With the buzz of Los Angeles’ hip-hop scene at an all time high, and local artists like Pacific Division & Blu signing to major labels, it’s only right that Hawdwerk and Jansport J, two of the dopest up and comers, are gearing to release their debut album High Power Moves. Hailing from the city of West Covina (626 stand up!) this MC/Producer duo aren’t your typical act. If their rugged boom bap beats and intriguing topics mixed with battle tested lyricism doesn’t win you over they’re ready to brainwash and rob you. Let’s hope it doesn’t have to go there.

Myk Blauuw!: Wuddup yall? First up, introduce yourselves to the people.

Hawdwerk: Well, it’s the rough handed bandit, Hawdwerk, aka Mr. Rugged, representing the 626 West Covina, California.

Jansport J: I go by Jansport J, producer out of West Covina CA, 626-in’ as well.

Myk Blauuw!: Always good to hear folks reppin the 626 instead of strictly Los Angeles.

Hawdwerk: Yea man, it’s all LA at the end of the day, but…

Jansport J: But me & Hawdwerk are making it a point to represent our turf.

Myk Blauuw!: So, for the folks that don’t know you two yet, what is it that yall do?

Hawdwerk: Well, I’m an MC/rapper/lyricist. Got a lot of titles these days.

Jansport J: And I’m a producer and a fan of Hawdwerk. He’s a good rapper and I’m a good producer, haha.

Myk Blauuw!: Glad to hear it’s not a one-sided team. So before we get into the group stuff, give me a quick rundown of what both of yall have done so far.

Jansport J: I’ve put out three projects since September 2008, trying to get my name out there. The Carry-On Experience was the first compilation album I put out. Followed that up with The 2AM Tape (download) which really brought me some attention online. I contributed to L.A.U.S.D.’s Curly Tops & Nautica Jackets compilation, and then put out an American Gangster remix album called American Gospel (download).

Hawdwerk: I don’t have any solo stuff out yet, but my crew put out a mixtape last year and I have my mixtape coming out soon called Off the Clock.

Myk Blauuw!: So tell me about the group project ya’ll having coming out; I’ve been hearing about it online for a little while now.

Jansport J: That’s our evil plan haha.

Hawdwerk: Haha *evil laugh*

Jansport J: But yea, High Power Moves is the album. Hawdwerk named it; he’s the source of all the good ideas…

Hawdwerk: So I get 66%.

Jansport J: We started the album out of mutual respect for each other. I was doing a couple of beats for his solo project and we had good chemistry. Just joking around in the studio, coming up with song ideas; we’re not wired normally.

Hawdwerk: He does dumb shit and I have to top it with even worse antics.

Myk Blauuw!: Which brings us to High Power Moves TV right?

Jansport J: HPM TV is basically us being us. A lot of times we say the most ridiculous stuff in the studio or just hanging out, having crazy conversations. HPM TV just lets people get familiar with our personalities. Lets them feel like they’re supporting their homies when they get the album.

Hawdwerk: We’re basically trying to brainwash people into liking us.

Myk Blauuw!: So the name High Power Moves, how’d yall come up with that title?

Hawdwerk: How’d I come up with that? Haha. We were talking about the statement we wanted to make with the project. We want people to listen to the album and feel like “What the fuck just happened?”

Jansport J: The subject matter to the production all fits that theme. Nothing is expected. At the moment, it’s a dark, in your face sounding album, but it changes throughout.

Hawdwerk: This isn’t a normal sounding album. It’s really meant to hit you upside the head & then once you’re dazed we’re gonna rob you.

Myk Blauuw!: *cues Ante Up* Speaking on the production, you said it’s turning out to be a little on the dark side right now. Is that something ya’ll talk about, like “I wanna rhyme on this type of beat” or does Jansport come with the beats & you pick what you fit best on?

Jansport J: Yes and no. I have Hawdwerk the initial batch of beats & he pointed out that we needed more “scrunchers”, which he was 200% right about. So how it works is, he has about 35-40 beats I produced and as we start recording, we’re starting to develop a sound and gravitate towards certain types of tracks. But like I said, we’re gonna record a lot of records, so we’ll have a large pool to choose from. I’d bet on it being a gritty sounding album though, with a little variation here and there.

Hawdwerk: I’ve just always been the type to have a favorite song on an album that everyone else is like “Why do you like that song?”. I’m not a big fan of singles all the time, it’s just beats that stand out amongst the crowd. Those are the type of beats Jansport makes and even though I favor gritty “dark” beats, I’ve rocked plenty of beats that are lighthearted and fun. So I try to balance the fact that Jansport is a producer, so we can’t make a project that’s completely one sound that fits me, it’s gotta be a sound that fits the listeners too.

Myk Blauuw!: I know folks hate comparing their work to other people’s, but…

Hawdwerk: Here we go, lol.

Myk Blauuw!: But if you had to compare the sound of High Power Moves to another album…

Jansport J: I always tell people, the production side sounds like The Cool met
Late Registration and rode down the block bumping Hell Hath No Fury. The drums are gritty like The Cool and the randomness of the production kinda fits Late Registration and it kinda sets a scene similar to Hell Hath No Fury. You’re entering a different world when you listen to this.

Myk Blauuw!: Werk, how would you describe your style on this project?

Hawdwerk: What I do when I write rhymes is try my best to forget everything I’ve ever heard and act like I’m the first person to ever do hip-hop. Being that it’s so hard to do that, I look to people who have stood out that you can’t really compare them to anyone. They’ve always had their own lane and I hope it’s because they try to put themselves in the same mind state I put myself in when I’m writing.

Myk Blauuw!: Speaking on that; I notice a lot of emcees put out projects where they’re just showing off their technical skills but don’t really give the listeners anything to connect with. With your writing technique, do you think the listeners are going to get a feel for who Hawdwerk is?

Hawdwerk: I think so. But I think it’s important that people listen to what I don’t say on records, probably more that what I do. I think I bring up a lot of points about who I really am, what I really think about, and on top of that, just being creative enough to write about things some people probably don’t think about because that’s just who I am. People may not understand it completely when I rap in the perspective of a demon, but they can see like “Whoa, this guy isn’t on some regular shit.”

Myk Blauuw!: And J, I know that you rap on occasion; are you spitting at all on this project?

Jansport J: One verse, haha, and it’s the most honest verse I’ve ever written. It’s on the song I’d Say It…man. The premise of that song is Hawdwerk explaining to a girl that he likes a girl, but he doesn’t love her yet. I’m coming from the premise of “I loved you, you hurt me, so I can’t let you get that close again, even as friends.” The whole song revolves around the word love.

Myk Blauuw!: Seems like ya’ll are putting a lot more thought into the topics of this project than most folks do. That’s dope. How far along is recording?

Jansport J: I’d say 50%. The production’s completely done and we’re just recording records and seeing what direction it takes us. We set a Novemeber release date, to give us that freedom to put together a solid project.

Hawdwerk: We have enough songs to put out an album, but we don’t feel that we have an album done yet. We still got tracks to record, a lot of stuff we haven’t even touched on as far as subject matter, so it’s a building process.

Jansport J: The aim of this project is to have somebody in this world, at some point, list High Power Moves among their favorite albums. That’s how good we want this to be and why we’re spending so much time on it.

Myk Blauuw!: So how do yall see yourselves fitting into the LA hip-hop scene?

Hawdwerk: I always tell Jansport “I don’t fit in.” Lol. But other artists that people are into now didn’t either at first, they brought in a new perspective to what LA hip-hop is. I hope I don’t ever completely fit, but I want to be able to work with any LA artist and have my music be considered dope without being a part of any trend. Just dope music.

Jansport J: We’re in a unique position as far as being a part of the LA scene. Sure, we collab with them and some are good friends now, which is a blessing, but at the same time we’re from the 626. We’ve always had that outsider mentality because we’re not “LA enough.” But I feel like we’ll be able to use the LA scene as a platform to get our music out to a larger audience, because chances are, the kid in Iowa isn’t gonna say “Check out Hawdwerk, he’s from West Covina.” They’re gonna say LA, which is all good. As long as we never turn our backs on Covina and always represent them well.

Myk Blauuw!: So we’re gonna switch it up a lil bit now, do some fill in the blanks. Jansport J is…

Hawdwerk: Black.

Jansport J: That nigga.

Hawdwerk: Lol.

Myk Blauuw!: Hawdwerk is…

Jansport J: Blatantly underrated.

Hawdwerk: Comin for that ass this year [II].

Myk Blauuw!: Haha. High Power Moves…

Jansport J: Going to change lives.

Hawdwerk: Will give you nightmares.

Jansport J: Haha, it gave me nightmares, no lie.

Myk Blauuw!: The 626 is…

Hawdwerk: My heart & soul.

Jansport J: On the way.

Myk Blauuw!: Jay-Z or Nas?

Jansport J: Jay, just my preference.

Hawdwerk: Haha. Nas.

Myk Blauuw!: Canibus or LL?

Hawdwerk: Neither.

Jansport J: God, if I can pretend that 2005-2009 never happened, then LL.

Hawdwerk: Lol.

Myk Blauuw!: Lacey Duvalle or Eva Angelina?

Hawdwerk: HAHAHA. Lacey muthafuckin Duvalle.

Jansport J: Damn…I’ma go Eva. Lacey is hit or miss with me. Pun intended.

Myk Blauuw!: Haha. Hawdwerk or Jansport J?

Jansport J: Jansport J.

Hawdwerk: Lol, nigga, thank you for being honest cause I was for damn sure bout to say Hawdwerk.

Jansport J: How you gonna choose another man over yourself? Haha.

Myk Blauuw!: Thanks a lot yall, anything else you’d like to add?

Jansport J: Go watch HPM TV until the album drops!

Hawdwerk: Thank you very much.

Hawdwork & Jansport J – Graveyard Shift

Hawdwerk & Jansport J – Told You Wrong

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Myk Blauuw is co-host of the All Things Fresh Radio Show and a blogger for www.atfradio.com. He is also a rabid Sacramento Kings fan. ATF Radio airs every Wednesday, Midnight-2am on Sacramento-area KDVS 90.3 or streaming live at www.kdvs.org.