Sub bass and crisp hi-hat samples vibrate the outer walls of “One Sound Studio” on South Parkway, roughly 5 miles from the Mississippi river. Havier “Havi” Green, one half of Memphis rap duo The Sidewayz, rings the doorbell and looks down at his phone.
“Hold up, I gotta text something nasty to this girl.”
“Nasty” was the perfect way to describe the unreleased tracks Green demoed from his upcoming EP, Tru Grit, which should be shared May 27 at a Crosstown Arts listening party and performed May 28 at Lounge 11 p.m.
With the steady Yeezus-esque crawl of the single “Sinbad,” the dreamlike city-synths and Dragon Ball Z-references of “Hentai Girl,” the Jack-White-meets-Rolling-Stones guitar tone of “Radio,” and the sinister strings on “Wicked,” which Green describes as his “Wagner shit,” the rapper has collected an incredibly strong handful of instrumentals to work with on the new Sidewayz project, which he’s calls “his baby.”
This will be a departure from the group’s previous releases — fellow Sidewayz MC Salazar “Sal” Diego is almost nowhere to be found featured on the tunes.
“We’ve got hella projects. It was just time for me to do something for myself,” Green said. “When you listen to this, it’s got a different feel to it. There’s a lot of simplified repetition that goes good with the beat, but a lot of it is because your boy ain't never wrote no second verse!”
There are plenty who say that The Sidewayz blend the lyrical lines between crazy and creative like no other Memphis artists, including Tristan Jones, or “T-Mix,” a producer who worked with 8ball & MJG, crafted instrumentals for Lil Wayne but is best known of his work on Tha Carter 1 and 2.
T-Mix will work with the duo in the upcoming Tru Grit track “M.E.M.P.H.I.S.” The two rappers, T-Mix explained, represent a dying breed,
“Everybody’s ‘trap-rappin now, but these dudes, man, they’re the last of the backpackers,” T-Mix said. “They’re lyrical, man. They’re coming with something all original, a whole new sound that’s needed out of Memphis.”
Despite the hype, the two have humble beginnings. Their mothers grew up together and raised the two like brothers in the Westwood area of Memphis. Sal and Havi bonded over the “Limewire” craze in their elementary years, downloading tons of music. The two began with the catalogue of Bob Marley and later moved to indie rock like The Killers, Kings of Leon, Modest Mouse. The two often tried to find the inspirations for these groups.
“It was like school for us,” Green said. “We’d go back and listen to The Killers and be like, ‘Alright, who The Killers listen to? They listen to Bruce Springsteen and The Beatles, and you can hear the Dire Straits. It just got out of hand really quickly — we were listening to classical music before we knew what was goin’ on.”
Both Green and Diego wanted to be lead singers.
“Brandon Flowers, John Lennon, Lou Reed — They do poetry, but they got on leather jackets while they’re doing it,” Green said
Poetry became a larger part of Havier’s life after his freshman year at Vanderbilt University when his high school girl broke his heart at a time when he was writing for her.
Armed with his newfound skill to rhyme, Green began working on raps he would only show to his older brother, who convinced Green to include Diego. The two collaborated on a mixtape that summer and immediately recognized the chemistry.
“I got more of like a witty sarcasm to my flow, and he’s just got a rawness about him,” Green said. “He’s abrasive and brash with what he says; it kinda balances each other out.”
The two moved to Midtown in 2010, and then off of Southern, marketing themselves to the Highland area where Green discovered a growing fan base of friends at Oasis Hookah Bar.
“I just stepped in(to Oasis) and it was just cool as f***,” Green said. “Everybody was smoking hookah and chillin’ out. I gave them my first mixtape (Endless Summer) and they were like, man, just come and hang out here.”
Oasis became a place where The Sidewayz performed many times to a regular audience. Sal’s apartment became known as the “Sidewayz Zoo,” where fans of the duo’s mixtape could hang out with the rappers.
“It was a little animalistic,” Green said. “We don’t judge you. You can be a panda bear. You can be a lion. You can be a rat. That’s what the Sidewayz is about, man, Being that animal that you’re supposed to be.”
Green told The Memphis Flyer in 2014 that The Sidewayz would release a new project every month. These smaller releases included New World Boredom, Life or Death, Planet Killtime and Saint Savage. The world and Memphis has not seen another Sidewayz release until now.
“When we kinda died out, it was ‘cause we burned out,” Green said. “You gotta know when to hold them, and we didn’t know.”
No matter what The Sidewayz are holding, the duo continues to innovate South Memphis rap and music in general. T-Mix who began with Cash Money Records in 2003, certainly believes their breakout success is on the horizon.
“They’re ready,” T-Mix said, “They’re focused. They’re humble, but they hungry. They’re gonna tear the world up.”
