Ultra Nate: Goddess Worship
ULTRA: It's absolutely imperative, and I really have a hard time accepting anything less. I feel like what I do is just as credible as anyone else in any other genre. It's just that this particular genre is treated like a bastard child, so people expect less and people strive for less in it. To me that's so short-sighted. That's never the way I want to lead my project. I want to compare my project to everyone else's, in every other genre. It's just as credible. I want what everyone else has!
If you reach for the stars and you fall a little bit short - at least that's what you were aiming for. If you don't strive for greatness of some sort, you're always going to be mediocre, and who wants to be mediocre? You wouldn't accept that. I also think it's really important because the market is so media-driven now that you have to have a strong visual in order to push things further than just that underground, in-the-club, dancefloor moment.
5 MAGAZINE: You DJ as well, correct?
ULTRA: I do. That's causing quite a stir at the moment, actually. I guess the first time that a lot of industry people saw me DJ was at the Winter Music Conference in March. People came away kind of raving about it - I was really kind of shocked. I was being accosted on the street the rest of the week! [laughs] I've been doing it about five years, since the inception of my Sugar parties.
5 MAGAZINE: How would you characterize your DJ style?
ULTRA: Energy, soulful, vocals, gospel, straight-up Jersey hump style. We mix it up between Baltimore basement style, New York kind of groove stuff - whatever's soulful and will make the crowd jump, we'll play.
5 MAGAZINE: Tell me about the Sugar Party in Baltimore.
ULTRA: It'll be four years old in September. Myself and my DJ partner Lisa Moody were disheartened at the way the scene was going here in Baltimore, with very few venues, very few people who were giving the music a moment to shine or build an audience or anything like that. Historically, Baltimore's been a very thriving House-oriented city - meaning, a lot of radio support, a lot of venues that played House music and club music and all that stuff. In the mid-'90s it seemed like it was starting to dry up. I was running around the globe like a psycho at the time, so I really didn't see it. Then in the aftermath I was like, "What's happening here?"
There needs to be a place where people can go where it's all about dancing and not about being pretentious and turning into a really chic kind of "Cocktail House" - the lounge thing where it's all glamorous and everyone pretends they're in a Puffy video. That's really what's happening! They want to be in a really chic-chic place and put on their chic-chic clothes and they want to dance with martinis in their hands to House Music. And that's cool in its place - I've got nothing against martinis! But I come from the place where you go out and you sweat and you dance and you close your eyes and you sing, throw your hands in the air and you scream and you take a ride with the DJ. You come together and you feel the vibe in the room, and there's a gay person over here and a white person over here and someone over there that you really can't identify - whatever! I like having a good time, and that's all that matters.
There was nothing like that happening here and I felt like it was my duty to provide it, so I started Sugar. You're not going to hear hip-hop, you're not going to hear rock. All you're going to hear is soulful underground House. Lots of vocals, lots of bangin' tracks. It's all about the vibe and having a good time. That's what Sugar is.
I also periodically bring in a guest artist to perform. Obviously, being an artist myself, I think it's really important for people to reconnect to the music and bring it to life beyond that moment on the dancefloor. I've had a lot of artists come through, like Jocelyn Brown, Jody Watley, Kathy Sledge, Ann Nesby, CeCe Peniston, a lot of DJs like Quentin Harris... Louie Vega been through twice. I try to mix it up and also have some of the more underground artists like Monique Bingham, Kenny Bobien - I could go on for days. A lot of heads have come through and a lot of heads are still trying to come because they know that when they come, it's nothing but mad love.
5 MAGAZINE: So how about the singles off the album?
ULTRA: "Automatic" is doing awesome on the charts, and the video's getting a lot of hits on YouTube - it's only been up for a week and I think it's had 10,000 hits already. On the Billboard club chart I think I'm at #4 in the fourth week it's been up there [as of April 10], so it's been climbing pretty aggressively. I think it was the most downloaded track on iTunes last week.
I think I'm going to release "Falling" as my next single, which I wrote about my son when he was on my lap one morning when he was seven months old. He inspired me to write the song.
5 MAGAZINE: You also started your own record label?
ULTRA: I started a label called Sugar Music to put out my own artists. The first one I signed is named Jada. I signed her in partnership with Code Red, DJ Spen's label. She has a record out now called "Love Is (Love Breeze)" which was picked up by Defected and is the first song on the Defected in the House: Miami 2007 compilation. The first week it was out, it was the most downloaded song on the Defected website, so people are really feeling it.
The second artist I signed is Lisa Mack, who is another vocalist with a track on Code Red that was picked up by Defected called "Shine." Jada especially reminds me of myself as a budding writer and vocalist. She's a really sparkling talent that just needs the right kind of development to get out there and do her thing. Lisa is a little more developed as an artist because she's been out singing in bands for many years. She really wanted to work with someone who is going to champion her as an artist.
That's the main thing I've been working on now - their projects for the Sugar Music label and also working with known acts. Spen and I also did a partnership on a song called "Don't Give Up" and it was also picked up by Defected. So I've been busy!
Ultra Naté will be performing at Boom Boom Room on June 25 in support of Grime, Silk and Thunder, out in stores this month. Check out myspace.com/ultranatemusic, ultranate.com and sugarparty.org.
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