About Me
Emerging in 2004, when crunk music and southern hip hop was taking over the hip-hop world, the Detroit, MI-based Wisemen plotted to create music that was natural, revolutionary, street, and of the utmost quality. The Wisemen’s plan is to be great, simply because of their music. The Wisemen were initially assembled as a group of seven MCs. Whittled down to the most serious in the group, the four remaining members plan to establish The Wisemen as a force to be reckoned with on their debut album, Wisemen Approaching. Electing their group name stems from the idea that in whatever context, or situation, we remain wise and use our wisdom to make correct moves.All four members work their own ingredients into the chemistry. Bronze Nazareth, the critically acclaimed Wu Tang Producer-and MC, Kevlaar 7, also an MC as well as producer. Phillie, west Detroit MC, and Salute (the Kid) East Detroit MC. Like most inner city youth, the Wisemen began life trying to get by whatever way they could. For Bronze, that meant keeping a job, scraping up money for equipment, and when life hit hard, stealing food from the local grocer, and getting his feet wet in “get by†work. Also growing up in a city they called “Gun Rule†Kevlaar 7 was rolling the city streets with friends also searching for a way out. Escaping their pains through music, Bronze & Kevlaar eventually formed a group named “The Unknownâ€. After completing an album together, that garnered only internet and local sales attention, the disheartening experience would prove most important to the Wisemen. After signing with Wu Tang and moving to Detroit, Bronze Nazareth and Kevlaar 7 began discussing a new group. Bronze had an idea to build a seven man group, called the 7 Wisemen. Kevlaar 7 moved to Detroit shortly after Bronze and they began efforts to put a recording studio together. Bronze discovered Phillie in the streets of West Detroit, while circulating his business card to possible beat customers. “We met at a weed spot, and Phillie told me he rhymed, so I played him some beats and we went back and forth freestylin, and we just seemed to connect on the same mental plainâ€, reports Bronze. Growing up on the infamous numbers streets, a rough set of blocks in Southwest Detroit, Phillie learned how to use his mental to stay swift. While trying to stay afloat in the streets and avoid bids, Phillie would hustle his money, and then concentrate on music. Paying dues for years, Phillie formed and then disbanded from several groups and labels who couldn’t match his work ethic, or groom his potential. On the eastside, a chance meeting at work, led Bronze to Salute the Kid. Salute and Bronze also thought on the same plain and began to discuss life. “We felt the same way about shit, and since that day, we always looked out for each other, but then Bronze caught me writing rhymes, he aint even tell me how deep he was in the industry†says Salute. Growing up in the projects, Salute earned his name by the natural way of the streets. A live street history led Salute through wild years, where he politicked in the grimiest of spots, and eventually he found himself experiencing tragic tribulations. Salute vowed to get himself together, and attempt to fly right. Bronze introduced them to Kevlaar they built at several studio sessions and we all came together. This would form the crew that would evolve into the Wisemen. With their 2007 debut, the thought provoking and menacing Wisemen Approaching, The Wisemen have created a hazy, threatening, and thoughtful soundscape out of mesmurizing beats, bleeding piano riffs, and surgeon chopped samples. Over these powerful beats, the MCs rap with no regard as to what’s “hotâ€, they provoke thought imagery, and update a vanished art of beats rhymes and life.
