Meet WesWill, the Cleveland musician with the funky new sound
WESWILL’s SUMMERTIME SLAPS VOL.1
Trap, pop and mumble rap may be holding down the mainstream charts, but Clevelands WesWill “Summertime Slaps Vol.1” is running the underground charts up! *WARNING*: IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR SOUL-LESS OR SUBSTANCE-LESS MUSIC, THEN YOU MIGHT WANT TO CLOSE OUT THE TAB NOW. Summertime Slaps is for the candy red two seaters, dub riding, and bonafide playas. It’s full of funk, flavor and has enough soul to last a lifetime. We got in touch with WesWill to chop it up about SS.Vol.1.
1. Is how long did it take you to create & finish the summertime slaps?
It took me about a month and a half to finish Summertime Slaps. I have an album that I was working on but I thought it would be a cool idea to drop a small project with nothing but summer tunes! I started crafting the project in May and finished up around Mid June.
2. “You can’t fake the funk/ block the noise & do whatever u want..” where do you get all this soul from?
A lot of the soul and funk that's heard in my music comes from the music my family played around me growing up, as well as, the music I discovered when I was in middle school. Also, some of that soulfulness derives from me singing in the church choir when I was younger. In the car, my mom would play a lot of Isley Brothers, Gap Band, Cameo, S.O.S Band and Anita Baker. When I was growing up, I was not allowed to listen to rap music, so I began to really get into all the music that was being played for me. However, when I got to middle school, I discovered Nate Dogg, Dj Quik, Bone Thugs, Do or Die and I loved how they utilized different melodies and harmonies within their music.
3. What was the concept behind summertime slaps, vol.1?
The concept behind Summertime Slaps is me taking 5 of my favorite summer songs and putting my own spin on them. Every single song is inspired by a track that is attached to a specific summer memory.
4. What kinda vibe did you wanna give weswill fans on SSVOL.1?
The vibe I wanted to give off from this project was something like a Cleveland version of Dom Kennedy's Yellow Album. I also wanted to let people know that I can spread my wings, musically, and give listeners something to make their own summer memories to!
5. Favorite track off SSVOL.1? why?
My favorite track is "Cutlass". It is my favorite track because everything comes together perfectly on it. The production, the hook, the verses, the drops in the beat and the DJ scratches at the end. It's one of my favorite songs i've ever made.
6. Summers starts june 21, why did you wait until august 2 drop SSVOL.1?
I released Summertime Slaps in August because I knew how much music was going to be flooding the market in June and July. I wanted to drop at a time where people were coming down from their music high and just needed something smooth to take their summer out with. Also, I wanted to get it perfect so we pushed it back a couple weeks. Some of the beats weren't hitting how I wanted and the vocals weren't laying how they needed to, so we went in and did some fine tuning.
"I also wanted to let people know that I can spread my wings, musically, and give listeners something to make their own summer memories to"
7. Did you produce the entire EP?
The EP was produced mainly by my friend/engineer/producer Antoine Christopher along with myself. We also had a lot of help from a producer named Dj TouchMoney, who made the beat for Roll Bounce and helped executively produce the EP.
8. I hear twista in your flow? was twista huge influence on your journey thru hiphop?
Twista was a huge influence in my Hip-Hop journey. My introduction to Twista was hearing him on “Slow Jamz" and I just remember being blown away, saying "I want to do that". Soon after, I went back and revisited his old material. That's when I fell in love with the Adrenaline Rush album, and that project changed my outlook on having a perfectly timed flow.
9. The intro/commercial break is mad fly, how did you come up with this concept?
Thank you! I came up with the concept one night while listening to an old Snoop Dogg album. I love how, in the 90's, skits were so cool to hear on an album and it let you get a peek of the artists personality! I figured if i'm on my project rapping about riding clean in a cool car, it would be a fun idea to actually have a car commercial.
10. What’s the story behind your cover art?
When I was trying to decide what I wanted my cover art to be, I closed my eyes and imagined what the perfect picture would be to describe my summer. As I thought about it more and more, I realized that the picture would be me and my boys hanging out and living life to the fullest! If I could have one image to put in a time capsule for my summer of 2018, that would be it. That's why I chose that cover.
"Every single song is inspired by a track that is attached to a specific summer memory."
11. Out of all of your other music, do you consider SSVOL.1 a classic? why?
At this moment, I don't consider any of my music to be classic. I believe that I have to wait a significant amount of time before I could think of calling it a classic. I do believe that it has the makings to be a classic, especially a classic for my city. Only time will tell.