Local duo hopes to put Portland on hip-hop map

Two local brothers with MHCC and Reynolds High School ties have made their mark on the hip-hop scene after winning Black Entertainment Television’s (BET) 106 & Park Wild-Out-Wednesday. And, they’re hoping to put Portland on the map as being a city of up-and-coming talent.

Get It Squad (G.I.S.) is a hip-hop duo from Portland that consists of brothers Rob (a.k.a. KO Yessir) and Reggie (a.k.a. RJ Beatz) Watkins. They started their group four years ago and in 2010, paid $200 to enter Wild-Out-Wednesday in hopes of performing/competing live on the world’s Number One countdown show, BET’s “106 & Park.”

They beat 30 other groups in the first round held in Portland and then flew to New York to compete against two other groups, live on the 106 & Park show. Thousands of people voted that day after watching the two perform on television and G.I.S Squad was declared the winners of Wild-Out-Wednesday.

Reggie, a former MHCC broadcasting program student, and his brother said they always had a passion for music from a young age. They grew up listening to music with their family members.

“I’ve always been interested in music since I could remember. In the fourth grade I was always getting referrals from making music (by playing) on the table, so I just progressed from there,” Reggie said.

The two grew up listening to the old-school soulful tunes of The Temptations, Five Heartbeats, and the Isley Brothers as well as Gospel artists Kirk Franklin and Donny McClurkin. “We have a Gospel soundtrack; everybody always asks us when we are going to do Gospel,” Reggie said. They recently performed at a church and they both expressed they wish to do more Gospel tracks in the future.

Both brothers attended Reynolds High School and used to perform at school talent shows. After they graduated, they returned a couple of times and performed at the Reynolds senior prom, as well as other school functions.

Growing up in the church has influenced their love of music. “I played the drums in church when I was seven,” said Rob. Reggie, considered the singer in the group, sung in the church choir.

The two came up with the name G.I.S. by checking online to see if that name was already taken, then had to copyright it because of the possibility of someone else also using it.

As for performing together rather than take on solo careers, Rob said, “I think it was mainly because we were brothers and it flowed natural.”

 

They were motivated to build their music career in part because of the exciting buzz they would create around school and the fan base that followed. “(We were) trying to figure out what (we) want to be, got all of these different options so we were just exploring our options,” Reggie said. “In high school we used to do talent shows all the time. We became real popular. Literally, we would draw a crowd in, like, 60 seconds. Even at lunch we would draw that huge crowd. The (students) would go crazy; (school staff) would shut us down eventually.”

The duo performed on 106 & Park only four months after Rob graduated from Reynolds. “That was a crazy experience. It just lets you know that anything is possible,” he said.

Before long, the brothers were compared by some to another hip-hop duo, the “New Boys,” which raised some concern. “Honestly, I was afraid of the criticism that we would receive from the beginning – because we were really different, like an old school feel with a new school to it.” But G.I.S. seems to have successfully carved out its own identity.

The duo has been networking and promoting their mix-tape. They had the good fortune to have celebrity rap star Big Sean listen to their mix-tape after G.I.S. met him by his tour bus after one of his performances. When Big Sean greeted the crowd waiting at the gate, Rob and Reggie told him they were fans of his, told him had performed on Wild-Out-Wednesday and asked if he could listen to their mix-tape. “He said ‘All right, I got you,’ ” Rob said.  A couple of weeks later Reggie was on Facebook writing on his status about meeting Big Sean and, “I look on my Facebook and he ‘liked’ my status about that, and he ‘liked’ a couple of my other statuses. So, I thought that whole experience was pretty cool.”

As for the future, G.I.S. hopes to create more music and network within the industry. They might need to leave from Portland to branch out, however. “I always think about that,” Reggie said of such a major change. They are weighing how to best promote themselves, perhaps doing more talent shows.

“All kinds of celebrities are looking for (new) talent,” ’Reggie said. “Wherever we move, it’s going to be a real big decision. It’s going to be real important. It’s going to take a lot of planning.”

The Get It Squad’s dress-style is unique and compliments its style of music. Reggie wears his hair in a “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” style high-top fade, and Rob wears his hair in “Allen Iverson” style braids.

With their distinct sound and look, their combination of fashion statement and catchy tunes, the duo hope to shine light on the talents of Portland. In their travels, there are many people who didn’t know about Portland, they said.

“When we went to New York, (some people would) ask us where we were from and we said ‘Portland’ and then they asked ‘Portland, Maine?’ ” Rob said. And we said, ‘No, Portland, Oregon’ and they said, ‘Where is that?’ And we had to explain where it was.”

Rob is confident that won’t be a problem much longer, thanks to the new generation of up-and-comers in the Portland rap scene. “I think probably in the next year it should be put on the map, hopefully by us, but if not by us, then by someone. We got too much talent here,” he said.