📄 Transcript [show]
Hey, what's up, loved ones?
My name is Johnny Scott Gramercy.
I'm your host and selector this evening.
This is Neighborhood Love Radio.
I'm joined this evening by, this morning, excuse me, by Tony and Nato.
What's going on, guys?
How you doing?
Good.
How you doing, man?
Artists, entrepreneurs, a little bit of this and that.
We're going to, and definitely Angelenos.
We're going to talk a little bit about the city, culture, artistic, creativity, and a thing or two.
This is La Bicefrie.
Please enjoy this song.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
This is La Bicefrie.
For all of the simple things and much more So don't go anywhere Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That's a cover of the Minnie Riperton classic.
Next up, I got a new artist that I was turned on by my buddy Richie.
Eric Bittiness.
He's out of Florida, Palm Beach, Florida.
Kind of a new style hip-hop, new school stuff.
Check it out.
Working till the sun come up cause we had laid the railroads down.
Heat was so unbearable that you can see the red fall down.
My hand was shaking.
We had the whole plantation.
Field was dry like burning wood for months.
The crop received no rain.
I thought was fainting.
Two gone off dehydration.
Cloud no weight in sight.
The sky had sun.
The temperature is Satan.
What you do?
One precious zone.
Everything you knew was gone.
For years you eating potatoes.
They're full of blisters on your toes.
Yeah, we had to lay the railroads down.
Yeah, uh, uh, uh, yeah.
We had to lay the railroads down.
Yeah.
No Kool-Aid.
Yeah, uh, ain't had no chicken.
Railroads down.
Uh, uh, uh, no iPhone.
It didn't exist up.
Railroads down.
Yeah, uh, uh, uh, yeah.
Uh, we had to lay the railroads down.
Hey, you get on back to work now.
Oh, yes, boss man.
I sold it.
Get on back to work.
That's all I look to.
Go.
Go.
So where's the track?
I'm 28 years old, and you said that you would one day wash away my fears.
The Lord appears with me, yeah.
The Lord appears with me, yeah.
So often people I come across and they explain the way they do the work, and by far we don't see the same.
Our conversation bounce around and their opinions change.
When they realize I don't cling to no facts and I'm just saying.
You follow what they put in front, you may be gained.
In the losing curtain, hiding the actors that run the play.
Preview what we're bringing and traffic to get them paid.
No different when you fish in the hook, you apply the bait.
I wait for opportunities, but then within that state, the state of depending on people accumulates.
So weight, so heavy, I'm so heavy like a thousand pound cake.
So I ounce a thousand forty ounces, drink till you can't think.
We want to not know what we do not know cause we afraid.
The truth gonna keep you up.
At night and sleepy, can't act tape.
What's chicken meant to bake?
What's eggs meant to lay?
And get eaten by humans alone with onions laid on steak.
No vegetarian, I do love cow's milk.
I drink, I love titties and I lick them like I'm out to rob a bank.
My pockets say they tired of looking at empty plates.
My debit card retired, ain't have no 401k.
My accidition fired, the freon to ventilate.
And that Kia, I be driving, don't want to replace them brakes.
By God, for heaven's sake.
Who made all these religions, it's so hard to regulate.
Don't want to admit it's a business.
My life within this frame, a picture made of shame.
Painted with the blood upon the tears we remain.
A race we love to hate, where the future won't marry.
And the birth you can't afford, no the day you get buried.
It break.
Lord, I've been on this earth for about twenty eight years.
And you said that you would one day wash away my fears.
The Lord is with me.
Yeah.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Eric Bittiness that's self released you can find him on his website ericbittiness.com B-I-D-D-I-N-E-S Bittiness like business only with a couple double D's self released out of Palm Beach Florida blazing his own trail prior to that we heard Four Hero with the La Fleur and at the top of the show La Bissefrie I got the is the name of the tune from the Remember My Song album 1975 still relatively secure that er excuse me obscure that artist La Bissefrie you should check him out he's got a lot of a lot of good work um real quick before we get into our guests uh CD Trader out of Tarzana California in the San Fernando Valley the exclusive vinyl dealer to Neighborhood Love Radio their address is 18926 Ventura Boulevard Tarzana man between Reseda and Tampa and if you go in there and uh they got vinyl LPs 445's they got uh UCD's they got cassettes guys they even have cassettes uh if you go in there and mention Neighborhood Love Radio they're gonna give you 10% off your purchase 10% in your pocket also in the Valley Nathan's Tattoo and Piercing on uh Topanga right by Sherman Way in Canoga Park California 20% off of products and services you guys got tattoos?
they get expensive sometimes yeah 20% off your tattoos piercings jewelry hats whatever you want if you mention Neighborhood Love Radio at Nathan's Tattoo and Piercing in beautiful God's Country Canoga Park California you can check them out at Nathan's Tattoos dot com anyway I'm sitting here with uh Tony and Nato we're talking a little bit about uh Los Angeles and stuff Nato where where were you born?
I was born here in uh the streets of LA mmhmm and um I grew up just seeing the culture just all around me mmhmm seeing uh the Mexican murals and the graffiti art and I happen to live uh a few blocks away from Moteyard and then everything changed mmhmm yeah mmhmm yeah LA is so diverse even from a couple blocks down the down the road you know you got the you got the taco stands on the one block and then you walk the next block down and it's all like fine dining you know that's the trip that's what I like about it what uh where do you reside nowadays?
I stay out in the Long Beach area mmhmm but I'm always out here in LA just kinda daily I can't get away from it yeah I wanna mention really fact uh really fast too there's a couple websites we're gonna talk about uh one of which is uh the one that I my first exposure to uh the artist Nato uh by the way you spell Nato N-A-T-O-E or Nato One uh is NatoOne.tumblr.com and that's gonna post like a lot of uh just kinda what I guess what uh what Nato sees you know on the streets and some projects he's working on it's a little bit more cultural and lighthearted but also uh you wanna check out uh stayilluminated.com which is uh which is the clothing line right?
yeah yeah the apparel line mmhmm uh Illuminate is the name of the line uh stayilluminated.com is the site tell me a little bit about it about that guys just a street brand for uh clothing um I guess Nato can elaborate on that well you know everybody's always fascinated with the conspiracy theories and so forth um just the whole idea behind Illuminate is to illuminate your energy and uh cause awareness so some of the art that we produce is a little controversial to some mmhmm and they question it how so?
um it's because of the use of symbolism okay and it's there to inspire you to think mmhmm uh whether you question it or you agree with it we love to see your reaction I gotcha um provoking whether it's good or bad mmhmm um like what symbols?
uh well these pentagrams mmhmm eyes a lot of eyes it's been pretty popular lately I mean you can go on Urban Outfitters mmhmm you see it now but we were doing it before it was the trend mmhmm because there is a message there are meanings in there um there are stories in the artwork mmhmm and uh that's cool I'm looking for your uh your Shriner's Ring see if you got that one of the anything you have over there?
I don't see one now not yet not yet um and uh that's cool I dig it I mean I've always dug symbolism and iconography and stuff and um uh when people have walked into my home they've asked me to do this um and I was like I don't know if I was religious and I always said no but uh I got like the icons and stuff everywhere because yeah I'm fascinated by it as well and I mean wars have been fought you know and and lives have been created and ended you know because of these symbols and people carried them into battle and you know it's pretty fascinating symbols are very powerful mmhmm um and uh where to um so you could go to stayilluminated.com and see the selection there and uh you can go to the retail shops I know um I think I think there's one uh there's a in Covina there's a there's a there's a shop here in your line too right what's the name of that store?
it's called the B-Side shop it's in Covina what is it?
the B-Side shop that's on 130 Sharper's Lane oh cool and that's in Covina?
Covina right yeah what other kind of stuff they got there?
um pretty much the same thing just a lot of uh aimed towards hip hop underground hip hop um but they pretty much just uh four brands mm-hmm and they chose the one chose our brand that's pretty cool yeah does uh does that kind of um iconography and spirituality make its way into uh the artwork outside of the uh clothing line?
yeah it definitely always has it's always um I've been inspired by uh by symbols or intrigued by them at a young age mm-hmm for religious reasons you know mm-hmm being brought up in different religious circles and being exposed to symbols and questioning like what is this?
what is this?
what does that really mean?
why is that there?
and then uh or you look at the back of your dollar bill and you see this eye right there and saying God we trust but who is your God?
you know mm-hmm it's like you're not religious as a government why do you place God on the back of this bill?
is this bill your God?
mm-hmm what do you so there's a lot of questions out there yeah and so I've done a lot of research on my own uh throughout the years because of my graphic design background mm-hmm uh coming across symbols when I uh do research mm-hmm you know I just start digging digging digging and I start coming across these symbols and then I just start researching a lot of the history behind the symbols mm-hmm and I start to uh I would start coming across understandings that they meant a lot of different things depending on the time period for sure I like um one of my favorite art periods is um neoclassical and they used a lot of symbolism there but it was really straightforward it wasn't a lot of hidden meanings you know they would just use like a like a B for industry you know to symbolize industry you know the E line you know the E line and stuff like that and that was right around the time of the American Revolution and we kind of looked uh to the French for a lot of uh inspiration and so a lot of that stuff carried over the eagle for example mm-hmm you know the bear things like that animals yeah mm-hmm and uh cool so where do you see uh where do you see uh taken uh illuminated throughout uh 2014 illuminated uh it's primarily in the hip hop circuit uh with huge support with a lot of predominant uh players that are coming up right now so mm-hmm there's a oh you guys are uh you guys are sponsoring shows and events and things like that right you guys have an event coming up in March March 1st yeah can you tell me about that Tony it's pretty much uh stay limited presents pretty much the people that we sponsor the artists the hip hop artists mm-hmm and uh DJs and that uh Plaza Brew Dog on uh Santa Monica in Los Angeles okay Plaza Blue Dog Plaza Brew Dog like a beer oh brew okay cool and it's all ages from uh 9 to 2 a.m oh and so all hip hop event right it's gonna be like a DJ then some hip hop or some some nice performing then another DJ and then there's gonna be a a beat set mm-hmm so that's cool yeah that sounds pretty cool and out there out there Santa Monica and where um actually I'm not sure the cross street but I know it's in Santa Monica oh I gotcha okay cool awesome so but you could go to um you go to stayilluminated.com right and find out all the details yeah that's cool and uh so Nato we're um we're talking about the roots and so many so many artists that I run into uh have their roots in like graffiti and street you know maybe what you call street art nowadays um is that something you still uh you're still engaged in yeah yeah I've been uh doing uh doing uh uh I've been doing it for over uh 20 years mm 23 24 years now and uh cause I know you're like this crazy graphic design guy too right right and that's what that's what opened the door to graphic design as far as my illustration background uh graffiti and illustration came hand in hand and the design came in afterwards with the uh intent of doing a clothing line mm age 18 you know just looking around um cause I'm a little bit younger than some of the other guys at the time uh Hex and Riz and uh Muralski and Ash had some pretty dope clothing lines at the time you know original these are the guys that created the term street wear you know yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I don't want to stop, baby.
I'll stand in.
Will you lock me up?
Will you lock me up?
Will you lock me up?
The Gap Band.
The one and only Gap Band.
Charlie, Robert, and Ronnie.
Discovered by Lonnie Simmons.
On the Total Experience label.
Lonnie Simmons is kind of an L.A.
R&B legend.
Ran a nightclub, ran a label, recorded bands, produced bands, stuff like that.
Before that, we heard Cecil Mato, a.k.a.
Joey Negro, one of his little aliases.
Next up is Fishbone.
Man, they're in a little bit of trouble, man.
All I'm going to say is you go to a Fishbone show and it's going to get crazy, so if you get kicked in the head, man, don't be suing anybody.
Good luck with them through the lawsuit.
Los Angeles legends, Fishbone, boning in the boneyard.
Enjoy.
So early in the show, We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
Trying to clear my mind I saw you eyeing me It was plain to see I said I was a barren man You said you were 23 Don't make me do wrong Don't make me do wrong Don't you know you're a pretty man Things will never be the same Don't you know you're a pretty man Things will never change Don't you know you're a pretty man Things will never be the same Don't you know I've always been a faithful man Till you came along Always been a grateful man I've always been a faithful man Don't make me do wrong Don't make me do wrong Don't make me do wrong I've always been a faithful man Till you came along People just hanging out Didn't mean a thing But then I start walking out Something came over me Never felt so guilty Never felt so guilty I've always been a faithful man Till you came along I've always been a faithful man I've always been a faithful man Don't make me do wrong Don't make me do wrong I've always been a faithful man Till you came along I've always been a faithful man Till you came along I've always been a faithful man I've always been a faithful man Don't make me do wrong Don't make me do wrong I've always been a faithful man Till you came along guitar solo bass solo drums play in bright rhythm bass solo doo doo bop It's falling here doo doo bop It's falling here doo doo bop To find yourself craving doo doo bop Check your fears and hope that you're dreaming doo doo bop doo doo bop So the spaces all beneath So the spaces all beneath So save some of mine if you please Got to give it up, don't be sad If you leave me, baby, know you will hurt me Hey, doo-doo, I'm strong in here Doo-doo, I'm strong in here Doo-doo, I'm strong in here Doo-doo, I'm strong in here Wake up to find yourself screaming track your fears and hope that you dream A little space is all that I need These circles just allow me to breathe Snowy courts in Lucifer's place Can't take the pain in my heart Strip up underline Stepping up at the same living hell Ain't too proud to die here as well Do-do-bop is falling in here Do-do-bop is falling in here Do-do-bop is falling in here Do-do-bop is falling in here Do-do-bop is falling in here Do-do-bop is falling in here Do-do-bop is falling in here Do-do-bop is falling in here Do-do-bop is falling in here The legend, Curtis Mayfield.
Do-do-wop is strong in here.
I got that from, um, I don't know what it was, originally released on, but I got that from the very best of Curtis Mayfield on Rhino Records.
Prior to that, we heard Lee Fields and the Expressions on the Truth and Soul record label.
Faithful Man, bare bones version.
That was a backside to the Faithful Man, the regular version.
I liked it.
Pretty cool.
Uh, Tony, Nato, thank you so much for coming down, man.
I wish we had a little more time to shoot the shit.
Um, let me drop your websites here.
Nato, by the way, Nato spells his name Nato.
N-A-T-O-E Nato1 Nato1 N-A-T-O-E O-N-E dot tumblr dot com Uh, you can check out their web, their, uh, clothing line.
Illuminate is the name of the line and you can find them at stayilluminated.com And if you're the, uh, Covina area, you can check out, what is it, B-Side?
The B-Side shop.
Yeah.
And support local business.
Stop in the shop there.
Say hi.
Buy something.
Um, uh, secretagenda.com, is the, uh, sort of, uh, graphic design, art marketing site.
Yeah.
Good name.
A secret agenda.
I like that.
Thank you.
And don't forget, loved ones, March 1st at Plaza Brew Dog on Santa Monica, um, Los Angeles hip-hop show sponsored by these two fine gentlemen and the Illuminate clothing line.
You can check out their, uh, their website again at stayilluminated.com to get more information.
Thank you so much, loved ones.
I will see you next week.
My name is Johnny Scott Gramercy.
This is Neighborhood Love Radio.
Cheers.
