Music
Photo by Alec Erlebacher.
Photo by Alec Erlebacher.

Spotlight: Devon Charles

by / Jul. 14, 2015 11pm EST

When he was 15, Devon Charles shared the stage with Jay Z. They sang “Big Pimpin’” together at what was then the HSBC Arena in front of a sold out crowd. I guess you could say it was his first gig, though when Charles woke up that morning, he had no idea he’d be on stage with Hova that night.

Charles’ father, a DJ for 93.7 WBLK had interviewed Jay Z the night before.

“I was bummed out that I couldn’t be there for that,” says Charles, shifting in his seat at a local coffee shop, wearing a Basquiat t-shirt and sporting long dreadlocks under a Thrasher Magazine cap.

“So we went to the show, me my sister and my sister’s boyfriend and we got there a little late and R. Kelly is on stage. Jay Z comes out—and I’m going nuts—and he points at me. There are thousands of people in the crowd, he’s not looking at me, I thought. He came over and did it again a few songs later and my sister’s boyfriend says ‘he’s looking at you!’ “Big Pimpin’” comes on and Jay Z points at me and he mouths ‘come on stage!’ I was like ‘are you kidding me right now?’ He brought me on stage and me and him performed “Big Pimpin’” together. I lost it.”


Photo by Colin Collins.

It was a turning point for him that drove him to start writing his own music, he says. He started making beats, freestyling with friends, and just having fun; making songs but not completing them because, as he says, he was too young to know anything about song structures. He wrote his first song using a Playstation beat generator.

Now the 25-year-old musician makes music with his producer and engineer Brennon Hall, whose production company Indie-Visuals, is throwing the first edition of Elements Music Fest—a hip hop music festival to benefit for Hearts for the Homeless, on Sunday, July 19 at LaSalle Park.

“[Elements Fest] is another avenue, another venue where people can come together. Elements is going to be a yearly thing that people will look forward to, and hopefully grab the attention of other entreprenuers to do the same type of things.”

Charles and Hall wrote their first record together last year—along with producer Jay Jag—entitled Melodic Memories.

“I really tried to sculpt something different,” says Charles. “I lost a few friends that year due to drugs and suicide, so it was time to get to my real side.” He dedicated his song “Good Die Young,”—a Kendrick Lamar-esque tune with a bouncing hook—to his lost friends.

Charles honed his style during college when he attended SUNY Fredonia.

“It’s a music school, so I would find myself around a lot of musicians, just jamming,” says Charles, who majored in graphic design—a field that he believes goes hand in hand with his pursuit of a musical career. It makes it easier when it comes to promoting and creating a brand, he says.

It was at Fredonia where he really began to develop his musical style, with the help of his friend C.J. Wagner. The two would jam together, writing full songs, but rarely recording them. Wagner was preoccupied performing his own solo material in local bars, so Charles formed a full band with some friends, which they called A Little More. The band was about “capturing the essence of school, writing about partying and girls,” says Charles.

“That’s when I developed my writing skills and honed in on how I wanted to be as a writer, and not be that rapper that talks about partying, money, and clothes,”

His next musical project will be a full length album with the working title Fresh Hippie, which he’s working on with Hall and other local producers. First, he’ll open for the iconic rapper Talib Kweli tonight, Wednesday, July 15 at the Waiting Room.

“He’s not afraid to say what’s on his mind, he says a lot of things that spark people’s attention and that’s something I try to do with my music as well,” says Charles of Kweli.

Thinking back to his first meaningful musical experience, he remembers another moment that started in his dad’s radio studio, before he even knew who Jay Z or Talib Kweli were.

“I was probably about six or seven and I was in the radio station with my dad and a Montell Jordan song came on, oh my it’s escaping me right now,” he says, adjusting his Thrasher cap.

“I started singing the song and one of the DJs heard me, DJ Rucker, and he’s like ‘we’re going to put you on the radio!’ He recorded my vocals and he put me on the radio like two weeks later and I was dumbfounded, it was awesome. [It was] the first time I realized music could be fun and enjoyable.”


ELEMENTS MUSIC FEST
To Benefit Hearts for the Homeless
Sun, July 19 / LaSalle Park / 1 Porter Ave, Buffalo

The first ever Elements Music Fest takes place on Sunday, July 19 at LaSalle Park in Buffalo. The festival, a benefit for Hearts for the Homeless, is an all-day, all-ages event which will feature live music from performers of various genres, skateboarding and BMX, live art, a dance floor, and a fleet of food trucks. The Buffalo Rotaract Club will be accepting food and clothing donations for Hearts for the Homeless. The event will include performances by Letterbox, Shuteyes, Chuckie Campbell and the Phaction, Dj Key-YO!, Giana Lynn, Dead Trash Mob Records, Short Moscato and Death Picnic, DJ Ransum, Pure Ink Poetry, Jacebeats, Devious Capo, Supreme General, and more. Elements Music Fest is free and will happen rain or shine.
  

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