Interview: NYC Based Attorneys With Swag Talk About Their New Single/Video "RED and BLUE"
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“Our sole mission is to empower the masses with an understanding of the law. So we hope that people are able to be entertained and educated at the same time when watching our show and listening to our music.”
Salute to you guys on the release of your new single/video "RED and BLUE"; tell us what inspired the song itself, who produced it and who directed the visual.
Produced by Garfield Anthony Music and Directed by Bonzo Grimley. Inspiration is the wrong word.... For us, the emotion behind the song is due to the unequal treatment of black people when confronted by police. We see it way too often in this country that unarmed black men and women are presumed guilty and killed by police. They are the judge, jury and executioner. Meanwhile, white people, even those who are the most heavily armed, are almost always safely taken into custody, have their day in court and back to their families.
How did the five members of Attorneys with Swag initially meet and decide to form the group? Also, what is the overarching message of the music you create?
Most of our music is based on our web series "Attorneys with Swag" where we sit down, have some drinks and casually discuss how the law works with other people either in the legal world or affected by it. The goal is to reinforce the lessons learned on our show through our music. Although RED AND BLUE does not have its own episode in connection with the song, we felt that it was important to put a song like RED AND BLUE out there because it shows how drastically different the law can be enforced depending on the color of your skin.
Attorneys with Swag was formed in 2019 when, as educators and lawyers, we decided to try to reach more of our audience (ie, students and clients) to prevent them from falling into the same pitfalls that we see everyday.
Congrats on your web series show titled “Attorneys with Swag”; what initially led to its creation and how do you come up with each episode's subject matter?
As men of color who grew up in New York City, we saw the injustices and unequal treatment within our communities firsthand such as over-policing, excessive government regulation and misinformation. Whether it was seeing family members in and out of jail for various arrests or seeing friends lose entire businesses due to tax issues with the IRS, each of us have personally experienced what happens to our community when people don’t know the law and don’t know their rights. This is what motivated us to come together as five friends and create the group, web series and brand known as Attorneys with Swag.
We're very excited to hear your upcoming album “PRIMIS"; would you say that there is an overall theme/concept to the project? Also, who produced it and are there any featured artists?
PRIMIS is produced by Garfield Anthony Music and exclusively features original music of Attorneys with Swag. Our music has an old school hip-hop vibe similar to Public Enemy or Wu-Tang Clan. Throughout the album, our goal is to tackle the same issues addressed by these infamous rap groups of the past, but with a more modern knowledgeable approach to today’s laws. In other words, we aren't saying f*ck the police... we're saying sue them.
When someone hears or watches an Attorneys with Swag song/video, what do you want them to take away from the experience?
Our sole mission is to empower the masses with an understanding of the law. So we hope that people are able to be entertained and educated at the same time when watching our show and listening to our music.
Stream and Share “RED and BLUE” on Spotify
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