Editor: Tef Poe is an artist from St. Louis City. Through powerful imagery and complicated honesty, he has earned a reputation as one of the best rappers telling the story of St. Louis, which is about much more than one place. Poe has been featured in music publications such as XXL and Urb Magazine. His project The Hero Killer was released on January 21st and will followed up by a full-length with DJ Burn One entitled Cheer For The Villain. Follow him on twitter @tefpoe. Get The Hero Killer here.

Every week with my column I try to give a voice to the voiceless. The hip-hop producers of our city are the men and women behind the curtain keeping the culture alive but almost never getting the credit they deserve. I decided I wanted to do something special by interviewing some of the biggest Saint Louis hip-hop producers alive. This week we spoke with the prolific Tech Supreme.

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Photos courtesy of the artists

Kate Middleton and Prince William are getting married in a matter of hours (have you heard about this at all?). You can watch the Royal Wedding via webcam, but let's be honest: Weddings are boring when you're actually there. So we'll take a pass on grainy video feeds. However, we thought we'd bring this whole deal a little closer to home by asking sixteen St. Louis wedding bands to imagine themselves in England, playing the gig of a lifetime. The five questions they were responding to:
-What five songs would you have to play?
-Would you take requests? Do you have a general policy on this, and if you would do it differently for this wedding, why?
-If they left it up to you, what would you play for the couple's first dance?
-If you were told you absolutely had to get Queen Elizabeth II on the dance floor, what song would you play?
-Which guest would you personally most want to sweep off his/her feet for a night of romance?

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Judy Miller

Zola Jesus, aka Nika Roza Danilova, isn't an easy woman to track down. The Russian American singer celebrated her birthday earlier this week, and in between touring, recording and finishing her degrees in French and Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, she managed to find a few minutes to answer some quick questions. The pitch-black pop singer plays a free show tonight at the Billiken Club with Brooklynites Cult of Youth.

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Josh Levi

Kevin Harris of Floating Laboratories

Saint Louis might be the last place standing for the emerging American artist -- and no one knows that better than Kevin Harris. The Floating Laboratories founder has been a resident of St. Louis for just under five years -- and during this time, he's solidified friendships with like-minded artists and enthusiasts, namely Cherokee Street's Galen Gandolfi. Inspired by the likes of Fort Gondo and the late Radio Cherokee, Harris slowly formed his utopian ideas on sustainable, affordable art studios/venues.

It was only a matter of time before Harris found his own place in the sun, which is nestled in a riverside palace amongst the cliffs and barges of South St. Louis. Rising from the graffiti'd excess of it's former skatepark/hardcore house reputation as Building R, Harris has transformed the 3000-square-foot space into a haven for new-age synth weirdos, experimental noise musician, and the occasional Fluxus artist. With the help of local event coordinators such as Jeremy Kannapell, the team of Joe Hess & Mabel Suen, and Joseph Raglani, It appears that the future of Floating Laboratories knows no bounds. Since being established in June of 2009, Floating Laboratories has become one of many arts/music compounds coming to prominence in the St. Louis area.

Between his gig as an electrical engineer, studio musician, and freelance circuit designer, I was fortunate enough to catch up with Kevin Harris for a few questions.

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photo by Jennifer Silverberg

Gotta Be Karim looks damn good in tweed.

​Last time we checked in on Gotta Be Karim, the U-City native had just swapped his Cardinals fitted cap for a Braves lid in his music video for "When You See Me," causing us to joke that it looked like he finally cut ties with his hometown since moving from STL to ATL at the end of 2008.

Of course, we were only kidding. Dude loves St. Louis more than the Mayor.

Gotta Be returns to town tonight to perform at the Gramophone with his old comrades in the Force (see show flyer after the jump), in honor of the release of his latest album, Bullets and Books.

We caught up with him earlier this week and discussed everything from his craving for some old fashioned St. Louis chop suey to "Do For Self," his strategy for making a name for himself in the Atlanta hip-hop scene.

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Berrek Thompson and Justin Price, the founders of Music of The Hour. Their new website launches today.

There's a new blog on the block launching today in St. Louis. Meet Music of the Hour, a brand-spankin' new music website founded by Berrek Thompson and Justin Price. MOTH aims to be a fully interactive site to which anyone can contribute. They plan to cover music on the local, regional and national levels, and already boast contributors in California, Texas and the Northeast, as well as here in St. Louis.

"Our goal was never really to be limited to local coverage," says Price. "What we're doing trying to do is use Saint Louis as an example of what's possible with MOTH in our ability to cover what's happening. We hope that other people will follow us in doing that with their local scene and contribute it to our site. We want to be fully user-interactive, in that anyone who wants to contribute essays, interviews or album recommendations are welcome."

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Josh Levi

Jordan Hicks of Open Lot

Open Lot might be one of the city's most exciting hidden gems. Tucked away in an old yeast factory in Lafayette Square, the space stands unassumingly behind Square One Brewery, next to residential housing and...an open lot.

Since opening in October 2007, Open Lot has embraced the likes of experimental musicians, innovative graphic designers and avant-garde studio artists. Initially conceptualized by the trio of Aaron Jacobson, Jonathan Lisenby, and Jordan Hicks, Open Lot has quickly evolved from an art-house experiment to an established pillar of the St. Louis art and music community (It's even moving beyond the city's borders: Open Lot recently established a Nashville chapter.)

Over the span of two and a half years, the space has seen its fair share of creative minds perform or exhibit in front of attentive and enthusiastic audiences. National musical acts such as Wet Hair, Sic Alps, Jack Rose and Deep Jew have graced the numerous corners of this beautiful space; art-wise, St. Louis native Gale Davis (illustrator) and in-studio sculptor B.J. Vogt (mixed media) have shown work there.

As the seasons change, we find summer approaching a new St. Louis--hot on the heels of something fresh and real. Hicks took time out to answer some questions about Open Lot's role in and impact on the community.

Josh Levi: In bigger cities, an art space such as Open Lot is often hard to come by, let alone operate for a number of years. In terms of start-up and sustainability, what makes St. Louis different?
Jordan Hicks: I suppose that the obvious answer is "cost." In a city with more development pressure, there is no way that we'd be able to afford a space like this, especially operating it the way that we do. Open Lot is not a business or a non-profit; We don't make any money off of it, nor do we try to. But money is only part of the story. For us to host the events that we do, we need a vibrant -- if relatively small -- community of people interested in challenging art, music and design. In this way, St. Louis and cities like Buffalo, Detroit and Pittsburgh exist in the center of the Venn diagram where low cost of living overlaps with an engaged, creative community.

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courtesy of Tic Tac Totally Records

At a day party on the last official day of SXSW, aggressive, garage punk filled the small confines of Trailer Space Records. Sharing the bill with the likes of West Coasters Thee Oh Sees and Nodzzz, Ireland's So Cow breezed through their ninth SXSW appearance with just enough time for a few words before packing up the van for the next show. We caught up with sweaty lead singer Brian Kelley, who performed at Antarctica last Wednesday, March 24, along with Brooklyn's Sisters. (This interview was inadvertently not posted last week; did anybody go to the show? How was it?)

You've been plenty busy this past month playing shows on the west coast but you're about to take off in earnest on a national U.S. tour in the next couple days. Isn't this your first tour to pass through the Midwest? What are you most looking forward to?
This will be our first U.S. tour to go east of San Diego and west of Indianapolis. After being in Austin for five days I'm excited be on the road again and visit a new city each day.

What have you enjoyed most about SXSW this year?
The people and bands that I've meet or got to see again along the way -- Christmas Island, Fungi Girls, White Wires, etc.

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