Cruzmatik - Music
By Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist
Spin Rich Records TM
Cruzmatik
Dynamite Duo Making
Their Mark
Photos
by Tim Cattera
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| Crusmatik (L) JWillz (R) FMZ |
Two life long friends came together to
forge a musical duo that has created a fresh new sound and the music world has
begun to take note. “Cruzmatik” is a new
duo created by two music veterans. The first member is rapper/producer Reggie
Stephens who also goes by the name Famouz or FMZ. Stephens is a former player
for the NFL New York Giants and the Arena Football League’s Nashville Kats.
FMZ
gained notoriety for being the first person to legally sample a Jon Bon Jovi
song on a hip-hop track (“Bad Name,” and get clearance for David Bowies (“FAME
“) from his debut album, Ghetto Passport). In addition to Bon Jovi, FMZ has worked with
the likes of E-40, Bun B, DJ Unk, and Rankin Scroo.
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| Reggie Stephens aka FMZ |
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| Jason Williams aka JWillz |
The second member is
singer/songwriter Jason Williams aka JWillz. Williams was been the lead singer
for the group Ribsy’s Nickel for 12
years. Growing up in one of California's
premiere surf towns (Santa Cruz), JWillz and Ribsy’s have been playing their
catchy surf/reggae/rock music up and down the California coast for close to 12
years, sharing the stage with bands like Slightly
Stoopid, Pepper, The Expendables, Fishbone, Travis Larson Band
and The Chop Tops. After having done
their separate things, the two friends decided to join forces and go into the
studio. Their first single “Not Gone Wur
Bout It,” was the result and it started to catch on big time via them
performing it on live shows. The duo has a new album that will drop soon.
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| JWillz & FMZ Cruzmatik |
There is an abundance of negativity
and self hate surrounding hip hop that is being marketed and pushed to our
youth. Does Cruzmatik find a tug and pull with their audience because of this?
JWillz responds, “Sometimes it is like that and the negativity does come from all
angles when you’re doing this music. Even though we are a positive group it
still affects us because there is a lot of negative out there that people try
to bring you down or whatever. The main thing with me, FMZ and this group its
always been like you can’t pay attention to it. When people try to get personal
with you, you really can’t take it that personal. I don’t know a lot of people
that are on Twitter. I don’t try to get caught up with it. I’m trying to stay in
a positive way. If you really stay focused and don’t get caught up in all of
this negative energy it’s not going to affect you and its been working every since we started this
group. Since we began in the bay area and our success started to grow more, a lot
of people have been throwing that negative hate around and it doesn’t affect
us. Why should it affect us? We know where we want to go so we block it out and
that’s a good thing to do.”
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| FMZ JWillz Cruzmatik |
Cruzmatik has taken off like a wildfire without the usual methodology associated with promoting a group. What have been the key elements to their rapid rise? FMZ elaborates, “Everything that we’ve gained has been organic. We have no radio play, we’ve worked the social media like crazy and people see what we’re doing. We work with a charity called “Grind Out Hunger” where we help feed kids who don’t have any food. Everything that we do is positive. People are looking for something different to tell you the truth. They're looking for something different from the same old stuff that these artists have been doing. You see these videos and all you see is jewelry etc., and I don’t hate on that or dislike that. They do what they do but where the times are with the economy and everything that is going on, people want to be happy when they look at stuff. They don’t want to be looking at the same thing, going down that same road. So that’s how we look at it and I think that’s where the fan base and the support comes from especially in the bay area. Check out the Curzmatik videos:
E-mail:
cruzmatik@gmail.com; Facebook and Twitter
© 2012 Rych McCain
Media/Syndication tm
(You DID Hear It From Me!)
E-Mail:
feedbackrych@sbcglobal.net
