De-U Records Over 222k Sold!!!: October 2009

EduBasics: A Children's Educational Tool
By md20737

Q: What is De-U Records?

De-U Records is a family owned & operated record label that was started in Ft. Washington, Maryland by my father the CEO/President David Printis & my uncle Steven Printis the Vice President. De-U Records has been around for many many years but was officially established as an indie label in the year 1999. We have a few Hip-Hop, R&B, & GoGo acts but we’ve received the most success with our EduBaiscs CD’s/DVD’s that we produced, manufactured, & marketed ourselves. These products have been featured in media outlets such as MSNBC, The Washington Post, NPR, Business Week, CNBC, News Channel 8, Black Enterprise, as well as BET News & have sold over 150,000 units throughout the DMV area & abroad. We also have Shirley Ables & The Joy Gospel Singers signed under our Gospel division of the De-U label. They were inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame in the year 2003 & have a greatest hits CD out released through De-U Records available exclusively through us as well as online.

Q: How did the idea of edubasics come about?

Back in the day my father made a poor man’s version of “Multiplication Hip-Hop” on cassette tape when I was a child in elementary school in the late 80’s to help me memorize my times tables & it worked. In the year 1999 we moved the studio from out of the basement to a location in the Ft. Washington business/club district. Once we moved my father found that he needed to create something that would keep the new studio bills paid aside from the normal studio sessions we already charged recording artists for. He came up with the idea for an audio CD called “Multiplication Hip-Hop” our first of many future EduBasics products. He got my cousin Angie who’s an aspiring artist to do the artwork creating the initial “EduBasics” characters while me, my cousin MLG, & my pops lent our voices to the multiplication CD via Auto-Tune so our adult voices would sound more childlike. Once we got the initially copies back us De-U rappers/artists/producers started going to K-Mart/Target parking lots & downtown streets corners aggressively selling the CD’s & passing out fliers non-stop. Most of us had no other day jobs or source of income including my father so essentially we had no choice but to make sales or we’d have no studio & no way to eat or pay bills. We did this on a daily basis until we organically grew to the point where we’re at now in 2009 with the original “Multiplication Hip-Hop” CD now being available in 50 different FYE stores across the country, 4 different audio CD’s, 3 DVD’s, & 2 life sized cartoon costumed characters who perform at schools daily & do a full blown educational concert for kids at least once a year.

Q: Explain how hiphop and music translates into learning?

Hip-Hop music is the only music beside pop that kids of all colors are into now. Our products seem cool to most kids because they incorporate Hip-Hop music. (no rapping or rhymes just music) Older parents tend to say “Why Hip-Hop music” but it’s just the Hip-Hop music that grabs the kids attention more than anything. Kids listen to rap songs trying to learn the words but with our CD’s kids listen to Hip-Hop beats & try to memorize educational facts instead.

Q: How has edubasics improved children’s learning?

It has been proven that some schools systems math scores have jumped up over 70% from one year to the next after incorporating our products into their classroom curriculum. In particular the “Multiplication Hip-Hop” audio CD.

Q: What have do you think children are lacking their learning of the basics? What can teachers, parents, & educators do to better prepare children to learn? What void is edubasics filling that the school systems are not?

EduBasics is not here with the purpose or intentions of replacing any teachers or other teaching methods it’s just a fun learning aid that happens to work really well. EduBasics is just a fun way to help kids learn point blank. EduBasics provides kids with a way where they can laugh, joke, dance, clap, sing, all while in class but at the same time still learn a lot. Now days alot of kids are to grown for their own good & find shows we used to watch growing up like Barney, Mr. Rogers, & Seasame Steeet to be boring but yet & still know how to do all the newest Souljaboy dances. Our products help parents & teachers to bridge that cultural gap so to speak much like school house rock did back in the day. Kids can put our CD’s or DVD’s in their iPod, PS3, or Xbox360’s & feel like they’re not even learning but rather listening to a favorite song & remembering the words.

To be honest sadly I think that the children are lacking the positive reinforcement from their parents at home while not at school. You’d be surprised how many parents will walk past you with their kid saying “I want that mommy” but the mother saying to her child “you don’t need that bullshit baby” what kind of examples are we setting for our children when you have those types of mind states about education? So many parents expect a school, a teacher, or a product like ours to be their scapegoat in which they don’t have to teach their own child. When I was a child my mother & father would grill me everyday as to whether or not my homework was done & ask me what I did while in school. My mother would even make homemade crossword puzzles with my spelling words on them…LOL!!! You can’t expect someone else to put more energy into something that’s yours than you in fact do put in yourself. My daughter’s only 1 but she’s already learned her abc’s & 123’s from the EduBasics products without my instruction at all. You’d be surprised how many 1,000’s of parents in this area I’ve try to sell to who’s kids are 2-5 & the parent is telling me they’re too young for our products. You stunt your child’s intelligence with those type of ignorant mind states.

Q: What are you favorite products? Where can we find them?

My favorite EduBasics product used to be “Science & Geography” back in the day because I produced “Solar System” & it played on NPR news. Now my favorite product is “Multiplication Hip-Hop in Concert” because my daughter gets so happy every time it on. You can find them all at www.edubasics.com

Q: What else can we expect from the edubasics line?

You can expect us to release the DVD versions of our existing audio CD’s “Science & Geography” as well as “Addition & Subtraction”, You can also expect us to release an audio CD for the process of doing Division. We’ll be doing another live stage concert for the kids in the DMV soon so stay tuned to our websites for details www.edubasics.com

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Some local DMV rappers are gonna be in da Washington Post dis Sunday so instead of picking myself like I had planned...LOL!!! I chose DMV Hip-Hop dis month's Diamond in da rough!!! Our home grown GoGo music has overshadowed us rappers here in DC, MD, & VA 4 so so long dat 4 a while it was as if we almost didn't even exist outchea...LOL!!! Since I graduated in da year 2000 not only did my family form The F.A.M., De-U Records, & EduBasics dat year but also since dat time it seems like dis area has been making major strides further & further every year since da dawning of dis Century. Hense my lyrics..."If it happens like it's meant 2 be...then DC & PG run dis Century!!!"

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