Posted on 03/10/2009
While it’s no longer unheard of for artists to meet, collaborate, and release an entire project without physically being in the same room together thanks to the Internet, it’s another thing for two unheard of producers from opposite ends of the country to release a record featuring the likes of Phonte (of Little Brother), Tash (of Tha Liks), Saafir, Blu, and Supastition as their first offering in the music biz.

Ask Kyle ‘Keelay’ Pierce and Tim ‘Zaire’ Lewis about the sudden buzz surrounding their debut album Ridin High, and they themselves are a little surprised about how well things are working out. But don’t mistake that attitude for wide-eyed naivety – there’s a method to these guys’ madness.

“It was crazy the way things worked out for this record. We started doing it just as a crew thing, trying to get the homies on the record,” Keelay says, referring to the Bay Area Sole Vibe collective that he calls family. “But we eventually decided to try to get people that we were also fans of. We made this record at the height of the MySpace era, so we just hollered at a bunch of people that way.”

That wouldn’t be the first time the web was instrumental in the duo’s endeavors. Keelay, Zaire, and Pittsburgh-based Sole Vibe member J-Fish all connected as fledging beatmakers on the producer forum at UndergroundHipHop.com back in 2003, and after exchanging beats and concepts through instant messenger, decided a face-to-face meeting was in order.

“We all blindly went to J-Fish’s in Pittsburgh, which was crazy because we had never really even talked on the phone. My moms and all my friends thought I was some kind of weirdo,” Keelay laughs. “We thought J-Fish was a 35-year old black guy, and he ended up being a 17-year old white kid! He came to pick me up and I didn’t even know who he was.”

But the chemistry among the producers was strong enough that Zaire and Keelay agreed to put their heads together and make a full collaborative album. Ridin’ High is the result of that union, sporting a smooth, R&B/soul-heavy sound that wears a heavy west coast hip hop influence on its sleeve.

“Keelay is in the Bay, and I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, where there was a lot of funk and soul that traveled over to the Midwest,” says Zaire, who currently resides in Virginia. “Hi Tek is one of my favorite producers from the Midwest, and even he deals with some west coast sounding stuff. But we touch upon a lot of other sounds, too – boom bap joints, west coast joints, real smooth organic type joints. We like to see ourselves as being very versatile and well-rounded.”

Part of that sound comes from San Francisco-based soul/hip hop/jazz outfit the Park, whose members played on the record and will join Keelay and Zaire for many of their live shows as well.

“They’re just so ridiculous. I can’t believe how incredibly talented they are,” raves Zaire, who plays keys onstage. “I never envisioned that I’d be doing something like this when I started making beats.”

“The live band element is definitely a direction I’m happy to see hip hop go in,” adds Keelay, who triggers samples and handles DJ duties during their live sets. “The Park has become a bigger part of what we do in the studio, especially now that Zaire comes out to the Bay every other month. We’ll work on a skeleton of a beat, and when it’s something that goes beyond our skill level, we call them in.”

So how does one rise out of the obscurity of the Internet to create a project like Ridin High? “The way that we approached everything was really just upfront and honest. And we kind of treated this album as an investment. I think a lot of times, up-and-coming producers are unwilling to pay money for a feature,” says Keelay. “There were verses that we paid for that we didn’t even use on the album. We even paid homies; we knew that they’d do it for free, but then we’d have to wait months to get verses back. We really treated it like a business in order to get things done, and that’s something that both Zaire and I are very proud of.”

“In hip hop in general, a lot of people run in the same circles and they expect certain things for free; a verse here, a beat there. And that’s cool, that’s a beautiful thing,” adds Zaire. “But things get done a lot quicker on a business level, just being upfront and blunt. And I think that’s the route that we’ll continue to take from here on out.”

- Sean Kantrowitz

Keelay and Zaire's Riding High is in stores now.

Watch their video for "The Times" feat. Blu, Fortlive, & Nino Moschella below: