Thrill Da Playa grew up right here in Duval and went on to become a platinum selling recording artist as part of the group 69 Boyz, one of the biggest music talents ever to come out of Jacksonville. He is continuing to do big things as a solo artist and recently performed at Skyline as part of the benefit concert for the Tiphne Hollis Foundation. Tiphne Hollis was a 16 year-old Ed White High School student who was killed earlier this year, becoming one of the victims of this city's violent crime plague.
I talked to Thrill recently about his syndicated radio show, GFL Live, his upcoming album, User Friendly, and his thoughts about being one of the biggest artists to come out of our area.
When I asked him what it was like to be a part of the biggest music act to come out of Jacksonville, he did something that was very positive and refreshing-he gave props to those who came before him. And when I say, before, I mean he took it way back, all the way to Doc Box and B. Fresh, the 80's group that had the hit, "Slow Love". He gave shouts out "because they were the first gold artists from Jacksonville. We saw them struggle right from DJ’s record shop on McDuff".
He also recognized another major group, 95 South, by saying that they "came out a little bit before me. I was co-writing and co-producing a lot of their stuff. 69 Boyz was able to go multi-platinum and do big things and that was all a part of the vision. It makes me feel great to be the largest selling artist from Jacksonville".
For the past few years, Thrill has been on the other side of the airwaves as the host of his own radio station, GFL Live, based out of Tallahassee. He got started when he was tapped by Stevie the Man, who heard him on an album skit. He was offered a position doing a night program in Orlando. His show quickly moved to #1 in that market, and Clear Channel asked him to come to Tallahassee, where he took over the top spot there as well. GFL Live is syndicated in 49 markets throughout Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. Thrill says that the strength of the show is that it highlights independent artists who might not otherwise get a break. He's currently taking a leave of absence, however, as he promotes his latest project, User Friendly.
User Friendly is what he likes to call "real music, fun, integrity-filled music. Thrill stated that God gave him a vision that his ministry would be one of love and fun and that it would unite people across race, religion, and other boundaries. “I’m praying that the world gets to see the love of God through the music.” In order for his music to reach as many listeners as possible, User Friendly is going to be a free download for everybody and he's taking it a step further by setting aside free hard copies to college campuses, starting with HBCU's (historically black colleges and universities). August 7 is the tentative release date.
Thrill Da Playa performed some tracks from the album at the Tiphne Hollis benefit, including "Ery'body Rock", "God B4 Me", and "Slide". If you missed that great concert, however, you're in luck, though. Here's a link to some of the tracks, as well as a video for "God B4 Me", which you can listen to while you're waiting for my next blog post, where Thrill Da Playa gets deep as he talks about how he makes his money as an artist, his opinion about Jacksonville as a market for hip-hop artists, and his thoughts on what aspiring musicians should do to get ahead in the industry. Stay tuned and happy listening!
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