Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Guest Speaker Thursday morning
Tomorrow morning the early class, 8-9 a.m. will have a guest. Read the bio and bring in a few (3) questions you might want to ask our guest. We will meet in the library.
Charles Foster started playing drums in church at age 9. He moved piano and singing at age 10. He wrote his first rap song for younger cousin Agerman (3X Krazy) at age 12. He wrote his first song, "You Are My heart," for his mother and grandmother with older cousin at age 14. By 18 he'd written over 20 songs. He formed his own singing group, "Soul Mentality," at 19 and began recording. Soul Mentality had some local success, two songs in rotation on radio (KSOL).
Then Foster disbanded the group (when?) and began to focus heavily on producing (why?). From 1995 to 1998 he worked with a number of local artists including Too $hort, Ant Banks, Ho Frat Ho, Hammer, Ray Luv, Toni Tony Tone, and 3X Crazy, which he helped get signed to a major deal.
In 1998 disgusted with "the industry," Foster decided to get out of music for a while and built a studio. 2002 he had his own label, Now or Never Records.
In 2004 he left his job of six years after signing and dropping three artists in a two year span. Things looked promising when he began to get into music production for advertising agencies and websites. For the past three years this has been his career. His primary marketing avenue is Mayspace.com, but also word of mouth referrels. He currently has over 90 clients from myspace that record in his studio. He's also produced a number of tracks for websites and we might have heard some of his music in commercials for Suave, Trident, Hyphy Juice, Plastikon, and others.
Music producer Charles "Middle C" Foster is married with four children and lives in Oakland, California.
"One of my most memorable experience was being able to witness the creativity of Tupac Shakur first hand." He said. "Though I have never produced a tack for him, I was able to watch Mr. Shakur in action in the studio and he was truly born to rap! He was a different person than what he showed in public. In the three and a half years that I have been in the business full time, I have experienced extreme highs and some lows, but I wouldn't change anything. I am looking forward to interacting with the class and answering as many questions about music, hip hop and Mr. Shakur as I can."
Charles Foster started playing drums in church at age 9. He moved piano and singing at age 10. He wrote his first rap song for younger cousin Agerman (3X Krazy) at age 12. He wrote his first song, "You Are My heart," for his mother and grandmother with older cousin at age 14. By 18 he'd written over 20 songs. He formed his own singing group, "Soul Mentality," at 19 and began recording. Soul Mentality had some local success, two songs in rotation on radio (KSOL).
Then Foster disbanded the group (when?) and began to focus heavily on producing (why?). From 1995 to 1998 he worked with a number of local artists including Too $hort, Ant Banks, Ho Frat Ho, Hammer, Ray Luv, Toni Tony Tone, and 3X Crazy, which he helped get signed to a major deal.
In 1998 disgusted with "the industry," Foster decided to get out of music for a while and built a studio. 2002 he had his own label, Now or Never Records.
In 2004 he left his job of six years after signing and dropping three artists in a two year span. Things looked promising when he began to get into music production for advertising agencies and websites. For the past three years this has been his career. His primary marketing avenue is Mayspace.com, but also word of mouth referrels. He currently has over 90 clients from myspace that record in his studio. He's also produced a number of tracks for websites and we might have heard some of his music in commercials for Suave, Trident, Hyphy Juice, Plastikon, and others.
Music producer Charles "Middle C" Foster is married with four children and lives in Oakland, California.
"One of my most memorable experience was being able to witness the creativity of Tupac Shakur first hand." He said. "Though I have never produced a tack for him, I was able to watch Mr. Shakur in action in the studio and he was truly born to rap! He was a different person than what he showed in public. In the three and a half years that I have been in the business full time, I have experienced extreme highs and some lows, but I wouldn't change anything. I am looking forward to interacting with the class and answering as many questions about music, hip hop and Mr. Shakur as I can."
