Boombox Outlawz / Dead Prez Interview 28 July 2006
To celebrate the release of their collaboration album "Can't Sell Dope Forever," we had a chance to speak with The Outlawz and Dead Prez about the album, hooking up and their future plans.
Stormey: Hey man, what's goin on?
JD: Hey man, what's up?
Stormey: What up.
JD: So you released the new Outlawz / Dead Prez album "Can't Sell Dope Forever" album this week, how do you think it is going to be received?
Stormey: I think its being received real lovely man. People are actually applauding us for stepping up and just have the nuts to come with a message like that. There's a lot of dope game rap right now, you know what i mean, a lot of these labels is pushing the dope shit, so we ain't targeting no dope boy rappers, we like to see all our young niggaz coming up and getting money and taking care of their families, but we are attacking these labels and shit, lettin' em know you can't just keep pushing this bullshit music out forever, you cant do it. You gon have to let us in in a minute, if not us then somebody else, but its getting received real well. A lot of people feelings the movement.
M-1: Yeah, just to add a little bit onto that, i mean we just simply providing an option in music, you know what i mean. Putting out the "Can't Sell Dope Forever" album, we attacking other views on it from the same aspect. Stic got an excellent song on it dedicated to his brother who we look up to that's an addict of crack/cocaine, so you know what i mean, it ain't an attack on no artist in particular, its an attack on other aspects of what the dope game bring to our community that we broadcast.
Stormey: That a lot of other motherfuckers aren't touching on. Like he said, Stic got a song about his brother, niggaz can relate to that, I mean I got a brother that just got locked up, he got back heavy on coke and shit. My mother was using that shit for as long as i fucking remember, she been clean for the last 5-6 years, but for my whole childhood growing up, she been addicted to this shit, so it ain't like we just some motherfuckers preaching, once you pop the album in there's nothing preachy on that motherfucker, this shit is all from real life experience. Its like we talking from the game from the inside out, its like yo go ahead and sell your drugs, if you ain't hustlin, you ain't eatin, we already know that, but we just tryin to open motherfuckers minds up, if your gonna hustle, hustle, just have it in your mind to roll over and try to be doing something different, you know what i mean that shit will catch up to you ASAP. In the meanwhile, while you doing that, this is whats going on, you in the hood hustlin' and that shit you just sold might have been to my mother or something. I was thinking last night, I was in the trenches real heavy, I used to be really like, selling that shit to my mom, me and my mom used to be hustlin' together, last night i was thinking about it, that shit was really killing me, like damn, I used to use that shit as a tool, i was like 14-15 and not want to wake up and go to school, I would just get my mother some coke, like here ma, you know I know that's what she wanted, if she didn't get it from me, i knew she would go and get it from somebody else, but i was just thinking about how fucked up that was and niggaz in the hood can relate to that shit. Niggaz mothers be on that shit and niggaz be hustlin', like your mother gon fuck with you to get it, that shit is crazy, we just tryin' to provide a different point of view, that's all.
JD: Yeah. So, how did the collaboration with Dead Prez come about?
M-1: Man, you know, we tight people, you know what I mean, we do the same music and we ran across paths. Before the album was even talked about we was kicking it on the brotherly standpoint, its way deeper than music. Its all about black men taking the initiative to promote positivity amongst everything else that we promote and myself and Nobe and Sticman had the idea of running with the concept of "Can't Sell Dope Forever." Just for the lack of better words, a concept, because it is by no means a concept, there's no gimmick about this shit.
Stormey: The Logo actually comes from a clothing company based out of Atlanta called "Miseducated Society" and there's a lot of dudes in the hood rocking these shirts, motherfuckers out here been rocking these shirts for a minute.
Sticman: Niggaz in the hood is rocking this shit. It ain't like its an outcast or some other motherfuckers promoting this shit, its the guys that's in the hood that's actually hustlin' that's wearin them because they understand what the fuck we wanna do but we also got to deal with the fact that it ain't about jobs, you know what i mean, in certain cities, in most cities and states. I just left Chicago and its fucked up for black men in Chicago, its fucked up, i just left there with my brother.
Stormey: You know what, on top of that a lot of us come up selling coke and dope and weed and all that shit and then its like you know once we start catching them cases, once you turn 18 and your catching your first felony its like shit, its damn near a wrap getting a job after that. So we just trying to promote to these young niggaz, if you hustlin', if you gettin' money, roll over with that money man, you gotta do something else to provide for yourself. Be entrepreneurs man, that's what its about cos if you a hustler, you got hustle, that hustle is in you, you know I mean I'm rapping, but guess what I'm a motherfucking hustler man, this is what I do, I talk through music. Motherfuckers wanna take that chance with dope but it ain't like we have that on top of us being minted and taking responsibility for our culture and our music and being mindful of kids that's really listening to this shit and all that is a blessing, but at the end of the day, we gotta eat too, we got family that gotta eat too, so you know, we hustling, that's what we do. It actually from a hustler to a hustle, so we gotta do something different and become entrepreneurs in this shit, its definitely hard for us out here, the odds are definitely stacked against us.
JD: I know you are both legendary groups, but did you find it a bit intimidating to be working with Dead Prez on a major release?
Stormey: Did we find it intimidating to work with Dead Prez?
Young Noble: Why would we find it intimidating?
JD: Well,I mean Dead Prez have a different style, they are more political kind of raps.
Stormey: Well, let me tell you a little something about that. Dead Prez, they make the same motherfucking music we make, real life street shit from the heart, you know what I mean, you might look at it different, on some revolutionary type shit, but that's really a point of view, cos we do the same shit and we been through all that. They represent the struggle and look where we came from, we came from Pac, the son of a legendary Panther, you understand what I'm saying? Like the Thug Life code - The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody, you know what I mean? Nigga - Never Ignorant about Getting Goals Accomplished, we come from that. Dead Prez was watching us coming up. We represent the same message. We represent young black niggaz in the struggle, that's Dead Prez and Outlawz. So as far as us working together, its perfect, who else could do an album called "Can't Sell Dope Forever" not some of these niggaz on the major labels and shit, I mean, we the only two motherfuckers who would do something like this, we the only two groups who got the nuts to even try something like this. As far as the "Can't Sell Dope Forever" album, niggaz will see our name and buy it and say "what they talking about?," then when they pop it in they'll see from the beginning to the end there ain't no songs on there for the clubs, ain't no songs on there for the motherfucking females, not of that shit, its just real shit from the beginning to the motherfucking end. It's how music should be made, from the heart, that's what i feel like, fuck all that radio shit. It ain't about the money, its about who we are, I feel like Pac looking down at us now and he proud of us right now and that makes me feel good.
Young Noble: It ain't like its no motherfucking competition neither, we're making music for our people.
Stormey: Word.
JD: What are your favourite tracks from the album and why?
Stormey: My favourite cut off the album... I got two of them I got "1Nation" that's the one with all of us on it, its a real song, a lot of energy, everybody got their own style, its real shit from the beginning to the end, that's one of my favourites and my other favourite is "I Believe I Can" which is from the point of view of a fiend who is tryin' to get his act together, its like a fiend's anthem, like a rehab anthem, they go to rehab and through the song they get worse and worse, those is my favourite two joints on there, but i like every song on the album, like to me, I love the album, its my favourite album, but those are my favourite two song, but every song on the album on that motherfucker is serious.
Sticman: As far as my favourite song on the album, there are a joint called "Fork In The Road"
Stormey: Yeah "Fork In The Road," that shit's cold blooded.
Sticman: Its a song for our people, a song for young black males that says we can change. It says we can grow up and we can accept responsibility
JD: This album doesn't actually feature a Tupac verse does it? Was it an easy decision to leave him off the album?
Stormey: Yeah a very easy decision. We don't have to have Pac on everything we do, I mean we all we got, we ain't gonna put Pac on all our releases, matter of fact Pac ain't gonna be on none of our releases anymore. We lettin' Pac rest man. We Love Pac, but we Outlawz, we come from Pac, motherfuckers see me, they see Pac.
JD: Earlier on, you talked about the track "1Nation," are there any plans for the 1Nation album to be released?
Stormey: Urm, I don't know man, i cant even speak on that right now., I mean when we originally did it, well it might come out one day, hopefully it do, it was a real project, you had the whole beef thing blowing up with the east coast, Pac and all the Outlawz is from the east coast, there was a lot of bullshit goin' on and talked about it on the album, we had special guests on there, we had Bone Thugs on there, just a whole bunch of motherfuckers from coast to coast, you know what i mean? I'm not sure whats happening with 1Nation, we gon do a whole new 1Nation album one with Dead Prez, the whole Boot Camp and anyone else that wanna get down for that motherfucker, we can do a whole new one.
JD: Are there any plans for another Dead Prez / Outlawz collaboration in the future? I hear there is another album coming out?
M-1: Oh yeah for sure, October 3rd we got "Solder to Solider" Outlawz / Dead Prez with Young Noble and Sticman, and we got a DP/Outlawz album called "Bangin On The System," which is a DP/Outlawz collaboration, original music, so yeah you know we dogs for life.
Stormey: You already know, the movement is real big, the people is really rallying behind this thing, its bringing that real shit to the forefront, that's what i like to call it, motherfuckers wanna see niggaz like us with the balls to try and spread the riches you know and bring some of that real shit that's inspirational, imagine hearing "I Believe I Can" Outlawz and Dead Prez, imagine hearing that shit all day on the god damn radio like yo, you know what i mean?
JD: Have you got any plans to go on tour and promote the album?
Young Noble: Yeah, we getting that together right now, people can get at us that want to come over on two websites - BossUpBU.com or 1NationEntertainment.net. We definitely got dates in the UK, all the West Coast, East Coast and dirty, man you know, we makin moves on tours in terms of putting it together and we hittin the hood, you know, we getting it together as we speak, so anyone interested, holla at ya boy.
JD: heh, OK, so finally, is there anything you would like to tell our readers and your fans?
Sticman: I got a new book out, its called "The Art of Emceeing," its a book about being an MC, with me, Stormey, Common and its basically talking about all the basics, you know, the 101 of being a rapper, being an MC, from training your voice, publishing, recording, the studio, your voice and managing different styles, all the basics, so you know. Ah yeah, we also having a contest and you can win a chance to perform and be on songs with us, so you know BossUp, BossUpBU.com.
