The In Crowd
Midwesterners are a funny lot. For all of the genuine homeland pride in the hearts of breadbasket dwellers, there is an opposite impulse to think that everything worthwhile is somewhere else. If you happen to be a musician, this act of missing the forest for the trees can result in a strange identity crisis. Or, as producer Miles Bonny, a Jersey-to-Kansas transplant, puts it: “There are always gaps to be filled, and I recognize those gaps.”
His solution: Fill those gaps with fine local product.
“Through the Internet, you can promote to everyone, but no one should be focused on impressing people on the coasts,” the producer, DJ and R&B dabbler says. “I think that sometimes there’s a certain uneasiness about being in Kansas City as an artist. We want to create self-respect for being here and get everyone to recognize that.”
Respect is only part of what Bonny and his peers hope to gain with the formation of the Innate Sounds Crew, a collective that embodies some of the best hip-hop and R&B in town. Its five producers, five MCs, one singer and one jazz pianist share a broad goal, according to Bonny: “to improve our lives, as well as the lives of those living in Kansas City, through music.”
Originally a label meant to house the erstwhile group SoundsGood as well as Bonny’s various side projects and releases, the new Innate Sounds, Bonny says, is “like a label roster with no contracts and no money.”
Well, at least they have unity.
Bonny is quick to stress that everyone in the crew is not only talented but also reliable and productive when it comes to making music, which is not surprising given the collective pedigree of its members, including a rapper from Topeka.
“I think the objective is to be unified as people who have different tastes,” says Topekan crew member Stik Figa. “The more we can blur the lines that exist within hip-hop and get everyone together to just make good music, the better off we will be as individuals and as a region.”
Although there aren’t concrete plans for the crew beyond the promise of collaboration, Bonny says there will be official Innate Sounds releases as well as affiliated projects in the near future. For anyone eager to hear something like Smoov Confusion letting rip on a Joc Max beat, and for those as yet unfamiliar with names such as Reggie B., S.G. and Gene Connor, this crew’s coming together is like a fantasy rap draft minus the suspense.
“Lots of people make the generic statement ‘For Kansas City to be recognized, we have to work together,’ but people rarely want to back that kind of statement up,” Bonny says. “Hopefully, this will result in some positive action.”
