For those of you playing at home, it’s Trillectro Week here at Head of Rothchild! For Mixtape Monday, I posted “Welcome to LA”, a super rager of a mix from our homie, Tittsworth. Today, I present to you a real life Q&A with one of DC’s most prominent, up-and-coming rappers, Tabi Bonney!
Born to a musician (his father was Itadi Bonney), Tabi Bonney originally hails from Togo, West Africa and he represents his roots on the regular. He’s an incredibly worldly individual, a clothing designer, and even has a master’s degree in Biology. Tabi is constantly searching for ways to increase his value and mostly just avoid boredom. This kind of work ethic has always seemed to work out quite well for him. He was put on very early into his early career through Facebook, where one of his friends, who was producing with Dame Dash at the time, invited him up to New York to lay down some tracks. The rest was history!
His sound is pretty unique in that it lends itself well to appeal to many different music enthusiasts. Having influences ranging from Bob Marley to MGMT to Slick Rick to Lykke Li, Tabi’s music tends to strike a cord in hip-hop, indie, and dance music lovers alike. And lucky for you guys, he just released a brand new mixtape, LoveJoy Park, which features guest flows from Fat Trel, Raheem DeVaughn, Phil Ade, and more. Nine, feel-good tracks deep, LoveJoy Park is one of the best soundtracks for the rest of your summer. It’s some real, windows-down, good vibes kinda music. Download LoveJoy Park here.
Tabi Bonney will be performing fresh in da flesh on Saturday at Trillectro! Make sure you stop by his stage and show some love. But before you go, get in the know. We here at HOR had the chance to chat with Tabi about LoveJoy Park, Trillectro, and where to go for good eats in DC!
HOR: How would you personally describe your unique sound and what kind of messages do you send to your loyal listeners?
TB: I’d say it’s real, true music. It’s music for Jet setters, it’s music for dreamers, and for the lovers. A lot of other rappers try to put on a persona that is often fictitious and will try to play into that. I try to keep it more personal and on a more realistic vibe for people listening.
TB: My musical influences are spread all over from past to present. If you want to go back to early hip hop, I’d say Eric B and Rakim, Slick Rick. Other artists that influenced me are Bob Marley, Bjork, Kanye to name a few.
HOR: We’re hearing some real summertime, feel good vibes from your latest mixtape, LoveJoy Park. What kind of state of mind were you in while you were making LoveJoy Park?
TB: When I was making that mixtape it was drawing from a relationship and everything that goes into being in a true relationship along with the highs and lows of it. It goes from the highs of experiencing true love from going through the lows of being cheated on, or just breaking up.
TB: My favorite food spot in DC is Cava Messa. I like to go there because the food is so good and you can order anything from Octopus to lamb.
TB: You can expect to see a very high energy, very engaging performance. Being that it’s a more open show with different kinds of music, I’ll be able to try more different things than I would do at a regular hip hop show. For example, there are some tracks from my mixtape “Postcards From Abroad” that I wouldn’t normally do but have always wanted to do so I’m excited to see what happens.
TB: I try to keep up on the dance music around here. “EDM” DJ’s that I follow would be Tittsworth and Dave Nada, who does the Moombahton shows. I went to one of his shows recently and I loved the high energy that was going all night. Even though you were in a club, it felt like you were at a house party with everyone dancing around going crazy. You can’t really get the emotion from a regular club because everybody is just standing around looking at each other pop bottles.
TB: I’d have to say it was the first time I played Rock the Bells. It was one of the biggest crowds I ever played to, plus to be there with the other artists it felt like I was being a part of history.
