Tyron de Harlem speaks on Instant Vintage and Straight CACHE
WORDS WITH WORD$ INTERVIEW #23
Yo, it’s the Pope, 1000WORD$.
Introducing Tyron de Harlem, a dedicated and passionate figure in the world of hip-hop journalism and content creation. Hailing from Harlem, New York, Tyron has spent years cultivating relationships with emerging artists and giving them a platform for their voices to be heard.
In this exclusive interview with 1000WORD$, Tyron shares his journey from a music enthusiast to a trusted journalist, giving us insight into his passion for collaboration and his focus on creating quality content. As the creator of Instant Vintage and Straight CACHE, Tyron has worked with a variety of artists and has expanded his reach by partnering with notable figures like Mark from Top Shelf Premium and DJ Mastamind from The Renaissance.
Tyron opens up about his love for traveling, his early experiences in the mixtape culture of Harlem, and his dedication to filling the void he saw in hip-hop journalism. As someone who has interviewed rising stars like Westside Gunn, Mach-Hommy, Tha God Fahim, and many more, Tyron's enthusiasm for discovering and promoting new talent is evident throughout his work.
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1000WORD$: What's going on man? This your boy 1000WORD$. I'm here with my fucking friend, who's a legend. Who's a fucking inspiration, my bro, Tyron de Harlem. Tyron, what's up my bro?
Tyron de Harlem: Peace Rome.
1000WORD$: Peace, my brother.
Tyron de Harlem: Am I even allowed to call you Rome? I don't wanna reveal no secrets. I know everybody knows you as 1000WORD$.
1000WORD$: Nah, you can call me Rome man. You know, that's good that you know me as Rome cause a lot of people don't know me as that, but that just lets you know how we conduct with each other. How you been these days my brother?
Tyron de Harlem: Everything's good man. To start the new year man, I made it a point to start spreading my wings a bit more, being a bit more collaborative. Cause I'm a solo artist by nature, I guess just on some only child shit, but yeah, this year I wanted to focus more on collaborating. So I've been locking in with Mark from [Top Shelf Premium] and DJ Mastamind from The Renaissance. But yeah, other than that good though, man.
1000WORD$: That's good to see man. I know you've been rocking with Mark for quite some years now, right?
Tyron de Harlem: Yeah, just as a person initially. But we kept tryna figure out how I could contribute to supply and demand, and then one year it was supposed to be a [SadhuGold] interview, and another year we were supposed to premier my Instant Vintage interview series, and both years it kinda fell flat.
1000WORD$: How? I think when you interviewed Sadhu at the Top Shelf, that was pretty dope.
Tyron de Harlem: I mean for me, I was just a stickler for like the sound quality and all of that like, it didn't really go how I wanted it to go personally. But you know, we got good feedback on it. Just me in that moment, I was more of a perfectionist. Like damn, the audio didn't really hit the way I wanted it to hit.
1000WORD$: So this year, you say you plan on collaborating more. Who are some of the people that you plan on collaborating [with] apart from Top Shelf?
Tyron de Harlem: Yeah, so with Mark it's just more fine tuning what we already established with the first season of Instant Vintage. Season 1 we did Willie The Kid, V Don, Billie Essco, Radamiz, Left Lane Didon, J. Scienide, BWLR, my man [LORD JAH-MONTE OGBON], and Buck Dudley. Yeah, so season two, we just wanted to refine the patterns and behaviors we started with that first season, and kind of getting in a better rhythm with that. But aside from Mark though, DJ Mastamind reached out to me cause he's doing The Renaissance series, which I think he wants you featured on that at some point, too. But yeah, so he does that and he reached out to me and was like "Yo, going forward I want to include more dialogue." He already shot the second season, so I was like "Yo, since it's already shot, I know we can't put more dialogue in it, but I'll narrate it for you if you want me to do that." So I just started narrating Season Two, and it gives it a different feel then Season One. I'm having fun with that cause it's not something that I've done a lot of. So it was just nice for it to not be my project, just show up and do the job, and just send the files. Cause I'm more of like a control freak, but being that it's not my project, it's like yo, go in, lay the vocals, and send it to Mastamind. He gives me autonomy about where I think things should go, but ultimately, it's his project so I try to do it how he wants it to be done.
1000WORD$: That's lit. Young Morgan Freeman.
Tyron de Harlem: Hahaha, yeah man. It's been fun. It's been challenging too cause it's artists that he picks and sometimes I'm not familiar with them. So I gotta go do some quick homework, you know, just try to bring something different to it, or a different angle to it, cause maybe I'm not all the way hip. Cause this season he introduced me to a couple of people whose work I wasn't all the way in tune with. So that was a challenge but it was a fun challenge.
1000WORD$: That's dope. What inspires you to have these sit downs and conversations you have with these up and coming artists that are potentially the future in Hip-Hop?
Tyron de Harlem: I mean, I think for me, it was really a reaction to what I wasn't seeing. Cause I think for a long time, you had to go through the processes of going to school, or getting an internship, or knowing somebody, you know what I mean? But when the blog era came, it kind of made it so anybody could talk to who they wanted to about who they wanted to, and it wasn't about numbers and stats and all of that stuff. So once that era crept in, I was able to find a lane for myself. I heard this shit called "Hitler Wears Hermes," and I wasn't seeing no ink on it. Nobody was writing about it. So I'm like "Shit, let me try to reach out to Westside Gunn." Cause like it was 2015, I couldn't find any write ups about it. So I was like "Aight, let me see if I could do it for myself." And he reached back out and was like "Yo, I'd be down to do that." And it just kept being instances like that where we hear some shit that I like, and nobody was talking about it, nobody was writing about it, there was no podcast episodes about it. So that kept repeating itself where it was like "Oh shit, this ANKHLEJOHN cat. He got two projects up on SoundCloud but I don't really see nobody else talking about him." So that kept the occurring, and you know, I've been a fan of rap music my whole life. So once I get the feeling and I'm like "Oh shit, this music is incredible," then I'd try to reach out. So yeah, that kept occurring with different cats whether it be Westside Gunn, whether it be ANKHLEJOHN, whether it be LORD JAH-MONTE. Like as soon as I hear it, most of the times it's instantaneous and I'm like "Man, I gotta see if I can reach out and get a conversation started."
1000WORD$: Dope. You know, I know where you from. But for the people that are going to read this, let the people know where you from.
Tyron de Harlem: I'm from Harlem, man. Born and raised. Uptown, 7th Ave. Across the street from Drew Hamilton, so if anybody is familiar with Ming the Tiger.
1000WORD$: Haha, yeah. Rest in peace to Ming.
Tyron de Harlem: That's from the Hamilton projects, so the building that that happened in is 200, West 42nd, but like it's on 7th Ave. I lived across the street from there. So yeah, that day where the police were scaling down the building and all that, I lived right across the street from that shit.
1000WORD$: Where would you go as a young [kid] to go get mixtapes out in Harlem? Where was your spots to get these CDs?
Tyron de Harlem: Honestly, I want to say Harlem Musica, but that wasn't my spot spot. Cause I feel like Harlem musica was a proper spot, where it was like "Yo, $15 for the tape." There were other places throughout the city where it was like, you might catch a 2 for $10 or something like that.
1000WORD$: Facts. Always downtown, 14th St. always had those deals.
Tyron de Harlem: Yeah, exactly. There was one spot on 14th between 6th and 5th, and they used to have like the little booklet so you can see the tracklist and all that. [We would go to] Burkinas on Houston between Allen and Ludlow. The pride part of me wants to say Harlem Musica but like I couldn't really afford it. I mean, I could afford it but there was deals to be had at other places.
1000WORD$: Do you get a joy out of traveling?
Tyron de Harlem: Yeah man, that's my favorite shit to do, man. Sometimes I think about all the places that I've been on some rap shit and it's like "Yo, should I actually even have been there?" I don't even be thinking about safety or no shit like that. I just be like "Oh, I fuck with Raxx Bills out in Gary, Indiana. I'm just gonna pull up. I fuck with Vic Mensa in Chicago, so I'm just gonna pull up." I don't know, I just be in love with the rap shit so much. I don't even really be thinking to even ask that like "Yo, should I even be going?" But yeah, traveling is my favorite shit man, nationally and internationally. Everywhere I go, I try to sit down with a person who's from that place that I visit.
1000WORD$: What do you got coming up next?
Tyron de Harlem: I mentioned Instant Vintage, the show with Mark. So next, I'm expanding on a channel called CCTV, and it's going to have a whole bunch of different shows. So Instant Vintage is going to be one of them. I put out the Straight CACHE interview with [Mach Hommy] and Tha God Fahim late last year. And so those are gonna be the two flagship series. Straight CACHE is gonna be more archival, so a lot of the traveling that you mentioned just now, like those interviews that I did, where I went to like Chicago or Gary or the Netherlands, I'm gonna post those as a part of like an archival release situation. And then Instant Vintage Season Two, me and Mark got four episodes in. So it's gonna be Fatboy Sharif, Roper Williams, this dude named Rob Cave Jr. from Brooklyn, your boy BoriRock, and Michelangelo, and we did one more. Oh Saleem, who manages Fly Anakin and SadhuGold.
1000WORD$: Fire.
Tyron de Harlem: Yeah, so Straight CACHE and Instant Vintage are gonna be the two flagship programs, then there's gonna be other programs that come underneath that. I don't know if you're old enough to remember but we used to have the TV Guide, so I'm gonna do a TV Guide, well a book component. It's gonna be called CCTV guide. So it's just gonna have different interviews and stuff, and it's gonna be like an official TV Guide, so you can get hip to all the programs.
1000WORD$: Oh, that's so fire. What inspired CACHE?
Tyron de Harlem: A lot of different things. Coming from the era that we're from, magazines used to be my favorite shit. Like you asked about mixtapes, even more than the mixtapes, I wanted to read about the music. So back when we was coming up, The Source was like the prominent thing, then XXL, then Blaze for a little while. Sometimes you had rap pages, but the top three for me personally, were Blaze, The Source, and XXL. So I felt like that kind of writing and stuff like that, things that you really wanted to have in your house, and keep and pass down, or maybe even trade if the time came to it, we were lacking that. So I was like "Nah, I want to do something that's kind of like a collector's item, but also has some worthwhile writing in it that people can refer to for years to come." So yeah, and the trading card shit, I've been doing that since 2015, so that was just a natural component that I wanted to have to it. I'm just a big fan of seeing culture, period. There's a spot called Printed Matter over on 11th Ave and probably like 25th Street, over in Chelsea, and they just have all kinds of zines that people just make and shit. Sometimes it's like one sheet, sometimes it's ten pages, sometimes it's a full book, but it's just alternate press, and people can just write about anything they want. So [there would] be a zine that's specifically about 1000WORD$, or a zine that's just about [New Vegas Films], you know what I mean? So yeah, to me, it challenges the idea of what literature could be. So that's how I wanted to come with CACHE. I was just like "Nah, I gotta do something that can be a collector's item."
1000WORD$: Facts. I got a few of them, man. I want to say, Tyron, I look forward to everything you got coming out and keep inviting me, my brother.
Tyron de Harlem: Absolutely, brother. Yo, everything I ever make you're gonna have one of them. I always got one on deck for you and a couple other people. Anything that I ever make or anything that I ever throw, you're definitely invited or there's a copy on reserve for you. So that goes without question.
1000WORD$: Appreciate you, my brother. And that's likewise too, bro. Thank you so much, brother.
Tyron de Harlem: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.