At the G-Fiive level, a certain amount of accomplishment is assumed.
You don’t just start at the pinnacle, with the play things of CEOS, professional athletes and multimillion-selling recording artists.
Unless you are G-Fiive.
Let him introduce himself: “I’m a humble person and “I’m an entertainer, I’m going to always give the people a good show” says the Mobile, Ala. teenager who’s found home in Atlanta.
A humble guy, however, that still doesn’t back away from the lofty name he gave himself. “Which was kind of like an accident,” G-Fiive concedes. “When we were just writing it down, I wrote it down with two i’s and I said, ‘Wait a minute — I kind of like that.’ I was just trying to do something a little different.”
“But G-Fiive describes my personality. I mean, of course I’m going to say, ‘I’m so fly I’m G-Fiive’. I wanted to make it so that every time I hit the stage, or whatever I’m doing, it’s like I’m about to take off. It really describes who I am on stage. And it describes how energetic I am. And I’m always smooth. And I’m always fast. Something like a jet.”
And the Cincinnati Bengals’ Willie Anderson saw G-Fiive’s ability to soar immediately. “When his uncle (whom Anderson went to school with) brought him to my attention his talent was obvious,” the four-time all pro and Pro Bowler recalls. “The pre-work they had already done, was obvious. And it was also obvious that he was not going to be defined solely as rapper. He’s a unique talent, a multi-talent — period.”
With that, Willie Anderson decided to introduce his Think Big Entertainment to the world, on the wings of G-Fiive.
And the first G-Fiive single from his debut CD “Am I On Yet” is, appropriately enough, “Spotlight.”
“I’m always a person who is trying to lift a woman up, make sure she’s in the ‘Spotlight’ too,” he says of the pulsing track with Bobby Valentino on one version, and Joe Gutta on the other. “So in that song I shine the light on everything about her — from her Chanel bottoms, to her waist, to her face.”
“Hey Hey Hey” though, don’t misunderstand: G-Fiive’s just trying to be your friend, not your man. “That song is pretty much every man’s conversation when he’s talking to a girl he’s really just trying to kick it with, in the beginning. You know, let’s be cool right now. Just me taking it slow.”
Things have quickened a bit by the time you hit “G-Spot”, featuring Ariana Stewart. Smiling, G-Fiive explains: “Girls used to just call me ‘G’ at first. So it’s a play on that” — with Stewart singing “that’s my‘G-Spot’ ” over a snaking, sensuous flute.
Up goes the temperature even more on “Boy On Fire,” “which is pretty much me saying, ‘I’m in the game, deal with it.”
That kind of foresight is what made working with G-Fiive such a memorable experience for Rico Lumpkins. “G was like a gift,” said the industry veteran who had a production hand in such superstar acts as OutKast and TLC. “He would always come to the table with ideas, with a template. He was like a jewel that just needed a little polishing. I like to call it ‘the WOW factor’. G’s got it. ”
“His vision, ultimately, was the dealmaker,” adds Think Big Entertainment’s Anderson. “There’s a lot of people out there who have talent, but no idea where to take it. And how. G does. And to have that kind of vision, so young, it is like WOW!”
“I look at people like Jay-Z and Lil Wayne and Nas as the heads of hip-hop,” G-Fiive says. “I look at myself as like the legs and feet of hip-hop; because I dance and rap too. That’s me — just bringing good music. Bringing real music. Something people can relate to. Something people can dance to.
“I mean, you remember when hip-hop was at its beginning? And like Big Daddy Kane used to bust a tight flow, then go: ‘Yo, now check this out’ — and flip over the head of his dancer and land in a split?’ It‘s that kind of stage presence, true entertainment, that I’m bringing. You can be humble and still know, and say, what you have to offer. And everything I know that you expect from an artist, I’m trying to give that to you.”
Gerald LaFayette Grant II has arrived as G-Fiive.
Now just watch the ascent.
