UCR Alum, Ryan Bremond, talks about his time at school and being a part of the Hip-Hop group, Starting Six.
What do you get when you cross the musical stylings of the Beastie Boys and the Ying Yang Twins and multiply all of that by six college guys with a whole lot of swag? The answer: Starting Six, the latest up-and-coming hip hop group to rise out of the Bay Area. I first heard Starting Six when I was a freshman in the dorms and a hallmate suggested I watch the “Thirsty” music video. At that time, it just had a few thousand views on YouTube, a mere decimal percentage from the staggering 1.5 million views it has today. Since then, Starting Six has released a number of “slaps” including “Yogi”, “On Me”, “Tippy Dance” and their latest track “This Ain’t Water”. The group has recently performed at Wild Jam in San Jose featuring headliners Drake, Tyga, B.O.B., J. Cole, and Taio Cruz. They also greeted the New Year at San Francisco’s NYE 2012 party featuring “Gucci Gucci” star, Kreayshawn. One of the members, Ryan Bremond aka. RyBread or Bread for short is a recent UCR philosophy alumnus who graduated in 2011. The 22-year-old rapper is originally from Richmond, California and currently resides in West Los Angeles where he’s living the single life and is continuing to pursue a music career with the Six. I never met Ryan in person when he attended UCR, but he was kind enough to answer a few of my questions online about his time in college and what it’s like to be one-sixth of the newest Bay Area hip hop sensation.
Life as a Former Student at UCR
What was your favorite part about being a student at UCR?
Definitely the girls and the pizza in the Commons.
Where did you hang out most often?
The gym. I loved hooping in open gym.
What was the class you loved?
English 1B with Barry Kenyon—the best professor I ever had next to Peter Graham.
How about the class you hated going to?
Math 22. Who wants to go to business calculus at 8 am?
What is one thing you miss about college and the one thing you won’t miss?
All the people you can meet. However, I won’t miss the lack of parking, lack of classes, and the Riverside heat.
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Music Career
How would you describe Starting Six’s musical style to those who aren’t as familiar with Bay Area rap and hip hop?
Beastie Boys + Ying Yang Twins with all the learned swag of E-40.
How did Starting Six start?
Nic and Big Steve are cousins and have known each other since birth. They met Riggz in grade school and went to St. Mary’s High School in Berkeley where they met me, Goose, and Fess. We all played basketball with each other in high school and made music for fun. The rest is history.
What has been the most exciting event that has happened so far in your music career?
We performed at Wild Jam in San Jose at the HP Pavillion with Drake, Tyga, B.O.B., and J.Cole in front of thousands of fans. Top 3 craziest nights of our lives.
What can we expect to see from Starting Six in the future?
We are pushing our single “This Ain’t Water” on the radio with a video coming very soon. Our new mixtape full of slaps should be dropping by March. We have a few projects in the works for StartingSixTV so stay tuned for that.
If you could collaborate with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?
Personally, I would love to work with Nipsey Hussle. It would also be hella cool if we could get Florence + the Machine to sing on a track for us, that would be epic.
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Getting to Know Ryan Bremond
Who is/are your biggest musical inspiration(s)?
Personally, Kanye will forever by my favorite artist. As for the 6, it would be Lil Jon, E-40, Ying Yang, The Team and anyone you ever slapped in order to get the function rockin!!!
Ry, all the ladies want to know what’s your ideal type of girl?
Any girl of mixed ethnicity, the more exotic the better and she has to have a cute smile. Like Jessica Alba.
What are you biggest turn-ons and turn offs?
What’s hot and attractive to me is a girl with a sassy attitude and the ability to hold a conversation about something other than who Kim Kardashian is dating, and if she’s hella athletic. I love females who are in hella good shape. What’s not attractive is girls with bitchy attitudes, if she’s a team jumpoff, and girls with no humor.
Finally, what are some words you live by?
You’re only as strong as your team. Someone is always doing worse so be thankful for what you have.
Links to Music Videos:
“Thirsty”
“Yogi”