day26.

CK: You got a long list of names.

A whole bunch of people, Jagged Edge, Raheem DeVaughn, just alot of people dawg.

CK: So what are some of the names that you would like to collaborate with?

Man, if I could like, I know this is way out the ballpark but it I could work with Beyonce. I would like to work with Lady Gaga, Beyonce. I’d Like to work with Drake, I wanna write with him, get him on a track or two…he’s like one of my favorite rappers–TI, Jay-Z of course and are we just talking about artists or producers?

CK: We are talking about artists, producers, anybody that catches your eye. Lyrically or with their artistry, anything like that.

Man I would love to work with Timbaland, I can’t wait for that; Danja, Polow Da Don. I would like to do a duet with Keri Hilson. But yea, I really can’t wait to work with Drake on songwriting, because I really like the way he comes in with his flows and I would like to incorporate that with an R&B songs and see where it goes. I think we would work good together, we kinda have a similar style.

CK: Ok I feel you on that one.

Oh and Kanye West, oh wait, man, hold on–and Tricky Stewart. The-Dream, I love that man’s talent, that would just be a dope experience.

CK: So at this point in time are you signed or unsigned.

Right now I’m currently unsigned but I’m being shopped to a couple a different labels so I have a couple of situations going on, can’t talk about it yet though.

CK:Alright, so what are the names of some of names of your current and upcoming projects?

I’m working on a free album, it’s called Growing Pains and I’m wrapping it up now. Get Her Number and You’re The One are the singles off of that. It’s gonna be free, you’re going to be able to download it on itunes and amazon. You can already get the first two singles, you can get, Get Her Number and You’re The One on Itunes and Amazon. But yea, the album I’m working on now is Growing Pains.

CK: That’s whats up, that was a nice plug (laughs)

(laughs) I had to man.

CK: Ok so what do you want to accomplish in the year 2010?

I want to be signed to a Major record label, I want to at least–if the album hasn’t been released, I want to release my first single in 2010. Man I just want to go to the next level, like God has really blessed me to be able to progress. I haven’t made any backwards steps since I’ve been working. Every step that I made has only gotten me further ahead and thats the only way I would continue to go. So I would like to release my first National or International single. I’d like to I at least want to be on tour, you know, it works kind of funny because I may get signed or I may come to a decision on a deal this month but it may not be closed till the middle of the year. So by the time it closed I have to record for the album and it may not have a single till the end of the year, so yea, stuff plays out weird.

So if I could just say that I would like to have a single and be on tour and be signed in 2010, I would be happy with that. Then in 2011 we can talk about grammy’s and all that stuff.

CK: Ok so do you like the turn that the mainstream music industry has taken?

Elaborate on that a little bit

CK: Like the music in the 90′s used to be a little bit more in-depth than now. Now it’s a whole lot of chopping and screwing with the track–it’s based more on production value than the lyrics, if you know what I’m saying.

I’m thinking about it, because man, I loved music in the 90′s compared to the music now. See I think it varies with artists, I don’t think it took a turn as a whole.

CK: So you don’t think that maybe it evolved or something like that?

Yea music has just evolved, like the game is in a really funny place right now because not only are we dealing with the whole digital era. Like, CD’s are about to be eliminated and it’s going to be all digital in the next 5 to 10 years. So with that, the brand new people downloading–record labels and the whole industry has been affected by that, so that’s really taken a toll. I think the music has somewhat been affected by that because a lot of people are trying to make a quick hit instead of trying to focus on making great music.

It’s like people are making worse music because they are trying to make better music. Because they are seeing “Oh does this sound like a hit”–instead of how it would be before all this pressure was on them, they would just go in the studio and do what the love to do. I think thats the thing though, like alot of music that’s out now sounds like a wannabe “quick hit”, you know what I’m saying? Like, some people succeed and some don’t.

You have your people that have been out for a long time or have been in the game for a minute, like you have your Beyonce’s and your Jamie Foxx’s and your Jay-Z’s and Alicia Keys. People who have been out since–and Usher well yea, Usher and them–who have been out since this digital era started to come into the game. Then you have your newer people like Lady Gaga, Jeremih and Pleasure P who really have to–and even Rihanna, who has to come a little different because they didn’t have the fans that were there before people started downloading and they have to really compensate and make it seem like there’s something really different about them to make people really want to support them.

CK: Ok well that was alot of information and a new point of view.

Yea there’s alot of things going on behind the scenes right now, crazy. Just to sum the question up because I don’t think I totally answered the question because I think I said alot more than what you were asking.

CK: Naw, thats ok (laughs)

I would say yea, the music industry has turned to be a little bit more watered down. Everybody is just trying to make a quick it. You know some people succeed and it still sounds good but it’s just a little bit more mainstream.

CK: Alright so I guess we can skip the question about, what the game is lacking.

But see, just because you don’t have good music doesn’t mean you aren’t talented. I think the game is lacking now with alot of these new artists, is that they don’t have talent. I don’t know how they got signed or how they got opportunities but their here.

CK: Yea I think that has something to do with people and the whole package, you have to have the whole package. You have to know how to sing, act for the music videos and know how to perform.

You know I get upset about these people that are out right now. I know someone has to come out to Detroit and do a documentary about what goes on here because there is a whole circle of up and coming artists, musicians, producers and songwriters out that nobody knows about because no one would come to Detroit for anything. But were here and it’s a whole process you have to go through. I would say like a training or an initiation that you have to go through just to be come an artist.

Like out here you don’t get respected if you can’t put on a show, you don’t get respected if you get on stage and you don’t sound like your record.You don’t get respected if your record isn’t hot or doesn’t sound hot. But there are unsigned artists here that are competing with or better than the people that are out right now but they just don’t know about them.

CK: Ok, thats whats up, I didn’t know about all the other Detroit artists that are out there in that circle. The Detroit artists here that I know about other than you would have to be Roc Stea’D, Yung Roc, Jigg, like the whole label Live The Music Group.

You know Vina Mills?

CK: Yea I know Vina Mills, the track that she had with all those trumpets on it sounded hot. Now let’s get to one of the questions that you can answer with passion. What does music mean to you?

Man. Music means everything to me. If I couldn’t pursue music, I really don’t know what I would do. Like if my voice was shot today, I would be a business man or something and just be on some business stuff. But I wouldn’t know what I would do, music is everything to me, it’s all I ever wanted to do. Like, I sing everyday, I listen to music everyday, music is incorporated into just about everything I do or think about. It means the world to me.

CK: That was a good answer. I feel the passion. I know you’re gonna make it.

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

Can’t get enough of Princeton? You can check him out via these websites:

http://Twitter.com/PrincetonMusic1
http://Myspace.com/PrincetonMusic1
http://Youtube.com/PrincetonMusic1
http://Facebook.com/PrincetonMusic