In 1994, just as in 1988 for hip hop, an incredible musical wave gave birth to some classic albums, trend-setting artists and dynamic songs that we’ve noticed throughout its history so far. Amongst this batch of history, the elite roster of artists who were born before, but didn’t really show signs of teeth until 1994, were: Jeru The Damaja, Wu-Tang Clan , Common , Notorious B.I.G. , 2Pac , Black Moon , O.C. , The Roots , Gravediggaz, and of course, Nas. We no doubt as part of the hip- hop nation, will forever remember what burned the turntables around this time, and the memories of the music by Nas in the summer heat of 1994, showcased an excellence by the most natural lyricist of all time.

New York buzzed talk of this album’s release as such the didactic recipe for what a hip-hop album was supposed to sound like, that there wasn’t a head in all five boroughs without a copy or a bootleg after its “official” release. Even before the 1994 release, Nas’ flames of greatness sparked our ears with “Halftime”  off the Zebrahead movie soundtrack in 1991, or his prolific verse on Main Source’s “Live at the Bar-B Q” off their album in the same year.

Back then, without the large volume of rappers and a freedom from today’s hard-to-keep-up list of bombarding rap songs, the majority of yesterday’s hip hop following took a closer look within Nas, the rapper. So did the music industry, and soon after rapper Nas was signed to Columbia Records. Unlike most rappers or rap groups, who even today are signed to a label attached to the parent distribution company, Nas was one of the few in the same contractual position as Barbara Streisand, Bruce Springstein, Mariah Carey  and Miles Davis. In other words, whether it’s his talent, the business deal or a buzz that fostered this, Nas was officially looked at as a long-term asset to Sony. He was a part of the “bigger picture”. He was the heart and soul of hip hop, and one who many turned towards with the keenest ear. He was then and is now, Mr. Streetwise, an eloquent and verbally-in-touch youth with every inner-city, project building and crime-ridden urban blight of America.

From the initial sound of the subway train moving across its tracks on the “The Genesis,” blended right into “New York State of Mind” produced by DJ Premier , the blood rushes to your head like when tipsy or high as Nas flows: “It drops deep as it does in my breath/I never sleep ’cause sleep is the cousin of death!” Then as the mellow baptism douses your cabbage, we were introduced to another promising emcee, AZ. Enter “Life’s A Bitch”, the song that gave AZ a start on his career just from one verse and a hook. But a verse it was, as this became the lighter to many sparking blunts. C’mon, rap along now: “We were beginners in the hood as 5 percenters but something must of got in us because all of us turn to sinners.” When Nas approached the mic that night in the studio, those present couldn’t be luckier. He paints an unheard melody, a rhythmic pattern, a resounding onslaught of words and everyone is always queued to recite parts of the verse without knowing just why: “when I was young at this, I used to do my thing hard/robbing foreigners, take they wallets, they jewels and rip their green cards” Back then, it was a challenge to concentrate on the classic productions of Pete Rock , Premier or Q-Tip and Large Professor, as the strain between your ability to marinate the lyrics on cuts like “The World Is Yours”, “Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)”, “One Love” or the album’s first, “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” battled for supremacy with the beats.

The ghetto is indeed a curse to the developing mind, a stable family and economic independence. But as always, there’s a black child that rises above all odds and physically survives to tell it all. Nas is such a child, humble as you can feel his easiness, but complex as you listen to his observations twisted into rhymes. On Illmatic, as you stare at his baby picture amidst the ghostly concrete Queensbridge projects in the background, you can only shake your head in oar. Never has a rapper expressed thoughts, imagination and a street style so naturally, as on Illmatic.

Originally published on HipHopSite.Com in 2003.

For hip-hop fans – you know who you are when it comes to a documentary film about ATCQ – nothing could be more disheartening than how the buzz of this film developed more on the shoulders of two of the group’s members, rappers Phife Dawg and Q-Tip, who by now you’d know have had some significant conflict between each other. This played-up conflict introduces the film’s opening and surely reoccurs into a full explosion near the end during the group’s 2008 Rock The Bells Tour. In the group’s 8th year of recording – an eternity in a hip-hop artist’s lifespan – rather than Michael Rapaport have the forefront of the film focused on fast, drastic climate changes that made hip-hop suddenly a big part of mainstream pop music, which obviously ALSO contributed to the group’s 1998 demise, there’s this conscious effort within the fabric of the film, to zero-in more on the riff between Phife and Q-Tip. Now, it should be said that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with highlighting this very evident beef. But what about how groundbreaking their music is and how they steered us, redirecting an entire generation into unification and broadening our minds as part of the hip-hop movement? We’re talking about A Tribe Called Quest – not 50 Cent, or NWA, or 2 Pac – all artists that built their careers (and record sales) surrounded by conflict, violence and real live bullets! If there’s any group that deserves less of any negativity to surround them because of their much greater positive role and contribution they’ve influenced the world with through their music (including the film’s director who’s a huge fan), it’s ATCQ. Do we live in a world where we can only gain the attention of each other, by being negative or absorbed into conflict? I remember the days of KRS-One LP covers that purposefully brandished images of an Uzi and weaponry to lure ignorant youths into his trap of elevated, knowledgeable messages. Rapaport’s been an avid hip-hop fan from its inception, so did he have this technique from ‘the teacher’ in mind? For ATCQ? Doubt it! Regardless, there are far richer concepts to build on and that can be marketed in such glorious ways with a group such as ATCQ, in order to grab fans’ attention and rope music enthusiasts into gaining an interest to watch this film.

With the full support of the film by all ATCQ members encouraging everyone to go see it, including Q-Tip, surely this conflict isn’t what initially drew Rapaport into loving and admiring ATCQ back in the day, and surely it couldn’t be what sparked him to want to capture the group’s greatness through a documentary film. Although this doesn’t take up the majority of the film’s content, it’s surely and darkly overshadowing. It could’ve been minimized.

Already having hit prestigious film festivals in 2011 with ‘Official Selection’ tags from the Sundance Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival – to much ecstatic praise and jubilation – it’s soon hitting the LA Film Festival on June 23rd. Watch for standout pieces within the film on Phife’s emotional battle with diabetes, including a life-threatening kidney transplant; Jarobi White’s spiritual role as that on-and-off member of the group who creates such a natural mystic around him; Q-Tip’s master-wizardry on shaping the group’s soulful, jazzy and magical sound, as well as his wide admiration from amongst the industry’s elite such as Pete Rock, Pharrell Williams, DJ Red Alert, The Roots, Beastie Boys, Prince Paul, Busta Rhymes and many others; heartfelt testimonials from all the members of the entire Native Tongues crew; and pay attention to Ali Shaheed Muhammad’s humble yet steady discourse throughout the entire film (in all scenarios – both good and bad) contributing towards something that possibly kept ATCQ together as a group for as long as they’ve been.

Outside of this ongoing theme of conflict between Phife and Q-Tip, there’s a happy ending – a reality that makes you breathe a sigh of relief. And for music fans that were especially captivated by a strong, diverse and rich hip-hop movement – especially out of the New York/Tri-State area in the 1990’s – this documentary film will go down as one of the most welcomed amongst hip-hop purists who swear by the likes of Wild Style, Beat Street, Style Wars, Krush Groove, Breakin’, Juice, Boyz N Tha Hood and 8 Mile. So let’s be fair and recognize that in the film’s entirety, most of its features about the group’s rise to fame until their disbanding in 1998 are presented and edited with the ultimate ATCQ soundtrack to keep you glued to the screen, all the while bobbing your head to the beat.

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest (Sony Pictures Classics) officially hits cinemas in New York and Los Angeles ONLY on July 8, and in other cities with dates TBA.

     Wordsworth’s calm demeanor and the expert manner he puts together a rhyme is the last signal to suggest that he’s typically cocky. However, it is this very quality in his subtle flow – sometimes he rhymes slow, sometimes he rhymes quick – that ironically demonstrates a level of confidence that almost places him on such a high plateau, he seems not to fear any challenger. On a sort of autobiographical track such as “Gonna Be” produced by Oddisee, his concerns dig so deep into the painful dues he paid as an upcoming emcee on numerous open-mic sessions in his tumultuous climb, it’s enough detail to deflate the highest esteemed emcees who lack character from their feeble development, despite their ‘success’. Wordsworth’s honest scenarios throughout this long one-verse of trials and tribulations, is like an honor to which other emcees who’ve traveled similar paths will relate to with un-regrettable pride, as he raps:

   “On stage cracking jokes about how ‘packed’ it is/while downplayin’ in my mind like I’m practicing/Then I go to SOBs and see other rappers’ shows/the promoter I’d know so sometimes he’d let me flow/While I spit, I see y’all talking in da back/but mostly y’all clap to reinforce that I’m not wack.”

     By no means is he seeking self-pity, or comically trying to get sympathy for being a born loser. Instead, he’s honestly showing and baring his soul on his early development, a story seldom heard by many who try to convince us that from out their mother’s womb, they were born with unbeatable lyrical skills.

     As some of the finest beat-technicians gather to compliment Wordsworth artillery of wordplay, producer DJ Static drops in a violin-laden, chopped-up, undetectable muffled sample that rhythmically dances around Wordsworth’s perfectly timed rhymes on “What We Gon’ Do”. Wordsworth uses his words to paint such an entertaining and detailed description of ghetto strife that not even a music video would do justice. Each packed verse on other tracks such as “12 Months” produced by Da Beatminerz, or the lounge-like, soulful groove of “Run” produced by Dave ‘Superstar’ Dar, is enough fuel for a script to produce a movie-short as he shines forth his gift of gab with an imagination he easily converts to literary form.

    Always seemingly conscious, forever spitting and spreading righteousness throughout his messages even when admitting he’s human and is sometimes lured into the world of material temptation, on songs such as “EVOL” featuring Masta Ace produced by Ayatollah, or on “Be A Man” produced by DJ A.Vee & DJ 3D, without once using any curse words to slow his credible street savvy on this entire LP, Wordsworth couldn’t have chosen a better moniker to name himself.

    Getting into this album, the first few songs nostalgically bring you into Z-Trip’s world of older hip-hop and its foundation. All his new breaks pay homage to the pioneers of hip-hop, as he unravels his admirable work by inviting original Bronx emcee Whipper Whip on “All About the Music,” and bussing a backspin might be your first thought. It’s the 1980′s ‘yes yes y’all to the beat y’all’ block party atmosphere, this time on “The Get Down” featuring Lyrics Born where percussions douse your head into rhythmic niceness, that define the first part of this album. As that 2 Live Crew-like 808 bass thumps on “For My People” featuring Supernatural, the pace intensifies and the energy seems infectious riding with Supernatural’s witty rhymes, throwing you so far back into an era where crews stood on corners with their vinyl, just waiting to do battle.

   Back on the West Coast, or in the hot Arizona sun, it’s onto more abstract back-pack jams on “Take Two Copies” featuring Busdriver, who for the first time in this critic’s liking, seems perfectly matched with this beat - still flowing at his usual hectic speed – but masterfully painting picturesque artworks in rhyme, so enjoyably. And the album takes a twist, this time displaying Z-Trip’s versatility in productions, mellowing it down a bit on “3rd Gear,” one of his many instrumentals featured. On this track, whether it’s weed smoke that surrounds you, or the sexy bar atmosphere overlooking the city, you’ll have to be outdoors to fully enjoy a vibe that keyboardist TK helps decorate, with incomparable lounge-like, chill-out settings. I wish this infusing of chocolate, the LP’s first drop of soul, and probably its only coating, occurred more throughout. But for a first attempt by one of the most promising DJs of our generation, his originality more than makes up for the lack of groovy, rich funk that excusably isn’t the focus of Z-Trip’s travels.

HHS: Emcees meet DJs, DJs meet emcees all the time in this small circle, and especially on tour, not to mention living in the same city, what or who brought you two together, but more importantly, what made the meeting materialize into coming together as a group and for a LP?

Defari: “Me and ‘Babs’ (affectionately referring to Babu) met back in ’95, and that’s when I knew all the Beat Junkies. I’m in good with a lot of DJs, like I know a lot of local famous DJs – Julio G, DJ Revolution, the OG KDAY Mix-masters, to DJ Alladin….It goes on. ‘Babs’ did cuts on “These Dreams” on Focus Daily, and then from there we did a song called “Joyride,” from there we did both “Behold my Life” and “Behold my Life Remixed”. Yeah, and then I came to ‘Babs’ with the idea of Likwit Junkies. I brought the idea to ABB (Records) and ten months later, here we are.”

HHS: As unique as it is to hear of an emcee in the hip-hop world having a strong traditional education by attending and graduating under grad and graduate degrees at UC Berkeley and Columbia U – do you ever sort of get fed up of this stigma every time you are mentioned? Like now for instance?

Defari: “Nah man….if people know my educational background, I mean that’s nothing but FACT, one. And two, it serves as some inspiration for some of the youth. So I don’t never get tired of people bringing it up. It’s always brought up and it’s always a positive thing, but the one thing I’m tired of is, they always bring up the teaching thing, but I haven’t taught in eight years since ’98. They run that into the ground like they have an old bio. I think a lot of people that do interviews with me, they don’t do prior research before talking to me. It’s like they read some shit from Tommy Boy or something.”

HHS: In this very oversaturated hip hop industry, why you think an average fan of the music – outside of your dedicated fan base or followers – would be lured and attracted to this album, its content and just The L.J.’s chemistry?

Babu: “I think we did a very good job of balancing classic standards with new school aesthetics. Our music that we did on this album reaches and touches people in a lot of ways that they could relate to. Good honest hip-hop with no ulterior motives. No doubt that it’s a commercial business and we eat off of this, but me relatively speaking, my other group Dilated Peoples being on a major label – the game is very complicated and very tough. With me doing a Likwit Junkies project, it relieves a lot of that tension and stress I have having to work on a major label. The LJ’s is really pure, from the heart, from the gut. It’s really honest.”

Defari: “Well, first off, because it’s a breath of fresh air, and the intriguing factor is it’s myself and Babu together. That’s like a union of two worlds I think will intrigue a lot of fans, they’ll just wanna hear it alone just off of that. And it’s another dynamic duo in the tradition of Gangstarr and the tradition of Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Eric B & Rakim, Slick Rick & Doug E Fresh. We got a really dynamic duo coming from the West Coast and people have never seen that before, and the album is so entrenched in soul, I don’t think people have ever heard a hip-hop album with so much in it, in terms of the influences.”

HHS: Defari, you mention Los Angeles and CALI in general, almost on every track. On “Salute” it’s inescapable, but overall you seem to be very adamant about driving in the point that this LP via the production and emceeing one is listening to, is from the West Coast.

Defari: “That’s all tradition as an emcee that everyone know where we from. Like even if you do it every song, which I didn’t do on the Likwit Junkies, but I probably might do it enough where you might think it’s every song. So I’m just following suit, that’s pretty much what all of us as emcees are programmed and trained to do for good reason. Because rap is such a different monster compared to all other genres of music. In rap, you gotta let people know you from, and it’s important also, because they’ve never heard a dynamic duo like this out of the West. This is a brand new thing, completely cutting edge. That’s what really makes me excited California. Plus it’s our debut album, and for those people who never heard Defari and for those people who are not familiar with Babu and The Beat Junkies, or the Likwit Crew, now it’s time to reiterate. It’s a trip because of what you say because….”(his cell phone rings interrupting). “Hold on real quick.” (He continues) “I’ve read certain periodicals as of late, I guess it’s a fad for the month of February to do West Coast articles,” he laughs. “You know one month out of the year, and ah, they don’t even make no mention of Defari. Shit, I’m legendary status, whether the journalist says it or not, I’ll say it to the journalist. So you know, I still gotta keep doing it, I’m like a missionary,” he laughs out loud. “Spreading the word.”

HHS: On “6 in the Morning” you flip into a great reggae groove, palatable for hip-hop heads to appreciate – why a turn to this genre and outside of typical hip-hop? I just love this track man.

Defari: “Ah yeah man, well that’s the beauty of Likwit Junkies, it allows Defari to do some of the creative things that I always wanted to do. In the beginning of that song, I say ‘This is for all the Kingston 12 heads.’ Kingston 12 was a popular club here in Santa Monica, all the Studio One reggae and dancehall and what not played there. And the new era of hip-hop heads, they don’t even understand how close reggae, specifically dancehall and rap, have been over the years. From the East Coast you know, but if you’re from the West Coast, sometimes you have no idea. So I co-produced that song, I brought that to ‘Babs’ and told him this is a chamber we need to visit on this record, and man, it’s such a great song. I wanted to do it from the era of riddims that you know were really bumpin’ hard in the late ’80s.”

HHS: Which brings me to ask, what’s in Defari’s disc-changer or iPod on a regular, whether in LA or traveling on the road elsewhere?

Defari: “Man, that’s a tough question because I got a CD book that I keep my CDs in, it’s over like 400 CDs in one book. The book is extremely heavy, like ten pounds,” he laughs out. “So I got an oldies CD that I made, I’ll tell you what’s in there right now. I know I got Heatwave in there, The Game’s album, Likwit Junkies’ album is in there, and I’ve been listening to Phil Tha Agony’s Aromatic, and ah…..I actually got Lil’ Weezy in there right now.”

HHS: Who?

Defari: “Lil Wayne, ’cause I like that “Go DJ”, that’s my joint! I got the Mike Jones, the “Tippin’ on 44′s” and the last CD I got up in there is that Purple Haze by Cam’ron. Evidence has a new mixtape too, I’ve been playing that as well.”

HHS: When you two look at your peers, the world of hip-hop that you’re surely a part of, what are some of your disappointing moments or observations in detail? Maybe even pertaining to yourself?

Babu: “Sometimes I really get discouraged on just how the media has gotten a hold of hip-hop culture and exploited it and watered it down, they just broadened the whole term of what is hip-hop. Like hip-hop now is ‘Hip Hop and R&B’. And I like everything man, I’m not trying to hate, but the umbrella of hip-hop has gotten really broad over the last 7 or 8 years. It’s like anything under the sun now can be called hip-hop. It’s not necessarily my peers I’m disappointed in, it’s more the industry and the media just taking advantage of it, no always putting the spotlight on the right thing or distort things. When you talk about the commercial side of things and the big business of things, the people who are really pulling strings in the positions, a lot of them don’t necessarily take the hip-hop as serious as some of us do. They don’t look at it as a culture or a way of life, it’s just a paycheck. And on top of that, people get on and off this hip-hop escalator really fast these days. I don’t know if you know or understand the analogy I’m making but it just seems like in general, unlike other genres of music, it’s ok to listen to rap until you get to a certain age but after that, you gotta let it go and not be as into it. For my peers and who I’m with, we’re so diehard about the real shit, we don’t know any other way about it. But with hip-hop taking over so large, it can’t help but get watered-down too, it’s a double-edge sword.”

Defari: “When I listen to the music, that’s the DJ side of me, so I don’t really listen to the music as an artist per say. I listen to it as a DJ and as a 12-year old B-Boy who started scratchin’ hip-hop. So I listen to it as a DJ, for the most part I be listening to records seeing how I could mix them and stuff. Some of the things that disappoint me to make a long story short, is those lackluster rhymes, lackluster topics and concepts. Just the recycled same stuff. But at the same time, I don’t take it too personal, I don’t get mad about it, it’s just music. Either I like the song or I don’t. I have a lot of other options or choices. I think when I was younger, you take it to heart like ‘oh noo, that’s not hot, or he’s whack, he’s dope!’ I don’t even get into that no more. It’s just, I like so much music, you feel me?”

HHS: Is that what makes you push on, because you’re not just into one world of only hip-hop, you enjoy so many other forms of music, and your maturity makes you sort of pour in  fresh effort of hip-hop so to speak?

Defari: “Exactly, I’m playing Heatwave and then I’m playing Mike Jones, youknowhatI’msayin? That’s the beauty of music, for different moods, for different times. Because I’m a, I’m a, I’m a GHETTO NIGGA!” (we laugh) “Me myself, I know what I’m good at in terms of my music. My music if for the hip-hop Diaspora of people who love hip-hop, then there’s the whole Black Rap world – stuff that’s in my immediate environment with the cars driving by rattling the windows. I love it all man, ’cause I stay ‘street’ and at the same time I always stay trying to push forward for this hip-hop. I just don’t limit myself just to rap and a bunch of bonehead lyrics. So it’s just the melting of the world.”

HHS: As much as you’ll represent LA, it’s hard to escape the fact that a big part why you’ve become the type of emcee/dj duo today, has a lot to do with being groomed from early on classic foundational East Coast hip-hop – NYC to be exact.

Defari: “But you can’t fight and dismiss Ice T, LA Dream Team and World Class Wreckin’ Crew, King Tee. There was more coming from the East. Nowadays there’s more music coming out the West Coast then it was back then, however, the same bias reporting and overlooking of the music is even more atrocious than then. The non-recognition of Los Angeles other than Gangster rap, is an atrocity, one. Two, the fact that magazines are sort of One-Coast biased, and their headquarters are on another coast, we get the short end of the stick.”

HHS: True, but besides the fact you mention CALI/LA/West Coast a lot, are there entities or styles in your music that you care to define for us, that you see as influenced from the East Coast – that parallel comes up a lot with your style, why is that?

Defari: “Oh yeah, I have influences from all coasts. For example, from the South, I could spit ’150′ in a heartbeat. I can go double-time, in fact I’m nice at it too. And you’ll see that on my new album, Street Music. And on this album, in “One Day Away” on Likwit Junkies you see me giving you’ll that chamber. I’m going ’150′ and that’s Southern style. Do I particularly have an East Coast style, no not really. But because I’m more of an emcee, the cliché is this West Coast rapper dude and I’m lyrical, well, they’ll say, ‘he sounds like the East Coast’. These are labels placed upon us, not labels that we place upon ourselves. That’s why The Game’s album is such a beautiful thing. ‘Cause it’s most definitely West Coast in all of its promotion and marketing, but The Game sounds like he’s from the East Coast.”

HHS: Sound like Nas if you ask me….

Defari: “Right! And in terms of any influences, of course I’ve been influenced by the great emcees like Slick Rick – my favorite. KRS-One. What influenced me to write my first rhyme was “Eric B is President”. I’ve been influenced by Nas, Jay-Z and anybody in the game can’t deny that they’re not influenced by who’s at the top of the game at the time. I’ve been influenced by Pac, Biggie….Ice Cube I can’t never forget. And LL….”

HHS: DJ Babu, as a producer and turntablist over many years now, looking forward to this Lp’s release with Defari, and looking back at your career with The Beat Junkies and Dilated Peoples – how could you say with you, LA and the scene of hip-hop has been shaped? In other words, without you, what and how would it be different?

Babu: “People really knew us, The Beat Junkies, when I first became part of the scene for DJ battling. Initially in LA, and then all around the world we’ve been known for ripping all these battles, it opened up a lot of doors for us. All of a sudden DJ Melo-D had a gig with Julio G on 92.3 The Beat, the Melo started bringing in Icy Ice, Rhettmatic, he brought in myself. Then on Power 106, they got Mr. Choc who brought in J-Rocc over there. For a second we just really had the city on lock from both commercial radio stations, to the battles, to the clubs, to the mixtapes. We brought back a renaissance of real high quality hip-hop Djing, we raised the bar….”

HHS: Almost necessary to make some part of your LP authentic hip-hop, you have to also depend on scratching chorus-hooks, as opposed to lazily employing a singing or rapper recited hook repetitively. There seems to be a lot of examples on The LJ’s – care to explain the process or the art of scratching chorus hooks?

Babu: “My whole attraction to DJs period, in hip-hop was, I was always drawn to DJs in rap groups. My ears were, from anywhere from ’86,’87,’88 to the early ’90s where it was groups like Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince, I liked EPMD because of DJ Scratch. I really grew up on rap groups where DJs got busy. So once we have a beat, or a song idea, I’m already automatically going through my mental rolodex of things that could texture-wise, compliment the song, as far as bringing in the new sound or instrument and on top of that, you definitely wanna cut something that makes sense that the song-topic is. And I’m a big Gangstarr fan, Primo really laid down the original blueprint for me and for what I try to do. But then you look at the situation with me and Dilated Peoples, literally sometimes scratching another rapper is more expensive, it’s ridiculous. The sampling issues and complications….it’s such a doggy dog industry, that’s such a whole other career for some people is just collecting money off samples, a very dangerous, expensive game. I’d love to see more and more people doing the scratching hooks, but they know the reality of the game – am I really gonna scratch in this KRS-ONE sample, and give away 50% of my publishing?”

     Since 1996, the emcee and DJ/producer duo (Chace Infinite & DJ Khalil) collectively named Self Scientific, without the hyphen bridged together their constant quest for the knowledge of self with pounding, sinister beats that draw from the inner, unfelt soul and spirit. Keep these integral elements in mind when listening to their second album (actually, a mixtape – editor) in four years since the release of their self-titled debut in 2001. With the many 12″ singles, B-Sides and song collaborations by Chace Infinite on compilations or soundtracks continuously bubbling underground, DJ Khalil’s productions have also been lacing the streets recently under the microphones of artists such as Keith Murray, Xzibit, Living Legends and on “Lay your Ass Down” off the Beg for Mercy compilation featuring 50 Cent, Young Buck & Lloyd Banks. Finally, the Los Angeles two-man force come together again, getting the globe ready for an extra source of depth to plunge into on their latest, Gods And Gangsters.

     “Hip-hop music is the most powerful weapon Africa people have at this moment. It serves as a way of opening up the eyes and minds of our youth, the struggle against capitalism and for the liberation of African people. Is it any wonder mainstream labels seek to change the focus of conscious music? Look at what happened to Bob Marley and Marvin Gaye…think about it.”

     With this exclusive drop in the Intro by Dr. Ahmed Mbalia of the Pan-African Revolutionary Socialist Party, brace yourself for the direct in-your-face lyricism further on from Chace Infinite, as the title to this LP says it perfectly – balancing the preach-like ‘strong-black-man’ wisdom with a taste of that LA street life and lingo gangsters there have made world famous. Filled with a tirade of scratch-hooks by DJ Khalil bombarding the beginning of “Change Pt. 1,” the build up of drama in an orchestra-symphony sample comes to a mellow fizzle as the beat fades. From here on, their science seeps in, as on “Seven” featuring E-Rule, Big Reece, GT & Bad Azz, a blowing wind swirls gently in the background alongside the eerie guitar tingles raising your pores off your skin. Play this one only at night, and uncover the black hole darkness with the light from lessons revolving around the ‘scientific’ explanations of the gift and curse of the number ’7′.

     As the intricacies of LA gangster life is painted by the lyrics from Chace in a cinematic manner on “Jealousy” featuring Daude Sherelis, the fury of the most chaotic beat clarifies to outsiders that under the sunshine and palm trees, there’s blood on these streets just like Rwanda spilled. Other Crip and Blood sounds escape Hollywood for that authentic low-rider roll fulfilling the gangster attitude present in this LP, including the soulful strut of “Killaz & Builders” by Krondon featuring Paul Mooney, “Just when you thought” by Kombo who convincingly beats down any punks approaching him to the corner store and “Confrontation with a Gangsta” by Born Allah & Bro Tarik Ross, probably the best creeper track to test your sawed-off with.

     Onto more blessings of mind exercise, Self Scientific invite from the East Coast Talib Kweli to join them for definitely the album’s highlight, “Shame on a Nigga”. Also featuring Krondon and Planet Asia, this violin may bleed European tones, but the pushy hip-hop overrides the classical samples with Black niceness blasting proven power of the kick-drum and bass line past it, as emcees follow one another leaving little room for the commanding yet stylish chorus hook. If LA had to stand up to any territory’s best offering in hip-hop, this would stand any test once loaded in the chamber. With more excellent productions and relevant lyrics on other stand-out cuts such as “Amongst Gods” featuring Born Allah, “Pedals,” “Gimmie a Lift” and “Be Easy” featuring Phil Tha Agony, Self Allah & Mitchy Slick, it’ll be a ‘God’ damn shame if you miss this heavy, potent dose of hardcore hip-hop from some of LA’s best representatives, Self Scientific.

      After captivating the Midwest as part of Binary Star in the late 1990′s touring alongside once-partner Senim Silla,  with releases of the New Hip-Hop EP and their first LP titled, Waterworld, One Be Lo’s post-Binary Star releases of Waterworld Too in 2001 and F.E.T.U.S. in 2002, both on his own independent label, Subterraneous Records, all groomed the underground circuit in anticipation for his best work yet. With the excellent production handled by One Be Lo himself and Decompoze (collectively known as the Trackezoids), S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M. drives a youthful energy - with just the right level of maturity - unable to be duplicated by veteran emcees who deliver past experiences with the utmost finesse. Read the song title to “enecS eht no kcaB” backwards, don’t get giddy, and try to keep up to the nibble dexterity of his flow, while soaking in this laid-back jazzy piano loop that makes you wish your ride had autopilot. As Lo’s fury starts to unfold, but this time away from his display of lyrical skill, focusing this time more on his gifted insight, he calls out the irresponsible hypocrisy of the controlling media on “Propaganda,” then spills a grim and detailed picture of inner-city chaos, depression and hopelessness on “The Ghetto” where the eerie violin blows a cold and heartless wind across your ear. While many emcees have time and time again touched on the very same subject of ghetto strife, Lo freshly articulates it. Making the edutainment of witty rhymes and hip-hop productions something you look forward to, the LP’s solid jazz foundation and Lo’s venomous quotes on “Axis” blast the ignorant with flows bringing to light the shame so many of us are guilty of: “It don’t take a professor, to see the oppressor got the whole treasure/Now how many Africans slain for one platinum chain on your dresser – I know better just because I know better. Tell me who you trust when you in your new truck/some of us dying over a few bucks, killers old enough to ride in a school bus/with brothers like these who needs the Klu Klux.” “Sleepwalking” featuring singer Ka Di adds to the damage, again exemplifying the knowledge and awareness One Be Lo is willing to share, even when it points a finger at the ‘flyest emcees being the biggest pagans’.

      As the hardcore onslaught of concrete jungle stories continue on “Deceptacons” and “Can’t Get Enough” featuring Magestik Legend,” the jazzy loops pound away in perfect timing, fulfilling the cycle of Lo’s crack-infested life tales. Although he’s a little one-dimensional, harboring on replicating the life experiences of hardship, Lo intertwines creative personification via “Evil of Self” featuring Abdus Salaam, much like Jeru’s classic “You Can’t Stop The Prophet”. And his ability to consciously search the spiritual meaning behind “The Future,” or rock the mic over the butt-shaking, soulful groove on “Unparalleled” is reassuring that there’s always solid evidence of hopefuls elevating hip-hop, outside of the mainstream themes. This just makes you wish the rest of the industry would follow suit.

     In fact, re-establishing yesteryear’s stars under his Garden Seeker Productions, Ali’s charged up on the first track, “Lord Can I Have This Mercy (ft. Chip),” pouncing on the mic with a fury, while he’s joined by the dexterity and speedy ragamuffin rhyme flow of Chip-Fu (of Fu-Schnickens), also hitting you with a chorus-hook smelling of curry and oozing waves of pleasure. Rapper Kay (of The Foundation) on “Tight (ft. Kay)” runs his lip so perfectly fitting over Ali’s crazy scratching throughout, that those jazzy vibrations from Tribe’s past work become almost an instant comparison and memory while bobbing to it. No longer in the background like in past groups, Ali on the album’s first release, “Elevated Orange,” grabs for meaning when the mic is given to him. It almost feels like he’s been held back, or probably holding back himself too long, possibly for the sake of the group’s interest. One of his most autobiographical raps enters on “Industry/Life,” where he makes no mistake about the type of category listeners are going to fill him into after these lines: “You want it hardcore, straight in your veins with no chase/You too slow boy, pick up your pace!” Or quickly raps other lines to show his freestyle nature in keeping with his hip-hop authenticity theme: “My position is precision/like a gifted premonition, I fade in to what you missin’!”

     Outside of the hip-hop stuff, Allah’s blessings didn’t just take a diversion. Instead, Ali’s cup runneth over as the rest of his productions arm sultry R&B singers such as Stokley Williams (of Mint Condition) on “Put Me on,” where he spots man’s ‘original temptation’ in the club, despite his fight to focus on not being lead into a bite of Eve’s apple. The level of maturity here increases away from the backpack, away from the custom design sneakers and into the deep feelings one experiences when in love, best exemplified by even more soulful songs you’ll love by Smith (of *69) on “(They Can’t) Define Our Love.” Witness Ali’s groove fusions of House and R&B, which compliment his diverse skills and perspectives on beat making, especially as it applies to hip-hop. The wait on him being in control of his own destiny is no more. This LP finally calls for the deserved respect the ‘quiet one’ might have missed being surrounding by others, for far too long.

First of all, who put y’all together… it’s just really far-fetched to most a lot here in the game that a producer from the Netherlands and an emcee from the US could pair and make a viable impact in hip-hop.

Phonte: “It all pretty much came together through the Internet man, I had Nicolay’s tracks online at Okplayer.com. Heard them, liked them and asked if I could rhyme over them. Me and Pooh (from Little Brother) rhymed over one of his beats which later became “Light it Up” – the B-Side to our single, “The Listening.” From that point on after we did “Light it Up,” me and Nic got building. He kept sending me tracks (online), I kept rhyming over them and getting people involved in it, then about a year and a half after, that’s how it all happened.”

So initially, it really wasn’t something that you’ll had planned?

Nicolay: “Nah, not at all, it pretty much happened, not by accident, but basically it started with one track and we liked what had happened to it, so we sort of just kept it going.”

So Phonte, you didn’t know or weren’t searching for Nicolay when you discovered his beats online, did you?

Phonte: “I was just really playing around, looking for new talent, looking for new music. He’d put up a poster on OKPlayer.com saying “’Check out my new tracks’ by me or whatever, and I just heard it and I was like, MAAN!!’ I gotta get with that….and from that point on, I was like, look man, there’s something with this guy, let me just stay on him, see what we could do. It didn’t start out like we intended to do an album, I just really loved his tracks and it inspired me to create and so that’s how the Foreign Exchange was born out of that desire to just make music.”

In this world today, of great communication technology, obviously a great factor in making this LP possible, what were some of the obvious and not so obvious obstacles you both encountered?

Nicolay: “Well the obvious one was like ah….the time difference. Like ah….Phonte not having a computer.” (EVERYONE LAUGHS!!) “So that was like the obvious stuff. I guess the lesser obvious stuff would be ah….well, it took time because Phonte was busy touring so we had to do it in between a lot of other stuff. So in the end, it took a long time.”

Phonte: “The surprising thing about it all was that, out of those obstacles, like none of them were musical obstacles. I never had a problem communicating an idea to Nicolay. Like we were talking about mixes granted this is all online now – I’m typing this into a computer and I’m like, ‘yo, I think the beat should drop out at such and such part,’ and he’ll automatically get it, yuhknowhati’msayin? So that was cool, we got it. All the problems I say is like external things like time, scheduling, but musically, it was never a problem, like we’d pick up on each other’s ideas almost kinda instinctively.”

Phonte, this one is for you, was 9th Wonder scared out of his sneakers after hearing these incredible tracks from Nicolay? As a producer, I would feel threatened!

Phonte: (BEGINS TO LAUGH OUT OUT!!) “Nah man, he wasn’t scared, but he was just like, ‘Maan, Maaan, I’m just glad I don’t make the types of beats that Nicolay makes, or I’ll be outta a job!’ Yeah, yeah, he makes it hard, but it was never a thing like that, ’cause the thing with the Justus League and Little Brother, our whole philosophy on making music is that we don’t have to worry about being necessarily better than the next man. I just gotta be the best me, like I ain’t gotta outshine this dude, or compete with this dude. No. As long as I’m the best me and hold my skills, then cats is gonna like me for one reason that they might not like him. Cats might like Nic’s beats for one reason, they gonna like 9th’s beats for another reason, but they both like dope music.”

Nicolay, this one is for you, is Phonte the first emcee project from the US you worked with? You’ll seem to fit so perfectly, I’m really complimenting you both on this man….

Nicolay: “Yeah he is, I know, yeah I had a good start right? Well, it was really Phonte and Pooh for “Light it Up,” they were the first cats to ever bless the track that I did, like American or European. So yeah, that was like a nice head start.”

Not to take anything away from you or this project, but in the Netherlands, are you like this lone unique hip-hop/soul music producer, or are there many other Nicolays out there waiting to be given this US exposure or break you’re getting?

Nicolay: “Right, I don’t know, I think they’re slowly picking up on what’s happening in my hometown too. So ah…..basically what was happening is that I tried to get my foot in between the door like for a couple of years, like ’90-’95 and on in all sorts of groups, but it never really happened. I guess this is my chance to do it, on my own terms and come back to enter through the back door, so to speak. Right now people are getting the buzz that actually someone from the Netherlands did some shit! It’s a combination of some people there feeling proud, and also thinking, ‘how the fuck did that happen?’”

Every so often, there’s that LP unknown to the masses that has slipped in as one of the most classic-to-be, before-its-time type of sounds. This to me is Connected. The beats, music, just heavenly – the lyrics, flow, more than relevant and entertaining and on point! This magic, where is it coming from?

Phonte: “Well, ahh maan, before I did this album, I took a fast for 40 days and I asked God, yuhknowhati’msayin’, to tell me if there’s a light out there in the universe, ’cause I was really thinking about giving up music, I was going through a lot, I was working as a Sales Clerk. Things wasn’t going too good, I wasn’t making the sales I normally was. They had me in the Gift Wrap section, I couldn’t quite wrap the gifts as fast as I should. I was just going through a hard time at my job man….so no lie, I went on a fast for 40 days and 40 nights. I asked God to send me, if there is a sign or a light, if this is really not it for me send me a light. Send me something to show me that all is not lost, and that I’m here to do this music. And the next day, that was when I heard the beat for “Light it Up,” and I just broke down and cried man, cause Nic just really brought me back, he brought me out. It’s like that song in church they sing (HE BEGINS TO SING VICARIOUSLY): ‘He’s bringing you Owwwwuuut, oowwwoohhh, he’s bring you owwwwwut!!!’ So that’s where the magic comes, it comes from up above, from God. It’s like Nic is my brother from another color man.”

You’re too funny man, so like a sort of revelation. The openness and beauty of hip hop is the nature of having lyrics already written looking for a mate, and applying it towards a groovy beat, and the same strategy can be applied vice versa. How was each track lined up to match the lyrics, or vice versa?

Phonte: “It started off with beats first, like Nic would just send the beats, then I’d write to the beats. I don’t have like rhymes laying around, I always write specifically with the beat in mind.”

Phonte – upon receiving the tracks, which one was so incredible, it gave you a hard on?

Phonte: (THE ROOM BURSTS OUT IN LAUGHTER FOR 10 SECONDS STRAIGHT) “Ah well, ah….well (PHONTE STARTS TO GOOF AROUND NOW) I….I….I….at the time (NIC INTERRUPTS BURSTING INTO LAUGHTER AGAIN) ah well, I don’t know if I was getting a hard on, but I….I….I felt the….ah mean, I do like Nic and all, but we’re not Connected in that way….(PHONTE IS STRAIGHT CLOWNING NOW). But as far as the track that ah…. it AROUSED me….ah, well, ah….I guess “All that You Are” that would be the track that aroused me, that was about a woman in my life at the time, ahh..she was giving me a hard on. That track, yeah, that one….” (LAUGHTER CONTINUING)

Hey, you know I am glad I asked the question that way, I’ve never laughed so hard in an interview, and it seemed you’ll got a great kick out of it too. Nic’s literally crying with laughter. So, Nicolay, upon hearing the lyrics Phonte wrote, which once again assuming the titled song is on the album – had you the most open?

Nicolay: (A LITTLE LAUGHTER ANTICIPATES THE END OF THE QUESTION). “Right. My favorite lyrics was in the “Happiness” cut, because that’s about like daily life, about the bull shit you go through and struggle, and then at the end of the day, coming out victorious. That would definitely be my favorite lyrics, Word Up.”

FOREIGN EXCHANGE on “THE CONNECTED” TOUR

Thursday September 30  RICHMOND, VA  @ Mr.Bogangles
Friday October 1  BALTIMORE, MD  @ Ottobar
Saturday October 2   WASHINGTON, DC @ Black Cat
Sunday October 3  PHILADELPHIA, PA  @ Okay Player Event
Monday October 4  NEW YORK, NY @ BB King’s
Tuesday October 5   NEW HAVEN, CT @ Toad’s Place
Wednesday October 6  BOSTON, MA  @ Middle East
Thursday October 7  PROVIDENCE, RI @ Lupo’s
Friday October 8  NORTHAMPTON, MA @ Pearl Street
Monday October 11 – 13 Canada
Thursday October 14  DETROIT, MI  @ St Andrew
Friday October 15  CLEVELAND, OH @ Peabody’s
Saturday October 16  CINCINATTI, OH @ Top Cats
Monday October 18  INDIANAPOLIS, IN @ TBA
Tuesday October 19  CHICAGO, IL  @ TBA
Wednesday October 20  URBANA, IL  @ Canopy Club
Thursday October 21  ST LOUIS, MO  @ The Gargoyle
Friday October 22  COLUMBUS, MO @ The Blue Note
Sunday October 24  MINNEAPOLIS, MN @ TBA
Monday October 25-30 Canada
Monday November 1  SEATTLE, WA  @ Chop Suey
Tuesday November 2  PORTLAND, OR @ Red Sea
Wednesday November 3 EUGENE, OR  @ Wow Hall
Thursday November 4  MEDFORD, OR  @ Main 1 Arts Center
Friday November 5  SACRAMENTO, CA @ Harlow’s
Saturday November 6  SAN FRANCISCO, CA @ Harlow’s
Monday November 8  SANTA CRUZ, CA @ The Catalyst
Tuesday November 9  LOS ANGELES, CA @ Key Club
Wednesday November 10 ANAHEIM, CA  @ The Galaxy
Thursday November 11  SAN DIEGO, CA @ TBA
Friday November 12  PHOENIX, AZ  @ Bash On Ash
Sunday November 14  SALT LAKE CITY, UT @ The Zephyr
Tuesday November 16  BOULDER, CO  @ Fox Theatre
Wednesday November 17 ALBUQUERQUE, NM @ Sunshine Theater
Thursday November 18  DALLAS, TX  @ Gypsy Tea Room
Friday November 19  AUSTIN, TX  @ Stubbs
Saturday November 20  HOUSTON, TX  @ Engine Room
Monday November 22  NEW ORLEANS, LA @ TBA
Wednesday November 24 MIAMI, FL  @ Soho Lounge
Thursday November 25  ORLANDO, FL  @ The Social
Friday November 26  ATLANTA, GA  @ Apache Café
Saturday November 27  ASHEVILLE, NC @ Stella Blue
Sunday November 28  CHARLOTTE, NC @ TBA
Monday November 29  CARRBRO, NC  @ Cat’s Cradle

     Triple Seis was featured on Big Pun’s 1997 “Glamour Life” cut off the Capital Punishment classic LP, and then again featured on Fat Joe’s 1998 “Bet Your Man Can’t Do it Like That (Triz)” song from the Don Cartagena LP. But after 1999′s self titled debut album by the Terror Squad and then Big Pun’s untimely passing, his Terror Squad ties with Fat Joe dismantled. On his first single, “Krazy” featuring Latina soul singer Veronica, please head to the bar or strip club, even if you’ll be dancing to an old Madonna-bitten (“Isla Bonita”) hook you didn’t know had you pushing up on your man’s girl. In fact, a few other club recipes such as “Drinks Up” featuring Cuban Link & Beatnuts produced by Psycho Les, “Skully Remix” produced by Just Blaze and “La Shortie” balance well together on the LP with the other reality-driven, gangsta, conscious or story-telling raps Triple Seis all includes to give the listener a needed break from too much one-dimensional boredom. For the hardcore lovers, the thuggish rants are more than gully on “Take That” and “Be About it,” again featuring Cuban Link. And on the title track, it’s definitely a personal letter-like rhyme Seis aims at someone easy to figure out, even though no name is actually mentioned. His flow is so heartfelt, it’s almost like this has been on his chest for years to now release in order for him to breathe easily. This has to be Seis’ strength, casting away any doubts by demonstrating again, this time over the most melodic and mellow track of the album, “Love Put Me,” a style perfect for one to reflect, chill out and simmer down from all the ill-effects of life’s stress. There are many out there facing similar hardships, and Seis makes you feel he’s the right companion while he depicts without a music video, a straight up picturesque lens of struggle.

     Quite strategically placed as the opener, Spinna’s “Sunshine” isn’t encouraging you to wake up off the bed, or urging you into a promising CD of gorgeous weather. Instead, the monotonous vocal and guitar loops of gloomy weather make you twist and turn in bed, skipping to the second part of the ‘morning’. DJ Spinna, one of the wickedest selectors worldwide, able to rock any type of hip hop, soul or funk, pop AKA Michael vs. Prince party, didn’t have me worried though – there must be something addictive here. And after hitting a natural snooze with the second track, “Platinum”, a Rhodes keyboard onslaught painting a lovely lullaby, it’s really “Verbz” that immediately sounds the alarm loudly, knocking you right off the bed’s edge! It’s awakening hip hop energy is undeniable, as a quintessential East Coast-toned beat, jazzy horns reverb and lightly cinematic feel is enough to put any emcee in a nice zone to spit fiery lyrics – for female fun or for serious battle.

     Your day has now begun, so rise and shine with your rhythmic stride, strutting with confidence as you walk out the door. God’s grace is at work, the vessel being DJ Spinna’s other two gems named “Dayz” and “Starz”, both doctor-feel-good, bouncy tracks that overflow with a universal soul appeal felt in the Far East, or right here maybe in the deep south of the USA. And from the aura of the latter softer track, the EP’s most seductive and sensitive, you won’t be returning home alone because this Chocolate Martini is the perfect lure for company.

Q. When you were in England, at what age did you move to the U.S. and in what year – did you move straight to the Bronx, NY?

THE RULER: “Straight to the Bronx, 1976.”

Q. And your roots, you’re British by nationality, but like most – if not all British Blacks – the immediate link to another place of origin is almost directly tied to the Caribbean islands or an African country. I’m really trying to touch on why and with whom you came here with…

THE RULER: “I came with my…well, my mother and father are from Jamaica first of all. They moved to England for job purposes, or for better employment. Then they moved from England to America because you get more for your dollar, you know how it go. So they moved to America, ’cause we never had like a big offspring in England, yuhknowhati’msayin’. They just moved there (England), did their little thing and they moved to America and now that’s where they are. I was age 11 when we moved to the Bronx. I got family in Jamaica still, but I really wouldn’t know them, and I don’t have any family in England. Everybody was really making moves for employment purposes, yuhknowhati’msayin’.”

Q. You’re amongst the first cats, probably with that natural Jamaican lyrical flow to tap into and make hip hop culture your own type of culture. Tell us a little about Jamaican transplants from England and NYC – folks like Shinehead, KRS-ONE, Grand Master Flash, Kool Herc, Afrika Bambatta – who demonstrated a unique skill on the mic or handling the decks by Djing, especially amongst your others in the game?

THE RULER: “Alright, well we come from that heritage, yuhknowhati’msayin’. This is from after-Ska. That’s what they call it back in Jamaica. Even I don’t know really what it was. But it was some lil’ happy happy Jamaican music stuff going on. They started mixing records, it’s pretty much the same thing what hip hop is now. But before hip hop became hip hop, the Jamaicans was doing it. Using instrumentals, or dubs and rhyming on them in their Jamaican style. And they was also playing with the mixer, getting even more fly. So, then came Kool Herc, who is also considered Jamaican, I’m not sure, but that’s what I heard. He was one of the first pioneers to take the two turntables and the mixer, take the juicy part of the record and try to extend it by mixing them back and forth – the break. And somebody would rhyme on top of them, and there was the birth of hip hop.”

Q. But he wasn’t doing that with reggae or dancehall then, was he?

THE RULER: “Nah, with James Brown, American records, Disco records that you know, people would seek out the juicy part where nobody wasn’t talking or singing, or where the drums or the music sounded rich and soulful. He had a gift,” he concludes referring to Kool Herc.

Q. Where was Slick Rick during this milestone, art form-shaping process? Still in England, or by this time you’ve already arrived in the Bronx with your ear to the street?

THE RULER: “I’m not sure when Herc was doing his thing, but I know that in like 1979, I started to get into hip hop, it started being BIG. I was too young to go to the concerts and the stuff that the Kool Herc’s and the Cold Crush’s and all that. But you hear about it, and that’s when cassettes was the only thing happening, so everybody had the boxes – the boom boxes. The cassettes, everybody was selling them all over the place. Like if somebody went to a concert or was at a block party where they performed and they made a recording, they would duplicate the tape and it would spread all over the city like that.”

Q. So that’s how you got into it, nice. And your ‘art of storytelling’ – where back in the day, many other emcees as well were eloquently able to depict the illest stories in rhyme – you were still tops with it. Your classics such as “Children’s Story,” “The Moment I Feared,” “Indian Girl,” “The Art of Storytelling” w/ Outkast, “It’s Wrong” and the list goes on. Even that 2003 Morcheeba cut, “Women Lose Weight” stands as proof. How did you realize this gift you had of depicting such vivid stories through rhyme as opposed to typical boastful raps many used as ammo?

THE RULER: “I guess I grew up, when I was in school I used to like English. English was like my favorite subject and telling stories, maan I used to tell stories for goofing around for my parents to make them laugh, just for fun -before rap. You tell a funny story, and you have to use silly punch lines that would make everybody laugh. I guess I liked the thrill of seeing the excitement after you make a good punch line. So I used to write stories, and then when hip hop came about, it was just about transferring the stories into rhyme, which was just basically all you really doing is matching the last words,” he says laughing smartly. “Yuhknowhati’msayin’, you could get creative later,” he continues laughing. “You get that spirit, that story, the whole visual picture in there so that’s how that pretty much came about.”

Q. And that style or ‘storytelling’ format, especially back then was so ripe and relevant. But today, we don’t see anything really close to your ‘storytelling’ art in the forefront of the hip hop market. Sure they’re some, but by no means are they on the level you took it to and how we enjoyed it then, and still do.

THE RULER: “Today, maaaan, the market is pretty much flooded, yuhknowhati’msayin’. It’s flooded, it’s big business, it’s not a lot of branches for mature rap – mature, growth-full, healthy, not stunting your growth rap. Like in my days when the tree was just starting, the tree was like a seed, it was just growing, then all these branches just branched out. You had the KRS-ONE, or before you had KRS, you had the Public Enemy branch which was like very Black Panther-y. You had the Rakim branch, which was very Muslim, 5 Percenter…you know, he was doing his thing. Then you had my avenue, which was just fun, happy, Christian, whatever,” we laugh. “You had all these different branches that was popping up, it was like a tree. SO as a tree, well you know the Melle Mel, Cold Crush Brothers, etc these were the forefathers, those were the real seed, but then we took it and started making branches. And that’s pretty much how it went.”

Q. Where did the inspiration or idea arise from, for you to exert such energy in cladding yourself with such a massive amount of jewelry? Most wore one or two rope chains at max, while you wore tons of it, together with bizarre looking medallions, rings, and so on.

THE RULER: “It’s just a culture, it’s a whole black culture kinda thing. Jamaicans, from even way before hip hop, used to wear big chains, yuhknowhati’msayin’. And then into the hip hop generation. It really was like you know you would see people with enormous wealth – maybe they was selling drugs or whatever, more than likely they was yuhknowhati’msayin’,” he changes his pitch to humorously suggest. “And they would have these enormous chains on, so to us in the environments, at that time – because back then they was no rich hip hop stars and if you was rich you was like Smokey Robinson, we wasn’t into that type of thing. So to us, these were like almost idols. You could see these people with enormous chains on, and enormous rings and nice cars, very expensive stuff. And you know, you wanna add it to your life, it’s beautiful. So you’d take the beauty out of the negative situations, just like how a pimp would dress. You don’t want to be a pimp, but you add or take what you learnt from him. His style, the ways of dressing, and you could take what you see from other people that had it almost all from whatever. So that’s pretty much what I did, without having to cross those negative boundaries.”

Q. But then, back in the day, would you say this image carried you to being described as ‘way over your head’, ‘swell-headed’ and very extreme? Crossing the ‘negative boundary’ as you suggest? Sort of like this great talent, destined for self-destructive results, eating into the whole materialism mindset of ‘I’ve got this, you don’t-mentality’?

THE RULER: “As far as ego is concerned, I’m sure I’ve had a little touch of that. I even say it in my song,” he begins to ponder his line going: “You conceited bastard!” he bursts out in his Slick Rick rapping mode. “I think the ego thing was overrated, because of a lot of people thought I was very egotistical, ’cause they didn’t walk in my shoes, or whatever the case may be. Maybe certain things was taken out of line,” he admits. “Maybe to a certain extent I was arrogant or whatever. But I don’t think it was the way people assumed it was. And I’m sure that’s become clearer by the day.”

Q. It seems slowly you’re sort of admitting to it by saying yes, I was egotistical. And seeing you’ve been to jail, and most recently held up by the INS for almost over a year, how does all of these experiences – with all the time you’ve had to reflect on yourself and your predicaments – compare to your outlook on life now as you live it?

THE RULER: “How does it reflect on my life now?” he repeats asking himself. “It’s a learning experience, you learn from your errors, you learn from your mistakes, you wanna be a better person. You wanna have a good character, you don’t wanna have a character where people find fault. So if you have a fault within yourself, it’s best to admit it and change it, and learn from it than to be like,”nah I wasn’t like that nah uh uh uhhhhh,” he shrugs. “You don’t want no ugly, negative characteristics that somebody can hold against you or hold it up in your face and dangle it in front of you, like you was a ‘conceited bastard’, or you as this or you were that, or you deserve to be in jail, or yuhknowhati’msayin’. You wanna have a clean, clear conscience. As long as you know that you are living upright and God don’t find no fault in you, it restores the confidence within yourself….. because you can’t please everybody.”

      And even though we continue to encompass our overall thoughts on hip hop’s terrible state as it pertains to the mainstream, let’s be more intelligent in specifically differentiating releases as good as this, far away from that grouping and give praises when praises is due. With Layover, Encore’s praise is due. Produced by Jake One, singer Nathan Thomas drips his soulful sauce while gracing the hook with smoothness to Encore’s “The Schizm”, a rich groove, sure to keep the club hot and sweaty. Much like the ingredients that made up Talib Kweli’s “Waitin’ for the DJ”, ‘underground’ would hardly be the correct label to quickly attach to this track, as Encore spits universal lyrics aimed at reeling in a nice catch. When he pours his heartfelt emotions on the parental dedication “My Way Home”, Jake One’s light keyboard touches and solid bass meshed with Encore’s lyrics provide a combination poweful enough to make listeners reflect on their own loved ones: “I’m never gonna forget where I came from, I came from you so I’ll always find my way home / You gave me life, you gave me love…”

       When heavy-hitter Pep Love crashes the recording booth on “City Livin”, hard knock fans need not worry, because this stage-wrecking track produced by Architect perfectly suits their razor-sharp rhymes, thanks to it’s looped, wide-orchestra trumpet sound and well-timed vocal samples from Group Home. Whether it’s on the climactic “Faithful”, again featuring Nathan Thomas’ soulful treatment, or the witty construction of “Real Talk” featuring Ladybug Mecca, Encore most likely will create a nice buzz with this LP. But like so many potent, independently pushed records, unfortunately he may not receive the major props he deserves. But support from the fans can change that…. after all, what good is an ‘encore’ if it doesn’t come from the public?

Q. The title, We Got Your Kids, sort of leads to one thinking that some outside force or entity is infiltrating in a sort of unwanted way into a society that’s destined to be disrupted. What’s the feel you were going for with a title such as this?

Bonz Malone: “It’s always gonna be a negative connotation. Some people feel that the word ‘power’ is a negative word. But that’s not true. It’s how ‘power’ is used to make something negative or positive. That is really what the purpose, the underlined and the subtext of what this film is about. It’s how these material things, and the opportunity of making an economic future for ourselves through this culture; it’s something that is so entertaining that it also has to have that same responsibility as power itself. How is it used, that determines if it’s good or bad? Now we don’t preach to anyone saying it is good, or it is bad. We tell you that it is happening, and they’re people who have benefited from it, some who love hip hop, some who don’t. But for those who do love hip hop, they’re constantly watchful for it going too far or too much of one thing and not enough of the other. So we knew that some people would take it negatively, but we didn’t care. We absolutely didn’t give a shit about that. Hip Hop is about shameless self-promotion. That was the title that was the going consensus and we were down to put it out right in your face. It’s unapologetic behavior. It’s not like the Apollo, where you go up there and you say, ‘I’m gonna do a song, I hope you like me.’ No one starts a rap song that way. You can’t.”

Q. The timing on this couldn’t be better, seeing the climate. Hats off to you, for the first of its kind of Film. As a veteran in this industry, seeing the hip hop from its raw form and cult form, to now as you say, ‘the most influential social phenomena’ – how is it from your standpoint, seeing hip hop go through all these historical changes and phases?

Bonz Malone: “It’s so deep yuhknow. Books wouldn’t fit the shelf enough for the things I’ve seen; it’s been 18 years for me. I started when I was 18 actually, and the things I’ve seen so far was pretty much repeating itself. What I mean by that Marlon is, hip hop was created to diffuse gang violence. Back in the 70′s, up in the Bronx where they was 40 gangs in that borough alone. So it was random violence in 1974, ’75, ’76. Now we see that rap employs gangsters. There’s a difference between a hip hopper – somebody that came up in the artistic form of the culture. The graffiti artist, as a breakdancer, as an emcee or a DJ. Than, today’s rapper who was legitimately and unofficially a drug dealer, who knew how to rap. And then you came into the industry to launder your crack money, and now you put out records about abuse, about killing, and kidnapping someone’s mother, and the disrespect of women. That’s the thing that shatters me. I’m not telling anybody else what to listen to or what to do, I’m not gonna do that. The choice is yours. For me, I’d like to see it get back to more of a balanced view of what it originated as. And maybe that’s very idealistic, and we’re in a world of those who are very materialistic. Those two things are two side of the same coin. I would like to see change. I would like to see women empower themselves more, and not come to the table, that is primarily dominated by men in this industry, looking for an opportunity and really don’t have anything to barter with, other than their body. And they full into the same old trap every time, and they get into the trap of professional flirting. They should be a book about rap industry etiquette.”

Q. In the film, there’s separate reflection and knowledge being dropped from veteran artists, and then the current cream of the crop gives their trendsetting enlightenment. Seems like if you were to actually bring the two groups under one platform or panel, instead of separately, it would be inevitable conflict. In this film, do you bring about some sort of highlighting of this?

Bonz Malone: “Yes and No, we do it unofficially. The way that it was put together in the editing, some of the video is so vintage and so old, we don’t even know where those people are now. Those images at the concert stand out on their own. I’m sure there are a lot of us who are very idealistic, and the ones that are dominating now are very materialistic. So there would be some conflict there. We both love the culture; we both love the music, enough to fight over it, which in a sense is a good sign. At least we gonna fight over it, if we didn’t care at all, we’d fight for what…Yuh see?  But at the same time, we didn’t want to give the impression to the mass market, that we disrespect each other; we don’t get along; we don’t agree and can’t be agreeable on anything; and there’s nothing settled amicably. We definitely did not want to send that message either. We wanted to show everyone, rather than tell, that yes there is a difference of opinion and you can tell in the music itself that is done through the artist. But overall, you gotta love a culture that had empowered more youth in a way that has never been in the world to this level, that we are able – a 16-year-old kid is able to afford a Hummer! Whether everybody screams that he’s being exploited or not, he is pushing a Hummer and he did not sell drugs to do it. That is almost impossible, except for in hip hop.”

Q. Although you might see a bit of that sort of thing in Sports too, but your point is well taken.

Bonz Malone: “But you just made a very important point and I’d like to lend to that. The phrase, ‘BALLER’ comes from the sports players, and the rappers picked that up and they say, ‘you wanna be a baller’. They got it in their videos and they pop the champagne – those are the ball players, to where all these rappers are wearing football jerseys, basketball jerseys. Under that category, not as a thug, but as a baller. They’re trying to mirror the lives of a professional athlete that gets paid to play. That type of mentality over into the hip hop community is big. It’s serious. And now the thug, you can tell the thug. They got the Avirex jacket, the leather on, and stuff like that. More grimy of a look. It was separated for a long time,you had different aesthetics and someone who was involved in it could see the differences between the baller mentality, the thug mentality, the gangster mentality, where the gangster mentality would wear a Bossillino hat, some cheap suit. It’s of some kinda lime-green color. And then we off to the PIMP! You had 4 different mentalities, now they’re beginning to merge. Bow they’re starting to morph into one mentality which is like – ‘We’re rich, doing something that we get paid to be 17 for the rest of our lives and WE GOT YOUR KIDS! The kids are the ones that made us rich, ’cause they bought this shit! Even if they don’t dress like us and they don’t want to, they made us rich.”

Q. Sooner or later, with anything becoming really a part of American society, like hip hop surely is now, it’s going to invite the materialism and low-value system that America so uniquely is. So what’s the fascination, what’s the big deal in depicting this in a film, as if this happening is so extraordinary?

Bonz Malone: “It was a perfect time to do it before the industry implodes. That was exactly my reason for narrating and explaining it, for writing it the way that I did. To that there was a record of what really happened, that the kids would never really understand because they’re too young and they too distant from it before it just went to pieces. Because that’s where it’s going right now. Everything comes to an end, sooner or later. And we’re already living in the last days. And we’re listening to the last rhymes right now, youknowhati’sayin’,” (laughs).

Q. Why is culture or when is culture no longer culture? And of course I’m referring specifically to hip hop, which I think is loosely used to define many artists and their careers that really no longer are truly part of hip-hop culture, unless the culture itself is being changed?

Bonz Malone: “The music is no longer part of a culture when it becomes political. When it becomes ingratiated by the political society, then it’s over. That’s when it’s over. Of course I’m not taking any shots against anybody in particular. But those with understanding know, and those who don’t, won’t, until it happens. When it’s used by the political left, or the black left, or the radical right wing whites, that’s when it’s over. That’s the beginning of the complete end.”

Q. Why do you think there’s such a strong connection between music and the many outside industries like fashion, or certain facets of life that don’t directly deal with music itself?

Bonz Malone: “Music is the word itself – m.u.s.i.c. – is derived from the word ‘muse’. Music is the PUREST art form there is. It doesn’t need to see anything as it’s created. It influences, yet it doesn’t have to necessarily influence you to be done, understand? It creates the muse. So with fashion, when they on a runway, you gotta do it to music. When it’s sports, in the middle of the half show, Janet Jackson and Timberlake, you gotta have some music to show some ti-tie,” we laugh. “You gotta have music, it creates the muse, it ingratiates everyone with a sound. No words even have to be spoken, that is dynamic. That’s the power of music, now when you put lyrics to that, lyrics that can activate a community, of any race, face or place anywhere that are talking about fast cars, good food, better sex and a lot of money? You got Kids! You got everybody with that.”

Q. When a film like this hits a viewer and the market in general, what is most important to you, as far as what is interpreted, learned and felt throughout the film?

Bonz Malone: “That we’ve been part of the greatest dot.com in the history of the world. A dot.com that has lasted 27 years and counting. It’s the greatest thing that we’ve ever seen maan. Nothing can compare other than paradise itself. And everybody knows it, it is never gonna be denied.”

Q. Lastly, I’d like to say that the book, Hip Hop Immortals and the REMIX version is excellent. Do you and your team still get a joy or a feeling of nostalgia when you were putting together all these memorable shots of hip hop history?

Bonz Malone: There’s very few things in my life that could come close to that book. Slam and winning Sundance, winning Cannes. I put those with that book there. Going to the Grammy’s for the first time in LA when I was 19 years old for Spin Magazine – first time I was in California and I was all by myself and walking down the red carpet. I put that up there with that book. I put that up there with the greatest hip hop memories I’ve ever had, like being at the El Capitan Hotel out in Wilshire with the whole Native Tongue family. We’re all in there with so many different gangs and nobody wanted to dance. And Latifah got everybody to do the electric slide,” we laugh out! “And these were about 60 gang members doing the electric slide from different gangs – bloods, crips. Nothing but outlaws maan. The whole dance floor was doing the Bus Stop in LA. By the end of the night, everybody was so drunk, and crying and hugging each other for one of the most beautiful moments, if not the most beautiful moment they have ever had. And it was a sister who did that. That is so important. That is so big. Because on the chessboard, if you capture the queen, you win. Here, the queen captured all of us, and made every gangster in there, a pawn. I put that book up with the greatest of all memories, and every one of those memories made that book. I didn’t make that book, the experience of that, of those times made that book. There’s at least 50 of those artists I wrote their bios on their first albums. That’s how far back I go. We had a great time back in those times.”


Key Kool: “The concept of Pangaea was – the world before it became seven separate continents, was just one continent. Kinda just like how the musicis for us. We came from all these different walks of life and stuff, and then it just came together through the music. We became and function like a family through the music. Pangaea basically represents what the music is, or more what our group stands for now – togetherness.”

HHS: Being on a label as Up Above for all your albums, as opposed to being tied to a contract on a major, which I’m assuming was an option at some point, how important is this direction on an independent for you as artists to represent to the fullest who you really are?

LMNO: “I think the blessing in disguise is that a major label truly wasn’t an option, so to have this blessed opportunity with Up Above, is like truly heaven sent from ‘Up Above’. Just seeing what major labels can do for artists, I feel we’ve been truly blessed. We’ve gone through our obvious times and tribulation to be able to appreciate it, but it’s a blessed thing over here.”

2 Mex: “It just came to be that way. After the second album, Sophomore Jinx, we actually had pretty much made up our mind that we wanted to be at a major label, ’cause we felt we needed some kinda bigger push and then all the preparation, all the working to get towards that, it actually ended up that by that time, Up Above were… not that they weren’t ready before, but they were really actually fully ready and soaked in and had tenure and had their foot firmly in the ground to be able to actually be the obvious or best situation. Because of the loyalty that they had to us, it worked out.”

HHS: On the album cover, there’s such an illustration of artistic forwardness. First off, who’s the artist?

LMNO: “That was Mear 1. We gave Mear the green light to give his interpretation to what that was.”

HHS: And, what map or territory is your cartoon portrayal properly situated over? Some sort of map of the ancient world?

LMNO: “We found that in a treasure chest, we dug that up,” he laughs, as if it’s a secret amongst them. “More or less, that was his interpretation. That’s what he brought to us. The concept of the album, we had a sitting with him about, and this is what he created.”

HHS: And also, those open eyes specifically displaced on each person’s faces, clearly showing your eyes shut, maan, what an image huh?

2Mex: “Yeah, we’ve known Mear 1 on and off for about ten years, so we’ve known to respect him as an LA artist. A brother like that, it’s not something you can come to and tell to do this and that, you ask him to do his own interpretation. Actually, that’s some of his simpler work from his other work. Very straightforward and simple.”

HHS: Now on your 3rd album, Pangaea, there is a sense of definite wisdom and bravery in touching topics you’re obviously lived, researched and experienced – especially on one of my favorites – the title track, “Pangaea”. Everyone’s sort of denouncing world corruption and spilling the whole truth. Take me through each mindset, according to one’s verse?

Key Kool: “As far as my verse, it was speaking for our group starting together, but it wasn’t really speaking only on that – it was speaking on all of mankind starting together as a group, or one as human beings. And it’s so applicable, whether it’s to our group, or whether it’s to all humanity. And so, it’s just in reference to the very beginning – the acknowledgement of all of us knowing that. We’re all one in this, and that’s generally how my verse starts it off directed towards just the whole beginning of things and the continuation, but sometimes people just don’t realize it.

LMNO: “The second verse, it ah… basically just in regards in ah…damn, it’s just all in the verse,” he pauses begins to rhythmically rhyme his verse fluently – ‘The planet’s so small with all the origins/ which ever one yuh in we get the light torn in’ – that right there…I don’t know man, I can’t just sit here and break it down other than just – PANGAEA. I agree with you man, I feel this track, the energy is there. It’s very rightful to be the title and everything…”

2Mex: “I think verse by verse, each member just gives a different angle of how everything’s connected, from the most basic to Zen’s verse, which was bringing in all kinds of history and science references; 2Mex’s verse, speaking of different continents and tying the world together in that sense of man bodies and actually the whole planet; as well as Dannu’s verse, speaking basically of the duty of those to reach out, without trying to be too preachy too, the weight of the world is basically on everyone’s shoulders. It goes all around for people to just begin to wake up and realize what’s going on.”

HHS: What is it about your environment, Los Angeles, you feel ads and makes your hip hop something truly worth listening to. Something exciting, valid and magnetizing for hip hoppers from any part of the globe, including other states in the US, to gravitate towards?

2Mex: “The sunshine first of all, people are drawn or trying to come over to the sunshine. There’s a contradiction – Hollywood, the glamour, which isn’t anything really. It’s a combination of all the disaster that LA has, but at the same time, within all that disaster, there’s fakeness and the bullshit, and then there’s a lot of people that are creative, and our musical or artistic fans. I think we’re the children of people that are of creative minds. All of us are children of the creative, and I think in Los Angeles, there’s a huge pool of people that would rather attempt to live creatively, than live 9 to 5-ish. So we’re just the children of that. And like I said, Los Angeles has, for all the fakeness and all the cutthroatness, and all the sadness and imagery that it has, inside in all of that, there’s a lot of creativeness, it’s an eclectic place. Even though it sucks sometimes, and it’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” he sarcastically smirks.

HHS: Your ethnicity is something I would like to touch on. This, despite being sort of acclimatized to it being normal in a city like Los Angeles, is very unique or different for hip hop in many other parts. Break it down, if you don’t mind?

Key Kool: “My parents’ grandparents came from Japan; Dannu – his parents came from the Philippines; same with Rhettmatic; James’ parents came from Europe; 2Mex is a Mexican; Zen is African-American with some indigenous blood as well.”

LMNO: “The box of America yes, we’ve been to places where people are shocked at the diversity yuhknow. Li-versity ’cause there’s nothing dead here. Maan, we definitely have this torch, yeah, I feel that. Like to us, we’re immune to it, ’cause we’ve grown up around it, even before Visionaries. Just having that multicultural upbringing. Back to living in a box though, we notice that, like they notice us being diverse. We notice that fact that they don’t have this. You go to other parts of the world, you just shocked man. You see a crowd of LMNO’s, and you just like what da… We’re accustomed to like seeing out in the crowd more like a mixture – yuh see 2Mexs, you’ll see some Rhettmatics, you’ll see some Zens, you’ll see some Key Kools. It’s pretty shocking how the flip side is when you travel away from LA.”

HHS: You’ll seem pretty conscious, aware and righteous, especially relative to the rubbish being broadcasted to the masses on the airwaves today. You already know your album isn’t going to outsell Chingy’s in the US. Do you’ll totally shut your minds off to the rest of what the masses are really into, or are you very well aware of AL your peers in this game?

LMNO: (BIG LAUGHTER!!) “Hey who says!!?” (More laughter!) “We stay aware, probably not track for track, but we have to be aware.” (SILENCE)

Key Kool: “I think from a certain point, there’s always been a different or the whole spectrum of hip hop, even in the times where people look back and talk about the golden years of hip hop – you had stuff that was commercial or stuff on the opposite spectrum of it that, we might look back and say wow, that was just fun music, or commercial music, or at the time you had your Public Enemy or something diluted or what not. I think there’s room enough for everyone to exist within it, but maybe the mass media or mass populace might not completely understand or get a chance to be exposed to it, ’cause we don’t have that major marketing or promotion, or political vehicle on that level like the Sony’s, the WEA’s. But the longevity aspect of it is our success, in the sense of who we reach. Those people who relate to what we’re speaking. That’s something that’s not just gonna come and go. It’s more ingrained.”

HHS: On the international forefront, you’ll have toured extensively outside of the US. Do you see, slowly creeping into other societies and cultures, the similar sort of capitalism at its highest as far as the musical climate. Or, it isn’t even close to the non-diverse stage front as here?

2Mex: “In different parts of the world, it ain’t no way as out of control or blatant as it is here in the United States. Here in the U.S., we’re professional salesman. The whole United States is about the selling of something, whether it’s even real or not. The projection of an image, that simple. Going to Japan, Europe, Canada and other parts of the world, I don’t think that in anyway any of those places compete with the U.S. as far as the projection of, or the way of pushing music and the way they propoganderize any and anything. The U.S. runs on that image. It’s like the guy that has an Escalade and barely pays rent. The U.S., and in the music industry, it lives and dies still on that vibe, and fortunately it’s dying I think. Things change. A CD costs a few cents and then it sell for over $10? It’s been like organized crime man, the turnaround is legal and it’s better than selling crack. That’s why everybody is trying to get into the music industry. The turnaround is so gangster! The art has taken a back seat, but it isn’t our mission to change that, it’s just our mission to be who we are, and history will depict that we did this and some people did that.”

HHS: “If you can’t say love” – I just love this after I listened to this track, and for men in hip hop to turn this side of their personalities intoa song, shows a great deal of maturity and comfort within themselves. Describe the climate of hip hop fans, which we can’t forget are young, especially as it pertains to the entire industry’s trust in a song like this being acceptable?

2Mex: “We’re just at a point where within ourselves, our fans and our people, we’re so content that we’re not afraid to say that we love something, we’re not afraid to be vulnerable when we rap and when we write songs, we’re not afraid to – for Key Kool who just recently got married – to be like yo! I’m proud of you, you have a wife. A lot of these old bull shit, machismo, the way other artists have been like kinda hiding all these things, or be like ‘yo! I’m all about this, I’m all about that’ – that’s just not us. We’re pretty much not like that, it isn’t a confident thing either, it’s just how we are. We’re just a bunch of nice guys, pretty much. We’ve all sacrificed a lot to make this situation happen, and that songstems from somebody actually telling us not to make a song like that.”

LMNO: “Yeah, I was just gonna bring that up, because J-Rocc (the producer of the track) had actually mentioned, ‘DON’T go doing one of those Visionaries love songs,’ and then we’d come back to the studio like – ‘Ayy, J wanted to let us know that ah…..’ and before I could even finish the sentence, 2 Mex would come in and was like, ‘If You Can’t Say Love!’ So it was a perfect testament of the guns we gotta stick by man. Yuh see, even the homie that made the track was trying to deter us, so you can’t budge love.”