2nd Floor Basement Radio

2nd Floor Basement Radio

2nd Floor Basement Radio is a subsidiary of 2nd Floor Basement Productions, LLC or 2fbp. 2fbp is located in the heart of North Carolina and is a multimedia production company with the web radio station as the first leg of the company startup. 2nd Floor Basement Radio is a “classic” hip-hop station, meaning that the primary playlist on any given day ranges from 1979-2009. This gives the casual listener a wide range of artists to listen to, from Cold Crush Brothers, to Public Enemy and Run DMC, to Lil Wayne and Drake.

2nd Floor Basement Productions was started by Desmond Johnson and Caleb Falls in 1996 as a way to promote their fledgling rap careers as the group Livewire. After receiving degrees in Media Studies in 2003 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Media Studies, where Johnson ran a popular hip-hop radio show on WUAG 103.1 FM for two years, the team decided to focus more on production for area hip-hop artists as well as continue to dabble in hip-hop as artists. During college and after graduation, the two worked for different radio stations in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point area. Johnson worked for WKZL 107.5FM in two different stints as a production intern, while both Johnson and Falls worked as account managers for Entercom Communications in Greensboro, working for popular urban station WJMH 102.1FM and WQMG 97.1FM. It wasn’t until after this that the two decided to start a web based hip-hop station and use the experience gained from college and working in the industry to their advantage.

“Honestly, we were prepared to start this before, but we had to wait for the technology to catch up,” said Desmond Johnson. “We feel with the experience and equipment that we already have, we’re a leg up on many other web radio stations. Plus we grew up on this stuff. It isn’t work to us, its fun.”
There are big plans in the works for the station. Weekly shows are being produced and deals are currently in the works to have DJ’s from around the country spotlighted on the station each week in their own shows. News on hip-hop and the urban culture will be concentrated on as well. But the most intriguing thing about 2nd Floor Basement Radio may be its commitment to the independent artists. Independent hip-hop artists are featured in the stations regular rotation and recently a new show titled “Industry Shakedown, Independent Spotlight” was announced. This show will be solely independent artists from around the country, especially from 2nd Floor’s home state of North Carolina. The show is slated to begin Thursday June 11, 2009 from 8pm-12am and will have new music, interviews, discussions and more. “People in the area are getting excited about the spotlight show, we’re receiving 2-3 submissions every day, which we are proud of,” said Johnson. “Giving an artist a platform to find out how good they actually are…that is hip hop in its most basic form. We feel like things have been shifting to this ‘ringtone rapper’ mentality where you don’t even have to buy the album to get the best songs anymore. We’re going to attempt to bring that feeling back from 10-15 years ago, plus break new artists and new tracks from today’s artists like T.I. Lil Wayne, Eminem, Drake, Young Jeezy, Kanye, etc. It’s like….good cookout music, all day everyday.”

You can find 2nd Floor Basement Radio currently holding down the #4 position on KryKey’s top 25 radio stations in the world. Become a friend on the Myspace or Facebook pages and receive updates on future events, shows and more!

www.krykey.com/prs/2nd_floor_basement_radio www.myspace.com/2ndfloorbasementradio www.facebook.com/2ndfloorbasementradio