Author Topic: Nappy Flows: The Nappy Roots Interview (Read 108 times)

Lunatic · « **on:** March 01, 2010, 10:20:26 AM »

Features | WOS | March 1, 2010 at 8:33 AM

http://www.wordofsouth.com/2010/03/01/nappy-flows-the-nappy-roots-interview/

WordofSouth.com: With your upcoming album being called, “Pursuit of Nappyness” is there any kind of personal influence or inspiration from the hit movie, Pursuit of Happiness.

Skinny Deville: Definitely. I think what Will Smith’s character went through to get what he wanted out of life is something we all can relate to. As a man; family comes first next to God and he should do any and everything to provide, protect, and keep his unit together. The grind that Chris Darden had to go through to maintain stability for his child is what we do on a daily basis and often times it seems impossible and very difficult to accomplish. The movie is a true testament to humility, honesty, desperation, struggle, perseverance, patience and straight up grindin’. And for that, I can definitely relate.

WordofSouth.com: How did the recording process for this album differ from the first three?

Skinny Deville: This one was different in various ways. We used technology a lot on this album. When I say technology, it’s not easy and I’m going to say it like this. Me and [Fish] Scales live in Atlanta; Big V lives in Bowling Green and [Ron] Clutch and B. Stille live in Louisville. The album came about with only three sessions of us actually being together in the same room, same space at the same time. One was at Clutch’s house when we went to Louisville for Nappy Roots weekend and we stayed there for about a week and had a session. One was last summer when Clutch, Big V and B. Stille came to Atlanta and we all got in the studio. The last session we just had was in DJ KO’s spot who produced five tracks on the album. Those are the only three sessions we had together.
Between that, we were emailing records back and forth with the pro tools sessions. We were on the road doing a bunch of stuff. We even had a pro tools rig set up in the hotel rooms. We actually used www.pmpworldwide.com this time. It’s a beat dumpsite and we grabbed beats off that website and actually used them on the album. A lot of producers that are producing and using beat dump sites to gain notoriety, it actually does work. You gotta’ be patient and have the heat. We went through and used PMP Worldwide and a bunch of producers gave us tons of beats. We shopped through them and basically A&R’ed the project ourselves. We would email the producers and let them know we were trying to use it and they were ecstatic. We got a lot of the beats that way.

WordofSouth.com: We’re going to get into the album a bit more. I know Fontana distributed the last album and you already mentioned them here. So they are distributing this album as well, correct?

Skinny Deville: Yeah. We have a nice deal with them. It took a long time for us to get the situation that we have at Fontana. To get what we have now, the ability to put out 4-5 albums a year without somebody standing over us to keep everything from it other than our distribution fee is great. People are taking 360 deals right now just to get in the stores. We have a great situation without giving up our masters, publishing, touring or merchandising. We’re not giving up anything and our able to stay who we are and put out our music and not just our music but anybody we associate ourselves with and we want to put out, we can do that. We can do it digitally or physical. Ron Spaulding and a bunch of people over there like Chris Ayers & Erica Holley, we have a very good relationship.
My whole thing is to be respected and be treated like a priority regardless of where I’m at. At Atlantic, we were respected as a priority, but the game was changing. It was literally changing right in front of our faces and it didn’t make sense at the time for a six man collective to be signed to a major label on the same level as a solo artist. It just doesn’t make sense. How do you retire from the rap game? How does a hoe retire from the hoe game? She doesn’t. She might get out the game and do something totally different, but the pimp is not about to let you retire with a fat ass house and a bunch of shit with your kids well off. They aren’t supposed to do that.

You’ve heard it time and time again, but the music game is like the dope game and the pimp game. It could even be both, but at least it’s either one. The pimp is selling dope and the hoes. As an artist, whether you like it or not, you’re pretty much a hoe. They give you money; they put you up, make you famous and you run around making them money and bring it all back to them. They take it before you even get your cut. To be college educated and a man that knows what he wants in life, to see the fame and read the books to understand the business, I would be a fool to let someone else do that to me for the rest of my natural career. For me, this isn’t about one album and get famous. I went to college, graduated and have a degree. This is my career. I’m trying to make this something I do and respect and I need to be respected back and see a lot of love in return.

With that said, I can’t complain because it has. I’ve been in the game for ten years. I tweeted about it a few months ago – damn, I haven’t had a real job, a 9-5 punch your time clock job in over ten years. It’s a blessing by the higher creator that I’m still able to take care of my family. I’m not balling out the ass, but I’m alive and making a living. I’m not necessarily making a killing but I’m making a living by doing what I do which is make music for my fans to appreciate. I do that, smoke weed and have a great day every day just rapping. To me, that shit is phenomenal. If you take care of it and respect it that way, that is what you get out of it. If you think you can come here and make a quick lick then yeah you might get one shot at it and that’s all you’ll get. I look at the artists that have had 10-15 years in the game. I don’t look at the guys that are just out right now. There are a lot of good guys out right now but you holla’ at me when you’ve made it past four years and you still have your sanity, your hair, the same girlfriend, your friends that you used to run with that respected you when you got big and didn’t flake out.

This shit is hard. A lot of people can’t deal with this shit. They don’t understand how much it takes to become an artist. They think everybody should be an MC or rapper but that’s not really the case all the time.

WordofSouth.com: I want to point out as you mentioned with Atlantic, major label deals for groups getting paid like it was a solo artist. A lot of people get their quick shot, but they don’t get the opportunity to get into a second situation like you have with Fontana and have it be such a good situation.

Skinny Deville: Yeah but that shit wasn’t easy. It took us five years. Think about it. A lot of people ask our where we’ve been. Let’s look back real quick. Let me give you a quick synopsis. We got signed to Atlantic Records back in 1998. I was a junior in college when we did that deal. That happened really quickly. We weren’t even trying to get a deal; we were just rapping. We were happy to get our first album on the shelves. We had our own record store so we kind of knew what was going on. This was in 1998. We got signed and recorded an entire album that didn’t even see the light of day. We didn’t have a name to it because we didn’t know what the fuck was going on. They were just trying to make us make shit. We were just making shit for the sake of making shit. That wasn’t it though. 2002 “Watermelon, Chicken & Grits” comes out, 2003 “Wooden Leather” comes out.

By 2003, the industry is changing so it’s not the best situation at all at that time. Napster had just killed the game in 2000 and the industry was still trying to recover. It was suing the shit out of people by 2003 for illegally downloading music. In 2004, the big merger between Warner, Elektra & Atlantic happened. Lyor Cohen comes in to run Atlantic or WEA. By 2004, iTunes was booming and we already knew we wanted out of the situation. We had to dumb ourselves down and give them nothing. They wanted a whole new album and we said no, we don’t have it and we’re not going to do it. We tried that and it wasn’t the same as we thought. The game wasn’t going to be able to work for us.

We decided to get off the label through an option we had when we re-negotiated. We had to do that for two years just for them to say you know what? Fuck these guys. There was still some love but business wise they saw it was going to cost them more in the long run. We had a two million dollar record deal. We re-negotiated after “Watermelon, Chicken & Grits” went platinum. They took advantage of a group from Kentucky. We fought through that because we had no leverage. We were just a hot group with talent at the time. Back in the late 90s, all you needed was talent. Now, you don’t need to have talent so imagine how much the game has changed. You don’t even need talent anymore; you just need to have the know how and money. Hell and half the time you don’t even need the “know how” part.

Anyway, in 1998 we had talent and got signed off talent. That’s how we got a deal that wasn’t like a deal you would get now. We re-negotiated and got two million dollars. The deal was that we get two million dollars every time we get in the booth and do another album. They wanted another album when we didn’t really finish working “Wooden Leather” and they didn’t even work it, we worked it ourselves. We only had a little help from them and sold 350,000. We said you know what? We need to go independent because if we can sell this shit on our own, we keep all the money. The idea started back in 2003 after they pretty much didn’t do shit with “Wooden Leather.”

I’m giving you the history because a lot of people asked where we’ve been and why it took so long for us to come back out. We had to get through all of that bullshit and getting off a label is not easy. If you’re making them money, it is not easy to get off a label. We had to stay still and look like a dysfunctional group. We looked like we didn’t exist anymore just to get off [Atlantic]. Finally, they let us go and said whatever they got they can keep. It was onto the next artists they started putting out. They put out a lot of acts after us which makes you say damn that could have been us, but you have to not worry about that and keep it moving forward. We wanted to go independent so we just shopped around for the best independent deal we could find. We sat down with KOCH [now E1] and had a deal with them on the table for several months. I was mad that we didn’t do that deal because they were blowing up with Jim Jones when we began negotiating with them. But then they didn’t want to do it the way we wanted to do it, so we had to pass.

And then Fontana popped up. We were doing digital distribution with Ingrooves and that’s how it came about. Fontana showed up tight and gave us a real good deal. We’re able to put out 3-4 projects a year whether it’s digital or physical. It could be Nappy Roots a couple of times, solo projects, Skinny and Fish Scales, Big V, Ron Clutch or B. Stille. It could be whoever you think has talent and will sell, then we can run with it and that’s what we were looking for back in 2004.

WordofSouth.com: I know exactly what you’re talking about in regards to the merger. That really messed up albums in 2004 for whoever had to go through it.

Skinny Deville: That shit killed careers. If you didn’t get established before that, it was really hard for you to get established after that. It was only the people that actually had stuff going on that are still surviving today. It’s almost impossible for you to be a new artist right now in this day and age in the game and still have success that we had in the early 2000’s.

WordofSouth.com: No new artist goes platinum nowadays on his first album.

Skinny Deville: No they don’t. We went platinum on our first album (laughs).

WordofSouth.com: That doesn’t happen anymore.

Skinny Deville: I wish it did for the new artists so they can get the feeling of that. The scope has changed though. You still find success in other ways. You find success in touring, merchandising, and publishing. You can get your songs placed in TV shows, movies and commercials and all kinds of stuff. There are plenty avenues for artists to get money.

WordofSouth.com: Speaking of Nappy Roots history, a lot of people don’t know what happened to former Nappy member R. Prophet. Can you help people know what really happened with his departure and why?

Skinny Deville: He wanted to travel in a different creative direction than the rest of us and felt that it was his time to do so. That’s still my brother and there’s definitely no love lost. That’s basically it in a nutshell.

WordofSouth.com: We’re going to get more into the album. The video for “Ride” with yourself and Fish Scales hit recently. Also, a new song titled “Dippin & Dodgin” hit XXL. Tell us about those records.

Skinny Deville: “Ride” is a great ode for the highway. We’re about to shoot a video for that next week; a real video. The trailer for “Ride” was to let everybody know what’s to come for “The Pursuit of Nappyness.” It was a little viral piece we put out. Really, I would like to do that all the time but if you do that all the time, people don’t really appreciate it. We’re trying to give the fans great pieces here and there to make it 100%. “Ride” is the first buzz single off the album “The Pursuit of Nappyness.” That’s what the album feels to me. We have a lot of natural elements to the album like we did on “Watermelon, Chicken & Grits.” It’s acoustic and has that live and organic instrumentation felt to it. That’s what “The Pursuit of Nappyness” is to me. “Ride” is a sample of what’s to come.
With the “Dippin & Dodgin” record, that’s us getting down where we hang out at tree sound. Sugar Tongue Slim recording at Tree Sound Studios hanging out with my man Groove [Chambers] who is a good friend of ours. He produced “Aw’naw” and the majority of the “Watermelon, Chicken & Grits” album. We always go up there and hang out with him when we have the time. Even when we need some mixing, we go to Tree Sound Studious and get to work. That was just a bunch of artists hanging out one day. Sugar Tongue Slim is a cool cat and a good artist; he has some flow to him. I think that he is an artist that will survive how the game is now.

The artists that will make it need to adapt to what people want. That is going to be key in determining the sales of the future for the industry. On the subject of giving people what they want, you can’t keep force-feeding them that bullshit. We’re smart and we understand it. We get it more than the last generation and we’re keeping it for the next generation. He’s [Sugar Tongue Slim] one of the artists that people are going to say that he’s giving me something lyrically. I thought that was a great look to really get that song out and let the people know about him and us if they don’t know. That was a freebee to let you know who we are.

WordofSouth.com: Ok. “Ride” is the first single and the full version of the video is being shot shortly. You mentioned some of the production coming from cats you found online. Did Groove Chambers produce anything? He reunited with you guys on the production tip for “The Humdinger” album.

Skinny Deville: Not this time. Groove [Chambers] is working on his own solo album right now. He gave us “Don’t Stop” and “Tinted Up.” He’s working on his own album so he’s knee deep on his own project. We come up there a lot [to his studio] and we bounce things off each other. We just went in some different directions on this album. He went his way and we went ours. We worked from the PMP Worldwide page, a dude by the name of L.X and also producer by the name of Cloud 9, who I think is from Canada, but don’t quote me on that. That was a good experience. It’s almost too easy. I don’t want to say it like I don’t appreciate it, but technology makes things a lot simpler than it used to be. If you need something done, you can just sit down and move your fingertips. You don’t have to see people nowadays; that’s crazy.

You don’t need to see music being made at all. Music is going digital and you can make it all the way digital all the way down to the listener. It doesn’t take long to go through that process. That’s what makes it so crazy. It’s not like I don’t enjoy doing it, but we actually relied on it as a way to get it done this time, it’s different than how we’ve been doing it. It’s easy in the way of getting the album but the process of getting the records from the producers to us without having to deal with an A&R or a mailing system; I’m talking about big file sessions. It used to be where you couldn’t email sessions and if you did, you needed to have a big server to do that.

Even with “Dippin & Dodgin”, that song was done in three different studios before it came out. It wasn’t a situation where we had to sit around for a week and wait on the mixing and mastering. People can get a great mix in their bedroom now and they used to have to go to a facility to get that done. That’s what changed the game up. It’s made it very convenient and at the same time difficult for artists.

WordofSouth.com: So talk to us about the chemistry on the album. Some may be worried to hear it was done in so many different spots. How do you account for that?

Skinny Deville: I don’t think it affected it at all. The whole idea of it is, we worked on all the major songs together in our three sessions. We would all be there when the idea came about or me and [Fish] Scales was there and we would send it to [Ron] Clutch and he would jump on it and send it back. B. Stille would work on something and send it to me; I jump on it and send it back. We were working that way. We’ve done it before for a while but this album, that’s how we did it. We focused in on that. The chemistry hasn’t changed. We would do songs with just two people and it would sit on somebody’s two-inch reel or hard drive for a month before somebody got back in and laid a third verse. That’s how we were moving around and shaking on the road. The chemistry is going to be to a point where we may never see the guy who spit the verse before you. He may have been right there with you when y’all came up with the idea a month ago. The three sessions were about working on several different records each time.

WordofSouth.com: There isn’t a lot of room on the album for guest appearances but you do work with other artists. Sugar Tongue Slim got on “Dippin & Dodgin” (which doesn’t appear on the album) but are there any guest appearances you want to notify us about?

Skinny Deville: We worked with A. Leon (pronounced Alien) Craft. He’s an extraordinary artist and they used to call him Big Marc from the group Da Buckwudz. He changed his name to A. Leon Craft. He’s the first rapper to make the cut on a nationwide Nappy album. He’s featured on one record and did background vocals on another. We have Chops the producer and we’re working with him a lot. Also, Phivestarr Productions, and Sol Messiah got down as well. Je’kob Washington is an extraordinary artist we worked with on the album. He’s a artist/producer and is featured on one of the hooks. It was a different feel on this album because it’s a very difficult time in America and we wanted something to capture the moment on a positive note.

WordofSouth.com: No Anthony Hamilton this time around?

Skinny Deville: Not this time. I wish we could have hooked up and did a record. How we were all moving didn’t help. He got hurt [his knee] earlier in the year last year and that was the one time we all had a chance to get in with him. One of us was always on the road when the other was finally free.

WordofSouth.com: So many people think that Down N’ Out from “The Humdinger” should have been a major hit record, why do you personally think that single ended up being slept on by the mainstream masses?

Skinny Deville: We felt that way too and made a valiant effort to make it one, but in my opinion mainstream, I mean, corporate radio sucks. Period. Money talks when talent should. That’s another part of the game I wish would change, but hey we gotta’ keep it movin’… No blood, no foul.

WordofSouth.com: You guys now have a situation with Fontana where you’re able to drop 4-5 projects a year including solo projects. The Nappy Roots solos have been talked about for a while. What’s the progress looking like on that?

Skinny Deville: “Skinny & Scales” the duo album by me and Fish Scales is dropping this year. Big V aka Vito Banga is also dropping this year. I know those two are coming out. B. Stille is working on his, “The Distillery.” Ron Clutch is also working on some different projects as well. As for solo albums and group albums, that’s what we were looking for out the Atlantic deal. We’ve always wanted to create a Wu-Tang type feel. We wanted the ability to put out what we wanted when we wanted. Wu-Tang put out each solo album on different labels and we’re still able to come back as a group. I think that is phenomenal.

A lot of people say we remind them of the Wu-Tang Clan, but we haven’t done that yet. Now that we’re finally able to do it on the same distribution company instead of different labels, we get to deal with them directly and put out whatever we want to. That allows us to have all that without having any animosity about who has a shot and who doesn’t. Everybody wants to be successful and have a shot at the goal and everybody should have one. That’s how we think about it with Nappy Roots. If you want to do it, will do and put it out. Of course, it has to be hot though.

WordofSouth.com: Tell us about “Skinny & Scales.”

Skinny Deville: The duo album from me and Fish Scales. I think it’s going to be fun for us. It’ll be good for the movement of the Nappy Roots; to get that point of view. I think we connect a lot on point of views and beat selections. When we do a lot of group songs, me and Fish Scales really agree more than anybody. We pick the same tracks. Even in college, we were the ones rapping the most together from a lyrical standpoint. We always kept each other hot lyrically. It’s still like that in the studio. We have a bunch of songs in the catalog that is just Skinny & Scales. Even in our own circle, we always use Skinny & Scales joints on Nappy Roots albums. “No Static” and “Small Town” off “The Humdinger”, those were Skinny & Scales records. “Ride” off “Pursuit of Nappyness”, that’s a Skinny & Scales record. It is Nappy Roots though. That’s what you say when you talk about our records. “We Out Here” is another Skinny & Scales records. There were a couple of songs on HipHopDX and different websites. The “P.O.N.” record we just leaked on the SMKA mixtape – that was a Skinny & Scales record. That’s going on our album as well.

WordofSouth.com: I read somewhere that originally, “No Static” wasn’t going to be included on “The Humdinger”, but because of the fan support, it ended up on the actual album. Is that true?

Skinny Deville: Hell yeah. We had that record for a few years in the vault. I was actually gonna use that for my solo project, if I ever got around to it. I always liked it, but didn’t really give it that much thought because we were making so many records. We have a lot of songs like that just sitting around. It’s a shame huh? Thanks to Jonathan Hay our publicist, because when I sent it to him, he went ape shit and leaked it immediately. If it wasn’t for him doing that, “No Static” would still be on my personal playlist collecting dust. We blew the dust off that bitch, got in touch with Greg Nice and asked him to re-spit the hook so we didn’t have to clear the sample and off we went. That record is one of our biggest viral joints to date.

WordofSouth.com: What’s next up for Skinny & Nappy Roots as a whole?

Skinny Deville: After this album, we’re focusing on the solos for a year. We try to release a Nappy Roots album every other year to make sure it’s a dope project. It’s been almost two years since “The Humdinger.” After this one, we’re doing the individual solo albums. We’re working with A. Leon Craft on a digital release through our distribution this summer. We just signed another group called Washington Projects and we’re going to get them out digitally this summer as well. Skinny & Scales is shooting for August 31st. Big V will be out sometime in November. They’re all at a point where we can meet those dates from a release standpoint. You’ll see a lot from the Nappy Roots camp this year. There are so much of us that we have to do more than just Nappy Roots. But we’ll be back in 2012 Lord willin’ with another NR album. No worries.

That’s what Atlantic wasn’t interested in at the time. That’s another reason why we wanted off the label. They weren’t interested in this situation, us doing individual members in between the big Nappy Roots albums. They might sell 20,000 or two million; you don’t know until you put it out but they weren’t interested. That discouraged us from going forward with that idea in 2004 with Atlantic Records. They didn’t want us to do solo’s when we wanted to do some Wu-Tang shit. We thought it’d be fun for hip-hop and for us; to release projects with just us. It might be 100% of Skinny or 100% of Big V and so on. That whole idea and premise, Atlantic wasn’t entertaining it. They just wanted Nappy Roots. Do you think that works? Do you think people get what they deserve out a major label? Other than famous?

WordofSouth.com: Very few.

Skinny Deville: That’s what I think; very few people.

WordofSouth.com: I can think of 4-5 names – T.I., Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Jay-Z and it might end there.

Skinny Deville: You might get Jeezy & Gucci Mane circling around a layer of that. Snoop [Dogg] is getting it. I’m sure there are plenty more successful artists on the independent side of things eating pretty well too like Tek-9, Atmosphere, etc.

WordofSouth.com: Yeah, Snoop Dogg is definitely getting it. He’s the CEO of Priority Records.

Skinny Deville: He’s established himself in a Jay-z position. They dibble and dabble. But I think your right, it stops there. As far as the younger generation and younger artists, they don’t get it.
Even on the cover of the XXL, there are a couple cats trying to get it. B.o.B. is hot; I think he’s dope. I’ve been following B.o.B. and I think he’s a talented cat. I think he could get it. But he still has to deal with the major machine behind him when he wants to get it. He needs to get approval and shit. Wale’ is reppin’ for D.C. hard too.

WordofSouth.com: Well it’s finally happening for him because his single is booming.

Skinny Deville: That shit is hot. I think he’ll get it. Obviously, Drake is getting it.

WordofSouth.com: Yeah, he’s another name.

Skinny Deville: Will see though. It’s still early for him. He is showing promise. He can be a nice force to be reckoned with if he makes it. He’ll be able to do what he wants if he becomes a nice force.

WordofSouth.com: I believe in his buzz. He put out a free mixtape a year later in retail stores as an EP and still sold a bunch of records

Skinny Deville: (Laughs) Right. I think with that said, I thought he was hot when I first heard him. I kept hearing new songs by him and I like him. He could have capitalized off an independent standpoint a little better than he did. He took the bird in hand but he could have taken another two in the bush if he released another project independently. With the buzz he had, I know he had 15 new records to release somewhere before he did the major deal. He could have made a lot of money. I’m not saying he isn’t now, but he could have a lot independently. He could have taken what he already established without even having a label. He could have taken it to that level.

WordofSouth.com: Definitely. DJ Skee was saying the same thing not too long ago. He took the safe route but he did what he felt is best for him.

Skinny Deville: Now he’s signed to Lil Wayne. It’s great for business because Cash Money is an established label in the game. They know what they’re doing. They’ve been around for a long time. He’ll make some cheese over there. It’s not a bad move. What he did wasn’t wrong. He’s probably in the best position in his life.

WordofSouth.com: Exactly. We’re going to end it on that note. We have “Pursuit of Nappyness” is coming in a few months. We hope everybody goes out and buys a copy. Do you have any last words before I let you go?

Skinny Deville: Check us out all over the place. Follow us on www.twitter.com/nappyroots. We have an official Nappy Roots fan page on Facebook as well. Check us out at www.nappyroots.com and www.myspace.com/nappyrootsmusic and SMOKE ONE FOR THE PO’ ONE… HOLLA!!!

– INTERVIEW BY Justin Melo