I.O.U is a music group comprised of two artists, Isaiah “Izee” Mcneill and Andrew “buck” buckners. These musical artists hail from New Jersey and are very well known at Rutger’s University. They’ve made a couple songs that have now become Rutgber’s anthem’s but they have come a very long way from Rutger’s. They recently opened up for Far East Movement and released two mixtapes, “Breaking Our Mind Barriers” aka B.O.M.B.S. and “Love. Great. Humans.” They are currently busy on tour but TRUE Mag was able to chat with them about their movement.
How did you meet and become a group?
We all met at a young age through other friends and doing sports. We didn’t actually start doing music until senior year of high school and really started taking music seriously freshman year of college in 2009-2010
What do you prefer more, performing or being in the studio?
Thats an excellent question, the studio is where we pour our hearts out and put in the most work, but performing is a result of that work. So really its a combination of love from both.
Why did you change your name from Deuce 1’s to I.O.U.?
We changed our name from Deuce 1’s to I.O.U. based on style. We felt Deuce 1’s didn’t represent us growing as artists anymore it gave off a harder more rugged feel when our music is not like that. People also messed it up way too much and we felt that I.O.U. left a better impression, it was more of a universal name.
Who does your beats?
Izee makes the beats but sometimes Buck will add his style and have Izee find a unique way to incorporate it with Izee has already created. We are in the process of collaborating with some big producers (find out who on our up and coming fralbum Patience coming first week of may)
How do you come to an agreement on a beat and does your preferences differ in your choices?
Izee usually makes the beats from there he sends them over and we listen and Buck usually makes his corrections or additions then Chuck sometimes will recommend some stuff. Or sometimes Buck or V will recommend samples that would work with our style and from there Izee usually just locks in and makes these magical creations. Then we start the writing process. Its amazing how well we work together everyone’s opinion counts and we are all on the same page 97% of the time. If not we just talk and listen and figure it out until it sounds the best that it can.
Where do you come up with the concepts for your songs?
The concepts of our songs come from our every day life experiences. The struggles of being a student / musician, The passion we have for music, How bad we want to be successful in the music business, what we do on an daily basis, being positive, what we want to live for, or just conversations that we have together that get expressed through our music.
When did you know that you wanted to rap?
We knew music was becoming more than just a hobby while we were recording our very first mixtape The Beginning of Everything right before Buck went off to West Virginia University. During all of his breaks thats all we did was record and push and even when he was in school thats when Rutgers State of Mind was released and created that first buzz. We just kept moving forward from there.
What were you going to college for? Did you graduate?
Izee is in college for Communications with hopes to graduate in 2014. Buck was a history major but decided to dedicate all of his time to music in mid 2011.
How do you think you became so big on Rutgers Campus? Do you still have a relationship with them musically?
Rutgers started to embrace us musically when we made the song Rutgers State of Mind a cover to Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z & Alicia Keys. Then when we did a cover to Wiz Khalifa’s Black & Yellow called Black & Scarlet that really put us on the map more as hip hop artists. We have a great relationship with the Rutgers community. We perform all over campus and have some big shows planned for the future at Rutgers University.
Name some of your most memorable performances
Opening for Far East Movement was an amazing performance. That was the first time we saw a crowd that large and it was a mind blowing experience. The first time we were at The Stone Pony was awesome because of all the legendary people that have performed there. To say we have now been there 6 times is an honor.
Do you plan on starting your own movement and label?
These are things that we are in the process of figuring out. #teamIOU is the movement that we are currently spreading and spreading at a very fast pace. Every show, every tweet, every fan, every t-shirt we give out, they all are #teamIOU. Our movement represents positivity, truly believing that Every Day is a Great Day and no matter what you are going through you need to stay positive. The label is in the works but at this moment we are just working on music. The rest will fall into place at the right time. All we need to do right now is spread the music.
What projects do you have coming up?
Our next project to be released is Patience. Coming out the first week of May. It will be available at www.InsideOurUniverse.com we can NOT wait for you all to hear this project it will be one of the best works we have done so far.
Why would you say to people who may not know your group?
We just want to give a shout out to all of our future listeners. Everyone will hear our music. #teamIOU
Be sure to check out I.O.U’s fan page and give their music a listen at www.insideouruniverse.com
-Rebecca Cruz (@creepitreal_)
