Broad and Walnut, Cesar said “A crackhead tried to lick me in that Wawa once, she had no teeth too” Settled and collected among the high rises and that endearing distinct smell of urine (shoudout Phillyyy), former Center City transplants, the Darkwave Hip Hop/R&B duo 4VR (pronounced “forever”) slide through the streets with ease. Ren, in her signature slides (stupid pun 100% intended), knows exactly where to go to take the fire-est shots, leading us up to the top of a parking garage to take some pictures, Southern Comfort in-hand, “I used to come up here all the time when I was in school.” We got to a parking garage roof with a spectacular view of Philly’s dense Center City District and the giant glass arch of the Kimmel Center, the duo looked comfortable.
15th and South St, just off the University of the Arts campus, we sit in Quik Fixx, a little hole in the wall, upscale comfort food joint that Cesar insisted had a Spicy BBQ Chicken wrap that would not disappoint, Ren seemed disappointed. We sat down and talked to the duo over a meal and they let us behind the impressively stoic social media facade.
Ren, suburban-born, self-taught beat-maker, former in-house producer for Breed Studios, and Cesar, a pop music lover and lifelong rapper-singer-actor from North Philly, met once before they ~linked up~ professionally. Ren drunkenly flipped over a table when she was at a party at Cesar’s house while they were both studying at University of the Arts. Over drinks and loud music, Cesar saw the red hair fly, the table flip, shrugged and then went to bed. Little did he know that a year later, on the recommendation of mutual friends, once he found her on social media (which took longer than you’d think), they would be putting together ‘Back Up’ their killer debut single as 4VR, which now has racked up 22,000+ streams on Spotify alone. ‘Back Up’ along with their impeccably produced projects that followed, propelled them to city-wide success in just a little over a year.
Their first performance together was WINNING one of the RecPhilly Open Mics at William Street Commons (RIP). After that they did a couple random showcases, one at Creep Records where they encountered a man who called himself “Uncle Crates” (Digital Crates, of HipHop Since ’87 fame), who came up to their car window as they were leaving the gig. He plugged them in all across the city and began recording them.
Since then, 4VR has released an impressive catalogue of music, the crown jewel of which is ‘Roses Die’, the incredible, conceptual, darkwave mixtape that will melt your heart, harden it, and then drive you to drink… and party and bullshit and party and… Go listen if you haven’t already. Seriously. Click Here. Personal favorites being ‘Rendevous’, ‘Alone’ (Feat. Dom B), ‘She-She’ (Feat. Devin Farrell) and ‘I I’ (Feat. Rego), this tape has solidified 4VR as one of the top creative teams in the Philadelphia underground music scene. Between the flawless production and dreamy, intense, distinctive lyricism, they have positioned themselves for serious success and are not stopping anytime soon.
Their next project is called ‘GHOSTOWN’ and it’s out 12/6/19, culminating in 4VR’s first headlining show- GHOSTOWN: the Exhibit, a multi-media experience at the Artwear Gallery in Philadelphia. ‘GHOSTOWN’ began as the remedy to Ren’s feelings of complacency (as the duo worked and continues to work on three other projects). She sent Cesar five beats and ‘GHOSTOWN’ was born. With features from local acts CJ Mills and Rubber, the project is sure to scratch that R&B itch while serving us all that soul-stirring darkwave magic 4VR is known for.
Go follow 4VR on all their socials to keep up to date on all the madness, and check out their upcoming shows in support of their new EP ‘GHOSTOWN’, you won’t be disappointed.
Comentarios