Battleground City Members: The Messenger (DOB: Sept. 10 1977), The Ark (DOB: Nov. 13 1981),
Bloodbeth (DOB: Apr. 30 1992), Psalm Star (DOB: Dec. 31 1987)
Battleground City is a community development program that is devoted to providing events that will promote personal growth in the youth of Tucson, Arizona. Our purpose is to educate, equip, and establish young people to make an impact in their local communities. Through hip hop we intented to reach this goal. Some of Arizona’s top Christian Hip-Hop artists and some never before heard artists are featured. We intended to impact the youth not only in Tucson, but Arizona as a whole to show them who they are in Christ and also encourage fellow believers to impact the people around them.
Bloodbeth (DOB: Apr. 30 1992), Psalm Star (DOB: Dec. 31 1987)
Battleground City is a community development program that is devoted to providing events that will promote personal growth in the youth of Tucson, Arizona. Our purpose is to educate, equip, and establish young people to make an impact in their local communities. Through hip hop we intented to reach this goal. Some of Arizona’s top Christian Hip-Hop artists and some never before heard artists are featured. We intended to impact the youth not only in Tucson, but Arizona as a whole to show them who they are in Christ and also encourage fellow believers to impact the people around them.
Full Artist Profile, Links, and Interview after the Jump!
Warriors by Battleground City
You can go and Pickup their latest mixtape Ghostbusters: The Mixtape at:
Website: http://www.battlegroundcity.org/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bg_city
Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/battlegroundcity or http://www.facebook.com/BGCMusic
Sound Cloud Page: http://soundcloud.com/bgcity
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/bgcitymusic
Reverbnation: www.reverbnation.com/battlegroundcity
Email: booking@battlegroundcity.org
Members Twitter Accounts:
The Messenger: http://www.twitter.com/themessenger_77
Psalm Starr: http://www.twitter.com/PaytonakaPStar
The Messenger: http://www.twitter.com/themessenger_77
Psalm Starr: http://www.twitter.com/PaytonakaPStar
Interview:
Rhymetalk: Are you ready to start the interview?
BG: Yes we are.
BG: Yes we are.
Rhymetalk: How did battleground city get their name?
BG: Battleground City's name originated from a youth conference we would go to called Battleground. The head of this conference left the conference up to our CEO Ryan Larned who always knew God wanted him to start a youth conference that reaches out to the urban areas of Tucson in Arizona. With that he changed the name to Battleground City.
Rhymetalk: How did you guys assemble and become Battleground City?
BG: We originally assembled musically (Psalm Star and The Ark) back in June 2010. The Messenger and Bloodberth joined the group in October of 2011 and he have been a unit ever since. Let me know if there is anything else you ned from me.
Rhymetalk: Tell us a little about each member.
BG: Well there is Battleground City's Co-Founders Ryan and Chantis Larned. This husband and wife team are the ones who brought together the Battleground City team and just inspired the whole team with the vision God gave them to impact the city of Tucson. All of our graphic work is done by Ryan as well. Our booking manager and promotion person is Psalm Star. He is also one of the artists on the mixtapes. He is a singer and songwriter who connects with different artists and organizations to help promote Battleground City as a whole and bring awarness to what we do out here. The Ark is our media director. He's the man who does all of our mixing and mastering of our mixtapes/albums and creates music/promotion videos for us. Also he is a raw emcee who loves to freestyle so stay connected to us and you'll be seeing a lot of freestyles from him. The Messenger is also an emcee who has a more commerical/westcoast style to counteract The Ark's eastcoast style and Psalmstar's 80s/90s vocal style. He is the first of the artists to drop a full album called The Lord is My Ghost Writer available at CD Baby and Itunes now! Bloodberth is our newest and youngest member. This 19 year old is a producer and emcee who, like The Ark, have a similar east coast style which surprises people when you see him perform. You would never expect it fom this guy.
Rhymetalk: Whats the process like when making music? who gets to jump first on certain tracks?
BG: W are like a big family so its either whoever created the idea for the song or somebod will just randomly jump in the booth. When it come to creating songs we will share the idea with the whole crew before even going to the studio. If everybody's feeling the idea we spend time in prayer to get our verses and hooks down then just smash it out in the booth. Also since we all come from different backgrounds one of us will tend to bring the others out of their comfort zone with their style which makes us a better unit all together.
Rhymetalk: Where do you guys see yourselves 5 years from now?
BG: The vision is and always will be to impact the youth in Tucson Arizona with Free mixtapes, youth conferences, events and after school programs. We believe this will become a full time job to where we will be able to ministry full time and not rely on secular jobs for our income. We have been praying that we will obtain the money to get a building in downtown Tucson that would be perfect for this vision.
Rhymetalk: Do you plan expanding battleground city to country wide tour at one point? expanding out of Arizona?
BG: We always accept and love going out of state and/or country. We would never turn it down unless we simply just couldnt do it. However God has really wanted usto focus mainly on Tucson. Thats where our hearts are right now. Who knows what he has in store for us in the future.
Rhymetalk: What is your most important song? and what was your first? give us a small background on both.
BG: Our most important song has to be hands down Prayer for my city. Last Janurary Tucson was all over the news with the Gabrielle Giffords shoting and President Obama coming to Tucson. It seemed as if no artists, secular or christian, really expressed their opinion or feelings about it. So I (Psalm Star) got together with The Ark and The Messenger and told them I want to make a song that was a tribute to them and infom people that God still rules over this city. I didnt know that it would make as much of an impact with our fans as it did. I really wasn't feeling the song when it was done and I made some changes to it before releasing it on our mixtape called City of Ashes Vol. 2. The first time we performed it live the people loved it and it really hit home for them. I was amazed, The Ark and The Messenger til this day still tease me about it. Our first song we did together was back in 2009 called Warriors. I linked up with Bradley of Bradstar Productions and bought the beat from him simply because I liked it. I orginially just had myself (Psalm Star) and The Messenger on it, but shortly after The Ark liked it so much he asked to put a verse on it and there you have it. We alway get the crowd hyped up with that song ust encouraging them to be warriors for Christ and make war against sin.
Rhymetalk: Who could you see yourselves collaborating with in the next 2 years?
BG: Well we are already collaborating with Yaves, 7vnseal, and Corey Red. So we will be doing more with them. We have made pretty solid relationships with D-Maub and KDrama so we would like to do things with them along with Omega Sparx, Todd Bangz, Bizzle, Sevin, Tha Breax, R-Swift Lecrae...LOL. We have opened up for Braille and he signed our homie Lee Green to Humble Beast so we would love to work with them as well.
Rhymetalk: How did you come across Christian Hip-hop?
BG: Well We all kind of first came across the veterans like Corey Red and Cross Movement from seeing them in concert to sharing CDs. Then after that it was just a lot of researching and listening to podcasts like What in the Hamsandwich show and Dj Wade O.
Rhymetalk: How has Arizona contributed to your musical content?
The Messenger: AZ is where I began walking in my callingThe Ark: Everyone sounds the same so I strive to be different and against the grain and be my own person.
Psalm Star: If you aren't a major artist you get little to no love here. We want our music and concerts to be so amazing that people have a hard time deciding to go to a Drake concert or to our concert. I know it sound a little out there but thats the goal LOL
Rhymetalk: Could you share a miracle that God has done in your lives?
The Ark: Yes when my son Amari was born it changed my life. I knew right then when I looked into his eyes that I wanted to be a better man and a good father which is a miracle since I was going down a really bad path. Now ten years later I'm still here doing it for the lord.Rhymetalk: And Do you feel Lebron and the Heat deserved that win tonight and the 2012 nba champions?
Rhymetalk: We Boston fans too, it is what it is. But thanks for your time fam! May God continue to bless yall
BG: Ok great thank you very much fam. God bless you too!! Grace and peace.
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