Brightest Young Things

Theophilus London returns to the DC area tonight for the third time in a year, playing a show @ 930 club. It should be a super smooth evening, if we say so ourselves.

Last time he headlined around these parts to a sold out U Street Music Hall (read full review of it here), BYT got to catch up with the Brooklynite to discuss his music, style, and his journey from an MC hustling mix-tapes over Myspace to playing The Late Show with David Letterman.

BYT: Theophilus London, you've been on your grind for some time now—what first got you interested in pursuing  music?

Theophilus London: I like the way music makes people feel. I like the fact that you can express yourself. I like the fact that you have so much at your disposal; you have so many resources when it comes to music—so many different sounds together, genres… so many different people to collab with and work with. It's an amazing industry as far as songwriting goes.

BYT: You're definitely a rapper, but your music doesn't fit into the traditional hip-hop mold—with influences from all over the place, how would you describe your sound?

TL: I try to write popular music, it definitely fits under the category of pop, but it's also definitely hip-hop in a lot of ways; it's the evolution of hip-hop. What I'm doing is a new idea, it's kind of never been done before, so it's hard to pinpoint it right now. You know, just like when Prince was in his days of making Purple Rain, you'd interview Prince and be like, "What genre is this? It's something I haven't heard." I'm happy these guys  perform like Prince, Michael Jackson, Rick James, all these guys inspire me… Biggie Smalls, The Jackson 5—it's a fusion of all that stuff running through my mind and I create what I want to create. It's kind of just brand new, what I'm doing right now; I'm pretty psyched. It's very nostalgic, but it's very 2011 at the same time. I work with some fresh musicians in the studio, just trying to figure out a new idea—it's new to us too, I don't know what it is, it's just new to us too.

BYT: Has Brooklyn shaped your sound in any way?

TL: Yeah, I grew up in Brooklyn, so some songs like "Cold Pillow"… f-cking no girlfriend for a little bit, so it's like I could write a song like that, or a song like "TNT." You know, I haven't written in Brooklyn in such a long time, I've written all the stuff coming out this year in LA—but Brooklyn's definitely inspired my mix-tapes. I'm Brooklyn, I'm from Brooklyn, I lived in Brooklyn, it's a part of me.

BYT: What about your Trinidadian roots?

TL: My dad was a Trinidadian DJ so he'd always play Calypso music, and I feel like Calypso singers are really f-cking good rappers 'cause rapping is just telling a story about some amazing sh-t. I feel Calypsonians tell stories about some amazing sh-t; so Trinidad is definitely an influence. I've done some covers—I did a Nat King Cole cover called "Calypso Blues" and it's kind of like dancing… stuff like that. I'm not to heavily influenced in my new stuff; it's real straight-up, it's new wave.

BYT: Was it difficult starting out? Like getting your music out, getting noticed?

TL: Yeah, totally, it was a long road that finally came to; I stuck through it. I had do what I had to do, to do what I'm doing right now. Pushing boundaries, making our own videos—though I'm signed to a major label right now I just still do everything myself, DIY'd the website, do all my videos, all my ideas for songs, all the producers I work with… it's off me. I just want to create, I just want to express myself till I'm f-cking gone off this earth. I wanna do it on my terms, I don't want anybody to express themselves for me, it can't work like that.

BYT: It must be rewarding anyway to see something you made, on your own, be received well by fans.

TL: Yo, it's so surreal, I don't even think it's happening, it's like a dream.

BYT: Have you had a chance to step back yet and just check it out?

TL: NO! Once I do that, I'm gonna retire, dude.

BYT: How was your style of hip-hop received in the beginning?

TL: You know, people had their sh-t to say. You get a lot of supporters and there's a lot of people saying whatever. People didn't know [Theophilus London] was my real name first of all, so the fact that they just heard the name, they were like, "Aww, this guy's garbage; this guy's a nerd." Women influence my music a lot. It was hard in the beginning, and it's still hard now, but we're breaking through man. My video for "Flying Overseas" is like top 8 on MTV2 right now so f-ck man, I need to get an MTV Award for p-ssies that know me all around the world, I guess.

BYT: Taking it back to your first mixture JAM! in 2008, you sampled from an array of artists from Michael Jackson to Erykah Badu, mixing in 80s soul-pop with electronic sound—can you describe for me the process of putting such a project together?

TL: Aww that was fun man, that was my first mix-tape. I remember I was eating Mexican food, broke as f-ck, and I was like, "Yo, I wanna put together  mix-tape." JAM! came out today, but 2008, 'cause like, tomorrow's my birthday, so it was like, "I wanna put this mix-tape out on my birthday!" It was a gift to my fans, very boutique style, it was very DIY. When Myspace was actually exciting, I put it up on my Myspace page, I think about a thousand people downloaded it… and that's it. A thousand people started to share it with their friends and family, they were the voice to get this mix-tape out, and people started catching on. You know, I was like, "This is so fun, I wanna make another one, but even better."

BYT: There's a certain humor which exists in your lyrics, it's obvious you don't take yourself too seriously—what's your motivation behind the tracks? Are there  particular messages you hope to put forward in your music?

TL: (laughs) That's awesome you say that, no one's ever pointed that out—yeah I never took myself too seriously. A lot of motivation behind my tracks are pussy, money, happiness… once you find happiness and love you're in a good place in your heart. It's really hard for me to write music off of anger. I never bring that to my music. When I'm angry, I don't wanna f-cking sit down and write music—I never wanna be angry towards that type of capital.

TL: What also inspires my music is fashion, as much as I'm not into fashion, but fashion inspires music a lot. It's the way something can fit you. You know I can go, "Aww, f-ck, I'm gonna write a song, 'cause I feel so good in this jacket."

BYT: I'm glad you said you don't write your songs out of anger; a lot of hip-hop music it sounds angry—your music is fun, dance, party type music.

TL: Yeah, sometimes I can channel being angry, but I've got some songs that are like very emotional. You have emotion in songs, but it doesn't have to be an angry emotion—it can be a melancholy emotion, a sad emotion, but not like an "I'm gonna kill somebody!"

BYT: Your second mix-tape, aptly named This Charming Mix-tape, flipped the script—where JAM! was high energy and in your face, TCM seems to take the night train, with more smoothed out instrumentals. Was there any particular contribution to this change of pace?

TL: Growth; just a year of growth, a year of different influences. We went to London for the first time—you know, it's my surname—when we went to London for the first time we got influenced by so much. This Charming Mix-tape was really 50% created in London, even from the cover reference to the music. It was a good time in our lives, very early beginning and we got it done in house, everything.

BYT: You seem to have an appeal which goes beyond just music—your style and your swag has caught the attention of men's style bibles GQ and Esquire in the past as well as a slew of style blogs—where would you place your inspiration?

TL: It comes from being comfortable. It comes from wanting to express myself. It comes from measurements; I take my clothes into my tailor to get it measured to my body—it's all about the fit man. I like street, I like raw, I like fabrics, I like substance, I like one tones. I'm happy that magazines like GQ and Elle—we just shot for Elle magazine—that those guys are looking out for us. Even Complex, that was my first fashion spread back in the beginning of the year, last year in February. It's been a good year of fashion, and I'm not even that much into fashion.

BYT: That's good because people who wouldn't normally listen to you are now seeing your face.

TL: Yeah, I've seen a lot of good audiences coming from that—it's great man.

BYT: You've caught the eye of uber-talented producer Mark Ronson, having appeared on his track "Chauffeur"—what brought upon such a collaboration?

TL: Mark's a friend of mine, we met up in Brooklyn, sat up and talked—we liked each other, and wanted to work on music together and it's that simple, we're friends.

BYT: What have you been listening to while on the road promoting your most recent EP Lovers Holiday?

TL: New Look, Lil' B, Kanye West, James Blake, Katy Perry.

BYT: Nah, I can't support you on the Katy Perry.

TL: (laughs) Nah, we don't listen to Katy Perry.

BYT: She's kind of a poor man's Cher in my book.

TL: Yeah, we don't listen to that sh-t.

BYT: Real quick, how was Letterman?

TL: Oh yeah, Letterman was rad—swag.

Previously in BYT interviews:

• 5/18: INTERVIEW: Jasmine Solano
• 5/18: Interview: Richard Linklater
• 5/17: Interview: Penguin Prison
• 5/16: Interview: Brian Regan
• 5/15: Richard Davies (Cardinal) Interviewed by Archie Moore
• 5/11: Interview: Horse Feathers' Justin Ringle
• 5/10: Reflections on a Conversation with Mickey Avalon
• 5/9: Inside the STYLELINER
• 5/8: The Politics of Mastodon
• 5/4: Preview: Mucca Pazza @ The Kennedy Center's "Look Both Ways" Festival