MONICA SZAKACS, NEWS WRITER:
Eric Connelly is a full-time student at Southern and a hard worker at his three jobs, including an internship at Source Magazine in New York.
However, he is also a music producer and artist, better known as “Fresh P,” and has been creating beats for nine years.
“One of my boys started a group in high school and I was like, ‘uh I don’t rap,’ but they needed beats so I just started making beats,” said Connelly.
His schedule is hectic, but he said he finds time between jobs and school to produce music, even if it is just an hour or two between breaks, which he said is hard in a semester. Connelly said he usually makes beats in his room at his house, but recently has found a new place to relax and create—his car.
“The quality actually sounds better,” said Connelly. “I can hear everything a lot better.”
Connelly is in a group called The Ingredients, The INGs for short, which consists of four members. Other than himself, there are two other members who produce and rap, Matt Mittens and O’Beezy, and one member who sings, T King.
“We have the main ingredients for making a complete song,” said Connelly. “We have everything to put into making music.”
The group, said Connelly, does not categorize its music in a certain genre.
Instead, they call the genre “flavor music” because it is many genres mixed together, which also connects to the name Ingredients.
“We relate everything back to our name,” said Connelly. “Cooking up is producing and meals are called beats, so we cook up meals.”
The INGs have put out three mixtapes: Thanksgiving 2007’s “Meals for Deals,” summer 2010’s “Starvation” and Thanksgiving 2010’s “Pre Heat.”
Although most of their music is recorded in T King’s studio, Connelly said members create beats on their own time at their homes.
Connelly said his favorite mixtape they worked on was “Pre Heat,” because the group recorded half of the tracks in the Southern audio studio without anybody knowing.
He said he was supposed to be working on school video projects. Connelly’s favorite track on “Pre Heat” is “Fo Sho’,” because of the beat and the concept.
“The concept,” said Connelly, “basically is telling a female I’m working, I’m going to be gone for a while, but don’t worry because my love’s for sure and I’ll be back.”
The INGs have performed in many different places around Connecticut, including Southern, Eastern and Toad’s Place in New Haven.
“I felt great performing at Toad’s because it’s a legendary stage,” said Connelly. “I was just thinking the whole time I’m performing on the same stage that Kanye West was on, to Bob Marley, to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, to the Rolling Stones.”
Through his dedication to perspire as an artist, Connelly said there is no one in his direct life who personally inspired him.
“I get a lot of motivation from myself,” said Connelly, “looking at other people’s down falls and go off of that, and I realize this is what I shouldn’t do for myself.”
Connelly said he looks up to anyone in music that he can relate to.
Lyrically, he said he looks to Jay-Z, because he was one of the first artists he had ever listened to and still continues to do so.
“The first album I had was Jay-Z’s ‘Hard Knock Life,’” said Connelly. “Another first album I had was the Fugees.”
Connelly said he wants people to know that The INGs bring “a new style to the world.”
