EXCLUSIVE: Boston's Own Ben Mader Turns Up the Heat at Sold Out Show

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Ben Mader performing at the Middle East Nightclub in Cambridge, MA on January 25th, 2015 (Benjamin Esakof/Roman's Rap-Up).

If you're from the Boston area, there's no doubt you've heard of him, between Youtube, Twitter & Instagram, he is blowing up everywhere. Seventeen year old Ben Mader performed for a sold out crowd at Boston's Middle East Nightclub Sunday, and we were there to catch all the action, including catching up with Ben backstage for an EXCLUSIVE interview. Check out all of our coverage from the show below.

Interview:

Performance photos:

Meet & Greet:

Garth Brooks Returns To Boston For First Time In 17 Years

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Garth Brooks at his press conference at the TD Garden on January 22nd, 2015 (Benjamin Esakof/Roman's Rap-Up). 

Following his retirement 14 years ago, Country-Legend Garth Brooks is making a comeback into the music scene by embarking on yet another World Tour. At a press conference prior to his show in Boston at the TD Garden, Brooks talked about his return to touring, and differences between country music now and when he first started, among other topics. See a clip from the press conference below:

Following Brooks' press conference, we caught up with the singer for a brief one-on-one interview:

EXCLUSIVE: Jack & Jack Talk Meeting, New Music, Vine and More

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(Facebook.com)

If you've been on any social media account in the last six months, chances are you're familiar with these two stars. With millions of followers on Vine, Twitter and more, Jack Gilinsky and Jack Johnson (a.k.a Jack & Jack) are charting their way to a successful career in the music industry and beyond. Only in their late teens, Jack & Jack finished off 2014 big, attending the American Music Awards and performing for a sold out crowd at an arena in their home town of Omaha, Nebraska. 

Jack & Jack called into Roman's Rap-Up to discuss their HUGE plans for 2015, along with revealing to us something that none of their fans know about them and more. Read/listen to the interview below:

Roman's Rap-Up: You had an absolutely insane 2014, between going to the iHeartRadio Music Festival, American Music Awards, having a sold out show in your home town, not to mention having millions of followers on every social media account. What’s all this huge success been like? 

Jack J: 2014 was just unexplainable, it was definitely the best year of my life so far.

Jack G: It was totally unexpected. It just started on an app called “Vine” and we were making funny videos to show our friends and what not, and it just kind of caught on... we never expected any of this. We’re just really grateful for all of this.

Roman's Rap-Up: How did you guys get started making Vines?

Jack J: It was just out of boredom one summer day in Summer 2013. It was the [time] between our Junior and Senior year in High School. We were just totally bored and doing the same old stuff every day. We’re from Omaha, Nebraska so there aren't a lot of extracurricular things to do necessarily during the summertime for kids. It was a way for us to express our humor and you know, a few people in our city started laughing at our videos. It just started spreading. We didn’t expect it to be what it was, we weren’t trying to necessarily become “Vine Famous” when we started, but, I mean that ended up happening which is pretty cool. We couldn't be more grateful for all the support we’ve gotten from everybody.

Roman's Rap-Up: How did you guys meet? Have you always known each other?

Jack J: Yeah we’ve known each other since before the summer before Kindergarten. 

Jack G: I was 4 and Jack J was 5 and I mean immediately when you meet someone with your same name and your 4 and 5 years old, that’s a reason right there to become best friends. That’s exactly what happened and we actually happened to be wearing the same shirt with different colors on and it just happened so quick. I don’t know, it’s just amazing to see us being 4 and 5 and being best friends over having the same name and now nothing has changed really.

Roman's Rap-Up: How did you both get into music?

Jack G: We’ve always been into music, listening to every genre, finding out sounds we liked best, and you know we like every genre and stuff, but I would say Jack J influenced me in the music I listen to today because he is always on the internet, you know searching for new stuff, looking for what’s hot, who’s not really been heard of yet and he always shows me all these things that I remember back in 4th grade when we originally had this idea to start making music together and he showed me this rap that he wrote and he's like, “Man I want you to sing the chorus,” and I was like “what’s a chorus?” and he was like “It’s the thing that comes after every verse and it gets repeated after every verse." You know the song “Sexy Can I” by Ray J, well we made a parody of that song.  

Jack J: So we’ve always been writing music, I mean it used to be more for like comedic purposes because that’s all we really knew as kids, being funny and goofy as 4th and 5th graders so I mean thats when we started writing song parodies to Top 40 songs at the time and putting them up on Youtube. You know, that was all fun, but when we started expanding this fan base we were like, “Why not share the music we know we can make with the world?” Now we have people to market to. We’ve always been really musical people. I mean, getting a following on Vine just gave us an opportunity to share it with the world.

Listen to the full interview below:


Roman's Rap-Up's 2014 Artist of the Year: August Alsina

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(Benjamin Esakof/Roman's Rap-Up)

What a year 2014 has been for the music industry. So many great new artists have been discovered, like Meghan Trainor, Sam Smith and so many more. New Orleans-born August Alsina is no exception. 

At the young age of only 22, Alsina has already done more than artists twice his age could only imagine. In 2014 alone, he was the supporting act for 2 Chainz, Usher and Chris Brown’s U.S. tours, not to mention embarking on a sold-out headlining tour, “Testimony Live,” all while being in the studio and releasing his debut album, “Testimony.” 

(Benjamin Esakof/Roman's Rap-Up)

Alsina is also known for keeping it real in his music. Growing up in New Orleans, his brother was killed when he was only 18, which is reflected in his lyrics. When we talked to the “Numb” rapper in September, he said, “we just living this life, it’s about finding and knowing a way to come out of a situation that you don’t want to be in.” Alsina describes his story as “the same as rest of the people in the hood, poverty, ghetto, just in the world,” which is what makes him so relatable to his fans, also known as #AlsinaNation.

Speaking of #AlsinaNation, something that sets this artist apart is his extremely loyal fan base. During our interview with Alsina, when asked about something that none of his fans know about him, he responded by saying that his fans “lurk and know a whole lot.” We asked on Twitter what his fans specifically liked about him:

“I don't know a proper way of saying it but his music is a story and even if you haven't gone through exactly what he's gone through you can still relate to his story. Basically, he's an all around dope person lol”  -Valencia of Boston

“Well I'll just say that Aug IS artist of the year in my eyes! He doesn't need the title to be given to him but since that's what's happened I'll say that he deserves it because he's progressed like no other artist in this year alone. I can actually go on and on but I'll focus on just one reason which is the fact that a song (“I Luv This Shit”) that "they" said wouldn't make it went Platinum & Gold. That's nothing but talent & God all in one. August is a great artist who sings about his life which is something so many people even myself can relate to, he's inspiring, sensational & a great spirit.” -- @Shes_ABeautie_ 

“He's the voice of the people.”  -@AAlsinaStan

This is only the beginning for August Alsina. He’s already sold out his entire UK leg of his “Testimony Live” tour, not to mention booking many other club gigs across the globe. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a sophomore album too in 2015.

We’ve chosen August Alsina as the Roman’s Rap-Up 2014 Artist of the Year. Congratulations to August and the entire #AlsinaNation!