ON THE BLOCK: Swagu Style House Talks Alternative Hip-Hop and Working With Cee-lo Green

By: Kira Demund, contributing intern (@kiracarinaa)

When it comes to music, there is no denying that Atlanta has been home base for some of the most influential artists in the music industry. For decades, Atlanta has birthed household names and those same artists are now passing the torch to the younger generation.

Atlanta’s legendary Cee-lo is opening doors for the next generation of music. His newest acquisition, Swagu Style House, is placing their stamp on today’s music delivering an unique sound that they like to describe as “alternative hip-hop.”

Swagu Style House is composed of three members: Deep (Darron Price), Stranger (Greg Edmonds), Medulla (Kingston Callaway). Between the three, each member delivers their own talent varying from vocals to instrumental skills.

Stacks Magazine was able to sit down with 2/3 of Swagu Style House and learn more about their music.

STACKS MAGAZINE: How did you guys get started? What inspired the group?

SWAGU STYLE HOUSE: Definitely just us growing up being around music. A lot of our influences come from the early 90’s. Hip-hop was at a time where you could really express yourself in any way. We definitely take that part of it.

SM: So who would you say are some of your musical influences?

SSH: [laughs]  Where do we start? I would say Dungeon Family definitely. NWA, A Tribe Called Quest, Devo, Cameo, Souls of Mischief. But we definitely like the new generation stuff too! Like when I go to the club and want to turn up and hear my generation of music. But, when I’m alone I like to listen to the older stuff.

SM: Tell me more about the name of the group.

SSH: As far as Style House, we look at it as like a boutique or just a house of different styles of thinking and dressing. Just a variety of things. Styles just coming together collectively underneath one roof and just making good music from it. It’s a house to have room for pop, rock, funk. A room for fashion, technology, anything! Business is collective so we just want to be diverse.

SM: How did you guys get on with Cee-lo and sign with his label?

SSH: All of our families knew each other. We’re all like brothers in a sense. We all kind of grew up together and just us doing music out here in Atlanta. We didn’t want to take [the music] straight to him and be like ‘here you go’. We wanted to actually do it ourselves and strive on our own merit. We went out and did our thing and word got back to him and he was like ‘alright, ya’ll come on over, I have to scoop ya’ll up’.

SM: What was it like working with Cee-lo? Were you guys in the studio working together creatively?

SSH: We recorded the beat (for “Pick It Up”) previously and we got in the studio and he was like ‘hey I have something ya’ll might like’. We pulled it up and started messing around with the beats and coming up with some lyrics for it. From there, we started working with the whole form of the song. Then the hook came. It just came about very fluent. We got in there and everything just started rolling.  His ideas, bouncing off of ours. It was a very productive atmosphere.

SM: You guys have a really unique sound. What characteristics do you each bring that help create that unique sound?

Stanger: Medulla is just a phenomenal dude. A phenomenal bass player.  A phenomenal guitar player. He just has an ear for it. Me personally, I do vocals. I write. I also play the electric guitar. I’m not Medulla by any means [laughs] but I dab in it a little bit as well. We all just contribute well because we just work well together. We’re all brothers.

Deep: I’m just more of like a spontaneous. Freestyle. No tracks…just come up with hooks off of what people are feeling at the time. I pick up the vibe and the energy of the room. I come up with something off of Stranger’s guitar or Medulla’s bass. I might play a little lick on the guitar too. We all just take different angles and approaches to a song.

SM: That’s interesting you each know how to play an instrument. What would you say sets you apart from the new school acts?

SSH: I would definitely say the instruments because a lot of people don’t do that and I want to say lyrics. It’s all about your mindset of what you want to talk about. That’s another thing because we feel we have a message that we want to put out there.  We’re not just ‘rappers’, we have a concept. “Pick it up” is a concept record that everyone can relate to. Or it can be something a little bit deeper such as family issues or political issues that are going on. That’s why I love the 90’s rap because they expressed how they were feeling. They were real. It wasn’t just one setting such as the club– other demographics related to it.

In the meantime, you can anticipate Swagu Style House working on upcoming projects and promoting their single “Pick It Up”.  “Pick it Up” is available on iTunes and Spotify. You can keep up with them on their social media here: Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.