THERE BE NO DEBATES ON THE TALENT OF MARCUS YATES!

Marcus Yates may be working on changing his name from Oobergeek, to his God given name, but what isn't changing is his dedication and passion for what he does. 



Marcus came through Portland, OR on his stop for Summer of Strange, the highly anticipated tour featuring Krizz Kaliko, ¡Mayday!, and Stevie Stone. I was extremely grateful to get to spend the day with Marcus during his stop, pick his brain on music, and get a photo-shoot done for him by Shawna aka Ms Bunny, a very talented Portland Music photographer. Marcus told me before we started, "Portland is one weird place, but I like it." 
The day started out with us meeting up with Marcus at the Roseland Theater for lunch, and well, the rest is history!

Lettey: " So Marcus, formally Oobergeek, tell the world why you decided on the name change. 

Marcus: "I just wanted to change my name, because my imagination is centered around Marcus, not Oobergeek. It's Marcus."

Lettey: "What do you think your fans will say? Do you think they will be accepting of it?"

Marcus: "I mean, I don't have a whole lot of fans, to be honest, yet. I appreciate their support and everything and I hope they understand. If they don't, well I still have to do what's right for me."

Lettey: "Do you think changing back to your given name will help with the confusion ,making you feel like it's less of a gimmick and more you? 

Marcus: "Ya, I think it would." 

Lettey: "Tell me about the tour. How are things going?"

Marcus: "I'm just soaking everything in. Just looking at all the views. All the different views of the different cities. Cities I wouldn't think to go to on the regular. Like hey let's go to Tucson." 

Lettey: "Portland being your favorite city though, right?"

Marcus: "Ya, Portland is one of my favorites. Tucson was a good one. Santa Cruz was a good one. Ah, all of them were dope, but like, Santa Cruz and Tucson stuck out cause they were innovative  a very innovative city, and I like that."

Lettey: "Tell me, how has your experience been in Portland so far?"

Marcus: "Uh, its been great. A lot of weird people. Weird is good, if it ain't killing nobody. I just love the vibe here." 

Lettey: "What are your expectations for the Portland show? Have you seen the crowd yet." 

Marcus: "I have not seen the crowd yet, but I expect Portland to be awesome, just because Lette and her sister are here."

Lettey: (Lettey laughs) "Thanks we are glad to be here too. Tell me a little about how you've grown on this tour, and what you are taking away from it when you're done."

Marcus: "Being around other artists and just seeing how they live, even like living on this bus with 12 people. Its just looking how people are, people you look up to and seeing how they live, its dope." 

Lettey: "Can you tell us any funny behind the scenes stories from the tour bus?" 

(A  member Mayday yells out “don’t tell them anything..just kidding”)

Lettey: "What happens on the bus stays on the bus right?"

Marcus: "I mean we turned it up a few times. Don’t give this voice recording to Travis tho (Marcus laughs) We turned it up a few times. Everyone  here is mellow, everybody is cool. Krizz just came off of it (previous tour), he’s resting right now. Everybody is cool."

Lettey: "What's the plan after the tour? What will you be doing next?" 

Marcus: "I’m gonna make an EP. I am starting to work on some tracks right now. I’m working on the EP and  I’m gonna get it done."

Lettey: "This new EP has a jazz feel to it, right?"

Marcus: "Ya its Jazz based, its really jazzy. It's not gonna be all jazz, but something jazzy in a way. That’s were I’m from."

Lettey: "Are any collaborations coming from this tour?"

Marcus: "Especially ¡Mayday!. Krizz of course, uh everybody on this bus. Yep, everybody on this bus. We said when we have time we’d find out about collaborations. When everybody is busy here, its hard to focus on plans. We’ll do it when the tour is done.  We can play our beats out loud here for everyone tho. Everyone on this bus is dope."

Lettey: "Tell me about getting to get down with ¡Mayday!" 

Marcus: "It was cool. To find out someone has that funk like you, they know how to get down."

Lettey: "What would you like to leave with at the end of this tour?"

Marcus: "A bigger fan base, more listeners and eyes and ears for when I put out my EP!"

Lettey: "Your Facebook likes and YouTube views are increasing dramatically every day. How do you feel about that?" 

Marcus: "I think that is awesome. I really had fun creating that song with Futuristic and Krizz. When we met up, some tour they just got off of, it was amazing."

Lettey: "Can you tell me about your upcoming song with Tech on his new Something Else CD release?" 

Marcus: "I can’t really say the title, but its dope. It's crazy. Man I don’t know if I should talk about it, but like some of the lyrics were like about manifesting things for yourself. Getting better as you get older. Some of them were taken personally."

Lettey: "Any finals words for your fans?"

Marcus: "Communicate!" 

Marcus, myself, and Ms. Bunny spend the rest of the day photographing him around Portland, showing him the sites, and just getting to know each other. The bands were very welcoming to us and all the guys really got along well and had fun with what they were doing. 

I feel privileged every day to to work with such an enthusiastic and humble person, who has such a strong talent and desire to move forward in his work. I look forward to bringing everyone more information on this amazing up and and coming artist and helping everyone transition from Oobergeek, the name, to Marcus the man. Once you meet him you'll see there is no need for a fancy name or gimmick  he's just Marcus plain and simple, tho there is nothing plain about this friendly and funny guy. 

Just check out the pictures and see for yourself. 

 Marcus saying "I'm #1" while picking up his lunch from the counter.

 Marcus's first Portland Furry experience haha.

 Marcus enjoying the beautiful Japanese Gardens and a slight hazy down pour during our shoot. Thanks Portland.

 Marcus backstage dealing with the lovely Portland rain!!

 Kicking it on a statue during the photo shoot.

                                                  Rocking Portland Oregon on stage!

"NO TOUCHING" SURPASSES 20K VIEWS ON YOUTUBE!



Today was a great day for Oobergeek. Since the premier of his video "No Touching", on YouTube, he has received over 20,000 views. The fans are loving it and the response is amazing. People on Facebook are raving and one fan said "This Oobergeek cat is fuckin fresh!" The fans are in consensus that Oobergeek has it going on. The video was a smash hit and people all around agree that this one will be hard to touch by other artists in the field.

With the news coming of Oobergeek's new EP in the works that is being produced by Chromata Data. It's rumored this will be a jazz influenced EP with possible appearances by Oobergeek's grandfather playing trumpet.  Oobergeek said "We were heavily influenced by KC Jazz artists such as Eugene McDaniels, a wonderful jazz pioneer born in Kansas City. I really want to get KC back to that Golden Era when Michael Jackson and the Beatles sang about us and we (Kansas City) were the place to be. I wanna embrace that 1940-168 era of Kansas City.

Stay tuned for more information as well about Oobergeek's new spot on the Summer of Strange Tour featuring Krizz Kaliko, !Mayday! , and Stevie Stone. More details to come and a full interview with Oobergeek himself.

THERE'S "NO TOUCHING" OOBERGEEK!

THERE'S NO TOUCHING OOBERGEEK!

Oobergeek's much anticipated release of his new music video, "No Touching”, directed by Jakob Owens and featuring Krizz Kalico of Strange Music and Futuristic releases today. Click HERE for an exclusive peek of the video.

Dying to know more facts about this fast growing talent? How did he get into the business and what are his plans for the future? Who inspires him to make music? Well you are in luck. I got an exclusive interview with the one and only Oobergeek and he gave me a peek into the man and how his mindset is paving the way for him to become a legend!

Oobergeek was born in Kansas City, MO in 1992 and unbeknownst to him, into a musical family that has become a legend. Oobergeek has many family members in the music industry, including the underground hip hop legend, Tech N9ne, who happens to be his cousin. Oobergeek would eventually spend a lot of time with his cousin, working on music and performing with members of Strange, but he started off his legacy on his own, working hard, and in our interview he tells of his journey and how his story began.

I called Oobergeek up, who was enthusiastic to do the interview and in great spirits. One of the most important things I wanted to know was how he got the name Oobergeek. He replied, "I listened to a rapper named XV a lot. I had it as my Facebook name (nothing serious). Tech was in the studio with me and he told me he liked the name. I honestly didn't at first. I was like nahhh and laughed. Everybody started agreeing and said how much they liked it. So I was like, what the heck. That is how Oobergeek came to be." This great discovery started our interview in a great direction and it took off from there.

Lettey: You started dancing and performing as a young man, tell me about your desire to dance and how that got started for you. 

Oobergeek: I was into sports all the way up until I was 12. I was secretly going into my room about age 9 and writing poetry. I got books of poetry cause I loved to do it as a hobby. I hadn't told anyone or anything. This was just something I loved to do. I wrote my life and I just rhymed it. It was just free like that.

Lettey: So at age 9 you were writing poetry in rhyme form, tell me how that transformed into more of a desire to be in the music scene?

Oobergeek: I am not sure. I just really wanted to show my imagination to everyone. I'm really tired of what I dream at night not being shared. I just want to show everyone what I dream about.

Lettey: Tell me about working with Usher at the New Look Foundation. 

Oobergeek: I was an attendee of his camp, Camp New Look, in Atlanta, GA. It was a great experience and I met plenty of friends that I still keep in contact with today. That was one of the things that helped me. That was around the time when I started dancing, around 12. The New Look Foundation exposed me to a lot; it got me out of the city and exposed me to different, other types of talented people like dancers, singers, and rappers. It really made me go back and see what it is about me that is so special. What can I do to better the world from just seeing all these types of people coming from all across the nation to do what they love. It was just like that, it was really refreshing. To see everybody, all my friends, just talented as can be, and expressing what they love to do.

Lettey: Tell me about your experience on the Summer Jam tour in 2008 with Tech N9ne. 

Oobergeek: 2008, that was great! That was a great moment. It was me and my brother, and we had our all white, red chucks, with little KC hats on, and that was just the start of something great. I didn't end up focusing on dancing, cause I started doing music, but it let me see the crowd from the stage point of view, and it was beautiful. I enjoyed it.

Lettey: With Summer Jam, do you have any one experience that stands our from all the others? 

Oobergeek: I've got to say when I was in Orlando, Fl for school and Tech had come through and stopped by to do a show at the Firestone Club. It was my first opening and I opened for Tech. It was highly anticipated. I wasn't nervous but I was just really amped. It was successful and that's when I knew, I was like, I gotta do this forever. 

Lettey: You've been on stage with so many talented artists, from Tech N9ne to Krizz Kalico, to T.I., and so many more in your career, what have you learned from these great mentors and how have you used that knowledge in your own music?

Oobergeek: When you're on stage, wither your stage is 2ft tall or like 4ft tall, it makes you seem like you have a command over the crowd. It’s like you tell them to say "Uhhh" and they actually repeat what you say. I really take that as real deep to me. You know, cause I feel like everyone is their own king or their own queen. They have the power to tell people, you know, what they want and tell people how much they love them, and then they will cheer for it. 

Lettey: Has there been a landmark music moment in your life so far? 

Oobergeek: Yes, Yes, Yes. I went to Florida and I met seven other human beings that I do connect with. The two years that I spent with them was like the greatest two years of my life. Simply because I was down in Florida on my own, apartment struggling, struggling to keep the lights on, with the water bills, with school, and just struggling. When I made music with them it really made me forget about all those things that were going on and I just woke up to a lot of things. A lot of things that mattered to me prior to going to Florida, it didn't matter anymore. Things just became better for me as a human being, that's basically what I was doing. I was me. I was a human being.

Lettey: As a song writer, tell me about your experience with taking words and lyrics from your mind and transferring them to paper. How do you deal with writers block?

Oobergeek: It varies. Writers block is basically forcing something that's not gonna come. If I have writers block I'm simply just not gonna write. I'm just gonna wait. I'm just gonna be patient with, you know, my talent and everything. If this verse is just four sentences long and I just stop writing cause I can't think of nothin', then it's just meant to be just four sentences long. You know, I'm not gonna force anything at all. When I got like 32 bar verses, like something must have clicked in my brain to write all that and I have a story. 

Lettey: What would be an EPIC musical moment for you?

Oobergeek: The more I look up things and see beautiful things, it just adds to the imagination. So far, from what I know now, I would want to and love to play in Rome, or in a great city, and EPIC city, a historical city, with millions of people watching. Showcasing everything on the perfect stage and with the perfect lights. The perfect mics, the perfect musicians behind me. Ya, just creating that heaven for the crowd. Because, you know, cause that's the closest thing we gonna get to while we on earth. 

Lettey: Do you come from a musical family background?

Oobergeek: Ya. Tech N9ne is my cousin. I also just found out a few of my cousins were into music and into, you know, engineering and sound and all that. It was beautiful when I found out that and it just made everything better. Cause I used to struggle with me being the only one who felt this way about music. But my family members love music.Both sides, my mother’s side and my father’s side. 

Lettey: Do you find having big music names, like Tech N9ne, in the family has helped you in your career or hindered you at all?

Oobergeek: That's a good question. I really, I don't know. It didn't hurt. It’s not hurting at all. You can just walk up to someone and say "Hey Tech n9ne is my cousin, and I do music too." and then their like, oh really? Then they will be interested. It hasn't hurt. It hasn't hurt none. 

Lettey: Who are your musical inspirations?

Oobergeek: I grew up in the 90's when Neo Soul  was poppin like crazy, so I got that soul and of course during that time was Tech N9ne. I was around him a lot. Not as much as I am right now, but enough to see how he acts and everything. It's just crazy how I can reenact some of the things he did when he was trying to become a mogul or a hip hop star. We both have the crazy hair. I got the crazy hair now too. He used to have the crazy hair and it's just funny how history is repeating itself. So I'm really looking forward to the future. 

Lettey: So you recently did a video with Krizz Kalico called "Gumbo", tell me about that experience. 

Oobergeek: That was a great experience. It was really cold that day, but you just have to take your mind off everything and perform and do you. It was a great experience. We were at the West Bottoms here in Kansas City, MO and people came out with those old school cars. You know, it was just a great thing for the black community to come together and do something good. You know, cause you always hear about the black community always being divided and I think that unity was the highlight of everything that day. 

Lettey: Do you have anything new coming out for the fans soon?

Oobergeek: I do have a new video coming out today called "No Touching" featuring Krizz Kalico and Futuristic. It is really dope. It was shot by Jakob Owens. He's a wonderful director. We shot it in San Francisco. Beautiful city, real beautiful city. I would like to do another video there. Ya it was real fun and real colorful. We got to catch Krizz while he was on that tour, a little bit was shot in Petaluma, CA and it was great. I can't wait for everybody to see it. You can download the song at cdbaby by clicking HERE or on Itunes by clicking HERE. I really just wanna show my imagination. I have dreams every night of showing people, you know, colors and sounds and all that. I just wanna show it to them. It's coming; I just gotta find the right lighting and the right way to showcase it. That's gonna take planning, prepping, and patience. Expect anything, for real. I got to sing one day, turn around and learn the guitar, turn around and not even rap no more, just make beats. Just expect anything. Cause that's really how free the imagination is. I don't wanna be in just one category. You just wanna be known as a great human being, all together. 

Lettey: If you could tell the fans something about you that is personal, what would you say?

 

Oobergeek: I'm a fan of anything that is innovative, anything that is comparable in,I really don't have a specific like or not like, All I gotta say is Michael Jackson is the greatest of all time and Stevie Wonder is around there too. 

Lettey: For people looking to do music and facing hurdles, what kind of advice can you give them?

Oobergeek: I really don't feel I'm worthy to give advice right now. Because I'm, you know, I'm still trying to be patient with myself. But if I was to give any words of encouragement, they would be patience and just have fun. If you have a goal, make sure that goal is a timely goal. Make sure it is innovative. You know, everyone wants money, everybody wants the spotlight, but I say just do it because you want to be a great person. You know what I'm saying? Just to live and just do it.

Oobergeek is definitely grooming himself to be just that, a great person. Oobergeek has a  musical talent that surpasses any predetermined ideas I held before the interview and a humble demeanor that made speaking with him on a personal level comfortable and charming. I feel he's become what he's set out to be since the age of 9. When he was that boy in his room writing poems in rhyme form and anxious to share the colors of his dream world in written song. He's become the man who is innovative and who so eloquently gave us a glimpse of what it's like to live your dreams. The fans have a lot to look forward to with Oobergeek.

The premier of his new music video "No Touching" will begin a new page in his journey and story. We will all be present to take part in the writing of this tale with him now. So as the story progresses and we turn another page it becomes obvious to all those Oobergeek fans and everyone who's had the pleasure of working with him, there is truly No Touching Oobergeeks success!

OOBERGEEKS' "NO TOUCHING" SINGLE RELEASED TODAY!!!!

Oobergeek's much anticipated single "No Touching" drops today and is ready to buy. This song is amazing and features appearances by Futuristic and Krizz Kalico.

The song has a great beat and outlook on being an artist and having faith in yourself to be successful in music. 

Check out the song and purchase by clicking HERE for Itunes   or HERE for cdbaby.com. Either way you don't want to miss out on this great music, and look for the release of the debut music video for "No Touching" Featuring Futuristic and Krizz and directed by Jakob Owens.