Meet Foundation Mecca

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Foundation Mecca. Foundation was introduced to us by the brilliant and talented Lord Goldie.

Hi Foundation, we’re so thrilled to have you sharing your story with us today. Maybe we can kick things off by having you introduce yourself to our readers? We’d love to have you go into your story and how you got to where you are today.
My story is very interesting I grew up in the country in Pegram,Tennessee to be exact about 20min outside of Nashville. Very country rural area one street light type of town, Where everybody knows everybody. A lot of my family stayed there, my cousin’s aunties and uncles as well as my grandparents who I stayed with. I also went back to fourth to Nashville and stayed with my mom on the weekends and sometimes even go to school in Nashville but always use to get make fun of because I was too country for the black kids in the public schools Sometimes to black for the white kids in the schools in the country. This made me a Black Sheep but also an outcast where would I have to know myself a little bit more by spending more time with myself. Soon this will lead to suicidal thoughts but even more so suicidal attempts on my own life Around junior high. But the moment before I hung myself I Had a vision from within my mind of me performing in front of a big crowd with big lights that was so bright I could barely see and people screaming my name over and over loudly as possible as if it already had happened it was so real this is when I knew I wasn’t meant to die at that moment it was too soon God had whispered to me. Back in the day Me and my brother always was attracted to music of all kinds, between my mama and her boyfriends from over time playing Tupac and NWA and the brat and Kriss kross and my grandparents bumping Motown or anything from 70s on Saturdays and gospel music on Sundays including our diverse surroundings we was influenced by many genres from all backgrounds. But I’d never picked up the pen after i was dared To write a rap about Kool aid for 5 bucks. I took the deal and haven’t looked back since. I started getting serious about writing poetry after reading 2Pac’s poetry book “Rose out of Concrete” that my mom had on her shelf. That book and later down the road getting influenced by more poetry from Langston Hughes and “Rasin in the Sun”ae well ae other greats, introduced to me by Mrs. Robichaud, My seventh grade teacher. Which open my eyes to the new world of vocabulary in word play, meaning and depth, ane art. with this expression in a new way that I never felt before, some would call this feeling freedom. After that I started freestyling with my big cousins Franky and Bo and my little brother Rico , I started sharpening my word play and poetry and putting it over beats and instrumentals of popular songs. The next level was recording over tapes and cassettes with Grandmamas tape player. This was a turning point for me when I could hear myself back and realize I can do this. There was no turning back from this feeling after that start doing my history on hip hop from New York to West Coast and the south And became fans of Ludacris Missy Elliott, Tupac, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Hot Boys, No limit, Jay Z, Nas And Black Star and The Roots Earlier on. I was addicted to writing my expressions on Paper basically penning my diary in a sense. I would write every day after school to be better then my cousins and little friendly competition. Me and my cousin would play this game where we would come up with the best 16 bars everyday we’ll be pulled up at school get off the bus then we would battle rap and compare notes. break down each verse bar for bar and give eachother advice, well mostly receiving advice from my cousin, hes Franky was way more season then me if anything I was learning from him. Shortly after Me and my brother formed a rap group called GI Frontline meaning (Generation Invasion) because we felt our gener was taking over and were the leaders of it. We would press up CDs go to the park and pass them out, for example at our local radio station’s events, at African street festivals, 21 and up clubs even though we was only like 16 and 17 to young to get in. We would play anywhere we could get a chance to perform, especially when it was an opportunity to rap with our family who had a group called “Painkillas” Aka “Hoodstyle” lead by my older cousin Bruce Jr, they was making alot of dope music with UGK and Pistol who’s also my first cousin who had a deal with Easy E and was signed to Ruthless records, legends. Overtime Me and my brother will go on to get mentor by Lorenzo Washington, owner of Jefferson street sound and the Historic “Jefferson street Museum” where we would come close to signing a major record deal with Lions Gates as a gospel Hip Hop group. But this would later fall through for unknown reasons. But I would go on to form a Hip Hop/country/rock/Rnb (multi genre) group With newly found friends that move in next to me and my brother as our neighbors we would form the group “4 Corners” which consisted of me, my brother (the rappers) Matt, (white country boy vocalist and Josh( a Latin vocalist and guitarist), a match made in heaven lol. This would help me sharpen my songwriting and performance skills of different genres as well as infused them. I never thought about writing before and performing in front diverse audiences they didn’tlook like me. After a few shows around town this would lead to us auditioning in front of “Trailer Choir’s” very own Big Vinny who was signed to Toby Keith’s label “Show Dog Nashville”, considering signing us. As well as shows like performing at the local downtown club Limelight as an opener for Bone Thugs in Harmony who showed us major love and mean all 5 of them perfored which was a rare thing, this gave me confirmation that I was on the right track with music but meeting opening up for legends I looked up to for so long. This boosted our confidence and gave us inspiration to create a project but due to disagreements of the direction of the group it was short lived. With that knowledge and experience I went on to do Cyphers and jam sessions with freinds Jimmy aka JustJim, Moutainwalker, BJ (who recently passed from police violence), Joshua Odine, JO who recently passed as well, my brother who was known as Amen Shaman, Jessy Wilson, Mariel Cutler, Jersey and many, many more. These were call ” A Night with the Mos High” Probably because they would happen every Sunday. This would help me create a sense of community around Hip Hop with my peers. Around this era I discovered so many new artists and new project from artist like Mos Def, Pete rock and dig in to the crates more. I would later take this same approach with spoken word cypher called the Pillars and alongside Joe Bazelai and Joe Adole and the homie Tim. This will transition to my house years later while withdraw gym sessions in cipher’s close to 3 years out of the living room of my trailer This is where I met most of the city in the underground of Nashville. To me this was the Renaissance happening in real time. Unknowingly at the time this would propell me as a leader in the community and help spread hip hop and other means of arts of expression in safe spaces around town. Bring art, hip hop, musicians community, poets, and creative of all walks of life into one space freely be them unapologetically through art and the Mos High himself. They will later call it “The Mecca” which is how got my name Foundation “Mecca”. I still throw cyphers til this called the Sunday Funday Cyphers partening up with Lord Goldieamd Bonafyde mag boxi g gym . It goes down ever 4th Sunday. Shortly after I got my Monica foundation mecca and went on to meet another amazing artist/producer named Chaz Mckinney aka Spazz Cardigan. Who helped me build a catalog and put together my first album our chemistry in the studio was unmatched we was determined to make the most experimental, lyrical, genre bending, unexpected first album. He would play a beat and then I would hear something, freestyle to it then we build from there. To easy to make songs together, within a few months my first official project “The Great Tape” was on streaming platforms and band camp which was all very new to not just me but everyone. I didn’t know what I was doing at all but to accomplish something of that magnitude was successful enough for me. I shot my very first video with Spazz my brother, and Dante Marsh. It would be directed by Joe Bazelai on my family’s land of 5 acres in PegramTN,. Had a release party invited a bunch of friends and sold a bunch of CDs after the successful show. From there I kept building and met other friends and family along the journey like my now partner in ryhme Ahdeli and Grammy winning producer KonscenceeBeatz and would join forces to create Heru Heru a hip Hop collective who aim is to bring the origins, morals and feeling of Hip Hop from the golden era back to the fore front of the culture and uplift a new Golden era. We would go on to make numerous projects that would be featured many articles and blogs get radio play as well as get co signed by the late great DMX himself and his team thanks to Ahdeli’s and his familys hospitality when he came to Nashvilleto recordhis last record. Our biggest song rn is called “Moving on” produced by Gako streaming at close to a million streams as we speak. We are now working on dropping new music very soon. It’s been a hard road to make where I’m at now from raising two boys Jr and Noah 14 and 12, in the midst of the my whole career and still continuing to do music after my son went through a tragic situation with a live wire that burned 75 to 80 percent of his body and led to a amputation of his dominant arm. This was a very very triumph of 4 months in the vanderbilt hospital with me and his mom that contemplated quitting music and just working full-time 9:00 to 5:00pm and focus on family. This is when I realized I have a true tribe in community everybody came out to help me support the family, people I haven’t seen in years, different people from the cyphers that I met on long the journey in the music community. Right after recovery my kids confirmed that I was meant to do music by being inspired themselves wanted to make music as well. Also the fact that my son was able to heal faster through music therapy. Hint my movement with Heru Heru called Heal Hop The meaning is Helen people do hip-hop because music is powerful from vibrations to frequencies. Also the change the narrative of how hip-hop is looked at today with drill and trap nothing angainst those genres but my people needed to be on the higher vibration and me my crew knew that The only way to get there is to get back to the morals of hip-hop which is peace, love, unity, and safely having fun. So today I pushed that movement everyday by dropping music every Monday’s called Mecca Monday’s and freestyles also helping kids with prison prevention with a organization called GRIP along side metro arts, Juvenile Detention Center and T Pac and by building with my brother Jaffee Judah and his organization recycle reinvests and B4L stopping gun violence as well as cleaning the neighborhoods to reduce crime. Just like anybody else hilling for child or traumas to adult dramas has been a journey saki speaking it through the mulike my new project with my sister Lord Godie call “Heal Talk” dropping in fall this year, we talk about those things and hopefully somebody can relate and heal with us, as we contribute the healing movement especially after covid which and my close friend Ahdeli started a podcast called Mc 2 Mc with a company called Upstate Sound to talk Nashville talent,events and healing through a pandemic we went in to do 36 episodes and 36 weeks. Quite a feat for us seeing that we never did a podcast before. This help become more comfortable doing podcast with Blkbloodvoices another dope podcast out now speaking on entrepreneurial creative sharing ownership stories. In this life I learned to take risk be different but be yourself And on a way to get somebody to believe in you is you believing yourself but most of all stay persistent no matter what.

Please talk to us about your creative work and career. What should we know?
My art is based on my experiences and other peoples experiences and is uplifting most of the time. I’m all about inspiring people through to do lyrics to the music itself when I produce beats or just the overall vib. I had this one epiphany when I was younger to be “Music” what it would feel like to be completely made of music so I think that sits in the center of my creative process of what music actually feels like if you could just immerse yourself within it unapologetically hence why I’m so experimental with the frequencies and vibrations and genre bending with music that I explore. My creative’s process Is different every time I might go into the studio produce a beat feel inspired to write to it or I may find other beats from Konsciousbeatz my one of my main producers are Don Ray another main producer I work with or something I produced myself and freestyle to it then go onto the song from there, but my favorite part is collaborating with people of all Of all walks of life doesn’t matter, I just like music it’s a part of me in every way, I breathe it I think it I wake up thinking about it , I dream it even. I believe it is my purpose to use it to heal people inspire people uplift people and give people hope and also to deliver the truth when its necessary to speak it, its a responsibility just like any superpower any super hero has I have to use it for good and I know that at the very core. People can find my work at https://open.spotify.com/artist/25O65QRyeuIvnbCNtMqoGv?si=Voc_pQ58QWKTBdK1zr24CA
https://youtube.com/@foundationmecca9901
IG: Officialfoundationmecca

Lord Goldie has been a great friend to us and I know you’ve got a great relationship as well. Maybe you can tell our audience a bit about Lord and your experience with them.
I first discovered Goldie years ago through her CD “Bulit 2 Last” which dropped on streaming platforms for the first time recently. I remember bumping it front to back all summer and became a fan. I would go on to see her again at a event or two and we would build. Then come to find out we would meet again at a catering job through our mutual friend Scott. This tighten our relationship amd was a sign we was meant to work together. Since then we’ve worked on bout of our very first country/hip-hop record Sunday Funday now streaming close 600k streams over all platforms. Shot a video and launched a whole campaign behind it to prove to music city local artist can make hits just like the industry artist. This was all the results of our very first writing session. As build our musical relationship we had a bright idea to perform around the city together multiple times and even do a joint project with producers from around the city such as our main producer for this project Nate Melville. Also Playthatbeatweewee, my cousin grammy winning producer KonscienceBeatz and many more. This album speaks about out traumas, trials and tribulations as well as give people light and postive affirmations for their day to day journey base on our experiences through speaking on what faced, what get us through the day to day of life and work. But it’s also a fun album to play at the water fall or on a hike with friends, this is for the human being looking enlighment and on their healing journey as well. Working with Goldie is fun, inspiring and motivating because you know it’s going somewhere, there’s a mission and objective and going to push everything we dropped theres no waisted energy with Goldie shots going to get some regardless. She has a good heart and always keep it a 10000 with you and honest there’s no fake in her she doesn’t how to be what you see is what you get most of all she look out for her people and give as much game as she can and pull her resources if she’s need to Goldie is our mayor straight up. The Heal Hop movement is born out of the over saturation of killing and low vibrational music on the radio amd I. the Industry. The idea came to me one in a studio session tripping shrooms. Like my 2nd time doing it so I was knew to it. As I was meditating this voice spoke to me and these words appeared that said Heal Hop and I just seen the whole globe of people who needed healing or something versus the alternative, then I seen generation of kids pushing and supporting the movement after that I came to amd told me my people and it became the of the first album Heru Heru my Hip Hop collective dropped. The movement is not only about healing the people but healing Hip Hop itself from the negative light it gets and showing people it can be fun, genuine and feel good again like it once did in the golden era. But we have to change the narrative because it’s bigger than Hip Hop. As Nashvillian Emcee growing up Music city you see the racism within the music industry based who get opportunities and who dont no matter how hard you try. Unfortunately you have to leave you your city become a premier artist or just break your record and get the props you truly deserve. My cousins Bruce Jr and Pistol had to do it including Young Buck. Every since the municipal auditorium had shooting and stampede incident in the 90s at a big Hip Hop show with the likes of Wu Tang , Ll cool J, Doug E Fresh and slick rick, Run dmc and more Nashville has never been the same. But we trying to push for Hip Hop on Broadway by bringing all the crews of Nashville together and make a impact and a stand for equality in Musc City.

Contact Info: 

Instagram: https://instagram.com/officialfoundationmecca?igshid=MzNlNGNkZWQ4Mg==

Twitter: https://twitter.com/foundationMecca?t=0jjRQc-O4_8DnkbZIKE_Fw&s=09

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@foundationmecca9901

Soundcloud: Check out Foundation Mecca on #SoundCloud https://on.soundcloud.com/EQgn5

Other: https://audius.co/foundationMecca