Successful business people have attained most of what they have through trials by fire. Xavier Aeon, the flagship artist for F.I. Entertainment, is no different. In fact, the risks that he and his camp have taken may have made them successful long before they were destined to be. The buzz they have created within both Hip Hop and R&B are letting both sides know that F.I. is vastly approaching.
Having collaborated with the likes of Jadakiss, Elephant Man, and well-known producers from both sides, Xavier is attempting to rise to the top of the food chain and yet belt out smooth melodies that can make a woman’s heart shiver. The Puerto Rican born, Hartford, Connecticut bred crooner took a few minutes with Allhiphop.com Alternatives to shed some light on F.I.’s powerful steps toward R&B supremacy.
Allhiphop.com Alternatives: To start things off, get into your background a bit and talk about where everything started for you.
Xavier Aeon: I started singing in the church when I was around four years old. I was in the youth choir and my mother was the director. When I was six or seven, she put me into the adult choir. At first, I used to be really nervous when I sang, and I really didn’t like it too much because it was a lot of pressure. Once I started singing, the reaction from the congregation and positive comments kind of made me see the power of music and how it can change your mood and uplift them. That pretty much made me say, “you know, I might want to do this for a living when I grow up.”
AHHA: Who exactly can you credit for giving you that push to take things to a professional level?
XA: When I was in middle school, I started writing and started listening to music on the radio. The writing kind of went on to production and, you know, trying to make tracks and practice songs, putting them together. That’s pretty much it. I got a partner of mine named Huff, who’s a friend of mine who I met in high school. Me and him started writing songs together. We formed that partnership, and he’s the main collaborator on my album. We wrote a lot of the stuff together.
AHHA: Talk about the general progression of your record label, F.I. Entertainment, and how you are able to collaborate with artists that some established labels have not been able to collaborate with.
XA: Like everyone else, we learn by trial and error. As you know with the music industry, there really aren’t any rules, you know what I mean? Everybody gets on in different ways. At first, we were just going to do production. I wasn’t going to do the whole artist thing. But, as we started going around the labels and started letting them hear these songs, they kept asking who the person is singing these songs. After awhile, the company lawyer and the business manager thought we should have a front person. We get pretty good responses from the material. From there, after we demoed up some songs and started writing for artists that are currently out, we decided to put out a mixtape. Once we put out the mixtape, we got nominated for the Mixtape Awards, and that was the moment a lot of people started checking for us. We were the only R&B act nominated in the category “Best New Artist on a Mixtape.” We were nominated along with Lloyd Banks, Peedi Crakk and other rappers.
AHHA: That is fire! Also, get into what you are currently working on right now musically. I heard you may have a lead single with Jadakiss, which is definitely a good look for you.
XA: I’m currently working with Chris Henderson, who wrote and produced “Happily Ever After” for (R&B singer) Case. Cheri Dennis, a new female vocalist on Bad Boy, has her first single with him. I’ve also worked with Troy Oliver, who produced “Differences” for Ginuwine and “Jenny On The Block” for J-Lo. I love to collaborate when I make music, but with Huff being my main partner, we keep things in house as much as possible. We have a way of going about making songs that’s real easy. At this point, we don’t even have to communicate that much to each other. We know the vibe we give to each other in the studio.
AHHA: You also collaborated with Elephant Man. Did you and he share the same studio space, or did he lay down his vocals elsewhere and send them to you?
XA: We were down in Miami for The Source Awards weekend. We met up with Tony Kelly, and he heard of “The Hood” album, which is that mixtape I was talking about earlier. He liked the vibe and liked what we were doing, and he was like, “yo, why don’t you come down to my studio and vibe.” I came down, he played me a couple of tracks, and then he gave me a track that I thought was crazy! Me and my writing partner got to it and a couple of minutes later we pretty much did the song. We came in and started recording vocals, and while we were recording, a light went off in Tony’s head. He said, “Elephant Man would be perfect for this.” We thought that would be crazy! He called Elephant Man, and he came down and listened to it. He wanted to ride around and listen to it. We left, and he came back and recorded his vocals. And like they say, the rest is history.
AHHA: What happened with the Jadakiss situation? Did something similar take place?
XA: This is another one that kind of happened by chance. I made the track to it, and I let the fellas listened to my idea for it. They were like, “this is one of those club banger joints…we need somebody hot on this, man!” Next thing you know, somebody brought up Jada. We talked about it for a minute. We got in touch with his manager, and his manager listened to it and thought it was crazy. About 72 hours later, Jada was in the studio with us. I hadn’t even had a chance to lay down my vocals, so I had to sing it to him. He thought I was a rapper, and he was like, “man, I thought you rapped…I’m about to lace you!” Next thing you know, he laid down 16 quickly! It’s an enlightening experience to work with people who know what they are doing.
AHHA: What else are you working on and what do you have coming out soon?
XA: We have a song coming out on Mario’s new album called “Shakedown.” It might possibly be the lead single, but they are talking it over right now. We did it with a producer named All-Star. All-Star did a lot of SWV’s songs, and he has four songs on Joe’s new album. We got together with him and did a couple of songs, and one of those was for Mario.
AHHA: Do you have any final thoughts that you can offer to the people out there?
XA: I just want to offer good music, man. My thing is trying to give people something a little different lyrically. I’m trying to make all the joints lyrically interesting and something that when you really listen to the lyrics, you’re like, “that’s a little bit bugged out…I’ve heard that before but not quite in that way.” As far as the album, I’m putting all the songs together so that there’s a story. Hopefully, the people will gravitate towards that and it will be something that stimulates their ear.
For more information on Xavier Aeon and F.I. Entertainment, please visit http://www.fientertainment.tv.
