According to a press release, the UWF will release a mixtape on September 25, hosted by DJ Self. Red Cafe will be featured in the mixtape, which will be available for free download via their website.
Good*Fella Media has an interview with Red Cafe, talking about his upcoming album and why New York hip-hop isn't dominating like it used to.
He makes an interesting point in saying that, when New York was on top, rappers were being produced. There were great producers producing albums. Now, those producers made money and can command more money and they don't want to work with the new acts as much. Of course, they now have other opportunities and may no longer be able to producer albums due to other endeavors. Diddy being a great example of this.
In the interviews, the rapper shares details about how he's reached this point in his career, including his various label deals and solo and group undertakings. I found this passage from the Vibe interview interesting:
Was it a no-brainer to sign with Puff?
Yeah, definitely, because I'm a different kind of guy from his other artists. People are always like you shouldn't f*** with him, like don't do it, don't do it, like don't go in that door Jack.
Honestly did you hear a lot of that?
Hell yeah. C'mon. I know you hear it. It's not no bulls***. People have their perceptions of people but they don't know them. They just know what other people say and another person's situation, but you don't really know that other person's situation because he ain't telling you everything. There are other people that might approach their situation different when it comes to something like this. I don't think they maximize every opportunity Puff gave to them. Puff gave these motherf****** platinum albums, hit records, and I just don't think these motherf****** were ready to be their own men. They just wanted to be Puff's little men. That's where the problem was. They weren't prepared to take the wheel and drive and it's like "Nah I'm cool in the backseat or the shotgun seat. I'll let him drive." If they give you the opportunity and usher you to the front, go, go, go, you got to go. His knees might be hurting. I can get you here, but now it's your time.
Red Cafe's official site has pictures from the set of the music video shoot for "The Realest" featuring Fabolous. The original cut also featured Lloyd Banks, but there are no pictures that include Banks.
In it, he discusses his upbringing, being in jail with rapper Cormega and the earlier stages of his career, before he ended up with Konvict or Bad Boy.
VIBE: Honestly, we’re starting simple. How did you get the name Red Café?
Red Café: Red is a name that I grew up with. My pops name was Red—my hair is red. When my hair used to be long; I had long braids. I was more like Little Red. That was a name I grew up with. Even my moms doesn’t call me by my government name, ever. Nobody really knows me as my real name, except in school, but even in school. You know how that goes. Café was a name that I acquired in the streets. That was my stamp. I was in the streets doing a lot of different things as far as supplying different…
Red Cafe has released the music video for "We Get It On" featuring Omarion. The clip, which was shot in May, also includes cameos from Fabolous and Busta Rhymes. Watch below.
During the month of August, Red Cafe will be listening to freestyles submitted to XXL via their new mobile app. He'll be rating and writing about some of the freestyles he listed to and his thoughts will be featured on The Break.
