For the three members of Fast Life Yungstaz aka F.L.Y., the phenomenon of “Swag Surfin’” that first hit in the summer of ’08 and exploded in 2009 – has been a straight shot to stardom. Newly-signed to Def Jam Recordings, a division of Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJ), F.L.Y. has completed its debut album, “Jamboree,” which will arrive June 23rd in the physical and digital marketplace.
In the two months since “Swag Surfin’” impacted at Urban and Rhythmic radio in, it has grown to 11.3 million audience and sold more than 63,000 digital copies. The track jumped to #11-bullet last week on the Urban Mediabase side. “Swag Surfin’” has exploded on the internet to the tune of over 1.6 million audio plays on MySpace, while the combined online video plays total over 1 million. In addition, F.L.Y .has launched an online dance contest for high school and college students on their site swagsurfin.com. The contest has generated millions of votes.
“If you go on YouTube and type in ‘Swag Surfin’,” says Mook, “you’ll see videos of people inside clubs going from side to side in a wavy motion, surfin’.” What started in the clubs has moved into the light: “We got bands, drill teams and college basketball teams playing it before they run out for their games. The Atlanta Hawks come out to ‘Swag Surfin’’ now too. It’s just a whole buzz we have that’s building up.”
F.L.Y. – 21 year-old rapper Mook, Myko McFly (20) and Vee (22) – natives of Stone Mountain, Georgia, saw their melodic sing-song track build from a fresh sound down South less than one year ago. It didn’t take long for IDJ Chairman Antonio ‘L.A.’ Reid to catch the “Swag Surfin’” wave and bring the guys up to New York. The phone call came in January, and F.L.Y. found themselves showcasing for Mr. Reid less than 24 hours later. “We made sure we gave L.A. Reid the best show he’d ever seen,” Mook understates.
Among the new and upcoming producers that F.L.Y. is working with on JAMBOREE is Kevin “KE on The Track” Erondu. In addition to “Swag Surfin’,” KE produced “Bands,” in which F.L.Y. plays off the kinetic energy of collegiate halftime shows. “The beat itself sounds like you’re in the band room at a HBCU football game,” says Mook, invoking the circuit of ‘historically black colleges and universities’ across the south. “I believe the rest of the country will catch on to the F.L.Y. movement because it’s like a wave,” Vee concludes. “And you don’t want to be left out or you’ll drown.”
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