Phoniks is a hip-hop producer from Portland, Maine known for his vintage-90’s boom bap production style and melodic jazz and soul samples. The 23-year old producer released the critically acclaimed “Return to the Golden Era” album with emcee Awon on 7/30/2013 as well as a series of 4 remix tapes from 2011-2014. He has been featured in publications such as Cheatbook Magazine, Respect Magazine, The Find Mag, The Word Is Bond, 2DopeBoyz, DJBooth.net, and The Source.
Awon & Phoniks return with the first single “Summer Madness” off their upcoming LP Knowledge Of Self set to release early Fall 2015. The song focuses on black on black violence in urban communities as well racially geared violence and mistreatment of youth by law enforcement. Awon speaks lyrically on incidents from his past and appeals to his community to hold themselves accountable for their actions, at the same time cautioning his listeners to the danger of violence at the hands of police. Phoniks sets the backdrop to his testimony with a combination of jazzy rhodes piano and boom-bap drums, while smooth saxophone samples weave themselves in and out of the composition.
Awon & Phoniks – Summer Madness
Awon & Phoniks – Summer Madness Lyrics:
Summertime you wanna get your groove on
Get your move on
The streets be Moulin Rouge yo
Some thugs packing the uzo
Or hollering at shorties
Trynna get them some culo
Gangsters godfathers like Mario Puzo
Take out the brother who be getting the loot though
Another ghetto star dressed up in his suit not for prom, graduation
But his summertime funeral
The weathers hot
So is the block and the waistline
Of all the wolves who be plotting trynna take shine
The summertime should be filled with no pain
This one is dedicated to those days it rained
When the concrete was stained
By the violence of the streets
The humid nights filled with police sirens and white sheets
It’s rare that the summer brings peace and no beef
I pour a little Henny
For the homies
Rest in Peace
Summer madness, The season of bleeding
Summer madness, The season of grieving
Summer madness, Brings along the sadness
Summer madness, Some are tragic
Even though the blunts and the 40s be out
They putting 30s in the clips
While the shorties is out
The brother Sayeed told me lil homie got hit
Right on Mother’s Day
Now my stomach is sick
The violence doesn’t solve it
And the problems persist
Authorities ain’t trynna fix the problem for shit
Population control
When we kill off our own
Each one teach one
Yo It starts in the home
I tell my seeds I love them
Cause it weighs on my dome
That the streets so crazy
might not make it back home
I just pray everyday
That I make it to see
Another tomorrow
Time borrowed from the summer indeed
So if you understand the struggle
You can take it from me
Early graves ain’t a place
People waiting to see
But the summer brings satan
With the warmth and the wrath
So if you hear gun fire stay
Out of it’s path
[chorus]
It’s something about humid days and hot nights
That get niggas murdered
When they got the spot light
Goons stay lurking eyes open on your block
Beef with rival crews
You stay ducking the cops
Even with id
You get humiliated
Handcuffed in front of your crib
Also the neighbors
They call you a boy
When they know you a man
Summertime especially
You not free in this land of dreams
And prosperity
We lost integrity
Death is our destiny
If jail not catching me first
I don’t want to hold another hearse
Don’t say rest in peace another verse
But as long as racism lurks
And people Are jerks
Is the time frame
When innocent kids are getting hurt
Black on Black crime
What about black and blue
You won’t understand until it happens to you
I know every summer
My niggas act a fool
Ain’t no excuses
I ain’t trying to say it’s cool
But every man is responsible from his own deeds
And actions I got that from the ogs
So we ain’t got a gun
And we ain’t holding no keys
We checked out clean
So let us go free
With all do respect
Why don’t killers get profiled
Seems like you send them to my hood to go wild
Every summer
[chorus]
