a conversation w/ 2turntent.

I sat with 2TurntEntertainment over Hot Table. Thank you to them for taking the time, pulling up, and letting the conversation be what it was.

Before the interview really started, Gnarly SoCozy, Jayshaun Pinckney, was already showing who he was. Singing along while we waited, easy in the room, not forcing anything. He gives off this calm, no-judgment kind of energy, like you can just exist around him for a second. So when he later said his music goes wherever the water flows, it made sense, but it also felt like something you could have guessed from being around him. He just goes with the flow. It is as simple as that.

Swizzy2Turnt, Brandon Mendez, was different. More composed, but you could tell he was holding the moving parts together. Texting CVRTIER, checking in, making sure everybody was where they needed to be. Not stressed in a messy way, but in that quiet way people get when they care about the thing going right. He has that energy where he can be calm, but you still know he is not playing about the work.

Then CVRTIER, Andre Sparks, pulled up a little later, but his swag got there first. Black glasses, his own timing, a little late to the party but fashionably so. It felt less like he was late and more like he was entering on beat, which kind of tracks with the way he talks too. He brings the confidence, the range, and that bridge-the-gap energy without making it feel forced.

That says a lot about them as a group. Different timing, different energy, different ways of moving, but somehow it all connects. Gnarly goes with the flow. Swizzy keeps the structure from slipping. CVRTIER brings the party and the bigger picture.

2TurntEntertainment is hard to describe cleanly, and I don’t think they really need to be described cleanly. They are brothers, collaborators, critics, hype men, and reminders for each other. They talk about music like it is fun, but also like it is pressure. Like it is a creative outlet, but also a way of life. Like instinct, or maybe a greater purpose when they are all locked in.

The conversation moved through music, rollout, Springfield, style, management, Avery on the Beat, and what it means to keep showing up in a city that does not always know how to embrace its own talent right away.

By the end, what stuck with me most was the brotherhood. The way they show up for each other without making it soft or fake. Nobody in the group seems interested in shrinking themselves to make the work easier to explain. 2TurntEntertainment is not waiting to be understood from a distance. They are trying to be in everybody’s face regardless.

2turntentertainment

Conversation
Lightly edited for clarity.

The 413 Joint:
Introduce me to 2TurntEntertainment. What do you guys do?

Swizzy2Turnt:
We’re all in the same music scene. We’re brothers at it, so we said, fuck it, we’re going to make it a little group. 2TurntEntertainment is everything.

The 413 Joint:
What do you feel like you each bring to the table? And what do you feel like you bring as a collective?

Swizzy2Turnt:
Energy. Too much energy. A lot of lyricism.

CVRTIER:
For me, I’m more of the party and club guy. But not just regular party music. I make all different kinds of genres. I’ve done Brazilian funk. I’ve done melodic drill, sexy drill, Jersey club. I recently started getting into house music, so I’ve got a little bit of house music on my next album.

Gnarly SoCozy:
I go wherever the water flows. It doesn’t really matter what type of genre. As long as I feel like I know how to do it or have a sense of it, I’m pretty comfortable with it.

Gnarly SoCozy

The 413 Joint:
How would you describe each other’s music?

Gnarly SoCozy:
I could describe it perfectly. Swizz, he’s big body Bowser on the track. He’s talking shit. He don’t care. He’s very structured with his music. It has to hit on point and key for him.

CVRTIER is hitting for all the clubs and everyone that likes to have a good time and forget about the world.

CVRTIER:
And Gnarly, you are emotionally in tune. Anytime you make a project or do a song, it gives a peek into what you’re going through. It’s easy to connect to.

The 413 Joint:
I know you’re in a little bit of a rebrand. Talk to me about that.

Swizzy2Turnt:
I used to go by B Swizz for a long time. I got a little tired of it, honestly. Someone had called me Swizzy, and I was like, I like that.

Around that time, we made “Ego Death,” and there was a lot of high-energy stuff. I started getting into rage music, so Swizzy2Turnt made sense. We made a song called “Turnt,” and I said it was too turnt. That’s how we rocking. Then we just kept pushing that vibe.

Gnarly SoCozy and Swizzy2turnt by novision.jpeg

The 413 Joint:
How do you know when it’s right? When do you listen to a song and know you’re going to drop it?

Swizzy2Turnt:
It’s got to feel right from front to back. I’m real structured about it. I listen to a track ten times, fifteen times. If I don’t like it, I’ve got to redo it again.

I’m in the process of doing an album right now, and every day I’m listening like, I’ve got to redo this whole album. But it’s going to be a classic. It’s a process. I’m very critical of myself, maybe a little too much.

CVRTIER:
For me, I punch in a lot. As I’m going through my process, I always get that feeling. Whether it’s toward the middle or even the first hook, I’m like, nah, this is one of them ones.

Gnarly SoCozy:
I usually feel it when I’m writing it down and I have it memorized. So when I go in the studio, I’m ready to attack the beat. But sometimes it’s a hit, sometimes it’s not. You kind of have to base it off how you’re feeling about it.

The 413 Joint:
How important is the rollout? How thought out is that for each of you?

CVRTIER:
Rollout is extremely important to me. Moving here and having a lot of the artists who were already established out here embrace me, I learned from them. As an independent artist, the song is fifty percent, but the other half is how you present it, who you’re pushing it to, and how you’re pushing it.

For my first album when I moved up here, I made a song called “WCW.” I didn’t want it to be the lead single, but I wanted it to be the main single on the album. I dropped it on a Friday, and that following Wednesday, I tagged like 152 girls in a WCW post, and they all rocked with the song. It spread throughout the city and the album took off.

For my second album, I did a billboard not too far from here, and that was seen by a lot of people. For this next one, I want to do a trailer. I’m not going to reveal too much, but it’s definitely going to go viral.

Swizzy2Turnt:
I think the rollout is really important. I generally go against the grain, so I like to be experimental with how I push my stuff. It’s a process. I’m definitely in the lab a lot with these guys, as well as Rae, cooking up ideas. We’ve got some shit in the stash I’m looking forward to rolling out.

Gnarly SoCozy:
I’m comparing my old music to now. With my old projects, I would kind of just push it and think it was going to promote itself. But with Toxic Therapy, I was doing clips and little skits before the album even dropped, and it gained a lot of traction from that. Seeing it from both sides, I think rollout is very important.

The 413 Joint:
Talk to me about community. You guys are a collective, you’ve got features, and you’ve been established for a while. How has the Springfield community, or community in general, helped you creatively?

Swizzy2Turnt:
I think it’s extremely important, especially Western Mass. I love the community we’ve got. We’ve got a lot of really cool artists. It’s cool to have artists embrace each other. I feel like the city itself might not always embrace said people, but we’re working toward that. Little by little, hopefully as a group, we can push that agenda a little harder.

Gnarly SoCozy:
If we put our heads down and let our grind talk, let our music talk, we don’t need the flashy stuff or extras just to show people that we’re us. At the end of the day, we’re original. We’re ourselves in a group of difference. People might not embrace it. People might not care for it. But we’re going to be in everybody’s face regardless.

CVRTIER:
For me, I’m more of the bridge-the-gap guy because I spent eight or so years down south watching the music scene come together. For a while, everybody was working with each other, then everybody broke apart and clicked up into their own cliques.

After I was embraced, I got the feeling that everybody is slowly starting to come back together. It’s getting back to that Renaissance feeling, where people are collaborating with people they might not have collaborated with two years ago. Not just because of issues, but because they might have been in two different places creatively.

Community is definitely important because where he might lack, I might be strong, and where I lack, he might be strong. We bridge the gap.

Gnarly SoCozy:
I’ll work with anybody in the city. I have no fear of hopping on any track. It’s just the connection.

CVRTIER:
Not having an ego helps a lot too. I know who I am at the end of the day. If you wash me on this track, I know my next one is going to go ten times harder. I get inspired off stuff like that. When he dropped, I immediately started working on my album and went hard. What I heard from him, and what he has coming, reignited that fire in me. All three of us collectively have to hit hard.

Swizzy2Turnt:
We feed off each other a lot.

CVRTIER by Qwon Banyama

The 413 Joint:
Bringing that connection back to visualbyrae, how does management help with that? How does that feed the inspiration?

Swizzy2Turnt:
He gives a lot of advice when I need it. I’m kind of hotheaded at times, so he’s like, chill, chill. He’s got it strategically, and I appreciate that.

He’s not a yes man. If something is trash, he’s going to let you know as bluntly as possible. You need someone like that in your corner. That’s what he is for us, as well as the creative mind that he is.

Gnarly SoCozy:
We’ve been close since high school. Seeing us as adults now, and seeing how we’ve progressed into the places that we’ve been, the things we’ve seen together and experienced, it’s humbling. Very humbling.

The 413 Joint:
Talk to me about personal style. SoCozy, you’ve got a little skater vibe going on. You all have your own thing. Who do you think has the best fashion? Let’s get a little messy.

Gnarly SoCozy:
I would say Swizz has the best drip because he’s got the Carhartt. It’s been a long journey of collectively getting to where you want to be in fashion.

CVRTIER:
You were always fly, but comfortable. It evolved too.

Swizzy2Turnt:
Nowadays I like to stand out. If I’m doing a performance, I’m rocking something a little flashy, maybe something I wouldn’t wear on a regular day. I like graphic tees, little bags, standout pieces and certain garments that are a little against the grain. That’s the whole vibe.

CVRTIER:
I like to mix a little bit of what’s hot now and style it in my own way. I thrift here and there. I’m not super big on name brand necessarily, but I like to bring stuff back. Down south, New Balance was super popular, and now New Balance is back. So I can’t go to the store and get three or four pairs for sixty dollars anymore. It sucks so bad.

I like ripped jeans, kind of biker jeans. I had a stylist when I lived in Florida. Me and her are still connected, but she does her own thing now because we’re separated. When we reconnect, I’m definitely trying to give more effort.

Gnarly SoCozy:
Mine is unorthodox. Sometimes I don’t give a fuck what I wear. Sometimes I really care what I wear. It’s all about the belt. I grew up putting a shoe belt on, so sometimes I really don’t care. If I feel like it looks good and I feel confident in it, I’m rocking it.

I’m going crazy with my toy car belt right now. I’m going on a run with that.

Swizzy2Turnt:
If I could describe Gnarly’s fashion, it would be skater with emo, grungy streetwear. You hit it right on.

Swizzy2turnt by novision.jpeg

The 413 Joint:
What’s something people need to stop sleeping on, maybe specifically in the Springfield area or just in general?

Gnarly SoCozy:
Our talent. The city has an endless amount of talent, from photography to dancing to music to everyday life. We have a lot of great things in this community. If people really learn the history and heritage of this city, it’ll blow your mind.

CVRTIER:
When it comes to the music scene out here, people from the outside looking in are like, bro, there are fifty million rappers out here. This is boring. Somebody else do something else. But it’s not about that. If you have a passion for music, whether people think you’re good or not, music is like a muscle. The more you work at it, the better you get.

When I started out, I was terrible. I didn’t know how to flow. I didn’t know how to sing. I taught myself how to sing by watching other artists I was inspired by and having people put me on game.

Stop sleeping on creatives out here just because we are from the same place, went to the same schools, worked the same jobs. That doesn’t mean I’m trash or not worthy of some kind of spotlight or gratification for what I do.

Swizzy2Turnt:
Someone you know will look at you like dirt, and then you meet a complete stranger who loves you. I love traveling to perform because it’s a different outlook. Where you’re from, everybody looks at you like, what’s wrong with this guy?

CVRTIER:
And that’s not just here. When I lived out in Georgia and first started working, people at my job would clown me. Now a lot of those same people tune into everything I do. They’re like, bro, this is hard. How’d you get this? How’d you get that? And I’m like, I was always this person. You just didn’t believe in me when I presented myself.

Gnarly SoCozy:
For us as a collective, people need to stop sleeping on our talent and our production. I feel like our production is one of the best in the city. Our message is to the point. We don’t cut corners. We’re one hundred percent raw. One hundred percent organic. It’s hard to describe us, but we’re just here.

The 413 Joint:
Speaking of production, I’m very excited about Avery on the Beat. That’s big.

Swizzy2Turnt:
Yeah. Shout out to Avery. He definitely embraced me the way I needed, to charge the battery in my back.

We got in the studio recording on his album. He had some words for me, and it inspired me. So I asked him, how do you feel about executive producing the tape? It was originally a tape, and from when we started until now, he just kept sending me beats. I kept saying, I need this one, I need this one. And now it’s a whole album.

CVRTIER:
I really love that for you too, because I feel like you specifically have a real God-given talent for music, technically speaking.

I started before Swizz years ago, but I wasn’t taking music serious when he started. Out the gate, bro was on it. No growing pains, no nothing. To already be at a level where out the gate you’re on fire, and then evolve? It came instantaneously. Naturally.

Gnarly SoCozy:
We were freestyling back in the day, and when we heard him, we were like, yo, we’ve got to get you on a track.

CVRTIER:
Even to the point of him saying how the mixtape turned into an album, you actually put your blood and sweat into this. You put yourself into it. It actually sounds like an album. It’s not a tape curated of a bunch of random tracks. It has a story to it.

Swizzy2Turnt:
I said I was authentically me.

CVRTIER:
One hundred percent. I’m not going to lie, that’s the first time I’ve really heard that from anybody out here since I’ve been back. There have been a few projects I’ve listened to from other people that are good. I can hear their story in it. But to see that come from my own flesh and blood, it’s crazy.

Swizzy2Turnt:
I appreciate that, bro.

The 413 Joint:
Thank you. I really appreciate you guys and your time. Before we wrap, is there anything else you want to plug?

Swizzy2Turnt:
Glow State.

Gnarly SoCozy:
2Turnt. Album of the year.

Gnarly SoCozy and CVRTIER

Thank you again to Swizzy2Turnt, Gnarly SoCozy, and CVRTIER for sitting down with me and giving the conversation time to breathe.

Tap in with 2TurntEntertainment and keep an eye out for what they have coming next, including In My Glory.