Written by Adam E. Smith (@theadamesmith)
As a descriptor, the nomenclature West Egg can be loosely translated to the birthing vehicle of a movement oriented left of center. For a clique of Tampa metro-based emcees from Riverview, the title embodies that sentiment in both liberal sonic progressions and innovative lyrical injections. Truly a result of group leader Robert Ferdinand having a questionable F. Scott Fitzgerald fascination, his chosen rap moniker Gatsby reveals the roots of a squad hell bent on penetrating the gold paved roads of hip-hop’s lack of intellectualism, and placating societal ills and unfiltered observations as being worthy of artfully formulated gems with polish. Where the writer Fitzgerald penned timeless literary narratives with his divulgent novels, the emcee-producer Ferdinand similarly vocalizes abstract rap ballads with his perceptive records.
Much like his fictional counterpart, the now 23 year old Gatsby has an irregular history that started with his birth in Honolulu, Hawaii. The son of two parents in the military, he was soon transplanted to western Florida at the age of four. A couple of rotations around the sun later he would begin his music career with choral singing efforts at school. That vocal run would continue on through his early years until he picked up the violin for a decade.Simultaneously he was also splitting his time preparing for the audition process at The Juilliard School. Unforeseeable health complications and tragic losses within his family obligated him to stay in Tampa after graduation. Alongside his previous home schooled education on subjects like Curtis Mayfield, Barry White and The Four Tops, Gatsby took up a self-study in guitar, bass, and drums during recovery. The misfortune evolved into a blessing in disguise when Gatsby found he had a knack for hip-hop as well as playing piano under a 5th generation pupil of composer Franz Liszt.
The duality of his endeavors inevitably crossed paths when he began producing his own instrumentals. The thread of live piano sounds is one that runs through the entire Gatsby discography, and along with the culmination of his entire musical background, it is truly what sets his sound waves apart. That knack for fabricating sonic delicacies in the hip-hop world traces back to the less documented years previous to him joining West Egg. Fittingly enough, Gatsby’s audible ascension started in P.I.T., a duo collaboration with Detroit spitter D.A., that was short for the foreshadowing nomenclature Poetically Inclined Thinkas.
Then under the moniker Young Genius, together they dropped a tape titled The Boondocks , as well as some standalone tracks that were rough around the edges. Despite that they reeked of the potential that dedication to the craft could bring. Cuts like “Black Militant” and “December Me” represented early promise and telling progression respectively, but once again Gatsby’s audible ADHD would pull him in another direction. Starting with solo avant garde noise compositions like Eli, Substate (For Veronika), Mistakes (For Karla), and R.E.M. (for Closer), he next joined forces with Super Mel under the pseudonym Francis Ferdinand Coppola to form the groove jazz project The Usual Suspects. Together they dropped the revealing psychedelic post-punk-yet-also-hip-hop album Women and Drugs. At the same time, he also dabbled in a live instrument free form rock band The Mammoth and Me, where he accompanied drummer Ronald White on guitar, bass and keys duties.
Although Gatsby acts as the first person that comes to mind, and the last you would be chopping it up with in the West Egg outfit, he is not the actual founding impactful member of the collective. It was the affectionately known Benjamin Flocka the 3rd aka BennyFly that saw potential in Gatsby. While fleshing out a collaboration on Women and Drugs, Flocka convinced him to end his brief rap hiatus in 2010, and set into motion the unionizing of the next noteworthy Tampa group on the come up.
Although proximity within the Bay area of Florida’s West Coast brought them together, the locale’s random juxtaposition to the set bares little resemblance to the South’s musical influences. Slang and inherent drawl aside, the sonic orientation of West Egg gears toward a new lane of music that Florida has otherwise never truly heard. It’s that uniqueness that is mirrored by Gatsby and his West Egg peers that make their genesis story noteworthy.
Their first broadcasted signal that rendered them a blip on the radar was the track and visual accompaniment for “skillet.” The dark and gritty statement track gave each members an abstract platform to put forth their best bars. It was also the full manifestation of sonic traces that could be heard on the early experimental tracks like “Sleep” off the Eli EP. It caught the attention of local critics, websites, and underground radio as a result. The single eventually released as part of illuminati, the ep, which brought with it even more standout tracks like “kennedy.,” “trilluminati.,” and “helvetica.” from the West Egg back catalog. Not only were these tracks just a handful of many from the crew that most had never heard, but more importantly the EP aurorally announced the group had reached an undeniable tier of refinement and coming into their own.
Today Gatsby is taking it one step further. Along with us here at Daily Chiefers, the young emcee is pushing out his first full length solo rap effort. Simply titled thebluetape, the record aims to enunciate his saga of production innovation and writing vision. Look for it to drop here exclusively at 8 PM EST today. While you roll up and get ready check the sole visual from thebluetape so far in the form of “Watchmen.”
