INTERVIEW | CITY THE GREAT TALKS “DAY ONE” SINGLE, NEW ALBUM & MORE

By MJ Savino • On Interviews, What is New , , , , , , , ,

Brook­lyn artist City The Great shares some inside scoop on his new single “Day One”, his upcom­ing album ‘The Word­smith’, his role as CEO with Cer­ti­fied Nation Enter­tain­ment, and more. Check out the full inter­view below and listen to “Day One.”

Listen to “Day One” from the forth­com­ing ‘The Word­smith’ Album

MJ: Before we jump into “Day One” let every­one know who you are and where you’re from.

City the Great: Thanks for hav­ing me. I am City the Great from East NY, Brooklyn.

MJ: You’re an artist under Hip Hop legend Spe­cial Ed. How did that come to fruition? Are there any chal­lenges regard­ing age and mind­set? Or is this a step towards bridging the gen­er­a­tion­al gap in Hip Hop?

City the Great: Actu­ally, my home­boy is Ed’s 1st cous­in and he told me for the longest that he would con­nect us. Of course, at the time I did­n’t believe he was Ed’s cous­in. One day he came to the stu­dio with me and took the song I wrote and recor­ded that day and said he was going to play it for Ed while at Funk­mas­ter Flex’s birth­day bash at BB Kings in Man­hat­tan. Long story short he did and gave me Ed’s number…he wanted to speak with me, and the rest is his­tory. There are really no chal­lenges in age and mind­set in work­ing with Ed. He’s been a great ment­or and I have learned a lot about the game from him. He stays up to date on the busi­ness and the cul­ture. He also has great faith in my grind and cre­ations. I would say without a doubt, we are in the works of bridging the gen­er­a­tion­al gap in Hip Hop.

MJ: Let’s get to “Day One” which is taken from your upcom­ing album ‘The Word­smith.’ The track has a cine­mat­ic anthem vibe with a hook catchy enough for the clubs and streets. It’s evid­ent you have a knack for draw­ing audi­ences in. Talk about “Day One” from the motiv­a­tion behind it to your expect­a­tion of the track.

City The Great: The story about the cre­ation of this one is an inter­est­ing one…I was sit­ting on this beat for a while by Molly The Kid. I was con­ver­sat­ing with my Cer­ti­fied Nation Enter­tain­ment com­rade Itson­ly­write just talk­ing about all the people that we worked with and knew through­out this jour­ney that were kind of in and out. We laughed about how funny it is that when things wer­en’t going upward, they split or did­n’t sup­port, and now that we are mov­ing, they all want to claim they’re day ones. That sparked my mind on express­ing that on wax. I think what really made the song pop was my engin­eer King Bash jump­ing in and har­mon­iz­ing on the hook. My expect­a­tion for Day One is to appeal to all audi­ences giv­ing them that com­mer­cial feel yet true to the cul­tur­al vibe.

MJ: What can you tell us about your upcom­ing album and what can listen­ers anti­cip­ate from it?

City The Great: People are going to get a roller­coast­er ride. I have been work­ing on this pro­ject for the past 2 years piece by piece to ensure I cap­ture the best feel in my testi­mony of being a word­smith. This pro­ject will be very bal­anced with the right num­ber of fea­tures and it’s going to dis­play some­thing for every­one that will be nostalgic.

MJ: Besides hav­ing the back­ing, sup­port, and geni­us of Spe­cial Ed, what is your sig­na­ture move, if you will, that dif­fer­en­ti­ates you from oth­er artists in the industry?

City The Great: I think what dif­fer­en­ti­ates me and oth­er artists in the industry is the soul that I pour into my craft which iden­ti­fies my true being…A per­son being them­self is the per­fect form of ori­gin­al­ity. There’s a cer­tain energy I give listen­ers and audi­ences and I have my own sound where you know it’s me and that ele­ment is nev­er lost no mat­ter what type of song it is that I am on. Not only that but I keep that ele­ment alive with ver­sat­il­ity, you just nev­er know which angle I am going to come on a track but you will always know it’s me.

MJ: Aside from the new album release prep, what oth­er endeavors are you work­ing on?

City The Great: I am cur­rently work­ing on grow­ing my com­pany Cer­ti­fied Nation Enter­tain­ment, edu­cat­ing, and assist­ing artists with their careers. I’m also work­ing on mul­tiple col­lab­or­at­ive pro­jects includ­ing a mix­tape com­ing soon with my DJ, DJ Bad Tha Prob­lem (pro­ceed­ing the album release). I am work­ing on a Cer­ti­fied Nation Enter­tain­ment col­lab pro­ject with the team of artists Jae Law aka Hindrix, Pengame Clas­sic, Chambs Taylor, Jac­qui Grace, and of course Itson­ly­write. There’s also a col­lab­or­at­ive pro­ject with Chambs Taylor titled ‘CD’ (Col­lat­er­al Dam­age). You can catch free­style videos I will be releas­ing weekly as well as work­ing with my man­age­ment team Sam­antha Leav­ell of Cer­ti­fied Nation and legendary Kool Rock Ski on an event, For The Cul­ture By The Cul­ture. I can’t leave out 2022’s Annu­al Hip Hop & R&B Cookout in East BK…The list goes on and on.

MJ: Wrap­ping up, let every­one know how they can con­nect with you.

City The Great: Thank you I can be found on any plat­form as City the Great but one of the easi­est ways to link with me all in one place is on my web­site CertifiedNationEntertainment.com.

Con­nect with City The Great

Ins­tagram: www.instagram.com/citythegreat

Face­book: https://www.facebook.com/therealCityTheGreat

Twit­ter: www.twitter.com/citythegreat_

You­tube: https://youtube.com/c/CityTheGreatmusic

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MJ Savino

MJ is Hip Hop Blog­ger, Pub­li­cist, Book­ing Agent, Act­iv­ist, but fan first and fore­most. “Hip Hop saved my life, it is only right I give back to the culture”!

About MJ Savino

MJ is Hip Hop Blogger, Publicist, Booking Agent, Activist, but fan first and foremost. "Hip Hop saved my life, it is only right I give back to the culture"!