Black
Buddafly was surrounded by music since they were children. Their mother sang
and their father was a semi professional jazz musician. When they were younger,
they were in their church choir and they were also in a number of school
musicals. In junior high school they sang in local studios and toured with
gospel ensembles. Then known as "Choyce", they signed a deal with BMG Germany.While touring in 2004, the group changed their name to Black Buddafly. Around that time they met and impressed Russell Simmons, and he signed them to his label RSMG. In early 2005 the group finally started to work on their debut album. "Rock-A-Bye" was their first single. Their second single "Bad Girl", which features rapper Fabolous will be on the soundtrack for the movie Waist Deep. They are currently recording material for a new album.
Are you still with Def Jam?
Yeah and we’re still with Russell Simmons too. We’re just figuring out what’s next for us and recording new tracks for the album. We want to do something a bit different, so far we’ve only had club songs out but we want to have slower songs and maybe pop songs too. We’re also doing a lot of performances in Germany so we’ve been rehearsing for that too.
You originally come from Germany, what was it like moving to the States?
It was crazy! We didn’t know anybody and it was overwhelming, we had no idea where to start. We wanted to get signed and into the business but we didn’t know it would be so hard. We were so lucky and met a lot of people in the first week and had more attention here so we decided to stay here until we got signed.
Where did the name Black Buddafly come from?
When we got signed to our production deal about two years ago, we wanted to change our name from Choyce to something fresh and new. Somebody came up with Buddafly and we really liked it then somebody mentioned Black and we joined it together! Butterflies are beautiful and free and that’s how we feel.
You’re both twins right, how does it feel to be working together?
It’s the best. We have the best connection in the studio. I don’t have that with anybody else and wouldn’t tell someone else my ideas. We work as one and know what the other is thinking, which is really cool. We don’t have any family over here either so it’s nice to be together.
Who have you been working with on this project?
We’re working with people that we’ve worked with before and some people with Bad Boy who gave us some hot tracks. They’re not really named producers but they don’t have to be big to be good and for us to work with them, we’re not about that. A new rapper called Trey is someone who’s featuring on a couple of our tracks and Ne-Yo’s a friend of ours so we might work with him but it’s not confirmed yet.
What kind of topics have you been gravitating towards recently?
Mostly about what everybody goes through in life like relationships and stuff. We have the sexy tracks as well and talk about what every woman goes through and experiences.
We know you in the UK for Bad Girl, are you coming back to the UK soon?
We’re going to do the Germany thing first and hopefully get over there soon. I think it took so long because of the label situation and our older sister, Sophie, left the group when she got pregnant. It’s taken a while to get people to respect us as a duo and figure out a whole new image. We’re still doing our thing and coming out with a single soon.
Do you think Sophie would rejoin the group?
We don’t know because she doesn’t know what it’s gonna be like having a baby and being a mom. If she wanted to come back we would welcome her but I don’t know if she would do that. Right now it’s just me and Amina!
What do you think of the newer girl groups like Cherish?
They’re doing their thing but we’re definitely not like them, they have their own style. They’re cool girls and have the dance thing going on. There are a lot of groups coming out right now so it’s good we’re not like them.
www.defjam.com/site/artist_home.php?artist_id=589
www.myspace.com/therealblackbuddafly
By Rashmi Shastri - Sep 2006