Photography by Jenifer Vandagriff

ATL — I’m a big supporter of hometown artists and quick to download tracks and mix tapes when I spot a link to local talent. When I first heard Jet Set Radio by BreFontaine, it had been shuffled randomly in my iTunes playlist and I had mistaken the verses for Lupe Fiasco. I suppose it was that laid back, but affirmative, just cool… vibe I got from the beat & lyrics. Although, a departure from the harsher, heated sound he’s known for, Fontaine’s Jet Set Radio shows he’s got a cool air about him too.

The more I listen to Jet Set Radio, the more faded becomes my Lupe comparison, but forgive me I’m only an amateur/part-time hip-hop head and I’ve got lots to learn. Even still, when I interviewed Atlanta hip hop artist BreFontaine, he was a-okay with the side by sides. The reason being is that Fontaine has a philosophy about the flow of music and the inevitability of producing similar sounds. In an interview with Fontaine, he explained his perspective by referencing a quote by 50 Cent:

When you hear a song and it makes you feel a certain way, you want to make another person feel the same way. You get similar sounds because of the recycling of creativity.

Jet Set Radio is the latest leak from a mix tape titled Lock, Stock, & Cigarette Burns out later this spring. Behind the single is production by Producer Kyle “Proski” Stewart and vocalist/A-town home girl Joy Tolentino. Jet Set Radio is certainly a recycling of creativity from its concept to production. At a production level, the beat features a sample from the soundtrack song Mother’s Theme off of the 1973 Black Exploitation film The Mack. The film’s tagline: They’re doing the job the cops can’t! Although a fun bit of trivia, the song has little to nothing to do with the concept of the song.

By the title your first thought, like mine, may have been that Fontaine’s intention was to make allusions to the faded notion of jet setting. The term to jet set was popularized in the 1950s to describe the behavior of wealthy and elite individuals who would participate in social activities around the world. Like The Mack, the 1950s notion of jet setting has little to do with the song either. Jet Setting and its reference to wealth and luxury would be all too uninventive a reference to hip hop and a bit far fetched for the indie artist BreFontaine. Instead, the artist pulls his inspiration from the 2000 Dreamcast video game of the same name: Jet Set Radio. Ding! Ding! Ding! Of course it should be all too obvious, but unless you were 1) Japanese 2) a guy 3) a gamer or 4) more culturally aware you probably would not have caught that reference either.

Photography by Jenifer Vandagriff

The game Jet Set Radio was released in Japan and later as Jet Grind Radio in North America. Although US sales were relatively weak, the game garnered a cult following throughout the years in the gaming community, particularly in part to its eclectic and critically acclaimed soundtrack. Fontaine’s tribute to the game harkens back to his younger days. The game itself is about urban youth called rudies (gang members) in Japan roaming the streets spraying and skating as a form of self-expression. In the game, Jet Set Radio is a pirate radio station hosted by a DJ character called Professor K, who provides story narration and diegetic game clues. The game was praised for its amazing soundtrack that combined J-pop, techno, house, Acid, hip hop, and funk. Understanding the reference makes all the sense in the world. Jet Set Radio IS hip hop- or what it ought to be. At least it’s the type of hip hop attached to the streets and not the type attached to the high life. It is the portrayal of the colorful cityscape and the feeling of youthfulness in the video game that provided Fontaine his authorial aims and lyrical references. Jet Set Radio the song, is a feel good song about riding, the freedom, opportunity, excitement of youth mirrored by the same qualities that exist in the city which always stays young. The underlying beat lends a building excitement matching the songs exuberance of that feeling of looking forward. It’s also a song that delivers the all too good feeling that- the night is forever young.

That’s how I imagine it. Listening to it over and over, I’ve developed an image in my mind. It starts just before dusk, sometime on a warm summer day. The sky is the color of a glass of Blue Moon w/ an orange slice. You’ve been hanging with your boys all day, getting into trouble, laughing and cracking jokes on the crazy girls in your class (I’m a guy in this imagination – lol). And your just thinking, what’s next- the night is young and the windows open to whatever we want to get into! Then I think about riding round with the windows open, playing some good hip hop beats as your ride around town looking for something to get into, friends to visit, places to pre-game. For me, the song is all about ridin’ and traversing the city- similar to Grand Theft Auto, a game with a similar vein as Jet Set Radio. The sun goes down and then the city is lit with lights and you’ve never felt more alive and you’re about to go party like a rock star to prove it! It feels good to be young. Oh what a feeling! There is a luxury after all in Bre’s notion of jet setting and it’s the freedom of youth and the possibility for adventure that the city provides – if you are in for the ride.

Photography by Jenifer Vandagriff

Before interviewing Bre, I didn’t know his moniker BreFontaine was just a stage name. Like many of our screen names that we created from back when the Internet was a noob (I had jenizyomama, twolipz876, urbeautyqueen876, etc), the pseudonym stuck for BreFontaine. Unlike my aliases of yester-decade, the name comes from the track star legend Pre Fontaine. Fontaine chose the name back in the day to create a metaphor with his goals, which was trying to break track records musically! A lot of older people who know the track star are impressed with the slick association that most of us, again, might miss.

Fontaine got his start at making music at a young age, but has only been recording for about 8 years, which is enough time to make him mature and smart about the music business, and his own artistic directions. I use to work for a college advisor for undecided majors, and one thing she would tell all the undecided freshmen is that you aren’t suppose to know what you want to do with the rest of your life at 18! And I think it’s the same with music. Few young artists have enough experience musically or in life to assert artistic control, especially when it comes to big labels. Fontaine on the other hand has been making music long enough, he’s not the new kid on the block, but he does have new music out. And his first leak Jet Set Radio is an indication that he’s definitely grown up. I think his fans will attest to the musical growth as well.

Jet Set Radio actually caught a lot of Bre’s older fan base off guard. His older music was more aggressive with rhyme scheme galore. He said at the time people wanted to hear stuff like Eminem. They wanted to hear more words and feel what you were all about. Like Em, Fontaine was known for his beasting, an up-tempo rhyme scheme, and harsh on the tone. Fontaine’s latest music moves in a new direction with a stronger compliment of both aggressive tones and smooth sounds.

Born and raised in College Park, ATL, GA, Fontaine is unmistakably a southern gentleman although his music can’t be cast as having an ATL sound. With roots as an actor, rather than a musician, Fontaine looks at music the way an actor would look at a script. It’s always a new interpretation and he feeds off others. He draws inspiration from all sorts of artists from different walks of life and area codes from Eminem to Dean Martin. And Lupe of course. Fontaine says: To have a specific sound, regional wise, is limiting your possibility as a musician. As if to make only one type of sound.

Of the Atlanta music scene, Fontaine feels it is at present crowded with both the good and the bad. Atlanta is on right now and attracting so much attention that a lot of bad gets mixed in with the good; sometimes bringing the good down. On this he tells me: It’s been a long time since someone came out with something good to say and make you want to dance at the same time- like OutKast.

Interestingly, Fontaine went to the same high school as the duet. So while he doesn’t have a particular “ATL sound”, it’s not to say classic ATL artists like OutKast don’t influence him. His new feel good song, is perhaps an answer to his frustrations with ATL music. At the end of the day, BreFontaine says he is thankful that so much attention is on Atlanta music right now, because… it could be elsewhere.

Listen to more of BreFontaine’s music on Myspace at www.myspace.com/fontainelegacy and connect with him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/brefontaine for the latest news and updates of this ATL jetsetter.