Flipsyde is a famous American experimental music group that was formed in 2003. Until now, the group has been actively releasing new songs, despite the fact that its creative path can be called truly ambiguous.
Flipside's musical style
You can often hear the word "strange" in descriptions of the music of this group. "Weird music" means a combination of many different styles at the same time. Here and classic hip-hop with rock, smoothly flowing into rhythm and blues.
The combinations, at first glance, are quite wild, but the musicians manage to make them quite harmonious. However, such a variety of different styles does not allow the group to form a large "fan" base among fans of a particular genre.
Here, everyone will find something for themselves. Someone will love Flipsyde for soulful soul motives, someone for aggressive rap, and someone for melodic rock ballads.
At the same time, in their music, performers manage to combine completely different moods and states. So, most of the compositions have an inherent fast, aggressive tempo, which does not prevent the melodies from sounding rather soft and smooth.
Members of the Flipsyde team
The first line-up of the team included three members: Steve Knight, Dave Lopez and D-Sharp. Steve played the guitar and was the main vocalist of the group, Dave played one of two guitars on various tracks - regular and electric guitars.
D-Sharp was the band's full-time DJ and brought in the hip hop sound. Ginho Ferreira (creative pseudonym Piper) entered the ranks of musicians a little later.
Chantel Page was the last to join the band in 2008. Thus, we got a musical quartet, in which everyone was responsible for a specific direction.
Flipside career
Despite the fact that the group was created back in 2003, its creative formation took place in the first years - the arrival of the new musician Piper, the search for a suitable musical style, etc.
Their music is a symbiosis of many genres. Such a complex form of music was preceded by a long search and preparation. Therefore, the group released their debut album only in 2005.
History has shown that the long preparation was not in vain. The first release - and such popularity! A lot of people talked about the release called We the People.
The most striking example is The Washington Post, which has a million audience worldwide, in one of its articles named Flipsyde the best rap group in 2006.
Numerous rotations in music programs and various charts also accompanied the release of the album for a long time. Thus, the success was triumphant.
However, the high level of sales and rotation was not the only reward for the musicians for this album. NBC (National Broadcasting Company) chose one of the singles from the album as the main theme of the 2006 Winter Olympics (were in Italy, in the city of Turin). We are talking about the song Someday. It was this song that was released in 2005 as the first single from the forthcoming release.
Flipsyde collaboration with Akon record label
After overwhelming success and several tours, the musicians sat down to record their second album. The rapper and singer Akon, already widely known at that time, became its producer. It was on his music label Konvict Muzik that the recording took place, and later the release of the disc.
The title of the upcoming album was State of Survival. It was during its recording in 2008 that the singer Shantel Paige joined the band. After her arrival and the beginning of cooperation with the Akon company, the group had an incredible opportunity - to write music for the Olympic Games for the second time.
So, they recorded the composition Champion, which sounded more than once during the 2008 Summer Games, held in Beijing. Their producer Akon also took part in this song.
Such a promo allowed the group to declare itself literally to the whole world. The hit Someday from the first album stormed the US charts for more than a year and before it had time to go into the shadows, the Champion track from the upcoming second album was released. In addition, cooperation with Akon also added interest from a mass audience.
The album State of Survival was released in March 2009. In his support, a joint tour with Akon took place. The album was accepted by the public no less warmly than the first. Many tracks received active rotation not only on US radio stations, but also in Europe.
After 7 years
10 years after the release of their debut album, the musicians presented their third work. On My Way was released in 2016, 7 years after its second release. Time has affected the popularity of the group.
The album did not receive significant commercial success and was generally received rather tepidly. Many critics commented that the band was "slowly losing its style" in favor of a major label deal.
Collaboration with the label of the rapper Akon was suspended almost immediately after the release of the album State of Survival. The group is currently partnering with another company. More than four years have passed since the release of the last record.
Musicians do not change themselves and do not rush to release new material, preferring to hone it to perfection. There are several new singles on the band's website today. The group continues to give concerts mainly in US cities.
