Eden Jouavel, aka Eno, grew up listening to his Dad's record collection, a strict diet of soul, funk and jazz. He discovered hip-hop in his early teens and he's been making his own beats and writing his own raps since he was 15. Now the 19-year-old from Auckland is making a name for himself as part of the hip-hop crew Super Villains RMC and for his solo material. Eno name checks the Wu-Tang Clan, J Dilla and Hudson Mohawke as big influences on his sound and his style.
"I'd like to think I'm pretty versatile," he says. "I'm a DJ, a producer, an MC and I rap. In terms of the music I make, I haven't boxed myself in. I don't just make hip-hop."
Eno is the first Red Bull Prodigy and the experience turned out even better than he expected
"Before we went into the studio I checked out 'Bassy' Bob's website and the records he's worked on. D'Angelo's Brown Sugar - that's one of the greatest records of all time. Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die, The Fugees' The Score. I was like 'hell yeah, I'm there.'"
Despite losing everything all the music on his laptop just before he went into the studio with Brockman, the pair produced six tracks together.
"Bob is real mellow, real laidback but he's also got strong political views and they're very similar to mine and that came across in the music we worked on. We sampled a lot of stuff to do with the Occupy Wall Street movement which was happening at the time."
"It's hip-hop, real sample based hip-hop. We played a lot of instruments ourselves. I played drums and Bob played trumpet and bass. He really blew me away. I learnt so much. And one thing he said was, and it might sound cheesy, but he said 'go with your heart. If you feel something is right and it sounds right to you, then do it.'"
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