Apollo Brown

Erik Stephens (born June 20, 1980), better known by his stage name Apollo Brown, is an American hip hop producer. Based in Detroit, he is a resident producer for Mello Music Group. He has released critically acclaimed collaborative albums with emcees such as Ghostface Killah, Journalist 103, Verbal Kent, Planet Asia, and Ras Kass, and in 2012 both his collaborations with O.C. (Trophies) and Guilty Simpson (Dice Game) charted on Billboards R&B Albums chart. Brown has also released a number of acclaimed instrumental albums, including Thirty Eight in 2014. Beyond periodically touring with collaborators such as Guilty Simpson at festivals such as the 80/35 Music Festival, Brown is a professional photographer for Crush Media Group, a media group he co-owns.

Early life

Apollo Brown was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan in a bi-racial family. He started liking hip hop while young, and became avid fan in 1991 when he first heard the album Breaking Atoms by Main Source, stating "that was what did it for me, and I’ve been hooked ever since."

Brown

Brown is the color of dark wood or rich soil. Brown is a composite color; in printing or painting, brown is made by combining red, black and yellow, or red, yellow and blue. In the RGB color model used to make colors on television screens and computer monitors, brown is made by combining red and green, in specific proportions. The brown color is seen widely in nature, in wood, soil, and human hair color, eye color and skin pigmentation. In Europe and the United States, brown is the color most often associated with plainness, humility, the rustic, and poverty. Brown is also, according to public opinion surveys in Europe and the United States, the least favorite color of the public.

In nature and culture

The Sahara Desert around Kufra Oasis, Libya, seen from space

The Sahara Desert around Kufra Oasis, Libya, seen from space

Chocolate. A sachertorte in a Vienna cafe.

Chocolate. A sachertorte in a Vienna cafe.

Espresso-roasted coffee beans.

Espresso-roasted coffee beans.

Apollo

Apollo (Attic, Ionic, and Homeric Greek: Ἀπόλλων, Apollōn (GEN Ἀπόλλωνος); Doric: Ἀπέλλων, Apellōn; Arcadocypriot: Ἀπείλων, Apeilōn; Aeolic: Ἄπλουν, Aploun; Latin: Apollō) is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The ideal of the kouros (a beardless, athletic youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry, and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu.

As the patron of Delphi (Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle. Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague. Amongst the god's custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists, and as the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musegetes) and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry. Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became a common attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans.

Music group (disambiguation)

A music group is a group of two or more musicians who perform instrumental or vocal music.

Music group or Music Group may also refer to:

Mello Music Group

Mello Music Group, also referred to as MMG, is an American independent record label based in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 2007 by Michael Tolle, it has released hip hop compilations and albums by producers and emcees such as Oddisee, Apollo Brown, yU, Open Mike Eagle, L'Orange, and Rapper Big Pooh. In 2012 MTV Hive described MMG as having a "dedication to intelligent, street-wise boom bap," though the label has released a number of purely instrumental albums as well.

History

2007-10: Founding, first releases

An early form of the label, Mello Mixtapes, was founded by Arizona hip hop fan Michael Tolle in 2004. As a college deejay Tolle releases a series of hip hop mixtapes, also avidly collecting vinyl.

Tolle graduated from the University of Arizona in 2006, and afterwards had founded an educational company that catered to international professors and teachers on sabbatical. After working with the company for a year, he decided he'd prefer working with music. He first founded Mello Music Group in the fall of 2007, using his laptop and cell phone to organize the business from his home in Tucson, Arizona.