“Gästerna är sparsamma. Det är bara Obx på tre låtar, Alibi på en låt, Parham på en refräng, Chato och Stuken på en låt. Det var Stukens sista vers. Han har lagt ner. Jag skulle släppt den här skivan 2010, men… vi hade allt så uppstyrt mellan 2003 och 2008 med Illizit; pengar, studio vid Redbergsplatsen och allting, men snubben som jag jobbade med, som fick stå på alla papper körde ett byggnadsställningsföretag vid sidan om. Han gjorde lite fel affärer så det gick i konkurs, med näringsförbud och hela skiten. Han fick skriva över allt på mig, så därför är inte Illizit där på pappret, det är på is. Men Psalm 23 är ändå Illizit! Den kommer vara gratis download, men jag kommer trycka upp cd:s med extra booklet och lite annat. Det går inte att tjäna pengar på sålda skivor idag. Det är gig, och om du får in en låt på någon playlist på P3.
Det är en ganska mörk platta. Många av låtarna är gjorda för att ge svar på tal om rykten som gick om mig, som handlade om allt från att jag var död, blivit skjuten, till att jag tagit en överdos, till att jag golat någon, till att jag slått på tjejer. Det är det låten Jidderkungen handlar om.
Det är många låtar som skribenter… förutom Tony Ernst, som hade Gidappa, som är den enda svenska hiphopskribent som jag har haft riktig respekt för, för han kunde hiphop. Han gav mig nästan en femma, en stark fyra för Mitt Liv Som Hund, och kallade Om Änglar Finns årets svenska hiphop-låt. Han kallade mig med en svensk Scarface, en svensk Kool G Rap.
Många har misstolkat mina låtar och kallat det gangsta rap. Respekt – är det en gangsta rap-låt? Nej, det är det inte om du lyssnar på hela låten från början till slut. Spring, från samma skiva, är inte heller en gangsta rap-låt. Det sista jag säger är att “om du lever så här så kommer du i det långa loppet aldrig att vinna, du kommer bara springa”. Men folk tar sig inte tid att lyssna på hela skiten. När de hör ett visst sound så föreställer de sig i sin hjärna att Gubb är gangsta-rappare. Snarare i så fall en gatupoet, som rappar om gatupolitik. Gangsta rap går ut på att glorifiera. Street rap eller gatupolitik går ut på att förmedla, och säga att så här ligger det till, och så här kommer det gå, medan gangsta rap glorifierar.
Jag älskar gangsta rap, det sticker jag inte under stolen med. Jag älskar de tidiga Geto Boys och Scarface och g-funk. Det betyder inte att det är det som passar mig, även om jag har levt ett liv som många Svenssons skulle klassifiera som ett sådant liv. Men det här är Sverige och inte USA, så det är en markant skillnad.
Låten Kartellen på Mitt liv som hund, som handlar om drogpolitiken i världen, den recenserar någon som att “här rappar Gubb om sin drogkartell”. I ena versen är jag Scarface-, Escobar-snubben, i andra versen är jag den korrumperade politikern, i tredje versen är jag de stackars barnen som bor på risfält och får odla opium. Det var vad låten handlade om. Bra lyssnat! Man kan inte begära allt av svenska recensenter, som bara kopierar från The Source eller…”
Om skivbolaget Illizit
“Jag säger så här: jag hade fortfarande velat att Illizit skulle bli en underetikett, like Redline är för Virgin (under skrivandet får jag veta att de numera är knutna till Universal – min anm.). Men jag inser att de inte ser någon vinning i svensk hiphop idag, för de säljer inte skivor. Nu är det bara downloads. De vill bara att folk gör hits, så de får in sina pengar via sina förlag. Varje måndag sitter P3 ner och får in hundra singlar som de ska välja ut till fem top 20-listor. Payola betyder att 90-95 låtar redan är bokade av de stora bolagen, tyvärr. Det är otillåtet egentligen. Det får inte ske, men det är så det är.”
Om Onda och Gökbot
“Jag kom ihop med Onda genom en låt han släppte på Myspace, en av de första han släppte där, en jävligt hård låt. Jag kommer inte ihåg vad den heter nu. Jag är också sådan, hellre… jag kan också hålla på och multistava, men jag är mer för att höra djupet i rösten och att det är ärligt. Att det är känsla mer än att det bara är ord som bajsas. Jag diggade en av hans låtar och sa det, sedan kommer jag inte ihåg om det var i den ordningen eller om de kontaktade mig efter att jag hade gått ut på Myspace och sagt: vill ni trycka billiga mixtapes, hooka med mig. Så de tryckte några hundra Gökbot-mixtapes, jag kommer inte ihåg den exakta upplagan. Vi har aldrig setts, bara haft nätkontakt och snackat om att göra en låt i flera år. Och den kommer bli av det här året, det vet jag.”
GUBBS FEM FAVORITSKIVOR:
Dr. Dre – The Chronic Geto Boys – We Can’t Be Stopped Scarface – The Diary Ice Cube – Death Certificate Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
Legends like 2pac, Biggie, Big L, Big Pun and Eazy-E die over bullshit, far from reaching full potential, while unique talents and potential game changers like Lil Boosie and Max B waste away in prison.
One can only speculate what Cormega’s role had been among his peers during that golden age of New York hiphop, had he recorded and released music instead of being locked away in prison between the years 1992 and 1997.
“Is the Mega Philosophy album going to be entirely produced by Large Professor?
Yeah, all the way through. Batman and Robin.
Is Large Professor rhyming on it?
He really doesn’t want to, but I might get him to rhyme. I was considering using a remix that we did two years ago, but I want everything to be new.
Can you tell us about the other guests?
There’s a song with me and Nature. There’s a song with me and M.A.R.S., but not the M.A.R.S. you have heard. I won’t say it in an interview, just keep it as a surprise. A new constellation! There’s another song with Saigon rapping on it, but it’s not finished, because I’m going to reach out to a few other people to get on the song. It’s a song about the struggles in America, how America treats the minorities; the black people, the Latin people. We’re talking about how we’re different from how they stereotype us. Saigon did a verse, and I’ll try to get a legend from the nineties or the eighties. I’d love to have Chuck D talk on there, or somebody of that caliber. Right now that’s up in the air. That’s not solidified. I don’t want it to be a bunch of guest appearances, because you know how Cormega albums are; I like to carry them on my own.
You thought of bringing some Latin rapper on there?
Last year I did a song with Pun’s son, and he’s Latin as we all know. Did you ever hear the Legal Hustle album? Do you remember Doña? She’s Puerto Rican. I take artists and producers as they are. I don’t care what you are. If you’re Chinese, white, black, purple, I don’t care. I work with whoever. If it’s dope, it’s dope. I don’t work with people by their resume either. A lot of artists in America fuck up because they work with you by your resume. In other words, they’re going to take your track just because you’re a hot producer, even thought the track you give them might be bullshit. They’re so happy just to have a track from you, to have your name on their project. I don’t do that shit. If you’re a hot producer but the track you give me is wack, I’m not going to use it.
Has Doña stopped doing music?
She had a baby a few years ago. She just needs to get focused. I told her: when you’re ready, write a song explaining to the people where you was, and what happened, and we’ll take it from there.
She was raw.
Yeah, she was very raw.
On the subject of Latin rappers… you knew Big Pun?
You never heard that song we have together? Pun was my guy. He was a good dude. I was in Pun’s biggest video, Still Not A Player. I did a lot of shows with him. We did shows together in Riker’s Island for the inmates. We did shows out of town together. Pun was a good dude. He was a real MC. I don’t just mean that he was talented. A real MC is excited about rhymes. He’ll see you, and he wants to do a cypher, or hear some shit. He was a good dude. I’m glad I knew him.
How is it going with Legal Hustle 2?
It’s on stand still at the moment. The priority is Mega Philosophy, but there are songs done for Legal Hustle 2 already. The way I’m doing stuff is… say I want you to be on Legal Hustle 2 and I send you the beat, and you knock out your verse already – that makes my job easier. There were songs being done simultaneously while I was doing this. But I do have some songs done. It’s going to be easier to finish that, so look forward to that. Craig G is going to be on there. There’s going to be a lot of Queensbridge on there. I was going to do a Queensbridge project, and then I said, you know what? I might as well throw all that shit on Legal Hustle 2. I’m waiting on a verse from The Jacka. I definitely want to put a song on there with some of the new artists that are coming out that I respect. That was one of my ideas. I have one song where it’s going to be a whole bunch of artists that you’re not going to be familiar with. So it’s like giving the new guys a chance of having their cypher. I might still do Legal Hustle 2 this year, but the main focus is Mega Philosophy. That shit needs its own space.
Are you planning videos for that project?
Definitely. Especially for the song with the minorities issues, because there’s so much shit going on in America. I’m pretty sure you heard about the kid who got killed for wearing a hoodie. Stuff like that happens all the time. The other day I was on the phone, standing near the stairs of a train station, just standing there. And a cop was like – come here. I’m like: Are you fucking serious? for what? He’s like: You’re standing near the stairs, and people have to walk around you. As the cop was talking to me, he asked if I ever had been in trouble with the law. That is irrelevant to the situation at hand. Even if I have gotten in trouble before, that has nothing to do with now. I’m a productive person now. I do good things, I do community stuff now. What I did in the past means nothing. So you’re using something that’s not even a crime as an excuse to profile me. That’s what they do a lot. That song, I want it to be really visual. I definitely want to make a video and point the finger at what’s going on.
Do you consider yourself a political rapper?
I’ve never looked at myself as a political rapper, but as of lately I’ve been more open to doing music like that. The other day I did a verse for Public Enemy’s album. If that makes the album I’ll be really happy. That’ll be a big accomplishment for me. It’s obviously a politically charged song. I do give you a political view, and a street view too. But my country is a complex country. A lot of times when you begin to speak out on things you become a target. A lot of our most prolific speakers end up dying for some reason. A part of me knows that if I go full into that, I’ll become a target. Not just because I’m talking, but because I’m credible. One thing that I have that a lot of activists don’t have is street credibility, because they know that I’ve been where they’ve been. And then I speak with intelligence, so educated people will listen to me. So when I’m able to galvanize all these people, that’s a problem. I have to be careful, or there won’t be no more me, and you’ll be like: I remember I interviewed Cormega…
Are people targeting artists like Dead Prez and Immortal Technique?
I can’t really comment on Dead Prez, but Technique told me some interesting stories. I don’t know who it was, but it was definitely scary. Stic Man from Dead Prez, for my song about Haiti. Immortal Technique sent a verse too, but he sent it late. Maybe I’ll remix that song and put it on Legal Hustle 2.
You’re a rapper that never sold the most records, but you’re often mentioned by younger artists, like with Lil B and Main Attrakionz, and a grime artist from England I interviewed said you and Tragedy Khadafi were her favourite rappers…
That’s beautiful, that’s humbling for me. I was not used to accolades and credit. For years I rapped with a chip on my shoulder, because I guess when I was on Def Jam they had me on the shelf, and my album didn’t come out as it was supposed to come out. All these years I felt like I had to prove myself. So I guess all those years of working hard is starting to pay off, and starting to resonate with the newer audience. And now it surprises me. Last year I cried at a show, I got so much fucking love. Last year in Boston. It was crazy. I realized I had arrived. Last year was 2011, and my first album came out in 2001, Tha Realness. Damn, here I am, ten years. Boston is were I started, my first album came out through Landspeed, which is close to Boston. So here I am ten years later, I’m standing on stage and the crowd is going crazy. I started thinking, damn; the roads that I’ve travelled, the underdog, the underrated, the blacklisted, people not wanting to give me my credit, people trying to stop me from shining, and the friends that I’ve lost on that journey and how far I’ve come, and the crowd just… “Mega! Mega! Mega! Mega!”. It was emotional. Now I’ve got young artists that relate to me. Baby Pun, his favourite song is the song his father did with me. My friend told me that, and I told him me to come to the studio, and that’s why he’s on the album. And Lil B was like: “I look up to you, you’re like a don…” I talk to him on the phone sometimes and give him advice. A brother named Brigante from the Bronx, he’s a dope freestyle artists. He’s on TV, and he’s like: “Mega”.
What do you think is the appeal, for these rappers from all over the map to embrace you?
If I knew the answer I would put it in a bottle. I really don’t. I think the difference between me and a lot of rappers is that I give you the truth. I’m not afraid to be vulnerable. A lot of people tell me that my music is emotional. I never looked at it like that. A lot of people tell me that their music helped them get through something.
If you look back at your albums, to me there is a big change in your style and subject matter. Have there been a specific moment or experience that made you want to change?
I think the old Mega was a good reflection of what I was going through at that period of my life, and I think the new Mega is a good reflection of how my life is now. My older music is so fucking graphic. I used a lot of profanity. As dope as an artist I was back then, I was one dimensional. I was street, “keep it real”. As I look back at it now, I see that I’m way more rounded as an artist now. I can rap about anything now, as opposed to just being a street guy. I think growth is essential as an artist. I think every great artist grows, because if you don’t grow, you become redundant. John Lennon grew. There was a big difference between the first songs that he recorded with The Beatles and Imagine. I had to grow as an artist and as a person. Some people rap for money, and some people are artists for legacy. I’m not saying I do this for free, but my legacy is significant and symbolic to me. This is what’s here after I’m gone. When I do music at least my kids can be proud. As I grew, I grew mentally, and I started seeing the world and I started realizing I didn’t have to use as much profanity to get my point across or bring attention to myself. I got a daughter, so you barely hear the word bitch in my music. I have to be really mad to use the word bitch. I just wanted to change as an artist. I think that me making that change benefited me more, benefited my career more, benefited my legacy more, like, I can do more things now.
How do you feel about your older material now, like yesterday when you performed a song like Dead Man Walking?
It just reminds me of how far I’ve came. I’ve done a lot of shows recently where I didn’t even do that song. There are old songs out there, like Sex, Drugs, Bitches & Money. I would never make a song like that again, ever. I don’t want to be same fucking guy. There are rappers that are like that, that rhyme now exactly like they rhymed in 1992 or 1993. That’s boring. I admire the new me because I feel I’m a more dangerous artist. I could do a concept song, or I could be on the song with respected MC’s and either outshine everybody or be one of the highlights of the song. There are some artists who can freestyle very well, but they don’t know how to make songs. There are some people who know how to make songs, but they can’t freestyle. There are some people who have great songs, but they don’t know how to perform. There are people who know how to perform, but they don’t have great albums. I look at myself as a dangerous MC because I know for a fact that I’m a great performer on stage, I know how to freestyle, I have a great writing structure, if I’m on a song with somebody, very few people are gonna kick my ass. So I view myself as a more dangerous MC, as opposed to a one-dimensional MC.
Are you thinking about putting out more artists on Legal Hustle in the future?
Yeah, I will put on more artists in the future. It’s just that, I want them to get strong with me. As much respect that I’ve garnered, there’s so much ground that I haven’t covered as an artist. I didn’t have the right representation before. Now I do. Now there’s so many new things coming to me that I need the attention on me for right now. When you have an artist it’s like being a big brother or a parent sometimes. Every rapper has a different personality, persona, and attributes. If the studio session starts at eight and ends at twelve, then you have to say that it starts at five, because they’re always three hours late. Some artists get a little hot, and they start thinking that they know all the answers. If I had the staff to deal with artists, it would be easier. But I don’t have the patience. I got kids. I don’t want to deal with my kids and then deal with grown kids. If there’s an artist that’s perfect, as professional, prompt and efficient as me, then I’ll be: “Let’s go, let’s do it”. But I don’t feel like babysitting.
Is your business structure better now, with the people around you?
I have the best manager that I’ve had. I have the best law team. I have a more consistent studio structure. It’s like a lot of things that weren’t there before, are there now. Business-wise, I’m developing a lot of new relationships with people. You see, I’m wearing Pro-Keds. These are rare. These are the first b-boy sneakers. If you look back at the old pictures, before Puma and Adidas and Nike, people were wearing Pro-Keds. They’re kind of like Converse, but back in the days, people didn’t wear Converse, they wore Pro-Keds. They used to give you Converse in jail. So you knew it wasn’t cool, because jail didn’t want to give anything that you’d like. When Mega Philosophy comes out, Pro-Keds also has some sneakers coming out around that same time. So out of one of their sneaker lines, they said “fuck it… it’s gonna be a high top sneaker, we’re going to make a low cut for Cormega.” There’s only going to be a hundred pairs in the whole world. I’m developing new marketing strategies and relationships. A lot of good things are happening now. I’m happy about that.
What was your favourite gear from back in the days?
Most of my favourite gear is pretty consistent. Air Jordans. Polo is my favourite clothes ever. It was really big when I was growing up. A few years ago people acted like Polo wasn’t cool no more. Some of my young friends was laughing at me because I was wearing Polo. And now I’m laughing at them, because everybody’s wearing Polo now. It’s like the big shit in America. I’m a sneaker addict. You can look in SLAM magazine, I did a whole story on them. My first obsession with sneakers were Pro-Keds. If you talk to any rapper, from Wu-Tang or whatever, I guarantee you they’ll tell you the same shit. The first sneaker I fell in love with was Pro-Keds. The second sneaker that I loved was called Pro Player. The third sneaker was Puma. Suede Pumas. Wooooh! I still have an affinity with those. Shell Toe Adidas and Suede Pumas were neck-to-neck, but I was more a Puma guy. Then after that, Nike came with Air Force and Cortez, just Nike in general was a b-boy sneaker. Then Reebok came. I didn’t have them, but I liked them, I respected them. Then the sneaker that captivated everybody, because it was upper class, and it was cool – FILA. First of all, they were expensive, but they were so fucking cool. Even if you look at some of the old graffiti pictures, the b-boy pictures, you can see them with a pair of FILA on. And FILA velour suits were expensive but they were… woooooh! Those were the first sneakers I was obsessed with. Then Michael Jordan came out with a sneaker and fucked the whole game up, because his sneakers were so expensive and they was cool, so it was the gotta-have sneakers. Then Patrick Ewing came out with his Adidas. So those were the sneakers that really molded my mind. I still have Patrick Ewing sneakers, to this day. I have one pair that I don’t even wear, they’re just in a bag, brand new, and then I have another pair that I wear sometimes. And then I have every Air Jordan, from 1 to 23.
What do you think it takes for New York to return to being great?
Revolution. Sieging and purging. The corporations should separate themselves from hiphop. Or they should just let people that really know hiphop handle it, and get someone to handle the business. The radio should be purged. Do a cleansing, like, all you motherfuckers got to go. Anybody that’s really a part of the real shit, or anybody that’s fair; keep them. But all the people that said fuck hiphop, I’m just playing what I’m told to play, because this is my job – out of there! I don’t mind hearing a Southern song, but I do mind hearing Southern music all fucking day, when I’m from New York. I’m in Sweden now, I want to see Swedish culture. I don’t want to be here and hear all Italian music; I’m going to Italy tomorrow. If you turn on the radio in New York, you hear Southern music all day. I’m from New York, I don’t understand the Southern music, their slang is different from our slang. They’re talking about stuff I don’t know about. And in some of their songs, they’re talking about stupid shit, like lean. That’s a drug. Molly. That’s a drug. It’s like you’re poisoning the youth, you’re brainwashing the youth to use drugs. If you use drugs, that’s your right. We’re adults. But that’s supposed to be talked about behind scenes. You don’t get on a record, like: “Yo! Try molly, it’s the new ecstasy. Try lean.” These are potent drugs. Now you have the young people thinking lean is cool, because the artists they like are doing it, and the radio is playing that shit, so they try it because they think it’s nothing. Lean will kill you quicker than crack. So I don’t like that. There has to be a purge, a revolution. History will show you that in any revolution, one of the main targets is the youth. The Romans and the Greeks started the youth early. A crazy motherfucker like Hitler had the youth corps. I don’t care if you’re a good or a bad person, the youth is important in the movement. That’s how Obama won he last election, because he won over the youth. Clinton won over the youth. Bush didn’t give a fuck about the youth, because he stole his election. When you have the youth behind you, you have a symbolic movement behind you. Once the youth are educated about real hiphop, their perception of the bullshit being played will change. So, I think that’s what has to be done.
Are you optimistic about the present situation?
I’m optimistic because right now they have the shit called “The New Nineties”, where they try to go back to real hiphop. There are a lot of new artists really trying to go back to lyrics. For them to do that, it means they will have to study the prolific artists. I think those artists will try to leave their finger prints on the game, and that’s going to help with the bullshit. But a lot of artists that were there in the nineties are like: “Fuck that, we’re still breathing”. O.C. just put out a new project with Apollo Brown that people are loving. When I see that, it brings a smile to my face. I know Bumpy Knuckles just did something with Primo. Pete Rock did something recently with Smiff-N-Wessun. When you have people that represent the real eras coming back in different forms and fashions and making a standpoint, it makes you proud. I think it’s going to come back. Everything happens in cycles anyway.
No, no. That’s dead. The young people are followers. It’s no more of that, no more originality in every borough. That’s gone. Rap has become a business more than a culture. You see a video, you see your favourite artist wearing something, now you want that. But the thing that you’re not seeing is that before that video comes on that artist has a stylist. The stylist goes to big companies. So these companies are indoctrinating you to buy their shit. When you see an artist wearing something in the video that you like, he might not have bought that. That might not be how he dresses. That’s how he was styled. That stylist got paid. The company got paid, because you’re buying their shit. At the end of the day, the consumer is the only one dishing out, and gaining nothing. Originality comes from within. When I was growing up, Air Force Ones were called uptowns, because people Uptown – Manhattan and Harlem – was wearing them. People in Jamaica, Queens wore Adidas, the Shell Toes. RUN DMC. There was a time when nobody was wearing them shits no more. So when you saw someone with Shell Toe Adidas, you knew he was from Jamaica, Queens. If you saw someone wit Carharrt, you knew he was from Jamaica, Queens. If you saw someone with FILA at a certain time; Brooklyn, more than likely. Each place had their own shit. Bronx was big on Nikes. When you saw someone with Wallabee Clarks he was from Brooklyn, or Jamaican. People had different styles and different slang. Now everybody does the same shit. Polo’s hot, so everybody wants to wear Polo. Polo was some big Brooklyn shit. Everybody used to wear Polo, but after a while you knew that certain people were from Brooklyn if they wore Polo, or they was down with the Lo-Lifes. Tommy Hilfiger was some Brooklyn shit. Now everybody wears Nike Fomposites in New York. Those are so big. People stand out on a line for hours, waiting for the sneakers to come out. Everybody wears Fomposites, everybody tries to wear Polo. It’s the same shit, like a bunch of robots.
How do you feel about the new Polo with the big horse?
I’ll take it, if somebody gives it as a gift. But I’m not going to bust my ass going to the store and get that. I’m not too big on big logos. That’s for people that want attention.
What was the shit in Queensbridge?
You see, Queensbridge is different, it’s the most different part of Queens. It’s between Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, so close that you can walk, so we have all their styles. A lot of people wore Air Force Ones in Queensbridge when I was growing up. Queensbridge has everybody’s style, that’s what makes Queensbridge so dope. The only unique Queensbridge thing was MC Shan wearing two Pumas, one of each colour.
Do you think Queensbridge is so dope with the music because of that mix?
It’s like a cultural melting pot. I think Queensbridge is dope with the music because we have so many artists, and Queensbridge is competitive. (*Mega walks over to the window in his hotel room, points to the opposite building across the small ass back yard.*) That window is a little bit too far, if you could move that building closer, this would be exactly how me and Nas’ view was. From my evening I could holler, “Yo Nas”, and he’d be like, “What up?”. Imagine that. Cormega is right there, and in that building is Nas, and across the building is a DJ. If you walk across the street, there’s Craig G, and in another building is Tragedy, and in another building is Poet, and in another building is Marley Marl, and then you walk across a block, and there’s Nature and ACD, and then you cross the block over, and there’s Mobb Deep and Capone. That’s Queensbridge. So when you have all these people, it’s survival of the fittest. If you don’t stand out, then you’re not going to make it. Being that there were so many dope, prolific artists, it pushes everybody to go harder. And every MC thinks that they’re the best, that’s just how MC’s are, or they try to program themselves to be the best. That’s what makes Queensbridge dope.
Do you see some new talent coming from Queensbridge?
There’s new talent, but I’ve heard recently that some of the new kids sounds like the South. See the young kids are intrigued by the radio. They turn on the radio and hear what they hear, so they think: That’s what I have to do to make it. They’re not knowing that you have a better chance being yourself, and you stand out more. There’s some new kids that have Southern styles, and there are some that try to do like us. But there’s going to be more talent from Queensbridge, it’s inevitable. That day will come. But I feel it’s kind of unfair to some of the new kids from Queensbridge, because they will always be compared to us. That’s fucked up. Craig G, Tragedy, MC Shan, Roxanne Shante, Nature, Havoc, Noyd, Cormega, Nas… who else? There are so many dope artists, and you have to live up to their standards.
When we interviewed The Jacka he talked about doing a project on Legal Hustle, is that also on standstill?
Me and The Jacka never finished our music. The Jacka is my dude. If the time presents itself, me and The Jacka doing something is definitely an option. I did something with The Jacka recently, for Rob Lo. He’s a Bay producer, and he’s kind of dope too. Me and The Jacka, and I don’t know who else. Rob Lo is making a project and I’m on there. I’ve done the most features this year in my whole career. DJ Skizz, he works with DJ Eclipse – I’m on his project. Scram Jones is doing a project, I’m on that. I’m on a project with a Scandinavian producer. I’ve done something for Kool Keith. I can’t think of everything now, but I’ve featured on little over ten of other people’s projects. There’s going to be a lot of Cormega in the next months.
You worked with several Bay Area artists, are there are any artists from there that you want to work with that you haven’t?
I want to do something with Too Short one day.
Personally, I would like to see you do something with E-40.
I wouldn’t mind doing something with E-40. E-40 is a legend.
Working with Bay Area artists, do you feel that has been beneficial to you?
Of course. Because the more you expand, the more people are able to relate to you. There are some people in the Bay growing up listening to me that didn’t know I wasn’t from the Bay. That was definitely a beneficial thing.
Do you think that could be a way forward for New York, working more with other states, moving around a bit and network?
Definitely. That’s what it’s all about. That’s why New York got kicked in the ass by the industry, because New York always had a I-don’t-need-anybody, I’m-from-New-York approach. A lot of people don’t like that about New York. New Yorkers have a certain persona about them that some people don’t like. It’s a confidence, a cockiness, a total New York aura that a lot of New Yorkers have, and sometimes it doesn’t work to our benefit. New York has no hospitality. If you get on the train, and it’s rush hour, it’s not like people are going to move out the way so you can get on. If you’ve been to New York you know what I’m talking about. I didn’t realize this until I started going to other places, because I’m from New York and I used to do the same shit. If someone says “hi” to you that you don’t, you might look at them like they’re crazy.
Kind of the same here… Stockholm at least. In the countryside it’s different.
When I started going down South, and somebody’d say, “Hi, how you doing? Good morning!”, I’d be like: “That guy’s crazy”. Then I started seeing people doing that in lots of places, and I realized: that guy isn’t crazy, we’re crazy. That’s called hospitality.
Did you have a remix for Define Yourself from Born And Raised?
I had a remix. I was going to remix the album, but then I decided against certain remixes, because, first of all, I did a Define Yourself-remix on Cormega Raw Forever, the best of album, with Poet on it, and he wasn’t on the original one. But I started saying to myself that I took so long with Born And Raised – my last solo album came out in 2002, and then Legal Hustle in 2004, then The Testament came out, but that wasn’t new, everybody had already heard that, then I came with an album with Lake, but that wasn’t a Cormega album. So, 2002, and then Born And Raised in 2009, that’s seven years. That’s long to not give people a solo album, especially in this day and age. When I came out in 2009 I wanted to do remixes for certain shit. But it started to take so long, and here we are in 2012, and I’m like, fuck it, I want to give people all new shit, because my fans deserve that. I feel like I failed myself, with some of the duration of time that I’ve wasted, when I could have been making music. A lot of times… I’m not a producer, so, one thing I’ve learned about artists is that every artist have their own time of doing things. I could really passionately and sincerely mean to do something, but I can’t force this rapper to do his verse in a timely manner. I can’t force a producer to finish the beat in a timely manner. Then when the beat is done, you have some producers who will get mad at you, like, if you give me the song and the song is done, I can take the song to the studio and have my engineer mix it and give him the guidance. Some producers get offended if you mix their songs. They want to mix it. So, now you’re at the mercy of him. If i give this guy the song to mix, and he takes three months, I’m waiting three months for this guy. Meanwhile, fans are growing restless and time is going. Three months is a quarter of a year. So, that’s the fucked up thing about the industry. That’s what happened with me; Born And Raised would have been done. I waited damn near a year for a producer – I’m not going to say any names – to finish shit and mix it.
Does it ever make you want to put out a quick mixtape sometimes?
I don’t believe in that, because my music isn’t expendable. A lot of artists that do that, can do that, because they’re music is dispensable; their music is like fast food. I make cooked meals, when I do my albums. I go to shows sometimes, and just stand in the crowd, or I stand on the sideline, and I see how the crowd reacts to certain artists… certain artists just don’t get it. When they’re performing, their show is dope, the song is dope, and the crowd is like: “Yeah, yeah, yeah”. When I’m doing a show, the crowd is singing word for word, like they’re embracing the music. There’s a big difference. If you keep throwing out something, and it’s not sticking, you’re doing yourself a disservice, because at the end of the day, you’re becoming expendable. Let’s say you’re putting out decent music, and you’re putting out mixtape after mixtape, when you do an album, it can’t be decent and it can’t be good, it has to be incredible. People are going to measure your mixtape against your album. People nowadays, with the free downloading on the internet, are looking for any excuse not to buy your music. Your shit better be incredible, or you’re wasting your time. I just don’t believe in mixtapes. Another reason I stopped doing mixtapes was that my last mixtape sold over 40,000. There are some people who are putting out music who are “hot” that don’t even sell 40,000.
Which mixtape are we talking about?
I made a joint called Rapper/Hustler, when I had the gun on the cover. I stopped doing mixtapes after that, because I learnt my value. Like, I could put out a mixtape and sell 40,000. I need to chill, and just make albums, and get that 40,000. And make affective music. If my albums consistently sold less than 5,000, from my whole career, then I would probably put out mixtapes. It’s not much of a difference. Only a few big artists do mixtapes. Even when they do mixtapes, they don’t stay mixtapes for long, because they’re so good, they stick to people to the point that they have to be sold. Perfect example: Fabolous, Lloyd Banks, Jadakiss. They’ll throw out a mixtape, just to throw it out, but the shit’ll do so fucking well, that the label ends up… I think Def Jam ended up taking Fabolous’ last mixtape and put it out. The same thing happened with Banks and Kiss. Because their mixtapes stick to you, but you got other artists that put out mixtape after mixtape and think they’re the shit… but you’re not differentiating yourself on each project, and then when your album comes out, your album don’t sell. So what’s the sense of doing it? It’s a waste. Quality over quantity, the old saying rings true.
You got a good position: you’re independent. Like the ones you mentioned, sometimes in the history of New York rap, that was the only moment when you could hear hardcore hiphop without singing and pop beats: on the mixtapes. That was dope for that.
My thing is, I don’t mind hearing singing on the song. It’s not what’s on it, it’s how it’s done. I don’t know what my favourite song of all time is, but one of my favourite songs of all time is Hey Young World by Slick Rick. Somebody’s singing on there.
I mean more that industry or radio format. Singing is dope.
Yeah, it’s the way it’s done. There will never be autotune on my music. Never. Unless Roger Troutman comes back from the dead. Or like a Hologram.
Did you hear anything from Bumpy Knuckles after you put out that Victory freestyle?
No. Actually, when I put out that shit, that was bait. When he first made a song and mentioned my name I was upset, because I felt he over-reacted. For one, if you listen to what he said: “You tried to front on me for that white boy at Koch”. He was talking about a guy that we both have done business with, that’s a slimy business man. My whole thing is, if you got a relationship with someone, you’re supposed to call that person on that. If he would have called me, it would have never been that problem, because I would have told him, “that’s not true”. Obviously, what must have happened, he might have approached that guy and that guy might have said, “well, Cormega is holding me down”, or whatever, used me as a security blanket. But Foxx was my friend, and when you’re my friend I don’t get in your business affairs. Perfect example: Tragedy Khadafi had a problem with the same guy. Tragedy called me, I said: “do what you got to do”. And Tragedy went and stepped to him. If Freddie Foxx would have called me, and be like: “yo, this guy is using your name, talking about, you’re going to hold him down against me”, I would have told him that it’s a lie. I’d told him, “matter of fact, let’s go see him together”. When it comes to money, I am never going to stop one of my friends from getting money. That would make me selfish, a piece of shit. Think about it. That’s not fair. I would never do that. So he over-reacted. When he made that shit where he’s talking about me, I was shocked and I was offended, because I know him. It would have been simple for him to call me, and we would never had that. When he made that shit, first I was going to let it slide. But my pride said: fuck that. Because the streets is watching, everybody’s always watching. If it would have been a lesser rapper, or a rapper without a tough guy image, I probably wouldn’t have responded. But being that he’s a tough guy, I had to respond, because it would look like Mega was scared, in my opinion. I don’t want the public to think that I won’t respond. Victory is nothing I’m proud of. I’m not proud of this whole shit anyway. I made a whole song, Victory came after that. I made a whole other song where I was going to go at him. I did it strategically. Victory was just a joke, and then when he’d respond I’d put out my real song. And now I’m not going to respond anymore because I’m not going to have to. Fuck Victory, that was just a freestyle, and that whole difference with him is not a proud moment for me. We have spoken recently on Twitter, and I’m glad that shit is behind me. I’m glad that I never had to release that other record.
I’d like to see you making music together instead.
I wouldn’t mind making a record with him. He’s dope. I respect him as an artist, and I’d work with him. I don’t want differences with any artist, especially in this day and age. Hiphop is in a battle with itself, so there’s no need for real artists to go at each other. If anything, we should be going at the people who are destroying our culture.
Do you feel that a lot of interviewers want to go back to your old beefs?
Yes! Yesterday I had to tell the guy that I don’t want to talk about Nas. Especially in America a lot of interviews aren’t in depth. A lot of people follow other people’s formula. Like radio shows, the morning shows in America, everybody has the same formula. You have the DJ, and then you have a personality guy, and then you have a woman. The woman is supposed to be the gossip spreader, but I guess the woman is also there to take some of the attention of the guys, because if you have guys sitting there gossiping all day, they’ll look like women. Sometimes the interviewers just want attention and controversy, because when you bring controversy, that brings attention. On the internet, that brings views, and the more views and hits you get, the more advertisement you get. There are magazines that don’t even fuck with me no more, because they would give me a whole story if I shitted on Nas. I told them I didn’t want to do that no more. You’re not going to make me the Frazier to his Ali. At the end of the day he’s a great artist, and he has accomplished more than me. He was making music when I was in jail. We had differences, but at the end of the day, I got history with him. If he died, I would be sad. You’d be sad on a whole other level as a fan. I know him, I knew his mother, I know his family, he knows my family. There’s a difference. People are trying to exploit beefs, because beef and controversy sells. The saddest thing is Beef DVD. I’m talking on that on the shit with Large Professor. You will hear it in the song. When you have Quincy Jones, one of the most well known producers in the world, who’s a multi-millionaire, when his son is making Beef DVD‘s, it’s a fucking problem. The rap game is incredible, his son has no ideology, no concept or grasp of what beef is. Like literally, there were days when he came home from school and Michael Jackson was in his house, or some other star. He lives a pampered fucking life, there are awards and all kind of things in his house. What the fuck does he know about beef? But he makes a Beef DVD. People exploit drama and capitalize of it while we don’t. All we do is run our mouths, talking about it. I’m not with that. You’re not going to exploit me.
It feels like this beef thing is over. It’s not interesting.
It’s wack now. Because the rap industry is a piggy bank formula. First of all: 50 Cent had incredible work ethic. He was putting out good fucking music, and he had the controversy. And he had excellent management, and he was on an excellent label. He had all the right things happening for him. Now you have other artists and other labels trying to follow his formula. So everybody started beefing, and all of the sudden every rapper is fucking diesel now, you ever noticed that. Everybody looks like Schwarzneger. Just because you work out now does not mean you’re going to sell like 50 Cent. Just because you’re beefing with another rapper does not mean you’re going to sell like 50 Cent. Hiphop is always copy cat shit. I’m just waiting for people to make good albums so people can copy that.
Who is your favourite athlete of all time?
My favourite athlete of all time is Muhammad Ali, without a shadow of a doubt. He embodies all the attributes of a champion. He had a persona by him, he had personality that I have yet to seen matched by any athlete. He had a sparkle about him, and then he was a humanitarian when he wasn’t even trying to be a humanitarian. Some of the stuff that he has done that you don’t see publicized, if you read his biography it’s mind ravelling. He actually even helped America to regain hostages. I don’t remember from which country. Muhammad Ali helped negotiate the release of hostages, but you don’t see that mentioned. He has done so much stuff. He has never embarrassed us. I know athletes that I look up to that gamble… which is their business, but it’s not setting a good example for little guys… which openly use drugs and alcohol, etc. He has never done anything that gives people a chance to try to belittle him. I respect Muhammad Ali, he has done so much; definitely my favourite athlete.
What about your favourite Knicks player?
My favourite Knicks player of all time might possibly be Bernard King. My favourite Knicks player right now at this moment might be Carmelo Anthony. My favourite basketball player of all time… I mean, the traditional answer would be Michael Jordan, but I think Bernard King might be my favourite. Rod Strickland is up there too. Bernard King was scoring 50 points back to back games. Go to youtube, whenever you see a great player from the eighties, there will be footage of him battling with Bernard King, and a lot of times King came out on top. People like Magic Johnson was like: he’s unstoppable. He was ahead of his time. He was incredible. The only thing that stopped him was injury, and even after his injury he was an all-star. I hated when The Knicks traded him.”
Har du inget annat för dig så segla för all del ut på tuben och kolla igenom majoriteten av intervjuerna med E-40 som gömmer sig där.
Ingen annan rappare ger bättre intervjuer.
Inte Ice-T, inte Cormega, inte The Jacka, definitivt inte Jay-Z, inte… jo kanske 2pac eller Scarface… men i alla fall. Det jag alltid har älskat med intervjuer är det tillfälle de ger rappares språkkärlek att tränga utanför de där sexton radernas stängsel. I grenen formuleringskonst utmanar ingen vettig människa E-40.
Jag såg reklam för en ny intervju med farbror Earl i den där matrix-loopen som ni kallar för social media… och han har fantastiska nyheter åt oss som har börjat tröttna på Hugo Boss och Armani.
Man, you know what, I’m trying to come up with this cologne called Sucker Repellant.
You are shitting me.
No, I’m not bullshiting. Trademark by me, Earl Stevens, you can look it up, Google it or whatever you want to do. Sucker Repellant, you smell me? That’s my slogan: You Smell Me. I’m on the case right there.“
(Check out part one, with CP of Block Beattaz / Slow Motion Soundz here first…! This interview was done in Malmö, Sweden, when G-Side were promoting The One… Cohesive in February last year. CP is back in Sweden right now actually, networking and selling beats. @alabama187 got some footage when he went over the bridge to Denmark, we’ll see what’s up with that in a minute. For now, enjoy this.)
“Have you noticed a difference in crowd response since when you dropped Cohesive?
ST 2 Lettaz: To me, the Cohesive album is a better album to perform. When we did our first album we were still studio artists, we had never really performed. The shows we did do in Alabama were not good venues for concerts, we were on shitty P.A. systems so we didn’t really know how to perform. The more we got on the road with Huntsville International and Starshipz And Rocketz we learned what worked and how to make songs that are better for performing. I think with Cohesive we have performed pretty much the whole damn album.
Yung Clova: On our first go around we might have had 50 people in the club. On the second go around we picked up more venues and we had more people in that spot.
When you think of hiphop you normally think… the Bronx and ciphers and what not. What were your first memories of hiphop in Alabama?
ST: It was what fed to us through videos and radio. There weren’t any ciphers going on my block. We’re from Alabama, so what we would get was whatever was on YO! MTV Raps or Rap City. And there was the bootleg man who would go around and sell tapes and CD’s out of his trunk. That’s where you would get the new shit. If it wasn’t from him you’d get it from some mom-and-pop shop. We used to go and buy CD’s because of what was on the cover. You didn’t know who it was or how dope it was but you’d just go ahead and take that chance.
YC: Or they had block parties… a lot of house parties… so a lot of people were playing music in their cars as they were driving through the neighborhood, so you might hear something that you like, and you’d be like, “Oh, that sounds dope”, and then you’d try to find it.
How did you start rapping?
ST: With me, I heard Ice Cream Man by Master P, I saw the video and heard it on the radio, and it hit me. I knew what I was gonna be for the rest of my life. I’d hear some guys on the corner freestyling or whatever, but I’d be off to the side in my own little world, just trying to hone my skills and get better.
YC: I started from my cousin, he freestyled all the time, playing around. And one day I just felt like taking it to another level.
ST: We had a mutual friend who stayed on us. He was older than us and the rapper on the block, who had actually put out CD’s. I heard about Clova and he heard about me and we just linked up one day after school.
YC: He’d always bring us together and be like: “Let me hear what y’all got”.
ST: When we went to college we started to throw our own parties. We performed, because there was nobody that was gonna throw a show and pay us for it. That’s where we learned the skills of performing, doing it ourselves and performing.
Tell us about the song Blackout.
ST: The day we were set to come to Europe our state was hit with over a hundred tornadoes. It’s the worst natural disaster to ever hit our state. We were fortunate to still make it out, our flight still got delayed, we missed Bergen, Norway. But we were fortunate enough to make it out.
YC: My flight actually got canceled. As I was going up, everything was black, no lights on, no gas stores, nothing. The tornado had torn up one of the cities I was going through really bad. All the cars were thrown to side of the road for all long as you could see. Luckily I made it home. As soon as I made it home the ligths came on in my house.
ST: His city, Athens, is maybe 15 minutes down the road, they had lights. But the biggest city, Huntsville, had no lights for a week. So everybody was going to the nearby bigger cities, but a lot of people were stuck. I was stuck in Amsterdam and heard what was going on, and it was so heavy in our hearts. When we finally came to Oslo a day or so late and got settled we made the song about it. Over 300 people died, a lot of friends lost their houses. It was a learning experience. It let us know that our family can provide, whatever the circumstance is. The only thing we could do is make a record about it. We put it out, it’s free for download, but if you want to donate, you can donate money and that goes to the Red Cross. And when we come back we’re gonna help people to rebuild and clean up.
With that song Aura, do you use the term in a religious way?
ST: Nah… it really wasn’t religious. We all pretty much know what the aura is. It’s you, your inner glow, what you give off if you feel a motherfucker when you walk up to him. Another way to say swag. Swag! Swag! (*everybody starts laughing*) That was even before Lil B and I don’t know how the hell he resurrected the word swag. It died and he resurrected that bitch. We were just trying to find an alternative. I mean the song has that Outkast, divine sense to it. I’m not so much religious, but very spiritual.
YC: I consider myself a Christian. In my city, Athens, where I’m from, it’s so small, and there’s a church on every corner.
ST: It’s what you would call the Bible belt, where they still pretty much base their laws and society around the Bible. It’s a huge part of our upbringing. I was a very religious person, but the more I educated myself on the world and things around me, religion seemed to be more politics and business oriented.
YC: It aint that, it’s the preachers. They’re turning it into a job. They use preaching to make money now. It’s all about money back home now.
Many people would think that the Christian community in the South is extremely conservative. Do you think they are more so than other parts of the country?
ST: Not so much. We clung on to religion as hope, because we were oppressed for so long. Especially being in Alabama. That was pretty much our only equalizer. The fact that we had God and that there was a heaven after this. That’s what they use if for, whereas more of the white Christians use it more as a way to control the people. It’s more politics.
What would you say were the biggest difference between you and New York.
ST: The 808. We make our music more for cars.
YC: One thing with New York – they walk around with iPods and what not. Can’t put too much bass in them.
ST: In the South you don’t walk anywhere. Atlanta make their music more oriented for clubs than for the car culture, but then you have places like Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas, and a little bit of Florida; they pretty much make it for the cars, some shit you can ride and vibe out to.
When you rap, whose footsteps do you feel you are following in?
ST: With the way we formatted our company and our business plan, we feel like we’re trailblazers. Nobody came from Alabama and did what we did. Even those that took the major route, they didn’t do what we did as far as coming to Europe and making a name here. Musically, we have the basic forefathers, like UGK. Outkast and Organized Noise inspired us doing a producer and rapper combo. But we tried to break away from all of that.”
När jag var sjuk förra gången låg jag och plöjde Narduwars intervjuer med de artister som faller mig i smaken, och tänkte… “Ghostface Killah! Vid Allah! Han måste göra en intervju med Tony Starks AKA The Wallabee Champ AKA Ironman AKA Pretty Toney!”
Ännu en gång infriar internätet alla mina önskedrömmar.
With their fifth album G-Side declared their hometown of Huntsville, Alabama an Island.
To learn more about this nationally isolated, internationally renowned location and the music it has birthed, we’re going back to february this year, to the city of Malmö and G-Side’s only stop in Sweden on the European mini-tour that followed the release of their exquisitely executed Cohesive album.
G-Side named their first release Sumthin 2 Hate, but seeing them in the flesh, shining, proudly surfing a wave entirely of their own creation, there’s nothing to hate on. Even when the warm-up DJ insist on treating the crowd with the same ol’ tired ass boombap raps for a long ass time, and a fair share of squares trail off during the Alabama duo’s set to the more commercially oriented dance floor in the same building, there’s no denying that their majestic Prog Rap works surprisingly well in the club. ST 2 Lettaz and Yung Clova rap their asses off (stage routines might need some work, though), lining up one underground hit after the other. The bass is booming through the system, and fans arriving from far (shouts to Sonny AKA alabama187, Hugo, Sanna, Petter) all have a ball.
Backstage the crew is relaxing, ready to start, as ST 2 Lettas put it, “hanging out with the people”, and we get the oppurtunity to talk with him, rhyme partner Yung Clova, manager Codie G, and producer CP, who starts breaking down the structure of Slow Motion Sounds for us:
“In Huntsville – I don’t know if it’s been done anywhere else – we have a 6,000 square foot facility, and inside that we got eight studios. All the producers are under the Block Beattaz brand. We got R. Dot, ATX, Boss Man, P.T., Cees, 118, Fadel, myself, Mali Boi of course. They come to the studio, and just go studio to studio. There’s always something going on. We have young producers that we’re trying to bring up, but we’re really keen on quality. We’re just trying to give them time to mature and develop… we’re gonna get them in there and make them official.
Talking about other producers, Clams Casino helped you with Pictures.
Clams sent us the rough tracks and we went in there and stripped the beat down and built it back up, with his permission. I love Clams, Codie actually put me up to him. He’s super dope. He got crazy melodies, the illest samples. That’s what it’s all about.
You have a similar sound.
Oh yeah. I think sampling is the corner stone of hiphop. It’s what hiphop is to me. I grew up a big East coast fan: Nas is my favorite rapper; Boot Camp Click. I like the new stuff and all, but I’m a purist. That’s where my heart lies.
If we’re talking classic Southern albums, which would be your favorites?
When Outkast did Aquemeni, I wanted to quit. I loved the Witchdoctor CD, that’s one of my favorites. Young Bleed, I forgot what the name of that album was. Favorite groups… of course G-Side; I’m a little biased. I love Goodie Mob, Three 6 Mafia, of course UGK, all those guys. I’m a huge Project Pat fan… Skinny Pimp, Gangsta Black.
Any Screwed Up shit?
It really didn’t catch on with me, because I’m really not a syrup sipper. I did it one time and was stuck in one place for five hours, and said I’ll never do that again. I like Z-Ro, I like his style. Trae The Truth, he actually just grew on me…
Maybe Block Beattaz should produce for Z-RO?
We got some tracks with Trae. We got some tracks with Slim Thug. We got a couple with Pimp C before he passed.
You produced for Pimp C?
Yes. I think they got recorded but never released. We sent them off. 6 Tre G, he had that song Fresh, he was working with Trae a lot out there.
You got a lot of electronic sounds in your music, but I was listening to you the other day, and I thought, “this feels like a Barry White, Isaac Hayes thing”, the way you organize these sounds. Do you have an influence from this older generation?
Yeah, of course. But what we’re trying to do is get away from those typical samples, that people probably have used, and dig deeper. I’m really into the eurotrance music. I just bought the Katy B CD, that’s dubstep and trance.
So you’re into more electronic stuff, like dubstep?
Yeah, it’s growing on me. DJ Giraffo sent me a lot of stuff to listen to. It’s growing on me. I see how it moves people in the club, so…
Do you think America would accept someone rapping over dubstep?
Right now? No. But if we continue to get stale in the states, I think, yeah, they’d be more open to it.
The way you program your drums, do you have an influence for your complex drum patterns… or do you just take the 808 and freak it?
Pretty much, man. That’s our culture in Huntsville and Alabama and the South. The first thing you do when you get a new car, before you get an insurance and before you put gas in it, is to put speakers in it. You put the 12 or 15 inch speakers in there and let the trunk bang. The 808 is the cornerstone of the whole track. The influences from that are definitely Magic Mike, Three 6 Mafia… just aggressive drums, extreme low end. The East Coast influence comes with the sampling and the nice melodies on top of that, making everything beautiful.
In your music there’s a lot of things going on, while Magic Mike is pretty straight-forward. Is that something you came up with yourselves, or is there an influence?
I learned that from Mali Boi. This whole thing is the element of surprise, sometimes you might hear something for two bars that you won’t hear anytime else in the song. That’s his whole thing, he just wants to keep pulling you in. He got a strong jazz influence. He’s from Chicago, and pretty much well-rounded and well-versed in a lot of stuff.
I read in an interview about your very hectic work schedule. Are you still working a 9 to 5?
No. No no no. I’m actually working 9 to 9 in the studio now. I spend 20 hours a day in front of the computer, recording. We started something and now business is picking up. I just sit and record all day. That’s my job now.
Where do you get motivation to sit 20 hours a day in front of a computer?
Number one: Money. And number two: I filled out an application and now i gotta deal with it. It’s rough sometimes, but I get through it.
Do you and Mali Boi ever make beats together?
That’s how we started. But he records also. What happens is that I lay down the skeleton of the track, give it to him, he’ll do some things and send it back, and we’ll go back and forth. He’s pretty much the beatsmith. I do tracks, but my main focus is the recording, engineering and overall production of the song.
What have you learned touring?
That the world is bigger than my immediate surroundings. As far as music, I was watching the videos on TV in the hotel… Man, there’s some nice music over here. We actually did a track where we sampled Scatman John. Jackie Chain recorded to it, so that should be out soon.
Is that Pimp C stuff coming out?
I seriously doubt it.
How can that shit stay locked down?
Just politics and bullshit.
Can’t you get Obama on the line, maybe The Navy Seals, and just get it out?
Maybe! When we get a little bigger we might be able to pull some strings, but right now I seriously doubt it. One of my partners, I don’t know if you remember a group called Royal Flush, they were on Rap-A-Lot Records maybe 86-87… Royal Flush was the one that actually brought Pimp C and Bun B together to form UGK, they’re from Port Arthur also. And my partner, his partner was actually in that group, his name is Albert Bush, they call him Al-B, and he was really cool with Pimp, man. Pimp made a show in Birmingham, Alabama, and he took me to see him. Pimp used to write Al-B from jail, when he was locked up, so it was really crazy. They called each other by first name, he called him Chad. That’s how we had that connection.
What is your first memory of rap music?
My sister getting into trouble for having 2 Live Crew and I didn’t understand why. She would sneak down and dance to it when my parents were gone. She had 2 Live Crew, she had DJ Magic Mike. Those are my memories from way back.
What came after that?
I think Nas came out in 96, was that 94? Illmatic. I think that was the first time I could actually understand and breathe and… understand the impact of the music. It sent chills down my body just listening to it. How could this young cat know so much and speak so eloquently?
How old were you then?
I was fourteen. I’ve been doing this since I was nineteen years old.
Did you mostly have access to New York rap when you were at that age?
That was pretty much it. I went to store when the music dropped, that what it was all about. First thing you do, get the cd, get the plastic off of it, put the cd in, take the book out, sit in the car and listen to it. That’s one thing I miss: books.
I remember when I bought Doggystyle and it had the comic in it.
Yeah, that was a good record. That was when I was a fan. I didn’t start doing music until I was nineteen or twenty. I was at school playing football and everything. I played drums for a year, but I played football and wasn’t thinking about nothing else. But my brother, Chico, they were actually rapping, and it seemed like they were having fun. I went and bought Virtual DJ, you remember that program? I got that program, started doing beats, stopped going to class. And that’s pretty much how I started doing it first. My parents didn’t like it. My mom bought me a keyboard and she says she regretted it – but she doesn’t regret it anymore. She bought me a $600 Yamaha QS 300.
That was when you started, at nineteen – twenty hours a day?
Pretty much. It was all day everyday, then when I was younger. That’s all we did. Get high, bring some girls to the studio, get a bunch of Hennessey, get a bunch of 40′s, and just kick it and make music. Believe it or not, me and Codie G were the rappers.
How did the scene look in Alabama, when you were coming up?
There was nothing, people were like, “What the hell are you doing? Take your ass to school, get rid of this shit.” There were a couple of local groups. At Ease, J to the third. At Ease actually made it to Harlem to The Apollo, but they got booed of stage. There were three black dudes and a white guy in the group, Mike; actually the guy that got me started on doing production. That was big for us. For a long
time, man, we weren’t nobody really doing anything. We were doing all the industry stuff, we were taking our music to radio stations, they would tell us, “you gotta sound like this”, we would go back and do it, and waste time, and take it back to them, and they’d say it had to sound like something else. We were like, “fuck it, we’re just gonna make the music we wanna make”.
So when you realized that, did you have the same vision that you have today, soft, nice, beautiful melodies, hard ass drums?
Yeah. We’re actually gonna leak some of the old stuff to show you that it’s a derivative of what we were doing. Just don’t laugh at it, we were crazy. We were on some real gangsta shit back then. Calling out snitches by their government names. That was how we were living. But just growing up, being mature; we got kids now. We’re conscious of what they might hear. We’re smack dead in the middle of the street so we can’t avoid it. I deal with jackers, robbers, dopeboys, all types of people everyday, so I’m right there in it. I see everything. But I think we actually had an impact on the crime wave in Huntsville, because everybody is in the studio recording and rapping about it instead of crawling through your window. So, you know, I think we’ve had an impact.”
Den fräckhet med vilken 50 Cent gjorde om ett av Wu-Tang Clans starkaste anthems till G-Unit Thats Whats Up är idag den standard som nya rappare arbetar med.
Enligt sitt lands lagar får Oakland-rapparna Main Attrakionz inte ta sig en sup ännu, men kallar sig för Best Duo Ever. Läser man låtlistan till Squadda B:s I Smoke Because I Dont Care About Death kan man tro att Pete Rock, DR Period och Fizzy Womack är inblandade – att förklara att det handlar om freestyles över gamla New York-beats duger inte numera.
Squadda B och Mondre M.A.N. har rappat tillsammans sedan de var tio (det märks), men saknar ändå respekt för traditionella uppfattningar om hur rap görs bäst: av lokalt sammansvetsade crews, helst efter idealet om en rappare och en producent. På senare släpp har mer och mer utrymme upplåtits åt crowdsourcade internetproduktioner (musiker som även är fans skickar alltså beats till dem), gärna av det mer äventyrliga slaget. Vad som eventuellt saknas i studioteknisk perfektion vägs upp av nya musikaliska perspektiv. Formatmässigt befinner vi oss ljusår från Afrika Bambaataas vinylsessions; ändå känns allt bekant.
Tillsammans med Clams Casino är det den förut okände Nem270 som har bidragit till flest minnesvärda Greenova-bangers. Från rulla-runt-i-din- polares-bil-slappern Ice Nites, de djupt elektroniska Loud Pack och Top Hat, den förfinade psykedeliaswaggern på Movie och Zoned Out Macking, det Richard D. James-liknande outro-beatet till Kissing On My Syrup, till det som har blivit en Greenova-specialare – kombinationen söndriga röstsamplingar och minimala datortrummor, på Teddy Gram, Dear Mama, Slave Story, Respect.
Jag är 24 år gammal. Född i Bosnien, har levt i Kanada under större delen av mitt liv; Saskatoon/Saskatchewan. Flyttade till Ottawa för några år sedan.
Hur var hiphop-scenen i Saskatoon / Saskatchewan, och Ottawa?
Vet inte riktigt om det fanns någon, men många från mitt high school gillade Atmosphere, vilket jag och min bror inte tål, hehe… och det fanns av någon anledning en del som var helt inne på Anticon och MF Doom-grejer, och att göra skumma lo-fi-beats och raps. Jag såg Blackalicious där, och Abstract Rude. Men nej, det hände inte så mycket med rap i Saskatoon. Det fanns mycket rave och en stor experimentell scen där av någon anledning, men inte mycket mer. Nu i Ottawa kan jag se bättre konserter, häromdagen såg jag Big KRIT, och Araabmuzik var här också. Det finns en rappare här också från Pittsburgh, han heter Cashtro Crosby. Jag arbetar med honom nu; kolla in honom på Tumblr eller Twittter.
När började du göra musik?
Jag har gjort musik länge. Beats började jag nog med när jag var runt 16. Hade spelat med några band före det och och ville egentligen göra grejer själv, så jag laddade ner ett demo för Fruity Loops och har mest meckat runt med det sedan dess.
Arbetar du vanligtvis med samplingar eller gillar du att skweeza ut det mesta möjliga ur en VST-synthesizer?
Det skiftar mellan VST och samplingar. Jag gillar när båda kan samsas i en låt, som Ice Nites, som blandar röstsampling och VST-synthar ganska fint. Trummorna är oftast samplingar från andra producenters kits. Du vet hur man kan ladda ner Lex Luger-kitet… jag använder mest sådana, lägger dem i lager eller meckar runt med dem. Så jag antar att jag alltid använder samplingar trots att melodierna oftast är VST-baserade.
Vad spelade du för sorts musik i band förut?
Som barn, runt 12 eller 13 år gammal, spelade jag i Nu Metal-band, typ Limp Bizkit och sånt. Det utvecklades till olika sorters rock tills alla inblandade bestämde sig för att göra annat. Sedan spelade jag också i ett galet band som hette Milkhorse. Men då hade jag redan gjort beats ett tag och dj:at dem live några gånger under namnet Tapenga. Efter det har jag bara fokuserat på beats.
Hur hookade du med Main Attrakionz?
Jag höll på att maila beats till rappare i slutet av 2010, tror jag, och det gick inte så bra. De som svarade spelade aldrig in något i slutändan, så inget hände egentligen. Jag bestämde mig för att maila Main Attrakionz utan några som helst förväntningar. Jag var redan ett fan och gillade mycket av de mixtapes de hade släppt dittills; 63 Mainey, 808:s & Dark Grapes, och Best Duo Ever. Jag laddade ner och lyssnade på dem hela förra sommaren. Jag mailade dem och Squadda skickade tillbaks Loud Pack dagen efter; andra gången som någon rappade över mina beats (första gången var precis efter high school, och det blev inte speciellt bra)… men det var riktigt spännande och jag är fortfarande inne på att jobba med dem.
Att göra ett beat som Zoned Out Mackin, och sen se det komma ut som en färdig låt, och folk som reagerar på det – kan du beskriva den känslan?
Jag menar, det är då jag för ett ögonblick förstår varför jag spenderar så mycket tid med det här. Varje gång jag får tillbaks ett beat från Main Attrakionz eller andra är det alltid mind blowing och det känns som jag får en present. Alla samarbeten och all feedback blir bara bättre och bättre än vad jag tror när jag skickar ut skiten.
Ljuden på Mondre MAN’s Movie påminner mig starkt om ljudpaletten i mycket minimal house – inspireras du något av elektronisk musik?
Jag kommer nog alltid vara inne på klassiska IDM-grejer, som Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Fennesz, Gas, en del Squarepusher och Tim Hecker. Jag gillar Ricardo Villalobos av någon anledning. Han är en seriös producent och jag kollar alltid in hans nya släpp.
Gör du själv elektronisk musik ibland, eller endast hiphop-beats?
Det är oftast hiphop, men jag meckar runt med andra stilar hela tiden. Under en kort period försökte jag göra mer dansanta beats utan röst men det blev inte riktigt som jag ville.
Industrin har förändrats mycket de senaste åren – tror du att du kommer leva på musik i framtiden?
Jag har ingen aning om vad som kommer hända med den biten. Jag skulle vilja ha det här som en karriär men det verkar inte vara så enkelt. Jag fortsätter att skicka beats till folk, lägger upp låtarna på nätet, och ser vad som händer.
Lite grejer med Mondre M.A.N. har spelats in. Förhoppningsvis mer med Main Attrakionz. Det verkar som om Lil B kommer att använda fler av mina beats, och några andra, men jag borde inte säga något innan allt är klart. Jag har ett helt tape med Shady Blaze på gång också. Vi hoppas kunna leverera något verkligt genomarbetat för alla de som har visat intresse.”
Jag letade efter en 2pac intervju på Piratebay som jag såg för några år sedan hos en polare.
Av en slump såg jag att dom har släppt en ny dvd. Tupac Uncencored & Uncut: The Lost Prison Tapes, som jag tror släpptes i år?. Dvdn är en intervju från 1995 när Herr Shakur satt i finkan.
Intervjun är 45 minuter lång och 2pac pratar om allt från sin mamma, utanförskap, gängvåld, aids och om Amerikansk utrikespolitik för att bara nämna lite. Helt enkelt REAL TALK!
