The Urban Decadence

I was supposed to post this interview up last night, but I didn’t get home until late night/early morning and wasn’t in the proper state to write/update the blog. I’ve also realized that I’m not too good with dates, and the fact that I’ve getting lazier and lazier doesn’t help with anything at all.

Anyway.

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I know what you’re thinking: “Finally there’s a fresh interview to read up on!”

I know, I know, there’s been a serious drought regarding interviews on the blog, and I seriously have to apologize about that. There’s that promised-but-never-posted Tre Hardson interview that Jhair’s still working on. There’s that promised-but-never-stenographed Alpha MC interview I still have to do but can’t because Jhair has my tape recorder. Then there’s that Andrew Garcia interview that DEREK NEVER POSTED. And then there were many interviews that just fell through. Fret not, my avid readers, fret not! I have an interview/photoshoot date with VerBS on Friday (Venice Beach, if you guys want to catch the action), and next Tuesday I have a date (no, not that kind of date) with Percee P! I’m out here doing big thangs. Big thangs.

So, about this interview. I was honestly kind of hesitant about this one because 1) he’s not LA underground and 2) he’s by some definition an international star. Whoaaaa. I know. But anyway, on with the show!

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i am totally in love with technology, aren’t you?

so, manifest.

click on the picture for his myspace.

i don’t know if many of you have heard of this virginia-based rapper who was born and raised in philedalphia, but believe me when i say that he is dope. i first came across this man in the summer of 2006, when the song “gift” came out and conquered the ipods of every church-going korean teenager. now, it’s a well-known (or not) fact that i am not a religious person, and i don’t identify myself with any religious group; i’m more spiritual if anything. however, i came across this song through these two younger guys, dongsengs (it’s a korean title for anyone younger than your age, and you treat them as your little brothers/sisters), who would always be rapping this song whenever they were hanging out together. interested and curious to know what they were reciting, i asked them, “dude, what the heck is that song?”

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So, I had the pleasure of formally meeting LA-based rapper Intuition on Wednesday, and he’s a pretty chill guy. I came across Intuition over on MySpace, and got a sample of what his music sounds like through there, and my interest in him grew when I saw him at Paid Dues performing a set with VerBS. He has a great stage presence, and he’s energetic off the stage also. After biking it to his place in Culver City, we sat down over a glass of water and I proceeded to haggle him with questions.

You can check his music out at http://www.myspace.com/intuition.
Follow him on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/IntuitionRaps

You can even catch him at The Bar Exam!

hannahrenee.

Hey guys Its Jhair here with my first official interview for The urban decadence. I scored my first interview with the one and only Abstract rude! If youre not familiar with him He is one of the Pioneers of this here LA underground hip-hop. Started his career off in the legendary ‘Goodlife’ open mic sessions, then becoming co-founder of The Project Blowed Workshop in Leimert Park. I recently caught up with him online because he is currently on tour with haiku d’etat, and pushing his new album. Ab is very busy cat which explains why it might be bit short. its all love tho! enough explaining. ENJOY!!

First of all. i want to thank you for setting aside some time to do this.
no prob

Now we’d like to know, who is Abstract rude? give us a little insight on who you are, where youre from.
la native, son of texas born cali raised parents, goodlifer/project blowedian

When and how did you first become interested in music? How long have you been creating music?
in church w/gospel music and the radio with urban music, been creating my own since ‘92

What are your musical influences? and how do they (if they do) affect your music?
jimi henddrix, bob marley among others. both make me dig deep and connect with an audience

At this point in your career What are your plans with your music? do you ever see yourself putting down the mic? not that i ever want to see that happen! haha
just to keep vibing, pushing the envelope, licensing deals, maybe get into voice over work later down the line

How was it reuniting with the goodlife family? the house of blues show was beyond nuts! would you do that all again?
it was special; nostalgic – yes ina heartbeat i’d do it again

Tell me about your newest album “rejuvination” what was your inspiration behind it?
new lp 5 years in the making…its all about bringing it all back to grass roots hip hop

ive got to say the track “nuff fire” has got to be one of my favorites off the album. definitely a west-coast classic. was the beat made for your idea or did you hear it and go “this track is going to be about this”
heard the beat 1st, wrote that in like 5min no lie

tell me about the mike, aaron and eddie tour. how is it going so far? is this going to ignite a new haiku project possibly? do you have any other plans for ‘09?
so far so good. crowds are so excited they finally get to see ab, acey & myka back together again. we just murdered cathedral city near indio & santa cruz as well as slo went off. as for another haiku project…we were workin on a mixtape so we’ll see

youre bringing along Dj drez, and fellow blowedian NoCanDo is there a story behind that?
DJ Drez has been my dj for 10+ years…i borrowed him from Medusa (the queen of project blowed) and never returned him, lol, but he’s dope. As for Nocando, that’s me reaching out to the younger generation of Blowedians giving him his just due for how hard he’s been grinding: he was 2007 Scribble Jam champ, 2008’s Runner up, besides all that he’s very talented and hosts the show for us as well as performs an opening set.

Youre a busy man ab. youve also got the RudeNation Tv going on can you tell us a little about that? how did that come about?
RNTV is my online viral campaign on youtube to promote my new Rejuvenation lp. Leading up to the release date which was May 5th, 2009 I launched the 1st 2 episodes to introduce RNTV to my fans and give a historical background on my career. Episode 3 was released on the day of the lp release and gives fans a look inside the making of the Rejuvenation lp and the players involved in making the record. Episode 4 will be called “The Rejuvenation of Abstract Rude” and will go into the tour we’re on and how I got on Rhymesayers and all the things I’ve been doing with their record label. Doing RNTV has been fun, I’d love to keep it going long after the lp is out, if fans want their RNTV I’m gonna give it to ‘em.

any last words for our readers? shoutouts, links, etc.
Help keep hip hop alive – we need u out here! Shouts to Vitamin D, Slug, RSE, Haiku d’etat, Tribe Unique, Fat Jack & Project Blowed!!!

once again ab, id like to thank you for taking time to do this. im looking forward to possibly doing more projects with you. we wish you the best of luck with the rest of the tour and your new album. i’ll be seeing you on the 22nd at the airliner catch me in the front row. we’ll blaze one.
thx!

http://www.myspace.com/openmikeeagle
http://twitter.com/Mike_Eagle

*Note: I’m sorry this took so long, and yes, I know I said that I hoped this interview would be up by 9pm last night, but I didn’t think it was so big of an interview. And I’m not even saying that it’s a bad thing, because that honestly means that this was a bombass conversation between me and Mike Eagle. At least, I think so. So, once again, I’m sorry it’s so late; NoCanDo’s interview will be pushed back to Friday! My bad!

It’s a gloomily warm day in Los Angeles, and I’m waiting at Chano’s for it to be 2:45pm; in my paranoia about the bus being late, I actually got to our meeting point an hour and forty-five minutes earlier. After trying to think of ways to kill time, I just sat down in one of the patio seats of the little Mexican street stand and proceeded to prepare myself for the interview I scheduled with Mike Eagle. I guess these things happen for a reason; I usually think up my questions on the spot, so my interviews have more of a ’spur of the moment’ quality to them. I was ransacking my brain for things I can ask him, and things I really wanted to know about him; I admit it was a little intimidating, seeing how he is a teacher. Let me tell you guys a little something about me here: I am very intimidated by teachers, and at the same time, I have an immense amount of respect for them. Teaching is not an easy occupation; when you are a teacher, you are single-handedly responsible for the education of a number of children. High school teachers get a little more respect from me, because they deal with 100+ kids everyday, kids who’s hormones are raging faster than the speed of light. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’ve snapped on a few teachers in my lifetime, especially during high school, but I still had a lot of respect for them.

That being said, I had to mentally prepare myself, so that I didn’t come off as giddy and childish as I normally do. And listening to the tape over again, I failed in that aspect. I laugh far too much to fill in for my own awkwardness, and I should really work on my transitions. But, anyway, this isn’t about me.

Mike Eagle is one of the mellowest and deepest people I’ve met. He has a lot to say, and it’s very pleasing to the ears, and mind, to listen to his words and thoughts. He’s very attentive also; that’s not a quality you come across in someone on a daily basis, especially in a city like Los Angeles. Everyone here, or mostly everyone, is too concerned about voicing their thoughts and opinions; we’re too into our own words, we’re too self-absorbed to actually listen, but Mike Eagle… When you talk to him, you have his attention 100%. I say this because he’s actually one of the few people that kept eye contact with me while engaging in a conversation. If anything, I was the one breaking eye contact more often, hahaha.

A Project Blowdian, Mike Eagle is a Chicago native who came to live in city of lost angels and is a member of the three-man group Thirsty Fish and the ever-so clever Swim Team! He seriously has a sophisticated flow, and when I say sophisticated, I mean sophisticated. His way of freestyling and battling is very smooth and sophisticated also. It’s funny because he’s quite the opposite of mellow when he’s battling, haha. Mike Eagle describes himself as “Bruce Wayne at work, Batman at night”. I must say, it’s very true!

Through my interview with him, I learned that Mike Eagle is a very thoughtful person who values the kindness human beings provide for one another. It really shows in his eyes; he has a very soft, kind gleam in them. It’s hard to explain. But yes, as a big believer in the saying “The eyes are the windows to your soul,” Mike Eagle is a very kind and understanding soul. Very patient, very deep.

Anyway, after meeting up at Chano’s, we headed to his workplace so he could finish grading papers while I badgered him with my questions (:

How was your day today?
My day was very eventful.

What happened, what’d you do?
Taught school, and then…um. I met you for an interview!

(laughs)
That’s, pretty much it.

So, how did you come across teaching?
Uh, teaching is where my resume led me. I’ve always worked with children, even when I was in college getting my degree. I was working with children as a vocation, so… You tend to only be able to get hired from what your resume says you can do. So, whether I want to work with kids or not, I kind of don’t have a choice, ’cause my resume doesn’t say I’m good at, uh, cutting boxes or, uh, tearing down buildings or anything.

But, I’m sure you wanted to work with children at a point, right?
Yeah, I mean, it’s just kind of something that comes natural to me, so I’ve always found it easy to do ’cause…I really didn’t want to work at all. Um…I’m not lazy, but I have problems doing things I don’t want to do, and I’ve learned that every job always, at least some percentage of it is something that I really don’t want to do. That part tends to take over my mind and become the job. A lot of the things I don’t want to do becomes the job.

Yeah, I agree with you there. And are people surprised when they find out you’re a teacher?
It depends on how they know me. If they know me as ‘the music guy’, then…it suprises them some, but not completely because I use all these big ol’ “teacher words” in my raps. So, I don’t think it’s completely shocking, I mean… I think it’s always hard to imagine what an entertainer’s day job might be.

Mhmm, that’s true. Um, where are you from?
I am from Chicago. I’m from Chicago, Illinois.

Bulls, yay-yay!
(laughs) Yeah, exactly! And the Black Hawks right now, too. And I’m excited for the Bears this year ’cause they got Jay Cutler, and I’m like ‘This is a great Chicago sports year!’ But, yeah, I lived in Chicago from zero to eighteen. Seventeen; I went away to college at seventeen. But I lived in other places since then. I’ve moved here in 2004, and I’ve been living here since then.

Do you like it here in LA?
Nope.

(laughs) That was very quick!
Yeah, I don’t like it here much at all.

What don’t you like about LA?
I don’t like…(thinks deeply) I don’t like the average person that I meet here.

What do you mean?
Well, there are extraordinary people who, uh, behave in an extraordinary manner, and I like those people. But the average person that I meet, um…is individualistic, and is… Okay, this is, this–the thing about LA, the public transportation is pretty terrible out here.

Really?
Yeah, now, I know you’re (chuckles), you had a firsthand experience. But I’m from Chicago, and Chicago’s public transportation is one of the main batteries of the city, so everybody from high-level business execs to homeless people ride the public transportation and… Growing up in an environment like that, it forces you to be around people. You can’t–there’s only so far you can go and not really be around people. LA is more of a…a driver’s city? So everybody’s kind of used to having their own space, their own general area, their own kind of…private experience even in public. So, I don’t ever feel a really good sense of anything communal here. Everything seems like just a group of, of individuals. It doesn’t ever seem like any kind of community.

Yeah, I kind of understand you on that part.
Yeah. Wait, are you from here?

Yeah. Well, I was born in Augusta.
Oh, Georgia! Wow.

Mhmm, and we moved out here when I was three or four.
Oh, that’s interesting.

Yay-yay!
Yay-yay! (laughs)

Mmmhmm. So, wait, who’s extraordinary to you?
Uh… NoCanDo is an extraordinary guy. Busdriver is an extraordinary guy. Abstract Rude is an extraordinary guy. I mean, I’m just naming people who people might know. I don’t know if I should name people who people won’t know…(laughs) I mean, I’m not trying to say that everybody’s not good at something, but, I mean… I really have a thing about people treating each other nicely. It means a lot to me when people are nice to other people. A lot of people have the means to have the opportunity to be mean to people, and a lot of people, they go there. I just don’t feel any connection to folks… So, when I meet people I genuinely feel like they’re trying their best to be good people, that means a lot to me. That definitely puts them in a different category than anyone else. I mean, I know a lot of good people, but I only know a few extraordinary people that I feel like has extraordinary character and integrity, and would go out of their way to do things for people, even though there’s no gain for themselves.

Oh, yeah, definitely. Um…what was your first exposure to hip hop?
My mother, when I was…I had to be about nine or ten years old. I got into a car with her–I didn’t live with my mother growing up. I got into a car with her; she had like, a Nissan Sentra or something, and uh, she puts in this tape…and it is Eazy-E.

Oh, wow!
It is all the way Eazy-E. It’s not censored, this isn’t the clean version–this is my mother bumpin’ “We Want Eazy” and, uh, what’s that other song? “Rolling down the street in my ‘64.” All of that. And I’m sitting here in the passenger seat, mind-blown, like, “Why is my mother playing this crazy curse word music around me?” (laughs) But that was–honestly, I think that was my first…I think that was my first earliest memory of rap, my mom playing Eazy-E and NWA in the car.

(laughs) And what made you want to rap? What was the experience that made you want to rap?
(thinks deeply) Experience that made me want to rap? …Okay. There’s this dope author names William Upski Wimsatt; he’s a great author and political activist. He’s based at…I think out in Boston. And he wrote this book–he’s from Chicago, but he’s based in Boston now–he wrote this book called Bomb The Suburbs. If you ever, ever come across a copy of that book, please, please, please, please. Get that book. (thinks deeply) It’s basically a manifesto on the four arts of hip hop, but like… It’s from the perspective of… It’s like somebody explaining the rules to some kind of secret society, almost, but it wasn’t covert like that at all. But it’s him–I mean, at the time he was really into graff, and he was explaining about how hip hop is. And at the time, I think it was like, ‘92 or ‘93 is what he was writing from. At that time, for you to be calling yourself a b-boy–to call yourself a b-boy meant that you had to participate, and I remember this, in at least two of the four arts. You had to be good at at least two. Rapping, graffiti, breakdancing, DJaying; you had to be good at at least two of those. You couldn’t even call yourself hip hop unless you were really good at–and I got really absorbed into his writing style and the details he was tellin’ about the people who were really doing it at the time. And, uh, ’cause he was writing from a Chicago perspective, there was also some investment, from me, geographically as well. So, I just got, I just really got absorbed in it, and I really decided that I was gonna try evertyhing. I started breaking, I started tagging; I didn’t really get too deep into graff, I wasn’t really too good at it. I think it was ‘95 or ‘96; me and my homie Roy, he goes by Riff Napalm, he’s in the Galapagos Fort Camp–me and him, we were sophomores in high school and… We were in the back of a KFC in Hyde Park, Chicago, and we both just decided that we were gonna start rapping. So we started rapping right then. We just started trying really hard to freestyle, and we would just go on and on and on and on. Sometimes, we wouldn’t be rhyming; we would just be saying nonsense. We’d have these random catch phrases. We were there, then we started to be on the phone and we had a couple of other guys from the crew be on the phone just ciphering, just rapping, rapping, rapping. We just started pushing ourselves, just trying to be dope. Then we started rapping in front of other people, started getting in ciphers, then battle. We just really jumped two feet into being ‘b-boy warriors’. We were really on that; we used to have battles with other tagging crews, other rapping crews; we were just really on that. So…that’s where the journey started with me.

And how old were you then?
Fifteen? I think fifteen.

How old are you now?
I am…twenty-nine this year.

Really?
Yeah.

Wow, you don’t look twenty-nine, or twenty-eight.
Okay, good! (laughs) That’s a good thing!

(laughs) Yes, it’s all that matters! And how did you first hear about Project Blowed?
I first heard about it through Aceyalone’s music. I used to listen to his music when I was in Chicago in high school. As a matter of fact, the same guy, Roy, tuned me onto Aceyalone. They were yelling ‘Project Blowed’ and stuff all over that and uh, I saw Freestyle Fellowship videos. My father’s always lived out here, so after i started rapping, and I came out here, I’d go to the Blowed. So, this is the time when I’m like, junior/senior in high school, and then when I went to college, I’d still come back… So freshman/sophomore year, and I used to always go over there. The first two times I went up there, it was pretty tough. The first time, the mic was open, and I went onstage and grabbed the mic, and I was so nervous! I never really felt the energy of a room full of rappers just looking you in the eye, waiting to see what you’re gonna do, so I mean. I got shook. I tried, but I was kind of off my square, so, I got “Pass the MIC” on me that day. The next time I came, I got in this battle and got served real bad in the fist round. As I started coming back more, I started getting more into the ciphering aspect. I was getting better and braver as a rapper too, and really understanding how things go there. I was bringing my own thing to it too, ’cause I was used to rapping in other places. I gradually came to get known, and I had my own energy going on up there, and I got people who knew about me from what I used to do on that corner, when I could make it up there.

And what’s the story behind ‘Open Mike Eagle’?
My name is Michael Eagle. My father’s name is Michael Eagle as well, so Michael Eagle the Second. Somebody told me in high school that I should call myself “Open Mike” or “Mike Check” or something like that. So I went with “Open Mike” in college, so my entire college career, people knew me as “Open Mike”. As I started to make more of a career out of it, and starting to get more into what was going on with rappers in other places, there’s like, twenty-five to fifty Open Mikes. There’s an Open Mike in germany, there’s an Open Mike in Arizona, there’s a lot of them. So, I tacked my last name on as a way to differentiate myself. And, I’m kind of slowly phasing out the “Open” part. Eventually, I’m probably going to end up being ‘Mike Eagle’.

That’s your real name?
Yeap, it’s my government name. (smiles)

That’s a cool last name.
Thank you, I think so too! What’s your last name?

Song…
That’s really your last name??

(laughs) Yeah.
See, that’s cool too.

(laughs) Thank you!
I thought that was just like a…a…

A gimmick? (laughs)
A handle, I thought that was a handle. Like, “Hannah Renee Song–that’s really your name?” That’s dope, that’s dope.

Thank you! (smiles) Um…how did Thirsty Fish come about? ‘Cause Thirsty Fish is real dope.
Thank you! We’re working on a cool new record right now too, but… Thirsty Fish started at the Blowed. Thirsty Fish started with Psychosiz from Customer Service, Dumbfoundead who was in a group called Public Access at the time. It was him, Lyraflip and a guy named Medaflow, and me. Me and Psychosiz started this two-man thing called ‘Parts Unknown’, and that was just us going crazy. We got songs about us being wrestlers, stealing other people’s beats, we just like, went crazy. The original idea was for us to uh…and you got a little bit of this in your Lyraflip interview. It was both to start this whole crew-record label thing called Thirsty Fish, and it was going to have all the newer generation Project Blowdians involved in it. It was gonna–we were originally setting up studio sessions based on these beats we were coming across, and our idea was…the three of us would start recording, and then, so by the time we have things to show other people, we’ll already have something to start with; we’d already have it. Like, “Okay, it’s not just beats and we’re actually doing a project, so we can show other people our music.” But, by that time, we already got three or fours songs in, and we were like, “We can really make an album out of this”, you know? This was kind of going in a direction, we had the whole fish thing going on, and we were challenging each other lyrically. It started out as a project, and we just said, “You know what? Let’s just do this record.” We got some of the big homies involved, we got Aceyalone and Abstract Rude involved in helping putting the record together, and put it out with the homie Guido from Bell Rang Records. Yeah, fun fun fun times.

Lyraflip told me that you and Psychosiz were in charge of the recruitment of Swim Team members?
Honestly, me, Psychosiz and Dumb kind of sat around and just throwing out names. But, I think when it really came time to actually approach and set up a lineup…it was mostly Psychosiz. ‘Cause he was the one–we had a long list of names of people we wanted to be involved in some sense or another, but when it came time to actually set it up and decide who we were going to go with, it was a large part due to [Psychosiz] reaching out and making those connections happen. A lot of people aren’t going to give him the props for that because Psychosiz is an egomaniac and nobody wants to feed his ego. (laughs) But, the truth of the matter is, he had the most to do with setting up the lineup.

Did you have any idea how you guys would sound in the end? Because everyone in the Swim Team compliments each other… You know how usually, if it’s a big group like that, there’s always one or two people who aren’t on par with the rest of the members? But Swim Team doesn’t have that; everyone’s just so…cohesive.
Well you know, as a crew we kind of have an unspoken agreement on what dope is. We don’t have to talk about it, we all kind of know. And if I had to speak it, I would say that we’re all trying to come up with rhymes that hasn’t been heard before. We’re all trying to come up with rhyming words and rap in sequences and patterns that nobody’s heard. I think, being the fact that we’re all in the quest to do that, we’re all kind of, I mean, even though we all have different… We all reside on different frequencies. We all have different people who our art speaks to. I think no matter where we are, no matter which demographic we’re aiming for, our goal is all the same. We’re still trying to be the most creative rap writers. Like, ever. I mean, we don’t say that, but that’s the thing. That’s the thing that causes all of us to gel, when it comes to that. It’s pushing each other, I think, we’re all pushing each other. Nobody wants to be the wack verse on a song.

Yes, definitely not. Oh, and you’re married and you have a kid!
Yeah. I’m a family guy. I wouldn’t be able to do half the things I do in rap if I was by myself. I’m absolutely blessed to have a family.

Are you planning on anymore children?
Nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope! (does nope-nope dance)

(laughs) Why not?
It’s, it’s a lot of work. It’s an incredible amount of work. It’s very difficult, very difficult. I have to prepare myself as my music career… As I get more involved in my music career, I have to be prepared to be away from home longer, I have to be prepared to be out at night longer; a lot of things I can’t really do if we have a very young child at home. I have tour dates coming up this summer, and I’m almost dreading them! I’m going to have to be away from my wife and son for a month! And at that time, he’ll only have been on the earth for about six months. That’s time you can’t get back. I wouldn’t really feel comfortable about doing all that again, knowing how I want to live and what I want to do. It would be countering to what I’m trying to do, and what I’m trying to accomplish. I’m trying to be all the ways there; I don’t to miss anything twice.

Yeah, you want to be there for your kids… And the song ‘Brain Disease’, what was the inspiration for that song? I really love that song!
Thank you, thank you; I really appreciate that. The inspiration for the song… That’s one of them soap box songs, where I’m gonna stand on my soap box and beat everybody over the head on what I think is true. I’m just smart enough to do it with a melody, you know what I mean? (laughs) But really, that song’s just about my dissatisfaction with the things people settle on, especially when it comes to music. I just really want people to see real people. Hip hop is the most under-utilized musical style. I mean, oh my God, the human experience is so rich; there’s so much you go through everyday, and you would think there’s no room for it in rap. Everybody’s songs are kind of filtered through these rap checklists, like, it’s gotta be about a girl, or about my struggles, you know, it’s gotta be about sellin’ rocks. I mean, there’s a lot of rappers out there, and every one of us leads a different life, and I’m here trying to make room for some of the things that are gonna make me a three-dimensional person; don’t put me in a box with other people! I want to open it up a little bit and I want to be able to hear music that I can appreciate as the background and the soundtrack to my life. A lot of people get missed, a lot of people get missed. If you look around, like, me, I’m almost thirty! Who am I gonna listen to, Soulja Boy? Weezy? You know? There’s a lot of people out there who nobody is trying to reach them. Give back to the community!

Yeah, I mean, you have these rappers who are making big money because of the content of their songs. They talk about selling drugs and busting caps, big mansions and big ice; not everyone does or has that!
Well, I give them that, because escapism is a big part of popular culture. That’s why people go see movies like ‘Terminator’ and ‘The Matrix’. They want to absorb into something that’s not what they’re going through.

Mhmm. And do you have any upcoming projects, other than the Thirsty Fish album that’s in the works?
My solo record, shout out to Deeskee for the mixing and mastering, is finished. It’s done!

How long did it take?
Woooooo! That’s a story in itself. I have a very, uh, masturbatory recording process. I get beats, and sometimes I make them myself, and I sit in my studio at my house, and I sit and write raps and record it then and there. Song to song to song without anyone hearing it or giving me any feedback. It took about…two years, from beginning to end. I’m happy to be able to have something of my own.

And, are there any upcoming Swim Team projects?
Um, everybody’s doing their own thing right now; Dumb with ‘Fun with Dumb’, Sahtyre just released his album, Lyraflip’s working on his new album, Thirsty Fish is working on something… I think everybody’s becoming stronger in who they are right now. We all have a tendency to kind of get lumped in together. It was a long time when people thought Sahtyre was in Thirsty Fish, and people who didn’t know thought that Thirsty Fish is a part of Swim Team… There’s a lot that gets lost, information-wise, and everybody wants to come out and say ‘This is who I am’.

So, not anytime soon?
(laughs) Sorry! I mean, we might get started on something later this year, but, no.

What did you think about 808’s and Heartbreak?
From what I’ve heard of it, I really like the arrangements and the melodies. There’s some really good song writing in there, but autotune is just so played! [Kanye]’s bringing something to it, no doubt, and he’s a very talented songwriter, but autotune… it’s just off-putting.

What do you think about Asher Roth?
I see what he’s doing, I see what the people putting money behind him are doing. And they didn’t pick a bad person to experiment on. He’s a fundamentally sound rapper, but uh, I really hope that’s who he really is and who he really wants to be! He’s gonna be stuck there forever; he’s gonna have to appeal to that crowd. He’s not doing anything with integrity for him to have people to roll with him, you know? And that’s why gimmicks, and it’s a gimmick, are so dangerous. I hope he doesn’t try to come into the underground after that, because a lot of people do that. But. Yeah.

Who’s your favorite underground artist right now?
I really like Elzhi. Elzhi was always good, but he’s…he found how to write it, and how to consistently do it all the time. He’s killin’ right now. He’s gotta be my top ten right now.

Who are your influences?
They Might Be Giants. Doom, although I hate to admit is sometimes.

(laughs)Why?
Because, it’s really hard to divorce yourself from your influences when you’re creating. I don’t want to be seen as I’m trying to be like him. I like what he does and appreciate, but… There’s a spirit to what he does that makes it easier to do what I do, that’s where the influence comes in.

And if you could work with any artist, dead or alive, who would you like to work with?
Frank F’n Zappa. Visionary and radical musician, composer, lyricist, guitar player, and director. He was respectful enough of the craft to master the art of musicianship. But disrespectful of society enough to write theme albums about disenfranchised musicians that channel their creative energy through the molestation of household appliances.

I bet you guys haven’t heard of the Million Dollar Babies, and it’s fine if you haven’t; they were super local, with a fan base that mostly consisted of their friends and those who live in Koreatown. They were mostly known among those they had contact with, fans that were made up of people who held some kind of ties to them: schoolmate, alumni, teammate, friend’s friend, etc. They actually had a few shows: one at the Whisky-A-Go-Go, one at the Knitting Factory (Rock & Romance on Valentine’s day)…they had the opening set for a Paul Wall show, and they had a few others also. They even won Kollaboration ‘08. I personally think they deserve much more credit than they have received, and it’s a shame because the Million Dollar Babies are no more. Yeap. Things aren’t working so well, so you won’t be hearing anymore music from them. I know.

Million Dollar Babies came into my musical world around 2006, and the first song I’ve heard from them was “Dear Love”. It’s a sick track; you guys should listen to it. It’s a sonnet that they dedicated to music, and it’s a song that’s so relatable to me. I don’t know if you guys noticed, but I love music, with a passion. Music saved my life, and it had to be more than chance that I came across the song “Dear Love” during that time. Then there was the song “Babyyy”. I think this is where my inner-girly girl comes into play: I love this song because it’s a love song. Not only that, but Mikey’s and Lefty’s voices are very appealing. Don’t get me wrong, these guys are physically attractive, but their VOICES! I wouldn’t mind talking to them all night, just to hear their voices as I go to sleep (I know you like that, Ben, puhahaha. Ey, I’m just kidding though; I’m not on that weird, obsessed stalker shit, haha). Then there’s “First Day”. After I listened to that song, I sang the chorus over and over again, hahaha. Moving on, I’ve been following up on them quite a bit since then, and I’ve listened to the changes they went through, musically.

Oh, how rude of me; I forgot to introduce them. World, meet the Million Dollar Babies! Million Dollar Babies, or MDB for short, is made up of Mikey McFly, Lucky Lefty, and J-Kid. Before, MDB was made up of Mikey McFly, Lucky Lefty, and Youngin, but Youngin drifted away from the group during recent times; I loved that change. I personally didn’t like Youngin. Talented writer, but his voice kind of killed it. It wasn’t on par with Mikey and Lefty. (I’m big on the whole vibing thing.) Anyway, Mikey McFly, I went to junior high school with him! Imagine how much I tripped out when I first came across Million Dollar Babies and found out the Michael Byun (the boy who had all the girls emotionally fixated on him) from John Burroughs rapped. Then Benjamin Chi, who I’ve seen around quite a bit during my Koreatown “let’s-ditch-school” adventures–I didn’t know he was so lyrically talented. And, oh my gosh, Jereme Kim!!! He taught me how to play the guitar when I was a freshman in high school. He even gave me his guitar! And I find out that he’s making Babies beats? Ooooooh man. What’s good.

They have a mixtape out there, called Babyshower Mixtape. Get at me if you want a copy of it; I’ll burn it for you or whatever. I really liked it. I couldn’t stop gushing over it on Facebook after I bought it from Mike, haha.

They were actually my first subjects for my first ever “photoshoot”, if you can even call it that. It was pretty ghetto; the market? Really? But it was super fun. I really want them to continue making music, but who knows? That was actually the first time I ever hung out with them also… It was fun (:

Anyway, I was only able to interview Lucky Lefty since the others were busy. Even then, this interview was conducted through Blackberry Messenger (BBM). Oh, the joys of technology.

Lucky Lefty, or Benjamin S. Chi, 21, is a sarcastic and witty 5′9 Korean male who brings the humor in MDB. Maybe I should hang out with the three guys more often in order to know for sure, but Mike and Jereme are pretty mellow, while Ben is forever clownin’ and cracking jokes. He’s very blunt also; at least, from what I gathered, haha.

Before we start, can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Um, honestly, I’m a very normal yet abnormal kid. Everything in my life is like that. Sometimes, I’d be too normal for something and sometimes I’d be too different, like, I have my quirks. I can’t subscribe to magazines ’cause the address looks ugly on the cover, I can’t buy used DVDs… But to a certain degree I’m so traditional. Very narrow-minded. So, I’m narrow-minded to tradition, yet very open-minded to untraditional methods of living. It’s a constant contradiction. Other than that, I’m a Korean-American trying to grasp destiny and milk it for what it’s worth.

Would you say you’re a bit on the OCD side? (laughs)
Hm…with somethings, yeah.

What’s the story behind ‘Lucky Lefty’?
2-25-2005. 5 North bound freeway. My friend I knew from church got into a fight with her mom. I was working a graveyard shift and she asked me if it was okay to come see me. I didn’t see too much harm, but I guess it was crazy ’cause she lived in san francisco. So, she drove down, and she got here in the morning…did a little sight-seeing. She had work and insisted she go up the same day, without sleep. Me working graveyard had no sleep too. I decided to go with her to keep her company and it just so happened my friend was going to Berkeley the same week so I had a ride back. I went up, fell asleep, and so did she during the drive. Her car turned over a couple times and I woke up… That’s why I wear the thing on my hand, because of the accident. Some people think it’s a fashion piece or a cast, but…more to hide my scars? I guess it became an insecurity. But I was right-handed; injured my most two important fingers: index and middle. So, it forced me left. But I could have died in that accident, in turn making me ‘Lucky Lefty’.

Wow…
Most public figure with that nickname is Jay-Z, and originally that’s where I got the name from, but with my own story behind it.

Did this accident happen during the time you were making music?
(laughs) No.

Well, I’m glad you’re alive because you’re dope. (laughs) But speaking of music, what and when was the memorable hip-hop encounter that made you want to do what you do?
I didn’t listen to rap like everyone did. I started like…11th grade? First rap album I bought: Joe Budden. I fell in love with rap. But, honestly, I don’t love rap as much as everyone else does. I could live without music.

What was it about that particular album that ignited your love for the genre?
Depression.

You were depressed?
No, the music. It was so relate-able. Like, I love comparison. Anybody could say how cold, how hot you are, but comparing how cold, how hot you are to the point the person could feel what you’re feeling–that’s the beauty of words, and he knew how to do that to me.

(laughs) I’m guessing you’re a big lover of syntax and language.
(laughs) I love language.

What made you want to step into the art form? I mean, seeing how you said you can live without it…
(laughs)Hm… Self-glorification, recognition. What good are words when no one reads them? But it turned into a high I get when I finish a song. It’s unbelievable that you can achieve such things.

So, through that, your passion grew? Would you say you’re passionate about it?
Passionate, yes. Delusional, crazy, addicted, no.

How did Million Dollar Babies come about? Better yet, was that your first experience with making your own music?
(laughs) Hm…I used to record on a Logitech mic with a tissue and rubberband on the tip as a pop filter. Go on Kazaa, download Cool Edit Pro, do our best engineer mimic at my store that I worked until 3am everyday. (laughs) That’s how we made the first ‘Uhaul Truck’. We were just happy, didn’t care about quality, didn’t care if they understood the words, didn’t care if they liked it… It was our first song and that was what we cared about, that we did something together.

When was this?
2005? That’s when we weren’t Million Dollar Babies. We were Ben and Mike. (laughs)

Before Lucky Lefty and Mikey McFly. (laughs) Okay, so, how did MDB come about?
I always wanted to make music with Mike; I had to convince him for two years; he was busy being who he was, involved with school and things he considered more important. Turns out he ain’t shit anyway. But that’s how MDB came about. I mean, we did music here and there together, had spurts of momentum, even a third member. But it wasn’t until winter of ‘07 we got official. Like, ‘Okay, let’s get MDB on the mofuckin map, n’am sayin?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, foshowid it.’

(laughs)
Yeah.

Was J-Kid always your producer, or have you worked with anyone else?
We haven’t worked with any other producer other than J-Kid, exclusively. Honestly, producers who sometimes made money off us didn’t see potential in us, and gave us beats that they didn’t find use for. In a lot of sense, MDB is greatly in debt to Jereme for that, ‘case he pushed MDB as if he was there from the beginning.

And when did he come into MDB?
Winter ‘07. We’re really picky with who we work with, ’cause MDB’s not just a band or some homemade group. I consider it a brand, no matter how small. We don’t fuck with people that we wouldn’t listen to as fans. Well, I don’t.

Mmm, very smart; you’re business-savvy.
Honestly, to some sense, yes. But I’m not good at separating personal feelings and business, and sometimes too narrow-minded for it.

(laughs) Aren’t we all?
I would like to add that I sincerely would like to say fuck you to all producers that fronted on us, thought we were wack, and gave us their low-quality beats.

(laughs) Foreal; that’s on some shady shit right there. But I think every aspiring artist goes through bullshit like that. I like how you seemed to have channeled that experience to better your group.
We had no choice sometimes. I think we did the best we could with what we had; no one could take that much away from us. At least that people have to see. I mean, we’re fucking Korean, we live in Koreatown. Full of narrow-minded, hating ass people with very stereotypical things to like and attempt.

Yeah, I was about to ask if you guys experienced any…underestimation(?) because of the fact that you’re Korean. There aren’t that many Asian-Americans in the hip hop scene; I mean, there’s Jin, but who the heck is he? Where is he now? You know?
Every step of the way has been an underestimation. Everything we do and did and will do in the future. Everything. You have to know that exclusivity is what makes a celebrity a celebrity.

What do you mean?
I mean, how seriously are we taken? We’re accessible, we can be reached. If not this show, then the next. They feel like we’re not gonna go anywhere. ‘There’s another one, so if I don’t go to this show…’ ‘Oh, they dropped a CD? If I don’t hear this there’ll be a next one.’ And look where we’re at. ‘Beats, chorus, that’s all music is.’ I love where I’m from, but I know the realistic views and flaws of our hold…I’m not a Koreatown hater.

But it would be nice if there were more support within your own community.
We have a lot, but I mean, what else can we do other than let our work speak for itself. If they don’t acknowledge that, what else can we do? I think the work itself speaks pretty damn loudly.

What I’m trying to say is that it would be nice if you guys had more support from people who don’t have some kind of personal ties to you. I honestly think that support from your friends can only get you so far. I honestly don’t get why you don’t have a bigger fan base, and that in itself must be frustrating.
I agree. We hurt ourselves too, especially me, because I’m not so people-friendly. I can often come off arrogant, self-reserved. In which I am reserved to certain points; I’m not an open book, you gotta put in your effort to turn the page to know more. Not saying that it’s the right way to approach things, but that’s just how I am.

Yeah. So I understand that the members of MDB are going their separate ways; are you going to continue with music?
No, this is it for me. Sometimes it’s better to be the spectator than to be spectated.

What? So no more Lucky Lefty?
Just Benjamin S. Chi. (smiles)

(laughs) Nice. To be honest, I’m going to miss Lucky Lefty; I always thought you brought the best lyrically. Anyway…any words of advice for all the aspiring artists out there?
(laughs) Yeah. Don’t put your shit out to the public unless it’s ready. Don’t always listen to encouragement or discouragement. Know that not everything is possible in this world. Don’t be in a group with someone you can’t trust your life with. Although music is a form of expression, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll always get to say what you want. And being that, learn when to admit your expression sucks. And definitely learn that some things aren’t meant for you, even if you’re talented. Get the money straight, and don’t pick the first fruit that bears on your tree.