Anyone who went to college parties in the 90′s will recall that when the US3 hit song, Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) came on, all those hot, scantily-clad sorority chicks would go absolutely bananas – and if they were drunk enough, they might even flash you some totally gratuitous boob. So while you might have moved on to some boring desk job after graduation, the US3 clique, led by funky London producer/instrumentalist Geoff Wilkinson is seven albums deep into their jazz/hip-hop journey and still going strong. Their newest opus is the newly released, harder-edged, stripped-down LP titled stop, think, run.
“The music of US3 has always been about mixing up jazz & Hip-Hop,” Geoff states, “and I’m constantly intriqued about the many ways that can be done. I have a very wide ranging taste in music, and try to make my albums reflect that. This new album has a harder edge, that’s just the way I was feeling at this time. It’s the first album I’ve mixed totally out of the box in my own studio and I really took my time to get it right.”
Also on this album, Geoff is joined by two young NYC spitters, Sene and Brooke Yung, who bring loads of lyrical heart to the proceedings. Tracks like the philosophical “The Future Ain’t What it Once Was” and the poignant “The Love of My Life” featuring Sene and Yung respectively are just two of the many bangers on the album.
About the track “The Future Ain’t…,” Geoff offers a broad perspective analysis: “I nearly used hat as the ablum title but I changed my mind. Sene & I talked a lot about this one before he wrote the lyrics. We were discussing the idea that most people look forward to things with optimism, yet the financial reality of stock market crashes, banks defaulting, currency crashes/etc. has decimated the financial futures of millions of people. I thnk the economies of the western world are about to reap what they sowed for a long time.”
The video for “The Love of My Life” has already been shot and is steadily gaining in views on YouTube, and the next video for the track “Turn It Up” is following soon. As far as promotions for the new album, the US3 click is touring like crazy to get the word out. “We’ve already done 27 shows in 12 different countries in Europe this year. It’s an 8-piece on stage and the live show rocks hard! Wilkinson declares. “I would love to bring the US3 live band over to the U.S. too.”
As far as ablum #7 being the end to the US3 journey, don’t bet on it. There’s too much inspiration on this earth to keep Wilkinson away from the studio.
“The beautiful smiling face of my daughter is my primary inspiration, ” he gushes. “Jeez, I sound like a hippy! I can find inspiration in all sorts of things, not just music. It’s the greatest thing to walk down the street, have an idea, go to the studio & develop it to the point where it’s released and then other people are waling down the street listening to it. Anyway I need to get my tracks together so I’m ready when Q-Tip & Nas come calling…(ha!).”
