SOULSTICE  (August 2006) | Interview By: Zuka

   

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Interview was done in August 2006

Questions Asked By: Zuka

Video fragments edited by: Zuka

Soulstice Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here (Audio)

Soulstice Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here (Video)

More information on Soulstice: Wandering Soul or www.myspace.com/soulstice

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Soulstice is a rapper out of Chicago who is on the come up and a smart one for that. What is someone with a masters degree in Electrical Computer Engineering that works for the U.S. government doing in hip hop?

“It’s a question of the chicken and the egg. When I was a kid I got into hip hop, so the hip hop was there before the education was. It was just a passion in the early 90s when a lot of people got into hip hop, that’s when I got into it. First we were fans of it, then we started making it and it just got more and more serious and I carried it onto college. Of course I still got the education so that I can pay the bills and stuff like that. Music is all the time getting more serious, so it’s just a matter of time until… I don’t wanna say one takes over the other, but if that has to happen that has to happen.”

“I like having both right now because it’s a good diversity to the stuff that I do. It’s really dynamic, it keeps me thinking, but I’m serious about the music; so when the time is right the time is right. I’ll make that move. I’m looking at it as when the music catches up. So yeah, it’s a passion thing so I would do it for lower, but I’m shooting for the stars, so to speak.”


Rappers from the Chi like Rhymefest, Common and Mikkey are very lyrical. Where does Soulstice stand?

Soulstice Video Segment #1

“Lyrically it’s about life. I don’t pose or posture a lot. I just speak it as I see it; as I live it, as I see the people around me living it. That’s a part of the lyrics right there. It’s personal experience and life in general. At the same time I try to make it dope as well. It’s just life, as we poetically put so to speak in lyrical form.”

“The best time for me to write is when I get a really really dope beat. Usually I write backwards from the beat. One of my producers gives me a beat cd, I spin it in the car and the beat will come on… then the song basically writes itself right there. Another time I like to write is right after I see a performance. Like I might go to a pop show, somebody is really killing it then it’s like ‘ah damn I gotta go back to the lab and write something myself.’ Basically anytime I get inspired. Sometimes I be doing something random and I’m walking around and a thought or a lyric pop in your head, so it’s really like it’s happening in the real time. As you’re living it, it’s coming to you like that.”

Soulstice Video Segment #2

That brings us to the records. The album "North by Northwest: Solid Ground" has been out for a while, but there’s a story to it…

“Yeah, the album "North by Northwest: Solid Ground". I originally put it out in 2003 and it was basically an out the trunk kind of thing. Really, I was amazed because when I put it out the response was so big. Not just U.S. and Chicago, but around the world and so some larger labels got interested in a release. One out the US that had distribution through Sony, another from Japan had distribution through Universal. They were both asking me for copies of the album cause they wanted to put it out on a more official basis with better distribution. It’s been a couple of years since I put out the first one, so I revisited the work. I made some new tracks to get it fresh. Put it back together, new artwork, remastered it and put it back out. Since then it’s been in XXL Magazine, on AllHipHop, Elemental Magazine and MyCoke.com… it’s been all over, so it’s really been an experience so far.”

“After the "North by Northwest", my next project is Wade Waters. It’s me and another artist out of DC, named Haysoos. We just put out a mixtape called "Return of The Kings" this summer featuring Cuban Link from Terror Squad on the joint "Rock Solid". That was a big single for us and then just a lot of our singles like "The Melody" and "The Quickening", Haysoos had a big single "Listen Up", "Streetbox". So it’s basically introducing you to the group, then we got another album coming out this fall. We just did a joint with AZ from Illmatic. That single is coming out in September and the album is coming out in October.”

Soulstice Video Segment #3

“Haysoos is a radio DJ from Universal, college radio. He was interviewing Cuban Link over the phone and basically they just started talking and really clicked. We hit up his manager and they were with it, so we did the joint. Haysoos called me up cause I wasn’t involved in it first. He called me up and was like ‘Yo we got Cuban, [we] wanna do a joint with you’. We just kinda collaborated and put it together. That’s what kinda started the group Wade Waters, really. That one single and we just kinda moved forward from there.”

“I hooked up with [Oddisee] a long time ago when both of us were a lot less well-known. Back in 2001 I was in DC for an internship for the job I’m working at now at the government. I was working as an intern; I was there for the summer. I didn’t know anybody from the scene, I was just one dude. I went on the internet and looked up the local open mics in hip hop and then I just started going. I started rocking all local open mics. Oddisee and Ken Start happened to be at one they rocked and I was like ‘Yo, I don’t know who made those beats, but I gotta meet that dude’. I just met him that way and we just started working together.”


Not only did Soulstice work with names like Cuban Link and Oddisee, he also performed with some heavyweights. You might have heard from the Wu-Tang Clan and John Legend.

“Actually, the John Legend story is kinda funny. I didn’t know who John Legend was at the time. It was right before he got real popular. I didn’t even know who the dude was. I just kept seeing all the posters. So I opened up and he came on afterwards and it was good. Right after that it took off. Maybe we’ll do a track in the future.”

Soulstice Video Segment #4

For the past couple of years there’s a movement going on in Chicago. There’s Rhymefest, Kanye West, Common, Boo & Gotti, Bump J, etc.

“I think it’s great and there’s really been a movement for a long time. There’s a lot of talented cats coming out of Chicago. Some cats like Rhymefest, Common and Twista have been holding down the city for a number of years, so it’s cool to see somebody like Kanye really get that commercial success, come back to the scene and acknowledge the cats that have been there for a long time like Twista and Common. People like that… Rhymefest… It’s dope to see that. He kinda took the whole movement and kind of moved it forward with himself. I was always proud to rock Chicago, but now it’s cool because it you say Chicago and it means something to people in terms of a sound. They kinda know what to expect and that is cool.”


Chi-town has never made it on the map as cities like L.A. and New York have.

“It’s all business. The media centers are New York and L.A. and Atlanta has his thing too. The major media centers in the US are in New York and L.A. Chicago doesn’t have the right business infra structure yet to really support a big local music scene. The connections aren’t there, so it has nothing to do with talent or the scene or anything like that. It’s really a matter of the major labels not really being present there.”

Soulstice Video Segment #5
 

“R. Kelly has been holding down the city. He’s an R&B cat. R&B cats don’t really shout city names on tracks. Singers don’t really shout out the places like that. It really is just a matter of none of those cats were from Chicago, none of those cats have probably ever been to Chicago as far as the rappers go. Otherwise it’s really coming up. People in Chicago been know who R. Kelly was. Singers don’t really rep their area as much as rappers do.”


All in all, Soulstice foresees a good period of time for the Chicago hip hop scene.

“It’s really in flux right now. It’s looking good because you had Kanye coming out strong and it’s good to see that that’s actually carrying forward. Common came out, classic album and is working on another album. John Legend is getting ready to come back out. It doesn’t seem it’s going anywhere. It’s cool, but it’s uncertain. The music industry is very fickle so it could flash real bright and burn out really fast or it can continue on. The fact that a lot of talented artists are coming out of Chicago is… the scene is so strong. I think it’s gonna be around for a while. Now that a lot of people are really focusing on the music that’s coming out of there, I really think it’ll be around cause the talent isn’t going away.”

“The future of Chicago besides the music? The future of urban America, it’s all tied in. It just depends on what these politicians decide to do with our tax money. Education, that’s where it all is. It’s where the tax dollars are going. Once the politicians get it right, that’s when we are gonna determine the future of the city. That’s one thing that has anything to do with it unfortunately. It’s a ghetto in every city. People start to get the education system right, I think that’ll change.”

Soulstice Video Segment #6