“I can’t believe Matt pulled this off,” sophomore Greer Gabor said as she mingled with students at the The Fresh Selection benefit concert at Jammin Java on May 5.
The concert, organized by sophomore Matt Colwell, featured the area’s most well-known rap artists such as Genie and Lyric as well as smaller acts such as DJ Ryan Feng from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
Colwell organized the concert through his connections from running his music blog and website, The Fresh Selection. The blog is also run by sophomore Alec Dolton and Madison High School sophomore Daniel Martinez. The blog as well as the concert aimed to introduce and share rap music in the community.
“It’s been a really huge project that I’ve taken on single-handedly,” Colwell said.
This is not the first large project Colwell has taken on. He runs a blog website with sophomore Alec Dolton and Madison sophomore Daniel Martinez. The site gets a few hundred page views a day.
The bloggers started out by creating a Tumblr and later decided to “take it to the next level” by buying a website and domain name.
The music reviewed includes dubstep, electronic and rap.
“This music is stuff you may not hear on the radio,” Colwell said.
The website is contacted by smaller artists who want to gain exposure. Colwell, Dolton and Martinez hand pick the music that gets reviewed and posted on the site. The purpose, Colwell said, is to “expose people to new music.”
The site “helped me learn to manage my time and priorities,” Dolton said.
As of now, The Fresh Selection has writers in Chicago and Georgia. These writers are mostly teenagers and college students interested in the music business.
“Someday, I want to make a big enough influence with an artist to propel his career to another level,” Colwell said.
Colwell also has been helping the artist Mayo by being his unofficial manager. He sends Mayo’s music to other review blogs and uses his conections to work with recording companies. He hopes to one day pursue managing as a career.
“My goal is to spread my passion and have as many people know about the music that I love,” Colwell said. “I’m using this website to open more doors to me in the future.”