By: Lauren-Aileen Morris

Nostalgia is in the air amid the release of the newest project from Phonte and producer Lorenzo Ferguson: “Zo! and Tigallo Love the 80’s.” The long anticipated album from Zo and Tigallo has been creating buzz for some time now, with fans from all spectrums eagerly awaiting the project.

The pair remained tight-lipped about the track listings during production, but now that the album has been released, fans can finally indulge in contemporary, urban renditions of their favorite songs from the 80’s. For some of us, these songs make up the soundtrack to our childhood and adolescence. For others, these tracks played in the background as we donned shoulder pads and stirrup pants. Whichever category you fall into, you can’t help but smile at the work of this dynamic duo. Zo has remixed original classics like “Something About You,” “Africa” and “I’m Only Human” to ensure the satisfaction of everyone from the realest hip-hop head, to the pop music lover. As Phonte puts it, “I get messages from 30 year olds and from 18 year olds. I’ve never really been the type to have a target audience in mind. You never can tell how your work is going to be received, we just want to put it out there and see what happens. We just make music for the sake of making music.”

The pair’s mutual appreciation for the art and history of music cannot be underestimated or disguised on this project. Not only is this one of Zo’s most exciting productions to date, but Phonte has gotten back to his vocal roots on this project. While there are guest production and appearances from Nicolay and Darien Brockington, Phonte takes the lead. “I’ve been doing the vocalist thing for a while now. For me it gets to a point where you need a challenge as an artist. Recreating a cover is harder than doing your own material, because if you deviate too far people are going to know. It was a really hard process, but I needed that.” While the pair has worked together since 2005, even Zo was pleasantly surprised by Phonte’s vocal ability. “The first time I heard him singing over the Africa track I wanted to tap someone on the shoulder like do you hear this right here? It was crazy…I listened to it about three or four times before I hit him up and said I think we got something.”

Zo was right. The pair has built upon their friendship and creative partnership to create one of the most innovative albums of the summer. They explain, “It’s a competitive thing between us but even more than that it’s a respect thing. We just want people to know that there is music out there that speaks to them. When people hear our stuff they’ll have something that they can see themselves in. This is the music that is missing in the market. There is music in the world for people like us, they’re not forgotten.”

Buy “Zo! and Tigallo Love the 80’s” from Fatbeats, Access Hiphop, Sandbox, and Underground Hiphop.

related post: Zo! and Tigallo Love the 80’s CD review

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 8:38 pm and is filed under Interviews, New Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Or, if you wish, you can find all the posts Honey