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Posted:
March 2, 2013
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Southern Hollywood Captures BTS Video of SMKA’s The Hang Out

With great pleasure, Southern Hollywood attended 2 out of 4 days of The Hangout and as they allowed us to invade their place of business, we were blown away by the amount of fellowship and creative camaraderie involved in making this project work. Armed with a fridge filled with Vitamin water and beer, free food, some of that loud (music that is) and tracks produced by SMKA’s Kato and 808Blake, the long night sessions were inspired by creative works of the artists involved.

We got the chance to chop things up with Blake, Kato, and Mike while we were there and even did a couple of interviews. Check out our Youtube video below to meet the master minds behind “The Hangout” creative collective and hear how everything came about:

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Posted:
February 13, 2013
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[Video Interview] Mike Walbert of SMKA on AGTV

Mike Walbert: Founder of SMKA, a music production, branding and development firm, Walbert also serves as the Artist Director for the A3C Hip-Hop Festival, the largest hip-hop festival in the Southeast U.S. He continues to consult for multiple start-ups, brands, labels, and artists. Watch this interview in full and more by signing up for AGTV for free at artistgrowth.com

Mike Walbert AGTV Preview. from Artist Growth on Vimeo.

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Posted:
December 13, 2012
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[Spin Magazine] Rap’s Most Slept-On Releases of 2012′s Fourth Quarter

LINK

Highlights: “Know About Us,” “Ain’t a Thing,” “On Me”
RIYL: Jay Ant and Iamsu!’s STOOPID, Blue Sky Black Death, those Violator compilations
Atlanta production crew SMKA cram 15 rappers onto nine tracks and an outro, moving from slow-growing soul beats to ATLien snap to Bay Area minimalist bliss. What stands out about this single-producer/entire-region mixtape is the way that everyone wobbles just a little bit off-balance by all the pan-regional sound-hopping going on. No one is in their comfort zone, but that works because this is a dozen-plus oddballs — ALL-CAPS double-time from DB Tha General, the fast-rap humanism of Shady Blaze, the slap & bullshit of Amaar and the Jacka, just to name a few — one after another, gripping onto different parts of these beats, exploring their voices. It helps that the models for Bay Area rap remain truly weird legends like the elastic-voiced E-40 and the late Mac Dre.

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Posted:
November 1, 2012
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[Interview] TSS presents Smoking Session with The Flush and SMKA

Southern hospitality is alive and well at Stankonia studios in Atlanta, GA. Yes, the old adage was certified when The Crew was invited to the legendary home of Outkast as guests of in-house producers The Flush, to document their partnership with local production platoon SMKA for the second annual of Stankonia Sessions compilation project.

In between visits from Emilio Rojas, Los, Tech N9ne and a slew of other artists who were in town for the A3C festivities, we were lucky enough to sit down with members of both groups – The Flush (Rick Walkk, Jeron Ward, Go Dreamer & Bravery) and SMKA (808 Blake, Kato On The Track & Artist Sensey). Between speaking on recording complete compilations in four days and working with everyone from Big Boi to Jarren Benton and Spree Wilson to Freddie Gibbs, these gentleman showed they were not only capable of making hits, but carrying a great conversation as well.

If you’re interested in the interworkings of maybe the most well-oiled production house you’ll ever see, soak up some game below.

Read the full Interview HERE

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Posted:
October 17, 2012
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Billboard Discusses The Stankonia Sessions while at A3C

Link to Full Article

There’s even a mixtape that will be dedicated to the spirit of the hip-hop festival. The production team Royal Flush (Big Boi’s “Mama Told Me”) has joined forces with fellow Atlanta team SMKA to compile their second project that will feature tracks from some of 2012′s A3C performers. The Juice was at Stankonia Studios on Friday to talk with both groups and witness a bit of the work process.

“People are lining up to be a part of this tape,” says Rick Wallkk of Royal Flush. “It surprised us.”

While there, Slum Village had chosen an airy track reminiscent of springtime turning to summer. “It started off as an idea,” adds Jeron Ward of the Flush. “Mike [Walbert ]of SMKA hit us up a year and a half ago and came up with this concept of using A3C as a meeting ground and our access to Stankonia since this is where we work, in order to create a session as soon as people get off stage.”

“We’re pretty much putting A3C into music format,” Ward explains, “So people can get a chance to somewhat experience an audio version of how A3C really goes down.” On the second day of the festivities the compilation, which will be sponsored by LiveMixtapes.com, was already 40% complete, with the full project and trailer slated for release within two to three weeks. SMKA’s Blake “808 Blake” German sums the weekend up perfectly, while speaking on the joint project: “At the end of the day it’s all about the vibe, man.”

Link to Full Article

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Posted:
August 29, 2012
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SMKA Interview in San Francisco Weekly

S/O to Audible Treats, Thizzler on the Roof & C4 Belts for being a huge part of this great project… Darkest Before Dawn: A Bay Area Compilation.

Read the Full Interview HERE

Dropping in October, new mixtape Darkest Before Dawn will see a fresh line-up of Bay Area rappers hopping on tracks crafted by Atlanta production unit S.M.K.A. As a teaser for the project, which will include input from Roach Gigz, Mistah F.A.B., and DaVinci, All Shook Down is proud to present the premiere of “Greatness,” a slick and slinky future anthem that features Shady Blaze and Young Gully flowing over a hypnotically breezy production. To complete the listening experience, we also checked in with Shady Blaze and S.M.K.A.’s Mike Walbert to get their own thoughts on the song.

How did the Darkest Before Dawn project come about?
Mike Walbert: We reached out to a popular blog in the Bay Area [Thizzler On The Roof] that covers the music and asked about sorting out this project. We’re from Atlanta but we’ve always been fans of Bay Area music.

Shady Blaze: Matt Werner [from the blog] hit me on Twitter saying he wanted me and Young Gully to collab. That’s it right there.

How did you decide which rappers were going to get on “Greatness”?
Mike Walbert: I had a few rappers in mind. Most of the ones I had in mind we were able to get, but it was kinda a give and take between artists we wanted and artists they wanted.
Shady Blaze: They sent beats and that was the beat we wanted the most. It was just the feel of it that got to me. I mean, I rap on different styles of beats, I don’t have a particular style, and that beat just suited us best.
Mike Walbert: Young Gully and Shady Blaze were two artists I had not heard of before this project. Both of them really impressed me. With every project, you kinda don’t know what you’re gonna get once you start it, but we were really pleased with how this one came out. I’d say it’s my favorite song on the project.

How would you describe the vibe of the song?
Shady Blaze: It’s many different vibes to it in one. You can get a hype feel to it, you can get a laid back feel to it — I guess we’ll only know when people listen to it!
Mike Walbert: High energy. It’s just two very talented MCs, two guys who ripped the track. Whenever you send out a beat you don’t know how an artist will approach it, but it’s cool when you have an artist and a producer that have the same response to the song. They did exactly what we’d want.

How do you think hip-hop fans in your respective cities are going to take to the project?
Mike Walbert: I sent the project out under the radar to some people in the Bay, like A&Rs and things, and we’ve had great feedback.
Shady Blaze: I think they’ll think it’s dope! To be honest, it’s one of my favorite tracks that I’ve done.
Mike Walbert: I’d say there are similarities in the scenes in that they both have a unique vibe. If I listen to a song I can tell very quickly if it’s from the Bay Area or if it’s from Atlanta, but that’s not necessarily true of a lot of other places. The Bay has a very unique sound.

Read the Full Interview HERE

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Posted:
August 13, 2012
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Dead End Hip-Hop Album Review of Jarren Benton – Freebasing With Kevin Bacon

Jarren Benton is local emcee out of Decatur, GA. Being based in Atlanta ourselves, whenever we find talent that is good enough to cover, we strive to do so. Working with SMKA, Jarren Benton released Freebasing With Kevin Bacon a while back and we finally had a moment to sit down and give you our breakdown on Jarren Benton and his latest project.

Thanks to DEHH for the Album Review!

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Posted:
June 8, 2012
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808 Blake Goes Behind The Rhymes At Patchwerk Studios – Part II

For part two of our iStandard Interview with the homie from SMKA Productions, 808 Blake, at the legendary Patchwerk Studios in ATL, the producer gives some tips on how to get your beats heard, what it means to be persistent, who is on his wish list to work with and much more.

Link to iStandard Producers

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Posted:
January 27, 2012
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Murder He Wrote: 10 The Hard Way w/ SMKA

DAMN… this dude Gavin can write his ass off!!! And he is finally taking it upon himself to start his blog back up. CNN by day, Super Writer by night… follow his blog at Murder He Wrote

Enjoy the 10 questions and answers from Mike & 808 Blake….

READ WHOLE ARTICLE HERE


It’s a rainy Thursday afternoon in Atlanta and Mike Walbert is sporting a nice shiner on his right eye, while lounging in the SMKA studio. To his right, partner-in-crime and production wunderkind 808 Blake is Facebook stalking. Believe it or not, this is as slow as the days get for the two high school best friends and business partners who four years ago decided — at a Chick-fil-a — to showcase 808′s production talents via a lending them to other up and coming artists in the Atlanta scene.

A few months after that fast food pow wow, l was living in Chicago and got a call from 808, along with Mike and their third co-founder 7King. They had an idea of putting together what they would call, “The SMKA Experiment Vol. I”,” an album featuring artists from all over the ATL, but produced mostly by 808 and 7King. The fellas asked for my help in finding some new names and others they might not have heard of quite yet to collab with for the project.

In the 1,460 some odd days since those conversations we all grew up. And by grew up I mean I got balder, slimmer and landed a corporate J-O-B. As for SMKA, their own growth has been undeniable and the fabric that ties their city’s Hip-Hop community together has in some ways been single-handily made tighter and stronger by these guys.

They’ve managed to produce two more “Experiments,” (fourth one on the way) collab’d with everyone from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to George Clinton and they do it all out of the guest house at Mikes’ parents crib. Oh, and they sure as hell didn’t need me for any more artists recommendations because they were all going out of their way to find SMKA. I could go on for days about 808 and Mike, (who once went with the last name Walberg instead of his actual “Walbert”) but as they would tell you the music does most of the talking.

READ WHOLE ARTICLE HERE

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Posted:
January 27, 2012
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Eidé-Setter Exculsive: SMKA

Atlanta production team SMKA –founders Blake German and Mike Walbert– carved out a place in hip-hop by doing the exact opposite of defining its sound… (just a teaser)

Read the whole article HERE

Thanks to all the good folks at Eide!

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