Boombox Akrobatik - Absolute Value Interview 06 March 2008
Known globally as one of Boston's finest, Akrobatik beasted his way onto the scene with Rawkus Records… On his new project, Absolute Value, the only thing more impressive than the star-studded guest list - Chuck D, J Dilla, Talib Kweli, to name a few-- is the fact that he is not once overshadowed by the surrounding hip-hop giants. The buzz about this man is serious; so find out just why Akrobatik has arrived and is still rising.
Evans: The new album is Absolute Value, start by telling me about your production plan on there. Who’s dealt with some of the tracks?
Akrobatik: I just wanted to make an album that would just be as banging as possible, and I think I just wanted to go against the trend. A lot of cats are trying to do an album with one producer. I wanted to get a bunch of different producers on this album and it worked out that way.
Evans: On one track, “Be Prepared”, you touch on how rap is kinda blurry and basically, it ain’t what it used to be… why that feeling?
Akrobatik: Well you know, as time goes man, things change… and I think that rap would definitely fall victim to all the commercialization you know. And I feel like we’re at a point where the content doesn’t really matter that much in music. I’m basically referring to that whole age in hip-hop… I mean even NWA, like there whole MO was, yeah we’re a gang and you know, mess around with us and you’ll get got… but at the same time there was a whole purpose. These cats were feeling like they were victims and they had a whole lot of issues to talk about in terms of police brutality and injustice in the court system and things like that. It was creative; it was musical expression before it was even a gangster image or any type of image at all. And now it’s kind of like image first, with people selling you their personality and their brand or a logo; and it’s had a departure from music being the main focus… I think that’s the biggest change.
Evans: You’re originally from Boston, and there are people on the outside who don’t know of the deep pool of talent that comes from there. How do you feel about Boston being slept on, in terms of being overlooked?
Akrobatik: Well it’s understandable, I mean where right next to New York. It’s like living in some suburb of L.A. or something like that; you know, you’re there but you’re not quite there. With NY being the birthplace of hip-hop, I can understand how it kind of gets overshadowed. With record labels in NY, it’s like why would they go outside of there when there’s like a million artists in NY. I feel like it’s an industry thing. For now its all about the hot regions where there’s large concentrations of black folks in terms of hip-hop commercial selling.
Evans: Touching on the commercial front, you just wrapped up a deal with the NFL (National Football League) to do some of their commercial ads for the ’08 season, have you started work on that?
Akrobatik: Yeah, I did three spots for them this season that just passed and we’re talking about this upcoming season and I’m pretty sure it’s gonna happen but I can’t say for sure; but it looks good. I did a commercial with Reggie Bush and also did the Diet Pepsi Rookie of the Week and Rookie of the Year commercials for them which were on the NFL Network non-stop so it’s a good look.
Evans: Outside America, limited folks know about the radio network JAM’N 94.5, but over there you got this segment of sports rap-up that you do which is pretty much hittin’ on more than all cylinders. How’d you come up on that gig?
Akrobatik: My man G-Spin is one of the music directors there at the station and him and Ramiro, the host of the morning show had decided that they wanted to do something different and add a segment to the show with sports and do something creative. Collectively they came up with the idea… I got a call to see if I could put something together, next thing I know, I was on the air. What it is, you know, it’s like a one minute wrap up (rap up) of the sports news in freestyle form.
Evans: You’ve toured Europe before…
Akrobatik: Oh yeah.
Evans: Any plans to jump back over and in particular, the UK?
Akrobatik: I haven’t booked that yet, I wanted to make sure that my album was out for a few weeks to a month before I started booking overseas because I really wanted people to know what type of project I was coming with; what I was gonna be bringing over there. Now that it’s out, I’m going to start looking at booking UK, Europe and Australia among other places. I’m definitely putting a project out that’s going to make people remember.
Evans: Talk about the transition from Balance, your first LP, to Absolute Value right now.
Akrobatik: There was a lot going on, as soon as I was done with Balance in terms of promoting it and stuff like that, my focus switched back to my group, The Perceptionists, with Mr. Lif and Fakts One, now DJ Therapy. But we focused on that and we wanted to build that brand; that took a while with tours and getting our name out. We did that album and put it out in ’05 and then I started to work on Absolute Value a little bit but needed a rest from hitting the road so much, moving from city to city and stuff like that. In the end, I finished up really strong.
Evans: Put Ya Stamp On It featuring Talib Kweli… Any plans to drop a video for this or any other tracks?
Akrobatik: As you know, Kweli is a busy dude. So I can’t say when I would be able to do something like that, but I could definitely do a video for A to the K. You should be seeing that in the next few weeks.
Evans: Front Steps II… Not often, if at all, do people get a chance to here genuine expression in a track the way that you brought it forth on this one. What brought it on?
Akrobatik: A lot of people are under the misconception that I’m a backpack rapper or you know what I mean; people just put labels on stuff you know. Like internet MCs, people are like, “Oh this guy is rapping about people on the internet, that’s his gimmick.” And they haven’t heard my songs. I made “Remind My Soul” and everybody was like, “... this guy is all about peace and consciousness and that’s what he’s about.” I’m about all those things but it’s about being versatile man. And in a song like “Front Steps”, to me it’s like yo, that’s just another song and how I feel when I’m looking out my window and people are getting shot, and there’s yellow police tape… When you’re dealing with that it’s gonna influence you.
Evans: Any influences as you were growing up coming through, musical or motivational?
Akrobatik: Influences come from a lot of different people. The thing I’m most thankful for in my life is probably my friends. I have a really strong group of friends that all have ambitions and strong work ethic. But really I’m influenced by them along with my mom you know. Really, people that persevere and get up when they’re down; as far as musical influences, I got it from the music that I grew up listening to and that’s from a wide range of stuff: Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J, A Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, KRS-ONE, Rakim… I’m influenced by people that changed the craft and are not just making music to get a buck.
Evans: Any plans up and coming?
Akrobatik: I’m already working on a couple of remix projects for the album… There’s also a remix version coming out with Van Halen samples. I’m looking forward to getting that out there. I also sent out some A Capellas out to other producers to start a remix album too. I feel like the album is my best work and want to make sure that who ever listens to hip-hop gets to hear this.
Evans: At one of your performance at Summer Jam 2007 you came out on stage wearing a championship belt, what was the motivation behind that?
Akrobatik: When it comes to the rap, I just feel that I’m the real peoples champion… you know like Paul Wall calls himself the peoples champion, but is he really for the people; flashing a whole bunch of diamonds and stuff like that. I don’t see that being for the people. I actually have something to say so that the people can take and digest and take something home with them, so I feel like I’m the people’s champion. So when you see me with the belt, that’s what that’s about.
Evans: And finally, Absolute Value, could you explain the reasoning behind the title?
Akrobatik: Yeah, it’s a couple of things, the first thing is; we all know that there are plenty of releases that come out and you know, there’s one or two hot tracks on it, you download those two tracks off iTunes and throw the rest of it away, or you know there’s like one hot single and you put the good song on your computer and take the CD and shelf it. But with this album, I just feel like I wanted to make a good one, like I said in the title track, I’d rather have a dope album from start to finish and wanted to make sure that every song was really good and something that I believed in on the record, every single song. So for me that takes the value and bumps it up a notch. When you take all the guest appearances that on there; I mean where are you going to find an album that has Chuck D, B-Real, Kweli all on the same record with Bumpy Knuckles, Mr. Lif and me… That’s never happened before and for me its historical, that’s the value of it. Like I say in the album credits, any negative situation can turn into a positive. You can always fight back and turn it around and that’s what Absolute Value is, like math you have negative seven and the absolute value of that is still seven, so you can turn it around. That’s the whole concept.
Be sure to follow up and get the new album, Absolute Value, available in stores and online (support real music - buy it, don't download it).
