Rump Campus Music Review: High Definition

When Rumpus first heard about High Definition, we were immediately ready to crap with joy. From what we’d heard of the duo (comprised of rapper/Yale Golf Team member Carson Weinand DC’13 and a guy name Bradley from some school in Florida), we completely thought we’d been given a double dose of Jamie Kennedy in Malibu’s Most Wanted. Naturally, Rumpus could not resist the opportunity to get to know the Yale half of the duo, Carson Weinand to get the skivvy on the creators of “Champagne Room.” and “Rich and Famous.” However, though we were prepared to interview a Wack Miller Vanilla Woods wannabe, we learned that not only are the High Definition tracks sick, but minds behind the music are pretty cool:

Do you think that you’re better than the best white rappers on the streets, Eminem and Vanilla Ice?

I’d like to think it’s more like Vanilla Ice
But… you golf…Have you at least ever been shot? All the good rappers have been shot….

I’ve played golf since I was three. I got recruited from the damn golf team. I wish I had a struggle story. I wish I could say I got shot 18 times—-but I shoot 18 holes. I used to write rap lyrics walking down the fairway on the back of a scorecard in the middle of a tournament.

What made you decide to start rapping?

I never decided, it fell into my lap. It wasn’t like, “Yo, I wanna be Eminem or yo I wanna be Mac Miller, gotta get tattoos all over my body—that’d be great and all, but it was simpler than that. Bradley and I started in high school senior year. I had a shitty mic in my closet and we messed around just for fun. We’d get these horrible instrumental quality tracks from the internet and I dunno, we just started.

How did you get started?

We wrote all the songs out before, rehearsed them, and then went to a professional studio in Orlando. It’s a very time consuming process, but if you love doing it, it doesn’t matter.

So the other half of High Def is back in Florida. Is having a long distance relationship hard?

It’s really tough, no homo, but yea, I miss Brad! We text and talk a lot, sometimes Skype. Half of what we talk about is music and coordinating what we can do with it: “Yo you hear that new Drizzy? That Mac Miller shit? Chyeeeaaa boi!” You know.

Do you feel a battle of passions between golf and rap?

No! They’re totally independent of each other. I play golf and that’s a huge part of who I am, but so is rapping. In fact I have a song for the golf team, you can check it out on Youtube.

…We’ll do that….

Do you suffer from #whiteboyproblems?

A lot of people think we’re some rich, white kids that pay the blogs to talk positively about us and that’s not true. We don’t pay the blogs shit to do anything. We send them the songs and they do what they want with it. Besides, what does being white and so called rich have to do with anything? Bottom line: Let’s smoke and listen to my tracks

HEAR HEAR!

Tell us about your new album, “It’ll be Okay”

Yea we’re proud of the album. It’s named after the title track, “It’ll Be Okay,” for which we have a music video. We recorded nine tracks over the summer. The majority of the songs are party tracks, but some tracks try to take it deeper and really express ourselves. We’ve definitely grown from our first album musically and lyrically, so go get that shit! It’s on iTunes!

So now that you’re finally famous on campus, when’s the tour?

We’re not famous yet! (laughs) But that’s the bitch about being separated—we can’t do shows. But we are gonna try and do Battle of the Bands and open for Spring Fling.

What do you want to say to all the haters?

Listen, we love what we do. Yea I play golf, yea we’re white, but that’s not important. It’s all about the music at the end of the day! Obviously you can be whatever race and rap—I think I’ll be better at rap than Tiger Woods will ever be at golf because I put my heart and soul into it. And leave the hoes alone.

Well said Mr. Weinand. There it is folks, much to our chagrin, High Definition is not a duo of wannabes rocking argyle and khakis stuffed up their ass cracks (although Carson does wear it at practice– “I got that good argyle from grandma. I owe her a track…”). They may be new on the scene, but their tracks are hot, so buy their shit so they take Itunes’ top spot!

They’re latest album It’ll Be Okay is available on iTunes and shiyat