Producers on a mission pushin the limits to create refreshing music!!!!!!!
“I make beats, man.” It’s become a tired refrain, one that barely warrants a nod of acknowledgment or a lifting of eyes from BlackBerry at its utterance. So when a trio of LA-based producers adopted the name the Stereotypes, they wielded not only a gift for kicks and licks, but also for ticklish, tongue-in-cheek terminology. Indeed, the Stereotypes are a motley crew, three distinct pieces comprising a cohesive, sprawling mosaic. There’s Ray Romulus aka RayRo, the New York-reared A&R wunderkind who cut his teeth under the pantheonic likes of Puff Daddy, Jermaine Dupri, and LA Reid. There’s Sacramento’s Jon Yip ?“call me JonStreet”? once part of an Asian rap troika, having been drawn to the mic by a profanity-laced Eazy-E tape. Then there’s JermBeats, né Jeremy Reeves, likewise from Sac-town and at once the group’s most savvy instrumentalist and a product of a gospel-tinged, home-schooled upbringing. These whos and hows might be hard to figure. The why is definitely answered by the what: pure, unabashed, unadulterated production fire. And the when? Clearly now.
More than an apt turn of phrase, the Stereotypes moniker runs beyond the superficial. In fact, skin deep is just about right: “We’re trying to break stereotypes,” asserts RayRo. “We’re a black guy, an Asian guy, and a white guy, all brought together in making great music. We want to be mentioned in the same breath as the Neptunes and Timbaland. To be known for making consistently good and wide-ranging music.” Indeed, the comparison grows more plausible as the months whisk by; in late 2007, their scorching single “Damaged” written for Danity Kane peaked at 10 on Billboard’s Top 100 chart. A mere year later, the Stereotypes earned a pair of Grammy nominations for contributing “Why Does She Stay” to Ne-Yo’s Year of the Gentleman album. And in February 2009, the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic boasted the Stereotypes’ collaboration with Natasha Bedingfield entitled “Again.”
Romulus is the trio’s most recent addition, having joined Jon Yip and Jeremy Reeves after his stint ended at Def Jam. A personal hire of LA Reid — “from whom I learned what it took to make great songs and great artists”— he served as the youngest A&R in the label’s storied history, steering hits like Teairra Mari's “Make a Girl Feel Good” and Rihanna's “Unfaithful.” But ability beyond his age has always been RayRo’s calling card; he first attacked the drums at the tender age of two. A pre-pubescent Ray caught the ear of legendary producer and famed Fugees drummer Donald Guilliame, his eventual teacher. From there, he performed in a local percussion ensemble and eventually matriculated into college, at his mother’s insistence: “I went to college basically because my mother made me,” he confesses. “But music was always my passion and priority. I knew when the first opportunity came up, I would leave school to follow my dreams.” And so he did. He would meet his current production partners when, as Def Jam A&R, he signed a rap artist they were repping, Durtee 3.
Jon Yip and Jeremy Reeves, meanwhile, crossed paths at a Guitar Center in their hometown—Reeves behind the counter, Yip looking to work smarter, not harder. “I met Jon when he came into the store and dropped the Interscope name to try to get an industry discount,” JermBeats grins. Jon Streets, then an A&R admin and aspiring producer, nods ruefully. “I approached him and told him I make tracks, and asked what I needed to do to get in,” Reeves recounts. “He asked me if I had anything he could hear, and in fact I did—some songs I’d stored on a keyboard memory card. He seemed impressed, and the rest is history.” JermBeats is an impressive sort, playing the drums, guitar, and piano with equal aplomb. Even more amazing is Jeremy’s trajectory; in that same timeframe of late 2007, as “Damaged” crisscrossed the airwaves, he should’ve been celebrating the upturn in his career. Instead, he was living out of his car and sofa-surfing, trying unsuccessfully to make ends meet. “I went from being homeless to Grammy-nominated in less than a year,” he waxes. “That’s just crazy.” In fact, Reeves’ entire path has been unorthodox; he credits his homeschooling with freeing him to pursue music. Fast forward to the present, and his partners are equally grateful for all that practice time: “Sometimes we just sit around and listen to Jeremy play, and we get inspired with ideas,” says Jon Yip. “Jeremy’s incredible.” Reeves, however, sidesteps personal plaudits and instead trumpets the collective. “Over the years, with everything we’ve done, I’m most proud of our growth as a group,” he beams. “We’ve developed more of a common bond in our music, and our creativity has excelled to another level.”
Yip sheds more light on the Stereotypes’ unconventional creative process and its manifold results: joints for Omarion and Bow Wow, Marques Houston, Anthony Hamilton, and Keyshia Cole among others. “Sometimes people watch us making tracks and tell us it’s the most interesting thing they’ve ever seen,” he chortles. “We might all be standing around the keyboard at once, which you know isn’t easy. We could literally all be playing different notes at the same time. But for most beats, we’ll all have one part each. Both Ray and Jeremy play drums, so we usually start with a drum pattern. There’s got to be a certain swag on the rhythm to keep you moving beyond just the melody. Then Jeremy might go off on the piano or guitar. It sounds kind of scattered, but it works for us. The only time we seem to hit roadblocks is when we’re asked or forced to hit a certain sound. When we create freely we just flow.”
Yip seems the Stereotypes’ de facto mouthpiece, an intriguing mix of sarcasm and sagacity. “I started as a rapper, believe it or not, because it was cost effective,” he reveals. “It didn’t cost anything to write lyrics down on a piece of paper. As time went on, I started making music. And I began meeting people and preferring to create in a group environment. Making beats can be very tedious and monotonous and isolating: things start sounding the same. With people to bounce ideas off, you can always stay fresh and current. I left Interscope on a leap on faith, and it’s been rewarded. As we write more for other artists, they ask us more often to appear on their songs. People might say that the music industry is on a downward spiral, but we say the record industry is surging: that’s the creative side. There’s always a need for good music, no matter the economic times.”
Whatever they do and however they do it, it’s working. The Stereotypes are poised for even more fanfare, having just completed Mary J Blige’s new single, “Good Love,” slated to appear on her upcoming album. Elsewhere, their “Girls on the Dance Floor” by the Far East Movement was the 1-downloaded song via the online record pool www.djcity.com. They’ve also partnered with the aforementioned Durtee 3 to create 24/8, an experimental hip-hop/electro/R&B ensemble. And their innovative website combines blog-style updates with video segments showing behind-the-scenes interaction with artists like Ne-Yo. Keep up with the Stereotypes at www.stereotypesonline.com. Well, do your best to keep up.
Stereotypes have worked with:
Natasha Bedingfield "Again" (Confession of a Shopaholic),
Far East Movement "Girls on the Dance Floor" (Animal),
Ne-yo "Why Does She Stay" (Year of the Gentleman) up for 2 grammys!!!,
Joe "Why Just Be Friends" (First single off the New Man LP) and "New Man",
Danity Kane-"Damaged" (First single off the Welcome to the Dollhouse LP),
Marques Houston-"Wonderful" (Current single, written by Ne-Yo.off the album Veteran, which debuted on Billboard at Number 1 for Hip Hop/R&B Albums),
Bow Wow and Omarion (FACE OFF "Number One's"),
Cupid-"Cupid Shot You" (Time for a Change Album),
YOU CAN ALSO FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
TWITTER.COM/STEREOTYPESTV
