Yves Jean - Indie Radio Success

This is the beginnings of a real indie success story. Last year i mixed an album for Yves Jean titled "For Love and Desparation". Yves is one of the hardest working indie artists in the game right now, period. Last summer he toured Europe playing festivals in several countries, and he's played all over America (he's based in Pittsburgh, Pa).

Yves recently launched a radio play campaign for his new album and so far 137 stations nationwide are playing his music!!! ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN. Just absorb that number for a moment. These are mostly college radio stations, as well as mainstream AAA stations. Yves Jean is currently unsigned, which just goes to show how much you can do on your own as an artist. Step one was making a great album, which i am very happy i was a part of. Congrats Yves!!

Yves Jean Website

-Ken Lewis

Damaged Breaks the Top Ten!!

Danity Kane's single "DAMAGED" has broken the Top Ten on Billboard! (I mixed it :-)

Pop 100 Airplay Chart = #9
Hot 100 Singles Chart = #11
Pop 100 = #10

The album is now Gold and still resides @ #42 on the Billboard Top 200 after seven weeks. It Debuted @ #1.

AWESOME!
-Ken Lewis

Philly Beat Battle Summary

Well, last night was a BARN BURNER of a competition! All ten Producer Battlers were really throwing some heat last night, and i thought there were 5 different guys who could've easily been crowned Champion. The way it went down, 3rd place tie went to CardiaK & DJ Shihan, 2nd place went to Mindesign, and 1st place was stolen with the last beat of the night by PersuaZion. It was a photo finish. Club Fluid was bangin last night. that sound system is one of the best club systems i've heard. Congrats to all the producers last night, that was really some amazing display of talent from all of them. And a shout out to DJ ILL SKILL who was the previous Philly winner, who got to showcase several of his latest beats last night at the start of the competition. Crazy crazy stuff from him! Philly really represented last night!

And of course, a big shout out to Don Di Napoli and J Hatch, two of the finest hip hop promoters in the country, as well as my fellow judges, Skickmore, and Michael Trampe of HipHopDX.com

-Ken Lewis

What a Great day

first off the weather is absolutely perfect!!! Not too hot. perfect top down weather so I've been driving the Lotus all day long soaking up the sun and fresh air. At 4pm i was driving around listening to Hot 97 FM and the Top 4 At 4 was just beginning. And what was song 4 you ask? "Got Me Going" by Day 26, which i mixed.

OK, let me just say there arent too many better feelings in the world than driving around with the top down listening to a song you mixed blasting on the radio. It felt great. Later i drove down to Philadelphia, where i am at my hotel right now blogging before i catch some good food. I dont think I've ever made it to Philly so fast :-) I'm judging an iStandard Beat Battle tonight here. These Beat Battles showcase the most amazingly talented producers trying to make a name for themselves, and many who've won these battles have gone on to much success. I hope tonight showcases another great night of talent, I'm sure it will. And my drinks are free, so one way or another, its definitely going to be a great night!

I hope yours is too!

-Ken Lewis

TheFlowLive.com Interview

a very cool website / online magazine called www.TheFlowLive.com recently reached out for an interview. Lots of good questions and a couple very funny stories. Here it is.

The Flow Live Ken Lewis Interview

Enjoy!

-Ken Lewis

Danity Kane is GOLDEN

Danity Kane's new album "Welcome to the Dollhouse" was just certified Gold (500,000 albums sold in the USA). this is my 46th Gold (or Platinum) album of my career. with some luck "Day 26" will be my 47th soon!

If you havent gotten the album yet, its a great pop record start to finish. I mixed 5 songs including the hit single DAMAGED.

-Ken Lewis

Iron Man Rocks!!!

Just got back from dinner out and seeing the new "Iron Man" movie (yes sometimes i pretend to have a life). it ROCKED!!! It was amazing. i loved it. I never read comic books growing up, and somehow i think i really missed out.

One of my clients, a rapper from the Wu Tang Clan named Ghostface Killah (for those of you not up on hip hop, i'm not kidding, thats the names :-) is fairly obsessed with Iron Man comics. I wrote and produced a cut on his "Fishscale" album called "Iron Man Takeover". Really, i did. Ghostface refers to himself as Tony Stark alot.

Anyway, the movie rocked. possibly my favorite Marvel comic turned movie yet. go see it.

-Ken Lewis

Flyleaf - "Sorrow"

FINALLY! OK, one of my favorite bands is "Flyleaf" on Octone Records. Their debut album has been out for about 2 years now and is still going strong. That is just incredible, even though i wish to God they would put out a new album, but I'm very happy for them that their music is still finding new audiences and new life after so long. The record went gold over a year ago, so its not like its just now catching.

Anyway, I was a big fan pretty early on, and my favorite song on the album has always been a song called "Sorrow". they FINALLY did a video for it, which hopefully means its going to be a single. I love this song, here's a link to the video. If you havent checked out Flyleaf yet, you should. They are amazing. I got to hang with them for an hour on their tour bus during the Family Values Tour and they were all the nicest folk.

Flyleaf - "Sorrow" Video

enjoy!

-Ken Lewis

Producers Point of View

91.9FM JAMZ in NYC

I recently did a radio show at 91.9FM JAMZ in NYC. It was a Producers Round Table with DJ DWI, Don DiNapoli from iStandard / Prototype Ent, and three amazing up and coming producers, El Boogs da composer, Pyro, and Keyiv. All three are monthly winners of the iStandard Beat Battles in NYC, which, i should know from being a judge, are some very fierce beat battles. Canei Finch won the April competition, Canei is NASTY!

Anyway, if you are a young producer on the come up, this round table discussion might interest you. It takes a couple minutes to really start, but it flows well once it gets going. Its a live video stream from that day and runs about a half hour.

Producer Round Table

enjoy

-Ken Lewis

Hoodgrown in West Chester, Ohio

So, the neighborhood i grew up in, West Chester, Ohio, was very far from anything that could be called "the hood". In fact, i led a very normal suburban middle class upbringing. My real education in urban music began in New York City in 1993. And what an education I got. A short list of producers, engineers, and artists who were my teachers, mentors, colleagues, etc... Double X Posse, T Ray, Troy Hightower, DJ Muggs, Malik Pendleton, MTUME, Just Blaze, Kanye West, Puffy, Mary J Blige, this could become a very long list.

Anyway, all of this to preface the fact that an online publication called Hoodgrownonline.com just interviewed me. They interviewed me even though I'm not hoodgrown, but i've still managed to make an impact on urban music, and hopefully a few other genre's as well. If you'd like to read the interview, here it is.....

HoodGrownOnline.com Interview

Happy reading

-Ken Lewis