By Darin Gloe

What’s up fellas, how you living?

Magnif: Chillin, What’s good how are you?

Griot: What’s up chillin, everything is real good.

How big was it for you guys to be co-signed by the OkayPlayer camp?

Magnif: It was real big. Okayplayer is something that is respected by the fans and the hip-hop community. It’s pretty much a sign of making good music and to be accepted by them, it’s a blessing.

Griot: A lot of the artists on OkayPlayer are artists we look up to and we have been listening to since I can remember, it’s a real honor.

Before you guys were signed with Babygrande, what obstacles did you overcome to get your music out?

Magnif: It was kind of tough having to put your stuff out. We had people that would press it up, but we ran all the promo ourselves. Since we were so new to the game people felt like they had to get to know us first before they would give us a break. Not that we were looking for breaks but we just wanted to people to hear the music. It takes a while because there are so many artists that come out in the underground, the majority of fans only check for people they already know.

Griot: First we had to believe in what we were doing, and what I mean is financially we had to back our entire project. It was a lot of grind work because we didn’t have anybody to rely on or fallback on to get our music out. We just had the contacts that we had built on our own.

After being signed, would you say that your career is now moving in the direction you guys have always wanted it to?

Magnif: It’s moving more so in the direction that we were looking for. This is a good start; everything is jumping off real well right now.

Griot: It’s off to a great start. It is going where we would like it to go.

Why Babygrande, what did they offer above other independent labels?

Magnif: They believed in the project, they were the most excited about it. Babygrande was on the exact same page as we were and that was huge to us. They recognize what we were trying to do and the chemistry was there. They backed us up 100%. They gave us full control just like they do all their artists.

Griot: When we put out the project, we saw it being handled in a specific manner. When we brought the project to other labels, they didn’t see the project how we saw it. We and Babygrande were eye to eye, they were thinking the same things we were thinking.

As I understand that Magnif is the producer and Griot is the emcee, reminiscent of Pete Rock and Cl Smooth or Gangstarr, how did that era influence your style today?

Magnif: They are a huge influence. The first “Rules”, G says “been spitting ill shit since mass appeal”, that was were we got our inspiration. We would sit around and watch the box and watch Gangstarr and Nas videos, those videos influenced us a lot.

Griot: They influenced us tremendously. We used to just sit back and listen to Pete Rock and Primo; they make some of the rawest beats. I remember hearing “It Ain’t Hard to Tell” for the first time, the beat and the production and the lyrics drew you to the record. It was something new and something different

It has been said that Magnif is influenced heavily by J-Dilla (Jay-Dee) how did that relationship begin?

Magnif: We released a single around 2002 called “Mic Check” and it made some noise over in Japan. We wanted to take to another level on our second single, and since we were from the “D”and Dilla was the man out here, we just reached out to him. He was down to work with us and “The Shining” was born. Fat Beats put the record out and it made a lot of noise, so Dilla wanted to work with us again and he’s got a guest verse on a joint that I produced.

The album is called “Soundvision in Stereo” and drops September 20th what do you hope people get from this album and what set it apart from the plethora of hip-hop releases nowadays?

Magnif: It’s that straight up raw hip-hop, there are so many influences and different sounds that are all combined into one. I feel we created a new sound with all the influences throughout my career. We feel like it’s that early to mid 90′s style hip-hop, we just keep it real. I don’t like the term “real hip-hop”; I have coined the term “real music” instead.

Griot: From the album you get a blend of originality. Our sound has definite influences, but it’s also very creative and new. It’s not something that is copied from a formula; it’s our own flava to the project.

“Soundvision” is being praised by critics, is that what you expected to happen or is that a pleasant surprise.

Magnif: (Laughs) This is exactly what we were hoping for, I feel we have grown a lot as far as production and the rhyming. It took us 3 years to make this album because of the growth we were going through. We would record a joint and then we would knock out a record that was better and the sound just kept updating.

Griot: Man its crazy (Laughs)…it’s what we thought would happen. Every artist thinks their music is good, but we are heavy critics. I can’t hold another artist up to a standard that I don’t meet, so I am very critical of my own stuff. If I thought it was wack, I would say it was wack. We thought it was good but we didn’t know exactly how others would perceive it, which is very unpredictable.

What’s next for Lawless Element, where do you want to go from here?

Magnif: From here we are going to keep hitting you with real good music. I haven’t really thought about who we are going to work with in the future but I would really like to work with Hi-Tek, I think he is one of the nicest out and as far as emcees go, Busta would be ill.

Griot: You know that’s a good question. Magnif is an excellent producer, he has a lot cats that want to work with him and he is going to be everywhere. He has even dropped a couple guest verses. We are working on a soundtrack for an independent film; we are getting into fashion and doing music for designers. Anything really, the skies the limit. I would really like to work with Mos Def, Jay-Z and Dr Dre.

Shout outs?

Magnif: I would like to thank www.hiphopsite.com for all the support and maybe we can get that rookie of the year nod…(laughs)

Griot: I want to thank www.hiphopsite.com for showing all the support you have, we haven’t gotten a chance to really think you guys for all the support. I want to shout out Babygrande and Raw Material and that’s about it.