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It’s probably impossible to steal a hometown show from Wale, but on June 3 at the 930 Club, Phil Ade came damn close. The barely-legal rapper took the stage for his third show…ever. That’s right – those
of you who came early saw the third show ever performed by the young Maryland rapper, but no one would have known it. Ade and his Sound of the City band brought the house down and they’re back on Friday night at Commonwealth for the release of Ade’s first mixtape called Starting on the JV.

BYT caught up with Phil this week to chat about his mixtape, Raheem DeVaughn and his love-life. If you’ve never seen Phil, get yourself down to Commonwealth on Friday for one of the DMV’s most amazing young rappers. You know, so when he takes over Wale’s spot opening for Jay-Z on his next tour you won’t look back on Friday night and remember you could have seen him first.

BYT: This is your first mixtape – give us all the details. Where didyou record it? Who are the guest artists? Who is the producer?

Phil: All the recording was done out in Bethesda, MD at the in-house studio of a good friend of 368 Music Group, LCD of Bout Dat Money Music The mixing and mastering was done at Phase Recording and Media in White Plains, MD where Raheem also does a lot of recording. The mixtape consists of 15 tracks that gives the world a glimpse of my musical versatility and some the situations I’ve experienced in life.
It features producers Dope Sunny, Mark Henry, the Best Kept Secret, Sakwé, Supreme and a couple others. The only feature I have on there was done by Raheem DeVaughn. The mixtape is my first project ever so I wanted introduce myself to the world and at the same time show people that i could hold my own.

BYT: How did you get Raheem DeVaughn’s attention and how are you two working together?

Phil: Raheem is definitely a mentor. He schools me on stuff creatively and also from the business standpoint. My manager Tennyson Richards (Paperboyz Management) is actually good friends with Raheem and he introduced me. After setting me up with some studio time and hearing what I could do on record, he decided to bring on board the record label that he and Dre “The Mayor” Hopson were starting. 368 Music Group.

BYT: You opened for Wale at the 930 Club on June 3. The crowd loved you and every review I’ve read praised your performance. Given that was only your third live show ever, you must feel pretty great about it. Where do your performance skills come from? Naturally talented, inspired by other artists or practice in front of your bedroom mirror?

Phil: Performing to me is like “show and tell” in elementary school. I got something cool that I want to present to everyone and I want to do in a way that you and others can enjoy and have fun while seeing and hearing. So I put in a lot of practicing with my band, Sound of the City, and studying other great performers to see how I could accomplish that. Raheem gave me a few ideas and tips also that went a
long way.

BYT: You’re part of a trend of rappers using live bands as back-up. Why do you think artists are shifting in that direction? What does it allow you to do that a DJ doesn’t? How does the crowd react differently to it?

Phil: I’ve always loved the sound of live instruments and with a band you have a little more freedom creatively in performance to put a twist on songs and add certain things that you wouldn’t be able to
with only a DJ playing your backround track. I think hip-hop artists now are realizing that and are taking advantage of it and the audience loves it.

BYT: “Replay” is a great song and so accessible. I mean, we’ve all been there. Also I think there’s not a lot of artists who would admit to being a video game geek in quite that detail. All my girlfriends are
wondering if she gave you a second chance or if you’re still single. Can you give us the back story there?

Phil: (laughs) All I can say is I’ve moved on and on the my mixtape you’ll hear that in the following track called “Always There” tell your friends they can find their answer there. “Starting On JV” is the
name of the tape and it’s available on 368musicgroup.com for download.

BYT: Give us the low-down on your release party at Commonwealth tomorrow night. Are you bringing your band? DJ? What’s up?

Phil: The “Starting On JV” mixtape release party will be at Commonwealth located on 1781 Florida Ave. NW DC.. the celebration begins at 8pm. As far as the what will be taking place inside, you’ll have to come and see for yourself. I can tell you that we’re expecting some DMV stars to come out. So I hope to see you there.

Lets listen to some tracks now:

“Replay”
This, in my opinion, is one of the stand-out tracks on “Starting On JV”. It has a real kinda pop-ish sound to it but at the same time it remains within the boundaries of hip hop. The song is about a girl
who starts looking better to me after we stop dating.

“Going Off”
The beat was taken from an Afrika Bambaataa mix cd I received after meeting Afrika at the XM radio station. With this track, I just wanted to show off little bit of what i could do lyrically as a rapper. It’s
fast-paced wordplay with alot of different rhyme schemes and punch lines.

“Everybody Still Nose”
This is a remixed version of the N.E.R.D. song “Everbody Nose.” The beat was redone by Jahi Chambers and I wanted to keep the same energy that the original song held and at the same time put my own twist to the concept of it.

Want more:
Social with Phil on Myspace and on Twitter
+ don’t miss the mixtape release party @ Commonwealth on Friday (tomorrow!!!)

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