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interview FLIPSYDE (July 2005) | Interview By: Mauzip

      
Dubcnn, the day before Game's show in Amsterdam, got the chance to do a video interview with Game's support act Flipsyde. Flipsyde already toured with Snoop and The Game in February and toured with the Black Eyed Peas as well. In September Flipsyde will be touring with Eminem and 50 Cent. In the interview Flipsyde talks about the new album, the bombings in London and much more! So check out the interview! Feel free to send any feedback regarding the interview too: rud@dubcnn.com

Questions Asked By : Mauzip


Huge thanks to Flipsyde for taking time out to answer the questions fans wanted to know!

View the Video Interview: Here

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Dubcnn.com: About six weeks ago you dropped the album We The People in Europe. In The States it’s dropping on the 12th of this month. Why did it drop over here first? Usually it’s the other way around.

Piper: It usually is, but we started the fire over here first on a mass level back in February with Snoop and The Game on that major tour. Then we came back with the Black Eyed Peas, we did some rock festivals after that. Since we’re coming back with The Game again we decided to drop it out here first.

The fire started for us in hour hometown back in The States and this movement around America is blazing here and there. We started here on a mass level first, so that’s why we dropped it here.

Dubcnn.com: Can you describe the title of the album We The People? Why did you choose that name?

Piper: Because we are the people, we’re a visual representation of the people. I’m a black male from Oakland, California. Steve is a white male from Alabama. Dave is a Chilean. We grew up in The States, so in a way we symbolically represent the people of America, which is a mixture.

We were told a lot by fans, when we come off the stage: “your music makes me feel like I’m up there singing. It’s like you’re singing about my life, you’re rapping about my life.” We rap for the people. Those are basically the two major reasons we chose We The People as the title.

Dubcnn.com: You got a first single, Someday. Can you tell what the single is about?

Piper: The single is basically about being optimistic. It’s about acknowledging your negative surroundings in your environment today. Being optimistic that it will be better tomorrow and we took that into mind when creating the video cause the video basically takes four different lives. In the video in the first case it’s a straight alcoholic dude.

He makes a wish could be a clean cut individual. It’s not an alcoholic anymore, he has a job. In the second case it’s a woman raising her daughter. Her husband is away at war. She makes a wish: she wishes he was home. He’s back home. In the third case it’s a cancer patient in the hospital.

He wishes he was healthy. So all of these people’s lives went from misery to comfort, but then in the fourth case you have this wealthy man who profited from their situations of misery. He may have owned the company that sold that wine or alcohol, so he needs him to be an alcoholic.

He may have owned the hospital that houses the cancer patient, he needs him to be a cancer patient. He may have profited of off war in some type of way, so his wish was they would all return back to their miserable states.
So it’s just about being optimistic. Rich people have dreams too, we didn’t just grand the dreams of the poor and the miserable.

Dubcnn.com: Who directed the video?

Piper: James Cox. He directed and wrote the screenplay for Wonderland along with this guy named Mauzner. He was great. I wrote the treatment for the video. James was taking those ideas and painting colors on the canvas man. He added just the right touches and brought the video to life.

Dubcnn.com: Who’s idea was the concept of the video?

Piper: I wrote the treatment for the video. We needed something that represented the song as well as us.

Dubcnn.com: Did you already pick a second single?

Piper: No, not really, but people are leaning towards Spun.

Dubcnn.com: What is the song US History about? Cause it’s got some good lyrics!

Piper: I was a counselor in juvenile hall. That’s a detention center for youngsters, like a prison for teenagers. They would love to hear me talk about politics and history, but a lot of them couldn’t read and others wouldn’t read.

So I wrote the song to teach them about the history of the United States and they learned the song. That’s how they learned about the history of the United States. The song isn’t like a history book, it’s to spark something into and to dig further and get more information.

So they had fun going to find more information and then we landed back to a certain lyric because it’s written in their language, so they were able to understand it.

I love when I’m bumping to people and say “why did you use this lyrics here and why did you explain this situation like that?” in a disapproving way and it’s like “the song wasn’t fucking written for you”. The people that I wrote the song for understand it just fine.

Dubcnn.com: Since you have political lyrics on your album, let’s talk a little bit about politics then. For example what do you think about Bush’ foreign politics and the whole war on terror?

Piper: The war on terror is kind of like the war on drugs. Any war where you can’t win, there’s no definite victory, there’s no end to it. I don’t think it’s a good war to wage. That’s my personal opinion.

The war on drugs has been going on for a very long time and I still know people that sell drugs and profit from drugs. I still know a lot of people that die from drugs. I still know a lot of people that had their lives ended in many different ways by drugs. I’m sure the same situation exists with terrorism in years to come.

I mean, if you look at the history of terrorism: any enemy to a government can be labeled as a terrorist if they’re not organized and have a correct title. As a matter of fact there are lists of different terrorist organizations and certain organizations can be taken of off that list for different reasons and placed back on it.

It’s kind of like a grey area thing. The people of the world really need to pay attention because the power is truly with the people and if they invest the time and energy and listening and studying then maybe the world can take a turn for the better.

Dubcnn.com: What was your first reaction when you heard of what happened today [July 7th, 2005] in London?

Piper: I was sad. People die, people got injured… but when your next door neighbor is starving you better be worried. Cause if he’s starving he might rob you. If he is in misery and he is your next door neighbor, you’re in danger.

He might break into your house, he might steal your car and the world is becoming so small through information and… the world is small now. Everybody is each other’s next door neighbor. If this particular country is suffering, then another country may be in danger.

That’s just what it is, that’s what it showed me today. We can’t just keep stepping over that homeless man without trying to find him a job. Without making sure he has some food in his stomach because when it gets dark at night time you may be that person getting car jacked, you may be that person getting robbed.

You can’t just let that kid grow up getting abused and sexually tempered with and all types of stuff. Cause when he grows up he might be a serial kidnapper, a serial rapist or a serial murderer and we may be the victim of that.  That’s a cold poetic justice and that’s something that I think can be avoided.

Dubcnn.com: What could the USA improve its country?

Piper: Every country has a long list of things that it can do to improve itself, not just from a military aspect or from a political aspect. Knowledge is education. Education is a cornerstone of a country.

If you have better education your country can have better production, it can be ran smoothly. There are so many different things that I can’t even comment on. I’m not European, I didn’t grow up out here, but I know that there are a lot of things that Europe can do to different countries in Europe.

There are a lot of things that they can do to improve their situations as well. Obviously it’s not heaven out here. London just got bombed.

Dubcnn.com: Here’s DJ D-Sharp. Introduce yourself…

D-Sharp: I’m DJ D-Sharp, Flipsyde worldwide. How are ya’ll doing?

Dubcnn.com: And this is the guy from Chile?

Dave: Yep, Dave Lopez, guitar player.

Dubcnn.com: How did you guys start Flipsyde? How was the group formed?

Dave: Originally I used to work at the Soundwave Studios in Oakland and I met Steve at the studio and from there we all met. Piper and Steve already knew each other. I met Piper and from there I met D-Sharp.

We all met through Soundwave Studios and we all got together and started jamming. Get in a room and start writing and jamming. The jams turned out to be the album We The People. A lot of that was just us messing around.
It’s a great album.

Dubcnn.com: One of the first things I noticed is you all have a very different heritage… you got a Latino, white guy, two black guys … can we hear the mixture back in the music?

Dave: We didn’t really plan any of this. We just liked what we were doing and it felt natural. It’s kind of meant to be in a way. We do whatever is natural and I think that reflects that on the album.

Dubcnn.com: What are the musical influences of you all?

Dave: I grew up with Chilean music, protest music. Victor Jara, who was an incredible singer and was killed during the coup in ’73. There was a revolution in Chile through music. It changed a lot of politics.

They were my biggest influences and then of course Led Zeppelin, Kiss and Van Halen… all the heavy metal music… a lot of old hip hop like Run DMC… my guitar teacher… Santana… Shit, there’s so many and everyday it’s changing. There’s always great music.

D-Sharp: I’m a DJ, so it goes way back. I started off on the Motown stuff with my mom. My pops was a piano player for various groups out of Oakland. He played with Sly Stone, Larry Ground… a lot of Bay Area musicians.

And then as I grew of course the Whodini’s and the Run DMC’s and the LL Cool J’s and that whole Def Jam era in the beginning. It goes from there to Gang Starr and A Tribe Called Quest and a lot of the East Coast rap stuff and then of course Ice Cube, N.W.A…. all of that movement.

I mean, it goes deep. Recently I’ve been into a lot of Brazilian music. A lot of percussion, bass, heavy music.

Piper: I have a wide range of musical influences. Growing up my mother was playing. Bobby Womack, Sam Cook. The Eagles. My family played a lot of Brazilian music… my father is from Brazil… and then when hip hop started: Run DMC, LL Cool J… Tupac is the greatest rapper of all time. Cee-Lo, Busta Rhymes…

I have a wide range of influences and now that I’m in this band, Flipsyde, Dave brings me things. Latin music, they’re speaking Spanish and I can’t even undertand it, it don’t matter. It sounds good. It inspires something in me.

I bring him some Brazilian records that he can listen to. Steve brings me some blues or some country music. It all works out. We draw from a wide range of influences.

Dubcnn.com: If I’d have to describe your sound to someone that has never heard of you I’d say your music is a mix of hip hop and rock… kinda like Linkin Park, but a lot more hip hop orientated. Would that be a right way to describe your music?

Dave: Yeah, but you gotta add the Latin. We’re more blues I think, more Latin. I guess the Latin is bringing the rock together.
I would call it ‘acoustic hip hop rock soul Latin’.

Dubcnn.com: You guys toured with Snoop and Game earlier this year and also with the Black Eyed Peas. Right now you’re touring with Game.
How is your relationship with these artists? Do you learn a lot from these guys?

D-Sharp: Yeah, it’s cool to watch these guys do their thing on stage and we pick up things from them because they sold millions of records and they have a fan base. We can learn from them.

We’re about to start to try to be on their level. So we learn from them.
As far as the relationship we have with them, they’re all cool people.
They’re all down to earth, regular people regular people like the people you grew up with or people from your neighborhood.
It’s no different than any of my homies.

Dave: Fergie was cute.

Dubcnn.com: Is she actually as hot in real life as she is on tv?

Dave: Fergie is super sexy.

D-Sharp: Yeah, Fergie is the home girl.

Dubcnn.com: Soon you’ll be touring with 50 Cent and Eminem right?

D-Sharp: Yep.

Dubcnn.com: In the credits of your album I also saw you worked with Mike Elizondo. Did you also work with other Aftermath artists or whatever?

D-Sharp: No.

Dave: D-Sharp has a beat on Shock G’s latest solo album.

Dubcnn.com: Cool. What song?

D-Sharp: It’s called Clev MC. It’s like the interlude beat that I did for the album. Big ups to Shock G for that.

Dubcnn.com: Are there any upcoming projects or anything else coming up soon that we should know about?

D-Sharp: Get the album, it’s in stores now. We’re gonna do a lot of touring. We’re out here with The Game, we’re gonna be back out here with 50 Cent and Eminem. We hope to gain more fans through our music and the message.

I hope you guys can get along with us. What we focussing on right now is giving you a real great show and hopefully everybody come out and enjoy what we do.

Dubcnn.com: Do you got any last words?

Dave: Peace to everything. Peace, no war. Let’s not kill each other. Not like in London, it’s tragic. Give each other a hug. Underneath our skin we’re all the same. We all bleed, we all die.

D-Sharp: I can’t say it no better… peace amongst the world. That’s what we try to do. We try to spread peace through the music. Hopefully everybody can come together as one. Throw the Flipsyde record in the party. That’s what we try to do.





 

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View the Video Interview: Here

 

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