Author Topic: Masta Ace & Edo. G Interview  (Read 377 times)

Lunatic

Masta Ace & Edo. G Interview
« on: October 19, 2009, 10:02:47 AM »
http://raptalk.net/website/content/view/2012/54/



http://raptalk.net/website/content/view/2012/54/

Raptalk sat down with east coast legends Masta Ace & Edo. G for an exclusive interview to discuss their upcoming duo album, "Arts & Entertainment." The cable network A&E recently hit Ace & G up about the similar logo and video trailers; read on all about that, as it occurred the day this interview was conducted.

Guest appearances, production, concept records, the A&E name,  complimenting styles, chemistry and much more are just some of the topics discussed in this one!

Enjoy...
« Last Edit: October 19, 2009, 10:05:26 AM by Lunatic 63 »
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Lunatic

Re: Masta Ace & Edo. G Interview
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2009, 10:03:15 AM »
Raptalk.Net: We’re right here with the legendary Masta Ace and we’re waiting for Ed O.G. to check in with us too! First off Ace, let everybody know what the release date is for “Arts & Entertainment?”

Masta Ace: Well it was supposed to be October 6th but it’s been pushed to October 20th now.

Raptalk.Net: I heard that had to do with a little situation where A&E the cable channel froze some stuff up?

Masta Ace: Yeah, they got wind of our “First 48” trailer to promote the album coming out and we play detectives in it. We did a trailer that is basically an advertisement for the album and the plan was to do three or four different ones based on different A&E TV shows. I guess before we could even shoot the second one, they found out about this “First 48” one and their lawyers got in touch with our distributor and basically said y’all gotta’ chill with that. We had already been pressing CD’s and everything so we had to stop the presses and go back to take the long off the cover and all that. We used a logo that looked real similar to the network logo but it’s not exactly the same; but it’s close enough that they got uncomfortable with it and we had to change it.

Raptalk.Net: That’s obviously an unfortunate situation and a bit of a set back, but do you see it as good news that they’re paying attention?

Masta Ace: I mean it’s cool. I think when you get a situation like this, you gotta’ make the best and most of it. You get lemons and you make lemonades. We’re gonna’ try and spin it into something positive for us.

Raptalk.Net: I understand Masta Ace & Edo, that’s where you get the A&E from – but how exactly did you guys come up with the name?

Masta Ace: That actually came up because somebody said it jokingly. I remember being in the studio and somebody said something about the A&E network jokingly and as soon as they said it…I can’t actually remember who said it but I think it was Supreme One, one of our producers. And I said “Yo, that’s it! That’s what we need to call it”! It was that quick and fast. I thought of taking the logo and changing it up and it was just full steam ahead from there.  We were trying to figure out a name for a while and we couldn’t come up with nothing and boom, it hit us.

Raptalk.Net: Tell us about the leaked “A’s & E’s” with Marsha Ambrosius.

Masta Ace: That’s not the first single but it’s one of the songs that got leaked. The first single is actually called “Lil’ Young.” I and Ed O.G. are rhyming on it…

*ED O.G. calls in*

Ed O.G.: Yo!

Masta Ace: The first verse is Ed O.G. naming all of the rappers that have the word “Lil” in it and the second verse is me naming all the rappers with the word “Young” in there name because there are so many of them. That’s the official first single. The Marsha Ambrosius song is just a record that got leaked. It’s a concept record so me and Ed O.G. just went in rapid fire, spitting words that have the letters in them. Everything I’m spitting has the letter “A” in it and everything he’s spitting has the letter “E” in it. That’s how that concept came out. Ed O.G. just joined us as you heard.

Raptalk.Net: How you doing Ed O.G.? We now also have Ed O.G. on Raptalk!

Ed O.G: I’m good, I’m in here! What’s up?

Raptalk.Net: We appreciate you checking in.

Ed O.G: Yes! I had to get a shave man. I was looking like a wolf.

Raptalk.Net: You fresh now?

Ed O.G: Yeah, I’m fresh man. My face is fresh at least.

Raptalk.Net: That’s all that matters and we’re glad you made it in time. Ace was just telling us about “A’s & E’s” and “Lil Young.” It sounds like y’all working with some concept records on the album so is the project a concept record?

Ed O.G: Nah, I definitely wouldn’t say it’s a concept album. I’d say more so those two particular records are concept records. Nah, I think it’s a range of stuff on the album from personal stories to just spitting to let everybody know what it is on the mic. Nah, I definitely wouldn’t say it’s a concept album.

Raptalk.Net: And you guys threw Marsha Ambrosius on the hook of the “A’s & E’s” track. Why her instead of any other female hook singer? Or male for that fact.

Ed O.G: Ace had a relationship with Marsha in the early stages of Floetry and all of that. He could probably answer this one.

Masta Ace: I did work with her before.

Ed O.G: I still want to get her on a remix singing.

Masta Ace: I worked with Marsha back in like 1999 or something like that. Floetry used to be down with Touch & Jazz and all of that. She was writing a lot of records at Jazzy’s studio. She actually did two hooks for me back then on songs that never came out. I still had the connection with her. My man Darren at Limitless Hits got me her new number because he’s still in touch with her. She was more than happy to jump on the song which was cool.

Raptalk.Net: Tell our readers about any additional guest appearances you have on the album.

Ed O.G: We have KRS-One, Chester French which is a rock band on “Star Trek.” We also have Do It All, Large Professor and a few more. It sounds like a lot but it’s really spread out and really people that we wanted to work with as opposed to features to help sell records. We can sell records by ourselves. We really wanted to do music with people we enjoy making music with as well.

Raptalk.Net: How do you think your styles compliment each other?

Ed O.G: I think it fits well. We didn’t initially know going in if it would. We had done a bunch of records together early on like features and other people’s projects and all of those records came out good. After that, I did a record with [Masta] Ace on “A Long Hot Summer” and he did something with me on the Pete Rock album, “My Own Worst Enemy” and both of those records appealed to the people. By doing all of those, we had sort of a chemistry but you honestly never know until you do a whole project. I think it works out and meshes really well. I think we work really good together. The process wasn’t complicated and there were no egos. It was just about doing the best job we could do.

Raptalk.Net: Did you guys see that chemistry build as it got later and later into the recording sessions?

Masta Ace: Definitely. The first few records we did were all done by this cat named Supreme One who is the original person who brought us together. He had funding for us to do a project together and he really wanted to produce the whole thing. We recorded like ten records with him and that was in the early stages of us kind of feeling out the chemistry and see what we could possibly do together musically. Of those first ten records we did with Supreme One, none of them made the album. None of those songs made the official album. We might throw those on a mixtape later on or something like that but we started to build momentum from working together and wound up doing a bunch more songs with Supreme One as well as other producers. The result was “Arts & Entertainment.”

Raptalk.Net: So Supreme One still did get down on the album. Which other producers did you end up working with?

Ed O.G: We have M-Phases from Australia, DJ Spinna from Brooklyn, Rain and a few up and coming cats. Frank Dukes who is from Toronto.

Raptalk.Net: My city

Ed O.G: Oh ya, there you go Frank Dukes is out of the T-Dot and he’s worked with Drake. We have him. Supreme One ended up doing three tracks on this record as well. We worked with a lot of up and coming producers. We wanted to give y’all a little fresh sound.

Raptalk.Net: Masta Ace, if you could take one skill set from Edo and apply it to your raps and arsenal of skills, which one would you take?

Masta Ace: I would say his voice; the ill, gravelly voice. Edo has a ill voice with a lot of bass in it.

Raptalk.Net: Same question for you Edo.

Ed O.G: Ace is real particular so I would take the taking the time and making sure everything is right. I tend to kind of fly through things. I’m just like let’s roll, let’s do it and I’m ready to go. But Ace is more about taking a step back and surveys the whole thing. I would definitely take that and apply it to what I do.

Raptalk.Net: While your speaking Edo, give us an update on The Special Teamz.

Ed O.G: I actually just ran into Slaine earlier today. We had put everything on the back burner because Slaine had the La Coka Nostra album that just came out and they’ve been touring for that. Me and Ace have this project coming out and we recorded a whole record. We kind of just had put everything on hold for a while. Next year, will release next summer or something because we just talked today about that. That’ll be coming.

Raptalk.Net: Ace, what are your current thoughts on the state of Hip-Hop in New York?

Masta Ace: In New York? Wow. It’s pretty bad in New York. The artists in New York are now conforming. Back then New York used to lead the way. They used to kind of be that place where new sounds were created, new flows, new artists and new music was created. Now, a lot of the younger, up and coming New York artists are trying to copy the down south stuff or that other sound. New York used to have there own sound and now I think everybody kind of sounds the same. Everybody kinda’ sounds like what you hear on the radio. If you listen to the radio and listen to demos of cats that is trying to get on right now, they all have a down south beat or flow on there. They all try to conform to whatever is hot and I miss that about New York. I miss the fact that we would always have the big summer record that a New York artist made that didn’t sound like anything else that was out there. I miss those days. That’s what I don’t like about New York right as far as our hip-hop goes. The style kind of faded a little bit.

Raptalk.Net: Real talk. Why should everyone go cop the album on October 20th?

Masta Ace: Because it’s banging. You have two MC’s that have been doing it for a long time and our still doing it at a high level. The tracks are incredible and so is the production. You have some concept records on there, it’s not just us rhyming because there is more though put into it than that. It took two years to make so you know it isn’t fast food. Its straight home cooking, the real stuff.

Ed O.G: He summed it up.

Raptalk.Net: What’s next up?

Ed O.G: Touring. We’re gonna’ be up in Canada first quarter next year doing the whole Canadian run throughout the whole country. We’re hitting Europe after Thanksgiving up to Christmas. We’re hitting Canada and the U.S.A. after that. We’re just gonna’ ride the wave man.

Raptalk.Net: I’ll see y’all out in Toronto for sure. I appreciate you Ace & Edo for taking the time to speak to us. This is www.raptalk.net with two east coast legends in the house, Masta Ace and Ed O.G., do you have any last words before I let you go?

Ed O.G: Cop the album “Arts & Entertainment.” Look for the video because it’s gonna’ be the best video of ’09.

Masta Ace: That’s it. He summed it up. Get the album and EMC is coming 2010.
Co-Director of Site Content For Raptalk.Net
Staff Writer For WordOfSouth.Com
Staff Writer For Illuminati2G.Net
Staff Writer For SoPrupRadio.com