Interviews
Zion I And The Grouch – Heroes (HipHopSite.Com Interview)
HHS: Let’s talk about your new album, Heroes in the Healing of the Nation.
The Grouch: It features Casual, Jacob Hemphill, Freeway,Fashawn, Mystic and Roy Ayers to name a few.
Amp Live: It’s got a lot of different guests. It’s got a lot of different features. We tried to fit spaces with guests that made sense.
HHS: The release of the album was in conjunction with a tour. Which spots will the tour hit? Also can you talk about the charity program involved with the tour?
The Grouch: Right now the tour is mainly on the west coast. We’re also hitting Colorado, the Midwest, Boston Philly, Baltimore and Minneapolis. Performance wise, we’ll mostly be focusing on this particular album. As far as the charity program, we’ve partnered with charities in each city and will be donating part of the proceeds to the local organizations. We were able to set it up to have 100% of the ticket fees donated to these local organizations. Also we will set the organizations up with booths at the show and have them speak to youth. We’ll meet the kids and in some cases the kids will even perform at our shows. We’re trying to reach out.
HHS: What spurred you to do this?
Zumbi: We wanted to use this album as a platform to do something positive.
The Grouch:The kids are important and we definitely wanted to have an impact and wanted to include everybody that we could.
HHS: This is an awesome gesture on your parts. Can you talk a little about giving back to the community and the importance of charity to you?
The Grouch: In today’s world it’s very necessary to give back to the community. Giving to one another will be important in the near future.
Zumbi: Its easy to do and it benefits a lot of people that we aren’t able to see. A little goes a long way and really it doesn’t even have to be money.
The Grouch:We aren’t making everybody rich, but we are giving it to people that it helps.Also speaking to people helps a lot. It means a lot to the kids for us to come out[and talk to them].
HHS: How do you balance good music and giving a good message?
The Grouch: It’s a conflict but you don’t have to dumb down music to make a positive message. We just send a message over dope music. We speak out.
HHS: The first single and video “Rockit Man” is an amazing track and the video is visually stunning. How did that come about?
Amp Live: It’s cool because it was a collaboration with people we’ve worked with before. On this record we worked with people that were in our network.
The Grouch: We wanted the video to emphasize what the song was about; reaching your peak, being a better person etc…The images got the concept of what the record was about; symbolizing an open mind and possibilities.
HHS: Last words?
The Grouch: Shouts to the fans and all the people supporting the movement. Checkout the website for more information and downloads.
Zumbi: Thank the fans for a positive response. We didn’t know what to expect.
Amp Live: We believe in the power of good music. We put work into it and the response has been overwhelming. People have cool comments about the album and it makes us really happy.
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NICE
really enjoyed this interview and I like their concept.. love these socially aware artists that realize how far their message can go if they try to spread it
Nice interview, good looking on them for working with charities and raising some money with their concerts.
Hey Ed, in a dif post u mentioned u produced.. where can i hear ur stuff im curious to see wat ur sound is like cuz ur views n knowledge of hip hop is def an insight
@Parisiano just click on my name and it should take you to my groups site. Page is under construction but at least you can listen to a few songs. I try and listen to as much hip hop as I can as well as other genres of music. Hopefully that reflects in our sound. We’re not hiphopsite.com material yet but hopefully we’re getting close.
Nice
im at work but i look forward to hearing ur stuff.. thanks for the response
Thanks for checking it out.
If only their music was as good as their message I would be a fan
@Ed man I def will check out your site later today! …And wait a minute!?! Conscience, giving, caring people making thought provoking Hip Hop music that still bangs!?! Whatta concept! Who knew you could do both!?! …Man these rappers out there need to take notice and learn from respectable citizens like these that want to do good with their music to reach out and help and educate people… I am getting so sick of the dumbed-down-fake-ass-wanna-be-gangstas and club-hop-women-abusing-bullshat these so-called artist are putting out… If I were a little kid now and all I knew was what was on the radio and MTV i’d probably have a mullet and listen to country cause rap sucks! So much quality Hip Hop music out there but it’s not spoon fed the masses, you gotta dig for the gems… Glad there are sites like this that shed light on these great artists making great music… Alright I’ll get of my soapbox now…
@Ed hey man I checked out your website but who are you on that sight? Different name? And also there are no beats in the beats section… Definitely liked that beat from the battle and the Biggie remix was nice too…
I go by the name Enyalius, and yeah the site is still under construction, we haven’t launched it, gave you guys a sneak peek I guess lol We’ll have some beats up soon. Thanks for checking it out.
i believe he is Enyalius.. from what i tried to gather
ED i did some advertizement for u.. lol.. i need a shoutout in one of ur tunes.. HAHAHA
@parisiano no doubt you got a shout out coming your way! Thanks for the advertising lol
@Ed nice I’ll be keeping tabs on the site, definitely like to hear music made by fellow posters on HHS. I too make music, I emcee here in Delaware and the mid-atlantic region, work with/know cats like The 49ers (look them up on youtube they got some hella dope videos on there), Marchitech, Fat Daddy Hasbeens, IAMISEE, etc… I’ve performed with KRS-One, which was a highlight of my life… I don’t have a website or even myspace/facebook (Yea I am a slacker) but always enjoy hearing peoples music and passing mine to others. Look forward to hearing your beats and I’d like you peep some of my tracks if you’re interested… @HHS you guys need to make a recent threads list on the front page so we can keep conversations going easier… I want to keep the momentum going and build up the community here!
I think that placing comments on the front page would just add clutter… this is fine
@TomL I didn’t mean put the comment there but have a list of say the 20 most recent threads people commented on and so you can link to them and continue the conversation. Many sites are setup that way and make it much easier to discuss things. Just a list of 20 titles and a header saying “most recently commented on stories” or something of that nature.
i gotta go with dayz on this one
it be nice to keep a convo goin i feel like thx to HHS im keepin track of all this news and new music but at the same time since the links are continuously flowing i cant keep a discussion going because i forget what i was discussing.. just a simply reminder on the side would help out so much
also ed i checked out ur site
man its nice
man i really enjoyed the remix.. love the soft melody that really slows down the music along wit the hard beat.. but lets biggie flow take a much more chill vibe n emphasizing the point
lemme kno when u update ur site, although i plan on checking, so that i can keep track of more music u create.. really nice.. i just recently really started to dicect music into what the producers envision to create and its just nice to hear some stuff from dif ppl who are tryin/creating their own style/beats.. im really startin to see the vision behind production and its such a crazy concept.. great job n i look fwd to haerin more of ur stuff
@Parisiano thnx for checking out the site, I’ll be sure to tell you when we update it with some new material and beats. And I agree with you and Days, maybe they should have something with the most commented threads so it’ll be easier to keep the convo going.