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Cannibal
Ox & Aesoprock Interview Part 2
interview
0094 added 05.03.02 words
Kobi & Lady Cook
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DJ Cips 1
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VA: 'Cos this is our circle, we're all facing each other, talking to each other, you just can't come in. You hear us, that's peace. Ask to come in. We 99.9 gonna say come in. The minute you just come in, now you got 8 faces looking at you like you better do something, so…I fail to see a lot of respect at least back home, I see a lot of young kids, they're amped, the see the scene is vibrant again and you know…That's always gonna be a common thing…
AR: And there's also a flipside of it, which is now, you know I'm 25 and like I've had the experience where I rock the show, this happened in Oakland last time we were there. I rocked the show ya know and be on stage for an hour, an hour and a half and be completely tired and all. I've been
traveling and I just wanna go to sleep. And I'll go outside and kids is like "Oh get in the cypher" and I'll be like "No right now I just wanna go to sleep".
Ko: Fair enough…
AR: And then cats will hate on you for some shit like "Oh alright whatever". And it's like, money, its not that I'm not down for rhyming its just like…
VA: This is my job now. Where was you for seven days? You was at home jerking off, watching MTV and I was on stages. I was on a stage, a plane, a train, a hotel and a stage…and now you mad at me after I just rocked you for an hour and a half and you're gonna turn that…you're gonna get on the internet an hour later (Aesop cracks up) and turn that into "Vast is an asshole 'cos he didn't rhyme with me in front of the club in like 20 degree weather, and I'm just like "I just performed for you…I have to go perform for another crowd tomorrow, when you're sleeping in 'til 3." Sometimes I feel like heads just don't have common sense. Even before I did this, I met mad famous people and I probably would be with them under 30 seconds and it wasn't their fault. I would say "Yo. I like you, I like what you do, keep doing what you doing and shake they hand." That's like 20-25 seconds. If it went longer than that it would be "Oh word, what you like? How long you been listening?" That's them…
AR: I can't imagine been like…In '96 I met Chuck D, I remember I gave him a pound and said "Peace man, thank you" But imagine I'd stepped up to him and I was like "YO! rhyme with me right now or I'ma battle you, You're fucking Chuck D and I'm doper than you!" It's like why would I am gonna that?….Flavor Flav was supposed to be here tonight but he's not and this whole last week I was just like "I'm gonna get my picture taken with Flavor Flav, that would be dope"
Ko: So with you guys being from New York what do you think of the whole Jay-Z/Nas battle that's popped up?
AR: Dope! We're all hungry! We just heard the Nas track last night, it was pretty raw. Jay-Z came with it and it was ridiculous and we were kinda waiting for the response and last night in the car, we were driving and we heard some radio station that somehow they broadcast from New York and they played the Nas joint, we ran into the car and only heard the last half and it was mad raw, we were like AAAGGGHH!
(At this point Ian the promoter turns up and the Def Jukies saunter off to do their soundcheck… About ten minutes and a ten bit later..)
AR: I did about four beats with my man Blockhead…
Ko: Cool…So Can Ox guys are you gonna be doing any of your own production, 'cos EL-P handled most of yours didn't he?
VA: We have a million people to get beats from, So you're gonna hear interesting things…
Ka: Whose style of production do you admire, maybe not even hip hop like old soul…
VA: I'm really into Jimi Hendrix, I'm really into Prince…..
AR: We just had this conversation, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, The Beatles…
VA: I'm into Miles Davis, he's really done some ill…. I'm into EPMD, I'M into Run DMC, You know I'm just really into good music man. You can catch me bumpin to… You don't know what's in my headphones, its just one of those things…
AR: Def Leppard…
VA: Yes, yes Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam. All that man, I know what to listen to for me 'cos I know what moves ME.
Ka: What do you think about hip-hop's lyrics. Production moves a lot of people and lyrics do as well, but what do you think about political lyrics? Do you think that you are labelled if you choose to talk about certain things?
VA: I think….
AR: If you gotta write about it, write about it…
VA: Yeah that's what I think…
AR: If you're in a situation where you really have a strong enough opinion on something political that you have to write a song about it, then write the fucking song. Y'know if I had a strong opinion about a girl, I'd write a girl song about it, if I had a strong opinion about the Twin towers falling I'd write a song about it…At this point I have nothing to prove to anybody except myself, and anything I feel I need to write a song about I will, I could never be one of those artists that bases their career around politics, like Rage Against the Machine, which is nothing disrespectful towards them, I couldn't do that…
VA: It's just not me…
AR: If something affects me to the point where I have to write a song about it then I'll write the song…
VA: I love Public Enemy…I love Milk and Gizmo also, Audio 2 y'know. They play their role that's just straight smiling face, hardcore. It's hard at the same time but it's funny. Audio 2, and I always use them as the opposite or A Tribe Called Quest. I'm that kid that grew up and I love Tribe and N.W.A. there was no separation and it was just like yo, hot music is hot music
AR: Like Kool G Rap and De La Soul. I didn't matter what your views were. Y'know X-Clan who was openly, not necessarily anti white but definitely pro black to the point where you would question if they were anti-white, they are one of the dopest hip-hop groups in history. They had some incredible fucking songs. If you're in your craft and you're writing your songs and you have your views and you're honest with them and stick to them then the song is gonna be dope, which is what's gonna make me attracted to it even if I don't necessarily agree with your opinion. That's why Chuck D's a preacher that's what he does more than a rapper. I'm not gonna say I've agreed with everything he's ever said in history but he's made some incredible fucking albums
VA: I agree with most of it I can say that honestly, cos if I didn't agree with it I don't remember it, so I agreed with most of it. P.E at one point was a huge influence and….
AR: They were also an influence production-wise cos I mean, if you start looking at EL-P's production now its just kinda like noisy and crackly drums but if you listen to an old Public Enemy album they're just loud as fuck and raw as fuck and EPMD albums have like fuckin' rock and soul samples that were just guitars and raw and dirty. That's the stuff I think we're all trying to do. None of us are all that polished in our rhyme styles, in the way we live our lives, the way I walk to the store y'know it's not like a polished style of living. So if the drums got crust on them and they pump that's what I'm attracted to. That's why Public Enemy and Run-DMC were so raw to me 'cos the drums were just ridiculous…
VA: Their drums and their aura of "YOU CANNOT FUCK WITH US WE ARE THE KINGS". I second that I would like writers to put their honest feelings on the paper a couple of times. You don't have to but I would like that because…
AR: It sounds better. If you say a sentence that's not true and then say one that's true, the one that's true is gonna sound better to me. If you write a song and it's straight honesty even if you're saying embarrassing things about your life or that you had a breakdown or you did this or did that. If its straight honest and raw you can't really front on that in any way. It's like when NWA came out and they were just screaming on some angry shit but it was just straight from the heart. IT WAS DOPE! They were mad at everyone…
VA: Like I always use the example of comedy. You gotta dude that's gonna basically… When you break down a joke. A joke that's really gonna make you laugh is 99.9% true. A joke that's mythical can make you laugh and it can entertain you. I'm not takin nothing from that but the joke that's true just hits you and you can check Richard Pryor for that, you can check Eddie Murphy for that, you can check George Carlin for that and that's what we do in our music to me…
AR: And if I tell Vast a fictional joke he'll be like "Ah, ya fucking idiot" but if I told him like on the way home some stripper tried to rob me and it was true story we would laugh about that for like an hour. The same thing goes for music if its true its just doper. Its from your heart it'll make people laugh more when you want them to, it'll make people accept your sarcasm more when you want them to, it'll make people know that you're serious more when you want them to.
VA: Where did this kid Cips go?
AR: He's probably somewhere eating….
Kobi
/ Lady Cook
Sumo's previous interviews:
Aesop Rock
14.07.01
Cannibal Ox
01.06.01
 
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