Bavu Blakes: Your Favorite Rapper’s Favorite Former Broadcast Student
By Matt Martinez
Photo by O.G. for luxury minds, inc.
He’s shared the stage with music legends Erykah Badu, The Roots, Snoop Dogg and Slick Rick. He’s a respected journalist and a blogger with his ear glued to the ground. He’s a newlywed with a mortgage, an active member of Greater Peace Christian Church and host of the regional M.E. Television show Smooth that on weekday mornings at 10 showcases established and up-and-coming R&B artists.
Texas-bred recording artist and television personality Bavu Blakes has a new independently recorded EP on the way, an upcoming SXSW show as one half of the hip-hop duo World Trade and three more SXSW showcases to oversee as urban music director of M.E. Television, and that’s just during next week's music festival. The idea of people wearing many different hats gets thrown around at times, but Blakes is going to need rental space if he plans to add anymore to his collection. Which he does. So he will.
This year, as per the norm for a local artist with his notoriety and credibility, Blakes is doing big things at the South by Southwest Music Festival. It all starts next Wednesday at Molotov Lounge with the first of three hip-hop/R&B showcases hosted in part by Smooth. The following night, the Smooth showcase moves to Fourth Street to Club Prague.
Next Saturday will mark Blakes’ SXSW tour de force as he and fellow Texas emcee Element7D kick off the afternoon with a performance as rap duo World Trade at the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center. That night at the Driskill Hotel, Blakes will celebrate the release of his new EP entitled Extra Plair with another performance as the final part of the Smooth showcase series.
He said he got the idea for the title when after asking his wife Tifani her opinion of one of the beats on the album, she replied with head-nodding approval, “That’s extra player.”
“Extra Plair is a state of mind,” Blakes said. “It’s stepping up, putting your best foot forward, like when you get a new outfit or a good haircut.”
Blakes, grateful for opportunity but never satisfied by accomplishment, won’t stop at just one release this year. The tip of the Blakes’ 2008 recording iceberg is a campaign he calls ’08 Is So Great, during which he releases a new flow via the web, free for listening or downloading, every week. These mixtape-style recordings primarily serve to keep listeners’ ears in tune for the original recordings he plans to release this year.
“I want to release as much original material this year as those 52 [weekly] flows,” said Blakes, who envisions following Extra Plair with his second solo album Too Selfish as well as the debut release from World Trade this year. No release dates are official yet, but for Blakes’, three releases in a calendar year will be just part of what he hopes to accomplish before his great ’08 ends.
The tall, bearded emcee rarely curses on a record, but not out of a condescending sense of morality.
“Sometimes, you can lose a listener because of the things you say,” said Blakes, keenly aware of the impact an artist's words can have on listeners.
Blakes studied broadcast journalism at the University of Texas from 1992 – 1997, tracking football and basketball game statistics for UT’s media relations office. He said he wants to pull a Vince Young and finish the last three hours of his bachelor’s degree before the year is out.
"I want to be evidence that God makes room for all your gifts,” Blakes said. “If I can put out 100 songs this year and still do all these other things, there’s no excuse for not working hard and staying focused.”
“These other things” include his formal job at M.E. Television, a post Blakes took after he was originally given a spot hosting his R&B show. As urban music director, he decides which videos hit the air on several of the station’s shows including Smooth, a name that aptly describes the emcee’s conversational vocal style.
Recently, he has interviewed Stephen Marley and Erykah Badu for Smooth and talked with storied blues pianist Pinetop Perkins in what his publicist said would be the last TV interview of Perkins’ career.
Blakes freelances for print outlets like the Austin-American Statesman as well, mainly reviewing new hip-hop records or interviewing folks like Cedric the Entertainer and Rakim, Blakes’ favorite childhood rapper. He will also have a feature article published in Badu’s magazine Freaq, scheduled to come out this summer, on her keyboardist and music director, R.C. Williams.
Blakes said he focuses on the positive parts of an album when writing a review. “There’s no need to diss someone just because they put out a record that isn’t perfect.”
Blakes began building his credibility in the urban music scene during his time at UT. He began playing shows around town and eventually co-founded a weekly event known as Hip Hop Hump Day at the Parish on Wednesday nights. Blakes credits the now-defunct weekly rap showcase with putting his name on the map.
“I got my weight up doing those shows,” Blakes said. “There were hundreds of people coming out each week. It really helped me work on my stage presence.”
With these shows under his belt, Blakes made somewhat of a name for himself both in Austin and in the Dallas music scene, as he often traveled back and forth to do shows in both towns. In 2002, he found himself with enough money to independently release his debut album, Create & Hustle.
He said his constant hard work and networking skills during this time gave him the financial leeway so that he never considered himself “struggling,” an oft-used hip-hop cliché.
“I think the music is better and more creative when you’re not in a desperate position,” said Blakes, who lives by the mantra “work is measureable.”
Blakes’ parents fostered his talents and work ethic as he grew up in Garland, surrounding him with great works of literature and culture. To this day he considers people like journalist Ed Bradlee and author Richard Wright heroes.
What about when it is all said and done?
“I want to be remembered as an authentic artist, no gimmicks,” Blakes said.