(Photo Credit: Stevie)

Hailing from Chocolate City, Wes Ellington Felton has charmed his way into the lives of many. Whether it is his ardent poetry, mellifluous voice, or the intricate rhymes manifested within his lyrics, it doesn’t stop there. He also paints, acts, and designs. He has mastered the art of arts. Soulful to the core, Felton, also dubbed W. Ellington Felton, Wes Felton, and Dub Ell, spoke with Centric Soul Sessions about his career, including the fan favorite collaboration with Raheem DeVaughn under the moniker Crossrhodes. He also shared his thoughts on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in his hometown of Washington D.C., President Barack Obama, and his family life.

Meet the urban Renaissance man.

Krysten Hughes: Throughout your career you have dropped a number of albums and collaborated with many talented artists. Your two latest projects were Dub Ell 101: The Vault – EP, featuring Eric Roberson, Wayna, Bilaal Salaam and Priest Da Nomad, and Silent Killers – EP which featured Kenny Burns and Priest Da Nomad. What up and coming releases can your listeners look forward to?

W. Ellington Felton: In the next few months I have a record called The Middle Ear coming out with producer Jah I Witness. The Middle Ear will be dropping on Jah’s label, Simply Laced and will be available on iTunes and other various digital retailers. We also teamed up exclusively with a film production company called Juju Films who will be directing and producing all of the videos and releasing them to various outlets overseas, starting in Germany and possibly Tokyo.

My biggest project in the works is Ellington International, a record I am doing with Jason Orr and Craig Love in Atlanta as a part of Soul of Earth. I do not want to make a pop or crossover album but I do want to make an album with good sounds and have dance records too. A lot of people who will be on the record with me like Dionne Farris, N’Dea Davenport [of Brand New Heavies], Carl McIntosh [of Loose Ends], C.C. Sunchild and Omar from the United Kingdom have helped bring that break out music, and music that has been explored internationally.

One of the songs that I am recording with Dionne Farris called “When I’m Gone” from the Speed Dating project is almost a techno song but it speaks on the idea of being confident and comfortable with myself. I am a slim guy and in the world today, society and the media will make you think that you have to be a muscle neck. Physical expectation is not just something that’s pressured upon women. Being a creative man and a regular Black man, being sexually desired is a reality and a lot of outlets make you think that its either the rough neck or ambiguous man, and I know that the regular man is sexually desired as well. You do not have to exploit yourself or other people to be desired. It is O.K. to be the regular guy or the non aggressive, sensitive or passionate guy. What [Dionne and I] are trying to do is reintroduce the positive Black man and make him more desirable. Obama is not the only Black man who is positive in D.C. [laughs].

I’m always working on projects with other artists as well that will be coming out soon. I’m not trying to be famous; I just want to make sure that there is still original music being made by people of color, beyond materialism and misogyny. I think the project with Soul of Earth is my first big record and I’m allowing myself to be presented that way, and risk putting it all out there without compromising creative control. They have adopted me as a young man, a young hope. I don’t know what to call it.

I’m also working on a new project with Tasteful Licks, an independent label that I have worked with for the past three years. I have distributed different records with them like Distraction City, also known as D.C., and The Antithesis which was J. Laine, TFOX and I.

KH: 2009 was known as “The Year of the Mixtape” in the Hip Hop industry. You took part in that trend by dropping Black History Month Has Come and Gone Again in February of last year. Do you think that more artists released better mixtapes or better studio albums in 2009?

WEF: 2009 was the year of oversaturated mediocrity. Lazy artists and mediocrity. People weren’t trying to push the envelope and instead made contrived attempts to be different. Once you make a conscious decision to be different, you are already failing. The whole mixtape culture is about people trying to work around introducing others to new music and production. It’s the easy way out to find a beat related to someone or something that is already known. Seventy five percent of the work is already done so you’re really only getting 25% of original music. Making music shouldn’t be about shoving an image down your throat, it should be about simply making good music. One good thing to come of mixtapes in 2009 is that the public is tired of it, and now people are opening themselves up to artists like myself, Eric Roberson and Sy Smith, and are aware that there is a lot going on beyond what everyone sees in the media.

KH: Some of your newest fan base may not know that you have also done some acting. You starred in Multitudes of Mercies alongside Raheem DeVaughn and Malcolm Jamal Warner which appeared on BET in 2005 as a part of World AIDS Day. I’m sure that you are aware that the most recent statistics for the District of Columbia show that at least 3% of the population is living with HIV/AIDS. How did filming Multitudes of Mercies impact you and provide a way for you to raise awareness in your hometown?

WEF: It helped break down walls. I grew up in a Christian family. In the film, I played a young minister who relocated to start a youth ministry at a church in D.C., and later in the movie it is revealed that my character is HIV positive because he had unprotected sex with a girl in college. After I made that movie, my family and immediate circle started to have dialogue and began to recognize the reality of the virus and dealing with the possibility of having diseases,  and people in our community who have the HIV and AIDS. Usually when you discuss things as a ‘be all end all’ it becomes associated with their colloquiums, gender preference and religious beliefs. This film made people recognize that there is a level of sensitivity that we have ignored. I went to Carnegie Mellon University for acting. The reason that I chose to be an artist and study acting is because the power of the message. When it comes to statistics and reports in general, I think that the numbers are based on something that they are trying to prove. When they want to prove something they will report findings and researchers will seek to prove it, so I am careful with that. But the film itself is one of the best films that BET did for World AIDS day and it is relevant today.

KH: Washington D.C. is not only a national center for the arts but for media, sports and government. In recent groundbreaking history we welcomed President Barack Obama to the White House. How does it feel to be alive to see the first Black President of the United States and what significance do you think it will have on your son Tobias?

WEF: I’m excited at the idea of my child, who is six, knowing who Barack Obama is. That is very dope that he is able to say his name very clear and articulate, even before knowing how to pronounce easier words, and it’s a brotha’ that looks like him. It’s a brotha’ that’s not an actor, athlete, or rapper. I think it’s a good thing. I am not going to say that I didn’t believe I would ever see a Black president. I have interacted with some awesome people of color, men and women, so it is not a surprise for me but, for my son it’s a great pep talk and it helps in a major way. However, there is so much work that needs to be done beyond [Obama]. I’ve been trying to focus less on Obama and more so, on the platform that he stood on to get elected and changing the status quo, so I really appreciate that part of it.

KH: In 2009 we lost a music icon, Michael Jackson. How did you take the news that he had passed?

WEF: It was a weird transition him leaving this earth. There was nothing regular or normal about [Michael Jackson] and the world accepted him anyway. That is amazing to me because diversity in Black men is something that is not in the main stream. After he passed I spoke with Jason Orr and we could feel the reality that we would never experience that type of artist ever again. He is the last of that generation. With Michael I realize, he’s gone and no one else is around to keep that connection open. He was the last of that breed connecting Black expression and Black music and Black history. That’s our history of legacy and expression. I don’t know if that was Michael’s plan but he now has a follower and believer, and a sense of his vision and his creative expression that he didn’t have when he was alive, through me. I constantly find myself wanting snap my finger, point my finger or grab my Johnson when I hear a good song. [Laughs]. As much as I love Prince I don’t think it would be that impacting. Michael was the man.  We’ve all killed Michael and we have all contributed to his demise. That’s when I really realized what he was about, when he passed. Just like Luther Vandross. There will be never be another Luther. Luther did it. And he was great.

Tomorrow: Will W. Ellington Felton and Raheem DeVaughn, who has gone mainstream, reunite as The Crossrhodes? Also, growing up Felton, raising Tobias and Wes’ ambition.

TAGS: Obama, soul, The Crossrhodes, W. Ellington Felton, Washington D.C., Wes Felton