Ceschi Ramos
The RAPstation Interview
By Kyle Eustice
If you've ever met Ceschi Ramos, you know he's one of the most humble, down-to-earth artists you'll ever come across. The New Haven, Connecticut native started his successful indie label, Fake Four Inc., with brother David Ramos in 2008. With a current roster boasting such colorful acts as Dark Time Sunshine, Myka 9 of Freestyle Fellowship, Grayskul, Open Mike Eagle, K-The-I??? and Louis Logic, Fake Four has grown beyond the Ramos brothers’ dreams. It almost fell apart in 2013 when Ceschi was sent to prison on questionable charges. His new album, Broken Bone Ballads, depicts that struggle and reveals how he kept Fake Four afloat. Broken Bone Ballads drops April 7, 2015 via Fake Four. On his way to SXSW, Ceschi took some time to talk new music, favorite hip-hop albums and his "summer vacation." Check out www.fakefourinc.com for more information.
RAPstation (Kyle Eustice): Let's talk new music! What do you have coming out?
Ceschi Ramos: On April 7th, my first official album since 2010 comes out. It's called Broken Bone Ballads and was produced by my good friend Factor Chandelier from Saskatoon, SK, Canada. Although the first song on the album was recorded back in 2007 during a crazy time in and out of hospitals for a fractured humerus and while my grandmother was very ill, most of the album was done between the years 2010 and 2014. It covers a time period after I was setup in a big marijuana bust, went to court for three years, spent some time in prison and includes some reflection over those years.
Has your writing style or lyrical content changed since your "summer vacation?"
I would say so. If anything, that time helped me find a writing voice again. I wrote every day. My writing is a bit more direct than before. I feel like I've always been honest with my writing - but it's just a bit more clear now. Writing can outline beauty in even the simplest of emotions. There is beauty in the mundane. I see it and feel it constantly. If anything that time made me more sensitive to the world around me.
What classic hip-hop albums do you find yourself revisiting time and time again? Why? What about them keeps you listening?
Freestyle Fellowship - Inner City Griots. This is one of the most important hip-hop records to me. The incorporation of live instrumentation mixed with experimental sounds. I had never heard a beat like "Sixtray" before that. The rap styles are unlike anything to come before or after it. It's a progressive hip-hop classic from Myka 9, Aceyalone, Peace and Self Jupiter.
Aceyalone - All Balls Don't Bounce is a record that I always seem to revisit. It’s sort of a rap masterpiece, but it's also super fun and loose with styles galore. I just always find something new to love about that record.
Digable Planets - Blowout Comb. That production; there's just nothing else like it. The revolutionary swagger. The use of funk. The guitar solo on Black Ego! It was a huge influence on me. Thanks Mike King for the tape.
Outkast - Aquemini. It was Andre's artistic awakening. I got that record when I was around 16 shortly after it came out and I was the only one of my friends who was even looking into that Dungeon Family stuff.
Of Mexican Descent - Exitos y Mas Exitos EP. This is a 1997 EP from 2Mex & Xololanxinxo and it's one of the most unique little collections of hip-hop I've ever heard. So much wisdom in those lyrics for a couple of 20-year-old dudes, the styles change every song. It’s seriously an amazing piece of work and huge influence on me. I recently revisited it again and it still moves me.
Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus. This record opened me up to new ways of writing, rapping. Changed my world. Thanks Mike for the tape!
Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep. I found myself bumping this tape a lot again recently. My friend Ryan gave it to me freshman year of high school. I like it even better now. The production is just off the wall. The rap styles are ridiculous but there's this underlying intelligence still - almost punk in its nature. Like they're fully aware that they're being overly violent and ridiculous but it's taking this anti-authoritarian stance throughout. It's dope.
Smif-n-Wessun - Dah Shinin. Friends from high school know that I memorized this album front to back. It's a classic to me and I regularly recite lyrics from it. Such dope beats and sound.
What does Fake Four have on the table for 2015?
We've been focusing a lot more and scaling back the amount of releases we've been doing. My solo album produced by Factor Chandelier is the first album of 2015 for us - comes out April 7. We are also working on some projects with Bleubird and an instrumental Zavala record. Other things are in the works as well...too early to say.
If you could deliver any type of "message" to your fans through your music, what would it be?
All our knuckles combined can break a mammoth's bones and all these tiny teeth together can bite through stone.
Ceschi Ramos: The RAPstation Interview
Ceschi Ramos
The RAPstation Interview
By Kyle Eustice
If you've ever met Ceschi Ramos, you know he's one of the most humble, down-to-earth artists you'll ever come across. The New Haven, Connecticut native started his successful indie label, Fake Four Inc., with brother David Ramos in 2008. With a current roster boasting such colorful acts as Dark Time Sunshine, Myka 9 of Freestyle Fellowship, Grayskul, Open Mike Eagle, K-The-I??? and Louis Logic, Fake Four has grown beyond the Ramos brothers’ dreams. It almost fell apart in 2013 when Ceschi was sent to prison on questionable charges. His new album, Broken Bone Ballads, depicts that struggle and reveals how he kept Fake Four afloat. Broken Bone Ballads drops April 7, 2015 via Fake Four. On his way to SXSW, Ceschi took some time to talk new music, favorite hip-hop albums and his "summer vacation." Check out www.fakefourinc.com for more information.
RAPstation (Kyle Eustice): Let's talk new music! What do you have coming out?
Ceschi Ramos: On April 7th, my first official album since 2010 comes out. It's called Broken Bone Ballads and was produced by my good friend Factor Chandelier from Saskatoon, SK, Canada. Although the first song on the album was recorded back in 2007 during a crazy time in and out of hospitals for a fractured humerus and while my grandmother was very ill, most of the album was done between the years 2010 and 2014. It covers a time period after I was setup in a big marijuana bust, went to court for three years, spent some time in prison and includes some reflection over those years.
Has your writing style or lyrical content changed since your "summer vacation?"
I would say so. If anything, that time helped me find a writing voice again. I wrote every day. My writing is a bit more direct than before. I feel like I've always been honest with my writing - but it's just a bit more clear now. Writing can outline beauty in even the simplest of emotions. There is beauty in the mundane. I see it and feel it constantly. If anything that time made me more sensitive to the world around me.
What classic hip-hop albums do you find yourself revisiting time and time again? Why? What about them keeps you listening?
Freestyle Fellowship - Inner City Griots. This is one of the most important hip-hop records to me. The incorporation of live instrumentation mixed with experimental sounds. I had never heard a beat like "Sixtray" before that. The rap styles are unlike anything to come before or after it. It's a progressive hip-hop classic from Myka 9, Aceyalone, Peace and Self Jupiter.
Aceyalone - All Balls Don't Bounce is a record that I always seem to revisit. It’s sort of a rap masterpiece, but it's also super fun and loose with styles galore. I just always find something new to love about that record.
Digable Planets - Blowout Comb. That production; there's just nothing else like it. The revolutionary swagger. The use of funk. The guitar solo on Black Ego! It was a huge influence on me. Thanks Mike King for the tape.
Outkast - Aquemini. It was Andre's artistic awakening. I got that record when I was around 16 shortly after it came out and I was the only one of my friends who was even looking into that Dungeon Family stuff.
Of Mexican Descent - Exitos y Mas Exitos EP. This is a 1997 EP from 2Mex & Xololanxinxo and it's one of the most unique little collections of hip-hop I've ever heard. So much wisdom in those lyrics for a couple of 20-year-old dudes, the styles change every song. It’s seriously an amazing piece of work and huge influence on me. I recently revisited it again and it still moves me.
Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus. This record opened me up to new ways of writing, rapping. Changed my world. Thanks Mike for the tape!
Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep. I found myself bumping this tape a lot again recently. My friend Ryan gave it to me freshman year of high school. I like it even better now. The production is just off the wall. The rap styles are ridiculous but there's this underlying intelligence still - almost punk in its nature. Like they're fully aware that they're being overly violent and ridiculous but it's taking this anti-authoritarian stance throughout. It's dope.
Smif-n-Wessun - Dah Shinin. Friends from high school know that I memorized this album front to back. It's a classic to me and I regularly recite lyrics from it. Such dope beats and sound.
What does Fake Four have on the table for 2015?
We've been focusing a lot more and scaling back the amount of releases we've been doing. My solo album produced by Factor Chandelier is the first album of 2015 for us - comes out April 7. We are also working on some projects with Bleubird and an instrumental Zavala record. Other things are in the works as well...too early to say.
If you could deliver any type of "message" to your fans through your music, what would it be?
All our knuckles combined can break a mammoth's bones and all these tiny teeth together can bite through stone.
