That's how the scenario would have gone had I met two typical hip hop meatballs into over self-promotion and Black Panther rap. In actuality, the gentlemanly, humorous, and free-spirited duo, whose latest project The Ren and Stimpy Show, is a not-so-serious project that avoids the divisions and collisions of overly serious hip hop, is nothing of the sort. I spoke to them about their music, Batman, and much more during our not-so-serious rendezvous.
JB: How did you guys meet?
ME: Mutual friends. A promotional company called After Dark put on an event called the Hip Hop Hybrid at Broadway Joe's. I was hosting it for a few months. They put his act on the bill (Short Moscato's), and that's how we first met. We didn't really start hanging out until like four or five months ago, when he started mixing up stuff with EVC crew and he was leaving Koolie and trying to do his own thing. And I was trying to do my own thing. And for some reason it ended up us doing something together, and that's really how R&S came about. LOL.
JB: Let's get to The Ren and Stimpy Show. Tell me about the concept behind it.
ME: The real push behind that was that Short and I were just talking about hip hop and seeing people being super, super serious about it like, "Oh I'm gonna put out this album and it's going to change the game. I recorded it in my garage, this shit is real...we gotta unite as a people... and everyone starts to gets so serious, and because of that level of seriousness they become easily jaded and that how enemies form in hip hop.
SM: And they made it (hip hop) corny.
ME: And corny. They made it corny because they made it so serious. If you listen to like DeLa, their just having a great time. Jay Five. Great music. But...we were like these dudes are real serious right? LOL. No, we hope this album doesn't change the game, But with R&S it was the beginning of the summer and we just wanted to have a lot of fun and we needed a reason to record. SM: I think the album is a satire theme. It's real brash. Half the stuff we're saying is pretty horrible.
ME: Womanizing and degrading. And thats not how we are.
SM: We're just trying to take ourselves less seriously. Just superficial, stupid stuff stuff. Like girls, drugs...
ME: We usually just write it on the spot, record it, and it just kind of stays with us....That's why Short and I got along so well. We have the same mentality of recording music. It's not like mega preparation... For me, when I first hear the beat, I write whatever I want to write, but it has to be the day off, or else I'm not going to feel the same way tomorrow and I'll write something completely different. And a lot of people don't like that about MCs like me. they're like, "Oh you didn't prepare for it?"...I'm not knocking them but...
SM: No I'm with you. Like back in the day when Miles Davis and Coltrain were playing together they...sending each other emails. They were getting together and doing it. That's how real music's made. With this generation its so easy for everyone to be a hip hop star on their Facebooks and record in their closet.
Where do you usually record?
ME: All over...Usually we've been recording downtown at the Nickel City Records studio downtown.
JB: Jamie Catania (producer at NCR) he's a nice guy.
SM: Super nice guy. He's got two beats on the project.
JB: Ian (Ian Cochran, Nickel City Blend co-creator), has some beats on R&S two. I really like (the track) "Untamed World" he produced. It's really weird, but the beginning of it sounds like some Moulin Rouge-like stuff on there...like I could see a burlesque troupe doing something to it...I'm a dancer so when I heard it I was like, I could really make this work.
SM: You wanna be a dancer in the video?
JB: Yeah, I'll do it. DROOLS.
SM: Tighhhhhhht.
JB: So Short, are you in love with Iggy Azalea?
SM: Yeah. A lot of things about her amaze me. She's Australian. She's a model.
ME: She's got the baddest ass.
SM: And the best thing. She has this accent right. And when she talks, she tuhks like thees. And when she raps she sounds like a black chick.
Then we segwayed from accents to Christian Bale in Batman....what.
JB: I'm not into Batman.
ME and SM: What?!?!
JB: Yeah...or Superman.
ME: I hate Superman.
ME: It's like being Bill Gates, its not fair. You can do whatever you want. That sucks. You should have some limitations. It affects my day. I think about Superman. I'm like, "I hate you, Superman."
SM: Yeah you gotta have limitations, man.
Last question, favorite track you've recorded off of R&S?
SM: My favorite song is "City Hicks" with Jake Freeman.
ME: I like the one with GoGev.
SM: That one's good too. Anytime she sings is great.
ME: "Space Madness," just because it was the first one. It was our defining moment that we were going to keep recording to that criteria of stuff. Like we knew R&S would be funny, and we don't know what the hell it means yet. Then we recorded that song, and then we just kept it going.
SM: If you know Mic and I and the music we've put out...the project isn't really us at all. It's a left field-type project.
ME: It's us when we're out drinking. (Laughs)... a lot of people stress out about lyrics. I don't get it.
SM: You can say whatever you want.
ME: You just got to stand by it.
~ Photo by J.K. Media
0 comments
Post a Comment