Artist Spotlight: Fokis

Fokis is set to drop his free EP 20/20, which is solely produced by Focus of Aftermath Ent, on September 16th.  The EP will feature Mistah F.A.B., Young Dre the Truth, Punch (of the group eMC), as well as others.  We’ll have it for download right here as soon as it’s available.

In the meantime, we were able to catch up with Fokis and talk about the ga-zillion projects he’s been working on this past year.  Dude works hard!  It’s only a matter of time before people get hip to him.  Check out the interview…

Kevin: Fokis, what up man! Yo, I’ve been waiting to interview you… almost as much as I’ve been waiting to hear your new material. Haha, what’s good man? How you feelin?

Fokis: Everything is good man, just been working hard trying to stay focused. Been in the studio putting the finishing touches on this 20/20 EP and let me tell you, I can’t wait to release it.

Kevin:  Yeah, we can’t wait either!  So tell these cats a little about yourself. Who is Fokis? How long you have been doing this and how’d you get into the game?

Fokis: Fokis is a visionary from the Lower East Side of NYC who’s hard working, very persistent and doesn’t take no for an answer. I’m an artist, producer, engineer, and also run my record label, Loyalty Records. I have a great reality show called “Road to the Riches” that you can check out at youtube.com/fokistv or myspace.com/fokis2k that can give you a good idea of who I am and what I’m about. The show is about an artist who gives himself a year to get a deal. I’ve been doing music for over 10 years and I would say that my love, dedication and a little bit of luck are what got me in the game.

Kevin:  Man, you must be the hardest working man of 2008… I know you got a ton of projects you’re about to drop. Let’s start with the first one… the 20/20 EP, produced totally by Focus of Aftermath. What can you tell us about the album? How did the hook up with Focus come about? Fokis & Focus… coincidence?

Fokis: Well 20/20 is an 8 song EP that will be available as a free download. The EP is crack. Focus is one of my favorite producers. Working with him is unbelievable. I sometimes can’t believe that we’re actually working together. As for the hook up, I knew of him (Focus) and I also knew that it was a matter of time before we crossed paths. I wasn’t sure how it would be but he sent me an email one day saying he liked my music and I told him that I liked his and the next thing you know we were doing our first song together. We just clicked.

Kevin: Obviously you feel you and Focus have a pretty good chemistry. What do you look for when you pick your beats? Do you like sticking with the same producers or do you hit up the myspace looking for beats? You know we got a lot of great talent here on our site… have you listened to any of the guys in our remix contest?

Fokis: Actually I have not heard them but thanks for the heads up I will be checking them out right after this interview. As for looking for beats, I just like hot beats that talk to me. I have found producers all over the net man. Anytime I hear artist complain about how they need beats and that can’t find beats I laugh, because myspace is filled with talented producers. I actually have a project coming out right after 20/20 called Fokis: A Walk through Myspace, and what I did was collaborated with 12 talented producers and various artists and put together a hot ass album. The internet is the greatest thing to happen. It made things an even playing field.

Kevin: Man, that is definitely a dope concept.  Now that track that you dropped a few months ago, “Pandemonium”, featuring Joel Ortiz is straight fire! You two were like peanut butter and jelly on that track. What was it like swapping verses with Mr. Ortiz?

Fokis: Joell is one of my favorite artists right now, that dude can spit. Working with him was a pleasure. It’s funny because the first time I met him, I was actually his engineer, I engineered a session for him, and then saw him take off to where he is now. That’s very motivating to see. That beat was produced by my peoples The Hardy Boyz, they’re from Brooklyn and they got some fire, trust me. Once I heard that beat I went crazy on it and Joell did too.

Kevin: Is that track going to be on the Road to Riches album? Can you tell us more about that project? I remember you telling me before that it was complete… when are we going to get to hear it?

Fokis: Yes that song is off my upcoming album Road to The Riches Vol. 1 which features Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Deemi, DJ Absolute and more.  That album is a classic waiting to be released I just need a home for it. The album is like a soundtrack, it’s the soundtrack to my “Road to the Riches” reality show. That album describes who I am as an artist very well. The song with Atlantic Recording Artist Deemi, titled “Road to the Riches”, is one of my favorite records I have recorded to date. It’s a record that I know a lot of people will relate to. In a perfect world, I would drop that album in the next few months. But it is done, it’s been done I am now focusing on building my buzz up to the point where I can create a situation for myself.

Kevin: One other project that you told me about is probably the one I’m looking forward to the most… the EP with Punch of eMC. How did that come about? Is it just you and Punch or does Ace or anybody else make a guest appearance?

Fokis: Punch is from my neighborhood, the Lower East Side. I always kinda looked up to him because he was doing what I wanted to do, before me. I try to learn as much as I can from him. We did one record and the chemistry was right so we spoke and said let’s do an EP. 6 songs later we decided to just do an album, so that’s where we are now. I actually spoke to him a while ago with regards to getting Ace on a song so we’ll see how that maps out. But trust me, what he and I have so far is bananas, he is dope that’s my dude right there.

Kevin: Man, I can’t wait.  You got so many projects lined up… did we miss any?

Fokis: Actually yes, I have another project that I am finishing up called Digital Underground. The album is produced by D.C. He is a dude I met on myspace. We have not met in person yet, only speak over the phone and the Net. Our 1st song we did is a crazy record. I’m actually trying to reach out to NaS‘ father to play on the hook. His wife was my 1st professor in College. If I can make that happen that would be huge. We have about 4 songs recorded already. I don’t know when it will be dropping but I know we are working hard to finish it up. I learned that it’s best to stay ahead of the game and have as much music in the stash as possible.

Kevin: With all this music you got in the stash, what inspires you as an emcee? Where do your thoughts come from?

Fokis: Life really, just the everyday struggle, and what I been through. I always like to share what I know and/or learned with others. I like reality, and I learned that people always respect real talk so you can’t ever go wrong with that. Whether it’s a song that makes you laugh, a song that makes you cry, think, dance etc. I also love driving; I get a lot of concepts and ideas when I’m driving.

Kevin: Who did you listen to growing up and who do you respect in the game now?

Fokis: My favorites coming up were Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Kool G Rap, Slick Rick, EPMD, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, 3Rd Base, Wu-Tang, NaS, 2Pac, Mobb Deep, B.I.G, Big Pun, Big L, Jay-Z, LL Cool J… the list goes on and on. I am such a fan first it is not even funny. As for now the artists I listen to are NaS, Jay, Joell Ortiz, Dead Prez, The Outlawz, The Game, T.I. and a few others.

Kevin: Desert Island Hip Hop… you got one album with you… what is it?

Fokis: Only Built For Cuban Links. That album is my favorite album of all time, it’s got NaS on it, the production was crazy the colors were nice…lol but yeah that album would be with me on that hip hop island.

Kevin:  Finally, to wrap things all up, what does Fokis bring to the table? What’s your contribution to hip hop?

Fokis: Fokis brings creativity, good music and a great story of how I made it from the bottom to the top. I want to show people that it’s not corny to follow your dreams because truth be told I am living mine. Word. My mother always said to me as a child, “Nothing Good Comes Easy”.  I wear my hard work badge with honor and pride.

Kevin:  Damn, definitely words of inspiration.  Alright man, many thanks for sitting down with us! You got my address… keep me up with your projects! Any closing words? Anything we forgot to mention?

Fokis: Make sure you check out myspace.com/fokis2k also my site www.fokis2k.com. PLEASE be sure to join my mailing list so that you can be kept updated as to what is going on in the world of Fokis. Be on the look out for that 20/20 EP; its fire and anyone interested in any promo opportunities associated with my 20/20 EP please hit me up at Fokis(at)fokis2k.com and I can send you more information. We are expecting over 100,000 downloads of the EP and any artist, producer, company looking to market there product will have a great chance of doing so. Thank you for giving me the opportunity of being on your site and I look forward to doing another interview. Peace

• Fokis on MySpace

Do What It Do (feat Mister F.A.B. & Young Dre)

Pandemonium (feat Joel Ortiz)

Can’t You See