Blacknerdninja

Eugene Willis, who performs as Blacknerdninja, has been an active and important player in Athens’ hip hop scene for more than 15 years. Coming up on a dual mixtape release and listening party at Hendershot’s, Willis spoke with Flagpole about his musical past, his goals for the future and how the Athens hip hop scene has evolved over the last two decades.

While he has been performing in some form since his early childhood, Willis’ hip hop career started after he graduated from Cedar Shoals High School in 2000. Initially performing under the name Lil Gene, Willis made his name with several hip hop and jazz bands. For about six years he performed with musicians like Scott Low, Marvelous Projections and, later, his own group, Common Enemy. According to Willis, it was at the tail end of those six years that he decided to make a change.

“I made a change in my life and stopped drinking,” he says. “At the time, everybody and their mama was doing music and trying to get signed. I was obsessed with that idea of needing to ‘make it’—it wasn’t fun anymore. I had reached the point that I was bitter and angry about making music and decided that I just needed to stop. So, I took four years off from rapping to try and get in touch with who I was and decide what kind of music I wanted to make.”

Four years later, Willis reemerged with a new identity. “I decided I was ready to come back into the scene on my own terms and reinvent myself,” he says. “I couldn’t come back as Lil Gene, because I was older and not so little anymore. So, I came back as Black Nerd. I started getting buzz under that name for a little while. Then I found out there was another guy using that name who had a really popular YouTube channel. He was cool with it, and we actually became friends over Twitter, but I knew I had to change the name because people were already confusing me with him. I already had “ninjas” in my Twitter name, and it sounded kind of cool, so I decided to just push it all together into the persona of Blacknerdninja.”

Since adopting the moniker, Willis has become a central figure in Athens hip hop. His upbeat performances, unique lyrics and positive perspective have made him one of the go-to names for festivals and showcases across town.

As an Athens native, Willis has seen the hip hop landscape change drastically. “I grew up listening to the ones who came before me and who’ve been going longer than me,” he says. “Ishues, Big Earl [and] Elite tha Showstoppa, to name a few. As the scene was coming up, there was a divide between more turned-up country-style artists and artists who considered themselves ‘conscious.’ There was a lot of bickering between the two sides initially, and then the scene became stagnated for a long time. I would say within the last few years we’ve all really come together in an effort to move the culture forward.”

Part of that, according to Willis, is making sure artists are focused on building and maintaining their brand. “Before, everyone was rapping, partying or doing their own thing, but a lot of people weren’t thinking about booking shows or being professional about it,” says Willis. “That’s what I set out to do—to be more conscious of my surroundings. Not just doing shows to get drunk and have a good time, [but] to add a level of prestige to the brand. Now, a lot of people are about their business, and the quality of the shows has improved.”

On a personal level, Willis is putting all of his focus on taking his brand and making it bigger. While he loves his hometown, Willis’ ambitions are bigger than having a career as an “Athens rapper.”

“I’m trying to go international,” he says. “It’s gonna take money, but I’m trying to build a lifestyle. In the future, kids are gonna be talking about, ‘You do music, cool, but what else?’ You have to have more going on now; you’ve gotta have a whole lifestyle for people. It’s not just about rapping anymore. It’s about building within the community.”

Willis’ new mixtapes The Uncanny Blacknerdninja and Robots, Monkeys & Microphones will both see release on May 29, with a third tape set for release later this year. The dual mixtape strategy was inspired by one of Willis’ favorite comic book series.

“Back in the day they would release The Uncanny X-Men and its sister series, X-Factor, as two different comics, but with covers that went together in the storyline. So the idea behind [Robots], which is more energetic and nerdy, and [Uncanny], which is more message-based, pure hip hop, was to release two different projects where the cover art would go together in the same way.”

As for the overall message of the two tapes? According to Willis, it’s simpler than it may appear. “With each project, I try to say something different. Right now I’m all about the message of making better decisions. Making yourself a better person. But underneath that message, really underneath the surface of every one of my projects, there’s a layer of unconditional love.” - Flagpole Magazine written by Nathan Kerce

With a name like BlackNerdNinja, you’d expect this Athens rapper to strike with some hard-ass nerdcore stylings, flowing on about Star Wars, video game consoles, and obscure martial arts movie references. And certainly there’s some of that in “8mm,” the new single and video from the longtime local rap game vet. “Luigi in the drain pipes smoking pipes / Doing shrooms with Koopa / Boning princesses for some gold pieces,” he spits on the track’s opening verse, deftly scoring a nerdcore trifecta with references to Mario Bros, drugs, and sex in one fell swoop.

But even a cursory listen to the song reveals that BlackNerdNinja, aka Eugene Willis, has far more serious matters on his mind. Over a steady boom-bap beat laced with a minor key piano melody, he bares his soul and lays out his struggles, which range from probation and lack of financial means, to career problems and the many temptations of life on the road. “When you dance with the devil, the devil don’t change / The devil changes you,” he says ominously before tearing into a fierce second verse.

Created by RexxType, a local Athens media production company, the video maintains the track’s intense energy by focusing its attention squarely on the artist. In turn, BlackNerdNinja forgoes the usual vain boasting and showboating, choosing instead to let his skills and words do the talking.

In a prepared statement, Willis had this to say about the track:

“‘8mm’ was inspired by my wife just having our son and we had just got married. I was feeling the pressure of balancing a normal life and a tour life, with so many temptations on the road from women to unknown things. I wrote it all into a song. The idea [is] taken from 8mm staring Nicholas Cage. He is trying to figure out if the film is real. I was also trying to figure out what was real and not real in my life!” - IM Atlanta written by : Avery Shepard

The new EP from Man Up, Yancey, Blue Fuzz is out now.

Holders also have a new EP titled Sorry, Taylor Konerman out now.

Immersive Atlanta has premiered a video from Athens rapper BlackNerdNinja's "8MM." Local rapper Wiley From Atlanta tells his personal story as a musician at Immersive Atlanta.

Quite a few Atlanta bands are making the pilgrimage to Gainesville, Fla. to play at this year's Fest! Bodyfather, New Junk City, Campaign, and Microwave are among the names on th bill.

Earmilk is streaming a remix of Speedy Ortiz's "Puffer" from Lizzo and Lazerbeak. The band played 529 last Saturday.

Please send any tips, corrections, etc. to ben52192 (at) gmail (dot) com, and be sure to sign up for Crib Notes' weekly newsletter. - Creative Loafing

NEWS

Spotlight • Slingshot to feature all-star, orchestrated concert of legendary Big Star’s Third album

Posted on Sep 19, 2014 by ovprweb
Spotlight SlingshotThe Willson Center and the Music Business Program of the Terry College of Business present a special Spotlight on the Arts installment of the Slingshot festival of music, electronic art, and technology. Spotlight • Slingshot is a free public concert on College Square in downtown Athens featuring five acclaimed local and national acts, many including UGA graduates and attendees.

Topping the bill will be an orchestrated performance of 1970s Memphis band Big Star’s legendary Third album, with an all-star band featuring original Big Star drummer Jody Stephens, Mike Mills of R.E.M., Chris Stamey of the dB’s, Mitch Easter of Let’s Active, Pat Sansone of Wilco, and Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer of Big Star and The Posies. Special guests will include local artists T. Hardy Morris and Thayer Sarrano.

The group, augmented by a host of other musicians including a chamber orchestra and a varying cast of guest vocalists, performs the album – known both as Third and as Sister Lovers – in its entirety, as well as a selection of songs from the band’s other two albums and by original member Chris Bell. The concert, with original string, wind, and guitar parts transcribed from the album’s actual multitrack studio masters, has been performed around the world, including in London, Sydney, Chicago, Seattle, and New York’s Central Park. For the Athens performance, the orchestral section will include student musicians from the UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music.

Mike Mills & Skylar Gudasz
Mike Mills & Skylar Gudasz
Local acts The Glands, New Madrid, Blacknerdninja, and Ruby the RabbitFoot will share the bill. The Glands, who released two acclaimed albums in 1997 and 2000, will be playing just their second show in Athens since headlining AthFest in 2012. Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers has called the band’s self-titled second album “my favorite album of this century and also my all-time favorite album ever to come out of Athens, Georgia.”

New Madrid won Flagpole magazine Athens Music Awards for Album of the Year in 2013 and 2014, for Yardboat and Sunswimmer. They were awarded Artist of the Year in 2013. Flagpole has praised indie hip-hop MC Blacknerdninja’s stage show as “dynamic and unforgettable.” Ruby the RabbitFoot’s latest album, New as Dew, has been lauded in the national music press, including in the pages of Creative Loafing Atlanta and on PopMatters.com, and lead singer/songwriter Ruby Kendrick recently appeared alongside Grammy Award-winning rapper Macklemore in a music video for the Seattle band Fences.

In addition to the Willson Center’s and the Music Business Program’s sponsorship, the event is also supported by the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at UGA, the Athens Downtown Development Authority, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, and the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach.

Representatives from the local nonprofit organization Nuçi’s Space will be present at the event to offer information and accept donations for its fundraising campaign aimed at restoring St. Mary’s Steeple, all that remains of the church where R.E.M. played its first show on April 5, 1980. Nuçi’s Space is a resource center that helps provide obstacle-free mental and physical health care to Athens musicians. More information is available at www.nuci.org.

Jody Stephens
Jody Stephens
“The Spotlight on the Arts festival is an ideal occasion for collaboration between artistic communities in the university and in Athens,” said Nicholas Allen, Franklin Professor of English and director of the Willson Center. “The Spotlight • Slingshot concert brings together a tremendous slate of rising and established performers with important ties to the city and to UGA, at the historic gateway between town and campus. Our ability to present world-class artists with such strong local connections speaks to the creative vibrancy of the whole community.”

College Square is located on College Avenue between Broad and Clayton streets. - Wilson Center for humanities Art