Quality 1.2, the sequel to producer Rovion Reed’s, aka Rokmore, first project of the same name that was released last October, has recently arrived for our ears to hear for the people of Champaign-Urbana and beyond. The sounds are well, quality, and this beat tape isn’t necessarily anything you may be used to listening to. This 17-year-self-taught veteran producer knows how to mix the great sounds from back in the day and mesh them together with current sound and production. It features a couple of old school skits from movies and a number of mashups for Jay Z and Mos Def to Young Dro. This is something you can ride to from the beginning to the very end. It’s not too fast, not too slow, not too high, not too low, this beat tape is everything you need to make that one hit as a rapper, and as a listener, it’s something that’s definitely made for any avid hip-hop listener, new and old.
I had the chance to discuss the mixtape with Reed himself, and how this follow up release comes off compared to the previous release back in October.
Smile Politely: What was your concept behind this project?
Rovion Reed: It was a follow up project to my first project, Quality, that I dropped last year in the fall. I was just experimenting with a capellas on top of my beat and so I did a whole tape on it. I had Jay [Moses] and Klevah, Jeff, OG and Sky feature on it. Those are the people I work with. The rest is just instrumentals, we just wanted to extend the whole feel, the whole vibe of Quality.
SP: So what would you call this? A mixtape? Or…?
Reed: Honestly, it’s just a beat tape but it plays like an album.
SP: Why did you pick those particular skits?
Reed: I don’t know. I like listening to music in headphones, I feel like that’s where you hear it the best. And it just kind of took me somewhere when I heard the sample that I used, that it was like a trance and just wanted to bring people in that mode, to experience quality. “LetMeHollaatU” was from the Spike Lee movie, She’s Gotta Have It. I just felt like, Mos Def, that was one of his dopest verses to me. And he was saying how he was trying to get at shorty in the rap but she wasn’t feelin’ him and that’s what she was saying at the beginning of the song. You know, guys be coming up off as wack. It kind of just ties in. It really isn’t a purpose behind it, I just vibed with it. If it moves me, I’m gonna use it.
SP: How long does it take you to complete a project typically?
Reed: I work in spurts. It can go a whole month and I won’t do anything but then I could watch something and then like send me on a two week span of just killin’. That’s how I did this [Quality 1.2]. Sometimes, it could take forever but I don’t try to push it. If I feel it, I feel it but if I don’t then I don’t mess with it.
SP: With this being your first project of 2014, what do you have planned?
Reed: I plan personally on releasing eight more tapes.
SP: Do you have them mapped out and ready?
Reed: Yeah, I do. Quality 1.2 is my biggest tape. It has 18 tracks on it. My other projects usually have like eight or ten tracks, but I’ll be releasing some longer sets in the future, along with smaller ones. I’m just going to do music, you know what I’m sayin’? I do soul music, I do sexy soul music, straight up. I’m inspired by good people, women and I’m also inspired by good food.
Rovion is selling his beat tape at a base price of $2. All proceeds go to the Adrian Baker Scholarship for Danville High School. You can donate more if you so choose over at the Gr8Thinkaz Bandcamp page.