ILL BREAKS CREW

Move Merchants is the music brainchild of duSt from Phatmass.com, who combined the forces of ATL emcee ManCHILD (Mars Ill and Deepspace5) with the Texan beat genius DJ Sean P. (Beat Producer and the DJ for Playdough). Check out the new music video below and interview with ManCHILD and DJ Sean P. below that.

Directed by Danny Hidalgo of Spirit Juice Studios (spiritjuicestudios.com). Motion graphics 3D compositing by Renzo Reyes (renzoreyes.com). Copyright 2010 Spirit Juice Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ill Breaks Crew: What is the song about?

DJ Sean P.: The song is an introduction to ManCHILD and Sean P. together as Move Merchants. Straight up raw beats, cuts, and raps.

ManCHILD: Like Sean said. It’s just an intro to who we are. “Two-man conglomerate, bumrush the populace.” And I also just wanted people to know that “Sean stomps out beats like Elephant Feet”. People needed to know.

Ill Breaks Crew: How did the concept of the song come about?

DJ Sean P.: No real big concept. I made the beat in 2003 and it had just been siting on a hard drive until ManCHILD did his thing. The drums are super chopped from a Buddy Rich record (the great Jazz drummer). DJ Stibs put me on to him back in the day.

ManCHILD: I think Sean suggested it be the intro. And with a lot of this record being from a party rocking standpoint, we just wanted to blast you one quick time on the intro.

Ill Breaks Crew: What is the concept of the video?

DJ Sean P.: Danny Hidalgo made the video (SpiritJuiceStudio.com). His description is “A ‘Move Merchant’ busy moving product transcends a reality he can’t escape.” As far as I know…they shot the video of ManCHILD in ATL and then the rest in the Chicago area. It was all filmed in a few days, but the CGI animation you see took a while to complete, which was done by a talented dude, Renzo Reyes (renzoreyes.com). That’s why it is just now coming out. Thanks to Dustin at Phatmass.com for putting this together and to Danny Hidalgo for stepping up to do the video!

ManCHILD: Sean covered that one pretty well. Shot all the green screen stuff in my basement here in the A, believe it or not. On each side of the green screen were toys thrown everywhere and my kids trying to run through the shot.

Ill Breaks Crew: Is there an element of your faith (in Jesus Christ) that comes through the song and/or video?

ManCHILD: Like everything I write, God is in it. There’s no grand statement on my Christian faith in the song. But believe that, no matter what, Christ is right there in the center. Thanks to Sean, Danny, Dustin from Phatmass and everyone involved. If you like this video, go to www.movemerchants.com and buy this record. It’s the best kept secret in town.

Thanks to both guys for the Q&A. Not only are they great hip-hop artists, but great guys too. Check out the album and catch a show if you can!

Big ups to Urban D. and all involved. Check the video and description below.

“The song tells the story of Hip-Hop’s history from the South Bronx to where it is today. It paints a picture of it’s humble innovative beginnings to where it began to blow up and change to now where it has mostly lost it’s way. The song doesn’t just celebrate the culture or talk about the problems – most importantly it brings a challenge and an answer at the end as Urban D. talks about eternity and introduces Christ. The song structure is purposely set up like this as verse one walks people through the 70’s and verse 2 through the 80’s and verse 3 brings you to the 90’s and today as it comes to a climax.

The music video was recently shot at Crossover Church’s former North Orleans Campus in the infamous skate park where one of the Flavor Fest stages was in 2008 and 2009. This is now vintage footage as that skate park no longer exists as Crossover moved and the new church demoed the park. The video features Crossover’s own DJ D.Vize and Reflex The Son on the hook along with several faces from the church and some of the B-Boys and B-Girls that are part of the ministry.

This song is featured on Urban D.’s album Un.Orthodox and is available on iTunes along with a remix version and instrumentals.”